At 21-18, the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in a playoff spot in the American League East.
Last night at the Rogers Centre, rookie Drew Hutchison threw six brilliant innings as the Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees to pass the Bronx Bombers into a playoff spot in the American League.
It was a very good pitching performance by Hutchison, as five Yankees bats (including first baseman Mark Teixeira) went hitless. Third baseman Yan Gomes, who became the first ever Brazilian-born player to play in the Major Leagues, got two hits in three at bats in his Major League debut.
The Toronto Blue Jays will probably have third baseman Brett Lawrie out of the lineup for a little while.
On Tuesday, the Langley, British Columbia native threw his helmet, which bounced and hit home plate umpire Bill Miller, while arguing a strikeout call in Toronto’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre Tuesday night.
If anything, it was a solid learning experience for Lawrie, who is in his second season with Toronto. So far in 2012, he leads the team with a .289 batting average.
Three game sevens (and possibly a fourth) will dominate my sports viewing this weekend.
In the NHL, there is a game seven in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This will be a battle of Alexander Ovechkin versus Henrik Lundqvist. Despite limited ice time, Ovechkin leads the Capitals in scoring with nine points, but will have to get by Hart Trophy nominee Lundqvist to move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in his career. The game can be seen on CBC tonight at 5:30pm.
In the NBA, there are two game sevens, both involving the Los Angeles teams. Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets in game seven of the Western Conference Quarterfinal tonight (TSN2, 8:30pm). Questions are surrounding the health of Lakers star Kobe Bryant who played with the stomach flu in game six on Thursday. Afterwards, he was not happy with Pau Gasol for his lack of effort and had no problem telling him so.
Then tomorrow the Memphis Grizzlies host the Los Angeles Clippers (ABC, 11am) in game seven of another Western Conference Semi-Final. Like the Nuggets, the Grizzlies were once down 3-1 in the series but have clawed their way back to force a game seven. Last night in Los Angeles, the Grizzlies won game six 90-88 on Marc Gasol’s 23 points.
Vladimir Guerrero (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
The Toronto Blue Jays surprised many yesterday by opening their wallets and signing a player very familiar to Canadian baseball fans.
Former Montreal Expo Vladimir Guerrero is coming back to Canada and to play in Toronto.
Guerrero, a native of the Dominican Republic, played with the Expos from 1996-2003 and was a four time all-star over that time, before moving on to play with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles.
Guerrero could be a key component the Blue Jays need. A key bat in the middle of the lineup. Guerrero obviously doesn’t have as much speed as he used to but continues to hit the ball with consistency, something Toronto needs with the early struggles of Jose Bautista. Last year, Guerrero hit .290.
This week on the show, we look at the tragic death of former NFL star Junior Seau and the latest bounty suspensions from that league, as well as news from the NHL that Raffi Torres is appealing his lengthy suspension. We also look at the situation in the Nashville Predators camp, along with speculation that the NY Islanders might soon have a new home.
In the GABBYs: Leo Messi, Jose Mourinho, Jered Weaver, the NY Knicks, the Montreal Canadiens and Jeremy Affeldt. The Punchline this week is, once again, the Charlotte Bobcats!
Team Canada will have a chance to build off of their tight 3-2 victory over Slovakia yesterday when they face their American archrival nemesis this morning at the World Hockey Championships in Helsinki (TSN, 10am).
The Americans are coming off a commanding opening victory over France yesterday where they won 7-2.
Even though, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Devan Dubnyk and Jordan Eberle missed the playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers, this tournament could be valuable experience for them.
An American Oilers fans would be familiar with is defenceman Jeff Petry, who is joined on the American blueline with Jack Johnson, Alex Goligoski and Cam Fowler.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday–NHL Eastern Conference Semi-Final Game 4–New York Rangers @ Washington Capitals–10:30am–NBC–After coming off the longest game of the playoffs Wednesday night (game went into triple overtime), the Capitals will try to tie the series at two games apiece. Brad Richards continues to produce in the playoffs. The former Conn Smythe Trophy winner leads the Rangers in playoff scoring with nine points. For the Rangers to get by Washington however, they will need more from Artem Anisimov and Ruslan Fedotenko. They combined for 25 regular season goals, but only have a combined total of one goal in the playoffs.
Saturday–MLB–Arizona Diamondacks @ New York Mets–1:30pm–FOX–Despite only hitting .254 last season, Mets third baseman David Wright has got off to a great start in 2012, batting .395 with eight extra base hits. Last night J.J. Putz recorded his sixth save of the season as Arizona defeated the New York Mets 5-4. Arizona is 14-13 while the NY Mets are 13-13.
The New York Yankees received a major blow on Friday when they received the news that Mariano Rivera, possibly the greatest closer in the history of the game, will be out for the rest of the season ater tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament last night.
So how did Rivera tear his ACL? Well, in practice. That’s right. Rivera tore his ACL while catching a fly ball in batting practice prior to the New York Yankees 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night.
That is why players should possibly listen to NBA great Allen Iverson, and simply not practice.
The good news for Yankees fans however is that Rivera, who has a career record 608 saves, plans to return in 2013 at the age of 43. The bad news is that this doesn’t help me at all in my fantasy baseball pool, where I have had to drop Rivera in favour of Chris Perez of the Cleveland Indians!
In the second no-hitter in a week, Jered Weaver delivered magic last night in Anaheim.
Weaver struck out nine and walked one as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim defeated the Minnesota Twins 9-0. Phil Humber of the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners on April 21 in a 4-0 win. Minnesota now has not recorded a hit in their last 15 innings.
The win comes at a time when the underachieving Angels are trying to salvage their season. After the Angels swept the Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays won two of three against Texas, the Angels are seven games back of the Rangers in the American League West.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, they were able to do something the Twins couldn’t do yesterday, and that was hit the baseball. Yunel Escobar had three hits, while Edwin Encarnacion and Kelly Johnson each delivered home runs in Toronto’s 11-5 win over Texas.
The Blue Jays are now three games back of the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League West and will start a four game series tonight in Anaheim starting tonight.
An eighth the way into the 2012 Major League Baseball season and the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in contention for first place in the American League East.
Despite being only two games above the .500 mark at 12-10, the Blue Jays are only two games back of the division leading Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays. Was more expected when the season started? A little bit. But right now the Jays must feel comfortable being in the position that they are at and that is being in contention for a playoff spot, especially when there is an extra wildcard spot in each league starting in 2012.
One thing that is a little surprising has been the awful start for Jose Bautista. Currently he is only hitting .190. Throughout his career, Bautista has struggled in the average department, but I thought he would be more consistent this season after he batted .302 in 2011.
Thankfully for Jays fans, Edwin Encarnacion has picked up the slack. The third baseman/designated hitter/first baseman is batting .310 with seven home runs and 20 runs batted in so far this year. He has also homered in his last three games where the Jays won two of three against Seattle.
Tonight will be an interesting night for the ball club as they are on American national television. ESPN is covering the game this evening as the Blue Jays play host to Yu Darvish and the American League West leading Texas Rangers.
This week on the show we’re looking at the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Roberto Luongo situation in Vancouver, some racist comments from Boston Bruins “fans” in reaction to Joel Ward’s series clinching overtime winner and the latest IIHF rankings.
In the GABBYs: Mark Visentin, the Edmonton Oil Kings, Tyrone Crawford, Mohamed Sanu, the Miami Marlins and a couple of Texas Rangers fans. The Punchline this week is the Charlotte Bobcats!
David Perron (Matthieu Masquelet, Wikimedia Commons)
Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs gets underway this weekend with the Conference Semi-Finals about to begin.
The series I will be most interested in is the St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. Can Darryl Sutter incorporate a similar game plan to shock the Blues like he did the Vancouver Canucks? The Blues looked great in beating the San Jose Sharks in five games and look even more dangerous in the playoffs than they did in the regular season because they are very healthy. Andy McDonald, Alexander Steen and David Perron, who all missed considerable time during the regular season, combined for 14 playoff points in five games.
As for the Kings, captain Dustin Brown was their best player against the Canucks. He led the team with five points and was very physical along the way.
Game one is Saturday night at 5:30pm on TSN. My pick is Blues in five. Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–ATP–Barcelona Open Semi-Finals–(3) David Ferrer–ESP vs. (11) Milos Raonic–CAN–5:30am–Sportsnet One–Milos Raonic won the match of his career on Friday, defeating Andy Murray of Great Britain in straight sets in the Barcelona Open quarterfinals. On Saturday, he will try and defeat another elite player in Spain’s David Ferrer. The Spaniard is 3-0 against Raonic including a victory in the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2011. Spaniards Fernando Verdasco is playing Rafael Nadal in the other semi-final.
This week on the show we’re talking NHL playoffs & suspensions, along with some of the first teams to move on to the next round and another clock controversy from last week’s action. Also: we discuss a perfect game in the MLB and a legend leaving women’s basketball.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Jamie Moyer, Washington Capitals fans, an Alabama parent, the Charlotte Bobcats and the Orlando Magic. The Punchline this week is high school baseball player Jameson Painter.
History was made in the baseball world on Saturday afternoon in Seattle, as Phil Humber of the Chicago White Sox became the 21st player in Major League Baseall history to deliver a perfect game.
Humber, who had Tommy John surgery, prior to playing in the Major Leagues, struck out nine as Chicago beat Seattle 4-0. There were no perfect games last year. Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies was the last pitcher to throw a perfect game in 2010.
Humber was a very unsuspecting pitcher to throw a perfect game. Last year he went 9-9 with a 3.75 earned run average. He also had the privilege to throw in front of a national television audience on FOX.
In other baseball news, the Toronto Blue Jays might be slow out of the gate at 8-6 but they were ale to deliver some defensive magic Friday night. For the first time since 1979, the Blue Jays turned a triple play in a 4-3 win over Kansas City.
The Blue Jays are 8-6 after their 9-5 win over Kansas City Saturday. Even though all-star Jose Bautista is only hitting .200, the team is only half a game back of the New York Yankees in the American League East.
It’s amazing. The Los Angeles Kings have all of a sudden become Alberta’s team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Almost hated by Edmonton Oiler fans 20 years ago because they acquired their superstar Wayne Gretzky, the Kings are having a strong following at the present time in Alberta by Oilers and Flames fans that just don’t want to see the Vancouver Canucks go far.
Sunday night at Rogers Arena, the President’s Trophy winning Canucks will try to prevent elimination as they will take on a Los Angeles Kings team up 3-1 in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Game five can be seen Sunday night at 6pm on CBC.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday & Sunday–NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 5 & 6–Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins–NBC–1pm–With the series tied 2-2, the Capitals and Bruins will now play an abbreviated best-of-three to determine who goes on to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Playing back-to-back games is difficult in the regular season, and I can’t imagine what it is like come playoff time where the mental intensity can be emotionally draining. Brian Rolston, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the New York Islanders, leads the Bruins in playoff scoring along with three points in four games.
At 21-18, the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in a playoff spot in the American League East.
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