The Winona Sports Network Daily Round-Up: 7-24

HOYLAKE, ENGLAND – JULY 23: Brian Harman of the United States poses for a photograph with the Claret Jug on the 18th green as he celebrates winning The 151st Open on Day Four of The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on July 23, 2023 in Hoylake, England. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

(KWMN)- The Winona Sports Network Daily Round-Up is the one place to get all the headlines from the sports world, and local sports world. An extension of the morning sports updates from “In the Know” with Jason Melilo on KNWO, every weekday morning at 7:00 a.m.

The long-awaited return! The Winona Sports Network Daily Round-Up is back, and here to stay, after a brief sabbatical. Let’s get started.

The Minnesota Twins? Is that really you? Can it be True?

The Twins since the All-Star break, and outside of a series to the Orioles, the month of July have been on a tear. In terms of just since the All-Star break, the team is 8-2, They’ve won two of their first three series (splitting a series with the Mariners was the other), they’ve batted at a .271 clip, have 18 homers in 10 games, and the likes of Max Kepler, Carlos Correa and Alex Kiriloff have been on fire from the plate. The offense has the third most hits in the league since the break, second most homers in the league and they lead the league in OPS. The real kicker is that these games are actually being won from the plate, and the pitching has been in a ‘bit’ of a rut. I say this because it’s a rut compared to the pre-all-star game stats this rotation has had. They still are top ten in the league in ERA and top three in strikeouts. On the year, they have the third best ERA in the league.

Can one find concern in the pitching? I really don’t think so, because you’d expect the pitching to quickly improve to their usual form. In turn, there’s worry this is just a hot streak from the plate, and that too will quickly deteriorate to its usual form as well. All the stats mentioned above provide a very small sample size of 10 games. 10 good games won’t solidify the division, they need this action from the plate from the final 61 games of the season. Maybe this type of productivity is asking too much, but if they can simply keep up half of this level of play offensively, it would be boatloads better than what we’ve seen from them in the first half–which really says a lot about how much they struggled.

The Twins will host the Mariners tonight from Target Field in game one of a three-game set. First pitch set for 6:40 p.m., we’ll have the coverage at 6:00 p.m. only on KWNO AM 1380 FM 98.7.

Football!!!!!!!

We are inching closer and closer, day by day, to the NFL returning and life couldn’t be better. Training camps are beginning across the league, few have already begun, most will be underway by Wednesday. Wednesday will be the day for both the Vikings and Packers to have the full team report to camp.

For the Vikings, rookies and a handful of vets are already partaking in training camp, the rest of the team is expected to be there come Wednesday. Rookie Wide Receiver Jordan Addison is expected to report as usual on Wednesday after he was cited for going 140-mph in a 55-mph zone. All reports are indicating that Addison won’t receive a suspension. Yet, you can expect Addison to have quite the long stay in Kevin O’Connell’s doghouse. Not to soften the seriousness of the situation, but Addison isn’t the first 21-year-old to be cited for driving too fast. It’s still worth mentioning how dangerous of a situation it was, and this should prove to be a learning lesson for the rookie.

In other NFL news, it’s been reported by multiple outlets that the top running backs (RB or RBs) around the league held a meeting about the RB market, or lack thereof. Austin Ekeler was the leading charge in organizing the zoom meeting that took place over the weekend. The reality of the situation is that these running backs can talk and discuss, but there’s not much they can do. Nick Chubb, one of the backs that joined the meeting said as much afterwards, “Right now it’s just talking. There’s nothing we can really do,” Chubb said to reporters at Cleveland Browns training camp on Sunday.

He’s absolutely right, what can they do? Hold out? I don’t think that ends in a win for the running backs, assuming if that’s the case, the teams just move on and try to replace them. The NFLPA President, J.C. Tretter, alluded to the idea of ’embellishing injuries.’ The RBs discussed this during the meeting, but according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, a source told him that would add to their problems, because doing something like that would increase the narrative that RBs are injury prone. So, is there any option? Well, it mostly relies on these players agents. Maybe the agents and players can come together and form some sort of alliance in terms of what type of contracts will be accepted and what specific terms they’ll include. That then in turn brings in the discussion of the Franchise Tag. Basically, it’s a complete cluster-you-know-what. Mike Florio added that there could be a successful avenue with this approach of agents and players colluding, for lack of a better term. There’s no rule that states agents and players can’t collude, the only issue I can think of is, owners can collude too, and I think they’re a liiiitle more powerful…

The Last Major of the Year Ends in a Runaway

Brian Harman became the 151st Open Champion over the weekend thanks to a near-perfect -13 final score. Harman totaled 106 putts on the weekend, which, according to Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf on Twitter) is the lowest number of putts for an Open Champion in the last 20 years. Harman also totaled six bogeys the whole weekend. That’s impressive in and of itself, add in the fact that he followed four of those six bogeys with a birdie and it’s spectacular.

The great thing about Harman winning–and before I can continue, I must say, he was driving me crazy with the amount of waggles of the club he has over the ball, so credit to me for being positive about this win–Is that he isn’t the prototype of today’s golfer. He’s 5’7, doesn’t hit the ball far, doesn’t wow you with his distance, he just is one heck of a golfer. He ranked 39th in the field in average distance of his driver, and just 16th in strokes gained off the tee (Both according to datagolf.com). One for the little guys! It’s also worth mentioning that the majority of the Brits in attendance absolutely did not want him to win, so much so they continuously shouted atrocities towards him up and down the course. He shoved ’em, didn’t bat an eye. America baby.

Harman becomes the third lefty to win the Open, joining Bob Charles and Phil Mickelson. Speaking of lefties, it was a big day for them on the PGA Tour on Sunday. In the other tournament being played, the Barracuda Championship, 21-year-old Akshay Bhati won his first pro event. Bhati is also a lefty. According to Justin Ray (Seriously check him out, he’s incredible), this marks the first time in PGA Tour history that two lefties have won on the same day.

Of course, I can’t talk about a Major without mentioning that it was not in fact won by Rory McIlroy, and his drought continues for a ninth year. Justin Ray (There he is again!) said on Twitter that since the first Masters was played in 1934, no player has ever had a nine-season span with 20+ top ten finishes at a Major without winning one. Rory has 19 top 20 finishes in the last eight years. Kyle Porter of CBS Sports added to the agony, saying that in 7 of Rory’s last 8 Majors, Rory has beaten 993 of 1,019 competitors, beating 97.4% of the field. Still, doesn’t have a win. It can’t be anything but a curse at this point…

Be sure to tune in to “In the Know with Jason Melilo” weekday mornings at 7:00 a.m. on KWNO AM 1380 FM 98.7.