SI:AM | The Red Sox Are in Free Fall

Plus, a rugby player who got cut for vaping.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m an unabashed Yankees fan but I’ll do my best to keep this one professional.

In today’s SI:AM:

📉 The Red Sox’ awful July

⚓ Life after the headlines for Sarah Fuller

💉 Two more unvaccinated MLB stars

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It’s tough to be this bad

With yesterday’s loss to the Blue Jays, the Red Sox have completed a dramatic fall back to earth.

Boston’s record is at .500 for the first time since it was 27–27 on June 5. The Sox are now 48–48, just a half-game ahead of the last-place Orioles in the AL East.

After a lackluster first two months of the season, the Sox went 20–6 in June, including two seven-game winning streaks. That hot stretch put their season record at 43–33 at the end of the month, tied with the Blue Jays for the third-best record in the American League. FanGraphs put Boston’s odds of making the playoffs on that date at 80.7%.

But all that progress has been wiped out by a really lousy July. Boston is 5–15 this month with a preposterous -72 run differential (-54 in their last five games). The Sox have the third-worst record in the majors this month. Only the Angels (3–14) and Nationals (3–16) have been worse. They’ve fallen from second in the division to nearly the bottom. They’re three games behind the final wild card spot and their FanGraphs playoff odds have fallen to 26.9%.

This weekend’s series against the Blue Jays was an especially rough one for the Red Sox. It started with a 28–5 loss on Friday that featured the first inside-the-park grand slam since 2017. Then there was yesterday afternoon’s 8–4 loss, which also featured some notable defensive miscues.

In particular, the top of the fifth was a defensive disaster for Boston. It started when Danny Jansen hit a chopper to third with runners on first and third and one out. Third baseman Jeter Downs threw home to try to stop Matt Chapman from scoring but plunked Chapman in the back with the throw. The next batter, George Springer, grounded to third and Downs booted it as he tried to start a double play. Everybody was safe and the bases were loaded. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was the next batter. He hit a soft grounder between the mound and first base that was fielded cleanly by Bobby Dalbec, but pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura lost track of where the base was while covering first and Guerrero was safe, allowing another run to score.

“The brand of baseball we’re playing is awful,” manager Alex Cora said after the game. “We’re not catching the ball, we’re not putting good at-bats, we’re not throwing strikes. It’s bad. It’s really bad right now.”

One of Boston’s problems is obvious: injuries. But when you’re missing your top players, you can’t compound your issues by playing sloppy games like the ones against Toronto this weekend.

The Red Sox have 14 players on the injured list right now. Downs was only playing third because Rafael Devers, who leads the team in batting average, home runs and OPS, was placed on the IL on Saturday with a hamstring issue. Two more members of the starting lineup—Trevor Story and Kiké Hernández—are on the IL, as are a whole bunch of pitchers—Chris Sale, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill and James Paxton among them.

Boston will need to turn things around quickly if it hopes to get back in playoff position. One of the teams the Sox are chasing in the Wild Card race is the Guardians. They begin a four-game series tonight at Fenway. Then comes a three-game series against the NL Central-leading Brewers, followed by a trip to Houston for three against the Astros. That’s a tough stretch that could make or break Boston’s season.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Sarah Fuller, the former Vanderbilt soccer player who made history kicking for the school’s football team, opened up to Julie Kliegman about her mental health struggles:

At North Texas, Fuller sees a sport psychologist regularly. As she was struggling in the spring, her instinct was to see him less, not more, so she cut her sessions back to every other week. He eventually caught on and wanted to see her twice a week. The source of Fuller’s unhappiness took her a while to pinpoint, but for her close circle, the problem was obvious: For the first time in her life, soccer was not sparking joy.

Greg Bishop was in Eugene for Sydney McLaughlin’s record-setting 400-meter hurdles race. … This story, about when relievers rush in from the bullpen to join a brawl, is such a classic Emma Baccellieri story. … Bob Harig envisions a world in which the PGA Tour and LIV Golf can coexist.

Around the sports world

The Cardinals’ two best players—Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado—will miss the team’s series in Toronto because they’ve refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine. … Texans receiver John Metchie III is expected to miss his rookie season after being diagnosed with leukemia. … Basketball player Hansel Enmanuel, who had his left arm amputated when he was six, committed to play at Northwestern State. … Slava Medvedenko is selling his two NBA championship rings to raise money for his native Ukraine. … Mondo Duplantis broke his own world record in the pole vault. … A rugby player in Australia was cut by his team after he posted a video of himself vaping in the bathroom during a game.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. This oblivious fan at the Amundi Evian Championship just picking up Nelly Korda’s golf ball.

4. Klay Thompson casually chugging a beer at Dodger Stadium.

3. Victor Robles wearing a clown nose to taunt Madison Bumgarner.

2. Oneil Cruz’s long home run out of PNC Park.

1. Aaron Judge’s 37th home run.

SIQ

Which pitcher, born on this day in 1971, is the only person to play Division III baseball and later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Friday’s SIQ: Who joined Sue Bird on Friday as the only other WNBA player to appear in 500 regular season games?

Answer: Diana Taurasi, whose Phoenix Mercury hosted Bird’s Seattle Storm on Friday night in the milestone-setting game. When Bird played her 500th game, she broke the WNBA record for career games played held by DeLisha Milton-Jones, who retired in 2015 just shy of the milestone number.

Bird has now played 572 games, putting the record far out of reach—at least for the foreseeable future. Taurasi, who turned 40 last month, would have to play two injury-free seasons to catch her. Only three other active players—free agent Candice Dupree (494), Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner (414 games) and Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles (401)—have played at least 400 games.

But, with the WNBA schedule set to expand to 40 games next season, durable young players will eventually have a chance to dethrone the GOAT.

From the Vault: July 25, 1988

Andy Hayt/Sports Illustrated

Coming off the World Athletics Championships this weekend, this seems like a perfect time to feature this cover with Florence Griffith Joyner.

In 1988 at the U.S. Olympic trials, Griffith Joyner set a new world record in the 100m with a time of 10.49 seconds, smashing Evelyn Ashford’s previous mark of 10.76. She nearly broke the record earlier that day in the quarterfinals with a time of 10.60 but that time was determined to be wind-aided. The wind was a source of controversy in the record-setting race, too. The trackside anemometer recorded the wind at 0.0 m/s, which seemed implausible, Kenny Moore wrote:

How, when the gauge at the triple jump runway—which was but 30 feet away—was showing 4.3 meters per second, had the air on the adjacent track remained motionless? The official story was that it hadn’t. The wind was just blowing from the side, so no advantage was given [to] the runners.

Griffith Joyner’s record was ratified and has hardly been challenged since. Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah came closest to breaking it last August at 10.54.

The record was just the start of an excellent few months for Griffith Joyner. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, she won gold in the 100m and in the 4x100m relay. In the 200m, she set a world record in the semifinals (21.56 seconds) and then ran even faster in the final (21.34). Like her 100m record, the 200m record still stands today.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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