The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates will both be looking to rebound entering a three-game series at PNC Park Monday night. The Pirates have lost seven straight series and 18 of 22 games. The Brewers are coming in off a three-game sweep by the Cubs and have lost four straight overall. Milwaukee needs to turn things around before it falls out of the NL Central race, where it finds itself four games back.
Milwaukee will send Jordan Lyles (6-7, 5.15 ERA) to the mound to face off against Dario Agrazal (2-2, 3.65 ERA). Lyles will be facing the team that traded him to Milwaukee just before the trade deadline last week.
Milwaukee is the betting favorite at -130, and the over/under is 10.
Needing A Turnaround
The Brewers have a record of 57-56 and are 24-32 on the road. Their usually high-powered offense has struggled of late, scoring only 14 runs in their last six games.
Lyles was good in his first start with the Brewers, going five innings and allowing three hits and one run in a 4-2 win. Lyles is 1-5 with a 6.99 ERA in 13 appearances against the Pirates. On the season, he has a WHIP of 1.44 but has struck out 94 in 87 innings, indicating he still has good stuff.
Milwaukee’s offense has seen the rookie Agrazal earlier this season. Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal both homered. The Brewers have a .771 OPS against right-handed pitching on the season.
The Brewers have only Brent Suter on the IL.
Fading Fast
The Pirates enter with a record of 48-63 and are 24-29 at home.
Agrazal has been really good for the Pirates since being called into action due to injuries. He has a 1.19 WHIP but was roughed up in his last two outings, combining for eight runs allowed in only nine innings of work while giving up five home runs. Earlier in the season, he went six innings, allowing five hits in a 12-2 win against the Brewers.
The Pirates offense won’t be happy to see Lyles. While his career numbers against the Pirates are terrible, the current group has combined for only three hits in 25 at-bats. On the season, Pittsburgh hits righties much better with an OPS of .776 compared to .668 against lefties.
The Pirates have Jameson Taillon, Steven Brault on the IL, and Keone Kela is suspended. Richard Rodriguez is listed as day-to-day.
The Pick
Although Lyles’ career numbers against the Pirates are bad, this current team hasn’t done much against him. The Pirates have fared really well against the Brewers at home and Agrazal has been good. This one is really tough to pick against the moneyline. We prefer the under 10 as this line moved up earlier this morning. If you want to bet the game we like the Pirates at +125 as they are 43-36 as the underdog this year.
