A Grip on Sports: No one on the M’s had a Mother’s Day star turn but there were a few to talk about, including Berkly Catton’s
A GRIP ON SPORTS • We have some questions as we begin the workweek, including which is the best Marvel movie and why is it “Guardians of the Galaxy?”
•••••••
• C’mon, there is no other choice. Humor. Mega-doses. Along with super-hero stuff. Thanos. Star-Lord. An infinity stone. John C. Reilly. And that one guy’s leg. What’s not to like?
It’s questions like that we landed on during a quiet Mother’s Day, when the golf seemed a little mundane, the Mariners were in the throes of a full-on meltdown and the NBA/NHL playoffs were all at commercial at the same time.
And, as always with Chris Pratt’s transformational film, we stayed.
To laugh, something that is always in short supply when watching sports. Crying? Contrary to another film, an old one with Tom Hanks, there is crying in baseball. And we’ve been doing a little tearing up recently while thinking about the Mariners’ battered rotation.
George Kirby has yet to make a start this season. Logan Gilbert did, but started feeling pain – or “tightness” as it’s termed by most teams – in his forearm and was sent to the injured list. Now there is some issue with Bryce Miller, who has battled through – not too well – some undisclosed nagging pain, though he once mentioned his back.
He was, to put it succinctly, pretty awful Sunday. Again.
Five innings. Eight hits. Two walks. Only three strike outs. And worst of all, seven runs. All earned. No chance for the M’s to win and salvage one game of the Blue Jays’ three-game weekend visit to T-Mobile.
Miller’s earned run average is 5.22. Though his velocity is down, his pitches aren’t, especially the one George Springer hit about six miles in the fifth inning that sealed the M’s fate. Location has been a problem all season for last year’s most dominant starter, with his walks-per-nine-innings having more than doubled.
With 60% of baseball’s best rotation, as it was termed before the season, dealing with some level of injury, the M’s smoke-and-mirrors way of winning was blown away by Toronto. Heck, the number may be 80%, though our belief is Luis Castillo is regressing due to age and workload.
Whatever the number, the M’s slogan seems to be “Woo and (maybe) Louie and pray the roof gets stuck open in a rainstorm.”
There is good news, though.
Kirby has made a couple rehab starts. Gilbert is throwing on the side. Miller made some good pitches out his 92 Sunday, just not enough of them. And Castillo? Maybe as the weather warms, so too will his fastball.
• In their Western Hockey League finals opener against host Medicine Hat on Friday, the Spokane Chiefs were smoked early, and often, by the Tigers’ potent offense. They never really responded.
So what happened in Sunday night’s second game? Medicine Hat scored again in the first minute of the contest. The Co-op Place crowd went nuts, expecting a sequel. But, like the producers of “Forrest Gump,” the Chiefs nixed it.
How? They rode their mega-star Berkly Catton and a well-balanced offense. The combination has the ability to match Medicine Hat’s multiple scoring threats, headlined by WHL Player of the Year Gavin McKenna.
OK, no one in major-junior hockey history has matched McKenna’s 54-game scoring streak, a roll that came to an end last night in Spokane’s 6-2 victory. But Catton was more than a match for the Tigers’ defense, as his two goals were key in sending the series back for its three-game Spokane run tied at a game apiece. With a promise. If the Chiefs hold serve, they are WHL champions.
• I am always suspicious of motives, especially when the NCAA is involved. Which is why a proposed rule change concerning replay has me wondering.
Yes, the end of college basketball games takes too long. The endless reviews in the final couple minutes can stretch from here to eternity. And not actually get the calls correct. But one coach’s challenge for the entire game, as is being discussed? That’s not enough. Not when officials seem to miss a lot more than one crucial call each contest. Make it at least two – and no timeout is needed to challenge in the final 30 seconds.
The last caveat is crucial. We all know if a timeout is needed, the next NCAA title game will come down to a missed out-of-bounds call with 2 seconds left. And can’t be fixed because Mark Few had used his last timeout.
The national media won’t care, though.
They’ll be too busy telling everyone how great Duke is.
•••
WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we passed along last week Jon Wilner’s look at the financials of the conference’s legacy schools when the column ran in the Mercury News. It is available on the S-R site this morning. … Speaking of legacy schools, Stanford defeated USC to win the NCAA women’s water polo title. … There are also seven legacy schools that will compete in the NCAA softball tournament, though none are among the favorites. Those roles were reserved for SEC schools, which earned seven of the top eight seeds. It’s almost as if money talks. The seven? Washington, Oregon, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford and California. … There is also one incoming Pac-12 school, San Diego State, in the tournament. … John Canzano wrote about his grandmother’s meat sauce for Mother’s Day. We didn’t know any of our grandmothers. The meat sauce recipe we use – and our eldest son cooked for his aunt yesterday – was handed down from my father. Being Canzano’s grandmother came from Calabria, the boot of Italy, and my dad’s family from Sicily, the soccer ball in the country’s geographic analogy, I’m sure the recipes share the same DNA. … Colorado is giving a scholarship to a transfer receiver who once was a walk-on in their program before leaving for another school. … In basketball news, Sabrina Ionescu still visits Eugene often. For a lot of reasons.
Gonzaga: Anyone who watched the Zags play the last couple seasons knows, Ryan Nembhard has the offensive skills needed to make a mark in the NBA. Maybe not to the extent his brother Andrew has. At least not yet. But what Nembhard displayed on the defensive end during his recent stint at the NBA’s G League Camp showed he may just be active and aggressive enough on defense to overcome his physical limitations. As Theo Lawson tells us, Nembhard’s overall level of play earned the point guard a coveted invite to the NBA’s draft combine.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Weber State will be traveling to Eugene for an NCAA softball regional. … A couple former Sacramento State players will be competing next year in new places.
Chiefs: Dave Nichols ended his Alberta visit with this game story on Spokane’s 6-2 victory (a story we also linked above). … Tyler Tjomsland also has this photo gallery.
Indians: Colton Clark was at Avista Stadium for the Mother’s Day matinee pitting Spokane against visiting Vancouver. His story covers the particulars of the Indians’ 10-inning, 4-3 victory that gave the hosts a 4-2 series win.
Seahawks: We can pass along another Hawk-centric mailbag.
Mariners: Miller’s ERA crossing above five not only leads the game story from the 9-1 loss but informs Matt Calkins’ column as well. … Randy Arozarena finds a way to get on base every game. … Former Gonzaga star Mike Redmond lost his bench coaching job yesterday when the Rockies also fired manager Bud Black.
Reign: Houston’s visit to Seattle was productive for the Dash but not for the Reign, who lost 1-0. It was their first loss this season at home.
•••
• When you write more than 350 columns a year, you need a way to have a little fun while doing a mid-May Monday one. Our solution? We not only began talking about a movie, we scattered movie references and names of some of our all-time favorites around throughout the column. Until later …