The Rush: Dodgers slay Giants, Brooklyn benches Kyrie and NHL releases the Kraken
The Brooklyn Nets give Kyrie Irving an ultimatum (get vaxxed or get benched), the Dodgers and Giants will play a decisive Game 5 to see which team will face Atlanta in the NLCS, the ALCS features a showdown between the controversial Astros and their former employee in Red Sox manager Alex Cora and the NHL releases the Kraken as Seattle’s hockey team makes its debut in an Opening Night game versus the Las Vegas Knights.
Video Transcript
- [? --traffic ?] all game. That ball is driven into right field. Bryant turns and runs. Mookie Betts 2-run blast!
[WHOOSH]
JARED QUAY: We'll get to postseason baseball in a minute. But we've got basketball business to attend to first. The Brooklyn Nets have told Kyrie Irving he can't be a part-time player. The guard has two choices. He can comply with local vaccine mandates and join the team. Or he can remain unvaccinated, and thus, not be part of the team's practices or games. Word on the street is Kyrie doesn't plan on getting vaccinated any time soon. So I guess we know where he won't be this season. He won't be at the bank depositing that $35 million salary check either.
- Inconceivable.
JARED QUAY: And you know what? He ain't even Brooklyn's best player. Hell, he's not even the Nets second-best player. Kyrie is just a bonus for the Nets, really. And I'll say it right here. I know what's going to happen. Watch, in the middle of the season, he's going to come back fully vaccinated. He's going to start balling like he the hero. And everybody going to think the vaccine give you superpowers. And then more people get vaccinated. So, Kyrie, maybe you are a hero in all of this if you get vaccinated. Next story.
[CRACK]
- That ball's hit will center field. Back is Slater, out of room! 2-run home run Will Smith! 7 to 2 Dodgers.
JARED QUAY: The Dodgers took care of business in LA on Tuesday beating its arch nemesis Giants to force a decisive game 5 in the series.
- Dang, we're all just so good.
JARED QUAY: Whichever team makes it out of the bracket will have its work cut out for them, though.
[CRACK]
- It's a fly ball to center field. Lorenzo Cain going back, at the wall. Freddie Freeman's left the yard!
JARED QUAY: That was Freddie Freeman putting the Brewers out to pasture, earning Atlanta a trip to the NLCS to take on either the Dodgers or Giants. In the ALCS, though, that's going to be a different kind of animal.
- --out of here.
- Altuve hammers one to left. That might be the exclamation point of the series.
JARED QUAY: The Astros wiped the floor with the White Sox earning the opportunity to face the Red Sox in the ALCS. Yes, the Trashstros are taking on Alex Cora, who was suspended and lost his job for his role in the Astros cheating scandal.
- It was kismet.
JARED QUAY: If either of these teams accuses the other of cheating, that's the kind of drama that could make people care about baseball again.
[MUSIC PLAYING & CHEERING]
That was the fricking intro to the game between the Las Vegas Knights and the Seattle Kraken on NHL opening night. I never knew a Knight fighting a Kraken could be so thrilling.
- Release the Kraken.
JARED QUAY: The Knights put a damper on the Kracken's coming-out party, as Vegas got the W. But, man, I got myself a new favorite NHL team. OK. To be honest with you, I really didn't have an old favorite team. But the Kraken are just too dope of a mascot for me not to root for them. Look, I'm by myself in Seattle, I'm going to go be a 12th man. I'm going to go to one of them soccer games.
Because don't nobody know how to do soccer like Seattle. And then I'm going to see a Kraken NHL game. Seattle just has better things than everybody else. I mean, I wish they had winning teams, too. I mean, Seattle ain't won a championship since 2013. And then you already know everybody else is kind [INAUDIBLE]. I mean, when's the last time the Mariners even made the playoffs?
