The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks face off today in the rubber match of their three-game series. After winning a wild one on Friday night, Milwaukee had a tough loss on Saturday; not only did their struggles with runners in scoring position continue, but they lost Brandon Woodruff, again, to his mysterious “dead arm” issues. Woodruff has been placed on the injured list today, with Drew Rom getting recalled from Triple-A Nashville.
This afternoon,
the Brewers will look to take the series despite a couple of less-than-perfect performances in the first two games. To do so, they’ll turn to Brandon Sproat, who looks to continue a run of solid outings after a shaky start to the season. In June, Sproat made five starts and pitched to a 3.46 ERA and 3.88 FIP in 26 innings after coming into the month with an ERA over 6; that run includes starts made in Denver and Las Vegas, both of which went quite well considering the hitter-friendly environments. Sproat is coming off two very good starts in a row against the Reds: on June 23rd in Cincinnati, he went six scoreless while allowing just one hit (and no walks) while striking out a season- (and career-) high ten batters. He followed that up with 5 1/3 innings back in Milwaukee in which he struck out seven and allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in a 7-2 Brewers win.
The Diamondbacks will counter with a newly minted All-Star, lefty Eduaro Rodríguez. At 33 years old and in his 11th season, Rodríguez was named to the All-Star Game for the first time, even though he just surpassed 100 career wins and has had a good career. He’s been great this season, even if the underlying numbers suggest some—if not a whole lot of—luck. In 17 starts and 102 innings, Rodríguez has just a 2.21 ERA (194 ERA+), but he’s also sporting a 3.98 FIP. The 1.77-run gap between his ERA and his FIP is the biggest in baseball for any qualified pitcher. The Brewers faced Rodríguez on April 29th, and while they had plenty of traffic—five hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings—they managed only two runs against him, and lost 6-2.
Speaking of All-Stars, one of the (only) two players Milwaukee saw chosen, William Contreras, is out of the lineup today even with the left-hander on the mound. There are a somewhat surprising number of lefties in the lineup, in fact, given that Rodríguez does not have reverse splits: Brice Turang and Garrett Mitchell aren’t surprising, and I suppose neither is Christian Yelich, but Jake Bauers and David Hamilton are also getting starts today in right field and at third base, respectively. Joey Ortiz is in at shortstop, while Gary Sánchez will catch, Jackson Chourio plays left field, and Andrew Vaughn is at first base.
One other injury note: Brian Fitzpatrick, who made five appearances for the Brewers this season but injured his elbow while warming up during a game last month, had Tommy John surgery today.
Unfortunately, today’s game is only available via Peacock or NBCSN Extra (which I believe is available via YouTube TV?). If you don’t have access to Peacock, find the game on the Brewers Radio Network. Note also that according to the Brewer listing, first pitch is at 3:00 p.m. sharp, not 3:10.
