— Odd Fact of the Day, part 1: In case you wondering, at the Masters last week, there were a total of 8,735 putts taken in the four-day tournament (95 players).
— Odd Fact of the Day, part 2: Had to be very taxing for whoever looked this one up, but over the last 14 years, Tampa Bay Rays are now 0-11 on April 15, Income Tax Day.
Red Sox 7, Rays 4
Alex Bregman went 5-5, with two homers, 4 RBI. Now he goes home and on maternity leave for a couple days. This was Bregman’s 7th career game with two home runs/
— Orlando 120, Atlanta 95
Cole Anthony scored 26 points, had six assists off the bench.
Magic advances to play Boston in first round of the playoffs.
Atlanta hosts the winner of the Miami-Chicago game for the #8-seed.
— Golden State 121, Memphis 116
Curry/Butler were combined 25-31 on the foul line (rest of Warriors, 3-3)
Warriors advance to play Houston in first round of the playoffs.
Grizzlies host winner of Minnesota-Dallas for the #8-seed in West
— NBA star Chris Paul will be 40 years old next month; he started all 82 games for the Spurs this season, the oldest player ever to start all 82 games in a season. John Stockton started all 82 games when he was 39; Michael Jordan played in all 82 games when ht was 39, starting 67 of them.
— Detroit Tigers’ P Jackson Jobe is the son of former pro golfer Brandt Jobe, who won a couple tournaments on the PGA Tour. He also had three top 20 finishes in major tournaments.
— Famous birthdays, April 16th:
Jim Lonborg, 83
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 78
Ellen Barkin, 71
Bruce Bochy, 70
Curt Young, 65
Jon Cryer, 60
Walt Williams, 55
Boris Diaw, 43
Luol Deng, 40
Nolan Arenado, 34
— Astros 2, Cardinals 0
Hunter Brown threw six shutout innings, for the second consecutive start.
Jake Meyers went 3-for-4, had the game-winning RBI
— Cubs 2, Padres 1 (10)
Nico Hoerner’s 10th-inning triple knocked in the game-winning run.
This was San Diego’s first loss in 12 home games.
Manny Machado homered in the 5th inning, after the Cubs dropped two foul pop-ups during his at-bat.
— A’s 12, White Sox 3
Tyler Soderstrom hit a pair of 3-run homers.
Game was 3-3 after the first inning.
Hitters 1-4 in the Sacramento order were 10-18, with 10 runs scored.
— Rangers 4, Angels 0
Tyler Mahle struck out nine games in his 6 IP.
Mahle has a 0.92 ERA in four starts this season.
Angels are 0-4 in Kikuchi starts, scoring total of 10 runs.
— Twins 6, Mets 3
Bailey Ober threw 6.1 IP, got his first win in his last 13 starts.
Only sixth win in 18 games for the Twins.
Soto/Alonso homered for the Mets,
— Blue Jays 6, Braves 3
Toronto broke a 1-1 tie with five runs in fifth inning.
Kevin Gausman threw 6 IP, allowed only six baserunners, 2 runs.
Braves are 5-12, 2-10 on the road.
— Guardians 6, Orioles 3
Steven Kwan hit a 2-run homer for the Guardians.
Cleveland won for sixth time in last seven games.
Charlie Morton (0-4) is the first pitcher with four losses this season.
— RIP to the great gameshow host Wink Martindale, who passed away at age 91; I remember him best as the host of Gambit, a blackjack-themed game. Back when daytime TV was a whole lot better than it is now, with ton of gameshows, Martindale was an iconic figure.
RIP, sir.