Good morning, this is Dan Gartland. We’re doing a split screening of the Mets and Yankees tonight.
Today at SI:AM:
๐ Austin Riley and Atlanta face big series
๐ Tua’s horrifying injuries
๐ 8 player trades in the NBA
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playoff appetizer
of NL East It may end this weekend.
The Mets and Braves start a three-game series tonight in Atlanta. New York (98–58) leads Atlanta (97–59) by one game. If the Mets can win all three, they win the division. If the Braves win the sweep, they’ll own the tiebreak and lead the Mets by two games because of their better regular season record. Here are some highlights from this series:
Viewing method
All three games will be televised nationally. It airs tonight on MLB Networks (in addition to the team’s local stations), tomorrow on Fox, and Sunday on ESPN.
pitching match up
Today would normally be Chris Bassitt’s turn in the rotation, but manager Buck Showalter is bringing out a strong weapon. Jacob deGrom to face Max Freed tonight In a matchup of the best pitchers from both teams. The Mets had an off day on Monday, so deGrom hasn’t been forced to pitch in a short break. DeGrom is lined up to pitch at rest. Max Scherzer to win the ball against Kyle Wright tomorrow nightWhen Basit faces Charlie Morton on Sunday.
Debut after a long time
Speaking of cannons, Mets are bringing in some serious offensive reinforcementsThey’re reportedly calling out the number one prospect in all of baseball, Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez, a 20-year-old catcher, is expected to get a few plate appearances with his DH in the final week of the season and is auditioning for a spot on the postseason roster.
The Mets have taken a platoon approach at DH in recent weeks, hitting left-handed. Daniel Vogelbach nod to right wing and right wing Mark Vientos Left handed. Vientos, a rookie ranked as New York’s No. 7 prospect by MLB.com, has been struggling since being called up earlier this month. He has just 4 hits in 12 games.
Alvarez (right-handed) will replace Vientos in the starting line-up as the left-handed Freed will start tonight. It’s a big chance for a player to make his major league debut, but Alvarez has a reputation for doing just fine. He has a .260 batting average, a .885 OPS and 27 home runs in 112 games in the minors this year. 215 batting average with a 1.019 OPS, and in his 13 games at Triple-A in September he posted a .362 OPS, a 1.079 OPS, and finished the season as It ended with a hot streak.
weather
At the beginning of the week when the weather forecast turned bad, Provided by the Mets Forget the Thursday day off and start the series. However, with the wreckage of Hurricane Her Ian expected to linger further east at this point, it looks like the series can continue without interruption. The weather forecast says no rain so far, but the forecast is for strong winds.
what’s next
The good news for both teams is that despite their poor performances this weekend, they can close out the season against opponents they can beat. The Mets will finish his three games against the Nationals in Queens, and the Braves will play his three against the Marlins in Miami.
Meaning of playoffs
Both teams have already qualified for the playoffs, but MLB’s new postseason format really benefits whichever team wins the division. The division winner will become the NL’s second seed and bid farewell to the NLDS. The team that wins the wildcard will be the 4th seed and will have home field advantage in a 3-game wildcard series against the 5th seed (presumably the Padres). San Diego leads the Phillies by 2.5 games, and the Phillies are half a game ahead of the Brewers in contention for a final playoff spot.
So who has the advantage?
I am tempted not to tell anyone. I think the Mets are a slightly better team, but the Braves have the advantage of being able to play at home. Still, if you dare to choose My name is MetsFew teams in history have been able to produce two more intimidating pitchers than deGrom and Scherzer in the first two games of the series. Starting pitchers are very important in a playoff series.
the best sports illustrated
Lindsey Wasson/USA TODAYSports
For more on the Braves, check out Emma Basellieri’s daily cover on Austin Riley’s emergence.
He entered the majors on a strong winning streak in 2019. For several weeks, his performance matched the best reports about him as a prospect. In his first 15 games, Riley went 59 for 21 with his seven home runs. But it started to fall apart. Opposing pitchers struggled to make that adjustment, realizing that he was very vulnerable to what was at the top of the zone, thus spreading other issues to the rest of his game. The Braves primarily used him as an outfielder — he appeared as a third baseman, but there were early doubts about his ability to stay in that position long-term, and the team was eager to have his bat in the lineup. That summer, he tried him out in left field instead—and he was struggling to find his footing there. He felt like nothing was going right. Riley posted a meager .480 in his July after posting his OPS of 1.143 in May. He was temporarily sidelined in August due to his knee injury. The forced away time felt like a blessing in disguise.
And for more on the Mets, Stephanie Apstein examined how this team is trying to overcome decades of dysfunction in her talk earlier this month. Horrible injuries like those suffered by Tagovailoa serve as a reminder of how difficult it is to love the NFL, writes Conor Orr. …Avi Creditor tried to predict his Cup roster for the USMNT’s Worlds after the final round of the friendly. … Here are his expert picks for a week packed with college football games:
Week 5 of college football features a giant slate There are some interesting meeting combinations. The most popular ticket is No. 2 Alabama vs No. 17 Arkansas. Games in Clemson, Baylor, Ole Miss and Iowa round out the top five.
Around the world of sports
Former Cowboys tight end Gavin Escobar has died in a rock climbing accident. …Myles Garrett was given a subpoena after he crashed a car on Monday.…The Thunder and Rockets reportedly closed his eight-player trade. … NBA announcer Mike Breen’s Long Island home was destroyed in a fire. … Shohei Ohtani hit a no-hitter in the eighth inning last night. … Joel Embiid is officially a US citizen.
SIQ
How did the Washington Senators lose their last home game on this day in 1971?
- confiscation
- Sayonara Grand Slam
- walk off balk
- rain canceled match
Yesterday’s SIQ: Which team won the National League pennant in 1914 after finishing last on July 18?
- Phillies
- pirate
- Reds
- braves
answer: Braves. Boston were 11 games behind the Giants on July 18 with a 35-43 record, but the rest went 59-16-5 for first place and won the pennant with a week left.
Boston finished fifth last season, 31.5 games behind the 101-win Giants, so it’s no surprise to see the team struggling at the bottom of the standings around the All-Star break today. There was not.
The unexpected pennant race really cheered up Braves fans. The team’s regular home was the South End Grounds, which is much smaller than the nearby new ballpark, Fenway. As such, the Braves moved the Reds to his Sox home base every September for his home games.
The Braves closed out the season by sweeping A’s in the World Series for the second championship in franchise history.
From vault: September 30, 1968
Sports Illustrated by Getty Images
While a reasonably popular position today, in 1968 Mexico City activists had some pretty radical ideas at the time. Hosting the Olympics was not something to celebrate. The protests were just one of his problems facing the Olympics (delays in construction, opposition to apartheid in South Africa, debates about the purity of amateurism), John Underwood covered his story in wrote:
Then there was the issue of smoldering young activists in Mexico. They don’t like the government of President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz and want to overthrow it. As activists, they are no different from young people in Berkeley or Colombia. So part of them are true idealists, and part of them are what Daniel J. Boustin called the New Barbarians. They don’t see long-term benefits (economic stimulus, national pride) from the $150 million Olympic spending. Riots and gunfights are already taking place in the streets of Mexico City. The rioters clearly want to do their thing in front of a large number of witnesses (the Olympics are aired for a total of 42 hours on American TV, and he averages 11 hours a day on Mexican TV). . Estimates of what they do range from demonstrations (waving placards) to genuine sabotage to provocations of street fighting.
The story of the protest turned out to be tragically prescient. Shortly after Underwood’s story went to print, on October 2, a large group of student protesters gathered at the Plaza de Lastres Carturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. An unknown number of demonstrators were killed as police and military opened fire on the crowd. (Official reports put him dead at 26, but protesters estimate his death at 190.) This became known as the Tlatelolco Massacre, and the August It effectively thwarted student protests, which had been active since then. President Ordaz was able to open the Olympics in 10 days without fear of an international audience seeing protests against his government.
Mexico’s ruling party, the PRI, has repeatedly crushed attempts to investigate the massacre. It wasn’t until the election of Vicente Fox in 2000 (the first president in almost 70 years not to be a member of the PRI) that serious investigations took place. It turns out that the military branch, the Presidential Guard, has snipers stationed on the roofs of buildings in the square. The snipers were instructed to fire at the police and military controlling the crowd, documents show, and the unit returned fire believing they had been fired at by students.
See more SI’Archives and images from the vault.si.com.
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