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The Milwaukee Brewers host the Arizona Diamondbacks in what has the potential to be a decisive game two in the National League Wild Card Round on Wednesday.
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Milwaukee Brewers (-130, 7.5)
The Diamondbacks will start their ace Zac Gallen, who was second in the National League in the regular season in wins with 17, but has been a different pitcher on the road than at home this season.
Gallen had 12 of his 17 wins come at home, posting a 2.47 ERA with 0.6 home runs and 1.6 walks per nine innings allowed compared to a 4.42 ERA on the road with 1.25 home runs and 2.4 walks per nine innings allowed.
The Diamondbacks support Gallen with an offense that entered the Wild Card round having scored three runs or fewer in five straight games and have averaged the second-fewest runs per game of any National League team since the start of July with less than 4.1 runs per game.
in the bullpen, the Diamondbacks back up Gallen up with a bullpen that was third in the league in ERA in the month of September, the Brewers have had the far more consistent with a 2.69 ERA in the bullpen since July 4, the second-best bullpen ERA in the league while the Diamondbacks are 18th in that span with a 4.45 ERA.
Overall this season, the Brewers are 17th among the 30 MLB teams in runs per game but since July 28, the start of the first series in which the team received at-bats from Carlos Santana after acquiring him from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team is eighth in the league in runs per game with just under 5.2 runs per game in their last 59 games despite hitting only 58 home runs in that span.
That Brewers offense will look to provide enough support for Freddy Peralta, who enters having allowed two runs or fewer in seven of his last nine starts and while he has a 3.86 ERA this season, enters Wednesday pitching his best with a 2.44 ERA and 2.51 fielding independent in his last 11 starts while getting 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
With Gallen’s road struggles and the offense not providing a lot of support behind him, the Brewers will get the job done at home on Wednesday.
The Play: Brewers -130