Front Row Seat: Tatis wins another Gold Glove
Get caught up on everything that happened over the weekend while you were powering through Halloween candy.
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John Gennaro
John Gennaro
John Gennaro
San Diego Padres
A matched pair! Tatis earns 2nd Gold Glove Award - MLB.com
After a season full of highlight-reel plays and sensational home run robberies, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s glove is once again golden.
The Padres’ right fielder took home his second Rawlings Gold Glove Award on Sunday, when Major League Baseball announced its winners. He was the only Padres finalist.
Albert Pujols still among bevy of candidates in play for Padres’ manager opening - New York Post
Some insiders believe Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty remains the favorite for Padres manager, but San Diego continues to take a close look at Albert Pujols. Rangers exec Nick Hundley, Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla and Padres 3B coach Brian Esposito remain candidates.
Michael King opts out, could still receive qualifying offer from Padres - San Diego Union-Tribune
As expected, Michael King declined his part of a $15 million mutual option on the contract he signed before last season, making him a free agent.
The 30-year-old right-hander is among the top starting pitchers available this winter despite losing half of his 2025 season to a nerve impingement near his right shoulder and a knee injury.
The Padres could make a qualifying offer to King, which would guarantee him $22.025 million in 2026 if he accepts. If he declines, the team he signs with would forfeit at least one draft pick while the Padres would gain a draft pick after the fourth round. The deadline to make a qualifying offer is Thursday, and players have 10 days to accept or decline.
City Connect 2.0? Padres tease Dia de los Muertos uniform theme for 2026 - San Diego Union-Tribune
The Padres posted a 1-minute, 24-second video on Sunday, the second day of Day of the Dead celebrations throughout Mexico and elsewhere. WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio approaches an altar adorned with lighted candles and marigolds. The San Diego native places a white-ish Padres hat with an interlocking orange “S” and dark-colored “D” with a dark-colored bill on the altar as a woman dressed like La Catrina, a Dia de los Muertos icon, appears behind it.
San Diego FC
Portland Timbers stun San Diego FC in instant classic - MLSsoccer.com
With his team fighting for their Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs lives, Timbers rookie striker Gage Guerra scored a last-second equalizer in Game 2 of their Round One Best-of-3 Series against San Diego FC on Saturday night.
Portland went on to win a wild penalty shootout, forcing a Game 3 and sending the series back to San Diego on Nov. 9.
“The whole team, the whole staff, we wanted another week,” head coach Phil Neville said after the 2-2 draw was decided 3-2 in PKs. “With this attitude, I think we are a very dangerous team in this tournament.”
SDFC notebook: Injured goalie flies home with team; start time set; ‘Chucky’ shines - San Diego Union-Tribune
C.J. dos Santos flew home with his San Diego FC teammates after suffering an apparent head injury in the first half of Saturday night’s first-round MLS Cup playoff loss to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park.
Dos Santos was injured in the 29th minute following a collision near the net. He was carted off the pitch and taken to a nearby hospital, but was discharged in time to travel home with the team.
It’s been a painful year for dos Santos, the club’s starting goalie. He suffered a deviated septum following a similar collision near the goal on July 5, an injury that required surgery to fix and cost dos Santos a month of his season.
San Diego FC falls apart late in playoff shootout loss to Portland - NBC 7 San Diego
During their Thursday practice session San Diego FC spent some time practicing penalty kicks. In the Major League Soccer first round playoff format, games that are tied after the final whistle go straight to a shootout, so they figured it was a good idea to freshen up on the PK.
They might want to focus a little longer on it this week. SDFC saw three players miss the net entirely in a 5-4 shootout loss in Portland, keeping the Timbers season alive and forcing a decisive Game 3 next Sunday night at Snapdgraon Stadium.
World Series
Dodgers-Blue Jays Game 7 draws highest World Series ratings since 2017 - The Athletic
Game 7 of the World Series — a come-from-behind 5-4 victory in 11 innings to give baseball a repeat champion for the first time in 25 years — averaged 25.984 million viewers across FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports streaming platforms, based on Nielsen’s fast national reporting.
It was the most-watched World Series game since Game 7 of the 2017 World Series (Astros-Dodgers, 28.2 million viewers) and peaked at 31.543 million viewers from 11:30-11:45 PM ET.
The 2025 Blue Jays Will Live Forever in the Land of the Almost - The Ringer
As the dust settles from Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s slide into home that was a half second too late and Jeff Hoffman reconsiders his ninth-inning hanging slider to Miguel Rojas, the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays are left standing in the most painful place in sports: the land of the almost. Saturday’s Game 7 World Series loss isn’t the kind that fades. It embeds itself into a city’s—or, in this case, an entire country’s—sporting memory. It will fester and linger not just in the hours and days that follow, but in the years and decades that stretch beyond it.
The Blue Jays were two outs from forcing baseball’s final page to turn in their favor. Minutes later, they were a fraction of a second from a euphoric walk-off that would’ve rewritten franchise history. Instead, they’re left with a series’ worth of hypotheticals (What if Dave Roberts hadn’t put Andy Pages in center field? What if Kiner-Falefa had run through home instead of sliding?) and a year’s worth of memories.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto Will Not Be Denied - Defector
It was a series that made room for nearly every player on both teams to make memories that Major League Baseball's cabal of marketing goblins can flog for years, and not just because it produced more actual innings of play than any series since 1912. Even those who just watched the series to get lost in the radioactive glow of Shohei Ohtani or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. were alternately enthralled and enraged in equal measure, while nearly every other player on both teams was spotlighted at one point or another. It was by any reasonable measure the most brilliantly mad championship in any sport in years, and the only real disappointment came in the 11th inning last night when Alejandro Kirk's series-ending double play meant that there would be no 12th inning, or 13th, or seemingly without end into the depths of the night.
The only person, it seemed, who could bring order to this was the one true constant: Yamamoto.
San Diego State Aztecs
Aztecs’ defense takes charge against Wyoming on the way to sixth straight win - San Diego Union-Tribune
They say the best offense is a good defense. If it’s a great defense, so much the better.
San Diego State picked off three passes by Wyoming quarterback Kaden Anderson in the first half of Saturday’s Mountain West game and had a key fumble recovery in the second half, sparking the Aztecs to a 24-7 win before an announced crowd of 24,325 (17,109 turnstile) at Snapdragon Stadium.
SDSU’s sixth straight victory boosted the Aztecs to 7-1 on the season. They are now 4-0 in the Mountain West for the first time since the 2015 and 2016 teams that won back-to-back Mountain West championships.
San Diego State beats Wyoming to surge into Mountain West lead - Sports Illustrated
San Diego State’s resurgence in its second year under coach Sean Lewis now includes sitting atop the Mountain West standings.
San Diego State (7-1, 4-0 MW) beat Wyoming 24-7 in its Homecoming game on Saturday, several hours after defending conference champion Boise State (6-3, 4-1) lost 30-7 at home to Fresno State.
It was the sixth straight win for the Aztecs, who are now the only undefeated team in the conference.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the Aztecs, who lost their last six games of 2024 and finished 3-9 overall and 2-5 in league. San Diego State has matched the start of the 2021 team, which set a school record for victories by going 12-2.
San Diego Wave FC
Wave wrap regular season, learn playoff fate on NWSL’s ‘Decision Day’ - San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Wave traveled to the National Women’s Soccer League’s top-ranked team on Sunday, looking to pull off the improbable.
Beat the Kansas City Current, and San Diego would host a first-round playoff game at Snapdragon Stadium.
Dudinha gave the Wave a one-score lead in the first half before the club surrendered a pair of goals to fall, 2-1.
Wave drop final game of the season, will play Portland Thorns in first round of NWSL playoffs - Her Sports San Diego
San Diego now heads to Portland to face the Thorns in the first round of the playoffs Nov. 9 at 12 p.m. PT on ABC. Despite the loss, head coach Jonas Eidevall expressed confidence in his squad.
“We’re going into the playoffs with a lot of confidence,” he said.
San Diego has experienced plenty of highs and lows this season, climbing as high as third place in the standings while also facing a stretch where playoff qualification seemed uncertain. The Wave have yet to find the consistency they are searching for, and now, with every game a win-or-go-home scenario, they hope to finally lock it in.
Odds & Ends
Jannik Sinner takes tennis men’s world No. 1 race with Carlos Alcaraz to ATP Tour Finals - The Athletic
The two best tennis players in the men’s game will decide who ends the year as world No. 1 at the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, Italy.
World No. 2 Jannik Sinner defeated Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(4) Sunday to win the Paris Masters, which sees him overtake Alcaraz at the top of the world rankings as of the update on Monday Nov. 3. The Spaniard opened the door by losing to Cameron Norrie in the first round of the last ATP Masters 1000 of the year, producing an erratic performance in the French capital to lose 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Denny Hamlin 'numb' after heartbreaking NASCAR Cup title finish - Yahoo Sports
On Sunday, all eyes were on Denny Hamlin. After 20 years of trying, he entered the 2025 title-decider as the favorite for many. He recently secured his 60th career win, and he earned pole position for this race.
He was also racing for his father, who is terminally ill and could not attend the race. And in the background of the battle on track, Hamlin's 23XI Racing team is in the middle of a contentious lawsuit against NASCAR over the 2025 Charter Agreement.
Hamlin absolutely dominated at Phoenix, leading 208 of 319 laps. Championship winner Kyle Larson led zero laps. But a late-race caution for William Byron forced the race into overtime, and the decision to give up track position for four fresh tires proved costly for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, giving up track position and finishing behind Larson on the road. Once again, Hamlin leaves the season finale Cup-less.
The Winners and Losers of the NFL Week 9 - The Ringer
Sunday marked the 10th time we’ve seen Patrick Mahomes’s Chiefs take on Josh Allen’s Bills since 2020, and somehow the matchup still doesn’t feel stale. Whenever they meet up, it feels like the biggest game in football, and Sunday was no different. Their teams traded early blows before both defenses adjusted and tightened up in the second half. Every drive felt important. Every stop felt like a triumph. I’m all for parity and the league having a fresh crop of winning teams, but based on what we saw from these two quarterbacks on Sunday at Highmark Stadium, I’d sign up for another Bills-Chiefs AFC title game this season. Hell, put both of these teams in the same division so we get three of these games each year.
Jayden Daniels arm injury: Dan Quinn explains why QB was still in game with Commanders getting blown out - Yahoo Sports
The quarterback sustained the injury on what appeared to be a run-pass option (RPO) play. Daniels faked the handoff to running Chris Rodriguez. While it looked as if Daniels would try and pass for a touchdown, his plans may have changed after Seahawks linebacker Boye Mafe blew past the line and got into the backfield. Mafe's pressure caused Daniels to run the ball. He was tackled by linebacker Drake Thomas short of the goal line. As Daniels went to the ground, he put out his left arm to brace his fall. That's when Daniels sustained the gruesome injury.
Jaguars' Cam Little sets NFL record with 68-yard field goal - ESPN
Cam Little looked at his potential NFL record field goal logically.
He was playing indoors and on natural grass at Allegiant Stadium, meaning there were no extraneous factors that could affect his 68-yard attempt. All he needed to do, he thought, was hit it straight.
Which the Jaguars' second-year kicker did as the first half expired in their eventual 30-29 overtime victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. His kick easily cleared the crossbar and bounced off the wall beyond the end zone, giving him the longest field goal in NFL history by 2 yards.
Alright, that's going to do it for today's edition of Front Row Seat. I'll be back tomorrow, and every weekday, to try and make it easier for you to follow the news.
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