Milwaukee Brewers-Texas Rangers Preview (8/13-8/14)

From now on, we are previewing the upcoming series with a variety of things. The pitching matchups with the TV times, five things to watch, notable musician from the opposing team's area, Twitter follows from the opposition and a prediction. 

Probable Pitchers and TV Times
Tuesday:      Marco Estrada (4-4 4.96) v. Alexi Ogando (5-3 3.28) 7:05 pm FSNWI
Wednesday: Tyler Thornburg (1-0 1.72) v. Matt Garza (2-1 3.38) 7:05 pm FSNWI

Five Things to Watch
1.) What the hell are the Brewers doing with Thorny? - I thought we were done with Thornburg as a starter, but it appears the Brewers are trotting him out for another start. My assumption is Yovani Gallardo is not quite ready to go and they want to go with their best pitcher not in the rotation. My buddy Eric talked about his annoyance with how the Brewers have managed Thornburg and I am starting to feel the same way. Texas will be his toughest test yet. I am still rooting for him.

2.) Red hot Rangers - The Rangers have won eight straight games and won the last nine of ten making a blazing impact on the AL West race as well as the American League standings. They are benefiting off having a weak schedule in the past week facing the Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros and now getting the Brewers. That's like having three straight open-book exams.  Although the Crew has pitched better in the month having a team ERA for starters at 2.37 and playing generally better, but Milwaukee is not facing world-beaters either.

3.) Hello old, misogynistic friend - Matt Garza is pitching well since getting traded to the Rangers from the Chicago Cubs although he seems to run the same circles as Don Draper.  He also tends to pitch well against the Brewers having a 2.66 ERA in seven starts against the Crew. It is hard to remember a time when the Brewers got to Garza pretty good. Hopefully no one decides to bunt against Garza leading him to call out their wife or significant other.  

4.) SnoTap's Scooter watch - Even though it is two games, I will still be keeping an eye on how Scooter Gennett does against two solid pitchers. It is not like I want Gennett to fail, rather I am more than interested to see how he does with regular starting time, something people have pleaded for in the last couple of months.  If you are curious when I will eat crow about him, it will probably be May of 2014.

5.) Glad it's not Yu - First of all, what an awful pun. Big shoutout to the MLB schedule, the Rangers rotation and everyone else who made it possible for Yu Darvish to start on Monday instead of Tuesday.  The Brewers facing King Felix then Darvish would have been impossible.  

Music from Texas? Uh..Dallas? Arlington?


Probably our hardest music one because Texas is way too big so we reduce it to Dallas area.  With that, we found a lot of popular artists from the Dallas area and decided to go with Meat Loaf. Why? I have no idea honestly. One of the forgotten guys in music.  

Rangers Twitter follow
Lana Berry is one of my 2013 MLB Twitter follows. She claims not to be funny in her Twitter bio but I tend to find her funny then again I won worst jokes in high school so the bar is probably pretty low for me.

Charlie.