Milwaukee Brewers vs. New York Mets

Two teams that were picked to figure in their respective divisional races have struggled as of late and risk falling out of contention if they continue on their losing spirals. One team will continue while another will slightly improve when the Milwaukee Brewers welcome in the New York Mets for three games beginning Monday.

The Brewers (40-35) are in a bit better shape than the Mets (37-37) as they come into this series winners of two out of three, while New York was swept by the Yankees in the final interleague series of the season.

Milwaukee had come into their series with the San Francisco Giants over the weekend, losers of five of the last six and hope their series victory over the Giants is the turning point they were seeking. The Milwaukee Brewers were able to forge a tie in the NL Central after the St. Louis Cardinals dropped two of three in their weekend series with the Minnesota Twins.

New York has fallen to .500, for the first time since May 6, and have to be increasingly frustrated after a promising series prior to the Yankees coming into CitiField for the first time was preceded by a gritty four-game series with the then-red hot Cardinals three times.

That momentum did not last as the Mets were outscored 18-3 in their series with the Yankees, including being shutout on Saturday. The New York Mets dropped five out of the six games with their crosstown rival this season and went 5-10 against American League teams.

Going back into NL play could help the Mets, as it did last week against St. Louis, and they claimed the earlier series, April 17-19, two games to one against the Brewers.

One bright spot of recent weeks for New York has been Fernando Nieve (3-0, 1.31), who will be vying for his fourth straight win. Nieve allowed just three hits over six shutout innings of an 11-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals

He will be facing former Met Braden Looper (5-4, 5.16), who is going in the opposite direction of Nieve. Looper will attempt to pick up his first win this month after going 0-1 with a 7.18 ERA in five starts in June. His last win came May 29th in Cincinnati.

In his last game, he pitched solidly, allowing three runs over six innings and was hit with a line drive, but showed no real ill-effects.

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