(CARDINALS)—The first weekend of the 2026 left the Cardinals 2-1 after Sunday’s loss to the Rays, 11=7. Dustin May’s debut was forgettable. Former Cardinals pitcher Steven Matz had a better day.
May was gone after four innings and six runs on ten hits. Matz was making his first start since September, 2024. He threw five innings and gave up four runs.
The Rays Yandy Diaz had five hits—a career high— and four RBIs. The top three hitters in the Tampa Bay lineup had nine hits and eight RBIs, with Jonathan Aranda getting three hits and driving in a pair of runs. Cedric Mulllins also drove in a pair.
The Cardinals played long-ball with home runs from Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman and Pedro Pages.
The Cardinals’ Kyle Leahy made his second career start for the Cardinals last night and made it into the sixth inning. Along the way he gave up four runs on eight hits as the Mets left the Cardinals at .500 after the first four games of the year
(ROYALS)—Seth Lugo went 6.1 scoreless innings to give the Royals their first win of the year, 4-1 over the Braves Sunday. Lugo struck out three, had no walks, and gave up five hits.
The Royals started their first full week of the season yesterday with another impressive performance by a starting pitcher and some home runs from a couple of unlikely sources to beat the Twins 3-1 on a day that felt more like a spring training outing in Arizona. The temperature for Kris Bubic’s first pitch was 85 degrees. Bubic became the third straight starter to go at least six innings and give up only one run. He gave up one run and two hits and got offensive support from an uncharacteristic source—two guys who combined for 21 homers all last year. Kyle Isbell and Isaac Collins hit the ball hard enough that it would have been in the grandstand even before Kansas City moved outfield fences in by ten feet this year.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—A FOUR point field goal highlighted the game won win by the UFL’s most popular team, the St. Louis Battlehawsks, on the league’s opening weekend. The Battlehawks beat the league’s defending champion franchise, the Washington Defenders 16-10. More than 16,00 fans watched the game in the St. Louis domes stadium.
Defenders field goal kicker Matt McCrane made league and pro football history with that kick that gave the Defenders a 4-0 lead.
The UFL awards four points for any field goal of more than 60 yards. The Battlehawks kept the score a baseball-like 4-3 with a 58 yarder. Washington a touchdown and the ‘Hawks got a second field goal to go the locker room u 10-3. The Battlehawks won the game with a touchdown and a field goal in the second half.
It’s the first win in the pro football coaching career of Ricky Proehl, a star the St. Louis Rams’ Super Bowl season.
(BILLIKENS)—St. Louis U’s basketball coach became a hot property after his team’s big season but he has rejected his first offer. North Carolina State put out some feelers after coach Will Wade jumped ship after one year. The first person called in for an interview was Josh Schertz from SLU. Schertz, who got a contract extension during the season, was interviewed at NC State Saturday but told them he wants to stay in St. Louis.
(WHEREARETHEYNOW)
BASEBALL—Former Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, signed by the Washington Nationals in the offseason, looked like the same guy that frustrated Cardinals fans n his first outing Saturday against the Cubs. He lasted five innings, gave up six runs (only four were earned), struck out four and walked three in the Nationals’ loss.
BASKETBALL—Travis Ford, the kid who was supposed to be the great guard for the Tiger basketball team in 1989-90, has a new coaching job. Ford left Missouri to return to his home state of Kentucky and the point guard as a senior when Kentucky reached the final four. He’s 56 now and the new coach of Arkansas-Little Rock. He was out of coaching last year after his departure from St. Louis University after eight seasons and did some work as an analyst with the SEC Network. He’s 491-366 in his career. He was 146-109 at St. Louis University.
(HOCKEY)===The St. Louis Blues have launched a late-season surge to snatch the last wild card playoff spot in the NHL. The Blues won their fourth in a row on Saturday to go to 31-30-11. They haven’t been above .500 since they were 3-2-1. In their last 13 games, the Blues have 10-1-2 in their last 13 games.
From the diamond and the gridiron and the ice arena to the oval and a crooked course:
(INDYCAR)—Nobody had anything for Alex Palou at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama Sunday. Palou started from the pole, led 79 of the 92 laps and finished more than thirteen seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Lundgaard.
Palou now has won ten of the last 21 IndyCar races on road courses and ovals.. He’s 6-2 on road courses with podium finishes in the two “losers.” Overall, he has twelve wins in 21 road course races.
Any chance Lundgaard had to challenge Palou was wiped out by a bad final pit stop. But his second place finish makes him the only driver to finish in the top ten in all four IndyCar races so far this year.
Graham Rahal was third, his best finish in three years, his first podium since August, 2023. Penske rookie David Malukis continued his solid beginning by coming in fourth. Series points leader Kyle Kirkwood was fifth and saw his lead over Palou shrink from 29 points to two.
Two of the big names wiped out their primary cars in hard crashes during qualifications. Scott McLaughlin crashed rear-first in a tire barrier, hitting it so hard that his car went partially through the the catch fence behind it. Will Power went head-on into the safer barrier. Power, in a backup car, started 23rd and worked his way up to 12. McLaughlin started 14th but was stuck in mid-pack throughout the race, finishing 15th in the 25-car field.
(NASCAR)—-The first short track race of the season has gone to Chase Elliott, who led the last 67 laps of the 400 laps on the .526 mile Martinsville (Va.) speedway. He had to outrun pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, who dominated most of the race, leading almost three-fourths of the laps.
Elliott credited Crew Chief Alan Gustafson for making a daring pit stop call that put him at the front.
The race moved Elliott into fourth place in the points standings. Although leader Tyler Reddick, who has won four races already finished 15th, he is still more than 100 points behind Reddick, who is 82 ahead of Ryan Blaney and 94 up on Denny Hamlin.
It’s the first win for Chevrolet this year after Toyotas had won the first five and Ford the only other one.
(NASCARHOF)—Larry Phillips, arguably Missouri’s greatest short track racer, has been nominated, again, for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Phillips, from Springfield, was the first person to win the NASCAR Weekly national championship five times, the last time in 1996, thanks to his dominance of tracks at Lebanon and Bolivar. He also won seven regional championships and thirteen track championships in a forty-year career. He was first nominated for the Hall in 2013. He died in 2004.
(FORMULA 1)—The new wunderkind of Formul1 is Kimi Antonelli, who became the second-youngest winner in F! history at the GP of China and the youngest driver to win twice in the series. He also was the first Italian to win a Grand Prix in two decades.
Antonelli, driving for Mercedes, is six months away from his 20th birthday. His second victory puts him atop the points standings—the youngest driver to have that distinction.
Photo credits: Palou—Rick Gevers; Phillips—alchetron.com)