|  NEXT TO NOTHING
Outrageous: Tim Lincecum struck out 14 Braves last night. He allowed only three baserunners (two on base hits, and the other on a walk). Not bad for another ace making his postseason debut. In fact, Bill James (this guy, not this guy) would have you believe that Lincecum's postseason debut was better than Roy Halladay's postseason debut. Longtime readers of The Rundown will remember that all Halladay did was throw a no-hitter in his postseason debut. But you do the math.
Outrage: The Giants offense wasn't anything to shake a baseball bat-shaped stick at, winning the game 1-0. In fact, they all might still be out there throwing up goose eggs against each other if not for a blown call in the fourth. Buster Posey stole second, even though he didn't, and so the Giants stole the game's only run when Cody Ross singled him home. "I guess it's a good thing we don't have instant replay right now," Posey said. (More on that in a bit.)
| 
|  NEXT PITCH
Dateline: St. Petersburg (Florida, not Leningrad.) In the fifth inning of a 2-0 game, it looked like Chad Qualls caught Michael Young swinging at strike three. Sure enough, it might have also looked like that on camera. But it didn't look like that to home plate umpire Jim Wolf, who appealed to first base umpire Jerry Meals, who decided that Young didn't swing.
Next Pitch: Young hits a three-run home run to blow the game open. (And so, Joe Maddon picked up the first ejection from a postseason game by anyone since 2005.)
Dateline: Minneapolis In the seventh inning of a 2-1 game, it looked like Twins starter Carl Pavano caught Lance Berkman looking at strike three. Technically, it looked like that on MLB's own PitchFX cameras, which showed the ball to actually be over the white part of the plate. But it didn't look like that to home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, who called it a ball.
Next Pitch: Berkman hits a double that ended up bringing home the game-winning RBI for the Yankees. (And so Ron Gardenhire picked up the first ejection from a postseason game by anyone in about three hours.)
And so for the first time in MLB postseason history, two different managers were ejected from two different games on the same day. Somehow, Bobby Cox managed to stick around for all nine innings of his game (despite what happened - or didn't - to Buster Posey). What could the umpires be seeing? Hopefully, not CNN.
|
|  NEXT YEAR
Talk about turning over a new Leaf. (See what I did there? Clever.) Toronto has started this NHL season 1-0-0 with a 3-2 win over Montreal in the league's oldest rivalry. That came after they started last season 0-7-1. And it came a full decade after they last won their home opener. Meanwhile, your defending Cup champion Blackhawks went down in overtime to the Avalanche. After all the roster turnover in the offseason, Chicago might not look like the champs except for one thing - they're the fifth champ in the last six seasons to lose their opener.
|
|  NEXT ROY
Dating back to the regular season, the Reds haven't scored in their last 30 innings at Citizens Bank Park. Unfortunately for them, that's in Philadelphia where the Phillies play. And in fact, dating back to 2009, the Reds have now lost seven straight road games at Philadelphia. And after the Roy called Halladay held them without a hit in Game 1, they get to face the Roy called Oswalt in Game 2. And that's a good thing. Not because he's the Roy that's 23-3 against the Reds in his career. But because two of those three losses and none of those 23 wins came against the Reds this year.
|
| 241, 4 | Taylor Martinez ran for 241 yards and 4 touchdowns as Nebraska pasted Kansas State 48-13 in the Little Apple. Those 241 rushing yards broke Jammal Lord's Nebraska record for a quarterback. Is this a good time to mention that Martinez is a redshirt freshman? And what happens to the national title picture if the 5-0 Huskers run the table in what's shaping up to be a shaky Big 12?
Recap | Highlights |
| 1,071 | So the Wildcats go down in a battle of unbeatens, which means that the only remaining matchup of unbeatens this weekend is at the Big House on Saturday, when 17th-ranked Michigan State visits 18th-ranked Michigan. And Sparty certainly has had Michigan's number lately. The Wolverines haven't won a head-to-head matchup in either football or basketball since November 3, 2007, a span of 1,071 days (as of Saturday, if you're double-checking the count for yourself). So call it the Curse of Mike Hart. He rallied Michigan from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to pull out a 28-24 win. Afterwards, he said, "Sometimes, you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball -- let them get the lead. And then you come back." (Of course, he was playing football, but them's still fightin' words!)
Michigan State-Michigan, 2010 Preview | Michigan-Michigan State, 2007 Review |
| 2 + 2,280 | The Philippines has passed a law that anyone butchering the singing of their national anthem will now face up to 2 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 Philippine pesos (or, about $2,280). Which doesn't have much to do with sports, except that we can link to the anthems butchered below. Happy Friday, America.
Read | ...at a Butterbean fight a couple of weeks ago | ...by Carl Lewis. |
|
| "I hope it will take place, but if it doesn't take place we'll figure out another way to try and address it." So, about those umpires. Representatives from the MLB Players' Association are trying to organize a summit between umpires, players and the commissioner's office to talk about what they call the growing concern about the state of umpiring. (Just not before this World Series.)
Read More | "To all the Vikings fans that are coming to the Metrodome, pull your 84 jerseys out, man. I think this is going to be a fun ride." What's that Vikings fans? You didn't hang on to your 84 jerseys? Shame on you, because that's your ticket to the Randy Moss party.
Read More |
| Which league should be most concerned with the state of its officiating? | 
|
9AM ET | Josh Elliott, Chris McKendry | 12PM ET | Robert Flores, Cindy Brunson | 3PM ET | Steve Bunin, Michelle Bonner on ESPNEWS | 6PM ET | David Lloyd, Ryan Burr | 8PM ET | Adnan Virk, Sara Walsh on ESPNEWS | 11PM ET | Linda Cohn, Kevin Negandhi | 1AM ET | Stan Verrett, Bram Weinstein from Los Angeles |
|
| Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.
For all other inquiries, click here.
This email was sent to: sports@cesabarre.com | cesabarreDotCom
Change My Registration Preference
When you registered with our site, you asked to receive the daily newsletter of SportsNation TV Show. If you wish to change this registration preference, click here.
Add me to ESPN's Do Not Email list
This email contains an advertisement from: ESPN, 19 East 34th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016. To unsubscribe from all types of future commercial email from ESPN, regarding its products and services, click here.
© 2010 ESPN Internet Ventures. All Rights Reserved. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment