Lucroy Starts At 1st, Weeks Leads Off

The Brewers and Pirates square off in the series finale this afternoon at Miller Park. With Carlos Gomez serving the second game of his 3-game suspension today, the Brewers are trying to fill the small void in the lead-off spot in the time being. Yesterday, they tried Elian Herrera there, who was less than impressive going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Today, Weeks will get a stab in the lead-off spot where he used to bat regularly a few years back. Whether you agree with how he’s doing it or not, Weeks is one of the hottest hitters on the team right now. So, Weeks hitting lead-off makes sense.

Another change to the lineup is Lucroy is playing first base today for the Crew while Maldonado catches Gallardo (2-2, 2.92 ERA). Ron Roenicke loaded this afternoon’s lineup up with right handed hitters as they face Wandy Rodriguez (0-2, 7.65 ERA), who is coming off the disabled list. Currently, there are eight Brewers that have over .900+ OPS against Wandy. Six of them are in today’s lineup (Weeks, Reynolds, Braun, Lucroy, Davis, Gallardo), one is on the bench (Overbay), and one is on the DL (Ramirez).

Here’s what the lineups for both teams look like today:

Milwaukee Brewers (25-15, 1st NLC, –)

1. 2B Rickie Weeks

2. SS Jean Segura

3. RF Ryan Braun

4. 1B Jonathan Lucroy

5. 3B Mark Reynolds

6. LF Khris Davis

7. C Martin Maldonado

8. CF Logan Schafer

9. SP Yovani Gallardo

Pittsburgh Pirates (17-22, 4th NLC, 7.5 GB)

1. RF Travis Snider

2. 2B Neil Walker

3. CF Andrew McCutchen

4. 3B Pedro Alvarez

5. 1B Gaby Sanchez

6. SS Jordy Mercer

7. LF Jose Tabata

8. C Tony Sanchez

9. SP Wandy Rodriguez

Today’s game, as far as I know, will not be televised on Fox Sports Wisconsin. You can always listen to Bob Uecker and Joe Block on 620 WTMJ or if you are a subscriber to MLB TV, you can watch it on there. Enjoy your Thursday afternoon, everyone.