Tag Archives: yankees

03 Oct

forging ahead

The final eight teams are now set in the major league postseason, but for the Mississippi baseball aficionado, there are some questions. What will Will Warren’s role be with the New York Yankees? Will Colt Keith be back on the field for Detroit? Is Brandon Woodruff ready to come off the injured list for Milwaukee? … Former Jackson Prep standout Warren watched as the Yankees, behind the gas-pumping Cam Schlittler, eliminated Boston 4-0 Thursday night in Game 3. Warren, 9-8, 4.44 ERA, as a starter this season, shifted to the bullpen for the Wild Card Series but never made an appearance. A Baseball America MLB All-Rookie selection, the right-hander reportedly is a candidate for Saturday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Toronto, the AL East champ and the league’s top seed. On the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster is Southern Miss alum Nick Sandlin (2.20 ERA in 19 games), on the IL since early July with an elbow issue; he has been throwing but apparently isn’t ready for active duty. … Thursday’s loss ended a brilliant season for Ocean Springs High product Garrett Crochet, who beat the Yankees — for the fourth time in 2025 — in the series opener. Also going home is ex-Mississippi State slugger Nathaniel Lowe, who went 1-for-7 in the series. He had one of the Red Sox’s five hits — and one of the 12 punchouts — against Schlitter; he also committed a tough error at first base in the pivotal fourth inning of Game 3. … Keith, former Gatorade player of the year winner (2019) at Biloxi High, watched as the Tigers beat Cleveland in Game 3 on Thursday to advance to the ALDS against Seattle. Keith, who hit .256 with 13 homers, 45 RBIs and 65 runs this season, went on the IL on Sept. 19 with a rib cage injury. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday there were “good signs” that Keith might be able to return for the ALDS. … Ex-MSU star Woodruff’s status remains cloudy for Milwaukee’s National League Division Series against Chicago. The big right-hander returned from injury this year to go 7-2, 3.20, in 12 starts but went on the IL on Sept. 21 with a lat strain. He is technically eligible to come off the IL today (Oct. 3). He has pitched in eight postseason games for the Brewers in his career, going 1-3, 3.18. The Brewers would certainly love to have their horse against the Cubs. … Chicago out-pitched San Diego in their Wild Card Series, winning Games 1 and 3 by 3-1 scores. Former Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz worked in both of those wins, retiring all six batters he faced and notching two holds. The situational lefty, 36, entered Thursday’s game in the seventh with a runner at first, no outs and the Cubs up 2-0. He got a fly out, a line out and another fly out to end the inning. P.S. The last time the Blue Jays won the AL East, in 2015, their manager was former Jackson Mets catcher John Gibbons. That team lost in the AL Championship Series to Kansas City, which was managed by former JaxMets catcher Ned Yost. Oddly enough, the Royals beat the New York Mets in the World Series.

29 Sep

on the eve …

Few things in baseball beat a Red Sox-Yankees game, especially when it’s a postseason game. At Yankee Stadium. With a Mississippi native starting for Boston and a former Mississippi Braves standout on the bump for New York. That’s what Tuesday’s American League wild card round will give us. Garrett Crochet, an 18-game winner, the pride of Ocean Springs, gets the call for Boston against Max Fried, a 19-game winner who pitched in Pearl in 2017-18. Game time is 5:08 CDT. Crochet went 3-0 with a 3.29 ERA in four starts against the Yankees; he struck out Aaron Judge 10 times in 13 at-bats, yielding two home runs. Fried was 1-1 with a 1.97 in three starts vs. the Red Sox. This best-of-3 series will be the sixth postseason meeting between the rivals. Boston has prevailed in the last three — and won the World Series in two of those years (2004 and 2018). … Boston’s lineup figures to include Mississippi State alum Nathaniel Lowe, a lefty hitter who hasn’t faced the lefty Fried. The Yankees’ roster includes two ex-Biloxi Shuckers standouts in outfielder Trent Grisham and reliever Devin Williams and former Jackson Prep star Will Warren, expected to work out of the bullpen in this series. … In Tuesday’s first game, Detroit is at Cleveland in a matchup of AL Central rivals. There is a familiar name in the Guardians’ bullpen: Kolby Allard, a former first-round pick by Atlanta who pitched for the M-Braves in 2017. The lefty has a 2.63 ERA over 33 games. Biloxi High alum Colt Keith remains on the injured list with Detroit. Former M-Braves outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy was on the Tigers’ roster at season’s end but may not make their postseason list. … Drew Pomeranz, the ex-Ole Miss star, is a mainstay in the bullpen for the Chicago Cubs, who play host to San Diego in the NL wild card round. M-Braves alum Dansby Swanson has had a productive year as the Cubs’ shortstop. Of note: The Cubs signed Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton — he of the 326 career stolen bases — to a minor league deal in early September, and he played a handful of games at Triple-A Iowa, swiping three bases in five tries. He’s 35 but can still run; he could be a weapon on the bases should the Cubs add him to the roster at some point. … The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who’ll host Cincinnati in the nightcap on Tuesday, got another a big year from Freddie Freeman, the former M-Braves standout who hit .295 with 24 homers and 90 RBIs for the NL West champs. He is a .277 career postseason hitter with 14 homers, including the Game 1 grand slam that essentially powered the Dodgers to the 2024 World Series title. There is a familiar name on the Reds’ roster also: Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of Charlie Hayes, the Hattiesburg native who won a World Series with the Yankees 29 years ago. P.S. Since there are no major league games today, ripping open a couple packs of Topps cards from, say, 20 years ago can help fill the void until the postseason starts on Tuesday. You never know what treasures might be found inside. To wit: Unfortunately, there were no cards of Mississippians, but there were some interesting ones. Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon (of the curse-busting Red Sox), Vinny Castilla, Eric Chavez/Gold Glove, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds/Sporting News All-Stars, Tony Batista (in the uniform of the defunct Montreal Expos) and a Felix Hernandez/Prospects (but not an actual rookie). The best pull, if not the most valuable, from these two 2005 foil packs: a commemorative action shot of Ken Griffey Jr.’s 500th home run, hit on Father’s Day 2004, when he was with Cincinnati.

27 Sep

the night for three dogs

One former Mississippi State standout was hunting a playoff berth on Friday night, while two others were playing spoiler roles in the American League East title race. Nathaniel Lowe and the Boston Red Sox accomplished their mission, clinching an AL wild card, but Lowe’s fellow former Bulldogs Jordan Westburg and Jake Mangum could not spark upsets for Baltimore and Tampa Bay, respectively. Lowe, who joined the Red Sox in mid-August, went 1-for-2 with a sac fly as Boston rallied from three runs down to beat Detroit 4-3 on Ceddanne Rafaela’s walk-off triple in the ninth inning. Fenway Park went nuts. The BoSox are back in the postseason for the first time in four years — and, yes, they celebrated, champagne showers and all. “Just a total team effort. That was fun to watch,” Boston manager Alex Cora told mlb.com. Meanwhile, at Yankee Stadium, Westburg gave the Orioles an early lead with a three-run homer off Will Warren, the Jackson Prep product, but the Yankees powered their way to an 8-4 win. Warren (9-8) got the W as New York remained tied atop the AL East with Toronto, which beat Tampa Bay 4-2 at Rogers Centre. Rookie Mangum, batting .299 on the year, went 1-for-3 for the Rays, who briefly led early on. Toronto holds the tiebreaker over New York. Two games left for both. … In the National League wild card battle, Cincinnati rallied past host Milwaukee — the NL’s best team, record-wise — for a 3-1 win and is now tied with the New York Mets, who crumbled against Miami, losing 6-2. The Reds have won seven of 10. “There are things that are happening with the Reds right now that make you think they are destined for the postseason,” Reds broadcaster Jeff Brantley, the former MSU star, said during the game. The Reds hold the tiebreaker over the Mets for the final wild card. Two games left for both. P.S. On this date in 1935, Hughie Critz, one of Mississippi’s all-time best, played the final game of a 12-year career. The 5-foot-8 Starkville native, who attended MSU when it was called Mississippi A&M, hit .268 with 531 RBIs and 832 runs, playing for the Reds and the New York Giants. … Greenville native George Scott, another of the state’s greats, played his last MLB game on this date in 1979. “Boomer” hit .268 with 271 homers and 1,051 RBIs in 14 seasons; he spent most of his career with the Red Sox. He would play on in Mexico until 1984.

15 Sep

hot starts

On this date in 2002, Cliff Lee threw the first pitch of his major league career. Perhaps foreshadowing what was to come, the ex-Meridian Community College standout went 5 1/3 innings, allowing a lone run, but took a loss for Cleveland in a 5-0 defeat against visiting Minnesota. A 6-foot-3 left-hander, Lee would finish his 13-year MLB career with a 143-91 record, a 3.52 ERA, a Cy Young Award, an ERA title and four All-Star Game appearances. He never won a World Series ring but was 7-3, 2.52, in the postseason. In sum, he was really good. Born in Arkansas, he spent two years at MCC (under Scott Berry) and was drafted by Baltimore in 1998. He didn’t sign and went on to Arkansas, where he was a fourth-round pick by Montreal in 2000. He was traded to Cleveland in the summer of 2002 along with Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore in a blockbuster deal for Bartolo Colon and Lee Stevens. Lee would win 90 games for the Indians, 22 in 2008 when he earned the Cy Young. He won 58 games in parts of five seasons with Philadelphia and went 2-0 in the 2009 World Series. … Also on this date, in 1984, Natchez native Freddie Toliver made his MLB debut, tossing a scoreless inning for Cincinnati against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Drafted out of a California high school in 1979, Toliver went 10-16, 4.73, in 78 MLB games; he was 7-6, 4.24, for a 91-win Minnesota club in 1988. … And on this date in 1993, Keith Kessinger, an Ole Miss alum, went 1-for-2 for Cincinnati against Atlanta, getting his knock off Kent Mercker in his first at-bat. Kessinger, son of former big league star Don Kessinger, hit .259 in 11 games in ’93, his only year in The Show. P.S. Crochet v. Warren Act II went a lot like the original. Crochet, the former Ocean Springs High standout now with the Boston Red Sox, threw six effective innings Sunday night, allowing three runs and fanning 12, in Boston’s 6-4 victory over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Warren, the Jackson Prep product, gave up all six runs in the first inning – two on a hit by Mississippi State alum Nathaniel Lowe – and took the loss. Crochet (16-5, 2.63 ERA in 30 starts) beat Warren and Yanks on Aug. 23, punching out 11 in seven innings in a 12-1 win. Warren (now 8-7, 4.44) got roughed up in that game, too. He has a 9.42 ERA in three career starts against Boston. Of note: Crochet has fanned Aaron Judge 11 times in 15 at-bats; Judge has hit two homers off the lefty, including one Sunday. The season series between the two American League East rivals has ended. The Red Sox, who won the series, trail the second-place Yankees by 1.5 games. … Former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson has been recalled again (see previous posts) by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

10 Sep

weird, wild stuff

Among the several marquee matchups in the majors on Tuesday night, the most eye-popping result came from the Bronx, where a couple of Mississippians were on opposing sides in Detroit’s 12-2 win over the New York Yankees. Right-hander Will Warren, the Jackson Prep product who has been a beast at home all season, delivered a solid six innings for the Yankees. The score was 2-2 when he departed. Then the Tigers scored nine times — nine times — in the seventh. Former Biloxi High star Colt Keith, the Tigers’ leadoff batter, had a quiet night overall but did contribute an RBI HBP and a run in the crazy seventh, which featured blasts and a bloop, walks and a wild pitch. “I don’t know what to say,” Warren, who watched the bullpen meltdown from the dugout, told mlb.com. “I haven’t seen anything like that before.” Probably hasn’t heard anything like the boos that came raining down. Detroit is comfortably ahead in the American League Central. The Yankees are second in the AL East (3 games back of Toronto) but lead the wild card race (by percentage points over Boston). … A bullpen collapse also cost Houston, the AL West leader (by a game over Seattle), against Toronto, which rallied from a three-run deficit to win 4-3 in 10 innings. The Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, then walked it off in the 10th against Craig Kimbrel. After starter Luis Garcia departed with an injury in the second inning, the Astros used six relief pitchers, none of which was J.P. France, the Mississippi State alum who was added to the active roster for the first time since mid-2024. P.S. An Eagle, a Rebel, a Bulldog and a Tiger walked into a ballpark … . No, seriously, in a Triple-A International League game, Matthew Etzel (2-for-3, a run and an RBI) and Kemp Alderman (1-for-4, run) helped the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami affiliate) post a 5-2 win against Gavin Collins (1-for-4, run), Blaze Jordan (1-for-4) and the Memphis (St. Louis) Redbirds. … Also down in the minors, ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko hit his 30th homer of 2025 — 26 with Triple-A Charlotte and four with the Chicago White Sox. … MSU product Justin Foscue, stuck with Texas’ Triple-A Round Rock club most of the season, got a walk-off 10th-inning hit; he is batting .255 with 17 homers and 63 RBIs. … In the Low-Class A Carolina League playoffs, former Ole Miss standout Luke Hill went 1-for-5 with a run and MSU product Cam Schuelke notched the save as Lynchburg (Cleveland) beat Fredricksburg (Washington) 2-1 in Game 1 of their best-of-3 series.

24 Aug

touching the bases

His Boston teammates call Garrett Crochet “Beast,” and on Saturday at Yankee Stadium he showed why. The former Ocean Springs High star overpowered the New York Yankees in the Red Sox’s 12-1 victory: seven innings, five hits, one run, one walk, 11 strikeouts. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound left-hander is 14-5 with a 2.38 ERA; he is 2-0, 2.96, in three starts vs. the Yankees, all wins by Boston. He went over 200 strikeouts for the season and passed 500 for his career; he has only been a starter for two of his five seasons. While Crochet was sharp in the Red Sox’s eighth straight win over the Yanks, Jackson Prep product Will Warren was not. He was charged with five runs in four innings and fell to 7-6, 4.47. … The Milwaukee Brewers will honor the late Bob Uecker today at American Family Field. Brewers broadcaster Tim Dillard, the ex-Itawamba Community College star who pitched for the Brewers from 2008-12, said this about Uecker, aka Mr. Baseball: “He made everybody better. Whether it was with his knowledge or his wit, his storytelling, just his voice, all of it. That was his gift, and he shared it with the world.” … Matt Wallner hit his 17th homer in Minnesota’s loss on Saturday. The former Southern Miss slugger, batting just .210, has 33 extra-base knocks among his 55 hits. … Seattle has designated former Mississippi Braves shortstop Dylan Moore for assignment. With the Mariners since 2019, the versatile Moore is hitting .193 this year. … Former Atlanta Braves scout Roy Clark — responsible for the drafting of Austin Riley, Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward and Adam Wainwright, among others — has died at age 68. … Justin Foscue, the ex-Mississippi State standout, is itching for a call-up with Texas, which has suffered a rash of injuries lately. Foscue hit his 15th homer for Triple-A Round Rock on Saturday and is batting .292 with four bombs and 17 RBIs in August. He is 3-for-51 in his brief MLB time the last two years. … The Mississippi Mud Monsters’ Frontier League playoff hopes took a hit on Saturday when Washington rallied for six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to an 8-6 win. Former ICC standout Tyreque Reed hit a game-tying three-run homer in the pivotal frame, his 13th of the season for the Wild Things. … Christopher Sargent Jr. continues to put up staggering stats in the independent Pioneer League: The USM alum, who had two hits in Ogden’s win on Saturday, is batting .384 with 35 homers, 130 RBIs and 94 runs in 80 games.

23 Aug

reverse course

Nobody can honestly say they saw this coming. In four games with Boston, ex-Mississippi State star Nathaniel Lowe is 3-for-10 with a homer, two doubles, four RBIs and three runs. On Friday night, he whacked a pinch-hit double in the seventh inning and scored the game’s only run as the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. He drove in two runs in Thursday’s 6-3 victory. When he was released by Washington on Aug. 14, Lowe had a .216 average; he had hit .205 with two homers in July and .091 with one in August. The Red Sox, with a need for a lefty-hitting first baseman, snapped him up, and Lowe, 30, seems reinvigorated by the move to a contending club. He is a .263 career hitter with 106 homers over seven seasons and a Silver Slugger award on his resume. “(S)o far, so good,” Boston manager Alex Cora said in an mlb.com piece. “He’s been great coming off the bench, twice, putting up good at-bats. He’s a good defender, and it seems like he’s happy.” After Friday’s win, Boston’s seventh straight over New York, the Sawx are now second and leading the Bombers by a half-game in the American League East and atop the wild card standings. Might Red Sox fans look back on the Lowe signing as a seminal moment in this season? Worth noting: The last time the Red Sox won the World Series — 2018 — they had a Mississippi State alum playing first base — Mitch Moreland. And stay tuned: Game 3 of this four-game series today matches Ocean Springs’ Garrett Crochet against Brandon’s Will Warren. The stadium should be at fever pitch. … Meanwhile, at a more subdued Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, another former MSU standout had a big night. Jake Mangum went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs, a run and a stolen base as the Tampa Bay Rays whipped St. Louis 10-6. The Jackson Prep grad, who’s also been slumping of late, boosted his average to .283 with the third four-hit game of his rookie season. He has contributed two homers, 14 doubles, 34 RBIs, 32 runs and 20 steals in 90 games for a Rays team that, at 62-67, has tumbled out of the playoff picture. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves star William Contreras hit his first career walk-off homer Friday to give Milwaukee yet another victory, its 20th in 25 games, 5-4 against San Francisco. … Snake-bit Baltimore put MSU product Jordan Westburg on the injured list again, this time with an ankle sprain. … Arizona named Tim Bogar, former Jackson Mets shortstop back in the ’80s, as its new third-base coach. … In the minors, Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel banged out three hits and is now batting .423 with five RBIs, five runs and four steals in six games since Miami promoted him to Triple-A Jacksonville.

22 Aug

table is set

Thursday’s appetizer was good, and the metaphorical salad and dessert that will follow should be also. But the main course, to be served up Saturday at Yankee Stadium, promises to be downright delicious. Boston beat New York 6-3 Thursday night in Game 1 of a four-course series. In Game 2 tonight, the menu gives us Brayan Bello (9-6, 3.23 ERA) against three-time All-Star Max Fried (13-5, 3.26), the former Mississippi Braves standout. And on Saturday, we get a tantalizing matchup of Mississippi natives: Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet vs. Will Warren, an unsung hero in pinstripes. Knives out. Crochet, from Ocean Springs, is a big left-hander, a former first-round pick out of SEC power Tennessee with a huge contract. Warren, from Brandon, is a second-year rookie right-hander, a former eighth-round pick out of Southeastern Louisiana. Crochet is 13-5, 2.43, and a Cy Young Award contender. He beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 7. Warren is 7-5 with a 4.25, with six of those wins coming at Yankee Stadium, one of them vs. the Red Sox. The series will wrap up as the Sunday night ESPN game. Thursday’s opener, which drew a rowdy crowd of 47,036, was a taut affair, ultimately settled in the ninth inning when Boston’s Roman Anthony mashed a two-run homer into the right-field stands. It was the Red Sox’s sixth straight win against the Yankees. “I love playing in an atmosphere,” rookie Anthony told mlb.com. “We know the rivalry, and it was exciting.” Nathaniel Lowe, the Mississippi State product who signed with Boston on Aug. 18, drove in two runs and made a couple of nice plays with his glove. It was the veteran first baseman’s first taste of Red Sox-Yankees. “It’s like a dream come true,” Lowe told yahoo.com of moving from last-place Washington to the heat of a playoff race. “It’s so exciting to join a team that’s as promising and as talented as what we have going on here.” The second-place Yanks are a half-game ahead of the Red Sox in the American League East, and they sit 4-5 in the wild card standings. P.S. Biloxi Shuckers alum Brice Turang’s 14th homer helped Milwaukee beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1, snap a three-game skid and maintain a 7-game lead in the National League Central. Turang had nine hits, six RBIs and four runs in the Wrigley Field series as the Brewers won two of the five games. … Atlanta announced that Austin Riley had surgery for his abdominal injury, ending the season for the former DeSoto Central star. He hit .260 with 16 homers this year. … Houston, having lost closer Josh Hader for an extended period, signed Craig Kimbrel, the former M-Braves star who has been released by Atlanta and Texas this season. … In the minors, MSU alum J.P. France got the win and ex-Madison Central star Spencer Turnbull took the loss as Triple-A Sugar Land beat Iowa 5-2. France, who just came off a rehab assignment, went five innings (no earned runs) in relief and improved to 1-1 with a 5.52 ERA in his fourth appearance for Houston’s Triple-A club. Turnbull, signed by the Cubs as a free agent on July 12, is 0-5, 8.16, for the I-Cubs after yielding five runs in 4 2/3 on Thursday. … Congrats to Rick Sweet, Jackson Generals manager in 1991-92, for moving into third place on the all-time list with 2,418 minor league wins. Sweet is currently running Milwaukee’s Triple-A Nashville club in his 35th season as a skipper.

17 Aug

on this date

Baseball historians might remember this as the date in 1920 that Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman died after being hit by a pitch from the New York Yankees’ Carl Mays; it’s the only on-field death in major league history. Some might also remember this as the date of Pete Rose’s last big league game in 1986; he struck out as a pinch hitter for Cincinnati against San Diego’s Goose Gossage.
And, yes, a couple things happened on Aug. 17 that are of local significance:
Jim Davenport, one of the best players to come out of Southern Miss, was born on this date in 1933 in Siluria, Ala. Davenport, nicknamed “Peanut,” signed with San Francisco in 1954 and spent all of his 13 big league seasons (1958-70) with the Giants before transitioning into off-field duties with the organization. He managed the team in 1985. A third baseman, he .258 with 77 homers and 456 RBIs, made two All-Star teams and played on the Giants’ 1962 World Series club that lost in seven games to the New York Yankees. Davenport batted .297 with 14 homers that season and homered off Sandy Koufax in the playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He died in 2016 at age 82.
Sammy Vick, a Batesville native who played five years in the majors, died on this date in 1986. He was 91. Vick is perhaps best known as the player who was displaced in right field when the Yankees famously bought Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox before the 1920 season. Vick hit .248 with 26 extra-base hits, nine steals and 59 runs in 106 games in 1919. Vick and Ruth reportedly became good friends during their one season together. Vick played very little in 1920 — while Ruth was blasting 54 homers — and moved on to Boston in 1921, his last year in the majors. A Millsaps College alumnus, he hit .248 in 213 games for his big league career.

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.