Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….

— USC 27, LSU 20
Trojans outscored LSU 14-3 in the 4th quarter.
USC QB Moss threw for 378 yards in his 2nd college start.
LSU lost its season opener for third year in a row.

Miller Moss is 2-0 as a college starter, throwing for 372/378 yards on neutral fields, after USC lost five of the last six games Caleb Williams played for them.

— College football home underdogs were 5-4 ATS this week.
Home favorites were 10-10 ATS.

— Too-early conference trends:
AAC 2-2 ATS
ACC 4-4 ATS
Big X 3-3 ATS

Big 18 6-6 ATS
C-USA 1-2 ATS, all as road underdogs
MAC 3-3 ATS, all as road underdogs

Mountain West 5-3 ATS
(I just typed Pac-12, had to delete it)
SEC 4-4 ATS
Sun Belt 3-3 ATS

— Minnesota Gophers’ QB Max Brosmer was at I-AA New Hampshire for five years before he became a Gopher; he threw for 6,603 yards the last two years. Has to be a huge jump from playing in the CAA to the Big 18— Minnesota has a 3-week stretch coming up wheee they play Michigan, USC and UCLA in consecutive weeks.

Little different than playing Monmouth, Albany and Towson State.

Modern baseball
Sunday, the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the 5th inning in Detroit; P Cooper Criswell pitched the first four innings, retiring all 12 hitters he faced, striking out five of them. Then, for some freakin’ reason, they took him out of the game; why?!?!?!?!

Criswell has finished five innings in seven starts this year, six innings in two of those; if it ain’t broke, don’t freakin’ fix it. Tigers scored twice in 5th inning and won 4-1, as the overeducated morons in the front office cost the Red Sox a win.

— Two years ago, I couldn’t watch the World Series at home because DirecTV was at war with FOX, so channel 23 here in Albany was blacked out on DirecTV. When DirecTV lost the NFL Sunday Ticket, I dumped it for YouTube TV, which has been a big plus for me.

This weekend, DirecTV is now at war with Disney, which means no ESPN channels or ABC on DirecTV, kind of a big thing with football starting up.

I read on the Interweb that DirecTV once had 21 million customers; now they’re down to 9 million.

Famous birthdays, September 2nd:
Terry Bradshaw, 76
Nate Archibald, 76
Mark Harmon, 73

Rick Manning, 70
Eric Dickerson, 64
Rex Hudler, 64

Keanu Reeves, 60
Tommy Maddox, 53
Willie Adames, 29

— Gavin Sheets is an OF/1B for the White Sox, who are 31-107 and at one point, lost 21 games in a row. His dad Larry Sheets was an OF/DH for ’88 Orioles, who wear 54-107 and started the season with a 21-game losing skid.

Ironically, after starting that season 0-21, Baltimore’s first win was against the White Sox.

— Random stat: all-time leaders in sacrifice flies:
128- Eddie Murray
127- Cal Ripken Jr

— Last week, basketball star Steph Curry got a contract extension for 2026-27 that is worth $62.59M, for that one season.

This year, the Oakland A’s entire payroll is $62.57M. For the whole team.

— In 2021, the Angels drafted 20 pitchers; no position players, just 20 pitchers, that’s how committed they were/are to improving their mound presence.

Angels 3, Mariners 2
20-year old Caden Dana made his MLB debut Sunday, gave up two runs in 6 IP, got the win in a solid performance. Dana was drafted in 2022, but he has flown thru the Angels’ farm system, and may be in the big leagues to stay now.

— P Jordan Wicks got a win pitching for the Cubs in Washington; he threw five innings, gave up a run, but he didn’t walk anyone, or strike anyone out. Really unusual to get a pitching win as a starter and not strike anyone out.

— This weekend was the deadline for teams to add players on waiver deals and have them be eligible for the postseason. Kansas City Royals added three players:

OF Tommy Pham, OF Robbie Grossman, 1B Yuli Gurriel, all older players who can hit.

— Phillies 3, Braves 2 (11)
Nick Castellanos knocked in all three runs for the Phillies.
Braves lead the Mets by a game for the last Wild Card slot in the NL

Phillies/Braves are done playing each other in the regular season. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
NL: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Diamondbacks, Padres, Mets
AL: New York, Guardians, Astros. Wild Cards: Orioles, Twins, Royals

Author: Armadillo Sports

I've been involved in sports my whole life, now just write about them. I like to travel, mostly to Las Vegas- they have gambling there.