The Cincinnati Reds extended their lead in the NL Central to 8-games over the slumping St. Louis Cardinals.  The Reds capped off a 3-game sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers with a 6-1 win on Wednesday night. 

Left-hander Aroldis Chapman hit 103 mph on the radar gun during 1-inning of relief, retiring the Brewers 1-2-3 and earning his first major league win.

Chris Narveson was cruising along for the Brewers, throwing a 2-hit shutout in the 7th.  But manager Ken Macha removed Narveson, who watched the bullpen blow the 1-0 lead and the game.  Ryan Hanigan’s pinch-hit, three-run homer in the 7th off of Todd Coffey (2-3) was the game winner.

The Brewers are off today and will open up a 3-game weekend series in Philadelphia on Friday night.

Wisconsin linebacker Mike Taylor isn’t sure he’ll be ready to play in the

LB Mike Taylor

Badgers season opener at UNLV on Saturday night, but the sophomore from Green Bay insists that he’ll definitely be ready to play in week two when the Badgers host San Jose State.

Taylor suffered a season ending ACL injury to his right knee in the Iowa game last season.  Taylor had the initial surgery, then had scar tissue removed a couple of weeks back and said his knee feels great.

One last chance to make a lasting impression.  That’s what the Green Bay

Dom Capers

Packers backups have tonight when the Packers close out the preseason at Kansas City against the Chiefs.

The Packers defense started slow last season, but came on strong in the end and finishing with the #1 run defense in the NFL.  How will they stack up this season?

The Packers have had a rash of training camp injuries and cornerback Al Harris and safety Atari Bigby will start the season on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.  There’s a chance that rookie Sam Shields may have to start the season as the teams nickelback.

I talked this week with Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers about the Packers defense in 2010.

AUDIO: Bill Scott talks defense with Dom Capers 3:16

If you’re a Wisconsin Badger fan, you probably aren’t a fan of the

Camp Randall Stadium

Big Conference’s new divisional alignment.  The Badgers no longer play Michigan every year and they lost their rivalry match-ups with Iowa and Minnesota.

Now, because every Big Ten school can protect one rivalry, the Badgers had to make a choice.  They took Minnesota over Iowa.  For the Badgers and Hawkeyes to play now, at least for the first couple of years, is for both teams to advance to the Big Ten Championship game.

Teams in the same division with the Badgers are Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana.

Wisconsin be a part of Big Ten history however.  Nebraska’s first Big Ten game will be played Oct. 1, 2011, against the Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium.  Wisconsin will make a return trip to Nebraska the following year.

You can’t make everyone happy, but the Big Ten certainly could have done a better job than this.  I wasn’t in the room when the different model’s were being worked on.  But there doesn’t appear to be any solid explanation for why the divisions ended up the way they did. 

The Divisions must be named yet, and will the Big Ten, with 12 teams, remain the Big Ten?  They certainly can’t go with Big Ten East and Big Ten West.  It looks to me like the conference did everything it could to secure a potential Ohio State vs. Michigan championship game, and to do that, other schools had to be willing to take a hit. 

I think it’s a shame that the Big Ten couldn’t find a way to keep Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota in the same division!

The Cincinnati Reds increased their lead atop the NL Central Division by

Yovani Gallardo

knocking off the Milwaukee Brewers 8-4 on Tuesday.  The Reds took the first two games in the series after Joey Votto drove in three runs, Scott Rolen it a 2-run double and Jonny Gomes homered in the win.

Reds pitcher and Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman hit 102 miles per hour on the radar gun while throwing a perfect 8th inning.

The loss goes to Yovani Gallardo, who struggled again.  The Brewers ace allowed all 8-runs on 9 hits in five-plus innings.  The 8 runs were the most allowed by Gallardo this season.  He’s 1-2 with a 9.11 ERA over his last five starts.  Before the stretch of poor pitching, Gallardo was 9-4 with a 2.45 ERA.  He’s now 11-7 with a 3.86 ERA.

Gallardo says he feels fine physically and really doesn’t know what the problem is. 

When things go bad, you can sometimes count on your ace to plug the leak and come up with a big outing.  Gallardo hasn’t been able to slam the door on anybody of late, which is a concern to the team.

The Green Bay Packers have placed safety Atari Bigby, cornerback Al Harris and running back James Starks on the reserve/physically unable to perform list, and running back Quinn Porter on injured reserve.

The Packers roster now stands at the league mandated 75 players.  The team will have to reduce its roster to 53 players on Saturday.

The Packers held their final practice open to the public today.  They’ll close out the preseason against the Chiefs in Kansas City on Thursday.

Ballparkbiz.com has ranked the top-50 summer collegiate baseball teams the past three years and once again the Northwoods League leads the list.

The Madison Mallards come in 1st with an average of 6,076 fans per game while the La Crosse Loggers are 2nd.  The Mallards and Loggers both finished 1st and 2nd in 2009 as well.  They’re joined in the top-10 by the Eau Claire Express, who increased both their overall attendance and per game attendance from 2009.

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Sunday that Daryn Colledge

Daryn Colledge

will get the start at left guard on opening day against the Philadelphia Eagles.  McCarthy opened up the competition by allowing rookie first round pick Bryan Bulaga the opportunity to compete for the job.  But while Bulaga had to deal with a hip flexor injury and some missed practice time, Colledge stayed on the field and won the competition with a solid training camp.

This is the second or third time that Colledge has been challenged with his job on the line.  He was asked if it’s getting tiring.

AUDIO: Daryn Colledge says being challenged doesn’t bother him :17

College is a part of a starting unit that didn’t allow a sack in over 4-quarters of play during the preseason.  The decision means Colledge and Bulaga won’t be alternating reps at guard anymore and Colledge will be able to focus his time on getting ready for the start of the regular season on Sept. 12th at Philadelphia. 

Colledge was asked what he did to win the job when he first heard the job was up for grabs.

AUDIO: Daryn Colledge on what he did when he found out he was in a job battle :15

Trevor Hoffman earned his 599th career save and Ryan Braun went 4 for 4

Trevor Hoffman

with a home run as the Milwaukee Brewers completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with an 8-4 win on Sunday.

Hoffman entered with one out and two runners on base in the 9th.  He retired both batters for his 599th save.  Hoffman said he’s love to get save #600 in front of the home crowd.

AUDIO: Trevor Hoffman would like to pick up 600th save at home :10

Hoffman lost his closer’s job to John Axford earlier in the season, but manager Ken Macha has allowed Hoffman to get some opportunities in the past few weeks.  But Macha said there’s no guarantee Hoffman’s next chance will come at home. 

AUDIO: Ken Macha said Hoffman’s next chance will come when he’s needed :07

The Brewers scored all 8 of their runs in the first 3 1/3 innings off of Pirates starter and loser Charlie Morton.

The Brewers open a series in Cincinnati tonight.

On this date in baseball history, August 26, 1987, Milwaukee Brewers all-star Paul Molitor saw his 39-game hitting streak come to an end. 

What made this one even more interesting is Molitor might have had one more chance to extend the streak.  He was in the on deck circle when Rick Manning drove in the game winning run.  The fans booed Manning as Molitor’s streak ended that day.