This series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers will continue on Tuesday night. Both teams entered the set in great shape to win their division early, with the Dodgers in first and the Brewers narrowly trailing the Pirates in the Central. Battle number two will start at 7:40 p.m. EDT, with American Family Field hosting the two clubs.
After taking two of three from the Padres over the weekend, the Dodgers entered this series having won eight of their last nine games. It begins with an offense that flew out of San Diego averaging the fifth-most runs per game. Over the aforementioned nine-game stretch, LA was putting up 6.56 runs per contest. Along with an MLB-best walk rate, the Dodgers were top-five in slugging percentage and home runs walking into Milwaukee. They could cut down on whiffs a bit, as they own a bottom-five strikeout rate, but the offense is producing as well as most would expect. It helps when two former MVPs are joined by MLB's home run leader, Max Muncy.
Last year's Dodgers team lead the league in ERA at 2.80. This year's team enters this series 14th at 4.18. Their reliever core is interesting, as they are top-10 in WAR and FIP despite a bottom -10 ERA. That group is also excellent at stranding runners and limiting long balls, so when their BABIP stabilizes their numbers should decrease. They'll probably get plenty of burn backing up Noah Syndergaard in this game. Although his last two starts resulted in Dodgers wins, he wasn't sharp. In fact, in the 25.1 innings that he's thrown since his first start this year, Syndergaard has allowed 21 runs, all earned. His two worst outings of this season also happen to be his only two road starts, totaling 8.0 innings and 13 runs allowed. If we're still calling Noah Syndergaard by his nickname of Thor, he's more like Luke Hemsworth's rendition than Chris Hemsworth's this year.