The Milwaukee Brewers not only will be chasing a 10th consecutive victory on Sunday, they will be out to finish a perfect 6-0 season series against the host Los Angeles Dodgers.
Neither team has gone perfect against the other in a single season, with the Brewers going 6-1 in the 2012 season series that included a 4-0 mark on the road.
Milwaukee’s latest victory over Los Angeles came Saturday after Isaac Collins and Joey Ortiz hit home runs and William Contreras added a two-run double in an 8-7 decision.
All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta tied a season high by allowing four runs, but the bullpen did just enough with Trevor Megill pitching a scoreless ninth inning for his 23rd save.
The Brewers are one game behind the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central, one season after they won the division by 10 games but were eliminated in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“That’s what’s kind of cool and unique about us: While there’s not a bunch of big names, there’s a bunch of guys who are hungry still,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They remember the kind of year they had last year and how it ended. I think they’re still hungry.”
The Brewers will send left-hander Jose Quintana (6-3, 3.28 ERA) to the mound for his second consecutive start against the Dodgers. Quintana gave up one run on two hits over six innings against Los Angeles at home July 9 when Milwaukee earned a 3-2 victory in 10 innings.
In 14 career appearances (11 starts) against the Dodgers, Quintana is 3-2 with a 2.00 ERA.
The Dodgers found the kind of offense they have been looking for Saturday with home runs from Shohei Ohtani, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas. Edman had two hits to put a 0-for-29 downturn to rest.
And yet the seven runs and 10 hits were not enough.
“They’re pitching really good,” the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernandez said when asked about five consecutive losses to the Brewers. “When somebody deserves credit, you have to give it to them. They … have been playing really good baseball against us.”
The Dodgers are set to send veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw (4-1, 3.38 ERA) to the mound after he retired the two batters he faced at Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
Kershaw will be facing the Brewers for his second consecutive start, giving up two runs on six hits in six innings on July 8 in what ended up as his only loss of the season so far.
In 20 career starts against Milwaukee, he is 9-6 with a 2.86 ERA and has 127 strikeouts over 122 2/3 innings.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts the day off just two days after the season resumed from the All-Star break. Betts was 3-for-28 (.107) over his previous seven games.
“He was more than willing and wanting to be out there, but for me, I felt I wanted to take (the decision) out of hands,” Roberts said. “… I don’t know how long (the rest) is going to be. It could be one night, it could be two. My expectation is that he will be back in there (Sunday).”
The Dodgers not only have lost nine of their past 11, they have lost five consecutive home games going back to a three-game sweep by the Houston Astros from July 4-6.