Tonight, the Baltimore Orioles travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in hopes of breaking a six-game losing streak and getting back on the right track against the Brewers. The home-team Brew Crew aren’t exactly on a hot streak themselves, though, looking to claw their way back to a .500 record amidst a mostly wide-open NL Central.
Here’s a Brewers vs. Orioles prediction and pick for the action.
Brewers vs. Orioles prediction, preview
The Brewers enter with a 22-25 record and an underperforming offense which just can’t seem to reach base. Their .228 team AVG and .305 OBP rank 25th and 23rd league-wide, but somehow they actually fall 16th in runs scored with 198 on the season, the 16th-best mark. There are bright spots with Brice Turang and Rhys Hoskins each batting .288, which qualifies for a career-best mark if the latter can continue. However, with Jackson Chourio’s OBP sitting at .260 and Christian Yelich also struggling with a .199 average, things could certainly be better. The team does notably lack power with just 37 home runs, tied for the third-fewest in the MLB.
As for the Orioles, it’s been a bit of a nightmare campaign. A team which won 101 games just two seasons ago and once again made some noise with 91 last season finds themselves at 15-30, the second-worst record among all AL teams. An offense with plenty of star power falls 24th in AVG with a bottom-seven OBP of .298. They simply can’t score, falling sixth-worst in runs despite ranking 10th in homers with 53. Only three batters with 50 or more at-bats are hitting .270 or better, though Ramon Urias and Gunnar Henderson come close at .268 and .258, respectively.
Brewers vs. Orioles pick, best bet
Milwaukee enters this evening’s contest as a -118 favorite on the Moneyline, while the Orioles are -102 to win outright with a run total of 8.5.
On the mound tonight are Dean Kremer for the O’s and Rob Zastryzny for the Brewers. The former holds a 5.36 ERA and 1.31 WHIP with just 34 punchouts across 50.1 innings of work, far from spectacular numbers for a top-three starter. Meanwhile, Zastryzny becomes the 11th different starting pitcher for Milwaukee in 48 games this season, the second-most of any team. The 33-year-old veteran has thrown just two innings this year, allowing two hits and striking out three with no runs allowed. He’s thrown only 69.0 innings in his seven-year MLB career with a 4.17 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 57 strikeouts in that sample. What happens tonight remains anyone’s guess.
With this uncertainty of Milwaukee’s starter, it looks like it’ll be a bullpen game the Orioles can take advantage of. While the team’s performance has been rough this year, this presents an opportunity for them to start shaking off the poor form and take advantage of an easy matchup here. I like Ryan O’Hearn to record 2+ hits given that he’s Baltimore’s top batter and his track record with two or more hits in three of his last five contests.
