Series Preview: Cardinals at Brewers

Daniel may be gone, but that doesn't mean you guys and gals don't get your Milwaukee series preview.

I'm Jaymes Langrehr, and I write for/run TheBrewersBar.com, which is (obviously) a blog about the Brewers. But don't shoot! I'm sure we can be friends. I'll be sure to keep my shirt tucked in for the entirety of this post.

Your St. Louis Cardinals enter the series at 38-26, the best record in baseball. The Brewers are coming off a letdown of a home series against the New York, dropping 2 of 3 from the Mets after sweeping the Marlins in four games on the road. They remain 2.5 games behind the Cardinals in the Central, and are tied with Atlanta for the wildcard with identical 35-28 records.

Despite the disappointing series against the Mets, the Brewers still own the game's best home record at 22-9. The Cards, meanwhile, enter the series as the only team in baseball with at least 20 road wins this year. Both teams are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

Not to sound cliche, but these Brewers are a different team than the one you saw about a month ago in St. Louis. The last time these two teams met, the Cards took game one of the series, extending a Brewers losing streak to 7 games. Fun with arbitrary starting points: the Brewers are 22-9 since that losing streak.

Your pitching probables for this weekend's series:

Kyle Lohse (7-2, 2.41 ERA) vs. Chris Narveson (2-4, 4.85 ERA)
Narveson hasn't pitched badly for a #5 starter (he's striking out 8.17 batters per 9 innings pitched), but has a habit of cruising through the order the first couple of times before running into a big inning in the 5th or 6th. Part of that is on the defense, but he's also had problems hitting his spots as he gets closer to 100 pitches.

Chris Carpenter (1-5, 4.25 ERA) vs. Zack Greinke (5-1, 4.83 ERA)
One heck of a pitching matchup for Saturday. This will be the Cards' first look at Greinke in a Brewers uniform, and don't be fooled by the higher-than-expected ERA. In 41 innings so far this year, Greinke has struck out 51 while walking only 7. While working to get his stamina back after missing spring training and the first month of the season, the earned runs have come as he's hit the 80-100 pitch range. He's likely still trying to work out pitching from the stretch, as most of the damage done against him has happened in long innings in which he's had to constantly work with runners on. The past few starts have alleviated some of those concerns, though, and he's starting to look like the Greinke of old.

Jake Westbrook (6-3, 5.01 ERA) vs. Shaun Marcum (6-2, 2.58 ERA)
The Cards will also get their first look at Shaun Marcum this season in the series finale. Marcum's early success this year has made it easier for Brewers fans to be patient with Greinke. He's allowed more than 3 runs in a start just three times this year, and is typically very efficient on the mound -- he's only walked more than two batters twice in 13 starts. While the Cardinals can likely try to wait out Narveson and possibly even Greinke this series, they won't have much luck if they try to do the same with Marcum.

Offensively, here's what you need to know about the Brewers:

- Ryan Braun (.312/.403/.563, 13 HR, 46 RBI) and Prince Fielder (.301/.404/.607, 17 HR, 55 RBI) are pretty good. Braun is making a push for a 30/30 season (14 steals already), while Fielder is making a push to get paid this winter. Leading the league in something like RBI will help inflate that dollar total a little more.

- Casey McGehee is in the middle of the biggest slump of his career. After hitting .218/.275/.318 in May, the portly third baseman has started June 1-for-22. Brewers fans gave him a standing ovation once he finally broke the 0-fer, and he showed gratitude for the support. We love our overweight bald guys in Wisconsin.

- We all expected Yuniesky Betancourt to be a disaster with the glove and bearable with the bat, but if anything, it's been the opposite. Granted, his glove hasn't exactly been good, but Ron Roenicke's use of shifts on nearly every batter has helped hide some of that lack of range. He's been woefully bad with the bat, though, hitting .230/.256/.340. It's gotten to the point where Brewers fans are saying things like, "How about trading for Ronny Cedeno?"

- Jonathan Lucroy has been surprisingly good with the bat this year, coming into the series hitting .287/.323/.446. He's cooled off a bit lately and the plate discipline has left something to be desired, but he's already hit 6 home runs. I don't see him making a real push for the All-Star Game with Yadier Molina and Brian McCann still around, but it'd be nice to see him get a little more recognition as one of the game's good young catchers.

I don't have the fancy tables Daniel usually does to preview series, but I'll just leave you with this: Albert Pujols' career OPS against Milwaukee is roughly 8 trillion.

Thanks to Daniel for letting me step in for a day. This should be a good series. If you'd like, feel free to check out my blog at TheBrewersBar.com. I'm also active on Twitter, so if you want to give me grief this weekend, I'm @BrewersBar.


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