Series Preview: St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers

After taking 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball, the Brewers return home for a key homestand. Well, they're all key at this point in the year, but you get the point.

The Brewers come into this series against the St. Louis Cardinals 2.5 games behind the Cubs for first place in the NL Central, and 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals for second place in the division. The two-game set means the Brewers will end the series in second place no matter what happens, but they do have a chance to put more distance between themselves and the Cards before the Devil Magic starts happening in September.

When these two teams met to start the month, the Brewers won 2 of 3 in a series in which each game was decided by one run. The Brewers are 8-6 against St. Louis this year, and sweeping this two-game set would guarantee they finish with a winning record against the Cardinals for the first time since 2010, when they went 8-7. These two will finish the year with three games in St. Louis.

Probable Pitchers

Tuesday, 6:40 p.m. CDT, FS Wisconsin - Luke Weaver vs. Matt Garza

Filling in for Adam Wainwright, Weaver is coming off a start in which he struck out 10 in 7 shutout innings against the Padres last Wednesday. He picked up a win against the Brewers in the same role earlier this month, striking out 8 while allowing 2 runs over 6.1 innings in what would be the Cardinals' only W in that series. Weaver came into the year as the Cardinals' 2nd-ranked prospect and became the de facto #1 when Alex Reyes underwent Tommy John surgery. He's pitched like it, striking out 26 in 23.1 big league innings this year and a 2.55 ERA in Triple-A Memphis, where he's put up a 76:19 K:BB ratio.

Wednesday, 1:10 p.m. CDT, FS Wisconsin - Carlos Martinez vs. Chase Anderson

This will be the 4th time the Brewers see Martinez this year, so I'd like to say there won't be any surprises here, but each of his first three starts against them this year have looked completely different. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings during his first outing in April, didn't allow an earned run pitching into the 8th in May, then walked 5 and struck out 7 in 5 highly inefficient innings on the first of this month. While the Brewers have had a fair amount of success against him this year, he's performed better against the Brewers than any other NL team, with a career 1.99 ERA in 77 innings, striking out 84.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference

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Tickets are still available for the Brew Crew Ball Meet Up, scheduled to take place at the September 1st game against Washington at Miller Park. Game tickets must be purchased by August 31st. For more information and to purchase your tickets, follow this link!