Brewers vs. Cardinals Preview

Quick-Hitters

• Thursday’s series-opener between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers will feature two starting pitchers who have yet to lose this season.

• This will be the first of five games between the Cardinals and Brewers with the two teams battling for second-place in the NL Central.

• Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes has been overlooked in the Cy Young race, posting a 1.77 ERA over 56.0 innings.

• In his first season in the majors, Korean lefty Kwang-hyun Kim has been impressive, pitching to a 1.59 ERA in six starts and one relief appearance.

• Milwaukee (-125) is favored over St. Louis (+105) with the over/under set at 7.5 total runs. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE GAME ODDS!

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Finishing Strong

In the final week of the MLB regular-season, the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers are both competing with the Cincinnati Reds for second-place in the NL Central, which will give one of those teams a guaranteed playoff spot. Of course, the two teams that don’t finish second in the division still have a chance to earn a spot in a crowded NL Wild Card race. At the moment, there are five teams in contention for the two Wild Card spots. With the Cardinals and Brewers playing five head-to-head games this weekend, both teams have a chance to play their way into second-place in the NL Central. If one team loses three or four of those five games, they could play themselves out of second-place and out of Wild Card contention altogether.

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An Overlooked Arm

It’s quite unfair that Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes has been overlooked in the Cy Young race heading into his final start of the season against the Cardinals on Thursday. In eight starts and three relief outings, Burnes is 4-0 with a 1.77 ERA. His downfall is that he hasn’t logged as many innings as other starters. However, he’s been utterly dominant down the stretch. Over his last five starts, Burnes has allowed just one earned run while striking out 47 batters over 29.2 innings. That includes 10 strikeouts against St. Louis in just 4.2 innings earlier this month. He’s blowing hitters away and is pitching as well as anyone in baseball right now.

Pitching Duel

Not enough people in baseball know about Kwang-hyun Kim, who has been an immediate contributor to the St. Louis rotation in his first season in the majors. The 32-year-old lefty has quickly adapted to the big leagues despite a brief IL stint due to a kidney issue. In his return from the IL, Kim tossed 7.0 shutout innings against the Milwaukee lineup he’ll face on Thursday. Granted, Kim had trouble in his last start, giving up four runs over 5.1 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite his previous outing, he’s 2-0 with a 2.59 ERA across 34.0 innings this year and has quietly been one of the top rookies in baseball. We're in line for a major pitching duel!