Baseball

This stretch of effectiveness couldn't have come at a better time for the Ax Man. With Jim Henderson shelved with a hamstring injury, Axford could enter into a ninth-inning committee with Francisco Rodriguez and Mike Gonzalez. Axford held a 9.20 ERA on May 14. Six straight scoreless appearances have it down to 6.64.

Acquired over the winter from the Rays for OF Raul Mondesi, Jr., Badenhop hasn't disappointed Milwaukee's brass, boasting a 2.11 ERA and 0.94 WHIP over 24 appearances. Badenhop hasn't given up an earned run in May, which has had a gastric bypass-type effect on his earned run average.

The 28-year-old righty has been hit or miss this year. In five of his appearances, he's given up exactly two runs each time. In the other 16, he's given up none. Kintzler has six holds on the season, including four in the last two weeks.

Henderson injured the hamstring during Friday's game, and it turned out to be severe enough to require a trip to the DL. A corresponding roster move will be made on Sunday. There is no indication as to who might save games while Henderson is out. Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford are the primary candidates.

The multi-homer game was Gomez's first in his career, but he was the only one able to do any damage against the Pirates on Saturday. He now has eight home runs on the year and a .331/.376/.586 line to go with nine stolen bases. The average is still likely to come down quite a bit when all is said and done, but he's showing last season's counting-stats breakout was for real.

It was only Fiers' second start of the year and his first since April 6. And he looked out of place. Fiers allowed homers to Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker in his four innings, and the right-hander now has a 6.62 ERA on the year. He is not fantasy-relevant.

No word yet on the extent of the injury, or how much time he could be sidelined, but Henderson didn't sound very encouraged when talking with reporters after the game. He said that the injury occurred while attempting to field a ground ball off the bat of Russell Martin. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said that if Henderson were to miss time, he would employ a closer-by-committee including Francisco Rodriguez, John Axford and Michael Gonzalez.