The 2026 regular season is drawing closer to the end. There are just two games left, the Brewers are working on their final tune-ups before the postseason. The St. Louis Cardinals are already making their plans for Cancun.
The Brewers showed the fight they still had as they put together a four-run eighth inning last night to get an 8-4 victory and their 101st win of the season. They’ll be looking for win #102 tonight.
However, also last night, third baseman Joey Ortiz was removed from the game with
a nagging right knee bruise. Prior to tonight’s game, Ortiz went for an MRI. Pat Murphy told reporters that on top of the knee bruise, Ortiz had been dealing with an abdominal strain and a groin injury.
Jonathan Ornelas is with the club, but has not been activated. Murphy said the Brewers will operate a man down on their bench with Ortiz unavailable since they’re within 10 days of the NLDS and an IL stint would make him unavailable for that series.
On the mound tonight, the Brewers will have Dustin May, who is looking to make one final tune-up before the postseason. He’s been working on trying to find the right pitch mix and sequencing.
“It’s an opportunity for him to pitch well. It’s especially hard to pitch well against the team that knows you so well, but at the same time you know them. So I think it’s an opportunity…and I think he’ll take that head on.” Murphy said.
May has had a lot of short outings lately, though some of that has been by design or out of his control. Still, the Brewers would love to see May be able to fully stretch out and pitch a little deeper into this game and find the pitch mix that works well for him.
His counterpart tonight is Quinn Mathews, who has a 3.65 ERA on the season. He’s a left-handed pitcher, which means the Brewers are going with a largely right-handed lineup.
Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and Jake Bauers lead things off for the Brewers. William Contreras, Gary Sanchez, and Luis Lara form the middle of the order. Contreras is catching while Sanchez is the DH tonight. Then Cooper Pratt, Brandon Lockridge, and David Hamilton will round out the bottom of the lineup.
The Cardinals had a last minute scratch of shortstop Masyn Winn. Thomas Saggese is taking his place at shortstop and batting eighth. The top of the Redbirds lineup is led by JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera again, with Alec Burleson batting third. Jordan walker, Leo Bernal, and Nolan Gorman form the middle of the lineup. Then Bryan Torres, Saggese, and Nathan Church round out the bottom of their order.
Can the Brewers get win #102 and keep pushing this wins record? Can Dustin May prove he’s trustworthy for Game 3 of the NLDS? We’ll find out, starting with first pitch at 6:10 PM.
