The Rays will take a second shot at a berth in the World Series on Saturday, while college football offers up a full day of pigskin action. Here's your Daily Sports Roundup.
The Gridiron Spotlight
The Texas Longhorns knocked off then-No. 1 Oklahoma last week to take over top spot in the rankings, so what are they going to do for an encore on Saturday? Well, if they hope to hold onto that No. 1 position they're going to have to beat No. 11 Missouri, who are coming off their first loss (vs. Oklahoma State). Texas is listed as a 4-point favorite.
No. 2 Alabama will host Mississippi as a 12-point favorite on Saturday, while No. 3 Penn State is favored by 24.5 points at home against Michigan, and No. 4 Oklahoma will try to move back up the polls with a win as 19.5-point home faves versus No. 16 Kansas.
Other Top-10 teams in action on Saturday: No. 6 USC (-42.5) at Washington State, No. 7 Texas Tech (-21) at Texas A&M, Baylor at No. 8 Oklahoma State (-17), and No. 22 Vanderbilt at No. 10 Georgia (-14.5). No. 5 Florida is off. No. 9 BYU lost on Thursday.
Other Notable Events
Tampa Bay looked like they were well on their way to dispatching the Red Sox in Game 5 of the ALCS on Thursday night, but an imploding bullpen allowed Boston to come back from a huge 7-0 deficit and force a Game 6 on Saturday night with an 8-7 victory.
Josh Beckett will be on the mound for the Red Sox on Saturday. Beckett was pounded by the Rays in his first start of the ALCS, giving up eight earned runs on nine hits over 4 1-3 innings of work. The righthander, though, turned in two strong games against Tampa Bay in September, allowing a combined two earned runs over his 14 innings.
James Shields gets the ball for the Rays in Game 6. Shields was tagged with a loss earlier in this series, but he only surrendered two earned runs on six hits over 7 1-3 innings in that contest. The righthander had been scheduled to start for the team in Game 5, but manager Joe Maddon instead decided to go with Scott Kazmir that night.
The Rest of the Schedule
There are 13 games on a busy National Hockey League schedule on Saturday, including a matinee matchup between the Avalanche and the Stars (2:00pm ET). Dallas is looking to bounce back from a poor 1-2-1 start to the season; they were blasted 6-1 by the Blues in their last outing. The 1-3-0 Avs are coming off a 5-2 win over the Flyers.
Also on the NHL's Saturday schedule: the Rangers at Detroit, the Islanders at Florida, New Jersey at Washington, Buffalo at Atlanta, Toronto at Pittsburgh, Boston at Ottawa, Phoenix at Montreal, Minnesota at Tampa Bay, Columbus at Nashville, Chicago at St. Louis, Calgary at Edmonton, and then Philadelphia at San Jose to close out the night.
As well, there are two Canadian Football League games on the Saturday slate; it's Montreal (-8.5) at Toronto, while Calgary is a 10.5-point home favorite versus Winnipeg.
A Peek at the Future
If the Red Sox manage to stave off elimination again on Saturday the ALCS will continue with Game 7 on Sunday - that game is expected to feature a pitching matchup between Boston's Jon Lester and Tampa Bay's Matt Garza . . . Jimmie Johnson holds a 69-point lead on Jeff Burton in the driver standings heading into the Sprint Cup race at Martinsville on Sunday . . . Formula One will stage the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
we can only try guessing, but we know there will be some amazing games waiting for us.
This was the Daily Sports Roimdup for October 18.
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