The NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers close out their three-game road set against the Pittsburgh Pirates with the finale of the series Wednesday in an early afternoon affair inside PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They toss out the first pitch at 12:35 as the Brewers look to make it two straight wins overall. 

The Brewers (77-61) have been a really nice surprise this season and they have played well over the last month or so, winning 12 of 16 overall, including a red-hot scorching nine-game winning streak. They have shown they can win close games and their offense has started to come to life too, as they erupted for seven runs in a 7-3 win over the Pirates Tuesday night.

In that contest, they collected just seven hits, but it was their pitching that supported their offense as Brandon Woodruff tossed seven scoreless frames to pick up the win. On offense, the Brewers are led by several players, including slick-fielding shortstop Willy Adames, who has belted 22 home runs to go along with 65 runs batted in but he is just hitting .209. The Brewers hit .236 as a team on the season. 

They will send out righty Freddy Peralta who sports a record of 11-8 to go along with an ERA of 3.85. He has fanned 187 hitters in 145 frames of work for Milwaukee, which has a team ERA of 3.96. 

The Pirates (64-75) had such a promising start to the season but after the first month plus they quickly faded. An inconsistent offense and bad pitching spelled the end for them and now they are looking to play spoiler. They are buried in the division as they find themselves 13 1/2 games behind the front-running Brewers. Only the St. Louis Cardinals have a worse record in the division than the Pirates, who can not get out of their own way. 

They leave little to the imagination when it comes to their offense and do not have much power in their lineup. They are led by left fielder Bryan Reynolds who has smoked 19 home runs to go along with a .265 batting average. 

They will send out Mitch Keller who takes the ball with a record of 11-8 and sports an ERA of 3.93. 

The Pirates are 4-1 in their last five games and 4-1 in their last five games against the spread. They are also 36-33 in their road games against the spread and the totals have gone over in two of their last five games and the totals have also gone over in 41 of their last 69 games at home. The Brewers are 2-3 in their last five games and 2-3 in their last five games against the spread. They are also 35-34 in their road games against the spread too. The totals have gone over in two of their last five games.