Watch Max Fried pitch when you haven’t focused on him much before. He comes out throwing a fastball at 89-90 mph, and you’re thinking, uh-oh.
You knew he was a crafty lefty, but you didn’t think he was a touch-and-feel guy, a soft tosser. You wonder if he is injured.
You keep watching and it begins to make sense. Fried stays at 90 for a bit, then pushes it to 92. But this is not a pitcher loosening up in typical fashion. He might touch 94 and then retreat to 91. With two strikes, he hits 97. Then perhaps back to 93.
You get the idea. This is not exactly normal, right?
“No, he definitely does it more [than anyone],” said Fried’s catcher, Austin Wells. Smiling, he adds, “It’s scary because I don’t know when he’s going to do it.”
What does Wells think is happening? Is Fried changing speeds on purpose?
“Yeah,” Wells said. “[After it happens on a pitch] I’m always like, that makes sense.”
Fried, after pitching seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 Yankees win over the Rays on Friday -- improving his record to 6-0 and his ERA to 1.01 (!) -- took a moment near his locker to try to explain this skill.
“Sometimes it’s conscious and sometimes it’s not,” Fried told SNY. “Sometimes you try to let it go and it’s one speed, and sometimes you time it up good.”
How does one actually change speeds on a four-seam fastball? Is it a matter of grip? A subtle reduction in arm action? Does Fried even know?
He squinted while thinking, then said, “It’s just something that I’ve always done. It’s not something that I can even really explain. My whole life I’ve always been a big fluctuator of velocity in pitches. I'm just leaning into what’s natural for me.”
The most variation within one at-bat on Friday came in the fourth inning against Jonathan Aranda. Fried started at 89, then went 93, 94, 95, and 92. By the time Aranda looked at a 79 mph curveball for a called strike three, he appeared thoroughly confused. Earlier, in a second inning at-bat, Fried showed Kameron Meisner 92 and 96, two pitches apart.
This is not a game plan. This is a person in full control of a spontaneous moment.
“It’s not something that I’m sitting here saying that I’m going to throw 20 percent of my balls under this number of miles per hour,” Fried said. “It’s just a feel of the game. It’s a little of everything.”
Freid paused. He was really trying to explain it. Words failed.
“I wish I could give you a more definitive answer,” he said. “It’s just literally like, it’s just the flow.”
It’s just the flow. That actually did sound like the answer. Changing speeds is not a verbal thing. It’s not an intellectual thing. It’s a flow thing. Fried seemed to like that. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Flow. Absolutely.”
Before the season, the battle for the Yankees' third base job included notable names like DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera, but prospect Jorbit Vivas was also in consideration.
And although he didn't break camp with the team, he finally got to make his MLB debut a little over a month into the 2025 season. Despite it coming due to Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s injury, manager Aaron Boone was confident the 24-year-old could handle big league pitching, and started him Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The left-hander didn't get a hit, but reached base twice on walks and scored on Paul Goldschmidt's three-run bomb in the Yankees' eventual win.
"[Tonight was] definitely something that I was expecting for a long time," Vivas said through an interpreter after the game. "And finally got the opportunity. Very excited about that and happy for my family too, I'm sure that they're watching back home. Good day."
The Venezuelan native was impressive in Triple-A this season, slashing .319/.426/.436 with seven extra-base hits, including two home runs, 15 RBI, and an .862 OPS in 26 games. He was impressive last spring after he came over from the Dodgers along with LHP Victor Gonzalez in the Trey Sweeney deal in December. 2023, but with a logjam in the infield, Vivas would have to wait for his moment, and it came.
Despite being up with the team a few times, he never actually got into a game until Friday. The 5-foot-9 infielder said there were some nerves, especially with 45 thousand-plus fans in attendance, but he got through it, especially when the first pitch thrown from Max Fried wound up being a grounder right to him.
"Wow. You know immediately, right? First hit in the game, right at me. I did it, I did it correctly. And then immediately after that, I was like, 'okay. Let me slow down a little bit here.'"
Vivas finished that routine grounder and made every defensive play available to him on Friday, but he was also impressive at the plate. He didn't get a hit, but walked twice and the Yankees skipper was impressed by all three at-bats from the youngster.
"The last couple [of at-bats], two walks were excellent," Boone said. "I thought the first at-bat where he punched out, I thought he put together a really good at-bat. Got beat with a good heater in the end, but I thought quality at-bats down there all night."
His first at-bat saw him foul tip a ball into the catcher's glove on a 97 mph fastball from Ryan Pepiot. He then walked on four pitches, all out of the zone, in his second at-bat, but it was his final at-bat that was really impressive. Vivas got behind 0-2, but then showed his understanding of the strikezone, taking four straight pitches for balls and taking his walk.
"The plan was just to look for a good pitch, and make good contact," Vivas said of his approach. "If I didn't get a good pitch to hit, I was just gonna let it go by. I'm used to that. That's what I wanted to do, I didn't get one there to hit."
Perhaps Vivas will pick up his first major league hit sooner rather than later. Boone said before the game that he expects Vivas to "play a lot" while Chisholm is down with injury.
Former Arizona State forward Adam Miller is transferring to Gonzaga. The university announced the move Friday, saying Miller has signed a financial aid agreement. Gonzaga will be the fourth school for Miller, an Illinois native who has scored 1,206 points in 117 games for Arizona State, LSU and Illinois.
Popovich suffered a mild stroke in November that kept him from calling plays for the team the rest of the season, and he retires from coaching after 29 years on the job. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson, who served as interim head coach for the rest of the season, will take over permanently.
Asked #LVAces coach Becky Hammon on her thoughts about so many sports talk hosts commenting today that she "would have been a lock" to coach the Spurs after Gregg Popovich had she still been in San Antonio. Her reply: pic.twitter.com/xu61PkmFsY
Becky Hammon coached on Gregg Popovich's Spurs staff before transitioning to the WNBA. (Scott Wachter/USA TODAY Sports)
USA TODAY Sports / Reuters
"That's who mentored me, that's who spent literally thousands of hours with me," Hammon said. "Watching him, I was there eight years. It's a lot of games, it's a lot of practices, it's a lot of coaches' meetings. So yeah, my heart's a little heavy for him because I know how much he loves it, but I'm sure he'll crush this role just as much."
Hammon was part of Popovich's coaching staff from 2014 to 2021 and was the first woman to lead an NBA team after Popovich was ejected in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. The former New York Liberty guard was also the first woman to serve as a head coach in the NBA Summer League and interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers' head coaching vacancy in 2021 before being hired by the Aces.
She became the first WNBA coach to win a championship as a rookie and secured another title in 2022. Despite her ties to the Spurs and fans calling for her to replace Popovich, the 48-year-old insisted she is happy with her role in Las Vegas.
"I'm super happy where I am," Hammon said. "This opportunity for me, I couldn't pass on it. I bet on myself instead of, maybe waiting it out for a maybe [in the NBA]. I've enjoyed being back on the women's side. You guys know I'm effusive about my love for this team and being back in the women's game."
"If I were to ever make that jump again, you know it just has to be the right fit, right time, in front of the right people, with the right team," she added.
Max Fried dominated the Rays again, and Paul Goldschmidt provided the offense in the Yankees' 3-0 win over Tampa Bay on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
Here are the takeaways...
-Fried, the newly minted AL Pitcher of the Month, started May the way he ended April: dominant. He went 4.1 innings before he gave up his first hit -- helped by some stellar defense behind him -- but it was just the beginning of what the Yankees and their fans have come to expect from the left-hander.
Fried completed seven scoreless frames (92 pitches/61 strikes), allowing just one hit, two walks and one HBP while striking out six. His ERA is now 1.01.
The last time Fried pitched against the Rays, he reached the eighth inning without allowing a hit -- until that was retroactively changed mid-game. In his two seasons outings against Tampa, he's allowed only three hits over 14.2 scoreless innings.
- Goldschmidt dealt the big blow in this one. With the game scoreless in the fifth and runners on second and third and two outs, the former NL MVP launched a 1-0 pitch fastball at the top of the zone 350 feet the other way over the right field wall. It would've been a homer in only three parks -- Citizens Bank Park and George M. Steinbrenner Field are the others.
After taking a month to hit his second homer, it's Goldschmidt's second homer in as many games. He finished 2-for-4.
-Aaron Judge smoked a triple to straightaway center that the Rays' center fielder couldn't grab and let trickle away from him. The ball was hit 108.5 mph off the bat. It was Judge's seventh career triple and second this season. It's the most he's had in one season since hitting three in his 2017 rookie campaign.
The Yankees' captain would add a double and also finish 2-for-4 at the plate. He's now batting a league-best .430 as May gets started.
-Jorbit Vivas made his MLB debut, playing second base and batting ninth. He saw the first pitch of the game hit at him, a routine grounder. He made every play in the field that he needed to.
At the plate, Vivas struck out swinging in his first at-bat before taking a four-pitch walk in his second. His third at-bat saw him come up with a man on third and two outs. After falling behind 0-2, he worked a walk on six pitches. He finished 0-for-1 but walked twice and scored a run.
-Devin Williams pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a strikeout in relief, making it three straight scoreless outings for the new Yankee.
Luke Weaver continued his incredible start to the season, striking out two batters in a 1-2-3 ninth inning to pick up his third save of the year. Weaver has yet to give up a run this season.
Game MVP: Max Fried
Fried was just dominant, and the Yankees are now 7-0 in his starts.
Viktor Arvidsson (33), Mattias Janmark (13) and Vasily Podkolzin (92) celebrate after scoring during the second period during Game 6 of their playoff series against the Kings Thursday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
This one is a little different, though, because this was a season that had inspired rare promise before it ended Thursday in the same painful monotony as the last three, with the Oilers going on and the Kings going home.
And that’s particularly disappointing since the Kings tied franchise records for wins (48) and points (105) and set one for home victories (31) this season. Yet it ended with the team breaking another record: it has now gone 11 seasons without winning a playoff series, the longest drought in team history.
A postseason in which the Kings seemed primed for a long run lasted just six games, the last a 6-4 loss to the Oilers at Rogers Place that leaves the organization once again shuffling off into the offseason plagued by doubt, frustration and one big question.
Edmonton Oilers Adam Henrique and Trent Frederic celebrate after scoring in the first period against the Kings during Game 6 of their playoff series at Rogers Place on Thursday. (Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
What happened?
“Having the season that we had, the group of guys in this locker room, and know, to come up short again? It sucks,” said captain Anze Kopitar, who scored the team’s final goal of the season. “It's frustrating. This one hurts a little more.”
Hurts a little more because the Kings lost more than a game and a series Thursday. They lost a golden opportunity. Rarely has a postseason set up so favorably for the team.
After acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko at the trade deadline, the Kings went on a tear, winning 17 of their final 22 games, averaging better than 3.7 goals a game. The once-punchless power play became potent; goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper went 15 games allowing two or fewer goals, the second-longest streak in the NHL’s expansion era; and the team sprinted past the Oilers to place second in the Pacific Division, its best finish in nine seasons.
No team finished the season hotter nor healthier than the Kings.
That also meant the Kings, who had the best home record in the NHL in the regular season, would have the home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. And if they finally got past an Edmonton team that limped into the postseason wounded, they would have faced Las Vegas in the second round and a team from a quartet of Winnipeg, Dallas, Colorado or St. Louis in the Western Conference final.
The Kings were a combined 8-4-1 against those teams in the regular season. It wasn’t outlandish to think the Kings had a shot at the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s all going according to plan,” one team executive whispered early in the playoffs. And then it wasn’t, with the Kings once again tripping over a familiar hurdle.
“One hundred percent it’s a missed opportunity,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “We had great buy-in from our players. We believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn't.
“So that's the bottom line.”
The Oilers have proven to be the kryptonite to even the most Superman-ish of Kings teams, with Edmonton the place the Kings postseasons go to die.
The teams have met in the playoffs 11 times since 1982 with the Oilers winning nine of those series, including the last four in a row. The last time the Kings beat Edmonton in the playoffs, in 1989, Wayne Gretzky led the team in points, current general manager Luc Robitaille was in his third season as a player while Kopitar, the only player on this year’s team who was even alive then, was still in diapers.
This year’s loss may be the most painful of the lot though.
The Kings had the home-ice advantage, one of the league’s top three goaltenders in Darcy Kuemper and the top power play in the playoffs. They led in every game.
Yet they still lost in six.
The turning point in the series came in late in Game 3. After dominating the first two games at home, the Kings were leading the first game in Edmonton with about seven minutes to play when disaster struck. After the Oilers’ Evander Kane tied the game on a controversial goal, Hiller challenged the call, claiming goalie interference. He lost, Edmonton was awarded a power play, and 10 seconds later the Oilers went in front to stay.
In Game 4 the Kings led with less than 35 seconds to play when Quinton Byfield failed to make a simple clearance out of the Kings’ zone. The Oilers pounced on the mistake to tie the game, then won it in overtime. They never lost again.
“You can pinpoint Game 3, we didn’t close out,” Kopitar said. “Definitely Game 4. It's a completely different series if we go home up 3-1 versus 2-2. But could’ve, should’ve, would’ve.”
The Kings simply wore down, especially on the blue line. That’s why they gave up a playoff-worst 15 goals in the third period and overtime in the series. The Oilers scored just 12 times in the first and second periods combined.
Yet asked in his postgame news conference if he regretted how he used his defensemen, Hiller was curt.
“No,” he said.
And with that he walked away from the podium for the final time this season.
Edmonton Oilers fans celebrate their team's playoff series win over the Kings Thursday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
Then there’s the offense. Kopitar and Adrian Kempe combined for 19 points in the series, but had just one goal and two assists combined after Kane’s tying goal in Game 3.
“The chances were there. We just couldn’t convert,” Kopitar said. “Credit to their goalie, he made some good stops. Credit to their team. The last couple of games they played a solid checking game and made it harder on us to generate stuff.
While the Mets haven't conveyed that Paul Blackburn will join the starting rotation once he fully recovers from knee inflammation, the veteran right-hander is still being stretched out as an option. And the latest results from his minor-league rehab assignement are encouraging.
Blackburn made his second start for High-A Brooklyn on Friday night, striking out six while allowing two runs on four hits across three innings. He threw 41 total pitches, 31 of them for strikes.
The duration between Blackburn's outings with Brooklyn nearly reached two weeks, as his scheduled start last Wednesday was scrapped due to a stomach bug that resulted in some weight loss.
The 31-year-old logged his first two rehab frames on April 19, allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out one.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza recently said that Blackburn's big-league role is to be determined, but they want his pitch count in the 65-70 range before activating him from the injured list.
Considering that he only threw 41 pitches on Friday, he most likely needs a few more rehab games to build up his workload.
The Mets also received some welcome news from their top farm team on Friday, as left-hander Felipe De La Cruz impressed with nine strikeouts across six scoreless innings in his debut with Triple-A Syracuse. The 23-year-old threw 70 pitches -- 53 for strikes -- and induced 12 whiffs with a sharp mid-80s slider and upper-90s sinker.
It didn't take long for De La Cruz to receive the promotion. He began the 2025 season with Double-A Binghampton, registering a crisp 1.98 ERA with 20 strikeouts across 13.2 innings (four games, two starts).
Whether or not he's being fast-tracked to the majors, De La Cruz is now a fun story to follow and on the Mets' radar. He wasn't even listed as a top-30 prospect by SNY contributor Joe DeMayo or MLB Pipeline this spring.
After Curry tried talking to Canon, the 6-year-old buried his head in his mom Ayesha’s chest as his grandma, Sonya, looked on with an understanding smile.
Canon’s dad played 42 minutes in the Warriors’ tough postseason loss, scoring 29 points on 9-of-23 shooting from the field and 6 of 16 shooting from deep with seven rebounds, two assists and five turnovers.
It might take a while for Canon to cheer up after watching Curry and Co. drop the ball, allowing the Rockets to even the series at three games apiece after the Warriors held a 3-1 lead. But he doesn’t have much time to sulk — Golden State and Houston face off in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday at Toyota Center.
SAN FRANCISCO – Sections of the sellout crowd, hearts heavy and chins drooping, went streaming toward Chase Center exits with four minutes remaining, their beloved Warriors trailing by 17 and offering nothing to inspire faith in a comeback.
It didn’t materialize in Game 6 of this first-round Western Conference series, which ended Friday night with a 115-107 loss to the Rockets, evening matters at three games apiece.
And it only gets harder for Game 7 Sunday in Houston. Going on the road to do what couldn’t be done at home results in an adverse shift of the odds.
Not that the Warriors would even consider acknowledging that.
“We’ll be all right,” Jimmy Butler III said.
“We’re packing for a week,” Stephen Curry said. “Getting on this plane to go to Texas and, hopefully, go to Minnesota right after.”
Confidence in the face of a harsh wind can border on delusion. There’s no doubt that this, Game 6, on their floor, is a fumbling of favorable conditions. The anticipation was that the Warriors would have a spirited response to being thrashed in Game 5 Wednesday in Houston. Come home, ride the energy of a roaring crowd, close out this series and start preparing for the conference semifinals against the Timberwolves.
The Rockets took all of that away. They shot better, overall and from distance. They rebounded better, forced more turnovers, pulled more loose balls and had a sharp reply to every Golden State surge. They were vastly superior in their building and appreciably better in Game 6 in a hostile environment.
“They probably had 20 points off of broken plays and getting loose balls and kicking out for 3s,” Draymond Green said. “Get loose balls and we’ll defend them way better. To beat this team, you’ve got to make second and third efforts. Last two games we have not done that.”
Which is to say the Warriors, after taking a 3-1 series lead, tailed off their intensity in Games 5 and 6. This, folks, is not a winning mentality.
And yet, after a surprisingly sloppy first half, they trailed by only five (53-48) at halftime. A third-quarter awakening allowed them to enter the fourth quarter trailing by two points, 86-84, against a team with just enough young players to breed optimism among the Warriors.
Instead, the Rockets owned the fourth from the start. Fred VanVleet, coming off a mediocre regular season and an atrocious first three games, continued his torrid shooting, getting open against a disorganized defense to drain a 3-pointer while being fouled on a scrambling closeout by Gary Payton II.
“That’s on us as a staff,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We’ve got to make sure they’re matched up. They just threw it, and we didn’t guard Van Vleet when they threw it up the floor. He knocks it down, gets the free throw.
“Felt like a game-changing play because it was a two-point game, we’re right where we need to be despite having not played well and turning it over quite a bit.”
Six seconds into the fourth, the Warriors were down six. Five minutes in, they were trailing by 12. With 4:40 remaining and having missed 10 of their first 11 shots in the quarter, they were on the ugly end of a 106-89 score.
“We struggled that first six minutes,” Curry said of the final quarter. “You have to resist the temptation to rush and force shots, if it’s me or Jimmy trying to get good looks. But use the attention they’re going to throw at us, whether it’s me running around or Jimmy driving it, to make the defense collapse and swing and find open looks.
“For the most part, we got a lot of pretty good looks in the fourth. We just didn’t make ’em.”
Curry scored 29 points, matching VanVleet for game highs. Butler scored 27 points. They didn’t get much help from their teammates. Buddy Hield, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody and Quinten Post – all capable shooters – finished a combined 11-of-32 from the field, including 6-of-19 from beyond the arc.
The Rockets had squelched the Warriors, silenced the crowd and taken the air out of the building. Their zone defense is stifling Golden State’s offense, and their size and athleticism aren’t going to go away.
That’s why Game 7 is more daunting than Games 5 and 6. After seeing Houston five times in the regular season and six times in this series, the Warriors still are searching for adequate solutions.
“We’ve got to stop focusing so much on them and focus on us,” Butler said. “If we do that, then we’re going to be fine. We’re not going to sit here and act like we’ve been playing our best version of basketball because we haven’t. They’ve been doing OK, but they haven’t played their best version of basketball either.”
That, for the Warriors and their fans, is particularly ominous.
On a three-game skid after a home loss to the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies on Thursday, the Giants needed an answer on Friday night.
They found it.
Insert veteran left-hander Robbie Ray, who tossed seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts in San Francisco’s much-needed 4-0 win over Colorado at Oracle Park.
For Ray, who remains undefeated in 2025, it marked the first time he completed seven innings in back-to-back outings since June 12 and June 17, 2022.
Naturally, any pitcher, especially one that has allowed two runs or fewer in five of his last six starts, would feel confident after seeing constant improvements in his game. That’s certainly the case for the 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner, who has found his groove on the mound.
“I think it’s just comfortability with my mechanics,” Ray told reporters after the win. “My delivery, these last two games, has felt really well.
“I feel like the ball is coming out well. I’m kind of hitting all of my cues in my delivery when I need to, and it just makes my stuff better. Earlier in the year, I was kind of fighting it a little bit. A couple of bad-weather games. That was a little tough, but, right now, I feel really good.”
Along with limiting walks, Ray improved to 4-0 with a 3.05 ERA on the season. Manager Bob Melvin, for one, is satisfied with the 33-year-old’s recent production.
“It’s something everyone knows now,” Melvin told reporters. “Even in the games that he hasn’t gone deep in the game, we end up supporting him afterwards too [by] getting good outings out of the bullpen.
“He’s getting close to almost a 2.00 ERA. [He’s] just over 3.00 right now. We feel good when he takes the mound.”
Offensively, the Giants piled on three runs in the second inning, with LaMonte Wade Jr., who entered the game with a .123 batting average, earning an RBI double.
On Friday night at Truist Park, Muncy took the field for the Dodgers’ series opener against the Atlanta Braves wearing clear prescription eyeglasses. He subtly did the same during the Dodgers’ last game of the most recent homestand on Wednesday afternoon, using sunglasses with prescription lenses when he hit his first home run of the season.
It’s not that Muncy has bad eyesight. His vision, he said, is actually an excellent 20/12.
However, Muncy did learn he has astigmatism in his right eye, making him slightly left-eye dominant. Given that he’s a left-handed hitter — positioning him with his right eye forward in the batter’s box — he thus decided the glasses were worth a try.
“If there’s anything that can help out a little bit,” Muncy said, “I’ll try it.”
Based on his results from Wednesday, the benefits might have already been felt.
After enduring a career-long 28-game home run drought to start the season, Muncy went deep in his first at-bat Wednesday, launching a low-and-away sinker to straightaway center field.
He struck out in his next trip to the plate, then flied to left in the fifth inning. After that, however, he tripled and drew a walk, giving him his most productive performance of what had been a slow start to the season.
Granted, Muncy’s performance had started to tick up before he started using his new glasses.
Thanks to some recent swing adjustments, he entered Wednesday with three hits in his previous two games (he’d recorded just four in the 11 before that) and as many walks as strikeouts in his prior 13 contests overall (10 each).
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy wore sunglasses with prescription lenses during Wednesday's game against the Marlins, and hit his first home run of the season. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“The swing feels like it’s getting closer and closer,” said Muncy, who entered Friday with a .194 batting average on the season. “I still have to clean some things up. Have to be better in certain situations. It’s a work in progress. But … it’s just getting the ball to go forward.”
Still, in recent days, Muncy decided it was time to break out the glasses, too.
The 34-year-old third baseman had been testing his glasses in pregame batting practice and infield drills since the start of last week’s homestand. He’d initially been hesitant to take them into game action, noting a “fish-bowl” effect he felt while wearing them, but said he has since adjusted by using them even when he’s away from the field.
Muncy isn’t the first Dodger player to begin utilizing glasses midseason.
Last year, Kiké Hernández did the same thing after discovering astigmatism (a condition caused by imperfections in the curvature of the eye that can impact vision) in his own right eye.
Like Muncy, Hernández described an adjustment period when his glasses arrived midseason.
“It took me like a week or two to really feel like my depth perception felt normal,” Hernández recalled.
Unlike Muncy, Hernández began wearing them in games as soon as they arrived.
“You can’t be afraid to fail,” he quipped.
Fail, Hernández did not. Before last year’s All-Star break, Hernández was batting .191 with just five home runs in 71 games, wearing glasses for only the final series of the opening half. After the break, once his eyesight adjusted to his new lenses, Hernández finished the year batting .274 with seven home runs in his final 55 games. He then proceeded to have a monster postseason (.294 average, two home runs, six RBIs) during the Dodgers’ run to a World Series title.
This year, the glasses have remained a fixture. And even though he batted just .188 in March and April, he did tally five home runs and 13 RBIs.
The biggest benefit Hernández noticed from his glasses: An ability to see the actual spin on the baseball, and more easily identify each pitch type.
“Before the glasses, I was trying to see the shape of each pitch,” Hernández said, which forced him to wait a split-second to see if the ball would dive or slide away from its starting location.
“Once I got the glasses,” he added, “I could actually see the spin.”
And despite another defeat Friday to force a decisive Game 7, Butler took it one step further — no matter how many 3-1 jokes the internet will prepare over the next 48 hours.
“[It’s] at an all-time high,” Butler told reporters when asked about the Warriors’ current confidence level. “It’s now, out of all times. It’s win or go home. It’s not wavering. We know how good of a team we are. …
“A couple of us have been here before multiple times. So, it’s on us to make sure we get it done.”
“It’s a little frustrating,” Green explained in his postgame presser. “Nonetheless, it’s a seven-game series. We know we can win there. Got to go get the win.”
Against a much less experienced Rockets squad, that mindset could be the difference in Sunday’s winner-take-all matchup. But the Warriors will need a better performance on the floor if they want that mental advantage to matter.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors, when they needed them most, couldn’t get shots to fall to save their lives. Both metaphorically and potentially in the series.
Despite falling behind to the Houston Rockets early and staying behind for nearly the entire game, Golden State trailed by just two points (86-84) to begin the fourth quarter. A series win was well within reach before the Warriors went on to miss 14 of their next 15 field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter preceding an eventual 115-107 lifeless Game 6 loss on Friday at Chase Center.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was asked postgame what happened offensively in the fourth after Golden State’s impressive 36 points in the third and credited Houston’s pesky defensive scheme.
“They were in a zone,” Kerr said. “They played [Steven] Adams quite a bit. He’s at the center of that zone, kind of a 2-1-2. I thought we got some good looks against the zone. But then once they pulled away by 10 or 12 [points], it was easier for them to run us off the line.
“We had a lot of openings, but they were using their length to run us off the 3-point line, knowing we had to make threes to get back in it. I thought they did a good job of kind of running us off the line and keeping us from knocking down threes to get us back in the game.”
Opposing teams don’t often have much success in a zone defense when Warriors superstar Steph Curry, the greatest shooter in NBA history who is capable of igniting an offense in an instant with his 3-point shooting alone, is on the floor.
There is risk to deploying the defensive scheme, but the Rockets executed it almost to perfection in the fourth quarter.
“The communication is probably even better in our zone than in man-to-man,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said postgame. “Obviously, we’re dominant with our size. We put Jabari [Smith Jr.] in the three in the bigger lineup there. Don’t have a lot of cross-matches or mismatches, and have gone to it and saw that it worked.”
One of the big reasons for Houston’s success in zone on Friday night was veteran big man Steven Adams, who played a series-high 31 minutes in Game 6 and scored 17 points with five rebounds and three blocks. Adams has been a pest for the Warriors all series, especially on the glass, but it was the size of Houston’s two-big lineup with him and Alperen Şengün at times that made the Rockets’ zone defense so effective.
“The thing with the zone is that there are windows to attack, weak spots, obviously,” Adams explained postgame. “We just managed to scramble and get to those spots like pretty good, you know what I mean. So the window for error, we keep it very tight.
“We do a good job rebounding and keeping them to one shot, you know what I mean. That’s a key weakness with the zone. Because usually you’re out of place to rebound. It’s good. It’s a weird zone … It’s just like a bizarre one but it works.”
Warriors forward Draymond Green, whose stellar defense played a pivotal role in Golden State initially jumping out to a 3-1 series lead, gave Adams his flowers.
“He’s having a great impact,” Green said of Adams. “He’s doing a great job on the offensive glass. He’s doing a great job defensively.
“I just wish we could get a three-second call. You stand in the paint, whole possession, it’s hard to box out. He’s strong as hell, so… Being outweighed by, what, 40, 50 pounds, six inches, standing in the paint, it’s tough to box him out, so…”
Houston, now with back-to-back decisive victories to even the series, might have the Warriors figured out, both schematically and personnel-wise.
Golden State will need more than just whistles to counteract the Rockets’ stout defense, which only will feed off the energy from the home crowd in Game 7 on Sunday at Toyota Center.
The five new 94 overall master set players are Andrei Vasilevskiy, Larry Murphy, Ryan McDonagh, Bryan Trottier, and Jarome Iginla.
16 additional Stanley Cup base cards were added, led by 93 overall Thomas Steen, Olaf Kolzig, Deryk Engelland, and Borje Salming and 92 overall Sergei Zubov, Cory Sarich, and Bernie Nicholls.
Six new Wildcard players were added and are playable, all are 94 overall. The players are David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Jacob Markstrom, Zdeno Chara, and Cale Makar.
Four new Game Day players, two 91 overall players from the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars are also available, Evgenni Dadonov and Cody Ceci for the Stars and Josh Manson and Jonathan Drouin for the Avalanche.
Each master set Playoff player costs three 91+ Playoff cards and any two 91+ cards.
Players can trade any three 89+ Playoff cards for a 91 Playoff card or any three 87+ cards for an 89 overall Playoff card.
There are Collectible sets where players can trade in Stanley Cup Collectibles for player packs. Players can trade in 30 Stanley Cup Playoff Collectibles for a 91 overall untradeable or 93 overall BND card.
