aba Page 66 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Kevin Cash broke baseball, or baseball broke him, take your pick with the pitching change that will haunt Rays for years
There is no winning the argument. Having the argument is probably the point. It’s been dominating baseball for the past 20 years. What the spreadsheets say, what baseball logic says....
Let’s call it what it was: Another epic Dodgers’ October choke job
ARLINGTON, Texas — Epic, indeed....
World Series sure was fun last night, but good baseball it wasn't
Game 4 of the World Series had barely ended on Saturday night when the hyperbole hit, courtesy of Red Sox writer Ian Browne....
Dave Roberts still thinks he’s playing Strat-O-Matic
I have to credit Joe Sheehan, who has been using that metaphor for a long while now. Anyway, one of the problems with Dave Roberts as manager, at least in the playoffs, is he just assumes he’ll get production from the back of the baseball card simply because. Mostly, if not solely, this has been the...
Doug Jones roasts Tommy Tuberville’s coaching career, surges in Alabama senate polls
It is nearly impossible to not turn into your favorite forehead-slapping meme when discussing the Alabama senate race between Tommy Tuberville and Doug Jones. Any logical analyses of it can cause your brain to liquify and drip out of your nose to find the sweet release of non-existence. On the one s...
Maybe the Rays needed to use the itchier trigger finger in Game 1
The Tampa Bay Rays don’t wait around. They are even less likely to wait around when their bullpen has had two full days off and all their starters will be on regular rest. For a few years they’ve had an organizational plan, which means they go to the pen when they want, which is usually quickly. And...
Dodgers and Rays are like mirror images of each other ... sorta
It’s tired as shit, and if you’ve spent more than six consecutive minutes on Twitter you’ve already seen the two Spider-men pointing at each other at least 14 times. And yet, these types of things tend to be borne out of truth before they approach and then surpass the saturation point....
Braves run and stumble their way out of the NLCS
Even a make-believe or mutated season can make for memories that will haunt for years. As the Braves and their fans stew over yet another playoff flameout (the Braves may have to join the A’s and Twins on the playoff-banned list), they’ll look back at the 2nd inning of Game 6 and the 4th inning of G...
The villainy doesn’t end with the Astros
There was a visceral joy in watching the Rays, on their fourth attempt, finally put the Astros to the sword last night. ...
Yellow-bellied Game 7 starter for Rays seeks to exorcise Astros demons he had hoped stayed hidden
Charlie Morton has proven himself as a big-game pitcher in the past. It was just three years ago that Morton started Game 7 of the ALCS and got the win with five innings of two-out shutout ball. Ten days later, he came out of the bullpen to pitch the final four innings of Game 7 of the World Series,...
Like a Rorschach test, you can see whatever you want in the art of Dodgers collapses
For the past five years or so, the Dodgers have carried just about the same narrative. Or the same narratives, and eventually it’ll probably reach the same level of undying debate that LeBron v. Michael has. Either Clayton Kershaw is a playoff mess, or Dave Roberts constantly has a stiff breeze whis...
Nick Saban tests positive for COVID-19 as virus continues to spread throughout the SEC
Alabama head football coach Nick Saban has tested positive for COVID-19....
Astros getting good wood, but keep finding Rays' gloves at the other end of their ropes
Heading into the ALCS, it felt like the series would hinge on whether the Astros’ high-contact ways would be able to undo the Rays’ dominant starting pitching and bullpen. Would they find enough holes, or work their way through the Rays’ staff to eventually see them weaken through sheer attrition? T...
We’re only in the 2nd but it’s already the Manuel Margot game
We all dream of having a game named after us. Flipper Anderson has one. Reggie Jackson has one. Jack Morris got the ultimate prize, a Game 7 he’s known for. If you’re a true immortal, like LeBron or Michael, you get a whole flatbed of ’em. The list goes on....
Your totally not late at all LCS preview
Things aren’t supposed to start on Sunday. That’s why the phrase “Even God rests on Sundays” is around. It’s a deflation period. So yeah, I wasn’t totally on top of it with the ALCS starting yesterday. But it was a Sunday. They’re meant for long walks or brunch (which you make yourself these days an...
Kevin Cash continues to win by knowing how to lose
The Astros-Rays matchup for the right to head to Texas (boy, that makes it sound like a pyrrhic victory) has a lot of angles to it. It’s the league’s best contact team in the Astros vs. one of the worst in the Rays. It’s a bullpen full of darkness-bringers in Tampa versus one made up of guys who sou...
Everybody hates Aroldis (correct!) but thinks they hate the Astros vs. the Rays now, and ... that's bad
Schadenfreude in sports is strong. When it’s coupled with revenge, it’s beautiful....
Maybe Tom Brady is on Regeneron, too
It would seem that being a rich, chowder-brained pudwhack is contagious, as on the last drive of the Buccaneers’ Thursday night contest against the Bears, Tom Brady, perhaps showing the most dedication to his friend in the White House by letting his brain drip out his ear in tribute, forgot what dow...
The Tampa Bay Lightning, the NHL’s best organization, finally have their stamp
It’s funny, if you remove the esteem, the adjectives, the histrionics we attach to those who win championships and those who don’t, and just look at the results on paper, the difference is small. We attach a chasm between the teams that lift the trophies and those that they beat for them, but in rea...
The Lightning eviscerate the Stars, win the Cup, and mercifully send everyone home from NHL bubble
It shouldn’t have taken this long, and the Stars were lucky to not get run out of the building in four games, the sort of thorough thrashing to clinch the Cup and the ending the Lightning deserved. But there hasn’t been a sweep in the Final in 22 years. So the Bolts will happily settle for a six-gam...