Sports
Mariners, still in playoff chase, visit Rangers again
Sep 20, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez (44) reacts after hitting a three-run home run against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-Imagn Images The Seattle Mariners will try for the series win on Saturday night against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, with a much bigger prize — the final American League wild-card spot — still in view.
The Mariners improved to 9-2 against the Rangers this season with an 8-2 victory in Friday’s series opener as Julio Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs and George Kirby allowed two runs on five hits over six innings to improve to 7-0 in nine career starts against Texas (73-81).
Seattle (79-75) trails the Minnesota Twins, who pulled out a much-needed 4-2 victory at Boston in 12 innings on Friday, by two games with eight to go. The Twins currently hold the last of the three wild-card spots in the AL.
The Detroit Tigers, who lost at Baltimore on Friday, are also a game in front of the Mariners while the Kansas City Royals, who have dropped five in a row, are clinging to the second wild-card spot, one game in front of the Twins.
Minnesota holds every possible tiebreaker (multiple ties and head-to-head) with the Tigers, Mariners and Royals.
With every start crucial, Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock (3-4, 4.83 ERA) will take on future Hall of Fame right-hander Max Scherzer (2-4, 3.95) on Saturday.
Hancock has made one career start against the Rangers, on Sept. 13. He gave up three runs on six hits and a walk in five innings of a 5-4 Seattle win, but he didn’t figure into the decision.
Scherzer is 4-2 with a 2.97 ERA in nine career starts against the Mariners. He faced them last Saturday and gave up two runs on five hits and two walks over four innings in a game the Mariners won 5-4 on a Randy Arozarena walk-off single.
Rodriguez has six of his 18 home runs this season against Texas. His three-run blast to left in the fifth inning put the Mariners ahead to stay, 4-2, on Friday, and he added a two-run shot to right in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-2. It was the fourth multi-homer game of his career, while the five RBIs matched his career high.
“Just stay within myself and not get too big,” Rodriguez said of his at-bat strategy. “You know I’m a big guy. I don’t have to do too much, so I feel like just stay within myself and put a good swing on the ball and make sure I get solid contact on it. That’s what I’m focusing on now.”
Although they have to make up two games in the standings in the final eight days to have a chance at the postseason, Rodriguez is confident the Mariners can do it.
“I feel we’re in a really good spot right now with the way we’re pitching and hitting,” he said.
The Mariners have two more games against the Rangers and three in Houston before returning home next season to close the season against the Oakland Athletics. The Astros have yet to clinch the American League West but have a five-game lead over the M’s.
“You just have to win the games that you can win, and tonight we went out and did what we had to do,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said after Friday’s game. “We’ll celebrate it for a minute and then regroup and try and do it again tomorrow. This was a good win tonight and a good way to start the road trip. We’ve got a lot of big games ahead of us.”
Texas fell to 3-7 over its past 10 games with its second straight loss, but starter Jacob deGrom, making his first home start since April 28, 2023, after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a bright spot for the defending World Series champions.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed one run — a third-inning leadoff homer to Josh Rojas — on three hits over three innings. He walked one and struck out five while touching 99.4 mph on the radar gun. He threw 58 pitches, 37 for strikes.
“He was good,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “Good stuff. He’s just going to get stronger and stronger and even better with his stuff and command. It’s hard to get much better, though. He did a great job.”
The outing pleased deGrom.
“All in all my arm felt good, and that’s the most important thing,” deGrom said. “I was able to throw all four pitches and felt good with them, so that’s a huge plus.”
–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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