Game Thread #95: Milwaukee Brewers (54-40) vs. Washington Nationals (42-52)

Brewers look to avoid pre-All-Star break swoon in series with Nationals

Coming off of a disappointing series in which they lost two of three at home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Milwaukee Brewers will look to avoid going into the All-Star break on a skid—something they’ve done all too commonly in this era.

They’ll try to do that against a Washington Nationals team that, while they’re still a ways from contention, is no longer a laughing stock. Washington is already reaping the rewards of their controversial decision to trade then-23-year-old superstar Juan Soto; their best player all year long has been 23-year-old shortstop CJ Abrams, who leads the team in basically every major offensive category and was just named to his first All-Star team. But they’ve also recently called up James Wood, an outfielder who was ranked as high as the No. 2 prospect in baseball at the time of his promotion. Both players were acquired in the Soto trade.

Starting the game tonight for the Nationals will be Jackson Rutledge, making just his sixth major league appearance. Rutledge was a first-round pick in 2019, but he has struggled to put together much success as a minor leaguer. In 21 major-league innings between this year and last year, Rutledge has a 6.86 ERA. At Triple-A Rochester this season, he has a 6.66 ERA in 16 starts. Rutledge would seem to present a bounce-back opportunity for a Brewers offense that was shut out (and nearly no-hit) on Thursday.

Milwaukee will send Freddy Peralta to the mound. He had a rough go of it his last time out on Saturday versus the Dodgers—he was somehow able to limit the damage to three runs, but he labored heavily through four innings and was working out of jams for essentially that whole outing.

A welcome addition back into the Brewers lineup is third baseman Joey Ortiz, who was placed on the IL on July 3 with neck inflammation that had been lingering for some time (and had even affected his batting stance). Vinny Capra was optioned back to Triple-A Nashville to make room for Ortiz. Ortiz is right back to it tonight, playing third base and batting eighth in the lineup.

First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.