5-at-10: Braves' big stand, fore! (golf things to know), are the Rebs and Hogs ready for big tests?

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton (50) works in the second inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton (50) works in the second inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Braves' big win

In the pecking order of things that have caused the most angst for Southerners in my lifetime, my list starts with New Coke.

Then the cancellation of "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Then, there are the Braves' closers for the last quarter-century, highlighted with the current love-hate-Hate-HATE relationship with lefty Will Smith.

He has 36 saves, which is aces. He has caused more heartache in Georgia than homecoming queens and bad barbecue.

The Braves closer again wiggled from a self-inflicted storm as the team grabbed a much-needed and impossible-to-overstate victory in Game 1 of the critical three-game series with the second-place Phillies.

The 2-1 win pushed the Braves' lead in the East to 3.5 and made the team's magic number 3. (Side note for clarity: For those who do not know, the magic number is the number of Braves wins or Phillies losses needed for Atlanta to clinch. Last night, with a Braves win and a Phillies loss, the number dropped from 5 to 3. If the Braves sweep, every Atlanta regular this side of the lunchtime crew at the Varsity will get some downtime this weekend.)

Visor tip to Charlie Morton, who escaped a first-inning jam and then was lights out for seven strong innings. How about this stat? Morton allowed two singles on his first three pitches; he allowed one single on his final 98 pitches.

He whiffed 10 and out-dueled Phillies ace and Cy Young candidate Zach Wheeler.

His offense did just enough with a two-run single from Jorge Soler - and if you don't like Jorge's "Soler Power" headband, well, that's a you problem - on one of Wheeler's few mistakes.

A perfect Luke Jackson eighth led to the Will Smith drama in the ninth.

After walking the bases loaded and striking out the side in a one-run win Sunday, Smith walked Bryce Harper to start the ninth. He then allowed three scorching line drives - one was dropped by left-fielder Eddie Rosario - that led to an unearned run.

Yes, the error hurt, but Smith was fooling as many folks as the bearded lady at the county fair.

An intentional walk loaded the bases before Smith struck out Freddie Galvis to end the game. Game 1 in the books, and that's the big story.

But c'mon, Will Smith, can we make the next one a little less hectic?

This Braves' bullpen-related stress is going to mess around and kill more rednecks than hunting accidents.

Fore

Yes, we're about to take a golf break. Well, as much of a golf break as golf will take. With that, here are four golfing details that I believe need to be discussed this morning.

First, Bryson DeChambeau went from post-Ryder glow and Brooks Koepka-make-up hug to the Long Drive Championships and easily moved through round one with a 412-yard drive. He's a lot of things, but no one - not even Tiger - puts the torque on a driver like DeChambeau.

Second, the ratings are in for the Ryder Cup, and America did not mirror the 5-at-10 compound, which had the event on multiple TVs throughout the weekend. The record-setting romp for the Americans clearly hurt the numbers, as Sunday's singles was the least-watched on record since 1997.

Third, I believe this to be smart. The PGA looked at the new NFL playoff schedule - with the expanded postseason, the NFL Championship Sunday was pushed back a week - and altered the always-popular Farmers Open (Side note: Spy, cue JK Whosehisboots from "Oz" and "Law & Order" - "We are Farmers") at Torrey Pines. The Farmers will start on Wednesday and conclude on Saturday. Very shrewd.

(Side questions about the side note: First, did you watch "Oz" on HBO? Holy buckets did that leave a forever imprint. and JK Simmons' turn as the white supremacist Vernon Schillinger was amazingly chilling. "Oz" was one of those shows that, whenever you see someone from that show, your mind views them as the character from "Oz." Want to know someone else from "Oz" that's all likable now but will always be a bad dude from "Oz"? The Mayhem Guy from those Allstate commercials.)

(Side question, part II: Sweet buckets of TV celebration, did you see NBC is trying to get the band back together for a proper sendoff of "Law & Order" ? That's right after it was unceremoniously canceled just short of setting the prime-time series longevity record and without any proper series finale. Job 1? Getting Jack McCoy back in the fold.)

Finally, on golf, Luke List and Keith Mitchell could be poised to have a very strong week this week on Tour considering a) The Jackson Country Club is a long-ball-hitters course and b) the post-Ryder Cup vacuum in the field is very real.

Fore, indeed.

Buckle up


I know the picks are tomorrow, and I know some of you got your Orange knickers in a bunch about my thoughts on UT's decision to retreat from a date with Army.

But in between comes a college football discussion that has merit and meaning considering the state of the SEC as we know it.

The crux of this chat hinges on this question:

Does anyone in the league have anything for Alabama and Georgia?

OK, JTC can rightly ask "what about the Gators," who have played the Tide tighter than two ticks fighting for the same vein in the last 10 months and beat Georgia the last time they faced the Dawgs.

That counts, but it still feels like Florida is a step behind. But how many steps behind Florida is everyone else in the league?

Because this weekend, the two teams looking to make strides, take steps and emerge from the pack of above average to pretty salty go to Tuscaloosa and to Athens.

Are Ole Miss and Arkansas, respectively, ready for those monster step-ups in competition and stakes?

If they are, the SEC will be a heckuva lot more fun down the stretch. If they're not, well, we at least have the national stage of the SEC title game to look forward to.

(Side note: I think the Rebels and the Hogs are nowhere close to ready for the whirlwind that's coming, to be honest.)

This and that

- Yeah, Shohei has reached Acuña- and Luka- and Aaron- and Tiger-levels of man devotion around these parts. So it goes. (And yes, LeBron and I are having a spat.) But you know how we revere the lists of two or three names and the quality of other names on this are quite telling. How about this statistical anomaly: There are two players in MLB history with 45+ homers, 20+ steals and 6+ triples in the same season: Ohtani this year and Willie Mays in 1955. Yeah, that's pretty good.

- Keep voting and playing along with the second 5-at-10 Bracket Challenge. We're picking your favorite Tennessee Titans player here. I think mine is Derrick Henry, all things considered. (And no, I'll never consider Julio Jones a Titan. Let's just not discuss it.)

- You know the rules. Here's Paschall on the Vols.

- This story is quite alarming, and since this morning is the first I've read about this football game stopped by fights because of racial slurs and N-bombs - even in the Northeast - gives me great pause about the handling of this entire mess, you know?

- Speaking of TV numbers, J-Mac has been praising the innovative attempts of NASCAR to try different things and new approaches to fight its multi-year decline in TV numbers. The ideas are proving fruitful. According to Sportsmediawatch.com, the small gains Saturday night in Vegas - ratings were flat, but viewership was up 6% from last year - marked the sixth-straight race that posted viewer increases from the previous year. Yes, some of that's from the dismal numbers during the pandemic, but that six-race run of increases is the longest such streak since 2011. So there's that.

- This interview with Bo Nix showed the benched Auburn quarterback handled the moment and the interview questions a day later with a lot of maturity. (Regardless who takes snaps - I originally wrote ''naps'' there, which is quite telling, especially for a 9 p.m. kick - Auburn is in trouble. Side question: Vader, is this the first time ever that Auburn and LSU have faced off and both fan bases believe they are going to lose?)

Today's questions

Which way Wednesday starts this way:

Which SEC underdog - Arkansas or Ole Miss - do you think has the better chance?

Which would you rather do, juggle chainsaws or bet a sizable amount of money on Will Smith pitching a 1-2-3 ninth?

Which series would you bring back if you could bring back just one?

And, since "Law & Order" never got a proper finale, which series finale is your favorite? (This is different than best, mind you, for a slew of reasons. Which one was your personal favorite? Mine was "Newhart" 1 and "The Sopranos" 2, but "Cheers" was pretty special too.)

As for today, Sept. 29, let's review.

Kevin Durant is 33 today. Yeah, he's older than I thought, too.

OK, not sure if we've done this one before, but on this day in 1954 Willie Mays hauled in the over-the-shoulder catch against Vic Wertz in the World Series.

Rushmore of baseball catches. Go, and remember to vote in the bracket and, if you are so inclined, offer up a mailbag question.

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