Welcome to the Morning Buzz for your Wednesday hump day! MLB obviously takes most of the news, but the NBA and NHL are still newsworthy as we move towards champions in both sports. Let’s take a look back at last night and a look forward to today’s action. 

Giannoooooooooo!

It was a horrible night for the Milwaukee Bucks as not only did they lose to the Hawks without their star Trae Young in the lineup, but they also surely lost Giannis Antetokounmpo for likely the rest of the series and likely longer if they were somehow to advance. He went up to contest an alley-oop and immediately when he hit the court his leg bucked in a vomit-inducing way. I mean it wasn’t Joe Theismann/Alex Smith bad, but you knew he was hurt right away. Another star bites the dust in the NBA Playoffs, that could propel the Hawks to the NBA Finals. 

Wake Up Call In The Bronx

A lackluster offense for most of the season definitely looked like it had a firework stuck up its backside. The Yankees scored 11 runs and broke a four-game losing streak. A lot of credit goes to Gary Sanchez who has enjoyed a huge resurgence after he was basically benched for part of May. He has come back with a vengeance and has had an amazing month of June. I am sure that he is sad that it is the last day of the month. Is this the catalyst the Yankees needed to get their season on track? Or was this an anomaly and they will continue their around .500 ways? Time will tell. 

The Schwar-bino

After Howard wrote about him yesterday, I told myself I wouldn’t even if he homered again. Of course, Schwarber led off the game with his 25th longball of the season and his 12th in the last ten games. In DFS he is nearly impossible to not consider using, but in season long please shop him and try to sell high. This can’t keep up forever and he isn’t going to hit 50 home runs. Not to mention his .253 average isn’t really helping you. You have enjoyed the ride, now get off before the ride breaks and doesn’t hit a home run for three weeks.

Almost “The End of Times”

I can’t say that I have them all memorized (something about locusts I think) all the signs of the end of the world, but we narrowly missed one on Tuesday as German Marquez was three outs away from throwing a no-hitter…..AT COORS! The mantra for years has been to fade Marquez at home, but a Ka’ai Tom single in the ninth was the only thing that stood in the way. Marquez ERA has been over a run and a half higher at home since 2019 so this would have been one of the bigger surprises of the season. 

Wednesday will be another great day of sports with Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals and another great slate of MLB action. Let’s hit the highlights. 

On Another Level

The otherworldly show of Shohei Ohtani will continue on Wednesday as he takes the mound. He has allowed two earned runs or less in seven of his last eight starts and has struck out five or more in every start this season. He has been hit or miss with the bat in games he has pitched, if he hit at all. He has been hitless his last two starts, but in a season-long league I would never sit this guy. I have generally faded him in DFS the day after his start as you have to figure that arm doesn’t feel well the next day. However, the way he is playing right now there aren’t too many days that he isn’t doing something spectacular. 

Let Fried-om Ring

Max Fried returns from the Injured List today, which doesn’t seem like big news. Despite a few games where he was torched early on, Fried has had a solid season. He has allowed just one earned run in six of his last eight starts and on May 17 he threw six innings of one run ball and struck out eight against these Mets. He actually has a 2.73 lifetime ERA against the Mets with 60 strikeouts in 56 innings and makes an intriguing play today. 

The Ugly

There is just so much bad pitching that there should be a slew of great offensive showcases today. From Michael Wacha, Chad Kuhl, and Mike Minor early in the night to Matt Harvey and Kolby Allard later in the night, there will be fireworks a couple nights early with plenty of pitches guaranteed to land in the stands. 

Bet On It

The biggest favorites on the board for Wednesday is definitely the Houston Astros at -310 which makes sense as they throw Luis Garcia against the dreadful Matt Harvey. The Astro bats have been hot and while the Orioles can score some runs their pitching is so incredibly bad that it is hard for them to win games. The Cardinals against Arizona, Blue Jays against Seattle, and Athletics over the Rangers are all -200 and should all win their games.