Your Thursday Morning Roundup
Aaron Nola: Elite.
When the Phillies needed a win last night, he delivered. The ace pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings, allowing only four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts on 101 pitches as the Phillies shut out the Marlins 6-0.
The game felt like a win right from the start, as Cesar Hernandez hit a lead-off home run on the fourth pitch. Almost every Phillies starter had a hit, Nola included.
The only guy that didn’t was Carlos Santana, who went 0-for-5. His batting average dipped to .151 on the season. He’s currently projected to hit .228 for the rest of the season with 23 home runs. So a rebound is expected, but when?
Should Santana sit for a few games and hope that he can finally get going? Rhys Hoskins could get some reps at first base and Nick Williams could come out of manager purgatory to play some left field.
Scott Kingery did not play yesterday after taking a pitch to his elbow. He hopes to be back for the team’s series-opener against Washington on Friday.
The Phils are off today and will play those Nationals in a weekend series in the nation’s capital tomorrow night. Nick Pivetta will start on the mound.
The Roundup:
Baseball struggles, plenty of Sixers talk, and discussions about lawns. That’s pretty much the latest episode of Crossing Broadcast.
Let’s try this again: The Sixers return to action tonight. Game 2 against the Celtics tips off at 8:30 PM on TNT. Let the weird start times for this series commence.
Despite only hitting five out of 26 three-point attempts in Game 1, the Sixers want to shoot more 3s.
“I think schematically Boston’s always mindful of the three-point shot,” Brown said. “In some ways, they seem quite OK to let Joel (Embiid) get 40. They’re very mindful of the perimeter. When teams do that and they do it well, and Boston does do that well, at times Robert can be influenced if we don’t sort of help him with movement and movement as a team, and him be aware of blind defenders and those types of things.
“I give credit to Boston. I think there are some things that we can do and that I can do to help him more.”
Joel Embiid wants the Celtics to continue guarding him one-on-one. He feels unstoppable if that continues:
“I don’t think that’s disrespectful,” Embiid said, “because at the end of the day, when you look at the last game, I felt like I was in a zone where it kind of helped me. Since I came back, I didn’t find that rhythm offensively that I had months before that.
“That game, I felt like it brought me back to the L.A. game. That dominant performance.”
Embiid also addressed why there wasn’t support for the team when The Process began 3-4 years ago.
This Dario Saric long-form piece is why the Homie is such a fan-favorite.
Fun fact: JJ Redick was planning on taking the GMAT, but the playoffs derailed those plans.
Sometimes, people write about Markelle Fultz and it’s useless.
Finally, what if the Sixers signed Kyle Lowry and drafted Jayson Tatum? Think about it.
The Eagles signed veteran wide receiver Markus Wheaton to bolster their wideout group. He’ll likely have to compete for a spot this season. They also reportedly signed QB Joe Callahan.
What have scouts said about the team’s draft picks?
The Eagles will also be given the John Wanamaker Athletic Award.
Grading the Flyers’ forwards as well as their defense and goaltenders.
Hopeful future franchise goaltender Carter Hart is working towards a WHL title.
Sounds like Union great Sebastien Le Toux will sign a ceremonial contract with the squad and retire as a member of the team, as Kevin Kinkead reports. Expect a press conference to occur later this month.
In other sports news, Jason Witten will officially retire and head to Monday Night Football.
In the NBA playoffs, the Utah Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets to even up their series at one game apiece.
In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Tampa Bay took a 2-1 series lead with a 4-1 win over Boston. Also, San Jose tied their series with Vegas at two games each with a 4-0 shutout win.
The Redskins continue to be a scummy franchise. And this also happened:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiSGS4HFpOP/?hl=en
Eric Reid, Colin Kaepernick’s former teammate, has filed a collusion lawsuit of his own against the NFL.
Liverpool edged Roma on a 7-6 aggregate to move on to play Real Madrid in the Champions League Final May 26.
In the news, the two men that were arrested inside a local Starbucks settled with the city of Philadelphia for $1 each. They asked the city to spend $200,000 for a grant program for high school students that want to become entrepreneurs.
The Boy Scouts of America will change their name to scouts BSA after allowing girls to join the organization.
Shocker: Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.