A Voodoo King delivered a clutch assist ahead of the Knicks’ wild Tuesday night comeback win, conducting a spiritual cleanse to quell fears from fans that Mayor Zohran Mamdani would bring his “Curse of the Mambino” to Madison Square Garden.
Michael Washington, 46, who goes by the name Tata Tilk, arrived outside the world’s most famous arena just in the nick of time, performing a Palo Mayombe spell about an hour before the Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 tip-off.
“I command thee for no more spells from Mayor Mamdani on any team or anyone that interfere with their success. I’m here to protect the Knicks from his malevolent magic,” Washington chanted outside the arena where the Knicks eventually pulled off a miraculous victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He was originally summoned to MSG after Hizzoner hinted earlier in the day that he would attend the game.
“It is an incredible run. I am, like every New Yorker, just continuing to hope. Maybe I will be there, we’ll see, but I’m definitely watching,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference.
Michael Washington, 46, who goes by the name Tata Tilk, gave the Knicks an emergency cleansing on Tuesday night to stave off the “Curse of the Mambino.” James Keivom for NY Post
The mayor’s remarks created paranoia amongst fans after the lefty mayor’s hug with Mr. and Mrs. Met was blamed for the team’s brutal losing streak, dubbed the “Curse of the Mambino.”
The “Voodoo King” brought a cauldron full of “secret” spiritual items — including human and animal bones and meteorites — for his witchcraft.
Knicks fans Nick Ellard, James Questel, and Aidan Jordan gather outside the arena to watch the game. James Keivom for NY Post
He told The Post that Mamdani has proven he has “magical abilities” to curse New York sports teams and should stay far away from the Knicks.
“He’s basically showing the magic abilities that he has through cursing an entire team, in other words, multiple people, like multiple counterparts, like all at once,” he explained.
“It was a spell to basically not have Mamdani curse the Knicks, because we were nervous about him coming tonight, and he might possibly curse the Knicks, so I did the match for it,” Washington added of his ritual. “He wouldn’t be able to curse the Knicks, so no Mambino curses here.”
The Knicks staged a historic 115-104 Game 1 win over the Cavaliers, overcoming a harrowing 22-point fourth-quarter deficit. NBAE via Getty Images
The team’s stunning comeback is the largest in a Conference Finals game since 1997, according to the NBA.
Since 1997, the only larger fourth-quarter comeback to win any playoff game is the Clippers’ 24-point rally against the Grizzlies in Game 1 of the 2012 First Round.
Kareem “Reemo Meerak” Tyson, 46, thanked the Voodoo King for staving off any of the socialists’ sorcery before the epic win.
“Listen, Mamdani, listen, you’ve been doing an amazing job, respectful, respectful. You cannot ruin our flow. You see what you did with the other orange and blue, and that’s not cool. Okay, that’s not cool. It’s gonna lose you brownies for us,” Tyson, a social media personality from Harlem, said.
Kareem “Reemo Meerak” Tyson, 46, thanked the Voodoo King for staving off any of the socialists’ sorcery before the epic win. James Keivom for NY Post
“I feel amazing. Thank God. Thank you [Voodoo King] for what you’ve been doing so far for protection.”
A group of friends, Nick Ellard, James Questel, and Aidan Jordan, also gathered outside the arena to watch the game — and made their feelings about the Mamdani curse crystal clear.
“I’d love him to stay as far away from the team as possible,” said Jordan, a 20-year-old college student from Long Island.
“Don’t hug anybody. Tell him to pay for some waters for everybody,” Elleard, 20, added.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - MAY 19: Maikel Garcia #11 of the Kansas City Royals is tagged out by Isiah Kiner-Falefa #2 of the Boston Red Sox as he tries to stretch a single in the fifth inning at Kauffman Stadium on May 19, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Every once in a while, you get a night where you have to tip your cap to the opponent. It might stem from a stellar pitching performance, a buttoned down operation in all phases of the game, or a bunch of clutch hits piled together. When you play 162 of these things, it’s going to happen a handful of times.
But tonight, we got the exact opposite of a “tip you cap” game, or whatever else you want to call this monstrosity. Forget Christmas, the Red Sox were almost handed enough gifts in one evening to light all the Hanukkah candles.
In fact, the theme started before the first pitch was even thrown. Kansas City had to scratch their originally scheduled starter Kris Bubic with elbow soreness and replace him with Bailey Falter, who entered tonight with a 10.13 ERA. He’s been so bad that despite only lasting two innings and allowing seven of the twelve batters he faced to reach base in this one, he actually lowered his ERA to 9.82.
But the pitching matchup was only the beginning; the Red Sox were also the beneficiaries of this befuddling call in the first inning:
If you hate replay, this is one to file away because even with an extended look, they did not get this call right.
And it was a sneaky enormous play too because Ranger Suarez was struggling to grab his bearings in the opening frame. If he’s not handed this free out and the inning gets out of control, we go down an entirely different rabbit hole than the one where he didn’t allow another hit until the fifth inning — Particularly with the inspiring efforts this Red Sox offense has put together all season when they fall behind.
Speaking of the Red Sox offense, they were able to take the lead in the top of the next next inning with more help. This time, from the Kansas City defense:
This is some of the worst baseball situational awareness I’ve ever seen from Maikel Garcia! You have the best player in baseball not named Shohei Ohtani coming to the plate in Bobby Witt Jr. with runners on the corners and nobody out in a one run game, and you get nailed trying to advance to second base? DUMB!
Chad Tracy pulled Suarez immediately after this as he didn’t want him to face Witt a third time, and while Zack Kelly did a nice job wiggling out of it, I’m not sure he would have posted the same result if there were a few more brain cells working in the Kansas City dugout.
Gifts also came from old friends. Here’s a real quality pitch from former Red Sox reliever John Schreiber to give Masataka Yoshida a free 90 feet. (Unsurprisingly, the Red Sox failed to cash this one in.)
Eventually, the game settled into an advantageous position for Boston. Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock posted uneventful zeros in the seventh and eighth, and the Red Sox offense finally got the dam to burst in the ninth with a three run homer from Jarren Duran.
Perhaps this is the thing that ultimately gets them going, and if it does, great! But tonight, the story is a lot more about gifts than guts.
Three Studs
Jarren Duran: On base four times including that three run homer in the ninth, and he also made this play in the second inning that helped Suarez settle in for a few frames.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa: On base four times while playing shortstop, something Trevor Story has only done once all year.
The Bullpen: Zack Kelly, Tyler Samaniego, Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and Jovani Moran combined to get the last 14 outs without allowing a run to score, and that’s pretty impressive considering their task started with a runner on third and less than two out with Bobby Witt Jr. at the plate.
Three Duds
Baserunning: The gift giving ran in both directions this game as the Red Sox were thrown out on the base paths three times.
Let’s make those our three dud plays of the game, starting with Isiah Kiner-Falefa getting nailed at second base:
Miguel Vargas took a very painful one for the team in the top of the ninth. | (Maddy Grassy/Getty Images)
Just when you’re sure the letdown is coming, they find a way to keep doing it. After dropping a sleepy one last night, the White Sox were on the verge of dropping another sleepy one in Seattle this evening, trailing 1-0 from the moment the game opened all the way until they had just two outs left in the game. Bryce Miller can only wonder what would have happened had he been allowed to go just a little farther.
I’ll leave you in suspense as to why that might be. And pretend you haven’t already read the headline.
This is the third night in a row that I’m spending here on the pages of South Side Sox recapping things with you all, so instead of trying to piece it all together into something interesting at the end, I’ll just let you know what I was thinking as this one unfolded, because if there’s one thing I’m great at, it’s using a lot of words to talk about very little. If you want to see how it happened, let it all unfold before your eyes!
Top of the 1st
Bryce Miller came out sitting in the high-90s with his fastball for the second straight outing, and while Sam Antonacci managed to fight some pitches off, the way he took care of Miguel Vargas to end the inning —specifically, the perfectly executed middle-high fastball that Vargas swung under, which is the speciality of Miller’s fastball-dominant arsenal — makes me think we might be in for a long one.
Bottom of the 1st
Anthony Kay threw 35 pitches, which is what happened, although he somehow managed to get away with just a single earned run out of it. I said before the game that the Sox were likely to live and die with Kay tonight, because the bullpen was tapped out and he was going to get his burn no matter what. You can cover three innings between Sean Newcomb and Tyler Davis, and if it’s worth bringing Grant Taylor or Seranthony Domínguez into the fold, then we’re in a pretty good place.
Top of the 2nd
Uh oh, Bryce Miller is completely locked in. He mowed down the first two hitters of the inning and drew a weak fly ball out of Andrew Benintendi. Miller is basically throwing fastballs right down the middle, and because they’re 97 mph and have an absurd amount of rise relative to where hitters think it’s going to be. Not a single one of these pitches has resulted in anything close to good content. Not great, Bob!
Bottom of the 2nd:
Kay walked Cole Young to start the frame before going full against Colt Emerson, and the anxiety is at times visible in his reaction to borderline pitches. Still, like Miller, he’s having some success getting hitters to chase high and hot fastballs, punching out Emerson and Rob Refsnyder with basically the same pitch before getting out of the inning thanks to excellent defense from Chase Meidroth.
Substitute announcer Gordon Beckham’s demeanor has been enjoyable, but he did call the Sox pitcher “Michael Kay” at the end of the inning, which was a little funny.
Top of the 3rd:
Well, a Sox hitter finally managed to not swing underneath a four-seamer at the top of the zone. The only problem is that it was Tristan Peters, who can only inside-out a soft liner to Emerson at shortstop. Miller has faced the minimum through three innings. Fortunately for the Sox, he was only up to 80 pitches or so in his first start, so if they’re lucky, they might still escape this after six innings despite the utter domination.
Bottom of the 3rd
You know, every time I start to have some serious doubts about Kay, the guy bears down and gets through a few innings despite not seeming to have a great feel for location. Josh Naylor keeps running long ass at-bats, and it makes me anxious. Seattle up 1-0 after three is about as good as we can hope for, given how both starters have looked so far.
Top of the 4th
Bryce Miller is perfect through three, which he’s apparently done three times in his career. He’s not perfect through four, as we got our standard government-issue Munetaka Murakami walk, but the Good Guys made no other threats, and things continue to look bleak for the Sox offense.
Beckham let us know that he had a Dungeness crab omelet for breakfast this morning, after enjoying a salmon scramble yesterday. We also got a solid rundown of the different salmon species available for consumption in that part of the Pacific Northwest. I hope to try it someday!
Bottom of the 4th
I don’t know how, but we’re still really in this one! Mariners hitters seem to like what they’re seeing from Kay, as they keep attacking and making pretty solid contact, but all three of them resulted in outs this inning, and he’s somehow still only at 78 pitches through four. I doubt he’ll get through the lineup again unscathed, so I’m going to call my shot here and say that if the Sox don’t score in the 5th, this one’s a wrap.
Top of the 5th
WE ARE THROUGH FIVE INNINGS, AND BRYCE MILLER HAS NOT GIVEN UP A HIT.
Jarred Kelenic does not look like he’s having a good time tonight.
I really thought it was going to unravel the moment Colt Emerson got to first base after being plunked to lead off the inning, but Kay keeps finding an extra gear with his fastball and putting hitters away when he needs to. We might wind up being lucky that Dan Wilson burned Andrés Muñoz last night in a non-save situation.
Top of the 6th
The Sox are in the hit column! The Tristan Peters Show continues. He’s on second base, but Edgar Quero falls victim to yet another high four-seamer. He just keeps pounding the heart of the plate and the inside corner like he has a patent on them. It’s pretty impressive.
Right after I uploaded that, Sam Antonacci flew out to the warning track, and Miller’s day was done. This is basically the same thing as when the Rays took out Blake Snell in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. Will the Sox make Dan Wilson pay for his faith in his bullpen? Predictably not. José A. Ferrer is a nasty lefty, and Murakami didn’t stand a chance.
Bottom of the 6th
If Kay can survive this one, I have a gut feeling the offense might still have some juice left yet.
He just struck out Naylor on three pitches, and by the time I finished shotgunning a Miller High Life, he was out of the game. It’s in God’s hands now, and by God, I mean Tyler Davis, whose appearance was prognosticated several paragraphs above.
God loves the White Sox — we’re on to the seventh with the game still at 1-0.
Top of the 7th
Is Luis Castillo pitching out of the bullpen? The Luis Castillo who’s getting paid $24 million because he’s been an All-Star caliber starter for many years? I guess he’s got a six-something ERA this year. He looks like Mason Miller right now. Strike one, strike two, strike three. These guys have no chance.
Bottom of the 7th
We see your Castillo and raise you a Davis! He’s got some zip on his fastball and went undrafted out of Sam Houston and Wichita State. Quite a story!
Top of the 8th
They tried! They really tried! Jarred Kelenic isn’t seeing ghosts anymore. There he is on first base after legging out a deflected single. Now he’s on second base, and Peters is on first! And now they’re all going back to the dugout, because Castillo is still really good at striking everybody out. Three more chances …
Bottom of the 8th
Hey, it’s time for Bryan Hudson to pitch. I like Hudson! Nobody in Chicago knew who he was before the start of April, and now he’s one of the game’s more effective left-handed workhorses. This is why you don’t give decent setup guys a guaranteed $20 million.
Top of the 9th
Here we go, folks. They’re letting Castillo ride, and the Sox have the meat of their order coming up.
Castillo wants nothing to do with Murakami. Boom. Tying run at first.
Vargas at the plate. And there’s a fastball right into his hand. Do NOT love to see that. Nonetheless, first and second, nobody out. Colson Montgomery at the plate. Montgomery whiffs. And now it’s Andrés Muñoz time.
Steal! Steal! Tying run 90 feet away! Meidroth at the plate! Here we go?
It’s Grant Taylor, and not Domínguez. Now THIS is a development. Boom, strike one. Boom, strike two.
Boom, Dominic Canzone strikes out to end the game. Taylor picks up his first save of the season. The White Sox are back to two games over .500. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Tomorrow is a new day, and one that will see Sean Burke take the mound in an effort to make it yet another improbable series victory against Emerson Hancock, who the Sox touched up for five runs when they last met. First pitch is at 3:10 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!
Who was the brightest spot of tonight’s comeback win?
Even his most ardent admirers may admit to a case of Scott Pendlebury fatigue right now. So let’s begin by getting a few words out of the way. Time. Space. Basketball. Saunas. Ice baths. Let’s also put aside some of the more tedious elements of the buildup to his record-breaking game – the gold-plated number, the multiple and lucrative costume changes, the signature wine range, the standing ovation at the 10-minute mark, and the discussion over whether he should have been rested or not.
Emotionally, technically and physically, Pendlebury has much in common with his fellow 400-gamers who gathered at the MCG this week. All of them were wily enough to avoid grievous harm on the field. All of them were temperamentally sound, and weren’t the type of personalities to let the outside noise seep in. And all of them avoided the kind of vices and distractions that can curtail sporting longevity.
Madison Square Garden went electric when the Knicks’ customary spark went out.
As the Knicks mounted a miraculous 22-point comeback to steal a 115-104 overtime win over the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, Josh Hart was glued to the bench for nearly the entire fourth quarter and the extra session due to his shaky shooting, as Mike Brown turned to Landry Shamet down the stretch.
Shamet validated the decision by hitting a game-tying corner 3-pointer in the final minute of regulation, then added another in overtime, finishing with a team-best plus-20 rating.
Josh Hart finished the Knicks’ Game 1 win with 13 points. Jason Szenes for New York Post
Hart, who finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists, posted a team-worst minus-23 rating in 30 minutes after making just one of five 3-pointers, but the aesthetics were worse than the numbers.
Hart was efficient when he attacked the paint, repeatedly beating Cleveland with a series of spin moves, but the streaky shooter received no respect from Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, whose defenders slouched off him on the perimeter.
Hart missed each of his first four 3-pointers — one barely grazed the rim, another’s flight path barely went above the rim, another hit nothing — as the Knicks missed 17 of their 19 attempted 3-pointers in the first half.
Before the playoffs began, Brown noted he was aware that Hart might be tested despite the 31-year-old making a career-high 41.3 percent of 3-pointers this season. And despite Hart’s benching fueling a historic comeback, the Knicks coach didn’t believe his starter’s confidence should be shaken.
“If Josh is open, he’s gotta let it fly,” Brown said after the win. “He’s made shots. We feel like he’ll make shots. If he doesn’t want to shoot it, he can get to his middie or [dribble handoff] with somebody. Josh, we faced this coverage all year. And played well throughout the course of the year. And faced it in Atlanta. We started the game off 2-for-19 from the 3-point line. … If those go in, the mojo is a little bit different.”
Three years ago, Hart — who had been acquired in February 2023 — helped the Knicks earn their first postseason series victory in a decade, against the Cavaliers, with extraordinary defense against Donovan Mitchell and 5-for-11 shooting on 3-pointers, including a go-ahead shot from outside in the final minutes of their Game 1 win in Cleveland.
Usually, when Hart goes cold, the Knicks go with him.
In the 2023 second-round loss to No. 8 seed Miami, Hart shot 5-for-21 on 3-pointers. When the Knicks fell apart in the second round against the Pacers in 2024, Hart went 6-for-22 from deep. And last year, Hart shot 2-for-11 in the Knicks’ first conference finals appearance in a quarter century.
In this postseason run, Hart has been a constant on both ends of the floor, filling up every column of the boxscore.
But his shooting has remained erratic.
He was just 5-for-23 from 3-point range in the first round against the Hawks and was 2-for-11 through the first three games against the 76ers, before hitting four of six in the second-round clincher.
The Cavs are certain to return to the one strategy that worked.
Josh Hart of the New York Knicks drives to the basket during Game 1. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“I got to go out there, shoot the ball with confidence,” Hart, who wasn’t available to the media after the win, said recently. “I’m a good shooter, I know I’m a good shooter. I trust my work.”
Madison Square Garden was deflated. The Knicks, down by 22 in the fourth quarter, appeared headed at rapid speed to take a series-defining loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals for a second straight season on Tuesday night.
And then something happened that had never happened before. Per Nate Duncan, teams down 20 in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter of a playoff game were 0-643 in the play-by-play era.
A 44-11 run by New York over the final 12:55 combined minutes of the fourth and overtime sealed a 115-104 win.
“I gotta give my group credit, they’ve been resilient all year,” head coach MikeBrown said, adding that the Cavaliers to that point were “shooting the ball well, they were turning us over, they were getting the ball in the pocket, and taking advantage of us.”
“And we just found a way,” Brown said. “We found a group of five guys that went out there, ended up getting stops and scoring the basketball.”
“Obviously,” the head coach continued, “we don’t get it done if Jalen Brunson doesn’t play like one of the MVP guys in the league.”
"He's an amazing player,” OG Anunoby, who added 13 points, said. “I'm happy he's on our team. I think we're all happy he's on our team."
Down 93-71, Brunson scored 15 points, including 11 straight at one point, and added two assists to send the game to OT.
“He was phenomenal,” Brown said.
Brunson said he was "just being in attack mode" during the fourth.
"Just trying tring to find seams to get to where I could be comfortable," he said. "Finally, one [three] did go down, that's just because of the rhythm I created from the shots beforehand."
The guard started the night by missing his first five three-pointers before he connected from deep to cut the lead to five with 3:30 to play in the fourth
“Brunson obviously took over at the end,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We started double-teaming him, trying to do some different things… they dominated us in the fourth quarter.”
Donovan Mitchell, who led Cleveland with 29 points, said there was nothing they could do now other than look at the film and get ready for Game 2 on Thursday.
"He was a little comfortable. We could've done some things collectively, and we didn't, and that's on us," Mitchell said.
For the game, the Knicks' leader finished with 38 points on 15-for-29 shooting with six assists, five rebounds, three steals, and was a plus-15 in 47 minutes.
Atkinson added that he felt the Cavs held Brunson “in check most of the game.”
“Basically, the fourth quarter he got loose,” he said. “We definitely tried to mix up some stuff, throw some stuff at him. We’ll have to keep looking at it. There was a lot of tough floaters, and hit that tough, contested three.”
At one point late in the game with the Knicks down, Brunson got animated in the huddle.
“He’s a leader. He’s our guy. And he felt we needed to play faster, he felt we needed to be better defensively,” Brown said. “There were a couple things he felt and he made sure we knew. And our guys responded to him.”
Brunson said the message in the huddle was to "keep fighting."
"Keep chipping away, we're not gonna get it back in one possession," he said. "Most importantly, sticking together, no matter how that game finished, habits translate; they get transferred to the next game. So just finishing the game strong, regardless of whatever's going on. Making sure everyone has the right habits."
Over the first three quarters, Landry Shamet was on the floor for a grand total of 3 minutes and 13 seconds.
He took one shot, which he missed.
Then, everything changed — for Shamet and the Knicks.
Landry Shamet hits a clutch 3-pointer in overtime of the Knicks’ 115-104 overtime win over the Cavaliers in Game 1 on May 19. 2026 at the Garden. Jason Szenes for the New York Post
With Josh Hart struggling with his shot and unable to stay with Donovan Mitchell, Mike Brown called on Shamet.
“A lot of fun,” he said after the Knicks set a franchise record for a playoff comeback, rallying from 22 points down in the final quarter. “MSG comebacks are fun, especially in the playoffs. I’m just real proud of our group, because that’s quite the deficit in the fourth.”
Shamet was a big part of it.
On one end, the veteran guard hit three key 3-pointers, including one that tied the game with 45 seconds left in regulation.
Jose Alvarado lifts Landry Shamet to celebrate his clutch shot. Jason Szenes for the New York Post
He also sank a key triple late in overtime that iced the victory, putting the Knicks up nine.
On the other end, Shamet slowed down Mitchell, limiting him to three points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“One of the luxuries of our team is we have a lot of really good defenders,” Shamet said. “I didn’t really play the first three quarters, and you throw fresh legs at somebody who’s got it going. Just try to come in and compete and be physical, take advantage of the fact that I haven’t played, use the energy I had. Try to compete, communicate and make it hard on him.”
It has been a roller-coaster postseason for Shamet. He was out of the rotation late in the opening-round series against the Hawks and early on against the 76ers — then picked it up when OG Anunoby missed the last two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Tuesday night, he was back on the bench as Anunoby returned. But Shamet stayed ready.
“He played big time. That’s just who he is. He’s a true professional, ever since he walked into the league,” Jalen Brunson said. “He’s up to any task you put in front of him. He’s been that player, he’s been that player for us. We have utmost faith in him.”
After the win, Shamet was greeted by John Starks, Spike Lee and Ben Stiller. The celebrities wanted to acknowledge the unsung hero of this victory.
“It’s kind of wild when I think about it,” Shamet said.
May 19, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte (4) is greeted by teammates with bubble gum after hitting a three run walk off home run against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images
Tonight almost fell into the bucket of the very frustrating games that this team definitely should have won category. Their starting pitcher went 7 strong innings while their offense continued to squander opportunity after opportunity late into the game. However with 2 outs in the 9th, the biggest star on the team Ketel Marte finally broke through and put this team on his back with a walk off 3 run home run! What a swing and what a swing of emotions for this fanbase!
Ryne Nelson was very solid tonight as he was able to go deep and get through 7 innings. The lone blemish on the night for Nelson was a 3 run 2nd inning, but he was able to right the ship quickly and get on a roll.
It was the offense that refused to come to play tonight. The Dbacks were able to get on the board first in the first inning today when Corbin Carroll lined a ball into the gap and when he slid into 3rd base, the throw glanced off of Carroll’s head and he was able to take the extra 90 feet and score. According to the broadcast, Carroll made it from home to 3rd in just 10.7 seconds which is the fastest in Carroll’s career and the fastest recorded time in the major leagues in nearly a decade! After that exciting play on the second hitter of the game, this teams offense went dead silent until late in the game.
One of the defining moments in the game for me was In the 7th inning when the Dbacks offense began to show some signs of life and loaded the bases with just 1 out and down 3-1. Torey Lovullo then elected to stay with his designated hitter Adrian Del Castillo who came into the game with a wRC+ of just 53. A startling 47% below league average hitter up in the biggest moment of the game. Del Castillo then proceeded to hit into a double play and kill the rally and get the Giants out of the inning. It is also worth noting that if anyone else on the team were running they would’ve beaten out the throw from the SS and the Dbacks would’ve scored a run as Del Castillo’s speed is in just the 21st percentile. It is also worth pointing out that Jose Fernandez was sitting on the bench and has speed in the 98th percentile and has been a much better hitter.
As if this heartbreak wasn’t bad enough, in the 8th inning the Dbacks would also load the bases again with 1 out and this time Nolan Arenado grounded into a double play. Back to back innings the Dbacks strand the bases loaded with one out in what has to be some of the worst timely hitting of the season so far. At least Arenado has been one of the hottest hitters on this team and put a good swing on the ball so its hard to be too critical. Just an unfortunate at bat.
In the 9th inning Del Castillo was given another opportunity for some reason unknown to anyone else on the planet and was surprisingly able to come through and knock in Ildemaro Vargas and make it a 3-2 game. Rookie Ryan Waldschmidt who had several good at bats tonight was able to get on base via a catcher’s interference call giving Ketel Marte a golden opportunity with the winning run on base. Ketel had just missed a 2 run home run in the at bat before and was visibly frustrated when the CF caught the ball on the warning track, but he got another opportunity with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and his team down 3-2. And this time, he delivered!!!!! Ketel with the whole fan base down in the dumps ready to see yet another very winnable game slip through their fingers delivered a walk off 3 run home run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning and tossed his bat in the air with an epic bat flip! This was the first walk off home run of Marte’s career per the broadcast. If there was one guy on this team who deserved this moment it was absolutely Ketel Marte who has hit so many balls so hard this season and had so very little to show for it.
The Dbacks were able to win this game tonight because Ketel Marte chose to put this team on his back and come through when his team needed him most. We are so lucky to have Ketel Marte on this team and for him to get through the stretch that he has had where he has had such bad luck on hard hit balls and come out the other side with a moment like this was just awesome to see. And lastly, anyone who has any questions about Ketel’s commitment to this team and his desire to win, watch him hit that home run and look at his face as he is rounding the bases. Watch his postgame interview and listen to the passion in that guy’s voice. Ketel just wants to win and tonight he did just that.
The Dbacks are finally back over .500 at 24-23 and go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon. Time to step on the gas pedal and go get the sweep!
Kenny Atkinson attempted to explain the rationale for his curious decision-making in the fourth quarter as his Cavaliers watched a 22-point lead disappear.
The Cavaliers coach was ripped by fans and analysts on Tuesday night after the Knicks completed a 115-104 comeback win to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Questions mounted over his decision to call just one timeout while the Knicks went on a 30-8 run in the final quarter, and over why he left James Harden in the game as he got torched by New York.
The questionable decision to take one timeout amid a catastrophic collapse was a result of Atkinson saying he likes to “hold my timeouts.”
Kenny Atkinson made some curious decisions during the Cavaliers’ crusing Game 1 defeat to the Knicks. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“I didn’t want to have one timeout at the end of the game. One- or two-point game, I try to hold them,” he bizarrely explained.
But that wasn’t the only odd response following the Cavs loss.
Harden’s defense left much to be desired, and Jalen Brunson, who finished with 38 points while leading the Knicks’ comeback, lit up the 36-year-old whenever he guarded him.
But Atkinson never gave a thought to taking Harden out of the game.
2 MINUTES AND 45 SECONDS of Jalen Brunson HUNTING James Harden in the 4th and OT pic.twitter.com/SzqflCwZ4j
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 19: Alex Call #12 of the Los Angeles Dodgers scores a run ahead of the tag by Freddy Fermin #54 of the San Diego Padres during the ninth inning at Petco Park on May 19, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The first two games this season between the teams with the two best records in the National League West have been close, hard-fought battles going down to the wire. After not scoring in the series opener, the Dodgers found just enough offense on Tuesday and capitalized on an absolute gift from the most dominant closer in baseball to beat the San Diego Padres 5-4 at Petco Park.
Mason Miller was wild on Monday, walking his first two batters in the ninth inning before getting the final three outs to close out the 1-0 San Diego win. Max Muncy worked a one-out walk against Miller in the ninth inning on Tuesday, then was replaced by pinch-runner Alex Call.
Call took off for second base on Miller’s first movement, but it coincided with Miller delivering a pickoff throw to first base. Ordinarily, Call would have been dead to rites, except that Miller’s cannon of a throw got by, just off the glove of Ty France and down the right field line, allowing Call to get to third base.
Andy Pages fell behind 0-2, then fouled off four more pitches, working the count even before driving a fastball just deep enough to right field to score Call with the winning run on a very close play at the plate. That’s pretty much been the margin for things through two games of the series.
Freddie Freeman has been battling an illness the last few days, manager Dave Roberts told reporters in San Diego before the game. But the first baseman went from under the weather to over the left field wall against Griffin Canning in the first inning for a two-run home run to not only get the Dodgers on the board but also snap a personal string of 16 hitless at-bats (with five walks) dating back to last Wednesday.
Freeman homered again in the sixth inning, this time to right field off reliever Jeremiah Estrada to tie the game at four apiece. It’s the first multi-homer game this season for Freeman, and his third game in 2026 with two extra-base hits.
Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored in the first inning, then doubled again to lead off the eighth, setting up a golden opportunity.
With Ohtani on third base and one out, Freeman chased a 3-1 fastball outside the strike zone, then struck out swinging against Padres left-hander Adrián Morejón, who then got ahead of lefty Kyle Tucker 0-2 before inducing a tapper back to the box to end the Dodgers’ wasted threat.
Ohtani has reached base multiple times in each of his last six games, during which he’s 12 for 23 with six extra-base hits and six walks, good for a .522/.621/.913 batting line.
Trouble with the fastball
Emmet Sheehan got the first two batters in the bottom of the first and was ahead in the count 1-2 on Gavin Sheets before walking him. Then Manny Machado clobbered a middle-middle fastball on a full count for a two-run home run of his own. The Padres third baseman was in his own slump, with just three hits in 29 at-bats between home runs.
Miguel Andujar took advantage of another Sheehan meatball in the third inning, cashing in an infield single by Fernando Tatis Jr. for another two-run home run, the second homer of the series for Andujar.
Sheehan nearly allowed another two-run home run on a fastball to Ty France in the fourth inning, but it was hit to one of the deepest parts of the park in right center field, and needed a bounce to get over the fence. What would have easily scored Jackson Merrill from first base instead was a ground-rule double, forcing Merrill back to third base. Sheehan was able to escape the damage with an inning-ending groundout.
The Padres swung at 19 of Sheehan’s 28 fastballs and didn’t miss once, and his day was done after four runs in four innings at just 67 pitches, not allowed to see the top of San Diego’s lineup a third time.
Sheehan’s early exit led to some earlier appearances for the Dodgers’ most trusted relievers, such that Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, and Tanner Scott were used in tight spots in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings.
That left the ninth inning for Will Klein, who struck out France and retired all three batters he faced to preserve the win and earn his first career save. Edgardo Henriquez and those four Dodgers relievers combined to get the final 15 outs in scoreless fashion, allowing one hit and three walks, with four strikeouts.
Tuesday particulars
Home runs: Freddie Freeman 2 (6); Manny Machado (7), Miguel Andujar (5)
LP — Mason Miller (1-1): 2/3 IP, 1 unearned run, 1 walk
Sv — Will Klein (1): 1 IP, 1 strikeout
Up next
Shohei Ohtani takes the mound in the final game of the series, the road trip, and this stretch of 13 game days in a row on Wednesday evening (5:40 p.m., SportsNet LA), with right-hander Randy Vásquez starting for San Diego.
It was a quarter to remember for Landry Shamet and the Knicks.
Down 22 points to the Cavaliers with less than eight minutes to go in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Shamet helped New York orchestrate their largest comeback victory in franchise playoff history.
While Jalen Brunson exploded for 15 points to lead the comeback, Shamet's defense and clutch shot-making gave the Knicks captain some help in the team's improbable 115-104 victory in overtime on Tuesday night.
"Landry Shamet was great. He was great on both ends of the floor. He came up big," head coach Mike Brown said after the win. "You’re not going to stop a guy like Donovan Mitchell. Landry tried like heck to make him work. He was fantastic. He was the difference in the ballgame tonight on both ends of the floor."
"He played big time," Brunson said of Shamet. "He's up to any task that you put in front of him. He's been that player for us, and we have the utmost faith in him."
The Cavaliers star went for a team-high 29 points, but in the final frame, he scored just three on 1 of 4 shooting thanks to Shamet.
"He didn’t just change the game with the clutch shots, but defensively bringing energy," Miles McBride said of Shamet. "Getting hands on deflections and picking up full court. Things like that inspires the whole team."
For Shamet, he credited Game 1's defense on Mitchell on the Knicks' depth. Shamet played just three minutes through the first three quarters -- all in the first half -- so he had the energy to stay with Mitchell in the fourth.
"One of the luxuries of our team is we got a lot of really good primary on-ball, primary off-the-ball defenders. Team defenders," Shamet explained. "I didn’t really play the first three quarters and then you throw fresh legs at someone whose got it going. Just come in try to compete, be physical, take advantage that I didn’t play. Use the energy that I had. That's really it. Compete, communicate, make it hard on him. He's a helluva player.
"We expect him to have a good game against us. Gotta give him his credit, he really hurt us. We have to make adjustments. We were connected, played hard and was physical."
Although the Knicks applauded Shamet's defense in the fourth quarter, he made some timely shots, including a three-pointer with less than a minute to go that tied the game at 99 apiece. Shamet said he was saying "just stay down" as it rattled around the rim before going through the hoop.
"I didn’t realize at the time that one would have tied up," Shamet said of the shot. "That's where you kinda want to be. When you're flowing, you don't want to be thinking about things. The ball found me, I was open in transition, let the ball fly and it went in."
Shamet would also make an open three in overtime after Brunson found him, which put the Knicks up nine with 1:49 remaining, and essentially sealed the win for New York. That play embodied Brown's mindset, and when the first-year Knicks coach was asked why he went with Shamet in the fourth, he said he wanted a shooter on the perimeter against the Cavs defense, who play big. And if Cleveland decided to put a bigger defender on Shamet, he would exploit it.
He also needed to space the floor while Brunson continued to dissect the defense in the paint.
"Defensively, Landry’s a big guard, he’s physical, and he can defend without foul," Brown said. "To play him, knowing they will pack the paint when Jalen comes and the sprays are going to be there. And that’s what we decided to do."
There was a point in the fourth when the team was still down 17 in the fourth and Shamet was visibly trying to fire up his teammates. Shamet said he knew it was a turning point in the game and that they had to go for it.
"If you’re going to make it run, that’s when you have to do it," Shamet said. "Might as well throw your best punch at that point, do what you can. You have to leave it all out there, especially this time of the year. That’s what we did. We have a group that didn’t flinch at the deficit. We made something happen."
The Knicks look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead when they host the Cavs against on Thursday night.
But in their exultation outside Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, the Knicks faithful might’ve gotten a little too ahead of themselves.
The area outside the Garden is always a party after a Knicks playoff win, and Tuesday night was no different after a 115-104 overtime victory over the Cavaliers. But some Knicks fans were already thinking about an NBA Finals opponent.
Some exuberant fans in another chant yelled out, “Knicks in four.”
If the Knicks do end up playing the Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals, New York does bring in a championship edge over San Antonio from this season. The Knicks beat the Spurs, who were limiting Wembanyama’s minutes, in the NBA Cup final in mid-December.
Knicks fans celebrate their team’s 115-104 overtime win outside Madison Square Garden on May 19, 2026. James Keivom for NY PostThe Knicks fans were all smiles after the win. James Keivom for NY PostKnicks fans watched the game from outside MSG. James Keivom for NY Post
The two teams split the other two games in the regular season, with each squad winning at home.
But the Knicks will still have to get past a Cavaliers team, which did luck vulnerable after blowing a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell led the way with 29 points, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t pull back any punches after the loss.
San Antonio would have to get past the defending champion Thunder to make a Knicks-Spurs 1999 NBA Finals rematch happen, too. That series resumes on Wednesday.
May 19, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Fans in the upper right field seats wave their shirts and cheer following a strikeout by the Chicago White Sox against the Seattle Mariners during the sixth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
White Sox 2, Mariners 1
My mood when I volunteered to do the chart in the eighth inning: Bryce Miller, +0.30 WPA My mood now: Andres Muñoz, -0.56 WPA
And so Stanton remains in a holding pattern after repeat imaging last week revealed that there is still a low-grade strain lingering in his right calf, keeping him from getting the clearance to ramp up a running program that he needs to do before he returns.
“Calves are very interesting and history [factors in],” Stanton said Tuesday before the Yanks’ 5-4 win over the Jays. “Just got to be careful of not making it much longer than it needs to be.”
Stanton, who has missed time with calf strains before, has been hitting every day in the cage and off the Trajekt machine, which should keep him close to game ready once he starts running.
He has also been doing plyometric exercises, which he said are “explosive enough to be running, just not the continuous [motion].”
Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) looks on against the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth inning at Tropicana Field. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
But the Yankees are being cautious and will likely get another MRI to make sure he is fully healed before he advances to running.
“I don’t want to be out,” said Stanton, who has been on the IL since April 28. “I want to be back as soon as possible.”
Austin Wells returned to the lineup Tuesday after J.C. Escarra had started back-to-back games behind the plate and went 0-for2.
Wells has struggled at the plate at the plate all season, but especially of late, entering the day 3-for-32.
“It does feel like his work’s been really good behind the scenes,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He has the equipment to get out of it. But in these times, you got to just be process-driven and think small. It’s about really just, as much as you can, focus on the quality of the at-bat and trust that your ability over time will net you results. He’s very capable of that. The good thing is he’s been tremendous behind the plate”
José Caballero took batting practice on the field Tuesday, continuing to do ramp up baseball activities in hopes of missing just the minimum 10 days on the injured list with a fracture in his right middle finger.
He is first eligible to return on Friday.
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The Yankees promoted righty reliever Eric Reyzelman to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday after a strong start to the season at Double-A.
After struggling at SWB last year and then undergoing a microdiscectomy late in the season, the 24-year-old struck out 32 and walked only four across 17 ¹/₃ innings with Double-A Somerset, even touching 100 mph at times.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Josh Hart #3 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks react to a call as Evan Mobley #4 of the Cleveland Cavaliers looks on during the first quarter in Game One of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 2026 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) | Getty Images
I’m speechless. Wordless.
The Knicks closed Game 1 of the conference finals against Cleveland on a 44-11 run, turning a 21-point deficit with less than eight minutes left in the fourth quarter into a 115-104 overtime win, the biggest postseason comeback in franchise history. I’ve seen more than 200 Knick playoff games. I’ve never seen one more dramatic. The game chart literally looks like the map for a three-act drama.
Image credit: nba.com
About ten minutes in, we left the old world (the Cavs getting ahead early) for the new (the Knicks leading most of the rest of the first half. That’s not really “new” in that the Knicks have been leading for weeks, but they haven’t played in over a week, so it’s their newest lead in a while).
Then the long, dark turn from the end of the second act through the third, as multiple forces conspire to pit our hero against impossible odds. The climax: the end of regulation/first few minutes of overtime, as it became clear the Cavs were toast. The lights weren’t too bright this time. They just got punched in the face. Over and over. They couldn’t stop the bleeding.
Very much relatedly, they couldn’t stop Jalen Brunson; even among the sparkling lights of his legendary playoff performances, tonight may go down as the crown jewel. When the Knicks were at their low point, he locked in on attacking James Harden, the Hasabeard and the Cavaliers had no answer for him, and by the time they knew what hit them the Knicks were dribbling out the last seconds of their overtime win.
This wasn’t the scoreboard porn we were spoiled by against Atlanta and Philadelphia, but as dominance goes, 44-11 over a de facto quarter takes a backseat to nobody. Early on Cleveland showed a lot of the good energy they showed winning Sunday in Detroit, but double-digit turnovers by intermission kept them from sustaining anything good.
The Knicks were ahead most of the first half, but for much of the game while players for both teams looked fatigued or rusty, Donovan Mitchell looked shot out of a cannon. Drilling from deep, deflections, dashing out in transition, diming: Spida was weaving his web everywhere.
There’s a bit of a Sinister Six energy to these Cavs. Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are the three villains who come together to plot their revenge against a shared enemy. Max Strus (2023 Heat) and Thomas Bryant (last year’s Pacers) are former villains just down to help bring the pain. Harden looks like a comic book villain; there’s a cartoonish quality to his tattletale ref-baiting brand of ball.
The Cavs began to pull away after halftime, when the Knicks found themselves piling up the giveaways. The hope is make a run late in the third to set up some momentum for the fourth. Reader, they did not.
Could they come out for the final frame all fired up and foaming at the mouths, and run down the non-fake comeback? Thankfully there was no foaming. There was Brunson, lofting his artworks high off glass, draining floaters, finding others. There was Anunoby, in his first action in two weeks, grabbing every defensive rebound in sight. Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet hitting 3 after game-tying 3 after game-clinching 3.
As the game ticked under the eight-minute mark and the Knicks trailed by 22, I did the math in my head: get it down to 12 with four minutes left. That gives you a realistic shot. By the four-minute mark, the Knicks had cut it to eight. And there was no reason to think they were close to finished. The Knicks looked like a bolt of lightning was coursing through all five of them.
If this were a boxing match, the Cavs would have spent the rest of the fight tying the Knicks up and falling into the ropes, begging the ref to help them run out the clock. Mitchell became, if not a pacifist, passive. There was never an inkling of a response from the visitors. Once the Knicks started swinging, the Cavs were a punching bag.
The Knicks did what they had to do, in a manner that will only deepen their self-confidence while challenging the Cavs to re-examine theirs. And since we want our main character to show some kind of growth along the way, here’s a welcome reversal from 2025 (and 2024, for different reasons): the Cavs, 48 hours after a Game 7 in Detroit that capped an every-other-day two week series, used an eight-man rotation for a 53-minute conference final game.
Fresh off eight days off, the Knicks rolled nine-deep, nine-plus counting Jose Alvarado’s short stint out of the bullpen. Something to keep an eye on going forward?
Keep your eye on P&T Wednesday for Russell Richardson’s recap. Till then, I’m gonna sit in my recliner (the one I did not flinch in once Brunson started scoring — I know my role and my superstitious ass plays it well), rewind to the start of the fourth quarter, click “play” and let the magic linger. Long as it likes.
