The Milwaukee Brewers will seek their first five-game winning streak of the season Friday when they open a three-game road series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Milwaukee is coming off a thrilling three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox. The Brewers nipped the Red Sox 3-2 in the series opener on Monday before posting walk-off wins in the next two contests.
Christian Yelich delivered a 10th-inning grand slam to end the Tuesday affair before Caleb Durbin played the hero role with a 10th-inning sacrifice fly to plate the decisive run on Wednesday.
“No matter what happens, we’re scrapping and battling,” Durbin said. “You saw it this whole series, but especially the last two games. Going into extra innings, you could feel that we never thought we were going to lose.”
Philadelphia has been playing some impressive ball of its own, although the team dropped its most recent contest. The Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 on Thursday afternoon for their 11th win in 12 games before falling 9-3 in the second game of the doubleheader.
Philadelphia played its past three contests without Bryce Harper, who was diagnosed with an elbow contusion after getting hit by a pitch in the series opener against Atlanta on Tuesday. Harper likely will not be available for the Friday contest against Milwaukee.
“He’s going to miss a few games, I would think,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said.
A two-time National League MVP, Harper is batting .267 with eight homers and 33 RBIs on the season.
“We want to get him back right away,” teammate Kyle Schwarber said, “and hopefully it’s not going to be too much longer.”
One player who certainly will be on the Phillies’ lineup card is Taijuan Walker (2-3, 2.97 ERA). The veteran right-hander has made seven starts and two relief appearances this season, posting much different results than last season, when he went 3-7 with a 7.10 ERA.
“I feel confident,” Walker said after giving up three runs in five innings during a 9-5 win over the Colorado Rockies in his latest start on May 21. “I think that’s the biggest thing, just being confident in all my stuff, knowing that my stuff’s playing well. I can get outs in whatever role I do. The biggest thing for me is just keeping my confidence up.”
Walker is 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA in two career starts against the Brewers.
He will be opposed on Friday by Quinn Priester (1-2, 4.32 ERA), who, like Walker, has made exactly seven starts and two relief appearances this season. Most recently, the 24-year-old righty limited the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run over six innings with a season-high seven strikeouts on Saturday.
“I got off to a rocky start (in my career),” said Priester, who had a 7.74 ERA with the Pirates as a rookie in 2023, “and it’s easy to fall into that negative trap: ‘Can I do this?’ Now I know I can. It’s just about being as consistent as possible. Every start, we’re going to get better.”
In two career outings (one start) against the Phillies, Priester is 1-0 with a 7.50 ERA. He certainly will want to keep a close eye on Schwarber, who ranks second in the National League with 19 homers, as well as Nick Castellanos, who had five hits in the Thursday doubleheader.
For Milwaukee, Sal Frelick went 6-for-10 in the Boston series as his batting average (.294) and OPS (.763) continue to rise.
–Field Level Media
