The Brewers got back on track last night with a 5-2 win over the Pirates. They will try to extend that with a second straight win against the Pirates this evening.
Brandon Woodruff gets the start for the Brewers, and he is looking for a bounce-back outing. His last three starts have been tough ones, allowing at least three earned runs in each. In his last start against the Blue Jays on Sunday, he took the loss behind some of the worst play we’ve seen from the Brewers. He allowed eight runs, but only
five of those were earned. He also allowed 10 hits and two walks, while striking out just three. Though Woodruff didn’t have the best game himself, the Brewers’ defense deserves to take some blame for that one. Woodruff has made one start against the Pirates this season, pitching four scoreless innings on August 13th.
For the Pirates, Mitch Keller gets the start this afternoon. The Brewers are no strangers to Keller — this is the third time they will face him this season. They’ve seen both sides of Keller, the good and the bad. The first time they faced him on May 24th, he was strong and limited the Brewers to one run on four hits. The second time was on August 13th (against Woodruff as well), and he allowed six runs on eight hits in four innings. Over his career, Keller has a 5.59 ERA against the Brewers covering 11 starts over 56 1/3 innings.
Christian Yelich is out of the lineup for a fourth straight day, but Manager Pat Murphy said before the game that Yelich is moving in the right direction. He will take some swings today and then be re-evaluated. Meanwhile, we’ll get DH Jake Bauers — who had two hits yesterday — batting fifth in today’s lineup. One interesting note for today’s lineup is that Brice Turang is batting third. Todd Rosiak notes that with this start, Turang will have batted in all nine spots in the batting order this season. Andrew Vaughn, Caleb Durbin, and Joey Ortiz will complete the infield today. Meanwhile, Jackson Chourio, Blake Perkins, and Sal Frelick will man the outfield. As usual, William Contreras is catching behind home plate tonight.
For the playoffs, the Brewers’ magic number for a playoff spot is seven, and the magic number for the division is 15. The division number dropped earlier today after the Cubs lost to the Nationals 2-1.
First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 p.m. CT. It will be on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.
