— Ronald Acuna is having a very good week.
Thursday night, Acuna became the first player ever to hit 30+ home runs and steal 60+ bases in the same season. Braves beat the Dodgers 8-7, with Acuna hitting a grand slam.
Earlier Thursday, Acuna got married; his fiancee’s visa was about to expire— she would’ve had to leave the country and miss the rest of the season, so instead of getting married this fall, they got married Thursday, so now she can live in Atlanta, with the couple’s two kids.
Friday night, Atlanta beat the Dodgers again, 6-3, and Acuna hit another home run.
Ballplayers are superstitious; Braves’ 1B Matt Olson jokingly suggested that he and his wife might be getting their vows renewed, if getting married helps your hitting.
— College sports are getting very weird; the ATLANTIC Coast Conference, and I am emphasizing ATLANTIC, added three teams Friday: Stanford, California and SMU.
Stanford and Cal are located in California, very close to the PACIFIC Ocean.
Southern Methodist is located in Dallas, which isn’t near the Atlantic or the Pacific.
Supposedly, lot of the non-revenue sports will be playing games in Dallas, cutting down the travel from each coast, which is why/how SMU got involved.
This is all greed-driven nonsense:
Clemson, Cal and Stanford are in the same league.
USC, UCLA and Rutgers are in the same league.
Oy.
— Washington Commander fans must be happy that Daniel Snyder sold the ballclub; the Week 1 home opener against Arizona is a sellout, which is significant.
As recently as 2021, the team’s home games were filled to only 62.6% of their stadium’s capacity. It was, by far, the lowest figure in the NFL.
— As recently as Week 18 of last season, Davis Webb was an NFL quarterback; he started the Giants’ last regular season game LY, his one and only NFL start. Then he retired.
Webb must be highly thought of in NFL circles; Sean Payton hired the 28-year old Webb as his new QB coach in Denver, where his job is to get Russell Wilson back on track.
Pretty significant job for a first-time coach; this will be interesting to follow.
— Movie of the Day: The Breakfast Club (1985)— Five high school students meet during their Saturday detention and discover they have a lot more in common than they thought.
Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy are the five kids. Paul lGleason plays the teacher supervising the group.
The scene in which all characters sit in a circle on the floor in the library and tell stories about why they were in detention wasn’t scripted; it was all ad-libbed.
Good movie.
— NFL Trend of the Day: Under Robert Saleh, Jets are 11-17 ATS as an underdog, 3-3 as the favorite. Now that Aaron Rodgers is a Jet, they figure to be favored more often.
— Louisville 39, Georgia Tech 34
Tech led 28-13 at halftime.
Louisville was only 1-11 on third down.
Cardinals ran ball for 227 yards, threw for 247 more; good balance.
— Michigan State 31, Central Michigan 7
MSU outscored the Chippewas 21-0 in second half.
Total yardage was 406-219, Spartans.
Central Michigan was 3-16 on third down.
— Miami FL 38, Miami OH 3
Hurricanes threw a 44-yard TD pass on their first pass of the game.
Hurricanes outgained the Red Hawks, 493-215.
— Cubs 6-2, Reds 2-3
Noelvi Marte’s walk-off single gave the Reds a split of this twinbill.
In the first inning of the nightcap, Lyon Richardson threw 37 pitches, faced six batters— three walks, three strikeouts.
37 pitches with no balls in play isn’t going to make Commissioner Manfred happy.
— Phillies’ P Michael Lorenzen threw a no-hitter in his second start for Philly August 9th; in three starts since then, he’s allowed 15 runs in 15 IP. Go figure.
— Marlins 8, Nationals 5 (11)
Miami moves within two games of the last NL Wild Card slot.
— Mets 2, Mariners 1
Daniel Vogelbach had the game-winning single in the 8th inning.
— Blue Jays 13, Rockies 9
This game was 2-2 after five innings; rough night for the bullpens.
