Arizona Diamondbacks Vs. Milwaukee Brewers 5/25/12: Mark's Free MLB Baseball Pick - Sports Chat Place

The Milwaukee Brewers embark on a west coast road swing with a stop at the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Milwaukee sits in fifth place in the National League Central and their numbers tell us they deserve exactly that as their pitching and hitting have shown up on occasion and hardly resemble what we saw from a team that won the division a year ago. Wednesday's 8-5 victory was just the team's third in ten games as the offense came through with a six run first. That was a much needed boost with starter Marco Estrada injuring his quad after just one inning. Kameron Loe and Manny Parra allowed five runs in four innings to make things interesting before tree relievers tossed scoreless innings. The Bats totaled ten hits and five walks with Aramis Ramirez smacking a three run double while Jonathan Lucroy hit a two run homer. Milwaukee hands the ball to Yovani Gallardo in the series opener hoping he continues his torrid pitching while getting some support from his lineup. Gallardo has allowed just eight runs over his past four starts covering 24 innings but has 1-2 with a no decision as support from the pen and bats have been sub par.

The Diamondbacks are certainly in no danger of falling in to the lower tier of the National League West but have to get things in order if they hope to overcome San Francisco and chase down Los Angeles and repeat as division champions. The D-Backs throttled the Dodgers by an 11-4 count on Wednesday but have been playing .500 ball over the past few weeks which won't be enough to change their standing in the west. Both the arms and bats have yet to be consistent or get on  the same page although Wednesday was a step in the right direction. Joe Saunders wasn't great wit four runs allowed over on seven hits and a free pass but he did strike out seven over 6.1 frames. The bats didn't need much help with a 14 hit, seven walk attack with Ryan Roberts and Justin Upton both going deep while driving in five runs. The Diamondbacks turn to Ian Kennedy to break a personal four game losing streak in which he has struggled twice and was outstanding in the two others. In the bad starts Kennedy gave up 12 runs in 11.1 innings but only allowed four runs over 13 frames in the good starts.

Let's put this game in perspective; both teams have talent but right now they are not playing like it. This seems like a toss up but I think Gallardo has picked it up and I'll take him as a dog and hope for some runs...