Last night San Francisco Giants rookie pitcher Chris Heston making his 13th career major league start pitched the 17th no hitter in San Francisco history a 5-0 victory over the New York Mets. Heston struck out the side in the ninth inning to secure the first no-hitter of the 2015 season; he had 11 total strikeouts in the game. It was also the 4th straight season a Giants pitcher has thrown a no hitter. Matt Cain threw a no hitter in 2012 and Tim Lincecum kept the streak going with no hitters in 2013 and 2014. Oddly Heston was once designated for assignment by the Giants in July 2013, Heston only made the starting rotation because Cain began the season on the disabled list. And he had been inconsistent all season before his no hitter Tuesday night. Heston did not allow a walk along with his 11 strikeouts. Heston’s only blemishes were three hit batters, the first time dating back to 1914 that more than two batters were plunked during a no-hitter. He also became the first rookie to throw a no-hitter since Boston’s Clay Buchholz in 2007. It took Heston 110 pitches to throw his no hitter. Heston improved to 6-4 on the season and also went 2 for 4 at the plate and drove in 2 runs which were his first career RBI’s. With the win San Francisco improved their record to 33-26 and are currently in 2nd place in the National League West a game behind the 1st place Los Angeles Dodgers.
Are you surprised that the Cleveland Cavaliers are up 2 games to 1 in the NBA Finals on the Golden State Warriors. Behind 40 points from LeBron James the Cavaliers took Game 3 96-91 in Cleveland last night. Cleveland got out to a 4 point lead after the 1st quarter 24-20. The Cavaliers were able to add 3 points to their lead going into halftime 44-37. The Cavaliers were really able to pull away in the 3rd quarter outscoring Golden State 28-18 in the quarter and taking a 72-55 lead going into the 4th quarter. Golden State did what it could in the 4th period to get back into the game. Golden State outscored Cleveland by 12 points 36-24, but it wasn’t enough and they lost Game 3 by 5 points 96-91. James was 14-34 from the field last night including 2-6 from behind the 3-point line. He did make 10 of the 12 free throws he shot while scoring his 40 points. Matthew Dellavedova has really stepped up for the Cavaliers in Kyrie Irving’s absence and last night he scored 20 points in Cleveland’s victory. J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson were the other 2 Cavaliers to score in double figures as they both had 10 points. Thompson also led Cleveland in rebounding with 13 boards while James grabbed 12 rebounds and also led Cleveland in assists with 8. Stephen Curry had a much better shooting night in Game 3 than he did in Game 2. Curry went 10 for 20 from the field and hit 7 of the 13 3-pointers he attempted for a team leading 27 points. Andre Iguodala (15), Klay Thompson (14) and David Lee (11) were the other Warriors who scored in double figures. Curry led the Warriors in assists with 6 while Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green led Golden State in rebounds with 7 boards apiece. Before yesterday’s game the NBA came out and said the officiating crew missed 3 calls down the stretch in Game 2 and you have to wonder if that had any affect on the Game 3 free throw shooting numbers. Cleveland had twice as many free throws as Golden State did in Game 3. The Cavaliers took advantage of the free throw situation going 17-24 (70.8%) while Golden State was 7-12 (58.3%) from the free throw line. The series stays in Cleveland for Game 4 on Thursday night and we’ll have to see if Golden State can even things up before heading home.
I came across some odd pre-game comments and these were earlier in the day not right before the game. If you’ve watched ESPN on the day of an NBA Finals game you’ve realized that it’s really just one big pre-game show. One of the commentators was explaining how the Cavaliers have already won this series and I just couldn’t understand what he was taking about and never really explained his position at all. What made this even more entertaining for me is at the start of the NBA Finals this same commentator picked Golden State to win the series in 6 games. I’m sure if you asked him about that he’d deny that comment or say you were lying. I guess we’re not suppose to remember who these guys pick to win what; so they can go and change things to fit whatever they have going on. I’m not going back on what I picked and I am already wrong. In case you don’t remember I had the Cavaliers in the finals, but I had them losing to the San Antonio Spurs. Oops!
It’s Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals tonight in Chicago. The Tampa Bay Lighting have a 2 games to 1 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks. Game 3 was not a good game for either goaltender as both Ben Bishop and Corey Crawford allowed goals that they could’ve and should’ve stopped. It worked out for Tampa Bay as Crawford allowed 1 more bad goal than Bishop did and Tampa Bay grabbed a 3-2 win in Game 3. You have to wonder if Blackhawks fans are concerned with the way this series has went so far, but the Blackhawks did win the Stanley Cup a couple of seasons ago after being down by the same 2-1 margin in games. If the Blackhawks are going to repeat that performance they’ll need much better play out of Crawford in goal. What you’ll need to look for in tonight’s game is how the Blackhawks defenseman are playing. There have been a couple of experts who’ve mentioned that they Blackhawks might still be feeling the affects from their Western conference finals series against the Anaheim Ducks. While it does seem that Duncan Keith is on the ice for the entire game I don;t think it’s affected his play. I was interested to know why they think it’s just the Blackhawks that would be tired. Tampa Bay’s Eastern conference finals series against the New York Rangers also went 7 games; so wouldn’t they be feeling the affect of that series.
On the Sunday morning podcast Mr. Fantasy and I have been picking a fantasy player and pitcher of the week. I believe I’m a couple of weeks behind; so if you haven’t been listening here’s who we picked.
Week 8 Nolan Arrenado (Colorado) and Chad Bettis (Colorado)
Week 9 Freddie Freeman (Atlanta) and Lance McCullers (Houston)
You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime and listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast at http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com
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