A Northern Illinois stunner, a Cy-Hawk thriller and the week chaos returned to college football
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David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterSep 8, 2024, 01:51 AM ET
Close- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of the University of Delaware.
The best upsets are the ones no one sees coming.
Northern Illinois‘ stunning defeat of Notre Dame certainly fits the bill. Just a week ago, the Irish looked like a surefire playoff team after upending Texas A&M on the road.
The best upsets aren’t about luck.
There was nothing unconventional in NIU’s game plan. The Huskies were the more physical, more fundamentally sound, more deserving team Saturday.
The best upsets cast our collective consciousness backward, toward the other moments when the seemingly impossible suddenly became real.
In this case, NIU didn’t have to work too hard. Notre Dame is good for one of these every few years.
OK, so maybe Saturday’s stunner didn’t check every box — much of the game felt like watching two aging walruses attempt to nudge each other off a rock — but after a Week 1 that was mostly chalk, it served as the first serious twist in the story of the 2024 season.
(Technically Florida State‘s Week 0 defeat was the first big upset, but the Noles’ lawyers have filed a motion to quash any mentions of the 2024 season.)
It was a fitting release for a nation primed for chaos after Saturday’s early slate teased so many near misses.
In New Orleans, Tulane had No. 17 Kansas State on the ropes well into the second half, and only a controversial penalty kept the Green Wave from tying the game in the final moment.
Just watching that OPI call against Tulane that may have cost them the game and I can’t imagine anyone in Louisiana has been so angry about a football game since… oh, not that long ago actually. pic.twitter.com/cPelsC822r
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) September 7, 2024
In Happy Valley, James Franklin tried to put to rest the narrative that he beats all the pushovers but can’t win the big one by, instead, losing to one of those pushovers. Bowling Green took a 24-20 lead well into the third quarter before No. 8 Penn State finally found its footing.
In Stillwater, Oklahoma, Bobby Petrino’s subtle attempt to orchestrate his own Macbeth-like takeover at Arkansas took some wild turns, as the Razorbacks looked poised to actually win on the road against No. 16 Oklahoma State. But the Cowboys reeled off 21 straight points to open the second half and finished off the come-from-behind win with an Ollie Gordon II touchdown in overtime.
Shortly after kickoff in South Bend, Indiana, order had been restored elsewhere, leaving the Irish center stage, just in time for the nation to watch them run headlong into a brick wall.
It was beautiful.
Not because people were eager to laugh at Notre Dame’s misfortune. That’s just a pleasant byproduct. But because, for all the excitement of the sport’s return in Week 1, the real race to the playoff doesn’t begin until we get a massive dose of the unexpected, a twist so unlikely it forces us to reconsider everything we’d held as inherently true, a moment when we all sit back and think, “Jesus, take the wheel.”
Or, maybe that only happens after watching Payton Thorne throw another interception.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 7, 2024
The offseason, after all, is an endless parade of assurances that this ridiculous sport is still girded by some measure of logic, but deep down, we know better. Every year, some poor team wanders onto a field some September Saturday assuming the day will unfold like every Saturday before, and then some upstart from the MAC drops a piano on its head.
On this Saturday, that piano was destined to find Notre Dame.
Riley Leonard, a hero just seven days ago, threw costly interceptions.
The Notre Dame defense, which had utterly bludgeoned Texas A&M a week ago, couldn’t get off the field as Northern Illinois marched 31 yards on 11 plays, chewing up clock before ultimately booting a short field goal to take the lead with 31 seconds to play.
On a field where some of the most legendary players in the sport’s history have suited up, it was NIU’s Antario Brown who stole the spotlight with 225 total yards and a touchdown.
It would’ve been enough to shock the fans at Notre Dame Stadium to their core, if many of them hadn’t also been on hand for the Marshall or Stanford games in 2022.
But the good news for Notre Dame is, while it was the first to suffer the cruelty of college football’s fickle nature, it will not be the last.
It might be Alabama. The Tide flirted with disaster against South Florida, as Alabama put on a near shot-for-shot remake of last year’s quagmire as a gift to Nick Saban, who had the field at Bryant Denny named after him Saturday. Instead, Alabama scored 28 in the fourth quarter and won 42-16.
It might be Oklahoma. The Sooners couldn’t muster a lick of offense against lowly Houston but survived after forcing a safety on the Cougars’ last-gasp drive.
It could surely be Oregon, who for the second straight week struggled to put away a team from Idaho, needing a field goal in the final minute on Saturday to escape Boise State, 37-34. The Ducks needed a punt return and a kick return for a touchdown to stay undefeated, which is probably not ideal before they’ve played a single Big Ten game.
It might be Georgia or Ohio State or Ole Miss. They all won handily against overmatched opposition in Week 2, but the odds will shift again in the future, and eventually, we’ll be blindsided again by a score we never could’ve imagined.
That’s the other great thing about a truly stunning upset. In illuminating how wrong our assumptions were, it also serves to remind us that we’ll be wrong again.
And it will be glorious.
Jump to:
Back to the future | Vibe shifts | Cy-Hawk thriller
Tennessee-NC State takeaways | Who wants to win?
Heisman five | Leaf it to the refs | Under the radar
Back to the future
Physicist Stephen Hawking theorized that, although likely unprovable, time travel was indeed possible.
Well, he was wrong. The first two weeks of this season have proved not only that it is possible, but also that we’ve somehow all tumbled through a wormhole back to 1994.
The proof? Texas is 2-0. Nebraska is 2-0. Miami is 2-0. Also Oasis is getting back together.
The Longhorns went to Ann Arbor and dispatched Michigan with ease. Quinn Ewers threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns, the defense created three takeaways and the social media department delivered the dagger.
the first Blue in the end zone today 🤘
3Q 2:39 | Texas 31 Michigan 6 pic.twitter.com/giv0bUdzqz
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 7, 2024
It was a reminder that life has changed in short order for the Wolverines, who went from a national title in January to an utter lack of identity in September. The offense has struggled under QB Davis Warren, who in ’80s movie fashion somehow was elevated from the mailroom to the C suite, possibly due to a wish on an enchanted fortune teller machine or a mannequin coming to life. The defense, supposedly a strength, did little to disrupt Texas’ attack. And head coach Sherrone Moore has been hampered by not having the signals for every opponent Michigan faces.
Nebraska’s rise back to coherence took a big step forward Saturday with a 28-10 win over Colorado. The outcome was particularly surprising to Buffs coach Deion Sanders, who felt his team dominated in all three phases of the game: TikTok, Instagram and number of players related to Deion. Instead, it was Nebraska’s freshman phenom Dylan Raiola who led the charge by throwing for 185 yards and a touchdown and winning a Patrick Mahomes lookalike contest at halftime.
And Miami kept rolling in a 56-9 dispatching of Florida A&M, rushing for 225 yards and four touchdowns.
Texas, Nebraska and Miami are all 2-0 for the first time since 2016, which as long as you don’t look up the results for the rest of that season is great news for three programs eager to return to historic success.
Week 2 vibe shifts
Each week of the college football season results not only in major shake-ups to the rankings, but also subtle tweaks that might not be so obvious. That’s why we track not just wins and losses but vibes. We’re here to capture the next big trends and anticipate the next stunning collapses before they happen.
Trending up: Champagne shortages in Central New York
After Kyle McCord threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns in a Week 1 win over Ohio, Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said he planned to send a bottle of champagne to Ohio State‘s Ryan Day for allowing McCord to hit the transfer portal.
We’ll expect a full magnum of the good stuff headed to the Buckeyes’ coach after Saturday’s performance by McCord, who threw for 381 yards and four touchdowns in an upset over No. 23 Georgia Tech. McCord is the first ACC QB to throw for 350 yards and four scores in consecutive games since Kenny Pickett did it in three straight for Pitt in 2021. He ended the season as a Heisman finalist.
Reminder: A QB can’t be a real champagne player if he didn’t transfer from the Columbus region of Ohio.
McCord was widely cast as the fall guy for Ohio State’s inability to beat Michigan last season, and the Buckeyes moved on to Kansas State transfer Will Howard, which feels a lot like taking a major media company with international name recognition and rebranding as X. But who would do that?
Regardless, Brown has Syracuse riding high at 2-0, but that’s nothing new. Syracuse is now 13-2 in August and September games since 2021. The problem? The Orange are just 7-18 after that.
Trending down: Fast-food metaphors
After a Week 1 win against West Virginia, Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki compared his offense to a Dairy Queen Blizzard — vanilla ice cream with a few of your favorite candies mixed in — but Saturday’s performance against Bowling Green often looked more like something ordered from a late-night drive-through at 2 a.m.
Drew Allar was just 13-of-20 passing with a late interception, and Penn State trailed Bowling Green well into the second half. Luckily for Penn State, Kotelnicki remembered that Nicholas Singleton is the Twix bar of offensive mix-ins, and the tailback scored twice in the final 22 minutes of the game, including a game-clinching 41-yard scamper with 4:09 to play, and the Nittany Lions survived 34-27.
Trending up: Finding a true friend in this cruel world
It’s a cliché of melodrama to have two star-crossed lovers finally find each other, running across a verdant field or a sandy beach before a long-awaited embrace.
But change the setting to a blocked field goal return and suddenly what was once a trope of cheesy TV now feels like a heartwarming moment of pure joy.
Well, not for Baylor.
Utah blocks a Baylor FG and returns it for a TD
After Utah blocks Jack Bouwmeester’s field goal kick, Tao Johnson returns it 77-yard for a touchdown.
The 77-yard return for the score put Utah up 7-0, and the Utes went on to win 23-12. On the downside, QB Cam Rising left the game in the second quarter with a hand injury after a shove from a Baylor defender forced him to burst through a bank of watercoolers like the Kool-Aid man. So, probably shouldn’t high-five him for a while.
But for the losing Bears, maybe the real field goal was the friends we made along the way.
Trending down: Auburn boosters’ liquid assets
There is some good news for Auburn after another embarrassing home loss, this time 21-14 to Cal. Hugh Freeze was hired in the hopes the Tigers would finally have a coach who could beat Nick Saban, and as of 2024, there’s a strong chance Auburn will not lose any more games to Saban. So, mission accomplished.
On the downside, however, Auburn does seem to be losing a whole lot to everyone else.
Payton Thorne threw four interceptions in Saturday’s loss, a seemingly adamant statement that, no, the Auburn offense won’t be much better in Year 2 under Freeze. Auburn is now 24-27 over the past five seasons, and the War Eagle has been downgraded to a pigeon with a mild gluten intolerance.
But Freeze, himself, should be particularly concerned. In his past 16 games vs. FBS competition — a span dating back to his Liberty tenure — he’s just 5-11 with two home losses to New Mexico State and an offense that has averaged less than 24 points per game.
Trending up: Fashion fights
Each year, Western Kentucky turns its home opener into a “white out,” with the team donning white helmets and jerseys and fans showing up wearing white.
And this year, Eastern Kentucky decided that it had a tradition to uphold, too: Spiting a rival over something really petty.
WKU tweeted that EKU ruined their white out theme… EKU confirmed by posting their jerseys 😬😂 pic.twitter.com/ZSMlnCIhOV
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 4, 2024
That the whole thing feels like the B-plot of a “Sex and the City” episode is just delightful (EKU is such a Samantha!) but the Hilltoppers got the last laugh, winning 31-0, and finally decided to settle down with Mr. Big.
Trending down: The water table in Florida
What do you have to say for yourselves now, rural Central Florida basement dwellers?
Oh, it was fun having Billy Napier to kick around for a week after Florida was trounced by Miami at home, but it just goes to show how little the basement bloggers really know. Napier was never in any real danger because former university president Ben Sasse had already used Napier’s buyout money on a walk-in humidor and a bunch of Powerball tickets.
Regardless, Napier is back on the right track after the Gators dispatched with Samford 45-7 on Saturday behind 456 yards and three touchdowns from program savior DJ Lagway. Oh, sure, Samford is an FCS team, but we bet nobody said that to Will Muschamp in 2013.
The point is, if you cellar dwellers can hear Napier over the constant humming of your dehumidifiers and the infernal chugging of your sump pump, he’s just fine in spite of what you think.
Holding steady: Dabo
Clemson utterly dominated App State on Saturday, 66-20, behind five touchdown passes from Cade Klubnik. It was a stark contrast from the Week 1 drubbing by Georgia when the offense couldn’t string together a decent drive. Clemson was so much better in Week 2, it was almost as if it had transformed somehow, stepped through some — doorway? gateway? window? — ah, we can’t think of any word that would describe moving from one unhappy place to a new, better place. Alas, Swinney wouldn’t have read it anyway.
Coach Dabo Swinney on criticism surrounding @ClemsonFB after opening loss to No. 1 @GeorgiaFootball .
“Y’all gonna write crap, y’all gonna write terrible stuff. And when we do great, y’all gonna write great stuff. That’s OK.” pic.twitter.com/fPl22ivq84
— Carmine Gemei (@CarmineGemei) September 3, 2024
Trending up: Pillaging mishaps
Colorado State debuted its battering ram on Saturday, and here’s an important lesson for you kids out there considering going to war with Scotland in the 15th Century: Watch the recall on these bad boys.
For the first time ever… The Battering Ram at Canvas Stadium. Go Rams!@CSUFootball @CSURams pic.twitter.com/xSgDqK4ZND
— 𝗕𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 Ⓐ (@GreenAaker) September 8, 2024
While we typically endorse all sideline weaponry — Oregon State‘s chainsaw, Nevada‘s trident, Brian Kelly’s temper — bruising the kidney of a random game ops guy with your battering ram continues an early season trend of epic fails for teams hoping to storm a castle after USC‘s Week 1 hype video got the history of the Trojan horse all wrong.
If this keeps up, by Week 10, Wisconsin will install an iron maiden at Camp Randall and Dabo Swinney will have accused the rest of the ACC of witchcraft.
Trending up: Celebrity naming rights
FIU kicked off its first game at the newly minted Pitbull Stadium in Week 2, demolishing Central Michigan 52-16. It was FIU’s biggest margin of victory against an FBS foe since 2019.
Clearly Mr. Worldwide was an inspiration to the Panthers, which should now be a model for other struggling programs. UMass should sell naming rights to The Pixies (or at least have them play “UMass” at halftime, it’s a banger), Akron could turn things around with a cash infusion from LeBron James, and Temple could be an American Conference contender if it played its home games at Hitchhiking Robot Memorial Stadium.
Ferentz returns, Iowa falters
Kirk Ferentz returned from a one-game suspension to much fanfare — and also 50 Cent’s “Many Men (Wish Death).” He then made it rain from the press box, which in Iowa terms translates into nine punts and less than 100 yards passing.
Didn’t have Kirk Ferentz returning from suspension to “Many Men” on my preseason bingo card. pic.twitter.com/BOdYgZobxh
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) September 7, 2024
Still, the Hawkeyes welcomed their coach back by jumping out to a 19-7 lead midway through the third quarter — a seemingly insurmountable margin given Iowa State hadn’t topped 17 in a Cy-Hawk game since 2017.
But times are changing in Iowa. Brian Ferentz is gone, which means plenty of offensive excitement like interceptions, runs up the middle for 2 yards and all the time of possession you can stand. In other words, Iowa didn’t score again.
The Cyclones, on the other hand, found some late mojo thanks to a 75-yard TD pass from Rocco Becht to Jaylin Noel, then in keeping with state law, limited the fourth quarter to just two field goals, including a 54-yard game winner with just 6 seconds to go.
After losing six straight in the series, Iowa State has now won two of the past three meetings with Iowa. But even more embarrassing for the Hawkeyes, Iowa State also finished with 21 more punt yards.
1. Nico Iamaleava is the clear face of the Vols, and hanging more than half a hundred on a top-25 opponent is genuinely impressive, even if he wasn’t at the top of his game in Saturday’s 51-10 win. He threw for 211 yards and two touchdowns and tossed two picks.
But the real story as Tennessee sets its sights on a playoff berth — or perhaps something more — is this defense is going to be a problem for a lot of teams. James Pearce Jr. is a magnet for double-teams, but he’s hardly alone on the Vols’ front, which racked up 13 tackles for loss against the Wolfpack. In all, NC State managed just 10 first downs, 143 total yards of offense and coughed up three turnovers. And somehow it was worse than those stats suggest.
Anyway, here’s hoping for the defense to shine in some low-scoring affairs the rest of the way, because once you’ve heard “Rocky Top” for the 200th time in the same game, you really don’t need to hear it again for a while.
2. Never trust a giant tub of mayonnaise with your special lady.
Tubby and Ms. Wuf hanging out during the commercial timeout pic.twitter.com/gvdVwnPrQY
— Jadyn Watson-Fisher (@jwatsonfisher) September 8, 2024
3. Tubby did deliver a few boxes of mayo-infused chocolate ganache macarons to the press box at halftime. Aside from Mr. Peanut, you rarely see that type of sophistication and class in a mascot.
4. Grayson McCall‘s final line: 15-of-22 for 104 yards and a pick-six.
It’s the worst performance Tennessee fans have seen by someone with a mullet not involving Billy Ray Cyrus.
5. NC State has perpetually lived at a base camp below college football’s summit, and each time it sets off for the peak, it’s kicked back down in the most agonizing way possible. So it was again on Saturday, with the Wolfpack’s latest chance to prove they belong on the short list of playoff contenders consumed by an avalanche of turnovers and busted coverages.
That’s the nice thing about NC State. It stays the same, so the rest of us can see how far we’ve come.
Anybody want to win?
Normally, a Pitt–Cincinnati game would simply be the easiest way to measure whether it’s better to put French fries inside a sandwich or cinnamon-flavored ground beef on top of spaghetti, but Saturday’s showdown was something so much more nauseating.
First, Cincinnati used an ugly Pitt interception and a failed fourth-down try near midfield to build a 27-6 lead with less than 5 minutes to play in the third quarter. Then its defense fell apart. Pitt engineered three straight touchdown drives but opted to go for two on each of the last two scores. It failed both times, thus leaving the Bearcats ahead 27-25.
But Cincinnati looked that gift dead in the eye and said, “No, thanks.” Then it immediately got its foot stuck in a bucket and tumbled down a flight of stairs. Worse, Pitt faced a fourth-and-3 with 1:22 left to play, but Cincinnati was flagged for disconcerting signals (which, to be fair, was about the least disconcerting thing Cincinnati had done in the fourth quarter) giving the Panthers a first down and, ultimately, setting up a go-ahead field goal.
The end result: Pitt 28, Cincinnati 27. Afterward, Pat Narduzzi and Scott Satterfield retreated to the parking lot and took turns stepping on a rake.
Leaf it to the refs
Kansas State‘s offense was far from crisp early Saturday, but linebacker Austin Romaine ensured it was still salad days in Manhattan, Kansas. Lettuce tell you how the Wildcats pulled off the comeback win.
K-State takes 4th-quarter lead on thrilling scoop-and-score
Kansas State goes ahead in the fourth quarter thanks to a clutch forced fumble, recovery and touchdown against Tulane.
Tulane was driving deep into Wildcats territory when Romaine remained as cool as an iceberg, shredding the O-line, sacking QB Darian Mensah and forcing a fumble. He scooped the ball, and with a full head of steam, he sprinted down the field endived into the end zone for the go-ahead TD. The play was downright radicchio-lous.
But lest any fans leaf early, Tulane wasn’t ready to kale it a day. Mensah wedged a throw to Yulkeith Brown just beyond the goal line for what appeared to be a game-tying touchdown, but the refs threw a flag for offensive pass interference, reversing the play before VJ Payne collard one last heave for an INT to seal the 34-27 win.
Tulane’s late TD catch called back for offensive pass interference
Tulane nearly ties the game against Kansas State with a last-second touchdown effort, but the score gets reversed due to a pass interference call.
There’s no dressing this up: For K-State, the victory was no little gem, even if Tulane will be green with envy for weeks to come.
Heisman five
Two weeks into the season is far too soon to properly handicap the Heisman race, but it seems unlikely anyone at NC State is going to win it.
1. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty
The best player through two weeks has unquestionably been Jeanty. After rushing for 267 yards in the opener against Georgia Southern, Jeanty came within an eyelash of pushing Boise State past No. 7 Oregon with another 200 yards of offense and three touchdowns. Jeanty’s 459 rushing yards is the most by an FBS player through two games since Navy’s Shun White had 476 in 2008.
Sure, Miami played FCS Florida A&M in Week 2, which was hardly a major challenge. On the other hand, the No. 12 Canes were just 13-12 as a top-12 team since 2006 entering Saturday’s action, so anything that isn’t an epic disaster seems like progress. Ward was good — 304 passing yards, four total touchdowns — but the most important takeaway is, in the year 2024, Miami is the ACC’s standard bearer. Better late than never.
3. Texas QB Quinn Ewers
Three years ago, Ewers was college football’s version of the kid who hangs out in front of a 7-11 and bums smokes off people. Now, he’s a deputy sheriff in Fansville and just shredded one of the supposed best defenses in the country. It’s affirming to see such growth in our nation’s youth.
4. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter
He had nine catches for 89 yards, broke up a pass and had a tackle for loss. It all begs the question: Why doesn’t Colorado just build the whole team out of Travis Hunter?
5. Syracuse QB Kyle McCord
There’s a lot of John Hughes plotting to what’s happening at Syracuse right now. McCord gets dumped by the cutest girl at school (Ohio State), unexpectedly shows up at prom with one of the kids from the loser’s lunch table (Syracuse) and suddenly everyone sees things in a new light. McCord finds happiness in a relationship that isn’t purely about status, while Syracuse borrows its dad’s 1963 Corvette and starts wearing sunglasses indoors. We haven’t figured out how to get Molly Ringwald involved yet, but there’s a lot of season left to go.
Under-the-radar game of the week
It had been nearly five full years since the Division II Clarion Golden Eagles won on their home field. In the interim — a span of 1,798 days or three Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez marriages — we endured a global pandemic, the milk crate challenge and the entire Jeff Hafley era at Boston College.
But, thankfully, our long national nightmare is over. Clarion gave the home crowd (though no attendance was actually reported) something to cheer about, knocking off Lincoln (Pa.) University 20-9 on Thursday.
Clarion is actually off to a 2-0 start to the season, despite finishing with a losing record every year since 2015.
Clarion’s home-field win bodes well for other things that have been dormant since 2019, including Fyre Festival documentaries, basic cable and Clemson‘s offense.
So, pop on your favorite version of “Old Town Road” and crack open a White Claw. It’s feeling like old times.
Under-the-radar play of the week
There wasn’t a ton of speed on the field for Duke‘s double-OT win over Northwestern, but a rabbit loose in the end zone provided some needed athleticism in the second half.
Checking in on the Duke-Northwestern game… featuring a mascot chasing off an actual rabbit, followed by a fumble in the game. 🏈🐇 pic.twitter.com/XFhAC1D6es
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 7, 2024
So, to sum up: A cat mascot chasing a wild rabbit was followed immediately by a fumble that led to a game-tying field goal. After that, all that happened was a field goal with 14 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime, a 25-yard Maalik Murphy TD pass to send it to a second OT, another Murphy score and a Duke sack that sealed the game sometime around 2 a.m. Eastern, all on a field Northwestern built next to the lake using Lincoln logs and some loose wiring swiped from O’Hare Airport.
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adminGiancarlo Stanton hits go-ahead homer in the eighth, Yankees beat Royals 3-2 in Game 3 of the ALDS
— Giancarlo Stanton hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning amid a battle of the bullpens, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series at Kauffman Stadium.
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Stanton’s HR helps put Yanks on cusp of ALCS
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ESPN News Services
Oct 9, 2024, 10:26 PM ET
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Giancarlo Stanton hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning amid a battle of the bullpens, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series at Kauffman Stadium.
Stanton finished with three hits, drove in two runs and stole a base for the first time in four years for the Yankees, who will turn to six-time All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole on Thursday night with a chance to reach the American League Championship Series.
The Royals used four relievers before Kris Bubic took over for the eighth. The left-hander struck out Austin Wells before Stanton hit his 3-1 pitch nearly 420 feet to left to give New York the lead.
The Royals tried to answer off Luke Weaver in the bottom half, getting Bobby Witt Jr.‘s first hit of the series and a two-out single by franchise stalwart Salvador Perez. Weaver recovered to get Yuli Gurriel to fly out to end the threat, and he also handled the ninth to earn the save and cap 4⅓ scoreless innings by the New York bullpen.
The Yankees won despite another frustrating night in the postseason for MVP front-runner Aaron Judge. He went 0-for-4 with a walk, and is now 1-for-11 with only an infield single through three games against the Royals.
New York won with only four hits, the team’s fewest in a postseason win since 19 years ago to the day on Oct. 9, 2005, in the ALDS against the Angels (also four hits).
It helped that the powerful Yankees drew nine walks Wednesday night, giving them 22 for the series.
It was the first playoff game at the K in 3,268 days, since the Royals beat the New York Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series. They won their first title in 30 years a few days later in New York.
The first baseman on that Royals team, Eric Hosmer, was on hand to deliver the first pitch for a crowd that included Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Yankees had some good swings against Seth Lugo‘s dizzying array of nine pitches, but they had nothing to show for it early on.
Juan Soto flew out to center in the first on what would have been a homer in 17 ballparks. Judge followed with a liner snared by Witt at shortstop that had an exit velocity of 114 mph. And in the third, Gleyber Torres hit a ball to the warning track in right, moments after a review confirmed that his would-be RBI blooper down the line had landed foul.
The Yankees broke through in the fourth on Stanton’s double — Soto came around from first to score, though he might well have been out had Witt delivered a better relay throw to the plate. And in the fifth, Soto added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
The Royals answered with two in the fifth. Kyle Isbel got them on the board with a two-out double to left, and Michael Massey ripped a sinking liner that somehow missed Soto’s glove in right for an RBI triple.
Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was dinged for both runs on four hits and a walk in 4⅔ innings. Lugo went five for Kansas City, allowing two hits and walking four against the team that led the league in free passes this season.
Cole (8-5, 3.41 ERA) heads back to the mound Thursday night. He allowed four runs — three earned — over five innings in the opener Saturday night but got no decision in the 6-5 win for New York.
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha (13-8, 3.35 ERA) will face Cole again after pitching just four innings Saturday. He allowed three runs but was long gone by the time the Yankees scored the go-ahead run in the seventh.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Lindor’s slam sends Mets to NLCS, sinks Phillies
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Associated Press
Oct 9, 2024, 08:35 PM ET
NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning — his latest clutch swing in an extraordinary season full of them — and the New York Mets reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Edwin Diaz struck out Kyle Schwarber with two runners aboard to end it as New York finished off the rival Phillies in Game 4 of their best-of-five division series, wrapping up a postseason series at home for the first time in 24 years.
Immediately afterward in a raucous locker room, the Mets had their first champagne-soaked clinching celebration in Citi Field’s 16-season history.
“This is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said in a clubhouse interview shown on the giant videoboard in center. “This has been a long time coming. We wanted it so bad for our fan base.”
After three days of rest, New York will open the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday at the San Diego Padres or Los Angeles Dodgers. San Diego held a 2-1 lead in their NLDS heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night.
“Let’s keep this thing rolling!” Mets slugger Pete Alonso told reveling fans still in the stands when he popped out of the clubhouse party for an on-field interview with his large goggles protecting his eyes. “So proud of this group. We’ve overcome so much.”
For the NL East champion Phillies, who won 95 games and finished six ahead of the wild-card Mets during the regular season, it was a bitter exit early in the playoffs and a disappointing step backward after they advanced to the 2022 World Series and then lost Games 6 and 7 of the 2023 NLCS at home to Arizona.
After falling short again in October, Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still looking for the franchise’s third championship.
“We have a really great group. We got beat in a short series,” manager Rob Thomson said.
Perhaps overanxious at the plate with so much on the table, the Mets left the bases loaded in the first and second against starter Ranger Suarez and stranded eight runners overall through the first five innings.
They put three runners on again in the sixth, this time with nobody out, before No. 9 batter Francisco Alvarez grounded into a force at the plate against All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman.
With the season on the line, Phillies manager Rob Thomson then summoned closer Carlos Estevez to face Lindor, who drove a 2-1 fastball clocked at 99 mph into Philadelphia’s bullpen in right-center, sending the sold-out crowd of 44,103 into a delirious, bouncing, throbbing frenzy.
With his first homer of these playoffs, Lindor joined Shane Victorino and Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome as the only major leaguers with two postseason grand slams. The star shortstop also connected for Cleveland at Yankee Stadium in Game 2 of a 2017 AL Division Series.
Edgardo Alfonzo hit the only other postseason slam in Mets history, during a 1999 Division Series at Arizona.
Fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” as Lindor disappeared into the dugout and again when he took his position on defense in the seventh.
Game 3 on Tuesday was Lindor’s first opportunity to play at Citi Field since Sept. 8, after he missed time down the stretch with a back injury.
But few players, if any, have been as valuable to their team this year as Lindor, who has provided a remarkable string of big hits and crucial contributions as the Mets rallied from a 24-35 start to their first NLCS since losing the 2015 World Series to Kansas City.
His tying homer in the ninth inning Sept. 11 at Toronto broke up Bowden Francis’ no-hit bid and sparked a critical Mets victory, and his go-ahead homer in the ninth on Sept. 30 in Atlanta clinched a postseason berth.
Lindor also fought back from a 1-2 count to draw an eight-pitch walk leading off the ninth against All-Star closer Devin Williams last week in Milwaukee, helping to set up Alonso’s go-ahead homer that saved New York’s season in the Wild Card Series clincher.
Mets starter Jose Quintana didn’t allow an earned run in five-plus innings of two-hit ball, and David Peterson pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the win.
Díaz walked his first two batters in the ninth, prompting groans in the stands, but retired the next three — two on strikeouts — for the first postseason save of his career.
Shut down at the plate all series besides a late comeback to win Game 2 at home, the Phillies scored their only run on an error by third baseman Mark Vientos in the fourth.
Hoffman took his second loss, the latest flop by a Philadelphia bullpen that failed to deliver throughout the series.
“Some of it’s execution, maybe some of it’s being familiar with our guys,” Thomson said. “I don’t know. It should work both ways, though.”
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