Memorial Day Fun, Turn Back the Clock on Colon and a Missed Call Costs Twins

Memorial Day is always a good day in sports. Annually the collegiate lacrosse championship is held on the holiday and this year it saw Virginia win a gritty game over Maryland 9-7 behind Colin Briggs’ career-high 5 goals one game after being suspended for team violations. Briggs said that he didn’t even know if he would play in the title game but got the nod and contributed in a huge way to give the Cavaliers its 4^th national title under current coach Dom Starsia.

Plenty of baseball went on yesterday as well with a full slate of games and a handful of day games as well. The Arizona Diamondbacks whipped the Florida Marlins 15-4 behind 5 home runs and 19 hits. Justin Upton went 5 for 5 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs including a home run himself to lead the D-Backs to their 7^th straight victory. Bartolo Colon turned back the clock and dominated the Oakland A’s as the Yankees won 5-0 behind the complete game 4 hitter that Colon masterfully weaved. Elsewhere the Los Angeles Angels came back from a 6-1 deficit and scored 5 runs in the 8^th and 9^th including 3 off closer Joakim Soria. The blown save was the fifth of the season for Soria and the Royals announced after the game that Aaron Crow would take over the role for the time being. Another offensive outburst was in Tampa Bay where the Texas Rangers racked up 20 hits to beat the Rays 11-5. Mike Napoli lead the way going 3 for 6 swatting 2 home runs driving in 5 runs. The Chicago White Sox snapped a 3 game losing streak and snapped Jon Lester’s 7 game winning streak. The White Sox exploded for 4 runs in the 6^th winning 7-3 while giving Jake Peavy plenty of run support for his 2^nd victory of the season.

My girlfriend told me last night that I must discuss the Miami Heat-Dallas Mavericks series before Game 1 that starts at 9pm tonight on ABC. The Heat boast the newest and possibly most powerful  “Big 3” in LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh while the Mavericks send a veteran squad with Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion and Peja Stojakovic to Miami. The match-up is a rematch of the 2006 finals in which the Heat won in 6 games giving Dwayne Wade his first ring and Shaquille O’Neal his 4^th. This time around it is a different story as Dirk has a better cast around him and no Superman to worry about in the paint. Kidd is an upgrade over Devin Harris and Chandler is a huge upgrade over Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop at center. Miami has added a top 3 player in LeBron and a highly regarded power forward in Bosh but the supporting cast is limited with Udonis Haslem finally feeling healthy, Mike Miller and a defensive minded Joel Anthony as it’s only real weapons. This could be a very entertaining match-up as Haslem gave Dirk all sorts of fits last time they met in the Finals but Dirk is definitely a different player this time around and Haslem is not completely healthy but certainly better off than he was 2 weeks ago after missing most of the season. My prediction for the series is Dallas in 6 and for tonight the Mavericks come out firing defeating the Heat 101-94 behind 38 from Dirk Nowitzki.

Last Night’s Biggest Winner was New York Yankees starting pitcher Bartolo Colon. Colon who was a wildcard coming into the season after not pitching at all last year and being 38 years old has been unbelievable this season. Yesterday Colon threw a complete game shutout (9 innings) giving up 4 hits while walking none and striking out 6 in the 5-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Last Night’s Biggest Loser was Umpire Crew Chief Gary Darling after making a controversial call in the Minnesota Twins-Detroit Tigers game. Alex Avila’s doubled bounced off a wall in left field and hopped into the stands, off of a fan and back into play. Now this would normally be ruled a ground-rule double but in this case the umpires conferred and decided that it was fan interference and allowed the runner from first to score when on a ground rule double Peralta would have been put back to third base and the game would still have been tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 8^th. The next batter struck out and Jose Valverde closed out the top of the 9^th to give the Tigers a controversial win.

Steriod Case?, Resignation and Indy Crash Lead the Way

Busy Sunday afternoon in the MLB as well as a very intriguing college football story that came out this morning. More tennis news and scores and a very heartbreaking Indianapolis 500 finish.

                Sunday is always day game central for us East Coasters and we saw the New York Mets avoid a sweep by banging out 17 hits versus the Philadelphia Phillies. Aaron Hill hit his first home run of the year, a grand slam that led the Blue Jays to a rout of the White Sox 13-4. Hill who 2 years ago hit 36 home runs and had a .286 average has not been even close to that as the last year a half he has totaled 27 home runs while hitting .210. Can someone say steroids? Many people argue he hasn’t fully been healthy since that season but the difference is eye popping seeing as he played in 136 games last season and 36 so far this season. Yovani Gallardo and Kyle Lohse both got their 7^th wins of the season to tie the league leaders. Gallardo went 8 scoreless innings giving up 4 hits, 1 walk while striking out 5 in the 6-0 victory over the Giants while Lohse defeated the Rockies 4-3 while throwing 6 innings giving up 2 runs, 6 hits, 1 walk while striking out 6. The Boston Red Sox split a double header with the Tigers winning the first game 4-3 and came up blank versus Justin Verlander in the night cap losing 3-0. In Sunday Night Baseball’s game of the week, the Cincinnati Reds came up short versus Jair Jurrjens and the Atlanta Braves 2-1. Johnny Cueto pitched very well and Jay Bruce hit his 15^th home run of the season but Martin Prado’s 2 run home run was the difference in the ball game as Craig Kimbrel closed it out for the Braves with his 15^th save of the season.

                The big college football news was announced this morning out of Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel resigned amid NCAA violations stemming from players getting tattoos for free and by selling their rings/jerseys/trophies to pay for everyday things. Tressel had already been suspended for 5 games but the pressure was still being applied by the NCAA so he decided to step down after leading the Buckeyes to a 106-22 record in 10 years at Ohio State, winning 7 Big Ten Titles and the 2002 National Championship. Everyone including my father thought that this was sure to be Urban Meyer’s new coaching gig (who resigned from University of Florida due to health issues) but he announced he was not interested in coaching this fall and will stay with ESPN to do college football analysis. Luke Fickell was named the interim head coach for the 2011 season after being the co-defensive coordinator last season. Fickell was already set to coach the 5 games Tressel was going to miss before he stepped down.

                Now as for auto car racing, I am not a big fan of this and rarely follow it but I was told to watch a replay of the last 3 laps of the 100^th Indianapolis 500 because it was one of the best ever. And to be honest, I enjoyed it but really felt bad for the kid! Rookie driver J.R. Hillenbrand was leading the way but crashed into the wall on the final turn and let Dan Wheldon win in spectacular fashion. Wheldon is now a 2-time Indy 500 champ and looking for a new sponsor and ride for next year.

                Tennis today was very interesting as the biggest news was what happened off the court as Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal matchup was called a walkover after Fabio Fognini pulled out with a quad injury. So Djokovic is safely into the semifinals where he awaits the winner of the Gael Monfils and Roger Federer match that is set to be played tomorrow. Andy Murray took on Viktor Troicki and after falling behind 2 sets to none he fought back to tie it at 2 a piece before they called the match-up due to darkness. They will complete it tomorrow on Suzanne Lenglen. Rafael Nadal breezed through Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets as did Robin Soderling with Gilles Simon. On the women’s side finally a day with no surprises as Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both won in straight sets while Andrea Petkovic and Li Na took 3 sets to advance over lesser seeds.

Biggest Winner of the Night: A tough pick today as there were a bunch of good performances but nothing that stood out more than any other. So I decided to pick one that might be a little unorthodox. David Ortiz was yesterdays biggest winner when he came into the afternoon game vs. the Tigers in the top of 9^th. The score was 3-3 and he came in to face Tigers closer Jose Valverde. Ortiz was 1 for 1 vs. Valverde with a grand slam home run in his career coming in and once again he took Valverde deep for the game winning home run as the final was 4-3.

Biggest Loser of the Night: This was easy, unfortunately J.R. Hillenbrand takes this moniker for the day. The rookie could see victory lane ahead of him but bounced off the last wall to cost him the victory and give Dan Wheldon the lucky, crazy, wild, win.

FC Barcelona are Champions, More Top Women Lose in France and Plenty of MLB Action

Saturday was busy for a few reasons, the biggest was the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium in London, England where FC Barcelona played Manchester United. Barcelona features one the of soccer or football’s( as it is known across the world) premier players in Lionel Messi. Messi is an Argentine wiz with the ball had scored his 54^th goal of the year in the 54^th minute to propel Barcelona over the Red Devils of the English Premier League 3-1. Pedro Rodriguez led off the scoring before Wayne Rooney of Man U equalized it in the 34^th minute before Messi’s goal put Barca ahead for good while David Villa curled in a shot to make it the 2 goal difference in the 69^th minute. Barcelona failed to win its domestic cup since Real Madrid defeated them in the Copa del Rey but they completed the double by winning the Spanish La Liga season and winning the Champions League. Manchester United ended a great season that saw them once again win the English Premier League but they lost in the semifinals of the FA Cup to crosstown rivals Manchester City and of course this Champions League Final. I myself have been extremely enthralled by soccer this year and have really followed the Champions League and the English Premier League more than ever before and even chose a team to root for. (Chelsea) I look forward to watching next season very much and hope it is equally as exciting.

Tennis was also on display in France early Sunday, as Roger Federer (3^rd seed) and Novak Djokovic (2^nd seed) both advanced in 3 sets while the match between David Ferrer (7^th seed) and Gael Monfils (9^th seed) will have to be completed Monday as they suspended the match with the Frenchmen Monfils winning 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, 0-2. On the women’s side 3^rd seeded  Vera Zvonareva was the latest highest seeded woman to lose at Roland Garros as she lost to fellow countrywoman Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7, 6-2, 2-6. Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli advanced as did defending champion Francesca Schiavone who defeated Jelena Jankovic in 3 sets 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Baseball per usual had a very entertaining Saturday as it saw a plethora of entertaining games. The most fascinating was the Minnesota Twins who took on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Target Field in Minneapolis. Francisco Liriano was the scheduled starter for the Twins but was a late scratch so Anthony Swarzak stepped in and was brilliant as he matched zeros with Jered Weaver for 8 innings while giving up 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 4 but got the no decision as it took the Twins 10 innings before finally breaking the scoreless tie to win 1-0. Weaver threw 9 innings of 2 hit, 2 walk ball while striking out 7 in a no decision like Swarzak. Elsewhere once again the Blue Jays were in another extra inning affair and defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-8 in 14 innings behind Corey Patterson’s walk-off home run. (Jose Bautista hit his league leading 20^th home run as well in this game.) Pirates continued to roll whipping the Cubs 10-0 at Wrigley, and the Brewers won on a suicide squeeze by catcher Jonathan Lucroy 3-2 over the San Francisco Giants. The best part was it was a pinch-hit suicide squeeze as well.

Biggest Winner of the Night: Chris Iannetta, catcher for the Colorado Rockies who had a huge hand in the 15-4 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals by going 4 for 5 while hitting two home runs and driving in 6 runs.

Biggest Loser of the Night: From the same game, Jaime Garcia who only lasted 3 1/3 innings while giving up 11 hits, 12 runs, 11 earned runs while walking 4 and striking out 6 in the blowout 15-4 loss. He threw 106 pitches in this beat-down and saw his ERA rise from 1.93 to 3.28 just from this outting.

Bruins to Head West, Price K's a Dozen and A Different Crawford Has the Night of His Life

                The Bruins are headed to Vancouver to start the Stanley Cup Finals! What a Game 7 that was last night. Such pressure on all the players not to be the one to make a mistake or cost their team opportunities to make plays and both teams played at such a high level that there were 0 penalties in the game. ZERO! I don’t think I have ever seen that in all my years of watching hockey! Tim Thomas and Dwayne Roloson put on great shows stopping 24 and 37 shots respectively but Thomas’ offense led by Nathan Horton (assisted by David Krecji and Andrew Ference) was the difference in the game as the B’s squeaked through with a 1-0 victory in front of 17,565 people at the TD Bank Garden. Boston is 8-0 in the postseason when Nathan Horton scores a goal. The finals start 8pm on Wednesday, June 1^st on NBC in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

                NBA Finals don’t start until Tuesday, May 31^st so not much news to write about on that front, but there was a lot of baseball action last night. The Boston Red Sox stayed hot defeating the Detroit Tigers 6-3 while Kevin Correia of the Pirates tied Jon Lester of the Red Sox for the most wins in baseball with 7 as they defeated the Cubs 4-2. David Price set a career high in strikeouts with 12 as the Rays shut out the Indians 5-0 behind Price’s 7 dominant innings. The Royals erupted in the 14^th inning with 3 home runs including one from the highly touted prospect Eric Hosmer to defeat the Rangers 12-7 in Arlington while the Angels defeated the Twins coming back from a 5 run deficit in the 8^th inning to win 6-5. Best news of the day was from the team that needed it the most.  After losing Posey the Giants got a lift from Tim Lincecum and Brandon Crawford. One is a household name, the other a rookie who was called up that day to start in his first major league game. Lincecum provided the solid pitching like he has done since breaking into the majors in 2007 while Crawford hit a go ahead grand slam in his big league debut.

                Biggest Winner of the Night: A tie between Tim Thomas and Nathan Horton of the Bruins. Which was more important to the win? The goalie who shutout the other team or the center who provided the only goal of the game? Thomas stopped all 24 shots he faced while Horton scored with 7:33 left in the 3^rd period to send the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals.

                Biggest Loser of the Night: Caroline Wozniacki. The 20 year old Denmark native was the Number 1 seed in the this year’s French Open and was ousted in the 3^rd round by 28^th seeded Daniela Hantuchova 1-6, 3-6 to follow Kim Clijsters by being an early elimination from a very wide open Roland Garros women’s draw.

Heat Comeback Again, Red Sox Stay Hot and Plenty of Upsets at Roland Garros

                The NBA Finals is set, and it is a rematch of the 2006 series between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks that starts Tuesday at 9pm in Miami. The Heat defeated the Mavericks in 6 games in 2006 when they had Shaquille O’Neal patrolling the paint. This time around it certainly will be a different ball game with different rosters and a much more determined and seasoned Mavericks team to compete vs. LeBron, Wade and Bosh. This is a great match-up for the casual fan as well since it does feature those big names in big markets. So far my predictions haven’t been too close so I am slightly afraid to say who would win but I did not think this would be the match-up as I had Thunder-Bulls as my pick before the playoffs started. Yet if I have to venture a guess I will say Dallas wins in 6 in a greatly competitive series that features a handful of 30 point games from Dirk and LeBron.

                Bruins-Lightning face-off tonight to meet the Canucks for the Stanley Cup and the buzz around the game is huge. Tampa Bay is 3-0 lifetime in game 7s including winning one of those this postseason, while Boston is 10-10 lifetime and also have won a game 7 this postseason. Could be a great game and I am really looking forward to watching it tonight at 8pm on Versus. Since I jinxed the Bruins by picking them to close it out in 6 I will not predict this game!

                Yesterday was a slow baseball day with only 8 games going on but of those 8 one really stood out. Another 14 run explosion by the Boston Red Sox highlighted the day as Carl Crawford has lifted his average 32 points in two days while leading the Sox into first place after a miserable start. Elsewhere across the league Anibal Sanchez led the Marlins to a 1-0 win in San Francisco the day after Posey’s injury that will cost him at least 6-8 weeks if not the season for a broken bone in his lower left leg suffered in the collision with OF Scott Cousins at the plate. A tough blow for the Giants who are already offensively challenged even with Posey their cleanup hitter in the lineup. Will the Giants now really make a play for New York Mets SS Jose Reyes? As a Mets fan I would support the trade of Reyes as long as we get a starting pitcher now, and 2 prospects for him.

                I have somewhat ignored the big tennis news but since the French Open is starting to really heat up I guess it’s time to give the stars their due. Yesterday gave us Kim Clijsters’ early exit and today number 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki lost in straight sets 1-6, 3-6 to 28^th seed Daniela Hantuchova. Now both top seeds are out and the race is wide open for players like Maria Sharapova or Vera Zvonareva to take the title in France. On the men’s side the last American hope Mardy Fish advanced to the 3^rd round quickly with a 7-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Robin Hasse. Today Roger Federer, David Ferrer and Gael Monfils all advanced to the 4^th round with easy 3 set victories.

                Last night’s biggest winner was a tough choice between LeBron James’ clinching win and Anibal Sanchez’s complete game shutout of the Giants. But I decided LeBron gets the edge since the Giants really don’t pose much of a threat offensively especially without Posey. So LeBron’s 28 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 4 turnovers while shooting 8 for 19 from the field (3 of 6 from 3) and 9 of 11 from the free throw line win the honor once again.

                Last night’s biggest loser was easy. Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer (Who is on my fantasy team as well) had a day to forget against the red hot Red Sox going 2 plus innings giving up 7 hits and 7 earned runs while walking 2 and striking out 1. The loss dropped Scherzer to 6-2 on the season while raising his ERA from 2.98 to 3.86.