Tuesday 10/2/18
2 October 2018 Sports
Sports from Wayne Mausser
Lorenzo Cain hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the eighth inning, Christian Yelich collected three more hits and the Milwaukee Brewers took their first NL Central title since 2011 by downing the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Monday in a tiebreaker game.
Milwaukee won its eighth in a row and earned home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. The Brewers will host the wild card winner starting Thursday in the best-of-five Division Series. Chicago stays at Wrigley Field for Tuesday night’s wild-card game. The Cubs will play the Rockies after they lost at Los Angeles to the Dodgers, 5-2. for the NL West title.
Yelich singled home Milwaukee’s first run and won the NL batting title with a .326 average. He fell one home run and one RBI short of what would’ve been the NL’s first Triple Crown since Joe Medwick in 1937. Orlando Arcia, batting in the eighth slot, had a career-high four hits, and Josh Hader closed out another dominant relief performance for the Brew Crew.
Jose Quintana pitched six-hit ball into the sixth inning and Anthony Rizzo homered, but Chicago’s bullpen faltered in the eighth. Daniel Murphy and Javier Baez had the only other hits for the Cubs.
The game was tied at 1 before Milwaukee opened the eighth with three straight hits. Arcia singled on a 0-2 pitch from Justin Wilson (4-5), Domingo Santana had a pinch-hit double and Cain greeted Steve Cishek with a single back up the middle. After Yelich struck out swinging, Ryan Braun got the Brewers an insurance run with a run-scoring single to center.
It was more than enough for Milwaukee’s vaunted bullpen. Corey Knebel (4-3) extended his scoreless streak to 16 1/3 innings with a perfect seventh, and Hader worked two innings for his 12th save.
Rizzo had one last chance for Chicago, but he flied to right with Baez on second for the final out.
The Dodgers play the NL East champion Braves on Thursday.
Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, wasn’t trying to hide his frustration on Sunday after Green Bay’s 22-nothing shutout of the Buffalo Bills. His postgame comments hinted at issues with the game plan and possible rift with Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy. Rodgers said, the Packers “need to find ways to get our playmakers some more opportunities.
Because of Rodgers’ harsh critique of Mike McCarthy’s game plan, the head coach spent victory Monday pouring cold water over talk of a rift between the two.
McCarthy said. “Aaron and I have gone through a lot of years together, so I feel good about our relationship.”
The game plan that wasn’t to Rodgers liking is put together by McCarthy and his trio – offensive, run, and pass game coordinators – that haven’t all been around since Rodgers took over as the Packers starting quarterback. Despite there being more voices in the room over the years, Coach McCarthy reiterated that Rodgers role in that game planning process is still incredibly important.
Monday Night Football-Rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a comeback win at Denver, 27-23. Kansas City trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter before Mahomes led the comeback as the Chiefs improve to 4-0.
Share |