Brewers Challenge Pirates for Wild Card
Friday September 19,2014 MLB Betting: Rivals Collide When Brewers Challenge Pirates for Wild Card
The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently second in the National League’s wild card race, and they will challenge the third placed wild card contender, the Milwaukee Brewers (79-73), this weekend in a head-to-head series starting Friday. It won’t be easy as Milwaukee has been a mainstay atop the NL Central division until recently.
For the first time in a long while, the Pirates made the postseason last fall (94-win season), so their success this year isn’t entirely surprising; although, their late season surge caught many off guard. While they are currently 81-70, until recently, it was assumed that the Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals would represent the central division in the National League.
Pittsburgh has benefited from the breakout performance of All-Star Josh Harrison, and the third baseman has meshed well with the young core already in place. Harrison’s .318 batting average is second in the NL; he’s only behind Morneau (.320). His 36 doubles put him in the same ranks as Davis, Kemp, McCutchen and Peralta. The Pirates are 16/1 to win the World Series.
Earlier in the year, in April, Pittsburgh beat Milwaukee 11-2, resulting in the Brewers’ first road loss. We’ll see if their rematch offers different results with increased pressure for Milwaukee to snatch the wild card berth.
