#901 San Francisco Giants (Cobb) -125 over Milwaukee Brewers (Rea) 1:10 PM CT
Milwaukee still leads the NL Central but the Brewers have nearly erased an amazing month of April with a 9-15 run in May while -51 in run differential. Milwaukee has been outscored by a combined total of 23-2 in this series as the Giants go for a rare four-game sweep on Sunday. Colin Rea has worse-than-average numbers this season in eight appearances with a 5.24 FIP and he is coming off a stunning performance in his last start, giving the Brewers 16 scoreless outs to beat Houston for his first win of the season. Rea has a .250 BABIP this season compared to a career average of .280 while he is on pace to have a career best strand rate despite an ERA of only 4.71, numbers that are not likely sustainable. Milwaukee’s once excellent bullpen owns a 5.50 relief ERA in the past 10 games while in contrast the Giants have a 0.62 ERA from relievers with a 0.78 WHIP, helping San Francisco climb back into NL contention with a 10-2 run since May 15. Despite that success and the contrasting current trajectories, the Giants are only a slight favorite Sunday with Alex Cobb on the mound. Cobb has been a solid starter each of the past two seasons since struggling in limited action in 2019 and 2020. He is on pace for an All-Star season this year with a 2.17 ERA in 10 starts. Cobb has had an over 61 percent groundball rate in back-to-back season as he has transformed into one of the top groundball pitchers in the NL and he has allowed only five home runs in 58 innings. He had seven scoreless innings vs. the Brewers a few weeks ago and one of Milwaukee’s best hitters Willy Adames is now on the IL to further downgrade the current form of Milwaukee’s lineup that is 25th in MLB in scoring and home runs.