The Boston Red Sox knocked around the Blue Jays in matinee baseball in Toronto yesterday, a 12-2 wallop that featured four Red Sox homers off the bats of Michael Chavis, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Jackie Bradley Jr., who really needed one just for his confidence level.
Chavis has been creating a folk hero aura around himself since being brought up from the minors to play second base while Dustin Pedroia struggles to get back on the field following knee surgery. Chavis' bomb yesterday was his ninth home run of the year to go along with 24 RBI's and a near .300 batting average. The homer also made up for an error Chavis committed in the second inning that led to a home run, the only runs starter David Price would give up in five innings of work, both runs un-earned due to the miscue.
Price was coming off a brief stint on the injured list with some tendinitis so it was good to see him get through five innings while striking out four and allowing just three hits.
Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree, Ryan Brasier and Hector Velazquez mopped things up after Price left, with plenty of run support.
Bradley Jr. is still hitting well bellow the ignominious Mendoza line, named for the former Seattle Mariners light hitting shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose batting average always seemed to hover around .200.
But Bradley's defense in center field is so valuable it's hard to keep him out of the line-up. If he can put together a streak at the plate to go along with that first home run of the year it will make it a lot easier for manager Alex Cora to pencil him in every day.
Eduardo Rodriguez gets the start in game two against Marcus Stroman for Toronto.
The NY Yankees trailed the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 through six innings of play at Camden Yards yesterday but the Orioles are one of the worst teams in baseball for a reason, and they showed why by handing the game right back to the Yankees with a series of errors both mental and physical that led to a seven run Yankee outburst over the last three innings and a 10-7 win.
Gleyber Torres hit two home runs to help fuel the comeback, but the big blow was a three run homer by Gary Sanchez in the ninth, set up by a cascade of bad baseball basics.
The Baltimore errors included Dwight Smith Jr. getting fooled on a fake tag-up from third that caused him to overthrow the base. Catcher Pedro Severino mis-judged a pop-up that should have been caught and Joey Rickard threw to the wrong base on a single. Other than that, the Orioles were pretty good.
The NY Mets were sick of their five game losing skid and ended it with a 5-3 win over the Washington Nationals at Citi Field in Queens. Amed Rosario and Pete Alonso homered in the first inning to back a strong effort by spot starter Wilmer Font and five relievers who held the Nats at bay. Patrick Corbin took the loss for Washington.
In the NBA playoffs, maybe the league should just reserve a spot before the season begins for the Golden State Warriors to appear in the finals. The Warriors have won the last two NBA titles but after finishing off a four game sweep with a 119-117 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers last night, Golden State has now appeared in the finals for a fifth year in a row.
They have a ways to go to break the record of ten straight finals owned by the Boston Celtics from 1957 to 1966, but it's still pretty impressive. The Warriors came back again from a double digit deficit against Portland, something they did in three other wins this series. They were led by historic triple doubles from two players. Draymond Green had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, and made a key 3-pointer in the extra frame. Steph Curry poured in 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, joining Green as the first teammates to have triple-doubles in the same playoff game.
