Let’s not let the sour taste of Sunday’s loss to the Astros ruin the good vibes from the two victories last weekend. A series win over Houston is a great way to start the second half. The deficit in the division is now a very manageable four games and the M’s still hold a 1.5 game lead over the Rays in the Wild Card race. With the trade deadline looming, the pressure is on to maintain their place in the playoff picture in time for reinforcement to arrive in a few weeks.
The Brewers are the hottest
team in baseball right now. They entered the All-Star break riding a seven-game win streak and swept the Dodgers last weekend to extend their streak to 10. That sweep gave them six wins against Los Angeles in the last two weeks and brought them into a tie atop the NL Central. They’ve been the best team in the majors since the middle of May and their success has largely been driven by their pitching staff; since May 15, they have the lowest team ERA in the NL and the lowest team FIP in baseball. A patchwork rotation has been bolstered by the debut of Jacob Misiorowski, the return of Brandon Woodruff, and the quiet breakouts of Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick. Hey, the M’s will face three of those four starters in this series!
The Brewers offense runs through two guys: Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich. The former is the young phenom who is a foundational piece of the Brewers future and the latter is the superstar they’ve built their recent success around. What’s different about this year is that they’re getting plenty of production from guys up and down their lineup. Those role players aren’t as well known as Chourio or Yelich, but the sum of their contributions has elevated the entire team. The most surprising recent contributor has been Andrew Vaughn. He’s collected hits in seven of the eight games he’s played in a Brewers uniform and driven in 12 runs. He announced his arrival with a massive home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in his first Brewers at-bat, and already has two key game-tying ninth-inning hits on his ledger.
Probable Pitchers
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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesBrandon Woodruff finally made his return to the majors a few weeks ago after missing more than a year and half with a major shoulder injury. His road to recovery wasn’t easy — an ankle injury and an elbow contusion delayed his rehab twice this spring — but he finally made it back. And he’s been excellent in his two big league starts; he’s struck out 18 in 10.1 innings and has allowed just three runs, all off solo home runs. His fastball velocity is sitting three miles per hour lower than where it was two years ago which is a little worrying. He’s got a pretty deep repertoire but his previous success had always been tied to his elite heater. We’ll see how successful he can be without his best weapon operating at peak effectiveness.
Jacob Misiorowski is the latest pitching phenom to burst onto the scene. Spitting triple-digit fastballs with ease, he’s very quickly ascended the minor league ladder and made his big league debut a few weeks ago. His evolution into a premier pitching prospect has come very quickly; he was only sitting in the low 90s as a draftee and he’s only gotten his command figured out in the last few months. With so much emphasis on his heater, the development of his secondary pitches has lagged a bit behind. Like everything else in his repertoire, his slider/cutter is extremely hard and a miniscule number of pitchers have ever thrown a curveball as hard as his. The problem has been the lack of feel for those two breaking balls, and compounded with a very raw changeup, has led to questions about his ability to work through the lineup multiple times. The raw stuff is undeniable, but now he’ll have to figure out how to actually pitch like a big leaguer.
Quinn Priester made a couple of top 100 prospect lists while he was a prospect in the Pirates organization. A mediocre fastball held him back from reaching his ceiling and Pittsburgh dealt him to the Red Sox last summer in a post-hype prospect swap involving former first-round pick Nick Yorke. He revamped his pitch mix in Boston and was acquired by Milwaukee right as the regular season was starting up. It took a while for him to figure out that new pitch arsenal — his walk rate was an untenable 14.2% through his first seven appearances this year — but he’s settled in as a solid backend starter for the Brewers. His best pitch as a prospect was his curveball, but that breaking ball has taken a bit of a back seat to a new slider and cutter. And because he’s ditched his four-seam fastball in favor of a sinker, his groundball rate has shot up these past two seasons.
The Big Picture:
Fresh off their series loss, the Astros will head to Arizona this week. The Rangers managed to win their series against the Tigers last weekend to claw back to .500; they’ll host the Athletics this week. In the Wild Card race, New York and Tampa Bay both won series last weekend; the Yankees have a huge series against the Blue Jays on tap this week while the Rays host the White Sox. Boston couldn’t keep up with the Cubs last weekend and will head to Philadelphia this week.
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