Gavin Lux back home, playing in front of family & friends in Wisconsin

Gavin Lux played baseball as a prep at Indian Trail High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, roughly 39 miles from what used to be called Miller Park in Milwaukee, and saw plenty of Brewers games growing up.

This weekend will be the first time he’s played in what is now named American Family Field, and he’ll have plenty of family and friends there to cheer him on for all four games. Lux estimated he set aside 22 tickets for Thursday’s series opener.

“A lot of my really good friends will be here, and they haven’t seen me play since I was called up. I know they’re probably even more excited than I am,” Lux said Thursday. “Obviously my family, it’s always great to see them. And I know they love seeing me play, because they don’t get an opportunity to do that too much anymore.”

Lux didn’t play on Thursday, but that was a planned day off after playing all three games against the Reds. He was activated from the injured list on Monday after missing nine games with a right wrist contusion. He suffered the injury on a check swing on April 14 against Colorado, and thought it could have been even worse.

“Originally we thought maybe it was a hamate bone injury, but the MRI and all that just showed a wrist injury,” Lux said. “All in all, it was a best-case scenario for that.”

Manager Dave Roberts said Lux will start the final three games of the Brewers series, and will likely play all three games against the Cubs to finish out the road trip. That fits in with what Roberts termed in spring training that Lux would get a “runway” at second base. Thursday was just the second time in 17 games that a healthy Lux didn’t start so far this season.

He’s just 1-for-12 with six strikeouts since returning, and is 10-for-53 (.189/.224/.264) on the season, without an extra-base hit since April 3. But neither Lux nor Roberts seem too concerned about the early slump.

“Right now, I’m trying to control my tempo and my gathering load. Sometimes I get a little sped up, which causes me not to see pitches,” Lux said. “That’s really the main focus, trying to stay away from the super mechanical stuff, and switching focus to external thoughts, which is good, especially when the game starts.”

Links

• Dodgers and Brewers batters entered the series as the top two teams in getting hit by pitches. Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus wrote about how MLB is on pace to obliterate the HBP record this season.
• Dodgers scout Marty Lamb talked about three of his recent draft picks — Luke Raley, Jordan Sheffield, and Zach Pop — all of whom made the majors this year, with Kyle Glaser on the Baseball America podcast.
• The third iteration of Baseball America’s mock draft is up, where Carlos Colazzo has the Dodgers taking New Jersey high school right-hander Chase Petty at 29th overall. He was also the choice in January in the first BA mock draft, and we profiled Petty here.