(BASEBALL)—Both of major league baseball teams finished their first full week of the season with 4-5 records. They got there by different routes, one positive and one negative. Both represent where fans think the teams are going this year. The Royals are likely to be better than their first week. The Cardinals would surprise many if they didn’t continue to decline from their season’s peak when they won three in a row.
(ROYALS)— Royals starter Chris Bubic has become the first pitcher to win his first two Royals starts since Danny Duffy did it four years ago. He went 6 2/3 against Baltimore and allowed only one run. He now has thrown 12 2/3 innings, given up only one run, walked only three and fanned sixteen. The Royals won 4-1 and got their first series win of the year.
Bobby Witt had a triple, double, and single in his first three at-bats but missed the cycle when he struck out in his fourth trip to the plate. No Royals hitter has completed the cycle in almost 35 years; George Brett did it on July 25, 1990.
(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals three-game sweep at home to start the season degenerated into a 1-5 week since and a 4-5 record that many fans expect will worsen as the summer wears on. The Boston Red Sox added the most recent two losses to the record in Sunday’s day/night doubleheader, beating the Cardinals in extra innings in the first game and then clubbing them 18-7 in the second.
Fans who have been saying Miles Mikolaus isn’t worth keeping were fortified by his performance in the second game Sunday when he basically threw batting practice for the Red Sox. By the time he finished his much-abbreviated stint, he had given up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings and his season ERA had been pounded up to 11.25 in his first two starts. Fans who remember that he had one of the worst ERAs of all major league starters last year at 5.35.
Reliever Gordon Graceffo, called up for the day as the 27th player on a doubleheader roster, guaranteed a quick trip back to Memphis by going two innings and giving up five runs in his two innings.
By the end of the game, Cardinals pitchers had given up 18 runs, the most scored against the Redbirds in eight innings since 2020. The game was played in Boston so there was no need for the Red Sox to bat in the ninth.
The Cardinals did set a positive National League record by racking up at least ten hits in their first nine consecutive games of a season. But last night they lost the opener of their series against the Pirates and had only nine hits. Cleveland retains the major league record of ten times, set in 1999.
The ‘birds had the first game won but reliever Ryan Helsley suddenly lost home plate and allowed Boston to win 5-4 in 11 innings.
Catcher Ivan Herrera is likely to be lost for the next ten days because of an inflammation o his left knee.
Nolan Arenado is on a 15-game hitting streak, the longest one in the majors so far.
(HOCKEY)—The St. Louis Blues have finally lost a game. Their team-record 12 game winning streak was ended last night by the Winnipeg Jets 3-1.
(MIZbaskets)—The Missouri Tigers have picked up another big guy and a new guard through the portal. Luke Norwether is coming home from Oklahoma. Norwether, who was Missouri’s Mr. Basketball in his senior year at Blair Oaks (Wardsville, near Jefferson City) in 2022, has two years of eligibility left. He’s 6-11 and shot 34% from outside last year in limited action at OU.
In his senior year, Blair Oaks played Father Tolton High of Columbia for a district title. Father Tolton, led by 6-11 Jevon Porter, won that game. Porter announced his transfer to Mizzou last week.
Coach Dennis Gates now has the intriguing possibility of having one of the tallest (maybe the tallest) front lines in the country with these two guys at 6-11, and 7-foot-5 center Trent Byrnes.
It’s also been reported that Missouri is picking up UCLA guard Sebastian Mack. The Athletic says Bass, a Chicago native, will have two years of eligibility at Mizzou.
He averaged 10.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 67 games for the Bruins but saw his playing time reduced this past season after starting 30 games as a freshman. He started only once in 34 games this year. He’s expected to have more of a defensive role than acting as a shooting guard. He has hit less than thirty cent of his shots from the arc, 40.4% overall, and hits just under three-fourths of his foul shots.
(UFL FOOTBALL)—Some 32,115 St. Louis fans watched their hometown pro football team win its second game of the year Sunday. The Battlehawks beat the San Antonio Brahmas 26-9. The other three UFL games had a TOTAL attendance of 32,783.
In its first two weeks of its second season, UFL crowds are averaging 12,344.
The St. Louis domed stadium has installed new turf, replacing the material that produced “The Greatest Show on Turf” in the Rams days, and improved the lighting for the games as St. Louis continues to hope its support for minor-league quality football will someday produce an NFL franchise.
Quarterback Manny Wilkins was 12/16 for 162 yards and Running back Jacob Sailors, who ran for 46 yards on 11 carries scored three touchdowns. The Hawks scored on three of their first four possessions, led 17-0 at the half and put a fork in the Brahmas with a 12-play, 70-yard touchdown drive early in the second half.
Now, looking at faster things:
(NASCAR)—When he needed his fastest pit stop in the race, Denny Hamlin got it in a race that had been dominated by William Byron who started from the pole and led the first 243 laps of the 297-lap race. Byron’s pit stop dropped him back. He was able to get back to second but didn’t have enough laps to catch Hamlin, who got his 56th career win and his second in a row.
The victory moves him past retired Missouri driver Rusty Wallace, putting him alone at 11, his car number, on the all-time winners list. He’s four behind Kevin Harvick. Only Kyle Busch, with 63 wins is above him among active drivers.
The spring Darlington race is known as a “throwback” race because the cars are decorated to recall cars driven by retired Cup drivers. Hamlin’s car was painted (actually it’s a very large decal) to carry the colors of the Home Depot car driven by Columbia driver Carl Edwards
Edwards drove a similarly-painted car in 2008. One of his wins was at Michigan, celebrated by his usual backflip from the driver’s side window.
Edwards, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this year, will be the co-grand marshal at the All-Star race in May.
Ty Gibbs finished 9th, extending his winless streak to 80. That’s the longest any driver for Joe Gibbs Racing has gone before getting his first Cup victory.
(INDYCAR)—IndyCar is back on track next weekend for a special race at one of its favorite venues—the street circuit of Long Beach, California. Long Beach is the second longest continuously held race on the circuit. Sunday will be the 50th race. Only the Indianapolis 500 has been held longer. The 108th edition of that race comes up on Memorial Day weekend.
Former University of Missouri football Tiger Jay Frye, who lost his job as IndyCar President earlier this year, has become the President of Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing, founded by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and co-owned by television personality David Letterman and businessman Mike Lanigan, the owner of Lanco, an aerial lift equipment company.
(FORMULA ONE)—Max Verstappen has made it to the winner’s circle for the first time this year, taking the Grand Prix of Japan, two seconds ahead of Lando Norris.
Back in the pack, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli was making history. He became the youngest driver in F1 history to lead a race and the youngest to record the fastest lap in a race. He was 18 years, 224 days old. He finished sixth.
Becoming the youngest winner in F1 history is out of reach. Verstappen holds that record—18 years 228 days.
(photo credits: NASCAR)