The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks square off on Thursday with first pitch set for 9:40 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Chase Field in Phoenix and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Brandon Woodruff (9-3, 3.31 ERA) will start for the Brewers with Merrill Kelly (11-5, 2.97 ERA) on the mound for the Diamondbacks.
Milwaukee (69-60) won four of its last five games and will enter the day 2.5 games behind the San Diego Padres for the final spot in the National League Wild Card. Woodruff will make his 21st start of the season and is coming off an outing where he threw six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts against the Chicago Cubs. Milwaukee ranks eighth in runs per game (4.6), and Willy Adames is the team leader in RBI with 77.
Arizona (61-68) is coming off a wild three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies with 13-7 and 12-3 wins, along with an 18-2 loss on Wednesday. Kelly will make his 27th start of the season and allowed four runs over 7.1 innings of work in Saturday's game against the Chicago White Sox. Arizona will enter with the 22nd-best on-base percentage (.309), and Christian Walker will enter this series as the team leader in home runs (30) and RBI (73).
Brewers vs. Diamondbacks
Pitchers: Brandon Woodruff vs. Merrill Kelly
First pitch: 9:40 p.m. ET
Brewers local broadcast: Bally Sports Wisconsin
Diamondbacks local broadcast: Bally Sports Arizona
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Brewers -1.5 (+125)
Run total: 7.5
Moneyline odds: Brewers -135, Diamondbacks +115
Moneyline pick: Brewers -135
Thursday night's pitching matchup is very even without much of an advantage on either side, and runs should be hard to come by. Let's side with the better hitting team in this matchup, and the Brewers scored at least six runs in four of their previous five matchups.
Player prop pick: Merrill Kelly over 5.5 strikeouts (+105)
The Diamondbacks pitcher threw more than 5.5 strikeouts in four consecutive starts despite a relatively low K/9 at 7.7. Kelly will face a Brewers lineup that strikes out 8.9 times per game, which is the fifth most in the MLB.