Joseph Zarr

Perez gets 0-2. Lays off off-speed in the dirt. 1-2 count. Nice block by the catcher there. High and inside he ducks away. 2-2 count. Check swing on a high breaker. Close swing and pitch. He doesn't go. Called full. Tense. Here we go. He pops up left of the mound. Wooof. Darn.

Solid AB's from Wood and Hall. Wood advances the runner. Hall fouls a couple off and takes the free pass. Make him work. Men on the corners. Two down. Hedbert with a moment here. Come on young fella!

This homeplate ump @ Lake County pretty much stinks. Not a good look for a Championship game. He's missing some strike calls going against both pitchers.

I had dejá vu from last night not going to lie. Meanwhile Mejía just absolutely ripped a ball over the RF fence. 98.4 mph off the bat. 37 degree launch angle.

Yophery coming out tonight like he came out last night: swinging at anything. Every pitch a ball. Strikes out at a heater outside and eye level. Almost a replica of last night's first AB. Only difference is the heater wasn't inside it was outisde.

AREINAMO leads off the 2nd with a double high off the left CF wall. Just missed a long ball. What a swing. What a result. Lead-off man in scoring position for last night's best bat in Yophery Rodriguez. He comes out swinging pitch 1 again. Slider inside. Broken bat. Foul down the 1B line.

Oh man. Two Areinamo swings. He's almost lost his pants, his helmet, his everything on both. He swings a massive hack and misses on a first pitch breaking ball in the 2nd. LOL.

No matter! Credit to Rudy. He got the K looking on a high center-in breaker. Goes down looking. Meanwhile, Miz got a DP and an unbelievable web gem play from Zamora deep in the hole. That may be the best play he's made all season. My goodness! Just pure baseball magic.

Yeah. He absolutely blew this call. Right on the outer black. Come on Blue. That's ridiculous. This is a Championship game on the road. Gotta give the pitcher that call!

Line out to Yophery in RF. Two outs. Two fantastic sliders to get ahead 0-2. Slider misses outside doesn't get the chase. This homeplate ump is really squeezing the zone. He's missed two very very close pitches. I think he just robbed Rudy of a K looking. Meanwhile, Miz was up 0-2. He just walked his first batter.

Headed to the bottom of the 5th @ Norfolk, the Sounds strand Hicklen at 1B after a two-out grounder made it into LF through the left side. Fly out to RF to end it. Rudy walks the second batter on an outside off-speed pitch that just missed. Tough one.

Rudy gets a high chopper to the mound to start his evening. Fantastic. Love a soft start. Well done, Will. Like Cornielle yesterday, however, the heater is missing high and outside. Off-speed appears dialed.

Areinamo comes to the dish swinging first pitch. Swung so hard he nearly lost his helmet. LOL. Yowza. AND, just like that Adams is picked off 1B. Ugly start.

Pratt goes down swinging on a high inside heater. Not a good swing choice. Easily a ball. T-Rats bats are over-amped early. AND, who else would get things started but Luke Adams with his third HBP in two nights. That's his 44th HBP of his season. Just uncanny.

The Lake County game feed continues to annoy. How do they not have a basic balls and strike count in their scoring banner? Amateur hour.

Lara leads-off with a swinging K on an off-speed pitch low and in the dirt. One down. Pratt to the dish.

Umpires are pounding chests and the warm up pitches have begun @ Lake County...Game 3 is nearly underway.

We missed Game 1's line-up card earlier @ Norfolk. Here's the Sounds Game 1 setup: It was scoreless after 2... It's scoreless in the top of the 4th inning. RHP Logan Henderson is having a bounce-back outing through 3 IP - 1 H, 0 BB, 1 HB, 3 K, 0 R.

This is it, folks. Our very last 2024 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers line-up card. Without further ado, here is tonight's scheduled starters:

Oh no! Craigtember to Remember fail. My heart aches for Couns and the Cubbies and their incredible fanbase and ownership group. It aches! Live Feed from the orchards: Can we go back to discussing Attanasio's sand theft?!

The cool thing about Chase is he regularly sits 93-95 mph. And, it just feels like he can easily land at 95-97 mph as he matures a little more. He absolutely has the build. He's a formidable presence on the mound, as you know. He's only 24 years old and it just feels like he's just starting to get who he is as a pitcher in pro ball. We have to remember, he was pitching for the Boise Hawks in the Pioneer League after kind of a collegiate journeyman route. This is only his second season in the org. The Brewers just find those arms. It's uncanny.

Man, Gardner is really really good. Amazing how easily he coasts under-the-radar. It's really awesome to see him come into this regular season after absolutely dominancing in Australia and just hit the ground running. The injuries were a bummer but it certainly doesn't minimize how fantastic he has been. He's easily one of the most "If he can execute like this at Triple-A?" guys tossing that pillow around. His breaking ball is a truly filthy pitch.

All this talk of dealerships makes me want to share a recent experience at a Toyota Dealership in Spokane Valley south of me: My wife has a 2009 RAV 4. It's a commuter - we drive our daughter roughly 50 minutes to her school in Sandpoint, Idaho every day. We need the AWD and the burly AT tires. Anywho, this is a used vehicle - my personal vehicle take is I will own them outright - no liens no interest payments. I perform most of the mechanical work myself (I'm a farmer so have been fixing my tractors for many man years); and because I buy used I know I am behind the eight ball from the get go. It's a decision I'm comfortable with knowing buying a new vehicle is an instantly depreciated investment. Anywho, I swapped out her charcoal Evap canister set up (driver's side essentially right below the back of the driver's seat) within the first months of us shipping this low-mileage biscuit. This was just after I had to pick-and-pull a replacement rear differential - drive one it was uber-apparent the bearings were shot. You never know what you're truly getting when your shipping these vehicles but I trust I can fix most and if the engine is good I really don't care. Anywho, when I was replacing the Evap set up I noticed the hard plastic cover's plastic fastening hardware was wearing thin. Sure enough, in her last road trip the cover fell off. Now, I don't have these weird pieces of 'hardware' to re-fasten it. SO, I decided to take it to the dealership to simply re-attach it. This is where it gets hilarious and classic dealership repair shop experience. I expressly told them: I just want you to attach that piece for me and I'll be on my way. As part of their repair process, however, they have to do an All Points Inspection type thing. SO, after they attached the cover they gave me their recommended laundry list of repairs. Keep in mind: I bought this vehicle outright for roughly $11,500. They showed me a repair list covering $9,500 of work. 😅 Oh man. It was like a Les Schwab (the corporate tire and suspension shop out this way) experience on steroids. I mean it's amazing what they try to get away with. Needless to say, I did not take them up on this enticing offer of mostly entirely unnecessary work.

I need to find someone who stands up for me the way y'all are standing up for Quay. He's a very athletic not very good NFL football player. You can toss blame at other players for making him look the way he does. That's fine. At a certain point in time, the primary play-calling ILB has to actually make the plays. Quay routinely does not. Kenny Clark hasn't graded out (or played) all that well early in the shift to 4-3. BUT, I have 10x more faith Clark turns it around given his historical year-in and year-out performances for the Packers. I'll say it again: if he wasn't a premium draft pick, Quay wouldn't be playing. It's pretty simple. He's getting every and any opportunity because the Packers lack the options they have the confidence in. He certainly isn't starting every game because he's earning these opportunities or out-performing his peers. This is year 3. He is making the exact same mistakes he made in year one in terms of pursuit and reading gaps or playing off his D-Line. You can blame the D-Line. I simply see the exact same player I saw in year one. And that's just not a very good NFL player. But, a very athletic one. That's nice. Anywho, I hope he starts playing much better. I have very little faith he does. I just don't think the lightbulb of instincts magically turns on. You can criticize the clips chosen as well. Herman and Brooke consistently watch the All-22. They aren't cherry-picking these plays. They are literally watching the tape every week and seeing what they are seeing. Do you think they want to criticize Walker? I don't. I think they're simply reporting and sharing what they're seeing that is not sitting well.

Man, speaking of Costello, he threw a sinker last night with 19" of movement. It caught even Javik Blake by surprise. He continues to be one of my favorites. RF Connor Scott botched a tricky diving catch in RF to open his second inning of work. He didn't blink. He didn't blink when that same hitter easily took 3B off of C Darrien Miller. He was cool and calm. Just buckled down. Such an underrated bullpen arm. I could very much see him going the route of a RHP Shane Smith. I continue to wonder if Bryant will actually be sent to Australia ala Meeker and Gardner. I want to see him in the AFL scenarios but the Brewers have sent those mid-season Indy singing bullpen arms to the Aussie League of late.