Milwaukee at Arizona
Thursday, July 21st, 9:40 ET
(matchup)
The Milwaukee Brewers have struggled away from Miller Park all season. Starter Zack Greinke seems to never pitch well on the road. Despite this, the Brew Crew look to continue their dominance of the Diamondbacks here in Arizona as the teams conclude a four-game set Thursday night at Chase Field.
The Brewers came into this series with the most road losses of any team in the National League (32), but have managed back to back wins the last two nights. They dominated D’backs starter Barry Enright in Tuesday’s 11-3 win, then pulled off a 5-2 victory in extra innings last night.
The team’s numbers are significantly down away from Miller Park, where they are a NL best 33-14. The offense is averaging just 3.6 runs per game while hitting a collective .236 on the road this season.
This being said, one venue where Milwaukee has not struggled through the years is Arizona’s Chase Field. Last night’s win improved the Brew Crew to 8-1 here the last three seasons. That one loss came in Monday’s series opener by a 3-0 count. Ironically enough, the team dropped two of three games to Arizona at Miller Park earlier in the season.
LIVE BETTING is available today at Bodog Sportsbook for Rangers/Angels and Yankees/Rays!
One Brewer that has consistently struggled on the road this year is tonight’s starter Zack Greinke. In fact, going back to last year when he was with Kansas City, Greinke has a 6-17 team start record on the road. The Brewers are just 3-4 when he starts on the road this year, which isn’t too bad when you consider Greinke’s ERA away from home is 6.19.
Greinke has not factored into the decision in any of his previous three starts. He did allow three unearned runs his last start, which came at Colorado, but the team did win the game 8-7. Prior to that, he had allowed 15 earned runs in his previous three starts (14 IP).
Greinke has also never beaten Arizona (0-3 TSR, 7.50 ERA) in three tries, although he has not faced them since the 2009 season when he was still with Kansas City.
Greinke does have an 8-0 team start record this season vs. teams who strikeout an average of seven or more times per game. Arizona hitters average 7.6 K’s per game.
You can read a complete sabermetrics study of
Zack Greinke by
Hollywood Sports right now.
Arizona will counter with righty Ian Kennedy, who is having a strong season. Kennedy comes in with a 10-3 record in 20 starts (13-7 TSR) and a 3.39 ERA. He has won his last two starts after an uncharacteristically poor outing at Oakland on July 3rd.
The Brewers reclaimed first place in the National League Central with last night’s win and Pittsburgh’s loss earlier in the day. Arizona now trails San Francisco by 4.5 games in the West.
Not surprisingly, Milwaukee has been a poor
MLB pick in the road underdog role this season, going 8-20 even with last night’s win.
The Diamonbacks have opened as -120 favorites on the betting line for Thursday’s matchup.
Bet this game now at BetOnline and take advantage of up to $900 in free bonuses!
Get winning MLB picks at Vegas Experts!
