Tag Archives: Brewers

17 Aug

in the spotlight

Will Warren and Garrett Crochet, a couple of Mississippi high school grads now pitching in the American League East, will go to the mound today with something to prove. Warren, ex-Jackson Prep standout, starts for the New York Yankees at St. Louis. The rookie right-hander has been a reliable rotation piece for the Yankees, with a 7-5 record and 4.34 ERA. On the road, however, Warren has wobbled: 1-2, 6:48 ERA, in 12 starts. He is also 1-3, 6.06, in day games. Game time at Busch Stadium is 1:15. The Yankees, who have won the first two against the Cards, are 66-57, third in the AL East and barely hanging on to third in the wild card race. So, every game is a big one. Warren will face a sub-.500 Cardinals club that likely will trot out some of the same players he faced last year, when he gave up four runs in five innings and took a loss. … Crochet, the former Ocean Springs standout, gets the call for Boston against Miami at Fenway Park. Considered a Cy Young Award candidate, Crochet ranks among the Al leaders in wins (13), ERA (2.48), strikeouts (188) and, perhaps most notably, innings (152 1/3). He is coming off his shortest — and worst — start of the season: four innings, five runs in a loss at Houston. In just his second season as a starter, the 26-year-old left-hander already has exceeded his innings total from last year with the Chicago White Sox. The Red Sox, sitting in second place in the AL East and tied for first in the wild card, no doubt want to keep Crochet as fresh as possible for the postseason. Can he give them enough length today to beat a fading Marlins team? P.S. Milwaukee won its franchise-record 14th straight on Saturday, getting a three-run pinch-hit homer in the 11th inning from Andruw Monistereo (Biloxi Shuckers 2022) to top Cincinnati 6-5. … Ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison notched his first career win, benefiting from Colorado’s six-run eighth inning in a 10-7 victory against Arizona. Rolison pitched a clean top of the eighth, trimming his ERA to 7.41 for the 34-89 Rockies. … Former Mississippi Braves lefty Joey Wentz, another member of Atlanta’s patchwork rotation, got his second straight win for the Braves, tossing six innings (three hits, one run) in a 10-1 romp past Cleveland. The well-traveled Wentz is 2-2, 2.60, in seven games for the Braves, his third MLB team this season.

15 Aug

big knocks

Continuing his second-half revival, Michael Harris II doubled in the tying run and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Thursday night as Atlanta beat the New York Mets 4-3. The Braves have won six of eight, showing some signs of life in what’s been a rough year. It was looking like a lost year — offensively — for former Mississippi Braves star Harris before he made some swing adjustments and turned things around in mid-July. Since the All-Star break, the lefty-hitting center fielder is batting .381 with seven homers, 16 RBIs and 18 runs. He has 14 hits in his last seven games and is batting .250 for the year with 13 homers, 60 RBIs and 14 steals. And he still knows no peer with his glove. Called up from the Double-A M-Braves after just 43 games at that level in 2022, he won National League rookie of the year that season and has been highly productive before hitting a wall to start 2025. … There were several others with Mississippi ties who got big knocks in clutch situations on Thursday:
Biloxi High alum Colt Keith, on his 24th birthday, drove in the tying run for Detroit in the sixth and scored the winner in the 11th as the Tigers beat Minnesota 4-3; Keith, a second-year big leaguer, is batting .260 with 10 homers and 37 RBIs.
Justin Foscue, former Mississippi State star, delivered the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning double as Triple-A Round Rock (Texas system) knocked off Sacramento 3-2; Foscue is batting .260 with 12 homers, 49 RBIs.
Cooper Pratt, Magnolia Heights product, hit a three-run homer in a five-run seventh inning that propelled Double-A Biloxi (Milwaukee) to a 14-8 win over Columbus; Pratt is batting .238 with seven homers, 51 RBIs, 25 steals.
Connor Hujsak, ex-MSU standout, drove in the tying run in the seventh inning — and threw out the potential winning run at the plate in the 10th — as Low-Class A Charleston (Tampa Bay) beat Hickory 2-1 in 10; Hujsak is batting .227 with five homers, 45 RBIs.
Andrew Fischer, an Ole Miss alum making his pro debut, drove in two runs in the eighth — on his third hit — that put High-A Wisconsin (Milwaukee) ahead in an 8-6 victory against Great Lakes.

14 Aug

positive signs

Blaze Jordan, the former DeSoto Central High star, hit his first home run for Memphis — 13th overall in 2025 — as part of a 2-for-5, four-RBI performance in the Triple-A Redbirds’ 14-5 win Wednesday night against Charlotte. Jordan, recently traded to St. Louis by Boston, has four hits in his last two games after a sluggish start for Memphis. His homer came against erstwhile big leaguer Bryse Wilson. Jordan, the Cardinals’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .292 with 71 RBIs on the year. … Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery, the No. 1 prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s system, went 2-for-4 with a double for Birmingham and boosted his average for the Double-A club to .278 in 14 games. He is hitting .271 with 12 homers and 61 RBIs over three levels in his first pro season. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep grad, threw a clean inning in his pro debut for Low-Class A Charleston in the Tampa Bay chain. He worked the sixth and got a hold in the RiverDogs’ 3-2 win against Hickory. … Ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff tossed four scoreless innings in a scheduled short start as Milwaukee won its 12th straight, 12-5 over Pittsburgh. The Brewers are 7-0 in Woodruff’s starts; his ERA is 2.06. … Nathaniel Lowe, an MSU product, belted his first career grand slam, a first-inning bomb that helped propel Washington to an 8-7 win at Kansas City. The scuffling Lowe, who has 16 homers on the season, had not hit one since July 19 and is batting just .091 in August. … Former State standout Jake Mangum, also battling a slump, had an RBI knock, stole a base — his 17th — and scored during Tampa Bay’s four-run first inning against the A’s (and fellow Bulldogs alum J.T. Ginn). The Rays rolled on to an 8-2 victory at West Sacramento. Rookie Mangum is batting just .163 in his last 15 games but is at .275 overall. … And in the wild, wild Pioneer League, Kellum Clark, an MSU product from Brandon, went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs to pace Rocky Mountain to a 16-1 win vs. Oakland. Clark is batting .386 with nine homers, 50 RBIs and 50 runs in 40 games in the independent league. He was released by the New York Mets last year after two seasons in their system.

13 Aug

straw’s record falls

There’s a new king of Queens: Darryl Strawberry, Jackson Mets star of 1982, has been displaced as the New York Mets’ all-time home run leader by Pete Alonso, who hit No. 253 — and then 254 — on Tuesday night in a romp against Atlanta. Strawberry’s record stood for almost 35 years. The biggest star to come out of the JaxMets’ 16-year run at Smith-Wills stadium, “Straw” hit a franchise record 34 bombs for the Texas League club in ’82. He was in New York the next year, won rookie of the year honors and stayed with the team until 1990, hitting 252 bombs over those nine seasons. For the record, the most homers by a Jackson Generals alum in a Houston Astros uniform is 326 by Lance Berkman. That ranks second on the Astros’ all-time list behind Jeff Bagwell. Berkman hit 24 homers for the 1998 Gens and made The Show the next year. Mississippi Braves alum Freddie Freeman hit 271 homers for the Atlanta Braves, ranking sixth all-time on their impressive list. (Hank Aaron, of course, is far-and-away No. 1.) Freeman hit just two homers in 41 games for the M-Braves in 2009, playing hurt part of that time. … Brandon Woodruff will start today for Milwaukee, which pounded Pittsburgh — and Paul Skenes — 14-0 Tuesday for its 11 straight win. Former Mississippi State and Wheeler High star Woodruff is 4-0 since coming off the injured list on July 6, and the Brewers are 6-0 in his starts and 25-4 since he returned after a year on the shelf. Interesting to note that back in early April, Milwaukee was No. 22 in USA Today’s MLB power rankings. The Brewers are now No. 1 — with the best record in the majors. It’s been that kind of magical run for this club, which features several Biloxi Shuckers alumni, Woodruff among them. P.S. Down on the farm: Brewers No. 3 prospect Cooper Pratt, a Magnolia Heights grad, homered and delivered a walk-off single in the ninth as Biloxi beat Columbus 7-6 at Keesler Federal Park. Pratt, who has faced some challenges in Double-A, is batting .237 with six homers, 48 RBIs and 24 steals. … Ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko homered twice for Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox system) and now has 25 on the year, including four in the big leagues. … Landon Tomkins, a Northwest Rankin and Hinds Community College product, got a win in relief in his Double-A debut for Altoona (Pittsburgh). … Luke Hill, 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss, got a hit in his first pro game with Low-Class A Lynchburg (Guardians).

11 Aug

like old times (sorta)

In the relative obscurity of an independent league, Demarcus Evans is flashing the form that made him a hot prospect when he reached the majors five years ago. The Petal native threw three scoreless, hitless innings in relief Sunday for Gary SouthShore in an American Association game. The 28-year-old right-hander trimmed his ERA to 1.95 in 20 appearances. In 27 2/3 innings, he has struck out 25 batters but walked 16. Drafted out of Petal High in the 25th round by Texas in 2015, Evans — currently listed at 6 feet 5, 270 pounds — was described as a “hulking fireballer” who needed a lot of polish. He gradually rose through the Texas system — punching out 444 batters in 297 innings — before getting his first MLB call-up in September of 2020. And, yes, Albert Pujols welcomed him with a home run. Evans would make just 29 appearances in ’20 and ’21 for Texas, posting a 4.75 ERA with a high walk total. He became a free agent in 2022, went to spring camp with the New York Yankees in 2023, got hurt and barely pitched the next two seasons. Seemingly healthy now, Evans has settled in as one of the more dependable relievers for the RailCats. He has allowed just one run in his last seven appearances for a team that is 20 games under .500. Getting back to affiliated ball might be unlikely for Evans, but it’s good to see that he is finding some success again. P.S. Isaac Collins, former Biloxi Shuckers standout, hit his first (ever) walk-off home run to give Milwaukee its ninth straight win, a 7-6 shocker over the New York Mets. Collins is batting .462 over his last seven games and .295 with eight homers on the season. … Nathaniel Lowe played a role in a history-making event on Sunday: The ex-Mississippi State standout was the 3,500th career strikeout victim for future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander; only 10 pitchers have hit that total. Lowe’s Washington club did beat Verlander and San Francisco by an 8-0 count. … Down in the minors, former Magee High star Brennon McNair doubled in the eighth inning, went to third on a bunt and scored the game’s lone run on a throwing error as Columbia beat Hickory. McNair, 22, has had an uneven season for the Low-Class A Kansas City affiliate, batting .192 with nine homers, 34 RBIs, 40 runs and 12 steals in 87 games.

10 Aug

worth noting

Hurston Waldrep sure knows how to capture the moment. Last Sunday, the ex-Southern Miss and Mississippi Braves standout was the winning pitcher for Atlanta in the historic Speedway Classic. On Saturday, he threw six strong innings to get his second career MLB win in the first game of a twinbill, which also happened to be the debut for Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire an MLB regular season game. (She’ll be behind the plate today.) Waldrep is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA and — probably? — has earned a spot in the Braves’ rotation. … Former M-Braves Michael Harris II and Drake Baldwin combined for eight hits and eight RBIs as the Braves swept Miami on Saturday at Truist Park. … M-Braves alum William Contreras and ex-Biloxi Shuckers star Brice Turang homered — 10th of the season for each — and Milwaukee beat the New York Mets for its eighth straight win. … Jacob Gonzalez, former Ole Miss All-American, homered for the second straight day and went 2-for-3 with two walks and three RBIs to power Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox system) to a victory. … Chuckie Robinson, Southern Miss product, put up a 2-for-4 — eight hits in his last five games — scored twice and threw out a base-stealer for Triple-A Oklahoma City (Los Angeles Dodgers) in a win against El Paso. … K.C. Hunt, ex-Mississippi State standout, threw six shutout innings for his seventh win as Double-A Biloxi (Milwaukee) beat Knoxville. … Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect out of Jackson Prep, banged out three hits and scored three times as High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh) rang up 27 runs against Asheville. … Emaarion Boyd, the speedster from South Panola, stole his 40th bag, drove in a run and scored one for High-A Beloit (Miami) in a 2-1 victory against Quad Cities. P.S. Kevin Roberts Jr., a Meridian native now playing at Jackson Prep, will play in the MLB-sponsored High School All-American Game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game features players, many of them top draft prospects, from the prep class of 2026. A Florida commit, Roberts hit .406 for Prep in 2025.

09 Aug

ecstasy and agony

When it ended, on an unforgettable, jaw-dropping play, Brandon Woodruff was just a spectator. The Mississippi State product had done his part for Milwaukee on Friday night, throwing a season-high seven innings and leaving with a lead. In the top of the ninth inning, the New York Mets — who put the Brewers out of the playoffs last fall — got the tying run to second base with two down. On a single to center field by Jeff McNeil, Blake Perkins came up throwing and nailed Starling Marte at the plate, ending the game and sending the 43,000-plus at American Family Field into a frenzy. “I was running up and down the hall after it happened. It was incredible,” Woodruff said in an mlb.com story. The 3-2 victory was the Brewers’ seventh straight. “A perfect representation of the way this team’s playing,” said catcher William Contreras, the former Mississippi Braves standout who made the tag on Marte that ended it. Milwaukee has the best record (71-44) in the majors and a 5-game lead in the National League Central. Woodruff, making his sixth start since coming off the injured list, is 4-0 with a 2.29 ERA. Though his fastball velocity is down a bit, the Wheeler High grad is still racking up strikeouts: eight on Friday and 45 (with only six walks) in 35 2/3 innings all told. “That is what a horse looks like,” Brewers broadcaster Brian Anderson said when Woodruff walked off the mound after a 1-2-3 seventh. … New York’s other team also suffered a crushing defeat on Friday night, and a pair of Biloxi Shuckers alums played key roles. Devin Williams, the Yankees’ embattled reliever, allowed three runs in the 10th inning, two on a Taylor Trammell homer, and the scuffling Yanks fell to Houston 5-3 at raucous Yankee Stadium. One of the best closers in the game with Milwaukee before joining the Yankees this season, Williams saw his ERA rise to 5.73. He has allowed eight runs in his last five appearances, though he did manage to notch a save in that span. “It’s pretty simple. I stink right now,” Williams told mlb.com. Josh Hader, another former Shuckers star and now the Astros’ closer, worked the ninth and 10th for Houston, stranding the tying runs in the final frame. Hader is 6-2, 2.05, with 28 saves. The American League West-leading Astros improved to 65-51. New York, third in the AL East, is 61-55. P.S. Alex Wood, an ace for the M-Braves back in 2013, announced his retirement after 12 MLB seasons. He was not on a team this year. The 34-year-old left-hander went 77-68 with a 3.78 ERA for his career, which included winning a World Series ring with the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers. … Former MSU standout Preston Johnson was released by Baltimore; he had reached the Triple-A level this season but struggled there (14.73 ERA in seven games).

08 Aug

they also serve …

Dave Clark and Travis Chapman won’t throw a pitch or swing the bat this weekend, but they’ll be on the field at Yankee Stadium and involved in the action. Clark, the former Jackson State star from Shannon, and Chapman, a Mississippi State alum, are first-base coaches for Houston and the New York Yankees, respectively. Those teams, rivals with a history and 2025 playoff contenders, will face off in a three-game series. With the likes of Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa and Jazz Chisholm taking hacks in this series, Clark and Chapman figure to be plenty busy playing traffic cop at first base. They are among a sizable group of former players with Mississippi connections who now work in managerial or coaching roles in the big leagues. At one time in 2018, there were seven major league managers with a Mississippi tie, either a school alum or a player or manager for Jackson’s old Texas League club. Today, Brian Snitker, 2005 Mississippi Braves skipper, and Ray Montgomery, who played for the Jackson Generals in the 1990s, are the only two. Snitker is retiring after this season on the heels of a great run in the ATL, the 2025 season notwithstanding. Montgomery is the interim manager for the Los Angeles Angels, presumably just keeping the seat warm for the return of Ron Washington next year. For the Milwaukee Brewers — MLB’s hottest team — Chris Hook, a former Biloxi Shuckers coach and a Jackson Generals pitcher, serves as pitching coach for an outstanding staff, and Starkville native Julio Borbon is the Brewers’ first-base coach. The Crew is hosting the New York Mets this weekend. John Gibbons, former Jackson Mets catcher, is the Mets’ bench coach, and Antoan Richardson, who starred for the Mississippi Braves, is their first-base coach. Laurel native Bobby Dickerson is the infield coach for Philadelphia. Marcus Thames, the Louisville native and East Central Community College star, is the hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox. Jim Hickey, a former Jackson Generals pitching coach, is the longtime pitching coach of the Washington Nationals. The Colorado staff includes Clint Hurdle, skipper of the last JaxMets team in 1990, as bench coach and ex-JaxMets first baseman Ron Gideon as first-base coach. Chris Truby, who manned third base for the Jackson Generals in the mid-’90s, is now a coach for Pittsburgh. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Landon Harper came within one out of a seven-inning perfect game Thursday for Double-A Columbus in Atlanta’s system. Harper finished with a one-hitter and improved to 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA after the 2-0 win over Rocket City. … Former Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin homered — his 15th overall this season — for High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh). The minor leagues’ No. 1 prospect is batting .332 with 64 RBIs, 87 runs and 50 steals in 92 games over two levels of A-ball. … Blaine Crim, Mississippi College alum, hit his 19th homer of the year, his first for Triple-A Albuquerque since Colorado claimed him off waivers from Texas. The bomb came against his former team, Round Rock, and erstwhile big leaguer Craig Kimbrel. … The Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly will call up Justin Dean, who played center field for the 2021 Double-A South champion M-Braves. … The North Delta Dealers, behind the two-hit pitching of Eli Akins, won the Cotton States League championship last Sunday, beating regular season champ Tallahatchie 2-1. Hayden Short and Patrick Mangels drove in runs for North Delta. Akins, a 6-foot-6 righty at Delta State, went 6-1 in the New Albany-based college summer league. Tallahatchie finished 14-5-1 this season and led the loop in hitting and pitching.

06 Aug

numbers to crunch

4 — Hits by Brent Rooker in a 16-7 win Tuesday by the A’s over Washington in a game chock-full of crazy numbers, including 24 hits — nine for extra bases — and five walks by the visitors at Nationals Park. Former Mississippi State star Rooker hit two doubles, drove in three runs and scored three.
3 — Home runs by Shea Langeliers of the A’s in the catcher’s first career game batting leadoff. Langeliers, who powered the Double-A Mississippi Braves to a league title in 2021, went 5-for-6 and scored four times. It was his second career three-homer game, and he now has 22 bombs on the season.
4 — Walks drawn by Nathaniel Lowe in the Nationals’ humbling defeat. The MSU alum, teammates with Rooker back in 2016, went 0-for-1 and is batting .221 with a .294 OBP — far off his career numbers — in his first year with Washington.
13 — Wins this season for Garrett Crochet, who allowed two runs in seven innings as Boston beat Kansas City 6-2 for its seventh straight win. Ocean Springs native Crochet, pitching on nine days rest, is 13-4 with a 2.24 ERA in 23 starts for the surging Red Sox.
13 — Wins this season for Freddy Peralta, who went five innings for Milwaukee to subdue Atlanta 7-2. The former Biloxi Shuckers standout, 13-5 with a 3.03, helped the Brewers win their sixth straight and improve to an MLB-best 69-44.
7 — Hits and RBIs in four August games for Isaac Collins, who had two of each in Milwaukee’s win at Truist Park. The 5-foot-8, 188-pound Shuckers alum, batting .285 this season, was the National League rookie of the month for July.
5 — RBIs by Dakota Jordan in a two-homer game for Low-Class A San Jose in San Francisco’s organization. The ex-MSU star from Canton, a 2024 draftee, has 14 homers and 82 RBIs in 84 games. Coming off the IL, he is 11-for-19 with four bombs and 12 RBIs in four games in August.
1 — Save, in his first opportunity at Triple-A Omaha (Kansas City system), for Brandon Johnson. The Ole Miss product threw a scoreless 10th in a 7-6 win at Indianapolis, trimming his ERA to 6.37 in his 22nd game for the Storm Chasers. He had a 0.79 and seven saves at the Double-A level this year.
P.S. Rooker, former State standout Jake Mangum (Tampa Bay) and Shuckers alum Sal Frelick (Milwaukee) were selected as their team’s Heart and Hustle Award winners for 2025. The award honors a player who best embodies the values, spirit and tradition of the game. An overall winner will be chosen after the season.

03 Aug

three stars

Colt Keith: The Biloxi High product went 3-for-5 with a home run — for Detroit’s first run against Zack Wheeler — as the Tigers beat the Phillies 7-5 in a showdown of aces (Tarik Skubal vs. Wheeler) and first-place teams. Keith is batting .258 with nine homers and 33 RBIs and is hitting .316 over his last seven games.
Brandon Woodruff: The ex-Mississippi State standout allowed one hit (a homer), one walk and two runs over six innings and punched out eight to lead first-place Milwaukee to an 8-2 win against Washington. In five starts since coming off the injured list, Woodruff is 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 37 K’s in 28 1/3 innings.
Christopher Sargent Jr.: The former Southern Miss slugger drove in two runs with a double for Ogden in the independent Pioneer League and boosted his season RBI total to 101, best in the league. He is batting .381 with 25 homers.
P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison was recalled to the big leagues by Colorado; he had a 7.34 ERA in 22 games in his first stint for the woeful Rockies. … J.P. France, an MSU product, allowed four runs on two hits and four walks in a rehab start for Triple-A Sugar Land in the Houston system. … Blaine Crim, Mississippi College alum, was designated for assignment by Texas on July 31 and is in roster limbo. He is batting .284 with 18 homers at Triple-A Round Rock; he went 0-for-11 in The Show. … Mississippi native Lance Barksdale is on the umpiring crew for the historic MLB Speedway Classic in Bristol, Tenn. The Atlanta-Cincinnati game was suspended by rain and will be resumed today in the first inning.