[ad_1]
Thanks to the wild national league, we have already had three games this week with a playoff sensation. The Brewers and Rockies took part in all three competitions. Milwaukee won Monday NL Central and Colorado lost to NL West, before winning the Wild Card Game NL on Tuesday.
Now the best series of the National League Division for each team, the Brewers, the seeded heads, have the advantage on their court.
Here are some things to know about the series.
LNDS Calendar
Games on FS1 can be streamed on fuboTV (Free Trial).
Thursday October 4th |
5 pm ET |
Colorado to Milwaukee |
FS1 |
Friday, October 5 |
16h ET |
Colorado to Milwaukee |
FS1 |
Sunday October 7th |
16.30. AND |
Milwaukee Colorado |
MLBN |
Monday, October 8th * |
To come up |
Milwaukee Colorado |
FS1 or MLBN |
Wed 10 October * |
To come up |
Colorado to Milwaukee |
FS1 or MLBN |
* – if necessary
Both teams are hot
The Brewers have won their last three games in August, won 19-7 in September, and then won Monday against the Cubs. They have won six games against the Brewers before the last three wins in August. The end of the regular season with eight consecutive wins.
The Rockies went 19-9 in September. They won nine out of ten wins before losing to the Dodgers on Monday, but survived the Cubs at Wrigley Field Tuesday after a few tough days of travel.
History has shown that there is not really a positive or negative correlation between the hot, the cold and the others. Still, both teams are playing with a confident air right now and this is never a bad thing.
Brewers should be a little cooler
It goes without saying, no? I have to cover that for those who might have missed out on the last days and were waiting to dive into baseball for the LNDS round. The Brewers and Rockies were scheduled to play Monday, but the Brewers will be heading to Thursday with two full days off. They also had a day off on September 27th. They have closed the season at home and between Milwaukee and Chicago is a very easy trip.
On Wednesday, the Rockies are on vacation and it's their first day off since September 20th. They had to travel from Denver to Los Angeles on Sunday night, play at Dodger Stadium on Monday, travel to Chicago and then Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. Fortunately, Milwaukee is an hour's drive and a 15-minute flight from Chicago, but there are still many trips in a tight window.
Life away from Coors
I know Rocky Mountain fans hate it, but it's important.
Rockies at home: .287 / .350 / .503, 166 2B, 33 3B, 119 HR, 445 R
Rockies on the road: .225 / .295 / .370, 114 2B, 9 3B, 91 HR, 335 R
This does not include Tuesday. They won, yes, but they also scored one point, past 11 innings without scoring, then one point in the 13th. They were 11 for 48 (.229) with 13 strikeouts and three steps.
For the Rockies to take at least one in Milwaukee, they will have to hit home a lot better this season.
But Matt, if the Rockies hit so badly on the road, how did they get to 44-38 on the road this season?
Hey look!
The underestimated pitching of the Rockies
I screamed to whoever would listen this season how great Kyle Freeland is and this was showcased during the wild card win. He will be ready to take the ball in the third game and the Brewers will have their hands full. It's about a better run at home than on the road, too. Tuesday night should have dispelled any worries about how he could handle the big stage, if there had been any. If he needed to participate in the fifth match, he would surely be available too.
German Marquez was also great. In his last 17 starts, he has averaged 2.47 points and 146 strikeouts in 113 innings. Unfortunately, he launched on Monday. The Rockies will make him start a possible fourth game.
Having to go through these last two games has really rocked the Rockies after getting their assets in the first two games. That's Anthonio Senzatela (6-6, 4.38) who plays the game. 1. The 24-year-old right-hander is in a good rhythm right now, having launched a points average at 2.94 in his last six starts . He has given exactly one deserved point in each of his last three outings. No hitter Brewer has ever faced him more than three times and, in general, I like the pitcher has an advantage in case of lack of familiarity.
Tyler Anderson (7-9, 4.55) pitched in the second game and he turned a jewel last time, scoring 7 2/3 scoreless innings. He also earned an ERA of 3.25 in September.
The Rockies certainly have the best rotation here.
As for the market, it's not as deep as the Brewers (we'll come back to that), but there are four solid options. Here is what I wrote in the wild card preview:
- Closer, Wade Davis had a bad pass from late July to early August, but he has allowed only one point in his last 18 outings. In this period, he has 25 strikeouts and only two walks. He has not started since Friday, so he is well rested.
- Fitter Adam Ottavino finished the season on a disordered note (7.03 vs. 7.03), but he is also well rested since he also worked Friday. He is talented enough to straighten the boat.
- Right-handed Scott Oberg has been excellent this season (2.48 ERA, 0.97 WHIP) and had only one record in September. He pitched Monday, but only launched eight shots. It's nice to go back since he had two days off before Monday.
- Seung-Hwan Oh had a very good season and made seven consecutive goal-scorers. He pitched Sunday, but it was only five pitches and he was eliminated Monday.
What we saw in the card game, is that Ottavino is still a little behind. He really had no idea of the direction his frisbee-type cursor would take. Davis was nails. Oh did not give up any contact and Oberg eliminated the four batters that he faced.
The brewers' offensive is heavy, but solid
Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich are the top doubles in the league. We know the record of Ryan Braun and he closed the season with a breathtaking start. He reduced the score by .344 / .417 / .875 (!) With two doubles, five homers and 12 points produced in his last 10 games. Jesus Aguilar hit 35 homers. Travis Shaw hit 32nd. Mike Moustakas was 28th. Jonathan Schoop did not have a good offensive season, but last year he did 35 doubles and 32 homers.
Counsell also has impressive options such as Eric Thames, Domingo Santana and Curtis Granderson.
Prepare for a good defense, for the most part
The Brewers finished second in the NL in terms of defensive efficiency (the number of balls in play converted into outs) and Lorenzo Cain is a good match to cover nearly two-thirds of the field. He is amazing in the center. The Brewers were the second best baseball defensive team thanks to the saved defensive innings. However, these statistics mainly correspond to the measurement range, because the brewers make mistakes. They had 108 this season, trailing only four non-playoff teams.
The Rockies, meanwhile, have only made 74 errors this season, although they are around the league average when we take into account the range. We will send balloons to the ground. World third baseman Nolan Arenado teams up with highly decorated second baseman D.J. LeMahieu and a solid short-stop in Trevor Story to form a strong field.
They are a little weaker in the outer field. In fact, Charlie Blackmon scored a negative 28 in the central field in the regular season and we just saw Bud Black remove him from the game for defensive purposes in the wild card game.
Basically, the way they do it is a little bit opposite, but we should expect to see a quality defense in the series.
Deep bullpen offers options to Counsell
Director of brewers Craig Counsell will go with a concealer game in game 1 and Jhoulys Chacin on the short rest in game 2. On the one hand, this does not show a ton of faith in the rest of the rotation, but it also illustrates to how good is the brewery counter.
Corey Knebel is an absolute monster since his release from DL. In 16 1/3 of the scoreless innings, he only allowed five hits and three walks, while he pulled out 33. We all know how much Josh Hader can dominate even with several sleeves. Jeremy Jeffress has just finished the season with a 1.29 ERA, 0.99 for WHIP and 89 strikeouts in 76 innings and two-thirds. Corbin Burnes has been very good and is underrated. Joakim Soria retired 26 of 22 innings with a WHIP of 1.09 after being acquired. Xavier Cedeno only worked eight innings, but he conceded only one earned point on seven hits.
I just named six embossed pitchers ranging from very good to Terminator. There are also more usable options.
The brewers are better, but …
Overall, the Brewers are the best team here. They won five more games and had a plus-95 differential over the over-35 Rockies. Face-to-face fights are not at all predictive, but the Brewers have won five of the seven regular season contests between the two teams and beat the Rockies 40-31.
BUT
It's the baseball of October. Absolutely anything can happen. Small things can influence games or even series. We see it every year. What is listed here is a large group of information, but it is by no means an exhaustive list of everything that matters. It would be impossible to do something like that because baseball, by nature, is incredibly unpredictable. It's so much fun.
Now we're going to get ready for a fun playoff series in which both home parks will switch.
predictions
Here are the assumptions of our expert on the course of the series.
require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-927/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/marketing-slider":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.2","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/managers/tealium":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-platform":"https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js","gpt":"https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","mpx":"libs/tpPdk","tealium":"//tags.tiqcdn.com/utag/cbsi/cbssportssite/prod/utag.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","sharethrough":"https://native.sharethrough.com/assets/tag.js","newsroom":"https://c2.taboola.com/nr/cbsinteractive-cbssports/newsroom.js","adobe-pass":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});
[ad_2]
Source link