Milwaukee Brewers vs. Cincinnati Reds MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 7/18/2021

The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds meet in an NL Central division matchup in MLB action from Great American Ballpark on Sunday.

The Milwaukee Brewers will try to build on their 7-4 extra innings win over the Reds from Saturday. Christian Yelich led the charge with a double and two RBIs while Luis Urias went 2 for 6 with a double and an RBI as well. Jace Peterson, Willy Adames and Avisail Garcia each had multi-hit games with an RBI while Omar Narvaez added an RBI as well to finish off Milwaukee’s scoring as a team in the win. Tyrone Taylor added a pair of hits and Kolten Wong added a base knock as well to finish off the offense as a team in the victory. Brandon Woodruff allowed one run on two hits while striking out eight over 5.2 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Jander Gustave got the win in relief to improve to 1-0 on the year. Corbin Burnes will start here and is 4-4 with a 2.36 ERA and 128 strikeouts this season. This will be Burnes’ first career start against Cincinnati but he is 0-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 10 appearances.

The Cincinnati Reds will try to rebound from their frustrating loss to the Brewers on Saturday. Jonathan India had a solo home run while Kyle Farmer and Tyler Stephenson each had an RBI with Farmer adding a double to the cause. Mike Freeman added a base hit as well to finish off the offense for Cincinnati as the Reds had just five hits as a team in the losing effort. Luis Castillo threw six innings of five-hit shutout ball with eight strikeouts in the start, but Sean Doolittle ended up with the loss, falling to 3-1 on the year. Sonny Gray will start here and is 2-4 with a 3.19 ERA and 80 strikeouts this season. in his career, Gray is 3-2 with a 2.56 ERA and 79 strikeouts against Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is 8-2 in their last 10 Sunday games and 14-6 in their last 20 games overall while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 games as a favorite. Cincinnati is 9-2 in their last 11 division games and 9-3 in their last 12 games overall while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 Sunday games.

I get why you could make a case either way here, but I’m going to side with the Brew Crew in this one. I’m just not a fan of Sonny Gray, especially in his action since coming of of the IL and quite frankly, the Brewers’ offense has come alive in recent games, and they’ve been the better team so far in the series. I just don’t see any reason to deviate from what’s been working, so give me the Brewers here.