Archive for the ‘football’ Category

How was your week

Posted: December 2, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Dallas Cowboys kicked off Week 13 in the NFL by getting their record back to .500 at 6-6 with a 38-14 defeated of their NFC East rivals the Washington Redskins.

With Cowboys finally got their running game going in the absence of Ezekiel Elliott. As a team Dallas ran the football 42 times for 182 yards and 2 touchdowns. Alfred Morris led the way as he carried the football 27 times for 127 yards and 1 touchdown. Dak Prescott ran 5 times for 28 yards and Rod Smith carried the football 10 times for 27 yards and a touchdown. It was the first time since Week 8 that Dallas had a running back rush for 100 yards in a game. Oddly back in Week 8 the Cowboys opponent was the Redskins.

With the running game going Prescott only threw for 102 yards in the game. He was 11 for 22, but did throw for 2 touchdowns.

The Dallas defense also had a good night. The Cowboys held the Redskins to just 56 yards rushing. Kirk Cousins did throw for 251 yards and 2 touchdowns, but was sacked 4 times and threw 2 interceptions. The Dallas defense also forced 3 fumbles, recovering 2 of them.

Anthony Hitchens made 12 tackles for the Cowboys while DeMarcus Lawrence added 2 sacks. Taco Charlton and David Irving had the other sacks. Anthony Brown and Jeff Heath where the Cowboys defenders with interceptions.

The Cowboys also had a special teams touchdown as Ryan Switzer returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter.

The game was pretty much a playoff elimination game. Neither team was going to be able to win their division with the way the Philadelphia Eagles have been playing; so they needed to get into the playoffs as a wild card team. The win puts the Cowboys 1 1/2 out of a wild card spot, but they’ll have to find a way to jump four teams to get a playoff spot. The Redskins fell to 5-7 with the loss and while they’re still mathematically alive in the playoff race it’s going to be tough for them to make it. Washington is currently 2 1/2 games out of a wild card spot, but will have to find a way to get past seven teams to claim a wild card spot.

To keep their playoff hopes alive the Cowboys will have to win their final four games of the season. That won’t be an easy task for the Cowboys and to make it just a little tougher three of their four final games are on the road. Next week they’ll face the New York giants on the road. In Week 15 they’ll travel to Oakland to face the Raiders. On Christmas Even they’ll not only get Elliott back from suspension, but they’ll also host the Seattle Seahawks. The Cowboys wrap their season up on the road against the NFC East leading Philadelphia Eagles. If Dallas can hang around in the playoff race that final game may work to their advantage as the Eagles might not be playing for anything in the final week of the season.

The Redskins would also have to win out to have any shot at making the playoffs and that might not even be enough. In Week 14 the Redskins are on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers. They’ll host the Arizona Cardinals in Week 15 followed by a home game against the Denver Broncos in Week 16 before wrapping the season up on the road against the New York Giants.

It’s going to be a difficult road for either the Cowboys or the Redskins to get into the playoffs. How do you see the playoff future shaking out for this season for these two teams?

There where six candidates for the New York Yankees managerial position. Hensley Meulens, Rob Thomson, Eric Wedge, Aaron Boone, Chris Woodward and Carlos Beltran.

As of yesterday reports where that the list was down to two, Meulens and Boone. Then last night it was being reported that Aaron Boone will be named the new manager of the Yankees. Now of this is official as we’re waiting for the Yankees to make an announcement.

While Boone has no managerial experience he does come from a baseball family. His grandfather Ray played 13 seasons in the major leagues for 6 different teams. His father Bob was a catcher for three different teams covering 19 major league seasons. Bob was a 4 time All-Star and a 7 time Gold Glove winner who won a World Series championship with the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies. Aaron’s older brother Brett spent 14 seasons in the big leagues playing with 5 different teams. Brett was a 3 time All-Star, a 4 time Gold Glove winner, a 2 time Silver Slugger award winner and led the American League in RBI’s with 141 in 2001. Boone also has a younger brother named Matt who spent 7 seasons in the minor leagues playing in the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers farm systems.

If you’re a baseball fan I’m sure you’ve seen the highlight that made Boston Red Sox fans hate Boone. In the 2003 American League Championship Series Boone hit a Game 7 walk off home run in the 11th inning off of Tim Wakefield to give the Yankees a 6-5 win over the Red Sox.

Boone actually only has 54 career games with the Yankees. He was acquired at the trade deadline of the 2003 season from the Cincinnati Reds for pitchers Charlie Manning, Brandon Clausen and cash. I January of 2004 Boone torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing in a pick up basketball game. Playing in that game was a violation of his Yankees contract and they ended up releasing him in February of 2004.

While Boone may not have any managerial experience he has stayed close to the game of baseball. Boone has been working for ESPN as a baseball analyst since 2010 and has been a color commentator for game starting with the 2014 and 2015 World Series games and then taking that job full time for the 2016 season.

The Yankees have a storied history as a baseball franchise and being named their manager is held in high esteem. How do you think Boone will do as the Yankees manager?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available to you any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 29, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The New York Giants where 11-5 last season and got into the playoffs as a wild card team. This season through 12 weeks the Giants are 2-9 and won’t be getting into the playoffs. Since the Giants season is more or less over they have decided that they are going to use the final 5 games of the season to evaluate their back up quarterbacks Geno Smith and rookie Davis Webb. This move means that Eli Manning’s steak of starting being the Giants starting quarterback will be coming to an end at 210. The Giants did offer Manning the opportunity to start this Sunday to keep the streak alive, but he turned the start down.

Manning hasn’t had a terrible season as he’s completing 62.5% of his passes and he’s thrown 14 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. Don’t forget that Manning doesn’t have his best receiver as Odell Beckham Jr. played in just 4 games this season due to injury. The Giants also signed Brandon Marshall to help out their passing game this past off season, but Marshall played in just 5 games due to injury. Sterling Shepard who’s now the Giants top wide receiver also missed time and has played in just 7 games this season. Rookie tight end Evan Engram is the Giants leader in receptions with 44 and receiving touchdowns with 5.

The Giants don’t have much of a running game to speak of either. They had hoped that Paul Perkins would step up and become that #1 running back, but that didn’t happen. Perkins was the starter for 4 games, but is averaging just 1.9 yards per carry this season. Wayne Gallman has been solid as a guy who can spell the starter, but it’s not clear of he can be the guy that can carry the load at running back. Orleans Darkwa has taken over as the starting running back and is the teams leading rusher with 519 yards. Darkwa has out up one 100 yard game this season. He is averaging a very good 4.6 yards per carry and is getting about 14 carries a game since becoming the starter.

Now Manning is going to get the majority of the blame for the teams struggles, but that’s how it is when you’re the quarterback. They get too much credit when a win is winning and too much blame when a team is losing. You just have to hope that before people start pointing the finger at Manning they look at the whole picture of the season.

Now the question becomes, what do the Giants do with Manning going forward. He’s signed through 2019 and it would be a big salary cap hit if the Giants just cut him. Could they trade him? Don’t forget that Manning’s former head coach Tom Coughlin is now in the front off with the Jacksonville Jaquars and while the Jaquars are doing well this season it’s clear that they’d like to move on from quarterback Blake Bortles. Remember Jacksonville took the starting job away from Bortles before the last pre-season game only to go right back to him in Week 1 when they realized that Chad Henne wasn’t the answer either. Now Jacksonville isn’t the only team that could use Manning.

He could be s fit for the other New York team the Jets. Josh McCown is having a good season for the Jets, but is only signed through this season.

Could he follow is his brother Peyton’s footsteps and finish his career with the Denver Broncos? Denver is 3-8 this season and has used three different quarterbacks.

Now you never know what the Cleveland Browns might do, but you’d have to think that Manning would be a big upgrade over whatever they’re thinking about doing at the quarterback position. It would also give DeShone Kizer a veteran to learn from for a couple of seasons.

Maybe there’s a chance that Manning could stay in the NFC East with say the Washington Redskins. The Redskins current quarterback Kurt Cousins is playing under the franchise tag for the second season in a row and the two sides don’t seem to be close to a contract agreement.

Now the San Francisco 49ers appear to have acquired a possible franchise quarterback in Jimmy Garapalo, but he’s in the last year of his contract and if the 49ers can’t re-sign him they’d need someone at quarterback. On a side note Garapalo will make his for start for San Francisco this Sunday against the Chicago Bears.

A dark horse team that could be interested in Manning might be the Arizona Cardinals. There have been rumors that 2017 could be Carson Palmer’s last season and they don’t have a young quarterback that they’re developing. A veteran like Manning could come in and fill the quarterback spot while the Cardinals look for that next guy.

It’s rare in the NFL that a quarterback of Manning’s caliber could be available. He is a two time Super Bowl winner and he was named M.V.P. in both of those Super Bowl wins. As the season winds down will have to see if the Giants find what they’re looking for in Geno Smith or Davis Webb or if maybe they’ll be looking to go back to Manning for the 2018 season.

There was a first in LeBron James’ career last night. For the first time in his 15 year career that covered 1082 games James was ejected with just about 2 minutes left to play in the 3rd quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Miami Heat.

James made a steal, but missed the lay up and like every NBA player thought he had been fouled. James argued with referee Kane Fitzgerald who accessed James a technical and ejected him.

Fitzgerald even explained his actions to reporters after the game. “It was a culmination of a couple different acts,” Fitzgerald said. “Immediately after the no-call, he turned and threw an air punch directly at me, and then he aggressively charged at me, and then he used vulgarity in my ear a few times.”

James played 28 minutes before being ejected. He scored 21 points grabbed 12 rebounds while handing out 6 assists and getting 5 steals. Even with James missing the final quarter of the game the Cavaliers picked up an 11 point win over the Heat 108-97.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 22, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I always try to work in how we did on our picks for the past week in the NFL. Now there are times I just forget or sometimes run out of space to work it in. Now last week was one of these weeks and wouldn’t you know it I got a telephone call from Mr. Fantasy to yell at me about the win/loss totals not being in the blog. So to avoid getting scream at on the telephone again I decided that I’d start the blog out with them.

Our Week 11 picks went like this Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy both went 10-4. Schaumburg Stu and I ended up at 8-6. For the season Dan the Man is in the lead at 106-54. Mr. Fantasy is holding down the second spot three games out of the lead at 103-57. Schaumburg Stu and I are stuck at the bottom of the pile as we are both 96-64 on the season.

Since it is Thanksgiving tomorrow instead of one Thursday game we get three. Things start off with the Detroit Lions hosting the Minnesota Vikings. The middle game of the three has the Los Angeles Rams visiting the Dallas Cowboys. The NFL day wraps up with the Washington Redskins playing host to the New York Giants.

I’m pretty sure that the scheduling for all four of the big sports is done by computer, but you have to wonder what the NBA was thinking when they saw that there was just one game scheduled for last night and it was the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now years ago this wouldn’t been a marquee match up and heck even last season the Bulls had Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade on their roster. This season there are very few recognizable names on either teams roster with the exception of Lonzo Ball.

Neither team was playing very well coming into the game as the Lakers where 7-10 while the Bulls have one of the worst records in the league at 3-11. The Lakers where a .500 team at home this season at 5-5 while the Bulls some how managed a road win and where 1-7 away from Chicago.

The game as a whole ended up being decent. the Bulls built a 14 point lead going into halftime at 56-42. The second half belonged to the Lakers as they scored 61 points while holding the Bulls to just 38 points as Los Angeles took a 103-94 victory.

Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers was the games high scorer with 22 points. His teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 21 points. Lonzo Ball had another rough shooting night going 3 for 13 from the field in the game. Ball was also just 2 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. Ball did grab a team high 13 rebounds. Julius Randle came off the Lakers bench to post a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

All five Bulls starters scored in double figures led by Denzell Valentine with 17 points. Bulls 1st round pick Lauri Markkanen (13 points and 14 rebounds) and Justin Holiday (10 points and 10 rebounds) each posted double-doubles in the game. Antonio Blakeney came off the Bulls bench to score 15 points.

The win improved the Lakers record to 8-10. This was also the first of back to back games for Los Angeles as they go on the road to face the 4-13 Sacramento Kings tonight. The loss dropped the Bulls to 3-12 on the season. This was also the first of back to back games for the Bulls. Chicago travels to Utah tonight to face the 7-11 Jazz.

If you have Denver Nuggets forward Paul Milsap on your fantasy team it looks like you’re going to be without him for about three months. Milsap had surgery on his left wrist to repair torn ligaments.

Milsap was injured in the 2nd quarter of Denver’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. The Nuggets ended up losing that game without Milsap 127-109.

Milsap has played in 16 games this season. He is averaging 15.3 points per game. To go along with 6.2 rebounds per game and 3.1 assists per game.

Luckily for the Nuggets they have quite a few players who can take over for Milsap while he’s out. Look for Kenneth Faried, Trey Lyles, Tyler Lydon and even Darrell Arthur to fill Milsap’s minutes. Faried appears to be the player who will take over Milsap’s plac in the starting line up; so if you’re looking for a fantasy pick up Faried may be the guy to go with.

As we wait for the baseball off season to pick up some stream you have to wonder if things will be a little slow until there is some type of movement in where National League M.V.P. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins might go.

Right now it appears as the two most talked about teams with interest in Stanton are the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Talks with the Giants have actually gotten to the point where there are now players names associated with the deal. San Francisco would not only acquire Stanton, but Marlins 2nd baseman Dee Gordon as well. In return the Marlins would receive a package of players led by Giants 2nd baseman Joe Panik and multiple prospects. Gordon is another of Miami’s veteran players that new ownership and CEO Derek Jeter has expressed interested in trading.

It’s always interesting when names start to come up in trade talks, but before everybody starts putting Stanton in a Giants uniform, don’t forget that he has a full no trade clause and can veto any trade.

Stanton was born in Panorama City California and according to reports grew up a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Would he accept a trade to the Dodgers biggest rival?

The third team that has popped up lately in Stanton rumors are the Boston Red Sox. Now you knew sooner or later we’d start to hear about the bigger name teams wanting to get in on a Stanton deal and it’s no surprise that the Red Sox are the first name up. The Red Sox where last in the American League in home runs last season with 168 while Stanton himself hit 59 home runs.

We’re just at the start of these Stanton rumors and these are just the first three teams to come up. It appears as though Stanton will be traded at some point in time. Where do you have him playing baseball in 2018?

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 15, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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On Monday night the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from 23 points down and picked up a 104-101 win over the New York Knicks. While making  comeback from down 23 is impressive that’s not really the story of this game.

Now this all starts off with a tweet LeBron James sent out about how the Knicks should’ve drafted Dennis Smith Jr. with the 8th pick. Now according to everyone this was suppose to be a shot at Phil Jackson not Frank Ntilikina who the Knicks took with that 8th pick. You have to guess that the shot at Jackson comes from last season when Jackson used the word “posse” and James felt that the word was being used as a racial slur. Like everyone else I’ve seen James do interviews on television hundreds of times and he seems like a relatively intelligent person. Being that he’d have to know that Jackson no longer works for the Knicks and that his tweet would be interpreted as a shot at Ntilikina.

Now you knew sooner or later these two would meet up on the court. After James dunked he refused to move out of the way to allow Ntilikina to take the basketball out of bounds to inbound it. Ntilikina pushed James multiple times to get him out of the way. Now James is 6’8 and about 260 pounds while Ntilikina is listed at 6’5 and 190 pounds; so it was easy for James to play the bully against a much smaller opponent. As it became clear that James was trying to intimidate Ntilikina his teammate Enes Kanter came over and got in James face. Now Kanter is 6’11 and 250 pounds; so he’s a little more of an even match up for James. Kanter and James where both accessed technical fouls as their face to face confrontation ended.

What I found odd about this situation is there where people in the media who praised James for what he did. Now if you’re a Cavaliers fan or a media member who covers them for a local Cleveland paper I understand that they’re going to side with James no matter what he does. What baffled me was the national media that seemed to think what James did was okay. So what I’m guessing here is we’re against bullying unless it’s done by one of the top players in the NBA. What made less sense was if James’ original tweet was intended as a shot at Phil Jackson why didn’t he allow Ntilikina to take the ball out of bounds? It was an embarrassing action by one of the best players in the NBA and instead of trying to be a funny guy and respond to the comments Kanter made after the game he should’ve of been more concerned about the example he just set on the court.

Instead of talking about NBA players acting like morons let’s talk about what should be the top story in the league, the Boston Celtics.

Kyrie Irving returned last night for the Celtics wearing a mask to cover his facial fracture and led Boston in scoring with 25 points as the Celtics won their 13th game in a row 109-102 over the Brooklyn Nets.

Irving only missed one game officially, but he played just two minutes in the game where he suffered the facial fracture; so let’s call it two games. He messed around with the mask frequently, but it didn’t appear to affect his play too much.

Irving actually posted his career high at that time on December 15th of 2012 with 41 points against the New York Knicks. Irving was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers the last time he had to wear a mask.

The Celtics lost their first two games to start this season before going on this 13 game winning streak. It’s actually the most wins in a row by a team that lost it’s first two games of the season. I wonder who keeps track of those stats. The Celtics will put their winning streak on the line Thursday night as they host the 11-3 Golden State Warriors.

As we head into Week 11 of the NFL season it’s time for some teams to start looking ahead to the 2018 season. The question for those teams is, will they have a new coach next season? Which coaches could be out of work at the end of this season?

Could we see big changes in the AFC North? Would the Baltimore Ravens more on from John Harbaugh if they finished under .500? You have to think that it’s time for the Cincinnati Bengals to make a change at head coach. Marvin Lewis has been with the Bengals since 2003 and has a career record of 121-111-3, but is 0-7 in the playoffs. The Bengals sit at 3-6 currently and they would probably need to win the remainder of their games to make the playoffs. Oddly the Cleveland Browns are 0-9 this season, but Hue Jackson seems to be the coach they want and it would almost be a surprise to see him let go, but you never know when you have a losing team. Even though he’s had to coach without his starting quarterback you have to think that this might be Chuck Pagano’s final season with the Indianapolis Colts. Pagano is in his 6th season as Indianapolis’s head coach, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014 and with a 3-6 record it doesn’t look like they’ll make it this season. With the New York Giants sitting at 1-8 you have to figure this will be the end for Ben McAdoo. McAdoo led the Giants to an 11-5 record and a wild card spot last season, but this seasons team looks nothing like that team and you have to wonder if he’ll be given another season to see if he can get the team back on track. Will the Chicago Bears decide to move on from John Fox after this season? Fox is in his 4th season with the Bears, but hasn’t had much success in Chicago. The Bears are currently 3-5 this season and under Fox are 12-27. It appears that the Bears feel they have their franchise quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky, but is Fox the coach that they want to try and develop him. Chicago is Fox’s 3rd stop as a head coach and it also just happens to be the only team he’s had a losing record with. 2017 is Fox’s 16th season, but has he done enough with the Bears to warrant coaching a 17th for the Bears.

Feel free to let me know in the comments if there’s a coach that I didn’t mention that you think might be losing his job at the end of this NFL season.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available anytime you’d like to listen to it at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: November 11, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We are very early in the NBA season, but the Boston Celtics deserve credit for the start they’ve gotten off to. The Celtics lost their first two games of the season and in the first game of the season they lost their big off season free agent signing Gordon Heyward for the season. After a horrible injury like that a team can struggle and take time to figure out who’s going to fill the role of the injury player. Now the Celtics did lose that first game Heyward was out, but after that they’ve run off 11 straight wins n a row with a 90-87 victory over the Charlotte Hornets last night.

Now not only did the Celtics land the big off season free agent they also pulled off a big time trade and acquired Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Irving has shown himself to be a more all around player with the Celtics, but last night the Celtics had to find a way to win without Irving. 2 minutes into last nights game Irving caught an elbow to the face from his own teammate. Aron Baynes ended up hitting Irving in the face while he was trying to help out on defense. The shot to the face bloody Irving’s nose and he ended up leaving the game with a possible concussion. Luckily for Irving and the Celtics further tests ruled out a concussion and Irving should ne available for Boston’s next game Sunday afternoon against the Toronto Raptors.

With Irving basically being out for the entire game rookie Jayson Tatum and Shane Larkin (off the bench) tied for the team lead in scoring with 16 points each. Terry Rozier added 15 points coming off the Celtics bench, but had a tough shooting night going just 3 for 12 from the field. Jaylon Brown grabbed a game high 13 rebounds while adding 10 points. Marcus Morris also scored in double digits for the Celtics with 14 points.

Now besides just finding a way to replace Irving’s scoring the Celtics had to cover the other things he’s been doing to help them win. Marcus Smart didn’t have a very good night shooting the basketball as he went 3 for 16 from the field and 0 for 7 from behind the 3-point line, he did play 34 minutes and led the team in assists with 4 and steals with 2.

The Celtics defense was solid as Charlotte shot 38.8% from the field and 27.3% from behind the 3-point line. The Hornets where also their own worst enemy as the went 19 of 33 from the free throw line.

Who knows how long the Celtics winning streak will go. Sunday’s match up is against a winning team as the Raptors are 7-4 on the season and if they get by Toronto they’ll face the 5-7 Brooklyn Nets on November 14th in Brooklyn. If the streak stays in tact they’d put it on the line again November 16th as they host the 9-3 Golden State Warriors.

Now we all know that sooner or later the winning streak will end, but the Celtics should receive some credit for being able to put it together following the loss of Heyward and then covering for Irving’s injury last night.

Big time Japanese baseball star Shohei Otani made it official as he announced that he wants to make the move and play Major League Baseball next season. Otani plays for the Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese league. The team came out on Friday and announced that they would allow Otani to use the posting system this off season. This should allow Otani to join a major league team next season.

Otani has played nine seasons with Nippon Ham. This has allowed them to retain his rights and why he must use the posting system to leave.

If MLB, the MLB Players Association and Nippon Professional Baseball agree to a deal that would extend the expired posting agreement through this offseason, the team that Otani signs with would pay the Fighters $20 million. Under MLB’s labor contract, his signing bonus is restricted and remaining pool money is limited to a high of $3,535,000.

Under baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement, Otani can only agree to a minor league contract that is subject to signing bonus pools. If added to a big league roster, he would have a salary for about the minimum $545,000 next season and not be eligible for salary arbitration until 2020 at the earliest.

If he was to wait until he is 25 to enter MLB, there would be no restrictions and he likely would get a deal. Otani is 23 years old, but has repeatedly said that he’d prefer not to wait until he’s 25 and would like to go now.

Otani did have ankle surgery last month and is currently rehabbing from that surgery. Apparently the ankle injury occurred while running the bases not this season, but last season in the Japan Series.

Now Otani was a pitcher and an outfield for Nippon Ham and has said that he hopes to be able to continue to do both for whichever team he ends up playing for in next season.

It’s unclear right now if a major league team would allow him to do both or try to do both. You’d have to think that if he ends up in the American League his chances might be better as he could be used as a designated hitter when not pitching. Would you like to see him try to pitch and play the outfield at the big league level?

The Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 22-16 this week on Thursday Night Football. The win improved the Seahawks record to 6-3 this season, but they’ll have to play the rest of the season without cornerback Richard Sherman.

Sherman exited the game in the 3rd quarter and was diagnosed with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Sherman said that he expects to undergo surgery on the Achilles as soon as the swelling goes down.

Sherman has been a constant in the Seahawks defensive backfield as he hasn’t missed a game since joining the team in 2011.

Now it’s impossible to replace a player of Sherman’s caliber, but the job looks like it’ going to fall to Jeremy Lane. If that name sounds familiar it’s because two weeks ago Seattle traded Lane to the Houston Texans, but Lane failed his physical and the deal had to be reworked. In the end that failed physical may be a blessing in disguise for the as Lane has experience playing the outside where Sherman plays. It also saves the Seahawks from having to put nickel cornerback Justin Coleman in an unfamiliar position.

Lane was the starting cornerback opposite Sherman to begin the season for the Seahawks, but rookie Shaquill Griffin moved into that spot. That was part of the reason the Seahawks thought it would be safe to deal Lane.

It will fall to Lane, Griffin and Coleman to man the cornerback position for Seattle the rest of the season.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio live in BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is available to you any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: November 4, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I think that every fan of an NFL team understands that injuries are going to be part of the game. There’s not a team in the league that goes through a season injury free, but the Houston Texans have really suffered from the injury bug this season.

In their 5th game of the season the Texans lost their top two defensive players J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus to season ending injuries. Even with those losses there was a bit of light for the Texans as they have seemed to have found a franchise quarterback in Deshaun Watson. Well at practice on Thursday during a non-contact drill Watson went down. Now he got right back up and there didn’t appear t be anything majorly wrong with him. He was carted off the practice field to be checked out just to be safe since he is the teams starting quarterback. After his examination it was learned that Watson torn the ACL in his left knee and will be out for the remainder of the season.

Even with Watson the Texans where a game under .500 at 3-4, but in the AFC South that put them just one game out of 1st place.

Even though it was a loss Watson is coming off his best game as a pro. In Week 8 Watson threw for 402 yards and 4 touchdowns and added 67 rushing yards against the Seattle Seahawks. It’s the third time in Watson’s short career that he’s thrown for 4 or more touchdowns in a game, but it was the first time that he broke the 400 yard barrier.

With Watson out Tom Savage returns to the starting quarterback role for the Texans. Savage was the starter to open the season, but lasted just a half before Watson came into the game. Savage was 7 for 13 for 62 yards, but was sacked 6 times in the Texans opening night 29-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaquars.

Now this is one of the quarterback opens that is very interesting. Watson skill set in the read option offense the Texans are running is very, very similar to Colin Kaepernick’s. With the Texans in playoff contention you’d think they’d be the team that would be interested in taking a look at Kaepernick. Now it appeared that earlier in the week the Texans coaching staff may have been interested in bringing Kaepernick in for a try out, but Texans owner Bob McNair didn’t give permission for them to bring Kaepernick in. Will the Texans be the team that would put a playoff chance ahead of the distraction, if any at this point that might come with bringing Kaepernick in.

McNair has found his name in the headlines quite a it lately. First he made the stupid “inmate” comment that caused some of the Houston players to actually leave the teams facility and consider not playing in last Sunday’s game. Then we find out that he didn’t give his coaching staff permission to try out Kaepernick. Now he’s linked with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft as the first three owners to be asked to turn over their cell phone and e-mail records in Kaepernick’s collusion suit against the NFL. San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York and Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll where also on the deposition list. Other owners, team officials, and league officials may also be deposed, but those are the individuals confirmed for now.

Instead of taking a look at Kaepernick the Texans signed Matt McGloin and T.J. Yates as back up quarterbacks.

While we’re talking about players who’s season are over the Indianapolis Colts have finally decided to put quarterback Andrew Luck on season ended IR. Luck hasn’t played a down for the Colts this season after having shoulder surgery in the off season. Luck did use the term “very optimistic” when he was asked about his future. The Colts decided to finally shut Luck down after multiple doctors recommended it to the team.

Another player who’s season is over is 49ers wide receiver Pierre Garcon. Garcon suffered a neck injury in the second half of the 49ers Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Garcon signed with the 49ers in March as a free agent so he could be with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. Garcon had a 1000 yard season for the Washington Redskins in 2016 with Shanahan as the offensive coordinator. The 49ers gave Garcon a 3 year $23 million dollar deal and in order to save their salary cap space Garcon got $17 million dollars in guaranteed money.

Garcon was the 49ers leader in receptions with 40 and yards with 500. While Garcon hadn’t found the end zone this season to be fair the only 49ers wide receiver to score a touchdown is Aldrick Robinson.

With baseball officially in the off season now teams are making decisions on which plyers contract options they’ll pick up and which players they’ll decline options on and allow them to go into free agency. Now there will be a lot of players that will be involved in these type of contact decisions, but the name that jumped out at me was Ichiro Suzuki.

It’s no real surprise that the Miami Marlins made this move. With a new ownership group taking over and quite a few reports that they’re looking to cut payroll Ichiro may be the first of many players Miami gets rid of. The question now is at 44 years of age will another team sign Ichiro.

Ichiro appeared in 136 games for the Marlins last season playing all three outfield positions for them. He hit .255, but is a career .312 hitter.

Ichiro is a sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer. He currently has 3080 career hits. Ichiro has won the Rookie of the Year award and the M.V.P. in the same season, 2001. He’s a 10-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove winner. He’s won 2 batting title and 3 Silver Sluggers and was named All-Star game M.V.P. in 2007.

Ichiro has made it clear that he’d like to continue his major league career, but will a team take a chance on him. He could be a good fit for a contending team as 4th or 5th outfield. Now the Marlins only paid Ichiro $2 million dollars a season while he was with them; so he may be a value for the right team. Would you like to see your favorite team sign Ichiro?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live in BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available any time at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 1, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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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

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 25, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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games in leftfield  games in centerfield and The World Series kicked off last night with the Los Angeles Dodgers taking Game 1 over the Houston Astros 3-1.

After the Astros went down 1,2,3 in the Top of the 1st inning Chris Taylor stepped up to lead off for the Dodgers. Taylor has been one of the biggest surprises in baseball this season and his highlights continued. Taylor hit the first pitch he saw 447 feet to leftfield to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Taylor was a 5th round pick in the 2012 amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners out of the University of Virginia. Taylor had a pretty quick rise through the Mariners minor league system as he made his major league debut on July 24th 2014. Taylor appeared in 47 games for the Mariners in 2014. He hit .347, but didn’t homer. Taylor started the 2015 season in the minors for Seattle, but again got a call up. Taylor played in 37 games for the Mariners, but hit just .170. Again at the start of the 2016 season Taylor found himself back in Triple-A. Taylor did play 2 games with the Mariners before he was traded to the Dodgers on June 19th for right handed pitcher Zach Lee. Taylor did play in 34 games for the Dodgers in 2016, but again struggled at the plate hitting .207. Taylor did start the 2017 season in the minors again, but he only played in 10 games before being called up. Taylor played in 140 games for the Dodgers this season. He hit .288 with 21 home runs and 72 RBI’s, Taylor had 1 career home run coming into this season. Taylor had spent time at the various infield positions, but played mostly as a short stop. This season Taylor found himself in the outfield for the first time in his major league career. Taylor played 49 games in centerfield and 47 games in leftfield this season. He acquitted himself well on defense as he had 7 outfield assists and a fielding percentage of .989.

Taylor’s success has continued into the post season. Taylor did scuffle in the Dodgers sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS as he hit .231. Taylor bounced back nicely though as the Dodgers beat the Cubs 4 games to 1 in the NLCS. Taylor hit .316 with a double, triple, 2 home runs while scoring 5 runs in the series. Taylor was named M.V.P. of the NLCS. Will Taylor’s success continue against the Astros in the World Series? He was 1 for 3 last night with that lead off home run he also drew a walk and scored a second run in the game. Will have a few more games to find out.

The other World Series question that looks like it was answered last night was; did Clayton Kershaw get that playoff monkey off his back?

Every baseball fan knows that Kershaw is the best pitcher in the game right now, but he’s had his issues in the playoffs. I think everyone remember the home run Matt Adams hit off him back in 2014. I’m sure there where people who where a little concerned last night when Alex Bregman hit a solo home run off of Kershaw to tie the game at 1-1 in the Top of the 4th inning, but it didn’t go that way last night.

Kershaw only made 1 start in the opening NLDS series against the Diamondbacks and he struggled. Kershaw gave up 4 runs over 6 1/3rd innings, but the Dodgers gave him the run support he needed and he got the win. Kershaw was much better against the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS. Kershaw made 2 starts against the Cubs giving up 3 runs over 11 innings while picking up 1 win in that series. Then last night Kershaw pitched 7 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 11. Don’t forget that while Kershaw had 17 post season starts before last night in his career this was his first World Series start. So numbers wise it looks like Kershaw had his best post season start on the biggest possible stage. Kershaw is due to get at least one more start in this series; so will see if he stays hot.

Of course one game doesn’t make a series and Dallas Keuchel kept the Astros in the game, he just beat by the home run ball. We mentioned the lead off home run Taylor hit, but Justin Turner also hit a 2-run home run off Keuchel with 2 outs in the Bottom of the 6th inning to make it a 3-1 game. Keuchel went 6 2/3rd innings for the Astros last night, but what might turn out to be bigger pitching news for Houston is the bullpen didn’t have any issues. Brad Peacock did walk a batter, but got out of the 1/3rd of an inning he pitched cleanly. Chris Devenski also worked a clean inning striking out 2 batters.

The Astros will try to even up the series tonight as they have Justin Verlander starting for them. Verlander has 4 post season wins for the Astros this season, 3 as a starter and 1 as a reliever. He was also the M.V.P. of the ALCS as he posted a 0.56 E.R.A. in his 2 starts. The Dodgers will counter with Rich Hill as their Game 2 starter. Hull has made just 1 post season start for the Dodgers, he pitched 5 innings against the Cubs giving up 1 run on 3 hits while walking 1 and striking out 8. Will see if Verlander can stay on his post season roll and if Hill can keep the Dodgers in the game against the best post season pitcher.

Believe it or not our picks greatly improved for Week 7. Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy tied for the weeks best record as they where both 13-2. I actually got into the double digit win column as well going 11-4. For the first time in a long time Schaumburg Stu finished last for the week with a record of 9-6. With his big week Dan the Man has taken over the season lead at 65-41. Schaumburg Stu is in 2nd place at 62-44 while Mr. Fantasy moved into 3rd place at 61-45; so that means I’m the guy in the cellar, but only by a game at 60-46. Will have to see if we can stay hot going into Week 8.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 18, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports
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The NBA season tipped off last night with two games. The opener featured the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the Boston Celtics. While the night game had the defending champion Golden State Warriors vs. the Houston Rockets.

This off season the Celtics where able to land one of if not the top free agent on the market when they signed Gordon Hayward to a 4 year $128 million dollar deal. It was the first of a couple moves that the Celtics made that had many people thinking the could unseat the Cavaliers as the best team on the Eastern Conference. Sadly Heyward’s Celtics debut went horribly wrong.

Heyward went up for an alley-oop just about 5 minutes into the game. He collided with LeBron James on the play and his leg bent in a funny way and he collapsed under the basket. The players stayed away from Heyward as the doctors where checking him out, but eventually his teammates and the Cavaliers players came over to check on him as he was being stretchered off the court.

Heyward was taken into the Cavaliers locker room for his medical evaluation. Being that Cleveland was the home team their locker room is outfitted with more medical equipment than the visitors locker room is. Both Celtics and Cavaliers officials where in the locker room with Heyward along with doctors from each team. Heyward received X-rays in the Cavaliers locker room.

After the game Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said that Heyward had dislocated his ankle and fractured his tibia while the team announced the injury as a fractured ankle. No matter what his injury is Heyward was flown back to Boston last night and taken straight to New England Baptist Hospital according to reports. Heyward is scheduled to have surgery today.

Heyward’s teammate did rally and beat the Cavaliers 102-99 as Jaylen Brown led the way with 25 points. James just missed an opening night triple-double in the loss as he had 29 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists.

In the night cap it was ring night for Golden State and as I’m sure most of you know that normally spells trouble for a team. No one is sure if it’s the change of warm ups or the delays the ring ceremony causes, but most teams struggle when they are given their championship rings. The Warriors didn’t fall into that trap to start.

The Warriors out up 35 points in the 1st quarter to take a slim 1 point lead. After a 36 point 2nd quarter the Warriors had a 9 point lead at halftime. Golden State was able to push their lead to double digits at the end of the 3rd quarter as they lead by 13. As the 4th quarter rolled around it appeared as the Warriors would be able to get by the new look Rockets on opening night, but the final quarter didn’t go their way. Did the Warriors run out of gas? Or was it the opening ceremony just catching up to them? Golden State managed just 20 points in the 4th quarter as the Rockets where able to make up that 13 point deficit and pull out a 1 point win 122-121.

James Harden led the Rockets with 27 points. Harden also recorded 10 assists. The Rockets only used 8players in the game and all three of the players who came off the bench scored in double digits led by Eric Gordon with 24 points. If you would’ve bet that Nick Young would be the Warriors leading scorer on opening night you probably would’ve won a lot of money, but he was. Young came off the Golden State bench to score 23 points. Young made 8 of the 9 shots he took in the game and was 6 of 7 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green was a point short of a triple-double as he had 11 rebounds, 13 assists, but just 9 points in the loss.

If you’ve ever played on a team you know that there are arguments between teammates and sometimes these escalate into physical altercations. Luckily these fights are rare and they don’t often end in an injury, but that wasn’t the case for the Chicago Bulls at practice Tuesday.

Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis are battling each other for playing time at the power forward position. At practice on Tuesday it was reported that the two started by talking trash to each other which we see happen in ever NBA game.

In this case the incident between Mirotic and Portis sadly continued to escalate as it was reported that Mirotic charged Portis on a couple of occasions before Portis retaliated with a punch. Portis’ punch landed right in Mirotic’s face and he dropped to the floor.

Mirotic ended up being taken to the hospital and where he was diagnosed with a concussion and fractures to his upper jaw. The Bulls have said that surgery is a possibility for Mirotic.

Bulls general manager Gar Foreman was at practice and saw the altercation happen according to reports, but he didn’t comment on it. In a statement released by the team the Bulls said they are ” evaluating disciplinary action.”

The Bulls open the season Thursday night on the road against the Toronto Raptors.

Is there anyone out there who can figure out this NFL season? There seem to be quite a few upsets every week and as you’ll see it’s affecting our records when it comes to picking games.

For Week 6 Dan the Man was the only one who was able to get above .500 at 8-6. Schaumburg Stu was right at .500 with a 7-7 record. I was a game under .500 at 6-8 while Mr. Fantasy struggled to a 5-9 record for the week

On the season Schaumburg Stu is still in the lead with a record of 53-38, but Dan the Man has closed the gap to just one game as his record stanza at 52-39. I am hanging around in 3rd place with a record of 49-42 while Mr. Fantasy finds himself in the cellar, but he is just one game behind me at 48-43.

You can listen the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalklRadio.com, but you can also listen to the podcast any time you choose to at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 4, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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When Major League Baseball added non-division winning teams to the playoffs they decided to call them wild card teams and wild sure described the start of last nights game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees.

The Yankees decided to go with their young ace Luis Severino as the starter for this game. It started off rough for Severino as Twins lead off man Brian Dozier hit a home run to put the Twins up 1-0 right away. After Joe Mauer fouled out there was a thought that Severino was going to settle in, but after a walk to Jorge Polanco, Eddie Rosario hit a two run home run to rightfield to give the Twins a early 3-0 lead. Eduardo Escobar singled Max Kepler doubled and that was it for Severino. Chad Green came out of the Yankees bullpen to get out of the 2nd and 3rd jam and keep it a 3-0 game.

You would’ve thought the Twins would have some confidence heading into the bottom of the 1st inning, but one swing of the bat evened the game up. Brett Gardner drew a walk off of Twins starter Ervin Santana. Aaron Judge followed with a single to put runners on 1st and 3rd. Gary Sanchez fouled out for the first out of the inning. Didi Gregorius got the Yankees right back in the game with a 3-run home run to even the score at 3-3. Santana got did walk a hitter, but got out of the 1st with no more damage.

The Twins went down 1,2,3 in the top of the 2nd and after the first two Yankees flew out to centerfield to start the bottom of the 2nd Gardner gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead on a solo home run to rightfield. A ground out ended the inning with the Yankees up 4-3.

Green ran into some trouble in the top of the 3rd. A single and then two walks sandwiching a fly out and the Twins had the bases loaded with just one out. Bryon Buxton grounded into a fielder’s choice to tie the game at 4-4. That ended Green’s night as David Robertson was up next out of the Yankees bullpen. Buxton stole 2nd to out runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, but Jason Castro struck out to end the inning for the Twins with the score 4-4.

Jose Berrios relieved Santana to start the bottom of the 3rd inning and was greeted with a lead off double by Sanchez. After two strikeouts Greg Bird came through with a two out single to bring Sanchez home and give the Yankees the lead for good at 5-4. Aaron Hicks did have an infield single, but with runners 1st and 2nd Jacob Ellsbury fouled out to end the inning.

The Yankees added two run off Berrios in the bottom of the 4th. Todd Frazier stuck out to start the inning. Gardner singled to get on base for the third consecutive time in the game. Judge then hit a 2-run home run to leftfield to put the Yankees up 7-4.

The Yankees added their final run of the game in the bottom of the 7th inning. Judge walked off of Trevor Hildenberger to start the inning. Sanchez singled with Judge going to 3rd. Sanchez was able to advance to 2nd on an error to out runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Gregorius walk intentionally walked to load the bases. Castro flew out for the first out of the inning. Taylor Rogers came out of the Twins bullpen to strikeout Bird for the second out of the inning. The Twins went to the bullpen again this time for Alan Busenitz. Hicks worked a walk off of Busenitz to force in Judge and make it a 8-4 game. Ellsbury flew out to end the inning.

With Severino lasting just 1/3rd of an inning the Yankees bullpen really stepped up. Green pitched 2 innings followed by Robertson who worked 3 1/3rd innings. Tommy Kahnle pitched 2 1/3rd inning while Aroldis Chapman pitched the final inning.

The Yankees move on to face the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the ALDS on Thursday. The Yankees have yet to announce who their starting pitcher will be, but you have to wonder what they’re thinking about doing with Severino. Severino was 14-6 in 31 starts with a 2.98 E.R.A. during the regular season, but none of that came through in his first post season start. The Yankees will have to figure out if it was just a case of nerves or quite possible if the stage was just too big for Severino.

The Yankees could go with Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathis and Sonny Gray before they might have to go back to Severino. Of course coming off of such a short outing where he only threw 30 pitches Severino should be available out of the bullpen if needed. Would the Yankees go as far as taking Severino out of the rotation and use Jordan Montgomery in his spot.

While we’re on the Yankees/Indians series, Cleveland did something interesting with their starting rotation as well. It would seem obvious that Corey Kluber would take the mound for Game 1 of any series the Indians are in, but for the ALDS it will be Trevor Bauer getting the Game 1 start followed by Kluber in Game 2. Cleveland is doing this to keep Kluber on his regular rest. This would also make him available for a Game 5 start in the ALDS or possibly a Game 1 start in the ALCS.

Let’s take a look at our NFL picks for Week 4. Schaumburg Stu took the week going 10-6. Dan the Man was right behind him at 9-7 while Mr. Fantasy and I finished the week at 8-8. For the season Schaumburg Stu is in the lead at 39-24. Dan the Man is two games behind him at 37-26. I’m currently holding down 3rd place with a record of 36-27 while Mr. Fantasy is at the bottom right now with a record of 35-28. We’ll see how Week 5 goes for us.

As you know we make our picks on the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcast. Some how every team that I picked to win that was playing in a Noon game lost. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like that happen to me before.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget that I’m on Twitter @Burketime

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