Game Thread #124: Milwaukee Brewers (71-52) vs. Cleveland Guardians (72-51)

Brewers look for sweep against AL’s best

It feels like it was pretty recently that the Milwaukee Brewers seemed to be a team that was barely holding on. But four straight wins against two of the league’s powerhouses (the last two of a four-game series against the Dodgers and the first two of this three-game set with the Cleveland Guardians) have the Brewers up by a season-high 10 games in the NL Central and just a half-game back of Los Angeles for one of the National League’s two best records and the first-round bye that comes with that. A win today would put them 20 games over .500.

After jumping out to an early five-run lead on Friday and holding on and then winning a 2-1 nail-biter on Saturday, the Brewers will look to get their bats going today. Devin Williams has pitched in three of Milwaukee’s last four games, and I’m sure that Pat Murphy would like nothing more than to get his newly-reinstated closer an extra day off before the Brewers’ series in St. Louis starting Tuesday. If the Brewers do need a save, it could be Williams, but don’t be shocked if you see Bryan Hudson, who hasn’t pitched since Thursday, in there in the ninth.

Milwaukee will look to complete the sweep today behind Code Red, Colin Rea, who got beat up pretty badly by the Dodgers on Tuesday in what was one of his worst starts of the season. He’ll look to bounce back against Cleveland’s Ben Lively, who debuted in the majors in 2017 but is already at a career-high in innings with 114. Lively has had good overall success this season (a solid 3.71 ERA) but his underlying numbers make some skeptical: his FIP is over 5, his K:BB ratio isn’t great, and he’s given up a lot of homers.

The Brewers will keep William Contreras in the DH spot for the second straight day after he’d caught five consecutive games. Eric Haase gets a rare start today, especially since Lively is right-handed.

First pitch at 1:10 p.m. on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.