Alright so my prediction last night wasn't so hot as the Lightning staved off elimination by defeating the Boston Bruins 5-4 last night in Tampa Bay forcing a Game 7 Friday night in Boston. The Bruins have not been to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1990, wouldn't that be a great Finals between two teams who haven't been there in 20 years?
Elsewhere the Mavericks closed out the Thunder in 5 by once again coming back in the fourth quarter to win 100-96 at home. Shawn Marion and Dirk Nowitzki each scored 26 in the victory while Russell Westbrook poured in 31 with James Harden and Kevin Durant each contributing 23 in the losing effort. This is a learning experience still for the extremely young Thunder and in year 2 of the plan they went from being a first round playoff exit team all the way to being in the Western Conference Finals. I must say Sam Presti has done an excellent job building young talent in Oklahoma City but the real testament is to how he has done it with high character guys. Even James Harden really showed something this playoffs, and I will be the first to say that I disliked him coming out of Arizona State University after choking as bad as anyone could in the NCAA Tournament a few years back. But enough about the team that is home relaxing on the couch, Dirk and the Mavericks (save Jason Terry who has a tattoo of the Larry O'Brien Trophy already inscribed on his arm) are not celebrating just getting to the NBA Finals, they want to finish the job and will await the winner of the Heat-Bulls series which has Game 5 tonight on TNT at 8pm. The Heat are looking to join the Mavs by ending the Bulls season in Chicago. Prediction- Bulls stave off elimination in a gritty, physical game winning 91-85. Derrick Rose leads the way with 31 points to send it back to Miami.
Plenty of baseball happened yesterday, including a 19 inning baseball game in Philadelphia with Wilson Valdez (a 2nd basemen by trade) getting the victory by throwing a scoreless inning and Raul Ibanez's bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 19th won it for the Phillies 5-4 over the Reds. In other baseball news I myself attended a game last night, in Portland, Maine. I was expecting to pick my up my girlfriend from the airport there around 8pm last night but her flight was delayed an hour. So I decided to catch a game! Luckily it was a 6pm start vs. the New Hampshire Fishercats (Toronto AA affiliate) and it was an extremely fast, well pitched, well defended game as the Fishercats defeated the Seadogs (Boston AA affiliate) 2-1 in a game where there were 5 double plays turned. To stay with the Red Sox theme, they seem to finally be hitting there stride, literally, by whacking Mitch Talbot and the Cleveland Indians 14-2 yesterday afternoon behind Carl Crawford's 4 for 4 day and Jon Lester's 6 scoreless innings. So let's start trying to ask a few questions to spark some discussion! What team is really the class of the American League? Is it the league leading Cleveland Indians still or is it the surging Red Sox or Yankees? Also what would you do to change the rules regarding catcher-runner collisions at home plate if anything? I'll post my responses tomorrow or on the comment thread.
And as I promised I will end the post with the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers of the night.Biggest Winner- Zack Greinke, pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers who defeated the Nationals yesterday by going 7 innings giving up 5 hits, 3 earned runs while walking 1 and striking out 10. But he also helped himself out at the plate by hitting a go ahead home run in the 5th inning.
Biggest Loser- Buster Posey, catcher for the San Francisco Giants who left the game in the 12th inning vs. the Florida Marlins after a scary collision with Scott Cousins. The Giants lost the game but more importantly they may have lost their backstop for a considerable amount of time. Posey underwent an X-Ray after the game and will undergo a MRI today before any results will be released. We all hope for the best for the young catcher but it did not look good, very similar to the collision that ended Carlos Santana's year last year by spraining his knee. (Posey's injury appears to be an ankle/lower leg issue.)
I believe right now, especially after back to back 14 run outbursts that the Red Sox are in fact the class of the American League and as long as they can stay healthy, especially their top 3 starters they will pose a huge threat to everyone in the vaunted AL East.
ReplyDeleteAlso on the rules regarding catchers blocking the plate for collisions. I think the rule is fine but the time for a catcher to block should really be thought about. I don't want my star catcher to be putting himself in harms way in May. In September, go for it.