The Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox will continue a three-game interleague series on Friday afternoon at Fenway Park. Friday's series opener finished with a 4-1 score in favor of the Brewers, who cashed in as a -164 favorite. Milwaukee is atop the NL Central at 56-44, while Boston is in last place in the brutal AL East at 50-51.
These teams last met back in May of 2017. when the Brewers took two of three at home.
The Brewers are playing well of late as they look to get some separation in the NL Central race, and picked up another win on Friday night in Boston as Brandon Woodruff continued to pitch well. Andrew McCutchen broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth with an RBI groundout before Christian Yelich put the Brewers up for good with an RBI single the next inning.
Woodruff tossed 6.1 strong innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out nine to pick up his ninth win. The bullpen was terrific, and Josh Hader struck out the side for his 29th save. Willy Adames had a three-hit game with an RBI to pace the offense.
Milwaukee is comfortably within the top 10 in scoring at 4.64 runs per game on a strong .731 team OPS. The pitching staff is also solidly above average at a 3.89 collective ERA, including a mark of 3.92 out of the bullpen.
Rowdy Tellez has been a prolific power hitter, posting a .773 OPS with 20 homers and 64 driven in. Adames is Milwaukee's top player overall at 2.5 WAR, posting a .749 OPS with 20 homers, 55 RBI and 53 runs scored.
Eric Lauer is set to make his 19th start of the season, hoping to continue a solid campaign as he's 6-3 with a 3.84 ERA and 103:34 K:BB ratio over 100.2 total innings. The 27-year-old only went 4.1 innings last Sunday against the Colorado Rockies, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks while striking out three.
Utilityman Jace Peterson (sprained elbow) and catcher Alex Jackson (sprained finger) are on the IL. The rotation is down a couple key members in Freddy Peralta (strained lat) and Adrian Houser (strained flexor tendon). Relievers Jake Cousins (elbow effusion), Luis Perdomo (elbow effusion), Miguel Sanchez (elbow discomfort) and Justin Topa (flexor tendon surgery), while J.C. Mejia is serving a PED suspens ion.