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Embarrassed Gagné Loses Closer's Role
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The Brewers yanked Eric Gagn é from the closer's role yesterday after the reliever called his latest performance embarrassing and said he didn't feel he deserved to pitch the ninth anymore.
"He's really pushing himself really, really hard and taking it really, really hard," Manager Ned Yost said. "We'll probably just mix and match, I'm not going to do anything crazy."
Gagné, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the Brewers days before the Mitchell report on performance-enhancing drugs included his name, said after Milwaukee's 5-3 loss on Saturday that he wanted to keep pushing through, but he didn't deserve to close.
"It's mental, I think it's negative thinking that creeps back in your mind," Gagné said Saturday. "It's a matter of going out there and executing your pitches, not thinking results and I'm thinking results. I'm going out there thinking three outs before I can even get one."
Gagné (1-2, 6.89 ERA) has nine saves, but is tied with Cardinals reliever Jason Isringhausen for the major league lead with five blown opportunities.
· HARD-THROWERS SIT: Forget about the big matchup between Big Z and the Big Unit. The Cubs and Diamondbacks held Carlos Zambrano and Randy Johnson out of yesterday's game because of heavy rain, strong winds and temperatures in the 40s in Chicago.
Instead, the Cubs' Sean Gallagher was to make his first start of the season, with Édgar González taking the mound for the Diamondbacks.
Johnson, who had offseason back surgery, is 2-1 with a 5.06 ERA this season but has a 12-0 career record against the Cubs. Zambrano (5-1, 1.80 ERA) is off to one of his best starts but has struggled in four outings against Arizona, going 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA.
· ON THE SHELF: Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo will have surgery tomorrow to repair a torn ligament in his right knee and will likely miss the rest of the season.
He hopes to return in September or October, but players typically need four to six months to recover.
· RAINED OUT: Yesterday's Pirates-Braves game was called after a delay of 40 minutes. Light rain in the morning developed into a thunderstorm just before the scheduled 1:35 p.m. start. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader starting at 12:35 p.m. today.
-- From News Services
