A shortened baseball season isn’t weird enough to keep some traditions from continuing. The Pirates suck, the Dodgers are Skynet, and Aroldis Chapman is a cowardly asshat. Tonight he thought it’d be fun to fire a 101 MPH fastball directly at Michael Brosseau’s head, which came a millimeter or two from greatly altering Brousseau’s life, not just his career. Chapman would get his first save of the year, as he had spent the first month on the COVID list. And he will likely face no discipline for nearly killing a guy. Chapman will never step into a batter’s box, so Chapman will never face direct retaliation, but his teammates might.
After getting ejected, Rays skipper Kevin Cash reminded the world that he has “a whole damn stable of pitchers that throw 98 miles per hour.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone called it a “pretty scary comment.”
“I don’t think that’s right at all, but I’m not gonna get into it right now,” he said after the game.
And the Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu, who homered twice in the game, made note of what Cash had to say.
“The comments from their manager made their round pretty quick in our clubhouse. Obviously that’s a pretty serious threat.”
The Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka started the game off by drilling the Rays’ Joey Wendle with two outs in the first frame which got Cash hot right out of the gate. “It was clear as day,’’ Cash said.
Stay tuned for more as one of those guys who throes 98 – Charlie Morton – takes the mound against the Yankees tonight.
Get your popcorn ready.
The most anticipated event of the night was the first Game 7 the NBA offered up in the first round, and whether it was all the NBA was dealing with, living in a bubble, the frequency of games, or likely all of it, the Jazz and Nuggets looked pretty close to out on their feet. While their previous games had been displays that rivaled action movies, this one was a slog for most of it where everyone looked like they needed a hug and a stiff drink (then again, who doesn’t these days?)
Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell had been engaging in a memorable playoff battle throughout the series, but their tanks just looked depleted for the series conclusion. Mitchell had 22 on 9-of-22 shooting, and Murray only had 17 on 7-for-21 as Denver won 80-78. Poetry it was not.
Denver was led by Nikola Jokic, who went for 30 points and 14 boards, and was just a touch better than Rudy Gobert in their personal duel (19 and 18). The Nuggets were also able to survive their brain falling out of their ears in the final seconds, as after Mitchell turned the ball over with 10 seconds left with Denver up two, all the Nuggets had to do was run out the clock or wait for a foul. Instead Murray drove the floor and kicked to Torrey Craig, who compounded the idiocy by missing a layup he shouldn’t have been attempting in the first place. It left Mike Conley Jr. with a chance to walk off a Game 7 from three, but it tauntingly rimmed out.
The Nuggets won’t get much time to hit the oxygen tanks as they’ll start the second round against the Clippers on Thursday.
North of the border, a couple teams were able to keep their stays going. The Flyers fought off elimination by winning in OT, even though they coughed up a 3rd period, 3-1 lead to the Islanders in less time than it takes to piss. The Canucks were absolutely mauled by the Knights in Edmonton to the tune of getting outshot 2-to-1, but spot-starter Thatcher Demko turned away 42 shots in Vancouver’s 2-1 win and they’ll get to play one more game as well.
In other baseball news, it was ya-ha time in MLB as normally the 16 runs the Cardinals put up between licking casino doorknobs in Cincinnati would open some eyes. But not on the same night the Giants got three TDs and a safety against the Rockies (that’s 23 runs if you’re feeling disoriented with no NFL preseason games to get you back in the swing of things at this time of year). Alex Dickerson had three homers, the Giants as a whole pounded out 27 hits, with eight of the nine starters getting multiple hits in the 23-5 slaughter in Colorado.
Dickerson won’t even get the spotlight to himself though, as the Braves’ Marcell Ozuna also went deep three times last night against whatever collection of interns make up the Red Sox these days. But Atlanta only had a puny 10 runs tonight, so it’ll be immediately relegated from MLB or something. Which will thankfully keep the Braves from wasting everyone’s time in the playoffs again.
If only that were true.
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