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Can the Chicago Cubs keep the offensive momentum after Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers?

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Can the Chicago Cubs keep the offensive momentum after Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers?


As the temperatures start to heat up, the question around the Chicago Cubs is: when will the bats heat up as well?

In a 5-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the Cubs didn’t register their first hit until the third inning when left fielder Ian Happ singled on a line drive to center. Starting Cubs pitcher Javier Assad threw 94 pitches over six innings with four hits, four walks, four strikeouts and no runs.

Leading up to Sunday’s game against the division rival, the Cubs were slashing .236/.315/.390 as a team, where they rank 19th, 13th, and 14th, respectively, in the majors.

With Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki out of the lineup, the offense has been a lingering question for a couple of weeks and their absences show in the slim margins — except for that 17-run shutout by the Red Sox on April 27 — by which the team has won and lost. Suzuki and Bellinger have been ramping up for their returns and were running and hitting over the weekend. They’re expected to be back in the lineup within the coming days to help stabilize the offense.

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Through the last five games, shortstop Dansby Swanson has an average of .067 and didn’t register a hit Friday or Saturday.

“I think with Dansby he has such a track record that we can kind of go back to. And we’re always trying to just kind of maintain a lot of his movements and some of the things that he’s working on approach-wise,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said Sunday. “With some of the guys that have that track record, we try not to get too far away from what they’re really good at and what they’ve done really good in the past. There’s always little tweaks, little mechanical things that we are always kind of monitoring, but it’s usually not that far away. And I think that’s kind of where we feel with him right now.”

Photos: Chicago Cubs 5, Milwaukee Brewers 0

Kelly shared that despite Swanson’s recent numbers, he has encouraged the All-Star to remain confident and know that “each day is a new day and he has some way to impact the team.” Swanson, who has recorded a career high in ground balls and whiffs, broke through Sunday hitting a home run to center field in the sixth inning, bringing his season total to four and likely lifting his confidence a little.

“We’re all still human, right? And nobody wants to perform better than us. And at times, you just get so lost in results and numbers and you forget that the main job is to just show up as yourself and be yourself and be committed to who God made you to be,” Swanson said postgame.

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“The biggest thing is just being connected. When you’re connected good things happen and this year has been a lot of disconnected moments in my swing and we’ve been working hard day and night almost to figure it out. I think today was a good step in the right direction,” Swanson said.

With late-game pitching an issue over the current 16-game stretch, the Cubs are desperately in need of some clutch hitting. So what exactly are they doing to try to get out of their collective hitting slump entering the third month of the season?

In their assessments of players’ hitting mechanics, some key markers Kelly and his staff look at are stride length, stride height and hand placement.

“There’s a ton of technology, there’s a ton of information for all these guys on their own to go look at and then we have a time in-house as well. (What) we talk about as hitting coaches a lot is we’re going to take the complex as coaches and try to make it really simple for the players,” Kelly said. “And a lot of times it’s just ‘hey you gotta be on the fastball in the middle of the zone and make sure you’re on time for that and use the big part of the field.’ Easier said than done but a lot of times that’s the approach you have to take to make it really simple for guys.”

Thanks to some promising starting pitching, the Cubs’ offensive slump hasn’t impacted their place in the standings, where they’re tied with the Brewers for the National League Central lead. But with upcoming games against the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves and the remaining division opponents, the Cubs need to improve their hitting — whether it be mechanics, how they see the ball or confidence — or their win total could look as questionable as their swings.

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Milwaukee, WI

Authorities testing DNA of severed arm found in Illinois, Sade Robinson family notified

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Authorities testing DNA of severed arm found in Illinois, Sade Robinson family notified


Authorities are testing DNA on a severed arm that was found on Illinois shoreline and led authorities to notify the family of Sade Robinson, who was murdered in early April.

Waukegan, Illinois authorities discovered the limb on the evening of May 11 and sent DNA samples to what they described as a neighboring state’s department’s crime laboratory. Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday they would not be able to identify whose body the arm belongs to until DNA results are returned.

The Milwaukee sheriff’s office confirmed that Waukegan authorities reached out to them regarding the limb.

Robinson, 19, was killed and dismembered in early April following a first date with 33-year-old Maxwell Anderson, according to prosecutors. Anderson pleaded not guilty to the charges and the next hearing is scheduled for July 12.

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“We are aware of the case in Milwaukee, however until DNA evidence comes back we cannot say the arm belongs to their victim of that horrible crime that occurred there,” a Waukegan Police Department spokesperson said in an email.

Waukegan is in Lake County, Illinois, about an hour south of Milwaukee and its eastern border touches Lake Michigan. The city’s police have no cases that correlate with missing body parts, the spokesperson said.

The department is waiting on DNA testing results to determine whether they need to conduct an independent investigation.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office said in a media release that a walker discovered the arm on May 11 at the Waukegan Municipal Beach in the evening. In the release, the office said it was a right arm and believed to be from a woman.

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The coroner’s office said a forensic anthropologist will now examine it and likely confirm the victim’s gender and age range.

“The coroner’s office is working to identify the victim currently. The coroner’s office is working closely with a police department in a neighboring state on an on-going investigation in that jurisdiction,” the coroner release said.

On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said they notified Robinson’s family after Waukegan authorities reached out to them.

The May 11 limb discovery follows other, confirmed human remains of Robinson’s that have been found in the Milwaukee County area. The first, a leg, was discovered at Warnimont Park in Cudahy on April 2. More body parts believed to be Robinson’s have been discovered in the days after.

Robinson’s family has not held a proper funeral, as all of her body has not been discovered. A memorial service was held last week. She was described as “special” and “remarkable” by attendees and speakers.

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Her murder has also prompted politicians to call for creating a task force for missing and murdered Black women and girls.



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In logging his first career save against Brewers, Josh Hader looked like his former self

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In logging his first career save against Brewers, Josh Hader looked like his former self


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HOUSTON – For the first time ever, it was Josh Hader against the Milwaukee Brewers in a save situation.

It looked pretty similar to how most of Hader’s showings with his former team did, too. 

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One, two, three went the Brewers in the ninth inning Friday night at Minute Maid Park against Hader on 12 pitches with two flyouts and a strikeout to punctuate a 5-4 win for the Houston Astros. 

Hader, who tallied 125 of his 170 career saves and won three National League Reliever of the Year awards with Milwaukee, now has earned a save against all 30 MLB clubs. 

The matchup didn’t quite possess the same pizzazz as it would have last season when Hader, pitching for the team the Brewers traded him to, was on the San Diego Padres. But his two appearances against the Brewers in 2023 were in non-save situations. 

Back in his comfort zone and protecting a one-run lead late on a stormy evening in Houston, Hader looked like his old self and not the reliever who has been up and down this year with the Astros.

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“He’s one of the best in the game,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “There’s no doubt about it. He’s one of the best in the game. “

Joey Ortiz put up a decent fight against Hader, taking the count full and on the seventh pitch lining out on a well-struck ball to right. But once Hader got that first out of the inning, it was a quick exit for Milwaukee. Blake Perkins popped out to second and Owen Miller, pinch-hitting for the .302-batting Brice Turang, to get a lefty-righty matchup, struck out on three pitches.

“Hader’s a tough at-bat for (Turang),” Murphy explained of the pinch-hit decision. “That’s a tough at-bat for lefties. We had prepped Owen before the game that if we get in that situation, to be ready.”

Freddy Peralta unable to keep the ball in the yard

Freddy Peralta has shown signs of being able to take the leap forward as a No. 1 starter this year, yet one important piece is eluding him: Pitching through the order a third time. 

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After getting off to a rip-roaring start to the season with a 1.90 earned run average through four outings, Peralta has had a rougher go of things on the mound. 

With five more runs – all earned – in five innings Friday, Peralta now sports a 6.23 ERA over his last five starts. 

“It’s not typical of Freddy, but, again, he’s the guy you want out there,” Murphy said. “Anytime we’re playing, if he’s healthy I want him out there.”

The steady trend throughout this recent blip is an inability to avoid trouble once the lineup flips a third time. 

On April 25 against the Pirates, Peralta allowed two runs on a walk, RBI single and RBI double in the fifth, his final inning of the day.

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He didn’t get a chance to face the order a third time against the Rays because he was ejected for hitting Jose Siri, but the next time out against the Cubs, Peralta gave up a two-run double, two walks and a run-scoring wild pitch in a decisive fifth. 

Then in his last time out against the Cardinals, Peralta allowed a two-run single in the fifth as soon as the order flipped and a RBI double in the sixth. 

It burned him against the Astros, too. 

With one out, one on and holding a 4-2 lead, Jose Altuve started Houston’s third turn through its lineup with an infield single, which in fairness was little fault of Peralta’s. But Jeremy Peña battled Peralta to a full count one batter later and golfed out a slider at the knees — but over the meat of the plate — 380 feet to left for a go-ahead three run blast. 

Peralta was more frustrated than usual following this loss. 

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“Honestly, I thought I threw the ball really good today,” he said. “Sometimes things happen in the game that I can’t control. That’s it.”

Peralta felt off the bat that Peña’s blast, which traveled 380 feet at 98.2 mph off the bat and would have been a homer at 13 out of 30 ballparks according to Statcast, was staying in the yard. 

“The way that he hit it, for me, I don’t know how hard he hit it but I didn’t look like it was gone,” Peralta said. “I thought it was a fly ball – a regular fly ball.”

Turned out it wasn’t. 

And now, across Peralta’s last five outings, batters have hit .363/.462/.636 with three doubles, a homer and four walks in 22 at-bats. 

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Peralta’s velocity is maintained in the later innings, if not even a tick higher than early on. The slider is still getting whiffs, but when batters are making contact the third time through, they’re squaring it up with an average exit velocity over 96 mph.

Neither Murphy nor Peralta identified what might be the malady for Peralta in those middle innings.

“I don’t think it’s reason to be concerned,” Murphy said. “I think any time he doesn’t blow through things, people are like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ That’s not how it is. You have to understand the game. There are a lot of guys who are doing a lot of research on him and doing everything they can to put their A-game on him.”

Joey Ortiz continues to mash

Joey Ortiz’s glove was touted when he was brought over to Milwaukee from Baltimore in early February as part of the Corbin Burnes trade. 

Turns out the bat plays, too. 

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Ortiz hit a go-ahead three run homer in the fourth before Peña reclaimed the lead for Houston an inning later. It was part of a game where Ortiz reached base three times and finished a triple shy of the cycle. 

With a single to lead off the seventh, Ortiz had reached base safely in eight consecutive plate appearances. 

His lone out of the day was even an impressive battle with one of the game’s in Hader that ended in loud contact. 

“He’s looked great,” Murphy said. “He really has. Both offensively and on defense. He’s stepped up.”



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Milwaukee electric scooters return for good, reactions mixed

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Milwaukee electric scooters return for good, reactions mixed


Lime scooters in Milwaukee

Love them or hate them, electric scooters are back on Milwaukee streets – this time, for the long haul.

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The city’s Department of Public Works said Lime and Spin e-scooters are back for good. It comes after three pilot studies on a variety of e-scooter vendors – monitoring costs, safety and usage.

“It’s very convenient, instead of wasting gas and even having trouble finding parking,” said Naziear Harvey.

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During the final pilot study, which ran from 2022 to 2023, the city said it received $400,000 in revenue from e-scooters.

“I kind of want to get my own electric scooter, but until then you can use this for like $1.39,” Harvey said.

Riders like Harvey like the convenience of e-scooters; all you have to do is scan and pay to ride. Others, not so much.

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“Despite being very quick ways to get around, they are pretty dangerous,” said Rebecca Gerrits.

There is no timeline for when e-scooters will be put away. City officials urge riders to follow the rules – which include staying off sidewalks – and be safe.



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