When the Milwaukee Brewers take on the Washington Nationals on Friday night for a three-game series, playing against a rookie right-hander is probably the last thing they want to do.
Milwaukee was no-hit through seven innings by Paul Skanes in a 1-0 home win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday. Skanes, who was making his 11th big league start, was taken out after throwing 99 pitches and recording 11 strikeouts.
Brewers catcher William Contreras said of Skeens, “He competes. We have to compete, too.”
Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell drove in singles in the eighth – the first two Brewers to bat after Skeens left the game – to give Milwaukee its only two hits.
Fortunately for the Brewers, the Nationals’ Friday starter, Jackson Rutledge (0-0, 9.00 ERA), has not been as impressive as the hard-throwing Skenes during his limited time in the Major Leagues.
After going 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA in four games last year, Rutledge has bowled just one inning this season, giving up one run and two hits during a relief outing against the Chicago White Sox on May 14. He is set to be called up from Triple-A Rochester to pitch on Friday.
Rutledge has never faced Milwaukee.
The Brewers will face Freddy Peralta (6-4, 3.95 ERA), who is coming off a no-decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. The right-hander pitched four innings in that game and allowed three runs on four hits.
In six career appearances (four starts) against Washington, Peralta is 3-2 with a 6.67 ERA.
Like the Brewers, the Nationals also lost 7-0 to the Mets on Thursday. With this win, New York swept the three-game series.
Washington has scored an average of two runs in five consecutive games.
“There wasn't any aggression,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “We had chances (Thursday). We just couldn't score any runs. We've got to get better at-bats with runners in position to score. … I know we're young, but we're pushing too much and just trying to make things happen.”
James Wood, who hit from the three-hole on Thursday, is looking to break out of his first Major League slump.
Wood's contract was selected from Rochester on July 1 and he hit safely in six of his first seven games with Washington. However, he has gone 2-for-16 (.125) in four games since then, including a 1-for-5 outing with two strikeouts on Thursday.
“He's adjusting to the league,” Martinez said of Wood. “The league is adjusting to him. What I like about him is that he's seeing pitches. But he'll be fine. All I know is that when he hits the ball, he hits it hard.”
Meanwhile, Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich is trying to make sure his 0-4 performance against Pittsburgh on Thursday doesn't lead to a long-term slump.
In the month of July, Yelich hit .424 (14-33) in the series finale against the Pirates.
“I wish we could have gotten (Brewers starter Aaron Civale) back a little bit more (Thursday),” Yelich said. “That's baseball. It's going to happen. You're going to have a couple of days of 'hold.'”
–Field Level Media
