— Major League Baseball is pushing with political-type commercials promoting the salary cap/salary floor that MLB wants to implement next year. Inflammatory stuff, as far as negotiations go this winter.
Am curious if the players’ union will respond with their own commercials.
— Diamondbacks 8, Cardinals 7 (10)
St Louis led 7-0 in the sixth inning.
Max Kepler had a walk-off double for Arizona.
Nolan Arenado homered, his 1,999th career hit.
— Red Sox 6, Rays 1
Boston has won 13 in a row, its best winning streak since 1948.
Sonny Gray allowed a run and five hits in his six IP.
Willson Contreras hit a 2-run homer; his OPS is .931.
— Orioles 5, Astros 2
Brandon Young allowed a run and five hits in his seven IP.
Orioles have won 7 in a row, their best winning streak since 2023.
Houston lost seven of its last nine games.
— AL East standings:
Rays —
Bronx 1.5 GB
Red Sox 6 GB
Orioles 8 GB
Blue Jays 10.5 GB
— Mariners 6, Giants 3
Luke Raley/Cole Young homered for Seattle.
Mariners are 50-50, half-game out of first in AL West.
Andres Munoz got his 17th save of the season.
— Mets 6, Phillies 1
Nolan McLean struck out 10 in scoreless IP.
Francisco Lindor homered, drove in three runs.
Mets are still 10 games out of a playoff spot.
— Brewers 3, Marlins 1
William Contreras hit a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 9th.
Marlins have now lost six games in a row.
Eury Perez allowed one hit, struck out nine in six scoreless IP.
— Famous birthdays, July 20th:
Tony Oliva, 88
James Harris, 79
Mike Lansford, 68
Reed Diamond, 59
Omar Epps, 53
Ray Allen, 51
Troy Smith, 42
Stephen Strasburg, 38
Keibert Ruiz, 28
— Shohei Ohtani (left knee) isn’t going to pitch for a while; he’s still going to DH, but it sounds like it might be mid-to-late August before he pitches again.
— Orioles signed P Kyle Bradish to a five-year, $90M contract extension; Bradish is 6-9, 3.61 in 19 starts so far this season.
— Cincinnati Reds signed P Chase Burns to a seven-year, $105M contract extension; Burns is 11-1, 2.54 in 18 starts so far this year.
— MLB announced (optimistically) their 2027 schedule; the A’s, who play home games in really nice weather (Sacramento) are opening next year (in March) in Pittsburgh, then the Bronx.
What imbecile thought this was a good idea? It will probably snow one or two of those days.
— NFL suspended the Arizona Cardinals’ director of college scouting for violating the league’s gambling policy; apparently he was giving out information on who the Cardinals were going to draft before the picks were made. He apparently also bet on NFL/college games last year.
— Last four years, Minnesota Vikings have had an unusual history with their QB’s:
2022– Kirk Cousins started all 17 games.
2023– Cousins started 8 games
Joshua Dobbs starter four games
Nick Mullens starter three games.
Jaren Hall started two games.
2024– Sam Darnold started 17 games, the Vikings went 14-3, then somehow they let him walk and Seattle won the Super Bow last year.
2025– JJ McCarthy started 10 games.
Carson Wentz started five games.
Max Brosmer started two games.
2026– Looks like either McCarthy or Kyler Murray will start this year.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers Wild Cards: Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals
AL: Rays, White Sox, Rangers Wild Cards: Bronx, Guardians, Red Sox
