First Five Play In Cubs Vs Brewers

Cubs vs. Brewers, 4:10 ET

Baseball has been referred to as America’s pastime. I’m not sure if everyone still feels that way as it has changed quite a bit over the past few seasons with a pitch clock, designated hitter, and other things that have changed the way the game is played. Still, not much is better than a cold beer at the ballpark. As we celebrate America today, let’s also enjoy a game between the Cubs and Brewers.

Of all the baseball teams, the Cubs pop into mind as a team that you associate with America. They even have the red, white, and blue uniforms. Maybe the Yankees are the other team you’d think, and perhaps the Red Sox as well. Unfortunately for Cubs fans, they haven’t done much over the past few years. This season they are fortunate that no team has run away with the division. They are very much within striking distance, but they need to start stacking together wins again. Ever since they returned from their London trip they’ve really struggled. Now they play a four-game road set against their division rivals the Milwaukee Brewers. Today they are putting their veteran Kyle Hendricks on the hill. He has been pretty solid for the Cubs this year with a 2.81 ERA over seven starts. He has looked solid on the road as well with just four earned runs allowed over 20.1 innings. He’s faced the Brewer hitters a ton, just not this season. I would say that he has had pretty average success against them. Jesse Winker or Christian Yelich are probably the best against him.

The Brewers are starting to get hot again and have to be the favorite to win the division this season. They are finally getting better production from Yelich after a few down years. The pitching staff has been solid, even if they haven’t been quite as good as in past seasons. If you looked at the team statistics, the Cubs are better in just about every one of them, but the Brewers are over .500. A team that is hitting just .228 collectively probably shouldn’t be in this position, but they are on a bit of a hot streak right now which has propelled them into the positive side of .500. Wade Miley is taking the hill for the Brewers today. Miley has been pretty solid for the Brewers this year, but he doesn’t have a somewhat short leash. He has gone six innings or more in just five of his 11 starts. So, essentially, you’re looking at just about five innings out of Miley which helps us because we can predict the game better. Cubs hitters are just 9-for-44 against Miley and haven’t gotten an extra-base hit off of him.

I like the under 4.5 in this one through five innings. I think both pitchers are playing well enough that they can contain each other’s offenses. I’ve already mentioned the Brewers offense isn’t great, and the Cubs are struggling so I think this provides us a good opportunity to take the under, but with Miley and Hendricks we can predict better the five innings than full nine.

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