Notes: After terrific minor-league finale, Zach Davies will rejoin the Brewers on Sunday
CINCINNATI - Zach Davies made his final minor-league start on Monday night for Class A Wisconsin, and it was a dandy.
The right-hander pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing seven hits and not issuing a walk while striking out six on an economical 85 pitches in a 5-0 Timber Rattlers victory at Clinton, Iowa.
It was the type of performance both Davies and the Milwaukee Brewers have been waiting for, considering the uphill battle he has faced in returning to full health.
Davies hasn't made a start for the Brewers since May 29. He has missed 91 games in two stints on the disabled list caused problems first with his right shoulder and then his back.
“All along we talked about just going out there every five days and keep taking the ball and having a routine and having a good feeling, and I think we’re there at this point," manager Craig Counsell said on Tuesday before the Brewers' series opener against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
"He’s been on a regular turn now for a good bit and starting to get some results, so it’s good.”
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Davies actually has started more games (11) in the minor leagues this season than he has for the Brewers (eight). He is 2-5 with a 5.23 earned run average with Milwaukee a season after going 17-9 with a 3.90 ERA in 33 starts.
He'll rejoin the Brewers on Sunday at Washington for the finale of their six-game road trip in a role to be determined. General manager David Stearns said last week Davies would start some games for the Brewers in September but didn't offer any specifics.
After Junior Guerra's meltdown on Tuesday and a rough month of August overall, Davies might very well find himself back in the rotation his first day back.
"We don’t have any firm plans right now," Counsell said. "I’ll tell you right now, he’ll be activated on Sunday – which is the first day he’ll be activated – and we’ll see at that point."
Milwaukee has several other pitchers at Class AAA Colorado Springs who would figure to make sense as September call-ups as well, most notably Brandon Woodruff, Adrian Houser and Aaron Wilkerson as well as Jacob Barnes and Jake Thompson.
Woodruff, Houser and Wilkerson have all been starting for the Sky Sox, with Houser throwing seven shutout innings with five strikeouts in a victory over Oklahoma City on Monday.
Eric vs. the Reds: Eric Thames came into Tuesday sporting a .309 average, 14 home runs and 25 runs batted in 24 career games against Cincinnati, with four of those homers and eight of those RBI coming this season.
Yet Thames wasn't in the lineup for the opener despite right-hander Anthony DeSclafani taking the mound for the Reds.
While Thames hasn't had a terrific season to date – he was hitting .224 with 16 homers and 37 RBI in 74 games coming in – Counsell pointed to the recent overall play of Ryan Braun when asked why the Reds killer opened the series on the bench.
"I don’t necessarily buy into, ‘Oh, there’s a Reds uniform out there, he’s going to play well,’ " he said. "At this point, Ryan’s just a good solution for us and has been a good solution for us in the second half. He’s gotten hot and swung the bat really well. That’s a little bit of the cause for this.
"Eric, he’s had a couple big hits – the walk-off homer against Colorado comes to mind – but he hasn’t been red-hot, certainly, and the at-bats have been a little more spread out. But I told him the other day, it’s not dissimilar to last year – he didn’t have a great August and then he had a September that was pretty important for us.
"We’re going to need everybody here and at some point Eric’s going to need to come up with a big hit somewhere that’s going to be a difference-maker."
Braun has been a thorn in the Reds' side as well. He came into Tuesday hitting .283 with 42 homers, 100 RBI and an OPS of .902 in 166 games against them.
Thames did get an at-bat off the bench in the ninth and grounded out.