Box Score

When Brandon Woodruff’s velocity suddenly nosedived during his last big-league start on April 30th, there was real concern. It was fair to wonder that, given Woodruff’s age and injury history, he was facing a career-ending injury.

Instead, he’s back in the big leagues less than two months later. And in a start that echoed his triumphant return to the mound after over a year off in Miami last July, Woodruff didn’t just pitch: he pitched great. The franchise legend was nearly perfect and hit double digit strikeouts in six innings his return before he handed it off to his bullpen. But the Brewer offense didn’t have any better luck against Cincinnati starter Brady Singer, and this game finished regulation with no score. But the Brewers epitomized the term “manufactured offense” in the 10th and got a save from an unlikely source on the way to an ugly yet encouraging victory.

Milwaukee’s bats didn’t look very good in the top of the first; Christian Yelich struck out, Jackson Chourio popped out, and Brice Turang struck out by swinging through a 92 mph fastball right in the middle of the strike zone.

Woodruff was throwing 89-91 in the bottom of the first, and while he started each of the first two batters with 3-0 counts, he worked back against both and ended up with a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout.

Singer lost the strike zone at the beginning of the second inning. William Contreras became the game’s first baserunner when he walked, Jake Bauers walked, too, and Garrett Mitchell got ahead 3-0. But Singer came back to strike out Mitchell looking, and Sal Frelick grounded out back to the mound, which left Joey Ortiz as the Brewers’ last chance in what started as a promising inning. Ortiz grounded one back up the middle and almost hit Singer in the process, but Spencer Steer had no trouble making the play and threw to first to end the inning.

Woodruff was painting corners in the second, and struck out Nathaniel Lowe and Spencer Steer looking with perfect two-strike pitches. Eugenio Suárez jumped on the first pitch and hit a fly ball to fairly deep center, but Mitchell caught it with his feet still on the grass and the inning was over.

David Hamilton battled for nine pitches to start the third and hit a line drive, but it was right to Matt McLain for the first out. Yelich followed with a groundout to second, and Chourio struck out swinging at a high fastball, and Singer was through three scoreless. Noelvi Marte started the bottom of the inning by hitting a hard line drive on the first pitch, but it was right at Hamilton for the first out. Tyler Stephenson also swung at the first pitch and hit it pretty hard, but Chourio made the catch on the warning track in left field. Woodruff got his fastball up to 93 against Matt McLain, who he struck out on three pitches. Three outs on five pitches? That’ll do.

The first hit of the game came right away in the fourth inning, and maybe shouldn’t have been a hit. Turang hit a ball directly at first baseman Sal Stewart at about 94 mph. A great first baseman probably would’ve made the play, but Turang’s ball got past Stewart and into the right-field corner for a double. But just like the second inning, the Brewers squandered a good opportunity. Contreras flew out harmlessly to right on the first pitch, Bauers hit a pop-up, and Mitchell flew out to center. Turang never got past second base.

Woodruff picked up two more strikeouts in another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth. After Blake Dunn lined out to Turang at second base, JJ Bleday and Stewart became Woodruff’s fifth and sixth strikeout victims, and the Brewer hurler was perfect through four. But the Brewers were having nearly as much trouble with Singer as the Reds were with Woodruff, and that continued in the top of the fifth: Frelick, Ortiz, and Hamilton went down in order.

Woodruff’s dream return to the mound continued in the bottom of the fifth. Lowe popped out, Steer struck out swinging, and after a bit of a battle, Suárez struck out looking. Five perfect innings with eight strikeouts.

The Brewers continued to struggle in the sixth. Yelich hit a weak grounder to first base, Chourio struck out swinging at a sweeper way outside the zone. Turang at least made good contact on a fly ball to deep center, but it held up just enough for Dunn to catch it against the wall for the third out.

Woodruff kept the perfect game going for one more batter when he came back from a 3-0 count to strike Marte out with a 3-2 fastball above the zone. Stephenson was next, though, and he jumped at the first pitch and lined a single into center for the Reds’ first hit. Woodruff’s velocity continued to improve as the game went on: he hit 95 for the first time (technically 94.9) on his 72nd pitch of the game, during an at-bat in which McLain struck out swinging at a change-up. That was Woodruff’s 10th strikeout, and Dunn flew out to right to end Woodruff’s sixth scoreless inning.

Woodruff had only thrown 79 pitches, fewer than he’d thrown in his last rehab start, but given that he’s still working his way back, the Brewers chose to end his night there. The final numbers were staggering: Woodruff allowed one single and no walks in six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. What a way to make his return.

Lethal stuff from Brandon Woodruff tonight https://t.co/nGBf52DyC8pic.twitter.com/Ig9Nom0YMu

Contreras started the seventh with the Brewers’ hardest-hit ball of the day, but he hit it right at Bleday in left field for the first out. After Bauers struck out looking, Mitchell gave the Brewers a two-out baserunner with an infield single, but Frelick flew out to right to end the inning. That was also the end of Singer’s night, as he’d crossed 100 pitches during Mitchell’s at-bat; after struggling all season, Singer had thrown seven shutout innings with just two hits and two walks allowed while striking out seven.

Aaron Ashby relieved Woodruff, and needed a good outing after a rough week. He started with strikeouts of Bleday and Stewart, and then faced a pinch-hitter when Dane Myers came in for Lowe. Myers looped a lazy line drive toward center field, but Turang was able to make a leaping catch to end the inning.

Lefty Sam Moll relieved Singer in the eighth. Ortiz struck out looking at a strike three that had to be overturned on a Reds challenge. Hamilton was removed from the game for pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn, who got a chance against a lefty; he hit a hard grounder to short that McLain didn’t initially field cleanly, but with Vaughn running, McLain was able to recover and throw him out at first. That brought up Yelich, whose bad night continued as he watched three strikes (er, a missed call and two strikes) go by.

Abner Uribe replaced Ashby in the bottom of the eighth, and Cooper Pratt came in to replace the pinch-hitter, Vaughn, with Ortiz moving from shortstop to third. Uribe worked through an easy three-up, three-down inning, and the Brewers and Reds were locked at 0 through eight innings.

The new Cincinnati hurler was righty Tejay Antone. Chourio was fooled by a 3-2 sweeper, a shame, as it ended up middle-middle but Chourio just watched it go by. Turang, one of the only Brewers to show life at the plate tonight, lined a solid single into left with one out, and it looked like the Brewers might have something when Contreras hit a line drive into the gap in right. But Contreras didn’t quite barrel it, and Dunn made a running catch for the second out. The Reds went lefty-lefty by bringing in Brock Burke to face Bauers, who got ahead 3-1 but looked at the next two pitches, both strikes, and the inning was over.

Bauers had burned one of the Brewer challenges on the last pitch of the top of the ninth, and Contreras lost the other, albeit on a pitch that was less than 0.1 inches out of the zone, to start the bottom of the inning on the first pitch from Trevor Megill. Stephenson hit a hard fly ball to left later in the at-bat, but Chourio, playing deep, didn’t have any trouble tracking it down. Megill then struck out McLain on a foul tip, and with two outs Dunn lined a ball into the right-field corner but Frelick was also playing deep and made a nice catch to end the inning.

Nine innings wasn’t enough for either of these teams to muster a run tonight, so we kept going. Bauers was the ghost runner in the tenth as righty Tony Santillan entered for the Reds. Mitchell started the inning nicely by drawing an eight-pitch walk in front of Frelick, who laid down a good sacrifice bunt to advance Bauers and Mitchell. Ortiz was next, and he hit a solid fly ball to right that was plenty deep to score Bauers from third (and advanced Mitchell to third). With two outs, Pratt, who’d entered defensively, had a chance to get a huge add-on run, but it turned out Pratt didn’t even need to do anything; Santillan’s first pitch to Pratt was in the dirt and bounced away, allowing Mitchell to score. Pratt flew out, but the Brewers had built a 2-0 lead without getting a hit in the 10th.

Brewers carry a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 10th

Tune in: https://t.co/eycfmE2vgmpic.twitter.com/URNlqWvWDx

That was especially important, as the pitcher the Brewers chose to use in the 10th, given that they’d use their three best leverage guys already, was Joel Kuhnel, not exactly a pick that inspired great confidence. The Brewers got the first out when Bleday grounded out to second; Dunn, who started on second, advanced to third, but that second run in the top of the inning afforded the Brewers the luxury of not caring. Another ground ball from Stewart scored Dunn, but it was also the second out, so the Reds had the bases empty and were down to their last out in the form of Myers. Myers hit a line drive toward Turang that should’ve ended the game, but Kuhnel couldn’t help his reaction of reaching up, and he knocked it down, which resulted in an infield single. The Reds were given an extra chance, and Steer jumped at the first pitch and hit a hard grounder, but Ortiz, now over at third base, made a nice sliding play and threw him out to end the game.

Brewers 2, Reds 1 in 10 innings.

Joey Ortiz drove in the game's first run in the top of the 10th and ended the game by teaming with Jake Bauers to make this play in the bottom of the 10th.

The only team that got a hit in the 10th inning lost. Baseball! pic.twitter.com/Z0PrXe3NHJ

The story tonight was Woodruff, who was so good in his return, and a return to form by the three leverage arms in the Brewer bullpen, Ashby, Uribe, and Megill. But Ortiz was also a late hero for the Brewers, as it was his sac fly that finally got a run on the board and his nice defensive play that ended the ballgame. Milwaukee was fortunate to earn the win: the offense was objectively bad, as the team managed only three hits. Two of those belonged to Turang, who was the one exception on the “bad offense” front; the other, an infield hit, was Mitchell’s.

The Brewers will look for a better offensive showing in the second game of the series on Tuesday, but they’ll be happy to escape with a win tonight. More importantly, Woodruff looked like someone who the Brewers might be able to rely on down the stretch, and from a pure fan perspective, it was just nice to see him pitching well for the Brewers again.

That second game of the series comes tomorrow evening at 6:10, when two talented but struggling hurlers face off in Brandon Sproat and Nick Lodolo.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — On a rainy evening in New Jersey, Norway came out strong in the first half of its second 2026 World Cup match against Senegal, Erling Haaland scored another brace and Norway picked up a valuable three points with a 3-2 win on Monday.

In a stadium filled with mostly Norwegian supporters, the teamstarted strong, generating four corners and a terrific goal-scoring opportunity in the first 10 minutes. While possession was split 50-50 in the first half, Norway was much more dangerous (1.22 expected goals to Senegal’s .32).

Marcus Pedersen broke through in the 43rd minute off a bad turnover from Senegal, blasting a shot past goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. Mendy was responsible for two other fantastic saves in the first 45 minutes, or else the scoreline could have been more lopsided at the break.

Superstar Erling Haaland was relatively quiet in the first half, although he missed two opportunities right before the half to score. He wouldn’t miss his chances in the second half.

Haaland scored in the 48th minute off a quick counter attack, slotting a left-footed shot into the upper right-hand corner past Mendy to make it 2-0 Norway.

Senegal got one back a few minutes later, as Ismaïla Sarr showed great strength to hold off a Norwegian defender and find the back of the net in the 53rd minute.

Haaland scored his second goal of the match just give minutes later, volleying a cross with his weaker right foot past the keeper. It’s Haaland’s fourth goal in two World Cup matches.

Senegal made it interesting, as Sarr netted another goal in stoppage time, but Norway was able to see the game out and hold on for a 3-2 victory.

France’s Kylian Mbappe and Argentina’s Lionel Messi also scored two goals on Monday, and a parlay of the three scoring at least two goals could be had for as high as 80-1 at some sportsbooks. It’s the second time in this World Cup that all three players have scored at least two goals on the same day.

Norway will next face France on Friday from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. at 3 p.m. ET to determine the winner of Group I. Senegal will take on Iraq at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada, also on Monday at the same time.

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo is joining the Miami Heat from the Milwaukee Bucks, multiple US media outlets including ESPN reported on Monday. 

Miami won a battle with the Boston Celtics for the signature of the 31-year-old Greek who won a championship with the Bucks in 2021.

ESPN reported that Miami will acquire Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis in a deal which sends Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis in the other direction.

Milwaukee will also receive three first-round picks, a pick swap and a second round pick, ESPN reported.

The deal draws a line under months of speculation concerning Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee.

The Greek star had openly vented frustration with Milwaukee's management for not clearing him to play after suffering a left knee hyperextension.

Antetokounmpo insisted he was fit and ready to help force a playoff push despite being declared unavailable by Milwaukee's front office.

Speaking in April after Milwaukee failed to reach the playoffs at the end of a 32-50 season, Antetokounmpo also vented at the team's failure to build a roster capable of contending for championships.

"I feel like sometimes people just don't listen," Antetokounmpo said. "They listen to the sources. The main source is me. It is what it is."

rg/tmt/rcw/gj

The Phoenix Mercury looked like the better team in the first 10 minutes, but emotions got the better of the Mercury, and the Indiana Fever came out with an 86-77 win. 

Kahleah Copper led with 20 points, but fouled out with 3:29 left in the fourth. Alyssa Thomas had 19 points, nine assists and five rebounds. 

Phoenix smothered the Fever in the first quarter, posting a 19-0 response to Lexie Hull’s opening 3-pointer. It wasn’t until Kelsey Mitchell’s 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left that the Fever made their next field goal after missing 16 consecutive shots. 

However, the 19-6 lead didn’t hold once star Caitlin Clark got hot in the second quarter, draining five of her nine looks and scoring 15 points. Even with a slow start in the first quarter, Clark finished with 24 points and nine assists.  

The Mercury surrendered 65 points in the second and third quarters, while only scoring 33. 

Frustrations boiled over for both sides in the second half, but especially at the start of the fourth quarter.  

DeWanna Bonner, who briefly played with the Fever in 2025, and Clark were tangled up during a play and caused other players to get involved, including Thomas, Indiana’s Myisha Hines-Allen and former Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham. Bonner had to be restrained by Valeriane Ayayi during the confrontation with Cunningham. 

“We've got a competitive group, a veteran group, they've been around this for a long time, they're not afraid of the smoke," coach Nate Tibbetts told reporters. "We're going to compete at a high level, and yeah, just keep — just stay with it, keep playing.”

Sophie Cunningham, Hines-Allen and Bonner get into it following the dust-up between Bonner and Caitlin Clark. pic.twitter.com/HHYvSvctco

All five players received technicals, and Hines-Allen was ejected on the following play after some words were exchanged with Thomas. 

Both teams have a history of dustups, but Tibbetts didn't confirm if he saw rising tensions between the teams throughout the game.

"I got a lot coming at me, you know. I don't always see," Tibbetts said. "I mean, sometimes I can feel it and see it. Again, competitive teams going at it. Stuff like that happens.”

Both teams won’t have much time to cool off before facing each other again on Wednesday, June 24, in Indianapolis. 

Reach the reporter or send tips for stories at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com, as well as @jennarortiz on X. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tensions flare between DeWanna Bonner, Caitlin Clark