The Milwaukee Brewers have suffered a major loss as they look to secure their first postseason berth since 2011.
Staff ace Jimmy Nelson will miss the rest of the season with a rotator cuff strain and a partially torn anterior labrum in his right shoulder, the team announced Saturday. It's unclear whether Nelson needs surgery at this point.
Stearns said too early to know yet if Nelson will need surgery. Nelson had MRI this morning and was examined by team Dr. Raasch.
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) September 9, 2017
Nelson suffered the injury Friday night, when he jammed his shoulder diving back into first base He ripped a long single, took too wide a turn around first base, and had to rush back to the bag.
The injury happened in the top of the fifth and Nelson actually remained in the game to pitch the bottom of the fifth, though his velocity was down noticeably. He was removed after five scoreless innings. Here's video of the injury:
Five scoreless innings in the win Friday improved Nelson to 12-6 with a 3.49 ERA so far this season. He is top 10 among NL pitchers in basically every meaningful pitching statistic this year:
- Innings: 175 1/3 (9th)
- ERA: 3.49 (9th)
- ERA+: 126 (8th)
- FIP: 3.03 (4th)
- BB/9: 2.5 (10th)
- K/9: 10.2 (5th)
- K/BB: 4.15 (6th)
Friday's win got the Brewers to within four games of the Cubs in the NL Central and three games of the Rockies for the second wild card spot. Milwaukee pushed Nelson's start back this week specifically so he could face the Cubs on Friday night.
With Nelson sidelined, the Brewers figure to roll with Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Matt Garza, Brent Suter, and Brandon Woodruff as their five starters for the remainder of the year. Nelson only had four starts remaining this season, though given the team's place in the standings, those four starts could be the difference between making the postseason and going home.
