Brewers Change Managers, Beat Dodgers

Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke was the first managerial casualty of the 2015 baseball season when he was fired on May 3rd. The Brewers were off to the worst start in the major leagues with a 7-17 record, but of equal importance was the fact that the team led the N.L. Central for most of the 2014 season before having a collapse for the ages in September and missing out on the post season entirely.

Roenicke’s replacement is former big league infielder Craig Counsell, who was on World Series winning teams with the Marlins and Diamondbacks and closed out his playing career as a Brewer four years ago. Counsell, who grew up in suburban Milwaukee, has been in the Brewer’s front office since then, and knows not just the current team but also the minor league system. Speculation is that if the players aren’t performing and the team goes into rebuilding mode, Counsell knows what they have in the organization. By implication, that means a few butts may need to be kicked to get some players motivated.

Counsell had to jump right into it on May 5th, with the N.L. West leading Los Angeles Dodgers coming into Milwaukee for a four game series, with Clayton Kershaw as the Dodgers starting pitcher in the series opener. Milwaukee trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th inning, but rallied for three runs for a 4-3 victory. Reliever Francisco Rodriguez picked up his fifth save, and gave the game ball from the final out to Counsell, for a nice ending to his first day on the job.