Joel Blank: ESPYS will have a distinctive Houston flavor this year
POINT BLANK
16 July 2018
If you’re a sports fan, one of the most difficult weeks of the year is on the horizon. Baseball is on its annual hiatus due to Tuesday’s All-Star game, there is no basketball to speak of except for the uneventful Summer League tournament, and NFL training camps don't open up for another 10 days.
For golf fans, the current major is the British Open, which means you either have to set your alarm for the middle of the night or rely on late night highlights. About the only prime time viewing option you have aside from the MLB All-Star game is the ESPY's on Wednesday night. Thankfully, Houston has a big presence this year as the Astros and Rockets are up for numerous awards. H-town has a shot to take home some serious hardware.
The Astros will be front and center, picking up nominations both as individuals and as a team, compliments of their storybook season and World Series Championship. George Springer is up for Best Championship Performance after taking home the MVP of the World Series. The team is up for Best Game, for their thrilling 10-inning Game 5 victory over the Dodgers. Jose Altuve is up for Best MLB player and Best Male Athlete and the team is also up for Best Team for all of last season.
Overall, that is quite a laundry list of nominees and you have to admit, they have a pretty good chance to take home several trophies when all is said and done. James Harden is also up for Best NBA Athlete, as well as Male Athlete of the Year. You have to believe that the team would have been up for a whole lot more had they found a way to pull out the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors. Damn those hamstrings!
The interesting category for me is the Best Male Athlete Award, as you have two Houstonians in Altuve and Harden, as well as Tom Brady of the Patriots and Alex Ovechkin of the NHL's Washington Capitals. To me this should come down to Altuve and Ovechkin. Both have a great case to be made based on their franchise's title drought and the way they went about their business both individually and as a collective unit. Sure there was drama in the Stanley Cup and the Caps squashed the Cinderella story that was the Las Vegas Knights, but there is no denying Altuve and the Astros. Just looking at him, you have a soft spot for a guy that plays so big and looks so little.
Then you delve a little deeper and see that MVP, the laundry list of individual awards like Silver Slugger and Player of the Year, as well as statistics like another 200 hit season with 204, another batting title htting .346 and leading the American league in hits for the season. He was everything for his team from start to finish he deserves to be the Best Male Athlete of 2017. Don't get me wrong, Ovechkin was great, but Atuve just did more. Tune in to the ESPY's Wednesday night at 7 p.m. as see how all the local nominees fair and if you want to vote for your favorites, go to espn.com/espys and support your local jocks. With the sports world basially taking a Mulligan this week, what else do you have to do?
José Soriano and two relievers combined for a two-hitter and Oswald Peraza hit his first home run since a trade from the Yankees to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-0 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Soriano (10-9) allowed one hit and struck out eight in seven innings. Luis García allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth for his 25th save.
There were two outs in the fifth when Peraza connected off Hunter Brown (10-7) into the bullpen in right-center field to put the Angels up 1-0. His homer comes after his two-run single in the ninth inning Saturday helped Los Angeles to a 4-1 victory that snapped a three-game skid.
Yoan Moncada walked to start the eighth and scored on Mike Trout’s double that bounced off the wall in center field to make it 2-0. Taylor Ward walked before Luis Rengifo reached and Trout scored on an error by Lance McCullers Jr. when the pitcher overthrew first base.
Yordan Alvarez singled with no outs in the first and Soriano walked a batter in the second and sixth innings. The Astros didn’t get another hit until Ramón Urías doubled with one out in the eighth inning. Los Angeles outfielder Taylor Ward was injured trying to make a catch on that hit when he crashed face-first into the metal scoreboard in left field.
He was carted off the field holding a towel to the right side of his face. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance where interim manager Ray Montgomery said he would receive stitches to close the cut and be evaluated.
Brown allowed three hits and a run with five strikeouts in six innings. McCullers Jr. allowed three hits and two runs in his first relief appearance since 2018.
Key moment
The home run by Peraza.
Key stat
It’s the fifth time the Astros have been shut out this month.
Up next
LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-9, 3.68 ERA) will start for Los Angeles in the series finale Monday against RHP Luis Garcia, who’ll make his return after sitting out since May 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
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