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The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates square off on Tuesday with first pitch set for 6:35p.m. ET. The game takes place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. The Brewers will start Brandon Woodruff, who hasn’t allowed a run in his previous two outings, while Mitch Keller will throw for the Pirates with an 0-3 start to the season.
Milwaukee’s lack of offensive production came back to bite them Monday night in a 4-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in a one-game series. Luis Gonzalez crushed a 2-run homer in the ninth to give San Francisco the lead. After a rough opening start, Woodruff combined to throw 11 scoreless innings in his previous two outings and allowed 1 hit against Pittsburgh with 9 strikeouts over 6 innings of work. The Brewers do not have a hitter with a batting average higher than .240 to this point of the season as a one-sided team early on.
The Pirates took three of four games against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend after getting swept by Milwaukee last week. Keller had a 6.17 ERA through 23 starts last season, and the numbers are not there early on in 2022 with an 0-3 record, allowing 9 earned runs over 13 innings of work in three starts. He is coming off his best performance of the season last week, allowing 1 run in 5.1 innings of work with 7 strikeouts in a loss to the Brewers. Their young third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes is off to a strong start with a .327 batting average, and former Milwaukee first baseman Daniel Vogelbach is hitting .311 with a team-high 3 home runs.
Brewers vs. Pirates
Pitchers: Brandon Woodruff vs. Mitch Keller
First pitch: 6:35 p.m. ET
Brewers local broadcast: Bally Sports Wisconsin
Pirates local broadcast: AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Moneyline odds: Brewers -165, Pirates +145
Picks & predictions
Moneyline pick: Brewers -165
Betting on a team that has been hitting this poorly is always a dangerous situation with this high of a price, but Milwaukee has such a pitching advantage in this matchup that they should be expected to come away with a victory. Woodruff has been consistently reliable during his career in Milwaukee, while Keller has not with enough of a sample size to where you know what you’re getting when he’s on the mound.
Player prop pick: Mitch Keller O4.5 strikeouts (+115)
While Keller has not seen a ton of success this season, he has done well in striking batters out. The issue has been not being able to stay in the game all that long because the strikeout numbers are there early on. Keller threw 5.1 innings against the Brewers last week and struck out 7 batters. Milwaukee has a below-average offense when it comes to striking out and if Keller can get to 5 innings, there’s a solid chance he reaches this total.
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