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Since the World Series shifted to Los Angeles on Monday night, the Dodgers won a game that will be considered one of the greatest in the history of the Fall Classic. The next day, the Blue Jays won a very boring game by comparison, but they both count the same and we are tied 2-2 heading into a pivotal Game 5 on Wednesday night.

FREDDIE FREEMAN WALK-OFF HOME RUN IN THE 18TH INNING! #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/wD1xbRxDbC

— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2025

So how did we get here? It has a lot to do with Shohei Ohtani cementing his legacy as an all-time baseball legend and setting a Postseason record by reaching base nine times during the Game 3 marathon that ended on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run off of Brendon Little to lead off the bottom of the 18th. If nine times on base with no outs made wasn’t amazing enough, Ohtani’s first four plate appearances resulted in extra-base hits, and the last two led to the Dodgers coming back and tying the game. His double in the fifth inning drove in Enrique Hernandez to make the score 4-3 before Freeman singled to get Ohtani home with the equalizing run.

SHOHEI OHTANI'S SECOND HOMER OF THE NIGHT

TIE GAME! #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/eA6h6saLnV

— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2025

Then, after Bo Bichette’s single down the right field line got Vladimir Guerrero all the way from first to home with the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh, Ohtani answered with his second home run of the game to tie the score at 5-5, where it would stay for the next 11 innings. Part of the reason the game stayed tied for so long was that Toronto intentionally walked Ohtani during his next four plate appearances and then walked him conventionally in his final plate appearance to mix things up. That last walk by Little in the 17th inning was so noncompetitive that it looked like an old intentional walk from back when you had to throw the ball to the catcher. The craziest part of the five Ohtani walks was that only one of them came in a typical intentional walk scenario with first base open and a runner on second or third. On the other four occasions, Blue Jays manager John Schneider either put Ohtani on as the winning run or to push the winning run into scoring position. The strategy worked.

We also wouldn’t have made it to the 18th inning without a couple of relief pitcher heroes in Eric Lauer for Toronto and Will Klein for Los Angeles. Lauer is a former Padres and Brewers southpaw who split his time between starting and relief pitching this season with the Blue Jays. He threw four and two thirds scoreless innings after entering the game with one out in the 12th. Klein’s four shutout frames were even more surprising because he had never started a game before in his two-year big league career. In his 22 regular season appearances, he never went longer than two innings before, and yet here was Stein taking the Dodgers deep into the night when they didn’t know if they even had another pitcher available.

PAINT

The Dodgers' TENTH pitcher of the night keeps it tied in the 15th! #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/ApMh6prBlG

— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2025

If Little had retired Freeman in the 18th, we might have seen something as incredible as Stein’s great outing. That’s because Yoshinobu Yamamoto was warming up in the bullpen after throwing his second straight complete game of the Postseason just two days before! Just when I thought I would never see a pitcher save his team on short rest again, Yamamoto was willing to come back on one day of rest! It’s kind of a shame that Freeman ended the game when he did, because that would have been something to see. It REALLY would have been a shame if Toronto won, but at least that didn’t happen.

Monday night’s cathartic Game 3 victory made it seem like Los Angeles had all the momentum, especially with Ohtani on the mound to start Game 4. Could he possibly grow his legend even more? It turns out that no, he could not. The Dodgers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning when a Max Muncy walk and a Tommy Edman single led to a sac fly by Hernandez, but Shane Bieber would keep Los Angeles off the scoreboard for the rest of his five and a third innings. Toronto struck back and took the lead in the third when Guerrero Jr. launched a two-run home run off of Ohtani.

VLADDY GETS AHOLD OF ONE! #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/UIgEgJBUPu

— MLB (@MLB) October 29, 2025

The Dodgers’ best chance to retake the lead came in the sixth when Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez singled to set the table with one out, but Mason Fluharty came on for Bieber and got Max Muncy to fly out before striking out Edman to end the threat. The Blue Jays started the seventh with two straight hits to chase Ohtani and went on to rally for four runs with RBI hits coming from Andres Gimenez, Bichette, and Addison Barger. That was more than enough for Toronto, and it went on to win 6-2.

It feels like we’ve already had enough dramatic events to fill a whole series (probably because the Dodgers and Blue Jays have played five games’ worth of innings in four games), but there are still at least two more games left to play in the 2025 season. I can’t wait to see what happens in Game 5 tonight with Blake Snell on the bump for Los Angeles against Trey Yesavage for Toronto.

Boy, did I have a bad sports day on Sunday. It was bad enough when the Giants got whomped by the Eagles so badly that it made New York’s home win over Philly two weeks ago seem like a total fluke. Then I had to watch the Knicks fall behind the Heat by 18 points in the fourth quarter and tease with a comeback before falling 115-107. The cap off the evening, the Rangers lost a second straight game to one of the worst teams in hockey.

At least the 38-20 defeat suffered by the Giants might have been closer in an alternate universe where the referees called the game fairly. I’m not a big blame-the-refs guy, and the Giants might have lost this game anyway due to some horrendous run defense that allowed Saquon Barkley to take off on a 65-yard touchdown run on Philly’s first possession, but a few calls in this game were very frustrating.

After the Giants tied the score 7-7 on a touchdown pass from Jaxson Dart to Cameron Skattebo, the Eagles answered with a drive of their own that hit a snag when Jalen Hurts scrambled for eight yards on 3rd and 9. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem for Philly because of its famous Tush Push that it uses whenever there is one yard to go. However, this time Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux ripped the ball away from Hurts as he reached for the first down. This looked like a huge momentum shift as the Tush Push was not supposed to be beatable. It was a huge play early in the game, until the refs explained that Hurts’ forward momentum had stopped after he achieved the first down but before he lost the football. How convenient!

Some more looks at the non-fumble on the Eagles tush push due to forward progress being called.@KevinBurkhardt, @TomBrady, and @DeanBlandino discuss: pic.twitter.com/g1leAsahVS

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 26, 2025

I don’t understand how forward progress is stopped when the ball carrier is still moving forward. Since the call of forward progress being stopped isn’t able to be overturned by replay, the Giants couldn’t challenge the ruling (although they did anyway). Barkley caught a touchdown pass from Hurts two plays later to make the score 14-7 Eagles, and they would lead for the rest of the game.

To make matters worse for the Giants, Skattebo suffered a gruesome ankle injury on the ensuring possession, and he is presumed lost for the season. New York continued to battle, but it blew a huge chance to get off the field early in the fourth quarter when a Brian Burns sack for a massive 21-yard loss was immediately undone by a handoff to Tank Bigsby.

2nd & 31: 1st down Eagles pic.twitter.com/3jZC6OGHoM

— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) October 26, 2025

That play led to a Hurt touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert, but the Giants appeared to bounce right back with Dart throwing a 68-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton on 4th and 11. Alas, the incredible play was overturned by a dubious offensive pass interference call, and that was pretty much it for the competitive part of the game. The Giants are now 2-6 and without Skattebo as well as Malik Nabers. They will take on the 49ers in New Jersey next Sunday.

As if the Giants game wasn’t sad enough, I got to watch the Knicks shoot 39 percent from the field at Miami and the Rangers lose 5-1 to the 1-7-1 Flames. We’ve got to do better this week.

The Dodgers needed a hero after the Blue Jays crushed them in Game 1 with a nine-run rally in the sixth inning that led to an 11-4 Toronto win. Los Angeles took an early 2-0 lead with an RBI single by Enrique Hernandez in the second inning and one by Will Smith in the third, but it both frames, the Dodgers could have had so much more. In the second, Andy Pages was struck out by Trey Yesavage with the bases loaded before Shohei Ohtani grounded out feebly to end the threat with just one run scored. In the third, Freddie Freeman was thrown out trying to reach third base on Smith’s RBI hit, and that helped Yesavage escape another jam without giving up a crooked number.

Blake Snell was shaky during his five innings. He gave up a two-run home run by Dalton Varsho in the fourth that tied the game and then loaded the bases in the sixth with a walk, a single by Alejandro Kirk, and a hit by pitch. That set the stage for Toronto’s massive rally with October gas can Emmet Sheehan allowing RBI singles to Ernie Clement and Andres Gimenez before Anthony Banda got taken deep by Addison Barger for the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history.

ADDISON BARGER
PINCH-HIT
GRAND SLAM#WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/REg58MNosp

— MLB (@MLB) October 25, 2025

If we didn’t want to see a Canadian team take a 2-0 lead in the World Series and get halfway towards breaking the nation’s Commissioner’s Trophy and Stanley Cup drought, we needed someone to step up and take a stand. That man was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who in his last start pitched a complete game against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS. No way he could repeat the feat in the year 2025, could he?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto closes out an incredible #WorldSeries performance 🤩 pic.twitter.com/fxWxO49kQN

— MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2025

Unbelievably, in the era of pitch counts and babying of pitchers, Yamamoto made it through all nine innings again with just one run allowed and zero walks. He struck out eight Blue Jays, including three in a row during the eighth inning, and retired the last 20 batters that he faced. After Kirk hit a sac fly to tie the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning, not one Toronto batter reached base. After Los Angeles rallied for two runs each in the seventh and eighth innings, it came away with a 5-1 victory to tie the World Series at one game apiece. What a heroic performance by Yamamoto, not just for the Dodgers, but for America. If not for Yamamoto’s gem, we could be two games away from Canadian sports fans saying “Who cares about the Stanley Cup drought? We won the World Series!”

And nobody wants that.

I was so happy to get off to a winning start in the Week 8 NFL picks. The Chargers destroyed the Vikings 37-10 on Thursday night to easily cover three and a half points. I even got some fantasy football help from Ladd McConkey, Kimani Vidal, and the Los Angeles defense that beat up Carson Wentz all game. In fact, the defense played a little too well because my only Minnesota fantasy start was Jordan Mason and he had more carries than rushing yards on the night. But that was okay because I was 1-0 to start the week thanks to my brilliant Chargers pick…

Nooooooooooo! Why? Why couldn’t one person pick the Vikings. They aren’t that bad! You rendered my victory meaningless! As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the Rangers lost 6-5 in overtime to the previously winless Sharks and I am starting to think that New York will be stuck in misery for a long time. The Rangers are now 0-4-1 on home ice, and while it was nice to see the boys light the lamps a few times against horrible San Jose, it happened on the same night that Igor Shesterkin turned into a sieve between the pipes. Goal prevention was the one thing we were doing well, and when the offense breaks through, the goal prevention fails. That is poor complimentary hockey.

New York is 3-4-2 overall and starts a four-game west coast swing on Sunday. The season could be over by the time the Blueshirts return to Madison Square Garden a week from Tuesday. The Knicks thankfully have already won at game at MSG with their victory in the opener, and they’ll try to make it two in a row with Boston in town tonight.

The World Series gets started tonight as well with Blake Snell looking to build on a tremendous postseason run for the Dodgers against Trey Yesavage and the Blue Jays. A lot of people, even in these United States of America, are pulling for Toronto because they hate the Dodgers, but not me. I still remember how our national anthem was booed by the Canadians during last winter’s 4 Nations Face-Off. What good is Canada’s Stanley Cup drought if the country can claim a World Series? I don’t think it will be as fun to taunt Canada if it has a title in America’s Pastime, so the Dodgers must win!

Interestingly enough, Canada’s World Series drought goes back to 1993, the same year that the Stanley Cup drought began. Could this be the year of Canada? It better not be! I don’t even understand the Dodgers hatred so much. First of all, they beat the Phillies, so that makes them heroes. Second, they haven’t won consecutive World Series yet. When I was a boy, the Yankees were one inning away from winning four in a row! Now that was a dynasty. At least wait to hate the Dodgers until they win back-to-back titles.

It is a crazy time to be a sports fan with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups being arrested on gambling-related charges this morning.

Rozier, who was arrested Thursday morning at a hotel in Orlando, Florida, is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using insider NBA information. As part of the scheme, gamblers used nonpublic information to bet on at least seven NBA games between March 2023 and March 2024 involving the Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic, Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors, according to the indictment. In three of the seven games, players intentionally removed themselves from contests to benefit the gamblers’ bets, according to the indictment.

Billups, who was arrested in Oregon, is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said. The defendants are accused of using technology to steal millions from victims in the New York area, Nocella said.

I used to think that the introduction of online sports betting wouldn’t lead to an increase in scandals like this one since betting was already available illegally. I was wrong because I failed to take into account how easy it would be to rig player props. It’s way easier than shaving points off a spread since that is something that a whole team might need to cooperate on. With these player props, you can just fake an injury and make your under hit, which is allegedly what Rozier did. If stuff like this isn’t cleaned up, the NBA could be ruined.

How do you even make that leap? Because of Kash Patel holding a press conference? Shouldn’t you want the NBA cleaned up if guys are throwing the ball away to tank their player props? Insane. https://t.co/7dJG5vk4TH

— Aaron Yorke (@AaronPYorke) October 23, 2025

Stephen A. Smith seems to think that the gambling arrests are due to Donald Trump wanting revenge on the NBA. This would be a wild leap to make even if the FBI investigation wasn’t initiated before Trump took office. I don’t know if Smith feels the need to defend ESPN and its investment in sports betting, but he should be more worried about the integrity of the NBA and its players than the intentions of the FBI.

It’s a bad day to be Adam Silver, but it’s a great day to be a Knicks fan. They won their opener against Cleveland last night 119-111. That’s a big deal because the Cavaliers are considered by many to be New York’s top competitor for Eastern Conference supremacy. The Knicks saw their 15-point halftime lead disappear in the third quarter, but they bounced back with a 14-2 run to start the fourth that set them on the path to victory.

The game got a little dicey when Dean Wade and Sam Merrill hit back-to-back three-point shots to cut the Knicks’ lead to five with two minutes left, but OG Anunoby answered with a three of his own and Cleveland never got that close again. Anunoby ended up leading New York in scoring with 24 points and also grabbed 14 rebounds. The Knicks won this game despite a shooting disadvantage thanks to their dominance at the free throw line and on the offensive boards.

Here are my Week 8 NFL picks.

Vikings at Chargers -3.5

This game is going great for me and would be going even better if I had benched Jordan Mason in fantasy.

Dolphins +7.5 at Falcons

Many fans will write the Dolphins off after their terrible performance in Cleveland this week. I think they are much better suited to playing indoors.

Jets +6.5 at Bengals

Do we know who is playing quarterback for the Jets yet? Whoever it is will look good against a Cincinnati defense that is still lousy.

Browns at Patriots -7.5

The Patriots have covered twice in a row as favorites since upsetting Buffalo. They are for real.

Giants +7.5 at Eagles

This is a letdown spot for the Giants, but I’m taking them anyway because I’m too much of a fan.

Bills at Panthers +7.5

Buffalo ain’t beaten nobody and has only covered one spread all season.

Bears at Ravens -6.5

Chicago has won four in a row and is getting a touchdown against the most disappointing team in the NFL? Of course I’m taking Baltimore.

49ers -1.5 at Texans

This is a square play, but I’m back on the San Francisco bandwagon and it probably only has to win outright.

Buccaneers at Saints +5.5

The Saints have lost outright and against the spread in their two games since beating my Giants. Hopefully a home dog spot against a rival will change the trend.

Cowboys at Broncos -3.5

Cowboys at home was an easy win last week. Cowboys on the road should be an easy fade this week.

Titans +14.5 at Colts

I can’t stop picking Tennessee no matter how horrible it is.

Packers at Steelers +3.5

Home dog Mike Tomlin against a Green Bay team that still hasn’t covered since the first two weeks of the season when everyone thought it was going to the Super Bowl.

Commanders +10.5 at Chiefs

Marcus Mariota isn’t a huge downgrade from Jayden Daniels.

The NBA returned to NBC for the start of the regular season on Tuesday night, and while everyone on the internet was jacked up for the iconic theme music, we also got a pair of pretty good basketball games with the defending champion Thunder needing double overtime to defeat the Rockets 125-124. In the late game, the Warriors overcame a great game from Luka Doncic to defeat the Lakers in Los Angeles 119-109.

Doncic had 43 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists on 17-for-27 shooting, but Austin Reaves was the only other Laker to score more than 10 points. He contributed 26 points and nine dimes, but Reaves and Doncic combined to shoot just 3-for-15 from beyond the arc while the Warriors shot 17-for-40 from deep despite Steph Curry only going 3-for-9 from there. Instead, it was Jonathan Kuminga (4-for-6) and Buddy Hield (5-for-10) setting the pace for Golden State from three-point range.

Jimmy Butler III… clutch bucket 😤

He leads the Dubs with 31 tonight in LA! pic.twitter.com/og3BZyRMN8

— NBA (@NBA) October 22, 2025

The Lakers trailed by double digits for most of the fourth quarter, but Reaves brought them within six with four minutes left by feeding Deandre Ayton for a fast break layup and then driving for a reverse layup himself after a Curry misfire to cap a 9-0 run. Jimmy Butler made sure that was as close as Los Angeles would get, as he fed Draymond Green for a clutch three from the corner and later drove past Doncic for a layup to push the lead back up to 10. Butler ruled the inside of the arc last night with 31 points and 16 coming on free throws.

The thriller in Oklahoma City came to an anticlimactic ending when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drew a shooting foul on Kevin Durant to set up the go-ahead free throws with just two seconds left. Houston had a chance to respond for the win, but Jabari Smith Jr. found nothing but air on his baseline jumper attempt. The Thunder lead by four with a minute to play back in the first overtime, but after two Josh Okogie free throws for Houston, Alperen Sengun rejected Alex Caruso at the rim and then jammed home a rebound on his own miss to tie the score at 115-115. The 23-year-old Sengun isn’t the biggest name on this Houston team, but he may be its most important player. He looked like the best player on the floor last night for either squad with 39 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists.

SHAI SENDS IT TO OT ON OPENING NIGHT 🍿

104-104 ON NBC & PEACOCK.

WHAT. A. GAME. pic.twitter.com/ace9ZJdPiB

— NBA (@NBA) October 22, 2025

Sengun might have had the game-winning bucket in the fourth quarter when his runner in the paint gave Houston a one-point lead, but after Durant hit one of two free throws, SGA pulled up and hit the game-tying jumper in front of Amen Thompson. Sengun had a chance to win the game when he caught the ensuing inbounds pass on the elbow, but his jumper over Lu Dort missed wildly off the glass.

The West is loaded with competitors who plan on derailing OKC’s quest to repeat as champion, but the Rockets looked like one of the fiercest on opening night. It’s important to note, though, that the Thunder are not at full strength yet with Jalen Williams still on the mend from offseason wrist surgery.

The second night of the NBA regular season brings the debut of my Knicks, who are looking at their best chance to return to the NBA Finals since they last made it there in 1999. Both the Celtics and the Pacers are missing key players due to Achilles injuries suffered in last season’s Playoffs. That leaves Cleveland as the Knicks’ top competition, and it is Cleveland that New York is starting the campaign against tonight. A win would establish the Knicks as the top dogs in the East right off the bat. On the other hand, a loss will have fans questioning if the Knicks will ever break through during the window that was opened when Jalen Brunson arrived.

The Houston vs. Seattle NFL game last night devolved into a rock fight that was painful to watch, but staying up late was worth it because I won my fantasy match despite Jahmyr Gibbs going off for 222 total yards and two touchdowns in the early game. The other player that my fantasy opponent had in Tampa Bay vs. Detroit was Jameson Williams, and he was held to a big ole goose egg on two targets. When the action shifted to Seattle, Ka’imi Fairbairn kept my opponent closer with a pair of field goals in the second quarter, but the Seahawks defense came through for me by holding Nico Collins to 27 receiving yards before he exited in the fourth quarter due to a concussion.

Seattle led 27-12 at that point, but Houston would get plenty of chances to come back thanks to two late turnovers on a fumble by Elijah Arroyo and an interception by Sam Darnold. The Texans turned the ball over on downs following both Seattle mistakes thanks to their inability to break through at the goal line. A 21-yard strike from C.J. Stroud to Jaylin Noel set Houston up with 1st and goal from the three-yard line, but the Texans failed four straight times to score a touchdown, with the last three plays coming after Woody Marks carried the ball down to the one-yard line.

Just like the Giants on Sunday afternoon, the Seahawks did everything you’re not supposed to do when holding a multi-score lead on offense. It’s amazing what a difference a competent defense makes. Seattle’s bailed the offense out of turnovers while New York’s collapsed and blew the game even after Jaxson Dart scored a go-ahead touchdown in the final 40 seconds.

The early game also featured a great defensive performance with the Lions holding Baker Mayfield and the explosive Tampa Bay attack to just nine points. It didn’t help the Buccaneers that Mike Evans suffered a broken collarbone in the second quarter and is expected to miss most of the remainder of the regular season, but Tez Johnson continued to emerge as a star with 58 receiving yards, including 22 on a catch-and-run touchdown midway through the third quarter that made the score 14-9. Johnson is proving to be a steal in the seventh round of this year’s NFL Draft and could terrorize opposing secondaries alongside fellow rookie Emeka Egbuka for years to come.

That's ✌️ of them @Jahmyr_Gibbs1#TBvsDET 📺 ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/R6EzkRZJ6W

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 21, 2025

The Johnson touchdown gave Tampa Bay some momentum, but Detroit took it right back with Jahmyr Gibbs touching the ball four straight times to cover 49 yards on the way to the end zone and put the Lions back up by 12. Aidan Hutchinson and the Detroit defense would turn the Bucs over on downs three times in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

While all of this football was going on, the Toronto Blue Jays were busy clinching their first American League pennant since 1993. The Mariners were in control of the game through six innings thanks to a go-ahead solo shot by Julio Rodriguez in the third and another from Cal Raleigh in the fifth to make the score 3-1.

Seattle manager Dan Wilson made an interesting decision to take George Kirby out of the game at four innings and 65 pitches even though he had settled down nicely after allowing a run in the first inning. The decision played out well for the Mariners when Bryan Woo cruised through the fifth and the sixth, but then he walked Addison Barger to lead off the seventh and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single up the middle. Wilson brought in Eduard Bazardo to face George Springer at the top of the order, and Springer blasted Bazardo’s 1-0 fastball into the seats in left field to send all of Canada into a frenzy.

George Springer: BIG TIME PLAYER #SpringerDinger pic.twitter.com/pnkTKB7OOA

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 21, 2025

The home run was another heroic postseason moment for Springer and another painful memory for Mariners fans, who watched their team blow a two-game advantage to Toronto and a golden opportunity to finally win the pennant. Seattle has only taken six trips to the Postseason in franchise history, so who knows when its next shot will be?

Hey, you know who used to play in Seattle? The NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder! They won the NBA championship last season and open the new season tonight against the new-look Houston Rockets. Oklahoma City is favored to repeat as champs, but no NBA team has done that since the Warriors in 2018. Maybe my Knicks will be a serious challenger again this season after their disappointing loss to Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals last spring. New York opens its campaign on Wednesday against the Cavaliers, who are expected to be the Knicks’ top competition in the Eastern Conference.

Tonight is going to be wild. We’ve got two Monday Night Football games on and I’m leading my fantasy football match by 54 points. My opponent has Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, Nico Collins, and Ka’imi Fairbairn. I’m in the clubhouse with all my players having played already. Can I pull it out?! It’s a good thing there’s a Rangers hockey game and Game 7 of the ALCS to distract me from my huge fantasy lead slipping away like the Giants’ 19-point advantage in the fourth quarter yesterday.

Trey Yesavage gets out of it AGAIN! #ALCS pic.twitter.com/6bjckV1a7a

— MLB (@MLB) October 20, 2025

The Mariners had a chance to clinch their first American League pennant in franchise history on Sunday night, but Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford hit into inning-ending double plays with the bases loaded in consecutive innings. Meanwhile, Toronto jumped out to a 5-0 lead thanks to Addison Barger hitting an RBI single in the second inning and a two-run tater in the third. Seattle finally broke through against Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage in the sixth inning with a solo shot from Josh Naylor and an RBI single by Eugenio Suarez, but it wasn’t enough and the Mariners were shut down by Louis Varland and Jeff Hoffman the rest of the way.

There’s a lot on the line tonight with the Mariners looking for that first World Series appearance and the Blue Jays trying to return to the Fall Classic for the first time since winning it on Joe Carter’s walk-off home run in 1993. George Kirby will start on the mound for Seattle against Shane Bieber for Toronto. Kirby had two solid outings against Detroit in October before getting lit up by the Blue Jays for eight runs in four innings during Game 3. Bieber that night allowed a two-run homer to Julio Rodriguez in the first but then shut out the Mariners for the next five innings. Based on how Game 3 went down, I have to give Toronto the edge, and the bookmakers have made the home team a -135 favorite.

Hopefully by the time Game 7 begins at 8:10 PM, the Rangers will have finally scored a goal on their home ice. That’s right, despite playing at Madison Square Garden three times this year, New York is yet to light the lamp at home. If the scoreless streak goes on for one more night, I might go insane. Puck drop vs. Minnesota is a little after 7:00 PM.

The NFL games might drive me crazy anyway because I need to get both picks right in order to return to a .500 record, but the fantasy players I’m up against are on the same teams that I picked. The game plan is for Amon-Ra St. Brown to horde all the touchdowns for Detroit in a relatively low-scoring game. The key part is low-scoring, because I think there could easily be 70 total points in this game despite Tampa Bay being banged up at wide receiver. In the late game, we will rely on a strong rushing attack from Houston in the red zone so that the Texans get in the end zone and Fairbairn doesn’t get many field goal attempts.

I don’t know why I keep going back to football. It has made me so sad this weekend with the way it has given hope to my teams and then snatched it away. I should be thinking about the fun times I had with my family on Saturday and Sunday, but instead I’m dwelling on Penn State losing to Iowa after taking an 11-point lead in the third quarter and the New York Giants losing to Denver after taking a 19-point lead into the fourth quarter. I don’t know why I expect my teams to come through. They keep fooling me again and again before pulling the rug out from under me and leaving me in pain.

The Penn State loss doesn’t even seem that bad anymore when compared to the Giants, but it would have been really cool to win in a tough road environment during Terry Smith’s first game as interim head coach and Ethan Grunkemeyer’s first game as starting quarterback. That would have been a huge lift for the program, but once again Jim Knowles’ defense failed to contain a scrambling quarterback.

RUN MARK RUN 😏@mgronowski11 x #Hawkeyes
pic.twitter.com/4xpwzXTb38

— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) October 19, 2025

Penn State’s offense could have done more in this game. It could have converted a goal-to-go situation into a touchdown with five minutes to play in the fourth quarter and went up by nine points instead of settling for a field goal and a five-point lead. Given the inexperienced quarterback and a tough Iowa defense, though, I was happy with how the offense played. Kaytron Allen grinded out 145 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries while keeping Grunkemeyer out of third and long for most of the night. The defense had to step up and keep Iowa out of the end zone with five minutes left, but instead it allowed Hawkeyes quarterback Mark Gronowski to take off on a 67-yard run. Kaden Wetjen scored on a jet sweep for the go-ahead touchdown on the next play.

The tackling on that play was atrocious with Zakee Wheatley and Elliot Washington II both whiffing on Gronowski at the same time instead of stopping him for a seven-yard gain. I don’t know if you can blame Knowles for that, but something is wrong with this defense and the way it allows the opponent to score a touchdown in every key spot during this four-game losing streak. Against Oregon, Penn State led by a touchdown in overtime and the Ducks faced 2nd and 13 after a botched handoff. They scored two touchdowns in a row before sealing the game with an interception.

In the UCLA game, there were many opportunities to stop the Bruins’ momentum and get the ball back in Drew Allar’s hands, but the defense allowed Nico Iamaleava to convert third down after third down with his scrambling. Finally it looked like Penn State would stop the bleeding at home vs. Northwestern, but the defense allowed the Wildcats to answer the Lions’ 91-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter with a 75-yard drive of their own to win the game.

Kick 6️⃣@XavierGilliam_ @E_WashingtonII #WeAre | LIVE on @Peacock

pic.twitter.com/BGEyAtsq1i

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) October 19, 2025

The defense made some plays at Iowa, like Wheatley’s interception on Iowa’s first drive that led to Penn State taking the lead. There was also the blocked field goal and touchdown return at the end of the first half that put Penn State ahead before halftime. It really looked like the Lions might come away with an emotional win when Allen finished their 75-yard drive at the start of the third quarter with an eight-yard touchdown run, but that 21-10 lead slowly evaporated due to mistakes on both sides of the ball.

Penn State now has a bye week before playing the top two teams in the country, so there’s a good chance we see the losing streak reach six games before the Lions sniff a conference win. On the other hand, it would be hilarious to upset Ohio State right after firing James Franklin.

This stretch of Penn State football would be easier to manage if the Giants weren’t also posting heartbreaking losses, but after giving the fan base hope with an upset win over Philadelphia 10 days ago, the familiar pain and misery returned in a historic collapse at Denver.

NFL teams had won 1,602 consecutive games when leading by 18+ points with six minutes or less to play in the fourth quarter until the Giants' loss to the Broncos today

(h/t Kevin Harlan/CBS) pic.twitter.com/bx03Gklp7j

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) October 19, 2025

It sure looked like the Giants had the game in hand when Tyrone Tracy Jr. scored on a 31-yard touchdown run to make the score 19-0 late in the third quarter. It looked that way some more when the Giants answered Denver’s first score of the game with Theo Johnson catching a 3rd and 17 throw that bounced off of Wan’Dale Robinson and taking it 41 yards to the end zone. You don’t get a huge break like that to take an 18-point lead with 10 minutes to play and lose the game. Unless you’re the New York Football Giants.

Bo Nix led Denver on a 74-yard touchdown drive to cut the deficit to 10 with five minutes left. It’s really hard to score twice in five minutes, so it was smart of the Giants to run the ball twice on the ensuing possession to make the Broncos use two of their three timeouts. It was on third down where the Giants made a major error.

Justin Strnad's interception was a game-changer for the @Broncos 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MpdHfBEqCX

— NFL (@NFL) October 20, 2025

I’m okay with throwing the ball there. I know there was a two-score lead and that the Giants could have ran Denver out of timeouts, but I am a big believer in moving the chains to run out the clock instead of just running the ball. The problem was Jaxson Dart making his worst throw of the game at the worst possible time. If the Giants convert the third down, they can run more clock and punt and the game is probably over. If the Giants run for three yards and a cloud of dust, Denver uses its last timeout and has to score very quickly to avoid the necessity of an onside kick. If Dart throws an incomplete pass instead of an interception, Denver still has to score quickly, but it has slightly more margin for error because of the timeout. I think taking the risk of going for the first down is worth it.

The problem is that the interception allowed the Broncos to score in less than a minute, but the Giants still had a chance to run out the clock with a first down. Instead, Dart overthrew Robinson after two Cam Skattebo runs for a total of two yards. Denver got the ball back with more than enough time to line up a game-tying field goal, and it turned out to be more than enough time to score a go-ahead touchdown. The Broncos did just that after Nix hooked up with Marvin Mims for 31 yards on 3rd and 11. The sophomore quarterback then found former Giants tight end Evan Engram for another 20-yard chunk before scrambling 18 yards into the end zone with 1:51 on the clock.

Somehow, the game was still far from over. Dart pulled a rabbit out of the hat when he connected with Robinson for 20 yards on 4th and 19. The addition of a roughing-the-passer penalty put New York 40 yards away from paydirt, but that may have been a curse in disguise with the way this game turned out. A 39-yard pass interference flag on a pass intended for Beaux Collins moved the Giants within a yard of the go-ahead score, and they got that score on a keeper by Dart that was initially ruled short of the goal line.

It turns out that the Giants needed Dart to be short of the goal line so that they could run more time off of the clock and escape with a victory, because 37 seconds was still plenty of time for Nix to set up a game-winning field goal. And game-winning it was because Jude McAtamney missed his second extra point of the game after Dart’s run was ruled a touchdown. This guy is kicking the NFL after going 12 for 19 on field goals during his career at Rutgers, including just four makes out of seven attempts on kicks between 30 and 39 yards. Younghoe Koo only made 74 percent of his field goals last year, but he was perfect on extra points, and more importantly has been kicking professionally since 2017. Why is he on the practice squad and McAtamney dressing for games?

Maybe the Giants lose this game in overtime (I’m actually sure of it), but it would have been nice to find out even though in the moment I just wanted to be put out of my misery. The final fail of the game was New York defensive coordinator Shane Bowen setting up the same three-man-rush prevent defense that allowed the Cowboys to set up their game-tying field goal in the final seconds of the Week 2 game in Dallas. How has Bowen not learned anything since then?! The soft coverage and zero pass rush allowed Nix to find Marvin Mims on the Giants’ 48-yard line. I’m fully confident that Wil Lutz would have crushed a 65-yard kick from there to finish the Giants, but just in case Nix hit Courtland Sutton down the sideline for 22 more yards. Lutz calmly hit the 39-yard field goal to end the game.

It will be tough to find a more brutal loss than that. The defense was great for three quarters and then gave up four touchdown drives in a row plus the game-winning field goal drive. Jaxson Dart was poised a precise until his interception helped give the game away. The Giants were rolling towards another win that looked like it would give the team a shot at the playoffs in 2025, but instead we are looking ahead to 2026. Maybe we’ll get sucked into believing again a week from now in Philadelphia, or maybe the Eagles will offer a harsh dose of reality. I’m sure either way it will be torture.

Six shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, and three home runs. Those are the numbers we will be talking about for years to come when we speak of one of the greatest postseason performances of all time. Of course it was done by Shohei Ohtani, the only man capable of even pitching and hitting in the same baseball game, let alone dominating in both aspects to almost single-handedly clinch the pennant for the Dodgers.

SHOHEI OHTANI HAS TAKEN OVER

HE LEAVES THE YARD AGAIN 💥 pic.twitter.com/ul2EcfZtxk

— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2025

Perhaps the only thing you can say to drag down Ohtani’s accomplishment is that the series appeared well in hand no matter what happened with the Dodgers ahead 3-0. Maybe the next time Ohtani takes the mound, it will be in a critical spot in the World Series. Still, what Ohtani did is baseball magic, especially since he didn’t get back to pitching this year until the middle of the season. For him to be dominant over six innings and hit three home runs, including one nuke that left Dodger Stadium, puts him in the realm of October legends like Don Larsen and Reggie Jackson.

The Dodgers are now four wins away from becoming the first repeat World Series champs since the 2000 Yankees, but we don’t yet know which American League team will try to stop them. After two games of the ALCS, it looked like that squad would certainly be the Mariners, but then the Blue Jays struck back with two huge wins in Seattle. Toronto appeared to be on its way to taking control of the series when George Springer hit an RBI double in the fifth inning and Ernie Clement hit an RBI single in the sixth to overcome an early 1-0 deficit. Clement’s big hit made up for him dribbling into a 2-2-3 double play with the bases loaded in the fourth and got Alejandro Kirk to chug around from second base for the go-ahead run.

EUGENIO SUÁREZ CONNECTS AGAIN IN GRAND FASHION 🤯

WHAT A GAME IN SEATTLE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9BQVmonoum

— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2025

It turns out that the Blue Jays could have used a hit from Clement in the fourth as well. That’s because, unlike in Game 3 and Game 4, the Mariners fought back. Cal Raleigh grew his legend with a game-tying solo shot in the eighth off of Brandon Little. Then, after Seattle loaded the bases with two walks and a hit by pitch, Eugenio Suarez unloaded with an opposite-field grand slam off of Seranthony Dominguez. The clutch blast gave the Mariners a 6-2 victory and gave them two chances to clinch their first ever AL pennant. They’ll have to do the clinching in Toronto, but they’ve already won twice there this series.

Two results on the gridiron had an effect on the Penn State coaching search, as Nebraska lost to Minnesota 24-6 to knock Matt Rhule down the list of potential candidates. Someone who might take his place on the list is Jeff Brohm, who led his Louisville Cardinals to a big 24-21 upset over Miami despite a late fumble by Isaac Brown that allowed the Canes to get back in the game. Miami got the ball back trailing by three with just under four minutes left, but Carson Beck thew his fourth interception of the game after leading his team into field goal range. Poor Miami got a dose of the old Beck at the worst possible time.

Jeff Brohm resume:

* Played for a Big Ten title… at Purdue
* Goes to Louisville and immediately wins 10 and 9 games in first two years
* Now 5-1 in 2025 and just dropped No. 3 Miami

Brohm: Best coach most people dont realize is truly… ELITE 😤😤 pic.twitter.com/JVMEpp27Cb

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) October 18, 2025

Brohm is a great candidate for the next Penn State head coach, but Louisville is his alma mater, so he might be tough to pry away. I still think Pat Fitzgerald is being overlooked, especially since he does not hold a coaching job right now.