"The Stack" 10-12-17
Stephen Strasburg was fantastic Wednesday pitching seven strong innings and striking out 12 as the Washington Nationals forced a winner-take-all game five with a 5-0 win.
The Stack is back on this Thursday and no I did not take Wednesday off to mope around the house knowing that the U.S. is not going to be in the 2018 World Cup after losing to Trinidad & Tobago 2-1 Tuesday night. Just don’t really care much about it. We have a few things to get to so let’s get right to it and see what is in “the stack” for today, Thursday, October 12th:
MLB Postseason update
Somewhat of a surprising day yesterday in the MLB playoffs with the two games that we had. First in Chicago, Stephen Strasburg did pitch even though manager Dusty Baker had said previously he was a little under the weather. He pitched a gem too. Strasburg went seven strong innings giving up just three hits while striking out twelve. It was 1-0 Nationals in the top of the eighth when Michael Taylor hit a grand slam to make it 5-0. That would be more than enough. The Cubs brought Jon Lester out of the bullpen to pitch, but he got charged with one run. Carl Edwards Jr. came in in relief and walked two batters. That’s when Wade Davis in and gave up the grand slam. The Cubs didn’t have the best of bullpen games. Due to the rain on Tuesday game five, the decisive game in this series, will be today at 8:08 PM ET on TBS.
My World Series pick and I’m guessing most others as well is out. The Cleveland Indians lost three straight games to the New York Yankees as the Yankees won 5-2 last night in game five to win the series 3-2. Didi Gregorius hit two homeruns for the Yankees. Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber went just 3 2/3 innings giving up three runs and both of those homeruns to Gregorius. The Yankees would tack on two runs on a two out double in the top of the ninth. This outcome is stunning given just how good the Indians were at the end of the season and especially after what happened in game two of this series with the decision (or lack there of) by Yankees manager Joe Girardi not to challenge a foul ball that may have gone off of the bat of an Indians player. They battled back and won one for their manager. They had his back. The loss by Cleveland is baffling. So the Yankees move on to take on the Houston Astros. I’ll take the Astros in the series.
College football weekend forecast
Last week we really didn’t expect a whole lot to happen given the slate of games, but there was indeed chaos with Iowa State upsetting #3 Oklahoma in Norman and Michigan State taking down #7 Michigan in a monsoon in the Big House. Couple that with a 7 OT game (Western Michigan-Buffalo) and a close game between LSU and Florida (LSU won) and last week was pretty good overall.
This week, there could be similar chaos despite the relatively weak week of marquee games. 12 ranked teams are on the road. Not all of them will win. We expect #2 Clemson and #8 Washington State to survive Friday night against Syracuse and California respectively. Will #21 Michigan State trip up against a Minnesota Golden Gophers team that has been underwhelming so far in Big Ten play this year (8 PM ET BTN)? Will #6 TCU get upset in Manhattan against K-State (Noon ET FS1)? How about #17 Michigan after last week’s loss, now having to go on the road to face a fairly dangerous Indiana squad (Noon ET ABC)? #20 NC State losing at Pittsburgh (Noon ET ACC Network)? I don’t see it happening. #24 Texas Tech @ West Virginia (Noon ET ESPNU)? That I do. Texas Tech has been much better than most everyone expected this year, but in Morgantown, I think West Virginia gets the better of them. #10 Auburn has a pretty tricky game in Death Valley against LSU (3:30 PM ET CBS). I think they will make it out alive though. LSU’s win over Florida last week was not a cure-all. I also don’t see #9 Ohio State getting tripped up in Lincoln against the Cornhuskers (7:30 PM ET FS1), but stranger things have happened I guess. Same can be said for #5 Washington when they travel to Tempe to take on Arizona State (10:45 PM ET ESPN). Don’t fail me now Huskies!
The game that is most appealing on this relatively bland and unappetizing slate is the Red River Shootout between #12 Oklahoma and Texas at the Cotton Bowl (3:30 PM ET ABC). With Oklahoma losing last week and Texas playing better, it is totally possible that Texas wins this game by a couple of scores, but Texas doesn’t have Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma definitely wants to get that bad taste out of their mouths of losing to Iowa State last week. I think they come out focused and with a purpose. I see Oklahoma winning comfortably. There are some other decent matchups, but that’s pretty much it for this week’s forecast given the slate we have.
NFL, NFLPA release statement on the anthem
With Jerry Jones sounding off (I disagree with him, but you can agree with him if you like) and Mike Ditka sounding like a crotchety old white man and then trying to backpedal faster than his legs can take him, the debate surrounding the social platform of the NFL players and the national anthem will not dissipate and likely won’t for quite some time. Some NFL owners including Jones appear to be wavering on what exactly should be done. It is a topic that will be first and foremost on top of the agenda when the owners meet next week in New York. Player leadership and the NFLPA will join them. The league and the NFLPA released a statement Wednesday advising that, “No changes have been made to the current policy regarding the anthem.” Obviously something to be done, but the players also need to receive something in this too and no its not keeping their jobs or avoiding suspensions. There are real issues afoot here and my strong support of what the owners did a few weeks back is on shaky ground on. Hopefully next week’s meetings are productive towards finding a solution to what is going on.
Philadelphia Eagles @ Carolina Panthers 8:25 PM ET CBS and NFL Network (streaming live on Amazon Prime)
What an excellent matchup we get on Thursday Night Football tonight. Both teams are 4-1 and both teams have quarterbacks who are playing extremely well right now. Carson Wentz is looking great and his counterpart Cam Newton has put up two really strong games the last couple of weeks. I think at home the Panthers defense forces a couple of turnovers by Wentz and the offense keeps rolling to victory.
Prediction: Panthers 27 Eagles 19
Coming up Friday: Preview and predictions for week 6 NFL action
