It might not have led Sportscenter, but it’s leading the Bulletin. The Utah Jazz clinched the last remaining NBA playoff spot last night, defeating the Phoenix Suns 100-88 in Salt Lake City. The Jazz will enter the Western Conference playoffs as the 8-seed, pitting them against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs, as a 1-seed, were eliminated in the first round of last year’s playoffs by the Memphis Grizzlies. This year, the Spurs rested their older stars once it became clear that they were solidly in the playoffs. But San Antonio is running into a Utah team that is clicking at the right time and Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin has found a winning rotation. This could be one of the more compelling first round playoff matchups.

The eyes of Japan were squared in on Arlington, Texas last night. For only the 7^th time in Major League Baseball history, two Japanese-born starting pitchers were facing each other. The Texas Rangers sent rookie phenom Yu Darvish to the hill to face veteran Hiroki Kuroda and the New York Yankees.  And Darvish did not disappoint.

The rookie threw 8 1/3 shutout innings, striking out 10 Yankees, leading the Rangers to their 14^th win of the season. Darvish is now 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA and the Rangers possess the best record in baseball.

Sometimes, even the world’s best player has a down day.

In a game that FC Barcelona had to win by two goals (once their opponent, Chelsea, scored), Lionel Messi stepped up for a penalty kick that would have put his club up by two goals. Normally, the world’s best player would have left burn marks on the inside of the net. Instead, Messi clanked a shot off of the crossbar. The miss left Barcelona with a 2-1 advantage. And despite another match of complete dominance (Barcelona controlled over 80% of the ball possession in the match), Barcelona came up short (even allowing a goal late into extra time by Chelsea striker Fernando Torres). The loss means that Chelsea will play in the UEFA Champions League final in May. Their opponent will be decided today when Bayern Munich travels to Spain to play Real Madrid. Munich has the 1-goal aggregate advantage.

The Nats continued their winning ways last night and did it with another solid pitching performance, as they defeated the San Diego Padres 3-1. Starter Gio Gonzalez pitched 6 shutout innings, striking out 6 Padres hitters. The Nationals bullpen held the lead into the 9^th inning, when Davey Johnson handed the ball to Henry Rodriguez to close the game out. And Rodriguez did so with no hiccups, picking up his 5^th save.

However, good news also came with bad news, as 3B Ryan Zimmerman may be looking at a stint on the Disabled List with a shoulder injury.  For a team that is struggling to score runs, this is rather unfortunate. But, if they keep pitching as they have been, one run will do the job.

The Padres series continues today at 6:35 Eastern.  Jordan Zimmermann will face Joe Wieland. Zimmermann will look to continue a 21 inning scoreless streak for Nationals starters.

Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins. It’s a Game 7. That’s reason enough to watch. (7:30/NBC Sports Network)