Brandon Sproat limits Reds to two runs in win

Proat was called up on Monday to serve as a reliever. However, he walked four batters in the ninth inning on Wednesday night, and Brewers manager Pat Murphy did not mince words when discussing the performance: “It’s unacceptable. You’ve got to throw the ball over the plate, or you can’t be a major league pitcher...You can’t let it snowball like that.” Sproat will continue to work on his command and approach in the minors, but there’s a good chance that we don’t see him up with the Brewers again this season.

Sproat will return in a relief role, but with Brewers manager Pat Murphy also considering moving Kyle Harrison into the bullpen, there’s a chance Sproat and Harrison could form some sort of tandem. In Triple-A, it seems like the Brewers have significantly dialed back Sproat’s cutter usage, leaning into the four-seamer as his primary fastball and upping the usage of all his secondaries. We’ll see if the results improve at the big league level.

Sproat loses his spot in Milwaukee’s rotation with Kyle Harrison back from the injured list in addition to starter Dustin May coming over from the Cardinals at the trade deadline. The writing was on the wall after he surrendered four runs over three innings against the Pirates on Monday night. There’s a chance he’s back as a multi-inning reliever, where his stuff would presumably play up in shorter bursts. There was some thought from scouts and evaluators during his minor-league career that he would excel in a relief role.

Sproat was cruising along in the early stages of this one before running into trouble with two outs in the third inning when he gave up back-to-back hits and walked Esmerlyn Valdez to load the bases. He promptly surrendered a bases-clearing double to ensuing batter Spencer Horwitz that accounted for nearly all of the damage against him. He was lifted in the fourth after giving up a leadoff single and uncorking a couple wild pitches. He struck out four and also issued two walks. He’s consistently struggled to work deep into outings and holds a lackluster 5.27 ERA across 95 2/3 innings. He’s in line to face the Twins to wrap up a two-start week on Saturday, but that’s hardly a lock with Dustin May coming over in a trade and Kyle Harrison (forearm) coming off the injured list this week.

Sproat got through six tonight for just the fourth time this year, but he did show some fatigue late; his fastball went from averaging 97.0 mph in the first to 94.2 mph in the fifth and 94.4 mph in the sixth. He dropped to 0-2 in four starts this month and 3-6 overall. The Brewers will likely keep him in the rotation for now and start him against the Angels on Sunday, but if they add a starter, Sproat could be pretty interesting coming out of the pen down the stretch.

He also walked four and struck out four while throwing 62 percent of his pitches for strikes and posting a 10 percent swinging strike rate. Sproat had success with his sweeper against right-handed hitters in this one, and his cutter did have an 18 percent swinging strike rate to lefties, but no other pitches missed many bats, and he didn’t get into enough two-strike counts. Still, he seemed like he was going to complete five innings and allow just one run, but a six-pitch walk to Bo Bichette with two outs in the fifth ended his night. Chad Patrick then gave up back-to-back hits to allow Bichette to score. Sproat gets an appealing schedule with games against the Giants, Angels, and Twins coming up, but he’s hard to trust right now.

There’s always a possibility the Brewers decide to reverse course, but Misiorowski is tentatively slated to take the ball this weekend. Brandon Sproat will be bumped back to Monday against the Giants. It’s an extremely favorable home matchup given Colorado’s omnipresent struggles away from Coors Field. The 24-year-old strikeout machine went just four innings against the Mets on Monday during his first start since July 7. Fantasy managers should continue to monitor his status this week, but all signs point to him starting this weekend.

The Brewers have set up their rotation so that Brandon Sproat will start tonight and Sunday against the Rockies, which would have been Misiorowski’s normal spot. Sunday’s as far as out as they’ve announced their rotation, so Misiorowski’s next start is a TBA at the moment. However, he’ll probably face the Giants on Monday unless something goes wrong.

Sproat wrapped up the first half by requiring a staggering 83 pitches (51 strikes) to complete three frames in an abbreviated outing to kick off Saturday’s doubleheader at PNC Park. The 25-year-old heads into the All-Star break with a pedestrian 5.16 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and 87/39 K/BB ratio over 82 innings. He’s been much better over the last few weeks, but has consistently struggled to work deep into outings.

The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday. Expect Friday’s probable starters — Braxton Ashcraft and Brandon Sproat — to pitch in one of Saturday’s contests.