Delle Donne, Sky Rally to End Atlanta’s Dream

August 27, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Midweek musings: Tuned into Chicago Sky game a little late. End of third quarter. Almost turned off the contest at Atlanta in the decisive game of their WNBA best-of-three first-round series. Glad I stayed with the game. Down 16 points after three quarters, the Sky scored an 81-80 victory with Elena Delle Donne scoring half of her 34 points (that’s 17, for those of us who are mathematically challenged) in the final quarter. Meaning she outscored Atlanta 17-13 in the final period. Just a friendly reminder about perseverance and effort. And a bit of luck (Angel McCoughtry’s last-second shot bounced and bounced and bounced on the rim before bouncing away from the basket).

Video below swimsuit models Ariel Meredith (pictured) and Jessica Perez.

Video below of swimsuit models Ariel Meredith (pictured) and Jessica Perez.

* Speaking of the Sky, it plays Indiana for the Eastern Conference title. The series begins Saturday at Indiana with Game 2 in the best-of-three series on Labor Day (Sept. 1) at 3 p.m. at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. Just guessing that the Sky will need to win its home game to win the series (unlike the Sky-Dream series in which the road team won each game).

* Speaking of victories (comeback or otherwise), the White Sox have not had one in seven games. The Sox (59-72) lost in 10 innings to the visiting Cleveland Indians. And just when the Sox could have evened their home record at 32-32.

* Speaking of the Sox, starter Jose Quintana posted his 11th no-decision of the season. He has one victory at home (May 26). Quintana and Chris Sale do not have a victory in August (10 starts between them). For what that’s worth (best guess is it’s not worth much).

* Speaking of impressive performances, Anthony Rizzo hit his 30th home run of the season as the Chicago Cubs defeated the host Cincinnati Reds 3-0. Arismendy Alcantara hit a two-run homer for the other Cubs runs. Former Reds left-hander Travis Wood (8-11) left after six innings of two-hit pitching.

* Speaking of Rizzo, he reached 30 homers quicker than any other Cubs left-handed hitter since Henry Rodriguez (Aug. 12, 1998). For whatever that’s worth.

* Speaking of the Cubs, second baseman Javier Baez was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. He has 40 in 86 at-bats. Meaning he has as many strikeouts as he does total bases. Pretty sure that’s not too good. Also meaning he has struck out 47 percent of the time. That’s not good either (in case you didn’t know — and even if you did). With seven home runs, he is averaging one every 12.3 at-bats. Meaning that is good. Not necessarily good enough to offset a .198 batting average and his strikeout frequency.

* Speaking of Rizzo (well, we were a couple of paragraphs ago), he will be the next featured personality on Comcast SportsNet’s “Inside Look” on Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. Additional content will be available on CSNChicago.com. The show is scheduled to run (subject to change) on Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m., Sept. 21 at 5 p.m. and Sept. 22 at 2:30 p.m.

* Speaking of Comcast SportsNet, it will provide live coverage of the Jackie Robinson West parade and rally beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Hall of Famer Frank Thomas will be part of the broadcast team covering the U.S. Little League champions. CSNChicago.com also will have a live video stream of the events in Millennium Park. The rally is to begin at 11.

* Let the record show the Cubs and Sox have the same record 59-72. The Cubs have won four in a row and the Sox have lost seven in a row. The best that can be said about any of that is each team has 31 games remaining and it would be next to impossible for either to lose 100 games. Ah, optimism.

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