Illini's Defense Turns The Tide

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory. Sent off at 18-1 odds, Mystik Dan and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. rode the rail down the stretch with a short lead. Forever Young from Japan and Sierra Leone gave chase and pressured the leader to the wire in front of 156,710 at Churchill Downs. The crowd waited several minutes before the result was reviewed by the stewards and declared official. Hernandez and trainer Kenny McPeek had teamed to win the Kentucky Oaks for fillies on Friday with Thorpedo Anna. Mystik Dan ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.34 and paid $39.22 to win.

When it rains, it pours. And in the case of the 2024 Rockies, it floods. Pinch-hitter Jack Suwinski hit a walk-off single to score Connor Joe and lift the Pirates to a 1-0 victory over Colorado on Saturday at dank and dreary PNC Park. Suwinski drilled reliever Nick Mears’ 0-1 fastball into left field for the game-winner. The Rockies, who have yet to win back-to-back games this season, squandered an excellent start by left-hander Austin Gomber and slid to 8-25.

The kids in the Grading The Week offices are a lot of things, but they are not unreasonable. (Stop snickering.) Few topics are off the table when it comes to taking the Mickey, as our pals across the pond like to say. The GTW team likes to brag that they can take it almost as well as they dish it out. And, to be frank, there are a lot of things the kids are perfectly fine with shaming CU Buffs fans for right now.

The Rockies are off to the worst start in franchise history, and questions need to be asked. They entered a weekend series at Pittsburgh with a 7-24 record, putting them on pace to finish 37-125. While they will likely improve on their .226 winning percentage, enabling them to avoid contending with the expansion 1962 New York Mets (40-120) as one of the worst teams in MLB history, another 100-loss season appears probable. The Rockies, amid a youth movement, have intriguing talent on the current roster and in their farm system, but they are a bad team right now.

The best thing about rock bottom is the bottom part. It has no delusions of adequacy, and knows its friends are Antarctica, the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets and “Tiger Blood” Charlie Sheen. The worst thing is the rock. Or in this case, the Rockies. They are playing baseball so poorly that there is a growing suspicion that they might do it worse than any team in the modern history of the sport.

Before taking on Tim Connelly’s Timberwolves in the playoffs for the second time in as many years, Nikola Jokic tipped his cap to the general manager who drafted him. The Nuggets center pointed out how dramatically the perception of Connelly’s 2022 blockbuster trade has changed since last year, when Minnesota was the No.