Hometown Broadcasting Sports Friday 8/28/20
28 August 2020 Sports
Jesse Winker homered twice, prized prospect Jose Garcia singled in his first big league at-bat and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1 Thursday in a doubleheader opener one day after both teams opted not to play to protest racial injustice. The reactions by the teams followed the weekend shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Other major league teams have since followed, with seven games postponed Thursday. Winker had a two-run shot in the fifth, his eighth, to put the Reds up 5-0 and a solo shot in the third. Reds starter Sonny Gray (5-1) allowed four singles over five scoreless innings, striking out four and walking two. Gray escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second, getting Eric Sogard on an inning-ending liner to right.
Omar Narvaez accounted for Milwaukee’s run with a solo homer, his second, in the sixth off Nate Jones.
The 22-year-old Garcia, called up Wednesday, singled with two outs in the second on a slow roller that hit the bag at third, sending Freddy Galvis to second. Curt Casali followed with an RBI single to left to put the Reds up 1-0. Nick Castellanos opened the third inning with his 10th homer, sending a 2-2 pitch from Adrian Houser 395 feet to center. Winker followed a drive to left for his seventh homer to make it 3-0.
Houser (1-3) allowed four runs and nine hits in four innings as the Reds snapped a four-game losing streak. Castellanos doubled off the glove of third baseman Sogard to open the fifth, chasing Houser. Winker greeted Alex Claudio with a drive to left center. Castellanos added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 6-0.
In game two, Wade Miley allowed one hit over four scoreless innings to help the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-0 victory and doubleheader sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night, one day after both teams opted not to play to protest racial injustice.
The reactions by the teams followed the weekend shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Other major league teams have since followed, with seven games postponed Thursday.
Miley, making his third start after a stint on the injured list, allowed only a leadoff single in the third, striking out three and walking one, with a hit batter. Miley, 14-6 with Houston last season, entered with a 9.72 ERA. He had lasted just 1 2/3 innings in each of his first two starts, sandwich around time on the IL. He went five innings his last time out, allowing three earned runs. Lucas Sims (2-0) walked two in two scoreless innings for the victory and Raisel Iglesias completed the one-hitter with a perfect ninth.
The Reds combined two singles and Kyle Farmer’s double and a hit batter for two runs in the second off starter Josh Lindblom (1-2).
The Brewers continue their home stand tonight, hosting Pittsburgh. The Pirates send lefty Derek Holland (1-1) against right-hander Corbin Burnes (0-0). First pitch is at 7:10 and the game can be heard on AM1100/98.3FM, WISS.
Elsewhere in the NL Central on Thursday the Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Cardinals, 4-3 and 2-0. The Cubs had an off day.
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Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who opted out of the remainder of the season after playing in five games, said a large part of his decision was based on his faith.
“The reason I opted out was, of course, for COVID reasons, but this lifestyle and everything that’s going on in 2020 has definitely opened my eyes so I felt the need to opt out not only for the COVID reasons, but also trying to get my life right with God,” Cain said.
“This year has been crazy,” he added. “It’s been a tough year. I’m definitely at a loss for words with all the things going on right now. It’s just tough. The way things are going, it’s tough to see, it’s tough to deal with. We always want things to just get better.”
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The Packers decision to cancel practice was not predetermined before the team came to work on Thursday. But as discussions on race took the place of X’s and O’s in meetings, coach Matt LaFleur took the temperature of the room, felt the raw emotion of his players, and made a choice.
“Not one guy said that they didn’t want to practice today,” LaFleur said. “That never came up. We were having some really long conversations. When you feel that emotion in the room it’s hard to focus on football. It is emotionally draining for everyone in the room. So I made the decision that ‘hey, we’re not going to go today.’ I just didn’t think it was right.”
As for returning to practice, LaFleur says he’d come up with a plan and reconvene with the team Friday, and see what the future holds. And when asked if it might work to set up some kind of tailgate tour for his players to go around and talk about race relations, LaFleur said: “I think anytime our players have a chance to tell their stories, that’s when we come together as a people.”
All this, while the Packers have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to get it done. With cut down day only 9 days away, LaFleur would have loved to maximize every second of Thursday’s practice. But canceling that work was more important to the coach who has always listened to his players. And he thinks the world would be better if we all listened to each other a little more as well.
“What’s so great about our sports and the essence of team is that you have a bunch of people from different backgrounds coming together in pursuit of a common goal,” LaFleur said. “If our society could emulate that or see how we operate as a team the world would be a much better place.”
LaFleur admits there is no road map for what his team does next as they look to effect societal change, but they will be deliberate in their actions.
The Jets, Colts, Bears, Titans, Washington and Broncos also postponed or canceled Thursday practices.
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On Thursday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that NBA players have decided to resume playoff games and The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported games are expected to resume on Friday or Saturday. The Bucks are scheduled to play the Magic today and can wrap up their series with a win. Milwaukee leads 3-2 in the series.
The fate of the playoffs was placed in doubt after the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted Game 5 of their playoff series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday afternoon to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha earlier in the week.
Following the Bucks’ decision, the NBA canceled all games on Wednesday. A group meeting in the bubble was held on Wednesday night to discuss the next course of action and more meetings were held Thursday morning.
According to ESPN, the players were made aware of the financial consequences they could face if they chose to cancel the rest of the playoffs. On Wednesday night NBPA executive director Michele Roberts and senior counsel Ron Klempner explained that the players could lose 25-30% of their salary for next year if they abandoned the rest of the season. The league could also terminate the CBA and lock out the players while terms of a new agreement would be negotiated under the uncertain economic times that face the nation during the pandemic and social unrest.
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Hall of Fame basketball coach Lute Olson, who built Arizona into a national power and guided the Wildcats to the school’s only NCAA championship, has died at age 85. Olson was hospitalized last year after suffering a stroke, and was recently moved into hospice care. His death Thursday was confirmed by family to Arizona media outlets.
Olson went 589-187 in 24 seasons at Arizona and guided the Wildcats to four Final Four appearances, 23 consecutive NCAA tournaments and 11 Pac-10 titles, as well as the national title in 1997.
He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and a statue of Olson was erected outside the McKale Memorial Center in Tucson in 2018. The Wildcats’ home court inside McKale was named in his honor in 2000, then became “Lute and Bobbi Olson Court” a year later to honor his late wife.
He started his career as a high school coach in Minnesota and Southern California before becoming the head coach at Long Beach City College, where he won the state junior college title in 1971.
In 1973-74, he took over at Long Beach State, where he went 24-2, before being hired at Iowa the following season. He coached the Hawkeyes to the NCAA tournament five times in nine seasons.
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