In Oakland last night, the NY Yankees got a big lift from Ivan Nova, who's been relegated to the bullpen this season but started last night in place of the injured CC Sabathia, who's actually getting set to return from the DL tonight. But even with Sabathia back, Nova likely won't be heading back to the bullpen any time soon.
Nova went six innings, giving up just one run on four hits in a 4-1 win over the A's, and since Sabathia hit the DL, Nova has gone 3-1 in his stead and can boast an ERA under two in the process. Brett Gardner reached base four times on two hits and two walks, and Aaron Hicks had an RBI double to give Nova all the offense he would need. Game two of the four game set is tonight with Sabathia back on the hill for the Yankees against A's ace Sonny Gray, who's struggling a bit this season, winless over his last four starts.
Matt Harvey of the NY Mets has been dubbed "The Dark Knight", but the way things are going for Harvey right now, the more appropriate Batman character comparison would be Harvey Dent, who morphed into the villain known as "Two-Face" to reflect the duality of his half good, half evil nature. Two-Face would often decide whether to commit an evil act by flipping a coin. If it came up on the wrong side, you wouldn't want to be around to see what happened, and right now, Mets fans are seeing the decidedly bad side of the Harvey coin. Remember that just last year Harvey was one of the top pitchers in the game, and was a major reason the Mets won the National League pennant. But last night, after his worst outing of the season, giving up six earned runs on eight hits and two walks, and failing to survive the second inning in a 9-1 loss to the Washington Nationals, Harvey's record has dropped to 3-6 and his ERA has ballooned to 5.77.
He left the game to a chorus of boos, proving the residents of Gotham, or Queens anyway, have somewhat short memories of what their heroes have done. On the other side of the hill, Washington's Steven Strasburg went through the Mets line-up like The Penguin at a raw-fish buffet, striking out ten over six innings to improve to 7-0 on the year. The Nationals were taking a chance that the hard throwing Starsburg would make a full recovery from Tommy John surgery that shelved him last season, and it turned out to be a smart move. What's wrong with Harvey, however, is anyone's guess. He said after the game that there's nothing wrong with him physically, so maybe whatever's plaguing him this season is in his head, and that's been a problem Batman has had to work through in his years of fighting the good fight, and with the exception of the George Clooney/Ben Affleck iterations, he's mostly figured it out, so Mets fans, don't give up on the Dark Knight just yet.
The Boston Red Sox were idle last night. They're back home this evening to welcome old friend Terry Francona to Fenway Park for a series against the Cleveland Indians.
To the NHL playoffs, and after taking game one from the San Jose Sharks, the St. Louis Blues have hit a goal-scoring drought, and it couldn't come at a worse time. The Sharks blanked the Blues for the second consecutive game, winning 3-0 at the Shark Tank in San Jose last night to take a two games to one lead in the western conference finals. Martin Jones, who was actually acquired by the Boston Bruins for about five minutes before being traded away for reasons that don't adhere to any rational analysis or justifiable explanation known to humans, pitched his second shutout in as many games. And just to pour a little lemon juice into that paper cut, don't forget that Sharks veteran superstar Joe Thornton was a number one draft pick for the Bruins and skated for a few years in Beantown before Boston shipped him off to San Jose for three players whose names I'll wager a real American dollar you can't name without looking them up on the interwebs.
In the NBA playoffs, ten up ten down, for King James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs swept their first two playoff series against Detroit and Atlanta, and now they've won their first two games against the Toronto Raptors in the eastern conference finals after an easy-breezy 108-89 win last night. The series shifts north of the border for games three and four but this looks like another mismatch for LeBron and company, and folks in Cleveland, hoping against hope for their first championship title in any sport in more than fifty years, are probably looking ahead already to the finals, while also wondering when that other shoe is going to drop. When the Cavs do get the finals after defeating Toronto, and they will, we'll have a little primer on the particular grief that comes with being a Cleveland sports fan.
Locally, the Castleton Spartans are still alive in the regional NCAA baseball tournament after a 3-1 win over Union yesterday. Devin Hayes and Michael LeBeau were dominant on the mound for Castleton, combining to allow just four hits in the victory, which knocks Union out of the tournament.
Finally, the French Open tennis tournament begins on Sunday, and Roger Federer will not win it. Federer announced yesterday he is withdrawing from the tournament due to a nagging injury.
