When Bruce Zimmermann was called up to the big leagues on September 20, even he himself didn’t think he would be starting tonight’s game against the San Diego Padres. Per Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy, Zimmermann was told point blank by the Brewers organization that he would be up for one day and one day only. Then Brandon Woodruff got hurt. Robert Gasser pitched on Sunday, Chad Patrick pitched on Saturday, and Jose Quintana is on the IL. So is Logan Henderson. DL Hall is too, so he couldn’t serve as an opener. Even Triple-A guys like Coleman Crow and Tate Kuehner are injured, so Milwaukee tabbed Zimmermann (5.57 career ERA) for his season debut — in fact, his first major league start since 2022.
Zimmermann’s career-long stats don’t look great, but he had a solid season in Triple-A Nashville this year (4.11 ERA). Brewers fans this year have seen depth guys like Erick Fedde, Carlos Rodriguez, and Easton McGee put together serviceable outings in the big leagues this year, so I was hopeful that we’d get a little bit of Pitching Lab magic (or, dare I say, Ueck Magic).
Back in reality, Zimmermann allowed a grand slam to Ryan O’Hearn with one out in the bottom of the first to put the Padres ahead 4-0. Zimmermann managed to retire the next two batters to end the inning, and retired the first batter he faced (Freddy Fermín) in the second. The second, Mason McCoy, reached after Brice Turang made a good play on a grounder but threw the ball away. That would end up costing the Brewers a run as Luis Arraez hit a fly ball to right field that was just deep enough and stayed just fair enough for a two-run homer. All of a sudden, it was 6-0 Padres with one out in the bottom of the second.
Zimmermann eventually settled in and retired the Padres in the third, fourth, and fifth innings without allowing a run. It’s hard not to respect him for hanging in there and battling after a disastrous first couple innings. Giving up six runs by the end of the second inning is pretty bad, don’t get me wrong. It would have been catastrophic if the Brewers had to stretch their bullpen seven-plus innings a day after *checks notes* Aaron Ashby, Nick Mears, Jared Koenig, Abner Uribe, Rob Zastryzny, and Grant Anderson all pitched. Erick Fedde went four innings on Sunday. Manager Pat Murphy’s only hope would have been seven innings of Tobias Myers with Jake Bauers in the bullpen. Luckily, Zimmerman managed to dog out four more innings of shutout baseball in a 91-pitch effort, keeping the score out of football-game territory and saving the bullpen. Respect.
Giving up a grand slam in the first inning is pretty demoralizing, which might have contributed to the Brewers looking lifeless on offense for much of the game. Padres starter Randy Vasquez only struck out three Brewers but held them to one hit through seven strong innings. Blake Perkins and Joey Ortiz both got hits off of Wandy Peralta in the eighth, but Jackson Chourio struck out swinging — at three straight changeups that were all well below the zone — to strand Perkins on third.
Jose Iglesias hit his third home run of the year off of Myers in the bottom of the eighth to bring this game to its final score: 7-0, San Diego. Definitely a game to forget. The Brewers will look to get back in the win column tomorrow and head into their final series of the year — against the Cincinnati Reds, who are just one game back of the Mets for the last NL Wild Card spot — with some momentum.
In some positive news, the Phillies lost in extra innings to the Marlins tonight, meaning the magic number for the top overall seed in baseball is now at 2 for Milwaukee. They’ll need some combination of two wins or Phillies losses over the nine games (four for Milwaukee, five for Philly) remaining.
First pitch for tomorrow’s game is slated for 3:10 pm. Dylan Cease will go for the Padres. Quinn Priester gets the start for the Brewers. You know what happens when Priester pitches. I’m not going to jinx it.
