Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m back after attending what was easily the best sporting event I’ve ever seen: the All-Ireland hurling final. I’m excited to tell you more about it in a story you’ll read in a couple of months.
In today’s SI:AM:
⛰️ Rockies end a drought
🏅 The USOPC’s Trump distraction
⚾ MLB’s best trade candidates
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Finally some good news for the Rockies
The Rockies are having a downright dismal season, but they had reason to smile on Wednesday.
With a 6–0 win over the Cardinals, the Rockies snapped their streak of 220 games without recording a shutout. Starter Tanner Gordon went six innings, allowing four hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Jimmy Herget relieved him and allowed just one hit in two innings of work before Tyler Kinley closed it out with a perfect ninth inning. On offense, six different hitters drove in each of Colorado’s runs and eight players had at least one hit.
The Rockies’ streak was the longest of MLB’s modern era (beginning in 1901), surpassing the run of 199 games without a shutout by the 1939–40 St. Louis Browns. The only two streaks longer than the Rockies’ were from baseball’s ancient history: 298 games by the 1897–99 Browns/Perfectos and 383 by the 1893–96 Washington Senators, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer had no idea about the streak.
“I did not know that,” Schaeffer said. “That’s a long time—220 games. I’m glad we shut them out today behind Gordon.”
There was more good news for the Rockies, too. After beating the Cardinals on Tuesday night and having also won two out of three against the Twins over the weekend, Colorado has now won consecutive series for the first time this year.
It’s still been a nightmare of a season for the Rockies, though. At 26–76, they have by far the worst record in the majors this season and are on pace for a mere 41 wins. There are at least some signs of life, however. They got off to an unfathomably terrible start to the season, going 9–49 through the end of May (a 25-win pace for a full season), but they’ve turned things around over the past two months. Since the beginning of June, Colorado is 18–27. That certainly isn’t good, but any improvement over the team’s historically awful start is a positive sign. The Rockies haven’t even been the worst team in the majors over that span. That distinction belongs to the Nationals, who are 13–32 since the start of June. The Braves (17–28) have also been worse.
The Rockies aren’t going anywhere this season, but it still must feel nice for their players to have glimmers of hope like this. And it’s not like Colorado has nothing to play for. The team would surely like to avoid the ignominious distinction of posting the worst regular-season record in MLB history. The record for most losses in the modern era that the White Sox set last season (121) is very much still in play.
“Extremely important,” Rockies catcher Austin Nola said of the team’s recent success. “One game at a time. And I think that’s the biggest thing, is sticking to the plan, being in the present. And then at the end of the day, we’re going to come out on top.”
The best of Sports Illustrated
- The USOPC’s decision to ban transgender women from Olympic sports is nothing but another distraction from the Trump administration, Michael Rosenberg writes.
- Pat Forde reports that the Big Ten is angling for a College Football Playoff format that would give the conference four bids and include a sort of play-in tournament for Big Ten contenders.
- Bryan Fischer is at ACC media days in Charlotte, where much of the talk is about the dawn of college football’s revenue sharing era and the role of NIL collectives.
- Will Laws and Nick Selbe ranked the best players who could be available at the MLB trade deadline.
- SI’s MMQB staff revisited the last quarter century of football to highlight their personal favorite games from the 2000s—moments that might not crack the “greatest of all time” lists but still carry lasting impact.
- Gilberto Manzano highlights the NFL’s most surprising one-off performances from the past 25 years.
- Chris Mannix writes that the Oklahoma City Thunder are seeking to design the next era of NBA super teams.
- SI’s College Football Preseason Top 25 continues with No. 22 USC, a program looking to rebound after a rocky Big Ten debut and counting on key changes to get back on track.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. The comical blunder that led to the Rangers’ winning run against the A’s.
4. DeWanna Bonner’s block on one end followed by a three on the other.
3. Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver’s diving save in the MLS All-Star Game.
2. Shohei Ohtani’s 37th homer of the season. That’s five straight games with a homer by Ohtani, tying a Dodgers franchise record.
1. An amazing home run robbery by Nationals center fielder Jacob Young.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | A Tiny Silver Lining for the Awful Rockies.