The weekend for most isn't technically over. You still have the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship (Golf, kids) with both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods in the hunt, U.S. Open Tennis, Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech in college football later that night and the start of the Athletics/Angels and Yankees/Rays series in baseball. That plus a good barbeque should be enough to tide you over until Wednesday when the NFL begins with the Cowboys heading to New York to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Giants.
The final weekend before the return of profession football did not let us down. Let's take a look back just in case you hit the beach one final weekend and missed out.
7. College Football (Non ranked vs. ranked games)
The most eye opening score came from Pittsburgh as the Panthers lost to I-AA (eff that FCS crap) Youngstown St.. It's not the first Division I team to lose to the smaller schools recently (JMU vs Virginia Tech, Appalachian St. vs. Michigan), but it still is shocking when it happens. Navy went to Ireland to battle the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and got blasted 50-10. Clemson retains the 'Tigers' moniker for this season as they beat Auburn who will now be called the 'Pumas' for the remainder of the year. That would have made the game much more interesting. Penn St. lost on the field after an off season of losing off the field. As noted on Twitter, they lost again Saturday to extend a losing streak that dates back to 1998. USC (not the Gamecocks who are neither USC nor Carolina...just South or Cocks, your choice) rolled over Hawaii in their first game as #1 in the nation. West Virginia claimed their state title as they whooped Marshall and my two favorite colleges (UNC and JMU) won by a combined scored of 117-7.
6. Boise St. Broncos at Michigan St. Spartans
In one of two ranked vs. ranked match ups this weekend, two new look teams squared off in a surprising defensive battle (of sorts). Michigan St. jumped out behind Le'Veon Bell who scored early en route to 265 total yards on the night. Boise St. couldn't muster much offense at all and it was a credit to their defense, who scored their lone touchdown of the night, that the game was as close as it was. In fact Boise St. held the lead going into the 4th quarter, but after Bell scored his second touchdown of the game, Michigan St. took the lead back for good. Both teams looked offensively challenged, save for Bell and he was the difference on Saturday.
5. St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals
What a series these two teams gave us. After a miserable start for the Cardinals, losing the 1st two games by a combined 18-1 score we got two classic games to end the series. After seeing their bats go dormant for 48 hours in Washington, St. Louis spotted Washington 4 runs before scoring 8 over the next three innings to take an 8-6 lead. The Nationals answered back with a three run inning, but gave up single runs in the eighth and ninth to lose 10-9. Sunday, Nationals fans got one of their final looks at Stephen Strasburg this season and he was masterful throwing six scoreless innings and left with a 2-0 lead. That didn't last long as Sean Burnett promptly gave up a 2 run homer to light hitting David Descalso who had previously been 5 for his last 58. This time it was the Nationals that were able to respond as they scratched out two runs in the bottom of the 7th and held on for a 4-3 victory and a 3 games to 1 series victory.
4. Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees
This close. The Orioles were this close to walking into Yankees Stadium and sweeping New York. Mark Reynolds hit two home runs in both the Friday and Sunday games as the Orioles outscored the struggling Yankees 14-4 in those two games. In the middle game, Baltimore was up 3-0 in the 4th and 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh when it all fell apart for them. With two outs and only one man on base, starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen walk a guy and gave up a hit to cut the lead to 3-2. Pedro Strop 'relieved' him and walked the first two batters he faced to knot the game up at 3. Then when he finally threw a hittable pitch, Nick Swisher hit a ball to shortstop J.J. Hardy who booted it and allowed the go ahead, and eventual game winning run to score. Baltimore wins the series and creeps to within 2 games in the A.L. East as their dream season continues with the 4 game rematch in Baltimore starts Thursday.
3. U.S. Open Tennis
Nothing of note happened this weekend, which is good for the upcoming quarterfinals. Andy Roddick is still alive and plays next on Tuesday. The closest major upset was Maria Sharapova down 2 games to none in the third set, but she stormed back to win. Because of the length of that match and the rain delay last night, American John Isner was forced to start playing after 10 pm local time and of course his match against Philipp Kohschreiber went the full five sets and 3+ hours ending right around 2:30 in the morning. That seems quite ridiculous if I must say so. I don't understand why they can't just bring them back at 8 am because you won't get the television ratings you were expecting either way. Today another American is expected to be ousted as Mardy Fish has to play Roger Federer. Miracles can happen can't they?
2. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
I asked for a Detroit sweep and by God I got a Detroit sweep. The Tigers held serve on their home field behind strong starting pitching and a timely home run last night. The marquee match up was between Chris Sale and Justin Verlander yesterday and into the 6th inning it lived up to the billing. Tied at one in the bottom of the 6th inning, Sale threw one too many sliders (slurves if you listen to ESPN) to Delmon Young without changing his eye level with a high fastball (who am I to judge?) and he hit a 3 run home run. Even though Detroit has underwhelmed all season, they are still my choice to represent the American League in the World Series. Behind the one-two punches of Verlander and Max Scherzer on the mound and Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder at the plate, if they can play good enough defense I don't see anyone being able to beat them in a short series. Chicago may have seen their cushion slip away this weekend, but they will get their chance to strike back one week from today when they welcome Detroit to town for a huge 4 game series.
1. Michigan Wolverines vs. Alabama Crimson Tide
I tried to time it right on Saturday night as the wife and I watched The Dictator for our weekend movie which was actually disappointing. I figured I'd missed about 15-20 minutes of this game and that would be hardly enough to worry me, but that turned out to be quite incorrect. I flipped the game on and it was already 14-0 Alabama with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter and I knew it was over. By the time I got back from the bathroom (too much information???) it was 21-0 and that was the last I saw of the game. Michigan kept it within 20 into the 4th quarter which sparked my curiosity knowing one of my friends had a small $1500 wager on Alabama and the 13 1/2 point spread, but the Crimson Tide scored again and he was safe. Lunch on him on Tuesday!!!!! Wake me when Alabama plays in the SEC Championship game which will probably be the BCS Championship game as well (sorry USC).
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