September 2020 – Page 8 – The view from left field

Higashioka Blasts 3 Homers, Cole In Postseason Form As Yankees Slam Blue Jays Again — CBS New York

The Yankees hit a season-best seven homers in another Bronx air show, thumping the Toronto Blue Jays 13-2 on Wednesday night.
Higashioka Blasts 3 Homers, Cole In Postseason Form As Yankees Slam Blue Jays Again — CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Kyle Higashioka hit a career-high three home runs, DJ LeMahieu connected twice and the resurgent New York Yankees hit a season-best seven homers in another Bronx air show, thumping the Toronto Blue Jays 13-2 on Wednesday night.

Luke Voit lofted a three-run drive for his major league-leading 19th homer and Clint Frazier added a solo shot as the Yankees won their seventh straight game following a 5-15 slide. New York moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Toronto for second place in the AL East, with the top two teams ensured spots in the expanded postseason that begins in less than two weeks.

Higashi-omg 😱 pic.twitter.com/wKpNuQTQ7u
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 17, 2020

LeMahieu, Voit and Frazier also connected Tuesday — Voit homered twice — when New York hit six home runs and pummeled Toronto 20-6. It’s the first time the Yankees have hit six homers in consecutive games.

Gerrit Cole (6-3) had another overpowering start for New York, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth. The right-hander completed seven innings of three-hit ball, striking out eight and walking two. He also took a no-hitter into the fifth in his previous start — a seven-inning, two-hit shutout against Baltimore in the opener of a doubleheader Friday.

Aaron Judge was activated from the injured list but wasn’t much help, going hitless with three strikeouts. The two-time All-Star had been out since Aug. 26 after re-aggravating a strained right calf.

Higashioka had never topped three homers in a season but has four in the past six days while emerging as Cole’s preferred batterymate. The last New York player with three homers in a game was teammate Gary Sánchez on April 7, 2019 at Baltimore.

The 30-year-old Higashioka hit a two-run homer in the third off Tanner Roark (2-2), a solo shot in the sixth against Jacob Waguespack and another two-run drive in the seventh off Hector Perez. He matched a career high with five RBIs.

One of the organization’s longest-tenured players after being drafted in 2008, Higashioka didn’t make the majors until 2017 and was routinely shuttled between Triple-A and the majors prior to this season. He started the year as Sánchez’s full-time backup and has been getting more playing time as Sánchez struggles. Higashioka is batting .250 in 12 games this season.

New York is the first team in major league history to have their Nos. 1 and 9 hitters connect at least twice in the same game, according to STATS.

Judge’s return gives manager Aaron Boone a full stable of position players after injuries to Judge, LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela nearly derailed New York’s season.

LeMahieu got the fully loaded Bronx Bombers going with his major league-leading fifth leadoff homer, a liner that narrowly cleared Yankee Stadium’s short right field fence. He also had for a two-run shot in the fourth, his ninth of the season. LeMahieu has five career multihomer games, including two this month.

Jonathan Villar ended Cole’s no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the sixth. Villar later scored on Cole’s wild pitch.

Jonathan Loaisiga relieved Cole and pitched a scoreless eighth in his first appearance since recovering from an undisclosed illness. Nick Nelson allowed Joe Panik’s solo homer in the ninth before finishing off the five-hitter.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: OF Teoscar Hernández (left oblique) was activated from the IL. … RHP Ken Giles was placed on the 10-day IL with a right flexor strain. … RHPs Perez and Waguespack were called up from the alternate site. Perez made his major league debut. … OF Derek Fisher was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee bruise. … LHP Anthony Kay was optioned and added to the taxi squad.

Yankees: LHP James Paxton (left flexor tendon strain) was transferred to the 45-day injured list, ending his season. … Torres (quad) was held out of the lineup for a second straight game with tightness that Boone said was minor. Boone said Torres was available as a late-game replacement and is expected to start Thursday. … Stanton (left hamstring) was held out a day after returning from the injured list as part of New York’s plan to ease him back into full-time duty. Boone expects Stanton to start Thursday.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Masahiro Tanaka (2-2, 3.16 ERA) closes out the series against Toronto, which hadn’t announced a starter.

Dwight Howard brings energy to the bench, while trying to grind out the bubble time — Daily News

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. >> On a recent evening as the clouds had lifted over the lake in the center of the Coronado Springs Resort, Dwight Howard went biking on an off-night. Behind him trailed his 6-year-old son, David, riding with the help of training wheels. It was a temperate evening, and the water reflected…
Dwight Howard brings energy to the bench, while trying to grind out the bubble time — Daily News

Sparks face Connecticut in elimination playoff game — Press Telegram

“I feel like the season is just beginning. The regular season is great, but that’s not what you play for.” Candace Parker said it after the Sparks’ regular-season finale, and it was an apt summation of how a team like Los Angeles views any given year in the WNBA. The goal is a championship. There…
Sparks face Connecticut in elimination playoff game — Press Telegram

Three keys to Lakers vs. Nuggets in 2020 Western Conference Finals — Press Telegram

Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday Sept. 16 edition of the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter from reporter Kyle Goon, who is among the few reporters with a credential inside the NBA bubble. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — He was all smiles when he was…
Three keys to Lakers vs. Nuggets in 2020 Western Conference Finals — Press Telegram

Best Defensive Play Ever? NBA Legend In Awe Of Bam Adebayo’s Game 1 Block — NESN.com

Is Magic Johnson on to something or was the Los Angeles Lakers legend simply a victim of the moment? Bam Adebayo helped seal the Miami Heat’s 117-114 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night by stuffing Jayson Tatum at the rim with seconds remaining in overtime. […]
Best Defensive Play Ever? NBA Legend In Awe Of Bam Adebayo’s Game 1 Block — NESN.com

Nuggets superstar Jamal Murray to Shaq, Barkley: “Start giving this team some (darn) respect” — The Denver Post

The outside noise was loud enough that it pierced the Orlando “bubble.”
Nuggets superstar Jamal Murray to Shaq, Barkley: “Start giving this team some (darn) respect” — The Denver Post

The outside noise was loud enough that it pierced the Orlando “bubble.”

Whether the Nuggets admitted or not – and sometimes they did – they saw the narrative of their second round series against the Clippers being carved. After the Game 1 pounding, the Nuggets would be lucky to avoid a sweep. Trailing 3-1 after Game 4, might as well fast-forward to the all-L.A. conference finals. Extend the series to six games? Not gonna happen.

After the Nuggets made NBA history Tuesday night, stunning the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 and becoming the first team in history to advance after facing two separate 3-1 deficits, they made it clear how close they were listening.

“You got Shaq, you got Charles (Barkley), I think Zach Lowe his name, I don’t even know,” Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray began, after hanging 40 points in the 104-89 win. “Stephen A. (Smith), all y’all better start giving this team some (darn) respect. Because we put in the work. We got a resilient team. We shouldn’t have been down 3-1 but to come back from 3-1 against the Clippers is a big achievement so it’s fun just to change that narrative.”

A day before Game 7, Nuggets coach Michael Malone cited ESPN’s experts, and mentioned how 19 of them predicted the Clippers would win. Not one said the series would advance to a Game 7.

“Nobody wants us here,” Nikola Jokic said in his postgame interview. “Nobody thinks we can do something. We prove ourselves and proved everybody we can do something. Next is Lakers another tough opponent for us. We just have to be out there and having fun.”

Jokic, himself the 41st pick in the 2014 draft, is the face of a team that’s fought for everything it’s earned, including its newfound respect.

“We don’t have a first pick,” he said. “We don’t have many kind of superstars. Everybody is working to get where they’re at. When we won the game I felt just relief. We did it.”

The Nuggets have a giant chip on their shoulder, and they’ve used it to make NBA history. No fans inside the bubble means players have to find motivation elsewhere. And if it’s in the perceived slights of pundits and prognosticators, they don’t need to apologize.

“It’s just fun to silence everybody,” Murray said. “We love it. That’s what makes it so special.”Popular in the CommunityAdChoicesSponsored

A’s Melvin happy to escape smoky Seattle: “You felt it, for sure” — Times-Standard

A’s manager Bob Melvin said Tuesday some of his players were feeling some minor effects of playing a doubleheader in worsening air quality the day before in Seattle, but nothing that would prevent them from playing that night against the Colorado Rockies. The A’s played the Mariners twice Monday as a thick haze inside the…
A’s Melvin happy to escape smoky Seattle: “You felt it, for sure” — Times-Standard

Clippers’ season of high hopes ends with a disastrous loss to Nuggets in Game 7 — Press Telegram

Huh. After all the hoopla, the historically high expectations, the appetizing promise of an all-L.A. showdown … the Clippers go down in the second round? It happened. If you’re a Clippers fan, you might say it happens. A young Denver squad walloped the win-now Clippers 104-89 on Tuesday in Game 7 of their Western Conference…
Clippers’ season of high hopes ends with a disastrous loss to Nuggets in Game 7 — Press Telegram

Nuggets stun their way into facing Lakers in Western Conference Finals — Daily News

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — They’re a team that’s faced the firing line six times and seen the other side. The Denver Nuggets are not the team most would have guessed would meet the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, but in the NBA bubble, brute survival is all that matters. And no team has been…
Nuggets stun their way into facing Lakers in Western Conference Finals — Daily News

World Series at Arlington, first time at one site since 1944 — MLB | NBC Sports

Major League Baseball and the players’ association agreed to play the entirety of the 2020 World Series at the Rangers’ new ballpark in Arlington, Texas.
World Series at Arlington, first time at one site since 1944 — MLB | NBC Sports

NEW YORK (AP) — The World Series will be played entirely at the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark in Arlington, Texas, as part of a bubble agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ association, the first time the sport’s championship will be played entirely at one site since 1944.

As part of an agreement finalized Tuesday, the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series will be part of a bubble designed to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, which decimated the regular season and limited it to a 60-game schedule for each club. The best-of-three first round of the postseason — expanded from 10 to 16 teams this year — will be at the top-seeded teams.

The World Series will be at Globe Life Park in Arlington, a retractable roof stadium with artificial turf that opened this year adjacent to the Rangers’ old ballpark. The American League Championship Series will be at San Diego’s Petco Park, and the National League at Globe Life Park.

The AL Division Series will be at San Diego and Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, and the NL Division Series at Globe Life and Houston’s Minute Maid Park.

Texas is last in the AL West at 17-30 entering Tuesday, with little chance of advancing to the postseason.

“In the view of our infectious disease experts, the biggest risk of exposure for players and staff is contact with family members and friends who have been exposed to COVID-19 in their communities,” Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem wrote in a memo sent to teams Monday night. “Nearly all of the positive test results that have been reported for players and staff in the last month can be traced back to contact with an infected family member, domestic partner, or friend outside of club facilities.”

Halem said MLB and the players’ association were in the process of finalizing details of the agreement, which provides for players to be tested daily during the postseason.

While the NFL plays the Super Bowl at a neutral site selected in advanced, baseball has resisted the idea, which has been long advocated by prominent agent Scott Boras.

The World Series was last played at one site in 1944 at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, where the Cardinals beat the Browns 4 games to 2. New York’s Polo Grounds hosted all the games in 1921 and 1922, the last two seasons it was the home of both the New York Giants and Yankees. The Giants won both titles.

AL teams in mathematical contention are to start a transition period on Sept. 22 and NL teams the following day in which up to 28 active roster players, 12 taxi-squad players and 50 additional personnel ranging from bullpen catchers to front-office staff must remain at the team’s transitional hotel or travel with the team on the road.

Under an exception wanted by the players’ association, any player who either lives him himself, lives with a spouse or domestic partner who is pregnant or has special medical needs documented by a physician or is living with children may quarantine at home during the transition period, with a provision that MLB will not approve a large number of requests to quarantine at home.

Only spouses, domestic partners, children and child care providers can stay with players during the transition period, and people other than players may not bring family to the transition hotel or on the road. Family members will not be allowed into the bubble hotels at the four sites unless they complete a supervised seven-day quarantine.

A player also may have up to six family members and quests stay at separate family hotels at the four sites. MLB said it will use best efforts to arrange visits in supervised, outdoor places.

NURSE SIGNS EXTENSION

RAPTORS SIGN NURSE TO CONTRACT EXTENSION

The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday they have signed head coach Nick Nurse to a multi-year contract extension. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. This past season, Nurse guided the Raptors to a 53-19 record during the regular season (second best in the NBA) and set a franchise-record with a .736 winning percentage. Toronto also reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the fifth straight year.

“Our confidence in Nick just continues to grow, and part of that comes from what we’ve experienced together. The past two seasons have been unlike any other in our team’s history – first, winning our championship, and then navigating a global pandemic and committing long-term to the fight against racism and for social justice,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said. “Nick has proved that he can coach on the court and lead in life, and we’re looking forward to accomplishing great things in the future.”

In his two seasons at the helm of the Raptors, Nurse has posted a 111-43 record (.721) during the regular season. In the playoffs, he has compiled a 23-12 mark (.657), while leading Toronto to its first NBA Championship in 2019. Nurse has earned Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honours three times (Jan. 2020, Oct./Nov. 2019, Nov. 2018) and coached Team Giannis at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago.

“My family and I will always be appreciative of Larry Tanenbaum and MLSE ownership for this opportunity. I’m grateful to Masai, Bobby, and the players for their trust and their hard work,” Nurse said. “Toronto has been my home for the past seven years, and I look forward to it being home for many more. I’ve watched this franchise grow and reach the pinnacle, and I look forward to the challenge of helping us win another championship.”

Nurse was named the 2019-20 NBA Coach of the Year, becoming the first coach to be selected as Coach of the Year in both the NBA and the NBA G League. Highlighting Toronto’s season last year was a franchise-record 15 straight victories (Jan. 15 – Feb. 10). The winning streak was the longest in Canadian sports history (NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and CFL).

In 2018-19, the Raptors won 58 regular season games and set franchise records for points per game (114.4), assists per game (25.4), rebounds per game (45.2), and three-point field goals made (1,105). The team went 16-8 in the postseason, defeating Orlando, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Golden State en route to the Raptors’ first NBA title.

A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Nurse was named the ninth head coach in Raptors history on June 14, 2018, taking the job after five years as an assistant coach with the team.

Nurse came to the NBA after several successful years in the NBA G League – where he was the only coach to lead two different teams to the league championship – Rio Grande Valley in 2013 and Iowa in 2011. For his accomplishments with the Energy, Nurse was named the 2010-11 recipient of the Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year award.

-RAPTORS-

Why Leandro Barbosa decided to join the Warriors’ coaching staff — Times-Standard

Leandro Barbosa has long known he wanted to become an assistant coach once his playing career was over. Now, as the Warriors’ newest assistant coach, Barbosa will help guide the next generation of Warriors — though sooner than expected. Barbosa, 37, believes he could have played professionally for a few more years. He is coming off…
Why Leandro Barbosa decided to join the Warriors’ coaching staff — Times-Standard

Month: September 2020