Read and React: Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich are unreal
Welcome to Read and React, Yahoo Sports’ daily newsletter. Every morning, we serve up and break down the day’s top sports stories, from breaking news to impactful storytelling to that viral video everyone’s watching.
Get Read and React emailed right to you, every Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. ET.
Welcome back from the weekend, readers. Anybunny find a new pack of cards or a new glove in your basket yesterday?
Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich are unreal
Speaking of Easter eggs, here’s hoping you found the great one that MLB left us on this April schedule. It’s not often that an early-season matchup makes for must-see TV, but the four-game NLCS rematch between the Dodgers and Brewers was just that.
Seriously, have you seen what Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich are doing? Yelich hit four home runs in the series to bring his season total to 13. It would be 14, but Bellinger straight up robbed the reigning NL MVP at the wall in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game. A few minutes later, the 2017 NL ROY stroked his 11th home run of the season to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory and a big 3-1 series win.
Through the first four weeks of the season, their stats are ridic and it’s quite possible the NL MVP award is the next thing that Bellinger takes from Yelich this season.
Yelich: .353/.456/.859, 13 homers, 31 RBI, 23 runs
Bellinger: .424/.500/.882, 11 homers, 28 RBI, 26 runs
MLB needs to push these guys as much as possible
Bellinger is 23. Yelich is 27. Both hail from the Fortnite generation and, honestly, kinda look like the guys you’d find on the other end of an online battle. A lot is made about Mike Trout not being the type of household name he should be, but that marketing deficiency extends to guys like Bellinger and Yelich as well. If you can’t sell the starts these guys are off to — plus personalities that seem a little more outgoing than Trout — what can you sell?
MLB: Aaron Judge is out indefinitely for the Yankees
Speaking of young marketable stars, no one’s going to be rising for Aaron Judge soon. The Yankees slugger suffered a significant oblique strain on Saturday and will miss a hefty chunk of time. The Yankees have been crushed by injuries all spring long, but still sit only 2 1/2 games back of a Rays team that started out red hot.
NBA: Surging Celtics complete sweep of Pacers
• Boston became the first NBA team to win a playoff series this year with Sunday’s 110-106 win over Indiana. A series with the top-seeded Bucks is likely next on the schedule.
• Both the Warriors and Raptors took 3-1 series leads with wins on Easter Sunday. Klay Thompson credited his big day to a swim in the ocean he took a day before the game.
• Paul George scored 32 and still OKC lost to the Blazers. Why? Well, Russell Westbrook going 5-of-21 from the floor (and scoring just one point in the second half) explains a lot, and now Portland leads the series 3-1.
NHL: Bruins and Sharks force Game 7s
Any Game 7 is special in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But with no offense to Vegas-San Jose, Maple Leafs-Bruins should be especially good. The last time these two teams played a game 7 was 2013 and the Leafs held a 4-1 lead with just 15 minutes to go. The Bruins somehow fought back and won the game in overtime, which means all of Toronto won’t be resting easy at any point on Tuesday night.
• This is one of the craziest double plays you’ll ever see
• The O’s probably won’t be celebrating this home run record
• The Colts owner spent $718K on a rare piece of Beatles history
Is this bad?
Thanks for reading today’s newsletter!
Subscribe right now for free and never miss another one
