The Milwaukee Brewers will host the Cleveland Guardians this week in Milwaukee, and the matchup comes with both clubs still sitting near the top of their divisions. The Brewers are 43-26 and five games clear of the second-place Cardinals in the NL Central, while the Guardians are 39-33 and tied atop the AL Central even after losing José Ramírez to a hamate bone fracture.
That is why this series is drawing attention now. Milwaukee is trying to keep its hold on the No. 3 seed in the league behind the Braves and Dodgers, while Cleveland is trying to stay on top of its division without the player who drives so much of its offense. Ramírez underwent surgery over the weekend and will be out until after the All-Star break, a loss that would usually change the shape of a race like this one.
The numbers still show two teams built to survive. The Brewers are hitting.255/.340/.394 with a.734 OPS, have 63 home runs, 370 runs and 70 steals, and are led by Jake Bauers with 13 home runs. Jackson Chourio has nine home runs in 35 games and is hitting.322/.370/.572, while Brice Turang has a.261/.378/.457 line with 10 home runs and 12 steals. Aaron Ashby has also given Milwaukee a 2.72 ERA with 59 strikeouts over 43 innings.
Cleveland has kept pace with a thinner margin for error. Angel Martínez leads the Guardians with 11 home runs, Kyle Manzardo has seven and Rhys Hoskins has six while hitting.185 with a.330 OBP and 34 walks. The Guardians are hitting.232/.317/.372 with a.689 OPS and have 66 home runs, 289 runs and 69 steals. Martínez is day to day after taking a foul ball off his left foot, Chase DeLauter is day to day after crashing into the right-field wall and awaiting MRI and CT scans, and Erik Sabrowski began a rehab assignment over the weekend.
The injury list does not stop with Cleveland. The Brewers are without DL Hall, Brandon Woodruff, Coleman Crow, Quinn Priester, Carlos Rodriguez, Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Zastryzny, Logan Henderson, Jared Koenig, Angel Zerpa and Brandon Lockridge, which means Milwaukee is leaning on depth just to keep its place in the standings. That makes the series more than a simple June test: it is a check on how long two contenders can hold their ground while missing key pieces. For the Guardians, the first answer comes this week in Milwaukee, where they will have to keep winning without Ramírez for as long as they can.
