Red October begins

I was hoping that the Cincinnati Reds were going to be able to pull off the big upset over the Los Angeles Dodgers in their MLB Wild Card series. This did not happen. The Dodgers were able to overwhelm the Reds with their offense, hitting a number of home runs in the two-game series. I think the Dodgers series will be the hardest for the Phillies to win in the National League playoffs. Shohei Ohtani will be the Game 1 starter against the Phillies’ Christopher Sanchez. The key for the Phillies is going to be making the Dodgers starting pitchers throw a lot of pitches so they can get to the bullpen, which has been the Dodgers’ weak spot for most of the season. The Phillies’ veteran offense needs to be consistent for all of the possible five games. The two players I am worried about are the Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has crushed the Phillies throughout his long future hall-of-fame career with the Braves and the Dodgers. The other player is Ohtani who the best two-way player in baseball history. Whoever wins this series is probably going to represent the National League in the World Series.

Somehow the Eagles continue winning all of their games despite their inconsistent play. They won by the score of 31-25 over the Buccaneers Sunday. In the first half, they were completely dominating on the scoreboard, including a blocked punt for a touchdown to start the scoring, and Jalen Hurts only had two incompletions. For some reason, the offense almost completely stopped working in the second half. The extreme heat could have been one reason as it was over 100 degrees on the field for the whole game.

In the second half, the Eagles’ defense was also taking unnecessary risks on critical plays, including giving up a 78-yard touchdown pass because they tried too hard to intercept the ball instead of just tackling the player. In the end though, an interception in the end zone saved the game for the Eagles.

Going back to offense, they need to figure out a way to involve AJ Brown a lot more in the offense because he is unhappy with his role on the team as of now. This week, the Eagles are playing the 2-2 Denver Broncos at home. The Broncos just crushed the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night football by the score of 28-3. So if they want to continue being undefeated, the Eagles to have to play a complete game this week.

The European Ryder Cup golf team was able to defeat the U.S. team by the score of 15-13 in the competition last week, but it wasn’t that close. In the first two days of the tournament, the Europeans completely dominated the U.S. team going into the Sunday singles with a record seven point lead 11.5-4.5. The U.S. was able to make a spirited comeback but the hole was just too deep. The Europeans played great on the first two days making virtually every putt they looked at on the greens. The U.S. team could not respond in kind. I also think the setup of the golf course was too easy, meaning the team had to make birdie or eagle to win holes.

Some of the U.S. fans’ behavior was embarrassing and inappropriate, especially toward Rory McElroy, since he is the most famous European player. Apparently the fans were verbally attacking his family members as well as him. These actions are terrible but hard to control because golf fans are so close to the players, much like college and pro basketball. I hope they can come up with a way to control this behavior in two years when the Ryder Cup takes place in Ireland. Go USA.