The Milwaukee Brewers hope to find their offense when they open a 10-game road trip with a matchup against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night
The contest will be the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Milwaukee is coming off a three-game series against the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks in which it dropped two of three, scoring one run in each of the losses.
“We’ve got to do better than that,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after a 5-1 defeat in the series finale on Wednesday
Rowdy Tellez, Milwaukee’s cleanup hitter on Wednesday, enters the weekend hitting .159 in June with no home runs.
Willy Adames is batting .196 this month after going 0-for-4 in the No. 3 spot on Wednesday. After belting 31 home runs last season, he has been stuck on 10 since June 7.
“Look, there’s guys in the middle of the order that we’re going to need offense from, there’s no question about it,” Counsell said. “We’ll get offense from them. We’ve just got to keep the practice, the routine, the work, keep it going and believe they’ll come out of it.”
Counsell will give the ball to Wade Miley in the series opener, and the veteran left-hander should have good memories of Progressive Field. Miley threw a no-hitter there while pitching for the Cincinnati Reds on May 7, 2021.
Miley (4-2, 3.28 ERA) fired five sharp innings on Saturday in a 5-0 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, his first outing after spending a month on the injured list due to a lat strain.
“I thought he was, maybe, a little amped up in the first inning, but then he really settled in and pitched really, really well,” Counsell said.
Miley is 2-4 with a 3.97 ERA in nine starts against Cleveland in his career.
The Guardians have won four in a row after completing a three-game sweep of the visiting Oakland A’s with a 6-1 victory on Thursday afternoon
They plan to start right-hander Shane Bieber (5-4, 3.51 ERA) in the series opener.
The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner should be eager to bounce back after he was tagged for three home runs in a 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Saturday.
The score was tied 2-2 when Bieber came out for the eighth. Over the next four batters, he gave up a leadoff homer and a two-run shot, and his night was done.
“I expect myself to go deep whatever the situation is,” Bieber said. “I found myself in a good position to do that (against the Diamondbacks) and tried to get a little bit more and got bit for it. So, it’s going to happen, and through a long, healthy career, you’re going to have some frustrating ones, and this is definitely up there.”
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Bieber remains one of the toughest pitchers in the majors.
“When you’re going against a pitcher of Bieber’s ability, and with the quality stuff that he has, you’re just trying to figure out how you’re going to grind down and grind out your day, and hopefully he doesn’t have his best stuff,” Lovullo said.
Bieber has made one career start against Milwaukee, when he allowed one run, which was unearned, in five innings while striking out 10 during a 4-1 win on Sept. 6, 2020, in Cleveland.
–Field Level Media
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