On Friday night the 1st place Milwaukee Brewers started a three game series in the Bronx, New York against the New York Yankees. Now before last nights game there was a lot of talk about how this series was a big test for Milwaukee and that this would be their opportunity to prove that they’re a contender. Interestingly it was the Yankees that had lost their last two games and four of their last five games coming into this series, but the Brewers are the team being tested here. I get it though it feeds into that east coast bias and the Yankees have had a good season up to this point; so let’s play along.
If this is truly a test for the Brewers they passed there first one as they won Game one of the series 9-4. The Yankees grabbed a 1-0 lead in the Bottom of the 2nd, Didi Gregorius singled to rightfield and when Domingo Santana had trouble handle the baseball Gregorious went al the way to 3rd base. Clint Frazier brought Gregorius home with a sacrifice fly to rightfield. In the top of the 4th the Brewers took the lead. Ryan Braun led the inning off with a double. Braun advanced the 3rd base on a ground out and then Jesus Aguilar brought them both home as he homered to rightfield to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead. The Yankees took the lead right back in the bottom of the 4th inning. Gregorious reached 1st base safely on a Jonathan Villar error and after a strikeout Ji-man Choi gave the Yankees the lead back at 3=2 when he hit a home run into the rightfield bleachers. The Yankees added a run to their lead in the bottom of the 5th inning when Aaron Judge lead the inning off with a solo home run to centerfield to make it a 4-2 lead. The home run was Judge’s 30th of the season which breaks the home run record for the Yankees which was held by Joe DiMaggio. Milwaukee got the game even at 4 all in the top of the 6th. Braun led the inning off with a walk; Travis Shaw followed that with a double to put Brewers on 2nd and 3rd. After a pitching change a wild pitch saw Braun score and moved Shaw up to 3rd. Aguilar then hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield to score Shaw and make it a 4-4 game. The Brewers then out the game away in the top of the 7th. Orlando Arcia flew out to lead off the inning, but Santana and Villar drew back to back walks. Ryan then flew out to centerfield, but it was deep enough for both runners to advance. Shaw was intentionally walked to load the bases for Aguilar who hit a grand slam to centerfield to make it a 5-4 Brewers lead. After the Yankees made a pitching change Hernan Perez doubled and Manny Pina drove him home with a single to get the game to it’s final score of 9-4.
Junior Guerra (Milwaukee) and Jordan Montgomery (New York) where the starting pitchers in this game, but neither of them factored into the decision. Guerra pitched 3 1/3rd innings. He gave up 3 runs on 2 hits, but only 1 of them was earned while walking 3 and striking out 3. Montgomery pitched 4 1/3rd innings. He gave up 2 runs; both earned on 7 hits while striking out 4.
Josh Hader (1-0) picked up the win for Milwaukee pitching 3 innings in relief. Hader gave up 1 run on 1 hit while striking out 7 and walking 1. Hader was followed by Jared Hughes who pitched a clean 2/3rds of an inning. Oliver Drake then came in for an inning. He gave up 1 hit and struck out a batter. Jacob Barnes pitched the final inning for the Brewers and he walked 1 and struck out 1.
The Yankees bullpen wasn’t as good. Tyler Webb was the first reliever out of that Yankees bullpen. He pitched 2/3rds of an inning giving up 2 runs on 1 hit and walking a batter. Tyler Clippard pitched 1 2/3rds innings giving up 4 runs on just 1 hit while walking 3 and striking out 1. Clippard (1-5) took the loss and also threw the wild pitch that helped the Brewers get back into the game. Chasen Shreve pitched 1/3rd of an inning giving up 1 run on 2 hits while walking a batter. Luis Cessa pitched the final 2 inning in relief for New York and turned out to be the only reliever that didn’t allow a run. Cessa pitched 2 innings and gave up 3 hits, but no runs.
Game 2 is scheduled for a 12:05 p.m. (cst) start. Brent Suter will start for the Brewers and Luis Severino is the Yankees starter.
Suter (1-1) will be making his second start of the season. In his first start in July 3rd he held the Baltimore Orioles to 4 huts and 1 unearned run over 6 innings. Suter also had 8 strikeouts to go with just 1 walk as he threw 97 pitches.
Severino (5-4) has been a solid starter for the Yankees, but has taken losses in his last two starts and he’s coming off what was probably his worst start of the season. On July 2nd Severino faced the Houston Astros. He lasted 5 1/3rd inning giving up 6 runs on 9 hits, He did strikeout 7 Astros while walking just 1 in a 87 pitch outing.
How do you think Milwaukee will do in their second test?
In what is clearly going to be the overhyped sports story of the day Lonzo Ball the #2 pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in the recent draft struggled in his first summer league game. Ball is always going to be a story because of his father Lavar’s antics and he just didn’t get off to a good start.
Ball started and played 32 minutes as his Lakers summer league team dropped an overtime opener 96-93 to the Los Angeles Clippers. Ball shot 2 for 15 from the field which included him going 1 of 11 from behind the 3-point line. He grabbed 4 rebounds handed out 5 assists added 2 steals and blocked a shot in the game, but the focus will be his poor shooting and the fact that he only scored 5 points.
Now it’s way, way too early to make an judgements on Ball’s game, but it’s not going to stop people from doing it and I’m sure there are people out there who want to see him fail because of the way his father acts. I’m no fan of Lavar; I think he’s a complete idiot, but in no way does that affect my opinion on Lonzo. It was just one game on a long line of games for him this summer league and coming NBA season. There’s going to be good ones and bad ones and this just happened to be a bad one. Who knows maybe he’ll go out and score 40 points in the next summer league game.
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