Brewers fire Ron Roenicke after MLB-worst 7-18 start to 2015 season

— -- MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke on Sunday after the team started the Major League Baseball season with a league-worst 7-18 record.

President and general manager Doug Melvin announced the move hours after the team's 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The team said it will announce a replacement Monday.

"This has been a difficult start to the season, something that we certainly didn't anticipate," Melvin said in a statement. "Over roughly the last 100 games, we have not performed at the level that we should. It's all about wins and losses, and after the first month of play this year we didn't see the progress and improvement we had hoped for.

"The reasons for our disappointing start are many, but we determined that it's in the best interests of the club to make this move," he said.

The victory Sunday gave the Brewers their first consecutive victories of the year and first series win. Before this year, the most games Milwaukee needed for consecutive wins was 18 in 1972, according to STATS.

Roenicke was stunned by the timing of the move, telling MLB.com, "I told Doug I wished it would have happened a week ago. I would have understood it better then."

In just over four seasons with the Brewers, the 58-year-old Roenicke was 342-331 overall.

In his first season as major league manager in 2011, Roenicke led the Brewers to a 96-66 record -- the best in team history -- and the National League Central division title. The Brewers beat Arizona in the first round of the MLB playoffs and lost to St. Louis in the league championship series.

Milwaukee was 83-79 in 2012, 74-88 in 2013 and 82-80 last season.

Roenicke hit .238 with 17 homers and 113 RBIs in 527 games in eight seasons as an outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Cincinnati.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.