Jonathan Dehn
Baltimore Orioles at Kansas City Royals – 10/13/2014 at 8:00PM EDT on TBS
Those damned Royals seem charmed, don’t they? The Kansas City Royals lead the American League Championship Series 2-0 and a win here would all but deliver them to the World Series against the Giants, or more likely, the cross-state rival in the St. Louis Cardinals. In this series, it was expected that the O’s would bring their power game and the Royals would rely almost exclusively on their outstanding speed down the lines. However, the Royals took game one of the series with the help of three homeruns, and netting four extra base hits in Game 2 as compared to Baltimore’s two. Mike Moustakas, whose name makes me crave a certain Greek dish of a similar name, has supplied a round tripper in each of the first two games. Baltimore will need to cut off this unexpected show of baseball mashing might in order to climb back into this series.
Saint Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants – 10/14/2014 at 4:00PM EDT on FS1
The best fans in baseball are looking forward to their team getting one win closer to the World Series as they face-off against the team that might also have the best fans in baseball. Really, just ask them. They’ll tell you. I’ll put my own feelings aside for both clubs for a moment and mention that the Cardinals are just three wins away from another World Series appearance. I’ll now go back to these personal feelings to mention that we’re three Cardinals wins away from Joe Buck trying, but not really trying to be impartial during another St. Louis World Series appearance. They look to take back home-field advantage by sending John Lackey to the mound to be the better to Tim Hudson. I’m not sure if John Lackey is still a jerk, but he probably is. The good news is that in the next of this series, we’ll have our teams decided for The Fall Classic.
NCAA Women’s Volleyball – Wisconsin #4 at Minnesota – 10/15/2014 at 7:00PM EDT on Big Ten Network
With Penn State falling in the rankings this week, Wisconsin looks to cement their supremacy in the volleyball rich conference of the Big Ten. Above them in the standings are the undefeated teams of Texas, Florida State and Stanford. We’ll keep an eye on Stanford and Pac-12 rival Washington, as both may be undefeated before their meeting down the road on November 26th. That match will take place in Seattle.
Boston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings – 10/15/2014 at 8:00PM EDT on NBC Sports
Get your kicks from two of the Original Six, as the Bruins traverse the skies in their private jet and do battle at The Joe. The Boston Bruins will be welcoming back winger David Krejci this week, as he is eligible to rejoin the team on the ice this Monday and is almost certain for the battle with the Red Wings. The team sorely missed his deft passing, which led to 50 assists last season from the 28 year-old Czech, who sorely missed experiencing the games from the bench alongside his mates.
Barclay’s Premier League – Manchester City at Tottenham – 10/18/2014 at 7:40AM EDT on NBC Sports
The Citizens sit at second in the table, and are five points behind early season juggernaut Chelsea and would certainly fancy themselves picking up all three points with a win at White Heart Lane. Ted Lasso’s old club, Tottenham, find themselves in the top half of the table despite inconsistencies in their performance. The long awaited debut of young American fullback DeAndre Yedlin, whose move to England has been hampered by his inability to secure a work permit. Explained simply, he has not played in enough international matches quite yet to readily attain one. He should provide attacking depth during the latter stages of the campaign. Oil-rich Manchester City are reportedly looking to make a splash of their own once the transfer window opens in January, as the tabloids have them keeping an eye on Italian Paul Pogba, who plays for traditional Serie A titan Juventus.
NCAA Football – Texas A&M #21 at Alabama #7 – 10/18/2014 at 3:30PM EDT on CBS
Alabama comes off of a less than impressive win against Arkansas, while A&M comes off of their lackluster defeat at the hands of Ole Miss. A loss from the College Station school could see them drop out of the top 25, while Alabama is still poised to linger and keep chase for a playoff at the end of the season. Earlier on in the afternoon, a game of note would be #14 Kansas State visiting #11 Oklahoma. That will be at 12:00PM EDT on ESPN and will be worth watching to see if Oklahoma’s struggle to overcome a dysfunctional Texas at the Cotton Bowl is a troubling sign of things to come.
San Francisco 49ers (probably 4-2) at Denver Broncos (4-1) – 10/19/2014 at 8:30PM EDT on NBC
I’m going to assume that San Francisco defeats St. Louis on the road just after this is published. Are we all together on this? I like Austin Davis, as well, but we need a tasty matchup next week that might result in a close game in a season that hasn’t had many competitive primetime matchups. Two of the more prestigious franchises will compete with some western pride on the line. San Francisco will be looking to keep pace with the Seahawks and Cardinals, while the Broncos have the Chargers nipping at their heels this season. These divisional objectives may be lost deep in the deck as the more apparent story going into this game would be Peyton Manning’s quest to pass up Brett Favre as the all-time king of passing touchdowns, now just two behind the Croc enthusiast. Let’s just hope that this game is competitive.
Image: NBC
