Betting guide for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup
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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe called it “unbelievable” what Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand was able to do in the visiting Bruins’ 4-2 win in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Wednesday.
Keefe was asked about an apparent non-call for interference that happened in the first period, when Marchand tripped up Leafs’ forward Tyler Bertuzzi before Boston forward Trent Frederic tied the score 1-1. Boston went on to secure a victory and take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series.
“He gets calls,” Keefe said of Marchand. “It’s unbelievable, actually, how it goes. You’ve got to play through that stuff. I don’t think there’s another player in this series who gets away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the way that he does. It’s an art and he’s elite at it.”
Marchand was a significant factor throughout the contest for Boston, finishing with two goals and one assist and depositing the winner midway through the third period.
Toronto took a 1-0 lead when rookie Matthew Knies scored his first goal of the series in the first period. Frederic’s salvo appeared to be aided by a lack of an interference call on Marchand against Bertuzzi, and Knies acknowledged how the Leafs must adjust to manage Marchard’s presence.
“He wants to get under our skin,” Knies said. “He wants to influence the refs, so I think we’ve just got to be composed and not kind of get into that bulls—. Just play hard and make him [not as] effective.”
That’s easier said than done. Marchand also drew the Leafs’ ire when he took down forward Auston Matthews behind the net without a call. And Marchand got involved again with Bertuzzi in the offensive zone right before pocketing the empty-netter to seal Boston’s win.
It was a bitter end for Toronto in multiple ways. The Leafs fell behind in the second off Jake DeBrusk‘s third score of the series. Toronto’s Morgan Rielly responded to knot the score at 2-2 in the third, but just 28 seconds later Marchand fired home his go-ahead dagger.
“You’ve got to recognize he’s a world-class player, both in ability and how he plays, in the gamesmanship and everything,” Keefe said of Marchand. “It’s world class, and he’s been in the league long enough, as you can see. … We have to manage our way through that, avoid putting ourselves in situations where he can put us in those spots. And as far as his game is concerned, I think we’ve managed that pretty well, for the most part. Obviously, tonight, we make a mistake at a key time that allows him to get the winner.”
Now it’s on Toronto to respond when the two sides meet again in Game 4 on Saturday. The Leafs have lost five straight playoff contests at home. Another defeat at home means they could face elimination in Boston in Game 5.
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. — A sparse afternoon crowd at Angel Stadium gathered enough voices to produce a surprisingly loud “safe” chant as Wednesday’s contest neared its conclusion, hoping to prolong a game that still seemed undecided. The news, relayed from home-plate umpire Hunter Barksdale, disappointed them:
Replay review of an initial out call on Jo Adell‘s attempted steal of second base, which would have put the tying run in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, was not overturned. The Los Angeles Angels‘ late comeback hopes had fallen just short. They absorbed a 6-5 loss to the visiting Baltimore Orioles, their sixth defeat in seven games. And afterward they lamented what could have been.
“I was in there,” Adell said. “That call goes our way, we have [Luis] Rengifo up with a runner on second and we’re ready to tie the game.”
The Angels, seeking their first series win since the start of April, trailed 6-0 midway through the sixth but had cut their deficit to two by the time Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel took the mound for the ninth inning. A two-base error and run-scoring groundout made it a one-run game with two outs, then Adell worked a full-count walk and took off for second on the ensuing pitch from Kimbrel, who is notoriously slow to the plate.
At least one camera angle appeared to show Adell’s right foot touching the edge of second base before Henderson’s glove touched the top of his right leg, but second-base umpire Nic Lentz called him out. The Angels challenged the call, triggering a long delay.
“We’re all looking at the picture, we’re watching the video,” Adell said. “Where my foot hit and where I got tagged were two totally different spots.”
But the umpire reviewing replay at Major League Baseball’s headquarters in Manhattan, New York — in this case Carlos Torres — disagreed. He ruled that the call “stands,” which means there was not enough evidence to overturn it.
“After viewing all relevant angles, the replay official could not definitively determine that the runner touched second base prior to the fielder applying the tag,” read an MLB statement from its replay center.
Angels manager Ron Washington said he was “very surprised” by the call.
Mike Trout, who hit his major league-leading 10th home run while hitting leadoff for the second straight day, echoed those sentiments.
“I thought he was safe,” he said, “but obviously New York didn’t think so.”
WASHINGTON — Shohei Ohtani had three doubles to improve his major-league-leading batting average to .371, rookie Landon Knack got his first victory and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the Washington Nationals 11-2 on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers had a season-high 20 hits — their most in a game since they had 24 on May 26, 2022, against the Diamondbacks — en route to their third straight victory, with Mookie Betts and Will Smith each having four hits and Andy Pages homering.
Ohtani went 3-for-6, hitting RBI doubles in the eighth and ninth innings. He had three doubles for the first time in his MLB career.
Ohtani leads the majors in slugging percentage (.695), OPS (1.128), extra-base hits (21) and doubles (14). He is hitting .429 during his nine-game hitting streak.
“His average exit velocity on balls he puts in play, he’s got to be in a category by himself,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The ball just does different things when it comes off his bat.”
A night after ripping a 118.7 mph solo shot in the ninth inning — the hardest-hit home run of his career — Ohtani smashed a 115.6 mph double to right-center in the first inning off Jake Irvin. Ohtani came around two batters later on Smith’s single.
Betts pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second on a two-run single against a drawn-in infield.
Nick Senzel led off the Nationals’ second inning with a homer into the bushes in the visiting bullpen in left. Washington scored again without putting the ball in plan, sandwiching two walks around a hit batsman before Joey Meneses pushed in a run with a walk.
The Nationals didn’t have a baserunner after the second inning. Knack, who lost his debut against Washington last week, retired his last 13 batters and struck out five over six innings.
“I was just kind of missing off the edges,” Knack said about his second inning. “I’m a guy who really needs to be more north and south with everything, so it was basically just trying to get everything back over instead of trying to be too perfect, especially with the slider and changeup. It was just trying to figure it out and execute quick.”
Max Muncy hit an RBI single in the third and Gavin Lux chased Irvin with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth. Irvin allowed six runs on 12 hits in 4⅔ innings while striking out three.
“He made some good pitches at times,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “He just didn’t have any consistency today. He fell behind, and that’s what got him.”
Pages homered with one out in the eighth off Tanner Rainey, and Betts and Ohtani followed with back-to-back doubles to score another run.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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