Sports
With M's in town, Rangers strive to put distance between AL West teams
Jul 7, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom (48) delivers a pitch to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-Imagn Images Big Game Nate delivered. And Wyatt Langford showed he’s one tough opponent.
Nathan Eovaldi allowed one run on three hits over seven innings for his 10th victory of the season, and Langford went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI as the Texas Rangers defeated the Seattle Mariners 7-1 Saturday night in Arlington, Texas.
The loss dropped the defending American League West champion Mariners into third place in the division. The first-place Rangers have won the first two games in the four-game series that will continue on Sunday afternoon when ace right-handers Logan Gilbert (8-6, 3.38 ERA) of Seattle and Jacob deGrom (7-6, 3.76) of Texas oppose each other for the third time this season.
Langford fouled back-to-back pitches off his lower body before delivering a run-scoring double in the second inning as the Rangers bolted to a 5-0 lead. He exited for a defensive replacement in the seventh. X-rays came back negative, and the Rangers hope to have him available for the final two games of the series.
“I think both (Eovaldi and Langford) stepped up in a big game tonight,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “I don’t know if it’s a statement. I would just say that they showed up in a big way in a big game in the middle of July. That’s the biggest takeaway for me, one of the best games I’ve seen Evo pitch this year, and Wyatt Langford … that just shows you what kind of player he is.
“The toughness — he was not coming out of that game, no matter what, no matter how hard I tried. It just kind of shows you what he’s made of.”
The Rangers improved to 6-2 against Seattle this season, including 5-0 at home. Texas has won both head-to-head clashes between Gilbert and deGrom this season.
“To me, (winning the first two games), I think it makes me hungry for more,” Eovaldi said of the current series. “We got the first two. We got deGrom going out there again [on Sunday]. It’s important to win the series. You don’t want to just split it, and I think right now we’ve got momentum in our favor. It’s just about going out there and continuing to do what we’ve been doing.”
It was the fourth straight defeat for the Mariners, who dropped 2 1/2 games behind Texas and were passed in the AL West standings by Houston.
Mariners third baseman J.P. Crawford, who missed the previous four games with a sore wrist, returned and went 2-for-3 with a run-scoring double.
“We’re a way better team than what we’ve been playing like this whole year,” Crawford said. “We all know that, but yeah, it’s definitely frustrating. But we can’t do anything about the past, so we’ve just got to keep working hard to get going and finish where we need to finish.”
Gilbert is coming off a 6-3 victory against visiting San Francisco last Sunday in a game in which he allowed three runs on four hits over six innings, with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
He’s 5-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 18 career starts against the Rangers, though he has dropped two decisions against them this season — 2-1 on April 6 in Arlington, Texas, and 5-0 on April 17 in Seattle. Gilbert allowed two earned runs in each of those games.
For Texas, deGrom lost 10-3 to the visiting Chicago White Sox in his most recent outing on Monday, giving up five runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings.
He’s 2-2 with a 2.95 ERA in nine career starts against Seattle. He didn’t get a decision in either of his previous starts against the Mariners this season. The 38-year-old deGrom allowed one run on one hit over five innings in the former and pitched four scoreless innings in the latter.
–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
