This unhealthy dose of misfortune occurred in the top of the fifth. Nelson returned to the mound, but was removed after them five due to a noticeable lack of velocity. The outing improved his record to 12-6 on a year he closes out with an ERA of a league 9th-best 3.49.
Brewers General manager David Stearns said Saturday that it’s unclear whether Nelson will require surgery. The premature end to Nelson’s 2017 sees the 73-68 club's rotation now rotate through Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Matt Garza, Brent Suter, and Brandon Woodruff. Currently the squad trails the Cubbies by four and is placed three back of the Rockies for the last wild-card spot.
If I may, humsoever, and to mayhaps offer Brew Crew fans too much hope: what constitutes an ace any longer? In by-gone years it was an embarrassment to not hurl a complete game. Then expectations were lowered to giving the team a strong seven innings. Recently theses expectations were lowered to five. Meaning a starting pitcher is simply must finagle his way through the opponent's batting order twice.
Now, a staff ace has to simply do that more easily by comparison. In that light, maybe the doom and gloom of Nelson side-lined through the home-stretch matters less than it might in previous eras. Gosh, gentlepersons, not to infuriate Brewers supporters -- but I hope that just ain't the case. Nothing personal, it's just the purist in me lives in constant fear of change.
"This is the End"