St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers 9/22/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

Two playoff-hopeful NL Central squads will square off when the St. Louis Cardinals travel on the road to American Family Field to take on the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee has been a surprise in the MLB this season, and comes in with the third best record in the National League at 91-59. The Brewers have already secured a playoff spot and with a 10.5 game lead are almost certainly going to win the division. St. Louis has rattled off nine straight games to move back into the second wildcard spot, they lead the Reds by 3.5 games at 80-69.

The Brewers offense has had a ton of struggles this season, they come in hitting just .235 as a team, ranking 26th in the MLB but are tenth in scoring offense averaging 4.63 runs per game. Center fielder Avisail Garcia has led the charge and is in the midst of a career year hitting .270 with 28 home runs and 83 RBIs, leading the team in all three categories. Christian Yelich had one of the worst years’ of his career last year, and continued his struggles into 2021 hitting .247 with just 8 home runs and 48 RBIs,

The pitching staff, and specifically the one-two punch at the top of the rotation, is the reason the Brewers are among the best in baseball this season. We won’t see either of those guys in this game with Brett Anderson slated to make the start, he’s 4-8 with a 4.18 ERA and 1.34 WHIP on the year. Anderson hasn’t pitched since September 1st, when he left a start against the Giants with a shoulder injury, he was scoreless through two innings allowing three hits and a walk.

St. Louis has been a slightly above average offense thus far hitting .241 as a unit which ranks 14th in team batting average, but they’re scoring 4.25 runs per game which is 25th in scoring offense. The offseason addition of Nolan Arenado can not be understated, he’s leading the team with 33 home runs and 101 RBIs, while Paul Goldschmidt also continues to produce hitting a team-high .288 with 26 home runs and 88 RBIs.

Miles Mikolas will get the start for the Cardinals and has been extremely limited over the last three seasons, he sat out the 2020 season and due to an issue in his throwing arm has made just seven starts this season. When he’s healthy, he’s been great going 18-4 with a 2.83 ERA in 2018. He pitched well in his last outing, throwing 5 ⅔ scoreless allowing three hits and two walks while striking out three in a win over the Padres.