This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Goooood morning, Winners. Thank you for reading TMW this morning. We’ve officially got one half of the World Series set.
The Texas Rangers have survived. Texas absolutely walloped the Astros 11-4 on the road in a win-or-go-home matchup that didn’t feel too tight at all because the Rangers were just that good.
This Rangers team, man. Look. I promised I wouldn’t call them you-know-what anymore and I plan on keeping that promise. But this team just continues to leave me in awe.
First of all, man. Adolis García, have yourself a playoff run. That’s your ALCS MVP, folks. His career has been quite the journey — he’s been DFA’d twice by two separate teams, including these Rangers. Now, he’s forever cemented as a hero in Arlington after hitting five home runs in his last four games to end the series and take care of things on the road.
There’s also José Leclerc who has made stand after stand after stand for the Rangers this postseason without wavering much at all. He’s also forever a hero in Arlington, no matter where things go from here.
This feels so special. I mean, the Rangers aren’t supposed to be here, right? This is a squad that only won 128 games combined through the last two seasons.
This isn’t the regular path we see teams take to the World Series. You know how it typically goes, right? When a team climbs back to the top? First the team stinks. Then it just makes the playoffs — maybe it sneaks in to the wild card or just plays in a poor division. They get bounced out early in the first year. They might get bounced in the second, too. But, eventually, that team finally opens the door.
Texas said “Yeah, no thanks” and absolutely kicked the door in. This is sports at it’s best, man. You absolutely love to see it.
Purdy ain’t so perfect
For two straight weeks, the 49ers have been in situations where they’ve needed their quarterback to make big plays for them in clutch situations. To be frank, Brock Purdy has failed to do that twice. He looked awful in the fourth quarter against the Vikings on Monday night.
Purdy threw two fourth-quarter interceptions against Minnesota, including this baffling one that completely sealed the game. Kyle Shanahan’s face says it all.
These last couple of weeks have been poor for the 49ers’ QB. But let’s cut him a bit of slack here.
— With the way he’s played it’s easy to forget that he’s only a second-year player in the NFL. He was always going to make some mistakes along the way.
— The 49ers were also missing Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams — two players who make Brock’s job infinitely better.
I’ll be the first one to tell you I’m not the biggest believer in Purdy. But we shouldn’t let this moment write the book on him. There’s plenty more football left to be played.
The NBA is SO back tonight
We can finally stop talking about the offseason and potential trade moves and this and that. Games are finally being played. We’re here. We’ve arrived.
To tip things off we get two major matchups between Western Conference juggernauts.
Tonight’s slate:
— Lakers @ Nuggets (7:30 p.m. ET)
— Suns @ Warriors (10:00 p.m. ET)
These are two juicy matchups to start things off. There’s plenty of intrigue with them both.
There’s a Lakers-Nuggets rivalry brewing and I’m so here for it. On the other side, we finally get Kevin Durant’s return to Golden State since leaving all those years ago. I fully expect cheers for him considering everything he accomplished with the Warriors, but there will probably be some boos, too. It’s KD. That goes without saying.
It’s obviously way too early to talk about playoff implications considering that no games have been played yet, but these are four of the teams most people are picking to come out of the West at this point. The tiebreaker implications are very real.
Can’t wait, man. Tonight will be so much fun.
RELATED: Check out our NBA Power Rankings here before the season tips off!
Quick hits: NBA preseason rookie rankings … NFL Power Rankings … and more
— Bryan Kalbrosky has you covered with his preseason rookie power rankings. Of course, Wemby is No. 1. But there are plenty of surprises along the way.
— Here’s Robert Zeglinski with your NFL Power Rankings for Week 8. Shoutout to my Eagles, man. We need that rematch, Chiefs.
— Blake Schuster has your best over/under bets for each and every NBA team heading into the season. Go get this money.
—Travis Kelce’s dad seems to love Taylor Swift, too. Don’t we all? Charles Curtis has more.
— Mattress Mack lost literal millions of dollars on the Astros and did not care. What a life to live. Charles has you covered on this one.
Thanks so much for reading, folks! We appreciate you. Happy Tuesday. Enjoy the hoops tonight. Talk soon. We out.
-Sykes ✌️