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

Two concerns for the Milwaukee Brewers facing the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Wild Card Series

1) The Milwaukee Brewers have not had a lot of success against Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly

Despite potentially operating on short rest Brewers fans still do not want to see Zac Gallen or Merrill Kelly because historically the team not had good success against them. Zac Gallen has a career 1.75 ERA against Milwaukee over six starts with a 0.83 WHIP and 11.0 K:9 ratio. Merrill Kelly has eight career starts against the Crew with a 3.04 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and a .194 batting average against.

The Brewers are able to avoid them in Game 1, but those two starters in Games 2 and 3 are going to be tough to get one win out of, and Milwaukee could even potentially need two wins against them if they fall in Game 1.

2) Both teams play a similar style of baseball that at their core is centered around speed and defense

This year the Diamondbacks finished second only to the Cincinnati Reds in stolen bases with 166. Corbin Carroll led the way with 54 and Jake McCarthy was second with 26. Defensively they finished fourth in DRS at 48. On the other hand Milwaukee stole 129 bases (11th best) in which Christian Yelich (28) and Brice Turang (26) led the way. In the field they finished second only to the Toronto Blue Jays in DRS at 68.

The Brewers beat other teams because they have superior defense to them, and a whole lot of speed out there, to go along with top flight starters. The Diamondbacks are just about as good defensively, possibly a little faster, and they have some top flight starters to match. That lines up a gritty series between the two teams.

The Brewers and Diamondbacks Wild Card Series will begin on Tuesday, October 3 and could go as late as Thursday, October 5. All three games (if necessary) will start at 6:08 PM CT.