Torres Stings B's, Paris Final Set, Ubaldo Back Being Ubaldo?

Not nearly as busy a day yesterday as the day before thankfully for this post as yesterday’s was a tad longwinded! The Bruins and Canucks did face-off and it was a great game. It had 12 power plays, a fight that ended with Alexander Burrows biting Patrice Bergeron (Burrows did not receive a ban for this infraction) and the one thing needed to end the game, a goal. That goal came with 18.5 seconds left in the 3rd period after goalies Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas dominated the game with exquisite saves and lucky pipes before Raffi Torres scored the game-winner. The best player in the series made the initial play to set up Torres as Ryan Kesler caused a turnover right at the Boston blue line and fed  Jannik Hansen who shoveled it across the crease to Torres for the easy goal. Torres' goal could be even more important than winning game 1 as the emotional toll of being in the game with the favorited Canucks yet not being able to score could be devastating for the Bruins.

Elsewhere, the women's semifinals were today in Paris as Li Na beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, to reach her second consecutive Grand Slam Final. Na will meet defending champion Francesca Schiavone who breezed past Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-3. The match will be Saturday at 9am EST on NBC. The "dream semifinals" are tomorrow at 8 am and around 10:30 am EST on Tennis Channel. I predict Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will advance for a showdown in the final.

MLB was full of day games on Wednesday as it saw CJ Lewis out-pitched David Price as Texas won at Tampa Bay 3-0 as Lewis threw 8 innings giving up 4 hits, and 2 walks while striking out 8. John Lannan finally got the monkey off his back that was the Philadelphia Phillies as he led the Nationals to a 2-1 win for his first victory against them in 14 tries. An explosion of runs went on north of the border as Cleveland beat Toronto 13-9 in a slugfest that saw 29 hits and 12 pitchers. Kyle Drabek lasted just 2/3 of an inning giving up 4 runs while allowing 3 hits and 3 walks. Joey Votto hit his 7th home run of the season that lifted the Reds to a 4-3 victory over the Brewers. 

I really enjoy watching almost every sport and on top of that I love playing fantasy sports as I have run my own baseball, basketball and football leagues for about 7 years now. I am always looking for advice and trying to give advice out on the topic so please don't hesitate to ask questions or give advice here in the comments or via twitter @ Rampower2010.

Biggest Winner of the Night: Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez who won 15 games before the all-star break last year has been hurt and not effective at all so far this season but was back to his overpowering self last night as he threw a masterful complete game, 4 hit shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It took Ubaldo 106 pitches to dominate the Dodgers while striking out 7 without walking a batter.
Biggest Loser of the Night: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's offense as they were shut out for the 8th time this season losing 2-0 to the Kansas City Royals last night. They are middle of the pack in runs (18th in the league) but they cannot seem to score them when the game is close as most of their runs have come in blowouts. They have only scored 29 runs in ace Jered Weaver's 12 starts this season, (2.41 a game is not good run support) costing themselves and Weaver wins.