Tuesday Sports 4/23/19
23 April 2019 Sports
Sports from Wayne Mausser
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 41 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks beat Detroit 127-104 on Monday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Pistons and advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Milwaukee closed the third quarter with a 17-3 run, taking a 10-point lead into the fourth after the Pistons had led much of the way. Detroit set an NBA record with its 14th consecutive playoff loss, a skid that began in 2008. The Bucks will face Boston in the second round. The Celtics are coming off a sweep of their own against Indiana.
Reggie Jackson scored 20 of his 26 points in the first half for Detroit. Blake Griffin fouled out with 7:06 remaining after scoring 22. Griffin was on the bench for much of Milwaukee’s crucial run. He sat for the final 4:35 of the third. Antetokounmpo scored 16 points in that quarter, half of which came on free throws.
Detroit led 20-8 early on after a dunk by Griffin. The Pistons were up 62-56 at halftime but still couldn’t prevent a fourth straight blowout at the hands of the team that had the NBA’s best regular-season record. Milwaukee won the four games by a total of 95 points, and no game was closer than 16. Milwaukee went 31 of 41 on free throws, while Detroit was only 9 of 12. Pistons coach Dwane Casey was called for a technical foul in the third, and the fans weren’t at all pleased with the officiating. At one point, Milwaukee had a 32-8 edge in free throw attempts.
Dexter Fowler and Paul Goldschmidt connected for two-run shots to spoil Adrian Houser’s first Major League start in a 13-5 loss that perpetuated Milwaukee’s pitching problem. It marked the first time since 2015 that the Brewers hit four home runs in a game and lost.
The bullpen made it worse in a seven-run seventh inning that began with left fielder Ryan Braun whiffing a fly ball on the run, but the struggles of Brewers starters is the bigger issue. With Houser’s outing — four-plus innings, nine hits, five earned runs, one walk, three strikeouts — Milwaukee’s starting pitchers saw their collective ERA rise to 5.81 in 24 games, which ranks fourth-worst in the Major Leagues. Only the Orioles’ starters have allowed more home runs (31) than the Brewers’ (29). Subtract Zach Davies and the rest of Milwaukee’s starters have logged a 6.92 ERA while allowing 27 homers in 95 innings.
Houser’s result Monday was doubly disappointing considering the Brewers had just tied the game in the fifth inning against Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty after going 13 up, 13 down on 59 pitches to begin the night. Braun drove a first-pitch home run to right field with one out in the fifth inning for Milwaukee’s first hit, and, after Eric Thames walked, Hernán Pérez homered to the visitors’ bullpen in left. The other Milwaukee homers came from Travis Shaw and Yasmani Grandal.
Zach Davies, who’s 2-0, will start for Milwaukee tonight against the Cardinals Daniel Ponce de Leon, who’s making his first start of the season. First pitch is at 6:45 and the game can be heard on AM1100/98.3FM, WISS.
Elsewhere in the NL Central, Arizona downed Pittsburgh 12-4.
Next stop for Jimmy Nelson on his long road back from shoulder surgery: Triple-A San Antonio. Brewers manager Craig Counsell received an encouraging report from Nelson’s latest outing in extended spring training on Monday. Barring an unforeseen setback in the next few days, club officials will confer to decide what’s next, and the most likely scenario has Nelson being assigned to San Antonio. He hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since September 2017, when he injured his shoulder diving back to first base after hitting a long single off the Wrigley Field ivy.
In other news, the Brewers placed reliever Junior Guerra on the bereavement list Monday while he was making the journey home to Venezuela, where his father is in poor health. He is not expected to rejoin the team until later this week in New York.
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