— Astros 10, Rangers 3
Altuve hit a 3-run homer in top of the 9th.
game was 1-1 after five innings.
Astros used three relievers to get 10 outs.
Astros lead series, 3-2; road team won all five games.
— Diamondbacks 6, Phillies 5
Alek Thomas hit a pinch-hit, 2-run HR in bottom of 8th
Phillies led 5-2 in seventh inning.
Arizona amazingly used eight pitchers in a 9-inning game.
series is tied, 2-2; home side won all four games.
— SMU 55, Temple 0
Mustangs led 24-0 at halftime.
SMU QB Stone was 23-36/300 passing, with two TD’a.
Temple QB EJ Warner (concussion) didn’t play
— Dillon Gabriel was the quarterback at Central Florida from 2019-21; last year he transferred to Oklahoma, and since then, UCF jumped to the Big X, because next year, Texas/Oklahoma are jumping to the SEC.
This week, Central Florida visits Oklahoma, in what will be their only meeting as conference rivals. Dillon Gabriel gets to play against some of his old teammates.
— Will Venable is associate manager for the Texas Rangers; this week he turned down a chance to interview for the vacant managing job with the Mets. Who turns down an interview for a managing job, especially in a big market with a really rich owner?
Only a cynical person would read into this and guess that Venable has a promise to become the Rangers’ manager when Bruce Bochy retires.
— This week, Astros’ 1B Jose Abreu became the oldest player in the last 100 years to hit a home run and steal a base in the same playoff game.
— This made me feel old; kid named Johnny Backus just signed to play baseball for Michigan Wolverines. His mother is actress Mira Sorvino, his grandfather was Paul Sorvino.
— Word of the Day: karma— effects of one’s actions that determine his or her destiny.
In other words, right actions produce good results while wrong actions produce bad ones.
— Modern baseball: Arizona-Phillies are 0-0 in 6th inning, and Brandon Pfaadt is breezing thru the Phillies’ lineup, but as soon as he faces his 18th batter they yank him, because over-educated nerds in the Arizona front office said so. Pfaadt had only thrown 70 pitches.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. At least let him allow a baserunner before you take the guy out.
— Lot of college basketball teams took foreign trips this summer; this is a big advantage in the transfer portal age, since foreign trips let teams have 10 extra practices before the trip, and those practices are very valuable.
Lot of teams are just totally re-booting their rosters, which makes handicapping November games virtually impossible (if you want to win). Coaches don’t even know what’s up; they use the pre-conference games to establish their rotations for conference play.
— People kept saying how Jaguars’ QB Trevor Lawrence had a bad leg, might not play Thursday night; he wore a brace on his knee, and then the game started, and Lawrence ran the ball eight time for 59 yards and he looked pretty nimble and Jacksonville won. Go figure.
In a perfect world, where I make all decisions…….
— NBA needs to sponsor a 32-person (or 64) 1-on-1 tournament in the summer, with each player posting a charity that he is playing for. This would be wildly popular: can you imagine?
Steph Curry vs Lebron James
James Harden vs Kevin Durant
Giannis Antetokounmpo vs Jayson Tatum
This needs to happen; the league had a 1-on-1 tournament for two years back in the 70’s, but it died because Julius Erving’s agent wouldn’t let him play in it.
— NFL officials need to call fewer holding penalties; league says they want more scoring, then call fewer holding penalties.
— We need more game shows on TV, and fewer of these talk programs with contrived arguments; bring back Hollywood Squares. That was an excellent gameshow.
