Armadillo Sports
Thursday’s 6-pack
NFL leaders in passing yardage last year:
5,316— Tom Brady, TB
5,014— Justin Herbert, LAC
4,886— Matthew Stafford, Rams
4,839— Patrick Mahomes, KC
4,804— Derek Carr, LV
4,611— Joe Burrow, Cin
Quote of the Day
“Develop your own players, so you can manage salaries.”
Jerry West’s advice to Bill Belichick, back in 2004
Thursday’s quiz
Where did Klay Thompson play his college basketball?
Wednesday’s quiz
Last time the Dodgers missed the playoffs was in 2012.
Tuesday’s quiz
Matt Ryan played his college football at Boston College
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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….
13) Here is something we’ll never see again:
August 19, 1969, day game at Wrigley Field; Cubs beat Atlanta 3-0, as Ken Holtzman pitched the first of his two no-hitters, in front of a crowd of 37,514.
Here’s what makes it unique; Holtzman tossed a no-hitter but he didn’t strike anyone out. He walked three guys, facing 30 batters, so he probably threw 110-115 pitches.
This was a Braves’ lineup with Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Rico Carty, Felipe Alou- they made the playoffs that year. Losing pitcher that day was Hall of Famer Phil Niekro.
Holtzman went on to win three World Series rings with the A’s; his career record was 174-150, 4-1, 2.55 in World Series games.
12) Wednesday afternoon, something we’ve never seen before; Astros had two pitchers throw an immaculate inning (strike out the side on 9 pitches). Luis Garcia, Phil Maton. Maton pitched just that one inning, then they took him out.
In major league history, there have been 106 immaculate innings; there have never been two on the same day, much less in the same game. Not only that, but the same three guys struck out for Texas in both of those innings.
11) White Sox 13, Tigers 0— Detroit used three different position players to pitch, and they did better than the regular pitchers. Roger Clemens’ son pitched the 8th inning, giving up a run.
After the game, the dismal Tigers held a (long) team meeting; they’re 24-38, scoring 2.7 runs/game, half a run/game less than any other team. The natives are restless.
10) Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, Mike Trout got a broken bat single, but part of the broken bat hit plate umpire Nate Tomlinson in the mask, getting inside the mask. He suffered a bruised retina and a scratched cornea, which is scary stuff.
TV people seemed to think he was going to be OK, that it could’ve been worse. Hopefully he’ll be back on the ballfield pretty soon.
9) Pirates 6, Cardinals 4— Something else you don’t see much these days; David Bednar got an 8-out save for Pittsburgh, throwing 43 pitches.
Going back a long time, in Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers’ five busiest seasons, he AVERAGED five outs a game, meaning his typical save started with one out in 8th inning. Times have changed.
8) Tuesday night in St Louis, Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas threw 129 pitches, coming within one out of a no-hitter. That is the most pitches anyone has thrown in a big league game this year.
Cincinnati P Tyler Mahle threw 119 pitches in Arizona Tuesday, in a game that was scoreless after nine innings. Reds eventually won in 12 innings.
7) Arizona 7, Cincinnati 4:
— Diamondbacks scored four runs in bottom of 8th.
— Zac Gallen allowed two hits in seven IP, but he also hit four of the first eight batters he faced. That is what happens when you pitch inside; guys these days don’t get out of the way very well.
6) My favorite gambling-related movies:
— Rounders
— Let It Ride
— Lucky You
— The Gambler (2014 version)
5) You can wager on how many of the golfers who played in last week’s LIV golf tournament will make the cut this week at the US Open. Over/under is 5.5 golfers to make the cut.
4) Minnesota Twins’ TV guy Dick Bremer is an outspoken advocate for the automated strike zone. It is becoming evident that the automated strike zone will happen in the near future; I’m not sold that it is that great an idea, we’ll see what happens.
3) Avalanche 4, Lightning 3 (OT)
— Andre Burakovsky scored at 1:23 pf overtime.
— Avalanche led 3-1 after the first period.
— Colorado outshot Tampa Bay, 38-23.
— Colorado leads Stanley Cup final, 1-0
2) Houston Rockets are trading C Christian Wood to Dallas, in exchange for Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and the [NODE="26"]Batter Up[/NODE] pick in next week’s NBA draft.
This season with Houston, Wood averaged 17.9 ppg, 10.1 rebounds/game in 30.8 minutes/game.
1) Braves 8, Nationals 2— Atlanta has now won 14 games in a row. Austin Riley was 3-5 with four RBI for the Braves.
