MLB – Major League Baseball – 2021 MLB All-Star Game, Coors Field, Denver, CO

Last Night

American League 5, National League 2

American 5, National 2 – AL makes it 8 straight wins

The American League has earned its eighth consecutive All-Star Game victory.  Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Mike Zunino hit solo homers and Xander Bogaerts had two of the AL's nine hits in a 5-2 victory over the National League.  Marcus Semien put the junior circuit ahead to stay with an RBI single in the second, one inning before Guerrero went deep. Guerrero also poked an RBI grounder and Bogaerts added a run-scoring single.  Guerrero is the first Toronto Blue Jay to be named the MVP of the All-Star Game. J.T. Realmuto put the NL on the board with a solo shot in the fifth.  Jared Walsh made a sliding catch in left field on Kris Bryant’s tricky liner with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning, keeping the AL ahead.  Angels star Shohei Ohtani made history as the first All-Star to be selected as both a pitcher and a hitter. He was the AL starting pitcher and worked a perfect first inning to get the win but finished 0-for-2 at the plate.  Corbin Burnes took the loss, yielding two runs and four hits over two frames.  The AL owns a 46-43-2 lead in the all-time series.

MLB – Manfred: Banning defensive shifts would be restoring MLB

Banning or limiting defensive shifts would be an effort to restore Major League Baseball to how it was played before offense was suffocated by analytics, according to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. Speaking before the All-Star Game to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Manfred said seven-inning doubleheaders and starting extra innings with runners on second base likely will be dropped after this season. He said extending the DH to the NL could be possible. Manfred said MLB was considering having umpires explain video review decisions to fans at ballparks over the public-address system, similar to the procedure in the NFL

MLB – Manfred: A's fate in Oakland to be decided in coming months

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says the fate of the Athletics in Oakland will be determined in the next few months. A’s owners have proposed a new ballpark in the Howard Terminal area of Oakland, and Manfred said if the stadium project is not approved, the team would move forward with either a move to Las Vegas or a wider relocation search. Manfred says “The Oakland process is at an end” and adds “This is the decision point for Oakland as whether they want to have Major League Baseball going forward.”

NBA – 2021 NBA Finals – Best of 7

Tonight

Phoenix Suns at Milwaukee Bucks, 9:00 p.m.                                         (PHX leads 2-1)

NBA – Suns can hack and whack Giannis, but know he'll keep coming

Giannis Antetokounmpo pointed to a pair of scratches, one on his forehead and the other on his cheek. Those NBA Finals battle scars are proof, he figures, that the frustrated Phoenix Suns are indeed fouling him. The Suns may be smacking and hacking him, but they sure aren’t stopping the Milwaukee Bucks star. Coming off two straight 40-point performances, Antetokounmpo will try to help the Bucks even the series in Game 4 on Wednesday. He shot 17 free throws in Game 3. The Suns only had 16 as a team. The Suns know he will keep attacking no matter what.

NBA – NBA Finals ratings up from 2020 pandemic, down from 2019

The NBA Finals has gained some, but not all of its audience back after last year's trip to the pandemic bubble. Ratings were way down last year when the Finals were held in October with no live audience watching the L.A. Lakers win the championship. This year, back closer to a normal time and with a live audience providing atmosphere, viewership was up 41% compared to the first three games of last year. Still, the opening games were down 34% from 2019,