(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Chi White Sox 6, Cincinnati 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 6, NY Yankees 5
Boston 6, Baltimore 0
Minnesota 5, Detroit 2
Tampa Bay 7, Houston 0
LA Angels 7, Texas 2
Kansas City 10, Cleveland 5
Seattle 4, Oakland 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Colorado 10, Washington 5
Miami 3, NY Mets 2
Chi Cubs 3, Pittsburgh 2
Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 2
Milwaukee 4, St. Louis 0
San Francisco 1, Arizona 0
San Diego 11 L.A. Dodgers 9
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Columbus 5, St. Louis 2
Toronto 4, Ottawa 0
New Jersey 5, Washington 4
Winnipeg 5, Edmonton 1
Florida 4, Dallas 3 (SO)
Detroit 4, Chicago 3 (SO)
Seattle 4, Calgary 3 (SO)
Arizona 4, Anaheim 1
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Toronto FC 3, Cincinnati 2
Atlanta 1, Miami 0
New England 4, CF Montréal 1
D.C. United 3, Minnesota 1
Philadelphia 1, New York 1 (Tie)
Sporting Kansas City 3, FC Dallas 1
Chicago 2, New York City FC 0
Orlando City 2, Nashville 2 (Tie)
Colorado 3, Austin FC 0
Vancouver 0, Houston 0 (Tie)
Real Salt Lake 2, LA Galaxy 1
Portland 2, Los Angeles FC 1
Seattle 3, San Jose 1
(NEW YORK) — The NBA is warning players unvaccinated for COVID-19 that they will not be paid for games they miss due to local executive orders governing requirements for shots.
“Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” Mike Bass, the NBA’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement Wednesday morning.
The new rule, initially reported by ESPN, could pose problems for teams like the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors because New York and San Francisco are among the cities requiring COVID-19 vaccines to enter those teams’ basketball arenas.
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Nets’ home court, requires one coronavirus shot to enter. At the same time, San Francisco’s Chase Center, where the Warriors play, mandates that only fully vaccinated people can enter.
On Friday, the NBA announced it had “reviewed and denied” Warriors player Andrew Wiggins’ request for a religious exemption and that he would not be able to play in Warriors home games until he meets San Francisco’s vaccine mandate. The Warriors’ first regular-season home game is scheduled for Oct. 21.
During the Warriors’ media day on Monday, Wiggins told reporters that his vaccination status is “private” but acknowledged his “back is definitely against the wall.”
“I’m just going to keep fighting for what I believe,” Wiggins said. “I’m going to keep fighting for what I believe is right. What’s right to one person isn’t right to the other and vice versa.”
Wiggins’ annual salary is $31.6 million.
Nets star Kyrie Irving, who makes about $34 million a year, was forced to participate in the team’s media day at Barclays Center on Monday via Zoom as a result of the vaccine mandate in New York. However, he refused to discuss his vaccine status.
“That doesn’t mean that I’m putting any limits on the future of me being able to join the team,” Irving, vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, said without elaborating.
The Nets home opener is scheduled for Oct. 24.
The vaccine mandates in San Francisco and Brooklyn only apply to players who compete in those markets, according to the NBA. Out-of-town players are exempt from executive orders.
The New York Knicks previously said its entire organization, including all players, is fully vaccinated and in compliance with the New York City law.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James publicly revealed on Tuesday that he got the vaccine.
“I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family and things of that nature,” James told reporters. “I know that I was very (skeptical) about it all. But after doing my research and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and my friends. And, you know, that’s why I decided to do it.”
The NBA is set to tip-off its regular season on Oct. 19 and teams are expected to play a regular 82-game schedule for the first time since the 2018-2019 season.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Chi White Sox 7, Cincinnati 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Baltimore 4, Boston 2
Minnesota 3, Detroit 2
NY Yankees 7, Toronto 2
Texas 5, LA Angels 2
Houston 4, Tampa Bay 3
Kansas City 6, Cleveland 4
Seattle 4, Oakland 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NY Mets 5, Miami 2
NY Mets 2, Miami 1
Pittsburgh 8, Chi Cubs 6
Atlanta 2, Philadelphia 1
St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 2
Colorado 3, Washington 1
San Francisco 6, Arizona 4
LA Dodgers 2, San Diego 1
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
NY Rangers 3, Boston 2
NY Islanders 3 Philadelphia 2 (OT)
Carolina 3, Tampa Bay 1
Buffalo 5, Columbus 4 (SO)
Edmonton 6, Seattle 0
Los Angeles 4, San Jose 3
Vegas 4, Colorado 3
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Chicago 101, Connecticut 95 (2OT)
Las Vegas 96, Phoenix 90
(NEW YORK) — Simone Biles, a four-time Olympic gold medalist gymnast, said she should have quit competing “way before” the Tokyo Olympics, where she had to withdraw from several events due to mental health struggles.
“If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” Biles said in a new interview with LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images). “I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years.”
“It was too much,” she said. “But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6 years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.”
Biles, 24, was on track at this summer’s Olympics to win an unprecedented six gold medals during the Games, with the aim of also becoming the first woman since 1968 to win back-to-back titles in the all-around.
After stumbling on a vault landing in the team competition final, Biles withdrew from three of her event finals, citing her mental health.
Earlier this month, while testifying before Congress, Biles tied her performance in Tokyo to her struggle to recover mentally after being abused by Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics team doctor who is now serving up to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women.
In the interview with New York Magazine, Biles said she is back in therapy and calls her recovery from the abuse she suffered a frustratingly long “work in progress.”
“You get surgery, it’s fixed. Why can’t someone just tell me in six months it’ll be over?” Biles said. “Like, hello, where are the double-A batteries? Can we just stick them back in? Can we go?”
Leading up to the Tokyo Games, Biles said she “didn’t feel as confident as I should have been with as much training as we had.”
Once there, Biles said she faced what in gymnastics is called “the twisties,” when one loses sense of where they are in the air or in their routine.
“If I still had my air awareness, and I just was having a bad day, I would have continued,” Biles told the magazine. “But it was more than that.”
“It’s so dangerous,” she said. “It’s basically life or death. It’s a miracle I landed on my feet. If that was any other person, they would have gone out on a stretcher. As soon as I landed that vault, I went and told my coach: ‘I cannot continue.’”
Biles faced criticism from some when she withdrew from her Olympic events, but she was mostly applauded for listening to her body and prioritizing her mental health.
To those critics who said she went to Tokyo and quit, Biles compared what she went through to suddenly waking up blind one day.
“Say up until you’re 30 years old, you have your complete eyesight,” she said. “One morning, you wake up, you can’t see … but people tell you to go on and do your daily job as if you still have your eyesight. You’d be lost, wouldn’t you? That’s the only thing I can relate it to. I have been doing gymnastics for 18 years. I woke up — lost it. How am I supposed to go on with my day?”
In the nearly two months since she returned home from Tokyo, Biles said she has had time to come to terms with what happened, though she said it still feels in many ways like she “jumped out of a moving train.”
“Everybody asks, ‘If you could go back, would you?’ ” Biles told New York Magazine. “No. I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason. And I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 8, Kansas City 3
Chi White Sox 8, Detroit 7
Seattle 13 Oakland 4
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 13, Pittsburgh 1
Washington 5, Colorado 4
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Columbus 3, Pittsburgh 0
Montreal 5, Toronto 2
Vancouver 4, Calgary 2
St. Louis 2, Dallas 1 (OT)
Arizona 2, Los Angeles 1
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Dallas 41, Philadelphia 21
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Tampa Bay 3, Miami 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Kansas City 2, Detroit 1
Texas 7, Baltimore 4
Chi White Sox 5, Cleveland 2
Toronto 5, Minnesota 2
Seattle 5, LA Angels 1
Oakland 4, Houston 3
NY Yankees 6, Boston 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 6, Philadelphia 0
Cincinnati 9, Washington 2
Milwaukee 8, NY Mets 4
St. Louis 4, Chi Cubs 2
San Francisco 6, Colorado 2
LA Dodgers 3, Arizona 0
Atlanta 4, San Diego 3
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Florida 5, Nashville 4 (OT)
Boston 3, Washington 2 (SO)
Florida 3, Nashville 1
Seattle 5, Vancouver 3
NY Islanders 4, NY Rangers 0
Anaheim 6, San Jose 3
Ottawa 3, Winnipeg 2 (OT)
Edmonton 4, Calgary 0
San Jose 4, Vegas 2
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Arizona 31, Jacksonville 19
Atlanta 17, NY Giants 14
Baltimore 19, Detroit 17
Buffalo 43, Washington 21
Cincinnati 24, Pittsburgh 10
Cleveland 26, Chicago 6
LA Chargers 30, Kansas City 24
New Orleans 28, New England 13
Tennessee 25, Indianapolis 16
Denver 26, NY Jets 0
Las Vegas 31, Miami 28 (OT)
LA Rams 34, Tampa Bay 24
Minnesota 30, Seattle 17
Green Bay 30, San Francisco 28
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Phoenix 85, Seattle 80 (OT)
Final Chicago 89 Minnesota 76
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Nashville 0, Chicago 0 (Tie)
Seattle 2, Sporting Kansas City 1
Austin FC 2, LA Galaxy 0
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Chi White Sox 7, Cleveland 2
Seattle 6, Oakland 5
Cleveland 5, Chi White Sox 3
Baltimore 3, Texas 0
Minnesota 7, Toronto 2
LA Angels 3, Houston 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
St. Louis 8, Milwaukee 5
Arizona 6, Atlanta 4
LA Dodgers 7, Colorado 5
San Diego 7, San Francisco 6
Washington 3, Cincinnati 2
Philadelphia 12, Pittsburgh 6
(MICHIGAN) — Michigan football fans are not conditioned in their modern state to feel anything good. The sport so many of them live and die with has burned them too often over the past 20 years for many Wolverines fans to feel truly excited as the calendar flips from month to month in the fall.
This September has put these fans in a tough spot. Michigan football is off to a 3-0 start, and if you’ve watched the games or looked at the numbers, you know it’s been a crisp 3-0. The Wolverines have beaten Western Michigan, Washington and Northern Illinois by a combined 107 points, the largest cumulative margin of victory among Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Michigan was supposed to win all of these games, but there is winning and then there is covering the spread by nearly 19 points per game. Save for losing star receiver Ronnie Bell to a right knee injury for the year, it would be tough to imagine Jim Harbaugh having a smoother first three weeks of a season.
Yet Michigan fans understand how this goes. Harbaugh was 18-3 in August and September since his takeover of the program in 2015 through last season (though there were no such games for the team in 2020). That was the seventh-best winning percentage in FBS in the season’s opening stretch during those years. The problem was October and November, months in which Harbaugh has gone 30-15 — a nice enough record for most teams but not nearly enough to get Michigan over the Big Ten East hump. Many are understandably circumspect about what lies in store for 2021.
Before we go further, it’s worth doing the necessary Michigan-related hedging. The Wolverines might fall apart and lose three to five games, as they’ve done several times in recent years. They might be great but fall short in their regular-season finale against Ohio State, which is now an annual bit of misery (save for 2020) no matter what’s happened up to that point. In short, Michigan could do what Michigan has done too many times before. These potential outcomes all point to fans shielding their hearts from vulnerability. Why get too serious with a team that has hurt you? But if Michigan fans can stomach it, they should let themselves live a little bit. Three games into 2021, there is no reason Michigan won’t have Harbaugh’s big breakthrough this year.
In Harbaugh’s first six years, his offenses were good, but not great, and “good” does not win the Wolverines’ division, much less anything beyond that. From 2015 to 2020, Michigan was 19th in FBS in expected points added per game on offense, adjusted for opponent quality. The results varied a bit by year, but its most productive offense by far was in 2016, when Michigan came a J.T. Barrett fourth-down spot away from making the Big Ten Championship. That team produced an adjusted offensive EPA of 15.16 per game. That was the best college offense Harbaugh has ever fielded, save for the 2010 Stanford outfit that had Andrew Luck and various NFL pass-catchers and produced a figure of 20.19.
The Wolverines have been unable to approach their 2016 level over the last four years. But this year, Michigan leads all of FBS in adjusted offensive EPA and is tracking, at this early date, to produce the most efficient offense by EPA of Harbaugh’s career. Adjusted EPA flattens out the results some, since it accounts for the competition level faced, which means the computers aren’t calling fraud on Michigan’s excellent start.
Along the same line, Michigan’s September success looks like a shift upward even when compared only with its previous nonconference schedules. In strictly regular-season, nonconference games in Harbaugh’s first six years, Michigan’s offense was a combined 44th in adjusted EPA per game. This year, Michigan is second. And again, that’s an opponent-adjusted stat, which suggests that Michigan’s leap can’t be chalked up totally to a schedule that lacks a team like Florida or Notre Dame, two recent season-opener foes for Harbaugh’s teams.
Harbaugh’s new starting quarterback, Cade McNamara, is outdoing his predecessors in a similar way. The junior, a former four-star recruit, threw for 10 yards per attempt in nonconference games and posted a 60.5 Total QBR. Both figures put him ahead of Harbaugh’s previous starting QBs in the same situations: Jake Rudock, Wilton Speight and Shea Patterson. And Michigan’s lead tailback, Blake Corum, has blown away Harbaugh’s previous primary running backs in both yards per attempt (8.5) and missed tackles generated per touch (0.3) against teams outside the Big Ten. In various offensive areas, Michigan is lapping its old self.
On defense, the Wolverines are under new management this fall. First-year coordinator Mike Macdonald arrived in the offseason from the Baltimore Ravens, where he had worked since 2014 for Harbaugh’s brother, John. (Macdonald was going to be co-defensive coordinator with fellow new hire Maurice Linguist, but Linguist left to take the top job at Buffalo before the season.) Macdonald replaced Don Brown, who’d been Michigan’s defensive coordinator since 2016 and had a reputation for his infatuation with two things: blitzes and man coverage. During Brown’s time in charge, the Michigan defense played man-to-man coverages on 48 percent of opposing dropbacks, the ninth-highest rate in the country. (The average was 33 percent.) In front of all coverages, Michigan blitzed 12.6 times a game, 10th-most in FBS. So far in 2021, the Wolverines have kept playing a lot of man coverage, though less than before — 40.7 percent of the time, which still ranks ninth. Their blitzing has also eased up a bit, to 10.33 times per game (tied for 46th-most).
It’s a little early to know what shape Macdonald’s defense will take the rest of the way, but it looks like his plan is working. In nonconference, regular-season games under Brown, Michigan was fifth in adjusted defensive EPA per game. Under Macdonald, Michigan is 19th in the same situations — a step back overall, but not compared to Brown’s most recent work. There’s no way to make an apples-to-apples comparison from last year to this year because there were no nonconference Big Ten games last fall. But the early returns say Michigan’s defense has cleaned up a 2020 mess where the Wolverines finished the season an ugly 109th in adjusted defensive EPA per game overall. This year, Michigan is 16th, and its straightforward yards allowed per play are down at this point from 5.6 to 4.5. Even if the defense regresses significantly in Big Ten play, it looks like the bleeding from 2020 has slowed.
Michigan has played what looks like a light schedule, but it’s not that hard to look at it in the right light and see something decent. WMU beat Pitt, NIU beat a Georgia Tech team that is probably bad but almost beat Clemson, and Washington looked dysfunctional but has one of the more talented rosters in college football.1
Whatever you think of this schedule, Michigan has pulverized it to an unusual extent. Forward-looking projection systems tend to believe, even if lots of humans aren’t there yet. Bill Connelly’s SP+ and ESPN’s FPI, two opponent-adjusted systems, each have Michigan No. 6 overall. In SP+, the Wolverines rank 12th on offense, eighth on defense and second on special teams. In the AP Top 25, Michigan is 19th, which is fair for now and may turn out to look low.
The Big Ten might be ripe for the picking, too, or at least more so than usual. The conference has a lot of interesting teams that weren’t at all interesting last year. Penn State looks like a serious contender. Iowa has a punishing defense, Michigan State seems to be getting back to some of its mid-2010s ways, and even Maryland and Rutgers are presently undefeated. But the league’s biggest hoss looks more vulnerable than usual. Ohio State is 37th in Defensive SP+ and has already taken play-calling responsibilities away from its defensive coordinator.
The Game is in Ann Arbor this year, and that combined with a slightly reduced OSU gives Michigan one of its best chances in a while. Predicting a Michigan win would be foolish, but for a rare change, so would be dismissing the possibility out of hand that the Wolverines give their much more successful rival a lot to handle.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Philadelphia 4, Baltimore 3
Final Minnesota 5, Chi Cubs 4
Boston 12, NY Mets 5
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 7, Toronto 1
NY Yankees 7, Texas 3
Seattle 4, Oakland 1
Houston 9, LA Angels 5 (12)
Chi White Sox at Detroit (Postponed)
Kansas City at Cleveland (Postponed)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Washington 7, Miami 5
St. Louis 10, Milwaukee 2
Colorado 10, LA Dodgers 5
Atlanta 9, Arizona 2
San Francisco 8, San Diego 6
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (Postponed)
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Nashville 5, Miami 1
New England 3, Chicago 2
New York City FC 1, New York 1 (Tie)
