— Tampa Bay Bucs signed QB Baker Mayfield to a three-year deal worth $55M/year, lot of cabbage. Mayfield is 28-26 as Tampa’s QB, making the playoffs two of three years there.
— Week 1 NFL games are tough to predict; starters don’t play much in exhibition games, you don’t know what new coaches have up their sleeves. You’d think defenses would be ahead of offenses early on, but the Bills beat Baltimore 41-40 in Week 1 last year. Go figure.
— Now that Stan Kroenke owns the Angels, I’m curious who he’ll hire to run the baseball operations. Kroenke generally hires smart people, then gets out of their way.
— They’re saying the major leagues will add two expansion teams in a few years, after their labor dispute gets settled next year. These are the six cities rumored to be in the hunt:
Montreal, Nashville, Orlando, Portland OR, Raleigh, Salt Lake City.
— Houston Astros have used 18 starting pitchers this year, more than any other team.
— Odd Stat of the Day: Dansby Swanson leads the major leagues this year, with 44 RBI out of the #9 spot in the batting order.
— Star DT Aaron Donald won’t be playing for the Rams in Australia Thursday night; he’s still amping up for the long season.
— Famous birthdays, September 9th:
Joe Theismann, 77
Hugh Grant, 66
Jack Trudeau, 64
Dan Majerle, 61
Todd Zeile, 61
Adam Sandler, 60
BJ Armstrong, 59
Edwin Jackson, 43
Nick Sogard, 29
Troy Taylor, 25
— Rays 7, Braves 1
Freddy Peralta’s last three starts: 18 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 2 runs, 3 wins
Junior Caminero homered, scored two runs.
Braves lead the NL East by four games over the Phillies.
— Astros 6, Phillies 5
Houston led 5-0 in sixth inning, held on for dear life.
Walker, Varsho, Cam Smith homered for the Astros.
Trea Turner homered, had two RBI for the Phillies.
— Diamondbacks 5, Royals 3 (11)
Lourdes Gurriel tripled in the 11th inning.
Tim Tawa was 3-for-5, with a homer, two RBI.
Corbin Burnes threw 57 pitches in his first start in 15 months.
— Brewers 4, Cubs 3 (10)
Milwaukee tied game with two runs in bottom of the 9th.
Luis Lara had the walk-off hit for the Brewers.
Milwaukee now leads the NL Central by nine games.
— Angels 6, Red Sox 1
Reid Detmers gave up one hit, no runs in six IP.
Zach Neto went 4-for-5 with a home run.
Loss ends the Red Sox’ five-game winning streak.
— Pirates 9, White Sox 3
Rafael Flores went 3-for-5, with a home run.
Top four guys in the order: 9-for-18, with six runs scored.
Bubba Chandler allowed four hits, two runs in six IP.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers Wild Cards: Cubs, Phillies, Diamondbacks
AL: Rays, White Sox, Astros Wild Cards: New York, Red Sox, Guardians
