— Two weeks in Las Vegas is always fun; hung out with friends, watched lot of games, even made a few bucks gambling, but after two weeks, it is good to be home.
Took me 13 hours Tuesday to get from my hotel room in Las Vegas to my living room in upstate New York; I’m not at my best being around a lot of people. Will be fun to chill here at home by myself the next couple of days.
— I’ll repeat myself: DuPar’s in the SunCoast casino has the best pancakes I’ve ever had.
— There are murmurs on the Interweb that a part of the reason that John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas is that he wanted to hire his son Brad as an assistant coach, and the powers-that-be weren’t real receptive to that.
Brad Calipari was director of on-court player development at Vanderbilt this past season; the Commodores went 9-23, and head coach Jerry Stackhouse and his staff was fired.
Will be interesting to see if Brad Calipari surfaces at Arkansas with his father.
— A’s 4, Rangers 3- Oakland C Shea Langeliers knocked in all four A’s runs with three homers, as the spunky A’s won their third consecutive game- they’re 3-1 on the road, 1-7 at home.
— White Sox 7, Guardians 5- Teams had been 0 for their last 41 with runners in scoring position against Cleveland, but they scored five runs in the first inning here, against Logan Allen, who I added to my fantasy team this week (then cut him when Chicago scored their 5th run in this game).
It is only April 10th and I’ve already cut two pitchers off my fantasy team, while they were still pitching in a game; I could never be a doctor, because I have no patience. (its a joke, kind of)
Cleveland tied the game, but Dominic Fletcher won it with a 2-run double in the top of the 8th inning for the Pale Hose.
— Tigers 5, Pirates 3- Pittsburgh was three outs from a 10-2 start, but Detroit scored four runs in the 9th inning, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
— Rays 6, Angels 4- José Caballero went 3-4, with two runs scored, two RBI, as Tampa Bay evened its record at 6-6.
— Famous birthdays for April 10th:
Mel Blount, 76
Ken Griffey Sr., 74
Steve Tasker, 62
Scott Bentley, 50
Kenny Satterfield, 43
Robert Woods, 32
Jake Burger, 28
The late actor Chuck Connors was born on April 10, 1921; he was The Rifleman on TV, and also played in both pro basketball (53 games for Boston) and major league baseball (67 games from 1949-51, mostly for the Cubs)
The late actor Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H) was born on April 10, 1915
— Baseball injuries:
Houston P Framber Valdez (elbow)
Angels’ P Chase Silseth (elbow)
White Sox 3B Yoan Moncada (adductor)
Red Sox 2B Trevor Story (shoulder) is out for the year.
— In December 2019, Washington Nationals signed star P Stephen Strasburg to a 7-year, $245M contract that didn’t turn out so well. Having just won the World Series, Washington spent some cash on one of its stars, but Strasburg was 1-4, 6.89 in 31 innings after the contract was signed.
Strasburg retired this week; since he signed the contract, Washington is 221-335- they won 90+ games in three of his last four healthy seasons.
— Braves 6, Mets 5
Atlanta led 5-0 in 4th inning, hung on for dear life.
Ronald Acuna was 2-3, stole three bases, scored three runs.
Reynaldo López tossed six shutout IP, before the bullpen’s rough night.
— Royals 4, Astros 3 (10)
Royals are 7-4, Houston is 4-8.
Astros led 3-0 in 5th inning; throwing error by Bregman tied the game 3-3.
Salvador Perez had a walk-off single in the 10th inning,
— Dodgers 6, Twins 3
Tyler Glasnow had 14 strikeouts while throwing seven shutout innings; he threw only 88 pitches. Since 1988, that is the fewest number of pitches thrown by a hurler with 14+ strikeouts in a game.
— Blue Jays 5, Mariners 3
Chris Bassitt needed 115 pitches to get 20 outs, the most pitches thrown in a game this season.
Seattle is off to a disappointing 4-8 start.
— Baltimore Orioles are calling #1 prospect Jackson Holliday up from the minor leagues; the son of former big leaguer Matt Holliday, the 20-year old infielder hit .333 in ten AAA games this month.
— Favorites did unusually well in the NCAA Tournament:
Favorites went 39-28 ATS in all the games, best favorites have done since 2008.
In the seven games from the Elite 8 on, favorites were 6-1 ATS, best they’ve done since 1981.
Tournament favorites of 8+ points went 20-5 ATS, the best they’ve ever d0ne.
Top-3 seeds went 21-10 ATS against #4 or lower seeds, their best record since 2009.
