While you are reading this, the Florida Panthers may be on a charter plane pointed south, the team preparing themselves for what should be a battle in Sunrise come Wednesday night.
And by ‘preparing’ we mean playing lots of poker.
The Panthers came dangerously close to being on the edge of elimination had Sam Reinhart not pulled them from the abyss with a game-tying goal with 2:04 left Monday night.
That allowed Carter Verhaeghe to become just the fourth Florida player to ever win a playoff game in overtime — two were in 1996, the other was Ryan Lomberg — as the Panthers tied things up with a thrilling 3-2 win in Game 4.
Now the Panthers have a chance to turn the tables with a win on Wednesday.
Buckle up.
PANTHERLAND
Verhaeghe was part of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2020 Stanley Cup championship team — but he is a much bigger part of what the Panthers are doing now.
— We have the video postgame from Monday’s postgame with Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart, Sasha Barkov and Andrew Brunette is on the FloridaHockeyNow YouTube channel.
The FHN Panthers Postgame is also up on the channel.
If you like what you see on the YouTube page, please subscribe!
CAP CENTER
The Washington Capitals thought there was goalie interference on the game-winning goal as Lars Eller and Jonathan Huberdeau were batting at the net in front of Ilya Samsonov.
The officials looked at it and did not agree.
— It is now a best-of-3 game series with the Capitals coming to Sunrise today for tomorrow’s game. There’s a lot of unpack with Washington’s Game 4.
— We should be getting an update on Pete DeBoer’s status with the Vegas Golden Knights soon.
— There’s a report out there that the San Jose Sharks are willing to part with two of their veteran players — and especially their bloated contracts. Hello, Arizona!
A now-former New York Yankees prospect allegedly had some issues with steals, and we are not talking about baserunning.
Jake Sanford, the Yankees’ third-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft, was cut by the team last week over allegations that he repeatedly “hounded” teammates for equipment such as bats and gloves to sell online, and occasionally going as far as grabbing it from their lockers, according to NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty.
Simply put, Sanford’s teammates were not happy with him:
“He was scamming other players,” the person said.
There are also reportedly allegations on social media that the 24-year-old Sanford, who signed out of the draft for $597,500, victimized fans as well. While allegedly selling the equipment he procured legally or illegally, fans have accused him of taking money in advance and never delivering the equipment.
According to his Minor League Baseball page, the Yankees officially released Sanford on May 12. He had previously been demoted from High-A Tampa to the organization’s rookie-level FCL team. He has reportedly since signed with the Ottawa Titans of the independent Frontier League.
Jake Sanford reportedly drew his Yankees teammates’ ire for bugging them for their equipment, and worse. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Drafted after a standout season at Western Kentucky, Sanford hit .267/.332/.446 across two seasons ranging from Low-A to High-A, with the 2020 season lost to the pandemic. He was never considered one of the Yankees’ top prospects, but he did rank as high as their No. 24 prospect with MLB Pipeline entering last season, with encouraging coverage from Kuty himself later in the year.
And now he’s out of affiliated ball, and any team interested in signing him is probably going to want to do its homework.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Keston Hiura returned to the majors and hit a two-run, winning homer off Jesse Chavez in the 11th inning as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Atlanta Braves 7-6 on Wednesday.
Hiura was batting .216 with two homers when he was sent to the minors earlier this month.
Both teams scored in the 10th, and the Braves took a 6-5 lead when Travis d’Arnaud led off the top of the 11th with a single down the right-field line off Trevor Kelley (1—0) that brought home automatic runner Ozzie Albies from second.
Milwaukee made it 4-all in the ninth when Braves closer Kenley Jansen blew a save for the first time in 10 opportunities.
After falling behind 0-2, Wong worked the count full and then sent a liner into the right-field corner to bring home Peterson with the tying run. Peterson had drawn a leadoff walk and stole second with one out.
The Braves took a 5-4 lead in the 10th when automatic runner Ronald Acuña Jr. hustled home from second on a botched double-play attempt for an unearned run. Milwaukee tied it on Hunter Renfroe’s sacrifice fly.
The burst started when a pitch from Burnes glanced off Acuña’s arm and Matt Olson singled.
Riley then hit a slow roller that headed halfway up the third-base line before finally going foul, preventing an infield hit that would have scored Acuña.
What seemed like good fortune for the Brewers ended up being a tough break. On the next pitch, Riley sent a cutter from Burnes over the center-field wall for a 429-foot, three-run shot. Ozuna followed with a 409-foot drive to left for his second homer in as many days.
Riley has eight homers and Ozuna seven this season.
The Brewers cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth as Tyrone Taylor and Rowdy Tellez produced RBI singles. Mike Brosseau’s two-out RBI double in the sixth made it 4-3.
Braves starter Max Fried struck out six and allowed seven hits, three runs and two walks in six innings.
Burnes struck out seven and yielded four runs and seven hits in his six-inning stint.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: Acuña was in the lineup for a second straight day and started at right field after filling a designated hitter role Tuesday. Acuña had missed five games with a sore groin.
Brewers: SS Willy Adames went on the injured list, retroactive to Monday, with a high left ankle sprain. … OF Andrew McCutchen remained out of the lineup. McCutchen rejoined the team Tuesday after dealing with COVID-19.
UP NEXT
Braves: Off Thursday before starting a three-game series at Miami on Friday. RHP Charlie Morton (2-3, 4.93) will start for the Braves on Friday, while LHP Trevor Rogers (2-4, 4.45) pitches for the Marlins.
Brewers: Off Thursday before beginning a three-game home series with the Washington Nationals on Friday. Scheduled starters are RHP Erick Fedde (2-2, 4.24) for the Nationals and LHP Eric Lauer (3-1, 2.60) for the Brewers.
The Colorado Rockieslost their first five matchups with the Giants this year in part because of sloppy infield defense. On Wednesday afternoon, someone in purple finally made a clean play on a rolling grounder.
Unfortunately, that was a mistake, too.
A Rockies security guard stationed down the left field line scooped up Thairo Estrada’s double in the sixth inning while it was still in play, and he had a hilarious reaction when left fielder Sam Hilliard informed him that the rolling ball had not been ruled foul. The security guard immediately covered his face in horror.
To be fair to the poor guy, the ball was about as close as it gets. Estrada hit it right over the bag and it was ruled fair by third base umpire Paul Emmel as third baseman Ryan McMahon threw his hands up in disappointment.
The interference also didn’t change the play at all, as Estrada would have cruised into second regardless and definitely would not have taken the risk of making the first out of the inning at third base.
The mistake also might have brought the Rockies some good luck. Two strikeouts and a flyout followed, as Estrada was stranded on second.