Brewers Try to Push Back Pirates in NL Central Clash

The Milwaukee Brewers (43-30) can do themselves a couple of favors on Wednesday, June 20th when they wrap up their series with the Pittsburgh Pirates (36-37). For one, they can keep pace with the Chicago Cubs. They can also push the Pirates even farther down in the playoff chase.

Kuhl and Pirates hoping to keep rolling; Brewers need same from Suter

Coming into the rubber match, both Chad Kuhl and Brent Suter have been pitching well.

Over his last three starts, Kuhl has 17 strikeouts over 17.1 innings, to go with a 3.12 ERA. Suter has been eerily similar. He’s got one more win (two to Kuhl’s one), with 14 Ks in 17 innings and a 3.18 ERA.

Last year at this time, Chad Kuhl had only 2 starts of at least 6 innings pitched….He's done it 8 times this season. #Pirates

— Jason Shetler (@Jason_Shetler) June 16, 2018

All three of Kuhl’s starts came in the division, in St. Louis, in Chicago and at home against Cincinnati. He fared best against the lowly Reds, while the Cubs touched him up for three runs in 5.1 innings. Suter meanwhile, only got through five innings against the White Sox, before going five innings (three runs) and seven innings (one run) against the Phillies.

I never I thought I would see a game this year where Brent Suter was allowed to go 7 innings AND throw 105 pitches doing it.#Brewers #ThisIsMyCrew

— Matt Pauley (@MattPauleyOnAir) June 16, 2018

The two have had strikingly comparable seasons. Where Kuhl holds the edge in ERA and strikeouts, Suter has the better WHIP. In Suter’s lone appearance against the Pirates this year, he threw two scoreless innings in relief of Junior Guerra. Kuhl dominated the Brewers over seven innings earlier in the season, giving up one hit and striking out eight.

Pittsburgh hopes offence can keep them afloat against Milwaukee

When it comes to the bats, it seems the Pirates have the advantage.

In the ten games leading into this series, the Pirates scored five or more runs in seven of them. They’ve scored more runs (331-314), have a higher average (.254-.247) and a higher OBP (.325-.316) than the Brewers. Milwaukee has hit more home runs though (90-74), and that’s with having missed Eric Thames for a majority of the year.

Despite missing a month and a half, Thames is still second on the Brewers in homers (nine), and that includes going without one in his first four games back. He blasted two in the finale against the Phillies though, so the power streak may be coming back around.

Travis Shaw and Jesus Aguilar haven’t been great in June, both hitting under .250 and combining for five home runs entering the series. Even with those struggles though, Milwaukee is outperforming Pittsburgh in all major offensive categories during the month except for OBP.

The Prediction

With game one finishing 1-0 and game two not much better at 3-0, the over seems like a bit of a stretch at 8.5.

That being said, the Pirates bullpen hasn’t inspired much confidence lately, and Suter has given up multiple runs in four of his last five starts. Suter and Kuhl will duke it out, but when things are handed over to the Pirates’ bullpen, it gets ugly. The Brewers take it, but all three games in this series go under.

Brewers 5, Pirates 3