Brewers pitcher returns to lineup, another placed on injured list

Brandon Sproat remains firmly in the Milwaukee Brewers' future plans as a starting pitcher. But in the here and now, the right-hander is going to be asked to record outs out of the bullpen after being recalled from Class AAA Nashville on Monday, with Grant Anderson being placed on the 15-day injured list with right biceps inflammation.Milwaukee had a tough start from its starting pitcher in a game that had plenty of runs in Cincinnati. Sproat, who turns 26 on Sept. 17, was optioned out Aug. 4 after an uneven five-plus months in which he went 3-7 with a 5.27 ERA and WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.42 in 21 appearances (19 starts). He also put up 100 strikeouts in 95⅔ innings. There were decent moments interspersed throughout and it appeared as though Sproat had perhaps turned the corner with a solid month of June highlighted by a six-inning, one-hit, 10-strikeout shutout effort against the Cincinnati Reds on June 23. But his performance devolved from there and he was eventually shipped out in an effort to try to get him back on track in a lower-pressure environment. "We sent him to Triple-A to kind of indoctrinate him to that type of role and take the pressure off him a little bit and be a little more comfortable," manager Pat Murphy said. "It seems like he's done well, but this move was we needed some length. "We've gotten all these four-inning starts and three-inning starts and that depletes your bullpen pretty good." Sproat, acquired from the New York Mets on Jan. 21 along with infielder Jett Williams in exchange for Freddy Peralta, admitted he took the news of his demotion hard at first but then came around. "First time being sent down, it sucked," Sproat said. "I mean, no one's going to say I'm happy about it. But I stood firm by my faith. I trusted God. That's Step 1. I actually drove down there from here, and I was able to have some time to myself. "My girlfriend went with me, so you know we talked about it. I told her, 'Look, I'm upset. It hurts. But if I go down there with a bad attitude about it, I'm not representing my faith in a good way. Two, I'm only going to do myself a disservice by having a bad attitude and not getting better. And then three, it's not only going to affect me, but it's going to look terrible to the other guys and the coaches.' "That's the last thing I want is, 'Hey, this guy's a jerk. He's pissed off all the time.' But thanks to the strength from God ... allowed me to have a good attitude." Sproat ranked in the 80th percentile in average fastball velocity at 96.4 mph and in the 62nd percentile in strikeout percentage at 24.2 while generating ground balls at a 43.2% rate with his sinker (51st percentile). Beyond that, he was inducing next to no chase (fifth percentile) while conistently being hit hard. In five appearances for the Sounds (four starts), Sproat was 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA, WHIP of 1.22 and 27 strikeouts in 18 innings. He pitched four, five, three, four and two innings in those outings. "I think the most important thing for me while I was down there was just getting back to the person and player that the Brewers traded for, and just get back to moving my body efficiently," Sproat said. "Working on the pitches. Anywhere from the four-seam to the cutter to the sweeper – whatever it might be. Kind of just dial everything in. "There was no like certain (agenda) that we've got to work on this (area) more than others. I think it was all around, as a whole." Anderson, who's 3-3 with a 3.36 ERA in 52 appearances out of Milwaukee's bullpen, matched his season high with 2⅔ innings in a 12-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. "We had to extend him yesterday more than he's been and he was feeling it," Murphy said. "Hopefully it's minimum. There was no structural damage. Nobody thought there was any alarms going off. It was like, 'Hey, this kid has got some pretty bad biceps tendinitis.' "So, yeah, we're just dipping into the well more and more. Somebody else gets an opportunity, so this will be a great opportunity maybe for (Sproat) to come back and throw the ball well and increase his confidence." USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Sent weekly directly to your inbox!