Charlie Brown football—Lucy snatches the football away just as Charlie Brown tries to kick it. Are the Cardinals leading us to think, again, that they’ve started to claw their way back to decency, only to snatch defeat from victory again?
The Cardinals got two strong pitching performances in their last games heading into the all-star break. Miles Mikolas went seven innings on Saturday and the relief corps closed out the White Sox 3-0. Steven Matz, making his first start since May 24 when his record fell to 0-7 and his ERA soared to 5.02, went into the sixth inning on Sunday and the Cardinals, struck out nine and gave up only two hits. He didn’t get the decision as the Cardinals scored the winning run in the 10th on a Paul DeJong double.
Are they doing it again to their fans—-showing a spark that increases desperate hoe that the season can still amount to something? Or will they return from the break and drift backwards again?
Admittedly, the White Sox were hardly top-not material in the weekend series. The Sox enter the break at 38-54. The Cardinals have the next few days to think about a lot of things that led to their 38-52 pre-break season.
The Royals also go into the break as winners—for only the 26th time this year. They’ve lost 65 times. But Sunday, they got three runs in the sixth to send the Cleveland Guardians into the break with a .500 record. Ryan Yarbrough, pitching for the Royals for the first time since he was hit in the face by a line drive May 7, gave up six hits and struck out five in six innings. He gave up the Guardians only run.
Tonight’s All-Star Game finds only two players from our two teams on the roster. Nolan Arenado will start at third base for the American League. Salvador Perez represents the Royals as a reserve. He’s hitting .246 for the season, fifteen points better than his team’s winning percentage.
Stars of tomorrow—maybe. Major League teams have spent the last couple of days picking the talent that might be season-savers for some teams in a few years.
In the first round, the Royals took high school catcher Blake Mitchell of Sinton, Texas, who has committed to LSU but is considered likely to withdraw the commitment.
The Cardinals went for Chase Davis, a power hitting outfielder whose 60 home runs in the last three years at the University of Arizona rank third in school history.
In Round two, the Royals picked pitcher Blake Wolters, the Player of the Year in Illinois this year, a righthander with a 99 mph fastball. He also was an all-state basketball player. He’s giving up his commitment to Arizona.
With a second pick in the first round, the Royals selected outfielder Carson Roccaforte from Louiana-Lafayette, a projected center fielder.
The Cardinals did not have a second round pick.
The Royals went for another high school player of the year in the third round—Hiro Wyatt of Staples Connecticut. The Cardinals went for outfielder Travis Honeyman of Boston College. Round four found the Royals taking Vanderbilt pitcher Hunter Owen and the Cardinals picking a Cardinal, pitcher Quin Mathews.
The Royals stayed at home in the fifth round, taking outfielder Spencer Nivens from Missouri State University. The Cardinals drafted Miami outfielder Zach Levenson.
One player from the University of Missouri was taken—pitcher Austin troesser by the Mets as a fourth-round compensation pick.
(Football)—The Kansas City Chiefs open their training camp at St. Joseph twelve days from today.
24/7 sports looked at the SEC teams and ranked them on the basis of returning starters—ranking the Missouri Tigers second or third with 13 (8 on defense) and commenting, “The Tigers expect to be elite on the defensive side of the football this season with several all-conference candidates returning at all levels. Missouri ranked fourth in the SEC in total defense last season and nearly knocked off top-ranked and unbeaten Georgia at home as a result.” Ahead of Missouri in the ranking is Texas A&M with 16 returning starters and Old Miss (also with thirteen),
Those of you who only want stick and ball sports can go find something else to do now because we’re going to talk a little bit about racing.
(NASCAR)—William Byron was in the right place at the right time in Atlanta. When the big rain came, and the red flag flew, he had the lead. Byron took the lead away from A. J. Allmendinger with 19 laps left in a race with a high intensity level because of the approaching storm.
Allmendinder was third with Daniel Suarez as the runner-up after starting 26th. Michael McDowell, squeezing ever last gas vapor out of his tank, was able to bring his car home fourth.
The win is the fourth of the year for Byron, the most of any Cup driver this season, and it moves him into the lead for the regular-season points championship. Byron drives the 24-car for Hendrick Motorsports, the number used by Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon. This year is the first time since 2014 that car 24 has won four races in a season.
Pole sitter Aric Almirola led the most laps in the race but dropped back to 18th in the final stage.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has on his sixth grand prix race in a row, and the 11th straight for Red Bull. The eleven straight wins ties the Formula 1 record for consecutive victories by a team, first achieved by McLaren with drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Verstappen was joined on the winner’s state at the Grand Prix of Britain by runnerup Lando Norris of McLaren and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
(INDYCAR)—Indycar races through the streets of Toronto this coming Sunday. Alex Palou will be looking for his fourth straight win.
Two drivers are hoping to extend streaks and also to achieve personal milestones in the race. Scott Dixon holds the series record of 18 straight seaosns with at least one win and 20 seasons with at least one victory. Will Power has 16 years with at least one win and 17 seasons overall ith at least one victory.
Dixon is one of only four drivers in INDYCAR history to record at least 100 podium finishes. Power is at 97 with eight races left this season to reach 100.
Dixon. With 133, ranks behind only Mario Andretti’s 144. A. J. Foyt had 119 and Michael Andretti retired with an even 100. A top-three finish at Toronto will tie Power with Al Unser Sr., at 98.