Urías will see plenty of action at third base
No word on severity of Shaw’s shoulder injury
CINCINNATI - The Milwaukee Brewers are going to miss third baseman Travis Shaw, who suffered a dislocated left shoulder Wednesday night, but they will not have to pound a square peg into a round hole by putting Luis Urías at the position.
Urías made 20 starts at third base during the pandemic-shortened 60game season in 2020 and made his sixth start at the position this year Thursday afternoon in the series finale against Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park. Manager Craig Counsell said Urías will see the bulk of the action at third in Shaw’s absence, at least for the time being.
Counsell also expects offensive production from Urías, who was batting .277 with four homers and 10 RBI over his last 22 games.
“Luis has been a really good offensive player (after a slow start),” Counsell said. “I think a little bit quietly, and probably we haven’t noticed it almost. Ultimately, Luis is just a good all-around offensive player. He brings all the skills that go into being a good hitter.”
Urías, who began the season as the starting shortstop before Willy Adames was acquired from Tampa Bay, had been playing second base in place of injured Kolten Wong (oblique strain). Newly recalled Jace Peterson started there against the Reds, but Counsell expects Wong back soon.
“Kolten’s not far away,” he said. “He’s obviously not back yet but it’s not a long-term thing. This is a depth hit as much as anything. We start chipping away at our depth and that always gets scary.”
Shaw, who was injured trying to make a diving stab of a sharp grounder in the second inning Wednesday night, had imaging done Thursday morning to determine the extent of the damage to the shoulder joint. No information was released pending consultation with Brewers doctors on a treatment plan.
“It’s going to be a little bit of time here before we consult with Dr. (William) Raasch back in Milwaukee and the doctor here to kind of gather a plan,” Counsell said. “He’ll fly home with us tonight, so he’ll be with us.”
As for how Shaw was doing, Counsell said, “Kind of what you’d expect. He’s disappointed, I think. But it’s a freak thing. It’s an accident.
“It’s a bad injury, a weird injury you get from playing hard, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re disappointed, you’re frustrated, obviously. But then you set your mind to getting better.”
Shaw, 31, struggled through a tough May at the plate and was batting .191 with six homers, 28 RBI and .616 OPS in 56 games, but right-hander Brandon Woodruff said the one thing you could count on every night was solid defense.
“He’s made a ton of great plays over there at third,” Woodruff said. “I know a lot of people don’t give him that much credit, but he’s actually really, really good over there and has played a heck of a third base to this point.”
Weigel is recalled
When the Brewers placed Shaw on the 10-day injured list, they recalled reliever Patrick Weigel from Class AAA Nashville to fill his roster spot. The Cincinnati series was the beginning of 16 consecutive games without a day off and the thought was another arm in the bullpen would be more beneficial than a position player.
“Our bullpen’s in good shape today,” Counsell said. “It’s more of a matter of a couple days from now, an arm is what we’re going to need, so Weigel was the choice.”
Weigel, who made the four-hour drive up from Nashville to join the Brewers for the matinee against the Reds, joined the club for the third time since being acquired as one of two relievers from Atlanta in the Orlando Arcia trade in early April. He was 0-0 with a 6.14 ERA in eight appearances for the Sounds, with eight walks and eight strikeouts in 71⁄3 innings.
The other reliever acquired from the Braves, right-hander Chad Sobotka, only recently started pitching for Nashville after recovering from a bad sinus infection.
Another short outing by Anderson
Not counting the April 23 game in which he was injured and recorded only one out before exiting, Brett Anderson’s three-inning, 59-pitch start in Wednesday’s 7-3 loss was his shortest of the season.
The Reds jumped on the left-hander quickly with two runs in the first inning and three more in the second, putting the ball in play against him to the point that he failed to record a strikeout. There wasn’t a ton of hard contact, which only made the outing more frustrating.
Milwaukee was trailing, 5-1, and had a runner on first with two outs in the fourth when Counsell pulled Anderson in favor of pinch-hitter Pablo Reyes. Left-hander Eric Lauer took over from there and pitched the next four innings.
“Yesterday was a day we made a strategic decision,” Counsell said. “He had the ability to go out there for more innings, so I am comfortable with that. The ball’s going to be in play with Brett. We know that. The last two times, we just haven’t put our gloves on the ball. There are going to be games like that from Brett.
“We dealt with this with Adrian Houser last year, a lot.”
A ground-ball specialist, Anderson went a season-high seven innings in a victory over Pittsburgh on April 17. Since then, he’s gone five innings once and, not counting the game in which he was injured, has failed to pitch into the fourth inning four times.
Anderson is 2-4 with a 4.99 earned run average and a WHIP of 1.59. He has pitched only 392⁄3 innings in 10 starts.
“We’re not going to see Brett working (deep) into games like Brandon (Woodruff ) or Corbin (Burnes), probably, but I do think he has the ability to do what you ask a fourth or fifth starter to do — get you into the sixth inning occasionally,” said Counsell.
“I definitely think he’s capable of doing that. I thought last night he had really good stuff. We just couldn’t convert the outs and that obviously led to a bigger pitch count and it led to some runs, and then we were trying to get back in the game.
“He had the ability to go back out there and probably get through five innings. Because I knew we had Eric stretched out in the bullpen, I thought it was a chance to just go for it.”