Caitlin Clark Just Broke THIS Record During The WNBA Preseaso

Caitlin Clark Just Made WNBA History By Doing This During Preseason by filling more seats during the preseason than the indiana fever typically do during the regular season or playoffs.

Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever Debut Drew a Record Crowd

While the basketball player’s history-making Iowa Hawkeyes days may be behind her, the Caitlin Clark Effect is still in full swing.

On Thursday night, more than 13,000 people — many wearing jerseys with Clark’s number, 22, on them — filled the stands of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to see Clark play her first WNBA preseason game with the Indiana Fever.

The crowd went wild when Clark scored her first basket seven minutes before the first quarter ended, and the excitement only grew as she kept scoring.

“I don’t remember a crowd like that all last year,” Fever coach Christie Sides told reporters after her team beat the Atlanta Dream 83-80.

Indiana averaged just over 4,000 fans at every home game during the 2023 regular season, meaning Thursday’s crowd was almost three times larger, a preseason attendance record for the team.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Clark told reporters after the game. “Thirteen thousand at a preseason game is pretty unheard of.” She ended the game with 12 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, a performance she described as not “that effective.”

 According to CNN, Clark had a tough night shooting — making four of 12 baskets from the field and two of nine from deep — but she did find the positive in her performance, saying, “I thought more than anything, I did a really good job of passing the ball, finding my teammates.”

Clark was the WNBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick this year after breaking several records during her final season at the University of Iowa, including becoming the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer across men’s and women’s basketball.

The Fever will officially start its season against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday night before taking on the New York Liberty — another team that’s shown just how much people love women’s basketball — on May 16.

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BREAKING NEWS :PHILLIES LOOK TO CONTINUE RUN BARRAGE VS. GIANTS

Coming off their best offensive performance since last July, the Philadelphia Phillies will look to extend their recent hot streak and take the series Sunday night when they host the San Francisco Giants.

Winners of four straight and eight of their past nine games, the Phillies posted a 14-3 win over the scuffling Giants on Saturday in Game 2 of their four-game series, scoring their most runs since a 19-run game against the Washington Nationals on July 1, 2023. The Phillies also extended their modest lead over the second-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East to 1 1/2 games.

Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson’s team scored nine runs in the first two innings of Saturday’s game, a surge that followed a 70-minute rain delay. The stalled first-pitch time didn’t seem to hinder Phillies starter Ranger Suarez, who improved to 6-0 after six innings of three-run ball. Suarez’s ERA is just 1.72 through seven starts this year.

“We had some good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Thomson said. “We’re getting good pitching, timely hitting and getting different people to contribute every night. That’s the sign of a good team. We have to stay humble and just keep grinding out games.”

Thomson and the Phillies hope to see the pitching success continue on Sunday when veteran right-hander Taijuan Walker (1-0, 8.53 ERA) gets the start. The 31-year-old earned a win in his season debut against the San Diego Padres last Sunday despite allowing six earned runs over 6 1/3 innings. He is 3-3 with a 4.40 ERA in nine career starts against San Francisco.

The current winning streak is coming at a good time for the Phillies, who got word that shortstop Trea Turner is expected to miss six weeks with a hamstring injury suffered Friday.

“I’ve never really had anything like this,” Turner said. “Just a freak thing, I guess.”

Turner was enjoying a .343 batting average to go along with 10 stolen bases in the young season.

As for the Giants, life away from Oracle Park in San Francisco has proved to be unkind.

After dropping two of three in Boston and now a pair in Philadelphia, the team has been outscored 29-11 since Tuesday. The Giants are 6-12 on the road and will head to Colorado for three games after the series with the Phillies concludes Monday.

Saturday’s pitching performance certainly didn’t help things, as Giants starter Keaton Winn recorded just two outs before being pulled after 39 pitches and five earned runs.

“I would have liked to have (Winn) finish the first inning,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “But at 39 pitches, he gets into a pitch-count battle with the next guy, and it’s just too many.”

As the Giants hope for better luck on Sunday, right-hander Logan Webb (3-2, 2.98 ERA) will take the mound. After posting consecutive scoreless outings, Webb got through just 3 2/3 innings Monday, giving up four runs against the Red Sox in his most recent outing.

Webb, the 2023 National League Cy Young Award runner-up, has a 5.25 ERA in two career outings against the Phillies. He hasn’t recorded any decisions.

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BREAKING: SF GIANTS DIVISION RIVALS ACQUIRE TWO-TIME BATTING CHAMP IN TRADE WITH MARLINS

The NL West is not getting any easier for the SF Giants. On Friday, the San Diego Padres acquired two-time batting champion Luis Arráez in a five-player trade with the Miami Marlins.

The Marlins acquired a trio of prospects in Nathan Martorella, Dillon Head and Jakob Marsee as well as reliever Woo-Suk Go. Interestingly, Go signed a two-year deal with the Padres in the offseason and he has already been shipped away. Of course, another interesting tidbit is that he is Jung Hoo Lee’s brother-in-law.

Both Head and Marsee were considered some of the Padres’ better prospects, both typically appearing in the top 10 of the team’s rankings. This is the second big move by the club in the past six weeks. The first was acquiring Dylan Cease in a blockbuster trade with the Chicago White Sox.

You have to give Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller credit here, he is bold. His overall record will not show it as the team has slumped for much of his tenure, but he is not afraid of making the big moves when needed. In addition to this, he seemingly has continued finding ways to add attractive prospect talent through the draft and on the international market.

Arráez is coming off of two-straight seasons in which he won the batting title. In 2022, he won it in the AL by posting a .316 batting average with the Minnesota Twins. He was shipped to the Marlins in an offseason trade and tallied an outstanding .354 batting average last season.

In 2024, he is off to a quality start, slashing .299/.347/.372 (105 OPS+) with no home runs, five RBI, and 22 runs in 148 plate appearances. The lefty bat is a grinder and tough to strikeout as he has registered a 7.5 percent strikeout rate in his six-year career. With teams tolerating higher strikeout totals these days, he goes against the grain in that regard.

The question might be where he plays in the field. San Diego is already loaded with middle infielders. Ha-Seong Kim and Xander Bogaerts handle shortstop and second base, respectively. However, they have several other plays with experience up the middle including Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, and Fernando Tatis Jr.

Tatis Jr. has transitioned to the outfield in recent seasons, but the move could push an established veteran in Bogaerts to the DH role. The Padres have a 17-18 record on the year and are looking to position themselves in the playoff race (too soon?) with their latest addition.