Good morning, this is Dan Gartland. The Cardinals are leaving the Brewers behind.
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🏈 Why the NFLPA president took early retirement
🏟️ Bowl Game Projection, Vol. 1
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Albert Pujols and the Cardinals are in tears
The Cardinals lost to the Cubs last night. Still one of the hottest teams in baseball.
St. Louis is 21–9 since the All-Star break, including 17–5 this month. On August 2nd, the Cards trailed the Brewers by two games at NL Central. Now they have him leading by 5.5 games. So how are they doing it? It’s easy: They are hitting and pitching much better than they have all season.
As a team, the Cardinals have an August OPS of .876. This puts him more than 100 points ahead of his second-best month (May’s .754). They averaged his 5.9 runs per game (better than his 5.2 in May). This month, the Cardinals lead the majors in home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.
At the same time, they are also pitching Light Out. Opponents are slugging just .331 against St. Louis this month, the lowest of any month this season. His ERA on the card this month is 3.51, higher than the 3.22 he notoriously allowed in the low offensive month of April, but about half an improvement over last month.
If you want to name the two leading players, that’s easy.Among the pitchers, the time person Jordan MontgomeryCard acquired him from the Yankees at trade deadline in exchange for injured outfielder Harrison Bader. Since then, he has been practically invincible. After pitching for a respectable 3.69 ERA in 21 starts in New York, He is only allowed one run in four starts with his new teamOn Monday, he needed only 99 pitches to throw a shutout.
But the man everyone has the most attention on is Albert Pujols— and for good reason. He’s hitting just like he did ten years before he left St. Louis. The Cardinals signed Pujols for their final season, but no one expected him to play as well. Pujols has not been a league-average hitter in OPS+ since his 2016. When the card signed him, he was afraid he would struggle. The first half of the season looked like that. In June, he had only two hits in 42 plate appearances and recorded a .158/.214/.211 batting average slash his line.
But since the All-Star break, especially since the calendar changed to August, he’s turned things around dramatically. His slashline this month is ridiculous .432/.490/.977and seven of his 19 hits were home runs.
It’s the home run rampage that really makes the headlines. The 700-homer milestone, previously thought to be unattainable, now holds a distinct possibility. He sits at 693 with his 38 games left. Hitting seven home runs in six weeks doesn’t seem impossible, especially given the way he’s been swinging the bat these days, especially against lefties. He hit a southpaw this season, hitting 10 of his 14 home runs, batting .
The Cardinals face some lousy competition along the way. Only 13 of the last 38 games have been against teams with playoff hopes, 21 of which are facing the three worst teams in the National League (Reds, Pirates and Nationals). This is plenty of opportunities for Pujols to hit a home run and the Cardinals to extend their lead in the division with an easy win.
the best sports illustrated
On today’s Daily Cover, Alex Prewitt spoke with longtime Browns center and current NFLPA president JC Tretter. He believes his role in the Union is preventing teams from signing him.
Released by the Browns in mid-March, four days after being elected president of the NFL Players Association, Tretter hit free agency, intending to return for his 10th campaign before retiring. The Panthers topped his “shortlist” of dream destinations. Because he has had a longstanding relationship with his offensive line his coach James his Campen. Cowboys, “because I think that environment would be fun if they played last year”; because he rooted for them as a child and “wanted to put a bow on my childhood”. However, according to Tretter, none of his seven teams that his camp has contacted have rewarded his interest. “Minnesota didn’t return our calls,” he says.
Pat Ford visited the rural Indiana retreat center that Luke Fickel transforms into a training camp in Cincinnati each summer. … Will Lowes bids a not-so-favorite farewell to Arte Moreno, whose ownership of the Angels was almost devastating. Kudos to Dawson… Richard Johnson predicted the matchups for all 41 College Football Bowl games this season. … It looks like huge changes are coming to his PGA Tour, writes Bob Harig.
Around the world of sports
Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren is expected to miss the entire season after picking up a leg injury in a Pro-Am game in Seattle. After that, I will be absent for a while. …Rich Rodriguez, who is now coaching at FCS Jacksonville State University, accused his opening game opponent of conducting espionage. …the Dolphins are reportedly looking to buy the starting tight end in the trade market. … The Lakers have reportedly traded Patrick Beverley for him to team with former foe Russell Westbrook. … MLB teams will face all 29 other teams for the first time in 2023.
Top five…
… baseball moments from yesterday:
Five. home run robbery in the Little League World Series.
Four. Pitcher Aristides Aquino nail the runner at home.
3. Matt Chapman backhand flip start double play.
2. Pujols handing over the jersey To the young fans behind the dugout.
1. O’Neill Cruz breaks 122.4 mph once ( Maximum speed of hitting ball since Statcast was introduced in 2015)
SIQ
Approximately how long did it take Matthew Webb to swim across the English Channel unaided on this day in 1875 when he was first observed?
- 14 hours
- 18 hours
- 22 hours
- 26 hours
Yesterday’s SIQ: Who gave the United States Olympic team the most points in the 2008 men’s basketball gold medal game?
answer: Dwayne Wade. He dropped a game-high 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Kobe Bryant (20 points), LeBron James (14 points), Chris Paul (13 points) and Carmelo Anthony (13 points) are other US players with double-digit scoring. Spain has Rudy Fernandez with 22 points and Pau Gasol with 21 points.
Wade was the Redeem Team’s top scorer during the tournament, averaging 16 points per game. A far cry from his limited role on the disappointing 2004 team.
You don’t need to look at the difference between top scorers Wade and Allen Iverson to understand why the Beijing team is so much better than the Athens team. The AI was very inefficient, averaging 13.8 points on 37.8% shooting, but he played more minutes per game (27.1 minutes) than anyone else. Wade, on the other hand, was as efficient a scorer as you can get. How often is the sixth man the team’s leading scorer?
“When Dwyane Wade said he was going to come off the bench and be the top scorer off the bench, Chris Paul came off the bench for that team,” Jim Boheim, who was an assistant during the Olympics, said in a radio interview. .this week. “The players didn’t care who scored or how many they scored. They just wanted to win.”
From Vault: August 25, 2014
Al Tielemans/Sports Illustrated
Mo’ne Davis made headlines at the 2014 Little League World Series. She ended up on the cover of the magazine after shutting out her two-hit shutout against the Nashville men’s team at Williamsport. sports illustratedin a story written by Albert Chen.
The cover photo is one of my favorites in recent years. This was filmed by Al Thielemans, who told Wilton Jackson in a recent edition of SI’s. full frame A newsletter about the experience of shooting her at Williamsport.
“She always thought of herself as another child, and that’s what she’s doing here,” Tielemans said. “When children asked to take pictures with her, she would take pictures silly like a child. I thought. There was no doubt that she was the center of attention, but she didn’t ask for it.”
Davis, now 21, is in his senior year at Hampton College in Virginia and plays infield for the softball team. She was her fourth on the team last season, scoring 16 her runs. When she decided to join the Hamptons in 2019, she told Shemmer Woods why she historically gravitated toward black organizations.
As for what brought her to the Hamptons, a historically black college, Davis wanted to go to a school that was majority, not minority, after attending a predominantly white school from sophomore year. . She’s like a teenager in some ways, but she can stay up all night and sleep all day on her family’s couch (her bed is covered with laundry). She just got her driver’s license. She snacks questionably (cream her cheese-dipped Doritos are a favorite). “I think more people will come to HBCU,” she says.
She majored in communications and hopes to host her own sports interview show after graduation.
See more SI’s archives and historical images can be found at vault.si.com.
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