— Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert has a plantar fascia injury in his right foot that put him in a walking boot; he expected to be ready for Week 1, but without a lot of practice time on the field.
I was wondering, so I looked it up: the plantar fascia is a band of tissue, called fascia, that connects your heel bone to the base of your toes. When an injury like Herbert’s happens, I’ve heard it described that it feels like you’re walking on a sheet of needles- very painful.
Chargers’ backup QB’s: Easton Stick, Max Duggan, Casey Bauman; Duggan is the only one of those three who played I-A college ball.
— Kansas City Chiefs paid K Harrison Butker $25.6M over four years, with $17.75M of that $$$ guaranteed- he is now the highest-paid kicker in the NFL.
— HBO’s Hard Knocks switches from the Giants’ off-season to the Chicago Bears training camp tonight; not sure how much we’ll see of Caleb Williams. Rams were on Hard Knocks when Jared Goff was a rookie- he wasn’t on much, I’m pretty sure there is an agreement that rookies aren’t supposed to be on the show very much, but we’ll see.
— Exhibition games begin in earnest Thursday, with Panthers-Patriots and Lions-Giants, then three more games on Friday,
— Forget to mention that Monday would’ve been Roman Gabriel’s 84th birthday; when I was a little kid and became a Rams fan, Gabriel was their QB, under coach George Allen.
From 1967-69, the Rams went 31-9-3; Gabriel was big and strong in an era when QB’s got hit a lot more than they do more. Tough guy, very good player.
— Team USA is a 27-point favorite over Brazil this afternoon, in the Elite 8 of the Olympic basketball competition. The other three games all have single-digit spreads.
— Famous birthdays, August 6th
Peter Bonerz, 85
Jerry Golsteyn, 70
Bob Horner, 67
David Robinson, 59
Vera Farmiga, 51
Charlie Whitehurst, 42
Wilmer Flores, 33
Kareem Hunt, 29
Hunter Greene, 26
Hall of Fame coach Marc Levy turned 99 over the weekend.
— Diamondbacks 7, Guardians 6 (10)
Eugenio Suarez had the game-winning hit for Arizona.
There were four lead changes in this game.
Diamondbacks are 22-9 in their last 31 games.
Arizona’s catcher, Gabriel Moreno, hurt his leg early on, appears headed to the IL.
— Royals’ SS Bobby Witt Jr is hitting .403 at home, with an OPS of 1.163.
He is hitting .284 on the road, with a .790 OPS.
— Francisco Lindor/Pete Alonso have played in every game for the Mets this year, all 112 of them; in the history of the Mets, only two players have played in 162 games:
Felix Millan, in 1975 and John Olerud, in 1999.
— Red Sox rookie Ceddanne Rafaela has played 64 games in the outfield this year, 62 at shortstop; he is the only player in the last 100 years to play 60+ games at both OF/SS in the same season. He’s hitting .250 with 15 stolen bases; he’s a good defender.
— A’s 5, White Sox 1
JP Sears allowed only three hits in 7 IP.
White Sox have lost 21 games in a row.
— Rangers 4, Astros 3 (10)
Josh Smith hit a dramatic, 2-out, walk-off homer in 10th inning.
From 7th inning on, Astros were 1-7 with 5 strikeouts with the bases loaded.
— Reds 10, Marlins 3
Elly De La Cruz hit two home runs, knocked in three runs,
Nick Martinez tossed scoreless IP on his 34th birthday.
