Game Thread #90: Milwaukee Brewers (52-37) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (54-35)

After the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen faltered Friday night in game one of a three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, they’ll turn to their ace, Freddy Peralta, to try to turn things around in game two. He’ll face off with the Dodgers’ James Paxton, who has been an important stabilizer in the Los Angeles rotation.

Peralta has had a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde season, coupling excellent starts where he looks like the ace the team hoped he would be with others where he is inefficient and unable to put batters away. But he was excellent his last time out last Sunday when he threw seven innings and utterly dominated the Cubs after allowing a leadoff homer. He retired the last 14 batters he faced in that game and had his best outing of the season via the “game score” stat.

Conversely, Paxton is coming off his most disastrous start of the season, also last Sunday, when he allowed nine runs, all earned, in four innings against the San Francisco Giants. That bad outing does somewhat mask his general effectiveness this season, though: before last weekend, Paxton was 7-1 with a 3.39 ERA, and that one game increased his ERA nearly a full run to 4.28. That second number is more in line with what his FIP suggests: Paxton has walked a whole bunch of batters (4.5 per nine innings) and not struck many out (6.3/9), which is generally not a recipe for success.

There’s a fun twist in the Brewers’ lineup tonight: for the first time since May 3, Jackson Chourio will lead off. He’s in there as the DH tonight, possibly to get a little bit of rest for the foot which he fouled a ball off of yesterday, and he comes in riding an 11-game hitting streak. Blake Perkins is also back in center field tonight, with Garrett Mitchell out of the lineup versus the lefty Paxton.

This one is on the “big” Fox, so look for it there rather than Bally Sports Wisconsin. First pitch is at 6:15 p.m. CT.