Weekly Update August 19, 2024

Baseball: This week in the MLB. Long games. Lots of extra innings.

Basketball: Catching back up with the gold medalist W & M teams. NBA season begins Oct 22.

Football: CFB begins! Week 0 and preseason NFL.

Golf: Hideki’s hellacious week.

Olympic Sports: Paris 2024 recap for the final week-ish. USA storylines and other countries as well.

Soccer: Team USA update.

Baseball – MLB:

• MLB this week:
  • Valdez was one out away from his 2^nd no-hitter on Aug 6^th and then he came back Monday to pitch a no hit for 5 2/3 innings. Needless to say the Astros beat the Rays. On the flip side, Guardians Rookie Noel hit 2 HRs to help them outlast the Cubs 9-8. Speaking of close games, the Rangers/Red Sox went into the 10^th. The BOS team got the better of the reigning champ with a single with two outs in the 10^th. Also in the 10^th was the Braves scored the only run of their game against the Giants pitching battle. The Red Sox got swept last week by Astros 23-10 in three games. Big names Betts and Ohtani both got HRs to beat the Brewers with Kershaw pitching. The White Sox destroyed the Yankees 12-2.
  • Tigers P Skubal got his 14^th win (which leads the league) against the Mariners on Tuesday 15-1! The Twins also destroyed the Royals 13-3.

• • The Diamondbacks won their 6^th game on Wednesday, beating the Rockies 11-4. After that though, the AZ team would drop 3 games to the Rays. The Pirates lost their 10^th game to the Padres (which was SD’s 19^th win in 22 games). The Pittsburgh team would win the next two games though over the Mariners. The Mariners also lost their game Wednesday to the Tigers in the 10^th after a pinch-hit double gave the Tigers the 1 run win. The Brewers stopped their 3 game losing streak with a win against the Dodgers whose 5-game winning streak also comes to an end. Yankees star Aaron Judge hit his 300^th HR in their win over the White Sox 10-2.
  • The Astros won 8 games in a row before going up against the White Sox on Friday and losing by 1 run. Then they won the next two games against the CHI team. They now sit in 1^st in the AL West. The Royals destroyed the Reds on Saturday winning 13-1.

• • Sunday was a day of extra innings with 4 different games going outside of regulation. Lets start with the longest – one game went into the 12^th It was all Rays early, putting up 6 unanswered runs. The AZ team didn’t put a run on the board until the 7^th inning but they clawed their way all the way back. They got the final runs needed on a 3-run HR in the 9^th to take it to extra innings. They added another in the 10^th but the Rays did too. Then we make it to the bottom of the 12^th when the Rays had another rally going and managed to get one in and solidify the win. The win probability chart changed teams 12 times! The Rangers/Twins game also went into extra innings but only 1. It was a wild game though with the Rangers not scoring any runs except 5 in the 7^th. The Twins then got the 1 run they needed in the 9^th to tie it up. The Rangers got the last laugh with another run in the 10^th to win by 1. The Giants won by 2 in the 10^th as well over the A’s with back to back HRs. Then the Tigers beat the Yankees by 1 in the Little League Classic in the 10^th.

• The longest game of the pitching clock era was the A’s vs Mets game on Thursday. That game was played in NY and lasted 3 hours 45 minutes. Just 1 minute longer than the previous record (set back in 2023). The two teams threw a total of 425 pitches, the most this season in regulation. The A’s would come away victorious by 1.
• We’ll go over standings next week as there is a lot to go over this week.

Basketball:

• Finishing up the Olympics here. Team USA men made it through group stage undefeated and beating South Sudan who gave them some trouble before the games began. Quarterfinals they killed BRA 122-87. But the Semifinals was a close one. SRB with of course Jokic put up a strong showing. SRB took the lead from 5:50 in 1Q until 3:43 in 4Q. They had 3 players with over 30 points (one more than the USA). But the 4Q USA outscored SRB 32-15 to win by 4. The final was against the host nation of FRA and they started off slow, only putting up 15 in the 1Q. That was enough to let USA get the lead and never get it back. Steph was on that night and put up 8 3-pointers, just 1 short of the entire FRA team. That is the 5^th straight gold for the men’s team.

• On the Women’s side, they also played the host nation of FRA in the final. But it came down to the wire! FRA Gabby Williams went for the 3-pointer but her foot was on the 3-point line so it didn’t count for 3 and only 2 thus denying FRA the tie of the game and USA wins by 1! This is the first gold medal game to be decided by single digits since 1988. Diana Taurasi won her 6^th gold medal – the first player to earn that honor. The USA women won their 8^th consecutive gold and 61^st consecutive win in the Olympics.

• The NBA season will start Oct 22 with the Knicks vs Celtics.

Football:

• College football starts this week! Now its Week 0 so there are only 4 games but still! The draught is over.
• I know you’ve been seeing all the NFL preseason games on TV. This is the time for teams to try things out, test players and get ready for the season. Don’t take these games too seriously, seriously.
• Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill and recently crowned 100m Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles have been going back and forth tempting us with a race between the two. It started with a similar comment Lyles made about the NBA after Worlds last year with them not being ‘world champions’ this time about Super Bowl champions. Then Hill said he would race Lyles and win. Let’s see if anything comes of this! I mean I’d watch.

Golf:

• The PGA Tour came out with their 2025 FedEx Cup schedule. There will be 36 regular season events and 8 signature ones. The events will be over 18 states and 6 countries outside the US.
• Hideki Matsuyama had a hell of a week. After winning the bronze medal at the Olympics, he was robbed in London. His caddie and swing coach’s passports and visas were stolen along with Hideki’s wallet. Luckily the Olympic medal and Hideki’s passport were not stolen. But that means that his team had to return to JPN to get their credentials. After all that though, he goes on to win the first FedEx Cup playoff event by 2, even after Xander Schuaffle made a killer comeback in the final round of -7.
• Brooks Koepka becomes the first player to win 5xs on the LIV Tour.

Olympic Sports:

• Final medal count Team USA dominates the total with 127 and 40 golds. We tied CHN with 40 as well. It is the biggest total medal haul for the USA outside of the US. 40 golds is less than both London and Rio but 1 more than Tokyo. Women dominated the golds for USA coming in with 26 of them and 68 total. The best days were Aug 3^rd with 18 medals and we had 3 days of 5 golds (Aug 3, Aug 4 and Aug 10). Torri Huske and Regan Smith both come home with 5 medals apiece, the most of any Americans. FRA nearly doubled their medal performance from London 2012. 19 Senior WRs were broken during this Olympic games.

• I covered all but the final day of Gymnastics. The final day brought just the W Floor and W Balance Beam. It was a day of craziness. On the Beam, there were falls left and right (half of the competitors including both Americans). Simone ended up 5^th and ITA Alice D’Amato took the gold. After that disappointment, Simone came back to compete on the Floor. And while her routine was packed with high difficulty, she stepped out one too many times. She opened the door for BRA Rebecca Andrade who stepped through and got her gold by .033 points over Simone. That wasn’t the only controversial thing to happen in the Floor. Originally Jordan Chiles was awarded the Bronze medal at the games after Team USA put in an inquiry over her starting score. It was deemed that she did not get credit for an element and she was bumped from 5^th to 3^rd and awarded the medal on the podium. However, it was then discovered that Team USA might have put in the inquiry too late and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) took the medal back to ROM Ana Barbosu, who was awarded the medal on Friday. There is still al ot of back and forth but they are standing by their decision and Chiles has not been seen on social since, taking a much needed break.

• On the track:
  • the Americans dominated. It was the most lucrative sport for the USA at the games coming home with 13 golds. Vallerie Allman successfully defended her gold medal in the W Discus. The W 200m was amazing! Gabby Thomas came off the curve in 1^st and you knew that was it. She would go on to win handily. If you didn’t catch the M 1500m, you need to watch it! Cole Hocker came back from behind in a huge upset! We also got the bronze making it the first time since 1912 that we had two on the podium in the M 1500m. Similarly the next night, Quincy Hall did the same thing in the M 400m.

• • In contrast, Grant Holloway finally gets his win in the 110h after dominating the track but losing last Olympics. USA goes 1-2. He’s not missing that accomplishment anymore. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone left no doubt in her race of the 400h either. She dominated the field and NED Femke Bol who actually slipped to 3^rd behind USA Anna Cockrell. That same night, Tara Davis-Woodhall won the gold in the W LJ. Jasmine Moore took the bronze, becoming the first American to medal in both jumps in 1 Olympics. Noah Lyles was going for the double in his signature event, the 200m. But it was not to be. BOT Tebogo got the gold with Kenny Bednarek getting silver and Lyles falling to 3^rd. USA went 2,3,4. It later came out that Lyles had COVID and that was the end of his Olympics.

• • The next night, Rai Benjamin got his revenge on NOR Karsen Warholm in the 400h to win that event after falling to him in Tokyo when both men went under WR time. Not this time! Rai gets his gold. Then the Women successfully completed a comeback int eh 4x100m Relay. Literally Sha’Carri looked over to the competition as she passes them to win at the line. Different story for the men who AGAIN could not get the stick around the track successfully. They would get DQ’d in the first exchange.
• 
  • On the final night, Masai Russell dipped the FRA woman at the line to win the gold in the 100h, completing the hurdle sweep for the USA by .01. The men would then also lean at the line to win the 4x400m relay. The women was a different story; they dominated from the 2^nd leg onward. Sydney went 47 split and then the ladies just kept it going. They came across the line .1 off of the WR! That is the 8^th straight medal for the USA women in that event.

• Other USA golds: Caroline Marks won the women’s surfing to make it back-to-back golds for us. We then had two women own the wrestling mat. Amit Elor won the 68kg freestyle and then Sarah Hildebrandt won the 50kg the next day. Kristen Faulkner took home her 2^nd gold of the games in the women’s team pursuit. Olivia Reeves brought home America’s first gold medal in weightlifting since 2000 in the W 71kg. The final individual gold won for us was Jennifer Valente in the women’s omninum. Then obviously the final gold was the WBB (along with the MBB and WSoccer).

• Other USA stories:
  • W Volleyball made it to the gold medal match but lost to ITA in straight sets. That was a big upset!
  • The Artistic Swim team earned silver after qualifying for their first game since 2008, their highest result since 1996.
  • Katie Grimes, at the age of 18, became the first American female swimmer to swim in the pool and the open water in the same games.
  • WR holder Sam Watson was upset big time in the Men’s speed sport climbing. He was the gold medal favorite.
  • B-Boy Victor won Bronze in Breaking, the first medal for the US in the sport.

• Other storylines:
  • BEL Nafi Thiam is the first athlete to win the combined events 3xs after she wins the hept. Also NED Hussan raced a total of 38.65 miles, winning the women’s marathon, the final individual medal of the Olympics. SWE Mondo Duplantis won the M PV again and broke his own WR for the 7^{th time.} 
  • CHN swept all the Diving events again to continue on their synchro success.
  • DEN Viktor Axelsen won his 2^nd straight mens singles badminton title. Why is this in here you ask? Because this man has not dropped a game in the last 2 Olympics! The king of DEN traveled to FRA to watch.
• Next summer Olympics will be in LA in 2028. Next Olympics is just 2 years away in Milan/Cortina.
• POL rider Kasia Niewiadoma won the Women’s Tour de France by just 4 seconds, which is the closest race in TdF history (women or men). After 24 hours, 36 minutes it came down to 4 seconds.

Soccer:

• Team USA women won the gold medal in soccer once again but it wasn’t without drama. Both games leading into the gold medal match were decided in extra time against JPN (Quarters) and GER (Semis). The final did not go into ET though with the USA scoring in the 57th minute. It looked like Smith was going to score on her 24^th bday but she was offsides so she left it for Swanson who capitalized on the opportunity. Naeher still had an amazing save in stoppage time to keep the win alive. The host nation, FRA, lost to ESP in a crazy high scoring game that went into extra time. ESP would ultimately win 5-3.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Mon 8/19
  • Little League WS @ 12pm, 2pm, 4pm & 6pm on ESPN
  • Twins at Padres @ 8:40pm on FS1
• Tues 8/20
  • Little League WS @ 12pm, 2pm, 4pm & 6pm on ESPN
  • Phillies at Braves @ 6:20pm on TBS
• Wed 8/21
  • Little League WS @ 12pm, 2pm, 4pm & 6pm on ESPN
  • Guardians at Yankees @ 6:05pm on Prime
  • Brewers at Cardinals @ 6:45pm on FS1
• Thurs 8/22
  • Little League WS @ 2pm & 6pm on ESPN
  • Astros at Orioles – or – Phillies at Braves @ 6:15pm on FOX
• Fri 8/23
  • Reds at Pirates @ 5:40pm on Apple TV+
  • Little League WS: HR Derby @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • Cardinals at Twins @ 7:10pm on Apple TV+
• Sat 8/24
  • Little League WS: Int’l Championship @ 11:30am
  • Little League WS: US Championship @ 2:30pm
• Sun 8/25
  • LLWS Consolidation @ 9am on ESPN
  • Little League WS Final @ 2pm on ESPN
  • Astros at Orioles @ 6pm on ESPN

Football – NCAAF:

• Sat 8/24
  • Aer Lingus in Dublin: #10 Florida St at Georgia Tech @ 11am on ESPN
  • Montana St at NM St @ 3pm on FS1
  • SMU at Nevada @ 7pm on CBSSN
  • Delaware St at Hawaii @ 10:59pm

Football – NFL:

• Thurs 8/22
  • Colts at Bengals @ 7pm on Prime
  • Bears at chiefs @ 7:20pm on NFL
• Fri 8/23
  • Jaguars at Falcons @ 6pm on NFL
  • 49ers at Raiders @ 9pm on NFL
• Sat 8/24
  • Steelers at Lions @ 12pm on NFL
  • Chargers at Cowboys @ 3pm on NFL
  • Giants at Jets @ 6:30pm on NFL
  • Browns at Seahawks @ 9pm on NFL
• Sun 8/25
  • Titans at Saints @ 1pm on NFL
  • Cardinals at Broncos @ 3:30pm on CBS
  • Patriots at Commanders @ 7pm on NBC

Golf:

• Thurs 8/22
  • LPGA: AIG Women’s Open – Round 1 @ 6am on USA
  • PGA: FedEx Cup Playoff: BMW Championship – Round 1 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 8/23
  • LPGA: AIG Women’s Open – Round 2 @ 6am on USA
  • PGA: FedEx Cup Playoff: BMW Championship – Round 2 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 8/24
  • LPGA: AIG Women’s Open – Round 3
    • @ 6am on USA
    • @ 11am on NBC
  • PGA: FedEx Cup Playoff: BMW Championship – Round 3
    • @ 12pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 2pm on NBC
  • Road to the Presidents Cup @ 1pm on NBC
• Sun 8/25
  • LPGA: AIG Women’s Open – Final Round
    • @ 6am on USA
    • @ 11am on NBC
  • PGA Tour: BMW Championship – Final Round
    • @ 11am on Golf Channel
    • @ 1pm on NBC

Motorsports:

• Sun 8/25
  • F1: Heineken Dutch GP – Race @ 8am on ESPN

Soccer:

• Mon 8/19
  • Premier League: Leicester City vs Tottenham @ 2pm on USA
• Sat 8/24
  • Premier League: Aston Villa vs Arsenal @ 11:30am on USA
  • Serie A: Parma vs AC Milan @ 11:30am on CBS
  • NWSL: Gotham FC vs Portland Thorns @ 1:30pm on CBS
  • NWSL: SD Wave vs Angel City @ 3:30pm on CBS