Diamondbacks at Brewers
THE STORY: The Brewers cruised to a National League Central
crown behind a pair of MVP candidates in Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun
and will host the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of the National
League Division Series on Saturday. The Diamondbacks are the latest
worst-to-first story in the majors, riding a rebuilt pitching staff and
the maturation of Justin Upton to the NL West title.
TV: 2:07 p.m. ET, TBS
PITCHING MATCHUP: Diamondbacks RH Ian Kennedy (21-4, 2.88 ERA) vs. Brewers RH Yovani Gallardo, 17-10, 3.52 ERA).
Kennedy is a dark horse Cy Young candidate, tied with the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw for the NL lead in
wins. The 26-year old went 6-0 with a 1.66 ERA over his final seven
starts but has not worked since beating San Francisco on Sept. 24.
Kennedy won his lone start against Milwaukee this season, yielding four
hits in seven scoreless innings on July 21.
Gallardo closed strong as well, going 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA in his
final three turns and finishing fifth in the NL with 207 strikeouts. The
25-year old last worked on Sept. 23 against Florida. He beat Arizona
twice this season, allowing a total of two earned runs in 13 innings.
ABOUT THE DIAMONDBACKS: Arizona’s ascent can be directly traced to
Kennedy, Daniel Hudson and Josh Collmenter stepping up in the rotation
and a bullpen that went from a major-league worst 5.74 ERA in 2010 to
3.71 in 2011. Arizona took over first place for good with a seven-game
winning streak from Aug. 9-16 and made it look surprisingly easy, never
letting the lead slip below five games in Sept. The Diamondbacks went
4-3 against Milwaukee this season with an identical combined score of
28-28.
ABOUT THE BREWERS: Milwaukee mortgaged the future in trades for Zack
Greinke and Shaun Marcum over the winter and then added the missing
piece to the bullpen at the All-Star break by bringing in Francisco
Rodriguez to set up for closer John Axford. MVP-caliber seasons from
Fielder and Braun didn’t hurt either. The Brewers took the Central lead
for good on July 27 during a stretch of 23 wins in 26 games and closed
out with wins in eight of 11 to beat the Diamondbacks for home-field
advantage.
FINAL PITCH: The Brewers are a major league-best 57-24 at home and earned the No. 2 seed with their franchise-record 96th win on Wednesday.