Sneaky important week for the Phillies

There are only 13 days until the playoffs start in Major League Baseball. The Phillies are a virtual lock to make the playoffs as one of the wild card teams in the National League, but it is important that they win at least three out of four games this weekend against the New York Mets to help them clinch the top wild card team spot. If they clinch early, they can set their pitching rotation and have home field for the three-game wild card series in the playoffs. They would most likely start Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez. Their dedicated fans will be out there in big numbers. I just hope their relief pitching steps up when needed.

The Eagles play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football next week. I hope they take the Buccaneers seriously since everyone expected them to be one of the worst teams in the NFL this year. The Bucs are 2-0, the same record as the Eagles. In the first two victories for the Eagles, they have not been impressive.

I am actually kind of concerned about Jalen Hurts because for some reason he seems a lot slower when he runs the ball. He is not playing near as well as he was for most of last season.

Everyone knows that Tom Brady is retired, but the Eagles’ defense needs to respect Baker Mayfield because he did win the Heisman Trophy while he was at Oklahoma. He has proved himself to be a really talented quarterback, even though he has a very odd on-field personality.

I think the New York Giants might have saved their season last week when they came back from a 20-point halftime deficit to win over the Arizona Cardinals after losing to the Dallas Cowboys 40-0 in week one. The Giants’ comeback against the Cardinals was their best since 1949.

The next two weeks in golf should be pretty exciting. First is the women's Solheim Cup, which is a carbon copy format to the men's Ryder Cup. The event will be played in Spain, a first for the tournament. I hope the Golf Channel repeats the broadcast immediately after it’s over each day, because the original coverage starts at 2 a.m., Friday and Saturday and at 5 a.m. on Sunday. I think the Solheim Cup tournament is going to be very close because the two teams, Europe and the United States, seem to be very well matched.

The history of the Solheim Cup is very interesting as well. The first event was in 1990. It was founded by the Solheim family who own the golf club company Ping. Ping has catered to women for years for quality golf equipment. It was a huge risk for them to be a named sponsor for the first tournament. The risk has definitely paid off for everyone associated with the event. Go USA!