SNY's The Warm-up: Peterson's debut — Yanks in B-more — Thibs in a rebuild

Get Today’s New York Sports Here Tweet of the Day --------------------------------------------------------------- Good morning. We're launching [a new basketball show]( today: The Putback with Ian Begley, starring Zach Lowe as his first guest. Look for it today at 4 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------- Today's schedule... - Red Sox at Mets, 7:10 p.m. on SNY ⚾ - Yankees at Orioles, 7:30 p.m. ⚾ - Liberty vs. Wings, 8 p.m. 🏀 --------------------------------------------------------------- SNY originals... Baseball Night in New York - [What makes Michael Conforto so good against lefties?]( What are the odds? - [Who has a better chance to win their respective division -- the Giants or the Jets?]( Today's word count: 758 words (about six minutes) --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Another good night in Boston MLB/Twitter METS 8, RED SOX 3 -- The Mets climbed to 3-2 last night with a win over the Red Sox. In two games in Boston, New York scored three times the runs it did in three games against Atlanta. GIF'd above: Michael Conforto's exceptional catch last night, made possible by a distinct lack of Boston fans, who otherwise would have verbally (and perhaps physically) discouraged him from making the play. Encouraging: - David Peterson, of course. He became the first Met to win his debut start since Steven Matz in 2015, finishing with 5.2 innings, 7 hits, 2 ERs and 3 Ks. "This is one of the greatest days of my life," he said after the game. - J.D. Davis had a very Fenway night. First, he picked up [an outfield assist]( on a perfectly played ball off the Green Monster, then [he hit]( Pesky Pole for a home run. (He also [had this]( not-so-highlight.) Discouraging: - Pete Alonso's mini sophomore slump continued last night. He was 0-for-4 and is down to 2-for-20 through five games. Also: The Mets [signed]( Bruce Maxwell to a minor-league deal yesterday. He was the first baseball player to kneel for the national anthem, in 2017, and has been out of the league since 2018. ESPN's Howard Bryant [profiled]( Maxwell excellently earlier this month. On SNY.tv: [Takeaways from Tuesday's 8-3 win]( | [The Mets should stick with slumping Yoenis Cespedes at DH a while longer]( --------------------------------------------------------------- DAILY TRIVIA Before Sam Darnold, who was the last Jets QB drafted in the first round? 2. The latest on the Yankees-Marlins-Phillies-Orioles entanglement Geoff Burke/USA Today On Tuesday morning, news broke that four more Marlins had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to at least 15 Miami players. Around the same time, news also broke that the Yankees-Phillies game scheduled for 7 p.m. had been postponed. From there, a major reshuffle happened: - The Yankees, instead of heading home, rerouted yesterday to Baltimore for a quick two-game series against the Orioles starting tonight. (Both games start at 7:35 p.m.) - The Marlins have had their season postponed until Monday, Aug. 3. - The Phillies have had their season postponed a few days until Friday, when they'll open up a three-game series against the homeless Blue Jays, who will be the "home" team in Philadelphia's park. None of the unplayed games will be "canceled" yet. There is still hope they'll be played at some point. If MLB does cancel games, though, that won't impact the players' prorated salaries, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal [reported yesterday](. --------------------------------------------------------------- WAY-TOO-EARLY NL EAST STANDINGS 1. Marlins, 2-1 2. Mets, 3-2 3. Atlanta, 2-3 4. Phillies, 1-2 5. Nationals, 1-4 3. This will be Thibs' first true rebuild SNY graphic Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has had two previous head coaching jobs. Both were situations where he was expected to win and compete for the playoffs. In Chicago: - He took over a young playoff team with budding stars in Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, plus Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer, who was added that offseason in free agency. - Thibodeau responded by helping to turn Rose into the youngest NBA MVP in history (22 years old) and the Bulls into a 62-win team. In Minnesota: - He took over a team that looked to be emerging from a 12-year rebuild, with young maybe-stars in Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine. - After a down first year, he -- Thibodeau was also the GM -- traded for Jimmy Butler and won 47 games, qualifying the Timberwolves for the 2018 playoffs for the first time since 2004. In New York in 2020-21, there are maybe three-to-four players that will be at MSG for the long-term. They won't be expected to make the playoffs until 2021-22, at the earliest. Can he be a long-haul type coach? Jeff Van Gundy -- who, it should be noted, has never bad-mouthed another NBA coach -- [thinks so]( - "As they build that roster, he’s got to build their confidence, give them a plan that allows them to be put in the best position to be individually successful, and team-wise be more successful. - ... You’ve got to be demanding that these are things we can do right off the bat. And I do believe that Tom is imminently qualified." (Van Gundy also said, "He rebuilt Chicago. He rebuilt Minnesota. And now a hard task in rebuilding the Knick team." But -- as noted above -- to lump those three situations into the same category seems like a false equivalence.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Where have you seen this before? NBA/Twitter Remember when J.R. Smith used to make those types of shots for the Knicks? Remember when the Knicks were good? Remember when there wasn't a pandemic that forced the NBA to retreat to a Disney-themed bubble? --------------------------------------------------------------- 5. The New York Minute - [READ]( Adam Gase on the Jamal Adams trade: "We want guys that want to be here." - [READ]( Sam Darnold on year three: "I definitely have a lot more confidence." - [READ]( The Jets and Giants both have players who landed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. - [READ]( Patrick Mahomes, most famous for his love of the Mets, is now a minority owner of the Royals, the team announced Tuesday. - [SEE IT]( Frank Ntilikina graciously accepted the weirdest Twitter birthday wish of them all yesterday. --------------------------------------------------------------- Trivia answer: Mark Sanchez (2009). That's the buzzer, folks. Stay safe and enjoy your Wednesday. This email was sent by: SportsNet New York (SNY) 150 Greenwich st 50th floor New York, NY 10007 US [Unsubscribe]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Facebook](