Before Milwaukee played Arizona, I wrote in the BrewCap that it was a ‘loser leave town’ series. If Milwaukee swept Arizona, the Diamondbacks are probably finished with a shot at the Wild Card. Same goes for the Brewers. While the Crew did not score a sweep of Arizona, they were able to beat them two of three over the weekend to keep their heads above water in the Wild Card and National League Central race. The tough thing about Milwaukee is this does not end with Arizona. They have St. Louis, Chicago, Houston and Chicago again. These 12 games are going to decide the season.

Sunday: Arizona 5 Milwaukee 2 – Zach Davies scuffled in his first game back at Miller Park where he gave up two home runs to Christian Walker and Eduardo Escobar. He did not make it past the fourth inning, and Devin Williams didn’t do better in the fifth inning. Brewers mounted a bit of a comeback against Arizona’s bullpen, but they could not deliver the big hit once again. Robbie Ray continues to be amazing against Milwaukee. If I’m St. Louis and Chicago, I trade everything possible for Ray or if I’m Milwaukee, I make sure he doesn’t become a problem.

Saturday: Milwaukee 4 Arizona 0 – What a solid game for Milwaukee. They score their first shutout since May 10th of this year. That’s crazy to me. Milwaukee only got five innings from Chase Anderson too, but the bullpen did a great job as well. Junior Guerra, Matt Albers, Alex Claudio, and Jay Jackson all shut down the Arizona bats. Big moment for Milwaukee was Keston Hiura in the seventh inning driving in two runs to put Milwaukee up four runs versus two. That was a huge hit for the Brewers.

Friday: Milwaukee 6 Arizona 1 – Jordan Lyles bounced back in a major way on Friday. Lyles struggled last week against Washington then he no-hit Arizona through six innings. Lyles did not want to go out there for the seventh inning which I truly respect because he was at 100 pitches with an arm that started to fade. Eric Thames and Keston Hiura both homered for Milwaukee and played a role in pushing the lead out early for the Crew. Milwaukee winning the first game of the series is not common for this team, and that’s something that needs to happen more often.

Next up: Milwaukee stays home to take on St. Louis. One advantage for the Brewers is St. Louis had a late-game at home on Sunday afternoon because of bad weather. Gio Gonzalez will take the ball for Milwaukee. He was decent versus the Cards last week, but it felt like he got squeezed by the umpire. Cardinals send Adam Wainwright who has owned the Brewers in his career, but he struggled the last time out against them plus a bad road starter. We shall see what happen in this series.

Charlie.