SKY DROP OUT OF PLAYOFFS EARLY
BRADENTON, Fla. — The Sky’s season finished much earlier than they expected it would. After starting the abbreviated season 10-4, the sixth-seeded Sky crawled to the finish line and couldn’t recover in the playoffs, falling to the seventh-seeded Sun 94-81 in a first-round single-elimination game Tuesday.
Allie Quigley led the Sky with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting, Kahleah Copper added 17 and Gabby Williams 16. Courtney Vandersloot had 12 points and six assists, capping a memorable season in which she became the first player in WNBA history to average 10 assists per game after totaling 220 in the shortened 22-game regular season.
Alyssa Thomas had 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists, and DeWanna Bonner added 23 points and 12 boards for the Sun, who will play either the third-seeded Sparks or No. 4 seed Lynx on Thursday in another single-elimination round.
Thomas beat the halftime buzzer with a hook shot in the lane to tie it at 41, and the Sun started the second half on a 13-2 run with six points from Jasmine Thomas. The Sky were outscored 27-11 in the game-changing quarter.
Brionna Jones added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Sun, who overcame a franchise-worst 0-5 start to the season. The Sun had a 40-21 advantage on the glass.
NEW YORK — The World Series will be played entirely at the Rangers’ new ballpark in Arlington, Texas, and Major League Baseball hopes fans can attend.
The Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series will all be part of a bubble designed to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, which limited the regular season to a 60-game schedule for each team and caused 45 postponements.
This will be the first World Series played at one site since 1944, when the Cardinals beat the Browns 4-2 at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, where the teams shared the field.
“The elimination of travel is obviously a positive because it cuts exposure,” commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Less interaction outside with the group that you’re looking to protect is a huge positive. It’s all about what the risk of interacting with the community is.”
While MLB was pleased with the players’ response to protocols during the regular season, the bubble was preferred for the latter stages of the postseason, when there is little time available for rescheduling.
After playing the entire regular season in empty ballparks, MLB hopes to be allowed to have about 25% capacity for postseason games at Arlington, where total capacity is about 40,000.
Days off were eliminated for the Division Series and League Championship Series, which will stress pitching depth in starting rotations and bullpens. The two traditional days off were retained for the World Series.
First-round best-of-three matchups (in a postseason that has expanded from 10 to 16 teams this year) will be held entirely at the higher-seeded teams’ parks. The final eight teams will shift to bubble environments.
The World Series will be at Globe Life Field in Arlington, a retractable-roof stadium with artificial turf that opened this year. The Rangers were last in the American League West at 17-30 entering Tuesday.
The AL Championship Series will be at San Diego’s Petco Park, and the NL Championship Series at Globe Life. The AL Division Series will be at Petco Park and Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, and the NL Division Series at Globe Life and Houston’s Minute Maid Park.