RJ Hamster
SI:AM | Do You Realize How Bad Cal Raleigh…
DAN GARTLAND
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. If you’re experiencing soccer withdrawal, read all the way to the end for some great drama on the pitch.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏆 14 teams with Super Bowl hopes
Big Dumper’s big issues
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Late last night, a post on Bluesky from the baseball writer Sam Miller caught my eye.
“Whatever day this year that you remember thinking “man, what happened to Cal Raleigh, he’s been terrible”—since that day, he’s been worse,” Miller wrote.
Indeed, it had been a while since I’d paid any attention to Raleigh. I wrote in the May 12 edition of this newsletter about how Raleigh was hitless in his last 36 at-bats, with a .157 batting average and 54 strikeouts in his first 39 games of the season. Hours after that newsletter hit your inbox, Raleigh snapped the streak with a 2-for-4 night. The following night, he exited the game early and was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain. When he returned to the lineup on June 16, the World Cup was in full swing, the NBA draft was on the horizon and other players were playing good baseball. I had more important things to pay attention to than the Mariners’ slumping catcher.
But Miller is right: Raleigh has been horrendous no matter how you slice his season. He’s been so bad, in fact, that the Reds chose to intentionally walk the hitter in front of him to load the bases in the seventh inning of last night’s game in Seattle. Raleigh made them pay with a grand slam, capping a six-run inning as the Mariners went on to win, 8–0. CONTINUE DAN’S COLUMN ON SI
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👀 The top five …
… things I saw last night (and tonight in Australia):
5. Red Sox shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng’s catch for the final out of Boston’s 14th straight win.
4. A great diving catch in center by Pete Crow-Armstrong.
3. Jo Adell’s reaction to winning the game for the Angels by getting drilled with a fastball.
2. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s go-ahead home run for the Yankees in the third inning that proved to be the game-winner. Chisholm also had a three-run homer in the first after hitting a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth the night before.
1. Daniel Lazarevski’s header late in stoppage time as semi-pro club Preston Lions beat Aussie powerhouse Newcastle Jets in the Australia Cup. Newcastle is the defending Cup winner and won Australia’s domestic league last season.
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