Hometown Broadcasting Sports Wednesday 7/12/20
13 August 2020 Sports
Jedd Gyorko blasted a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers came from behind to beat the Minnesota Twins 6-4 on Tuesday. The Brewers started their winning rally when Christian Yelich beat the Twins’ shift with a one-out double. With the Twins moving their infield to the right against the left-handed hitter, Yelich responded by hitting a grounder up the third-base line and into left field. Gyorko followed with a shot to center off Taylor Rogers (1-2). Rogers entered in the eighth inning of a tie game one night after working the ninth to earn his fourth save.
Eddie Rosario of the Twins and Manny Pina of the Brewers each hit two home runs. Minnesota’s Jorge Polanco and Milwaukee’s Avisail Garcia also homered.
Rosario, whose grand slam accounted for the Twins’ only runs in their 4-2 victory at Milwaukee on Monday, helped give Minnesota a 4-1 lead by homering on his first two plate appearances. The Brewers rallied to tie the game because of Manny Pina’s solo shot in the fifth and two-run blast in the sixth. The Twins took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Jorge Polanco and Rosario hit solo shots off Josh Lindblom that landed in a nearly identical spot just inside the right-field foul pole. Milwaukee cut the deficit in half when Garcia led off the bottom of the first by homering to left off Tyler Clippard, who worked just one inning as the opener in a bullpen game for the Twins.
Garcia improved to 3 of 6 with three homers in his career against Clippard.
Lindblom recorded a career-high eight strikeouts — he had struck out seven in his last start — but gave up those three homers in his four-inning stint. Alex Claudio, Eric Yardley, David Phelps, Devin Williams (1-1) and Josh Hader combined for five innings of shutout relief.
Hader walked one and struck out three in the ninth for his third save.
Prior to the game, Milwaukee activated Ryan Braun from the injured list and optioned utilityman Mark Mathias to the team’s alternate training site. Braun, who hadn’t played since July 29 due to an infected right index finger, was in the starting lineup Tuesday as a designated hitter and was hitless in four at-bats.
The teams wrap up their series tonight at Miller Park as Kenta Maeda (2-0) starts for the Twins and the Brewers send Eric Lauer (0-1). First pitch is at 6:10 and the game can be heard on AM1100/98.3FM, WISS.
Elsewhere in the N.L. Central on Tuesday, the Cubs beat the Indians 7-1, the Reds edged the Royals 6-5 and Pittsburgh and St. Louis was postponed.
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Brook Lopez scored 24 points and Milwaukee beat the Washington Wizards 126-113 on Tuesday night after Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected in the second quarter for headbutting Moritz Wagner.
Wagner took a charge from Antetokounmpo, who didn’t like the call in what had become a physical game early on.
During a break in the action with Milwaukee challenging the call, Antetokounmpo approached Wagner on the way to the bench and started jabbering at him before headbutting him and drawing the ejection. Antetokounmpo, the reigning NBA MVP, finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Sterling Brown scored 23 points and Frank Mason had 19 for the Bucks, which played their reserves extensively.
Rui Hachimura led the Wizards with 20 points, and Ish Smith added 19.
Antetokounmpo’s headbutt could draw a punishment from the league and keep him out of the team’s final seeding game against the Grizzlies on Thursday.
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The Big Ten Conference has announced it won’t play football this fall, and will explore playing in the spring.
The Big Ten Conference issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying its decision was based on multiple factors, and relied on the medical advice and counsel of the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee. In addition to football, the fall sports included in the announcement are men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
Decisions regarding winter and springs ports will also continue to be evaluated.
UW-Madison is one of the 14 universities included in the conference. Other schools include Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan and Michigan State.
The move comes six day after the conference that includes historic programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State had released a revised conference-only schedule that it hoped would help it navigate a fall season with potential COVID-19 disruptions.
UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez issued a statement Tuesday afternoon regarding the decision made by the Big Ten Conference, saying they recognize how disappointing the news is to the Badger community.
According to Blank and Alvarez, they “had hoped for many months that the return of fall collegiate sports may be an opportunity to restore some sense of normalcy”, however, they said the Big Ten’s decision “to postpone the fall 2020 sports season is the correct one.”
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The Pac-12 CEO group voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone all sports, including football and basketball, through the end of the year.
In a statement, the Pac-12 said if conditions related to the coronavirus improve, it would consider a return to competition after Jan. 1, 2021.
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Meanwhile, the chair of the ACC medical advisory group believes a fall season can be played safely, which is one of the biggest reasons the league remains on course to start the season in September.
Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a Duke infectious disease specialist, told Sports Business Daily that doctors have learned enough over the past six months to manage the risk.
Last week, the ACC set an 11-game league schedule to begin the weekend of Sept. 12. Ten of those games are in-conference, which this football season includes Notre Dame, meaning all schools will follow the same testing protocols. All nonconference opponents are required to adhere to the same testing protocols as well.
But Wolfe has also told commissioner John Swofford and league athletic directors that there is no way to cut the risk to zero and that they have to be comfortable with some level of risk tolerance.
One specific area of concern for the NCAA is myocarditis, a condition that causes inflammation of the heart muscle that could be linked with the coronavirus.
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Meanwhile, the Big 12 will continue moving forward with the intent of playing fall football, multiple sources told ESPN on Tuesday, confirming a Yahoo Sports report.
The conference’s board of directors met for more than an hour Tuesday to discuss the future of the season in the midst of decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 to postpone fall sports until 2021.
Much attention was on the Big 12 meeting after the ACC and SEC publicly affirmed their intentions to continue moving forward.
The decision leaves three of the Power 5 conferences intent on playing — for now.
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Packers coach Matt LaFleur addressed the media yesterday. Green Bay opens training camp this Saturday and the second-year head coach was asked what he expects at the first practice. LaFleur said players will be getting a feel for how they’re expected to practice and what the standards are. He also wants to see his players playing fast and knowing their responsibilities and communicating.
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