nationalleague Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

QTNA: Would you have given Tom Brady his 600th touchdown ball back?
As human beings trying to do good on Earth, life should not always be about money. We should be more concerned with how we treat others, and once we leave this place, when others are asked about us, they should be able to genuinely say that we were good instead of simply offering platitudes. However...

We were so close
You couldn’t really have asked for much more from the Dodgers and Giants, series or Game 5. What you want is it to be close and dramatic, and those boxes were checked. The stats for these teams are staggeringly close. 109 wins each going in, a season series that is now tied at 12, the run-differenti...

So is Christian Yelich dead?
The Milwaukee Brewers, probably the playoff team that everyone thought about the least, bit the dust yesterday in a fashion befitting a team that most didn’t realize were even there. They scored six runs across four games, got shutout twice, and while maybe not quite a whimper thanks to the dramatic...

I’ve had it with relievers
Maybe I’ve rebelled against getting older as long as I can, and I’m coming to accept the hair growing out of my ears combined with the opinions that something in a modern sport isn’t as good as I remember. It’s weird, because I don’t remember having any attachment to relief pitchers of my youth. The...

This doesn’t feel like the first time the Dodgers and Giants have met in the playoffs
Tonight will be the first time in MLB history we see the Dodgers and Giants compete in the postseason. For such a storied rivalry, it’s crazy to think that in the year 2021, there’s still something new for these franchises to experience with one another. Sure, there are some discrepancies like the 1...

A few MLB postseason storylines you might not know
As the baseball playoffs begin, you already know the big storylines....

When is the best time to pay attention to baseball?
Baseball season is six months long, and reaching its dramatic conclusion this weekend, with the American League wild cards and the winner of the National League West still to be decided....

Devin Williams to miss postseason for dumbest of reasons
In the dumbest injury at the worst time department, we’d like to announce Brewers reliever Devin Williams as this year’s recipient....

Massive regular-season win streaks mean nothing in the playoffs
The Cardinals’ team-record winning streak has gotten St. Louis into the playoffs, but the old saying in baseball is that momentum is only the next day’s starting pitcher, and as good as the Redbirds have been in September, bringing home a first World Series championship since 2011 remains a longshot...

Lighten up, Wainwright
I understand that every team in every sport is desperate to make the “only the guys in this room believed in us” the rallying cry of their team. It’s easier to think you’re the underdog, and when you’re a professional athlete you need anything and everything to drive through an interminable season. ...

MVP debates make my ass weary
I’ve come to the conclusion that a big part of being a member of the baseball media is just justifying your existence. Which is why they spend most of the time turning stuff into a debate that isn’t really a debate. Nothing is worse than individual awards, where distilling what “valuable” means has ...

If only NIL money forced Dabo Swinney out of college football
Clemson is 2-2, and as big of a shock as that is for a program that’s won the last six ACC titles with a pair of national championships along the way, we really should have seen it coming....

Read 'em and weep: Here are the worst droughts in modern sports, non-title edition
The White Sox have won their first division title since 2008, which doesn’t really feel right, because they’ve only had two truly awful seasons in the last decade and a half, and power in the Central is rarely concentrated anywhere for too long, but it’s true. It would be a weird thing to lie about....

We are witnessing a multi-team choke for the ages
When August began, the Mets were in first place in the National League East, which was the fifth-best record in the Senior Circuit. The Padres were right ahead of them, holding the second wild-card position as the Giants and Dodgers battled at the top of the West. And the Reds, though seven and a ha...

Max Scherzer trade to Dodgers is one of the greatest deadline deals of all time
Where does Max Scherzer to the Dodgers rank among MLB’s best deadline deals?...

Cardinals do what they do… unfortunately
You can always be sure that when a division or league comes up mediocre, the St. Louis Cardinals will be there to just barely rise above the muck. It’s their oeuvre. ...

Consolation prize for Marcus Semien's non-MVP season: Rare iron man feat
There’s two weeks left in the major league season, and we all know the big dramatic storylines unfolding. The American League wild card race changes daily, Atlanta and San Francisco are trying to hang on to win division titles, and the home run race between Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Salvador Perez, and...

Congrats to the Giants! (Now you might get to face the Dodgers)
The San Francisco Giants are the first team to clinch a playoff spot this year, and congratulations to them for that, especially given that it’s a rare case in sports when a team can do something like this and really play the “nobody believed in us” card....

Why don’t more players bunt against the shift?
This era of Major League Baseball can be defined by a multitude of things: the increased usage of analytics, or perhaps the enormous surge in both home runs and strikeouts. However this era eventually gets defined, one thing is for certain, the bunt is a thing of the past....

Are the Giants slumping or showing their true colors?
Since the dawn of the 2021 season, every major figure in the baseball world has, at some point, uttered some semblance of these seven words: “The Giants aren’t really World Series contenders.” Whether it be by saying “The Dodgers will easily overtake them. It’s just a matter of time,” or “Just look ...