Sports Update, Monday, May 20th – Blazers vs. Warriors Game 4 Tonight

Wynne Broadcasting’s Randy Adams has been covering local Klamath Basin sports for 40 years and is the voice of the Henley Hornets and Mazama Vikings on radio at 106.5 / 1240AM The Winner CBS Sports Radio and 102.5 / 1450AM KFLS. Hear his daily morning show on Sunny 107!

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Monday, May 20th, 2019

It’s game four tonight against the Warriors…do or die for the Trail Blazers. The Warriors lead the best-of-seven series, 3-0.

After a stretch of remarkable good health over the last few seasons, the 2018-19 Portland Trail Blazers suffered a severe setback when starting center Jusuf Nurkic broke his left leg in a double overtime victory versus the Brooklyn Nets on March 25.

But despite the injury, and thanks in large part to bolstering their depth by acquiring two talented, playoff-tested veterans, the Trail Blazers have continued to thrive through adversity, with their reward being their first trip to the Western Conference Finals in nearly two decades.

But to keep their improbable run going, they’ll have to be the first NBA team to ever return from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series after dropping Game 3 to the Golden State Warriors Saturday night at the Moda Center. And if that task weren’t daunting enough, they’ll have to do so with their best player and leader suffering another ill-timed injury.

Trail Blazers point guard, All-Star and 2018 First Team All-NBA honoree Damian Lillard confirmed reports prior to the team’s practice Sunday afternoon in Tualatin that he had suffered a separated rib in Portland’s Game 2 loss versus the Warriors in Oakland on Thursday.

Game four is tonight at Moda Center.  Lillard says despite being down 3-0, the team still has much to play for.

Mazama’s softball team heads to LaGrande Wednesday while Henley’s teams will be home in the first round of the OSAA state 4A baseball and softball tournament. 

Henley’s baseball team meets Seaside, while the softballers meet Cascade.

Mariners down the Twins.

What do you do after a team has battered you over the first three games of a series, setting their season high in runs in the process?

You send out your own stopper, as the Mariners did with Yusei Kikuchi on Sunday.

The left-hander continued to impress with six solid innings, and Mitch Haniger and Daniel Vogelbach hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning as the Mariners defeated the Twins, 7-4, at T-Mobile Park on Sunday.

With the victory, Seattle (23-26) avoided a sweep in the four-game series and got a boost ahead of starting a six-game road trip in Texas on Monday.

It was Brooks Koepka commanding the course and winning the PGA Championship Sunday.   One challenger came from Dustin Johnson, but Koepka went about his business with all the emotion of putting away groceries. Tee up ball, swing at ball, put ball in hole, repeat, repeat, repeat, as relentless as the sunset. 

Koepka’s now won four of the last eight majors. He’s third on the active-player major-winning list, tied with Rory McIlroy at 4, one behind Phil Mickelson, and well off Tiger Woods’ mark of 15 … for now. Koepka says he wants to win at least 10 majors and after watching him, it’s very possible.

This is the greatest individual run of golf we’ve seen since Woods in the early 2000s, and yet Koepka’s demeanor has much of the golf world shrugging, but it’s not necessarily Koepka’s fault that he’s not a charismatic charmer like McIlroy or Jordan Spieth; some folks are just born that way and others aren’t.

Spieth and McIlroy are two of the most likeable guys you’ll find on tour, and both have seen their major wins stall in recent years. Woods was the epitome of cool, but he was never exactly a warm and welcoming guy to fans or competitors. Phil Mickelson is always everybody’s pal, but you wonder if he let a major or two slide because he doesn’t possess the step-on-their-throat mentality of Woods or Koepka. 

We’re full on in the Brooks Koepka era now, and golf fans don’t really have much of a choice but to accept his downbeat, low-key demeanor. He may not bring hordes of new fans streaming to the game to Be Like Brooks, but is that his job? He’s winning trophies by the armload now, and if you don’t like the way he goes about it, he’s seeming to suggest that’s your problem, not his. 

Like it or not, you can’t argue with results. 

MLB Scores (Sunday, May 19)

Kansas City Royals5Final
Los Angeles Angels1
WDanny Duffy (3-1)
LTyler Skaggs (4-4)
San Francisco Giants3Final
Arizona Diamondbacks2(10)
WSam Dyson (2-0)
LYoshihisa Hirano (1-2)
SWill Smith (12)
Milwaukee Brewers3Final
Atlanta Braves2(10)
WJosh Hader (1-3)
LWes Parsons (1-2)
Houston Astros3Final
Boston Red Sox4
WMarcus Walden (6-0)
LFramber Valdez (1-2)
SBrandon Workman (1)
Toronto Blue Jays5Final
Chicago White Sox2
WDaniel Hudson (3-1)
LKelvin Herrera (1-3)
SKen Giles (10)
Los Angeles Dodgers8Final
Cincinnati Reds3
WHyun-Jin Ryu (6-1)
LTanner Roark (3-3)
Baltimore Orioles0Final
Cleveland Indians10
WShane Bieber (3-2)
LYefry Ramirez (0-2)
Oakland Athletics5Final
Detroit Tigers3(7)
New York Mets0Final
Miami Marlins3
WSandy Alcantara (2-4)
LNoah Syndergaard (3-4)
Tampa Bay Rays5Final
New York Yankees13
WAdam Ottavino (2-1)
LDiego Castillo (0-3)
SChance Adams (1)
Colorado Rockies5Final
Philadelphia Phillies7
WEdgar Garcia (1-0)
LBryan Shaw (2-1)
SPat Neshek (3)
Pittsburgh Pirates6Final
San Diego Padres4
WJoe Musgrove (3-4)
LCal Quantrill (0-2)
SFelipe Vazquez (13)
Minnesota Twins4Final
Seattle Mariners7
WYusei Kikuchi (3-1)
LKyle Gibson (4-2)
St. Louis Cardinals4Final
Texas Rangers5(10)
WJeanmar Gomez (1-0)
LJordan Hicks (1-2)
Chicago Cubs6Final
Washington Nationals5
WKyle Hendricks (4-4)
LJeremy Hellickson (2-3)
SSteve Cishek (4)

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