Indians at Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers can move into first place in the National League Central when they host the struggling Cleveland Indians for the finale of their two-game interleague set on Wednesday afternoon. The Brewers received homers from Travis Shaw and pitcher Brent Suter in the first three innings of the series opener on Tuesday and held on for a 3-2 victory to improve to 5-2 over their last seven contests.
Christian Yelich recorded three hits on Tuesday and is 12-for-32 over his last eight games for Milwaukee, which is 17-4 when scoring first but carries a 5-8 record in day games into Wednesday’s matinee. Junior Guerra hopes to continue his strong start to the season when he takes the mound for the Brewers against Carlos Carrasco, who posted a career-high 18 victories last season, in a battle of Venezuelan hurlers. The Indians dropped under .500 at 17-18 with their fourth consecutive loss in which they managed just one hit over the final six innings. Francisco Lindor is riding a 10-game hitting streak during which he has gone 20-for-47 with five homers and 11 RBIs.
TV: 1:10 p.m. ET, MLB Network, SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland), FS Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Indians RH Carlos Carrasco (4-1, 3.95 ERA) vs. Brewers RH Junior Guerra (2-2, 2.33)
Carrasco has struggled in his last two starts, allowing 11 runs - 10 earned - and 14 hits (three homers) across 8 1/3 innings after opening the season 4-0 in five outings. The 31-year-old gave up a total of four runs in a four-start stretch before a suffering a loss to Seattle on April 28 and giving up six runs over 5 1/3 frames in a no-decision Thursday versus Toronto. Lorenzo Cain is 11-for-32 against Carrasco, who faces Milwaukee for the first time but is 5-4 with a 3.21 ERA in interleague play.
Guerra permitted five runs on six hits (two homers) and four walks to take the loss last time out against Pittsburgh after starting the season with four straight strong outings. The 33-year-old yielded just three runs - two earned - over 22 innings in his first four starts of 2018 without serving up a home run. Guerra, who faces Cleveland for the first time in his career, is 2-0 with a 3.63 ERA in four appearances (three starts) during interleague play.
WALK-OFFS
1. Indians 3B Jose Ramirez is 8-for-20 with three homers and six RBIs over his last five contests.
2. Brewers INF Nick Franklin was recalled from Double-A Biloxi on Tuesday and went 0-for-2 before leaving the game with a quadriceps strain.
3. Cleveland activated RHP Oliver Drake on Tuesday after acquiring him from Milwaukee and RHP Alexi Ogando was optioned to Triple-A Columbus.