Milwaukee Brewers Vs. Pittsburgh Pirates 6/3/12: Mark's Free MLB Baseball Pick - Sports Chat Place

The Milwaukee Brewers host the Pittsburgh Pirates in a National League Central clash.

Pittsburgh has been playing great baseball over the past few weeks but this is a team that must play well each and every time out to be competitive as they aren't blessed with an abundance of talent. That is especially true of their offense which considers four runs an explosive game. Following a 5-1 loss to Milwaukee Saturday, the Pirates have still won six of eight as the offense stalled and the pitching was AWOL. Starter Erik Bedard dropped his sixth when he gave up five runs on five hits and a trio of free passes in only 3.2 innings pitched. That put the offense behind the eight ball with just five hits and a walk to their credit with Garrett Jones sixth homer of the season the extent of the Pirates offense. Pittsburgh hands the ball to James McDonald who is having the best year of any member of the rotation. McDonald comes off his best outing of 2012 when he shut out Cincinnati on four hits through eight innings of a 4-1 victory.

The good thing about the Brewers winning Saturday beyond the obvious was it was a direct rebound from a loss on Friday. Milwaukee really needed it too as it gave the team their seventh win in  ten games and kept the momentum going. The offense has been plating the runs when they have won in this stretch although the way starter Shaun Marcum threw the ball, he didn't need much help. Marcum gave up a solo homer and five hits overall while whiffing eight over seven innings of work. The offense made sure his effort stood up with a seven hit, six walk attack behind a three RBI night from Brooks Conrad who smacked a two run bomb and hit a sacrifice fly while Cody Ransom delivered a two run single. Milwaukee sends Michael Fiers to the bump for his second career start hoping he can duplicate his success from his debut when he gave up one run on five hits over seven frames of a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers.

I have followed McDonald from day one and he is very aggressive on the mound and tries to put hitters away as quick as possible. I honestly don't know what to expect from Fiers so and don't know why a guy with one career start is favored so I'll go with the visitors...