The Brewers play in the smallest metropolitan market in baseball, and yet have developed a sustainable model of success that is the envy of other teams. They have reached the playoffs in seven of the last eight years, and haven’t had a losing season since 2016.
This year, the Brewers are off to a great start, having outscored opponents 45-17 to begin the year, by far the best run differential in baseball. But one of those series was beating up on the White Sox, and they won their series against the Rays by scoring six runs in the bottom of the eighth in the rubber match.
Milwaukee Brewers (5-1) vs. Kansas City Royals (3-3) at Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Brewers: 7.50 runs scored/game (1st in MLB), 2.83 runs allowed/game (3rd)
Royals: 3.83 runs scored/game (20th), 4.67 runs allowed/game (24th)
Christian Yelich is a career .274/.400/.597 hitter with six home runs in 18 games against the Royals. Brice Turang, who was Bobby Witt Jr.‘s teammate on Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, is hitting .409 with four doubles in six games to start the year. Catcher Gary Sánchez is 4-for-8 with two home runs this season. Jake Bauers made just 17 plate appearances against lefties last year. Garrett Mitchell missed most of last year with an oblique strain and shoulder injury after a promising rookies season in 2024, when he hit .255/.342/.469 in 69 games.
Sal Frelick had a 13.5 percent strikeout rate last year, 15th-lowest among qualified hitters. Joey Ortiz had the third-worst wRC+ last year among qualified hitters, but was +13 in Outs Above Average at shortstop. The Brewers are without star outfielder Jackson Chourio and first baseman Andrew Vaughn both out with hand injuries.
The Brewers have long been known as a pitching factory, and had the second-best ERA in baseball last year at 3.59. Chad Patrick bounced around before the Brewers acquired him in 2023, and he proved to be a versatile starter for them, earning some Rookie of the Year votes last year. He gave up just a solo home run as the only run in 4.1 innings of work in his season debut against the White Sox. He relies heavily on a cutter and sinker, yet had a high flyball rate last year of 44 percent.
Brandon Sproat was a top 100 prospect in the Mets organization before he was traded to the Brewers in the Freddy Peralta deal. He was teammates with Jac Caglianone at Florida for a year, before becoming a second-round pick. He had a 4.24 ERA in 26 games in Triple-A last year, and throws a hard sinker at 96 mph, along with a cutter, sweeper, curve, and change up.
Kyle Harrison was a former top 100 prospect with the Giants, and was traded to the Red Sox last summer in the Rafael Devers trade before the Brewers acquired him this offseason. A southpaw, Harrison has struggled to retire lefties in his career – they’re batting .269/.333/.473 against him. He gave up just one run – a solo home run – in five innings of work in his season debut, with eight strikeouts.
Michael Wacha was scratched from Friday’s start due to illness and Luinder Avila will be called up to make his first MLB start. Avila made 13 relief appearances with the Royals late last year and is the #9 ranked prospect in the farm system by MLB Pipeline. The game Friday night will air exclusively on Apple TV as part of their Friday Night Baseball package.
Trevor Megill had a career-high 30 saves in just 50 games last year, the 19th 30-save season in Brewers history. Abner Uribe’s 98.8 mph fastball is one of the fastest in baseball. Aaron Ashby had a 62.5 percent groundball rate last year, fourth-highest in baseball. Right behind him was Angel Zerpa, who the Brewers acquired from the Royals last winter in a trade for Isaac Collins and Nick Mears.
The Brewers got off to an awful start last year – they were pounded by the Yankees – then they went out and won 97 games and reached the National League Championship Series. They are a well-coached, well-prepared team that gets every ounce of talent from their roster. The Royals will have to scratch out runs when they can, as this should be a low-scoring series from two teams that can develop pitching.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
