After the Brewers' starters failed to pitch more than two innings in each of the previous two games, rookie Chris Narveson took the mound on Wednesday evening and twirled an absolute gem against the Cubs.

The left-hander needed only 70 pitches, 54 of which were strikes, to span five and two-thirds.  Narveson set a career high by striking out ten.  Seven of those strikeouts came via the called third strike.

Most impressively, Narveson utilized and had pinpoint control over his entire arsenal.  He moved his 89-92 MPH fastball on both the inside and outside portion of the plate.  His slow, mid-70s curveball had Reed Johnson and Geovany Soto baffled, especially when Narveson began nailing the back-door curve.  Finally, his low-80s changeup set everything else up early in the contest.

Chris Narveson only made one bad pitch in his entire outing.  It came on a 90 MPH fastball that was belt-high on the outside corner of the plate to opposing pitcher Jeff Samardzija.  Considering Samardzija had never collected a hit in the big leagues, Narveson was likely tossing a get-me-over fastball on the outside black.  Instead, the Cubs pitcher absolutely bombed one to the opposite field.  It was no cheapy, landing in the second deck in right field.

Ryan Theriot then blooped one for a single, and it appeared that the wheels had completely fallen off for Narveson.

That is, until the left-hander came back and struck out Tyler Colvin and Derrick Lee in consecutive at-bats.  

Ken Macha then made a dubious, micro-managing call to bring in Todd Coffey to handle Aramis Ramirez.  Chris Narveson had only thrown 70 pitches at that point and had bounced back from the leadoff home run to strikeout two in a row. 

With a plethora of arms in the bullpen, however, Macha chose to yank Narveson while the feelings were good and allow his red-hot bullpen to close the game down—which they did, minus a brief hiccup by David Weathers in the seventh.

But who is Chris Narveson?  Can he maintain the success he has enjoyed over his past two outings, combining for 10.2 innings and only two earned runs?

Glancing at his minor league numbers, the answer is a cautious "yes, but..." 

The young man has routinely posted a strikeout rate hovering around the 9.00 K/9, which is well above-average for a starting pitcher.  To back that up, his walk rate in Triple-A this season was an average 3.11 BB/9.  Those numbers combined with a .291 BABIP suggests his 3.70 ERA accurately depicts his pitching ability.  In fact, his FIP (fielding independent ERA) was 2.78 in Nashville.

His 8.84 K/9 strikeout rate and 2.87 BB/9 walk rate since joining the Brewers' big league squad this season mirror his minor league numbers.  Those are not in question.  The issue is the 1.67 HR/9 home run rate.  For a frame of reference, Braden Looper owns a 1.82 HR/9 rate, so Chris Narveson gives up his fair share of home runs.  This is due to his rather straight four-seam fastball.

Chris Narveson has given up seven home runs in only 37.2 big league innings in 2009.  That is an extremely dangerous and concerning trend for a starting pitcher.

His minor league numbers, however, suggest that this home run rate is much higher than normal.  In Nashville this season, he posted a 0.36 HR/9 home run rate, but his career numbers illustrate a tendency to hover around the 1.00-1.10 HR/9 mark.  

If the lefty can sustain his strikeout and walk rates while reverting to his minor league norms for home runs, Chris Narveson absolutely could stick in the big leagues at the back-end of the Brewers' starting rotation.  He possesses three above-average pitches and showed on Wednesday night that he is very difficult to hit when commanding the baseball well.

With a straight fastball and a looping curveball that can easily be hung, however, command is the key.  Hopefully, Narveson gets the chance to show his stuff more on the mound.  It will be interesting to see how the Brewers' handle the starting rotation in the coming days, especially now that Manny Parra has returned from his neck injuries.  Will Narveson simply slide into Yovani Gallardo's vacant spot?  Will the Crew add Josh Butler to the rotation and run a six-man staff for the final couple weeks?

Whatever happens, Chris Narveson has made the most of his chance on the big stage in Miller Park.  I doubt he will forget that standing ovation he received while walking off the diamond any time soon.