Arguably the best athlete in the history of Mizzou Athletics got to pitch in the most important game of his career.

Getting the start in Game 7 of the World Series against the Houston Astros on Wednesday night, Max Scherzer unfortunately just wasn’t his best health-wise, but delivered a gutsy outing regardless— would you expect anything less?! A five-inning performance of two runs, seven hits, four walks, and three strikeouts contributed to the first World Series Championship in Washington Nationals’ franchise history.

He didn’t get tabbed with the win, but the Nationals prevailed in Game 7, winning 6-2.

Along with a three-time Cy Young winner and seven-time All-Star, the future Hall of Famer has now added the first elusive World Series Championship to his already impressive resume.

Congratulations on a championship season, Mad Max! M-I-Z!

But now that baseball season is officially over, it’s time to turn our attention to college basketball, and the Missouri Tigers are in action Friday night against Central Missouri for an exhibition game. Fans will finally get the chance to see freshmen Mario McKinney Jr, Tray Jackson, and Kobe Brown make their debuts.

Speaking of, we’ve got a Twitter poll up, asking which freshman are you most excited to see. Time to VOTE!

Onto the links!

Yesterday at Rock M

• Brandon Kiley writes the reason the loss to Kentucky hurt worse than the others
• Film Room: Tigers can’t stand up to the Counter-pressure, by Tim Bussen
• Bye Week Breakdown 2: Offense by the numbers, writes Nate Edwards
• Sam Snelling previews the LSU Tigers, who come in at No. 4 in his SEC Basketball preview
• PODCAST! Preview time! Blake Lovell chats with Sam Snelling and Matthew Harris about SEC hoops

More Links:

• STLToday’s Dave Matter writes that Kelly Bryant is “day to day” with a hamstring injury
• PowerMizzou’s Pete Scantlebury writes about the offensive power outage
• Mizzou, currently the highest ranked KenPom team in the state of Missouri, doesn’t even make Matt Norlander’s list as the best team in Missouri. No.
• Sam Snelling joined Brendan Wiese on The Big 550 KTRS to talk some Mizzou hoops
• Mizzou is back in the mix for Lutheran North linebacker Antonio Doyle Jr. as the Tigers make his Top 3, along with Illinois and Texas A&M

• No. 24 Mizzou Volleyball lost in five sets to No. 13 Florida, ending a four-game winning streak. The Tigers dropped to 14-5 (6-3 SEC) and are at Texas A&M up next on Sunday afternoon.

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