Busy Sunday afternoon in the MLB as well as a very intriguing college football story that came out this morning. More tennis news and scores and a very heartbreaking Indianapolis 500 finish.
Sunday is always day game central for us East Coasters and we saw the New York Mets avoid a sweep by banging out 17 hits versus the Philadelphia Phillies. Aaron Hill hit his first home run of the year, a grand slam that led the Blue Jays to a rout of the White Sox 13-4. Hill who 2 years ago hit 36 home runs and had a .286 average has not been even close to that as the last year a half he has totaled 27 home runs while hitting .210. Can someone say steroids? Many people argue he hasn’t fully been healthy since that season but the difference is eye popping seeing as he played in 136 games last season and 36 so far this season. Yovani Gallardo and Kyle Lohse both got their 7th wins of the season to tie the league leaders. Gallardo went 8 scoreless innings giving up 4 hits, 1 walk while striking out 5 in the 6-0 victory over the Giants while Lohse defeated the Rockies 4-3 while throwing 6 innings giving up 2 runs, 6 hits, 1 walk while striking out 6. The Boston Red Sox split a double header with the Tigers winning the first game 4-3 and came up blank versus Justin Verlander in the night cap losing 3-0. In Sunday Night Baseball’s game of the week, the Cincinnati Reds came up short versus Jair Jurrjens and the Atlanta Braves 2-1. Johnny Cueto pitched very well and Jay Bruce hit his 15th home run of the season but Martin Prado’s 2 run home run was the difference in the ball game as Craig Kimbrel closed it out for the Braves with his 15th save of the season.
The big college football news was announced this morning out of Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel resigned amid NCAA violations stemming from players getting tattoos for free and by selling their rings/jerseys/trophies to pay for everyday things. Tressel had already been suspended for 5 games but the pressure was still being applied by the NCAA so he decided to step down after leading the Buckeyes to a 106-22 record in 10 years at Ohio State, winning 7 Big Ten Titles and the 2002 National Championship. Everyone including my father thought that this was sure to be Urban Meyer’s new coaching gig (who resigned from University of Florida due to health issues) but he announced he was not interested in coaching this fall and will stay with ESPN to do college football analysis. Luke Fickell was named the interim head coach for the 2011 season after being the co-defensive coordinator last season. Fickell was already set to coach the 5 games Tressel was going to miss before he stepped down.
Now as for auto car racing, I am not a big fan of this and rarely follow it but I was told to watch a replay of the last 3 laps of the 100th Indianapolis 500 because it was one of the best ever. And to be honest, I enjoyed it but really felt bad for the kid! Rookie driver J.R. Hillenbrand was leading the way but crashed into the wall on the final turn and let Dan Wheldon win in spectacular fashion. Wheldon is now a 2-time Indy 500 champ and looking for a new sponsor and ride for next year.
Tennis today was very interesting as the biggest news was what happened off the court as Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal matchup was called a walkover after Fabio Fognini pulled out with a quad injury. So Djokovic is safely into the semifinals where he awaits the winner of the Gael Monfils and Roger Federer match that is set to be played tomorrow. Andy Murray took on Viktor Troicki and after falling behind 2 sets to none he fought back to tie it at 2 a piece before they called the match-up due to darkness. They will complete it tomorrow on Suzanne Lenglen. Rafael Nadal breezed through Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets as did Robin Soderling with Gilles Simon. On the women’s side finally a day with no surprises as Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both won in straight sets while Andrea Petkovic and Li Na took 3 sets to advance over lesser seeds.
Biggest Winner of the Night: A tough pick today as there were a bunch of good performances but nothing that stood out more than any other. So I decided to pick one that might be a little unorthodox. David Ortiz was yesterdays biggest winner when he came into the afternoon game vs. the Tigers in the top of 9th. The score was 3-3 and he came in to face Tigers closer Jose Valverde. Ortiz was 1 for 1 vs. Valverde with a grand slam home run in his career coming in and once again he took Valverde deep for the game winning home run as the final was 4-3.
Biggest Loser of the Night: This was easy, unfortunately J.R. Hillenbrand takes this moniker for the day. The rookie could see victory lane ahead of him but bounced off the last wall to cost him the victory and give Dan Wheldon the lucky, crazy, wild, win.
Matt. Fun to follow your blog and read your takes on the days sports action.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the rooky blowing the Indy 500 win was big but I've got another I'd like to nominate. My award for blunder of the day would have to go to Dale Earhardt Jr., NASCAR's most undeserving Golden Boy. Despite NASCAR doing all they could to assure his victory in the Coca Cola 600, (they chose not to throw a caution flag for a crash when he was leading with two laps to go) he managed to run out of gas on the last lap and coasted in seventh. Once again proving the name doesn't make the man.
Later, MW
Duly noted! That really is embarrassing. So true how the name doesn't make the man, couldn't agree more. We can make him co-biggest loser of the night for that blunder.
ReplyDelete