(ROYALS)—A sacrifice fly by Bobby Witt Jr., in the tenth inning against Detroit ended the Royal’ six game losing streak. Utility man Mark Canha provided the tying run earlier in the final game of the weekend series.
The Royals headed home after a 2-8 road trip through Cleveland, New York and Detroit that dropped them to 3-10 away from Kauffman stadium this year and 9-14 overall. The offense continues to struggle. The Royals have scored only 67 runs in their first 23 games. Opponents have 27 more runs than the Royals do.
Kansas City could get well with the Rockies coming to Kansas City for three games. The Rockies have won only three of their twenty games this year,.
The Royals picked up Canha in the off season from the Brewers for a player to be named later. That player turns out to be reliever Cesar Espinal, a 19-year old right-hander in his third minor league season.
(CARDINALS)—A visit to New York became a disaster for the Cardinals, who apparently left their bats on the plane. Batter struck out 43 times in the four-game set, hit only .171 and only .148 with runners in scoring position. They’d gone into the series leading the major leagues in batting average and on-base percentage despite their mediocre record. They lost their final game of the series 7-4. “There are no excuses,” said manager Oliver Marmol.
One, maybe the only, bright spot was shortstop Tomas Saggese, went 4/12 with a air of RBIs. Since coming up from Memphis three weeks ago, Saggese has hit .400.
(MIZ)—No University of Missouri women’s athletics team has ever finished higher in the national rankings than the Tiger women gymnasts did last weekend at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Tournament last weekend. A review of Amy Wier’s routine on the balance beam raised her score just enough for Missouri to finish third, .0125 points ahead of Utah.
The team entered the event as the lowest seed to make the final four—7th—against fifth seed UCLA, fourth-seed Utah, and number two, Oklahoma.
Helen Hu won the national championship in the balance beam with a score of 9.9625. Hu took the year off last year and returned for a spectacular career conclusion at Missouri. He had her first perfect score on the beam against Oklahoma, then the number one women’s gymnastics team in the country. Only three other gymnasts in the country scored 9.975 or better on theeam at four times this year.
Two years ago, she “retired” from gymnastics because of chronic back problems and spent most of the next year backpacking in a number of countries before returning to her home town of Chicago. But during a visit to Columbia, she went to a session at a local gym and felt good enough to give the beam a try….and the rest is—you know.
(MIZFB)—The college football portal has opened for ten days and Missouri is seeing some people step through it. Nine players are leaving the program through it.
The newest players coming into the Missouri program are Iowa tight end Gavin Hoffman and Illinois State wide received Xavier Lloyd. They join transfers from the earlier portal opening.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have slipped to 2-2 after winning their first two games of the UFL season and now they’ve lost their quarterback.
Manny Wilkins tore his right Achilles tendon on the fourth play from scrimmage in Saturday’s loss at Arlington. Max Duggan took over in the eventual 30-15 loss to Arlington. He threw a couple of bad interceptions on his way to an 8/17 day, for just 78 yards. He nonetheless had the team on the verge of winning the game but wide receiver Gary Jennings couldn’t hold on to a go-ahead touchdown pass and it became and Arlington defensive back Ajene Harris turned it into a 100-yard interception that sealed the game.
Duggan will pick up a valuable target for next weekend’s game against Michigan. It’s a home game. Butler has been inactive since a hamstring injury in the season’s first game. Last year he led the league with 652 reception yards and was the league’s offensive player of the year.
The Michigan Panthers go into the St. Louis dome at 3-1.
(Photo credit: Sports Illustrated)