— If you’re planning ahead, there are two Monday night football games this week:
7:00 Tampa Bay plays at Houston
10:00 Chargers visit the Raiders in Las Vegas
— Kyle Schwarber is the 34th big leaguer to hit 50+ home runs in a season; he is also a free agent this winter. Really good timing on his part.
Schwarber, Phillies teammate JT Realmuto are both free agents this winter; GM Dave Dombrowski is going to have an interesting winter.
— Mets have used 45 pitchers this season; 17 of them have started at least one game.
— Since the All-Star break, 57% of the Miami Marlins’ hits have come from rookies; during that time, no other team has more than 35% of its hits from rookies.
— Was watching Cleveland-Tampa Bay game last week; the Guardians’ TV guys were critical of Rays’ star Junior Caminero, citing lackadaisical play by Caminero as a reason Cleveland won a game in Tampa. Seemed like an odd comment at the time.
But back in November 2021, Cleveland traded Caminero to the Rays for P Tobias Myers, who the Guardians dealt to San Francisco the next summer. Not a good look for the Cleveland front office, seeing how Caminero has 41 homers this year and is only 21 years old.
— Rough week for MAC football teams last week; two of them lost to I-AA opponents. LIU beat Eastern Michigan 28-23, UMass lost to Bryant 27-26. Not great.
— If your kid can snap a football 15 yards behind him to a punter, he might want to call up the football office at Oregon State. He might get a scholarship.
Last week against Fresno State, Beavers bounced at least five snaps to their punter or holder for kicks in a 36-27 loss to the Bulldogs. Poor kid who was snapping for Oregon State had never done it in a game before, and it showed- the Beavers’ regular long snapper is hurt.
I’m guessing they held tryouts this week, trying to find another kid to snap the ball.
— Famous birthdays, September 11th:
Jeff Newman, 77
Rod Perry, 72
Kristy McNichol, 63
Gerald Wilkins, 62
Ellis Burks, 61
Harry Connick Jr, 58
Bern Brostek, 57
Christopher Bridges, 48 (Ludacris)
Ed Reed, 47
Shaun Livingston, 40
Andrew Cashner, 39
Zay Flowers, 25
— Phillies 11, Mets 3
Max Kepler homered, drove in five runs.
Mets have lost five games in a row.
Phillies’ magic number to clinch NL East is 7.
— Reds 2, Padres 1
Cincinnati scored twice in the 8th inning.
Andrew Abbott allowed five hits in his 8 IP.
Reds are two games behind the Mets for the last NL Wild Card slot.
— Astros 3, Blue Jays 2
Carlos Correa hit his 200th career home run.
Yainer Diaz had the game-winning homer in the 9th inning.
Toronto had tied the game with two runs in bottom of 8th.
— Orioles 2, Pirates 1 (10)
Rookie OF Beavers, hitting .305, had a walk-off single.
Paul Skenes threw only 64 pitches in a short, 5-inning start.
Spencer Horwitz homered for the Pirates’ only run.
— Royals 4, Guardians 3
Royals scored twice in top of 7th for the winning runs.
Vinnie Pasquantino got to 100 RBI for first time in his career.
Cleveland had its five-game win streak snapped.
— A’s 5, Red Sox 4
Lawrence Butler had the walk-off single for the A’s.
Nick Kurtz hit his 30th home run; he is the 32nd rookie to hit 30+ homers.
Just the 5th win for the A’s in their last 21 games against Boston.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
NL: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cubs, Padres, Mets
AL: Blue Jays, Tigers, Astros. Wild Cards: Red Sox, New York, Mariners
