The Jays get to spend this week playing first place teams.
First place teams with leads in their division large enough that they could stand to be swept by the Blue Jays, without causing too much of a problem. Although I've noticed that teams that have built those kind of leads generally did so by not getting swept by anyone. The Brewers were swept by the Phillies just last week, but the Phillies have been kicking a lot of NL butt this year.
First up is the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers, formerly of the AL East, when they were regularly a troublesome opponent. Your modern NL Brewers are in the habit of fielding strong teams that generally make it to the post-season and then are quickly dismissed from further competition. I'm sure we can all sympathize. The Brewers have made the post-season in five of the last six seasons (and they went 86-76 the one time they didn't). They made it to the NLCS back in 2018, and fell to the Dodgers in seven games. In 2019, 2020, and 2023 they lost the Wild Card game(s), and in 2021 they lost the NLDS to Atlanta.
The Brewers have recently had to put starters Robert Gasser and Joe Ross on the IL. Bryse Wilson has been moving from the bullpen to the rotation and back, Jared Koenig has been used as an Opener. Neither Wilson nor Freddy Peralta will be available against the Blue Jays - they could very well fall back on Koenig and assorted relievers. The Brewers bullpen is deep and impressive.
Recent Milwaukee teams have generally succeeded by holding the opposition to so few runs that it didn't much matter how inoffensive their own hitters were. Not any more, folks. The Phillies are the only NL team scoring more often than Milwaukee, and at the centre of it all is Christian Yelich, who at age 32 seems to have suddenly recovered his form from five years ago, when he was the 2018 MVP and the 2019 runner-up. Yelich spent the next four seasons hitting .254/.362/.407, and I expect everyone had more or less assumed his days as an elite player were a thing of the past. The only black hole in the lineup is right field, something of a platoon job share with 20 year old Jackson Chourio (.217/.257/.344) and 24 year old Sal Frelick (.256/.336/.332). Frelick is the LH batter. They have some other job shares - Gary Sanchez is the backup catcher; he also shares DH duties with Rhys Hoskins, who in turn shares first base with Jake Bauers.
Matchups
Mon 10 June - Berrios (5-4, 2.80) vs Rea (4-2, 3.53)
Tue 11 June - Kikuchi (3-5, 3.48) vs TBD
Wed 12 June - Bassitt (6-6, 3.80) vs Myers (2-2, 4.15)
First place teams with leads in their division large enough that they could stand to be swept by the Blue Jays, without causing too much of a problem. Although I've noticed that teams that have built those kind of leads generally did so by not getting swept by anyone. The Brewers were swept by the Phillies just last week, but the Phillies have been kicking a lot of NL butt this year.
First up is the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers, formerly of the AL East, when they were regularly a troublesome opponent. Your modern NL Brewers are in the habit of fielding strong teams that generally make it to the post-season and then are quickly dismissed from further competition. I'm sure we can all sympathize. The Brewers have made the post-season in five of the last six seasons (and they went 86-76 the one time they didn't). They made it to the NLCS back in 2018, and fell to the Dodgers in seven games. In 2019, 2020, and 2023 they lost the Wild Card game(s), and in 2021 they lost the NLDS to Atlanta.
The Brewers have recently had to put starters Robert Gasser and Joe Ross on the IL. Bryse Wilson has been moving from the bullpen to the rotation and back, Jared Koenig has been used as an Opener. Neither Wilson nor Freddy Peralta will be available against the Blue Jays - they could very well fall back on Koenig and assorted relievers. The Brewers bullpen is deep and impressive.
Recent Milwaukee teams have generally succeeded by holding the opposition to so few runs that it didn't much matter how inoffensive their own hitters were. Not any more, folks. The Phillies are the only NL team scoring more often than Milwaukee, and at the centre of it all is Christian Yelich, who at age 32 seems to have suddenly recovered his form from five years ago, when he was the 2018 MVP and the 2019 runner-up. Yelich spent the next four seasons hitting .254/.362/.407, and I expect everyone had more or less assumed his days as an elite player were a thing of the past. The only black hole in the lineup is right field, something of a platoon job share with 20 year old Jackson Chourio (.217/.257/.344) and 24 year old Sal Frelick (.256/.336/.332). Frelick is the LH batter. They have some other job shares - Gary Sanchez is the backup catcher; he also shares DH duties with Rhys Hoskins, who in turn shares first base with Jake Bauers.
Matchups
Mon 10 June - Berrios (5-4, 2.80) vs Rea (4-2, 3.53)
Tue 11 June - Kikuchi (3-5, 3.48) vs TBD
Wed 12 June - Bassitt (6-6, 3.80) vs Myers (2-2, 4.15)
