Here’s a look at what’s happening around the majors today:
SWING OR MISS?
Many hitters got off to a smashing start in July as Cleveland socked 11 doubles Mike McGlinchey 49ers Jersey , Baltimore homered four times and the Cubs combined with Minnesota for 21 runs at Wrigley Field on Sunday. Now, we’ll see if the trend continues as the weather heats up and the balls fly.
June marked the second time in three months that strikeouts exceeded hits in the major leagues, a pattern that had never occurred until this year. About halfway through the season, there had been 21,090 strikeouts and 20,671 hits.
SLAMMIN’
The Reds try to keep socking grand slams when the White Sox come to Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati leads the majors with nine slams and has already tied the single-season franchise record set in 2002.
Jose Peraza hit one Sunday, and pitchers Mike Lorenzen and Anthony DeSclafani recently connected. Eight different Reds have hit grand slams – Adam Duvall is the only player with two.
James Shields, who twice has led the league in homers allowed, starts for Chicago.
MOTOWN MEMORIES
Washington ace Max Scherzer (10-4 Cheap Billy Price Jersey , 2.04 ERA) will face ex-Detroit teammate Rick Porcello (9-3, 3.60 ERA) in a matchup of former Cy Young Award winners when the Boston Red Sox visit Nationals Park.
HE’S BACK
Shortstop Jorge Polanco is set to rejoin the Twins after serving an 80-game drug suspension. He went 8 for 19 in six rehab games at Triple-A and Class A, and will report to the big league club for the series opener at Milwaukee. The 24-year-old Polanco was a key contributor last season when the Twins earned an AL wild-card spot.
SEATTLE SLOW
The Mariners plan to monitor Felix Hernandez and his back stiffness over the next few days. Hernandez pitched five innings Saturday night and earned the victory over Kansas City, but struggled with back pain and wasn’t able to sit down in the dugout between innings. The six-time All-Star is 8-6 with a 5.11 ERA in 18 starts this season.
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Like the goalie-masked character in the endless series of slasher films, the Philadelphia Flyers rose from the dead to even their best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-1 victory on Friday the 13th.
Now they come home with a chance to take the lead in Game 3 on Sunday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.
“Our building’s pretty wild. A 3 o’clock game, I know that people are going to be ready for sure,” Shayne Gotisbehere told the Courier Post before referencing the recent success of the Eagles and Villanova. “Especially with what this city’s seen in the past couple months, I know they’re going to be ready.”
Though the Flyers benefited from some lucky bounces, the win wasn’t supernatural as much as the result of better defense Myles Garrett Jersey Youth , stronger goaltending and success on special teams.
“Said it coming in, nobody really is giving us a serious chance in this series,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol told NHL.com after the game. “I don’t know if anybody still will. But I know this; we just got it down to a five-game series and we introduced ourselves into this series tonight.”
One night after Brian Elliott was pulled when he allowed five goals on 19 shots, he made 34 saves. Sean Couturier had a goal and two assists, and Nolan Patrick and Travis Konecny each scored his first playoff goal.
Gotisbehere’s first-period goal ended Matt Murray’s incredible playoff shutout streak at 225 minutes, 49 seconds dating to last season.
“We always thought we had a realistic shot,” Gotisbehere told the Courier Post of the series. “You want to win every game, obviously. We knew what we had to do. The first game is in the past just like this game is in the past. We’re going to reset here and be ready for Game 3.”
Philadelphia went 2 of 3 on the power play and Pittsburgh was 0 of 4. The Penguins are 1 for 8 on the power play in the series after leading leading the NHL in the regular season (26.2 percent).
Penguins stars Murray and Sidney Crosby weren’t bad in Game 3, they were just human Walter Payton Bears Jersey , words not usually associated with them in the postseason.
Crosby had a hat trick in Game 1, but Elliott stopped him on a breakaway in Game 2 when the score was 2-0 and Crosby later failed to convert a perfect feed from Phil Kessel as the second period was expiring, but missed an empty net before smashing his stick over the crossbar.
“If I find a way to put that in, it’s 2-1, it’s a different game,” Crosby told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “That one and the breakaway was a big turning point in the game.”
Instead, the Flyers led 4-0 before Patric Hornqvist’s goal at 5:47 of the third period.
If Philadelphia can jump out early Sunday and increase the Penguins’ frustration level, they can maintain their momentum.
The Flyers got more good news Saturday, when they learned Claude Giroux won’t have a disciplinary hearing for his hit on Kris Letang during the second period Friday night. After Crosby and Giroux collided Kolton Miller Jersey , Giroux went backward into Letang, appearing to elbow him in the face.
For the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, this was their first loss in six games against the Flyers this season.
“We know this is going to be a hard-fought series. It’s everything we expected it to be,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We’re going to have to go to Philly, and we’re going to have to find a way to win games.”
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