1st Down: The Major League Baseball postseason is upon us. Following Tuesday, we already know the seeding for the playoffs, with the Wild Card round due to start on Friday the 7th. The opening round will be a best-of-three with the higher seed having all three games at home, if necessary. In the AL, the Astros are the top seed and the Yankees are #2, each earning byes. The Astros will get the winner of Toronto hosting Seattle while the Bronx Bombers will take on Cleveland (hosts) or Tampa in the ALDS. In the NL, the Dodgers have the top spot and will get a bye along with Atlanta. The Dodgers will get the victors of the Mets/Padres series while the defending World Series champs will face either St. Louis or Philadelphia in the NLDS.
2nd Down: What a debut in America, huh? Victor Wembanyama, who is projected by many to be the #1 pick this Draft, made his bow in the States on Tuesday night as his French team Metropolitans 92 took on the G-League Ignite. Wembanyama’s team didn’t win, but he sure did impress, scoring 37 points. The 7-5 center didn’t finish on the winning side, however, as Scoot Henderson and co. won 122-115. Henderson, the projected #2 pick, had 28 points in the ‘W.’
3rd Down: Quarterback injuries are all the talk right now in the NFL, with a number of high-profile ones currently making the news. The biggest appears to be Tua Tagovailoa, who was said to have met with NFL and the NFLPA for an interview on Tuesday. This appears to be about, obviously, his concussions and the concussion protocol that was apparently breached. Dak Prescott, meanwhile, had had hopes of returning in week five, but owner Cowboys Jerry Jones said that his grip still isn’t quite right and said he isn’t going to be able to feature against the Rams. As for Russell Wilson, the Denver QB said that he was ‘super confident’ he’d be ready to go on Thursday against the Colts.
4th Down: The group stage of the UEFA Champions League is halfway done for some of the teams after Tuesday night. The biggest result saw Barcelona lose 1-0 in Milan to Inter, thanks to Hakan Calhanoglu’s goal on the stroke of half time, that sees them threatened to be knocked out in the first round. Elsewhere, Napoli demolished Ajax in Amsterdam, winning 6-1 while Liverpool recorded a comfy 2-0 home win over Rangers. Bayern Munich demolished Viktoria Plzen 5-0 while Club Brugge shocked Atletico Madrid 2-0 in Belgium to remain perfect in Group B play.
