I Dig Sports
Justin Suh gaining over 7 strokes on greens with Nike putter he's had since eighth grade
DUBLIN, Ohio – Justin Suh leads the Memorial by a stroke and it doesn’t take a deep dive to figure out why.
“I don't think anyone is expecting to gain seven strokes off two days,” Suh laughed following his second-round 66.
Actually, Suh has picked up 7.33 shots this week in strokes gained: putting and leads the field in that category. It’s not the norm to be so dominant (he’s nearly 2.5 shots better than the second player in strokes gained: putting), but Suh wasn’t completely surprised.
“My putting has definitely been my strength over the course of my professional career,” said Suh, who ranks 14th this year on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: putting. “For me, putting's all about just practicing how to make putts. I think I've done that for so long where the only thing I really trust is my eyes and just my feel and setup.”
That simple approach to putting also applies to his putter. Suh uses the same model of putter – a Nike Method Core Mod-4w, which he purchased off a rack for $50 before a junior tournament – as he did when he was in eighth grade. Normally, that wouldn’t be newsworthy, but Nike stopped making golf clubs and putters in 2016.
The challenge for Suh has been keeping a regular supply of the Nike model and he told Golf Channel following his round Friday that he’s purchased five similar Method putters off eBay.
Minjee Lee and Cheyenne Knight lead Mizuho Americas with Rose Zhang lurking
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Minjee Lee matched the tournament best with an 8-under 64 for a share of the lead Friday in the LPGA Tour’s weather-delayed Mizuho Americas Open.
Cheyenne Knight had a 68 to join Lee at 7-under 137 atop the tightly bunched leaderboard in the inaugural event that features five top-10 players and promising newcomer Rose Zhang.
Play was suspended late in the afternoon for 1 hours, 47 minutes because of dangerous weather conditions near Liberty National and the last groups barely finished before darkness on the course adjacent to the Hudson River with a spectacular view of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
The fifth-ranked Lee, from Australia, birdied eight of the first 12 holes in a bogey-free round that moved her from 55th to the top spot. Her score was nine shots better than her opening round.
“I think Liberty National is kind of a course where if you play it more, the better idea you have,” said Lee, an eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour. “So, since it’s the inaugural event it’s the same for everybody.”
No. 3 Lydia Ko was a shot back after a 69.
Top-ranked Jin Young Ko (66) was 5 under with No. 6 Atthaya Thitikul (71), No. 8 Brooke Henderson (70), Aditi Ashok (72) and Zhang (69), the two-time NCAA individual champion who turned pro last week and received a sponsor’s exemption to play.
Jin Young Ko, Zhang and Ashok had less than three holes left when play was suspended at 6 p.m. ET. Ko had a birdie and bogey after play resumed. Zhang finished with three pars in her 69, a shot better than her professional debut. Ashok had a bogey in her final three holes.
Knight, who has had three top-10 finishes this year, played her final 11 holes in 4 under.
“I think my ball-striking has really come a long way,” said Knight, who had six birdies and two bogeys. “I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways and greens, and hence I have more birdie opportunities.”
Lydia Ko, who played with Lee, has been searching for her game since a top-10 finish in Thailand in February.
“To be honest, haven’t been playing that great leading up to this week,” the 26-year-old said. “I played much better and solid on the LET event a couple weeks ago, so that was a good momentum shift. But, yeah, you know, I would say it has been a very colorful scorecard, not in a good way, not the birdie colors.”
Ashok, who has had two top-five finishes in her last three events, is looking for her first win.
Henderson, who won in Florida in January, overcame a double bogey to start to shoot a 70.
“It’s kind of been a weird year,” Henderson said. “I started out on such a high winning the first event back, and then kind of been a little up and down since then. I’m hoping to start the upward trend and have some really solid finishes here the next few weeks.”
Thitikul, who has five top-10 finishes this year, reached 7 under through 12 holes but had a double bogey at the par 5 No. 13.
Eun-Hee Ji (69) of South Korea, Bronte Law (70) and American Angel Yin (70) were 4 under.
First-round leader Lauren Hartlage was in a group at 3 under after a 76 — 11 shots more than Thursday.
Lee’s 64 was matched Friday by New Jersey native Marina Alex, who needed to go low after an 80 on Thursday.
“I played as horribly as I could play it yesterday, so I think I learned every place not to be,” said Alex, whose par total should make the cut. “It’s a tricky course, and honestly, I just think that I — it required on my end probably a little bit more prep going into yesterday.”
Girondins de Bordeaux's Ligue 1 promotion bid is in jeopardy after their final match of the season was called off on Friday when one of their supporters assaulted Rodez Aveyron goal scorer Lucas Buades.
Bordeaux needed to better Metz's result to finish second and secure promotion to the top flight but the six-times French champions went behind in the 22nd minute.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
As Rodez players celebrated the goal, a supporter entered the pitch and shoved Buades, who fell to the ground. He was later taken off on a stretcher as the referee stopped the game.
After the teams went into their dressing rooms, the referee said the match would not resume, adding that Buades had suffered a concussion.
French soccer's ruling body LFP said its disciplinary committee will meet on Monday to consider the appropriate action to be taken.
Bordeaux president Gerard Lopez said they would lodge a complaint against the supporter and urged LFP to allow the game to be completed.
"I'd like to see this played out in sporting terms on the pitch, it's still football," he told reporters.
"We'll be present at the committee meeting on Monday and we'll assert all our rights, as well as appealing if need be."
The situation is complicated as Metz and Bordeaux were meant to play their matches at the same time.
Metz beat Bastia 3-2 to move up to second, sparking wild celebrations and a pitch invasion. Bordeaux - who are three points behind - now know the goal difference they need to overhaul if the match is replayed.
Only the top two teams will be promoted to Ligue 1 this season, with Le Havre sealing promotion after they were crowned champions.
Rodez chairman Pierre-Olivier Murat was dejected as the club are fighting to preserve their second-tier status. As things stand, they are 17th, needing at least three points to leapfrog Annecy.
"Resume or replay the match? I've never seen matches played after the last day," Murat said.
Josh Tongue produces stats that matter on prime numbers day
Stat-padding days are hard to come by, even for an England team that plays a lot of Test cricket. But on Friday at Lord's, it seemed everyone who made it out to the middle were able to touch up their personal statistics at the expense of a willing but lacking Ireland attack.
All Test runs are equal. But the 372 scored across the first 57.4 overs of day two were of questionable value, even if Pope, Duckett and Root will tell you otherwise. Not cheap in the most evocative sense of the word. More like excessive printing of money. There was a stage when it felt the longer the hosts batted, the less everything that came before it meant.
Of course, the speed of England's scoring allowed a declaration soon after tea to give them a lead of 352 and 26 overs to inflict damage on Ireland's second innings. Though even that had a whiff of ulterior motive. An extra Sunday on the golf course? Perhaps eyes on taking in Saturday's FA Cup Final at 3pm in its entirety?
But the day itself was not particularly special by this team's standards. These players scored quicker on the first day of the Pakistan series - 506 in 75 overs - which allowed them to win in fading light on the final day of that first Test in Rawalpindi. Now that - that - was a Test match.
A day earlier, Tongue had sent down his first 13 overs in Ireland's first innings. He thought he started "quite well" for a debutant, and that's absolutely true. But it does not take long for the context of figures of 0 for 40 to get lost. Unfortunately, there is no opposite to stat-padding, making Friday evening's work all the more necessary.
That being said, the microdata backed up Tongue's assessment of his first day's work. He was the quickest of the attack, creeping over 90mph in his opening spell, and showcased the necessary pluck to lead the bumper tactic. Of the 78 deliveries bowled, 57 were short in length.
Considering the 25-year-old's groundings in county cricket, such as eight seasons on a New Road pitch best known for spending half the year underwater, short-pitched bowling is hardly something he is grooved for. There was dismay that he was not able to appropriate a fuller line for longer to at least chalk up a nourishing maiden dismissal.
The wait, however, was worth it. Because across an unbroken eight-over spell, Tongue was able to showcase both sides of what he offers. Something old and honed, and something new and developing.
Brought on from the Pavilion End after six overs, he attacked the stumps to pick up two wickets in his first six deliveries. PJ Moor was trapped on the crease in front of middle stump before Andy Balbirnie swished with minimal footwork at a delivery that left him and, really, should have been left altogether. Misjudgements of extra pace? Perhaps.
Three overs in, Ben Stokes pushed the leg side out, brought in the slips around the corner - two at one point - and put the order in: less at the stumps, more into the torsos. Paul Stirling was struck on the arm. Lorcan Tucker was hit on the helmet. When Harry Tector hooked a top edge for six over Jonny Bairstow's head, all the fielders united in applause for the direction and pace of the ball, with the same enthusiasm that greeted his first two wickets.
The third came soon enough: Stirling hopping and hooking at the same time, a glove through to Bairstow that was only confirmed upon review. And you could argue it was the most important. One of the key aspects to the bowling attack under Stokes is for variety, if not of arm then certainly of approach.
Given Tongue was preferred to Chris Woakes for his X-factor qualities - ergo, sharp, raw and, thus, unpredictable - he was never simply going to be allowed to go through his usual patter. While he has performed an enforcer role for his county, he looked refreshingly assured doing it for his country, on the biggest stage of his career so far.
Pope was suitably impressed: "I'm sure it's something he's done in county cricket (bowled short for a sustained period) but he is probably also going to be one of the main opening bowlers where he's going to get told to challenge the top of the stumps as well.
"For him to come in and bowl like he did there, with a different plan. As a bowler, you might want to hit the top of the stumps. But for him to dive into that role this evening, the way he did that was perfect and he's been awesome this week."
Ireland batting coach Gary Wilson was suitably jealous: "The way Tongue was able to change things almost instantly was something we didn't have in our attack."
Those around the England team have been impressed with how Tongue has fitted in this week. Even before his official call-up last Wednesday, he was put on alert that something might be in the offing and tested out a mild side strain that kept him out of Worcestershire's Division Two fixture with Leicestershire as a precaution. He pushed through with the help of county coach Alan Richardson, and was ultimately given the all clear to make the step up to the squad. A spot in the XI has come, ultimately, through impressive early impressions.
"You wouldn't know this was his first Test," said Pope, commenting on how comfortable Tongue seems to be around more seasoned Test cricketers. While you cannot apply that same description to his opponents, what he achieved with the ball was undoubtedly the biggest plus point for England on a day they dominated with the bat.
If day three does bring a maiden five-wicket haul, and a place on the Lord's honours board on debut, it will carry even greater weight going forward into the Ashes and beyond. Both, for him and England.
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
By 10am, the queue for entry at Lord's North Gate was quite frankly eye-popping. It stretched past the Wellington Hospital, past the BP garage, down towards the road that provides a shortcut to the Beatles' zebra crossing. But for the buses tiptoeing past those punters who had spilled off the pavements, it would have wormed all the way across the road to the aisles of Panzer's delicatessen, from whence more than a few of today's Nursery Ground picnics are sure to have been picked up.
And to view the splendid scene that lay beyond those gates - with near-packed stands on all four sides of the ground, and the sun burning through in the early afternoon to complement that uniquely contented hum that passes for atmosphere at Lord's - you'd be forgiven for assuming that you were watching a sport in the rudest of health. Until, that is, you drilled down into the actual details of the contest.
But no! Don't go peering behind the curtain … that'll only spoil the illusion. And yet, everything that was right about the Lord's experience today - the steady flow at the bars and the happy chat of reunited friends, and out in the middle, that languid sense of life gently meandering before you, like an afternoon's fishing on a quiet corner of the Thames - was everything that's wrong with the contemporary Test experience. And startlingly, that fact remained true even though England laid on a(nother) batting display of historic, genre-bending, dominance.
In his notes for the souvenir match programme, Stokes restated his team's battleplan in the same stark, uncompromising tones that they have so far served up for the scorecard. "We're out here to score runs, take wickets and win games - and we like to do all three as quickly as we can," he wrote. And on the evidence to date, there's little reason to believe England will be detained much beyond lunch on Saturday afternoon. Job done, a round of golf and the FA Cup final awaits.
Instead, the worry is that today's exploits in particular reflect the same levels of privilege that were on display within the walls of Lord's. It's easy to ignore the signs that all is not well with the Test world when everything looks quite as serene as it was made to feel this afternoon. And in three weeks' time, when Australia rock up here for the second Test of the most anticipated Ashes summer since 2005, it would be self-loathingly righteous not to get swept up by the excitement.
But if Ireland's toils on this extraordinary stage don't give you pause for thought, and reason to reflect on the lot of the less fortunate members of Test cricket's brotherhood, then not only are you probably dead inside, then your beloved format is likely to follow suit in pretty short order. Never mind being in possession of the most storied ground in the world, with the right to turn a vast profit from two Tests per summer. England's opponents right now are a team that burned €1 million on hosting their first Test match in temporary facilities back in 2018, and have been so scarred by the experience, they've barely dared to carry any hosting costs since.
And so there's no point in complaining, either, that Ireland are not worthy of their Test status. The reasons are writ large in the back-story to this contest, and so are the wealth of mitigations. And, as one or two of the jazz-hatters in the crowd today ought to know if they've ever donned the black, red and gold colours of another famously nomadic team, I Zingari, if you plan to get out of the darkness and reach the light, you generally have to walk through the fire. There's only one way for Ireland to get the experience they need to compete in the future, and that's the hard way.
The cracks in the façade were clearly visible last year, even at Lord's. Prior to England's five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first Test of the summer - the contest that kicked off the Bazmania that followed - there was more than a little disquiet about the price of entry for that match. Most tickets then ranged between £100 and £160, and there were still some 16,000 seats unsold in the week before the game. "What is cricket without its fans?" Stokes said in his first pre-match comments as captain. "What is sport without its fans?"
It is clearly to MCC's credit that they reduced their prices for this Ireland Test - between £70 and £90 in the main, with Under-16s at £20 - although you'd have to assume that England's style of play was the decisive factor in today being so packed out. But amid the ongoing tussle over the ICC's future revenue distribution, there's an onus on England in particular to provide more than just a glorious stage on which their less-well-off opponents can get beaten - because if Stokes' fantastic team is to succeed in its mission to make Test cricket great again, they will need more than just India and Australia to give them a run for their money.
This fact was brought home to the ECB in no uncertain terms during the pandemic, when many of the same England players produced mental miracles to "keep the lights on". But they were only able to do so thanks to the goodwill of their opponents that summer - most particularly West Indies and Pakistan who endured lengthy bio-bubbles for the Test series, although Ireland were also an important factor as they, along with Australia, agreed to fulfil their white-ball obligations.
The extent of England's subsequent gratitude, however, has been mixed. Both West Indies and Pakistan benefitted from being able to host extended T20 series last year, but not before Pakistan had been outrageously fobbed off by the unilateral cancellation of England's goodwill stop-over in 2021-22 - a shameful episode that led to the departure of the previous ECB chairman, Ian Watmore.
Happily, the new chair and CEO combo, the former Surrey pairing of Richard Thompson and Richard Gould, seem to be more attuned to the true needs of the sport - with Gould acknowledging on a recent Final Word podcast that the time is nigh to pay visiting teams a fee for fulfilling their side of a bilateral agreement, to "encourage people not just to play Tests but make sure they can pay their players, and pay them well, so that they want to play Test cricket again."
It's surely a critical step in shoring up a creaking format. But if an unprecedented run-rate of 6.34 across 82.4 overs in a home England Test is insufficient to set pulses racing, it may be that the sport has already been bled too dry to save those sides on the extremity.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
Tkachuk: Title would cap 'hardest road to Cup'
LAS VEGAS -- On the eve of the Stanley Cup Final, Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk hasn't lost his confidence. In fact, he is doubling down on his Florida team, the surprise darlings of the postseason.
"We didn't do it the easy way, that's for sure," Tkachuk said at Stanley Cup Final media day, ahead of Saturday's Game 1 against the Golden Knights. "For us to knock off this juggernaut in Vegas, it would probably be the hardest road to the Stanley Cup in history. So that's our goal is to knock off this team and see if we can make history."
Florida made the playoffs by just one point, in a race that came down to the final day of the regular season. In the first round, the Panthers shocked the Bruins, who set the NHL record for most regular-season points (135). Florida also eliminated Toronto, the third-best regular season team in the East, and Carolina, the second-best team in the East. Should the Panthers win the Cup, they would be the third team in NHL history to do it by eliminating four 100-point teams.
"A lot of talk has been made about us, and our path and the 8-seed and limping in and all that, which is completely understandable," Tkachuk said. "It motivates us, I guess, to a certain extent. But this isn't a drop-off by any means with this team. [The Golden Knights] ran through the West in the regular season as a 1-seed. ... So that's not a knock on the other teams that they've played; I think that's just how impressive they are."
Tkachuk said it would be "the greatest joy of my life" if he were able to complete this postseason run -- and his first season with the Panthers -- by celebrating with the Stanley Cup. Tkachuk has scored 21 goals in 16 postseason games, including three overtime game-winning goals.
"There's no luck in his game," coach Paul Maurice said. "He doesn't come to the rink hoping, 'Oh, that unbelievable play I made last night, I hope it doesn't disappear on me.' He's done this all year. ... This isn't something new to Florida. He's been that player."
Over the past six weeks, as his team rattled off wins, Tkachuk has become a media darling.
On the eve of the Final, he did an exclusive interview with People Magazine. Captain Aleksandar Barkov said at media day he was asked about Tkachuk five times in two languages.
Maurice said there is no better player to handle this spotlight than Tkachuk.
"I listen a lot to the player interviews. He's brilliant at it. And he's 25 years old," Maurice said. "So he has a deep confidence in himself and his game. That's exactly who he is. When he gets up and does that interview, that's Matthew Tkachuk. So he doesn't have to manufacture a brand, and he doesn't have to play a certain way. That's just him. So he can come to the rink, he knows what he's going to do, he knows what he's good at. So when you bring that inner peace to your game, that way I think you can become very consistent."
DETROIT -- Monty Williams is taking over the Detroit Pistons.
The team said Friday it reached an agreement with Williams to fill its coaching vacancy. Terms of the deal were not announced, but sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski Williams agreed to a six-year, $78.5 million contract. It is the largest coaching deal in NBA history.
"After spending some time with Monty, it's clear that he's found a unique balance between achieving victory at the highest level while at the same time nurturing a culture of growth, development and inspiration," Pistons owner Tom Gores said. "I'm beyond excited. This is a huge win for us."
The 51-year-old Williams was fired by Phoenix on May 13, two years after reaching the NBA Finals and a year after he won the league's coach of the year honors.
Williams won 63% of his games over four regular seasons with the Suns, but they were eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals two years in a row after losing to Milwaukee in the 2021 NBA Finals.
Williams will be formally introduced at a news conference in Detroit next week. He said he made the decision to sign on with the Pistons after a series of conversations with Gores, general manager Troy Weaver and other Pistons executives.
"A week ago, I was not sure what the future would hold," Williams said in the team's release. "But, after talking with Tom and Troy, I was excited hearing their vision for the Pistons going forward. They had a thoughtful plan and I am so appreciative of the emphasis they placed on the personal side of this business. They showed tremendous consideration for me and my family throughout this process."
Detroit won an NBA-low 17 games last season, and Dwane Casey stepped down as coach with one year left on his contract to take a role in the front office.
The Pistons did not have good fortune in the draft lottery, landing the No. 5 pick overall for the second straight year and missing out on an opportunity to draft 7-foot-5 French pro Victor Wembanyama, 19, who is expected to be the first overall pick of the San Antonio Spurs.
Detroit, a three-time NBA champion, has earned a spot in the playoffs just twice in 14 years. The Pistons have not won a postseason game since 2008, when they advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth straight time during a remarkable run that included winning the 2004 NBA title and falling a game short of repeating as champions.
Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, the No. 5 and No. 13 pick overall last summer, did provide hope for the future with their play last season. Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 pick overall in 2021, had his second season cut short by shin surgery.
Williams is 367-336 in nine seasons as an NBA head coach with a 29-27 postseason record. He had a five-year stint with the New Orleans Pelicans, who fired him in 2015 with a 173-221 record and two playoff appearances.
"Monty represented the ideal prototype for our young team, but we didn't expect him to be available," Weaver said in the release. "When he suddenly became available, we jumped at the opportunity to speak with him. That doesn't mean the others in our process were not strong candidates. They were. But Monty is the prototype."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Silver: Morant penalty to hinge on NBA 'standard'
DENVER -- Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant not being charged with a crime for twice displaying a gun on social media will not prevent the NBA from handing down more discipline, commissioner Adam Silver said Friday.
Silver is preparing to announce whatever penalty is coming Morant's way for the second gun incident shortly after the end of the NBA Finals. He suspended Morant for eight games in March after the Grizzlies star held a gun in a suburban Denver nightclub while streaming himself live on Instagram. Another livestream in May, this time while sharing the front seat of a car with one of his friends, saw Morant displaying a weapon again.
"Waving them around, displaying them in a certain context, is not consistent with gun safety and is not the proper message that an NBA player, particularly one at Ja's level, should be sending to the tens of millions of followers he has -- and particularly when it's an incident once again, where it's been streamed live on social media," Silver said. "So yes, I think given the similarity of this incident to the first one, I was alarmed, I was disheartened."
Police in Colorado looked into the March incident and did not file charges. Morant has also not been charged with doing anything illegal related to the May incident.
But the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players also says players agree "not to do anything that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests" of their team or the NBA. That's why Morant's eight-game suspension in March was for conduct detrimental to the league, and it's reasonable to assume that will be part of the sanctioning that Morant will face this time.
"When we have a standard for conduct detrimental, at the end of the day, it's one based on what we see as the values of this league and what our expectations from our players in terms of the image we're portraying to our fans," Silver said. "So, it's not a legal standard. It's a private organization standard."
Silver announced Thursday that the league and the National Basketball Players Association agree that the latest Morant penalty should not be announced during the Finals. Morant has been suspended by the Grizzlies indefinitely, and with the team obviously off until camp this fall there's no urgency for the NBA to announce its decision.
Silver also insisted that his decision is not going to be a political one, even in a time where the topic of gun control only seems to be widening the political divide across the country.
There have been 557 mass killings in the United States since 2006, and at least 2,896 people have died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Those include killings where four or more died, not including the assailant, within a 24-hour period. So far in 2023, the nation has witnessed the highest number on record of mass killings and deaths to this point in a single year.
"This, to me, is an issue of gun safety," Silver said.
This is the third known NBA investigation surrounding Morant and the possible involvement of firearms so far in 2023.
Morant's actions were investigated after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis that he said led to Davonte Pack -- someone Morant calls "my brother" and the person who livestreamed the May incident -- banned from Grizzlies home games for a year.
That incident followed a game against the Indiana Pacers. Citing unnamed sources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiple members of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them while they were near a loading dock where their bus was located, and The Athletic reported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.
The NBA confirmed that individuals it didn't identify were banned from the arena but said its investigation into the January event found no evidence that anyone was threatened with a weapon.
Morant and Pack also are involved in a civil lawsuit brought after an incident at Morant's home last summer, in which a then-17-year-old alleged that they assaulted him. Morant filed a countersuit on April 12, accusing the teen of slander, battery and assault.
Why Nikola Jokic pointed to his hand after Game 1 of the NBA Finals
No, Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic's point toward his hand as he walks off the floor after wins is not a reference to the championship ring that he's a few victories away from earning. It's a gesture meant for his little girl, taken from one of his toddler daughter Ognjena's favorite songs.
"It's just a song that we sing," Jokic said during a SportsCenter interview after the Nuggets took a 3-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals last month.
"It's not a big deal, but she likes it, and I just want to have some connection with her."
Jokic points to his left hand, which is the one that wears a wedding ring when he isn't on the court. When he's playing, Jokic ties his wedding ring into the laces of one of his shoes, another gesture that indicates how important family is to him.
"I look at it because I have something more at home that is more important than basketball," Jokic said before the NBA Finals began, referring to his roles as a husband and father. "I learned this. I knew that but this kind of proved me that I'm correct."
MORE NBA Finals: Schedules, news | Odds | Game 1 recap
LOS ANGELES -- Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson are back in the New York Yankees' lineup just in time for the opener of their high-profile interleague series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stanton is batting cleanup as the Yankees' designated hitter Friday night at Dodger Stadium in his first game since April 15. Donaldson is hitting fifth and playing third base in his first appearance since April 5.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said both veterans are likely to play in two of the three games this weekend in Los Angeles. Reliever Tommy Kahnle is also back in uniform in anticipation of his season debut.
"Good to see them here and part of this," Boone said. "They've worked hard to get to this point, so excited to get them back in there and get going."
Stanton, a Los Angeles native and childhood Dodgers fan, has been sidelined by a left hamstring injury, while Donaldson has been out with a strained right hamstring. Kahnle developed biceps tendinitis in spring training.
Boone expects a boost for an offense that began the weekend 10th in the majors in runs scored after finishing second to the Dodgers last season.
"You're talking about two sluggers in there that are just going to add a little bit of length," Boone said. "It'll be a little tricky, kind of maneuvering the timing and all to get [Stanton] built up properly. He's probably not going to be in play for the outfield for a couple of weeks, so you've got to move the puzzle around, but first and foremost just excited to have them back, and obviously Tommy back in the 'pen. Another step toward being normal."
Carlos Rodón had a 30-pitch bullpen session Friday in Los Angeles that went well, according to Boone. Rodon has been out since spring training due to a sore left forearm and a back injury, but the $162 million left-hander should be ready to face live hitters soon.
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
Website: 
Email: 
