Your Monday Morning Roundup
A clean sweep for the weekend.
After losing three of four to the Brewers, the Phillies took all three games this weekend from the Colorado Rockies.
It began Friday night with the Phillies edging Colorado 5-4. The Phils were down early 2-0 when pitcher Cole Irvin had a game-changing 10-pitch at-bat that resulted in a walk and brought up Andrew McCutchen. He would promptly hit a two-run home run to tie the game at two. Cesar Hernandez drove in a run in the fourth, while Bryce Harper started his fantastic weekend with a two-RBI double in the fifth.
Irvin did give up all four runs in the game, three of them earned runs, on five hits with a couple of strikeouts. But the at-bat was pivotal in the Friday night win.
The following afternoon, Harper hit one of two 400+ foot home runs. The first was a 466 footer:
https://twitter.com/Starting9/status/1129848179694997505
That, along with a career-tying 12 strikeout performance from Aaron Nola, helped the Phils edge the Rockies 2-1 on Saturday.
In the series finale on Sunday, the team saw the return of Scott Kingery. In center field. But after a three-run second inning, the Rockies would hit home runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to take a 5-3 lead. In the bottom half of the sixth, a pinch-hit two-run homer from JT Realmuto and a two-run shot by Harper would eventually lift the Phils to a 7-5 win.
Is Harper finally over his early season slump? He recorded six RBIs this weekend and went 5-for-12. Could be early, but a good development nonetheless.
The Phillies head to Chicago to take on the Cubs for a four-game series that starts tonight at 8:05 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Jake Arrieta will make his first ever start against the Cubs as he goes against Yu Darvish.
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The Roundup:
Defensive end Chris Long officially announced his retirement from the NFL:
Cheers. Been a hell of a journey. Eleven years and I can honestly say I put my soul into every minute of it. Highs and lows. I’ve seen them both and I appreciate the perspective. Gratitude and love to those who lifted me up. pic.twitter.com/Ap8zi73Ifl
— chris long (@JOEL9ONE) May 19, 2019
He discussed it with Peter King this morning:
“I learned to never make a decision based on just one thing. The decision to retire was complicated. It was based on health, which is still very good, and family, we have two small children, and football fit, which includes a chance to win and my role and geography. Philadelphia is where I wanted to play a couple more years. I love Philadelphia. But as a player I learned the most important thing to me is Sunday, and having a chance to be a big part of it. It seemed like player-coach was kind of the role that was going to be carved out for me—maybe playing 10, 12, 15 plays a game. I’m a rhythm player. I need to set people up, I need to be in the flow of the game. If I sit on the bench for three series, I can’t get rhythm, and I’ll get cold and maybe I’ll hurt myself. Some people think that’s great—play less and you won’t get hurt. Man, I want to play ball. In Philadelphia, it didn’t seem there was much of a chance to compete there. But they were honest with me the whole time. I appreciate the honesty. I’ll always love Philadelphia and the Eagles, but I didn’t want Week 4, 5, to come around and people think, Whoa, where’s Chris? Did Chris retire? I’d rather do it this way than just fade out. And I didn’t want to start over again across the country somewhere.
But don’t worry, it’s not like he didn’t tell the team to prepare for him not coming back and the team went out and drafted a defensive lineman or two and signed Vinny Curry.
Meanwhile, Rasul Douglas is now ripped. He’ll be competing in a tough cornerback battle during OTAs and training camp.
Statistically speaking, where did the Sixers succeed and fail in 2018-19?
The team is holding more draft workouts today:
#sixers draft workouts for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/1AZr7GVUPZ
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 19, 2019
Now for the fun stuff: Are Ben Simmons and Kendall Jenner still a thing? Did you see Boban kick a Keanu Reeves stuntman?
In former Sixer news, there’s still no timetable for Markelle Fultz.
The Union and the Sounders played to a scoreless draw on Saturday.
In other sports news, Toronto won a double overtime thriller last night over Milwaukee to now be down two games to one.
Golden State came back from 18 points to beat Portland in Game 3. Game 4 is tonight and the Warriors could sweep.
Brooks Koepka completed a wire-to-wire win to take home the PGA Championship despite struggling in the final round.
Pacers guard and Chester native Tyreke Evans has been disqualified by the NBA and can’t play for two years.
Penn’s lacrosse team fell to Ivy League rival Yale 19-18 in overtime of the national quarterfinals. The national semifinals and championship are next weekend at Lincoln Financial Field with Penn State, Duke, Virginia, and defending champion Yale.
In the news, Game of Thrones ended last night and of course people aren’t happy about it.