Daily Archives: May 5, 2021

Cavaliers fall short in overtime vs. Suns

Posted on by
Advertisements

The shorthanded Cleveland Cavaliers put together a valiant effort, but it was not quite enough as they lost to the Phoenix Suns 134-118.

Credit where credit is due, the Cleveland Cavaliers put together a better effort against the Phoenix Suns than anyone could have imagined. The Cavs were able to take the Suns to overtime before laying an egg in the extra period and losing by 16 points.

Things were all tied up at 114 as regulation and both teams headed to OT. Unfortunately the Cavaliers were outscored 20-4, a differential that probably should have been occurring throughout the game. Even without Darius Garland, Larry Nance Jr., Isaiah Hartenstein, Matthew Dellavedova, and Taurean Prince, the Cavs took the team with the best record in the NBA to overtime. This is fairly impressive considering the difference in talent level between the two teams, even though overtime was a blowout.

Career-high for Okoro

It was an impressive night for Cavaliers rookie Isaac Okoro. Okoro scored a career-high 32 points on a 10-16 shooting performance, including 3 of 4 attempts from three. Additionally, Okoro made all nine free throw attempts. For someone who came into the league as a work in progress offensively, this is a step in the right direction and perhaps a glimpse at his scoring potential.

Sexton adds 29

Collin Sexton was the Cavaliers second-highest scorer with 29 points in 39 minutes. As per usual with his high scoring outputs, Sexton required a lot of shots to do so. Sexton made 11 of 24 field goal attempts (2-5 3PT) and went 5-7 from the free throw line. Shooting nights like this is just what comes with Sexton being the only healthy scoring guard. If Garland was able to play things may have been different.

The Cavs return to action Wednesday night as they host Portland at 7:30 P.M.

Shane Bieber starts in Kansas City for Cleveland

Posted on by
Advertisements

The Cleveland Baseball Club will be starting the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner against Kansas City.

After two straight wins in Kansas City, the Cleveland Baseball Club is looking for their third and they are starting their best pitcher, Shane Bieber. Bieber will be making his seventh start of the year and his second against the Royals this season. The last time Bieber allowed 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 8 batters over 6.1 innings.

Shane Bieber enters Wednesday as the MLB leader in strikeouts with 68 in 6 games. Considering Bieber’s track record against these Royals batters it is very likely that he extends his lead in the category. Bieber has struck out 38 Kansas City batters in 111 at-bats, meaning that just over one-third of at-bats against Bieber results in a strikeout for the Royals.

The Royals will be starting Brady Singer, his first against Cleveland this season. After allowing 5 runs in his first start this season and has since only allowed 3 total over his next four starts. The last start was only 2 innings against the Minnesota Twins. Cleveland will have to hope that Singer pitches more like he did in his first start rather than the subsequent four.

Cleveland rallies to defeat Royals 7-3

Posted on by
Advertisements

The Cleveland Baseball Club scored seven consecutive runs as they rallied to defeat the Kansas City Royals.

Things were not going great for the Cleveland Baseball Club early in Kansas City. A combination of the Royals getting 3-0 lead and Angel Hernandez just being plain awful made it seem like that it was not going to be their night. Luckily Cleveland was able to score seven unanswered runs from the 6th inning on as they managed to win the second game in a row in comeback fashion against Royals.

Everything got started when Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez committed a throwing error with the bases loaded. This led to two runs for Cleveland in the 6th inning. Harold Ramirez would follow with a game-tying RBI single.

Ramirez would drive in another run as he would double home Franmil Reyes in the 8th. Josh Naylor would subsequently drive in Ramirez with a single of his own. The Cleveland scoring run was capped off with a Jake Bauers two-run homer, his first of the year.

After an atrocious 1-17 start to the year, Bauers is starting to turn things around just a bit. Bauers is slashing .283/.375/.464 with an OPS of .839 over his last 33 plate appearances, including two doubles and one home run. There are two multi-hit outings mixed in with some hitless appearances along the way, but maybe things are heading in the right direction.

On the mound

It was an all hands on deck day for the Cleveland pitching staff. Phil Maton served as the opener, allowing 1 runs on 2 hits and 1 walk in 1.1 innings. Sam Hentges would follow Maton, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits in his 3.1 innings of work.

Nick Sandlin and Nick Wittgren pitched the middle innings with neither player allowing a baserunner. Cal Quantrill would pitch the final two innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out two.

Cleveland is now one game back of division leaders Chicago and Kansas City. The Cleveland offense is struggling to find their stride, but as long as they have their pitching staff they have a puncher’s chance.