|
|
It might be there for years |
The Cincinnati Reds are much better now than they were a month into the season Youth Rashaan Gaulden Jersey , and it’s partly because Anthony DeSclafani is much better than they anticipated.
Not only DeSclafani, the pitcher. DeSclafani, the hitter, too.
The Reds return to Great American Ball Park on Thursday to take on the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, but that’s nothing new of late for interim manager Jim Riggleman’s resurgent team.
The Reds have played their last seven games against teams that were in first place or within percentage points of the top spot. They swept the Cubs in four games and won two of three in Atlanta.
“It says a lot for our club that we can play first-place clubs and win these series,” Riggleman said Wednesday following a come-from-behind 6-5 win at Atlanta, the Reds’ ninth victory in 10 games and 12th victory in 15 games.
“(We want to) keep rolling into Cincinnati,” Adam Duvall said after his two-run single keyed a three-run seventh inning that included a Scooter Gennett RBI single.
DeSclafani (3-1, 4.09 ERA) is a big presence during the surge, and not just because he’s won his last three starts — this after missing all of last season and the first two months of this season with multiple injuries. After missing so much time, the Reds simply weren’t sure what they would get from him this season.
His last time out, the right-handed DeSclafani limited the Cubs to two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings, and he contributed the game’s biggest hit Saturday with a grand slam — the first slam by a Cincinnati pitcher in 59 years.
DeSclafani will be yet another bat in the Reds’ order that Milwaukee right-hander Junior Guerra (3-5, 2.82) must be concerned about in the opener of the four-game NL Central series.
The Brewers continue to occupy first place in the division Adidas Nico Hischier Jersey , but even a three-run ninth inning wasn’t enough Wednesday as they lost 5-4 at home to the last-place Kansas City Royals, whose .313 winning percentage is the second-worst in the majors.
“Even in our losses, we’re making the other team work a lot,” starting pitcher Brent Suter told reporters. “From that respect, I love how we’re playing. (But) it would be nice to win some of these series.”
The Brewers have lost six of their last 10 games, and now they must take on a Reds team that doesn’t look anything now like the team Milwaukee swept in a three-game series April 30-May 2 at Great American Ball Park — losses that dropped the Reds to 7-24. The Brewers have won five of six overall from the Reds this season.
“We just want to keep winning. If we take series after series we’re going to be just fine,” said Reds reliever Jackson Stephens (2-0), who got the win Wednesday with 1 2/3 scoreless relief innings.
The Brewers, conversely, led 1-0 Wednesday, only to have Suter and reliever Josh Hader give up five runs in the seventh inning. Hader allowed a two-run single to Adalberto Mondesi, Lucas Duda’s sacrifice fly and Whit Merrifield’s RBI single — the first time in 27 games this season Hader has given up more than one hit in an inning.
“Josh’s velocity was good. Everything was good,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. “He threw the ball well. They jumped on the first pitch, and we’ve seen that a lot lately Muhammad Wilkerson Jersey , but he’s been so effective that obviously multiple hits in an inning is something we haven’t seen. They got him today.”
The Reds certainly didn’t get to Guerra when they faced him on April 17.
Guerra didn’t get the decision in a 2-0 Brewers win, but he shut out the Reds on one hit over 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven and walking three. In his career, he is 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA against Cincinnati in five games, including four starts.
Most of the current Reds hitters have only a minimal number of at-bats against Guerra, with Eugenio Suarez going 2-for-3 with a homer.
DeSclafani is 2-2 with a 4.15 ERA in five games against the Brewers, starting four of them, but hasn’t faced them since 2016. Ryan Braun is 2-for-10 (.200) against him.
The NBA might have to get used to this.
Stephen Curry is under contract for basically the rest of his prime. Kevin Durant says he isn’t going anywhere. Steve Kerr has more than proven himself as one of the game’s best coaches. Free agents will line up for the chance to move west even if that means taking some pay cuts. There’s even a new arena coming in a year or so for the Golden State Warriors to call home.
It’s their league now, without question.
For the third time in four years, the Warriors are champions of the NBA world. They’ve gone back-to-back, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-85 on Friday night to finish off a sweep of these NBA Finals in the fourth consecutive meeting between those clubs.
The Cavs may very well be coming apart.
The Warriors look very much built to last, and no matter where LeBron James goes this summer it’ll probably be Golden State as the prohibitive favorites to win it all again next year.
”You don’t want to cheat the moment,” Curry said, the victory champagne still drying on his clothes and skin Semyon Varlamov Jersey , wanting no part of any talk about dynasties or anything like that. ”So we’ll have plenty of time over the summer to talk about what next year’s going to look like and what it’s going to take for us to get back to this stage next year.”
Houston probably isn’t going away and remember, the Rockets gave the Warriors all they wanted this season. Had Chris Paul not gotten hurt, who knows if the Warriors even win that Game 7 in Houston and take the West title. The East might be a wild race, with Toronto, Philadelphia and Boston probably all likely to enter the year thinking they have NBA Finals potential – as will any team that has James on its roster next fall.
This much is clear: Golden State has no designs on giving up its throne.
”I’ve just got to keep getting better,” said Warriors star Kevin Durant, now a two-time champion and two-time NBA Finals MVP. ”I think I’ve got a lot more to go. So I’m just trying to prove to myself that I could just stay in it for the long haul, and hopefully I continue to have some success. Just keep growing as a player. That’s my only concern.”
Durant was voted the best player in this series – and he wants to keep growing.
He can’t be guarded now – and he wants to keep growing.
Ask the 29 other NBA teams their reaction to that statement and they would likely say some form of ”welp.”
”They move at such a pace, and they have five guys on the floor that can dribble, pass and shoot,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said Friday night, a few minutes after the season ended and a few minutes into the Warriors’ celebration down the hall. ”They can make plays. So if you make a mistake, they’re going to make you pay. That’s the beauty of their team.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver marvels at how the Warriors have put themselves in this position. They drafted well. They drafted lucky, too – Draymond Green as a second-rounder is an all-time bargain. They spend a ton of money Anthony Mantha Jersey , but they do it smartly.
They are built for the long haul.
And they are having more than their share of fun along the way.
”Klay just Googled himself and it says three-time champion already,” Green said as he sat next to Klay Thompson after Game 4, the Wikipedia world having already updated pages with the Warriors’ latest championship accomplishment. ”That’s dope.”
Every other team this summer will try to figure out how to beat Golden State. Some will try to do so in 2019. Others will wait for a more opportune time, a few years from now. Not many teams are in position to even think about knocking the Warriors off their perch.
Plus, Golden State will get better. Durant has already challenged some of the Warriors’ young and promising players to raise their games. They will retool their roster this summer, change the look of the bench a bit. They will add pieces.
”When you get on the podium and you realize all the hard work that you put into it and all that you’ve been through led to that moment, it never gets dull,” Curry said. ”It never gets boring. It’s always a freshness about that moment.”
This is why Curry does what he does. This is why he’ll be back in the gym in a couple weeks, restarting the process. Opening night is four months away, after all.
”I’ve got a big smile on my face right now,” Curry said. ”I’m going to try to hold onto it for as long as I can.”
It might be there for years.
—
Tim Reynolds is a national basketball writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at treynolds(at)ap.org
—
http://www.officialusafootballs.com/miami-dolphins
« Star Lotulelei JerseyYouth Mike Remmers Jersey »
Weitere Artikel der Kategorie Allgemein
RSS-Feed abonnieren
Besucher
Forum Statistiken
