With Major League Baseball on their All-Star break, NFL training camps not open yet and the NHL and NBA seasons coming to an end last month I’ve heard this described as the worst week in professional sports. If you’re a fan of the big four sports there hasn’t been a whole lot for you to tune in for. On Monday you have the home run derby to watch and then last you had the actual MLB All-Star game to watch, but you’ll have to come up with something for yourself tonight.
I think the only sporting event that you could watch right now is Wimbledon, but those matches are played in the morning; so you’d have to watch them at night on tape delay. If you are able to watch right now #1 seed Andy Murray is on the court, Murray is facing #24 seeded Sam Querrey. Currently each player has won a set and Murray is up in the third set four games to two.
Last night for the 5th season in a row the American League beat the National League 2-1 in the All-Star game. The game showed fans that as I’m sure you’ve heard before; good pitching beats good hitting. We got an extra inning out of the game as it went 10; so combined over those 20 innings there where 23 strikeouts. The National League pitchers struck out 14 batters while American League pitchers struck out 9. Carlos Martinez of the St. Louis Cardinals struck out 4 batters and was the only National League pitcher to throw two innings. Kenley Jansen of the Los Angels Dodgers pitched one inning and all three outs he recorded where strikeouts. On the American League side Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox and Dellin Betances of the New York Yankees each struck out 2 batters. Sale was the only American League pitcher to throw more than one inning.
The American League got on the board first in the top of the 5th inning. With two outs on the innings Jonathan Schoop of the Baltimore Orioles doubled. Miguel Sano of the Minnesota Twins followed that with a single to drive Schoop in to give the American League a 1-0 lead.
The National League tied the game up in the bottom of the 6th inning. After a ground out to start the inning Yader Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals hit a solo home run to right centerfield to make it a 1-1 game.
With the game still tied at 1-1 after the 9th inning was completed I’m sure fans where wondering if we where going to see another tie in the All-Star game. Luckily they didn’t go that route and they played a 10th inning.
In the top of that 10th inning Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners led it off with a solo home run to rightfield to give the American League a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the 10th inning the first two National League batters made outs before Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds drew a walk, but with the game tying run on and the winning run in the batters box it was fittingly a strikeout to end the game.
Cano was named M.V.P. of the game for hitting the game winning home run.
Kimbrel picked up the win in the game and Andrew Miller of the Cleveland Indians got the save. Wade Davis of the Chicago Cubs took the loss as he gave up the home run to Cano.
With the All-Star game in the books there are a couple of days with no games before the regular season get s going again on Friday.
It had been reported that the Los Angeles Lakers where interested in adding a point guard to their roster and there where quite a few rumors out there. In the end the Lakers gave Kentavious Caldwell-Pope a 1 year $18 million dollar deal to join them. Caldwell-Pope is 24 years old and is expected to have a significant role in the Lakers back court. It appears that Caldwell-Pope will be the mentor for #2 overall pick Lonzo Ball.
Caldwell-Pope had a one year $4.9 million dollar qualifying offer that he could’ve taken with the Detroit Pistons, but the Pistons decided to renounce his rights last week.
This deal makes Caldwell-Pope one of the Top 10 highest paid shooting guards and also allows him to go back into free agency after next season.
The Lakers made it a priority to land a player like Caldwell-Pope and still have the salary cap flexibility for next season. There is a chance that the Lakers aren’t done signing players. They met with point guard Rajon Rondo yesterday and they may add him to their back court as well.
Besides the Lakers signing of Caldwell-Pope there where a couple of other players who signed free agent deals. DeWayne Dedmon is leaving the San Antonio Spurs as he signed a two year $14 million dollar deal with the Atlanta Hawks. The New York Knicks also made a singing as they agreed on a two year $8.9 million dollar deal with guard Ron Baker. Baker played in 52 games for the Knicks last season.
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) made it official when they announced that Erik Jones will take over the #20 car from Matt Kenseth for the 2018 season. Jones is currently driving the #77 car as a satellite driver for Furniture Row Racing. Jones is currently 14th in the NASCAR Cup standings as a rookie. Jones has one Top 5 and five Top 10s in his 18 starts and sits 52 points out of the current playoff cutoff.
Having eight wins (including two this year) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the 21-year-old Jones is considered one of the sport’s potential stars. He also has seven wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he has seven career wins.
Jones’ departure from Furniture Row Racing leaves that organization considering returning to a one-car operation. It expanded to two cars for 2017 with Jones and sponsor 5-Hr Energy. Furniture Row Racing has two charters — it purchased a charter from Premium Motorsports prior to the 2017 season — so it would have to sell or lease the No. 77 team charter if it doesn’t field a car in 2018 or else NASCAR could then revoke it and sell it.
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