Wednesday afternoon baseball and we will see the Cincinnati Reds take on the Milwaukee Brewers in game 3 of their 3 game series from Milwaukee. The game is scheduled for a 2:10 (ET) pm start time and it will be televised live locally. Currently the odds have Cincinnati favored at -140, while Detroit is dogs of +132. The total for the game sits at 8.5 runs.
Free Analysis: Cincinnati has been swept just once this season, losing three at Cleveland from June 18-20. The Reds, who have dropped three straight for the first time since July 3-5, maintained their 3 1/2-game lead over Pittsburgh, however, as the Pirates lost to Arizona on Tuesday. The club had won five in a row and 15 of 16 overall, not to mention nine straight on the road, prior to this series.Matt Latos gets the ball, as he tries to stop the bleeding for the Reds today. Latos extended his personal winning streak to three games with a superb outing against Pittsburgh on Friday, when he scattered four hits over 7 1/3 innings while hitting his third career home run. Latos recorded his first win in three career decisions against Milwaukee on June 25 as he allowed one run and struck out 13 en route to the first of his back-to-back complete games. Starting with that contest, Latos has gone 5-1 with a 2.13 ERA in his last eight starts - yielding two runs or fewer in seven of them - after posting a 5.20 ERA in his first 14. The Milwaukee Brewers will be trying for their second straight three-game sweep at home this afternoon after taking the first two in this series and their previous 3 vs the lowly Astros. Milwaukee has totaled 40 runs and 12 homers during its five-game home winning streak, sandwiched around three weekend losses at St. Louis in which the Brewers scored four times and failed to homer. 2B Rickie Weeks, who doubled and scored a run Tuesday, is batting .395 with four doubles and three homers over his last 13 games. He may be the Brewers' best bet to do some damage against Latos, as he's 5 for 10 with two homers and a double in their matchups, while Ryan Braun is 0 for 8 with three strikeouts. After rookie Mike Fiers retired the first 18 Cincinnati batters he faced Tuesday, the Brewers will give the ball to veteran Randy Wolf (3-8, 5.57) for the series finale. Wolf's 11 career wins over the Reds are his second-most against any opponent, but Cincinnati outfielder Jay Bruce is 9 for 22 (.409) with two homers and two doubles off him. The left-hander has dropped his last two outings overall, and Milwaukee is 6-15 when he starts this year. He allowed five runs and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings of Friday's 9-3 loss to the Cardinals and is now trying to avoid losing three consecutive starts for the first time since June 17-July 2, 2008, when he dropped four in a row for the Padres.
Free Pick: Let's do the old fade Randy Wolf trick here. Randy has been bad this year with a 3-8 mark overall and a 5.57 ERA, while the Brewers have gone just 6-15 in his starts this year. At home he is just 2-5 with a 4-89 ERA, while in his day starts he has gone 0-3 with a 4.46 ERA. The Brewers are just 1-5 in his days starts. Randy has decent numbers vs the Reds, allowed 3 ER's or less in 8 of his last 9 starts vs them, but he has yet to face them this year, and as I said this year he is bad. Mat Latos has really been pitching well of late as he is 3-0 with a 1.77 ERA in his last 3 starts. On the road his ERA is slightly high at 4.50, but his offense has bailed him out as he is 4-1 in his road starts, while he is a perfect 4-0 with 3.47 ERA in his days starts. The Reds are 5-2 in those starts. Matt faced the Brewers once this year (at home) and he allowed just 1 rin in 9 innings in that game. Milwaukee has taken the first two of the series, but I just can't see the Reds getting swept here. Overall the still have the better offense, they have the much better starter on the mound and the motivation of looking to avoid the sweep will all be too much for the Brewers to handle in this one.
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