So we’ve got a Game 7 tonight. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros 3-1 last night in Game 6 to even the series at 3-3 and take the series into a Game 7. The game will be played at Dodger Stadium since Los Angles had the better regular season record and is estimated to start at 7:20 p.m. cst.
Game 6 wasn’t anywhere near the home run derby Game 5 was as there where just two home runs hit in Game 6. George Springer hit the first home run of the game to account for the Astros only run in the Top of the 3rd inning giving Houston an early 1-0 lead.
Justin Verlander was holding the Dodgers in check until the Top of the 6th inning. Austin Barnes led off with a single and then Chase Utley was hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. Chris Taylor hit a bloop double to rightfield scoring Barnes and sending Utley to 3rd. Corey Seager followed with a sacrifice fly ball to centerfield. Utley scored on the fly ball and Taylor moved up to 3rd base. Justin Turner fouled out and Cody Bellinger struck out to end the inning, but with those 2 runs the Dodgers grabbed the lead 2-1.
Verlander was pinch hit for in the Top of the 7th inning; so Joe Musgrove took over on the mound for the Bottom of the 7th inning. Yasiel Puig popped up to shortstop for the 1st out of the inning. Joc Pedersen then out the Dodgers up 3-1 with a solo home run to leftfield off of Musgrove.
Kenley Jansen came out of the Dodgers bullpen to get the final 6 outs, not allowing anyone to get on base and save the Dodgers 3-1 win.
While Verlander did tale the loss he had another good outing for the Astros. Verlander pitched 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 9. Musgrove worked just the 1 inning giving up the 1 run with that solo home run being the only hit he gave up and he struck out 1. Luke Gregerson pitched 2/3rds of an inning giving up a hit, a walk and striking out 1. Francisco Liriano made his first World Series appearance getting the final out of the 8th inning on a strikeout.
Rich Hill had another short outing for the Dodgers as he pitched just 4 2/3rd innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Brandon Morrow pitched an inning giving up 1 hit and getting strikeout. Tony Watson pitched just a 1/3rd of an inning walking 1 batter, but picked up the win for the Dodgers. Kenta Maeda pitched an inning giving up 1 hit before Jansen came in to pitch the final 2 innings recording 3 strikeouts and a save.
On a side note. If Morrow pitches in tonight’s Game 7 he’ll tie Darold Knowles of the 1973 Oakland A’s as the only two pitchers to appear in all seven games of a World Series.
For Game 7 the Astros are going with Lance McCullers Jr. as their starter while the Dodgers are going back to Yu Darvish as their Game 7 starter. McCullers Jr. pitched 5 1/3rd innings in the Astros 5-3 Game 3 victory. Darvish started opposite of McCullers Jr, in that Game 3, but lasted just 1 2/3rd innings. How long will the leash be for either pitcher tonight?
Believe it or not we all had another good week of making NFL picks. Maybe it was the fact that there where quite a few teams on Bye’s or what, but we’ll take it. Dan the Man Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy all had 11-2 records while I lost one more game than they did and ended up 10-3. For the season Dan the Man is leading with a record of 77-62. Schaumburg Stu is in 2nd with a record of 73-46. Mr. Fantasy is 3rd at 72-47 while I’m holding down the last place spot at 70-49. Let’s see if we can keep the run of good picks going into Week 9.
If you’re interested in hearing the picks live Mr. Fantasy and I make our picks on the Sunday morning Sports Time Radio podcast. It’s starts at 10:00 a.m. cst. and we always start by making the picks and we’ll also let you know who Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu are picking as well.
For a change there was quite a bit of activity at the NFL trade deadline. What was different this season is we actually saw some bigger named players get dealt.
We saw Kelvin Benjamin go to the Buffalo Bills for a couple of draft picks. Jay Ajayi went to the Philadelphia Eagles for a draft pick. Duane Brown was acquired by the Seattle Seahawks originally for Jeremy Lane and a couple of draft picks, but after Lane failed his physical the deal was amended to a couple of draft picks. Jimmy Garoppolo looks like he’s finally going to get his chance to be a starting quarterback in the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers traded a 2nd round draft pick in the 2018 draft for him. The Jacksonville Jaquars acquired defensive tackle Marcell Dareus who was the 3rd pick in the 2011 NFL draft for a 2018 6th round draft pick. The 49ers did make a couple of other moves. They received a undisclosed 2018 draft pick for cornerback Rashad Robinson and since they picked up a quarterback in a trade they released quarterback Brian Hoyer.
Now the big questions that everyone tries to figure out is who won and who lost in these deals. Now in the NFL this is always difficult to tell. It’s going to be tough for a quarterback to step in with the way NFL offenses are and perform well. The same can be said for a wide receiver as he has to learn a new route tree. A running back can fit into a system easier as the only problem he might have is learning his pass blocking assignments. While they may go under the radar I’m guessing that the lineman will be the guys to have the best performances to start off from these trades. In the end if a team just acquired a franchise quarterback or a #1 wide receiver then they’ll have won at this trade deadline, but I think to start the lineman will get off to the best start.
Feel free to leave a comment and let me who you thought where the biggest winners and losers at the trade deadline.
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com
Sports Time Radio 