The San Francisco Giants head to Miller Park this week for a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers. Tuesday night’s Game 1 is set to get underway at 8:10 p.m. (ET), and it will be available on MLB Extra Innings.

The Giants’ MLB title defense has gotten off to a solid start with a 9-4 record in the first two weeks of play. They took three out of four from the Cubs in an extended weekend series after sweeping Colorado last week in three straight games. The total has gone “over” in four of their last six games.

Milwaukee is 2-3 in its last five games, which were all played on the road. It split a quick two-game set with the Cubs before dropping two of three to St. Louis this past weekend. This followed a disastrous six-game home stand to start the season in which it went 1-5. The total has gone over in five of its last seven games.

Giants at Brewers Betting Storylines

Pitching has been fairly steady for San Francisco through its first 13 games with a 3.78 team ERA, but the big story has been some very active bats that have the team ranked second in the NL with a batting average of .272. Led by Pablo Sandoval’s 10 RBI and Hunter Pence’s four home runs, the Giants have scored a total 61 runs.

Barry Zito will be making his third start of the season on Tuesday night, and so far the all-star lefty has been unhittable with a 2-0 start and a 0.00 ERA. This has led to 14 scoreless innings with seven innings of work in each start. He will try and keep it going against a team that has given him problems in the past. Zito is 2-5 with an ERA of 5.91 lifetime against the Brewers.

Milwaukee has had its issues across the board so far with a pitching staff that has been underwhelming with an ERA of 4.95 to go along with a lineup that is ranked 13th in the NL in scoring with a total of 36 runs. The only bright spot has been Ryan Braun’s eight RBI and two home runs in 30 at-bats.

The Brewers will counter with right-hander Wily Peralta as their starter for the first game of this series. He comes in with a 4.50 ERA through his first two outings but did post a quality start his last time out; holding the Cubs to two earned runs on six hits in 6.2 innings of work last Tuesday. This will be Peralta’s eighth Major League start after starting five games for Milwaukee last season.

Giants at Brewers MLB Betting Odds and Trends

San Francisco has been opened by BetOnline as -113 road favorites on the money line with the Brewers listed as +103 home underdogs. The “over/under” for this game has been set at 8.

The Giants are 4-1 in the first game of their last five series and a perfect 7-0 in Zito’s last seven starts on the road. The total has gone over in 14 of their last 20 games against teams from the NL Central.

The Brewers are 2-7 in their last nine games following a win and 1-5 in their last six games against a left-handed starter. The total has gone over in six of their last seven home games.

San Francisco is 10-4 in its last 14 trips to Milwaukee and 4-2 in last season’s series. The total has gone over in four of the last five games between the two.

Giants at Brewers Picks and Betting Predictions

While there is always a risk going against a home underdog, given Milwaukee’s current overall form combined with a white-hot lefty on the mound, you have a bad combination for Brewers’ fans. While Zito may not be able to throw a third-straight shutout, he will keep things under control long enough for the Giants to pound out another win.

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Read more articles by Dave Schwab