Lefty to get his first start as a Brewer tonight, but it's probably not who you think

There have been a lot of unknowns when it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation this season. What has been known for a few days, however, is who the probable starting pitchers were for the Crew as the headed into this weekend's series against the Boston Red Sox.

Right-handed reliever-turned-temporary-starter Bryse Wilson was set to kick off the series opener in Fenway on Friday night. He was to be followed by fellow right-hander Colin Rea on Saturday and then another righty in Tobias Myers to end the series on Sunday.

Prior to the start of Friday's game, though, Brewers manager Pat Murphy saw an opportunity to do something different and gain a possible advantage. Thus, Wilson will no longer be starting the game against the Red Sox and instead giving way to a name fans probably didn't expect.

Left-handed reliever Jared Koenig will get his first start as a member of the Brewers on Friday against the Red Sox.

That's right, southpaw Jared Koenig, who has pitched in 13 games for Milwaukee this season and all out of the bullpen, will be toeing the rubber when the first Boston hitter comes to the plate tonight. This change in strategy was first revealed by Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

It's not hard to see why Murphy would make such a move. Three dangerous hitters in Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, and Rafael Devers have commonly occupied three of the top four spots in the lineup for the Red Sox as of late. They are all left-handed hitters, which is exactly why one would want to trot out a fellow lefty in Koenig.

The new Brewers starter actually does have a tiny bit of MLB starting experience prior to joining Milwaukee. Of his 10 games of action with the A's back in 2022, five of them came in the form of starts, though he gave up three or more runs in four of those outings and only went longer than five innings in two of them.

Luckily, Koenig won't be expected to give much in terms of length. He'll be an "opener" for tonight's game, meaning he'll likely pitch one inning unless it goes particularly efficiently, before giving way to Wilson as originally planned.

Baseball is definitely a game of strategy and managers look for any little advantage they can to try and propel their team to a win. We'll see if this move works out for the Brewers and helps them to a series opening win or backfires.