The 3 plays in sports everybody will be talking about today
Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about on Friday:
The Indians hit 3 home runs in a 9-pitch span. The Indians did a lot of things very well this season, but one thing they weren't was a power-hitting team, ranking 10th out of 15 AL teams during the regular season. But the power shined on Thursday night in Game 1 of the ALDS. With the Red Sox up 2-1 in the third inning, Cleveland went deep three times in the span of four batters, a stretch that covered just nine pitches. They took a 4-2 lead and never trailed again.
Nobody knows what a swinging strike is. On Wednesday night, Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera swung at a pitch in which both arms were pointing towards the mound or beyond, and it was ruled "no swing" on appeal to the first-base umpire. On Thursday, the Red Sox had the tying run on first base in the ninth inning with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, Dustin Pedroia checked his swing and thought he had walked. Instead it was called a swing on appeal to the first-base umpire and it was game over. The problem is, nobody knows what a check swing is because seemingly every umpire has their own interpretation. Pedroia probably did swing, but it is not a no-brainer. Either way, the Red Sox are now down 1-0 in the series.
Troy Tulowitzki cleared the bases just past Ian Desmond's glove. The Blue Jays had already scored twice in the third inning to take an early 2-0 lead when they had the bases loaded and two outs. Troy Tulowitzki hit a long fly ball to right-center field that looked like Desmond could catch. Instead, he seemed to misjudge where the wall was and pulled up at the last moment, allowing the ball to fall. All three runners scored and it was effectively game over.
The Iceland football bonus. Iceland, the darlings of the European Championship earlier this year were back at it on Thursday in a World Cup qualifier against Finland. Down 2-1 in the 90th minute, Iceland scored two goals in the next five minutes for the 3-2 win. They then capped the win with their famous slow hand-clap celebration (via ESPN).