Category: Sports

NFL Scoreboard, Week 8

No real surprises.

The Packers came very close to handing the Rams their first loss, but came up just a hair short at the end.

“Feel good” story: A fumble notwithstanding, Adrian Peterson looked like his old self. He rushed for 149 yards in a Washington victory, including a 64-yard TD.

College Rankings – Week 10

No surprises, that I could see. Houston and Syracuse did enter the ranked group and Utah did move up seven spots. Sagarin’s computer rankings have one significant variation: the computer does not give Notre Dame much respect. The Irish are ranked 12th – below freakin’ Utah!

Next week is a good one in college ball. Eight of the top fifteen teams will be in action against each other, including #1 vs #4 (Alabama-LSU)

The others:

5-14 (Michigan vs Penn State)
6-11 (Georgia vs Kentucky)
12-15 (West Virginia vs Texas)

It seemed that the Dodgers had this one in hand. And then they didn’t. The Dodgers got another superb start from their pitching staff. Rich Hill allowed only one hit in 6.1. This time, however, their bullpen failed miserably.

The Red Sox bullpen was also poor, but it wasn’t that important, given that their hitters put up 9 runs in the last three innings.

The Red Sox’ big stars, Betts and Martinez, were again collared, but they were not needed this time. The Dodgers were defeated by role players, two veterans who are career .250 hitters. Mitch Moreland delivered a clutch pinch-hit homer to ignite the Sox, but the obvious Red Sox star was an aging journeyman and general utility guy, Steve Pearce. He tied the game with a homer in the eighth, then put it out of reach with a three-run double in the ninth that gave Boston the final margin of victory. This is Pearce’s 12th major league season. He’s played five different positions plus DH, for seven different teams in both leagues. In all those years he has never played regularly enough to qualify for the annual leader board on the rate stats. He has never batted in as many as 50 runs in a season. He has averaged only 181 at bats per year.

He’s not a “poor player” but this was the time to strut and fret his hour upon the stage.

And he’s entitled to a little strutting after that game.

This week’s summary:

#3 Notre Dame had double good news: they beat up on Navy while Syracuse whipped a ranked team (#22 NC State). Notre Dame doesn’t have a powerhouse schedule this year, so they need their earlier victory over Syracuse to seem as impressive as possible. That may be academic if they continue to be undefeated. They are currently ranked #3, and would not drop if they continue winning, so they’ll be in the playoff for sure if they run the table. If the season were over now, three of the playoff teams would be obvious (Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame). The fourth spot would be up for grabs.

The #6 Texas Longhorns took themselves out of that grab-fest with a narrow loss to unranked-but-powerful Oklahoma State.

#9 Florida’s hopes were dashed with a loss to #7 Georgia, which in turn improved its chances.

Farther down the list:

#12 Kentucky did win – on the final play of the game! They were down 14-3 at the end of the third quarter.

#21 South Florida apparently played basketball against Houston, and lost. The final score was 57-36. I guess the American Conference wants to be the Big 12 when it grows up. I think that will vault Houston into the top 25 next week.

There will be a lot of reshuffling at the bottom of the list. In addition to #21 and #22, mentioned above, the following all lost: 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 24 and 25. That presented an opportunity for #23 Utah. They won, and by so doing, they could move up as many as seven places!)

MUCH farther down the list:

Rutgers had the week off. They are 1-7 after finishing the easy part of their schedule. I’m not kidding. Their final four games are against Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Penn State.

It went 18 innings and lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes. 18 different pitchers appeared in the game.

It looked like the Dodgers were going to lose it in the 13th, when the Sox scored a run on a throwing error, but the Dodgers matched that exactly, scoring their own run on a throwing error. That kept the marathon running for five more innings, until Max Muncy homered to lead off the bottom of the 18th.

The Dodgers’ starter, Walker Buehler, was brilliant, allowing only two hits and no walks over seven innings. He’s a 24-year-old rookie who posted a sparkling 2.62 ERA in his first full season, and the Dodgers see him as their star of the future. One year in the minors he struck out 125 guys in only 88 innings. Kid has it all: two different triple digit fastballs, a 95 MPH cutter, even a crazy knuckle curve. At the time it seemed to be a poor decision to take Buehler out after seven innings of complete dominance, especially when Kenley immediately surrendered a home run to Jackie Bradley Jr., but I guess all’s well that ends well.

The Dodger bullpen was also outstanding after Kenley’s flub. The Red Sox managed only 7 hits in 18 innings. The first four slots in their line-up went 0-for-28.

In addition to Muncy, Buehler and the Dodger pen, the other hero of the day was Cody Bellinger. Cody was unimpressive at the plate and on the base paths (the one time he got on base, he was picked off), but he did the one thing he absolutely had to do. In the top of the tenth he made an amazing throw to catch Kinsler trying to score. Since the Dodgers did not score that inning, Bellinger’s throw saved the game.

Wait! A starter lasted six innings and got the W? It’s an early Festivus miracle!

Price pitched well enough. The Sox bullpen pitched even better – nine up, nine down. The Dodgers’ Ryu also pitched very well, at least for four and two-thirds. In fact, you can make that four and 8/9, because he retired the first two batters in the fifth, then got two quick strikes on Kinsler. He had a 2-1 lead and everything was comin’ up roses.

Then he totally fell apart. Kinsler slapped a cutter for a single. Betts did the same. Benintendi then worked a long at bat for a walk and Ryu went from being in hot water to showering in it. At his final stop, in the shower room, he was probably the only warm person in Fenway Park.

Fireman Ryan Madson could not douse the flames. He started off by giving up a walk with the bases full, whereupon he had to press his luck against J.D. Martinez, who nearly won a triple crown this year, with the bases still loaded. Oh-oh! He spun the wheel and drew Mr. Whammy.

Martinez smacked a two-run single, and the Red Sox bullpen did the rest.

The rain stopped before Wednesday’s game, but the night was damp, windy and cold. Los Angeles hadn’t started an NL game this year, at home or away, in a temperature below 58, but when this game began it was 46 degrees with a brisk wind, and it kept getting colder, as did the Dodger bats. The Sox pitching staff retired the last 16 batters they faced. The Dodgers’ only consolation was that the next three games will be back in their home park, in a temperature more conducive to baseball (and human habitation).

It was supposed to be a pitching duel. It was not.

Kershaw vs Sale pitted two of the best pitchers in the game against each other. They both sucked, but Kershaw sucked harder. Neither made it past 4.0 innings. The final score was 8-4. The coup de grace was delivered by pinch-hitter Eduardo Nunez, who slammed a late three-run homer off Alex Wood, the final Dodgers pitcher.

Boston’s budding superstar, Andrew Benintendi, taunted Kershaw with three hits in four innings. (It’s rare for a lefty to get three hits against Kershaw at all.) Benintendi added a fourth hit later. Pretty heady stuff for a 24-year-old kid. (Don’t the damn Red Sox have enough stars already?)

Because baseball’s rules are not changing as fast as its strategies, the “winning pitcher” stat is starting to become meaningless. This one was “won” by Matt Barnes, who pitched the fifth inning and was not especially effective. (Starting pitchers need to pitch five for a win.) In theory, MLB says, “A starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings (in a traditional game of nine innings or longer) to qualify for the win. If he does not, the official scorer awards the win to the most effective relief pitcher.” There were at least two other middle relievers who pitched better than Barnes. In fact, Barnes pitched rather poorly – a single, then a wild pitch allowing two runners to advance, then a run-scoring grounder. Meanwhile, Joe Kelly faced three guys, got the first two on swinging strikes and induced a weak grounder from the third, and Eovaldi got the heart of the Dodger line-up to sit down 1-2-3 without hitting a ball out of the infield. So how could the scorer rule that Barnes was the “most effective relief pitcher”?

No great surprises here.

The Rams stayed undefeated. The Chiefs and Saints stayed once-defeated. The Saints needed a furious fourth-quarter comeback, but the other two never broke a sweat.

The two L.A. teams are a combined 12-2! How insufferable would Angelenos be with an all-LA Superbowl? (Yeah, I know the Chargers would have to get through both the Chiefs and the Patriots. Unlikely, but still possible …)

He scored the TD, which is all that really matters. Great scramble.

The updated AP poll:

The only thing that really surprised me was that Ohio State dropped completely out of the top ten. That seems like an overreaction to their loss. Sagarin’s computer still ranks them fifth.

Gossage: “I find it very difficult to be able to watch today.”

Just about everything they are saying is accurate, but it’s also inevitable. The point of any professional game is to win. Baseball has been a tradition-bound game in which the traditions became more important than winning. But that can’t be expected to go on forever, as clubs discover that unsuccessful steals are disastrous plays, and the sacrifice bunts aren’t even that valuable when they succeed. Clubs have started to abandon tradition in favor of the strategies they think will improve their W-L record. There was no reason to believe the that complete game was the best way to use a starter. It was just the way it had always been done. So people started tinkering with that formula, first tenuously, now often radically. Although nobody wants to be the first to break the tradition, the floodgates open once a new strategy succeeds.

I agree with Gossage that the game is now frustrating to watch. I miss the rich variety of offensive strategies that have been replaced by the homer-or-nothing mentality. Where are the opposite-field doubles, the daring base stealers who try to throw off the pitchers’ timing, the bunting for base hits? And speaking of bunting, why is it that these guys, with all their talent, can’t lay down a bunt or an Ichiro-style swinging bunt to beat the “shift”?

But the people in charge believe that the new strategies work. After all, every team is free to do things the old way if they think that will produce better results, but nobody seems to think that’s the smart move.

At least for now.

Facts:

The strikeout rate has now increased for 13 consecutive years. As recently as 2005 there were 6.30 Ks per 9 innings. The number is now 8.48. In the old days, a pitcher who struck out that many guys per game stood a good chance to lead the league. In 1980, at the mid-point of his career, Nolan Ryan struck out 7.7 per nine innings. Chris Sale struck out 13.5 per nine this season. (That would have been the all-time record, but Sale pitched only 158 innings and a pitcher must toss 162 to qualify for the “rate stats,” so Sale’s all-time record is unofficial. He did qualify in the previous year, and finished with the third-best rate in history. In fact, ten of the top 20 seasons have occurred since  2015 – and that excludes Sale’s 2018, which would have topped the list had he thrown only four more innings.)

The MLB batting average was .248 this year. That’s the lowest since 1972, which was in what is now called “the second deadball era.”

Stolen bases are also at the lowest point since 1972.

There are .17 sacrifices per team per game. That is the lowest in baseball history and is still declining year after year.

Two of baseball’s venerable and storied franchises will match-up after L.A.’s victory over the Brewers.

The Dodgers originated as the Brooklyn Atlantics in the 1884 American Association (then considered a major league), and entered the National League in 1890 as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. They were known as the Dodgers for a while in the early 1910s, but the name didn’t stick the first time through. They became the Brooklyn Robins until 1932, when the Dodgers moniker became official. To those of us who still remember the Brooklyn Dodgers, it seems impossible that they have been in L.A. for sixty one seasons, but that’s the way it is. They have five World Series wins in L.A., and had previously won one in Brooklyn.

The Red Sox are as old as the American League itself. They started in 1901, and have been playing in Fenway Park since 1912. They have won the World Series eight times. They started strong (5 championships in 16 seasons from 1903 to 1918), and finished strong (3 championships in the ten seasons from 2004 to 2013), but had a drought of more than 80 years in between.

It will be the Red Sox with the home field edge in their creaky, 106-year-old home, where the weather could be as significant a factor as the irregular nooks and crannies of their fences. The expected low for Wednesday night in Boston (game 2) is a chilly 36 degrees, while the Friday high in L.A. for game three will be close to 90.

All of the Series games will be played in the evening, even though games four and five will be weekend games in L.A.

Thanks a lot, TV.

And thanks to you too, Obama. I know you’re behind this somehow.

College Pigskin, Week 8 recap.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on college football, and I’d never be able to predict results, but I do follow it quite closely, and I never in a thousand guesses would have thought that #2 Ohio State would lose to Purdue by four touchdowns. That has to be the surprise of the year, if not the millennium. I have nothing against Ohio State, but I will say this: If you allow Purdue to score 49 on you, you’re not a plausible candidate for a national championship. To be fair, Purdue has scored a lot of points this year. That is their fifth consecutive week with 30 or more. They have won four in a row after losing their first three.

#4 Notre Dame had the week off. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, but it did pay off for them. They will probably rise to #3. Thanks, Purdue.

#12 Oregon got stampeded by Washington State. The game was 27-0 at halftime.

In the ever-surprising American Conference, UCF and South Florida stayed unbeaten, while Houston laid 49 on Navy to improve to 6-1. Only Cincinnati faltered, dropping their first game of the year to Temple in overtime. (That’s not as bad as it sounds. Temple was playing at home, and that team is surprisingly good. They are actually undefeated in conference play.)

And of course, Alabama was Alabama. They took a 28-0 lead in the first quarter, then coasted. They won by 37. That’s just another day at the track for them. Their average game for the year is a win by 38 (54-16). Sagarin’s computer ratings show them approximately a light year ahead of the rest of the field. The good news for those of us who root for underdogs is that Alabama may have a tough game next week. Stress: may. They will take on LSU (which should be #4 in the new polls after Ohio State falls a bit from their #2 perch) in Baton Rouge. If ‘Bama wins that one by 20 or more, you can count on them to coast to the championship game against Notre Dame or Clemson or whoever else can sneak in there.

The game was essentially over in the first inning, when the Brewers had five hits and a walk. As usual, the Brewers bullpen was astounding. They pitched 4 2/3 and allowed no hits or walks. (The Dodgers got one baserunner on a HBP.) If the Brewers didn’t have to use a starter, they’d be unbeatable.

Jesus Aguilar was their hitting star with two doubles and a single, three RBI. Aguilar was a helluva pick-up by the Brewers. The Indians couldn’t find a spot for him after nine years in their system and some big numbers in the minors (188 homers in the minors and the winter leagues). They dumped him. The Brew-crew picked him up on waivers, and are paying him the minimum allowable. They love him. In 771 at bats he has 51 homers and 165 RBI. Assuming a full season of 600 at-bats, that works out to 40 homers and 128 RBI per season. Not bad for a minimum wage guy!

David Price out-dueled Verlander.

For the Astros, the rest was silence.

The game went 13 innings, and had to be timed in light years rather than hours. (Well, it seemed that way. Actual time: 5 hours, 15 minutes.) The Dodgers finally won it with two outs in the 13th on a walk-off hit by Cody Bellinger.

Brewers relievers held the Blue Wave scoreless for 11 consecutive innings, striking out 17 in the process, but they finally ran out of steam. And out of pitchers. The last four frames were tossed by a starter, Junior Guerra, who finally allowed a run.

Not to be outdone, the Dodgers’ relievers – all eight of them – allowed no runs at all. The W went to Julio Urias, a bespectacled kid who is 22, but looks about 12. He pitched only 4 innings all season! Strange doings.

The series is now tied 2-2. What a battle for the ages. It has been a killer for those who bite their nails because three of the games have been decided by a single run, and even the 4-0 Brewers victory could have been tied in the final at bat, because the Dodgers had loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth!

The Rams stayed undefeated. The Chiefs almost did, but finally succumbed to the powerful Pats.

Highlights:

Adam Thielen of the Vikings has amassed at least 100 receiving yards in each of his first six games. That has not happened since 1961, and has never happened in the Super Bowl era. In fact, Thielen already had the “Super Bowl Era” record last week, because nobody else in that time-frame has ever gone past four! Thielen needs one more to tie the all-time record set by Charley Hennigan, who began the 1961 season with seven consecutive 100-yard receiving games.

That’s a pretty cool thing because Thielen has played his entire football life in Minnesota. He played his high school ball in a small town near the North Dakota border, and played his college ball for a D-II team in the state university system.

Todd Gurley II of the Rams rushed for 208 yards.

The biggest development:

UCF did not rise despite losses by four higher-ranked teams, but their American Conference now has three teams in the top 22, and a fourth (Houston) in the running. Of course that will change when they start playing each other. They’re all up there now because the big three are all undefeated, and Houston has but a single loss. (Houston is the only one that plays a tough non-conference opponent – Texas Tech – and that accounted for their loss.)