Milwaukee Brewers: Comparing Lineups In NL Wild Card Game

The Milwaukee Brewers will face off against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night in the NL Wild Card game. How do these teams compare?

We already know the starting pitching matchups for this game. The Milwaukee Brewers will throw Brandon Woodruff as the initial out-getter, while the Washington Nationals will have Max Scherzer start for them.

Both teams will be throwing out their best pitchers for this game, trying to advance to the NLDS and take on the Dodgers. So what is going to be extremely important, is how the offenses are able to handle each team’s best pitchers.

The Brewers are without their best player, Christian Yelich, which will make navigating through Max Scherzer that much more difficult for this offense. A lot of the team is banged up and winning a one-game playoff is hard enough to do when fully healthy.

Let’s look at how these two teams compare at each position:

Catcher

Yasmani Grandal vs. Yan Gomes

Yasmani Grandal reached a new career high in home runs this year with 28 and had one of his best offensive seasons to date. Yaz’s .246/.380/.468 slash line and 119 OPS+ makes him one of the top offensive catchers in the league. He also drew 109 walks this year, easily the highest mark among catchers, and one of the top in Brewers history, behind only Prince Fielder.

Yan Gomes, meanwhile, finished with a .223/.316/.389 slash line with 12 homers and a 78 OPS+. Gomes is better known for his defense, although he had some great offensive seasons in 2013 and 2014 for the Indians, but ever since then he’s been a mostly below average hitter.

Edge: Brewers