Hometown Broadcasting Sports Friday 8/21/20
21 August 2020 Sports
Jose Berrios pitched one-hit ball over six scoreless innings, Nelson Cruz hit a two-run homer and the Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-1 on Thursday night. Ryan Jeffers drove in a run with a single in his first major league at-bat, going 2 for 3 with a hit by pitch and catching Berrios to help the Twins improve to 7-1-1 in series this season. Justin Smoak homered for the Brewers in the seventh off Tyler Duffey, but Cruz responded with his ninth homer and 24th and 25th RBI of the season in the bottom of the inning for the Twins. Jorge Polanco delivered a two-run double in a three-run eighth to finish off the Brewers, who failed for the sixth time this season to raise their record above the .500 mark.
Berrios struck out eight of the first 13 batters he faced and didn’t allow a hit until Eric Sogard‘s one-out single in the fifth inning. The Brewers were being no-hit on Tuesday by Twins starter Kenta Maeda until Sogard’s leadoff single in the ninth, a game the Twins eventually won 4-3 in 12 innings.
For the Brewers, matching season highs in runs (nine) and homers (four) on Wednesday didn’t prove to be a slump-busting win. They drew just one walk against Berrios, who had nine strikeouts, and let their opponent score first for the 18th time in 23 games this year. The Brewers, who entered the evening with the fourth-worst runs-per-game average (4.18) in baseball, have been outscored 33-4 in the first two innings. They’ve played eight straight contests without a run in the first or the second, and manager Craig Counsell even said before the game he implored star Christian Yelich “to do something about” the early struggles. “But that’s about as much as I can do,” Counsell said.
Berrios (2-3), the two-time All-Star right-hander, took full advantage. He lowered his ERA from 5.92 to 4.75 after a rough start to this abbreviated season.
Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff (1-2) pitched into the sixth inning, allowing nine hits and one walk while leaning on some superb defense to keep the score close.
In other team news,RH reliever Corey Knebel was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring. Knebel has allowed 11 hits, seven runs and four walks in just 6 2/3 innings this season.
The Brewers are in Pittsburgh tonight for the start of a weekend series. RHP Adrian Houser (1-1, 3.27 ERA) pitches for Milwaukee against RHP Chad Kuhl (0-1, 3.21 ERA) for the Pirates. First pitch is at 6:05 and the game can be heard on AM1100/98.3FM/WISS.
Elsewhere in the NL Central on Thursday, the Cardinals nipped the Reds, 5-4 and Cleveland shut out Pittsburgh 2-0. The Cubs had the day off.
-0-
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points and 20 rebounds and the Milwaukee Bucks rode a fast start to beat the Orlando Magic 111-96 on Thursday and tie the Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece. The Bucks boasted the NBA’s best regular-season record at 56-17, but went 3-5 in the eight seeding games at Disney’s Wide World of Sports and opened the playoffs by losing 122-110 to Orlando. Milwaukee bounced back Thursday, building a 23-point lead in the first half, though Orlando got the margin down to nine in the fourth quarter. Brook Lopez scored 20 points and Pat Connaughton had 15 on 5-of-8 3-point shooting for Milwaukee. Eric Bledsoe had 13 points and Donte DiVincenzo added 11.Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic followed up his 35-point effort in the opener by scoring 32 points. Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross each had 12, Markelle Fultz had 11 and D.J. Augustin added 10. The Bucks’ defensive intensity was the difference between the two games. Game three of the best-of-seven game series is Saturday.
-0-
The Packers’ practiced inside Lambeau Field for the first time Thursday. Coach Matt LaFleur piped in fake crowd noise to help to try to simulate what games might be like. With no fans in many venues, the NFL is toying with adding in ambient noise and yesterday’s workout was very competitive.
“Yeah, it certainly felt that way,” LaFleur said. “I thought the guys were urgent. I thought they communicated well. It was nice to get in the stadium with some of that crowd noise that we are going to experience moving forward. I thought it was super competitive.”
The competitiion was intense down to the very last drill, a 2-minute drive led by rookie quarterback Jordan Love, who overcame a sack on the first play of the drive in leading his offense into field goal range to beat the defense.
With Davante Adams sitting practice out as a precautionary measure, first up was Allen Lazard going up against corner Jaire Alexander. And Lazard went 3-0 in his reps against the highly-touted cornerback. But it wasn’t for a lack of defense. Alexander had great positioning and attacked the ball at the catch point, but Lazard showed off strong hands in making all 3 catches.
Also Thursday rookie tight end Josiah Deguara turned heads with a rep against the tight coverage of safety Raven Greene. Deguara went high and had a toe-tapping catch along the sidelines.
-0-
Four players shot opening rounds of 64 to tie for the lead in the first round of the Northern Trust. Harris English, Kevin Streelman, Cameron Davis and Russell Henley each shot seven-under par. Seven players were one shot back and nine others are just two shots off the lead.
-0-
Share |