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.
There will be a sixth game in the National League Championship Series. Last night in St. Louis, the San Francisco Giants stayed alive with a brilliant pitching performance from Barry Zito in a 5-0 win over the Cardinals.
Now the series shifts back to Northern California for Game 6 (Sunday, FOX, 5pm). In order for the Cardinals to win and advance to the World Series, they’ll need to win on the road. Ironically, the Cardinals (38-43) and the Tigers (38-43), were the only two teams this season with losing records on the road to make the playoffs and they are the clubs that are in the best position at the moment to win the World Series.
The San Francisco Giants have tied the St. Louis Cardinals at one game apiece in the National League Championship Series.
Monday night in northern California, pitcher Ryan Vogelsong only gave up one earned run in seven innings of work as the Giants defeated the Cardinals 7-1.
With the game tied 1-1 in the fourth inning, the Giants scored four times. The Cardinals made two key errors, one by left fielder Matt Holliday and another by pitcher Chris Carpenter. Former Toronto Blue Jays’ shortstop Marco Scutaro also came up big with a two-run single that scored Gregor Blanco and Brandon Crawford.
The rest of the 2012 Major League Baseball postseason will not have New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.
In an amazing scene Saturday night at Yankee Stadium for game one of the American League Championship Series, Jeter dove for a ground ball, fell awkwardly on the ground and could not get up. In fact, Jeter needed the assistance of manager Joe Girardi to get back to the dugout.
The diagnosis was a broken ankle and yesterday the announcement was made that Jeter will be out for the remainder of the playoffs.
The Yankees have now activated Eduardo Nunez and will start former Toronto Blue Jay Jayson Nix at shortstop.
Currently the Yankees are trailing Detroit 2-0 in the American League Championship Series. Yesterday the Tigers won 3-0 on a brilliant pitching performance by Anibal Sanchez. The Yankees bats are currently frozen. They only had four hits yesterday afternoon.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we dive right into the abyss that is the NHL lockout, we take a look at an important day for the Edmonton arena project, salute the Edmonton Eskimos for a big win and dish the latest NFL bounty news. Don’t worry – we’re talking a little baseball too!
In the GABBYs: Justin Verlander, Michael Vick, Dominik Hasek, the Lingerie Football League, the Green Bay Packers and the NCAA. The Punchline this week is Saturday night programming!
The St. Louis Cardinals postseason dramatics continued Friday night.
Down 7-5 to the Washington Nationals in the ninth inning, St. Louis scored four times in the final inning en route to a 9-7 win in the fifth and deciding game of the National League divisional playoff.
The Cardinals got a pair of dramatic two-run two-out singles in the ninth. The first from second baseman Daniel Descalso to tie the game at seven, and then from shortstop Pete Kozma to take the two run lead.
The Cardinals, who at one time trailed 6-0 in game five, will now play the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS.
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.
The year 2012 may be considered as the year sports fans will always remember for awful officiating.
First in soccer, then football, and now baseball.
Last night, in the National League wildcard play-in game (the very first of its kind), one of the most bizarre events ever materialized in a professional baseball game.
With the St. Louis Cardinals leading the Atlanta Braves 6-3 in the eighth inning, umpire Sam Holbrook called Braves rookie shortstop Andrelton Simmons out on the infield fly rule. However there were two key problems. The ball landed in the outfield, no where near the infield, and the play was called very late by Holbrook, something that is never done when an infield fly rule is called.
One of the most intriguing stories heading into the weekend, is how the Calgary Stampeders’ running game will respond to Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach Cory Chamblin’s guarantee this week that the Riders will limit Jon Cornish to under 100 yards.
I really liked the Stampeders’ response actually. Both Cornish and John Hufnagel (Calgary’s head coach and general manager) both responded with the statement that all they are concerned about is winning football games and they could care less about statistics.
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.
For the first time in club history a pitcher for the New York Mets has thrown a no-hitter.
Friday night in the big Apple, Johan Santana accomplished the feat as the New York Mets defeated the Saint Louis Cardinals 8-0.
But should Santana have been credited with a no-no? According to the Associated Press, Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran had a base hit down the line, but it was called foul by umpire Adrian Johnson. The replay clearly showed that the ball hit the foul line, meaning it should have been fair, not foul.
Santana becomes the third pitcher to throw a no-hitter this season joining Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox.
For the first time in franchise history, the Edmonton Rush are in championship game. Tonight in New York state, the Rush take on the Rochester Knighthawks for the 2012 Champion’s Cup (Shaw HD, 5:30pm).
Now I’m not a huge supporter of a team with a losing record in the regular season making the playoffs, as the Rush were 6-10 and in fourth place in the Western Division, but you have to give the team credit for getting hot at just the right time.
David Perron (Matthieu Masquelet, Wikimedia Commons)
Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs gets underway this weekend with the Conference Semi-Finals about to begin.
The series I will be most interested in is the St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. Can Darryl Sutter incorporate a similar game plan to shock the Blues like he did the Vancouver Canucks? The Blues looked great in beating the San Jose Sharks in five games and look even more dangerous in the playoffs than they did in the regular season because they are very healthy. Andy McDonald, Alexander Steen and David Perron, who all missed considerable time during the regular season, combined for 14 playoff points in five games.
As for the Kings, captain Dustin Brown was their best player against the Canucks. He led the team with five points and was very physical along the way.
Game one is Saturday night at 5:30pm on TSN. My pick is Blues in five. Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–ATP–Barcelona Open Semi-Finals–(3) David Ferrer–ESP vs. (11) Milos Raonic–CAN–5:30am–Sportsnet One–Milos Raonic won the match of his career on Friday, defeating Andy Murray of Great Britain in straight sets in the Barcelona Open quarterfinals. On Saturday, he will try and defeat another elite player in Spain’s David Ferrer. The Spaniard is 3-0 against Raonic including a victory in the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2011. Spaniards Fernando Verdasco is playing Rafael Nadal in the other semi-final.
For the 11th time in franchise history, the Saint Louis Cardinals are World Series champions. On Friday night at Busch Stadium, Allen Craig hit a third inning home run as the Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers 6-2 to win the World Series 4-3.
Cardinals’ starting pitcher Chris Carpenter threw six complete innings, giving up two earned runs, five strikeouts, six hits and two walks. He then handed it over to the bullpen where Arthur Rhodes, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte threw three shutout innings of relief.
Another major reason for the Cardinals’ victory was the poor control of the Rangers’ pitching staff. Texas pitchers combined for six walks and two hit batsmen. In one inning the Cardinals scored two runs without even getting a single hit.
Cardinals’ third baseman David Freese was named World Series MVP after hitting .348, a home run and a triple in game six, two doubles and seven runs batted in.
But this story was much more than the Cardinals winning the World Series. Don’t forget. They were once down by 10.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves for the National League Wildcard position in August. They clawed their way back into the playoff hunt by going 18-8 in September, while the Braves went 9-18.
This was the third World Series for manager Tony La Russa who previously won in 1989 with Oakland and 2006 with St. Louis.
There will be a seventh and deciding game in the National League Championship Series at San Francisco’s AT&T Park Monday night.
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