10/5/23 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Thursday
5 October 2023 Sports
Zac Gallen settled down after a shaky start and Arizona’s bullpen stepped up at the very end, helping the Diamondbacks sweep their NL Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-2 victory in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
Just two years after suffering through a 110-loss season, Arizona moved into the franchise’s first NL Division Series since 2017. The Diamondbacks will take on the NL West champion Dodgers in the opener of their best-of-five series on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The NL Central champion Brewers have dropped nine of their last 10 playoff games, a stretch that started with their Game 7 home loss to the Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series.
Attention in Milwaukee now turns to the future of Craig Counsell, who has managed the Brewers since 2015 and has guided them to five playoff appearances over the last six seasons. Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio has said the team wants Counsell back, but he hasn’t indicated whether he wants to return.
Ketel Marte put Arizona ahead for good with a two-run single during a four-run rally in the sixth inning as Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta faded after a strong start. Gallen allowed two runs in the first, and then sailed through the rest of his six innings.
The Brewers tried to put together a late rally.
Milwaukee loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but 26-year-old rookie Andrew Saalfrank preserved Arizona’s 5-2 lead with some stellar relief work.
When Sal Frelick hit a comebacker to the mound, Saalfrank threw Christian Yelich out at the plate. Willy Adames then hit a shot up the middle, but Marte was positioned perfectly behind second base and stepped on the bag for the final out.
The Brewers had runners on second and third after Yelich’s two-out double in the ninth, but Paul Sewald struck out William Contreras to end the series.
Milwaukee’s night began better than it ended.
Brandon Woodruff had been regarded as the Brewers’ likely Game 2 starter until a shoulder injury shut him down for this series. Corbin Burnes struggled as the Brewers blew a 3-0 lead in a 6-3 Game 1 loss, so Milwaukee needed Peralta to step up.
He did just that for the first part of the game.
Peralta held Arizona hitless for 4 2/3 innings as the Brewers built a 2-0 lead on Sal Frelick’s sacrifice fly and Adames’ RBI single. The Diamondbacks got their first hit when Alek Thomas homered on a 2-0 changeup in the fifth.
Everything fell apart for the Brewers in the sixth as Peralta and Abner Uribe faltered on the mound.
Geraldo Perdomo drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on Corbin Carroll’s double, a broken-bat shot that got past first baseman Carlos Santana and went down the right-field line. Marte singled home both runners and advanced to second on the throw to the plate.
Tommy Pham then greeted Uribe with a single to right that put runners on the corners. One out later, José Herrera walked to load the bases. Uribe threw a wild pitch that brought home Pham and then allowed an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. before departing with the Diamondbacks ahead 5-2.
In the other NL Wild Card Game the Phillies beat the Marlins 7-1 to win their series 2-0.They
open their divisional series with the Braves at Atlanta on Saturday.
In the AL Wild Card games the Rangers beat the Rays 7-1 to win their series 2-0 and will in Baltimore Saturday against the Orioles. In other game, the Twins eliminated the Blue Jays 2-0 to win their series 2-0. Minnesota at Houston Saturday in the other AL divisional series game.
The Packers continue to practice in preparation for Monday Night Football in Las Vegas against the Raiders. Green Bay is hoping to get a number of its injured players back on the field, including corner Jaire Alexander. Left guard Elgton Jenkins and cornerback Eric Stokes have practiced this week and could be activated for the Raiders game.
In Thursday Night Football the winless Bears (0-4) play at Washington against the Commanders (2-2). Both teams lost last weekend as the Commanders lost at Philadelphia in overtime and the Bears lost a second-half lead against the Broncos at Soldier Field.
The Wautoma Hornets boys soccer team will play Berlin in the first round of the WIAA playoffs. This will be a home game with a start time of 4:00 p.m. on October 17th.
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will answer questions under oath about the misspending of federal welfare money in Mississippi., where public money intended to help some of the nation’s poorest people was used to fund pet projects he and other well-connected people supported.
A notice of deposition filed Monday in Hinds County Circuit Court by attorneys for Mississippi’s Department of Human Services shows Favre will give sworn testimony on Oct. 26 at a hotel in Hattiesburg. The Pro Football Hall of Famer is among more than three dozen defendants in a lawsuit the current Human Services director filed to recover some of the welfare money.
Favre has denied wrongdoing, sued the state auditor who investigated the misspending for defamation and said he paid back misspent welfare funds.
Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going toward direct aid to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to fritter away $77 million in federal welfare funds from 2016 to 2019, according to the state auditor and state and federal prosecutors.
Instead of going to needy families, about $5 million helped fund a volleyball arena that Favre supported at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, said Mississippi Auditor Shad White, whose office investigated the scandal. Favre’s daughter played volleyball at the school. Another $1.7 million went to the development of a concussion treatment drug, a project Favre supported.
No criminal charges have been brought against Favre, although a former department director and other people have pleaded guilty to their part in the misspending.. Favre has asked the Hinds County Circuit Court and the Mississippi Supreme Court to remove him as a defendant in the civil lawsuit, but both requests were denied.
The deposition will be conducted by oral examination before a court reporter and may be video-recorded. A confidentiality order approved by the court would keep all of the testimony private for at least 30 days after its completion date, court records show.
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