NFL Week 3 goes Sunday, and with the TV schedule keyed by Indianapolis-San Francisco (4:25 PM ET, CBS) and Chicago-Pittsburgh (8:30 PM ET, NBC), a lot of fans won’t find time for baseball. But the races have just eight days to go. The leaders in the American League wild-card race held serve yesterday. Here’s what went down on Saturday…
The Boston Red Sox completed their worst-to-first journey in the AL East with a 6-3 win over Toronto that sewed up the division title. Jon Lester capped off his own second half dominance with seven innings of one-run ball.
The first division title in the 2013 MLB season was officially clinched last night as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 and wrapped up the NL West. Hanley Ramirez went 4-for-5, including two home runs to lead the way.
Arizona played the role of sore loser when they griped over the fact the Dodger players had celebrated in the pool that’s behind the centerfield fence at Bank One Ballpark.
Ranger fans had to feel like this was re-living the bad dream that is Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. They had this game won in the 11th, coughed up the lead and then lost it in an inning later.
Three bullpens that are normally reliable came up small in Tuesday night’s MLB action. One of those cases swung a big head-to-head game and two others saw wild-card hopefuls rally against division leaders.
A look back on last night in the baseball playoff race, and ahead to tonight’s games and daily sports TV options…
There are three races that call for daily check-ins during the final two weeks of the regular season, and those are the wild-card pushes in both leagues, as well as touching base with the St. Louis-Pittsburgh race in the NL Central, where each team is going to qualify, but one will be subjected to the one-game elimination knockout on October 1 (the AL wild-card game is October 2)
It’s a Sunday of rivalries, with the NFL schedule highlighted by a battle amongst the brothers and a huge divisional grudge match, baseball’s schedule being marked by its most storied rivalry and a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that opens under a cloud of bad feeling
The game most college football fans see as the Game of the Year goes today in College Station. ESPN’s Gameday is on the scene for Alabama-Texas A&M, and CBS has the telecast itself at 3:30 PM ET. I’m not sold at all on the Aggies, so I don’t buy the whole Game of the Year thing. But I’ve been known to wrong—quite often in fact, and there’s no denying that if A&M wins, I think they deserve to be ranked #1 in the country.
If you’re a Red Sox fan, it’s a pressure-free time to watch your team, look forward to the postseason and see if you can help knock out your rival in the process. For the time being, it’s a high point and I should be looking forward to watching the games this weekend.
But I don’t feel that way.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the big markets of the East Coast are in the spotlight for Thursday’s daily sports. Whether it’s the NFL or major league baseball, New York is prominent, Boston is heavily involved, and you throw Baltimore in the mix as well.
Wednesday’s a pretty quiet night in daily sports, reminiscent of the days of summer when a single baseball game had to carry the TV load. But at least Wednesday’s showcase is a game with impact—the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays meet in a 7 PM ET start on ESPN. The Sox are looking to secure the division, the Rays are looking to keep in that race, and to give themselves some room to breathe in the wild-card push.