Armadillo Sports

— Odds for the NBA Finals, which start Thursday:

Oklahoma City -700…….Indiana +500

Thunder are heavy favorites; they haven’t won an NBA title since 1979, when the franchise was the Seattle SuperSonics.

Pacers have never won an NBA title; they won three ABA titles back in the day, but are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.

— There are 27 American TV markets in the NBA; Indiana is the 21st biggest market, Oklahoma City is the 25th biggest market. Should be really good basketball, with two small market teams.

— Oklahoma City/Indianapolis are 688 miles apart, the closest the two NBA Finals cities have been to each other since 1971, when the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Baltimore Bullets- those cities are 642 miles apart.

— Oklahoma City figures to be really good for a long time; over the next seven years, Thunder owns 12 first round draft picks, and 17 more second rounds picks. They can’t package those picks and acquire some big stars.

— Famous birthdays, June 2nd:
Stacy Keach, 84
Jerry Mathers, 77
Lawrence McCutcheon, 75
Joanna Gleason, 75

Dennis Haysbert, 71
Al Wood, 67
Earl Boykins, 49
Nikki Cox, 47

Bobby Simmons, 45
Tim Stauffer, 43
Austin Davis, 36
Ryan Lindley, 36

— Mets drafted Darryl Strawberry with the first pick in the 1980 amateur draft; he was a great player, led the Mets to their last World Series title, in 1986.

Mets had another first round pick in 1980; they drafted OF Billy Beane, who later became famous as GM of the Oakland A’s (Brad Pitt played him in Moneyball).

201st pick that year was Eric Davis, who led Cincinnati to a World Series title in 1990.

Billy Beane was the 23rd player drafted that year; the pick before him was Terry Francona, the current Reds’ manager who was taken by the Montreal Expos.

Three other future managers were also drafted that year: John Farrell, John Gibbons and Lloyd McClendon.

— Mets have won the last 26 games that Francisco Lindor has homered in; 11 of his 13 home runs this season have come in home games.

— Arizona scored three runs in the first inning Sunday, the fifth time this season Diamondbacks scored 3+ runs in the first inning. Sunday was the first time Arizona won one of those games.

Diamondbacks are 13-10 this season when they score 6+ runs; no other team has lost more than five such games.

— Colorado Rockies have now lost 22 series in a row, dating back to last year; they’re 9-50 this year, on track to becoming the worst team ever.

— Dodgers star Mookie Betts broke the second toe on his foot walking around his house late at night last week; he missed the Dodgers-New York series this weekend.

— Movie of the Day: Begin Again (2013)- A chance encounter in Manhattan between a down-and-out music executive, and a young singer-songwriter turns into a promising collaboration between the two people.

Keira Knightley plays the singer, Mark Ruffalo the executive; James Corden is very good as her old friend from back home in England. Hailee Steinfeld plays Ruffalo’s daughter; in real life, she married Buffalo Bills’ QB Josh Allen this weekend.

This is a very good movie, a nice movie. We need more nice in the world.

— Astros 1, Rays 0
Hunter Brown is the first 8-game winner in the majors.
There were a total of only six hits in this game.
Teams split a 4-game series; Astros scored total of only nine runs in the games.

— Tigers 1, Royals 0
Only run scored on a wild pitch in the third inning.
Royals beat Detroit 1-0 in Saturday’s game.
Royals called up their big OF prospect Jac Caglianone Sunday night.

— Mariners 2, Twins 1
Cal Raleigh hit his 23rd home run for Seattle.
Twins tied the game on a sac fly in top of the 9th.
Randy Arozarena had a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th.

— Mets 5, Rockies 3
Pete Alonso hit a 3-run homer for New York.
This was only the sixth game this season a starting pitcher for the Mets threw a pitch in the 7th inning.

— Padres 6, Pirates 4
San Diego rallied for four runs in the 7th inning.
Robert Suarez got his MLB-best 19th save in this game.
Andrew McCutchen hit his 324th home run, 240 of them with Pittsburgh.

— If the baseball playoffs started today: (they don’t):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Padres, StL/SF
AL: New York, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Guardians, Astros, Twins

Teams’ records by starting pitcher:
(thru Saturday’s games)

Diamondbacks (27-31)
Gallen 4-8 (under 4-2 last six)
Kelly 6-6
Burnes 5-5 (under 4-1 last five)
Pfaadt 7-5 (over 3-1 last four)
Rodriguez 4-5 (over 6-0 last six)
Nelson 1-2 (under 3-0)

— Braves (27-30)
Sale 6-6 (under 6-2 last eight)
Schwellenbach 7-5 (over 6-2 last eight)
Smith-Shawver 5-4 (under 7-2)
Holmes 5-6 (under 5-1 last six)
Elder 4-4 (under 6-1 last seven)
Lopez 0-1
Strider 0-3 (under 3-0)
Blewett 0-1

— Cubs (36-22)
Imanaga 5-3 (under 6-2)
Steele 3-1 (over 4-0)
Taillon 5-6 (under last seven)
Boyd 6-5 (home team 10-1)
Brown 6-4 (over 9-1)
Rea 6-3 (over 4-2 last six)
Horton 4-0
Pomeranz 1-0 (opener)
Keller 1-0 (opener)

— Reds (29-30)
Greene 5-5 (under 7-2 last nine)
Lodolo 5-7 (over 6-3 last nine)
Martinez 3-8 (under 7-1 last eight)
Singer 7-4
Spiers 0-2
Abbott 7-2 (under 4-1 last five)
Petty 0-2
Suter 2-0 (opener)

— Rockies (9-49)
Freeland 1-11 (under 8-4)
Senzatela 2-10
Feltner 1-5 (under 4-0 last four)
Marquez 2-9 (over 7-3 last ten)
Dollander 2-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Blalock 0-3
Gordon 1-2
Palmquist 0-3

— Dodgers (36-22)
Yamamoto 8-3 (under 8-3)
Snell 2-0 (over 2-0)
Glasnow 3-2
Sasaki 6-2 (over 6-2)
May 5-5 (under 4-1 last five)
Knack 4-2 (over 4-2)
Gonsolin 3-3
Wrobleski 0-1
Miller 1-0
Kershaw 1-2 (over 3-0)
Casparius 0-1 (opener)
Dreyer 2-1 (opener)
Sauer 1-0 (opener)

— Marlins (23-33)
Alcantara 4-7 (over 7-4)
Gillispie 1-5 (over 5-1)
Bellozo 1-4
Meyer 5-6 (over 6-1 last seven)
Quantrill 6-5 (under 5-0 last five)
Cabrera 5-4 (under 4-1 last five)
Weathers 1-2

— Famous birthdays, June 1st:
Brian Cox, 79
Tim Daly, 69
Teri Polo, 56

Shane Matthews, 55
Paula Malcomson, 55
Alanis Morissette, 51

Santana Moss, 46
Nick Young, 40
Andrew Abbott, 26

— Brewers (31-28)
Peralta 6-5 (under 8-3)
Cortes 1-1
Civale 2-1
Patrick 5-7 (under 9-3)
Priester 1-6 (under 5-2)
Myers 2-3
Rodriguez 0-2 (over 2-0)
Alexander 2-2 (over 3-1)
Quintana 4-2 (under 5-1)
Henderson 3-1 (over 3-1)
Hall 1-0
Zastryzny 1-0 (opener)

— Mets (36-22)
Holmes 8-3 (under 3-0 last three)
Megill 5-6 (over 6-2 last eight)
Senga 7-4 (under 10-1)
Canning 8-3 (under 7-4)
Peterson 8-4
Tidwell 0-1
Brazoban 0-2 (opener)

— Phillies (36-22)
Wheeler 8-4 (under 3-1 last four)
Luzardo 8-4
Nola 3-6 (under 6-3)
Sanchez 9-2 (over 3-0 last three)
Walker 4-4 (under 3-1 last four)
Suarez 4-1 (under 3-1 last four)
Abel 1-0

— Pirates (21-37)
Skenes 4-7 (under 5-2 last seven)
Keller 3-9 (under 4-1 last five)
Falter 6-6 (under 7-2 last nine)
Heaney 4-7 (under 8-3)
Mlodzinski 3-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Harrington 0-1
Burrows 0-1

— Cardinals (33-25)
Gray 10-2 (over 9-3)
Fedde 3-8
Mikolas 6-5 (won last six) (under 5-2 last seven)
Liberatore 5-6
Pallante 7-4
Matz 2-0

— Padres (32-24)
King 5-5 (1-5 last six) (over 3-0-1 last four)
Cease 7-5
Vasquez 6-5 (under 8-3)
Pivetta 8-3 (under 6-2 last eight)
Hart 3-3 (over 4-2)
Kolek 3-2 (over 3-1 last four)

— Giants (32-26)
Ray 10-2 (under 7-1 last eight)
Hicks 4-5 (over 7-2)
Webb 6-6 (over 4-2 last six)
Verlander 4-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Roupp 6-5 (under 3-0 last three)
Birdsong 1-1 (under 2-0)
Harrison 1-1 (under 2-0)

— Nationals (28-30)
Gore 4-7 (under 5-1 last six)
Irvin 7-5  (over 4-2 last six)
Parker 7-4 (under 7-4)
Williams 5-6 (over 4-2 last six)
Lord 2-4
Soroka 2-4

— Dodgers 8, New York 5
Judge, Ohtani both homered in first inning.
Ohtani added a second homer in the 6th inning.
Dodgers improve to 20-8 at home.

— Astros 2, Rays 1
Yainer Diaz hit a walk-off home run for Houston.
Tampa Bay led 1-0 after seven innings.
Framber Valdez threw an 83-pitch complete game.

— Nationals 9, Diamondbacks 7
Game was 6-6 after the third inning.
Washington won 10 of its last 13 games.

— Twins 12, Mariners 6 (10)
Minnesota tied game with three runs in 9th inning.
Seattle led 4-2 after the sixth inning.
Mariners lost seven of their last ten games. 

— Padres 3, Pirates 2
San Diego beat the Pirates for the 10th time in a row.
Pittsburgh left the bases loaded in top of the 8th.
Nick Pivetta is 6-2, 2.74 for San Diego this year.

— Brewers 6, Phillies 2
Christian Yelich homered twice, had four RBI
Milwaukee won its fifth game in a row.
Quinn Priester pitched six innings in relief for the win.

— Mets 4, Rockies 2
Francisco Lindor homered from both sides of the plate.
Mets won the last 25 games that Lindor homered in.
Colorado has lost six in a row, is 9-48 this season.

Famous birthdays, May 31st:
Clint Eastwood, 95
Joe Namath, 82
Sharon Gless, 82
Tom Berenger, 76
Susie Essman, 70

Chris Elliott, 65
Lea Thompson, 64
Brooke Shields, 60
Kenny Lofton, 58
Duane Causwell, 57

Dave Roberts, 53
Matt Harpring, 49
Jake Peavy, 44
Nate Robinson, 41
Spencer Schwellenbach, 25

— Stanley Cup Finals don’t start until Wednesday in Edmonton; pretty long layoff for the two teams.

Edmonton Oilers are -115 favorites against the Florida Panthers. It has been 32 years since a Canadian franchise won the Stanley Cup.

— Indiana Pacers lead the Knicks 3-2 in the NBA’s Eastern Conference final; Knicks are 0-14 in playoff series when they trailed 2-0. They need a road win Saturday to force a Game 7 in Madison Square Garden.

— Denver Nuggets hired interim coach David Adelman as their new full-time coach, but this week he fired four assistants, all of whom were with the Nuggets two years ago, when they won the NBA title.

Nuggets made headlines when they fired their coach/GM three games before the end of this year’s regular season, highly unusual for a team with a winning record. 

— On a typical game night, the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder use around 500 towels; that’s a lot of freakin’ towels. Lot of laundry to do after every game.

— Los Angeles Dodgers have $102M in payroll on the injured list; Mookie Betts missed Friday’s game after he injured the 2nd toe on his left foot during an off-the-field incident Wednesday. He was supposed to have x-rays before Friday’s game.

— The other night in Anaheim, Angels walked Aaron Judge intentionally in both the first/second innings, which almost never happens. Angels lost the game 1-0.

— Was reading some stuff about the Red Sox, and their 2024 budget, which aired on a Netflix series about the team:

In 2024, the Red Sox……..

Spent $150,000 to buy 120 bats for each player.

Spent $19,000 on custom batting helmets.

Spent nearly $500,000, just on baseballs. Thats a lot of baseballs.

They also spent $500 on mud from the Delaware River in New Jersey, which is what they use to rub up the baseballs before each game. 

13 of my favorite TV shows (in alphabetical order):
— Batman— When you’re six years old, and in the opening credits every week, they show “WHAP!!! POW!!! BIFF!!!” and your name is Biff, this quickly becomes a favorite show. 

The villains were some pretty big stars back then (Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, Milton Berle, Vincent Price, Liberace, Ethel Merman)

I haven’t seen much of the Batman movies that have been made over the years, but the TV show had some humor; one week there was a 3-foot Martian on the loose in Gotham City, and Robin blurts out “Holy interplanetary yardstick, Batman!!!” Good stuff. 

— Billions— Showtime series about a hedge fund manager who pushes the boundaries of the law while his marriage falls apart. His arch-enemy is a prosecutor in NYC who is into S&M and his wife is his dominatrix— the wife is also the psychiatrist for the hedge fund manager’s company. 

Trivia: Paul Giamatti plays the prosecutor; he is the son of former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti. I suggested a cameo role for Pete Rose, but that never happened.

— CSI— I spent a good chunk of my work career searching fingerprints and working for the NY State Division of Criminal Justice, so I enjoyed all the CSI shows, but especially the one set in Las Vegas— the actors seemed to have a chemistry working together. 

One of my weirder ideas (a teacher friend of mine scoffed at this) is that CSI should be taught to all high school kids, so they realize how difficult it is to get away with crimes, so maybe there would be fewer crimes. What could it hurt?

— Green Acres— As a kid, I spent lot of hours watching Green Acres re-runs; my dad would walk into the room, say “Why the hell are you watching that?”, but within five minutes, he’d be sitting there laughing harder than me and would leave the room before my mother came in and saw the both of us laughing. She wasn’t a big fan of Hank Kimball or Arnold Ziffel. 

— Law and Order— 20 years, 456 episodes, a great launching point for lot of acting careers, not to mention the spinoff shows that branched off this original show. 

Take Billions; there are 32 actors who have appeared in 12+ episodes of Billons; 14 of those 32 actors appeared in at least one episode of Law and Order, and two others were in Law and Order SVU, and that doesn’t count Eric Bogosian, who was in Law and Order: Criminal Intent for 61 episodes, but was only in 11 episodes of Billions. 

— Magnum PI— I’ve never been to Hawai’i, but if I ever went, would like to visit Robin Masters’ estate; I’m told you can visit there, it is kind of a museum or something. 

One of the best episodes was when Frank Sinatra played a retired New York City cop whose granddaughter was murdered— this was near the end of both the series and Sinatra’s career. 

The overriding themes of the show were that great friends will do all kinds of stuff for each other, and if you’re really good looking and drive a Ferrari, women will like you 🙂

Famous birthdays, May 30th:
Mike LaCoss, 69
Billy Donovan, 60
Manny Ramirez, 53
Jordan Palmer, 41

Zack Wheeler, 35
Harrison Barnes, 33
Jeremy Lamb, 33
Shaedon Sharpe, 22

— M*A*S*H— Years later, after watching re-runs of this show on our local channel 10 and the Boston channel for hours at a time, it dawned on me that this was actually a very sad show, with humor/jokes masking the grotesque sadness of wartime Korea. 

The McLean Stevenson episodes were the best; he was Colonel Henry Blake for the first 75 episodes, and a lot of them were classics, just funny as hell. 

— Mr Ed— This show ran on network TV from 1961-66, so I never saw it until the re-runs came on at 4:30 weekdays on a local channel in the early 70’s. Mr Ed was a talking horse, but he only talked to Wilbur Post, an architect who worked at home but never actually seemed to work. 

Mr Ed was a big Dodger fan; his favorite player was OF Willie Davis. In one episode, the horse takes batting practice against Sandy Koufax, and hits a ball off the wall at Dodger Stadium, with the bat held in his mouth. A fun show, not necessarily a realistic one. 

— Odd Couple— As a kid, Oscar Madison was one of my heroes; a sportswriter who always spilled food on his clothes but was a good natured guy who somehow dated a doctor or one of the Pidgeon sisters. 

To this day when I see my cousin’s husband, we recite lines from Odd Couple episodes; when they owned a greyhound racing dog , or appeared on Password (a game show), or when Oscar dated a princess from some obscure European country “You bought her a salty pretzel; oh, boy!!!” Great stuff. 

— Ray Donovan— The most violent program on this list; just about everybody on this Showtime series that isn’t related to the Donovans eventually winds up dead. 

Ray Donovan is a fixer for rich people, but he can’t fix his own family; his wife passes away from cancer, and the last time we saw him, he was still struggling with that. 

Live Schreber plays Ray, Jon Voight plays his father (a genuine creep); they’ve had guest stars like Susan Sarandon, James Woods, Wendell Pierce, Hank Azaria. Alan Alda, C Thomas Howell. 

Very good show but also very violent. 

— Suits— This show was about a law firm that hired a young guy with a photographic memory who had one small problem— he is a college dropout who never went to law school, but he gets paid to take bar exams for other people. 

The show had to change directions because one of the actresses (Meghan Markle) moved to England after she married Prince Harry in real life. Her character was married to Mike (the fraudulent lawyer) so they got written out of the last couple years of the show.

They introduced Suits LA this year, which is similar; Harvey Spector (Gabriel Macht) made a couple appearances, as did Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). Pretty good show. 

— West Wing— Martin Sheen plays the President in this show; his cabinet included Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer— great cast.

Actor Duke Hill was in both West Wing and Suits; Mary Louise Parker was in this and is also in Billions. Alan Alda was in this, Ray Donovan and of course, M*A*S*H

Jimmy Smits, Mary MacCormack, Tim Matheson, Gary Cole, just a ton of excellent actors. 

In one episode, President Bartlet has to throw out the first pitch at an Orioles’ game, but he never played ball, so one of his aides has to teach him how to throw a baseball in a hallway in the White House, where an errant toss breaks an expensive vase. 

— White Shadow— Ken Howard plays a washed-up NBA player who becomes a high school basketball coach in Los Angeles. Show only lasted three years, because well, high school kids graduate so they would’ve had to turn most of the cast over every other year. 

The basketball scenes were really well-done; Gwyneth Paltrow’s father was the creator of the show. Lot of the issues they tackled in this show were issues that real high school in the inner city had to deal with. Ken Howard was great as Coach Reeves; he wasn’t some all-knowing guy; he had flaws but he fought for his kids and they respected him for it (most of the time). 

— Arizona (27-29)
Arizona lost eight of its last nine games.
Diamondbacks are 8-11 in one-run games.
Arizona is 2-11 in last 13 games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Braves (25-28)
Atlanta lost five of its last six games.
Braves are 16-9 at home, 9-19 on the road.
Under is 12-3 in their last 15 home games.

— Cubs (35-21)
Chicago won seven of its last eight games.
Under is 4-1 in their last five games.
Cubs are 27-15 vs righty starters, 8-6 vs lefties.

— Reds (28-29)
Cincinnati lost six of its  last eight games.
Over is 5-1 in their last six games.
Last 9 series, Reds are 0-5 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Rockies (9-47)
Colorado is 2-14 since they changed managers.
Under is 14-4 in Rockies’ last eighteen road games.
Rockies are 1-16 vs lefty starters, 8-31 vs righties.  

— Dodgers (34-22)
Dodgers won six of their last eight games,
Dodgers are 19-8 at home, 15-14 on the road.
Dodgers are 27-12 vs righty starters, 7-10 vs lefties.
Over is 11-3 in their last 14 home games.

— Marlins (22-32)                                                                       )
Marlins are 7-6 in their last thirteen games.
Miami is 13-15 at home, 9-17 on the road.
Marlins are 1-8 in road series openers.

— Brewers (29-28)
Brewers are 18-10 at home, 11-18 on the road.
Under is 10-4 in their last 14 home games.
Over is 4-1 in their last five road games.

— Mets (34-22)
Mets won five of their last seven games.
Mets are 21-7 at home, 13-15  on the road.
Under is 12-4 in their last 16 games.

— Phillies (35-19)
Phillies won 10 of their last 11 games.
Phillies are 27-12 vs righty starters, 8-7 vs lefties.
Under is 12-5 in their last seventeen games.
Philly scored in 1st inning in 13 of 26 home games.

— Pirates (21-36)
Pirates won four of their last six games.
Pittsburgh is 13-16 at home, 8-20 on the road.
Over is 5-2 in their last seven games.

— St Louis (32-24)
St Louis won 18 of its last 23 games.
Cardinals are 9-2 when Sonny Gray starts.
St Louis is 19-8 at home, 13-16 on the road.

— Padres (31-23)
Padres lost eight of their last 12 games.
Under is 5-2 in their last seven home games.
Padres are 7-1 against their NL West rivals.

— Giants (31-25)
Giants lost six of their last nine games.
Giants are 26-13 vs rightly pitchers, 5-12 vs lefties.
SF is 17-9 at home, 14-16 on the road
Under is 10-1 in Giants’ last eleven games.

— Washington (25-30)
Nationals won seven of their last ten games.
Under is 11-5 in their last sixteen games.
Washington is 9-3 last 12 games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Famous birthdays, May 29th:
John (Blue Moon) Odom, 80 (1.13 ERA in 39.2 postseason IP)
Annette Bening, 67
Sam Clancy, 67
Eric Davis, 63

Jerry Hairston, 49
Raef LaFrentz, 49
Shaun King, 48
Carmelo Anthony, 41

Steven Matz, 34
Stanley Johnson, 29
Puka Nucuia, 24
Paul Skenes, 23

— Orioles (19-36)
Baltimore is 4-6 since they changed managers.
Orioles are 8-8 vs AL East foes, 11-28 vs everyone else.
Over is 8-4 in their last 12 games.

— Red Sox (27-31)
Boston is 6-15 in one-run games.
Under is 7-3 in their last ten games.
Red Sox are 16-14 at home, 11-17 on the road.

— White Sox (18-38)
Chicago is 8-5 in its last thirteen home games.
White Sox are 6-23 on the road.
White Sox are 12-29 vs righty starters, 6-9 vs lefties.

— Cleveland (30-25)
Cleveland lost three of its last four games.
Cleveland is 14-5 against its AL Central rivals.
Over is 4-1 in their last five games.

— Detroit (37-20)
Detroit is 21-8 at home, 16-12 on the road.
Tigers won their last four games, giving up five runs.
Under is 7-1 in their last eight games.

— Houston (30-25)
Astros are 20-10 at home, 10-15  on the road.
Houston is 2-6 in road series openers.
Under is 11-4 in their last fifteen  games.

— Royals (30-27)
Royals are 5-9 in their last fourteen games.
Kansas City is 18-11 at home, 12-16 on the road.
Under is 16-9 in Royals’ last 25 games.
Kansas City is 11-7 in one-run games.

— Angels (25-30)
Angels lost their last five games, outscored 18-5.
Over is 9-3 in their last 12 road games.
Under is 5-0 in their last five home games.
Halos are 13-5 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Twins (30-25)
Twins lost three of their last four games.
Minnesota is 18-8 at home, 12-17 on the road.
Under is 9-3 in their last 12 games.

— New York (35-20)
New York won 16 of its last 20 games.
Under is 12-2 in their last fourteen games.
New York is 27-15 vs righty starters, 8-5 vs lefties.

— A’s (23-33)
A’s lost 13 of their last 14games.
A’s are 9-19 in Sacramento, 14-14 on the road.
Over is 8-3 in their last 11 home games.

— Seattle (30-24)
Mariners are 7-10 in their last seventeen games.
Seattle lost six of last seight home games.
Under is 7-2 in Seattle’s last nine road games.

— Tampa Bay (28-27)
Tampa Bay won seven of its last eight games.
Under is 16-7 in their last 20 home games.
Rays are 8-2 in last 10 games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Texas (27-30)
Rangers lost eight of their last ten games.
Texas is 5-13 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Rangers are 18-12 at home, 9-18 on road.
Under is 13-4 in their last 17 road games.

— Toronto (27-28)
Blue Jays lost five of their last seven games.
Under is 5-1 in their last six games.
Toronto is 8-10 in series openers.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Cardinals
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Astros

— Pacers 130, Knicks 121
Halliburton had 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds.
He is third player ever with 30+ points, 15+ assists, 10+ boards in a playoff game.
Pacers were +20 in Nesmith’s 32:00, minus-11 in 16:00 he sat out.
Indiana leads series 3-1; Game 5 is Thursday in New York.

— Reds 7, Royals 2
Brady Singer tossed 7 IP in beating his old team.
Elly De La Cruz homered twice, scored three runs.

— Phillies 2, Braves 0
Phillies have won 10 of their last 11 games.
Ranger Suarez threw six shutout IP, allowing seven baserunners.
Braves are 16-9 at home, 9-19 on the road.

— Dodgers 9, Guardians 5
Ohtani homered for third game in a row; he has 20 homers now.
Max Muncy scored twice, knocked in three runs.
Cleveland has lost three in a row, outscored 21-7 in those games.

— Pirates 9, Diamondbacks 6
Arizona led 6-0 after the fifth inning.
Pirates scored seven runs in the top of the 8th.
Reynolds was 4-4 with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI and a homer.

— Padres 8, Marlins 6
Marlins scored six runs in top of the first, never scored again.
Arraez, Bogaerts had three hits each for San Diego.
Kolek got the win after pitching 5.1 innings; he is the first MLB pitcher since Bartolo Colon in 1999 to allow 6+ runs in the first inning, then get the win in that game.

— Cubs 4, Rockies 3 (11)
Busch/Shaw hit run-scoring singles in the 11th inning.
Chicago stole six bases in the game.
Cubs have won nine of their last 11 games.
Rockies have now lost their last 21 series.

— Brewers 5, Red Sox 1 (10)
Yelich hit his first career walk-off homer, a grand slam.
Red Sox led 1-0 after eight innings; Yelich’s double tied it in the 9th.
Milwaukee is 17-10 at home, 11-18 on the road.

— Famous birthdays, May 28th:
Kirk Gibson, 68
Bill Doran, 67
David Shula, 66

Ed Rubbert, 61
Glen Rice, 58
Steve Watson, 48

Michael Oher, 39
TJ Yates, 38
Craig Kimbrel, 37

Wednesday would’ve been Jerry West’s 87th birthday.

— Long time ago, one of the first things I learned about baseball was this:

It is important to be strong on defense up the middle.

Catcher. 2nd base, Shortstop. Center field.

In this day and age, I’m not sure teams value defense as much; some teams put a shaky defensive guy in the outfield, to get more offense in the lineup. I’m guessing pitchers must get steamed when balls become hits that should’ve been outs.

— Last five years, Dodgers’ record after 50 games:
2021- 31-19
2022- 33-17
2023- 31-19
2024- 33-17
2025- 31-19

— In the last 20 years, there have been five NBA playoff games where the road team won after trailing by 15+ points.

Three of them were the Pacers this year, coached by Rick Carlisle.
Knicks rallied from 20 down to win at Indiana Sunday, playing against Rick Carlisle.

The fifth team? 2011 Dallas Mavericks, also coached by……..Rick Carlisle.

— First round games at the Paradise Jam tournament on the Virgin Islands in November:
Iona-Yale
Akron-Evansville
UMass-Charleston
Green Bay-Oregon State

— North Florida basketball coach Matthew Driscoll, who coached UNF for 15 years and led the Ospreys to the NCAA’s in 2015, has left UNF t0 become an assistant coach at Kansas State.

— John Jay head coach Ryan Hyland left the Bloodhounds to become an assistant coach at Fordham; John Jay is a Division III program, making this a more interesting move. Hyland has coached John Jay for the last ten years.

— Denver Nuggets named David Adelman their full-time head coach, replacing Michael Malone, who got fired three games the end of the regular season.

— Nuggets’ point guard Russell Westbrook is having surgery on his right hand to repair two fractures that happened during the season, so he was playing with a broken hand.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, SF/StL
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Astros

— Thunder 128, Timberwolves 126
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 40 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists.
Thunder held Julius Randle to 7 points, on 1-5 shooting.
Oklahoma City trailed for only 36 seconds the whole game.
Thunder leads series 3-1; Game 5 is Wednesday night in Oklahoma.

— College sports have gone off the rails; 6-3 G PJ Haggerty signed on with Kansas State, and will get paid $2.5M there next season.

This has been Haggerty’s college career:
2022-23- TCU 22-13, only played in six games
2023-24- Tulsa 16-15
2024-25- Memphis 29-6, lost in first round of NCAA’s as a #5-seed
2025-26- Kansas State

I’m waiting for him to transfer during a TV timeout from one bench to the other during the game.

— Green Bay Packers’ QB Jordan Love threw out the first pitch before the Red Sox-Brewers game in Milwaukee Monday. Love is 19-17 as an NFL starter, 1-2 in playoff games. This will be his third season as Green Bay’s starting QB.

— Former New Orleans Saints’ coach Jim Mora Sr turned 90 recently; he still lifts weights twice a week, for 85 minutes at a time. They posted videos of it; pretty impressive.

— Las Vegas Raiders signed punter AJ Cole to a 4-year, $15.8M contract, making him the highest-paid punter in the NFL. Last year, Cole averaged 50.8 yards per punt, second best in the NFL, and had 27 punts downed inside the 20-yard line.

— Tampa Bay Ray hitters have gone 73 games since last time one of them got an intentional walk; Barry Bonds was once walked intentionally 73 times in a 72-game span.

— Why only 12 major league baseball games on Memorial Day? Would think that Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day would be full schedules, since everyone has the day off.

— If you ever watched the TV show Duck Dynasty, the patriarch of the Robertson family, Phil Robertson, passed away this weekend, at age 79.

Phil Robertson played college football at Louisiana Tech, starting ahead of future Hall of Fame QB Terry Bradshaw in 1966 and 1967. He got really rich when he created/patented the Duck Commander duck call, a kazoo-like instrument used by duck hunters.

Duck Dynasty was on TV from 2012-17, made the family famous and a lot wealthier. It was a quirky and funny show.

— Famous birthdays, May 27th:
Lee Meriwether, 90
Stan Walters, 77
Jackie Slater, 71
Richard Schiff, 70
Nick Lowery, 69

David Greenwood, 68
Peri Gilpin, 64
John Jaha, 59
George McCloud, 58
Frank Thomas, 57

Jeff Bagwell, 57
Antonio Freeman, 53
Jose Berrios, 31
Yoan Moncada, 30
Daniel Jones, 28

— Best records in one-run games:
Angels 8-2
Phillies 10-4
Padres 10-5
Tigers 9-5
Guardians 8-4

Worst records in one-run games:
White Sox 3-13
Red Sox 6-14
Rockies 4-9
Braves 9-13
Bronx 8-11

— Mets 2, White Sox 1
Chicago led 1-0 after the 7th inning.
Both Mets’ runs scored on sacrifice flies.
White Sox slipped to 5-22 on the road.

— Brewers 3, Red Sox 2
Milwaukee is 16-10 at home, 11-18 on the road.
Jackson Chourio led off the first inning with a home run.
Red Sox slipped tp 11-15 on the road.

— Orioles 5, Cardinals 2
Dylan Carlson hit a 3-run homer against his old team.
Orioles have won three in a row, for first time this season.
Charlie Morton got the win, lowering his ERA from 7.68 to 7.09.

— Diamondbacks 5, Pirates 0
Ryne Nelson allowed only four hits in 6.2 IP.
Win snapped Arizona’s five-game losing skid.
Pirates are now 6-20 in road games.

— Padres 4, Marlins 3 (10)
Manny Machado tied the game with an 8th inning home run.
Ryan Weathers allowed two unearned runs in 5.2 IP for Miami.
Marlins are 13-15 at home, 8-16 on the road.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Astros

— Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101
Timberwolves led 72-41 at halftime.
Minnesota shot 57% from the floor.
Home team has won all three lopsided games in this series.

— Five highest payrolls in MLB (record):
Dodgers $336,802,442 (32-20)
Mets $323,933,710 (31-21)
Bronx $288,738,657 (31-20)
Phillies $279,297,954 (33-18)
Blue Jays $246,441,798 (25-26)

— Five lowest payrolls in MLB (record)
White Sox $67,064,334 (17-35)
Marlins $67,340,342 (20-30)
A’s $73,664,777 (22-30)
Pirates $90,351,625 (19-34)
Rays $90,482,005 (25-26)

— Bottom of first inning in Cincinnati Friday night; Reds’ leadoff hitter TJ Friedl hits a double down the right field line. Problem, is the ballboy thought it was a foul ball; he caught it and gave it to a fan. Not good. Umpires rightfully called it a double.

— Rockies, Pirates, Reds have all been shut out eight times this year, most in MLB.

— Mets’ batters have been hit by a pitch 30 times this year, more than any other team.

— White Sox’ City Connect uniforms look a lot like the Chicago Bulls’ uniforms; the same guy owns both teams. Nice big names/numbers on the back of the uniforms. Well done.

— Famous birthdays, May 25th:
Leslie Uggams, 82
Mike Myers, 62
Kendall Gill, 57

Miguel Tejada, 51
Brian Urlacher, 47
Chris Young, 46

Kevin O’Connell, 40
Michael King, 30
Malik Willis, 26

— Cardinals 6, Diamondbacks 5 (10)
St Louis scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th.
Cardinals are 15-4 in their last 19 games.
Arizona has lost four in a row.

— Guardians 7, Tigers 5 (10)
Detroit has lost three in row for first time since first week of the season.
Jose Ramirez has a 17-game hitting streak.

— Twins 5, Royals 4
Minnesota walked the Royals off for second day in a row.
Twins have won 16 of their last 18 games.
Kansas City led 4-0 in the fifth inning.

— Pirates 2, Brewers 1
Oneil Cruz knocked in the winning run with a 7th inning triple.
Milwaukee had 11 hits, only scored once.
Brewers are 15-10 at home, 10-18 on the road.

— Nationals 3, Giants 0
Jake Irvin allowed only three hits in 8 IP.
Washington has won seven of its last nine games.
James Wood has 9 runs scored, 10 RBI in his last six games.

— Braves 7, Padres 1
Ronald Acuna homered for the second straight game.
Matt Olson has five home runs in his last seven games.
San Diego has lost seven of its last eight games.

— Phillies 9, A’s 6 (11)
Tied 6-6, A’s had bases loaded, no one out in 10th inning, couldn’t score.
Phillies have won nine games in a row.
A’s have lost 11 in a row, after a 22-20 start.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

AL teams’ records, by starting pitcher:

— Orioles (16-33)
Eflin 3-2
Morton 0-7
Kremer 3-7 (under 4-2 last six)
Sugano 6-4 (under 7-0 last seven)
Povich 3-6
Young 1-1
Gibson 0-4 (over 3-1)
McDermott 0-1
Akin 0-2 (opener)

— Red Sox (26-26)
Crochet 6-5 (under 8-3)
Houck 2-7 (over 5-1 last six)
Buehler 6-1
Pitts 0-3 (under 3-0)
Newcomb 2-3 (over 4-1)
Dobbins 3-3 (under 3-1 last four)
Bello 5-2 (over 5-2)
Giolito 2-2

— White Sox (16-35)
Burke 5-5
Cannon 1-7
Perez 2-2
Smith 1-9
Martin 2-7
Wilson 2-2
Houser 1-0
Gilbert 1-2 (opener)
Eisert 0-2 (opener)

— Guardians (28-22)
Lively 7-2 (under 6-2 last eight)
Williams 6-4 (over 5-2 last seven)
Bibee 6-4 (under 6-1 last seven)
Ortiz 3-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Allen 5-4
Cecconi 1-1 (under 2-0)
Nikhazy 0-1

— Tigers (33-19)
Skubal 7-3 (over 5-2 last 7)
Flaherty 2-8 
Olson 5-4
Jobe 8-1
Mize 6-1
Montero 3-1 (under 3-1)
Holton 1-0 (opener)
Hurter 1-0 (opener)
Guenther 0-1 (opener)

— Astros (26-25)
Valdez 5-5
Brown 6-4 
Arrighetti 1-1
Blanco 5-4 (under 5-1 last six)
Wesneski 2-4 (under 5-1)
Gusto 3-3
McCullers 2-2 (over 4-0)
Blubaugh 0-1
Gordon 2-0 (under 2-0)
Walter 0-1

— Royals (28-24)
Ragans 4-5 (over 4-1 last five)
Lugo 5-4 (under 7-2)
Bubic 6-4 (under 5-2 last seven)
Lorenzen 5-5 (under 8-2)
Wacha 6-4 (under 6-2 last eight)
Cameron 1-2 (under 3-0)

— Famous birthdays, May 24th:
Bob Dylan, 85
Gary Burghoff, 82
Mitch Kupchak, 71
Kristin Scott Thomas, 65

Pete Metzelaars, 65
Joe Dumars, 62
John C Reilly, 60
Jeff Zgonina, 55

Bartolo Colon, 52
Dash Mihok, 51
Tracy McGrady, 46
Aaron Ashby, 27

— Angels (25-25)
Kikuchi 5-6 (over 9-2)
Soriano 3-7 (over 6-3 last nine)
TAnderson 8-2 (over 5-0 last five)
Hendricks 4-5 (under 3-1 last four)
Kochanowicz 5-5

— Twins (24-20)
Lopez 6-3 
Ryan 4-5 (under 8-1)
Ober 8-2
Paddack 3-7 (under 4-1 last five)
Woods-Richardson 5-2 (under 5-2)
Festa 2-1
Topa 0-1 (opener)

— New York (30-20)
Rodon 6-5 (under 8-3)
Fried 9-1 (under 6-2 last eight)
Warren 5-5 (under 5-2 last seven)
Carrasco 2-4 (under 4-2)
Schmidt 4-3 
Stroman 2-1 (over 3-0)
Yarbrough 1-1

— A’s (22-30)
Severino 4-7
Springs 5-5 
Bido 4-5 (over 4-1 last five)
Sears 6-4 (over 3-0 last three)
Hoglund 1-3 (over 3-0 last three)
Ginn 2-2 (under 3-1)
Estes 0-2
Lopez 0-2

— Mariners (29-21)
Gilbert 5-1
Castillo 5-5 (under 3-1 last four)
Miller 4-4 (over 4-0 last four)
Woo 7-2
Kirby 0-1
Hancock 6-2 (under 3-1 last four)
Evans 3-2 (over 4-1)
JFCastillo 1-1 (opener)
Legumina 0-1 (opener)

— Rays (24-26)
Pepiot 3-7 (under 5-1 last six)
Littell 5-5 (won last five) under 8-2)
Bradley 6-4 (over 3-1 last four)
Rasmussen 4-6 (under 8-2)
Baz 5-4
Boyle 1-0

— Rangers (25-27)
Eovaldi 5-6 (under 9-2)
Leiter 3-4 (under 6-1)
Mahle 6-5 (under 10-1)
deGrom 6-4 
Rocker 2-3 (under 3-1 last four)
Corbin 3-5 (under 4-1 last five)

— Blue Jays (25-25)
Berrios 5-5
Gausman 5-5 (over 5-0 last five)
Bassitt 6-4 (under 9-1)
Francis 4-6 (over 5-0 last five)
Lucas 2-2
Scherzer 0-1
Urena 1-1
Rodriguez 1-0

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

NL teams’ records, by starting pitcher:
— Diamondbacks (26-24)
Gallen 4-6 (under 6-3 last nine)
Kelly 6-4 (under 5-1 last six)
Burnes 5-4 (under 4-0 last four)
Pfaadt 7-3
Rodriguez 4-5 (over 6-0 last six)
Nelson 0-2

— Braves (24-25)
Sale 5-5 (under 5-1 last six)
Schwellenbach 6-4 (over 6-1 last seven)
Smith-Shawver 5-3 (under 7-1)
Holmes 4-5 (under 3-1 last four)
Elder 4-4 (under 6-1 last seven)
Lopez 0-1
Strider 0-2
Blewett 0-1

— Cubs (30-20)
Imanaga 5-3 (under 6-2)
Steele 3-1 (over 4-0)
Taillon 4-6 
Boyd 4-5 (home team 9-0)
Brown 5-4 (over 8-1)
Rea 6-1 (over 3-1 last four)

— Reds (25-26)
Greene 5-3 (under 6-1 last seven)
Lodolo 5-5 (over 5-2 last seven)
Martinez 2-8 (under 7-0 last seven)
Singer 6-4 (under 5-1 last six)
Spiers 0-2
Abbott 5-2 (under 3-0 last three)
Petty 0-2
Suter 2-0 (opener)

— Rockies (8-42)
Freeland 1-9 (under 7-3)
Senzatela 2-8 
Feltner 1-5 (under 4-0 last four)
Marquez 2-8 (over 7-2 last nine)
Dollander 2-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Blalock 0-3
Gordon 0-1
Palmquist 0-2

— Dodgers (31-19)
Yamamoto 7-3 (under 8-2)
Snell 2-0 (over 2-0)
Glasnow 3-2
Sasaki 6-2 (over 6-2)
May 4-5 (under 4-0 last four)
Knack 3-1 (over 3-1)
Gonsolin 2-2
Wrobleski 0-1
Miller 1-0
Kershaw 0-1
Casparius 0-1 (opener)
Dreyer 2-1 (opener)
Sauer 1-0 (opener

— Marlins (19-29)
Alcantara 3-6 
Gillispie 1-5 (over 5-1)
Bellozo 1-4
Meyer 5-5 (over 5-1 last six)
Quantrill 6-3 (under 3-0 last three)
Cabrera 3-4
Weathers  1-1

— Famous birthdays, May 23rd:
Joan Collins, 92
Rod Thorn, 84
Drew Carey, 67
Jay Feely, 49

Kirk Saarloos, 46
Chad Hall, 39
Aaron Donald, 34
Jonathan Aranda, 27

— Brewers (24-26)
Peralta 6-4 (under 8-2)
Cortes 1-1
Civale 1-1
Patrick 4-6 (under 8-2)
Priester 1-5 (under 4-2)
Myers 2-3
Rodriguez 0-2 (over 2-0)
Alexander 2-2 (over 3-1)
Quintana 4-2 (under 5-1)
Henderson 2-1
Zastryzny 1-0 (opener)

— Mets (30-20)
Holmes 7-3 
Megill 4-6 (over 5-2 last seven)
Senga 5-4 (under 9-0)
Canning 8-1 (under 7-2)
Peterson 6-3
Tidwell 0-1
Brazoban 0-2 (opener)

— Phillies (32-18)
Wheeler 7-3 
Luzardo 8-2 (under 3-1 last four)
Nola 3-6 (under 6-3)
Sanchez 7-2
Walker 4-3
Suarez 2-1
Abel 1-0

— Pirates (17-33)
Skenes 3-7 (under 5-1 last six)
Keller 2-8 
Falter 5-5 (under 6-2 last eight)
Heaney 4-6 (under 7-3)
Mlodzinski 4-5 (under 4-1 last five)
Harrington 0-1
Burrows 0-1

— Cardinals (27-23)
Gray 8-2 (over 9-1)
Fedde 3-7 (over 3-1 last four)
Mikolas 4-5 (won last four) (under 4-1 last five)
Liberatore 4-5 (under 6-1 last seven)
Pallante 6-4
Matz 2-0

— Padres (27-21)
King 5-5 (1-5 last six) (over 3-0-1 last four)
Cease 6-4 (under 4-2 last six)
Vasquez 5-5 (under 7-3)
Pivetta 6-3 (under 4-2 last six)
Hart 3-2
Kolek 2-2

— Giants (29-21)
Ray 9-1 (under 5-1 last six)
Hicks 4-5 (over 7-2)
Webb 6-5 (over 4-1 last five)
Verlander 4-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Roupp 5-4 (over 4-1 last five)
Birdsong 1-0

— Nationals (23-27)
Gore 4-6 (under 4-1 last five)
Irvin 5-5  (over 3-1 last four)
Parker 7-3 (under 7-3)
Williams 4-6
Lord 2-4
Soroka 1-3

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

— Pacers 138, Knicks 135 OT
Knicks led by 14 with 2:51 left in regulation.
Indiana’s starters were +31, their subs minus-16
Halliburton scored 31 points, Nesmith added 30.
Brunson scored 43 points for the Knicks.

— 22 of the 30 players in the Minnesota-Oklahoma City series are age 26 or younger, so those teams figure to be really good for several years.

— NBA will have a different champ for the 7th year in a row; last team to repeat as champs were the 2017/2018 Golden State Warriors.

— Former Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone, who won an NBA title two years ago, is working for ESPN on the Western Conference finals.

There must be a hell of a story as to what happened with the Nuggets this year; not often do you see the coach of a good team fired, three games before the playoffs start.

— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is this year’s NBA MVP, the 7th year in a row a foreign player has won that award. Last American player to win MVP; James Harden, in 2018.

— NFL announced Wednesday that the Buffalo Bills will be on Hard Knocks during training camp this summer; the in-season Hard Knocks will be the teams in the NFC East.

— Detroit Lions have five games this season against team whose previous game was on Monday Night Football, little bit of a rest advantage for Detroit.

— Former NFL coach Jon Gruden has joined the ownership group of the Nashville Kats of Arena Football One; former NFL coach Jeff Fisher is also a part owner of the Kats.

— Famous birthdays, May 22nd:
Richard Benjamin, 87
Tommy John, 82
Fair Hooker, 78
Randy Brown, 57

Michael Kelly, 56
Dre Bly, 48
Eric Sogard, 39
Julian Edelman, 39

Chase Budinger, 37
Lauri Markkanen, 28
Isaiah Stewart, 24
Anthony Richardson, 23

— RIP to actor George Wendt, 76, who passed away this week; he became famous playing Norm from Cheers, the great sit-com about a bar in Boston.

He was one of only three actors to appear in every episode of Cheers; he was a funny man.

RIP, sir.

— RIP to Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, who passed away Wednesday at age 65; when Jim Irsay was 12, his father bought the Rams and that same day, traded them for the then-Baltimore Colts. 12 years later, Robert Irsay moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis.

Jim Irsay was the Colts’ CEO since 1997; he played in a band and had a tremendous collection of guitars used by famous musicians.

RIP, sir.

— Mets 5, Red Sox 1
Mets scored three runs in 7th inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Brett Baty drove in three runs.
Mets are only 9-11 in their last 20 games.

— Guardians 5-5, Twins 6-1
Teams split a pair of games; the first game was the completion of Monday’s game, which was suspended by weather in the fourth inning.

Minnesota has won 14 of its last 16 games.

— Pirates 3, Reds 1
Pittsburgh has scored 4 or fewer runs in 26 straight games, tying an MLB record.
Andrew Heaney and four relievers held the Reds to four hits.

— Orioles 8, Brewers 4 (11)
Baltimore snaps an 8-game losing skid.
Adley Rutschman hit a 3-run homer in the 11th inning.

— Cubs 2, Marlins 1
Kyle Tucker had three hits, including a home run.
Cubs have won seven of their last nine games.

— Mariners 6, White Sox 5
Leody Taveras won the game with a 2-run homer in the 8th inning.
Seattle has won five of its last six games.

— Royals 8, Giants 4
Salvador Perez went 3-for-4, with two RBI.
Kansas City is 17-1 when it scores 4+ runs, 11-22 when it doesn’t.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

Teams’ records in series:
(away/home….total)

NL East
Braves 3-5/5-1-1…..8-6-1
Marlins 0-6-1/4-4…..4-10-1
Mets 3-4-1/6-1…..9-5-1
Phillies 3-4/6-1-1…..9-5-1
Nationals 3-5/3-3-1…..6-8-1

NL Central
Cubs 4-3-1/6-2…..10-5-1
Reds 3-4/2-5-1…..5-9-1
Brewers 2-6/5-2…..7-8
Pirates 1-7/3-4…..4-11
Cardinals 3-4-1/6-1…..9-5-1

NL West
Arizona 4-3/3-3-2…..7-6-2
Rockies 0-8/0-7…..0-15
Dodgers 4-2-2/6-2…..10-4-2
Padres 3-4/6-2…..9-6
Giants 4-3-1/5-2…..9-5-1

AL East
Orioles 1-5-1/2-5-1…..3-10-2
Red Sox 4-4/3-4…..7-8
New York 4-3/5-3…..9-6
Rays 4-2/4-5…..8-7
Blue Jays 3-3-1/3-4-1…..6-7-2

AL Central
White Sox 1-7/3-7…..4-11
Guardians 4-4/5-2…..9-6
Tigers 5-3/6-1…..11-4
Royals 2-5/5-3…..7-8
Twins 4-4/5-2…..9-6

AL West
Astros 1-5-1/7-1…..8-6-1
Angels 4-5/3-3…..7-8
A’s 4-3-1/2-5…..6-8-1
Mariners 6-1/4-3-1…..10-4-1
Rangers 3-4/4-2-2…..7-6-2

— Famous birthdays, May 20th:
Leroy Kelly, 83
Cheryl Sarkisian (Cher), 79
Terry Nelson, 74
Rick Upchurch, 73
Wendell Tyler, 70

Bronson Pinchot, 66
Todd Stottlemyre, 60
Timothy Olyphant, 57
Terrell Brandon, 55
Jayson Werth, 46

— Royals 3, Giants 1
Bubic-Ray pitchers’ duel was 0-0 after seven innings.
Vinny Pasquantino hit a 2-run homer in the 8th inning.
Giants are 24-9 vs righty starters, 4-11 vs lefties.

— Red Sox 3, Mets 1
Mets scored total of 10 runs in their last six games.
Jarren Duran had a double/triple in first two innings.
Mets are out of first place in NL East for first time since April 9th.

— Astros 4, Rays 3
Jake Meyers had the game-winning home run in 7th inning.
Tampa Bay is 10-8 on road, only 11-18 in their temporary home stadium.

— Phillies 9, Rockies 3
Colorado led this game 3-2 after the 7th inning- their bullpen imploded.
Kyle Schwarber hit his 300th career home run, a 466-foot blast.

Sunday’s 1-0 win over Pittsburgh took 1:59 to play, fastest Phillies game since 1998.

— Marlins 8, Cubs 7
Jesus Sanchez homered in first inning, also had a walk-off triple.
Marlins are 13-13 at home; six of those wins are walk-off wins.

— Brewers 5, Orioles 4
William Contreras had the game-winning single in 8th inning.
Cedric Mullins had a 3-run homer for the Orioles.
Baltimore lost their 7th game in a row.

— Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 5
Dodgers have lost four in a row at home, for first time since 2018.
Arizona led this game 7-0 in the third inning.
Brandon Pfaadt threw 6 IP, became MLB’s first seven-game winner.
Dodgers swung at 42 of his pitches, didn’t whiff on any of them— unusual.

— Twins led Cleveland 2-1 in 4th inning; game was suspended by rain, will be resumed at 6:10 Tuesday night.

— If the playoffs started today (they do not):
NL: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Mets, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

— Prayers go out to President Joe Biden, who was diagnosed with an ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer, and it has spread to his bones. The 82-year old Biden and his family “are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

Get well soon, sir. 

— Thunder 125, Nuggets 93
Oklahoma City gets to the NBA’s Final Four for first time since 2016.
Thunder outscored Denver 39-20 in the second quarter.
Thunder-Minnesota series starts Tuesday.

— Since 1979, dating back to their days in Seattle, the Sonics/Thunder have won their last seven Game 7’s- this was their first one since 2014.

— Philadelphia Phillies closer Jose Alvarado was suspended 80 games without pay following a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug; he is ineligible for this year’s postseason.

— Arizona P Zac Gallen this year, by catcher:
with Jose Herrera at catcher: 2.92 ERA in four games
with Gabriel Moreno at catcher: 6.89 ERA in eight games

He also has a 6.03 home ERA, a 3.38 road ERA; this is a contract year for Gallen, not the best timing for him or the Diamondbacks.

— Arizona OF Corbin Carroll is the first ballplayer since Eddie Mathews in 1959 with 14+ home runs, 50+ hits, 5+ triples in the first 45 games of a season. Eddie Mathews is a Hall of Famer, so a good comp for Carroll.

— Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde Saturday, after a 15-28 start, which seems kind of quick; the last two years, Baltimore was 91-71/101-61. All of a sudden this is his fault?

Four of the seven starting pitchers Orioles have used this year are 30+ years old; maybe the person who assembled this underachieving roster should shoulder some of the blame.

One stat about the Orioles that makes very little sense: they’re 1-7 in games after a day off.

— There are only three active major leaguers with 3,000+ plate appearances who have a career batting average of .300+:

Jose Altuve, Luis Arraez, Freddie Freeman

— Famous birthdays, May 19th:
Archie Manning, 76
Ed Whitson, 70
Jack Thompson, 69
Bill Laimbeer, 68

John Friesz, 59
Turk Wendell, 58
Paul Justin, 57
Brandon Inge, 48

— Bronx 8, Mets 2
Bronx scored six times in the bottom of the 8th inning.
Juan Soto went 1-10 with four walks in his return to the Bronx.

— Astros 4, Rangers 3
Isaac Paredes hit a 3-run homer in the 8th inning.
Astros didn’t get a hit off Jack Leiter until the 7th inning

— Phillies 1, Pirates 0
Mick Abel tossed six shutout IP in his MLB debut.
Phillies have won 15 of their last 20 games.

— Nationals 10, Orioles 4
Nationals led 6-0 in 1st inning Saturday, 7-0 in 2nd inning Sunday
CJ Abrams was 9-30 with four HR’s, 8 runs scored this week.

— Tigers 3, Blue Jays 2
Spencer Torkelson knocked in all three runs for Detroit.
Detroit is an MLB-best 31-16, 8-0 when Jackson Jobe pitches.

— Reds 3, Guardians 1
Will Benson hit two home runs for Cincinnati.
Reds have won four games in a row, Cleveland has lost four in a row.

— Angels 6, Dodgers 4
Angels led 4-0 in 5th inning, blew the lead, but won the game late.
Travis d’Arnaud hit his first homer of the year in the 8th inning.

— Diamondbacks 1, Rockies 0
Merrill Kelly allowed only one hit in seven IP.
Rockies are 8-38, the worst start for any team since 1901.

— If the playoffs started today (they do not):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Padres, Giants
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Twins, Guardians, Royals

— Friday was the 10-year anniversary of the day my dad passed away, a cruddy day.

My dad was a nice person, an honest person- he was the kind of person this world needs a lot more of. He loved the Mets, the Knicks, the football Giants; he was a pretty good golfer, and he was a freakin’ great father. 

He was a great example of the kind of person I should be; I would’ve been remiss if today had gone by without giving a wave up to heaven and saying hi.

I love you, dad. You are missed every day.

— Knicks 119, Celtics 81
New York led 64-37 at halftime.
Knicks win this series, 4-2.
Knicks-Pacers (#3-seed vs #4-seed) is the Eastern Conference final

— 49ers signed QB Brock Purdy to a 5-year contract worth $53M/year; Purdy has played three years in the NFL, is 27-15 as an NFL starter, 4-2 in playoff games. 

— Illinois signed football coach Bret Bielema to a six-year contract, with $7.7M/year. Bielama has been at Illinois four years, has a 28-22 record, 2-2 in bowl games. 

Overall in 16 years as a head coach, Bielema is 125-80, 5-6 in bowl games.

— Former NBA star Nick Van Exel had some thoughts on social media about the increased amount of Achilles tendon injuries in the NBA:

“There have been Achilles tears throughout the years but my thoughts on them is that they happen more now and I think it has something to do with them dam lows the players wear nowadays. Cover them ankles up fellas.”

— I’m curious how much these celebrities get for doing commercials:
Christopher Walken (Miller Lite)
Will Ferrell (PayPal)
Jeff Goldblum (apartments.com)

— Texas Rangers P Max Scherzer is getting direct deposits in his bank account from all over the continent this year; he is getting paid:

$30,833,334 from the Mets
$15,500,000 from the Blue Jays
$15,000,000 from the Nationals
$12,500,000 from the Rangers

— Famous birthdays, May 17th:
Paige Turco, 60
Danny Manning, 59
Hill Harper, 59
Craig Erickson, 56

Hubert Davis, 55
Sasha Alexander, 52
Carlos Pena, 47
Tony Parker, 43

Matt Cassel, 43
Channing Frye, 42
Matt Ryan, 40
Austin Ekeler, 30

— Week 1 NFL spreads:
Cowboys @ Philadelphia (-7)
Chiefs (-3) vs Chargers (@ San Paolo, Brazil)
Cardinals (-3.5) @ New Orleans
Bengals (-4.5) @ Cleveland

Dolphins @ Indianapolis (-1.5)
Raiders @ New England (-3.5)
Giants @ Washington (-7.5)
Buccaneers (-2.5) @ Atlanta

Panthers @ Jacksonville (-3.5)
Steelers (-2.5) @ NJ Jets
Texans @ Rams (-3.5)
49ers (-1.5) @ Seattle

Titans @ Denver (-7.5)
Lions @ Green Bay (-1.5)
Ravens @ Buffalo (-1.5)
Vikings @ Chicago (-1.5)

— Twins 3, Brewers 0
Minnesota won its 12th game in a row.
Twins haven’t allowed a run in their last 24 innings.
Joe Ryan allowed three baserunners in six scoreless IP.

— Cardinals 10, Royals 3
St Louis has won 11 of its last 12 games.
Ivan Herrera had three hits, four RBI.
Cardinals are 49-26 in their games at Kauffman Stadium.

— Phillies 8, Pirates 4
Pittsburgh led 3-1 in 7th inning.
Phillies scored four runs on only one hit in bottom of 7th.
Bryce Harper got his 1,000th career RBI

— Bronx 6, Mets 2
Juan Soto was 0-2 with three walks in his return to the Bronx.
Mets are 17-5 at home, 11-12 on the road.
Bronx leads AL East by five games.

— Nationals 4, Orioles 3
Mackenzie Gore allowed 12 baserunners in 3.2 IP, but only gave up 2 runs.
Winning run scored from 2nd base on a 9th inning infield hit.
Orioles lost 10 of their last 12 games. 

— Marlins 9, Rays 4
Only 5th win for Miami in their last 29 games against the Rays.

— Astros 6, Rangers 3
Texas led 2-0 after six innings.
Astros scored six runs in the top of the 7th.
Christian Walker’s 3-run homer was the big hit.

— Mariners 5, Padres 1
JP Crawford hit the first pitch of the game for a home run.
Logan Evans tossed six shutout innings, allowing seven hits.
Seattle leads the AL West by a game and a half. 

Notes on the 2025 NFL schedule:
AFC East
Bills
Four of their first five games are at home.
Three of their first five games are in primetime.
Chiefs visit Buffalo in Week 9
Weeks 12-16, four road games in five weeks.

Dolphins
3/last 5 games are in cold weather: @ Jets, Steelers, Patriots.
Five primetime games, plus a game vs Washington, in Spain
Don’t play any 4:00 games.

Patriots
Weeks 5-7: 3 straight road games, at Buffalo, New Orleans, Tennessee
Week 7, Patriots @ Titans; Vrabel coached Tennessee from 2018-23.
Three of first four games at home.
Week 1, Raiders @ Patriots (Tom Brady owns part of Raiders now)

Jets
Week 1: Steelers @ Jets- Justin Fields played for Pittsburgh last year.
3/last 4 games are on the road.
Play Broncos in London in Week 6, don’t have a bye in Week 7.
Right now, 14 of their 17 games are at 1:00; low expectations.

AFC North
Ravens
Five of their first seven games are at home.
Weeks 5-8, have three home games and a bye week.
Weeks 9-11, 3 straight road games, at Miami, Minnesota, Cleveland
Play the Bengals in weeks 13/15.
Three of their last four games are on the road.

Bengals
Last three years, Bengals are 5-10 in Weeks 1-5, 25-10 from Week 6 on.
Three of their first four games are on the road.
Have four primetime games, plus four 4:25 games that aren’t on West Coast.
Weeks 7-10: three home games, then their bye week.

Browns
Browns have 40-year old QB Flacco, and two rookie QB’s,
Cleveland plays its first game and its last game against Cincinnati.
14 of their 17 games are in the Eastern time zone.
No primetime games; they play the Vikings in England in Week 5.

Steelers
Who will the QB be? Right now, it would be Mason Rudolph.
Only 5 of their 17 games are vs teams that were in playoffs last year.
Steelers have four primetime games, plus a game vs Vikings in Ireland.
Their games with the Ravens are in Weeks 14/18.

AFC South
Texans
Weeks 8-10, have three straight home games.
Visit SoFi Stadium twice; Week 1 vs Rams, Week 17 vs Chargers
Chargers beat Houston 32-12 in playoffs last year.
Visit Chiefs in Week 14; KC beat them 23-14 in playoffs LY.

Colts
Four of their first six games are at home.
Also visit SoFi Stadium twice; vs Rams in Week 4, Chargers in Week 7
Only one primetime game, Week 16 vs 49ers.
12 of their 17 games are in domed stadiums.

Jaguars
Play only one game in England this year, Week 7 vs Rams
Play only one primetime game, Week 5 vs Chiefs.
Two games vs Colts are in Weeks 14/17.
Two games vs Tennessee are in Week 13/18.

Titans
Weeks 4-6- 3 straight road games, at Houston, Arizona, Las Vegas (all domes)
No primetime games; league has low expectations for them.
Weeks 9-13- have four home games and their bye week.
Only cold weather game figures to be Week 14 in Cleveland.

AFC West
Broncos
First three games are against their three AFC West rivals.
Open season vs Chiefs on a Friday night in Brazil.
Five primetime games; league has high expectations for them.

Chiefs
Open season in Brazil vs Chargers; host the Eagles in Week 2.
5 of their first 8 games are in primetime.
Weeks 6-8, have three straight home games.
Play on both Thanksgiving/Christmas this year.

Raiders
Two of first three games are on East Coast, at New England/Washington
Raiders open season vs Patriots; Pete Carroll coached Patriots from 1997-99.
Weeks 15-16 are only time they play consecutive weeks on the road.

Chargers
Open season against the Chiefs, in Brazil.
Have two trips to east coast in Weeks 4, 6; lot of travel early on.
Three of their last four games are on the road. .
Five primetime games; league has high expectations for them.

Thanksgiving Day games:
Packers @ Detroit
Chiefs @ Dallas
Bengals @ Baltimore

Christmas Day games
Cowboys @ Washington
Lions @ Minnesota
Broncos @ Kansas City

NFC East
Cowboys
Open season at Super Bowl champion Eagles in Week 1.
Play four of their games on Thursdays. 
Weeks 12-16, play four home games in five weeks.
Play on both Thanksgiving/Christmas this year.

Giants
Open season with road games at Washington/Dallas.
Two games vs Cowboys are in Weeks 2/18.
Have a late bye week, Week 14.
Have only one road game in the last five weeks. 

Eagles
Don’t have back/back home games all season.
Two games vs Washington are in Weeks 16/18.
Two games vs Giants are in Weeks 6/8.
Host Bears on Black Friday afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving

Commanders
Washington is 18-1 to win Super Bowl; this time last year, they were 150-1
Their last four games are against NFC East rivals.
Weeks 4-8, play four road games in five weeks.
Have five primetime games, plus a Week 8 game in Spain. 

NFC North
Bears
Their games vs Detroit are in Weeks 2/18
Three of their last four games are at home.
Weeks 4-9, have tour road games and a bye week.
Thought it was odd that Ben Johnson turned down Washington job LY, but left the Lions to coach division rival Chicago this year. Both teams have promising young QB’s.

Lions
Detroit has two new coordinators this year, the price of success.
Weeks 12-14, have three straight home games.
Week 15, they visit the Rams, a renewal of the Stafford-Goff thing.
Play on both Thanksgiving/Christmas this year.

Packers
Open season with home games vs Lions/Commanders.
Play three of last four games on the road.
Have four primetime games, four 4:25 games.
Two games with the Bears are in Weeks 14/16.

Vikings- unusual schedule
Week 1- visit Chicago on Monday night
Weeks 2-3- two home games
Weeks 4-5- a game in Ireland, a game in England
Week 6- bye
Week 7- host the Eagles
Weeks 8-16- six road games in nine weeks.
Weeks 17-18- home games vs Lions/Packers. 

NFC South
Falcons
Week 5 is an early bye week.
Week 2 is at Minnesota, interesting if Kirk Cousins is still a Falcon.
12 of their 17 games are in domed stadiums.
Four primetime games, plus a Week 9 game in Germany,
They don’t have a bye week the game after playing in Germany.

Panthers
Three of their first four games are on the road.
Week 9 game in Germany, against the Falcons.
They don’t have a bye week the game after playing in Germany.
Two games with Tampa Bay are in Weeks 16/18.

Saints
It is unclear who Saints’ QB will be, but whoever it is will be young.
Open with home games vs Cardinals/49ers.
Finish with road games at Tennessee/Atlanta.
No primetime games; league has low expectations for them.

Buccaneers
Open season with road games, at Atlanta/Houston.
Weeks 13-15, have three straight home games.
Have four primetime games, three of them on road.
Four of their last five games are vs NFC South rivals. 

NFC West
Cardinals
Three of their last four games are on the road.
12 of their 17 games are in domed stadiums.
Two games with the Rams are in Weeks 14/18.
Have only two games in the eastern time zone.

Rams
Three of their first four games are vs AFC South teams.
Play Jaguars in England in Week 7.
Week 8-12, have three home games and a bye week.
Two of their last three games are in primetime.

49ers
Open season with road games, against teams with new QB’s (Seattle/NO)
Three of their last four games are at home.
Have five primetime games, including two of last three weeks.
First game and last game are both against the Seahawks.

Seahawks
Sam Darnold faces his old team (Vikings) in Week 13.
Cooper Kupp plays against his old team (Rams) in Weeks 11/16
Seahawks have five trips to the eastern time zone.
Seattle finishes with road games, at Panthers/49ers.