WNBA: League MVP Breanna Stewart has Liberty three wins away from the franchise’s first-ever league championship.
With the WNBA League MVP trophy already secured, there is just one feat left to accomplish in Stewart’s storybook 2023 season: leading the New York Liberty to their first-ever WNBA championship.
The former UConn star and the two-seeded Liberty began their postseason run with a best-of-three series against the seven-seeded Washington Mystics. Despite Stewart’s cold night from the field in game one, the Liberty took the first contest of the series 90-75 and then won the series with a 90-85 overtime win in game two.
Next up for New York was the three-seeded Connecticut Sun in a best-of-five series with a trip to the WNBA finals on the line. Once again, it was another cold game one from Stewart who shot just 7-25 in the Liberty’s 78-63 loss. In desperate need of a bounce-back win in game two, Stewart struggled to get going once again, but teammates Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney caught fire to help the Liberty even the series at one game a piece. In a pivotal game three, the league MVP rose to the occasion and delivered her biggest performance of the postseason, dropping 25 points and 11 rebounds to swing the series in favor of New York 2-1. The standout forward delivered once again in game four, tallying 27 points and nine rebounds to lead the Liberty past the Sun and into their first WNBA finals since 2002.
The only thing left standing between Stewart and the city’s first-ever WNBA championship is three wins against A’ja Wilson and the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces. Both teams enter the finals hosting the two best records in the league and each having one of the two league MVP finalists. A’ja Wilson certainly has a chip on her shoulder going into this series after expressing her displeasure in being edged out by Stewart for the MVP award. This year’s finals should be a down-to-the-wire classic between these two talent-stacked rosters and the league’s two best players.
MLB: Springer, Blue Jays bats go cold, drop game one to Minnesota 3-1.
Going into the final month of the season, George Springer and the Toronto Blue Jays were 1.5 games out of the final wild-card spot. The Jays finished 15-11 to end the season, overtaking Seattle for the final wild-card spot and slating their way into an opening-round matchup against the Minnesota Twins. In game one of the best-of-three series, Toronto could only muster up one run off Twins starter Pablo López as Minnesota snapped their MLB record 18-game postseason losing streak with a 3-1 victory. With their backs against the wall, the former World Series MVP, along with the entire Blue Jays offense, must get going in order to avoid another first-round exit from the postseason.
