The Milwaukee Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks continue their four-game weekend series on Friday night in Arizona. The Brewers are battling for a playoff spot, six games in back of the Cardinals in the NL Central Division and two games in back of the Padres in the NL Wildcard chase. The Diamondbacks are just playing out the string but have been playing very good baseball over the past week. The pitching matchup on Friday night will feature lefty Eric Lauer (10-5, 3.58) of the Dodgers up against veteran righty Zach Davies (2-4, 3.82) of the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 9:40pm EST.
The Milwaukee Brewers are a half-dozen games out of first place in a division that the team led for almost all of the first half of the season. The Brewers survived long-term IL stints from two of their top three starters in Brandon Woodruff and Frankie Peralta. With both back healthy, the Brewers need to make their move now before they slip too far out of both the NL Central Division race and the NL Wildcard race. In game one of this series, with Woodruff on the mound, the Brewers could not generate any offense and dropped the opener to the D-Backs. Woodruff lasted 5.2 innings and allowed eight hits and five runs in taking the loss.
Two more in the 7th.#ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/UuZR40UQmL
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) August 31, 2022
The Brewers are 6-4 in their last ten games heading into Thursday night's matchup. The power-hitting Brewers have not been able to string together a winning streak of more than three games since winning four-straight games from July 26th to July 30th. With a significant deficit in the NL Central as well as a two-game hole in the wildcard chase, the Brewers will need to put together a streak very soon. On the mound on Friday night will be lefty Eric Lauer. Lauer is 3-2 in his last five starts with an ERA of 3.00. He has allowed 26 hits in 30 innings over that span and is striking out 6.6 per nine innings. This will be Lauer's first start against the D-Backs this season.