Brewers host St. Louis Cardinals in key NL Central series
Brewers host St. Louis Cardinals in key NL Central series
Sitting just a game apart at the top of the division, the Cardinals and Brewers meet in Milwaukee for a three-game set starting Tuesday with a solid pitching matchup.
They were both supposed to be chasing the Chicago Cubs for second place in the NL Central. Perhaps even the improving Cincinnati Reds would give them a tussle. Instead, the Cardinals and Brewers open up a three-game series at Milwaukee's Miller Park with first place on the line.
St. Louis (45-39) owns the one-game lead entering the series, sitting two games ahead of the Brew Crew (43-39) in the win column. The teams are vastly different, yet eerily similar in many statistical departments offensively. Milwaukee is fourth in the NL scoring 4.72 per game while St. Louis ranks sixth at 4.43. Both teams are hitting .255, the Brewers have a 96-86 edge in power and the Cards have a 38-26 lead in steals.
On the mound and in the field St. Louis has a decent edge allowing 4.19 runs per game (fourth in the NL) to Milwaukee's 4.63, and the Cardinals are second with a 1.28 team WHIP while the Brewers are in the middle of the league in eighth with a 1.38 mark.
When it comes to scoring, the Brewers definitely have deeper lineup with three sluggers – Fielder (22), Braun (26), Cameron (14) – reaching double digits in homers. The Cards are pretty Albert Pujols and pray for the pitchers. Phat Albert is putting up another monster season with 31 homers, 82 BRI and a .336 average. His HR and RBI totals top all major leaguers, and he's sixth in batting average on the MLB list.
The Cardinals begin this series and what could be their most important week of the season – a trip to play four against the Cubs follows this – with Adam Wainwright (11-6, 3.32) on the mound. He pitched St. Louis to an 8-1 win in Milwaukee on May 26, just 10 days after dropping a 1-0 decision to the Brewers at home. The Cardinals were 2-1 in Wainwright's starts vs. the Brew Crew in 2008. The Bi8rds have won four of his last five starts overall, with Wainwright fashioning a 3.34 ERA in the 35 innings he's worked over that span.
The Milwaukee hitters are batting just .226 as a group against the big St. Louis slinger (40-for-177). They have taken him deep five times, two of those homers by Ryan Braun who has a .946 OPS against Wainwright, tops among Brewers batters.
Yovani Gallardo (10-6, 2.75) will pitch opposite Wainwright. He saw the Cardinals once before this year, limiting them to just two hits over eight scoreless frames in what eventually became a 10-inning, 1-0 win at Miller Park (May 25). His only other career outing vs. St. Louis came in 2007 when the Redbirds knocked him around pretty good for an 8-3 win in Milwaukee.
The Brewers have fallen in three of Gallardo's last five starts despite the Mexican righty tossing up an excellent 2.55 ERA in those 31.2 innings. He has seen a bit of control trouble in that span with 18 walks though he's countered with 43 Ks, including 12 in his last outing, a 1-0 loss at home to the Mets.
Braun, recently named to his second NL All-Star squad, spoke out recently about the Brewers making a deal to help Milwaukee as they battle in the NL Central for a second straight season. After dropping three of four to the Cubs over the past weekend, Braun specifically pointed to the starting rotation as an area that GM Bob Melvin could improve the team. The Brewers left-fielder compared the starters they saw at Wrigley for the four-game set to a staff of aces.
"Their starting pitching was clearly a lot better than ours in this series. All four guys we saw in this series are No. 1, worst-case, No. 2-type starters," Braun told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "They make big pitches in big situations. You're not always going to get hits in those situations."
Of course, if Melvin could find another arm to beef up the Milwaukee rotation, would the offense support the new pitcher? With a 2-3 record while Gallardo has posted a 2.55 ERA in his last five starts, I'd have to say the answer to that is, "Maybe."
Milwaukee opened in the -140 to -150 range for this game with it dropping into the upper-130s now at several shops. The total for this one is 8 with the Brewers favored -155 at TheGreek for the series. Neither team is playing like gangbusters right now, with both of them 5-5 in recent action, and with the Brewers not necessarily overpowering at home (22-18 at Miller Park this year), I'm going to go for a little dog money on this one taking Wainwright and the Cardinals +132 for the game and +135 for the series.
Sitting just a game apart at the top of the division, the Cardinals and Brewers meet in Milwaukee for a three-game set starting Tuesday with a solid pitching matchup.
They were both supposed to be chasing the Chicago Cubs for second place in the NL Central. Perhaps even the improving Cincinnati Reds would give them a tussle. Instead, the Cardinals and Brewers open up a three-game series at Milwaukee's Miller Park with first place on the line.
St. Louis (45-39) owns the one-game lead entering the series, sitting two games ahead of the Brew Crew (43-39) in the win column. The teams are vastly different, yet eerily similar in many statistical departments offensively. Milwaukee is fourth in the NL scoring 4.72 per game while St. Louis ranks sixth at 4.43. Both teams are hitting .255, the Brewers have a 96-86 edge in power and the Cards have a 38-26 lead in steals.
On the mound and in the field St. Louis has a decent edge allowing 4.19 runs per game (fourth in the NL) to Milwaukee's 4.63, and the Cardinals are second with a 1.28 team WHIP while the Brewers are in the middle of the league in eighth with a 1.38 mark.
When it comes to scoring, the Brewers definitely have deeper lineup with three sluggers – Fielder (22), Braun (26), Cameron (14) – reaching double digits in homers. The Cards are pretty Albert Pujols and pray for the pitchers. Phat Albert is putting up another monster season with 31 homers, 82 BRI and a .336 average. His HR and RBI totals top all major leaguers, and he's sixth in batting average on the MLB list.
The Cardinals begin this series and what could be their most important week of the season – a trip to play four against the Cubs follows this – with Adam Wainwright (11-6, 3.32) on the mound. He pitched St. Louis to an 8-1 win in Milwaukee on May 26, just 10 days after dropping a 1-0 decision to the Brewers at home. The Cardinals were 2-1 in Wainwright's starts vs. the Brew Crew in 2008. The Bi8rds have won four of his last five starts overall, with Wainwright fashioning a 3.34 ERA in the 35 innings he's worked over that span.
The Milwaukee hitters are batting just .226 as a group against the big St. Louis slinger (40-for-177). They have taken him deep five times, two of those homers by Ryan Braun who has a .946 OPS against Wainwright, tops among Brewers batters.
Yovani Gallardo (10-6, 2.75) will pitch opposite Wainwright. He saw the Cardinals once before this year, limiting them to just two hits over eight scoreless frames in what eventually became a 10-inning, 1-0 win at Miller Park (May 25). His only other career outing vs. St. Louis came in 2007 when the Redbirds knocked him around pretty good for an 8-3 win in Milwaukee.
The Brewers have fallen in three of Gallardo's last five starts despite the Mexican righty tossing up an excellent 2.55 ERA in those 31.2 innings. He has seen a bit of control trouble in that span with 18 walks though he's countered with 43 Ks, including 12 in his last outing, a 1-0 loss at home to the Mets.
Braun, recently named to his second NL All-Star squad, spoke out recently about the Brewers making a deal to help Milwaukee as they battle in the NL Central for a second straight season. After dropping three of four to the Cubs over the past weekend, Braun specifically pointed to the starting rotation as an area that GM Bob Melvin could improve the team. The Brewers left-fielder compared the starters they saw at Wrigley for the four-game set to a staff of aces.
"Their starting pitching was clearly a lot better than ours in this series. All four guys we saw in this series are No. 1, worst-case, No. 2-type starters," Braun told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "They make big pitches in big situations. You're not always going to get hits in those situations."
Of course, if Melvin could find another arm to beef up the Milwaukee rotation, would the offense support the new pitcher? With a 2-3 record while Gallardo has posted a 2.55 ERA in his last five starts, I'd have to say the answer to that is, "Maybe."
Milwaukee opened in the -140 to -150 range for this game with it dropping into the upper-130s now at several shops. The total for this one is 8 with the Brewers favored -155 at TheGreek for the series. Neither team is playing like gangbusters right now, with both of them 5-5 in recent action, and with the Brewers not necessarily overpowering at home (22-18 at Miller Park this year), I'm going to go for a little dog money on this one taking Wainwright and the Cardinals +132 for the game and +135 for the series.