Helping to close down Saturday’s loaded slate of MLB action, the Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Los Angeles Angels. This series kicked off on Friday, with the Brewers producing a 6-2 win. Game 2 of the series will take place on Saturday with Robert Gasser and Brent Suter taking the ball for their respective squads.
Looking at the odds, the Brewers enter as -156 favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook. The Angels are +129 underdogs, with the game total set at nine runs.
Brewers at Angels prediction, preview
The Milwaukee Brewers sit in the top spot in the National League Central with a 68-41 record on the season. This trails only the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in baseball. Milwaukee has gone 9-4 since returning from the All-Star break. On the season overall, the Brewers have gone 58-51 to the run line, and the run total is 49-58-2 to the over/under.
Robert Gasser will be on the mound for Milwaukee on Saturday. The 27-year-old will be making his 12th start of the season, and enters with a 3-4 record, a 4.71 ERA, a 1.17 WHIP, 11 home runs allowed, and 52 strikeouts tallied across 57.1 innings. Gasser is coming off two earned runs in six innings pitched against the Rockies in his previous start, but coughed up seven earned runs over three frames against the Pirates two starts prior. He has not faced off with any member of this Angels lineup in his MLB career.
At the plate, the Brewers are slashing a collective .255/.338/.401 with a .739 OPS this season. Milwaukee ranks fifth in MLB in hits, fifth in runs, last in home runs, and limits strikeouts at the seventh-best rate. Brice Turang leads the team with 109 hits on the season, along with 16 home runs and 68 RBIs. William Contreras has also cracked triple digits in hits with 106, along with 10 home runs and 57 RBIs. Jake Bauers leads the team with 19 home runs and 63 RBIs, while Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Gary Sanchez, and Christian Yelich also play important roles.
Despite a spirited start to the season, the Los Angeles Angels have slipped to 42-68 on the year, which marks the worst record in MLB. They enter this matchup looking to snap a four-game losing streak, and have dropped seven of their past eight games. The Angels have gone 54-56 to the run line this year, and the run total is 50-59-1 to the over/under.
There was a late pitching change in this matchup as Jose Soriano was initially scheduled to get the start. With the trade rumors swirling, Los Angeles elected to hold him out on Saturday, and Brent Suter will answer the call instead. The veteran has primarily pitched out of the bullpen for the Angels this year, with just two starts in 40 appearances. Across his 61.1 innings of work, Suter is posting a 4.26 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP, seven home runs allowed, and 54 strikeouts tallied. This will be his first start since May 11. Suter has faced off with this Brewers lineup in 40 at-bats in his career, limiting them to just four hits in these opportunities.
Looking at the offensive production, the Angels are posting collective slash lines of .238/.314/.385 with a .699 OPS. Los Angeles ranks 21st in hits, 20th in runs, 21st in home runs, and has tallied the third-most strikeouts in the league. Jo Adell leads the team with 101 hits, along with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs. Zach Neto adds 98 hits of his own, along with a team-high 19 home runs and 46 RBIs. Mike Trout adds 18 home runs and 40 RBIs, while Jorge Soler is the lone other player with more than 10 home runs. Oswald Peraza, Vaughn Grissom, and Nolan Schanuel also play notable roles.
Brewers at Angels pick, best bet
I am pleasantly surprised you can still get plus value on the Brewers -1.5 run line and jumping all over it on Saturday. This is a matchup between a legitimate deep playoff threat and one that has a long way to go to be close to this conversation.
The Brewers cruised to a 6-2 victory on Friday, breaking the game open in the fifth inning with a pair of home runs from Brice Turang and Jake Bauers. While home runs are not one of their main pathways to production, Milwaukee has a dangerous offense that can beat you in a variety of ways. They rank fifth in total runs on the season, and have scored six or more runs in four of their past six games. The Angels will lean on a bullpen game to get through Saturday’s matchup, but this reliever unit is posting a collective 4.37 ERA on the season, which is the ninth-worst in MLB.
Robert Gasser is far from a perfect pitcher, but he has held opponents to two or fewer earned runs in seven of his 11 starts this year while facing far more intimidating lineups than what the Angels offer. Los Angeles ranks in the bottom 10 of MLB in hits, runs, and home runs on the season. They are also averaging just 2.8 runs per game since returning from the All-Star break and have been shut out twice already during this stretch.
The outlook was a bit different when Jose Soriano was set to take the mound, as the right-hander has been a bright spot for this Angels team. But with a full bullpen game in store for Los Angeles, it would not shock me if this game slips into a full blowout. The gap in talent between these two teams is far greater than the -1.5 run line indicates, and that disparity should be put on display. While the +191 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook of the Angels to cover the -2.5 run line also catch my eye, for the sake of the article we won’t get overly greedy and will back the superior team to win by at least two runs.
Best bet: Milwaukee Brewers -1.5 (+108)
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