The Brewers will get an early taste of summer this week with temperatures expected to soar into the nineties under the high sky of Houston, Texas. The Astros enter Monday on top of the National League Central standings after besting the Diamondbacks two-games-to-one over the weekend. In the middle of the pack in runs scored and near the top in runs allowed, the Astros have enjoyed a relatively easy early-season schedule that has included Florida, Washington, San Francisco, and Arizona.

Offensively, Houston has been led by third-baseman Morgan Ensberg, who has followed up last year’s breakout season with a .400/.529/.800 line in his first twelve games. Lance Berkman has also been stellar at the dish, smacking six home runs while hitting .356/.426/.822. Newcomer Preston Wilson (.273/.333/.568) has also hit well while the rest of the lineup has struggled to eclipse a 700 OPS: Willy Taveras (705) and Jason Lane (716) are succeeding while Craig Biggio (579), Adam Everett (659), and Brad Ausmus (650) are not.

The Brewers, meanwhile, continue to languish near the bottom of baseball in runs scored despite solid overall offensive numbers (.266/.346/.404) due in large part to their collective struggles with runners in scoring position. With runners at second and/or third, the Crew is batting just .212 with a 706 OPS, the second-lowest average and fourth-lowest OPS in those situations in the National League.

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