Last call
• Roenicke did something Tuesday and Wednesday that he rarely got to do last season: He wrote the same lineup card two games in a row.
"Last year, we had some good looking lineups, but every day I wrote it down and it was different," he said. "It was, 'Who hits third and fourth today?'"
View Full Game Coverage• Roenicke did something Tuesday and Wednesday that he rarely got to do last season: He wrote the same lineup card two games in a row.
"Last year, we had some good looking lineups, but every day I wrote it down and it was different," he said. "It was, 'Who hits third and fourth today?'"
View Full Game Coverage• Triple-A Nashville Sounds right-hander Mike Fiers struck out nine batters, including seven in a row during one stretch, while allowing one run on three hits in six innings of a winning season debut on Tuesday night. The seven consecutive strikeouts were one shy of a Pacific Coast League record, set by Vean Gregg (Portland) in 1910 and tied by John Montefusco (Phoenix) in 1974.
Fiers was a surprise star for the Brewers in 2012, but could not recapture that magic last season, when he was demoted after a poor showing in the Majors. His season ended in mid-June, when Fiers was struck by a line drive and suffered a broken right forearm.
• Major League Baseball on Wednesday announced the creation of the Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Award, named for the seven-time NL All-Star who finished his career with the Brewers from 2009-10. A similar award in the American League was named for Mariano Rivera.
The winners will be chosen by a panel of nine of the greatest relief pitchers in history, including Hoffman, Rivera and the four living Hall of Fame relief pitchers -- Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Rich "Goose" Gossage and Bruce Sutter.
Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brew Beat, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamMcCalvy.