Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day 2018: What Time Is The Game?

MILWAUKEE, WI — Opening Day for the 2018 Milwaukee Brewers baseball season has officially arrived. The Brew Crew will start their long 2018 season in San Diego on Thursday afternoon. The Crew's home opener will be Monday, April 2 against the hated St. Louis Cardinals.

After three-games in San Diego to face the Padres, the Brewers will return home for a long stretch. The April 2 game will be the start of a 7-game homestand that will feature a three-game series against that team from "Horrible Garbage City," a four-game series against the Chicago Cubs.

Here's everything you need to know to enjoy Thursday afternoon's game against the Padres:

Who: Milwaukee Brewers at San Diego Padres
Where: San Diego
When: 3:10 p.m. CDT
Starting Pitchers: Chase Anderson (MIL) vs Clayton Richard (SD)
Watch: ESPN, Fox Sports North
Listen: WTMJ AM 620
What to Watch: The Brewers are coming off a surprising 86-76 record - a feat which almost nobody forecast at the onset of last year's campaign. This year, the Crew is hoping to capitalize on last year's effort with a bunch of new faces and old players in new places. For starters, the Brewers are fielding a trio of new hurlers to the rotation to add to holdovers Jimmy Nelson, Zach Davies and Chase Anderson. Since Nelson's out until early mid-season, Milwaukee's going with newcomers Brandon Woodruff, Brent Suter and newly-signed Jhoulis Chacin.

In the field, Milwaukee added Christian Yelich in a trade with the Marlins and signed former farmhand and longtime Kansas City Royal outfielder Lorenzo Cain to add defense, on-base ability and all-around gameplay to their team. They replace strikeout-prone Keon Broxton and Ryan Braun - who was moved to first base on a part-time basis to help clear the logjam of quality outfielders which include Braun, Broxton, Yelich, Domingo Santana and first-baseman/outfielder Eric Thames. Manny Pina, Travis Shaw and Orlando Arcia are veritable locks at Catcher, Third base and Shortstop, respectively and the duo of bespectacled Eric Sogard and on-again/off-again talent Jonathan Villar will hold down second base.

Fireballing lefty Josh Hader provides middle-inning dominance out of the bullpen and closer Cory Knebel is about as good as you can get at the closer position. Add Jeremy Jeffress in the mix in the seventh and eighth innings and you have a reliable pen. Matt Albers, Jacob Barnes, Oliver Drake and Taylor Williams round out the bullpen.

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