Matt Duchene's heroics Friday put his current team in the Western Conference finals at the expense of the team that drafted him more than a decade ago.

An unmarked Duchene flicked his wrists, and in less than a second scored the winning goal that sent the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 double-overtime win in Game 6 against the Colorado Avalanche to close out their semifinal series.

"Those guys mucked hard at the end, and it just popped out to me," Duchene told Turner Sports after the game. "I put it in and then blacked out pretty much. I was so tired, I started skating and I got tired, and I don't even know what I did after that. I was pretty pumped up."

Duchene's goal and the events that led to it came with several moving parts.

Most notably, it sends the Stars back to the Western Conference final for a second straight season and for the third time in the past five years. They will face either the Vancouver Canucks or the Edmonton Oilers. The Canucks have a 3-2 series lead and could end the series Saturday in Edmonton, or the Oilers could force a Game 7 set for Monday in Vancouver.

In last season's conference final, the Stars lost in six games to the eventual champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.

The goal also came after some controversy in the first extra period, when Duchene was involved in a Mason Marchment goal that was called back because of goaltender interference.

With 7:29 remaining in the first overtime, Duchene was battling with Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar for position in front of Avs goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. Marchment fired a shot on net that beat Georgiev. However, the goal was reviewed, with Duchene appearing to have impeded Georgiev in the crease while contacting Makar.

The NHL Situation Room, which is charged with reviewing goals, determined that Duchene impaired Georgiev's "ability to play his position in the crease prior to the puck entering the Colorado net." The ruling was made in accordance with Rule 69.1, which states that "an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper's ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal."

"Duchy's ass was over the line," Marchment told reporters after the game. "His feet were outside, but his ass was over the line. So that's the explanation I got."

Duchene opened the second overtime with a chance to win it early. Stars defenseman Esa Lindell recovered the puck near the Stars' bench and played a pass through the seam that allowed Duchene to get the edge and skate toward the net. Duchene got a breakaway before Avs defenseman Josh Manson lunged forward and used his stick to disrupt Duchene's stick, which saw his offering reach the net but get stopped by Georgiev's right leg pad.

Duchene's series-ending goal came soon after.

"You can imagine how we felt on the no-goal call," Duchene told Turner Sports. "Then the breakaway, I felt like I had a really good chance to score there. Obviously, it was a slash, but it got me on the stick, so it was a legal play."

Duchene's winning goal eliminated the club that drafted him with the No. 3 pick in 2009. Since he requested a trade in 2017, the Avs won the Stanley Cup in 2022 while Duchene played in three markets before signing a one-year deal with the Stars last offseason.

Duchene was part of a youth movement in Colorado that was built around promising stars such as Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen but had gone through a challenging 2016-17 season that saw them finish with 48 points. At the time, that was the fewest points in the salary-cap era.

Finishing with the worst record in the league led to the Avs getting the No. 4 pick and drafting future Norris Trophy winner Makar. Months after they drafted Makar, Duchene requested a trade.

A childhood Avalanche fan, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators as part of a three-team trade that saw the Avs receive defenseman Samuel Girard along with draft picks that later became Bowen Byram and Justus Annunen.

It was a trade that would help the Avalanche strengthen a foundation that eventually saw them win the third Cup in franchise history back in 2022.

"I have a lot of fond memories of being an Avs and they were my favorite team growing up," Duchene told TNT. "It was an absolute honor to be here, and it was one of the hardest things I had to do was to ask out. We were just at a crossroads, and they turned it around really quick, and I was happy for them when they won."

Duchene lasted a season and a half in Ottawa before he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He helped the Jackets reached the playoffs that year before signing a seven-year contract with the Nashville Predators worth $8 million annually.

His time with the Predators was mixed. In 2021-22, he scored a career-high 43 goals and 86 points in 78 games. The following season saw him fall 30 points shy of 86 points while playing in seven fewer games.

A front-office shift led to the Predators making changes with one of those adjustments coming in the form of buying out Duchene. It made him a free agent and someone the Stars signed to a one-year deal worth $3 million.

With the Stars this season, Duchene reached the 20-goal mark for the 11th time in his career while hitting the 60-point plateau for the fourth time.

"God had a plan for me, and I'm just living out that plan," Duchene told TNT. "It's kind of fitting I guess that things went the way they did last night in a barn and in a place that meant a lot to me. ... I've nothing but fond memories as an Av and nothing but good feelings toward them."

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Pacers fell behind 2-0 in their series against the New York Knicks, coach Rick Carlisle challenged the referees. When they faced elimination in Friday's Game 6, he directly challenged his players.

Carlisle tore into his team after their 30-point loss in Game 5 in New York, calling for them to improve their aggression, focus and technique. Then he put them through a tough film session Thursday reviewing time after time when the Knicks beat the Pacers to loose balls in the humbling blowout.

The veteran coach got a strong response from his young team, with the Pacers reversing nearly every facet in a 116-103 Game 6 victory that evened the series at 3-3 and set up a Game 7 Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

After losing the rebound battle by a whopping 24 in Game 5, the Pacers won it by 12 in Game 6. After turning the ball over a crushing 18 times in Game 5, the Pacers did just nine times in Game 6. And after getting outscored by 26 points in the paint in Game 5, the Pacers scored 24 more than the Knicks in Game 6.

"Coaches challenged our effort, I think that was the biggest thing," said Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had 15 points and 9 assists. "We had some boneheaded things happen [in Game 5]. ... He just really challenged our group [players] 1-15 on how can we be better."

For the Knicks, their focus after the loss wasn't just on the forthcoming Game 7 but also prized do-everything player Josh Hart, who suffered an abdominal injury fighting for a rebound in the first quarter Friday night and labored through the game before finally coming out in the fourth quarter. He managed eight rebounds and still played nearly 40 minutes, but he was not his usual impactful self.

Hart, who played 144 consecutive minutes in the series at one point, alarmed his teammates when he twice had to ask out of the game to stretch and put heating pads on the left side of his abdomen. Knicks trainers assembled a web-like array of kinesio-style tape under his uniform trying to give him some relief.

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau didn't have a postgame update on Hart, who left the game without speaking to reporters. But to a man, his Knicks teammates said they expected he'd play despite a tight turnaround on Sunday afternoon.

"I would assume he's going to play," Knicks star Jalen Brunson said. "It's Game 7."

"Him asking out is not a good sign, but I think he'll bounce back," Miles McBride said.

"Knowing him, he'll do whatever to play," Isaiah Hartenstein said. "If his leg's not falling off, he'll do whatever to play."

How well Hart might be able to play is another question.

The Pacers could see Hart was struggling and not able to be his typically active self. With the Knicks already playing small as they're without three forwards and a center due to injury, the Pacers went after Hart defensively with their size. Indiana shot 14-of-20 against Hart when he was the primary defender, according to ESPN Stats and Information tracking, a huge departure from his normal style.

Forward Pascal Siakam, who had 25 points in his best game of the series, and center Myles Turner, who had 17 points, were among the attackers on Hart and the other Knicks interior defenders.

"It was just activity. We played harder tonight, which was a must," Carlisle said. "We moved the ball better and we got more rebounds, and that's obviously a big key to the series."

Throughout the past two weeks, so much of the competition and strategy between the teams has centered on Brunson. The back-and-forth of the Pacers changing defenders and schemes against the Knicks unveiling wrinkles and lineup changes has largely defined the series.

Aaron Nesmith, who has drawn the primary assignment in the past four games, was more active in fighting over and around screens than in Game 5 when the Knicks were repeatedly able to free Brunson from his control. Brunson had less space Friday, especially early in the game, and even when he did get clean looks, he misfired.

Brunson made his first two shots in the first quarter, and then missed his next 11 -- that 2-of-13 was the worst shooting half of his playoff career.

He rebounded in the second half and was able to get free from Nesmith, scoring 26 of his 31 points and making 9-of-13 shots, but the Knicks were already down more than 20 when he got going.

Pacers reserve guard T.J. McConnell, who had 15 points off the bench, was also part of the effort on Brunson.

"They try to make things difficult," Brunson said. "And I have to adjust as well. Show me different looks and I have to do a better job of reading it."

But the Pacers didn't think they had anything with Brunson figured out. He has two 40-point games at home already in this series and most of the Pacers key players will be taking part in their first Game 7.

"We gotta brace for Sunday. We know the kind of effort [Brunson] is going to bring on Sunday," Carlisle said. "And we must be ready."

CLEVELAND -- Following a one-run loss, Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli was having a hard time processing what had just happened to his ballclub.

This one was tough on the Twins.

"There was some stuff going on today," Baldelli said.

Several questionable pitch calls and a confusing rule violation tripped up the Twins, who dropped their fourth straight game Friday night, 3-2, as the Cleveland Guardians got a home run in the eighth inning from José Ramírez after Minnesota reliever Jhoan Duran got squeezed by plate umpire Roberto Ortiz.

Baldelli meant no disrespect toward Ramírez, whom he described as a "great player." But he was bothered Ortiz had put Cleveland's All-Star third baseman in a favorable situation by calling two balls that were strikes.

"We can say they're close pitches," Baldelli said. "They're strikes. Am I wrong about that based on anything objective that we have to look at? Those things do happen in the game, but that's why he has to throw a pitch in the zone because he's behind in the count."

Ramírez's homer came shortly after Twins center fielder Willi Castro was called out looking in the top of the inning on a borderline pitch. Then, in the ninth, Minnesota shortstop Carlos Correa struck out looking at a pitch that was low.

Earlier, Correa, who was taunted with chants of "Cheat-er" by Cleveland fans who won't forget his days in Houston, was called for a rare shift violation.

As for the strikeout, Correa diplomatically said umpires might be overmatched behind the plate.

"I feel like pitchers are too nasty right now for umpires to see," he said. "I feel like if the umpires knew what was coming and they had a Pitchcom (communication device) they would make calls so much better.

"It's really hard for them to just be able to call pitches, especially the way the catchers are framing nowadays. If they had a device where it says slider and they are anticipating the slider and they know where it has to start and land for it to be a strike, then we would get so many calls.

"But the fact that they are over there blind, it's really hard. I just think their job is too hard for me to be harsh on them. Sometimes I get calls, sometimes I don't and you move on."

In the sixth inning, Correa was called for the first shift violation in the majors this season.

Playing behind second base, Correa raced to his left and fielded a grounder by Ramírez before throwing him out. However, the Guardians challenged that Correa was illegally shifted and won a lengthy replay review, giving Ramírez new life.

Correa said he's been lining up in the same spot since rules were changed last season.

"I've always played it like that. To me, that's what was in the rule book and it wasn't, so today I learned something new," he said, smiling. "Baseball is beautiful."

Baldelli was bothered that it took several minutes for the umpires to rule on a play that appeared inconclusive.

"Everything we do in replay has to be definitive," he said. "The people in charge have to be able to look at it and go, that's definitive. I was surprised that we ended up with a definitive call on that. Replay is supposed to be when we're getting calls right and they're definitive and we're sure about them."

Baldelli acknowledged the Twins could have done more to help themselves, but other forces worked against them.

"There are some guys who are upset in the room and I'm not happy about it, either," he said. "That's tough to take."

British javelin thrower takes another global title at the World Para Champs in Kobe, Japan

Arnolds first global title came back in 2013 in Lyon.

Full results here.

The Florida Panthers waited out the Boston Bruins in their second round Stanley Cup playoff series.

And patience paid off.

The Panthers and Bruins were knotted 1-1 in Game 6 on Friday until defenseman Gustav Forsling broke the stalemate for Florida with just over ninety seconds left in regulation. Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman let out the juiciest of rebounds he'd love to have to back and Forsling made no mistake punching the Panthers ticket to an Eastern Conference final against New York.

Now that should be a high scoring affair.

How the Panthers got there -- and what to expect from their series with the Rangers -- is here.

Savvy Sergei

Most goaltenders will admit it's better to stay busy. And in this series against Boston, Sergei Bobrovsky decidedly was not. Boston averaged the fewest shots on goal among remaining playoff teams (25 per game), and there were lengthy stretches where Bobrovsky didn't have much to do.

It would be easy to dismiss his contributions to Florida's success by just looking at the numbers then (.896 save percentage, 2.51 goals-against average) but that doesn't tell the whole Bobrovsky tale.

The Panthers got the timely saves from their veteran. He wasn't leaky at the wrong time, despite being underworked. Plus, if you take out the Panthers' 5-1 loss in Game 1, Bobrovsky didn't allow more than two goals in an outing the rest of the way.

Being dialed in at crucial moments is how goaltenders set themselves apart in the playoffs, and that's what Bobrovsky did for Florida throughout the second-round run.

Bolstered by balance

The Panthers tapped in with 12 different goal scorers against the Bruins, with all but three of their forwards landing on the scoresheet with at least one. There was no singular scoring star (although Aleksander Barkov came closest to that moniker, by pacing the group with three) and so Boston had its hands full trying to keep all four lines from running through them.

Florida didn't need it's top skaters to do all the heavy lifting, and that's a critical component at playoff time. Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman was terrific again in this series against a Panthers' group firing the second-most shots on net among remaining playoff teams (36.5 per game), and that's a difficult ask for any goalie to stand up to when they're not offering the sort of goal support Florida does. That's a major reason why the Panthers are moving on -- and Boston's headed home for the season.

No sleeping on special teams

It's the great equalizer, right? Generally, the team who wins that special teams battle comes out on top in a series.

Florida was the unequivocal victor there against Boston.

The Panthers ripped in six power-play goals -- and one shorthanded score -- while the Bruins managed a single goal on the man advantage. The difference that makes in undeniable in the final outcome for both sides. Florida won by larger margins in this series -- including two games by four goals or more -- than they did against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round -- where only two wins were by two goals or more -- but the Lightning matched them on special teams.

When the Bruins fell down in that area, the Panthers pounced all the way to a series win.

Postseason poise

There's something to be said for owning the moment. Florida did just that.

The blowout in Game 1 could have rattled the Panthers and set an ominous tone for the series ahead. Instead, it seemed to settle them down. There's confidence that comes from overcoming early obstacles, and any challenges the Panthers faced from there were met with composure.

Florida wasn't ruined without Sam Bennett in Game 1 and 2, while the Bruins fared worse without Brad Marchand in Game 4 and 5. The Panthers could stay on course when Boston was up 1-0 after the first period in Game 4 and eventually chipped their way back to victory. Yes, there was a controversial goalie interference sequence that factored into Florida's win, but the call was out of their control.

The Panthers focused on what they could do to succeed, and it paid off with a consecutive Eastern Conference finals bid.

How the Panthers match up with the New York Rangers

A conference finals matchup between the Rangers and Panthers could break records for playoff goal scoring.

No, seriously.

Florida and New York are the third and fourth top offenses in the entire playoff field, averaging 3.70 and 3.50 goals per game respectively. Their power plays are excellent (31.4% for New York and 23.7% for Florida) and the Panthers are second in shots on net (34.0 per game) which would only add to the potential firepower these two teams could generate on one sheet.

Matthew Tkachuk (four goals and 13 points in the postseason), Barkov (five goals and 13 points), and Carter Verhaeghe (six goals and 10 points) would give the Rangers' elite a run for their money trading chances though, especially if the rush game opens up.

New York's defense would have to improve over its second-round performance to keep them from running wild. However, the back-and-forth that could come out of this series would highlight what made both Florida and New York so entertaining in their second-round series respectively (although the Rangers stumbled a bit towards the end attempting to close Carolina out).

Another interesting aspect of a Rangers-Panthers series is, of course, in the crease. Sergei Bobrovksy's numbers (.896 SV%, 2.51 GAA) aren't exactly on par with Igor Shesterkin's (.923 SV%, 2.40). But Bobrovsky wasn't tested often by Boston and that, as mentioned above, can affect how a goalie performs.

Regardless, Bobrovsky was terrific when he had to be. Shesterkin has been that and more for the Rangers throughout the playoffs. New York's bread and butter though has been its attack up front plus excellent netminding, and a series against Florida would give them the opportunity to lean on both.

BOSTON -- Gustav Forsling scored the tiebreaking goal on a rebound with 1:33 left, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots for the Florida Panthers to beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Friday night and win their second-round playoff series in six games.

The Panthers advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, where they will face the New York Rangers. Game 1 is on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers and also set up the game-winner when his shot was deflected to the left side of the net. Forsling came in and beat Jeremy Swayman. The Panthers, who also knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs after their record-setting regular-season last year, won all three games in Boston.

Swayman stopped 26 shots for the Bruins. Pavel Zacha scored to give Boston a 1-0 lead late in the first period, but they were unable to beat Bobrovsky again.

The Bruins got captain Brad Marchand back after he missed two games with an injury believed to be a concussion. The longest-tenured member of the roster got a big ovation at introductions, but did not figure in the scoring.

Boston took the lead with a minute left in the first period when Jake DeBrusk made a no-look backhanded pass to Zacha to send him on a breakaway. Brandon Carlo also helped by flattening Carter Verhaeghe at the blue line to keep him from pursuing the puck.

But Florida tied it with seven minutes left in the second, after a scramble in front of the Boston net that left DeBrusk on the ice. Lundell swooped into the slot and swept the puck past Swayman.

The Bruins were called for having too many men on the ice for a record seventh time this postseason. The bench minor early in the second period did not result in a goal for the Panthers.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers shuffled their roster Friday, activating right fielder Jason Heyward, placing third baseman Max Muncy on the injured list with what was described as a mild oblique strain, and sending struggling center fielder James Outman down to Triple-A.

Muncy, 1-for-25 in his past seven games, tweaked an oblique during batting the practice before Thursday's game. A follow-up MRI showed a Grade 1 strain.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he hopes Muncy will miss only the minimum of 10 days.

Heyward's impending return from the back injury that had kept him out since the end of March had triggered speculation as to which struggling hitter would be moved off the roster to create room for him.

Rather than take the drastic step of releasing Chris Taylor, who has five hits in 60 at-bats this season but began the year with $30 million remaining on his contract, the Dodgers optioned Outman, the second-year outfielder who was slashing .147/.250/.266.

Outman's struggles have come one year after he finished third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting.

"I don't think any of us expected to be in this position given last year, and then our expectations for him this season," Roberts said.

"But with the inconsistencies, the struggles, Jason coming back, [Andy Pages'] play the last six weeks, we just felt that James needed an opportunity to go down and play every day. There's something to getting out of this environment, performance-based, and just going out there and playing baseball. Once we can get him back on track, we'll get him back here."

Pages, the Cuban rookie who has posted a .752 OPS through his first 27 games, is expected to play center field on a regular basis and will be flanked in the corners by Heyward and Teoscar Hernandez when the Dodgers face right-handed pitchers. Against lefties, Hernandez would move from left to right field and Taylor or Miguel Vargas, who was also called up Friday, will start in left.

Enrique Hernandez and Miguel Rojas will both be options to play third base in Muncy's absence, with Hernandez getting the nod for Friday's game against the Cincinnati Reds.

All four of the aforementioned players are right-handed hitters, creating some redundancies at both positions. Asked what will determine who gets starts on a given day in left field and third base, Roberts said: "Performance is one. I think the defense, across the board, is pretty good with all those guys. But to me, I don't think that any of those four guys has earned the opportunity to play every single day. Now, it's about when you get opportunities, go out there and play good to create more opportunity for yourself."

Comparisons to Tony Gwynn began to follow Luis Arráez when he first established himself in the big leagues, growing more prevalent as the hits piled up and the batting titles followed. Arráez wasn't as prolific, but his skills and the way he utilized them -- consistently spraying baseballs to unoccupied spaces all over the field, barreling pitches regardless of how or where they were thrown -- made links to one of history's most gifted hitters seem inevitable.

Tony Gwynn Jr., the late Hall of Famer's son, often heard them and largely understood them. But it wasn't until the night of May 4, while watching Arráez compile four hits in his debut with the same San Diego Padres team his father starred for, that he actually felt them.

"I honestly had goosebumps watching him put together at-bats," said Gwynn Jr., a retired major league outfielder who serves as an analyst for the Padres' radio broadcasts. "It took me back to watching film with my dad as he was basically doing the same thing."

Gwynn was universally celebrated throughout the 1980s and '90s, but Arráez stands as a polarizing figure in the slug-obsessed, launch-angle-consumed era in which he plays. Some, like the Miami Marlins team that traded him away earlier this month, see a one-dimensional player who doesn't provide enough speed, power or defensive acumen to build around. Others, like the Padres, who used four prospects to acquire him at a time when trades rarely happen, see the type of offensive mastery that more than makes up for it.

What's inarguable is that Arráez is the ultimate outlier.

Case in point: The publicly available bat-speed metrics recently unveiled by Statcast feature a graph that places hitters based on their relationship between average bat speed (X-axis) and squared-up rate (Y-axis). All alone on the top left corner, far removed from the other 217 qualified hitters, is Arráez. He has the slowest swing in the sport but also its most efficient, theoretically, because he meets pitches with the sweet spot of his bat more often than anybody else.

Arráez has only 24 home runs in 2,165 career at-bats. But his .324 batting average since his 2019 debut leads the majors, 10 points higher than that of Freddie Freeman, the runner-up. He walks at a below-average clip, but his major league-leading 7.5% strikeout rate is about a third of the MLB average during that stretch, cartoonish in the most strikeout-prone era in baseball history.

He is elite even when he chases: The major league average on pitches outside the rulebook strike zone since the start of the 2023 season is .162. Arráez's: .297.

"Now with the analytics they focus on home runs, they focus on guys hitting the ball hard but hitting .200," Arráez said in Spanish. "But in my mind, and with all the work that I do, I stay focused on just doing my job -- not try to do too much or try to do what they're telling me to do. Analysts say my exit velocity is [among] the lowest in the big leagues. Amen. Let them keep saying that. As long as I have my health, I keep doing things to help my team, I'm going to be fine."

Arráez became the first player to win a batting title in the American and National leagues in consecutive seasons last year. But trade rumors surrounded him from the onset of 2024, his second-to-last season before free agency. As a 27-year-old two-time All-Star with a .324 career batting average, a sterling reputation and a stated desire to remain in South Florida, he was a player the directionless Marlins franchise could build around. But a new front office considered him expendable. A 9-24 start to the season created an opening. And on May 3, five minutes before the first pitch was thrown in Oakland, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker called Arráez into his office.

"I'm not going to lie to you," Arráez said, "I wasn't ready to be traded."

Schumaker told Arráez he'd have to remove him from the lineup because a deal with the Padres was close. He gave him the option of returning to the clubhouse or going into the dugout for one final moment with his teammates. Arráez stayed until the fifth inning, retreated to his hotel room, waited on a call from Padres officials and hopped on a flight at noon the following day to meet his new team.

Arráez didn't have enough clothes for the additional six days of the Padres' road trip. He wore his Marlins-colored cleats through stops in Phoenix and Chicago and compiled eight hits in 20 at-bats during that stretch. After the team got back to San Diego, he used the May 9 off day to search for an apartment and spend time with his mom, wife and three daughters, who flew in for a weekend visit, then delivered a walk-off single against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in his home debut the following night. He's still living out of a hotel room crammed with unopened boxes, but he already feels wanted. Embraced, even.

"They've welcomed me here with open arms," Arráez said. "I feel as if I've been here since spring training."

Arráez was a 4-year-old in Venezuela when Gwynn played the final season of his 20-year career in 2001. When Gwynn died in 2014, Arráez was still a teenager on the Minnesota Twins' Dominican Summer League team. Hearing comparisons to Gwynn made him curious enough to find old clips of a player who was mostly foreign to him. He began to study his approach to hitting, marveling specifically at Gwynn's ability to let pitches travel deep into the strike zone before driving them to the opposite field.

Conversations with one of Gwynn's most important mentors, Twins icon and gifted batsman Rod Carew, brought Arráez more insight. Now similar conversations are taking place with Gwynn's only son. When the Padres return from their seven-game road trip through Atlanta and Cincinnati, Arráez plans to visit the Gwynn statue that sits just outside of Petco Park. He isn't necessarily leaning into the comparisons, but he isn't running from them, either.

"It's such a great experience when fans embrace you with open arms and tell you that I'm a mini Tony Gwynn, and that I have a lot of traits that remind them of him," Arráez said. "It's nice to hear people say things like that."

Perhaps the quality Gwynn and Arráez share most is self-awareness. "Know thyself" is a line Gwynn Jr. heard his father say repeatedly growing up, one that translated directly to how he approached his profession: He knew his strengths, worked relentlessly to maximize them and never tried to emulate others. Arráez's new teammates already see the same in him.

"It's not like he goes up there and just does it," Padres third baseman Manny Machado said. "He puts a lot of work in the cage, before games, even before BP and stuff like that. He knows his strength, and he works on it."

Baseball's evolution has made it harder than ever for someone like Arráez to exist. Pitchers have never thrown harder, data has never been more prevalent, batting averages have hardly ever been lower. But Padres manager Mike Shildt is adamant that Arráez shouldn't be an anomaly.

He recalled an old San Diego Union-Tribune article that re-ran May 9, on what would have been Gwynn's 64th birthday. It detailed the amount of time Gwynn spent working on hitting, and it validated something Shildt had long believed: That more players could hit .300, even today, if they worked on the craft of doing so as diligently and as pointedly as Gwynn did. As Arráez does.

"When you have an ability to hit a ball to all the different areas, you're going to hit," Shildt said. "And big picture, our industry hasn't taught that anymore. It's not valued anymore. It's not monetized anymore. You can't quantify this, but it's a shame how many amateur and lower-level professional players have been excluded from continuing to play because they don't meet a measurable. They don't meet an exit velocity or bat speed or launch angle, or all of those things that this game is now basically recruiting and monetizing blindly. They're just getting hits. And somehow that became out of vogue in our industry in general."

But those are now someone else's problems. The Padres will gladly take Arráez, all he his and all he isn't, and slot him ahead of Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts in hopes of riding his singular bat to the playoffs.

Arráez is still six batting titles away from catching Gwynn. He isn't anywhere near as good a defender or as lethal a baserunner as Gwynn was early in his career, and he needs another decade-plus of similar production -- heightened production, actually, given the .345 batting average Gwynn boasted between his ages 27 and 37 seasons -- to even approach him as a hitter. But Arráez's style is the closest we've got.

And if there's one place that can appreciate it, it's his new one.

"This fan base is going to fall in love with him," Gwynn Jr. said. "It's how a lot of them grew up watching baseball."

Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis is expected to remain sidelined for Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference finals next week, but there's optimism he'll be able to return sometime in the series -- barring any setbacks, sources told ESPN on Friday.

Porzingis has been making progress in his recovery from a soleus strain of his right calf, ramping up his on-court activity for an anticipated return in the conference finals, but still needs more time for a return to play, sources said.

The Celtics are awaiting the winner of the New York Knicks-Indiana Pacers semifinal series. The Knicks lead 3-2 entering Game 6 Friday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Porzingis -- out since suffering the injury in Game 5 of the Celtics' first-round series against the Miami Heat on April 30 -- missed the entirety of Boston's five-game conference semifinal series victory over Cleveland.

He is likely to miss the opening two games of the East finals, scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday in Boston.

At 7-foot-3, the return of Porzingis -- who averaged 20 points and 7.2 rebounds in the regular season -- is considered paramount for the Celtics' ultimate chances of winning a championship.

Al Horford, 37, has been starting in Porzingis' place. Horford had a remarkable 22 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks in the series-clinching win over Cleveland on Wednesday.

Porzingis arrived in Boston via an offseason three-team trade with Washington and Memphis.