MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - The Milwaukee Brewers are not giving up on the season yet – even though they’ve dug big holes for themselves in both the divisional and Wild Card races.

Wednesday, general manager Doug Melvin made a change to his struggling bullpen by sending Tim Dillard outright to AAA Nashville, and bringing up top prospect Tyler Thornburg.

The 23-year-old Thornburg took a perfect game into the 7th inning of one of his minor league starts this year. But the right hander gave up 4 homers in his only Major League appearance, an emergency start against Toronto June 19th in which Thornburg lasted five-and-a-third innings.

Meanwhile, Dillard has been struggling as of late, giving up 8 runs in 15 innings of his last 12 appearances. He has until Saturday to decide if he wants to accept the AAA assignment, or become a free agent.

Melvin says Thornburg will come out of the bullpen for now, but he could get some starts later.

That could provide an extra arm if the Brewers deal Zack Greinke before the July 31st trade deadline. But Melvin says he’s not conceding anything.

The Brewers’ next 9 games are against teams ahead of them in the National League Central – and Melvin says there’s still a chance his team can make a move if it can get its act together.

The Brewers are 4th in the Central, 8 games behind first-place Pittsburgh. And the Crew is 6th in the race for two NL Wild Card spots, with 7 teams ahead of them.

The Brewers return to action Friday night when they host the Pirates. Pregame on WTAQ is at 6:35 p.m., first pitch is at 7:10 p.m.