Tag: Philadelphia Phillies

What to Watch: Football, Fast Cars and a Labor Day Hangover

What to Watch: Football, Fast Cars and a Labor Day Hangover

College Football Owns Labor Day Weekend

The real season starts now, and it doesn’t let up until Monday night.

Clemson at LSU, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC). Lane Kiffin’s debut in Baton Rouge, and Clemson’s the team that beat him at home last year. Second straight year these two have opened against each other. Somebody’s going to feel very differently about their offseason by 11 p.m.

Baylor vs. Auburn, Saturday, Atlanta (ESPN). Alex Golesh’s first game running Auburn. Referendum on two coaches at once.

Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame, Sunday, Lambeau Field (NBC/Peacock). Shamrock Series, and Notre Dame’s already being penciled into playoff conversations behind CJ Carr. Fickell’s on the clock in Wisconsin whether anyone says it out loud or not.

No. 19 SMU at Florida State, Monday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN). The weekend’s closer, and it’s got real teeth — first game of the season with actual ACC title-race implications. FSU’s 1-0 after a Week 0 tune-up; SMU’s arriving with legitimate Charlotte aspirations.

Final Word: Plenty of games, three days, one Labor Day hangover. The sport’s back for real.

Monza Says Hello Again

F1 — Italian Grand Prix, Sunday, 9 a.m. ET. Antonelli’s racing at home with a grid penalty hanging over him, which is either poetic or cruel depending on how the Tifosi are feeling. Norris has won two straight and looks like he’s building toward a third — at the fastest track on the calendar, that’s a genuinely scary thought for everyone else.

The Chase Starts, and So Does the Countdown

NASCAR — Cook Out Southern 500, Darlington, Sunday, ~5 p.m. ET (USA/HBO Max). First race of the Chase. Denny Hamlin’s the No. 1 seed. Defending winner Chase Briscoe wants to go back-to-back at the track everyone calls “too tough to tame” for a reason.

IndyCar — Season Finale, Laguna Seca, Sunday, prerace 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX). The championship gets decided here. Palou’s chasing a fourth straight title, and Laguna Seca doesn’t hand out easy Sundays to anybody.

Baseball’s Real Stakes

Braves at Phillies, Friday–Sunday. The Phillies are close to a lock for October, but this is about seeding — sweep this and Atlanta starts sweating the return series next weekend. Four games back with a month to play; this is the kind of series that decides who’s hosting in October.

Deep Soccer Weekend, and a Deadline Day Hangover

No international break, so every league is live at once.

Arsenal vs. Chelsea, Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET (Sky Sports/Peacock). Early-season derby. Overhyped every year, worth it every year anyway.

Newcastle vs. Bournemouth, Saturday, 7:30 a.m. ET (TNT Sports).

Barcelona at Valencia, Sunday, 10:15 a.m. ET (ESPN+). Defending champs on the road at a ground that’s historically given them fits.

Real Madrid at Real Betis, Friday, 3 p.m. ET (ESPN+).

Inter vs. Napoli, Saturday, 11 a.m. ET, and Juventus vs. Milan, Sunday, 1:45 p.m. ET (Paramount+). Serie A’s first real heavyweight weekend — both games, same slate.

USMNT Deadline Day Fallout. Jack McGlynn’s a Stoke City player now, a $5.5 million move from Houston Dynamo landing him at a Championship side that’s lost its first three matches — sink or swim immediately. And Folarin Balogun’s move to Everton somehow collapsed after he physically showed up on Merseyside for a medical. He’s stuck at Monaco, hasn’t played a competitive minute all season, and took down Chelsea’s separate deal for his own teammate on his way out the door. Chaos, but make it USMNT.

Also Live: The US Open Grinds Toward the Second Week

Tennis, Flushing Meadows, ongoing. Third round wraps this weekend, fourth round starts rolling Sunday. No finals drama yet, but Sabalenka’s chasing a third straight title and Alcaraz is playing every match on an injury-comeback storyline that makes each one appointment viewing. The field that survives this weekend is the field with a real shot at next Saturday and Sunday.

Final Word: College football leads, but this is the first weekend since spring where literally every sport on the board has something worth watching.

Bizarre Happenings in Spring Training

Bizarre Happenings in Spring Training

Spring Training of 2021 is as unique as there has ever been. Typically the oddities are limited to seeing minor league guys come up wearing a number in the 70s or 80s pinch hitting with the massive MiLB dual flapped helmet while listening to the announcers shuffling through their notes to try and find the player’s name. Instead, the minor league guys are wearing single flapped helmets and there aren’t any call ups for the day thanks to the limited number of players in camp, but the rest of the game has gone odd, here are the ones that stand out:

7 inning Games

The default length of a game this Spring is just 7 innings. With the previously mentioned limited rosters there aren’t the guys to fill out the 8th and 9th inning duties, so most games end after seven, which is just weird to watch MLB games essentially last as long as a local High School game.

6 Inning Games

If 7 inning games are odd, 6 inning games are downright bizarre. In no level of baseball are there games scheduled to go just 6 innings, except Spring Training 2021. A number of games have been scheduled to go just six due to pitching availability.

8.5 Inning Game

The March 4 game between the Los Angeles Angels and Arizona Diamondbacks was scheduled to go 8.5 games regardless of the score. The D-Backs happened to be up 9-2 after the top of the 8th, so the box score looks normal, but had the score been flipped, there still would not have been a bottom of the 9th!

Double Walkoff

On March 2, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 after 6 innings thanks to not one, but two winning free passes. Bases loaded tied 2-2 with Christopher Sanchez in the mound, Riley Adams gets hit by the pitch to give the Blue Jays the 3-2 victory. One problem, the Phillies wanted to see more from Sanchez, so they allow Phillip Clarke to step into the batter’s box where he proceeds to draw a walk to walk it off….again.

Free Substitutions

Also on March 2, John Means got the start on the mound for the Baltimore Orioles against the New York Yankees. Means gave up a single, fly out, single, groundout, single and was pulled from the game in favor of Jay Flaa who got a fly out to end the inning. Fast forward to the top of the second, replacing Flaa on the mound was, yup, John Means! He after struggling with his feel in the first he took a breather then went back out despite having already been removed from the game and finished the second inning on his own, but only going 1.2 innings.

Box Score Glitches

So, this one is more of a glitch, or somebody asleep on the job, or both, but the Phillies-Yankees game from Sunday March 7 showed a bizarre scenario. DJ LeMahieu lined out for the first out of the second inning before Aaron Judge is called out on strikes for out number two, then it gets weird. I have yet to confirm what actually happened, mainly because I don’t want facts to get in the way of a good story, but apparently Zach Britton, the pitcher, “starts inning at 3rd base” despite there having already been a grand slam earlier in the inning and he was not on base, and he is immediately out at third. No explanation, not play-by-play just out at third. The box score after the game does not list Britton as having participated in the game, and the Yankees opened the next inning with Aaron Hicks, who was batting behind Judge in the lineup.