Mike Fiers has had two starts to audition for a spot in Milwaukee's rotation, but the right-hander who gave the Brewers two great months last season hasn't seized the opportunity.
Sunday's start was a nightmare for Fiers, as he couldn't make it out of the second inning in Milwaukee's 7-5 loss to Philadelphia.
Five of the seven runs Fiers allowed were earned, and it appears a change will be made in his rotation slot.
"We'll discuss that (Monday)," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "We talked about it a little right now, I talked with (Brewers assistant general manager) Gord (Ash), but we'll talk about it (Monday) and figure out what we want to do there."
Fiers got the first two outs of the first inning, but allowed a two-out double to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. After a walk to Ryan Howard, Fiers fell behind the red-hot Domonic Brown and the National League's leader in home runs made him pay. Brown's three-run blast to right put Philadelphia up 3-0.
John Mayberry followed with a single and came around to score on an RBI double by Erik Kratz. Freddy Galvis plated Kratz with a triple off the wall in right and the Phillies led 5-0.
An error by Brewers shortstop Jeff Bianchi and a Rollins single gave the Phillies runners at the corners with one out in the second. Howard made it 6-0 on a sacrifice fly, while Brown followed with a triple to score Rollins and end Fiers' day.
After coming up and cruising through his first nine starts in 2012, Fiers hasn't even shown glimpses of the pitcher he was in June and July of last year.
"Just the life and conviction on his pitches," Roenicke said of what's different with Fiers. "I always talk about the confidence, and you can see it in a guy when he's confident. Last year when he came up, he was confident. He knew he could throw the fastball by people. He knew he could command his change-up, his curveball. When you have all that working with you and you are confident and convicted with e very pitch you throw, you usually do well."
Controversial overturn: Jonathan Lucroy thought he had a grand slam to cut Philadelphia's lead to 7-5 in the eighth inning only to watch crew chief Tom Hallion overturn the home run after turning to instant replay.
Hallion ruled the ball hit off the fence on top of the wall and bounced back into the field. The ball bounced and rolled away from Brown in left field, but Hallion determined Lucroy would have had a triple and sent him back to third base for a bases-clearing triple.
"I thought it was the right call," Roenicke said. "They said it has to clear that little fence there and to me it looked like it hit off that fence. My eyes aren't that good, but that's what it looked like."
The extra run could have loomed larger had the Brewers capitalized on an opportunity in the ninth inning. Alex Gonzalez led off the inning with a single, while Rickie Weeks drew a walk. Jeff Bianchi followed with an RBI single to score Gonzalez and cut the deficit to 7-5.
Roenicke opted to pinch hit for Logan Schafer with Jean Segura. Segura grounded out, but advanced the runners to second and third. With the tying run on second, Norichika Aoki flew out to shallow right for the second out.
Martin Maldonado — the final position player left on the bench — flew out to end the game.
"That gets us a run closer," Roenicke said of the overturned home run. "That would have been nice, but we had a chance there in the ninth. You have first and second with no outs and you have Seggy up there, that's pretty good. The opportunity is there. We were one hit away."
Maldonado was pinch hitting for reliever Burke Badenhop in the spot originally filled by Ryan Braun. While it would have ideal for the Brewers to have Braun up with the bases loaded in the ninth, Roenicke was giving his star left fielder a blow in a 7-0 game.
"At that time you are trying to get through the game with your pitching," Roenicke said. "You are hoping you can make some sort of run offensively but when you have (Cliff) Lee out there, it's usually going to be a tough task."
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