Weekend Wake Up: Rockies, Brady, Wideouts, Kazmir, Ed Thomas

This is the last weekend of 2009 without regular season college or professional football. I, for one, will not be savoring the football-free flavor.
Rockie Stop. Tim Lincecum fanned eight in eight innings and Pablo “Kung Fu Panda” Sandoval homered to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 2-0 win over the rapidly-cooling Colorado Rockies. Wednesday morning, the Rockies were two games behind L.A. But after three straight losses and only three runs combined in them, the Dodgers’ lead has doubled and the Giants have moved to two games back of the wild card lead. Suddenly, the hottest team in baseball needs to reignite.

Brady Bruised Again; Wideout Ranks Thinned. Tom Brady left the New England Patriots’ preseason game against the Washington Redskins with a sore shoulder. Mr. Gisele sustained the injury when Albert Haynesworth fell on him, but Bill Belichick dismissed it as part of the “bumps and bruises” of football. Clearly, the Patriots are in midseason form.

The league’s ever-dramatic wide receivers are, too, with Brandon Marshall indefinitely suspended, Greg Jennings knocked out of the Green Bay Packers’ 44-37 win over the Arizona Cardinals with a head injury, and Dallas’ Roy Williams nursing a sprained shoulder. Your weekend fantasy draft just got shallower.

Angels Acquire Kazmir. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim shored up their rotation on Friday by trading for the Tampa Bay Rays’ Scott Kazmir. The Angels, who lead the majors in batting and are second in on-base percentage, may have added the last piece to a rotation beset by tragedy (Nick Adenhart) and injuries (John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders) this year. The Rays only get two young prospects (Alex Torres and Matt Sweeney are both 21) and payroll relief (Kazmir would make $20 million over the next two years) in the deal, which seems to signal a shift from aggressive contention to contentment with third place in the AL East. They sit 4.5 games behind Boston for the wild card after a 6-2 loss to Detroit on Friday.

Gridiron Grief. Iowa’s Aplington-Parkersburg High played its first game since coach Ed Thomas’ shooting death in June. The Falcons beat Dike-New Hartford 30-14. ESPN televised the game and has more video.

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