tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

A Lost Sports Weekend

But for Peter Bourjos' error yesterday in the 7th inning, every team that I follow lost this weekend. In fact, some of the losses were down right demoralizing. Let's first start with the Yankees. The Yanks escaped Anaheim with a 6-5 win yesterday as Peter Bourjos misplayed a fly ball in the seventh inning. For the second straight start, Freddy Garcia struggled but the Yanks kept battling to avoid a sweep. On Friday they received a very good performance by Bartolo Colon and Saturday CC Sabathia struggled but only allowed one run over 6 innings but it wasn't enough. Prior to Sunday's game, the Yanks had only scored 1 run in California as Jered Weaver and Dan Haren shut them down. But to be fair, the Yankee offense has been decimated by injuries as ARod, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin and Andruw Jones all were out of the lineup. Jones returned yesterday and it is hoped that Swisher can play tonight.

Despite the Yankee struggles, Boston is really reeling as they were swept by the troublesome Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are now only 3 1/2 games behind the Red Sox for the wild card spot. The Yankees find themselves 3 1/2 games up on Boston, 4 games in the loss column. Tonight the Yankees will play the game in hand they have on Boston but the assignment won't be easy as they face Felix Hernandez.

Being a Notre Dame fan, the loss to Michigan on Saturday was gut-wrenching. After dominating the 1st half, the Fighting Irish found themselves down 28-24 with 1:30 seconds left in the game. Tommy Rees led the Irish comeback as he tossed a touchdown pass to Theo Riddick with 30 seconds remaining to give Notre Dame a 31-28 lead. But then Denard Robinson continued his mastery of the Irish by bringing the Wolverines back in 4 plays to throw a touchdown pass with 2 seconds remaining to give Michigan the victory. Notre Dame blew a 17 point lead going into the 4th quarter as Robinson worked his magic. A Notre Dame defense that had been stout for 3 quarters fell apart in the final quarter. I'm not sure how the Irish bounce back from this one as I'm sure the heat will be really turned up on Coach Brian Kelly. Things don't get easier as Michigan State rolls into South Bend this Saturday and going 0-3 will really have the ND faithful in a foul mood.

And then there are my beloved Cleveland Browns. With an easy schedule (supposedly) in the beginning of the season, many prognosticators had the Browns winning there first 4 or 5 games. Well, so much for that. After sleep walking through the 1st quarter, the Browns took a 14-13 lead at halftime over a Cincinnati Bengals team that many have predicted to finish in last place in the AFC North. The Browns had a chance to take firm control of the game in the 3rd quarter but had to settle for a field goal putting them ahead 17-13 going into the 4th quarter. But then led by Bruce Gradkowski, he of 3rd string fame when with the Browns, hit a wide open AJ Green and the Bengals went up 20-17 and the game was for all practical purposes over. Green was so wide open that I could have hit him for a touchdown. The reason why he was so wide open was because the Browns were slowly coming out of their huddle and the Bengals quick snapped the ball. None of the corners were out in coverage. And so once again the Browns lose a home opener. They haven't accomplished that feat since 1989.

Oh well, at least the Maple Leaf rookie team beat Chicago's and Pittsburgh's and thank God for Peter Bourjos.