The 2013 World Men’s Hockey Championships will commence this weekend with Canada playing two games in Stockholm. The first will be against Denmark on Saturday (TSN, 8:00 a.m.) and the second will be against Switzerland on Sunday (TSN2, 8:00 a.m.).
There are four Oilers and one Flame on Team Canada. Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, Devan Dubnyk and Taylor Hall are the Oilers, while T.J. Brodie is the lone Calgary Flame.
Other notable players representing Team Canada are Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith, Carolina Hurricanes sniper Eric Staal, Florida Panthers defenceman Brian Campbell (defending Lady Byng winner) and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos, who was second in the NHL in scoring with 29 goals and 57 points. (more…)
The San Francisco Giants are winning baseball games with great pitching. On Saturday night in Detroit, it was Ryan Vogelsong’s turn.
The Charlotte native threw five shutout innings as the Giants blanked the Detroit Tigers 2-0 to take a 3-0 lead in the series. With the win, they are only one win away from winning their second World Series in three years.
Left fielder Gregor Blanco meanwhile is making manager Bruce Bochy look like a genius. Bochy decided to put Blanco on his playoff roster over Melky Cabrera, who could have come back to play for the Giants in the World Series after serving his suspension for steroid use. But Bochy did not want to interrupt team chemistry and Blanco delivered with a key second inning triple that scored Hunter Pence. It also turned out to be the game winning run batted in.
Tonight Matt Cain gets the start for San Francisco and Max Scherzer counters for Detroit.
The Edmonton Eskimos have a chance of clinching a playoff spot on Sunday when they play the Montreal Alouettes. At 7-9 they sit in last place in the Western Division, but will qualify for the postseason in the crossover into the East because they will have a better record than the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The Eskimos will not have running back Hugh Charles in their lineup. Charles suffered a knee injury in the Eskimos’ 39-19 loss to the B.C. Lions last Friday. The Eskimos then brought back Cory Boyd this past week to backup Jerome Messam.
The San Francisco Giants are headed to the World Series for the second time in three years.
The Giants, who won the World Series in 2010, pounded the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0 to win the National League Championship Series 4-3. They will now face the Detroit Tigers at AT&T Park starting tomorrow night.
The turning point in this one came in the third inning. With the Giants leading 2-0, Hunter Pence hit a three-run RBI double, which put the Giants up by a commanding 5-0 advantage.
There will be a seventh and deciding game in the National League Championship Series at San Francisco’s AT&T Park Monday night.
On Sunday, Giants ace Ryan Vogelsong was brilliant, as he pitched seven masterful innings, striking out nine and only giving up one run as San Francisco defeated St. Louis 6-1 in the sixth game of the series.
Leading 1-0, the Giants had a big second inning as they scored four times. The inning was highlighted by a Pete Kozma error that scored Brandon Belt, who led off the inning with a triple, and a two run RBI double by Marco Scutaro.
This is currently one of the most exciting times in Canadian tennis. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario achieved greatness again Friday night when he defeated U.S. Open and Olympic champion Andy Murray of Great Britain in three sets, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 at the Japan Open in Tokyo.
Raonic saved off two match points in the third set and was able to break Murray back after being down 4-1 in the final set.
Raonic also performed admirably while not serving in the third set, something he has struggled with in his career. He will now face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in tonight’s final (11pm, Sportsnet One). Raonic is also seeking his third title of the season, having won in Chennai and San Jose earlier in the year.
For the seventh time this season, pitcher has thrown a no-hitter in Major League Baseball. On Friday night, Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds struck out ten and walked one in a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Bailey joins Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox, Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Johan Santana of the New York Mets, Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners and a six pitcher effort by Seattle.
The Reds are one of four teams that have qualified for the postseason. They are joined by the National League East champion Washington Nationals, National League West champion San Francisco Giants and the National League wildcard champion Atlanta Braves.
In other baseball news, the Cleveland Indians have fired manager Manny Acta and named Sandy Alomar Jr. his replacement. The Houston Astros have also named Bo Porter their 2013 manager. Porter is currently the third base coach for the Washington Nationals.
A battle of the last two undefeated teams in the Canadian Football League will take to the field today at Mosaic Stadium in Regina.
The 2-0 Saskatchewan Roughriders will host the 2-0 British Columbia Lions (Saturday, 1pm, TSN).
The Roughriders have outscored the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Edmonton Eskimos a combined 60-17, while the Lions have outscored the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers 72-52.
This will be a contest between the Lions offense versus the Roughriders defense. If Geroy Simon and Arland Bruce III are able to expolit Craig Butler and Chris Mackenzie, the Lions should have a good day.
The National League representative will have home field advantage in the World Series for the third consecutive time this fall.
Tuesday in Kansas City, the National League pounded the American League in a 8-0 victory.
San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval hit a first inning three run triple and San Francisco Giants center fielder Melky Cabrera hit a two run home run in the fourth inning.
Another San Francisco Giant also played a key role. Starting pitcher Matt Cain got the win after he threw two innings of work with no earned runs and a strikeout.
There were two other very interesting storylines that resulted from the game. First, Tony La Russa, the St. Louis Cardinals World Series winning manager, was the manager for the National League despite the fact he retired in the offseason. Also, Justin Verlander, the ace of the Detroit Tigers, and possibly one of the best pitchers in baseball got absolutely hammered as he gave up five earned runs in the first inning of work.
This week on the show, we recap the NHL playoffs, make a couple of NHL Award show predictions and discuss who should go first overall at the upcoming draft. As well, the latest on the Pacquiao/Bradley boxing controversy and Lance Armstrong is facing doping charges.
In the GABBYs: Matt Cain, Alex Rodriguez, Nik Wallenda, KTLA, Croatian soccer fans & Aubrey Huff. The Punchline this week is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
In what is becoming a trend in Major League Baseball, there was another no-hitter on Wednesday night.
This time it was a perfect game for San Francisco Giants’ right hander Matt Cain.
Cain, pitched the 22nd perfect game in baseball history in a 10-0 shutout win over the Houston Astros. It was also the fifth no-hitter this season, following Philip Humber, Jered Weaver, Johan Santana and the six Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
Cain also had a career high 14 strikeouts.
The perfect game came in San Francisco also came on the eve of the 2012 United States Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco–fitting because Cain is an avid golfer.
The ten runs San Francisco scored in the no-hitter was the most since the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles on September 1, 2007 on a no-hitter by Clay Buchholz.
Right fielder Gregor Blanco and first baseman Brandon Belt each had three runs batted in for the Giants, who are now 3.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West. The Giants do however hold the wildcard spot.
Team Canada is back in the final of the Women’s World Hockey Championship. Friday afternoon in Burlington, Vermont, Meghan Agosta, Laura Fortino and Marie-Philip Poulin each scored a goal and an assist as Canada beat Finland 5-1 in the semi-final game.
Agosta, was a huge force on the Canadian side, notching nine shots on goal. Canada’s opponent tonight is once again the United States, who hammered Switzerland 10-0 in the other semi-final. The game can be seen live on TSN at 5pm.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday–NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 2–Washington Capitals @ Boston Bruins–NBC–1pm–The Capitals lost game 1 despite a brilliant goaltending performance by Braden Holtby. The Bruins meanwhile got a stingy defensive effort Thursday night as they only allowed 17 Washington shots in 61:18 of action. The Capitals simply won’t win many games in the series if Alexander Ovechkin only gets one shot. The Capitals sniper did record seven hits, but needs to find the offensive side of his game again. Tim Thomas is the only goaltender in the playoffs so far to get a shutout.
It is in this division where the World Series champion came out of in 2010. The San Francisco Giants knocked off the Texas Rangers 4-1 to win their first championship since 1954.
Even though their pitching staff remains basically intact, the Giants did have to say goodbye to infielders Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria in the offseason. Uribe, who had 24 home runs and 85 runs batted in last season with the Giants is now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Renteria, who was named the World Series Most Valuable Player, is now with the Cincinnati Reds.
The 2013 World Men’s Hockey Championships will commence this weekend with Canada playing two games in Stockholm. The first will be against Denmark on Saturday (TSN, 8:00 a.m.) and the second will be against Switzerland on Sunday (TSN2, 8:00 a.m.).
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