The 35-year-old superstar is averaging close to 20 points per game, and averaging 33.5 minutes of playing time in LA’s 4 games since the season resumed.

Although the Lakers have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, they are struggling offensively behind their 2-2 start. They are the only team out of the 22 playing in the Orlando bubble that is averaging less than 100 points per game, something that needs improvement if they are going to make the deep playoff run that fans are expecting.

Russel Westbrook of the Houston Rockets also missed the game due to a right triceps contusion, but Houston managed to beat the Lakers 113-97 anyways.

The post LeBron Sits as Lakers Continue Offensive Struggle appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The story of the game was Ryan Dobnak, the starting pitcher for the Twins who grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and attended around 150 Pirates games at PNC Park as a kid. Making his Pittsburgh “homecoming” as the opposing pitcher was not as he expected, as the 200 friends and family he estimated would have attended, had to watch from home instead, due to there being no fans allowed in stadiums in 2020.

With his parents trying to catch a glimpse of him from the Roberto Clemente bridge close to the stadium, Dobnak threw 6 shutout innings and only allowed 3 hits as he continued his hot start to the season and lowered his ERA to 0.60. The game remained 1-0 until the 9th inning when Max Kepler blew it open with a 3 run shot which proved to be the difference.

The Pirates scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a two-out 2 run home run from Josh Bell, but it wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh fell to 2-10, baseball’s worst record. Trevor Williams pitched 7 dominant innings, letting up 1 run on 3 weak hits, but he left the game at 1-0 and suffered his 3rd loss of the season.

The post Twins Win 6th Straight Match, First Team to 10 Wins appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After five days of quarantining in their Milwaukee hotel rooms, the team finally received 2 negative tests in a row- MLB’s protocol to resume play. The players and staff who tested positive were sent home to quarantine, and they include catcher Yadier Molina and shortstop Paul DeJong, 2 key players on offense and defense.

The Cardinals flew to Milwaukee for a weekend series but didn’t play there at all as more and more players tested positive. The series against Detroit was canceled as well and instead, the team will head back to St. Louis on Wednesday for 2 days of workouts before starting a series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Busch Stadium.

The challenge now will be completing the 60 game schedule, as they will now have to play 55 games in a 52 game span. This will likely include quite a few 7 inning doubleheaders that MLB approved recently, along with fewer off days.

The post Cardinals Cleared to Continue Season, Will Play on Friday appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Ohtani, a superstar in Japan, was expected to be the best two-way player since Babe Ruth pitched and played outfield in the 1910s. After Tommy John surgery shut down his season last year, he managed to make two disappointing starts in 2020, in which he posted an incredibly inflated 37.80 ERA, before shoulder discomfort and a drop in velocity ended his latest start on Sunday.

Shohei remains active on the Angels roster for the series beginning on Tuesday in Seattle and is able to play at DH if the team decides that rest is not needed. In six games at the plate, he is batting .148 with two homers and 7 RBIs- all at DH.

After the newest setback, baseball will have to wait another year to see if Ohtani will be able play at a high level from both sides of the field. Highly touted as a two way player, many hoped that he could approach Ruth’s dominance from the mound and plate in those short few years more than a century ago, but this seems more and more unlikely as time passes.

The post Ohtani Likely Done Pitching For Season, Day-to-Day at DH appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Jacob Slavin, the Hurricanes’ defenseman, made history by scoring the first NHL game in the month of August. The Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 3-2 to start off the new format of the NHL tournament. All Eastern Conference games are being played in Toronto while all Western Conference games are being played in the hub city of Edmonton.

The historic day featured 2 big upsets, with the No. 12 seed Chicago Blackhawks beating the No. 5 seed, hometown Edmonton Oilers 6-4. Chicago was led by rookie forward Dominik Kubalik who put up 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) to lead the victory in Game 1.

Later, the No. 12 seed Montreal Canadians upset the No. 5 seed Pittsburgh Peguins 3-2 in an overtime thriller. In addition, the New York Islanders beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 to round out the day of Eastern Conference competition, while the Calgary Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 in the Western Conference.

The post NHL Returns, Joins NBA and MLB, to the Excitement of Sports Fans appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After the Utah Jazz beat the New Orleans Pelicans to restart the wild 2020 NBA season, the LA Lakers took on the LA Clippers in Game 2. LeBron finished with 16 points, including the game winning shot, and added 11 rebounds and 7 assists against the Clipper’s superstar tandem of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

After George hit a 3 pointer under pressure to tie the game 101-101, LeBron missed a 16-foot jump shot, but managed to get his own rebound and put the go-ahead basket in with 12 seconds left. It was the first time in his two years with the Lakers that James scored a go-ahead basket with less than 15 seconds left.

The win was LeBron’s 837th and put him ahead of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, as he now stands alone in 9th place all-time in regular-season wins. Even more important is that the NBA is back at high-level basketball. If this game was any indication of what’s to come, we may see these two LA teams face off in more important playoff games farther down the line.

The post LeBron Sinks Winning Shot, As Lakers Beat Clippers on Opening Night appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Folty allowed 6 runs, 3 homers, and 4 walks in a short 3 1/3 inning outing on Monday night. The Braves lost 14-5 to Tampa Bay in the game, and the 28-year-old player had clearly lost weight to go along with a big dip in velocity, both signs that things were not right with the right-hander.

He was designated for assignment on Tuesday, but no team decided to take on his $2.3 million, the remaining money owed for his 2020 contract. Folty cleared waivers and was designated for assignment at the Braves’ Triple-A Gwinnett alternate sight.

Atlanta is hoping that he can regain his strength and redefine his pitching mechanics like he did last year when he came back from a two-month stint in Triple-A to finish the season a strong 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA. His ups and downs continued in the postseason as he dominated Game 2 of the NLDS with seven shutout innings against St. Louis, before completely falling apart in decisive Game 5, when he allowed 6 runs and recorded only one out in a 13-1 loss.

The post Braves Outright Former All-Star Pitcher Foltynewicz appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal was revealed this past offseason, a lot of noise was made from players around the league, especially from the Dodgers, their losing opponent in the “cheating season” of 2017. The two teams were not scheduled to face each other this year, but with the new 60 game schedule, the Dodgers came to Houston for the first time since Houston beat L.A. 13-12 in the incredible Game 5 of the 2017 World Series.

Kelly threw a fastball on a 3-0 pitch behind Alex Bregman’s head, and later taunted Carlos Correa on the way back to the dugout after striking him out. Although Kelly denied throwing at Bregman on purpose by saying, “My accuracy isn’t the best”, he threw inside at multiple Astros hitters and his obvious “pouty face” taunting of Correa has already become an internet sensation.

Dave Roberts will serve his one-game suspension immediately, while Kelly may appeal his. An eight-game suspension in a 60 game season, is as if he received a 22 game suspension, a hefty punishment even though the outspoken pitcher has received a similar punishment for intentionally throwing at the Yankees in 2018.

The post Joe Kelly Suspended 8 Games For Incident With Astros appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Hightower joins fellow Patriots running back Brandon Bolden, FB Danny Vitale, OT Marcus Cannon, and OL Najee Toran, who have all decided to opt out well before the season is set to start. As per agreement with the Players Association, players considered high risk will receive $350,000, while players who opt out not considered high risk, will receive $150,000.

Playing without Hightower will be a big hit to the Patriots’ defense. The 30-year-old is a team captain and calls the defensive signals. He was set to take an even larger role on the field this year after linebackers Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins left via free agency.

The versatile linebacker has played all over the field for the Patriots and has made some big plays in the playoffs to help New England win 3 Super Bowls during his career. The Covid-19 pandemic adds additional intrigue to a tumultuous offseason for the Patriots, after franchise QB Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay in March.

The post Hightower Joins Long List of Patriots Opting Out of 2020 Season appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The team was supposed to fly back to Miami Sunday evening to prepare for the home opener, but decided to delay the travel to Monday morning as they were awaiting results of more tests. After multiple players tested positive, they canceled the trip back to Miami, and will stay in quarantine in Philadelphia until MLB decides what the next step is.

In response, the Philadelphia Phillies canceled their next home game against the New York Yankees, which was scheduled to take place on Monday as well. The Marlins were the visiting team in Philadelphia all weekend and this poses a problem for the Yankees to be in the same clubhouse after so many players tested positive.

MLB scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday afternoon to decide what the next step is. While everyone is hopeful that the season can continue, the 2020 season seems in jeopardy after only one short weekend of play.

The post 2 MLB Games Canceled After Multiple Marlins Players Test Positive appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The 35-year-old superstar is averaging close to 20 points per game, and averaging 33.5 minutes of playing time in LA’s 4 games since the season resumed.

Although the Lakers have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, they are struggling offensively behind their 2-2 start. They are the only team out of the 22 playing in the Orlando bubble that is averaging less than 100 points per game, something that needs improvement if they are going to make the deep playoff run that fans are expecting.

Russel Westbrook of the Houston Rockets also missed the game due to a right triceps contusion, but Houston managed to beat the Lakers 113-97 anyways.

The post LeBron Sits as Lakers Continue Offensive Struggle appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The story of the game was Ryan Dobnak, the starting pitcher for the Twins who grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and attended around 150 Pirates games at PNC Park as a kid. Making his Pittsburgh “homecoming” as the opposing pitcher was not as he expected, as the 200 friends and family he estimated would have attended, had to watch from home instead, due to there being no fans allowed in stadiums in 2020.

With his parents trying to catch a glimpse of him from the Roberto Clemente bridge close to the stadium, Dobnak threw 6 shutout innings and only allowed 3 hits as he continued his hot start to the season and lowered his ERA to 0.60. The game remained 1-0 until the 9th inning when Max Kepler blew it open with a 3 run shot which proved to be the difference.

The Pirates scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a two-out 2 run home run from Josh Bell, but it wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh fell to 2-10, baseball’s worst record. Trevor Williams pitched 7 dominant innings, letting up 1 run on 3 weak hits, but he left the game at 1-0 and suffered his 3rd loss of the season.

The post Twins Win 6th Straight Match, First Team to 10 Wins appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After five days of quarantining in their Milwaukee hotel rooms, the team finally received 2 negative tests in a row- MLB’s protocol to resume play. The players and staff who tested positive were sent home to quarantine, and they include catcher Yadier Molina and shortstop Paul DeJong, 2 key players on offense and defense.

The Cardinals flew to Milwaukee for a weekend series but didn’t play there at all as more and more players tested positive. The series against Detroit was canceled as well and instead, the team will head back to St. Louis on Wednesday for 2 days of workouts before starting a series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Busch Stadium.

The challenge now will be completing the 60 game schedule, as they will now have to play 55 games in a 52 game span. This will likely include quite a few 7 inning doubleheaders that MLB approved recently, along with fewer off days.

The post Cardinals Cleared to Continue Season, Will Play on Friday appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Ohtani, a superstar in Japan, was expected to be the best two-way player since Babe Ruth pitched and played outfield in the 1910s. After Tommy John surgery shut down his season last year, he managed to make two disappointing starts in 2020, in which he posted an incredibly inflated 37.80 ERA, before shoulder discomfort and a drop in velocity ended his latest start on Sunday.

Shohei remains active on the Angels roster for the series beginning on Tuesday in Seattle and is able to play at DH if the team decides that rest is not needed. In six games at the plate, he is batting .148 with two homers and 7 RBIs- all at DH.

After the newest setback, baseball will have to wait another year to see if Ohtani will be able play at a high level from both sides of the field. Highly touted as a two way player, many hoped that he could approach Ruth’s dominance from the mound and plate in those short few years more than a century ago, but this seems more and more unlikely as time passes.

The post Ohtani Likely Done Pitching For Season, Day-to-Day at DH appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Jacob Slavin, the Hurricanes’ defenseman, made history by scoring the first NHL game in the month of August. The Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 3-2 to start off the new format of the NHL tournament. All Eastern Conference games are being played in Toronto while all Western Conference games are being played in the hub city of Edmonton.

The historic day featured 2 big upsets, with the No. 12 seed Chicago Blackhawks beating the No. 5 seed, hometown Edmonton Oilers 6-4. Chicago was led by rookie forward Dominik Kubalik who put up 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) to lead the victory in Game 1.

Later, the No. 12 seed Montreal Canadians upset the No. 5 seed Pittsburgh Peguins 3-2 in an overtime thriller. In addition, the New York Islanders beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 to round out the day of Eastern Conference competition, while the Calgary Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 in the Western Conference.

The post NHL Returns, Joins NBA and MLB, to the Excitement of Sports Fans appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After the Utah Jazz beat the New Orleans Pelicans to restart the wild 2020 NBA season, the LA Lakers took on the LA Clippers in Game 2. LeBron finished with 16 points, including the game winning shot, and added 11 rebounds and 7 assists against the Clipper’s superstar tandem of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

After George hit a 3 pointer under pressure to tie the game 101-101, LeBron missed a 16-foot jump shot, but managed to get his own rebound and put the go-ahead basket in with 12 seconds left. It was the first time in his two years with the Lakers that James scored a go-ahead basket with less than 15 seconds left.

The win was LeBron’s 837th and put him ahead of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, as he now stands alone in 9th place all-time in regular-season wins. Even more important is that the NBA is back at high-level basketball. If this game was any indication of what’s to come, we may see these two LA teams face off in more important playoff games farther down the line.

The post LeBron Sinks Winning Shot, As Lakers Beat Clippers on Opening Night appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Folty allowed 6 runs, 3 homers, and 4 walks in a short 3 1/3 inning outing on Monday night. The Braves lost 14-5 to Tampa Bay in the game, and the 28-year-old player had clearly lost weight to go along with a big dip in velocity, both signs that things were not right with the right-hander.

He was designated for assignment on Tuesday, but no team decided to take on his $2.3 million, the remaining money owed for his 2020 contract. Folty cleared waivers and was designated for assignment at the Braves’ Triple-A Gwinnett alternate sight.

Atlanta is hoping that he can regain his strength and redefine his pitching mechanics like he did last year when he came back from a two-month stint in Triple-A to finish the season a strong 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA. His ups and downs continued in the postseason as he dominated Game 2 of the NLDS with seven shutout innings against St. Louis, before completely falling apart in decisive Game 5, when he allowed 6 runs and recorded only one out in a 13-1 loss.

The post Braves Outright Former All-Star Pitcher Foltynewicz appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

After the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal was revealed this past offseason, a lot of noise was made from players around the league, especially from the Dodgers, their losing opponent in the “cheating season” of 2017. The two teams were not scheduled to face each other this year, but with the new 60 game schedule, the Dodgers came to Houston for the first time since Houston beat L.A. 13-12 in the incredible Game 5 of the 2017 World Series.

Kelly threw a fastball on a 3-0 pitch behind Alex Bregman’s head, and later taunted Carlos Correa on the way back to the dugout after striking him out. Although Kelly denied throwing at Bregman on purpose by saying, “My accuracy isn’t the best”, he threw inside at multiple Astros hitters and his obvious “pouty face” taunting of Correa has already become an internet sensation.

Dave Roberts will serve his one-game suspension immediately, while Kelly may appeal his. An eight-game suspension in a 60 game season, is as if he received a 22 game suspension, a hefty punishment even though the outspoken pitcher has received a similar punishment for intentionally throwing at the Yankees in 2018.

The post Joe Kelly Suspended 8 Games For Incident With Astros appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Hightower joins fellow Patriots running back Brandon Bolden, FB Danny Vitale, OT Marcus Cannon, and OL Najee Toran, who have all decided to opt out well before the season is set to start. As per agreement with the Players Association, players considered high risk will receive $350,000, while players who opt out not considered high risk, will receive $150,000.

Playing without Hightower will be a big hit to the Patriots’ defense. The 30-year-old is a team captain and calls the defensive signals. He was set to take an even larger role on the field this year after linebackers Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins left via free agency.

The versatile linebacker has played all over the field for the Patriots and has made some big plays in the playoffs to help New England win 3 Super Bowls during his career. The Covid-19 pandemic adds additional intrigue to a tumultuous offseason for the Patriots, after franchise QB Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay in March.

The post Hightower Joins Long List of Patriots Opting Out of 2020 Season appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The team was supposed to fly back to Miami Sunday evening to prepare for the home opener, but decided to delay the travel to Monday morning as they were awaiting results of more tests. After multiple players tested positive, they canceled the trip back to Miami, and will stay in quarantine in Philadelphia until MLB decides what the next step is.

In response, the Philadelphia Phillies canceled their next home game against the New York Yankees, which was scheduled to take place on Monday as well. The Marlins were the visiting team in Philadelphia all weekend and this poses a problem for the Yankees to be in the same clubhouse after so many players tested positive.

MLB scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday afternoon to decide what the next step is. While everyone is hopeful that the season can continue, the 2020 season seems in jeopardy after only one short weekend of play.

The post 2 MLB Games Canceled After Multiple Marlins Players Test Positive appeared first on yoursportspot.com.