Texas @ Milwaukee preview
American Family Field
Last Meeting ( Jun 12, 2010 ) Texas 4, Milwaukee 3
Yovani Gallardo grew up in Fort Worth and starred scholastically in the area. And, of course, Gallardo grew up rooting for the Texas Rangers.
Somehow, the Rangers passed him over in the 2004 baseball draft and the Milwaukee Brewers selected him in the second round.
Now, Gallardo will make his first career start against his hometown team, taking the mound for the Brewers against the visiting Rangers in a three-game series finale on Sunday afternoon. Texas will counter with right-hander Colby Lewis.
Gallardo struggled at the start of the season, going 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his first two outings. Since then, Gallardo has been dominant, going 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA over his last 11 starts.
In Tuesday’s start against the Chicago Cubs, Gallardo threw seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Despite that stellar start, Gallardo took a no-decision.
The Brewers will try and provide more support for Gallardo this time around. Milwaukee didn’t get anything going offensively on Saturday night, but showed some life late in the game.
Ryan Braun had an RBI double in the eighth inning and the Brewers had a chance to win it in the ninth, loading the bases with one out. But Milwaukee got only two runs - on an RBI single from Rickie Weeks and an RBI groundout from Corey Hart - before Prince Fielder flew out to end the game.
The Brewers finished the game 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base.
The Rangers, meanwhile, continued their recent offensive surge. Justin Smoak had a two-run double, David Murphy had an RBI single and Josh Hamilton belted his 14th home run of the season.
Michael Young went 1-for-4 and is now two hits shy of tying Ivan Rodriguez for the most hits in franchise history.
On the mound, Lewis will look to build off his last start. He went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts to lead the Rangers to a 7-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.
Lewis, who has never faced the Brewers, has held opponents to a .154 average with runners in scoring position.
In 11 career interleague games, Lewis has gone 1-3 with a 9.14 ERA. But, in his lone interleague start this season, Lewis led the Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Cubs on May 21.
Lewis will likely make his first plate appearance since 2003. He has only one at-bat in his major league career and he struck out against Livan Hernandez. But, as Lewis has pointed out, he did hit two home runs over his two-year stint in Japan.