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J.D. Martinez Goes Long Ball for Win

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DUNEDIN – Boston’s designated hitter J.D. Martinez hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the Red Sox to an 8-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at the Jays’ spring training and temporary home field in Florida.

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It was the 33-year-old Martinez’s 250th career homer and 12th this season. Bobby Dalbec hit a three-run homer for Boston, and Alex Verdugo had an RBI groundout in the ninth off Rafael Dolis (1-1) before Martinez’s long ball.

Phillips Valdez (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, and Matt Barnes struck out three in the ninth for his 10th save.

Bo Bichette had three hits for Toronto. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 2-for-5 with two runs, and Randal Grichuk had two hits and two RBIs.

The Jays continue to play in Florida but will soon move north to play in Buffalo, NY as COVID-19 restrictions do not allow for regular travel from the USA to Canada.

 

Bruins Win in Double-OT, 3-2

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) –  Overtimes are us!

Boston’s Craig Smith took fast advantage of a momentary lapse of judgement by Washington’s reserve goalie Ilya Samsonov to deposit the game-winner 5:48 into the second overtime to lead the Bruins to victory over the Capitals, 3-2, in the key Game 3 of their East Division first-round series at TD Garden.

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Smith went behind the opposing net to pounce on a loose puck, then wrapped it around the left side of the goal before Samsonov could get back into position after he misplayed a puck behind his own goal.

Smith’s fortunate – right place, right time – goal gave the Bruins a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series.

Taylor Hall and Brad Marchand each had a goal for the Bruins, who kept their momentum rolling after a 4-3 overtime win on the road in Game 2. Goalkeeper Tuukka Rask made 35 saves for Boston.

Washington’s all-star Alex Ovechkin and Nic Dowd scored for the Capitals. Samsonov made his series debut in net after being activated from the COVID-19 list and he made 40 saves.

All three games in the series have been decided in overtime and each of the last 12 playoff games between the Caps and Bruins has been decided by one goal, extending the longest such streak in NHL history.

Game 4 is Friday night in Boston.

Celtics Play Well, Play “In”

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BOSTON – Boston’s all-star forward Jayson Tatum scored 23 of his 50 points in the third quarter and the Celtics advanced to the NBA Playoffs with a 118-100 victory over the Washington Wizards in the NBA’s new “play-in” tournament. Washington will play the Indiana Pacers (144-117 winners over Charlotte) on Thursday with the winner grabbing the final Eastern Conference playoff slot.

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All-Star Kemba Walker added 29 points as Boston, which had lost five of its final six regular-season games, claimed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference bracket. The Celtics will meet the second-seeded Brooklyn Nets in a first-round matchup, with Game 1 set for Saturday night.

Washington, which went 17-6 to finish the regular season and outscored Boston 33-25 in the second quarter of play, led 56-55 at the beginning of the third quarter before the Celtics exploded with 14 straight points as part of a 19-2 run.

 

Slumping Celtics Take on Washington

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Services Reports) – The oft-injured, chemistry-challenged Boston Celtics ended the NBA regular season in a deep slump, while the surging Washington Wizards soared to the finish line. Yet, with the NBA’s new Play-In pre-playoff tournament beginning this week, the two teams will converge Tuesday night when the Celtics host the Wizards. The winner will land the No. 7 seed for the Eastern Conference Playoffs, while the loser will get another attempt to play their way in on Thursday night.

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The play-in games are going to be exciting for fans and it puts an added weight and added importance,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “And then once you get into the playoffs and teams dial into each other and prepare for each other, you see everybody’s level rise.”

The Celtics (36-36), who finished seventh in the Eastern Conference, need to raise their level now as they struggled down the stretch with five losses in six games and nine of their past 13. In previous NBA seasons, the Celtics would be facing the No. 2 Brooklyn Nets in a first-round Best of 7 series, beginning in Brooklyn.

Regardless, the Celtics are limping into the postseason, having recently lost standout swingman Jaylen Brown (wrist) for the rest of the season. He averaged 24.7 points per game and losing Brown’s firepower hurts even more when the opponent trots out Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook as the starting backcourt.

Washington (34-38), which is in the eighth position, was red-hot down the stretch with 17 wins in its past 23 games. Westbrook went into high-level triple-double mode and finished with 38 on the season and 184 for his career, eclipsing NBA legend Oscar Robertson‘s long-held record of 181.

Beal finished second in the NBA in scoring at 31.3 points per game but is less than full strength due to a strained left hamstring that caused him to miss three games before he returned Sunday and scored 25 points in a 115-110 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

“There’s no set-backs, which is good,” Beal said. “I didn’t injure it any worse than what it was. Obviously, it still probably won’t be 100 percent. It is just a matter of managing it as best I can.”

Westbrook recorded triple-doubles in 20 of his past 24 appearances and his first season of teaming up with Beal has been a big success. He averaged a triple-double for the fourth time in the past five seasons, recording an NBA-leading 11.7 assists to go with 22.2 points and a career-high 11.5 rebounds.

After having to yield to James Harden last season with the Houston Rockets, Westbrook has been free to play the game his way under Washington coach Scott Brooks, who was previously his coach in Oklahoma City.

“You gotta give credit to our coach because he’s done an amazing job of making adjustments on the fly,” Westbrook said of Brooks. “The players always get the recognition, but Scotty has done a hell of a job of being consistent and finding ways to make us better along with the coaching staff.”

There will certainly be the eyes on the Boston coach as well as Stevens’ club took a step back this season after losing in the Eastern Conference finals in three of the past four seasons.

This time, the Celtics are still trying to make it into the field and multiple players have been ailing down the stretch, including star forward Jayson Tatum (ankle).

Tatum isn’t worried about the injury for Tuesday, but he understands his club needs to step up its performance.

“It’s been such an up-and-down season,” said Tatum, who averages 26.4 points per game. “Obviously, the last couple of games haven’t gone our way.”

Can Bruins Bring “Ole Mo” Back Home?

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Services Report) – Boston forward Brad Marchand and his Bruins teammates will attempt to build on their momentum as their first-round series against the Washington Capitals shifts to TD Garden for Game 3 on Wednesday night.

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Marchand scored just 39 seconds into overtime to give the Bruins a 4-3 win at Washington on Monday night to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1. The Capitals were 3-2 overtime winners in Game 1 Saturday after Nic Dowd scored 4:41 into the extra period.

Through eight periods, the Bruins and Capitals have each scored six goals and Boston holds a narrow 74-71 advantage in shots on goal.

“Obviously, they’re hard games. They’re playing tough, they’re playing physical, and they’re not giving up a ton,” Marchand said. “It (was a) big one to win, but it doesn’t matter how good it feels. Game’s over and we’ve got to get prepared for the next one.”

Marchand’s winner was the fastest in overtime in franchise history, beating out the legendary Bobby Orr’s iconic leaping goal that finalized a sweep of the Stanley Cup Final against St. Louis on May 10, 1970, by one second.

Boston will needs its top line to show up like it did on Monday to take control of the series. After going scoreless in Game 1, the Bruins’ “perfection line” of Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak combined for three points in the win.

Shockwaves From Failed Super League

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By CHRISTOPHER GUMINA, Column Contributor

Just as fast as it arrived, the Super League disappeared. All six of the English clubs (Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Liverpool) pulled out just days after the announcement, and most of the other teams followed. Juventus, Barcelona, and Real Madrid are the only clubs remaining, and given the current situation it seems impossible that they will be able to maintain their membership much longer.

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On April 21st, after most of the teams had already withdrawn, the Super League released a statement reading: “Given the current circumstances, we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project, always having in mind our goals of offering fans the best experience possible while enhancing solidarity payments for the entire football community.”
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, who was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the league and would have served as its chairman, claimed that the league was merely on “standby,” as all the clubs had signed binding contracts and couldn’t leave so easily. It appears at the moment as if the clubs that did leave are willing to risk potential legal action in order to avoid further infuriating their fanbase.

Each of the six English clubs apologized in one manner or another – Arsenal and Chelsea released open letters, while Liverpool team owner John Henry – also co-owner of the Boston Red Sox of MLB fame – recorded a short video – both to their fans and to the other 14 Premier League clubs that had not been included in the plan. Man United executive Ed Woodward, who had been at the club since its takeover by the Glazer family in 2005, resigned almost immediately. It was reported that this was due to differences with the ownership group over the ESL, but has been more broadly intimated that Woodward was a supporter of the league from the start and was simply attempting to save face.

Either way, each of these clubs has suffered immensely in the wake of the ESL’s collapse. Monetarily, this came in the form of a 15 million Euro “donation,” with the money going to support grassroots soccer, and a “Club Commitment Declaration,” supported by UEFA. This declaration included the aforementioned “donation,” as well as an agreement to forgo 5% of the revenue the teams would have received from European competition in the 2021-22 season and to a 100 million Euro fine if they ever attempted to play in an “unauthorized competition” ever again.

However, where these teams truly suffered was with their fans. The amount of vitriol directed at these clubs, by their own supporters and supporters of other teams, in the wake of the ESL was truly shocking. Rarely does the Twitterverse entirely agree on one topic, but there was almost universal condemnation of the Super League. For the teams left out of the competition this opposition was obvious: those included would become richer at the expense of those excluded. Smaller clubs already reeling from the pandemic would falter and fail.

However, at first glance the opposition from supporters of clubs involved in the competition makes less sense. Each team would benefit financially, allowing them to sign the best players and improve the overall quality of the soccer on display. For these fans, the money did not matter. Instead it was about the history, the “cold, rainy nights in Stoke” as some fans like to say.
These fans don’t want to watch Arsenal vs. Barcelona or AC Milan vs. Real Madrid on a weekly basis, with a playoff structure similar to that of American sports. They want to watch the old rivalries and compete for the old trophies. To these fans the spirit and authenticity of their clubs matters far more than winning a meaningless competition. Because to them, that’s really what the Super League is. There are no stakes, no threat of relegation. A Super League team could lose every game of the pitch and suffer no consequences, while raking in millions off it. This is antithetical to everything soccer has stood for over the centuries it’s been played.

It now seems as though teams are finally recognizing the error of their ways, although it could just as easily be a PR campaign to make sure fans still buy jerseys and tickets next season. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham are currently in talks over a pre-season Charity Cup instead of the typical pre-season tours which take teams all over the world to play exhibition matches against different teams. All the money would be donated directly to charity, in the hopes of winning back fan support.

Only time will tell if this gesture proves effective. At the moment, each of these teams still has serious ground to cover before they achieve the level of fan support they had before this debacle. Even if/when things get fully back to normal, soccer fans won’t forget that these 12 clubs put money over their fanbases, something that will leave scars for years to come.

Capitals Defeat Bruins in Overtime

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WASH DC – Nic Dowd scored the winning goal to give the host Washington Capitals a 3-2 overtime win over the visiting Boston Bruins in Saturday’s Stanley Cup playoffs opener.

Tom Wilson and Brenden Dillon also scored for the Capitals, and back-up goaltender Craig Anderson stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced after being forced into action midway through the first period due to an injury suffered by starting goalie Vitek Vanecek.

Jake DeBrusk and Nick Ritchie each scored for the Bruins while goal-keeper Tuukka Rask made 29 saves in the loss.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven East Division series will be Monday in Washington.

Anderson, who will celebrate his 40th birthday this week, saw his first playoff action since May 25, 2017 when he was the keeper for the Ottawa Senators. The veteran played in only four NHL games this season, in which he posted a 2-1-0 record with a 2.13 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.

Washington’s No. 1 goalie Ilya Samsonov was removed from the league’s COVID-19 protocol list on Saturday but didn’t play.

Wilson, who had a two-point game, opened the scoring by taking advantage of a bad break for Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, whose stick broke when he attempted a point shot. Wilson executed a give-and-go with Oshie on the resulting odd-man rush before he buried a shot from the left circle at the 6:22 mark.

Boston’s DeBrusk evened the score seven minutes later. After Curtis Lazar won the offensive-zone faceoff, pulling the puck back, DeBrusk quickly fired a long shot that eluded Vanecek as he did the splits and appeared to suffer a pulled groin muscle that forced him from the game.

Red Sox Come From Behind vs LAA

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BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox won their second straight game, following a 3-game losing streak, and are now 12-8 at home, 12-5 since being swept by Baltimore to open the season. With their 4-3 victory over the LA Angels, the Red Sox earned their MLB-best 16th come-from-behind win.

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Trailing 3-2 entering the bottom of the 7th inning, Boston rallied behind a single by RF Hunter Renfroe and 1B Bobby Dalbec‘s subsequent two-run home run. Renfroe had hit a two-run homer of his own in the Red Sox half of the 2nd inning to open the scoring. In Dalbec’s last six games (beginning 5/7), he is batting 7-for-21 (.333) with three home runs and nine RBI.

Shonhei Ohtani hit his American League co-leading 11th homer of the 2021 season for the Angels, who lost their third straight.

Boston reliever Matt Andriese (2-2) was credited with the win despite allowing José Iglesias’ two-run double in the seventh, and closer Matt Barnes struck out the side in the ninth for his ninth save of the year. Boston starter Nick Pivetta went 6.0 innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out seven. Pivetta, who earlier in the week was put on COVID-19+ protocol due to his reaction to his second vaccine, held LA scoreless before Ohtani’s two-out homer in the 6th.

 

Red Sox Avoid Sweep vs. A’s

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BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox snapped a three-game losing streak and avoided a three-game series sweep with their 8-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics Thursday night at Fenway Park. The win boosted Boston’s record to 11-8 at home since being swept and starting the season 0-3 vs. the Baltimore Orioles.

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Sox starter Garrett Richards went 6.0 innings, and allowed five hits, three walks while striking out four A’s. He reduced his ERA to 3.89 this season (18 ER/41.2 IP), and ranks as the second-lowest among Red Sox starters. Richards is 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA (6 ER/25.0 IP) in his last four starts.

Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts broke out a mini-slump and went 3-for-3, with a run scored, a home run, double and three RBI. Bogaerts hit a two-run HR in the 1st inning, an RBI double in the 2nd, and singled in the 4th inning and now leads the majors in hits (49).

Boston 1B Bobby Dalbec went 2-for-4, with a home run as he hit a two-run blast to center field off Athletics’ starter Sean Manaea in the 2nd inning. Dalbec is batting .351 with an .990 OPS vs. lefties in 2021 (13-for-37, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, BB).

Manaea went only 2.0 innings, allowed 10 hits and seven runs, with three runs in the 1st and 2nd innings. The game marked the first time Manaea allowed three or more  runs in multiple innings of a start as he set season-lows with 2.0 innings pitched and season highs in runs (7) and hits (10).

Sports Biz: Bruins Extend Radio Deal

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BOSTON – (Source: Official News Release) – Greater Boston-area radio station – 98.5 The Sports Hub – and the Boston Bruins announced today a new multi-year extension to their partnership. As the flagship station of the Boston Bruins and the Boston Bruins Radio Network, the station is proud to broadcast all Bruins games for years to come.

In addition to broadcasting all Bruins games, 98.5 The Sports Hub will continue to air 30-minute pre- and post-game shows along with the two-hour weekly program, “The Hockey Show” which airs on Saturday from 9am-11am during season.

“The Sports Hub consistently delivers quality game broadcasts and comprehensive hockey coverage for our fans, and they have been crucial in joining our efforts to grow the game of hockey throughout New England,” said Bruins team president Cam Neely.

“We are thrilled to continue our longstanding partnership with the Boston Bruins and to be able to share our passion for the Bruins with our loyal New England fans,” said Mary Menna, VP & Market Manager, Beasley Media Boston.

“When the Sports Hub launched in 2009, we were committed to bringing our Bruins programming to another level,” said Sports Hub program director Rick Radzik. “Now, 12 years into our relationship, we’ve both achieved some great successes. I’m very pleased that we will continue to provide listeners with the excellent Bruins coverage they’ve come to expect.”

98.5 The Sports Hub, the country’s top sports station and the #1 station in Boston with men and adults.