Brewers hit three home runs, beat the Cubs 4-2
Milwaukee has clinched the season series with the Chicago Cubs and it's just Aug. 10.
The Brewers used three home runs and a solid outing from Freddy Peralta to accomplish that feat Tuesday afternoon with a 4-2 win in seven innings in the first game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field.
Willy Adames tied the game in the fourth inning with a solo homer, his 21st of the season. That was followed later in the inning by Avisail Garcia hitting his 20th of the year, a two-run shot to hand the Brewers a 3-1 lead. Lorenzo Cain capped Milwaukee's offense with a solo shot himself in the sixth inning.
That was enough for Peralta and the pitching staff to work with. The righty went 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and striking out eight. He got the win to improve to 9-3 on the season. Brad Boxberger came on to finish the sixth and then it was Devin Williams' turn in the seventh. He loaded the bases but struck out the final two batters to get his second save of the year.
Milwaukee improved to 10-3 against the Cubs this year, guaranteeing the Brewers a winning record against their rivals. It also moved the Crew to six games up on Cincinnati in the NL Central.
The second game of the doubleheader is slated for 7:05 p.m.
Aaron Rodgers 'most likely' won't play in preseason
Fans are going to have to wait a little bit longer to see Aaron Rodgers under center for the Green Bay Packers.
Coach Matt LaFleur told reporters Tuesday morning that the veteran quarterback would "most likely not" play in the preseason, which gets underway Saturday against Houston.
"Luckily for us we've got a lot of veterans that we already know what they can do," LaFleur said. "That's why you feel a little more comfortable about not having to play some of those guys in the preseason games, not expose them to injury."
LaFleur admits keeping guys out of preseason games puts more of an onus on taking advantage of practice reps for those veterans.
"There's always a balance there I think you're trying to strike in terms of making sure that they are competing to be their best but at the same time not putting them at risk," LaFleur said.
Rodgers has been on a bit of pitch count through the first couple weeks of training camp allowing backup Jordan Love to get a healthy number of snaps after taking almost all of the first-team reps during the offseason program. But after COVID-19 wiped away preseason games last year, LaFleur is looking forward to seeing Love and the rest of the young players in real action to help them build out the roster.
"I think it's going to really help us and our ability to evaluate those guys," LaFleur said. "Generally, when you go into camp you have a pretty good indication of who your top 45 guys are. But just when you start getting towards the final few to be able to go out and see them in live action is going to make that process much easier for all of us."
LaFleur said Love will play a majority of the game against the Texans, with third-string quarterback Kurt Benkert finishing it up.
The Camp: Aug. 10, 2021
On this episode of The Camp, the guy's talk about Jesse's Q&A with former Wisconsin Director of Player Personnel Saeed Khalif, and then breakdown the good and bad from Tuesday morning's practice.
Brewers get a walk-off win over San Francisco
The legend of Rowdy Tellez continues to grow.
The Brewers big man knocked a hit down the third-base line in the 10th inning Friday night to drive in the winning run to give Milwaukee a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants last night.
Milwaukee jumped on San Francisco early, getting a solo home run from Avisail Garcia in the third inning -- his 19th of the year. They held that 1-0 lead until Brandon Belt hit his own solo shot in the 6th inning. All that did was setup Tellez's heroics in the 10th to help give the Brewers a win against the team with the best record in baseball.
Corbin Burnes was really good for the Brewers, giving up just the one run on four hits over seven innings of work. Brent Suter got the win by pitching a perfect 10th inning and moved to 11-5 on the year.
Milwaukee improved to a season-best 22 games above .500 and are 7 games up on Cincinnati in the NL Central.
The Brewers and Giants will meet again Saturday night.
Bucks reportedly trade for Grayson Allen
Milwaukee continued to add to its backcourt Friday afternoon.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Bucks are acquiring guard Grayson Allen from Memphis for guard Sam Merrill and two future second-round picks.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1423719062677372937
Allen, who just completed his third year in the NBA, scored a career-high 10.6 points per game for the Grizzlies this past season. He shot 39.1% from beyond the arc, a year after shooting 40.4% from deep. This will be Allen's third team in his career after being drafted in the first round out of Duke by Utah in 2018.
Merrill was Milwaukee's second-round pick last year. The Utah State product played in 30 games and started two. He averaged 3.0 points and 1.0 rebounds per game.
The Camp: Aug. 6, 2021
On this episode of The Camp, Zach and Jesse talk about the little they saw at the first day of fall camp, along with everything they learned during media day.
Recapping Wisconsin's media day
Wisconsin will open preseason practice Friday morning in Madison but the coaching staff and select players met with reporters Thursday for media day inside Camp Randall Stadium.
Here are a few takeaways from the nearly three hour event:
* Wisconsin's offensive line appears set at four of the five positions. Offensive line coach Joe Rudolph said he liked senior Tyler Beach at left tackle, senior Kayden Lyles at center, redshirt freshman Jack Nelson at right guard and senior Logan Bruss at right tackle.
If the team had a game tomorrow, senior Josh Seltzner would be his left guard, but junior Cormac Sampson is pushing him for playing time. In addition to those six guys, Rudolph also mentioned sophomore tackle Logan Brown, sophomore center/guard Joe Tippmann and sophomore Tanor Bortolini among those in the running for snaps. Tippmann, who missed all of last season and the spring, will get most of his snaps at center but Rudolph believes he can play either guard spot, too.
* Somehow one of the most confident guys to ever play for Wisconsin -- quarterback Graham Mertz -- gained even more confidence this offseason.
"The point I'm at right now, I've never been at before stepping on a football field," Mertz said. "Just my overall level of comfort and confidence in my ability and the guys around me. We're going to be ready to go. I know right now, if you told me I had a game in a week, I'd be ready to go. The area of development, just the mental edge and everything I've put myself into and through this offseason, I'm excited to just let it out Sept. 4."
The junior said he built confidence this offseason by attacking his weaknesses, whether it be consistency in life, technique on the field or even his work in the classroom.
"The biggest thing is being honest with yourself and just having the humility to know, 'Alright, I'm falling short here and I need to grow,'" Mertz said. "I think that's where I've grown in this confidence thing is I've attacked those things with everything I've got and made them better."
* Senior wide receiver Kendric Pryor ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash during end of the summer testing. He said it's the fastest he's ever been timed at and believes it was the fastest on the team, though running back Isaac Guerendo was also right around that number.
https://twitter.com/_KPryor3/status/1413562303715454982
Fellow wide out Danny Davis didn't have an exact number when asked but he said he could be around 4.45 or 4.50. The senior joked he's got the deceptive speed that allows him to get deep against defenses.
* The running back room was more of a walking wounded room during spring practice. Fullbacks John Chenal and Quan Easterling got as many carries as any of the running backs in the practices open to the media. Redshirt freshman Jalen Berger, Guerendo, redshirt sophomore Julius Davis and even junior Brady Schipper missed time. But new running backs coach Gary Brown said it looks like they are going to be "pretty healthy" when practice kicks off Friday.
* True freshman Braelon Allen will start his time at Wisconsin as a running back, though defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said they'd love to have him on their side of the ball.
"What do you think?" Leonhard quipped when asked if he put up a fight to get Allen on defense. "Extremely talented, can help us on either side of the ball, so whenever they let us take him we'll be more than happy."
At 6-foot-2, 238 pounds, Allen averaged 14.7 yards per carry and scored 21 touchdowns for Fond du Lac during the spring season. But he was also named the state defensive player of the year. That's actually where he caught Brown's eye.
"When I watched him (at running back) on film he was so much bigger and stronger and faster than everybody in high school. It was just like, 'OK, he's a great high school player,'" Brown said. "But what flipped the switch in my mind was watching him on defense, watching him move around. His ability to stop, start, change direction, those are the types of things running backs do."
Allen turned all sorts of heads in the weight room during the summer putting up the kind of weight a 17-year-old shouldn't be able to do. Chenal, known to throw around the weights plenty himself, called Allen a freak of nature. But Allen also realizes what is important -- what he does on the field.
"I know he's more excited than anybody to get on the field," Leonhard said. "He knows that's where games are played. As impressive as he is off the field, he knows where it all matters."
* If it wasn't known before that junior Chez Mellusi will likely play quite a bit this year, Brown made it clear when he said the Clemson transfer is probably the only guy he has that can play all three downs right now.
"He's a guy you don't have to take off the field," Brown said. "He can pass protect, he can run routes, he can catch the ball out of the backfield and he can run the ball with tremendous skill. That's the thing we're all trying to get with all our running backs to be three-down guys. We're getting close but Chez is probably the closest one to that skillset."
* Keeanu Benton has the kind of talent to play on Sundays, but he's been limited to being on the field when Wisconsin is in its base packages, lined up at nose tackle over the center. That is going to change this year.
Though he didn't see much work in team drills during spring ball while recovering from an injury, Benton said he would be with the No. 1 defense to start camp when it goes to its sub packages with only two defensive linemen on the field. The junior from Janesville said the mental side of playing in the nickel was more challenging than the physical aspect but now understands what it takes.
"I like playing (nose tackle) a lot, but I like being on the field a lot, as well, so I'm going to try doing both," Benton said.
* Nick Herbig had a really good true freshman season at outside linebacker. He had 26 tackles, six tackles for loss and one sack. The Hawaii product has NFL aspirations and got an up close and personal view of what it takes this summer when he went to workout with his brother, Nate, a guard with the Philadelphia Eagles. They were at fellow Eagles' lineman Lane Johnson's property in New Jersey and working out in a place that Herbig said is called the "Bro Barn."
"It's crazy. It's a whole different level," Herbig said. "I think that really helped me elevate my game in a lot ways. Seeing what it's like being at that type of level. It's two completely different levels of training and how you approach things. I feel like it changed my mentality a little bit in how I approach workouts and how I approach playing the game."
Other players included in the workouts were Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts, Green Bay Packers guard Jon Runyan Jr., and New Orleans Saints guard Cesar Ruiz.
* Expect to see sophomore Dean Engram, senior Jack Dunn, sophomore Chimere Dike and Davis getting opportunities as the punt returner, while redshirt freshman Devin Chandler is most likely going to be the kick returner as Stephan Bracy continues to recover from an injury.
The kicking competition is also fully open with Jack Van Dyke and Colin Larsh battling. Special teams coach Chris Haering said he would like one guy to grab the job and handle all the kicks.
Packers: Aaron Rodgers calls relationship with GM Brian Gutekunst 'a work in progress'
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the team's general manager Brian Gutekunst aren't friends at this point and it is unlikely they ever will be. But the pair appear to be at least making an effort at mending their differences.
It started when the future Hall of Fame quarterback reported for training camp last week after staying away all offseason due to issues with Gutekunst and the club's administration, and it continued this week as the duo were spotted talking for a minute or so during practice Tuesday morning.
https://twitter.com/ZachHeilprin/status/1422599002621612034
"I think it's a work in progress for sure," Rodgers said of the relationship. "I think relationships aren't formed in the matter of a couple days. There's time where the respect grows and the communication follows."
Both men have called the relationship "professional" when talking to reporters in the last week, though Gutuekunst said he would like for it to be more than that but it takes both sides wanting it. Rodgers appears at least open to it on the surface.
"I think the greatest relationships that you have with your friends and loved ones involve conversations that flow," Rodgers said. "You can not talk to a close friend for a few months and pick up right where you left off. There's no break in communication. There's no forced conversations or you've got to hit this person up because it's on your to-do list that day. It's all about wanting to have those conversations and wanting to be in conversation like that. We've had a couple conversations, been positive conversations."
3-run HR from Rowdy Tellez helps Brewers past Pittsburgh
Milwaukee won its fourth straight series with a 4-2 win over Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon.
The Brewers struggled to get much offense going until the seventh inning. That's when Rowdy Tellez came off the bench and crushed a 3-run homer deep into the stands at American Family Field to give them the lead. It was his fifth home run since joining Milwaukee on July 7.
https://twitter.com/BallySportWI/status/1423022314237698052
That offense was enough for Brad Boxberger and Devin Williams, who took care of the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Neither guy allowed a hit and combined to strike out three of the six batters they faced. For Williams, it was his first save of the season in place of Josh Hader, who is on the injured list following a positive COVID-19 test.
Milwaukee got a pair of hits from Kolton Wong and three hits from Eduardo Escobar. The latter drove in Milwaukee's other run, a single in the third inning.
Freddy Peralta got the start for the Crew and went six innings. While he allowed six hits, the righty gave up just two runs and struck out nine. Brent Suter got the win by pitching the seventh inning, becoming the first Brewers pitcher to hit double digits in wins.
The victory pushed Milwaukee back to 21 games above .500 and left the club 7.5 games up on Cincinnati in the division.
The Brewers will get Thursday off before opening a series against San Francisco, which will bring the best record in baseball to town.
Badgers: Alando Tucker breaks silence, responds to report that he tried to push Greg Gard out to become coach
Former Wisconsin interim assistant coach Alando Tucker has broken his silence -- finally -- on a report that he attempted to get Greg Gard removed as head coach and take the job himself.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported this week that in January of 2020 Tucker went to then athletic director Barry Alvarez and told him he was ready to assume the top job if he moved on from Gard. Alvarez informed him he would not make that move. This past season Tucker reportedly tried to turn players against the other members of the coaching staff and also pushed for a certain athletic director candidate to be hired because he thought that person would fire Gard and hire him.
Tucker had been quiet publicly since the end of the season, even after he was passed over to be the full-time assistant in late April. But on Wednesday morning he released a lengthy statement in which he denied everything he had been accused of doing.
https://twitter.com/ZachHeilprin/status/1422949827953012739
