Know Your Foe #17: Surging Rockies Head to UeckerLand

Milwaukee Brewers (-, 3rd in the NL Central)

2010 Record vs. Colorado: 4-5

Last Series vs. Rockies: August 13-15 (L 1-2 @ Coors Field)

The Brewers opened the 2010 by taking a 3-game series from Colorado. Typically, we'd see 2 series between these two non-division opponents, but the Brewers and Rockies drew each other for that odd-man-out series during interleague play. The final series of the 2010 season between the Rockies and Brewers.

Game 1, Yovani Gallardo went 7 innings, allowing 4 ER. Jorge De La Rosa finished the game just shy of 6IP, allowing 3 runs of his own. Matt Belisle allowed one unearned run, but Taylor Buchholz pitched a scoreless 8th and Street pitched a perfect 9th for his 8th save of the season.

Game 2, Chris Narveson and Esmil Rogers went toe-to-toe to see who could give up the game first. The Brewers jumped to a 3-run lead in the 2nd on a series of 5 singles. The Rockies battled back in the 4th to tie the game at 3 thanks to rare 2010 Todd Helton HR, a walk, 2 singles and a fielder's choice. In the 5th, Eric Young Jr reached on an error, stole 2B and took 3rd on a throwing error from catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Todd Helton, always the hero, hit a sac fly to bring Young home. The Brewers tied it right back up in the 6th on a Joe Inglett PH double off of Randy Flores to score Alcides Escobar. Tied at 4 in the 10th, Huston Street gave up a leadoff double to Ryan Braun, gave Prince Fielder the free pass, and then Casey McGehee singled Braun home. Street let the bases load before inducing a 5-3 double play from Lucroy. The Rockies got a 2-out single from Eric Young after 2 loud outs from Jason Giambi and Seth Smith, but Todd Helton wasn't able to do any more in the game aside from make one final, loud out. All them loud outs were deep flyouts, if you were wondering.

Game 3 was a lot of the same as game 2, with the bats battling back and forth all the way to the 9th, where Huston Street coughed up a 2 run lead - well, Clint Barmes coughed it up on a 2-out pop fly. THIS time, though, the Rockies were able to finish it off against Trevor Hoffman thanks to an inexplicable infield single that drove Fowler home from 2B.

Latest Series Results: Split 1-1 @ Los Angeles, Split 1-1 @ San Diego

End of 2010, the Brewers were expected to be the All-Offense No-Defense No-Pitching team whose lineup would keep them right in the middle of the pack against the Reds and Cardinals. Instead they're a steady 100 wRC+ batting team (right at league average when you adjust for the park and such) and right in the middle of the pitching pack with a 3.95 team ERA (3.65 FIP, 3.49 xFIP). When you consider the fact that Zack Greinke has made all of 3 starts so far this season with questionable results, this team has a lot going for it as we look down the course of the season. Oh, and in case you missed it, offseason acquisition Shaun Marcum has a 2.54 ERA (2.62 FIP, 3.22 xFIP). So add a healthy (?) Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum, Monstrous bats in Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and some surprisingly good performances from Nyjer Morgan, and the Brewers have all the ingredients to continue making noise in the NL Central.

Pitching matchups and more after the jump.

Friday through Sunday: 3-game series at Miller Park

Expected Pitching Matchups

Friday, May 20th at 6:10PM MT

Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 5:10 PM MT

Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 12:10 PM MT

Expected Lineup

The Bench

Closer