Weekly Update May 27, 2024

Baseball-MLB: Some streaky teams. Tucker leads HR. Acuna out for the season. Liz McGuire gets her own baseball card.

Baseball/Softball-NCAA: Super Regionals complete and WCWS set! Conference Champs have been decided and let baseball regionals begin.

Basketball – NBA: One sweep complete while the other series sits primed for another tomorrow.

Football: Paying players?

Golf: Charles Schwabb Challenge first timer but sad news for the PGA family.

Hockey: The opposite of the NBA. Super close games and OTs all over the place.

Olympic Sports: Tadej wins Giro. Asinga banned for 4 years.

Quick Headlines: NCAA Lax champs. Leclerc wins Monaco. French Open – Nadal out.

Baseball – MLB:

• This week in the MLB:
  • The Angels had a 7-run 5^th inning to win their game over the Astros 9-7. Speaking of innings with a lot of runs, Dodgers Freeman his a grand slam which was responsible for 4 of the 6 runs scored in the 3^rd Red Sox 3B Rafael Devers set a franchise record by hitting a HR in his 6^th straight game. BOS shutout the Rays 5-0.
  • Astros Kyle Tucker got 2 HRs to give him the solo lead with 17 this season. That also helped HOU beat the Angels in the 10^th inning 6-5. The Pirates beat the Giants also in the 10^th by 1. Red Sox star Duran hit a HR and stole home in the same game to beat the Rays 5-2.
  • The Rockies/A’s game on Thursday was crazy! Not only did it go into extra innings after being tied at 4 runs a piece. The A’s had to score those 4 in the final 3 innings to force going into extra innings. Then both teams got 1 each in the 10^th. Colorado got 4 in the 11th and you’re like ok this has to be it. But NO, the A’s proceed to get 5 in that same inning to steal with win! The A’s got a 2-run HR to tie it up at 9 and the continued to pile one more on to win. Crazy!
  • The Rockies beat the Phillies in 11 innings after Stallings hit the HR with 2 outs in the 9^th inning to force extra innings. Also Bryce Harper got ejected in the 1^st. 

• Some streaks that need to be mentioned:
  • The Mariners currently sit at 1^st in the AL West but this week was not good for them. They lost 4 straight games before finally winning over the Nationals on Saturday. That’s their worst stretch of the season so far. The Rangers lost 6 in a row before finally beating the Twins on Sunday.
  • The A’s had lost 8 games in a row until their game vs the Rockies where they won by 1. They have made some progress this week as they are now losing one game, winnings one game and switching back and forth.
  • The White Sox are struggling. They have lost 10 games in the last 11. The only win was their game against the Blue Jays where they shut them out 5-0. That game was on Tuesday. They have now lost 6 in a row.
  • The Guardians had won 9 games in a row. Until last night, they lost their game against the Rockies 8-6.

• Braves RF Ronald Acuna Jr is out for year with torn ACL after this play in their 4-1 loss to the Pirates on Saturday. He really just fell to the ground holding his leg after an odd step when he was starting to sprint for a steal. He is the reigning NL MVP.

• The Blue Jays lost to the Rays on Friday, with a score of 4-3. However that is not the noteworthy news. A Toronto fan, Liz McGuire, got his by a 110mph foul ball but continued to stay the whole game. She later got a black eye from the incident but will also receive her on baseball card as her post of the bruise and swelling got 150k likes. The batter did go back and give her tickets as well and the money she makes off those baseball cards will go toward concussion research.
• Standings: The Yankees lead the AL by 1 game over the Guardians but it is tight up at the top. The White Sox are in last with just 15 wins. While the Phillies are securely at the top of the NL with 38 wins over the Dodgers with 33. It’s a tie at the bottom though with the Rockies and Marlins both sitting at 19 wins.

Baseball/Softball – NCAA:

• Super Regionals are over and the WCWS is set!!
  • #2 Oklahoma was the first team to advance to WCWS with an NCAA record, 18th tournament win straight. The games were close against #15 Florida St but the Sooners were in control. Both OU and #6 UCLA won their games on Thursday by run rule and finished the series in just 2 games. #5 Oklahoma State was the only other team to make it through in just 2 games. All others that started their series on Friday needed more.
  • #16 Texas A&M had a huge upset with beating #1 Texas in Game 1 6-5. And then the Aggies were leading in Game 2 5-1 going into the 6^th But the Longhorns came back, scoring 7 in the final 2 innings. The Aggies fought back scoring 3 in the final inning to tie it back up and we went into extra innings. UT won in the 9^th with 1 run. Game 3 was also close but ultimately Texas overpowered the Aggies who made some mistakes in the field. Texas escapes their rivals.

• • #3 Tennessee won Game 1 3-2 over #14 Alabama. Nothing too crazy but a solid game. However the newsworthy game was on Saturday. Alabama came back to win the longest super regional of all time in 14 innings. Then they had to come back and do it again on Sunday but the Tide manage to get the upset!
  • #9 LSU beat #8 Stanford in just 5 innings on Friday but the Cardinal tied up the series Saturday. The matchup was the final one on Sunday and it was 0-0 through 4 but then it was all Stanford. The Cardinal put up 7 in the 5^th and tagged on one more to win and advance.
  • #4 Florida beat Baylor on Friday 4-2 but Baylor flipped the script Saturday winning 5-2. Florida had less hits but got more runs on the board in the final game to win the series and escape an unranked team.
  • The #10 Duke and #7 Mizzou matchup was close! Duke won game 1 6-3 despite having 2 errors but the Tigers fought back to tie the series with a 3-1 win. The final game went into extra innings (9) and the Blue Devils managed to win by 1. Another upset!

• Its conference tournament weekend for baseball. #6 Duke destroyed #5 Florida State in the ACC final 16-4. It was the opposite story in the Big Ten. Nebraska won a close one over Penn State 2-1. Oklahoma State handled the Sooners who started behind and could never make it up, 9-2. Arizona lost one of their games in the pool play but ultimately won the whole thing over USC 4-3. LSU put up a lot of runs to get to the final game with 11 and 12 but couldn’t do it in the final against Tennessee. The Vols beat LSU 4-3.

Basketball – NBA:

• Conference finals:
  • Game 1 of the conference finals didn’t disappoint. The Pacers Celtics game was close the entire time. Literally the win probability chart was two lines almost on top of each other. So no surprise that the Celtics hit 3 pointer with 6 seconds to take to OT. Ultimately the Celtics got the last laugh and win game 1 133-125. The Celtics had a slower start for game 2 but came in strong in the next 3 Qs. Jaylen Brown hit high career 40 points after he was not named an all-nba player. Celtics up 2 games. The Pacers got their act together for Game 3 and started off hot! They were winning by 12 at halftime. But then IN just faltered only putting up 21 in both 2H Qs. That let the Celtics come back and Boston won by 2. The Celtics were just one game away going into Memorial Day. 2H was lower scoring for both teams but the Pacers only scored 19 in the final Q and that was enough to solidify the sweep. Celtics advance to their final!

• • Speaking of 3-0. Spoiler alert but the Mavs are up 3-0. Game 1 was close and back and forth. KAT thought he hit the game tying basket but it was not counted for basket interference. Dallas wins by 3. The Timberwolves were winning game 2 by 12 at half but the Mavs mounted a comeback 2H. Doncic hit the game winning 3 pointer with 3 seconds left. He got his 8th post season triple double and Dallas gets the win by 1! Sunday night was game 3 and it was not as close as the others but that’s a high bar. The game was tied with 4 min to go but right about then the Mavs pulled away as the wolves only put up 20 points in the final Q. Dallas wins by 9 and is now 3-0.

Football:

• Amateurism is dead! The NCAA agreed to settle 3 lawsuits (House, Hubbard and Carter) for $2.7Bn over 10 years to current and previous athletes. If an athlete accepts the money, they will not be allowed to sue again. Also a revenue-sharing plan has been agreed to which will allow the schools to pay their players $20MM/year to its athletes. Revenue sharing is likely not until fall of 2025. It will be many more months before we have solid details but this is ground breaking and landscape changing for collegiate sports.

Golf:

• Davis Riley destroyed the field at the Charles Schwab challenge. He won by 5 strokes with a score of -14. In 2-5, those names had 22 PGA Tour titles combined with Keegan Bradley, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa. Scottie Scheffler started with a round of 73 but bounced back nicely with a 63 on Saturday. He needed up in 2nd. But the biggest headline from the tournament was super sad news. Grayson Murray a 30 year old golfer committed suicide this week. He withdrew from the tournament Friday on the 16th hole. The official reason was illness. Our thoughts go with his family.

Hockey:

• The Oilers finally managed to get it done on Monday to claim the final spot over the Canucks in a winner take all game 7. They did all their scoring in the 2P and were done for the game. The Canuck’s tried to comeback but would fall one short.

• Conference finals began Wed.
  • The Panthers shutout the Rangers 3-0. The Rangers then fought back at home to win in OT 2-1 for game 2, series tied. It was more of that story on Sunday with the Rangers winning in OT again this time in Florida 5-4. NY leads 2-1.
  • The Oilers/Stars games have been great as well. The Oilers, who struggled to even get to the conference championship, won game 1 but needed until 2OT to do it. The Stars then played well in Game 2 to take the win 3-1. The Oilers started well in Game 3, scoring 2 in the 1P but then Dallas made a big comeback to win 5-3. DAL Leads 2-1.

Olympic Sports:

• Tadej Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia by the largest margin since 1965. This is one of the biggest races in the lead up to the Tour de France in the summer. Looks like this two time champ is setting up well.

• Issam Asinga, the U20 sprinter who set the WR in the 100m, has been banned for 4 years after he tested positive for a banned substance. He claims that the ‘recovery gummy’ was one provided to him in his Gatorade goodie bag as part of his gift provided by the company for being Athlete of the year in T&F. The 19 year old currently goes to Texas A&M although he reps Suriname and beat Noah Lyles last year. The penalties negate all of his results including the WRs. This was the second time he had tested positive for a banned substance and he has been banned since August. Both of his parents were Olympians as well.

Some quick highlights:

• Leclerc wins his home GP in Monaco. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ended up 6th.

• French Open has begun but we are just getting started so not a lot to report yet. However one big upset, Nadal gets knocked out of French open with straight sets loss to Zverev 6-3, 7-5 (5), 6-3 in just 3 hours and 5 minutes. He has said that his main goal is the Olympics next so Wimbledon not looking good. TBD if this is his final French Open match. Coco Gauff won her 50^th Grand Slam match and advanced.

• Notre Dame won their 2^nd straight NCAA championship in Men’s Lacrosse. The Boston College ladies won the women’s side.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Tues 5/28
  • Dodgers at Mets @ 6:10pm on TBS
• Fri 5/31
  • Tigers at Red Sox @ 6:10pm on Apple TV+
  • Angels at Mariners @ 9:10pm on Apple TV+
• Sat 6/1
  • 3 games @ 6:15pm on FOX
    • Angels vs Mariners
    • Reds vs Cubs
    • Cardinals at Phillies
• Sun 6/2
  • Cardinals at Phillies @ 6pm on ESPN
    • Lynn vs Walker

Baseball-NCAA:

• Fri 5/31
  • Coastal Carolina vs Vanderbilt @ 11am on ESPN2
  • Wofford vs LSU @ 11am on ESPNU
  • Western Michigan vs 2. Kentucky @ 11am on SEC
  • Oregon vs San Diego @ 2pm on ESPNU
  • West Virginia vs Dallas Baptist @ 2pm on ESPN2
  • Texas vs Louisiana @ 5pm on ESPNU
  • GT vs UNC Wilmington @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • High point vs 6. Clemson @ 6pm on ACC
  • N Kentucky vs 1. Tennessee @ 6pm on SEC
  • Tulane vs 15. Oregon St @ 8pm on ESPNU
• Sat 6/1
  • Regionals @ 10am on ESPN2
  • Regionals @ 11am on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 12pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 1pm on ESPN2
  • Regionals @ 2pm on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 3pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 4pm on ESPN2
  • Regionals @ 5pm on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 6pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 8pm on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 8pm on ESPN
  • Regionals @ 9pm on ESPN2
• Sun 6/2
  • Regionals @ 11am on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 12pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 2pm on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 3pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 6pm on SEC and ACC
  • Regionals @ 8pm on ESPNU
• Mon 6/3
  • Regionals @ 2pm on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 5pm on ESPNU
  • Regionals @ 8pm on ESPNU

Softball-NCAA:

• Thurs 5/30
  • 14. Alabama vs 6. UCLA @ 11am on ESPN
  • 10. Duke vs 2. Oklahoma @ 1:30pm on ESPN
  • 8. Stanford vs 1. Texas @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • 5. Oklahoma St vs 4. Florida @ 8:30pm on ESPN2
• Fri 5/31
  • Game 5 @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • Game 6 @ 8:30pm on ESPN2
• Sat 6/1
  • Game 7 @ 2pm on ESPN+
  • Game 8 @ 6pm on ESPN
• Sun 6/2
  • Game 9 @ 2pm on ESPN+
  • Game 10 @ 6pm on ESPNU
• Mon 6/3
  • Game 11 @ 11am on ESPN
  • Game 12 (if necessary) @ 1:30pm on ESPN
  • Game 13 @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • Game 14 (if necessary) @ 8:30pm on ESPN2
• Wed 6/5
  • WCWS Final Game 1 @ 7pm on ESPN
• Thurs 6/6
  • WCWS Final Game 2 @ 7pm on ESPN
• Fri 6/7
  • WCWS Final Game 3 if necessary @ 7pm on ESPN

Basketball – NBA:

• Mon 5/27
  • East Finals Game 4: Celtics at Pacers @ 7pm on ESPN
• Tues 5/28
  • West Finals Game 4: Timberwolves vs Mavericks @ 7:30pm on TNT
• Thurs 5/30
  • West Finals Game 5: Mavericks at Timberwolves @ 7:30pm on TNT
    • If needed
• Sat 6/1
  • West Finals Game 6: Timberwolves vs Mavericks @ 7:30pm on TNT
    • If needed
• Mon 6/3
  • West Finals Game 7: Mavericks at Timberwolves @ 7:30pm on TNT
    • If needed

Football – UFL:

• Sat 6/1
  • Michigan Panthers at Birmingham Stallions @ 11am on FOX
  • San Antonio Brahmas at St. Louis Battlehawks @ 3pm on FOX
• Sun 6/2
  • Arlington Renegades at DC Defenders @ 11am on ABC
  • Houston Roughnecks at Memphis Showboats @ 6pm on FOX

Golf:

• Tues 5/28
  • NCAA Men’s Golf Championship – Team Match Play Quarterfinals @ 12pm on Golf Channel
  • NCAA Men’s Golf Championship – Team Match Play Semifinals @ 5pm on Golf Channel
• Wed 5/29
  • NCAA Men’s Golf Championship – Team Match Play Finals @ 5pm on Golf Channel
• Thurs 5/30
  • US Women’s Open – Round 1 @ 1pm on USA
  • RBC Canadian Open – Round 1 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 5/31
  • US Women’s Open – Round 2 @ 1pm on USA
  • RBC Canadian Open – Round 2 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 6/1
  • US Women’s Open – Round 3 @ 2pm on NBC
  • RBC Canadian Open – Round 3
    • @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 4:30pm on CBS
• Sun 6/2
  • RBC Canadian Open – Final Round
    • @ 12:30pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 1:30pm on CBS
  • US Women’s Open – Final Round @ 3pm on NBC

Hockey:

• Mon 5/27
  • West Game 3: Stars at Oilers @ 7:30pm on TNT
• Tues 5/28
  • East Game 4: Rangers at Panthers @ 7pm on ESPN
    • NYR lead 2-1
• Wed 5/29
  • West Game 4: Stars at Oilers @ 7:30pm on TNT
    • DAL leads 2-1
• Thurs 5/30
  • East Game 5: Panthers at Rangers @ 7pm on ESPN
• Fri 5/31
  • West Game 5: Oilers at Stars @ TBD on TNT
• Sat 6/1
  • East Game 6: Rangers at Panthers @ 7pm on ABC
• Sun 6/2
  • West Game 6: Stars at Oilers @ TBD on TNT

Olympic Sports:

• Sat 6/1
  • Diamond League: Oslo @ 9am on CNBC
  • US Gymnastics Championship @ 7pm on CNBC
• Sun 6/2
  • Diamond League: Stockholm @ 1pm on CNBC
  • US Gymnastics Championships @ 2pm on NBC
  • US Gymnastics Championships @ 7pm on NBC

Soccer:

• Wed 5/29
  • MLS: Austin FC vs Portland Timbers @ 7:30pm on FS1
  • MLS: LA FC vs Minnesota U @ 9:30pm on FS1
• Sat 6/1
  • UEFA Champions League: Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid @ 2pm on CBS
  • CONCACAF: CF Pachuca vs Columbus Crew @ 8pm on FS 1
• Sun 6/2
  • MLS: AtlantaU vs Charlotte @ 3:30pm on FOX

Tennis:

• Sat 6/1
  • French Open – 3^rd Round @ 11am on NBC
• Sun 6/2
  • French Open – 4^th Round @ 11am on NBC