Brewer Daily News for September 2nd: Blazek with team, Crew gets swept

Hello again everyone and welcome to the Monday edition of Brewer Daily News. In the John Axford trade to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Milwaukee Brewers received reliever Michael Blazek, who was the player to be named later. Secondly, yesterday the Brewers (59-77) lost to the Los Angeles Angels (63-72), which led to a sweep.

Michael Blazek has been hit hard in his few appearances this season. Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

Blazek, 24, made his major league debut with the Cardinals this season on June 22 in a scoreless inning against the Texas Rangers. The Brewers are unsure what role they want Blazek to fill, so they will see how the right-hander performs in September.

"“We had good reports and [pro scout] Leon Wurth recently saw him and liked his arm,” Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said. “He’ll be here tomorrow, and we’ll see if we can get him in some games in September.” – via Brewers.com"

During his first season in 2013, Blazek has not received a decision, but has an ERA of 6.97 in 11 games pitched with 10 strikeouts and 10 walks in 10.1 innings. Blazek will be joining the team tonight for their next series.

Yesterday afternoon, the Brewers suffered a 5-3 loss to the Angels. Kyle Lohse took the hill for Milwaukee and pitched well, but did not factor into a decision. Lohse went six innings and gave up one run on seven hits, one walk and struck out one.

Bullpen wise, Mike Gonzalez gave up one run while not recording an out and Rob Wooten was tagged for three runs, which led to his first major league loss.

For the Angels, C.J. Wilson was the starter and did a decent job, picking up his 14th win. Wilson pitched six innings and surrendered three runs (two earned) on three hits, two walks and struck out three. Closer Ernesto Frieri recorded a 1 2/3 inning save to notch his 30th of the season.

The first run Milwaukee scored came in the third inning when Lohse hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Jeff Bianchi. In the fourth, Carlos Gomez hit a two-run homer, his 19th on the year. Overall the team had four hits, two of which were Gomez’s, while Bianchi and Norichika Aoki picked up one hit each.

Today the Brewers stay home to start a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates (79-57), with the first game beginning this afternoon at 2:10 p.m. ET / 1:10 p.m. CT. The projected starters are Charlie Morton (6-3, 3.14 ERA) for Pittsburgh and Tyler Thornburg (1-0, 1.94 ERA) for Milwaukee.