Brewer Daily News for April 18th: K-Rod re-signed, Brewers win again

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Thursday edition of Brewer Daily News. Yesterday, the Milwaukee Brewers re-signed reliever Francisco Rodriguez to a minor league deal. Last night, the Brewers (5-8) emerged victorious over the San Francisco Giants (9-6).

Francisco Rodriguez is six saves shy of 300. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

The re-signing of the 31-year-old Rodriguez is something that a lot of Brewer fans did not see coming, especially considering how his 2012 went. Regardless, the Brewers will have 30 days to decide what exactly to do with K-Rod and if they cannot find a suitable job for the right-hander, he can return to free agency.

Last season, Rodriguez pitched in his second season with the Brew Crew and had a bloated 4.38 ERA in 78 games. In his efforts, while he did get three saves during the course of 2012, he also blew seven, which marked the fourth time in his career that he had blown that many saves in a season.

If the Brewers decide to use him instead, it’ll be hard to tell where he’ll go with the bullpen doing fairly well all around. Rodriguez was arrested last September for domestic abuse and then would soon become a free agent.

Last night, the Brewers beat the Giants 4-3. Kyle Lohse started for the Brewers and pitched incredibly well, having a no-hitter through five innings. Ultimately Lohse would get a no decision as he went seven innings while giving up three runs, six hits and struck out six.

Burke Badenhop would pitch a perfect 8th inning followed Jim Henderson who pitched a scoreless 9th and got his second win of the season. Santiago Casilla got the loss for the Giants.

For the Brewers offensively, Yuniesky Betancourt continued his hot streak at the plate with a solo home run and a sacrifice fly. Carlos Gomez hit a triple that scored Alex Gonzalez in the bottom of the 5th inning. The big story however was Blake Lalli who hit a single that scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

This afternoon the Brewers will go for the sweep against the Giants at 1:10 p.m. ET / 12:10 p.m. CT. The starters will be Yovani Gallardo for Milwaukee and Matt Cain for San Francisco.