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Reds go for sweep of Brewers in Lorenzen's debut

Apr 29, 2015 - 1:06 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Michael Lorenzen will make his major league debut on Wednesday afternoon when the Cincinnati Reds go for a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mike Leake was in line to pitch this finale, but fellow starter Homer Bailey landed on the disabled list Monday due to a right elbow sprain, forcing the Reds to shuffle their rotation.

Leake will now pitch Thursday versus Atlanta, while Lorenzen comes up from Triple-A Louisville, where he was 2-1 with a 2.84 earned run average in three starts this season.

The 23-year-old righty was selected with the 38th pick in the 2013 draft and is ranked the Reds' fourth-best prospect by MLB.com.

"It's been an absolute dream come true," Lorenzen told the Reds' website. "The circumstances aren't the best, but I'm going to come in here and do the best I can to do what every starting pitcher tries to do, that's win ballgames. I'm just going to go out there [Wednesday] and enjoy myself and try to put a 'W' on the scoreboard."

Matt Garza looks to avoid a third straight losing start this afternoon for the Brewers.

Garza is 1-3 on the year with a 5.16 ERA, though he pitched well enough to keep his club in the game on Friday versus St. Louis. However, the righty got no support in a 3-0 setback, charged with all three runs on seven hits and two walks in six innings. Garza also allowed a pair of homers.

"I threw the ball well, but not well enough," Garza said.

The 31-year-old is 3-3 in nine career meetings with the Reds while posting a 4.12 ERA.

The Reds hit three homers in Tuesday's 4-2 victory, their sixth in seven meetings with the Brewers this season. Joey Votto hit his seventh homer of the season, a solo shot in the first inning, and both Brandon Phillips and Marlon Byrd went deep in the fourth. Phillips' two-run blast was his first homer of the season.

Johnny Cueto pitched eight strong innings, allowing two solo homers among three hits while striking out six.

"As long as we keep playing the way we're playing we'll be all right," said Phillips. "I'm very proud of the team and hopefully we can pick up a win (Wednesday) and start stringing some together."

Kyle Lohse allowed four runs on seven hits and struck out five in seven innings for the Brewers, who have lost four of their last five and fell to 4-17 on the season.

"He had a real good outing except for the one inning," said Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke about Lohse. "Votto hit a good curveball and looked like he was looking for it, but the other inning he got some pitches up and they got to them."

Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun hit solo homers in defeat.