After taking the last two games from the Baltimore Orioles, the Milwaukee Brewers finally have their opening home series! The Brewers welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to American Family Field for a four game series. It should be a great series early in the year for both teams. To say the Brewers and Cardinals don’t like each other is an understatement. Here is what you need to know for this important series.
Probable Pitching Matchups
The series will begin with the Brewers throwing Brandon Woodruff while St. Louis will counter with Adam Wainwright. Yes even after all these years, Wainwright is still with the Cardinals. In fact, he continues to be one of the best pitchers on the Cardinals and one of the most consistent pitchers in the league. This is a pitching matchup you will want to watch.
On Friday, Milwaukee will start Freddy Peralta. The Cardinals will throw Miles Mikolas, another consistent starter in the Cardinals rotation. Saturday night will be Adrian Houser for Milwaukee and Steven Matz for St. Louis. The series finale will be Aaron Ashby and Dakota Hudson.
The Return of Albert Pujols
After being a Cardinal for many years, Albert Pujols left to join the LA Angels. He returns to St. Louis for his final season. The future first ballot hall of famer has hit 680 home runs and 2,151 RBI’s in 2,973 games.
Despite Pujols being 42 years old, he still has some pop left in his bat. The Brewers have to be careful with Pujols as well as the rest of the lineup. This is a St. Louis lineup and can hit and score in a hurry.
Red Hot Arenado
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is off to another hot start. The future hall of famer is hitting .430 with three home runs and nine RBI’s. He also has an OBP of .471. This means he’s on base almost 50% of the time. Even though it’s early in the season, that’s an incredible stat.
American Family Field is a hitter friendly park. Arenado can hit the ball whenever he wants and how far he wants. The Brewers pitching staff needs to be carful with Arenado and not let him beat them himself, especially with runners on base. I’ll be looking to see how the Brewers approach him.
Can The Starting Pitching Get Right?
Even though we’re six games into the season, the Brewers starting pitching has been inconsistent and not what the 2021 staff was doing. This is a tough lineup, but they have the chance to respond well in front of the home crowd and calm down the early season worries of the fans. They have to keep the ball in the park and play good defense. The Cardinals won’t beat themselves so the Brewers have to do the little things right to be successful in this series
It is unfortunate we don’t get to see Corbin Burnes in this series. I was hoping Ashby would start the finale against Baltimore but he pitched on Monday. Can the starting pitching respond and set up the bullpen for success? We will see. The crowds should be awesome all weekend!
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