By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing editor
(BASEBALL)—The post-season playoffs have developed a big underdog issue.
San Diego, which won 89 games in the regular season, has ousted the Dodgers, who won 111.
The Phillies, winners of 87, have dumped the Braves, winners of 101.
So far only Houston, winners of 106, has played to form, topping Seattle in three straight. Settle won 87 in the regular season.
Cleveland’s Guardians, making the playoffs in the first season with their new name and 92 wins in the regular season, play the deciding game against the Yankees, winners of 99 this afternoon. Their game was rained out last night.
Tonight Philadelphia and San Diego begin the National League Championship Series.
Thursday night, Houston opens the ALCS against the survivor of tonight’s Guardians-Yankees series.
(FOOTBALL—NFL)—For the second weekend in a row, a Kansas City Chiefs placekicker has set a new team record for longest field goal. But this time, it didn’t lead to a win.
The Buffalo Bills beat the Chiefs 27-24 on a touchdown with about a minute to play,
The game was tied at 10 at halftime thanks to a 62-yard field goal into the wind by Harrison Butker, who had missed the last few games with an ankle sprain. His kick broke substitute Matthew Wrights record, a 59-yarder a week earlier.
Patrick Mahomes threw an interception in the end zone in the first quarter and threw a second one that ended the game as the Chief tried to recover from the final Buffalo score.
The win lets the Bills stay a game ahead of the Jets in the Eastern Division. The Chiefs drop to 4-2 but still lead the West over the Chargers, who are 3-2.
(FOOTBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—Missouri had the weekend off and is spending this week preparing for Vanderbilt. The Commodores have split six games. Missouri is 2-4, winless in the SEC. Nashville football columnist Aria Gerson says the game “is one of Vanderbilt’s best shots of winning an SEC game.”
(BASKETBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—We’re only about three weeks away from the first University of Missouri-Columbia basketball game. Southern Indiana is the first of the warm-up games for the new-look Tigers on November 7 as they work their way through a non-conference schedule and develop as Dennis Gates’ first Missouri team.
Ken Pomeroy, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Utah who has made a science of ranking college basketball teams, ranks Missouri 41st in the country in his Kenpom.com rankings.
(NASCAR)—Joey Logano has made the final four.
Logano’s win at Las Vegas guarantees he’ll be one of the four drivers who will compete for the NASCAR Cup in the last race of the season next month. Logano had dropped out of the top ten when he pitted for new tires with 26 laps to go. But he caught leader Ross Chastain with three laps left and led him by eight-tenths of a second at the checkered flag.
Logano, who drove his first Cup race fifteen years ago, wrapped up his 30th career victory. He’ll be chasing his second Cup championship in the final race of the year. He won the title in 2018 and went into the Las Vegas race as the second seed and emerged number one. The previous number one seed, Chase Elliott, struggled all day and finished 21st. He dropped to third in the standings.
Chastain, who led a race-high 68 laps, is second in the standings with Elliott and Denny Hamlin making up the rest of the top four. Hamlin started 31st and finished fifth, behind Chase Briscoe. Kyle Busch became the only non-contending driver to finish in the top five by crossing the line third.
Two races are left to decide who will be the three drivers joining Logano in the final run for the title.
Christopher Bell was collected in a crash involving Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson and dropped to the eighth and last contender spot. Another contender, Ryan Blaney, hit the wall and finished 28th. Contender William Byron finished 13th. Byron, Blaney, Brisco, and Bell are below the cutline headed to next weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami.
(NASCAR—KURT BUSCH)—Kurt Busch, the last active NASCAR Cup driver to compete against Dale Earnhardt Sr., says he’s done as a fulltime Cup driver. He’s 44, a Daytona 500 winner, and NASCAR’s 2004 champion.
The oldest of the Busch brothers has missed thirteen races since backing his car into a wall in July and suffering a concussion. He says he might do some selected races next year if doctors say he’s recovered from his concussion, but his days as a fulltime driver are finished.
Tyler Reddick will mover over from Childress Racing and will take Busch’s seat in the 45-car, joining Bubba Wallace on the 23XI team.
Busch was hired by 23XI, co-owned by NBA star Michael Jordan (whose jersey was 23 for most of his career) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car carries the number 11) to drive last year. The team says he was hired to “elevate our organization in many ways.” He gave the team its first playoff berth by winning at Kansas earlier this year then had to withdraw from the playoffs because of his injury.
A second driver, Alex Bowman, also has been out of his car because of a concussion in a race three weeks ago. He says he won’t be back on the track until the last race of the year, if then.
NASCAR has announced it will have a re-designed rear section of the chassis available next year. NASCAR hopes it will do a better job absorbing energy in a crash, lessening chances for other drivers to incur the kinds of injuries Busch and Bowman have had to deal with this year.
Photo Credits: Logano at WWTR—Bob Priddy; Busch at Indianapolis—Rick Gevers