Sports Chowdah Recap for Oct 19th- 11th Heaven, Halos Get Past Yanks in Extras; Broncos Special Teams a Royal Pain for Chargers; Phillies J-Rolling

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Eddie Royal had a 71-yard punt return and a 93 yard kickoff return in Monday Night's game against San Diego. Darren Sproles had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown for the Chargers. Same story as last week with the Broncos, right down the the old AFL uniforms and striped socks- Denver trailed at the half then held the opposition to 3 points or less while their offense finally got going (the first offensive TD for Denver came late in the 3rd quarter). The Broncos remain undefeated at 6-0 while the Chargers are 2-3.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Today's games in both the ALCS and NLCS came down to the final at-bat. After getting out to a quick 2-0 lead, the Phillies found themselves trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th with two out. Jonathan Broxton walked pinch hitter Matt Stairs before getting pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to line out to 3rd and then hitting Carlos Ruiz with a pitch. Jimmy Rollins then proceeded to hit a deep liner that rolled all the way to the wall in center-field, driving home Stairs and Ruiz and putting Philly up 3-1 in the NLCS [and himself under a pile of enthusiastic teammates].

(Harry How/Getty Images)

Earlier in the afternoon and across the country, Angels backup catcher Jeff Mathis, who had been batting .211 all year came through in a big way at the best possible time for the Angels. After squandering a bases-loaded nobody-out opportunity in the bottom of the 10th, Ervin Santana pitched a hitless top half of the 11th inning for the halos. Alfredo Acevedes came on for the Yankees to replace Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 11th and got the first two outs before giving up a single to Howie Kendrick- who had already homered in the 5th inning- and the game-winning double to Mathis.

In my fairly humble opinion, this was important for the Angels not just to avoid being down 3-0 in the series, but because they managed to make the Yankees burn through much of their bullpen as well as starters being pulled for pinch-hitters or late-inning defensive replacements [Of course having said that, Kendrick and Mathis are bench players themselves- NANESB!]

The next game will be Tuesday night with CC Sabathia starting against Scott Kazmir. The Angels are down 2-1 in the series.

Police Blotter: Police are questioning a man in Bloomfield, CT in connection with the stabbing death of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard this weekend. Early reports from Sunday indicated that the fatal altercation between students and non-students took place outside a university-sanctioned dance at the UConn student union building after a fire-alarm was pulled.