The Milwaukee Brewers are back on the road for the beginning of a six-game road trip out west. After failing to complete comebacks in the final two games against the National League West’s San Francisco Giants, the Brewers look to set the record straight against the NL West’s worst, the Colorado Rockies.
Yesterday afternoon, we watched the ball fly at American Family Field as we saw a combined five home runs and seven doubles in the series finale. Thankfully for Brewers fans, the Brewers had their
hat mixed in consistently throughout the day, with Jackson Chourio going deep twice and David Hamilton hitting his first over-the-fence long ball on the season. Not to mention the numerous flyouts to the warning track. Expect similar action tonight at Coors Field, another ballpark that’s notorious for deep flies.
The Brewers will try to avoid losing three in a row for the first time since late April, and getting the ball in tonight’s series opener will be Brandon Sproat. There’s no doubt that Sproat has struggled this season in terms of giving up runs, but home runs have been a backbreaker so far this season, as he has allowed 10 on the season. In his last outing against the Houston Astros, he made it just 4.1 innings while allowing five runs on six hits and gave up one home run.
Though the Rockies are at the bottom of their division, they’re still pesky and have been playing better ball over the last week, as they have won back-to-back series, winning four out of their last six. The big question surrounding tonight’s game is how short Sproat’s leash will be after some comments made by manager Pat Murphy following his previous start: “We’re not going to tolerate too many duds like this, that’s for sure.”
Getting the ball to open up the six-game home stand for the Rockies is the right-hander, Ryan Feltner. The month of April wasn’t too kind to Feltner after posting a 7.41 ERA while allowing five home runs. After being placed on the 15-day IL and having most of May off, he came back and dominated against the San Francisco Giants, throwing six scoreless innings while allowing just four hits on the day.
The pitching staff will most likely be without two bullpen arms for tonight’s opener, as both DL Hall and Grant Anderson exited yesterday’s game with injury. However, at this time, no moves have been made, and we will continue to monitor that situation.
Though Murphy has yet to announce tonight’s starting lineup, most of the everyday starters have seen Feltner a fair amount throughout his first six years in the big leagues. William Contreras has seen the most of him, as he has 16 at-bats, though he hasn’t fared well against him, as he’s batting .188. Christian Yelich has hit the best against Feltner, as through 12 at-bats he’s hitting .417 with a 1.084 OPS.
Like most nights, you’ll be able to catch the game on Brewers.TV, WTMJ 620, and the Brewers Radio Network. First pitch is set for 7:40 p.m.
