Brewers: Series Against Twins Will Be Vital To Keeping Momentum

The Brewers are coming off a hard fought series win against the Cubs. Their next series will be vital to keeping that momentum.

After a lackluster beginning to the season and the roadtrip, the Milwaukee Brewers have rattled off three straight wins, all against the division leading Chicago Cubs. The offense has started to get going and the pitching staff is settling in and taking shape.

Now they’ve battled back to 3.5 games behind the Cubs in the NL Central. With the expanded playoffs this year, they’re currently sitting in a playoff position, but there are obvious benefits to winning the division title instead.

That’s what made the slow early start alarming and that’s why this next series against the Twins is all the more crucial to keep this positive momentum.

Last week, the Brewers lost two of three games against the Twins at Miller Park. The Twins have a high powered offense, are 14-8, and lead the AL Central. They will present another tough challenge to the Brewers on this road trip.

Looking Ahead To The Twins

It’s the return of Corbin Burnes to the rotation! After starting out in the rotation, in the last few turns, Burnes has been the second half of a tandem with lefty Brett Anderson. Let’s just say that Burnes has been the better performing one of that tandem duo over their last few outings.

Through Burnes’ first four outings, he has a 3.38 ERA with a 13.5 K/9 over 16 innings. His repertoire has hitters and pitchers alike talking about how much he’s improved from 2019.

He will face off on Tuesday against Kenta Maeda, who dominated the Brewers his last time out, going 6.2 IP and holding the Crew to just two runs. This should make for another exciting pitching matchup and it will be tough for both offenses to put up runs, at least on paper it should.

On Wednesday, Brett Anderson will get the ball and hope to turn around his season. Through his first three starts, Anderson has not been able to live up to expectations, having posted a 4.91 ERA and 1.63 WHIP in just 11 innings of work. He should be able to go as deep as possible now and won’t need his pitch count limited for a tandem start.

Although he’s only given up two earned runs in each of his outings this year, the Brewers have lost all three of Anderson’s starts. They’re going to need that trend to change.

On Thursday, Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff will face off against Twins ace Jose Berrios. Berrios has had a rough start to the season, pitching to a 5.92 ERA so far while Woodruff has a much better 3.16 ERA.

The Offense

This is the key to the series against the Twins. The Brewers offense came alive when they needed to against the Cubs, but jumping out early is something they still struggle with. The Twins have a powerhouse offense and the Brewers will need to keep pace.

Luis Urias and Orlando Arcia have been on a tear recently, Yelich is coming out of his slump, and so are Avisail Garcia and Justin Smoak.

Keeping the offense in sync through these next few games is vital. The momentum coming off those three straight wins against the Cubs is real and the Brewers need to capitalize on it with another series win against a tough team in Minnesota.

After this series, it’s on to Pittsburgh for a few games and then back home to Milwaukee, ending the longest road trip of the season for the Crew. If the Brewers can get a series win against Minnesota, they can ensure at least a .500 road trip, and a winning trip on the road if they win just one against Pittsburgh.

If this momentum is able to get through this tough initial stretch, it’ll be tough to slow down in any of the next several series. That makes this Twins series crucial to the Brewers push to the top of the division.

Things are finally starting to look up for the Brewers, and this Twins series will be a big challenge to keep the momentum.