MILWAUKEE (AP) — Bennedict Mathurin scored 28 points, John Collins 22 and Kawhi Leonard 20 as the Los Angeles Clippers got past the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks 127-113 on Sunday for their fifth consecutive win.
Darius Garland added 15 points and 11 assists and Derrick Jones Jr. 13 points for Los Angeles, which made 45 of 77 shots (58.4%).
Gary Trent Jr. had a season-high 36 points to pace Milwaukee, which had only eight players available. Taurean Prince added 18 points and AJ Green scored 15 for the Bucks, who have lost 10 of their last 12 games.
The Bucks stayed close early, trailing 29-25 after one quarter with Trent scoring 11 points, including sinking 3 of 5 from three-point range.
The Clippers began to pull away in the second, holding a 57-46 lead at the half after leading by as many as 16. Leonard had 15 first-half points.
Brook Lopez, a member of the Bucks’ 2021 NBA championship team, was honored with a video tribute in his first visit back to Milwaukee. He was whistled for a technical foul as the teams were headed to the locker room at halftime.
Los Angeles outscored Milwaukee 39-28 in the third and extended its lead to as many as 24 points in the fourth before the Bucks pulled within 11 in the late stages.
Sloppy play hurt Milwaukee, which committed 22 turnovers leading to 33 Clippers points.
Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out a seventh consecutive game for Milwaukee with a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. The two-time MVP has played in a career-low 36 games this season.
The Bucks also were missing Kevin Porter Jr. (right knee), Bobby Portis (left wrist sprain), Kyle Kuzma (Achilles tendinopathy), Ryan Rollins (left hip flexor), Myles Turner (right knee), Gary Harris (personal reasons) and Thanasis Antetokounmpo (left calf).
Green and Ousmane Dieng fouled out in the fourth, leaving the Bucks with six available players to finish the game.
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Clippers: Host the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday.
Mar 29, 2026; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich (22) reacts after hitting a three-run home run in the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
The Brewers fought back from an early deficit to win their third straight game Sunday afternoon, scoring six runs in the eighth to complete a sweep of the Chicago White Sox.
Starter Brandon Sproat got lit up in his Brewers debut, surrendering a grand slam before getting an out. After walking the first two hitters he faced, Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami, Miguel Vargas lifted a fly ball to center that should’ve been the first out. The usually sure-handed Blake Perkins ran back instead of forward, letting it drop to load the bases with still nobody out. That brought up Colson Montgomery, who smacked a first-pitch cutter from Sproat over the fence in center for the aforementioned grand slam.
Austin Hays grounded out for the first out of the game, but Andrew Benintendi walked on five pitches — the third walk of the inning. At this point, Grant Anderson was warming up in the Brewers’ bullpen, but Sproat was able to bear down, inducing a pop-up from Everson Pereira and striking out Edgar Quero to keep the game from getting out of hand.
Milwaukee was able to claw back almost immediately, halving the deficit in the bottom of the first. William Contreras doubled with one out, then advanced to third on a passed ball by Quero. Luis Rengifo lined out to Meidroth at second base for the second out, but Gary Sánchez — hitting cleanup for Milwaukee today — launched a home run into left field for the Brewers’ first two runs of the day.
Things didn’t get much easier for Sproat after a nightmare start. He walked Tristan Peters on five pitches to start the second inning before giving up a grounder into the hole at shortstop that very well could have been a hit. Luckily, the Brewers’ middle infield is Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang, who turned a beautiful double play to get Sproat two outs closer to a scoreless inning.
Up next for the White Sox was Murakami, who hit a towering fly ball to right field. Sal Frelick trailed back with the ball, but when he jumped up to try and make the catch, the ball bounced off his glove and over the wall for a solo home run. Anderson proceeded to get loose in the Brewers’ bullpen once again. Vargas then singled and stole second, and Montgomery drove him in with another single.
Brewer manager Pat Murphy left Sproat in the game to face Hays, who struck out on three pitches to end the inning. After two innings, the score was Chicago 6, Milwaukee 2. Sproat made it through the third inning, but not before allowing another solo home run, this time to Pereira. His day ended there, having allowed seven runs on six hits, four walks, and three homers while striking out three.
No doubt about it: Sproat’s Brewers debut couldn’t have gone much worse. Still, it’s too soon to worry. Back in 2019, a guy named Corbin Burnes gave up 11 home runs in his first three major league starts. He turned out fine. It’s also worth noting that catcher Jeferson Quero was making his major league debut, and that Sproat — who never pitched in the Brewers’ minor league system — very likely hadn’t worked with him much prior to today’s game.
After Sproat exited, the Brewers’ bullpen shut down the White Sox, and the offense started to claw back. Anderson tossed two scoreless innings, and Jared Koenig struck out the side in the sixth. Sal Frelick led off the bottom of the sixth with a double, and Brandon Lockridge knocked him in with his second RBI single in as many days to cut the deficit to 7-3.
Neither team scored again until the bottom of the eighth, when Ortiz — who’s had a hit in every game this season — singled off of reliever Chris Murphy to start the inning. Jake Bauers, who’d come in to pinch-hit for Quero, struck out, but Ortiz was able to advance to second on a wild pitch. Brandon Lockridge beat out an infield single, Blake Perkins walked, and just like that, the bases were loaded. The next batter, Turang, ripped an opposite-field single to score Ortiz and keep the bases loaded. Contreras popped out for the second out, and Luis Rengifo went down to his final strike against Murphy. However, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Rengifo snuck a grounder up the middle to score Lockridge and Perkins, putting the Crew within one.
Just like that, the Brewers had the go-ahead run on first with Christian Yelich walking up to the plate to pinch hit for Sánchez. Yelich took a couple of balls, fouled off a couple of pitches, then hit a towering moonshot down the right field line that stayed just fair, clearing the bases and giving the Brewers a 9-7 lead.
Yelich’s home run came off the bat at 111.1 mph, making it the hardest hit ball by a Brewer so far this year. He may be getting older, but he’s still got it.
Trevor Megill came in for the save in the ninth and immediately gave up a single to Peters, bringing up the top of the lineup for the White Sox. Meidroth and Murakami both went down swinging, and Vargas lifted a deep fly to the warning track in right field that dropped harmlessly into the glove of Sal Frelick, ending the game and completing the sweep.
Every Brewers starter recorded a hit today except for Quero, who walked in one of his two plate appearances. The bullpen, stretched to six innings today, was once again lights-out. After Sproat exited the game, Milwaukee didn’t allow a run. Anderson and Jake Woodford (who picked up the win) each went two scoreless innings, while Koenig and Megill racked up multiple strikeouts.
The Crew will welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to American Family Field tomorrow for a three-game series. Kyle Harrison, set to make his Brewers debut, will face off against right-hander Nick Martinez. First pitch for the series opener is slated for 6:40 p.m.
Seven of the first eight pitches from Mets right-hander Nolan McLean were outside the zone to start Sunday’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field.
McLean, who would walk the first two he faced, managed to overcome the lack of command without walking another man as he pitched 5.0 innings of two-run ball on four hits and a hit batter with eight strikeouts in cool and at times blustery conditions.
“We could see it the first couple of batters he was missing arm side, he didn’t have a good feel for his pitches pretty much ’til the fourth inning,” manager CarlosMendoza said after the Mets fell 4-3 in 10 innings.
The right-hander said that the conditions made it so that he felt like his pitches were “moving a little bit more than they normally do,” and he just had to “pick out the right sight line.”
“At the beginning, the first three innings, especially the secondaries, the spin – the sweeper, the curveball – it was just a ball out of the hand,” Mendoza said.
McLean indicated that the bigger challenge than getting the right feel came from throwing into a headwind.
“Throwing into the headwind is sometimes a little tricky, especially when my stuff’s moving a little more dramatically than it normally does,” he said. “I was just trying to find where I needed to start my pitches, and it was a little bit later than I wanted to be in that.
“But once I found it, it felt good.”
And finding it when you don’t have it is what every manager wants to see from a guy who entered his first start of the 2026 season with just 48 big-league innings over eight starts under his belt.
“He was able to go out there and compete, continue to battle, and kept us in the game. Found a way. I thought by the time he got to the fourth inning, he was in a much better rhythm,” Mendoza said, adding later that it just goes to show “that on days that he’s not at his best, he’s still going to find a way to give you a chance to win and that’s what he did today.”
One adjustment McLean made in the final innings was going to his cutter and changeup more – he got Jake Mangum swinging through a low changeup to end a 1-2-3, eight-pitch fourth – and that helped other pitches come along, too.
“Obviously, I didn’t have much feel early in the game of the sinker, but it started to come back to me later in the game,” the 24-year-old said. “Mixing in some four[-seamers] and some two[-seamers]. Was able to get some quick outs late in the game.”
And the changeup is a pitch McLean is looking to use more, and he was “happy with how it felt in the cold weather.”
“I haven’t thrown it in the cold for a while now, so I was really satisfied with how it played today,” he added.
On the 84-pitch afternoon, he threw six varieties of pitches and got 12 whiffs on 32 swings with 20 called strikes, good for a called strike plus whiff percentage of 38.1 percent.
And it was the changeup (six), curveball (six), and cutter (four) that accounted for half of those called strike plus whiff totals on just 27 offerings.
Before you start complaining about Shōta Imanaga serving up another home run at an inopportune time (with two runners on base), consider that you’re not going to win many games when you get only four hits and three of them are solo homers.
Imanaga started out well, striking out the first two Nats he faced. Then two of them singled ahead of Joey Wiemer smacking a three-run homer. Wiemer, you might recall from his time with the Brewers, but he’s been in four other organizations (Reds, Royals, Marlins, Giants) before the Nats claimed him on waivers in January.
Imanaga threw pretty well after that, too, allowing just three more hits and a couple of walks. He got charged with a run after he left the game. All in all, it wasn’t a terrible outing for Shōta, apart from the homer.
Meanwhile, Jake Irvin, who led all of MLB in home runs allowed last year (38; Imanaga was third with 31), stymied the Cubs for three innings. The only baserunner up to the third was Alex Bregman reaching on an error in the first, but he did not get past first base. The Cubs did hit some balls hard in those early innings, including this hot line drive by Nico Hoerner, caught by Irvin [VIDEO].
That ball was hit 102 miles per hour — tip o’ the cap to Irvin for that catch.
So now it’s 3-2 and the Cubs did get the tying run on base later in that inning when Nico singled with one out. As Carson Kelly struck out for the second out, Hoerner stole second and moved to third on an error, but he was stranded.
The bullpen did all right, though Phil Maton allowed a run to score in the sixth, charged to Imanaga. That made it 4-2, where it stayed until the eighth, when Keibert Ruiz hit a two-run homer off Hoby Milner to make it 6-2.
That was the end of the Cubs offense, unfortunately. As I said — four hits with three of them being solo homers isn’t going to win you too many games. The Cubs did prevent a seventh run from scoring off Daniel Palencia, making his 2026 debut, in the ninth. Palencia had allowed a one-out single, then struck out Brady House.
Overall, I don’t have too many complaints about Imanaga’s game. Yes, he gave up another home run, but he did strike out seven. Here’s more on Shōta’s outing [VIDEO].
So the Cubs begin the season 1-2, losing this series to the Nationals, not the way we’d like to have had 2026 begin. But there are plenty of games remaining and I’m not concerned. I was glad to see Bregman break out and have a two-homer game. I’m thinking there will be more of those to come this year.
A note from BCB’s JohnW53 on this game:
Last season, the Cubs gave up 23 triples, nine of them with nobody out, including six with nobody on base, as happened in the fourth inning today. All six of those runners scored, unlike the runner today. Four of the six did so immediately, two on wild pitches and one each on a double and groundout. The remaining two scored on a one-out groundout and one-out sacrifice fly. The fly turned into a double play.
Also from John, regarding the three solo homers:
Today’s game was the 32nd among the 19,506 that the Cubs have played since 1901 in which they scored three runs, on three homers. The have won nine of them. They finished only one previous game with three homers plus one other hit: a 6-3, 10-inning loss at Brooklyn on July 19, 1957. The hit was a single. They made three homers among five hits in four games: wins at home vs. the Giants in 1910 and at St. Louis in 1979, and losses at home vs. the Rockies in 2004 and Tigers in 2006.
The Los Angeles Angels will visit Wrigley Field for a three-game series (weather permitting, and it might not on Tuesday) beginning Monday evening. In the series opener, Edward Cabrera will make his Cubs debut. He’ll face Angels right-hander Ryan Johnson. Game time Monday is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
A baseball fan in Milwaukee has a good glove — and apparently prime seats for catching home runs.
Said fan caught Chicago White Sox rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami’s solo home run against the Brewers Saturday night. The home run was the second of three for Murakami in his first three MLB games.
On Sunday, Chicago’s Colson Montgomery hit a first-inning grand slam to take a 4-0 lead over the Brewers. Montgomery’s blast traveled to the same terrace in right-center field at American Family Field as the one Murakami hit.
It’s unclear if our hero is a Brewers fan, a traveling White Sox fan, a season-ticket holder or none of the above. He doesn’t give much away with his gear.
But given that he takes his glove to games, he’s definitely a baseball fan. And he’s leaving the first Brewers homestand of the season with a couple of souvenirs and a cool story to tell.
The rookie Chicago White slugger hit a home run Sunday off Milwaukee Brewers starter Brandon Sproat. The solo shot extended Chicago’s lead to 5-2 after a first-inning grand slam by Colson Montgomery.
The home run was Murakami’s third in his third MLB game.
After a day off Friday, he hit another on Saturday, this time to right-center field in Milwaukee.
And now, in his third MLB game, he he has his third MLB home run.
Murakami’s yet to make his home debut in Chicago. But he may never want to leave American Family Field.
Murakami’s one of a handful of rookie sluggers to make an immediate impact with his bat in the majors. Notably, Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter hit his fourth home run in his third MLB game Saturday night.
Chase DeLauter is the second player in MLB HISTORY to hit 4 HR in his first 3 career games 🤯 pic.twitter.com/wWHjBVoSW4
Murakami, a 26-year-old from Japan, has now joined DeLauter, Trevor Story and Kyle Lewis as the only four MLB players to hit home runs in each of their first three MLB games.
It’s a remarkable start for both DeLauter and Muramaki. And after years of misery in Chicago, Murakami’s providing White Sox fans with something to be genuinely excited about.
