Short-handed Sixers Fall to Knicks

Two NBA teams got to experience a bowl game like many NCAA college football teams do on Wednesday night in Philadelphia as the New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76’ers 98-91 in the “2015 Tank Bowl”.

Going into the game, the two teams were heading in opposite directions. The Knicks (7-36) ended a 16 game losing streak Monday night when they beat the New Orelans Pelicans. Up until ten days ago, the Sixers (8-34)  had won three of four games. Since then they have lost three games in a row.

Carmelo Anthony made sure the Knicks were going to win this one. He scored 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. His two consecutive three-pointers in the first 25 seconds of the third quarter gave the Knicks a 55-42 lead, which was the biggest lead of the game, causing Sixers coach Brown to call a timeout.

The Sixers were playing without its center Nerlen Noels, who had an upper respiratory infection, Tony Wroten, who had a right knee sprain and Luc Mbah a Moute, who had a left-knee contusion. Noel and  Mbah a Moute have played great lately, especially on the defensive end.

Jose Calderon scored 15 points and added seven assists, Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 13 points and Logan Galloway scored 11 points for the Knicks.

Michael Carter-Williams led the Sixers with 27 points, seven assists and five steals, Rodney Covington added 17 points, KJ McDaniels added 12 points and five rebounds and Henry Sims scored 11 points and added 12 rebounds.

Sixers forward Jerami Grant only scored four points of 27 minutes of action, but he also  became only the first rookie in the NBA to block eight shots since Larry Sanders did it for the Milwaukee Bucks in December of 2010.

The Sixers host the first place Toronto Raptors on Friday night in Philadelphia.

Eagles Again Get Return & Defensive TD’s, Hammer Panthers

Every football fan outside of Philadelphia continues to doubt the Eagles and still don’t consider them legitimate contenders to win a Super Bowl.

Hell, some don’t even think they will get past the Dallas Cowboys in the division.

Well, let them talk. Once again, the Eagles found a way to win, this time beating the Carolina Panthers 45-21.

The Eagles have been finding ways to win and that is what good teams do. Whether you are playing Nick Foles or Mark Sanchez, you still have to play defense and you still have to play special teams, which are the two big reasons why the Eagles are still winning. When the best running back in the NFL only gets 15 yards on 12 carries, and your team still wins by 24 points, other things are working extremely well. This is definitely happening to the Eagles.

How about nine sacks, two fumble recoveries and three interceptions by the defense. The Eagles didn’t turn the ball over in his game, so they are a +5 in this game in the turnover department, a statistic the Eagles are getting very good at, as they continue to win.

Darren Sproles ran back other punt for a touchdown, this one covering 65 yards. It was his second punt return touchdown of the season.

This was an old-fashioned ass-whipping and there is no need to go over every point in this game.

The first-place Eagles, now 7-2, will get a big test this Sunday, having to travel to Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to face the 6-3 Packers.

Report: Young Cardinals Outfielder Dies In Accident

Brian Mejia, the agent of Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, has told the St. Louis Cardinals that his client Taveras, and his girlfriend, have been killed in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic.

The 22-year-old outfielder was named the top prospect in baseball entering the 2012 MLB season and he was the top prospect in the Cardinals organization for a few years.

He was recently playing for his town in winter ball and was preparing to go to the Cardinals big league camp in January in Jupiter, Florida, where he was going to battle for the starting right-field spot with fellow prospects Randal Grichuk and Steven Piscotty.

Taveras spent six seasons in the minor leagues, hitting a combined .320 with a .376 on-base percentage, a .516 slugging percentage, 53 homers and 324 RBIs in 436 games.

The Cardinals are waiting to get full details before making an official statement to the Cardinals team and fans.

San Francisco Pummels Monarchy, Ties Series

The San Francisco Giants definitely played Game #4 of the MLB World Series like their backs were against the wall, and responded with an astounding 11-4 win over the Kansas City Royals Saturday night in San Francisco, to tie the series at two games apiece.

The Giants pounded out 16 hits in this revenge win. It included a big game by Hunter Pence, who had two doubles, three hits, 2 runs scored, and three rbi’s. It also included two doubles, two runs scored, and two rbi’s, for Joe Panik. Gregor Blanco and Pablo Sandoval also added two hits.

The Royals also hit the ball well, getting 12 hits. Eric Hosmer and Sandy Perez each had three hits. One of Hosmer’s hit was a double. Lorenzo Cain had two hits.

The Royals put up a four-spot in the top of the 3rd inning. After the Giants put up one of their own in the bottom of the inning, the Royals took a 4-2 lead into the 4th inning.

However, the Giants started hammering the Royals as they used its fresh relievers, not the strong end of their pen. They scored two in the sixth, three in the seventh, and four in the eight, to make it a 11-4 game and out of reach. They got all of those runs against Jason Frasor, Danny Duffy, Brandon Finnegan and Tim Collins.

Kevin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland al still have not been scored on yet in this years playoffs.

Game #5 will be played Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. in San Francisco. The two aces face off in Game#5 James Shields (14-8 3.21 regular season/1-1 7.11 playoffs), who has struggled in the playoffs, will face Madison Bumgarner (18-10 2.98 regular season/3-1 1.40 playoffs) who has been dominant in the playoffs.

Flyers Get First Win At Home, Beat Red Wings

The Philadelphia Flyers got its first win of the 2014-2015 NHL season, beating the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 Saturday night in Philadelphia.

Going into the game, the Flyers have lost all three home games to this point, one in regulation time and two in the overtime shoot-outs. The win gives the Flyers a season record of 3 wins, 3 losses and two overtime shot-out losses.

The Flyers fell behind late in the first period at 15:43, when Riley Sheahan got his stick free on a pass from Andrej Nestasil and lifted it up over Flyers goaltender Ray Emery to make a 1-0 Wings lead. It was Sheahan’s first goal of the year.

The Flyers came back in the second period when Nicklas Grossman skated from his left-point position into the front of the Wings goal, all by himself, to knock a Michael Raff pass into an empty net to make it 1-1. It was Grossman’s first goal of the year.

The two teams quickly traded goals 42 seconds apart in the third period, starting at 6:01 when Michael Raffl scored his third goal of the year, to make it 2-1. At 6:43, Pavel Datsyuk finally scored his first goal of the season, to tie the game at 2-2.

The game was tied at 2-2 at this point, but only because of how well Flyers goalie Ray Emery was playing. He ended up making 35 saves on 37 shots and there would be some good saves after Datsyuk tied the game, but the ones he made just to keep the game tied to this point were very good. He allowed the Flyers to stay in the game, then eventually go ahead.

The Flyers indeed did just that when Brayden Schenn scored his second goal of the season, on the power-play at 11:05 to give the Flyers the 3-2 lead. Schenn’s power-play goal was the first power-play goal the Red Wings have given up all season, in 29 attempts.

Michael Raffl scored his second goal of the game, a back-hander from center-ice into an empty net gave the Flyers a 4-2 win.

The Flyers face many former teammates Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center when the Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings come to town.

Royals Hold On For Game 3 Win, Now up 2-1

The Kansas City Royals bullpen continued its playoff dominance, shutting out the Giants in the last three innings to win Game #3 in the MLB World Series 3-2, to go up 2-1 in this best-of-seven series.

After Jeremy Guthrie, who had a shutout through five innings, was taken out after allowing two Giants hitters to reach base in the bottom of the 6th inning. Those two inherited runners scored on Kelvim Herrera, but that would be all the bullpen would give up. What is so significant about this? The four relief pitchers that pitched after Jeremy Guthrie- Herrera, Finnegan, Wade Davis, and closer Greg Holland all have an ERA of 0.00 in the playoffs. Not one of those four relievers have given up an earned run. Tonight, Herrera pitched 1 1/3 innings, Finnegan pitched 2/3 innings and both Davis and Holland pitched one inning a piece, all of them scoreless. Guthrie gave up four hits and two earned runs in those five innings. He did not walk, or strike out, a batter. He got the win in this game.

For Finnegan, pitching in the World Series has put him in the history books. The 21-year-old Texas Christian University (TCU) alum is the first pitcher in MLB history to pitch in both the college World Series and the MLB World Series in the same year.

The Royals jumped out early in this game. With the very first pitch of the game, shortstop Alcides Escobar doubled off the left-field fence for a double. Alex Gordon, who was moved to the 2-hole, instead of batting sixth like he usually does, singled up the middle, to give the Royals the 1-0 lead.

The Royals put more runs on the board in the 6th inning. Escobar led off with a single. Gordon doubled to score Escobar to make it 2-0. Two outs later, Eric Hosmer singled up the middle to score Gordon and make it 3-0 Royals.

The Giants made it close, scoring twice in the bottom of the 6th. Brandon Crawford singled to start the rally. Michael Morse then doubled into the left-field corner to score Crawford and made it 3-1. With one out, Buster Posey grounded out to second, scoring Morse and making it 3-2.

That would be all the scoring in this game.

Tim Hudson took the loss for the Giants, pitching 5 2/3 innings, giving up four hits and three earned runs while walking one and striking out two.

This win bodes well for the Royals. In the last 55 World Series that were tied 1-1 after two games, the team that won Game #3 went on win the World Series 37 of those times, or 67% of the time.

Game #4 will be played in San Francisco on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. Kansas City will send out lefty Jason Vargas (11-10 3.71 regular season/1-0 2.38 playoffs) to face the Giants Ryan Vogelsong (8-13 4.00 regular season/0-0 5.19 playoffs).

Royals Come Back, Win Game 2

Those fans who thought once the Royals winning streak was over, they would not beat the Giants again have been disappointed as the Kansas City Royals hammered the San Francisco Giants 7-3 to tie the best-of-seven World Series at one game apiece. The series now moves back to San Francisco.

Tied at 2-2 entering the bottom of the 6th inning, the Royals got busy, putting up a five-spot to basically put the game out of reach as the Royals went up 7-2. Neither team would score again after that.

Omar Infante came up with the big blow in the 6th inning when with one out, Infante hit a two-run home run to cap off the big inning and make it a 7-2 lead.

It looked as if the Giants would rout the Royals again, as Gregor Blanco lead off the game with a home-run off of Yordano Ventura, who then got into a rhythm going 5 1/3 innings while giving up 8 hits, two earned runs while striking out two and walking none.

Kelvin Herrera got the win for the Royals, pitching 1 2/3 innings, giving up two walks and striking out one.

Starter Jake Peavy, who was pitching well until he got into the 6th inning, took the loss for the Giants. He pitched 5 innings, giving up six hits, four earned runs, and walking two, while striking out one.

Game #3 will be played in San Francisco at 8:00 p.m. Jeremy Guthrie 13-11 4.13 in regular season) will pitch against the Giants’ Tim Hudson (9-13 3.57).

Flyers Shutout In Chicago

The Flyers early season struggles continued Tuesday night in Chicago, as the Flyers fell to the Blackhawks 4-0.

The Flyers are now 1-3-2 for 4 points and in 7th place in he 8-team Metropolitan Division in the NHL’s Easter Conference.

Antti Raanka was the star in this shut-out for the Blackhawks, as the goalie made saves on all 32 shots he faced to get the shut-out and move the ‘Hawks record to 4-0-1 for 9 points.

Patrick Kane scored two power plays, one to make it 2-0 and one to make it 4-0.

Brandon Saad scored the Blackhawks first goal of the game and Bryan Bickell scored to make it 3-0. Both Saad and Bickell each also added an assist.

This game was expected to have some scoring in it. Both the Blackhawks and Flyers are in the top four teams in the entire NHL in shots on goal. In this game, the Blackhawks outshot the Flyers 43-32.

On three of the four Blackhawks goals, goalie Steve Mason had no chance at keeping the puck out of the net.

The Flyers hopped on a plane immediately after the game to fly to Pittsburgh, where they will play Sidney Crosby and the 3-1-0 Penguins on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m.

Kansas City. Kansas City Here I come…

VS.

After what has seemed like a regular season that lasted 284 calendar years and playoff series that lasted about a long as an episode of your nightly news, it is finally time for the 2014 MLB World Series.

Oh, and it only seemed like the season lasted that long because I am a diehard Phillies fan and our team was horrible again. There will be a Phillies season in review blog post later in the week. If I liked a team that was any good, the season wouldn’t have felt like it took so long!

The World Series will feature the Kansas City Royals (89-73) hosting the San Francisco Giants (88-74).
The Royals were in the playoffs this year for the first time since 1985- a span of 29 MLB seasons.

The San Francisco Giants have two World Series Championships in the last four years- 2010 and 2012. Ever since the Philadelphia Phillies represented the NL in its 2009 World Series loss in six games to the New York Yankees, it has either been the Giants or the Cardinals representing the NL in the World Series.
Those two championships are the only two the Giants have won since moving to San Francisco from New York years ago.

They have lost in the World Series as the Giants on three different occasions; in 1962 to the New York Yankees, in 1989 to the Oakland Athletics and in 2002 to the Anaheim Angels.

The last time the Royals made the playoff, in 1985, was also the same year the Royals have won its only World Series title, beating the cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals. They have lost in the World Series just once as well, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.

The Royals have won eight straight games to get to the World Series, first sweeping the Tigers and then sweeping the Orioles. They have been great so far. Not known to be a power-hitting team, they have become a power hitting team in the postseason, hitting 8 home runs in those 8 games. They also have 13 stolen bases in 16 attempts in this playoff year. As a team, they are hitting .259, have a .331 on base percentage and a .390 slugging percentage.

The Royals have not really pitched well. Their ace, James Shields has a 5.63 ERA in his three starts. Jason Vargas is a 2.38 but has only pitched 11 1/3 innings in two starts and has a WHIP of 0.79.

The Giants are 8-2 in this year’s playoffs, beating both the Nationals and the Cardinals 4-games-to-1. They usually have a good hitting team, but they aren’t hitting great in the playoffs. They are hitting .244 as a team, have a .314 on-base percentage, and a .324 slugging percentage, only hitting 5 homers in their ten playoff games.

The Giants are winning because of their pitching. As a team, they have a playoff ERA of only 2.18 in their ten games with a Walks + Hits Per Inning Pitched (WHIP) of 0.95, only giving up 68 his in 90+ innings. Madison Bumgarner has been nearly unhittable, with a 1.42 ERA and a WHIP of only 0.76. Veteran Jake Peavy also has been very good, going 1-0 with a 1.86 in two starts. Tim Hudson is a 3.29 in two starts, but does not have a decision.

How the Giants Will Win:

To win this series, the pitchers will need to continue avoiding walks. The Royals turn walks or singles into a double in a pitch or two, so limiting the walks will keep he Royals from scoring. No matter how much speed the Royals have, they cant score if they aren’t on base. They need to continue playing roles- with each and every player doing exactly what their job is. Knowing their roles, and gladly accepting them, and sticking to them, is the reason the Giants have two World Series in the last four MLB seasons- in 2010 ad 2012. Only the St. Louis Cardinals can match the Giants in role players playing their roles, but the Cardinals got beaten by San Francisco for different reasons this year. Also, the Giants have to get a win early in the series, at least one in Kansas City. The Royals are 8-0 and in not losing, they don’t know what it is like to have to regroup as a team after a loss. Doing so, especially early, may just put enough doubt in their minds to put them back on their heels.

How the Royals Will Win:

I really believe this Royals team is a team of destiny. The baseball gods are clearly looking down on them and giving them some help. They have come back in games, gone extra innings and have kicked, scraped, and dug for every inch of those eight wins. Teams with no power are not supposed to win in the World Series. Even with bad starting pitching so far, the Royals have won, but Shields and company have to pitch better. They are great defensively and they have tons of speed. They need to continue doing exactly as they have- get on base and run, run, run. They need to continue believing in each other and trust that the guy next to them in the dugout will pick them up if they fail. This team believes in everyone in its roster.

Who Will Win:

The only way the Giants will win this series is if they win the first two games in Kansas City, which will let out the gas of the dream machine. If they don’t, the Royals will win this series. The only way to beat a team full of great role players doing their jobs perfectly is a team of destiny; a team that refuses to believe any team can beat them four times in seven games. Somewhere between the first of October, and their eighth straight win, the Royals finally found out exactly who they were and what timing they had. The Royals will win this series in seven games.

My Apologies…

I want to apologize to everyone who reads my blog.

I have medical issues and every few weeks I get sick and don’t feel up to doing anything. When this happens, I do not feel like blogging.

I feel alright now, so I will start blogging again tonight or tomorrow.

Please accept my apology.

Shawn