• Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Philip Humber threw the 21st perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball on Saturday night, retiring all 27 batters he faced. Humber, a former top draft pick by the New York Mets in 2004 but was not a regular starter until last season, had never even thrown a complete game before.
• The White Sox defeated the listless Seattle Mariners for Humber’s 12th career win. Humber’s career was flat after being drafted 3rd overall out of Rice College in 2004. He debuted for the Mets in 2006, and spent time with the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals before signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2011. Humber struck out 9 Mariners.
• The Mets, founded in 1962, have never even had a pitcher throw a no-hitter (a game where players get on base by only walks, errors, hit by pitches, etc but not a base hit). Humber became the 7th former Met who threw a no-hitter or perfect game for another team. The improbability of this is something not lost on the fans from Queens.
• The final hitter of the game, Brendan Ryan, struck out but the pitch was wild and got away from catcher A.J. Pierzynski. If Ryan had made it to first base, as you can do on a dropped third strike, the perfect game would have been ruined, but luckily Ryan was confused as to whether or not his check-swing had been called a strike to begin with and by the time he had figured it out, the ball was being thrown to first and Humber's spot in history had been secured.
NHL Playoffs wrapping up first round
• Half of the first round playoff matchups in the NHL have finished. The LA Kings, the 8th seed in the Western Conference, surprised the top seeded Vancouver Canucks winning the series 4-1. It was the third time in the last four years that the best team in the regular season lost in their first playoff matchup. The 4th seeded Nashville Predators defeated the 5th seed Detroit Red Wings. The Predators will move on to face the Kings. The 2nd seeded St Louis Blues defeated the 7th seeded San Jose Sharks 4-1. The lone series in the West yet to be completed sees the Phoenix Coyotes leading the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2.
• In the Eastern Conference the only series that has wrapped up has the 5th seeded Philadelphia Flyers defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2. After a rough and tumble third game, the Penguins won two in a row, but fell short in game 6.
• In the other Eastern series, Tyler Seguin scored a goal less than 4 minutes into overtime to force a game seven between his 2nd seeded Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals. The 3rd ranked Florida Panthers lead the New Jersey Devils 3-2 and the 8th seeded Ottawa Senators are leading the New York Rangers 3-2.
Suns, Jazz battle for last playoff spot
• The NBA season has 1-3 games left (depending on the team) and while most playoff spots have been locked up, the #8 seed in the West is still up for grabs. The Phoenix Suns, who lost to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, trail the Utah Jazz, who came back to beat the Orlando Magic later that night. Despite the one game lead, the playoff spot will probably come down to the two teams' matchup in Utah on Tuesday (Isn't it great when it works out that way?)
• The Suns have already locked up the tiebreaker, so if they win that game, they'd only need to win their last game (Against a San Antonio game that would presumably rest its starters) or have Utah lose to Portland.
• Suns PG Steve Nash, who is a free agent this summer, has said he wants to play for 3 more seasons but has said he wants to see improvement to Phoenix's roster this summer before he commits to re-signing moved into 5th place on the NBA's all-time assist list, passing the legendary Oscar Robertson.
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