The Milwaukee Brewers are set to host the Arizona Diamondbacks for a three-game set beginning Tuesday evening to wrap up their homestand. Milwaukee is coming off a series loss to the Pirates to begin the homestand, though they did pick up their first shutout win on Sunday, taking that one 5-0 behind a strong 12-strikeout showing from Kyle Harrison.

On the other side, Arizona is returning from their series split with the Padres in Mexico City, as they dropped Saturday’s game 6-4 before a comeback win on Sunday. They sit at 15-12 on the season, one game better than the 14-13 Brewers.

Milwaukee’s injured list (luckily) hasn’t grown much, but it also hasn’t shrunk. First baseman Andrew Vaughn and outfielder Jackson Chourio are both on the verge of rehab assignments as they recover from hand injuries, while Quinn Priester made his second rehab outing with Nashville over the weekend. He’s hoping for an early to mid-May return. Relievers Jared Koenig and Rob Zastryzny are both hoping to return in May, too, while outfielder/DH Christian Yelich is still shelved with a groin strain.

The Diamondbacks are missing a whole bunch of players, so let’s split them up into pitchers and position players. For the pitching staff, Blake Walston (midseason), Andrew Saalfrank (out for the season), Justin Martinez (second half), old friend Corbin Burnes (midseason), A.J. Puk (midseason), and Cristian Mena (TBD) are all out. Offensively, Arizona is without Pavin Smith (TBD), fellow former friend Carlos Santana (TBD), Jordan Lawlar (June), Tyler Locklear (mid-May/early June), and Gabriel Moreno, who is expected to rejoin the team for this series after missing the last couple of weeks with an oblique strain. Right-hander Zac Gallen and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo are also considered day to day with minor injuries, though Gallen is not lined up to pitch in this series.

Offensively, the Brewers haven’t homered in the last week, and they’ve struggled with inconsistency throughout the early going of the season. Brice Turang had a rough week but still led the team with four RBIs, as he’s now hitting .258/.391/.462 with four homers, 18 RBIs, 20 runs, and seven steals this season. Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers lead the team with five homers. Garrett Mitchell has also shown flashes of his potential, and William Contreras remains a team leader. Beyond that, there isn’t much to say about the Brewer offense. As a team, Milwaukee is hitting .231/.329/.349 (.678 OPS ranks 26th), with 19 homers (tied for last), 132 runs (tied for ninth), and 36 steals (first).

Much as Perdomo did a season ago, Ildemaro Vargas has quietly turned into one of the best hitters in baseball this year with Arizona. Over 20 games, he’s hitting .367/.383/.722 with a team-high six homers, 20 RBIs, and 18 runs scored. Nolan Arenado and Ketel Marte each have four homers, while Corbin Carroll has three homers, four triples, and four steals. Jose Fernandez also has three homers and a .342 batting average thus far. Adrian Del Castillo, Aramis Garcia, James McCann, Tim Tawa, Jorge Barrosa, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Alek Thomas round out the roster (note: the team also added Jesus Valdez as the 27th man for the Mexico City Series). As a team, Arizona is hitting .255/.310/.426 (.736 OPS ranks seventh), with 27 homers (tied for 20th), 132 runs (tied for ninth), and 16 steals (tied for 21st).

Aaron Ashby and Grant Anderson still lead Milwaukee’s bullpen in appearances, with DL Hall turning in a solid 2.31 ERA over 11 outings. Abner Uribe has had some bumps this season, but he looked good over the weekend against Pittsburgh. After a hot start, Angel Zerpa has struggled in recent weeks, while Trevor Megill has had a reverse trajectory. Jake Woodford and Shane Drohan round out the current bullpen depth chart. As a staff, the Brewers have a 3.82 team ERA (eighth), including a 3.59 starter ERA (fifth) and a 4.09 bullpen ERA (15th). They’ve struck out 250 batters (ninth) over 240 1/3 innings.

The Arizona bullpen is led by Juan Morillo, who has a 1.98 ERA with 16 strikeouts over 13 2/3 innings. Closer Paul Sewald is a perfect 7-for-7 in save opportunities, but he has a 4.50 ERA and three losses. Former Brewer minor leaguer Taylor Clarke and Jonathan Loáisiga have matching 3.29 ERAs over 13 2/3 innings. Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel, Andrew Hoffman, and swingman Brandon Pfaadt (five appearances, three starts) round out the bullpen. As a staff, the D-backs have a 4.53 team ERA (24th), including a 4.62 starter ERA (25th) and a 4.67 bullpen ERA (22nd). They’ve struck out 204 batters (29th) over 240 1/3 innings.

Probable Pitchers

Tuesday, April 28 @ 6:40 p.m.: RHP Chad Patrick (1-1, 2.35 ERA, 4.37 FIP) vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (1-1, 9.31 ERA, 9.02 FIP)

Patrick has had a solid season thus far, even if the underlying numbers don’t back that up. He has a 2.35 ERA, with six earned runs on 21 hits and eight walks over 23 innings, striking out just 11. After DL Hall opened for him on Wednesday night in Detroit, he went four innings, getting roughed up for four runs on six hits and a walk, striking out two. A fourth-round pick by these D-backs back in 2021, he made one start against them last season, spanning 4 1/3 innings with no runs allowed on five hits and two walks, striking out three in a no-decision.

Kelly, 37, is in his eighth MLB season. A former three-time draft pick (in 2007, 2009, and 2010), Kelly spent four seasons in Korea before breaking through with Arizona in 2019. He spent his first six full seasons with the D-backs before being traded at last year’s deadline to the Rangers. He returned to Arizona this offseason and, after starting the season on the IL, has made two starts this year. His first start against the Orioles resulted in a win as he allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings with three strikeouts, but his last time out, he got roughed up by the White Sox, allowing eight runs and striking out five over 4 1/3 innings. For the season, he’s totaled 9 2/3 innings with 10 runs allowed on 15 hits (four homers) and seven walks with eight strikeouts. Kelly has made 10 career appearances against the Brewers, with a 5-2 record, a 2.95 ERA, and 60 strikeouts over 61 innings. His only start last season came while with Texas, when he picked up the win despite allowing three runs on 10 hits, striking out six over 5 2/3 innings.

Wednesday, April 29 @ 6:40 p.m.: RHP Brandon Sproat (0-1, 6.45 ERA, 6.02 FIP) vs. LHP Eduardo Rodríguez (2-0, 2.89 ERA, 4.98 FIP)

Sproat, who got out to a horrid start in his first two outings, has looked much better in his last three appearances. He took a no-decision on Thursday in Detroit, as he went 5 1/3 innings with three runs allowed on four hits and two walks, striking out four on 76 pitches. The former second-round pick has never faced the D-backs before.

Rodríguez, 33, is in his third season with the D-backs after signing a four-year, $80 million contract that runs through 2027. While his ERA hovered just over 5.00 in each of his first two seasons in the desert, he’s had more statistical success this season. Even though his 4.98 FIP is near that 5.00 mark, he has a 2.89 ERA with 10 runs allowed (nine earned) and 18 strikeouts over 28 innings through five starts. He’s allowed four runs in each of his last two starts (against the Orioles and White Sox), spanning 10 innings with seven strikeouts. Rodríguez has made four career starts against Milwaukee, with an 0-3 record, a 4.58 ERA, and 16 strikeouts over 19 2/3 innings. That includes a pair of starts last season — both losses — in which he totaled 8 2/3 innings with eight runs allowed (seven earned) and four strikeouts.

Thursday, April 30 @ 12:40 p.m.: RHP Brandon Woodruff (2-1, 3.77 ERA, 4.09 FIP) vs. RHP Michael Soroka (4-0, 2.60 ERA, 2.69 FIP)

Woodruff just took his first loss of the season on Friday night against Pittsburgh, as he had the tall task of going head-to-head with Paul Skenes, who has his A-plus-plus stuff in a 6-0 Pirate win. Woodruff allowed three runs in that one, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out three. For the season, he’s totaled 28 2/3 innings with a 3.77 ERA, 4.09 FIP, and 23 strikeouts. Woodruff has made eight career appearances (seven starts) against Arizona, with a 3-1 record, a 4.81 ERA, and 49 strikeouts over 39 1/3 innings. One of those wins came in his lone appearance against them last August, when he allowed five runs over 5 2/3 innings but picked up eight strikeouts in a 7-5 Brewer win.

Soroka, 28, is in his seventh MLB season and with his fifth team. After agreeing to a one-year, $7.5 million deal this offseason, he’s been a bright spot for Arizona early this season. Through five starts, he’s a perfect 4-0 with a 2.60 ERA, 2.69 FIP, and 34 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings. His last start was his lone no-decision of the year, though he still went five innings with one run allowed and six strikeouts in a game the D-backs ultimately lost late. Soroka has made two career appearances against Milwaukee, one with the Braves (2023) and one with the White Sox (2024). In those two appearances, he went 1-1 with seven runs allowed over seven innings, striking out six.

How to Watch & Listen

Tuesday, April 28: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Wednesday, April 29: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Thursday, April 30: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Prediction

I think I’m going to start writing these predictions with the caveat that it really just depends on which Brewer offense shows up. I’ll bet on the Crew, though, and predict they take two of three this week.

While Tyler Glasnow, Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan, and Shohei Ohtani combine for an 11-0 record, Yoshinobu Yamamoto sits at 2-2 heading into his sixth start of the season. The trend of Yamamoto not receiving adequate run support, particularly in contrast with the regular numbers that this offense puts up, was a major theme of his efforts last season. Early on in 2026, the outlook feels eerily similar, with the Dodgers failing to score more than two runs in the majority of Yamamoto’s outings—he last pitched against the Giants at Oracle Park, taking the loss while covering seven innings of three-run ball as the offense went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

This matchup versus the surprisingly solid Miami Marlins will provide the ideal opportunity for the Dodgers to break this sequence of underwhelming performances for their ace. That’s the case since they’ll face Chris Paddack, who has lost every single one of his four starts in 2026, allowing an outrageous 31 hits in 24 innings of work.

It’s too early to simply assume that this trend when Yamamoto is on the mound, will follow the same path as last season, especially when the offense has been as productive as it has up to this point—as a whole, the Dodgers have an OPS of .828 entering this series against Miami. Now they must go out and prove it in about as favorable a matchup as you’re going to get this whole year.

Monday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Marlins
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Start time: 7:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

For a few days last week, the Dodgers almost couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Because, for the first time in his three years with the team, Shohei Ohtani looked like a mere mortal at the plate.

From April 20-25, the four-time MVP had the worst six-game stretch of his Dodgers career, batting 3-for-23 with no extra-base hits and nine strikeouts. Dating back to April 12, he had gone 59 plate appearances without a home run, the longest such drought of his tenure with the club.

During his slump, he was struggling to lay off low pitches or keep from pulling the ball harmlessly to the right side of the infield.

For at least a little while, baseball’s two-way superhero seemed to be fighting some rarely-seen kryptonite, grinding through the kind of stretch to which he’s typically immune.

“You don’t hear the word ‘slump’ correlated with Shohei on the hitting side ever,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quipped over the weekend.

“We’re all human, we all have our stretches,” added first baseman Freddie Freeman. “But (to see it from Ohtani), it’s definitely weird.”

Indeed, while it’s easy to forget when he’s mashing 450-foot home runs, or blowing 100 mph fastballs past hitters from the mound, or accomplishing statistical feats once thought impossible in baseball’s modern era, even Ohtani has his physical limitations. 

And this year, in his return to full-time pitching following a second career Tommy John surgery, he’s getting a renewed –– and potentially telling –– early-season test.

Last week, both Roberts and several teammates noted an inevitable shift in the 31-year-old superstar so far this season. He’s had to put more focus on pitching. He’s had to factor in more between-starts recovery. He’s had to manage his overwhelming workload more delicately than ever before.

“You always feel like it’s gonna be sustainable with him, because he’s a great player, he knows how to prepare,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said. “But these kind of moments make you realize that baseball is hard. Especially when he does it the way that he’s doing it.”

“When he’s pitching in the normal rotation every week,” Freeman echoed, “it’s a whole different dynamic.”

Different, of course, does not necessarily equate to worse.

On Saturday, Freeman predicted that Ohtani’s recent skid “just means the hot streak (that will follow it) is going to be something we’ve never seen before.” 

Right on cue, the slugger collected three hits a day later, belting a 109 mph double and a 110 mph opposite-field home run on Sunday after making a tweak to his batting stance that got him better aligned with his swing.

“Starting yesterday, it started feeling a little better,” Ohtani said in Japanese during a postgame television interview. “I think my stance is the most important thing. Everything starts from there, and if I fix that, I think I can take better at-bats.”

Still, even Ohtani seemed to caution about immediately bouncing back to his typical production levels.

While he’s been known as a somewhat slow opening-month performer (at least relative to his atmospheric norms), his current .262 batting average and .876 OPS would still be the second-worst March/April marks of his nine-year MLB career.

“I just have to be patient a little longer,” he said, “and continue to make improvements.”

It’s a battle that figures to rage on for the duration of this year.

Exactly how much Ohtani himself feels like his pitching is complicating his hitting process remains an unknown (he declined to speak to any other reporters after Sunday’s game).

But over the weekend, Roberts identified that dynamic as a “common sense” factor in Ohtani’s sluggish start.

“There’s gotta be some cuts into some of the bandwidth, the production on the offensive side,” Roberts said Saturday. “What it translates to (regarding) how he’s been swinging the bat the last week, how much of that is the pitching? I don’t have an answer for that. But that’s to be understood, that there’s some kind of cut into production given how much he’s pitching.”

So far, that plan has paid dividends in each of his turns through the rotation. Entering his Tuesday night outing against the Marlins, Ohtani has a 0.38 ERA in four starts, having racked up 25 strikeouts in 24 total innings.

“He is a horse on that mound right now,” Freeman said.

The challenge moving forward will be maintaining such pitching dominance while rediscovering more consistent hitting form.

It’s not a task Freeman envies, noting how even he experiences “some days you walk into that box and you’re just like, ‘Whoa, it feels like I haven’t been in this thing in a while.’” 

And that’s without the added burden of making 100-pitch outings on a regular basis.

“When you throw 100 pitches and you throw with that kind of effort,” Roberts said of Ohtani,
“there needs to be more recovery (time behind the scenes).”

None of this means Ohtani is lowering his personal goals. During his scuffle last week, Roberts noticed his frustration through his more stoic facial expressions.

“He has high expectations for himself and his performance,” Roberts said. “So (this is) certainly not up to his standard.”

And while Sunday might’ve marked the start to a widely-expected turnaround, simply one week of mortality was a reminder of the hurdles he’ll face this year.

“He’s gotta navigate a whole ‘nother thing, where the last two years all he had to do was hit,” Freeman said. “Baseball is hard, very hard. Even the greatest players, they can it make it look easy a lot of the time. But there’s a lot of time that it’s not.”

The Jays have placed Max Scherzer on the IL with forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation, backdated to his last start.

Chase Lee has been called up and will be available tonight. Lee has been, well, interesting for the Bisons. A 1.32 ERA in 9 appearances, 13.2 innings (maybe we can use him for more than an inning at a go?), 11 hits, 2 earned (3 more unearned), 9 walks and 12 strikeouts. 9 walks in 13.2 innings is a lot.

Scherzer, you know, hasn’t been good. They aren’t saying if the arm and ankle were bothering him before last start, or if it has been going on all season, or if it is new. The way he has been pitching, they couldn’t keep sending him out there every five days. At 41, Max would have to be 100% to be effective and even then I have my doubts, but let’s see what happens when he is healthy.

This will mean that Eric Lauer will likely make another start. After that José Berríos could be back.

Welcome to the team Lee. I am very interested in seeing you pitch.