Thursday will be the third and final game of a series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins, and the sixth game between the two on the season. Minnesota is currently 3-2 against Milwaukee.
On Wednesday night, the Brewers brought the bats. They won 9-3 and will look to take that momentum into this one.
Brewers Heating Up
The Brewers have had a slow start to the season. If you look at their batting averages, it’s surprising that they have won 11 games.
Their highest batting average is held by Keston Hiura, and he is only hitting .247. Their star, Christian Yelich, still hasn’t got it going yet this season.
Yelich does have six home runs, but he is only hitting .205. However, it does seem that this team is starting to hit the ball a bit better of late.
The Brewers are 11-11, good enough to hold second place in the NL Central. In the series before this, they were able to take three out of the four games against the first-place Cubs.
Brandon Woodruff will get the start on Thursday. He is 1-1 on the season and holds a 3.16 ERA.
Twins Need to Bounce Back
The Twins will be looking to bounce back from last game, but also trying to get back in the groove they were in at the beginning of the season, winning 10 of their first 12 games.
They will start Jose Berrios in this one, who is on a two-game losing streak. His last outing was a loss against the Kansas City Royals.
“If I minimize the walks, I’ll be in a better position,” said Berrios, who also had seven strikeouts in the Saturday loss. “More strikeouts, more swings and misses today, so I’m going to take that as a positive thing to work on between this start to the next one. I try to be better day by day, so I’ll be close.”
Berrios is the ace for the Twins, but his record doesn’t reflect that. The Twins staff still believe he is close to being at his expected All-Star level of play.
Minnesota is 16-9, which has it a half-game ahead of the Cleveland Indians for the top spot in the AL Central.
Nelson Cruz has been on a tear for this team, leading them in average, home runs, and RBI’s.
Prediction
This game is tough to call. These two have been back and forth on the season. It might depend on what Berrios shows up for the Twins.
If he throws well and limits his walks, it will be hard for the Brewers to score many runs. The Twins are the favorites with a -116 moneyline, while the Brewers are at -104.
With the odds fairly close, I’m going to go with the Brewers in this one. Their hitters are starting to pick up the pace, and the Twins haven’t been scoring as they did early in the year.
Take the Brewers in this one.