As I begin to write this piece, we have entered into Autumn. There is a distinct chill in the air. Gone is the heat and humidity which prevailed just days ago. It is when short pants are seeing their last wearing and T shirts will soon be replaced by jackets and warmer clothing. Air conditioners get shut off and windows reopen to breathe in the fresh air. The trees have started to turn color in a few places in Springfield, that rite of Fall which is so colorful when the leaves wither and float to the ground.
At this time, the early conference battles have begun in college football; the NFL concludes its 3rd week; and the MLB regular season is down to single digits in games. September is closing and October is nearly upon us.
My sports weekend began with the Thursday Night Football battle between the New York Jets, featuring the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, QB Sam Darnold, and the Cleveland Browns, who had a hard luck tie and a loss to New Orleans when the kicker failed to convert field goals. This was the Jets’ third game in 11 days, and I was wary of this taking a toll on them.
New York went ahead 14-0. Then the tide changed on one play. QB Tyrod Taylor, a star in Buffalo and the starter in Cleveland, was injured. In stepped number one draft pick Baker Mayfield, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Oklahoma. Mayfield put a charge into the Browns lethargic offense, which in turn inspired the Browns defense. Taking advantage of the tiredness of the Jets secondary and the lack of a pas rush, Mayfield shredded the Jets defense. He ultimately led Cleveland to the winning score late in the fourth quarter.
Darnold now has had two subpar outings. The hope and expectations which came from the staggering opening week defeat of Detroit is now a nice memory. Darnold is no different than his brethren before him. The leaning curve is high, and it takes time to assemble a winner around a talented QB. Jets fans have little patience. The next game at Jacksonville isn’t promising. But within the three consecutive home games in October lie some possible victories. I had guessed a 6-10 record in Darnold’s first season. That is still very likely. He is exceptionally young—he is 21+ years old—and his upside is tremendous.
This is not meant to detract from the brilliance of Mayfield. He showed why Cleveland selected him as the top draft pick. Baker Mayfield will be a star in the NFL. But, like Darnold, he will go through the growing pains of a first year NFL QB. Browns fans have plenty to look forward to. They now have the satisfaction that the long losing streak is no more, and there will be more wins in the immediate future.
I also watched the final game of a three game set between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Bombers had won the first two games and was attempting to sweep
Boston and avoid an AL East-clinching on their home turf, while continuing to fend off the Oakland A’s for home field at the AL Wild Card game.
New York has gotten healthier with the returns of Aaron Judge and Aroldis Chapman. New York led the game 6-4 in the fourth inning, thanks to a grand slam home run by Giancarlo Stanton. Boston tied the score in the 7th inning via a homer from Jackie Bradley, Jr., and then went ahead for good on a sacrifice fly by Zander Bogaerts and an erroneous throw by Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks.
The Red Sox deserved to win the AL East—they played better than New York, who had many stars hurt much of the season. They did get to celebrate before heading to Cleveland for a tough three game series against the A.L. Central champs, but Boston still needed to clinch home field for the playoffs before they can relax.
Having watched the games this week, I came away with a couple of impressions about Boston. First, my vote for M.V.P. of this team is Mookie Betts. I thought that it would go to J.D. Martinez, who leads the A.L. in R.B.I.’s, is 4th in O.B.P. and is 2nd in HR’s. He has had a phenomenal year. But watching the determination of the A.L.’s top batter in each at bat—he fouls off pitches repeatedly until he gets a pitch he can handle—and he does not strike out very much. Betts is the catalyst and Martinez is the finisher on a team with many offensive weapons in a ballpark tailored to offense.
It is the Red Sox pitching which leaves me underwhelmed. The Boston starters are good, yet I believe that the starting pitching Houston has is better than they had last season when they won it all, and Cleveland just had 4 starters compile 200 strikeouts each. I believe that the A’s staff is young and good, but they too are a hitting team like Boston and New York. Plus the relievers on the Red Sox are still a work in progress, which is not where the team should be. This does not mean that Boston isn’t the favorite to win the A.L.; the competition from the Astros, Indians, A’s and Yankees is very formidable.
Friday night I found myself watching the Yankees hosting the woeful Baltimore Orioles. I had the opportunity to sneak a peak at the Harvard-Brown and UCF hosting FAU in football. I skipped Penn State visiting Illinois because I knew it would turn into a rout.
Behind a couple of homers, the Yankees went out to a 9-4 lead before the Orioles chipped away at the lead on the Yankees’ tired bullpen. New York tacked on a run and then held on to a 10-8 victory, while Oakland won on a walk off homer in extra innings to still trail New York by 1 1/2 games for the Wild Card home field.
Of note, Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia won his eighth game of the 2018 campaign. By striking out 5 batters, leaving him 19 short of 3,000 career strikeouts; Sabathia is currently 17th in career strikeouts. Of the 16 ahead of him, only Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame. His 245-153 record is very impressive, but it is not 300 wins, an automatic for HOF induction.
C.C. wants to pitch one more season, despite balky legs. He will be 38 years old next year. If he pitches once more this week, he will come close to 3,000 strikeouts. Undoubtedly, that mark and HOF status are on his mind. The bigger question is whether the Yankees will invest one more year in this warrior or will some other team take the risk instead?
I find myself constantly checking on the Oakland score with great uneasiness. As much as I want the Yankees to win the Wild Card game, I worry about clinching home field. It worked last year when New York defeated Minnesota. After Sunday, New York has 7 road contest—4 at Tampa Bay and 3 in Boston. The A’s play 3 in Seattle and 3 more to end the season in Anaheim.
New York has the tougher schedule—but they do have the lead and the tie breaker.
After Sunday’s games, the Yankees’ magic number was 5, while it was 9 for Oakland. That disparity is not so great given the fact that on Tuesday, the teams will have played the same amount of games. A simple win by Oakland and a loss by the Yankees could, by that time leave the two teams either one game apart or tied. This is not the scenario Yankees fans had hoped for months ago.
Moreover, Yankees skipper Aaron Boone will have to decide if he goes with J.A. Happ, Luis Severino or Masahiro Tanaka as his starter on October 3. Location of the game may factor into his decision.
On Saturday, I watched two football games of interest to me. First, F&M hosted the dangerous Susquehanna University River Hawks. SU has had a tough opening schedule, defeating Centennial Conference power Johns Hopkins in OT then losing to another top team, Muhlenberg, in OT last week.
Coming to Shadek Stadium, the River Hawks would not be an easy task for the undefeated Diplomats. SU struck early, grabbing a 7-0 lead. The game turned into a defensive struggle. The River Hawks drove the ball to the goal line at the end of the second quarter, and as the QB extended his arms to try to put the ball over the line for a score, he was stripped of the ball by an F&M defender and F&M recovered the fumble. F&M did knot the score and the game went to OT. F&M scored on a 20+ yard scamper by a running back. SU had an opportunity to score and tie the game, but F&M intercepted an under thrown pass to prevail. Next week the Diplomats travel to unbeaten Muhlenberg while SU licks its wounds over what could have been.
Then there was Rutgers. Another debacle. Against an athletic Buffalo team. Between 15-20,000 entered High Point Solutions Stadium. About 7,000 remained at the end of the game, mostly Buffalo fans.
The writers have turned on Head Coach Chris Ash. Former RU player Mohammed Sanu, Sr., a star wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, issued a harsh tweet. Patience is now thinner than ever.
Illinois comes to Piscataway this week. The Illini and Nebraska appear to be the worst of the Big Ten excluding RU. RU does not play Nebraska this season. I might have been enthused with a good showing against Buffalo. Except I am not, as RU was obliterated. 1-11 is squarely in this team’s sights.
I have a solution to this. Buy out Chris Ash, work a trade with Ohio State and get back Greg Schiano. He is a NJ native, he has rebuilt a team before and he is not likely to leave RU this time around. Admit that the Ash era was a failure and is over. Give Schiano 5 year contract. He might just be able to turn around this awful mess.
There were other predictable blowouts this Saturday. Of note was the fact that Oklahoma, at home in Norman, had to win in OT against a determined Army team. Undefeated Minnesota tumbled in College Park to unpredictable Maryland. Texas Tech went on the road and thumped Oklahoma State. Kentucky went to 4-0, handling a very good Mississippi State team. TCU remained in a hangover after Ohio State steamrolled them last week in Arlington, Texas and they were defeated by an underachieving Texas Longhorns team.
Most surprising of all was the hurting a winless Old Dominion squad put on #13 Virginia Tech. ODU reinstated football in 2009. This was a Hokies team which was a 28.5 point favorite. Tech was beaten by a backup QB. While the Hokies were leading 28-21 near the end of third quarter, Va Tech simply had no answer for ODU who outscored the Hokies 28-7. A big win for a decided underdog.
When I had time to watch TV later on Saturday night after watching the movie Jackie (although the film is very slow moving, it is easy to see why Natalie Portman received a nomination for Best Actress), I went to MLB-TV. I caught the end of the Red Sox-Indians game, which was won by a Michael Brantley walkout hit in the 11th inning off of lefty Drew Pomeranz (whatever happened to him after he left San Diego?). Cleveland is talent-rich, with a tough lineup, strong starting pitching and a seemingly healthy bullpen. Cleveland is as strong as the team that made it to the 2016 World Series and lost a heart-breaking series to the Yankees in 2017. The Astros will have their hands full with the Tribe, as will the team they could face in the A.L.C.S.
Immediately following the conclusion of that contest, MLB took us to Dodger Stadium in time to see Yasmani Grandal deposit a ball into the second deck. The Dodgers have hit 222 home runs this season, a team record. The trade for Manny Machado has fortified the lineup, and Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson have re-awakened in the power areas. Clayton Kershaw is back in form; the Dodgers’ starting group is very talented.
I watch the standings for a variety of reasons. First, I worry about the A’s. Then I am very intrigued about the N.L. Wild Card. Milwaukee and St. Louis seemingly have the two spots, but Milwaukee is still contending for the top spot in the N.L. Central, currently occupied by the Chicago Cubs. There is a 4.5 game gap between the Cubs and third place Cardinals and the Brewers are 2 games ahead of St. Louis.
I also look to see how many losses the Orioles and the Royals are past 100. Both teams have great managers—Ned Yost won a World Series in 2015 and Buck Showalter has a tremendous resume. Unfortunately, they are likely to be fired. Such is the job security who teams lose badly.
One other note. The Yankees have clubbed 251 home runs this season. The record is 264, held by the 2017 Mariners. New York has 7 games in 2 homer-friendly parks to try to tie or break the record. It is highly improbable, but in this season of homers, who knows?
A note on the Mets. The pitching of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zach Wheeler has been superb; deGrom is in line to win the N.L. Cy Young Award. Come next Saturday, the Mets will salute David Wright in what might be his final game as a pro. I hope he hits a homer and walks off the diamond at Citi Field as the star of the game. What a class act.
It was my understanding that the NFL played some games today. I didn’t watched any until the waning moments of Dallas at Seattle and Chicago at Arizona. Nothing exciting happened. I don’t think anybody could have foreseen the Bills go to Minnesota and throttle the Vikings. And yes, the Giants won their first game of the season.
So what, I have had my eyes on the Oakland game all day…with the Orioles rising up to beat up the second line of the Yankees bullpen and with Didi Gregorius sidelined, having hurt his wrist on the game-winning slide last evening. Go Twins!! Thank you for salvaging a game in Oakland.
It is baseball season, and fall baseball is about to begin. I am okay with this.
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