Tag: Cleveland Guardians

What to Watch: The Rebels Have a Grudge, the Rest of Us Have a Remote

What to Watch: The Rebels Have a Grudge, the Rest of Us Have a Remote

Kiffin Goes Home, and It’s Ugly on Purpose

The whole sport is pointed at Oxford this weekend, and for good reason.

No. 8 LSU at No. 9 Ole Miss, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC). Lane Kiffin’s first trip back to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium since he left the Rebels for LSU last December, walking into a building that will not be glad to see him. Both teams are undefeated. First top-10 meeting between these two since 1962. College GameDay’s on-site. This is as close to appointment television as college football gets in September.

No. 22 Houston at No. 13 Texas Tech, Friday, 8 p.m. ET (FOX). Big 12 statement game before the marquee Saturday even starts.

No. 16 SMU at No. 23 Louisville, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2). Two ranked teams that both have real ACC ambitions, and neither can afford an early loss.

Final Word: Every other Saturday storyline this fall gets measured against what happens in Oxford. Clear the evening.

The NFL Remembers It Has a Season Too

Vikings at Bears, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (FOX).

Saints at Ravens, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (CBS).

Steelers at Patriots, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (CBS).

Jaguars at Broncos, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET (CBS).

Week 2, and already four games worth circling on a schedule that’s usually still finding its footing this early.

Bristol Under the Lights

NASCAR — Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Bristol Motor Speedway, Saturday (USA). Third race of the Chase, at the track built specifically to turn contenders into wreckage. Under the lights at Bristol is still one of the meanest, loudest nights on the calendar.

A Genuinely Deep Soccer Weekend

Bournemouth vs. Liverpool, Sunday, 9 a.m. ET (Sky Sports). Andoni Iraola’s first game back against his former club.

Brighton vs. Arsenal, Saturday. A title contender on the road against a team that makes nobody’s weekend easy.

Atlético Madrid vs. Real Madrid, Sunday, 10:15 a.m. ET. The Madrid derby, and it lands squarely in this window. Mourinho’s Los Blancos arrive with a flawless record on the line.

Sevilla vs. Barcelona, Saturday. Defending champs on the road at a ground that’s historically given them trouble.

The USMNT Vs. USMNT Weekend

Three separate matches this weekend put American players on opposite sides of the same pitch — a genuine rarity, and worth tracking all three.

Leeds United vs. Crystal Palace, Sunday, 9 a.m. ET (Sky Sports). Brenden Aaronson for Leeds against Chris Richards for Palace.

Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Mainz, Saturday. Joe Scally against Lennard Maloney, two young Americans both trying to nail down starting jobs in the Bundesliga.

Lyon vs. Rennes, Saturday. Tanner Tessmann against Bryan Reynolds — Ligue 1’s version of the same story.

Baseball’s Real Stakes

Guardians at Twins, Friday–Sunday, Target Field. The final meeting between the two clubs this season, with Cleveland trying to hang onto the last AL Wild Card spot and Minnesota fighting to stay alive. Every game here is magnified.

Under the Radar: Copenhagen Gets a World Championship

World Athletics Road Running Championships, Copenhagen, Saturday and Sunday, streaming free on World Athletics’ YouTube channel. We’ll be doing football marathons all weekend — six games back to back, remote in hand. These people are doing actual competitive marathons, for a world title, and somehow that’s the event getting zero coverage. Marathon, half-marathon, and mixed relay, all elite fields, all completely off the radar in the U.S.

Final Word: Oxford gets the marquee, but between Bristol, the Bernabéu, and a start line in Denmark, this is a weekend that rewards flipping around.

March/April MLB Debuts

Each month here at The Stain we will look back at the players who made their MLB debuts in that month. This month we will extend a few days as the season started on March 30th.

This year we saw plenty of big name prospects debut with three players in the MLB top 100 prospects coming into the season, Anthony Volpe, Jordan Walker, and Grayson Rodriguez. We also saw Masataka Yoshida debut after being the big international free agent signing, and we also saw a 2022 draft pick in Zach Neto find his way to the big leagues. 

Best Hitting Debut:

Joey Ortiz, 2B, Baltimore Orioles – 1-3, 3 RBI – Ortiz got his first career hit in the top of the fifth inning on a grounder into right field scoring both Jorge Mateo and Adam Frazier. Two innings later he connected on a sacrifice fly to score Adam Frazier giving him the most RBI in a debut of anyone to start the season. 

Best Pitching Debut:

Logan Allen, LHP, Cleveland Guardians – 6 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 8 K, W – There were quite a few arms that secured a win in their debut, but nobody performed better than Allen. The first batter of the game was Jon Berti who went down swinging to give Allen his first career MLB strikeout, although Berti did get his revenge in the third as he hit a solo home run for the only run Miami managed to score against Allen.

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Best Hitting Month:

Masataka Yoshida, OF, Boston Red Sox  – It is no surprise Yoshida had the best month, as he is a 29 year old Japanese veteran in his first MLB season. That said, he has been much better on the road than at home, where he is hitting below the Mendoza Line. Given his ability to use the whole field it was, and still is, expected he take advantage of the Green Monster in left, but just hasn’t found it enough yet. 

Best Pitching Month: 

Jose Hernandez, LHP, Pittsburgh Pirates – In addition to the Pirates being a surprise team in the first month, they have also seemed to find them a quality reliever as well. It won’t likely be a trend to see a reliever have the best month, but given he has only walked one hitter, given up only a single run, and struckout 11 through 11.2 innings over nine outings is proof positive he has become a reliever the team can rely on. 

Worst Debut:

Hogan Harris, LHP, Oakland Athletics – 0.1 IP, H, 5 BB, HBP 6 ER – This won’t be a monthly feature, but the stat line is just too eye popping to ignore. Harris managed to face just eight batters in his debut, walking five of them, hitting another, and only recorded one out. He was sent back down to AAA after the game so he currently has a career WHIP of 18.000 and career ERA of 162.00.

Best Story:

Drew Maggi, 3B, PIttsburgh Pirates – Another entry that won’t necessarily be a monthly inclusion, but how can you not include Maggi when discussing player debuts this month?!?! Maggi spent 13 season in the minor leagues with six different organizations and seen action in over 1,100 games before finally making his big league debut, with the team that originally drafted him back in 2010. The 34-year old went 0-1 in his debut, but finally got his first career hit in our nation’s capital over the weekend.

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