TORONTO -- Playoff basketball is an exercise in problem-solving. The Philadelphia 76ers came into Game 2 of their series with the Toronto Raptors with several problems, but none more imposing and urgent than Kawhi Leonard.

Following Toronto's 108-95 win in the series opener, Raptors players and coaches were shocked that the Sixers opted to send precious few help defenders at Leonard as he revved into high gear, navigating the court at will one-on-one. Had the tactic achieved the intended effect of neutralizing Toronto's other threats, perhaps the Sixers could've lived with Leonard's 45 points. Raptors weapons made themselves useful all over the floor, however, from Pascal Siakam's exploits in the half court to Kyle Lowry's surgical management.

On Monday, Philadelphia unfurled a new blueprint and went about the work of diligently repairing its broken defense in a 94-89 win to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Sixers scrambled the matchups, with four of their five starters receiving new assignments. Most notably, Ben Simmons drew Leonard.

"They did a good job, honestly. Got to give them credit," Leonard said. "[Simmons] is long."

In addition to contending with Simmons' size, Leonard saw multiple bodies on Monday night -- sometimes immediately on the catch, at times when coming off a screen and almost always when he made his approach to the rim. The Sixers' coaching staff empowered defenders to help unpredictably, encouraging them to make judicious defensive reads.

For example: If Siakam were parked in the corner, where he was a 42 percent shooter in the regular season, be careful. But if he were above the break, where he converted only 26 percent? By all means, let him take it.

"I think Ben did a really good job on him, and we tried to have different looks at times where we doubled him, and we did," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "By and large, it was Ben's assignment, although other people inherited him if he got switched out or Ben was out of the game."

For all of the damage exacted by Leonard in Game 1, the Sixers were bludgeoned by Siakam as well. On Tuesday, Brown handed Siakam off to center Joel Embiid, who was administered an IV drip pregame for a stomach ailment he shared with scatological glee in his postgame media conference.

Brown was inspired to make the swap by Embiid's comparative success defending Giannis Antetokounmpo in recent matchups with the Milwaukee Bucks. Like Antetokounmpo, Siakam is an agile, lanky and explosive forward whose long strides propel his dribble attacks. Forced to contend with Embiid's size in Game 2, Siakam was tempered, missing 16 of his 25 attempts from the field. Whether he was rerouting Siakam left or providing traditional big man services in the basket area, Embiid anchored Philadelphia's defense.

"That was my job to slow him down," Embiid said. "We feel like we followed whatever we had planned."

Throughout the first half, the Sixers defended the half court with precision and urgency. When Lowry sliced through stagger screens, Jimmy Butler (30 points, 11 rebounds, five assists) slalomed his way through the bodies to meet him on the other side. When Leonard swung around a handoff with a hard dribble, he'd meet a third defender at the doorstep of the paint. When Embiid or Greg Monroe sank low to pick up a baseline driver, communication was decisive, and rotations were prompt.

Philadelphia's stifling defense lulled the Raptors into one of the most ineffectual halves of offensive basketball in recent NBA playoff history. In the 20 years that more advanced stats have been tracked, no team had done the following until the Raptors in the first half of their Game 2 loss:

• Compiled in a single half an effective field goal percentage fewer than 36

• Collected fewer than 7 percent of their offensive rebounds

• Logged a free throw rate (which measures how effectively a team gets to the line) of fewer than 12 percent

Because points are scored either from the field or at the line and offensive rebounds are the primary means to get a mulligan on a missed shot, the results were disastrous for Toronto.

"We'll watch the film and see where we can get better and see how differently we can play," Lowry said. "You just can't have that type of first half."

The 76ers have existed in a state of flux for the better part of the season -- the starting unit, the bench units, the front office, the coaching staff, the heightened expectations -- so it's easy to forget what brought Philadelphia to the postseason last year: a defense predicated on the idea that a team with multiple giants can wreak havoc on its positional matchups.

In evening the series with Toronto, the Sixers played to their strengths. Embiid and Simmons were put in positions to succeed; Butler, an expert on-ball defender, was given the opportunity to match wits with Lowry; Brett Brown, an experimentalist at heart, assumed healthy risks in unconventional fashion. As is often the case in the NBA postseason, the team that stayed more faithful to its identity achieved its desired result.

"I'm telling you, whenever we let our defense dictate our offense, we're such a great team," Butler said. "We can't let it be the other way around."

WASHINGTON -- Struggling Nationals reliever Trevor Rosenthal has agreed to go to extended spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The 28-year-old right-hander was placed on the 10-day injured list on April 26 with a viral infection. Rosenthal (0-1) has appeared in seven games with Washington, pitching to a 36.00 ERA. He did not record an out until his fifth appearance.

"There's no timetable," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Monday. "We just have to get him built up again."

Rosenthal -- an All-Star in 2015 with St. Louis -- underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017 and missed all of last season.

"Health-wise, everything feels good, just ironing out some timing and getting just really the reps in to let my body figure it out," Rosenthal said.

Signed in the offseason as a potential setup man for closer Sean Doolittle, Rosenthal has walked nine of the 28 batters he has faced and has thrown five wild pitches.

Washington entered Monday with the second-worst bullpen ERA in the majors at 6.57, ahead of only Baltimore.

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte left Monday's 3-1 win over the San Diego Padres with tightness in his right hamstring.

The Braves said the decision to remove Inciarte was precautionary.

Inciarte grabbed the back of his right leg following a third-inning single up the middle Monday night. With manager Brian Snitker and a trainer on the field, Inciarte tested the leg by jogging lightly a few steps before walking off the field.

Johan Camargo replaced Inciarte, who has won three straight Gold Gloves in center field.

Ronald Acuna Jr. moved from left field to center following Inciarte's injury. Camargo played left.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder A.J. Pollock has a right elbow infection and is likely going on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts told reporters Monday after the team's 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

Pollock hasn't played more than 113 games in a season since he was an All-Star in 2015 because of injuries. He played only 12 games in 2016 after fracturing his right elbow.

The 31-year-old is batting .223 in 28 games this season, his first with the Dodgers. He agreed to a four-year, $55 million deal with Los Angeles in January after spending his first seven MLB seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Detroit Tigers top prospect Casey Mize pitched a no-hitter for the Erie Seawolves in his Double-A debut on Monday.

Mize, the top overall pick in last year's MLB draft, faced one batter over the minimum and needed just 98 pitches to shut down the Altoona Curve, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate. He hit the first batter of the game but went on to strike out seven and walk one.

"Dominant," manager Mike Rabelo said. "No deep counts. The only blemish was a hit-by-pitch and a walk. He was absolutely electric tonight.''

Erie won the game 1-0. Mize credited catcher Jake Rogers and his fielders afterward. Outfielder Derek Hill, a first-round pick in 2014, made a diving catch in the third inning, and right fielder Jose Azocar made a sliding catch in the fifth.

"It was definitely one of those days where, I don't know, it just felt like auto pilot,'' Mize said. "I've said that before. So it was just a good day.''

Mize was called for a pitch-clock violation early in the ninth inning but shook off the automatic ball. He retired Pirates prospect Jared Oliva on a popup to second base to complete the gem. Erie never had anybody throwing in the bullpen.

It was Mize's first no-hitter as a pro. Last year, he threw a no-hitter for Auburn against Northeastern.

"I threw one last year in college, and I wish I would have enjoyed it more,'' Mize said. "So I think I kind of learned from that, and so I'm definitely going to let this one soak in.''

He is the Tigers' top-ranked prospect, according to rankings by ESPN's Keith Law, who ranks Mize the fourth-best pitcher in all of baseball and No. 15 player at any position.

The 21-year-old right-hander made four starts with Class A Lakeland this season prior to his promotion, going 2-0 with an 0.35 ERA.

Mize pitched Erie's second no-hitter in six days. Alex Faedo, Detroit's first-round pick in 2017, started a combined no-hitter on Wednesday, ending Erie's 10-year drought without one.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Some of the numbers are astonishing, even as we become immune to all the home runs. I suppose the feeling is similar to all the 3-point shooting in the NBA: This is the modern game. Deal with it. The NBA has embraced its style of play, and maybe baseball fans need to do a better job of accepting that the power game is here permanently instead of whining that nobody moves runners up anymore.

Home runs are flying out of parks -- and not just off the bats of Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich. Everyone is bashing them. Tommy La Stella entered the season with 10 career home runs in 828 at-bats. He already has seven. Jesse Winker hit seven home runs last season in 281 at-bats. He already has eight. Hunter Dozier had 11 home runs in 362 at-bats for the Royals in 2018. He has seven home runs in 2019 and the highest slugging percentage in the American League.

Indeed, two seasons after baseball smashed an MLB-record 6,105 home runs, we're on pace to shatter that mark in 2019. Some of the numbers, with help from ESPN Stats & Information (entering Monday's action):

• The league average is 1.33 home runs per team game, compared to 1.26 in 2017. That translates to 358 more home runs than two seasons ago.

• There has been a home run every 25.5 at-bats this year. The record for March/April is one every 26.8 at-bats, set in 2000.

• The only two months with fewer than 26 at-bats per home run were June and August 2017.

• The Yankees set the single-season home run record last year, with 267. Entering Monday, three teams were on pace to crack 300: the Twins (317), Mariners (308) and Brewers (301). The only run for the Twins in their 1-0 win over the Astros on Monday was a home run. The Brewers hit two home runs in their victory over the Rockies -- both from Jesus Aguilar, who hadn't homered all season (after hitting 35 last season).

One of the major culprits, to nobody's surprise, is the Baltimore Orioles. But the numbers they've allowed are staggering, even for them. After serving up two more home runs Monday in a 5-3 loss to the White Sox, they've allowed 73 in 30 games, a mind-numbing pace of 394 in 162 games. So they actually made progress Monday! Why are the Twins on a record home run pace? They hit 23 against the Orioles in six games.

The most home runs allowed in a season is 258 by the 2016 Reds. The 2017 Reds are second, with 248. The Orioles appear to be a lock to soar past those totals, maybe before September. The 2016 Reds allowed 80 more home runs than the National League average and 45 more than the second-worst team. The Orioles are already 22 home runs worse than the second-worst team.

If it feels like the home runs are being hit harder and farther than ever before, your eyes probably aren't deceiving you. According to the old ESPN Home Run Tracker, in 2008 there were an estimated 219 home runs of 440-plus feet. Including Jorge Soler's long blast Monday for the Royals, there have already been 58 home runs of 440-plus feet in 2019 (via Statcast), a pace of 336 by season's end.

Got ahold of that one. ☀️?#AlwaysRoyal pic.twitter.com/8fsKHOkpXz

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 30, 2019

Swing hard, hit ball far.

Cardinals stay hot, rough up Corbin: The Cardinals hit just one home run in their 6-3 win over the Nationals, but they did scuff up Patrick Corbin with a six-run fifth inning that included five runs after there were two out and nobody on base (Jedd Gyorko ended up making two outs in the inning). The play of the game, however, was this diving catch from Harrison Bader:

This ball had a catch probability of just 10% ? pic.twitter.com/tlef03x0ij

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 30, 2019

Corbin had been very good before this start, so chalk it up as one bad inning, but his 3.58 ERA is now a bit higher than last year's 3.15 mark. Corbin finished fifth in last year's NL Cy Young voting. Kyle Freeland was fourth, and he returned Monday from a short stint on the injured list to give up five runs in six innings. His ERA sits at 4.81. Justin Verlander, second in the American League voting, allowed just two hits in six innings, but one was an Ehire Adrianza home run, and he lost 1-0 to the Twins. He has been very good, with a 2.45 ERA.

Collectively, however, the top five finishers in the Cy Young voting in each league have not fared well in 2019:

2018: 2.50 ERA
2019: 4.39 ERA

Since 1970, that 75.6 percent increase is the worst increase before May 1 for the top 10 in the previous season's Cy Young races. The previous worst mark was the 1981 group, which saw a 2.59 ERA rise to 4.08 in April 1982.

Blame the home runs. Heck, even Verlander has allowed seven in 44 innings.

Bellinger sets RBI mark: The Dodgers slugger did not homer in a 3-2 loss to the Giants, but he did drive in his 37th run with a sixth-inning single, giving him the March/April record (Juan Gonzalez and Mark McGwire each had 36 in 1998).

Here are the month-by-month RBI records:

March/April: Cody Bellinger, 37 in 30 games (2019)
May: Cy Williams, 44 in 30 games (1923)
June: Mel Ott, 47 in 33 games (1929)
July: Lou Gehrig, 50 in 35 games (1930)
August: Hack Wilson, 53 in 30 games (1930), and Joe DiMaggio, 53 in 31 games (1939)
September/October: Babe Ruth, 44 in 28 games (1927)

Most of the RBI records are from the 1920s and '30s, a high-offense era when middle-of-the-order batters produced high RBI totals due to the high OBPs of the table-setters. Five semi-recent players have had 40 RBIs in a month: Ryan Howard with 41 in August 2006, Troy Tulowitzki with 40 in September 2010, Don Mattingly with 40 in September 1985, Ryan Klesko with 40 in May 2001 and Sammy Sosa with 40 in June 2008.

A Mize-rly performance: Casey Mize, last year's No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Tigers, spun a no-hitter in his Double-A debut, allowing just one walk and one hit batsman with seven strikeouts. Mize threw just 98 pitches, 70 of them for strikes -- and said after the game that his fastball command wasn't sharp.

"The fastball command was not good, the worst it's been all year," Mize said, via MLB.com. "I'll say that with complete confidence. You can go look at the video. It wasn't good. I threw a ton of cutters and just relied on that, and I was just able to throw that for a strike and in a lot of counts."

Just to be clear: Since it was a no-hitter, nobody hit a home run off of him.

Playmaker Jimmy Gopperth will miss Wasps' remaining two Premiership games after breaking his thumb on his return from a pre-season knee injury.

The 35-year-old, who can play fly-half or inside centre, also dislocated his thumb in Saturday's loss to Saracens.

Gopperth had been out for eight months after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in August.

"Absolutely gutted not to be involved for the rest of the season with the boys," he posted on his Instagram page.

"On a positive note I was so happy with how my knee felt. All the hard work has paid off and now I can keep working hard to hit next season fitter and stronger."

Gopperth was the star of the 2016-17 campaign, winning the players', Premiership and Wasps' player of the year awards.

DINWIDDIE, Va. — The Professional Drag Racers Ass’n is returning home to Virginia Motorsports Park for the first of two races at the series’ home track.

The PDRA Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Modern Racing, May 2-4, is the second of eight races on the PDRA Tour.

Known as one of the quickest tracks on the PDRA tour, Virginia Motorsports Park will play host to numerous elapsed-time and speed record attempts this weekend.

“It looks like we’re going to have some warmer conditions during the day, but the nighttime conditions should set teams up to go after those records,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “Our new Friday Night Fire show, with its two back-to-back pro qualifying sessions starting at 6 o’clock, will be exciting. That third and final qualifying session could be a home run ball shot for a lot of teams in Moroso Pro Boost and Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous that are looking to lay down a big number and go to the top of the qualifying sheet.”

Another class to watch is Liberty’s Gears Extreme Pro Stock. Several of the class’ stars grabbed headlines in recent weeks as they competed in the NHRA’s Mountain Motor Pro Stock exhibition at races in Houston and Charlotte.

John DeFlorian won at Houston, while Chris Powers was victorious at Charlotte Sunday, April 28, just days away from the Mid-Atlantic Showdown and a few hours south of Virginia Motorsports Park.

“We always look forward to seeing the Pro Stock guys,” Crossnoe said. “It was really awesome to see a PDRA regular in Chris Powers go out and get a win at Charlotte. We’re very proud of him and John DeFlorian for getting the win at Houston a few weeks before. It looks like we’re going to see a lot of the guys who were at Charlotte going back into eighth-mile trim and getting ready to go after that 3-second mark at Virginia this weekend.”

The Mid-Atlantic Showdown will also include Schwing America Pro Outlaw 632 presented by Precision Chassis, a class that competes on the PDRA tour at seven races.

The newly redesigned Drag 965 Pro Nitrous Motorcycle class also returns to the PDRA for the first time this season. Formerly Pro Extreme Motorcycle, the PDRA’s lone two-wheeled class transitioned to a nitrous-only format over the winter.

“We’re excited to bring those guys back,” Crossnoe said. “There are a lot of good, hardworking racers who race hard and are very passionate about their spot in the series. You never know what they’re going to do and there’s always excitement on two wheels, that’s for sure.”