In an alternate reality, this might have been the series where the Brewers proved they're for real and expanded their lead in the NL Central by taking two of three from the defending division champs.
In this reality, though, they're just looking to avoid falling ten games behind.
Current Series
3 game series vs Cardinals @ Busch Stadium
Milwaukee Brewers Friday, Jun 4, 2010, 7:15 PM CDT Randy Wolf vs Adam Wainwright Partly cloudy,rain. Winds blowing out to right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 90. Complete Coverage > | ||
| Sat 06/05 | 3:10 PM CDT | |
| Sun 06/06 | 7:00 PM CDT | |
Follow the jump for tonight's pitching matchup and more!
Adam Wainwright (2.28 ERA, 2.72 FIP) enters tonight's game among the NL leaders in WAR (2.4), ERA (2.28), WHIP (1.013), hits per nine (6.72), K/9 (8.77), innings pitched (79), and complete games (2). He's posted a quality start in ten of his eleven appearances this season, and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in nine of them. He hasn't faced the Brewers yet this season, but owns a 2.25 ERA over 84 innings (eleven starts and seven relief appearances) against them for his career. He posted a 1.24 ERA against the Crew in five starts last season.
Wainwright throws a 90.6 mph average fastball, but doesn't use it often, just 42.7% of the time. He relies heavily on a slider, curve and change and all of them are good: FanGraphs estimates their values at +2.47, +3.07 and +1.88 runs per 100 pitches, respectively. Six current Brewers have faced him ten times or more:
| Player | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Prince Fielder | 37 | .214 | .405 | .357 | .763 |
| Ryan Braun | 34 | .226 | .294 | .452 | .746 |
| Corey Hart | 31 | .258 | .258 | .387 | .645 |
| Rickie Weeks | 22 | .167 | .318 | .278 | .596 |
| Craig Counsell | 20 | .300 | .300 | .400 | .700 |
| Casey McGehee | 10 | .111 | .200 | .111 | .311 |
Randy Wolf (4.46 ERA, 5.02 FIP) has been a bit of a mystery lately: In six starts in May he provided three quality starts (including one seven inning shutout performance) but also a disaster start (6 ER in 5 IP) and another near disaster (6 ER in 6.1 IP). He's allowing a lot of baserunners lately: He has a 1.700 WHIP in his last seven starts. The Brewers are 2-5 with him on the mound over that stretch.
Wolf's velocity remains down a bit this season: His average fastball was 89 mph last season, but is just 87.8 this year. On the season, all four of his pitches (fastball, slider, curve and change) are below average, but the slider is only slightly so, at -0.04 runs per 100. Six current Cardinals have faced him ten times or more:
| Player | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Felipe Lopez | 27 | .320 | .370 | .440 | .810 |
| Jason LaRue | 26 | .261 | .346 | .478 | .824 |
| Albert Pujols | 23 | .350 | .391 | .550 | .941 |
| Matt Holliday | 21 | .263 | .333 | .579 | .912 |
| Ryan Ludwick | 16 | .167 | .313 | .167 | .479 |
| Yadier Molina | 13 | .231 | .231 | .462 | .692 |
Lineups:
| Milwaukee Brewers | St. Louis Cardinals |
| Rickie Weeks 2B | Felipe Lopez 2B |
| Ryan Braun LF | Ryan Ludwick RF |
| Prince Fielder 1B | Albert Pujols 1B |
| Casey McGehee 3B | Matt Holliday LF |
| Jim Edmonds CF | David Freese 3B |
| Corey Hart RF | Yadier Molina C |
| George Kottaras C | Colby Rasmus CF |
| Randy Wolf P | Brendan Ryan SS |
| Alcides Escobar SS | Adam Wainwright P |
The bullpen combined for 4.1 scoreless innings last night, hopefully they won't be needed that much again today:
Kameron Loe pitched 2.1 innings (26 pitches) yesterday.
Zach Braddock pitched 1 inning (21 pitches) yesterday.
Trevor Hoffman pitched 1 inning (14 pitches) yesterday.
John Axford pitched 1.2 innings (25 pitches) Wednesday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched .1 innings (11 pitches) Wednesday.
Jeff Suppan pitched 1 inning (11 pitches) Monday.
Todd Coffey pitched 2.1 innings (29 pitches) Saturday.
Enjoy the game!