Milkmen double up Canaries 10-5 to take commanding 3-0 Championship Series lead

After earning victories in the first two games at home, the Milwaukee Milkmen headed to Sioux Falls to take on the Canaries at The Birdcage as the 2020 American Association Championship series continued on Tuesday. Ty Culbreth started for Sioux Falls, and the Milkmen offense put pressure on him right away in the top of the first inning. Brett Vertigan doubled to get things started, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch to give Milwaukee a brief 1-0 advantage.

Sioux Falls struck back quickly against starter Drew Hutchison in the bottom half, however. Logan Landon led off with a single, then a double by Andrew Ely moved the runners to second and third. Clint Coulter singled to score Landon and tie the game at 1-1. A wild pitch once again put runners on second and third, and Damek Tomscha singled to bring home Ely and make it 2-1. Hutchison finally recorded his first out against the fifth batter of the frame, although Alay Lago's sacrifice fly made it a 3-1 game. Drew settled in after that, however, and put up zeroes in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings to keep the Sioux Falls offense at three runs.

Milwaukee began to close the gap in the fourth, when Mason Davis singled to lead off and later came around to score on an RBI hit from Christian Correa. A crooked number in the fifth then gave the Milkmen the advantage. Dylan Tice walked to lead off, but was still standing at second with two outs when David Washington stepped to the plate. He singled to bring Davis up to the plate, and Mason singled to left field where Mike Hart had some difficulty fielding the ball cleanly. Both runners came in to score to give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead, which was extended to 5-3 when Zach Nehrir singled to bring home Davis.

Milwaukee stranded the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, and when Hutchison allowed a leadoff single to Ely in the bottom half, he was lifted in favor of Anthony Bender. But he was ambushed by Clint Coulter as the Canaries' outfielder smashed Bender's first pitch over the fence in left for a home run that tied the game up at 5-5. Bender escaped with no further damage, though.

The Milkmen regained the lead in the top of the 7th against Ryan Fritze. Nehrir started the rally with a walk and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Christian Correa. A lofted fly ball by Logan Trowbridge found the grass for a base hit to put runners on first and third, then a drag bunt by Brett Vertigan brought home Nehrir to give Milwaukee the lead, and an error and a wild pitch brought home another two runs to make it 8-5 at the end of the inning.

Milwaukee added two more in the eighth when Zach Nehrir annihilated a two-run blast over the fence in left field to make it 10-5. Myles Smith, AJ Schugel, and Peyton Gray each worked a scoreless inning apiece to close out the victory, as has been the script throughout the second half of the season.

Now with a commanding 3-0 series lead, the Milkmen will look to clinch the championship on Wednesday night behind starter Tim Dillard. First pitch in Sioux Falls is scheduled for 7:05 PM.

Box Score

You can watch the Milkmen go for the clinch on Wednesday night by subscribing to AA Baseball TV.