Tigers Romp, Trade Wilson and Avila – Monday Sports Wrap

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MLB
Justin Upton’s grand slam powered the Detroit Tigers to a 13-1 victory over the Houston Astros yesterday. Upton drove in six runs. James McCann also homered. Justin Verlander scattered five hits over six scoreless innings to earn his first win in more than a month.

The Tigers open a series in New York against the Yankees tonight. Michael Fulmer will pitch against Luis Severino. Pregame coverage begins at 6:40 on 99.3 The Lift.

Several media outlets are reporting that the Tigers have traded closer Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila to the Chicago Cubs. In exchange, Detroit will get third baseman Jeimer Candelario and shortstop Isaac Paredes, along with a player to be named later or a cash payment. MLB Pipeline rates Caldelario as Chicago’s best prospect, although Baseball America lists him ninth. He’s been playing at Triple-A, and his path to the majors has been blocked by Kris Bryant. Paredes is playing at the Single-A level. Baseball America ranks him as the Cubs’ fifth best prospect, and MLB Pipeline rates him 10th. Neither team has confirmed the deal. The trade deadline is 4:00 this afternoon.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ slide continued yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The game was scoreless until each team scored twice in the sixth. Chicago added single runs in the seventh and eighth to provide the winning margin. Zach Davies gave up three runs over seven innings, and took the loss. Domingo Santana homered for Milwaukee.

The Brewers have dropped 11 of their last 14 games, and have fallen two-and-a-half games behind the Cubs in the National League Central Division race. They’ll take today off, and open a home set against the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow night. Jimmy Nelson will start against Carlos Martinez.

A day after designating starting pitcher Wily Peralta for assignment, the Brewers demoted pitcher Junior Guerra to Triple-A Colorado Springs yesterday. Guerra was this year’s opening day starter, but his season was derailed by injuries and control problems. Reliever Wei-Chung Wang has been called up for now, but the move leaves Milwaukee with just three active starters on the roster, so expect some additional moves soon.

NFL
The Detroit Lions have extended the contract of safety Glover Quinn through the 2019 season.

The Lions opened training camp yesterday, and put their medical staff to work almost immediately. Tight end Eric Ebron suffered what appears to be a hamstring injury, and left the field. His prognosis is not known.

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