The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks finally faced each other in the 147th game of the 2024 season.
The late-season crush of games between two teams that met in last season’s National League wild-card round continues Saturday night when the Brewers and Diamondbacks clash in Phoenix.
Milwaukee (85-62) recorded a 2-1 victory on Friday night in the first of a stretch in which the teams play each other seven times in a 10-game span.
After this series concludes on Sunday, the clubs will face each other four times in Milwaukee, beginning Thursday.
Arizona, now 82-65, won the wild-card round in two games last October en route to reaching the World Series.
But it is the Brewers who have the chance to clinch this series on Saturday after Rhys Hoskins hit a two-run homer in Milwaukee’s triumph on Friday. It was his 24th blast of the season.
The Brewers lead the National League Central by 10 games over the Chicago Cubs, but Hoskins wants nothing to do with discussing the big picture.
“We just got to win (Saturday),” he said. “It’s easy to look ahead. We’ve got a good Diamondbacks team and we’re going to try to win the series (Saturday).”
Milwaukee did not allow a hit over four scoreless innings from its bullpen in the opener to silence a high-octane Arizona attack that scored 32 runs over the previous three games. The Diamondbacks had just one baserunner against the Brewers’ pen.
“We played really good defense, and the bullpen was really, really good,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said.
The Diamondbacks had a three-game winning streak halted. Arizona had just six hits after having 13 extra-base hits — including five homers — in its previous game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
“I’m not upset with the approaches, just the results didn’t happen,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of the offense. “We have to keep banging away at it.”
The loss was costly as the Diamondbacks fell a half-game behind the San Diego Padres in the battle for the NL’s top wild-card spot. Arizona is just one game ahead of the New York Mets and two games in front of the Atlanta Braves.
Christian Walker reached base four times on a double and three walks for the Diamondbacks. But he also made a huge baserunning blunder in the third inning.
Walker doubled with two outs, and Pavin Smith walked on a full-count pitch that bounced away from Brewers catcher William Contreras. Walker attempted to advance to third but was gunned out by Contreras to end the inning.
The Diamondbacks have reinforcements on the way. Lovullo said before the game that outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (calf) and catcher Gabriel Moreno (adductor) will play a game at their training site on Saturday.
Brewers rookie right-hander Tobias Myers (7-5, 2.93 ERA) will look to follow a start in which he struck out a career-best 11 batters on Sept 7. He gave up one run and four walks in six innings while beating the Colorado Rockies.
It was Myers’ first victory since blanking the Pittsburgh Pirates on four hits over eight innings on July 10.
This will be the 26-year-old Myers’ first career outing against Arizona.
The Diamondbacks will start right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (9-8, 4.42), who has lost two of his past three starts after winning five straight decisions.
Pfaadt, 25, lost to the Houston Astros on Sept. 6 when he gave up four runs and eight hits over 4 2/3 innings. He has a 7.80 ERA over his last three outings.
Pfaadt has never faced the Brewers in the regular season. He started against Milwaukee in Game 1 of the wild-card series last year and gave up three runs and seven hits over 2 2/3 innings in a no-decision.
–Field Level Media
