Sports
Cubs take on Pirates in battle between stellar and subpar offenses
Apr 29, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker (right) congratulates designated hitter Seiya Suzuki (27) after his two-run home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the seventh inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images Veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd was delighted to join a Cubs team that had potential for offensive firepower and a strong defense when he signed with Chicago in the offseason.
And the Cubs, leading the National League in batting average and runs — and sitting second in home runs — have not been disappointing.
They showed that scoring ability Tuesday night with a 9-0 win over the Pirates, and Boyd will hope for the same run support when he faces host Pittsburgh in the second game of a three-game series on Wednesday night.
In the first game of the series, all nine batters in the Cubs’ lineup recorded at least one hit, and none struck out, marking the first time that’s happened since July 3, 2013. Seiya Suzuki blasted one of four home runs for Chicago and came within a single of hitting for the cycle.
Said Boyd: “It’s the reason I signed here and why we all believe to dream big. We want to be a team that’s playing at the end of October, but there’s a lot to do until then.”
In five starts this season, Boyd (2-2, 2.54 ERA) has been the beneficiary of seven runs in each of his two wins and a combined two runs in his two losses. In his most recent outing, a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 23, he gave up double-digit hits (10) for the first time this season, allowing six runs (three earned). He surrendered two home runs as he walked one and struck out four.
The 34-year-old Boyd, who is with his fifth major league club, is 0-3 with a 7.11 ERA in five career starts against the Pirates. His most recent start against them was his most successful, even though he took a 3-0 loss. Pitching for the Cleveland Guardians last Aug. 31, he gave up one run on four hits in six innings.
On Wednesday, he will face a Pittsburgh lineup that continues to struggle, after being shut out for the fifth time this season. The Pirates are next to last in batting in the National League — .224 compared with the Cubs’ .263.
Multiple injuries to projected starters prompted the Pirates to move their Wednesday starter, Carmen Mlodzinski (1-3, 6.95 ERA), from the bullpen to the rotation. But the 26-year-old has struggled overall, especially when he faces a lineup for the second and third time in a game.
His most recent start last Thursday produced slightly better results than his prior two outings, as he allowed three runs on five hits, including a home run, struck out four and walked one in his team’s 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
The Pirates took a 3-0 lead into the fourth inning before Mlodzinski gave up three runs in the inning.
After the game, he dissected his performance.
“The consistent things I’m noticing are my fastballs are being driven down in the zone, especially when I start to fatigue,” Mlodzinski said. “I thought (Thursday) I did a better job of that, getting my fastball up in the zone later in the game, but it’s not necessarily my fastball getting damaged. It’s more the tight slider, and I’m not creating the space I need to create in the zone for guys to respect the top of the zone with the hard stuff so the slider can play better.”
Although Pittsburgh starters Jared Jones and Johan Oviedo are not ready to make their season debuts as they recover from injuries, Mlodzinski’s struggles have prompted many to question whether the Pirates should promote one of their top pitching prospects from the minor leagues and move Mlodzinski back into the bullpen.
Mlodzinski has never started against the Cubs but has a 2.45 ERA in 7 1/3 career relief innings against them.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2?
Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.
Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.
“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.
That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.
After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.
Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.
“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”
Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.
Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.
“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”
New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.
Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.
“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.
As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.
“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”
The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.
That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top.
Sports
Pistons seek return to identity vs. Magic after Game 1 shocker
Apr 19, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) is defended by Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) in the second half during the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images After an exceptional regular season, this wasn’t the start to the NBA playoffs that the Detroit Pistons envisioned.
Reeling from a stunning Game 1 loss in which only two players reached double figures, the Eastern Conference’s top seed heads into Game 2 Wednesday against the visiting Orlando Magic facing early pressure to reset the best-of-seven series.
The eighth-seeded Magic controlled the opener from the start, never trailing and leaning on a balanced offensive attack. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points while Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to help close out the 112-101 win.
For Detroit, the issue wasn’t just the loss — it was how it happened. The Pistons never established their defensive identity and struggled to find consistent offense beyond star guard Cade Cunningham, two areas that will be central entering Game 2.
“It starts, always, with us defensively,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “When you go back and watch the film of that (game), we weren’t ourselves defensively. The telling tale is typically when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton.
“… We went 38 (times) but they went 19. So that means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being handsy, being aggressive. That kind of sets the tone for us.”
Offensively, the Pistons leaned on Cunningham, who scored 39 points, but got little other support — scoring their fewest points in nearly three months, since a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29. Detroit will need more help from All-Star center Jalen Duren, who was held to just eight points and seven rebounds in Game 1.
“They came out ready from the jump,” Duren said. “We didn’t really meet their intensity. They’ve been playing with their backs against the walls the last few weeks, so they were already kind of already rolling. I think we just got to do a better job meeting that intensity.”
Duren said the Pistons remain confident despite the loss, which extended their home playoff losing streak to 11 games, the longest in NBA history.
“We know the type of team we are,” Duren said. “We feel like we’re the better team. We know that we’ve just got to make adjustments and come out smarter, come out playing harder.”
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said he has talked to his team about not becoming too overconfident coming off Sunday’s win.
“It’s one game at a time,” Mosley said of his message to the team. “It’s the reality that, yeah, you did get the Game 1 win, but now you have to go and figure out how to get a Game 2 (win). There’s going to be, obviously, the positive talk about what you’ve done, and thinking there’s reasons to celebrate, but at the end of the day, it’s one game, and that’s the most important piece that we’ve talked about: just taking it one game at a time.”
Banchero said the team has received the message, and he believes the key for the Magic is to play defense like they did in the opener.
“I thought we were on a string, just communicating, talking out coverages,” Banchero said. “I think it’s just going to continue to take that, being aggressive, being the aggressors on defense and just not trying to give them much. Obviously they’re going to make shots, but just not trying to give them any free looks.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Lynx star Napheesa Collier (ankle) targets June for on-court work
Mar 2, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Unrivaled Co-founder Napheesa Collier at Barclay’s Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images The Minnesota Lynx said Tuesday that star forward Napheesa Collier’s rehab from left ankle surgery is “progressing as expected,” and she could resume on-court activities in early June.
The team plans to release updates on Collier’s progress when available.
The timeline means Collier will miss, at minimum, the first month of the WNBA season, which begins May 10 for the Lynx.
Collier underwent surgery on her ankle on March 24 after sustaining a severe injury during the 2025 playoffs. Per reports at the time, she sustained a Grade 2 tear of three ligaments in the ankle and a muscle in her left shin on a collision during Game 3 of the playoff semifinal series vs. Phoenix.
Collier, 29, averaged a career-high 22.9 points and shot 40.3% from 3-point range to go with 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last year. The back-to-back WNBA Most Valuable Player runner-up, Collier is a five-time All-Star and earned MVP honors in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup final and the 2025 All-Star Game.
–Field Level Media
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