Brewers return Robert Gasser to minors and recall Carlos Rodriguez

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser is heading back to the minors one day after he was unable to protect an early three-run lead in a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Brewers announced Sunday they were optioning Gasser to Triple-A Nashville and recalling right-hander Carlos Rodriguez. Later on Sunday, the Brewers reinstated outfielder Akil Baddoo from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Nashville.

Gasser, who turns 27 on May 31, went 0-1 with a 6.48 ERA in two games with Milwaukee. He struck out seven but walked six over 8 1/3 innings.

Rodriguez pitched two innings of scoreless relief Sunday in the Brewers' 5-1 loss to the Dodgers.

Gasser gave up three runs, two earned, in four innings in a 5-4 loss at Minnesota on May 17. He followed that up by allowing four runs over 4 1/3 innings in an 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

He held the Dodgers scoreless for the first three innings as Milwaukee took a 3-0 lead, but the Dodgers scored four runs against him in the fourth. Gasser allowed a three-run homer to Teoscar Hernández that put the Dodgers ahead for good.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Saturday’s game that he believed Gasser might have been tipping his pitches. Los Angeles’ Andy Pages was on second base and appeared to be motioning with his arms or making some type of signal while Hernández was at the plate.

“There’s a huge emphasis on making sure they can’t get your signs from second base — there’s a huge emphasis on it,” Murphy said. “Pitchers have to be able to not give away anything. It’s gotten to (be) a science. Every team does it. We do it. Every team does it. Some teams do it less subtle than others. He got caught up and gave away some pitches, and it ended up hurting him.”

Gasser said after the game that he did notice Pages making hand signals, but the left-hander added that he didn’t know whether he was tipping anything off.

“It’s definitely something that’s come up before, and I thought I had a good grip on it and was covering it up,” Gasser said. “I don’t know. Maybe they had something. Maybe not.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked Sunday whether the Dodgers had noticed a way in which Gasser was tipping his pitches or if they were simply bluffing.

“Whether you have them to disguise or act like you have them, (there’s) the gamesmanship part of it,” Roberts said. “If you can kind of make a pitcher feel that you’ve got their signs, then you’ve already won. Honestly, right there, I don’t think we had the signs. I think Teo took a good swing and it wasn’t really a great pitch. Yeah, I’m honestly not certain.”

Rodriguez had gone 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA in two relief appearances with Milwaukee earlier this season. His performance Sunday improved his ERA to 1.50. He was 0-3 with an 8.03 ERA in five starts and three relief appearances with Nashville.

Gasser is 0-0 with a 3.74 ERA in six starts with Nashville.