Nats vs. Brewers Series Preview

Last season the Milwaukee Brewers (22-25) recorded their best start in years putting many Brew Crew Fans into an early frenzy. The young team faltered down the line and missed the playoffs, leaving many hopeful that this season with some added maturity they could make a run at the post season. Things haven’t gone as planned, the Brewers have hit but not pitched, and the owner has put manager Ted Yost on the hot seat.

The Washington Nationals (20-28) are coming into this series after a disappointing stint against the Phillies where they lost two of three. The Nats had looked to continue playing .500 baseball since their early 9 game losing streak but got pounded back into place by the Philadelphia line up Tuesday night getting obliterated 12-2. The Nats need to take the better end of this four game series to save their season, they can’t fall 10 games below .500 if they want any amount of respect or to be attractive to free agents.

Brewers Last Series

Milwaukee pitched well this week en route to taking two out of three from their division rival Pittsburgh. Manny Para and Ben Sheets both recorded good starts for the Brewers, while sub Mendoza Line Rickie Weeks woke up in the leadoff spot and helped the team produce runs. Even in their loss last night the Brewers previously slumping hitters got involved as Bill Hall and Prince Fielder woke up. The Brewers have a scary line up if they ever start to work on all cylinders together with a more then able pitching staff, they could do good things.

Who’s Hot?
Rickie Weeks- 5/12, 2 HR, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
Bill Hall- 5/8, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 2 K, 1 SB

Who’s Not?
No one…

Probable Starters
Jeff Suppan (2-3, 4.78 ERA) vs. Odalis Perez (1-4, 4.34 ERA)
Seth Mclung (1-1, 3.54 ERA) vs. John Lannan (4-4, 3.40 ERA)
Manny Parra (2-2, 4.40 ERA) vs. Tim Redding (6-3, 3.16 ERA)
Ben Sheets (5-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. Jason Bergmann (1-1, 5.47 ERA)

Get Out to the Ball Park

Everyone should make an effort to get to the ball park this long weekend. The Brewers are an exciting young team and should be a lot of fun to watch, I know I’m always intrigued by young all stars and always want a chance to get to see them play. They’re obviously fronted by last years rookie of the year Ryan Braun, the 24 year old hit .324 last year with 34 homers and is fallowing it up with a solid sophomore year. They also boast the Cecil Fielder upgrade, Prince Fielder. Prince has been struggling this season but last year earned some MVP votes batting .268 with 50 homers and 119 RBI’s.

A notch below the Brewers boast Corey Hart, is a 6-6 right fielder with speed and potential power. He’s batting a solid .305 this season. The Brewers also have the fast and dynamic Bill Hall, Mike Cameron, and Rickie Weeks.

While these players will be fun to watch it will also be essential the Nats pitchers find ways to neutralize them. The hitting for Washington has been way too poor to get into a slugfest with this team and the Brewers are too deep to pitch around just one batter.

(The Milwaukee sausages may make the trip to Washington to race the presidents!)

What to look for:
With Kearns out for a while, Elijah Dukes will get the permanent nod in right. It’s possible that with that bit of confidence that he may perform better, which wouldn’t be hard to do. Elijah however has never had great success at the major league level, batting only .190 last season in 50 plus games for Tampa, and less then .100 this season, which may mean he’s just not ready.

Odalis Perez has been struggling recently. He can’t make mistakes and hope to beat this Brewers line up tonight, they’re too solid all the way through and like to get out early. If he masters the focus and control he had at the start of the season he will be able to pull out the victory tonight.