For just about the first time since the NL Cy Young Award winner became a full-time major leaguer, he didn’t have to be outstanding for the San Francisco Giants to win.

Travis Ishikawa hit a three-run triple, Aaron Rowand had three RBI and the Giants overcame Lincecum’s struggles for a 10-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday in the majors’ final opener.

Lincecum walked leadoff hitter Rickie Weeks on five pitches right after heroic pilot Chesley Sullenberger threw out the first pitch, and the 24-year-old right-hander’s day got no better. He made it through just three innings, yielding three runs, four hits and three walks in a scattered performance that included five strikeouts, but not much more to embrace.

“When you’re a Cy Young winner, there’s going to be a target on your back,” said Lincecum, who will formally receive his award in front of the home crowd Wednesday night. “Milwaukee was trying to get aggressive, and they’ve got a good power team. They probably wanted to do as many things as they could to me.”

Last season, Lincecum would have expected such a sorry performance to result in certain defeat for the Giants, who finished 29th among the majors’ 30 teams with 637 runs last season, their first following Barry Bonds’ departure.

At least for openers, the Giants’ new-look lineup had enough pop to cover for their young ace’s struggles. Rowand hit a two-run homer and an RBI double. Bengie Molina and Randy Winn also homered for the Giants, who had six extra-base hits.

“Those guys played really good baseball offensively,” Lincecum said. “They were putting a lot of good swings on good pitches. It’s going to be great to see them develop and score runs this year.”

Joe Martinez (1-0) gave up two runs during two rocky innings in his major league debut, but still got the win when Rowand put the Giants ahead 6-5 with his two-run shot in the fourth. Molina added a solo shot in the seventh, and Winn led off the eighth with another homer.

With an all-new infield featuring three young prospects and veteran shortstop Edgar Renteria, Molina thinks the sport’s perception of the Giants’ lineup is about to change.

“This is a great example of what we can do,” Molina said. “When whoever goes out there and gives up a hit or some runs, it feels good to pick them up.”

Milwaukee also didn’t get much from Jeff Suppan (0-1), who hit an RBI double but gave up six runs in four innings as the unlikely opening-day starter for a club that lost its top two pitchers from last season’s run to the NL wild card. Weeks and Bill Hall hit run-scoring doubles in manager Ken Macha’s debut with the Brewers, who left 11 men on base.

“That wasn’t very pretty,” Macha said. “By my count, there were 13 walks and four hit batters. We had 20 baserunners and only got five runs. If you told me we’d get Lincecum out of the game in the third, I’d be feeling pretty good. We just didn’t pitch very well.”

Rain pelted the Giants’ waterfront ballpark for most of the morning, but it abated before game time and eventually gave way to warm sunshine, despite bleak weather forecasts. Both managers had made contingency plans for a doubleheader Wednesday, when Randy Johnson will make his Giants debut against burgeoning Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo.

After walking Weeks to start the Giants’ 10th opening day at their park, Lincecum also drilled Ryan Braun in the back and threw a wild pitch in the first inning alone, but struck out Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy to avoid giving up any runs.

Ishikawa, who won the starting job at first base in spring training despite just 45 games of major league experience, lined a shot into the deepest corner of the Giants’ outfield in the bottom half, easily reaching third base while Renteria, Fred Lewis and Pablo Sandoval scored.

“They were really swinging the bats today,” said Brewers outfielder Mike Cameron, who drew four walks and stole two bases. “We were swinging pretty good, too, but we lost a couple of opportunities to keep it close. We knocked [Lincecum] out of the game, but we couldn’t push any runs across against anybody else. When we threatened to score, they turned a couple of double plays.”

After Martinez relieved Lincecum, Weeks tied it when he scored on Lewis’ overthrow from left field after Corey Hart’s single. Fielder then put the Brewers up 5-4 with an RBI single.

Rowand gave the Giants the lead again with his homer to left, scoring Ishikawa. Rowand hit just 13 homers in 152 games with San Francisco last season, slumping after the break.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Although Gallardo has been alive only slightly longer than Randy Johnson has been a major league pitcher, the Milwaukee Brewers’ promising right-hander started off his season with an achievement even more remarkable than his solid effort on the mound.

He’s the first pitcher to hit a home run off the Big Unit in his long career.

Gallardo pitched neatly into the seventh inning while spoiling Johnson’s debut with the San Francisco Giants, leading the Brewers to a 4-2 victory Wednesday night.

Gallardo (1-0) insists he’ll remember his first victory in nearly 19 months much longer than the historic hit that made it possible. The 23-year-old gave up six hits and struck out six while muzzling a Giants team that scored 10 runs on opening day.

He was thrilled to see his impressive spring reflected in his first real game since early last season, when the second of two serious knee injuries in 2008 sidelined him for the rest of Milwaukee’s playoff-bound campaign.

“There were a lot of things going into it, with my first start of the year after I wasn’t able to start off with the team last year,” Gallardo said. “There was a little bit of anxiousness there. The win, that’s obviously the most important for me.”

Everybody else will remember the home run. He smacked a two-out, two-strike pitch over the fence in the fifth, providing himself with all the run support he needed.

“Growing up and watching him pitch, he’s a great pitcher,” Gallardo said of Johnson, the 45-year-old right-hander. “Not very many people get the opportunity to do that. Rounding the bases, I was pretty excited.”

After Bill Hall doubled with two outs in the fifth, Johnson walked Jason Kendall to face Gallardo. Although the Brewers understood the move, the dugout pulsed with excitement about Gallardo, known around the spring training cages as an above-average hitter.

“Nobody said anything, but we all kind of knew,” said Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva, Gallardo’s close friend. “It’s not as easy to get him out as you might think. … That was a bomb. It’s not surprising from him. You expect him to hit, but not an absolute bomb.”

Although the Brewers lost top starters CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets following their run last fall to their first playoff berth in a quarter-century, Milwaukee might not miss them as much as many expect if Gallardo keeps living up to the considerable promise he showed in 2007 and again this spring.

Gallardo overshadowed the formal Bay Area homecoming for Johnson (0-1), who opened his 22nd major league season with seven strikeouts — giving him 4,796 in his career — in five often-dominant innings. Johnson allowed only four hits, but two were home runs by Mike Cameron and Gallardo.

“I felt bad, because that took the sail out of the fans, I think,” said Johnson, who got raucous ovations before the game and after most of his innings. “[Gallardo] pitched a good ballgame and got the big hit, too. That one at-bat, it gets lost how good I felt. But it’s all a wash. I can’t go out and pitch any better.”

Randy Winn stole two bases for San Francisco and hit an RBI single in the seventh when Gallardo tired with two outs, leaving with two runners on base. Reliever Todd Coffey got Bengie Molina to dribble a harmless grounder with the bases loaded.

Villanueva pitched the ninth for his first save, filling in while presumptive closer Trevor Hoffman starts the season on the disabled list.

Johnson, who grew up in the East Bay suburb of Livermore, Calif., admittedly signed with the Giants to chase the final five wins necessary to join the 300-victory club, but also to provide veteran leadership to San Francisco’s staff.

In his first inning with San Francisco, Johnson came within one pitch of striking out the side. He fanned Ricky Weeks and Corey Hart — with a changeup — and had two strikes on Ryan Braun before a harmless fly to center.

He retired Milwaukee’s first five hitters, also striking out Prince Fielder, but Cameron then homered to left. Cameron entered the game 2-for-29 with 18 strikeouts in his career against Johnson.

“He threw great, [but] one pitch was the difference in the game,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He had good stuff. It was just one pitch that he didn’t get away with. That kid can swing a bat. We know it.”

Before the game, the Giants formally presented the 2008 NL Cy Young Award to Tim Lincecum. Mike McCormick, the only other Giants pitcher to win the award, spoke to the crowd before Lincecum made a brief speech.

“Lastly and always, I just want to thank my dad,” said Lincecum, who lasted only a career-low three innings while getting no decision in the opener Tuesday.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

After the Giants struggled at the plate in their last game, the 24-year-old right-hander hopes to avoid more misfortune Thursday night when San Francisco hosts the Milwaukee Brewers in the decisive contest of their three-game set.

Cain went 8-14 with a 3.76 ERA in 34 starts last season, and has started at least 32 games in each of his last three years. For the second straight year, however, Cain received the second-lowest run support in the majors.

Since the start of the 2007 season, the Giants scored one or no runs in 29 of Cain’s 66 starts. He’s 15-30 with a 3.71 ERA during that span after winning 13 games in 2006.

“You’d love to get five or six runs every game, but … that’s not the way the game is. It just doesn’t work that way,” Cain told the Giants’ official Web site. “When you lose a game, you think about what you could have done better – instead of pointing the finger at someone else.”

Facing Milwaukee (1-1) could add to the challenge for Cain, who is 0-2 with a 5.54 ERA against the Brewers.

Starter Yovani Gallardo and three relievers stymied San Francisco in the Brewers’ 4-2 victory on Wednesday, two days after the Giants’ 10-6 season-opening win.

Gallardo hit a three-run homer off Randy Johnson on Wednesday to spoil the Big Unit’s San Francisco debut. Mike Cameron also homered and Ryan Braun added two hits for the Brewers, who totaled just five.

Braun is 4-for-8 with two doubles in the series, and 1-for-2 with a triple against Cain. Cameron, though, is 2-for-23 with nine strikeouts against him.

Randy Winn stole two bases and had an RBI single, and Aaron Rowand went 2-for-4 on Wednesday for the Giants (1-1), whose 640 runs in 2008 were the second-lowest in the majors behind San Diego (637).

Rowand is 4-for-7 with three doubles in the series, and 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs against Milwaukee’s scheduled starter Manny Parra.

A Sacramento, Calif., native, Parra is 2-0 with a 2.77 ERA against San Francisco as a starter.

The left-hander bounced between the rotation and bullpen last season, going 10-8 with a 4.30 ERA in 32 games with 29 starts for Milwaukee.

Despite the winning record, Parra struggled in the second half of 2008. He was 8-2 with a 3.82 ERA in 18 starts prior to the All-Star break and 2-6 with a 5.10 ERA in 11 starts the rest of the way.

Parra spent much of the spring trying to fine tune his changeup to go along with an already solid fastball.

“Obviously my fastball is my primary pitch, but the changeup is right there and I want to feel as comfortable throwing that as my fastball,” he told the Brewers’ official Web site.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

When he finally gets to the San Francisco Giants’ waterfront ballpark on Tuesday, his trip will get a whole lot less relaxing in a hurry.

After losing their top two pitchers in the offseason, the reconfigured Brewers open with back-to-back games against NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum and 45-year-old Randy Johnson, who won a few trophies of his own before joining the Giants.

“Hey, Matt Cain is no day at the beach, either,” Macha said of the Giants’ Thursday starter. “They’ve got an excellent pitching staff, but that’s the big leagues. … But they’ve got to face our hitters. I think this club had some success against the Giants last year, and there are some guys here that have some pretty good numbers against Lincecum. So we’ll show up.”

The Brewers’ run to their first playoff appearance in more than a quarter-century was built on the pitching of midseason acquisition CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, who won on opening day last season. His replacement in this opener is Jeff Suppan, the consistent but unremarkable right-hander who won 10 games last season.

Yet the top five hitters in Milwaukee’s dangerous lineup – Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Corey Hart – are all back in uniform, ready for a season-opening series full of tests from San Francisco’s starting rotation, which appears to be the Giants’ strength.

“There’s nothing like opening day,” said Brewers catcher Jason Kendall, another former Oaklander. “It’s kind of like Little League. When your first game is on Saturday, you can’t sleep on Friday night. You’re nervous, you’re excited, all of ‘em. You can’t beat opening day. It’s something special, and anybody that says different, they’re in the wrong profession.”

After Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, the lifesaving pilot who lives in nearby Danville, throws out the ceremonial first pitch, the Giants will see what a slightly younger arm can do for an encore to a remarkable 2008.

Lincecum won the Cy Young despite the Giants’ 72-90 record by going 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and a major league-best 265 strikeouts. He’ll receive his trophy Wednesday night before the Giants debut of Johnson, the Bay Area native who signed to provide a veteran presence while chasing his 300th victory.

Lincecum didn’t shrink from the pressure of his first opening-day start, although he knows the Giants expect more out of him and themselves this season.

“It’s great, but I don’t make the decisions,” Lincecum said. “For me to be there, it’s awesome for me, but you put any one of our starters in that spot, and they’re going to do their job. Our rotation speaks for itself with the years and experience, so if I take the nod or Randy takes the nod or Cain or (Barry Zito) takes the nod, it doesn’t really matter to any of us. It’s just another game.”

The Giants are hoping to avoid five straight losing seasons for the first time since moving to the West Coast a half-century ago, and manager Bruce Bochy is counting on his rotation to do most of the heavy lifting. Milwaukee’s potent lineup will provide a good test, but Bochy also hopes his totally revamped infield can get off to a good start at the plate against the Brewers.

San Francisco will begin the season with newcomer Edgar Renteria at shortstop and three surprising youngsters around him: third baseman Pablo Sandoval, second baseman Emmanuel Burriss and first baseman Travis Ishikawa. All three are younger than 26, and none has more than 95 games of major league experience.

“Like everybody else, I’m anxious and excited to get this thing going,” Bochy said. “I like the way our corners have played, Sandoval and Ishikawa. They certainly helped answer some questions. If spring training is any indication, they will be just fine.”

Suppan isn’t the most fearsome opening-day starter, but he’ll remove some pressure from youngsters Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra before they follow him in the rotation. Suppan also might know something about the Giants: He threw five scoreless innings against them on St. Patrick’s Day during spring training.

“I expect a very good year out of Soupy,” Kendall said. “He’s one of those guys that’s been there, done that, been in the big situations, been on winning teams, been on losing teams – he’s pretty much done it all in his career. He’s changed some things. His ball is moving, I think, more than I’ve seen it. I think it’s going to be a very good year for him.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.

He won’t look into the future and he rarely looks back. He’ll talk about the pitch that Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins hit for a leadoff home run in Game 4 of last year’s National League Division Series, but it’s more difficult to get him to talk about how it felt to lose the game that eliminated Milwaukee from its first postseason series in 26 years. He’ll walk you through his most recent Spring Training outing, but he’s hesitant to talk about the honor of starting Opening Day.

Suppan drew that honor over young arms Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, who will be counted on to lead a starting rotation missing ‘08 aces CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets. Over Braden Looper, who along with closer Trevor Hoffman represented the Brewers’ offseason action in free agency. And over Dave Bush, the longest-tenured member on Milwaukee’s staff.

“I am boring,” Suppan said, “and I appreciate you saying that because a lot of people don’t understand that. I use a lot of clichés, but you know what? They are clichés because they are truths.

“I say the things I say because I believe in them. Baseball is played in the moment, and my focus is on the ‘now.’ Last year was a difficult year for me, but now it’s a new year and it doesn’t do any good to dwell on the things that are negative.”

Suppan, the last Brewers starter to toe the rubber in 2008, will be the first in 2009. Because new Brewers manager Ken Macha preferred an experienced arm for Opening Day, Suppan will start for Milwaukee against Tim Lincecum and the Giants on Tuesday to begin the 40th season in Brewers history.

The 34-year-old Suppan has been here before. He started three consecutive season openers for the Royals from 2000-02. He’s 0-1 in those games, allowing 20 hits, including nine home runs, in 16 innings.

Suppan’s most recent Brewers start was not much better. After Bush pitched Milwaukee to a Game 3 win in the NLDS to stave off elimination, Suppan, who has a reputation as postseason stalwart, took the mound for Game 4 and surrendered a first-pitch homer to Rollins. It was one of three home runs he allowed in three innings, and it capped a tough finish to the season for Suppan, who went 5-0 with a 3.00 ERA in August and then 0-3 with an 8.44 ERA in September.

His troubles, Suppan concedes now, dated back to an elbow injury in May that briefly landed him on the disabled list over the All-Star break.

“I did have some good starts, but it was a deal where I hyper-extended my elbow in May, and it affected me in ways I didn’t know,” Suppan said. “By September, my pitches were flat and I didn’t have the arm speed that I needed to pitch.

“I did the best I could. I wasn’t hurting, but everything was flat, and when it did move, it was moving toward the middle. Looking back, my mechanics had changed.”

Game 4 will stick with him.

“That Game 4 will never change,” Suppan said. “When I’m sitting there, 60 years old with my grandkids, I’m still going to have Game 4 of the 2008 playoffs on my record. You can dissect it any way you want.”

He focused on achieving a “downhill plane” this spring and found success. Suppan allowed just the one run on seven hits over 12 innings in starts against the Giants and the A’s on March 17 and March 28. His start between those outings fell in Minor League camp.

Macha said he liked the way Suppan “used his pitches” this spring.

“Especially his curveball,” Macha said. “That was something we tried to get in there a little more, [beginning] a couple of starts ago. To me, the change of speeds is the key for him.”

The Brewers’ Mr. Boring will look to keep rolling in the regular season.

“I’ve had some accomplishments in my career that I’m proud of,” Suppan said. “But the main goal is always the same: Help your team win a game. That’s it.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Hoffman was placed on the 15-day DL on Monday, retroactive to March 27, with a strained oblique muscle on the right side of his ribcage. He will miss at least the first four games of the regular season.

“Basically, that’s all that’s left,” Hoffman said of his move to the DL. “You’re talking about not having been off the mound in two weeks and it would be silly to try to rush it [for Opening Day].”

The roster move came a day after Hoffman played catch with head athletic trainer Roger Caplinger for the first time since March 20. After that, his recovery plateaued, and for more than a week Hoffman was restricted from throwing entirely.

On Monday morning he felt “not too bad.”

“You don’t want to rush it and set things back,” Hoffman said. “Just because we’re starting to see some progress, you don’t want to jump on it to the point you set yourself back two weeks and lose the [progress].

“Two weeks in the middle of the season is going to feel a heck of a lot longer than the last two weeks of Spring Training, even though this has been frustrating. It would be difficult to watch games go by.”

Major League Baseball’s all-time leader with 554 saves inked a $6 million, one-year contract to replace Brewers closer Salomon Torres, who turned down $3.75 million and instead retired to focus on his family and his faith.

Part of the allure of Hoffman was his durability, even at age 41. Before Monday, he had been on the disabled list only once in his 16-year Major League career. Hoffman missed most of the 2003 season with a right shoulder injury that required surgery.

His current setback is far less severe. But it might be more frustrating.

“That [the shoulder] was more of a specific trauma and I felt something immediate,” Hoffman said. “You try and rehab it, it doesn’t work, so you go and get surgery and fix it and the ball gets put in your court.

“This … you’re not ‘blown out,’ it’s a mild strain. It’s minor. But because of where it’s at and because it affects so much of what you do other than just throwing, you have to shut down your normal activity.”

Hoffman’s assignment to the disabled list means that right-handers Mark DiFelice and Jorge Julio are both likely to make the Opening Day roster. Another right-hander, Carlos Villanueva, is likely to serve as Milwaukee’s closer while Hoffman is down.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

The new Milwaukee closer played catch for the first time since March 20, when he was shut down with a strained muscle along the right side of his rib cage, and both Hoffman and head athletic trainer Roger Caplinger told Macha they were encouraged by the session.

“We still have a long way to go, but we’re making progress,” Macha said.

With Opening Day looming on April 7, Hoffman is still likely to begin the season on the disabled list. But if he can get healthy in a hurry, the Brewers could backdate a stint on the DL such that Hoffman would only have to miss the first four games of the regular season.

Hoffman is likely to travel with the team for treatment when the Brewers break camp Thursday night and go to California for two exhibitions against the Dodgers and then the season-opening series against the Giants. At some point he could be sent out — either to Triple-A Nashville or Class A Wisconsin — for a rehabilitation outing or two.

The team is proceeding cautiously with the 41-year-old Hoffman, Major League Baseball’s all-time saves leader.

“We’re not even at step one,” Macha said. “Until he gets throwing on the mound, it’s hard to do projections.”

Hoffman last pitched in a Cactus League game on March 13. In three appearances, he allowed one hit and no runs.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

With closer Trevor Hoffman still shut down with an oblique injury — “treading water” is how manager Ken Macha described it — and likely to open the regular season on the disabled list, it appears that both Mark DiFelice and Jorge Julio will make the cut and that the Brewers’ bullpen, at least in terms of personnel, is all but set.

If that’s the case, it would leave only three of the 25 roster spots up for grabs: Mike Lamb or Casey McGehee for the final backup infield spot, and two of Chris Duffy, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Brad Nelson for reserve outfield jobs.

In both areas, a desire for depth could fuel the decision. McGehee has a full complement of Minor League options and could be sent to Triple-A Nashville, while the veteran Lamb is out. In the outfield, Gwynn and Nelson are out of options while Duffy is in camp on a Minor League contract and simply could be assigned to Nashville.

If the Brewers choose depth over Spring Training performance — McGehee has a .383 Cactus League average with five home runs to Lamb’s .250 and two homers, and Duffy is hitting .333 to Gwynn’s .167 — the roster could very well look like this:

Starting pitchers: Jeff Suppan, Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra, Braden Looper and Dave Bush.

Relief pitchers: Todd Coffey, DiFelice, Julio, Seth McClung, David Riske, Mitch Stetter and Carlos Villanueva.

Catchers: Jason Kendall and Mike Rivera.

Infielders: Craig Counsell, Prince Fielder, Bill Hall, J.J. Hardy, Lamb, and Rickie Weeks.

Outfielders: Ryan Braun, Mike Cameron, Gwynn, Corey Hart and Nelson.

Disabled list: Hoffman.

According to Macha, the decisions are still being debated. But he conceded that it’s not all about spring stats.

“It comes down to depth in the organization and having control over players,” Macha said.

The Brewers could sell Duffy on the idea of going to Nashville to prove he’s healthy. The former Pirates prospect was limited to 74 games in 2007 by an ankle injury, then played only 30 games in the Minors in 2008 after coming back from left shoulder surgery.

McGehee, who was plucked off waivers from the Cubs in August after a 92-RBI campaign at Triple-A Iowa, would be a much tougher sell. He has been excellent defensively at his natural position — third base — and has also proven serviceable at second base, first base and in the outfield, and he has professional experience as a catcher. He also bats right-handed, while Counsell, Lamb, Gwynn, Nelson and Duffy all hit lefty.

At the plate, McGehee has exceeded expectations. In 47 at-bats through Thursday, he ranked second on the team to Hart in home runs and third behind Hart and Fielder with 13 RBIs. His .723 slugging percentage ranks behind only Hardy and Hart. If there’s a knock on McGehee, it’s that he had yet to draw a walk.

“One of the things I said in my opening speech here,” said Macha, referring to his first full-squad address in February, “was that it doesn’t matter where you start, it’s where you finish. Spring Training has highlighted what [McGehee] can do, not just to the Brewers but to the other teams out there who are scouting and watching what’s going on.”

McGehee is trying to focus on baseball and not roster decisions. He started at first base against the Rangers on Friday night.

“All I can say is we’ll see what happens,” McGehee said. “[The fact he has options] could be a good thing or a bad thing. Who knows?”

As for Lamb, Macha said, “I think he’s had some streaks where he’s swung the bat very well, and then he’s had some streaks where he hasn’t. I’ve seen him play before, too [with Texas 2000-03] so that’s in my mind, also. …

“If the fans are interested in that [Lamb/McGehee battle], I don’t blame them. We are, too. It takes up a lot of our conversation.”

The Brewers have Lamb on the cheap. The Twins released him last August with more than a year left on his contract, so the Brewers are on the hook for only $400,000 of Lamb’s $3 million salary in 2009.

Of course, the final week and a half of Spring Training could help club officials make their decisions. Left fielder Braun has been bothered by a rib cage injury, and a trip to the disabled list would probably mean that Duffy, Gwynn and Nelson all make the cut. Counsell missed his third game on Friday because of a swollen knee, and while the team does not deem the injury serious, if it lingers it would open spots for Lamb and McGehee.

“It’s all going to get answered,” Macha said.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Before the Brewers signed Hoffman, Villanueva was considered a top internal candidate to replace the retired Salomon Torres as Milwaukee’s closer. With Hoffman in the fold, he was bumped to a setup role, but even that plan was called into question earlier this spring when Villanueva ran up a 7.94 ERA and struggled to limit his pitch counts in his first seven appearances in the Cactus League.

“He just wasn’t getting anybody out,” manager Ken Macha said, “but that’s back-to-back good outings for him. He threw a couple of very good curveballs [Friday] night, and I liked his changeup, too.”

There was no progress to report for Hoffman on Saturday, and he is all but certain to begin the year on the disabled list. Besides Villanueva, Macha also mentioned as an alternative right-hander Todd Coffey, who saved eight games for the Reds in 2006. But Macha didn’t mention right-hander Seth McClung, who has been noted in the past as a possible alternative — assuming he was not needed in the starting rotation.

Villanueva converted full-time to relief last season and thrived in the Brewers’ bullpen, posting a 2.12 ERA over 38 appearances. In nine starts, he was 2-5 with a 6.43 ERA.

There could be yet another option, at least on Opening Day. Macha is leaning toward using No. 5 starter Dave Bush, who was a collegiate closer, out of the bullpen in the Brewers’ season opener as Bush’s final tune-up for his scheduled start April 11 against the Cubs at Miller Park.

If he stays on an every-five-day schedule, Bush would be slated to make his final spring tune-up on April 6. But that’s an off-day for the Brewers, and also the date that players scatter from Maryvale Baseball Park for the start of Minor League seasons. The latter fact makes it impossible for Bush to stay behind to pitch a Triple-A game, as No. 3 starter Manny Parra and No. 4 starter Braden Looper will do. Those sessions will be monitored by bullpen coach Stan Kyles.

Parra’s day to pitch actually falls on April 4, when the Brewers play their final exhibition against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. But Macha wants to use that game as a “bullpen day” to get each of his relievers some work.

Bush said he would rather pitch in a big league game, anyway.

“I really haven’t though that far ahead, to be honest with you … [but] I guess it is always my preference to pitch in big league games versus Minor League games,” Bush said. “Part of my preparation is the mental part of the competition.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Cameron tweaked a muscle between his ribs near his left armpit during relay drills on Wednesday and has been restricted from all baseball activity for the time being. He joins right-hander Braden Looper and catcher Angel Salome among the Brewers getting treatment on his rib cage.

“I had something like this two years ago and it lasted a month,” said Cameron, referring to his final season in San Diego. “I don’t want this one to be that way. I think we got it early.”

The Brewers have been dogged by more than their share of injuries this spring, turning manager Ken Macha’s morning briefing with reporters into a daily medical dissertation. Besides Looper and Salome, catcher Mike Rivera (right hamstring strain), outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr. (right shoulder) and third baseman Mat Gamel (right shoulder) remained limited to various degrees by physical ailments on Thursday.

However, Macha termed Cameron’s injury “minor” and said he could be back in the lineup as early as Saturday.

“Injuries are going to happen in camp, and as the manager you can’t let them bother you,” Macha said. “So Cam’s got a little rib cage [problem]. That means we’ll see more of [Chris] Duffy. [Lorenzo] Cain is going to get his opportunity, and maybe he’ll be ready for us in the middle of the year.”

Duffy was slated to start Thursday’s game in center field against the Padres. Cain started there against the White Sox on Wednesday.

“[Injuries] are like the weather,” Macha said. “You can’t control it, so don’t even try.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.