9/21/23 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Thursday
21 September 2023 Sports
Josh Donaldson hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Tyrone Taylor homered twice and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2 on Wednesday night to take another step toward their second NL Central title in three years.
Donaldson homered off Zack Thompson (5-7), the former AL MVP’s second home run since he was released by the New York Yankees and signed by Milwaukee. Twelve of Donaldson’s 22 big league hits this year have been home runs.
Mark Canha hit a three-run double in the ninth inning for Milwaukee, which began the night six games ahead of the second-place Chicago Cubs. Acquired from the Mets ahead of the trade deadline, Canha has 30 RBIs in 42 games with the Brewers after getting 29 in 89 games with New York.
St. Louis lost its 85th game for the first time since 1999. The Cardinals (67-85) already were assured of their first losing season since 2007.
Taylor had the fourth multihomer game of his career, hitting solo drives in the fourth off Thompson and in the ninth against Casey Lawrence.
Adrian Houser (7-4) won his third straight decision, giving up one run and four hits in six innings. Three relievers finished a six-hitter.
St. Louis catcher Willson Contreras left in the sixth inning with left wrist discomfort.
Paul Goldschmidt hit an RBI single in the first.
Brewers RHP Elvis Peguero was placed on the 15-day injured list with fluid in his right elbow, a move retroactive to Sunday. RHP JB Bukauskas was recalled from Triple-A Nashville
Milwaukee LHP Wade Miley (8-3, 3.38) will face RHP Miles Mikolas (7-12, 4.84) in the final game of the four-game set on Thursday. The Brewers are 13-8 in Miley’s starts. He is 2-4 with a 2.85 ERA in eight career starts in St. Louis. Mikolas has eight wins against Milwaukee, his most against any team. First pitch is at 12:15.
Elsewhere in the NL Central Wednesday the Pirates beat the Cubs 13-7 and the Twins downed the Reds 5-3. The Brewers lead the Cubs by 7 games in the division.
In the Midwest League Championship Series Cedar Rapids edged Great Lakes 7-6 to win the series 2-1.
Milwaukee Brewers right-hander J.C. Mejía was suspended 162 games by Major League Baseball on Wednesday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
The 27-year-old Mejía tested positive for Stanozolol, according to a release from the league. He’s the first player suspended under the major league drug agreement this season.
Mejía had been suspended 80 games in May 2022 after his first positive test for Stanozolol, a synthetic steroid derived from testosterone.
“The Milwaukee Brewers fully support MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and share in the goal of eliminating performance-enhancing substances from our game,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said in a statement.
The 27-year-old Mejía has been on the injured list with a shoulder issue since Aug. 15. He was transferred to the 60-day injured list last week.
Mejía went 1-0 with a 5.56 ERA in nine appearances this season. He struck out 13 batters and walked three in 11 1/3 innings.
Mejía, who is from the Dominican Republic, is in his third major league season. He has an 8.32 ERA in 28 games over his big league career.
Thirteen players have been disciplined under the minor league drug program this season.
The Packers were back on the practice field Wednesday getting ready for Sunday’s home opener against the New Orleans Saints.
Left tackle David Bakhtiari told the media that he did not miss Sunday’s game at Atlanta because he disliked playing on artificial turf. After Aaron Rodgers was injured on artificial turf, the Pro Bowl left tackle said the league should ban artificial turf. That led to speculation that he didn’t play at Atlanta because he didn’t want to risk injuring his knee after tearing his ACL late in the 2020 season. However Wednesday, Bakhtiari was adamant that was not the case.
“If I wasn’t going to play on turf I probably would have raised more of a ruckus,” Bakhtiari said. “No, that wasn’t the reason. At all.”
“I clearly have an injury that I have been dealing with. But I would never leave (my teammates) hung out to dry. I signed up to play. I plan on playing. And when I can play I am playing. And when I’m not playing there is clearly something going on. You think I want to be a great football player and then disappear? F*** no. You think I am scared to say I didn’t want to play because of turf? If I really felt like that I probably would just say that. It is not appropriate to leave all my teammates out there and not play. So it’s not an appropriate question to even entertain. So there are two completely different ways (you can interpret last week’s comments). I guess I have to explain it. That was the way I was meaning. Lets not even bring that into the (equation). Because there is no way I would even think like that. I wish we didn’t have turf. But we do.”
In other injury news on Wednesday, WR Christian Watson practiced in a limited fashion, while RB Aaron Jones was not able to go. OLD Lukas Van Ness was limited as says his elbow will be OK. LG Elgton Jenkins did not practice. At Lambeau Field, dsa2s.
Meanwhile quarterback Jordan Love is preparing for his first start in the NFL at Lambeau Field. The 4th year quarterback has thrown six touchdown passes and no interceptions in his first two games of the season. Love leads the league in passer rating at 118.8, but is ranked 30th in completion percentage..
“You can’t get too infatuated, in my opinion, with numbers. It’s the process of how a guy is going out there and performing,” said LaFleur.
“He’s in a really good head space. I think he’s confident. I think his teammates are confident in him. I know we’ve got a lot of belief in him. I think he’s going to continue to get better, and better, and better,” said Lafleur.
“It will definitely be a little more juice, I think…..Going out there, a little more excitement, just first time being a starter there. I’m looking forward too it,” said Love.
In Thursday night football the 49ers (2-0) host the Giants (1-1).
In high school football tonight Ripon is at Kettle Moraine Lutheran. The game can be heard on AM 1600/93. 1 FM, WRPN with the kickoff at 7:00.
The Wisconsin Herd introduced their fourth head coach in franchise history on Thursday, former Bucks player Beno Udrih.
The 41-year-old played for eight teams in his 13-year NBA career, including two seasons with the Bucks.
This will be Udrih’s first head coaching gig; he was an assistant with the Knicks G-league affiliate in 2020 and was in the Pelicans and Hawks organization as an assistant and scout the last two seasons.
It was an easy decision for him to come work with in the Bucks system.
“The whole organization is just breeding to be successful and that’s what it takes. It takes a village to run an organization like that and to grow it. So to see where they are now and from where they were when I was playing here, it’s just unbelievable. I’m sure they have a vision how to grow it even further, so I’m really excited to be a part of it and to be a part of this journey,” Udrih said.
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