After John Axford's blown save Monday against the Rockies, Al Melchior, Nando Di Fino and I all preached patience.
He allowed only a solo home run and he struck out the side.
But then came his performance in a non-save situation Wednesday, when he allowed two home runs and five total hits in two-thirds of an inning. Maybe patience would again be the proper approach if not for this comment by Brewers manager Ron Roenicke afterward:
"[His velocity] was way down," Roenicke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We'll talk to him and see how he's doing but I noticed it was way down. He says he feel fine." FanGraphs had Axford's average fastball velocity at 92.4 Wednesday, down 2.3 miles per hour from Monday.
Not sure what to make of this yet. If Axford's velocity was OK Monday, then presumably he can get it back. Still, with Roenicke expressing concern, I'd want to stash Jim Henderson if I owned Axford or simply needed saves.