Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Marco Estrada said after his first start this season, soon after No. 5 pitcher Chris Narveson went out with an injury, that he would never refer to himself as a strikeout pitcher. He had nine that night in five innings of work, the most of his career to that point.
But on Tuesday night, more than a month after Estrada's quad injury briefly took him out of the rotation, Estrada -- back in the rotation at that No. 5 spot -- struck out 12 in six innings. He totaled just 95 pitches in that span, exactly the limit Brewers manager Ron Roenicke had set for him before the game.
It was everything Roenicke could've asked for. That is, until three batters in the sixth inning changed how Estrada would remember his first game back.
First came a double to deep left field for Reds first baseman Joey Votto -- then a single from Brandon Phillips, holding Votto at third. With Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo still no-hitting the Brewers to that point, every pitch would count for Estrada, especially considering Milwaukee's latest offensive struggles.
And that's all it took -- one pitch. Cincinnati outfielder Jay Bruce slammed Estrada's pitch to right center. Estrada even struck out the next guy, but it was the team's tough-luck sixth that changed the course of the game.
"Marco threw really well," Roenicke said. "He had three batters where he had a lapse. Phillips was a decent pitch. Votto was a hanging breaking ball. And Bruce (was) a first-pitch breaking ball that was hanging."
It was a not-so-out-of-the-ordinary performance for Estrada, who has been plagued by one tough inning on more than one occasion this season. But in Cincinnati on Tuesday, the No. 5 pitcher's tough-luck inning came on the heels of five of his best of the season.
Estrada's pitching coach, Rick Kranitz, had nothing but good things to say about Estrada's return, echoing the same sentiment as his manager.
"He was really good," Kranitz said. "He got his breaking stuff over early and his fastball looked like it had good late life too it. ... It's just really unfortunate because he threw the ball really well tonight and it was a matter of about five pitches and he's down 3-0."
It wasn't just Estrada's sixth inning that would keep his solid performance under the radar though, as Arroyo took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. But even his night would be spoiled, as the Brewers ended the no-no and tallied three runs to mount a comeback and keep Estrada from falling to 0-4 on the season.
Still, a 12-strikeout effort should be enough for Estrada to maintain his spot at No. 5 in the order -- even if he's still not ready to call himself a "strikeout pitcher".
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