Arizona @ Milwaukee preview
American Family Field
Last Meeting ( May 9, 2010 ) Milwaukee 6, Arizona 1
The Milwaukee Brewers have been mediocre most of the season. The lowly Arizona Diamondbacks, however, always seem to bring out the best in them.
The Brewers seek an eighth straight win over the last-place Diamondbacks as the teams open a four-game series at Miller Park on Monday.
Milwaukee (53-59) has been out of the NL Central race seemingly as soon as it began. The Brewers entered the All-Star break 10 games under .500, which pretty much rendered the second-half nearly irrelevant.
But Milwaukee hasn’t packed it in just yet. The Brewers have won three straight and five of six, albeit against some of the weaker teams in baseball. Ken Macha’s team completed a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros on Sunday with an 11-6 victory.
Prior to that, the Brewers took two of three from the struggling Chicago Cubs.
Milwaukee has feasted on the last-place Diamondbacks as well lately. The Brewers have won the last seven meetings by a combined score of 50-17.
Casey McGehee has had a lot to do with that impressive run, racking up three homers and 12 RBIs in six games against Arizona this season. He homered in consecutive games, helping the Brewers to a three-game sweep in Phoenix from May 7-9.
Arizona, meanwhile, is coming off a 10-1 loss to the NL West-leading San Diego Padres on Sunday that ended its modest three-game winning streak. On Monday, the Diamondbacks will hand the ball to Ian Kennedy (6-9, 4.40 ERA), who is 1-2 with a 7.02 ERA in his last three starts.
On Wednesday, Kennedy was reached for four runs and eight hits in four innings – his shortest outing of the season. The performance resulted in a 7-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.
The right-hander fared well in his only career start against Milwaukee, though, allowing two runs and six hits in seven innings of a 6-1 loss on May 9.
He’ll square off against Chris Narveson (9-7, 5.68) once again. Narveson allowed one run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings and also drove in a run against Kennedy in the last meeting.
The left-hander picked up his first win in three starts on Tuesday, as he allowed one run and six hits in 5 2/3 innings against the Cubs.
The Brewers have been tough at home posting a 23-14 mark at Miller Park since beginning the season by dropping 14 of their first 18 there.