Weekly Update September 23, 2024

Baseball: Final week of regular season. This week in MLB. 13 inning game. Ohtani makes history with 50/50 season. Playoffs – who’s in and eliminated?

Football – NCAAF: 6 losses in the Top 25. Some scaries. 1 Shutout.

Football – NFL: Only 7 close games this week and plenty of not so close ones.

Quick Headlines: NBA Embiid. WNBA. F1. Olympics.

Baseball – MLB:

• MLB this week:
  • The Dodgers put up 9 runs in their win over the Braves on Monday. That kicked the Braves out of playoffs. Pirates P Skenes would lose his 3^rd game 0-4 to the Cardinals. He would win on Sunday though to make his record 11-3. The Rockies would win in the 9^th inning over the Dbacks on an error. The White Sox won their 3^rd game in a row on Monday against the Angels 8-4. They would then lose the next 5.
  • Jose Altuve was ejected for taking off his cleat and sock in protest after he was arguing that the ball hit him there. The Astros would win in the 10^th over the Padres. Giants P Blake Snell got 12 Ks in their 10-0 win over the Orioles. The Dodgers lost 11-9 to the Marlins even as Ohtani hit his 48^th The Tigers won in the 10^th 3-1 on a broken-bat single play to end the game. Cardinals P Lynn made his 100^th appearance and won his 7^th game this season over the Pirates 3-1.
  • The Mets shut out the Nationals for the second straight blowout win. Wednesday was 10-0. They would also get 10 runs on Thursday, which was the 3^rd game in a row into the double digits. Braves P Chris Sale got his 18^th win of the season, the most in the MLB with their win over the Reds. The Braves would win big time 15-3. The Dbacks P Pfaadt tied the Arizona record of 7 Ks in their win over the Brewers 5-1.
  • De La Cruz stole his 100^th base of his career in the Reds win over the Pirates 8-3. The Phillies turned the tables on the Mets, putting up 12 runs and winning by 10. The Brewers completed an 8-run comeback with 3-runs in the 8^th Milwaukee would win 10-9. The Giants shutout the Royals 9-0, the DBacks shutout the Brewers 5-0 and the Yankees shutout the A’s 10-0 all on Saturday. Altuve got his 3^rd career 20/20 season in the Astros loss 9-8 to the Angels o Sunday. Aaron Judge hit his MLB leading 55^th HR this season in Sundays 7-4 win over the A’s.
• Longest game of the week was the White Sox game against the Angels on Wednesday. The White Sox scored in the 4^th and then the Angels would rally with their tying run in the 8^th. Both teams put up 1 in the 10^th and 11^th. The Angels would get a single to seal the win in the 13^th. The White Sox would lose in extra innings again on Friday 3-2 to the Padres.

• The Dodgers put up 20 runs in their win over the Marlins 20-4! Ohtani made history in that game becoming the first player to get 50 HRs and 50 stolen bases. What a balance of power and speed! He got 2 stolen bases and 3 HRs in this game alone. That was also a first! Ohtani also had a career best 6 hits in that game.

• This the final week of the regular season. The Braves run of 6 straight NL East titles ended with their loss to the Marlins on Friday. The Phillies are the top of that division followed by the Mets. The Brewers won the NL-Central. The Guardians won the AL-Central. The Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers have all clinched their spot in the playoffs. The Rangers and Blue Jays have been eliminated in the AL. The NL has had a lot of teams added to their eliminated list: the Cubs, Cardinals, Giants, Reds and Pirates.

Football-NCAAF:

• Week 4 Top 25 Upsets: Theme of the week was newcomers to their conference did not go well.
  • #11 USC went to the Big House to play #18 Michigan in their first Big Ten game. USC was down by 9 going into halftime only putting gup a FG in the 1H. But they rallied in 2H taking the lead halfway through the 4Q off a short field TD 24-20. Michigan would manage a last minute TD scoring with just 37 seconds left. USC could not get in FG range and lost 27-24.
  • #13 Kansas St got their ass kicked by unranked BYU. Hard to win a football game if all you get is FGs. BYU put up 17 and 14 in the middle Qs to solify the win. They won 38-9.
  • #6 Tennessee beat #15 Oklahoma in Norman on Gameday. The Sooners were lucky to escape only losing by 10 with three turnovers and a benched starting QB. Arnold fumbled the ball back to the Vols the play after the Sooner defense got a turnover of their own. It was a triumphant return for HC Josh Heupel who won OU’s last natty in 2000. Vols win 25-15.
  • The #22 Nebraska vs #24 Illinois game was close and very back and forth. We were tied 3 different times including at the end of regulation. We went into OT. Illini scored a TD in 2 plays and Nebraska couldn’t answer. Illinois wins 31-24.

• • #24 NIU was playing their first game as a ranked team against Buffalo. The first half had 8 3&outs – 5 of them by Buffalo. NIU would get the game tying FG with 42 seconds left to take the game to OT. NIU missed their 37 yard FG in OT. Bulls made theirs to win 23-20. The Huskies were favored by 12.5 – yikes!

• Ranked storylines:
  • #10 Penn State got a shutout of Kent State 56-0. They were the only shutout in the Top 25.
  • #1 Texas started Arch Manning this week to rest Quinn Ewers. It was successful against UL Monroe.

• Some unranked storylines:
  • UNC lost to JMU. JMU put up 50 points before halftime!
  • Kansas was leading 28-17 with 3 minutes in the game left. They would go onto lose 34-28 to West Virginia.

• • Colorado beat Baylor in OT – both team were in white of all things.
  • Florida State got its first win of the season against Cal!

• Some scaries that shouldn’t have been:
  • #7 Mizzou was trailing at halftime and was still tied with Vanderbilt at the end of regulation. Both teams would get a TD in the OT and ended up in 2OT. Vandy would miss a FG and Mizzou escapes!
  • UCLA and #16 LSU were tied at 17 a piece at half. LSU would then kick it into gear and score another 17 in the 2H to win.
  • Bowling Green played Penn State close and now #25 Texas A&M. The Aggies only managed to win by 6 points.

Football – NFL:

• Going back to Week 2 to wrap it up because MNF was crazy! Eagles Saquon Barkley dropped a short pass on 3^rd down which stopped the clock and gave the ball back to the Falcons. The Eagles did get a FG out of that but it gave Atlanta time to get down the field and QB Kirk Cousins led a perfect flawless last minute drive and TD to beat Phili 22-21!

• NFL Week 3 only had 7 close games.
  • The Giants got all their scoring done in the 1H with 21 points but that was all they needed. They finally win a game, this one over the Browns 21-15.
  • The Eagles bounced from last week’s devasting loss. They beat the Saints 15-12, scoring all their 15 points in the 4Q.
  • The Cowboys alllllmost came back on the Ravens. They scored 19 points in the 4Q but would still fall 3 points short, losing 28-25.
  • The Rams also won by 3 over the 49ers. LA did have a successful comeback scoring 13 points in the 4^th to win.
  • The Lions put up 20 points in the 1H and held onto the win over the Cardinals by a TD.

• The not so close ones:
  • TNF was not worth watching. Aaron Rodgers finally looked like what the Jets paid for him. He had 2 TDs and threw for 281 yards. The Jets beat the Pats 24-3.
  • The Texans got their ass kicked 34-7 by the Vikings. The Broncos/Bucs game had their points scored in the 1H by both teams. It was 26-7 and that was the final score with Denver on top.

• • The Panthers won their first game!! They beat the Raiders 36-22. That doesn’t bode well for QB Bryce Young who was announced as losing the starting position for this game. Andy Dalton had 3 TDs for 319 yards. This game made history as it was the first time that two female presidents faced off in the NFL!
  • Dolphins QB Tua was placed on IR this week and it showed against the Seahawks. Miami didn’t score a TD, losing 24-3.

Some quick highlights:

• Joel Embiid got a contract extension with the 76ers for 3 years for $192.9MM. He announced it on social media and said ‘Philadelphia is home. I want to be here for the rest of my career.’

• The WOJ is retiring!

• Portland is getting a new WNBA team in 2025.

• Aj’a was voted unanimous MVP of the WNBA!
• Lando Norris took the Singapore GP title before the break. Norris led every free practice after the first one and got pole. Max Verstappen was the next closest trailing by 20 seconds. We don’t have another race for almost a month.
• Ripper GC wins the LIV team championship. If you don’t know what team that is, its team AUS with Cam Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert. They won with a score of -11 with the next team being the Aces and Iron Heads tied at -8.
• The Diamond League will increase their prize money to $9MM in 2025. Men and women will be paid the same and will make promo fees on top of winnings.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Tues 9/24
  • Orioles at Yankees @ 6:05pm on TBS
    • Kremer vs Schmidt
  • Padres at Dodgers @ 9:10pm on TBS
    • King vs Knack
• Sat 9/28
  • Orioles at Twins – or – Mets at Brewers @ 6:15pm on FOX

Basketball:

• Sun 9/29
  • WNBA @ 2pm on ABC

Football – NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 5
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
20. Oklahoma St	23. Kansas St	Sat 9/28	11:00 AM	ESPN	K St -6
15. Louisville	16. Notre Dame	Sat 9/28	2:30 PM	Peacock	ND -6.5
Arkansas	24. Texas A&M	Sat 9/28	2:30 PM	ESPN	Tamu -3.5
2. Georgia	4. Alabama	Sat 9/28	6:30 PM	ABC	UGA -1.5
19. Illinois	9. Penn St	Sat 9/28	6:30 PM	NBC	PSU -18
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football – NFL:

• Mon 9/23
  • Jaguars at Bills @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Commanders at Bengals @ 7:15pm on ABC
• Thurs 9/26
  • Cowboys at Giants @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 9/29
  • 8 games @ 12pm on CBS/FOX
    • CBS: Jaguars at Texans, Vikings at Colts, Steelers at Colts, Broncos at Jets
    • FOX: Saints at Falcons, Rams at Bears, Eagles at Bucs, Bengals at Panthers
  • Commanders at Cardinals – or – Patriots at 49ers @ 3:05pm on FOX
  • Browns at Raiders – or – Chiefs at Chargers @ 3:25pm on CBS
  • Bills at Ravens @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 9/30
  • Titans at Dolphins @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Seahawks at Lions @ 7:15pm on ABC

Golf:

• Thurs 9/26
  • President’s Cup – Day 1 @ 10:30am on Golf Channel
• Fri 9/27
  • President’s Cup – Day 2 @ 12pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 9/28
  • President’s Cup – Day 3
    • @ 6am on Golf Channel
    • @ 7am on NBC
• Sun 9/29
  • President’s Cup – Day 4 @ 11am on NBC

Olympics Sports:

• Fri 9/27
  • NCAA Volleyball: Illinois vs Oregon @ 9:30pm on FS1

Soccer:

• Sat 9/28
  • Premier League: Brentford vs West Ham @ 9am on USA
  • Premier League: Wolves vs Liverpool @ 11:30am on USA
  • NWSL: KC Current vs Gotham FC @ 12pm on CBS