The Brewers get another chance to eliminate the Diamondbacks, and here's who they'll send out there:
Milwaukee Brewers’ Lineup For Game 4
Corey Hart RF
Jerry Hairston 3B
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Rickie Weeks 2B
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Carlos Gomez CF
George Kottaras C
Randy Wolf P
This is the anti-lefty deployment, then. Hairston's moved up, and Carlos Gomez is in for Nyjer Morgan. If there's a surprise, then, it's that backup catcher George Kottaras is in for Jonathan Lucroy. Kottaras is a pretty good hitter as far as backup catchers go -- heck, as far as starting catchers go -- but he's also a left-handed hitter. Saunders traditionally does much better against left-handed hitters:
| I | Split | PA | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs RHB as LHP | 3235 | 1.50 | .282 | .340 | .456 | .796 | |
| vs LHB as LHP | 946 | 2.84 | .251 | .304 | .353 | .657 |
So while resting Lucroy isn’t a bad idea, it sets up a lefty-on-lefty match-up that favors Saunders and the Diamondbacks. The reason? Brew Crew Ball has it:
Wolf won’t pitch to Lucroy.It’s not that he hates Lucroy. I mean, not really. But he has his reasons:
“He’s a great kid and works his tail off,” said Wolf (about Lucroy). “He’s trying to do the best he can. It was a matter of trying to find what I needed to throw to get outs. I think we both knew I wasn’t very sharp. It was one of those times where you’re trying to find ways to get guys out. That brought on a few more conferences.When veterans get a pet catcher, they keep that pet catcher, lefty-on-lefty action be damned.
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