March 2026

There were 1,682 posts published in March 2026 (this is page 95 of 169).

Brewers beat Rockies 8-4 behind Misiorowski and Sproat

Mar 9, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Milwaukee Brewers second baseman David Hamilton (6) celebrates with teammates after scoring a run against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second inning at American Family Fields of Phoenix. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

The Brewers put up a win in the Cactus League today, but for most fans, they were just interested in today’s bulk pitchers: Jacob Misiorowski, the starter, and Brandon Sproat, who followed. Both did pretty well, and a balanced Brewer offense, powered by homers from three guys who aren’t necessarily known as power hitters, did plenty.

The Miz didn’t get off to a great start. The first three batters of the game, Tyler Freeman, Cole Carigg, and Jordan Beck, all singled. Beck’s knocked a run in, and TJ Rumfeld followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 2-0. After that, though, Misiorowski locked in—he finished the first with a strikeout and a groundout, and then went three more innings without allowing another hit. He did walk two in that stretch, but he ended up with four innings, two earned runs, six strikeouts, and two walks.

The Brewer offense, meanwhile, didn’t have much trouble answering the Rockies. Some bad luck in the first inning cost them a potential rally—after Sal Frelick led off with a hit, Joey Ortiz, perhaps a little sharper than his teammates due to the competitive baseball he’s been playing in the World Baseball Classic, smoked a line drive that turned into a double play. But in the second inning, Milwaukee got to one of the better Colorado pitchers, Victor Vodnik. Things started with a Jake Bauers walk, a wild pitch, and, one out and a wild pitch later, a Brandon Lockridge walk. That brought David Hamilton to the plate, and he got a hanging 1-0 changeup that he crushed 107mph and 431 feet for a three-run, scoreboard flipping homer.

Vodnik got the second out but then gave up consecutive hits to Jett Williams and Frelick before getting pulled. That brought Ortiz back to the plate, and he reached on an infield single that was about 40mph slower than the batted ball that turned into a double play in the first. That scored Williams to make it 4-2, and the Brewers very nearly broke it completely open after that; Christian Yelich walked to load the bases and Bauers hit a fly ball at 112 mph, but Beck caught it for the third out.

Brandon Sproat was the next pitcher in for Milwaukee, and after he threw a three-up, three-down top of the fifth, Ortiz led off the bottom of the fifth with a wall-scraping homer to right. He didn’t exactly crush the ball, but it was one of those up-and-away pitches that when Ortiz is looking good he does damage on. Another Yelich walk and this time another monster shot off Bauers’ bat—this one 113 mph—found grass in the outfield, scoring Yelich from first. Bauers scored a couple batters later on a Hamilton groundout, and Milwaukee led 7-2.

Beck led off the sixth with a solo homer off of Sproat. Ortiz hit another ball hard in the sixth, but it was caught in center field. The game hummed along for a while—Jared Koenig came in with two outs in the eighth, walked a guy, and ended the inning with a groundout. Lockridge hit a homer (on his 29th birthday) in the bottom of the inning, and Sproat returned for the ninth. Sproat did allow a single and a run-scoring double in the ninth, but he finished the game with Milwaukee winning 8-4.

Milwaukee almost got through this one with just two pitchers, as Misiorowski pitched four innings and Sproat pitched 4 2/3. Both pitchers allowed two earned runs on four hits; Miz, as mentioned, struck out six and walked two, while Sproat struck out three and didn’t walk any. Misiorowski threw 70 pitches, Sproat 65.

On the offensive side of the ball, Frelick and Ortiz were the two Brewers with multiple hits, while Ortiz, Lockridge, and Hamilton homered. Bauers also had a nice day, as he went 1-for-2 with a double, two batted balls with exit velocities higher than 112 mph, and a walk.

Meanwhile, some non-spring training news: Andrew Fischer came a couple feet from hitting a grand slam in Italy’s game against Puerto Rico today. A fan reached over the wall and caught it, and it was instead ruled a two-run double (in a game Italy won by two), but Fischer crushed it. I think he can hit. Video below:

The Brewers continue their Cactus League slate tomorrow in Scottsdale against the Giants at 3:05 p.m. No TV for that one, either.

Kyle Connor reaches 30 goals for 8th time to help the Jets beat the Avalanche 3-1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Kyle Connor reached 30 goals for a franchise-record eighth time and added an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Saturday.

Connor broke a tie with Ilya Kovalchuk for the most 30-goal seasons in Thrashers/Jets history. Connor has reached the 30-goal mark in every season of his nine-year NHL career except for the 56-game COVID-19 shortened campaign when he had 26.

Alex Iafallo and Cole Perfetti, with an empty-netter, also scored for the Jets. Mark Scheifele had to two assists for push his season total to 51, one more than his previous best.

Martin Necas ended Hellebuyck’s shutout bid with 1:16 left.

Mackenzie Blackwood made 15 saves for the Avalanche. They had won six in a row on the road.

Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns played in his 990th consecutive NHL game, surpassing Keith Yandle for the second-longest streak in league history. Phil Kessel is the leader at 1,064.

Up next

Avalanche: Host Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Jets: Host St. Louis on Sunday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

White Sox blow up Wrobleski in Dodger loss

Mar 14, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski against the Chicago White Sox during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Even as far as spring training games go, this was a pretty forgettable one for the Dodgers, coming out on the losing end of a 7-2 effort against the White Sox. After a strong start to his spring, Justin Wrobleski didn’t showcase his best stuff, laboring through a difficult outing against a White Sox lineup that, to claim it doesn’t quite stand out, would be putting it lightly. Wrobleski came into this game without allowing a single earned run in three appearances (2 starts), and despite nearing 70 pitches, couldn’t quite crack three full innings, responsible for five of the seven runs Chicago scored.

Facing a lineup built almost entirely of right-handed hitters, Wrobleski didn’t allow a ton of hard contact and was probably a bit unfortunate in giving up four runs—his struggles to find the zone consistently were partially to blame, conceding a couple of walks and hitting the zone only 40% of the time.

Putting up a pretty unproductive effort were the Dodgers’ star hitters, who, unlike the White Sox, couldn’t fully capitalize on all of their free passes. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Max Muncy combined for four walks, and only one of them (Betts) came around to score.

Still needing to fill a bulk of the game with relievers after Wrobleski’s day was done, Dave Roberts turned to Alex Vesia, among others, with a couple of points to highlight regarding his appearance. Traditionally, almost exclusively a four-seamer-slider arm, Vesia tossed in a few more changeups than usual, and his fastball velocity was still well below his career norm (91.5 MPH in comparison with the 92.7 MPH average last season). Following Vesia, Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia both tossed a scoreless inning.

The second Dodger run came courtesy of Zach Ehrhard. The young outfielder, subbed in during the game to play right field, hit a triple in the top of the seventh and came around to score on a Ryan Fitzgerald groundout. That’s particularly noteworthy given it was the only extra-base hit the Dodgers had the whole game. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the ninth, but couldn’t do anything with it.

Up next

Youth versus experience will be on display as the Dodgers face the other Chicago-based club, with Emmet Sheehan going against Jameson Taillon in a split-header day, with games against the Cubs and the Rangers. River Ryan will be the other starter. Both games start at 1:05 PM Pacific time.

Howard defeats Norfolk State 53-46 to claim women’s MEAC Tournament championship

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Zennia Thomas scored 15 points, Nile Miller had 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Howard defeated Norfolk State 53-46 on Saturday to claim the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship for the first time since 2022.

The Bison defeated the team that beat them in the last three MEAC championship games. Saturday was the fifth consecutive time that the Bison and Spartans squared off in the championship game.

Howard and Norfolk State’s dominance of the MEAC was evident during the regular season. Top-seeded Howard went 13-1 in the regular season and now has a 14-game winning streak. Second-seeded Norfolk State won 12 of its final 15 games, with each loss at the hands of Howard.

Ariella Henigan’s mid-range jumper gave Howard a 51-45 lead with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Norfolk State managed one free throw the rest of the way and the Spartans missed their last seven shots. Henigan made two free throws with 22 seconds left to set the final margin.

Henigan scored 11 points for Howard (26-7).

Jasha Clinton scored 11 points and Anjanae Richardson added 10 for Norfolk State (18-14).

Howard scored the last eight points of the first quarter to take a 16-9 lead but Norfolk State came right back in the second quarter, scoring seven points in the first 1 1/2 minutes to tie it up. A 3-pointer by Cire Worley put the Spartans up 23-20 in midway through the quarter and they held the lead until a jumper by Howard’s Sa’lah Hemingway tied it at 27 heading to halftime.

Howard built a 42-33 lead through three quarters, despite shooting only 24% in the third quarter. Norfolk State shot 13% in the third.

Up next

NCAA Tournament pairings will be announced on Sunday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball.

Rockies 4, Cubs 3: Ben Brown shines

One day, I will be able to write up a Cubs recap and present a lot of highlights from the game.

Today is not that day. (Though I do have SOME video to show you.)

The Cubs lost to the Rockies 4-3 at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale Saturday afternoon, another very warm day in the Phoenix area (84 degrees at game time, likely warmer tomorrow). A walkoff homer by a Rockies minor leaguer named Braxton Fulford off Grant Kipp won the game for Colorado, and obviously that means nothing for the 2026 regular season Cubs.

The much bigger story of this game is Ben Brown, who had a very good outing. Brown threw four innings, allowed two hits and one run, didn’t walk anyone and struck out six. He threw an efficient 51 pitches (39 strikes).

Here’s a breakdown of Brown’s day [VIDEO].

And here are the six K’s [VIDEO].

If Brown could throw like that all the time, well, he’d be in the Cubs rotation. Consistency has been one of his big issues. Yes, Rockies today, but that team does have some good hitters and, on a split-squad day for Colorado, many of their regular-season starters were in their lineup. So good for Ben — now go out there and do it again next time, which might wind up being one of the Cubs’ split-squad games next Friday.

Again, I fail to understand, if there’s a video feed like that one available, why that feed couldn’t be streamed. People would watch that! The audio is, as noted, from the Cubs radio broadcast on The Score.

MLB and its teams have to do some hard thinking about how to handle Spring Training games on TV going forward. This year has been a pretty big failure on that account.

The Cubs’ runs scored on a single by Kevin Alcántara, a sacrifice fly by Jonathon Long and a throwing error by Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman after an attempted steal by Matt Shaw. Hoerner scored on the error. Good to see Long back in the lineup after missing three weeks with an elbow issue caused by a collision in a Sloan Park game in February. He went 1-for-3 with the sac fly as the DH in this game.

Hunter Harvey allowed the Rockies a run in the sixth, unearned due to a throwing error by Scott Kingery that allowed Brenton Doyle to reach base to lead off the inning.

The game remained 3-2 until the bottom of the ninth, when the aforementioned walkoff homer happened, sending Rockies fans home happy.

The Cubs return to Sloan Park Sunday afternoon to take on the Dodgers. Jameson Taillon, just returned from the World Baseball Classic, will start for the Cubs and Emmet Sheehan goes for the Dodgers. Game time is 3:05 p.m. CT and this game will be televised on both Marquee Sports Network and the Dodgers channel SportsNet LA — so there will be game highlights Sunday! There will also be a radio broadcast via WSCR The Score.