Game Thread #44: Milwaukee Brewers (20-23) @ Cleveland Guardians (25-17)

The Crew look to salvage the last game of the road trip

The first two games against the defending AL Central champs, the Cleveland Guardians, haven’t gone as smoothly as the Brewers might like. Milwaukee hasn’t scored in 19 innings (dating back to the eighth inning of their 4-2 win over the Rays on Sunday).

At least today, the Crew has a new reason to be excited, independent of the bats. Righty Logan Henderson, the Brewers’ No. 12 prospect, got the call-up from Triple-A Nashville and will make his second career start against Cleveland. Reliever Bryan Hudson, who walked in a run against the Guardians on Monday, will be optioned to Nashville in a corresponding move.

Henderson will get another chance at proving he’s here to stay with the big club. He went six strong innings in his only appearance as a Brewer, a 14-1 victory over the A’s, giving up just three hits and a single earned run. Henderson doesn’t have overwhelming stuff, as he’s basically a two-pitch pitcher (four-seamer and changeup), but he looked pretty darn good against the Athletics. Pitching for the Guardians will be Gavin Williams (3-2, 4.38 ERA).

Hopefully, Henderson can get even half of the run support he got the last time around. Pat Murphy, who shook the lineup up a bit yesterday, is doing things differently again today. Apparently, the Brewers had a long talk about their recent offensive woes after last night’s loss. Maybe that’ll light a fire under the struggling offense.

Sal Frelick, who didn’t start yesterday, will hit leadoff again. He is now just two for his last 15. He’s followed by Jackson Chourio, who has been an offensive bright spot over the last couple of series. Chourio is now 3-for-8 in the Guardians series and homered in the penultimate matchup of the Rays series.

Christian Yelich, who has the hardest-hit base hit (112.5 mph) of the series for the Brewers, will hit third. Yeli went 0-for-4 yesterday. He’s followed by William Contreras, Brice Turang, and Jake Bauers.

Andruw Monasterio will start again, this time at shortstop over Joey Ortiz. Ortiz briefly appeared to be breaking out of his slump with a couple of hits (one home run) and some hard contact against the Rays. He went 0-for-3 yesterday and will now sit for the second time in the last three games. Monasterio’s done a good job of getting on base (three walks in six plate appearances), but has yet to record a hit with the Brewers in 2025.

In unrelated news, pitcher DL Hall has been moved up from the Arizona Complex League to Triple-A to finish rehabbing a left lat strain. Hall is currently on the 60-day IL retroactive to March 5.

First pitch today is at 12:10 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network. Full lineups for both teams are below: