This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Charles Curtis is filling in for Andy Nesbitt today.
Hey, baseball’s back on Friday!
After a solid All-Star break with Pete Alonso hitting almost every consistent pitch over the wall in the Home Run Derby and Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s dinger in the NL loss to the AL, it’s time to focus on the rest of the season. So let’s talk storylines, leading off with the most compelling of them all.
1. Can Shohei Ohtani keep this up?
Gosh I hope so. Ohtani the hitter leads the league in home runs and has a 3.49 ERA as a pitcher. As we’ve written repeatedly, he’s awesome, and you’ve seen me say in this space that he should be AL MVP even if the Angels stink.
2. Can Vlad Jr. keep this up?
Hey, did you notice that Guerrero Jr. leads the American League in batting average and RBI, and that he’s second behind Ohtani in RBI? Hmmmm. And he’s only 22 years old. WOW.
3. Who’s winning the NL East?
There are other compelling races around the league — for the record, I don’t see the surprising Giants keeping this up with the Dodgers and Padres right behind them and I think the Rays end up with the AL East crown — but this one’s the best of the lot. The Mets open up play three-and-a-half games ahead of the Phillies and four ahead of the Braves (who just lost Ronald Acuna Jr., ugh). The Nationals are right there too at six games out. This should be fun.
4. Are the Yankees really this bad?
Hey, they’re 46-43, and that feels like a miracle given how they’ve been playing. We’ll see.
5. How bad are the Diamondbacks going to be?
They’re 26-66. Welp.
6. Are the Cubs going to tear it all down?
I’d say yes. Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel will likely fetch high prices at the trade deadline. They just dealt Joc Pederson to the Braves, and you have to wonder if Anthony Rizzo gets traded (I wouldn’t if I were Chicago!).
7. Who else is getting traded?
Trevor Story? Nelson Cruz? Joey Gallo? It’s going to be a realllly interesting deadline.
Quick hits: Quite a day for Bryson DeChambeau … French Dispatch memes! … Get to know Jordan Chiles … and more.
— Bryson DeChambeau said his driver “sucks” after his first round at the British Open … and then a rep from Cobra blasted him.
— A photo of Bill Murray and The French Dispatch cast at Cannes is now a hilarious meme.
— Our latest Olympics profile: Jordan Chiles, the gymnast making her debut in Tokyo.
— Our Henry McKenna broke down the latest MCU supervillain from the Loki finale.
— Monty Williams delivered a powerful postgame speech after the Suns’ Game 4 loss.