Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Hump Day Blog - September 18th, 2013


Let’s go out to the ballparks.

The Marlins continue their trek to reach 100 losses, as they fell to the Phillies and Roy Halladay last night, 6-4.  Chase Utley hit his 18th homer of the season, a three-run blast, in the win.  It was the top three hitters in the Philadelphia lineup that did most of the damage - Cesar Hernandez, Jimmy Rollins, and Utley were a combined 8-12 with four RBI and six runs scored.   With 11 games to go in the regular season, the Fish would need to go 8-3 in order to avoid reaching the century mark in losses.  Congratulations to Juan Pierre, whose pinch-hit double in the eighth inning was the 2,215th career hit, breaking a tie with Joe DiMaggio for 175th place on the all-time hits list.  Tonight at 7:05, the teams will close out their three-game series.  Zach Miner will toe the rubber for Philadelphia, and the Marlins will send Nathan Eovaldi to the hill.  After tonight’s game, the Fish will head to Washington, DC, to take on the Nats.

The Marlins are still the worst offensive team in the majors, and one of the worst in major league history.  The Fish have been held to three runs or less 95 times this season, and their record in those 95 games is 18-77. Taking it one step further,

When scoring three runs in a game    - 7-18
When scoring two runs in a game - 9-19
When scoring one run in a game - 2-23

Of course, they lead the majors in getting shutout, having been blanked 17 times so far this season.

The Marlins are still at the bottom of the list in runs scored this season in MLB, scoring only 485 runs in their 151 games, an obscene 3.21 runs per contest.  Here are the rest of the bottom-dwellers:

TEAM W-L Runs
Marlins 55-95 481
White Sox 60-91 559
Padres 70-80 574
Twins 64-86 577
Mariners 66-85 578
Cubs 63-88 578

In contrast, the Boston Red Sox (92-60) lead MLB with 793 runs. 

Speaking of the Marlins and their incompetent owner, Jeffrey Loria, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports agrees with me:

It's time to cut bait for meddling Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria

In the Major Leagues yesterday, here are the capsules and summaries from all the games. 

National League Results and Summaries - Tuesday, Sept. 17

American League Results and Summaries - Tuesday, Sept. 17

Today’s games around the majors, 

Schedule and probable pitchers for Wednesday, September 18

Here is the complete, month-by-month 2014 schedule for the Marlins:

2014 Marlins Schedule

Red Sox closer Koji Uehara saw his streak of consecutive hitters retired end last night:

Koji Uehara’s retired batters streak ends at 37 — four short of Bobby Jenks’ record

New York Mets’ pitcher Matt Harvey is putting off Tommy John surgery, at least for now.  Will try extensive rehab:

Matt Harvey won’t have Tommy John surgery on his injured elbow 

The Texas Rangers won last night, stopping a seven-game losing streak.  What’s going to happen if the Rangers blow it again?

Fox Sports South gives us their choices for the All-Rookie team:

All-Rookie team - CLASS OF 2013

Here are the up-to-the-minute standings in MLB:

MLB Standings

Here are the individual league leaders in MLB:

Individual MLB league leaders

TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  Chris Davis of the Orioles leads MLB this season with 51 home runs, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers is second with 44.  Over in the National League, Pedro Alvarez of the Pirates and Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks are tied for the league lead with 33 dingers.  Who was the last National League player to hit 50 homers in a season?  The answer comes later, alligator.   

Let’s go to the NFL, starting with the Dolphins.

The Fins could be a little shorthanded this week against the Falcons:

Dolphins could be without Soliai, Clemons vs. Falcons

Dolphins in Depth  

Here is the schedule of games for NFL week 3

THURSDAY

Kansas City @ Philadelphia -2 8:30 pm NFL Network

SUNDAY

Green Bay @ Cincinnati +3                 1:00 pm FOX
NY Giants @ Carolina +2 1:00 pm FOX
St. Louis @ Dallas -3                          1:00 pm FOX
Tampa Bay @ New England -8 1:00 pm FOX
Arizona @ New Orleans -9                  1:00 pm FOX
Detroit @ Washington -1 1:00 pm FOX
Houston @ Baltimore +1 1:00 pm CBS
Cleveland @ Minnesota -7                  1:00 pm CBS
San Diego @ Tennessee -2                  1:00 pm CBS
Atlanta @ MIAMI even                      4:05 pm FOX
Buffalo @ NY Jets +1                         4:25 pm CBS
Indianapolis @ San Francisco -12        4:25 pm CBS
Jacksonville @ Seattle -18                   4:25 pm CBS
Chicago @ Pittsburgh +4 8:30 pm NBC

MONDAY

Oakland @ Denver -15                       8:30 pm ESPN

I’ll have my picks for the week in Friday’s blog, tomorrow I’ll bring you the first pick of the week for Thursday’s game between the Chiefs and the Eagles.

I finished 5-2 against the spread last week, and a perfect 7-0 straight up.  

vs the Spread Straight Up Season Total

WEEK 1 3-2-1 4-2 ------   -----
WEEK 2 5-2 7-0 8-4-1 11-2
WEEK 3

Here’s ESPN’s NFL Nation Blog, with more news from all around the league:

NFL Nation Blog »

Of course, we can all continue to sleep at night, knowing full well that Aaron Hernandez remains in jail, where he belongs.  

The Herald’s Manny Navarro and Susan Miller Degnan have the latest scoop from the University of Miami, as the Canes prepare for this week’s encounter with Savannah State at the Seven Names Stadium.  Kickoff is set for 7:00 pm, and you can watch the game on your computer on ESPN3:

Eye on the U

For UM tight end Clive Walford, football is now a family matter

I told you it was just going to get uglier and uglier at FIU. The web site asking for the firing of FIU’s athletic director Pete Garcia - www.firepetegarcia.com - is getting more hits every day, the social media sites, the blogs, seem to be indicating that the FIU faithful and many people in the university have had more than enough of the present Athletic Department hierarchy and staff.  David Neal of the Miami Herald tells us in his “Panther Prowl” that Garcia, whose exact title is Executive Director of Entertainment and Sports, has a retention bonus due on October 15th of $72,504.  If Garcia is terminated without cause BEFORE October 15th, FIU would have to pay him $362,527.  The fact that these numbers are being thrown around publicly tells me that they are being discussed privately inside the university.

The Panthers travel to Louisville on Saturday to take on the University of Louisville.  Kickoff is at 12 noon.  No free TV for the game, which is probably done so nobody down here has to bear witness to what should be a massacre.  If you choose to, you can watch the game on your computer, on ESPN3.  FIU has the honor of being the biggest underdog in NCAA football this week, as Louisville is favored by 42 points over the Panthers.  Remember, FIU beat this Louisville team two seasons ago, and last year, they played them very tough and had a 14-7 lead before FIU QB Jake Medlock suffered a foot injury.  The Panthers fell behind 28-14, and made it interesting, losing 28-21.  

Please tell me again why Mario Cristobal was fired.

In case you missed it, another dubious honor this week, which is a bad week to be a “Panther” in college football.  There are 125 teams in division 1-A in college football, and the bottom two teams are Panthers - - - FIU is ranked #124, and Georgia State is #125.  Here are the complete rankings, courtesy of USA Today:

NCAA re-rank: Our list from 1-125 after Week 3

Here’s the latest from FIU:

QB E.J. Hilliard could start for FIU if Jake Medlock is unable to play

Panthers Prowl

Here’s the latest from Tallahassee and FSU:

FSU blog | Seminoles Chant

From Gainesville and the University of Florida:

UF blog | Gator Clause

Here is the complete schedule in College Football for week 4:

NCAA Week 4 Schedule

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Beautiful North Carolina Property For Sale

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THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  Chris Davis of the Orioles leads MLB this season with 51 home runs, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers is second with 44.  Over in the National League, Pedro Alvarez of the Pirates and Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks are tied for the league lead with 33 dingers.  Who was the last National League player to hit 50 homers in a season?     

Prince Fielder hit 50 for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007.   

Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day. 

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