By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(Baseball)—Here it is in a nutshell. The Cincinnati Reds swept the St. Louis Cardinals. The Kansas City Royals swept the Cincinnati Reds. Our Cardinals and our Royals continue to surprise—the Royals by their continued steady, winning, play. The Cardinals by their inconsistent, losing efforts.
(Royals)—The Kansas City Royals are hanging onto the fourth wild card slot in the American League Playoffs despite having a better record than one of the teams headed for an automatic place. The Royals, at 69-55 are two games better off than the Houston Astros, who lead the West Division over Seattle by four games. The Royals are third in the Central Division, three games behind Cleveland and a game behind Minnesota. They have the fifth-best record in the American League.
Cleveland, New York, and Houston are the division leaders after the weekend’s games. Baltimore, Minnesota, and Kansas City led the wild card standings. Boston is 3.5 games behind Kansas City for the last playoff spot.
(CARDINALS)—We’ve seen this before. The Cardinals get off to a slow start then show a flicker of hope in the early summer only to slide out of the picture. The Cardinals are now five games behind the Braves in the search for a wild card playoff opportunity and the margin was gradually widened as the Redbirds continue to play uninspiring baseball. They’ve won only five times in their last sixteen games
It could get worse. The Brewers open a series in St. Louis tonight (Tuesday). One sports betting source gives St. Louis a 4.2 percent chance of making the playoffs.
(MIZ)—Luther Burden III has been declared a first team preseason All-American by the Associated Press, the latest in a string of honors nine days before the first game. ESPN and The Athletic also have him as a first-team All-American. He’s on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award that does to the country’s top wide receiver after being a semifinalist last year, and he is also on the list for the Maxwell Award, given to the most outstanding player in college football (The Athletic reports that winners of the Maxwell Award have a better record as pro players than winners of the Heisman Trophy).
Last year, as a sophomore, he racked up 1,212 yards receiving and scored nine touchdowns, the last of which sealed Missouri’s win against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Burden is projected as a first-round NFL draft pick next year. (ZOU!!!)
(What Was That!!??!!)—The Kansas City Chiefs have lost both of their exhibition games in this pre-season, falling to Detroit 24-23 on a last-second field goal. But what caught the eye of the fans was Patrick Mahomes’ behind-the-back pass to Travis Kelce.
Mahomes claimed after the game that it was an ad-libbed play. Kelce didn’t agree…
The Chiefs played their regulars for most of the first half.
They play their third and final exhibition game of the season next weekend.
Now, the zoom stuff
(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden picked up a spin-and-win during the weekend in the race at Madison, Illinois, the St. Louis Gateway Arch visible behind the track administrative building in turn one.
Newgarden led only the last seventeen laps of the race but angered some of his competitors with a perceived slow start at the end of the last caution period that resulted in a four-can pileup at the head of the front straightaway that knocked out some challengers and brought out the red flag with eight laps left.
Newgarden finished 1.72 seconds ahead of teammate and pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin. Rookie Linus Lundqvist equalled his career-best finish with a third.
The race saw 676 on-track passes for position, 254 of them for position, 115 among top-ten drivers and 44 among the top five.
Palou now leads the standings by 59 points over Colton Herta and by 65 points over six-time series champion, Scott Dixon. IndyCar has only four races left this year.
The race saw a record 21 lead changes, an IndyCar record at the track. Despite Newgarden’s win, points leader Alex Palou extended his lead in the standings with a fourth-place finish.
(NASCAR)—It took two days, but a sorrowful Tyler Reddick picked up the win at Michigan International Speedway, his second victory of the year. In victory lane, he said, “I can’t help but sit here in victory lane and think of Scott Bloomquist. Huge mentor to me, and an incredible role model and legend of dirt racing and motorsports.”
Bloomquist was killed in a plane crash last week. He was 60 years old, a legend in dirt track racing. “The last couple of days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him, his family and friends,” said Reddick.
The race was stopped after 51 laps on Sunday by heavy rain.
Last week’s winner, Austin Dillon, was 17th at Michigan. Since the controversial finish a week ago, NASCAR has allowed Dillon to keep his trophy but has penalized him enough points to drop him from 27th to 31st in points. NASCAR also has ruled his victory will not entitle him to be in the 12-driver field for the playoffs.
Dillon had caused Joey Logano to crash on the last lap and had bumped Denny Hamlin out of the way on the way to the finish line.
Driver Corey LaJoie climbed unhurt from his car that crashed in the mid-race, slid upside down for several years before doing a barrel roll before stopping.
LaJoie unhurt in Michigan flip (msn.com)
The regular NASCAR season has only two races left before the playoffs begin. Reddick’s win has elevated him to the top of the regular season standings. The next races is at Daytona next Saturday night with the regular season ending at Darlington. The last ten races will be elimination races that will leave four drivers to race for the championship in the last race of the year.
(FORMLA 1)—F1 has ten races left this year. It returns after its traditional summer break next weekend.