oding Club and offering tailored fun learning then get in contactThe Milwaukee Brewers took care of business on Sunday afternoon, summarily dispatching the Detroit Tigers by a score of 11-0 at Miller Park.
The reward for their efforts?
A 163rd game at Wrigley Field for all the marbles in the National League Central.
With the Chicago Cubs beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-5, a short time after Jordan Lyles finished mopping up against the Tigers, the Brewers began preparing for their unexpected trip south on I-94 for a 1:05 p.m. ET matchup Monday.
The winner of the tiebreaker game will win the Central Division crown and advance to the NL Division Series, which begins Thursday. The loser will host the NL wild-card game on Tuesday against either the Dodgers or Rockies, who also are playing a tiebreaker for the NL West title Monday.
Simply forcing Game 163 was a testament to how well Milwaukee played over the final month of the regular season. The Brewers were trailing the Cubs by five games before Christian Yelich’s walk-off fielder’s choice on Sept. 3 started their charge.
They finished September with a 19-7 record.
After having to sweat out a pair of 6-5 nailbiters against the Tigers on Friday and Saturday, the Brewers finally were able to breathe easy in the latter innings of Sunday's game after a six-run seventh put the game out of reach.
They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI singles by Jesús Aguilar and Mike Moustakas and then added single runs in the fourth and sixth on an Aguilar homer and a Manny Piña sacrifice fly, respectively.
But with Detroit's scrappy offense having fought back each of the previous two nights, Milwaukee certainly wasn't able to breathe easy.
Veteran Gio Gonzalez started and pitched well despite the Tigers making some loud contact early. He ended up providing five shutout innings, with Junior Guerra providing two more behind him on what turned out to be a crucial rest day for the Brewers' big guns in the bullpen.
The Brewers broke the game open in the seventh, batting around for the 23rd time on the season and scoring six times to turn the game into a laugher.
Ryan Braun's two-RBI double started the rally, Niko Goodrum's wild throw home allowed two more runs to score after that and then a two-RBI single by Orlando Arcia finished the scoring for the inning.
Travis Shaw capped the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth.
There was a memorable moment when, between at-bats in the top of the eighth, manager Craig Counsell lifted Yelich from the game. Showered by chants of "MVP! MVP! MVP!" Yelich trotted off the field and tipped his cap to the crowd shortly before entering the dugout.
It was a rare quiet game for Yelich on the field, as he walked twice and struck out twice.
With the NL batting title already assured, he'll be able to utilize Game 163 to try and get himself back into the race for the triple crown as Colorado's Nolan Arenado homered twice to take over the lead in that category with 37 and also drove in three runs to tie Yelich for second with 109.
Arenado's teammate, Trevor Story, also homered to tie Yelich and the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter for second in the NL with 36.
Milwaukee's 95 victories are tied for second-most in franchise history with the 1979 and '82 teams. The Brewers won 96 games in 2011.Growing up, I played all sports that my school offered, volleyball, basketball, soccer, field hockey, track and field…the whole gamut. I figured, why not and my mom was grateful “exercise” kept me busy. For me, it was all about the sport and my friends.
I loved everything about being on the team and playing the game…the intensity, the competitiveness and the ultimate win! My position you ask? Well, I was the legendary bench warmer. That’s right, I sat on the bench during those key games and would only get called when we were up by multiple, double-digit points. But I didn’t care about that. Sports were a haven for me, a place where I hung out with my friends, had fun and learned something new! What’s not to like about that? And my friends, they didn’t care that I was a benchwarmer; that wasn’t what defined me. And after 30+ years, we are still dear friends who look back at many memories we had together both on and off the court.
As I watch my kids participate in their various sports activities, I hope that the friends they make on these teams provide a lifetime of friendships and memorable experiences too. My other hope is that their coaches and friends make up a community where they can learn perseverance, teamwork and so many other “life skills” together.
When Mike Matheny, who played MLB for 13+ years and is the current manager for the St. Louis Cardinals, published an open letter to the parents on his son’s baseball team, his words really hit home. When he published this letter, he was also the coach for his son’s junior league baseball team and he believed that “the biggest problem with youth sports has been the parents”. Wait, what? How can that be? I’m my kids’ biggest fan and I’m the one who takes them to practices and cheers them on! How can I, as a parent, be the biggest problem in youth sports?
As I continued to read the letter, phrases like “…adds more pressure on the kids”, “kids need to hear that you enjoyed watching them”, “silent source of encouragement”, sank deep into my heart. I realized that my good intention of cheering my kids on was adding pressure simply because of the words I chose and how I said them, “Come on, you can do it! Go!”. After reading, reflecting and re-reading this with Paul, we decided that it was important for us to be more intentional with how we “do” sports as a family.
I know that every family has different parenting styles and different priorities when it comes to sports for their kids. I don’t think there is a one size fits all approach to this. To be honest, Paul and I are still trying to figure it out for our family and it is always a work in progress. But in the meantime, we try to be intentional with what we instill in our kids’ and their world of sports. Currently we have 5 game-day priorities, but some are much harder to do than others.
It’s important for us to be silent – Mike Matheny used words like, “be a silent and constant source of support”. Specifically, we don’t tell our kids what they can do better pre, post or during the game, that’s the coach’s job even when the coach is not perfect. And when the game is done, the go-to phrase regardless of a win or lose, “I had fun watching you” and that is it, nothing more. There is no replay of the game unless our child is super excited and wants to say everything about the game, then our role is to nod, smile and listen. This is probably the hardest one for us to do consistently since we always like to share our opinions and replay an intense game. But we think it’s also the most important priority of all.
It’s a must to say “thank you” – We let our kids know that it is a privilege to be a part of a team. The coaches and referees have put in a lot of time and effort to ensure that they have a safe and fair game. So out of respect and gratitude, our kids cannot walk off the court/field/pool until they say thank you to their coaches and the refs. These people work hard to give them this opportunity and our kids need to show their gratitude.
It’s ok to be “ok” – We let our kids know that it’s ok to be “ok” or “average”. Our youngest daughter often complains at a swim meet that she got the “participant” ribbon AGAIN! We help her to focus on her personal best and look at the improvement of her swim times instead of constantly striving to be on the top-tier. This goal to be #1 is doomed to fail for any child. We want them to understand that being #1 is not the ultimate goal.
It’s important to be committed – We let our kids know that they need to be at their practices/games on time and to pay attention to their coaches. These coaches are taking the time and effort from their own busy lives to be with them. So my kids need to make on-time happen! Now, it’s nearly impossible to be on time for everything, but we at least make the effort.
It’s important to try your best and have fun – This is a mantra that Paul says to our kids before any game/tournament/meet. At the end of the day, that’s what we believe really matters. And if you don’t have fun, well that’s ok too since there is also this thing called “hard”. And learning to do hard is a blessed lesson in itself!
Ok, so that in a nutshell is what we attempt to do as a family when it comes to kids and sports. It’s a difficult balance and sometimes our priorities with sports will change. I would love to hear how you manage and balance sports activities with your kids.FOX Sports Ex