Sports
Twins, Royals on differing trajectories ahead of AL Central series
Jul 26, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins right fielder Kody Clemens (2) reacts after hitting a triple during the seventh inning against the Athletics at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images With a week until the trade deadline, the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins find themselves with different priorities ahead of the series opener of a three-game set on Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Entering Monday’s games, Minnesota sits a game behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final American League wild-card spot. The Twins, who have won four of their last five, also trail the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox by 3 1/2 games.
Minnesota is the first of six teams within 5 1/2 games of a wild-card position.
Hoping to bolster the Twins’ postseason chances, Taj Bradley (9-4, 3.69 ERA) will look to stamp a solid July. The 25-year-old is 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA in his last five starts.
Bradley threw seven innings of one-run, two-hit ball, striking out five and walking three on Thursday in a no-decision against Cleveland. The Twins won 3-1 in 12 innings.
Bradley has allowed two runs or fewer in 14 of his 20 starts this season, including six of his last seven. The right-hander is 2-1 with an 0.73 ERA in four career starts against the Royals. He faced them on April 2 and tossed six scoreless innings, allowing five hits while striking out three and walking one in a 5-1 win.
Offensively, Minnesota is coming off a much-needed scoring outburst. The highest-scoring team in the American League (511 runs) had scored three runs or fewer in three straight games before posting an 11-8 victory over the Athletics on Sunday.
Kody Clemens tripled twice in a three-hit effort for the Twins, who saw a seven-run lead reduced to two before holding on for their first series win of the second half of the regular season.
“Collectively as a group, we don’t panic,” Clemens said. “We don’t feel any panic there. It’s just how baseball goes. You’re not going to win them all. Sometimes, the losses come together, and that’s just how the game is. It’s a long season. You just have to keep going game by game.”
Kansas City, meanwhile, is sure to be a seller before Monday’s deadline. The Royals are 17 games below .500 and nine games out of the postseason picture.
In two post-All-Star break starts, Seth Lugo (4-6, 4.36 ERA) has made himself into an interesting trade candidate. The veteran right-hander allowed four combined earned runs in 13 innings in those two starts. Lugo allowed three runs on three hits across seven innings, striking out five and walking two in a 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
Lugo is one of several pieces that could be moved for a Kansas City team that’s on pace for its first losing season since 2023.
“We’ve got the deadline looming. There’s always talk about that, and it’s always kind of a thorn in the side this time of year,” Royals catcher Luke Maile said. “But guys want to show up and play for each other every day, and I think that’s the most important.”
Lugo, 36, is 1-3 with a 5.24 ERA in 10 career appearances (eight starts) against the Twins. He surrendered five runs on six hits in five innings in a no-decision against Minnesota on June 4. Kansas City won 8-6.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Sandy Alcántara Isn't Going Anywhere, Right? Marlins Face Trade Deadline Questions
On July 3, with the Miami Marlins emerging as surprise contenders in the NL East, owner Bruce Sherman appeared to remove ace Sandy Alcántara from the trade market by calling him a “franchise icon.”
Hey, that’s different.
A week later, when the Marlins reached 10 games over .500 for the first time in three years (and for just the third time since 2011), a story in The Athletic citing unnamed sources said Miami would be buyers before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Doubling down on the turnaround.
A week ago Thursday, with the All-Star break wrapping up, Sherman re-emerged to tell the Fish on First Podcast that Marlins president Peter Bendix “has a green light” to add to Miami’s roster in pursuit of winning the division.
Go Fish!
Since the Marlins fell hard, we’ll back of the Atlanta Braves in the division and all but erased from wild-card contention.
With the trading deadline days away, there’s still time for Sherman to say something else and have it blow up, but he must have learned his lesson by now. That’s too bad, because you know we were going to hear about the Home Run machine moving back inside the ballpark, re-installing the fish tank behind home plate, and hiring back the Clevelander Girls. Those dreams seem dead.
This is a fine kettle of Fish.
Fan reaction had been mixed to Sherman’s march of positivity. Some were excited to hear the team likely would be keeping a beloved figure like Alcántara, whose $21 million team option for 2027 isn’t expensive in Major League Baseball terms, but it is pretty pricey for the Marlins.
Other fans expressed little enthusiasm about the club being buyers at the deadline because the Marlins don’t have a long record of buying anything. It’s been a minute since the Giancarlo Stanton extension, or bringing in José Reyes and Mark Buehrle in free agency.
A few fans looked at the box scores amid Sherman’s boasts and noticed how the Fish were a-slip-slidin’ away in the standings.
While winning the division seems remote as ever, they’re still just 1 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card race. The problem there is, they’re tied with the Washington Nationals, and also would have to climb over the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks to make the postseason field.
Further, if you read between the lines of what Sherman said, and what Ken Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic, it’s not like the Marlins were going to cash in their mediocre farm system to maximize their chances in the playoffs. Bendix wants a sustainable contender for years to come, and the Marlins have almost no history of being one of those. They’re more famous for their meteoric World Series titles in 1997 and 2003, followed by a relatively quick and dirty teardown.
Do they seem on the verge of another championship? They’re middle of the road in hitting, and a little better than that with pitching, but their depth is being tested right now. Right-hander Max Meyer was finally having a breakout season, but recently went on the injured list because of a neck strain. Eury Pérez has bounced back from an injury in May, but like Meyer, has a short history of pitching a lot of innings.
Unless this losing streak reaches 13 or 14 (or longer, like a reverse Red Sox), the Fish should keep looking on the market for another starter and a third baseman, and try to compete. Hey, the last thing we heard from Sherman was that they’re buyers. Bendix should just act like nothing has changed.
And, if Meyer returns before the end of the season with Pérez and Alcántara, you could do a lot worse for a rotation in a postseason series. And it’s only July. Plenty of time to put back the fish tank. Maybe see what the ex-Clevelander Girls are up to. The Home Run machine, that’s probably a no-go.
But Sandy’s staying no matter what, right?
Sports
Colts WR Alec Pierce to start camp on PUP list
Jan 4, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce (14) catches a touchdown pass against the Houston Texans during the first half at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images The Indianapolis Colts placed wide receiver Alec Pierce and rookie linebacker CJ Allen on the physically unable to perform list Monday ahead of the start of training camp.
Pierce’s recovery from offseason ankle surgery is still ongoing. He signed a four-year, $114 million contract to stay in Indianapolis this offseason.
Pierce, 26, is coming off his fourth and most productive NFL season, as he gained 1,003 yards on just 47 catches and caught six touchdowns in 15 games (14 starts). He led the league for the second straight year in yards per reception (21.3).
Colts head coach Shane Steichen told ESPN over the weekend that the team isn’t interested in rushing Pierce back in July or August.
“We’ll get him ramped up during training camp,” Steichen told ESPN. “The goal is to be ready for Week 1.”
Players on the PUP list during training camp can be removed at any time. But after the preseason roster cutdown takes place, players who are moved to reserve/PUP must miss the first four games of the season.
Allen, 21, was selected in the second round (No. 53 overall) by the Colts out of Georgia. He is still recovering from a calf injury.
The Colts also waived running back Lincoln Pare with a non-football injury designation.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Why Stephen A. Smith Wants Weed Banned From Pro Sports Again
Stephen A. Smith source: Getty Images Stephen A. Smith is back in the news as it pertains to marijuana.
And this time, the popular sports talk personality isn’t famously telling athletes to “stay off the weed.”
For years, Smith would go viral, as athletes across professional sports like Josh Gordon, D’Angelo Russell, Martavis Bryant and Aldon Smith put millions of dollars at risk by violating their sport’s policy against consuming marijuana.
Smith would emphasize the word weed, and it became sort of a meme in pop culture, especially surrounding athletes using marijuana.
But in a recent appearance on “The Culture Table Podcast,” Smith said he views marijauna as a performance-enhancing drug, and the substance should be banned from professional sports.
“I consider weed a performance-enhancing drug,” Smith said. “The level of discipline, night in, night out, based on committing yourself to whatever, and nerves. You can be a bada-s player, but the moment you get fidgety, weed helps subside that. Calms the nerves. No, those nerves are a part of it. It ain’t just your athletic ability, it’s your poise under pressure, it’s your nerves.”
“So, to me, if you are using a drug that helps you calm your nerves, and to elevate your poise, that’s a performance-enhancer. You are immune to the pressure,” he emphasized. “I’ve seen the greatest walk up in pressure moments, and fold. In any sport, we’ve seen it. So, if weed is something that helps that, that’s a performance-enhancer. It shouldn’t be allowed.”
Smith says pressure is a part of the game
Of course, professional athletes deal with an incredible amount of pressure.
Aside from playing in stadiums with hundreds of thousands of people, these games are all broadcasted on some television platform. One error could be magnified due to social media’s role in how we consume sports, adding to the pressures that an athlete could face.
The NBA stopped caring about weed in 2023. They removed it from their banned substance list, allowing players to consume it freely.
But Smith views marijuana’s calming effect as a performance enhancing mechanism for professional athletes. The future presidential candidate doesn’t have a problem with pro athletes seeking sports therapists to deal with pressure, but marijuana usage is where he draws the line.
Ask any marijuana user. Doesn’t have to be a professional athlete.
Is weed a performance enhancing drug?
They’d tell you no way.
Sure, it can calm some nerves. Get you over some jitters. But in an NBA game? You certainly don’t want to be under the influence of marijuana. Because it’s the opposite of a performance enhancing drug.
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Sandy Alcántara Isn't Going Anywhere, Right? Marlins Face Trade Deadline Questions
