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Sheets aims to end recent struggles

Aug 26, 2008 - 1:34 PM Milwaukee (76-55) at St. Louis (73-59) 8:15 pm EDT

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- A pair of aces atop the Milwaukee Brewers' rotation was supposed to serve as a boon to their playoff chances. While CC Sabathia has done his part since arriving, Ben Sheets has failed to come through.

Sheets attempts to end his losing ways on Tuesday when the Brewers begin a two-game road set against the St. Louis Cardinals.

When Sabathia was acquired from Cleveland in a five-player deal on July 7, Milwaukee envisioned pairing him with Sheets (11-7, 3.75 ERA) to give the Brewers an amazing 1-2 punch and greatly increase their chances of making the playoffs.

While Sabathia has gone 8-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 10 starts for the Brewers since coming over to the National League, Sheets has won once in eight outings since the trade.

The offense must take some of the blame for Sheets' 1-5 record over that time as they have failed to provide the righthander with two runs or less in six of those outings. That trend continued in last Tuesday's 5-2 setback vs. Houston when he surrendered five runs and five hits over six frames.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Todd Wellemeyer (11-4, 3.79), who has won three straight starts and is unbeaten in his last eight. Following a stretch in which the righthander allowed four or more runs in four of six starts, he has rebounded to hold the opposition to three runs or less in each of his last six outings.

Wellemeyer won his third consecutive start in Wednesday's 11-2 thrashing of Pittsburgh after he permitted two runs and five hits over five innings.