Monday Morning Clip May 23, 2022

This Sunday had the last slate of English Premier League games. While they usually stagger games across the day both weekend days and put a few during the week (not that different from how the NFL schedules games after College football ends), all 20 teams played their final game at 4PM local time (11 AM US Eastern Time). The positions on the line included: Premier League title was on the line (Manchester City beat out Liverpool), the last English spot in next season’s Champions League (4th place; Tottenham beat Arsenal), the last spot in the Europa League (6th place; Manchester United finished ahead of West Ham), and the last spot to avoid being relegated to the second tier league for next season (17th place; Leeds United finished ahead of Burnley). Watching Liverpool fans react in the stadium as Manchester City came back from down 2-0 against Aston Villa to ensure their title was a bit depressing (especially for me since I’m a Liverpool fan myself), but it was still more compelling than if Manchester City had already won beforehand. To American sports’ credit, some of them already do something like this. The NBA had all 30 teams play on their final day of the regular season, as did the MLB. 30 of 32 NHL teams played on their final day, and the NFL put two games the day before this season. In terms of putting them all at the same time, England has an advantage because the entire country is on one time zone. However, America has enough events that are watched everywhere for me to believe that a league could pull this off. There would still be slightly less suspense because the Premier League doesn’t have playoffs, but it would still be a significant upgrade for the last day of the regular season, which has often turned into an afterthought in America.

Justin Thomas won the PGA Championship after scoring birdies on all three playoff holes to top Will Zalatoris. Justin Thomas was tied for 7th after Saturday, but he had a 3-under 67 on the final day to catch up to make his way up the leaderboard. Mito Pereira, the leader heading into the final round, still led on the 18th tee, but he sent his tee shot into the water and ultimately had a double bogey on the hole. Cameron Young (-4), Tommy Fleetwood (-3), Chris Kirk (-3), and Matt Fitzpatrick (-3) finished out the Top 5.

NBA

Golden State 109, Dallas 100

Golden State leads 3-0

Luka Doncic (40 pts, 14-17 FT, 11 reb), Jalen Brunson (20 pts, 5 ast), and Spencer Dinwiddie (26 pts) all shot at least 47% from the field and scored a combined 86 points. The rest of their team scored a combined 14 points and hit a combined 5 of their 27 field goals. Despite the largely 3-man effort, Dallas managed to lead a few times during the second quarter, never trailed by more than 14, and even cut Golden State’s lead to 5 with 1:15 remaining. While it wasn’t a stellar shooting performance by Golden State, it was better than Dallas’, and Steph Curry led the way with 31 points on 5-10 3-point shooting, along with 11 assists. Andrew Wiggins had 27 points and 11 rebounds, including this dunk that was initially called an offensive foul, but overturned. Klay Thompson had 19, but only hit 3 of his 10 three-pointers. Golden State also pulled down 14 more rebounds in the win.

Tonight

Miami @ Boston; 8:30 PM, Miami leads 2-1

MLB

St. Louis 18, Pittsburgh 4

St. Louis: Albert Pujols: 2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI (up to 682 HR); team: 3 players with 3 hits and 4 players with 2 hits

Philadelphia 4, LA Dodgers 3 (F/10)

LA Dodgers: Max Muncy: error that allowed winning run to score

Baltimore 7, Tampa Bay 6 (F/11)

Baltimore: Rougned Odor: walk-off fielder’s choice

Boston 8, Seattle 4 (F/10)

Boston: Franchy Cordero: walk-off grand slam; Trevor Story: HR, 5 HR in 4 games

Cincinnati 3, Toronto 2

Miami 4, Atlanta 3

Miami: Sandy Alcantara: 9 IP, 6 H, 3 R (0 ER), 7 K

Detroit 4, Cleveland 2

Cleveland: Shane Bieber: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), 10 K

Minnesota 7, Kansas City 6

Kansas City: Brady Singer: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 K

Houston 5, Texas 2

Houston: Jose Urquidy: 6.2 IP, 6 H, ER, 10 K

Washington 8, Milwaukee 2

Chicago Cubs 5, Arizona 4

Chicago White Sox 3, NY Yankees 1 (game 1)

Chicago White Sox: Johnny Cueto: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 5 K

NY Yankees: Jameson Tallion: 7 IP, 5 H, ER, 7 K

Chicago White Sox 5, NY Yankees 0 (game 2)

Chicago White Sox: Michael Kopech: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 6 K

NY Yankees: Luis Severino: 7 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 5 K

NY Mets 2, Colorado 0

NY Mets: Taijuan Walker: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 6 K

Colorado: Austin Gomber: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 K

San Diego 10, San Francisco 1

San Diego: Manny Machado: 4-4, 3 2B, 3B, 4 RBI

LA Angels 4, Oakland 1

LA Angels: Patrick Sandoval: 7.1 IP, 4 H, ER, 7 K

Full standings

Home run leaders