Brewers: 3 Reasons Why The Crew Will Beat The Diamondbacks In The Playoffs, 2 Reasons To Be Concerned

2) The Arizona Diamondbacks are starting a rookie pitcher in game one.

Due to needing victories to even clinch a playoff spot, the Diamondbacks were unable to perfectly line up their starting rotation for the Wild Card Series. Their ace Zac Gallen threw 104 pitches on Friday night and Merrill Kelly threw 93 a day later.

Arizona announced that 24 year old rookie Brandon Pfaadt will get the Game One start. Pfaadt has a 5.72 ERA in 19 games this season. He gives up a lot of hard contact and averages 10.2 hits allowed per nine innings. That's not exactly the ideal scenario for the Diamondbacks. Avoiding Gallen or Kelly in Game One is huge for Milwaukee.

Ryne Nelson is arguably their third starting pitcher, but he threw one inning during the season finale on Sunday and may get the nod should the series go to three games. On the other hand Milwaukee is lined up to throw Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta (if necessary) all on normal/extended rest.

3) Over the last month the Brewers have been better than the Diamondbacks in nearly every major statistical category

Taking a look at statistics over the last 30 days the Brewers are near the top in the league in several major statistics while the Diamondbacks are in the middle of the pack. Offensively, they have more runs scored (139 to 115), more hits (247 to 207), and a better batting average (.261 to .232), on-base percentage (.324 to .312), and slugging percentage (.420 to .355).

From a pitching standpoint the Brewers also have the edge in ERA (2.54 to 3.81), shutouts (four to two), WHIP (1.08 to 1.23), and batting average against (.202 to .235). Based on recent statistics, records, and overall performance the advantage in this match up goes to Milwaukee.