
Brewers become first NL team to reach 60 victories, riding 11-game win streak
The Milwaukee Brewers' starting pitcher was fresh off a dazzling performance, one in which he tossed six innings of two-hit ball en route to the club's 6-0 win against the Seattle Mariners. But upon learning the victory gave the Brewers 11 wins in a row but also the best record in the National League, Woodruff was taken aback — but only briefly.
'Doesn't surprise me,' Woodruff said. 'We got a lot of great guys in this clubhouse and it's a fun team. So, I feel like we say that every year, but this year's a little bit different in a way.'
To Woodruff's point, the Brewers have won 60 of their first 100 games with a very different roster than the one that won the National League Central last year.
Shortstop Willy Adames (San Francisco Giants) and right-hander Corbin Burnes (Arizona Diamondbacks) both signed massive contracts elsewhere this offseason. Long-time closer Devin Williams, meanwhile, was traded to the New York Yankees in December. Their departures, though, have hardly hindered the Brewers.
Even though Woodruff missed most of the first half as a result of being brought along slowly following surgery on his pitching shoulder, the Brewers' rotation has been stout in his absence. Milwaukee starters have combined for the sixth-lowest ERA in the majors, thanks in part to shrewd pickups like right-hander Quinn Priester, who Milwaukee acquired in April.
'I think that's a lot of credit to our front office and our coaching staff, and just putting the right guys in the room,' Woodruff said. 'When you can get guys that play for each other and play with each other and just have fun. That's the biggest thing. There's a reason why we've done this over the last eight, nine years.'
Since 2018, the Brewers have won the NL Central four times and are on track to make it three straight seasons, doing so mostly without 'household names', as Woodruff said. This season, it's been a collective, well-balanced effort propelling the Brewers to frequent victories, including six against the Los Angeles Dodgers during their active win streak.
Second baseman Brice Turang is leading the club's position players with three Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference. Twenty-one-year old outfielder Jackson Chourio remains a force to be reckoned with after a standout rookie season. And right-hander Freddy Peralta leads all major league pitchers with 12 wins.
All of it has led to quite the positive clubhouse culture from the perspective of folks like shortstop Joey Ortiz.
'Winning's great, winning's fun, It's a blessing to come to a big-league field and play the game,' Ortiz said. 'So, I feel like winning is just an extra on top of that. Everyone's so close in the locker room that I don't even think – of course we want to win, but I don't think winning matters. I think we have a great time just being together, and I think it shows on the field.'
Thursdays
Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.
It's a tight-knit group led by reigning National League manager of the year Pat Murphy. The baseball lifer is aware his team continues to gain confidence with each passing win, but that there is still much time remaining in the regular season.
The trade deadline hasn't even come and gone, so the small-market Brewers still have plenty of time to work with – after all, as Murphy put it, it's only July 21.
'There's more to be done. There's more opportunity,' Murphy said. 'There's no reason to coast. There's every reason to know you're in a fight. You drop your guard, 'Whack!' and sometimes you don't recover from that.'
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Australia's swimming dominance: Small population but big results
SINGAPORE (AP) — Australia has a relatively small population. But Australia is a giant when it comes to competitive swimming. Whether it's the Olympics, or as it is this time with the swimming world championships opening in the pool in Singapore on Sunday, Aussie swimmers grace the podium. 'We have swimming in our DNA as a country,' Rohan Taylor, Australia's head coach, told The Associated Press.


Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Australia's swimming dominance: Small population but big results
SINGAPORE (AP) — Australia has a relatively small population. But Australia is a giant when it comes to competitive swimming. Whether it's the Olympics, or as it is this time with the swimming world championships opening in the pool in Singapore on Sunday, Aussie swimmers grace the podium. 'We have swimming in our DNA as a country,' Rohan Taylor, Australia's head coach, told The Associated Press. 'We have to be particular and purposeful in finding the talent,' he added. 'And then it's the coaching. We can't get it wrong. We get one crack at the talented athlete.' Consider the numbers Australia won seven gold medals and 18 overall at last year's Paris Olympics, second in both categories to the United States. The United States has 340 million people, almost 13 times Australia's population of 27 million. The Americans won eight gold and 28 overall. China, No. 3 with 12 overall, won only two gold medals from a population of 1.4 billion — 52 times Australia's. Australia's women are swimming powers, led by Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O'Callaghan. Add in Moesha Johnson, who has already won the 10- and 5-kilometer open-water races in Singapore and expects to race the 800 and 1,500 in the pool. McKeown won the 100 and 200 backstroke in Paris and in Tokyo in 2021. She also won both races two years ago at the worlds in Fukuoka, Japan. O'Callaghan is the defending 200 freestyle winner for Paris. Then there's men like Kyle Chalmers, who won the 100 free at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and has piled up nine Olympics medals and 12 in world championships. 'They have done so well on the international stage — multiple times,' Taylor said. 'So it's another opportunity for them to add to their CVs.' Marchand and McIntosh For French star Léon Marchand, the world championships mean easing off. He won four individual Olympic gold medals a year ago in Paris. The Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 are still far off. Time to swim a lighter schedule. None of that for Canadian Summer McIntosh. She won three individual gold medals in Paris, but will go for five in Singapore, a test run for her program in Los Angeles. These worlds, a year after the Olympics, feature swimmers in their prime, older swimmers who want to see if they can make it to LA, and young swimmers making their debut. Another worlds is set for 2027 in Budapest, Hungary — the final proving ground before the 2028 Olympics. Marchand is expected to race only the 200 and 400 individual medley races in Singapore, dropping the 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly. He won gold in all four in Paris, but wants to be fresh from the two IM races and world-record shots. In Singapore, McIntosh will go in the two IMs, the 200 fly, and the 400 and 800 freestyle. She did not swim the 800 free in Paris. This time she will, which sets up a showdown with American superstar Katie Ledecky — maybe the most anticipated race of the worlds. Americans rebooting The eight gold medals that U.S. swimmers won to top the Paris standings was their lowest victory total at the Olympics since the 1988 Seoul Games, when the Americans fell to East Germany. Singapore is the place to regroup and add youth, with the home Los Angeles Olympics in view. The American men had a tough Olympics with the only gold from Bobby Finke in the 1,500. Look for some new faces in Singapore. 'The average age of our men's team is younger than the average age of our women's team,' U.S. coach Greg Meehan told The AP. He said it was 'the first time in recent memory.' He ran off names like freestylers Jack Alexy, Luke Hobson, and Rex Maurer and Luka Urlando in the butterfly. 'I do acknowledge that the rest of the world is getting better. There is no doubt about it,' Meehan said. 'I love a challenge — I'm going to lean into that.' Familiar names stand out on the women's side — Katie Ledecky, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, Kate Douglass and Regan Smith. Ledecky, of course, is a nine-time Olympic gold medalist and holds world records in the 800 and 1,500 freestyle. Walsh holds the world record in the 100 fly, and Smith in the 100 backstroke. 12-year-old Yu Zidi Yes. A 12-year-old swimmer named Yu Zidi from China is competing in the world championships, and her incredible times mean she might win a medal. At 12. Yu has qualified in the 200 and 400 IMs and the 200 fly. Her time of 2:10.63 in the 200 IM was the fastest ever from a 12-year-old swimmer — female or male. Yu has a best in the 200 fly of 2:06.83 and 4:35.53 in the 400 IM. Both times would have been good enough for fourth place in last year's Olympics. The Chinese stars are Pan Zhanle, who set a world record of 46.40 in 100 freestyle in Paris, and Qin Haiyang. Qin holds the world record in the 200 breaststroke in 2:05.48. ___ AP sports:


Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wallabies relying on Skelton and Valetini to save the series against the British and Irish Lions
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Rugby Australia is throwing its biggest body and its most destructive ball carrier at the British and Irish Lions with the recalls of Will Skelton and Rob Valetini in a bid to save the series. If that doesn't work for the Wallabies in the second test on Saturday, then the following week in Sydney becomes little more than a victory lap for the Lions and their 40,000 touring Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh supporters. At 6'8″ (203 centimeters) and 140-plus kilograms (310 pounds), the France-based Skelton certainly adds significant size and weight to a Wallabies pack that was outgunned in the 27-19 loss to the Lions last weekend in Brisbane. Valetini brings the extra firepower. 'You get a lot of confidence when you have two people with their experience and their presence coming (back) into your side,' Wallabies captain and No. 8 Harry Wilson said Friday. 'They're two real leaders in the group and to have them back, in such a big match, is really exciting for us.' Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt spoke about Skelton's on-field calmness and wealth of experience in Europe being of huge importance to the Australian team when he announced a squad this week that contained three changes to the forward pack, none in the backline and a 6-2 split of forwards and backs on the bench. Opening salvos The Wallabies are expecting another physical contest up front at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where a crowd exceeding 90,000 people is expected and there's a chance of rain. Wilson said his lineup needs to fight fire with fire from the kickoff rather than let the Lions out to a big lead like they did in the series opener, which was 24-5 after 42 minutes. The Australians also need to give a young backline, particularly 22-year-old flyhalf Tom Lynagh and 21-year-old center Joseph Aukuso-Sua'ali'i, some front-foot ball to generate better attacking opportunities. 'We want to go out there, we want to oppose ourselves physically, we want to back our skills and we just want to go out and start fast,' Wilson said. 'The 6-2 bench means … more reason to go out there, throw your body around knowing there's some quality bench players to come and finish.' Pressure on Andy Farrell's 2025 squad is determined to join the Lions greats by winning the series 3-0, regardless of how the head coach has tried to downplay that objective. 'They want to wrap up the series and we want to keep the series alive, so there's no doubting there's a lot on the line for both teams,' Wilson said. 'There's a lot of pressure on, and it's what you love about it.' The Lions have won the opening test in the last two series Down Under — in 2001 and 2013 — and lost the second test in Melbourne. In '01, the Australians won the deciding match for an historic series victory in Sydney. The Lions won the third test in Sydney 12 years ago to reclaim the trophy. 'We have put ourselves in a good position after the first test, but we know there will be a massive reaction from this Wallaby team,' head coach Andy Farrell said as he announced a Lions starting lineup containing three changes. 'We will have to be a lot better than we were last week.' Owen Farrell, a late inclusion in the squad and making his fourth Lions tour, was added to the bench after leading the team to a win over the First Nations and Pasifika squad on Tuesday in their last mid-week game of the tour. Ireland midfielder Garry Ringrose was a late exclusion from the second test starting lineup after reporting symptoms of concussion, allowing Huw Jones to retain his spot at outside center in new midfield combination with Bundee Aki. England's Ollie Chessum was drafted in to partner skipper Maro Itoje as a replacement for injured Ireland lock Joe McCarthy, and Andrew Porter replaced Ellis Genge at loosehead, giving the Lions an all-Ireland frontrow. The Lions are now 7-0 in Australia, including the victory in the first test and wins over Super Rugby franchises Western Force, Queensland Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies and two invitational teams. ___ AP rugby: