Brewers say Burnes won't start vs. Cubs
It looked like the Cubs would face Milwaukee's three best starting pitchers in this series, with Freddy Peralta throwing Monday, Brandon Woodruff on Tuesday and Corbin Burnes on Wednesday.
But rather than throw Burnes on four days rest, Brewers manager Craig Counsell is planning to give him an extra day.
"Corbin's going to pitch Thursday in Pittsburgh," Counsell said," according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He's not going to pitch on Wednesday. We're going to wait and see what happens to figure that day out."
The Brewers have been trying to give their starting pitchers an extra day between starts, since MLB is taking an extreme jump from last year's 60-game season to the full 162 this summer.
"This is the way we've rolled with it so far," Milwaukee president of baseball operations David Stearns said. "It's worked so far. I would imagine we'll get to a point in the season where we'll ask a little more of our starters. We're not at that point right now.
"This is a fun series; this is a big series. It's still the last three days of June. We've got a half season still to go. We're still very much in a long game here and that's the way we've got to look at it."
The Brewers have arguably the best top three of any starting rotation in the National League. Heading into Tuesday's action, Woodruff had a 1.89 ERA, Peralta 2.17 and Burnes 2.53. Their game notes had the starting pitcher for Wednesday listed as TBA and it's expected to be a bullpen game against the Cubs' Jake Arrieta.
"I wish I could say there was great science behind all of these decisions," Stearns said. "But a lot of these decisions are based on a combination of what we understand from a medical perspective and just subjective judgment."
Burnes said he understood the decision.
"They're prioritizing health," he said. "This wasn't the time to push it now. Maybe coming out of the all-star break and getting into August, we can push it a little bit."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls