Cleveland Sports 12.3

Guardians 

Last night the Guardians lost to the KC Royals 6-7 and the team’s record now sits at 72 wins – 80 losses with 10 games remaining in this year’s campaign. The team has been plagued with injuries and inconsistent play all season long. The Guards are 2nd place and 8 games back of first in the Central Division behind the Minnesota Twins, who have a record of 80 wins – 72 losses. The Twins magic number to clinch the divisional championship is now 3, so the Guards’ chances of a 2nd consecutive divisional championship and entry into the MLB playoffs look rather bleak. And sadly, it looks as if Head Coach Terry Francona will likely retire at the end of the season to concentrate on his health. “Tito” is considered by many to be the best manager in the league and he has certainly shown that during his brilliant tenure in Cleveland.

Cavaliers

The Cavaliers goal during the offseason was to bolster their roster to complement their “core 4” players of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. Thus far, the pundits are giving the team high grades for the additions of F Georges Niang, G Max Strus and C Tristan Thompson along with their 2nd round draft pick of F Emoni Bates from Eastern Michigan. Thompson returns to Cleveland on a one-year contract to reunite and play with the team that he had spent nine seasons with and won an NBA championship in 2016. The CAVS start training camp on October 3 and their opening regular season game is scheduled for October 25 against the New Jersey Nets. An intriguing addition to the NBA regular season this year is an “in-season tournament,” which will start on November 3rd.

Browns

The NFL season is headed into week 3 and our beloved Browns record is 1 win – 1 loss. The team opened with win at home against the Cincinnati Bengals and then lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers this past Monday night in primetime. The main story of the Steelers game was the horrific knee injury of the Browns star running back, Nick Chubb. The injury was deemed “significant” by ESPN’s announcers and thankfully, the network chose not to show a reply of the injury. Chubb is out for the remainder of the season and will have a tough battle ahead to return to the field next season. The other two storylines of Monday’s loss was the horrible play of the team’s quarterback, Deshaun Watson and the great play of the team’s defense, led by new defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz. Watson has certainly not played up to the hype of his guaranteed contact, currently the largest in NFL history, which has caused many loyal fans to wonder about the team’s ownership and leadership. Head Coach Kevin Stefanski, who built the offensive side of the team around Chubb's skills, vision, and balance, will has his work cut out for him to keep his job during the balance of the season.