Game Thread #91: Milwaukee Brewers (50-40) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (56-35)

Brewers host star-studded Dodgers in matchup of All-Star pitchers

Next week, Freddy Peralta and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be teammates on the National League All-Star Team. Tonight, they’ll face off as the star-laden Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the National League’s best record, visit Milwaukee for the first of six games they’ll play in the next 13 days.

Yamamoto is the one star pitcher on the Dodgers’ roster who has actually been healthy this season, as Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Roki Sasaki, and Blake Snell are all currently on the 60-day injured list, and Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani are at various levels of just returning from injury. Yamamoto has made every start this season — with tonight’s he’ll match last season’s total — and he’s pitched extremely well. Through 96 ²⁄₃ innings across 17 starts, Yoshi has a 2.51 ERA (160 ERA+) and 3.10 FIP, and he’s been striking out over 10 batters per nine innings. The Brewers didn’t see him last year, so this will be the first time he’s faced the Brewers in his career. Yesterday, he was named to this year’s All-Star team, his first selection.

Speaking of, Freddy Peralta is starting tonight and will be (at least for now) the Brewers’ lone representative at the Midsummer Classic. Peralta has made 18 starts and pitched 99 innings, and owns a 2.91 ERA (138 ERA+) and 3.83 FIP with 9.5 strikeouts and 3.2 walks per nine innings. He’s coming off a win in his last start against the Mets, when he allowed two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out six in six innings. Peralta faced the Dodgers twice last season, and got beat up a bit — he allowed three runs in four innings a year ago yesterday in a 5-3 loss (in which he allowed a homer to Will Smith) and four runs in six innings in a 5-2 loss on August 12 (when Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani homered off of him).

Andrew Vaughn, officially called up today to replace the injured Rhys Hoskins on the roster, will get thrown right into it today and will start at first base and bat fifth. After playing a nice game at shortstop yesterday in place of Joey Ortiz, Andruw Monasterio remains in the lineup tonight. For an explanation, let’s turn to the subtleties of manager Pat Murphy:

Other than that, Christian Yelich and Jackson Chourio have swapped places after Chourio batted out of the clean-up spot in five of the last six games. The Dodgers’ lineup still wows you when you look at it, with Ohtani, Betts, and Freddie Freeman at the top of the lineup and All-Star starter Smith fourth.

First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Network and the Brewers Radio Network.