Here are three things we\u2019ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:<\/p>\n
1. Brewers go for 11 in a row:<\/p>\n
The Cubs have been leading the pace in the NL Central this year thanks largely to the breakout of Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> and their offseason acquisition of Kyle Tucker<\/a>. The Brewers have been on an incredible tear in recent weeks, however, and now sit in a first-place tie with Chicago. After going 16-9 in June, Milwaukee has gone 12-3 in July \u2014 including wins in each of their last ten games. They completed a sweep of the NL West-leading Dodgers last night that pulled them even with the Cubs at 59-40 on the season.<\/p>\n Milwaukee technically remains in second place after dropping three of five games played in the season series between the two clubs so far, but with more than 60 games left to play for both teams (including eight against each other), we\u2019re in for a close battle down the stretch. In the short-term, the Brewers will look to keep their win streak rolling against the Mariners and star righty George Kirby<\/a>. An early-season injury and a rough return from the IL have left Kirby with a pedestrian 4.50 ERA in ten starts, but he\u2019s looked more like himself since the start of June with a 3.18 ERA and 3.07 FIP in 45 1\/3 innings. The Brewers will counter with right-hander Brandon Woodruff<\/a>, who has made just two starts following a long road to recovery from his own injury woes but has pitched to a sterling 2.61 ERA in 10 1\/3 frames.<\/p>\n 2. Series Preview: Yankees @ Blue Jays<\/p>\n The Yankees have fallen out of first place in the AL East, and they\u2019re set to get the opportunity to fight their way back to the top this week with a three-game set in Toronto. The Blue Jays have a three-game lead over New York, meaning a sweep for the Yanks would pull them into a tie for the division lead. That effort starts tonight with southpaw Carlos Rodon<\/a> (3.08 ERA) on the mound versus veteran righty Kevin Gausman<\/a> (4.19 ERA). Rookie Cam Schlittler<\/a> will make the second start of his career tomorrow opposite Max Scherzer<\/a>, who\u2019s just a week from his 41st birthday. The series will conclude with Yankees ace Max Fried<\/a> (2.43 ERA) on the mound against veteran righty Chris Bassitt<\/a> (3.89 ERA).<\/p>\n 3. Trade activity on the horizon:<\/p>\n The month of July has been relatively quiet in terms of the trade market so far, but that figures to change in the coming days with just ten days left until the trade deadline. While plenty of teams are still weighing whether to buy or sell, signals about the impending decisions are becoming more clear. Milwaukee\u2019s recent hot streak was enough for GM Matt Arnold to more or less take trading Freddy Peralta<\/a> off the table<\/a>, for example, while on the other end of the spectrum recent struggles in Cleveland have led the Guardians to at least listen on<\/a> high-end relievers Emmanuel Clase<\/a> and Cade Smith<\/a>. Orioles GM Mike Elias effectively confirmed yesterday<\/a> that he\u2019s in active discussions regarding his club\u2019s impending free agents. With the deadline creeping closer every day, the dam could break and unleash a flurry of deals any day now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are three things we\u2019ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day: 1.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-13053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}