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Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. Hats off to all the fans who turned out for this morning's playoff between Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler at the Travelers Championship. The whole affair wrapped up in roughly 15 minutes after Scheffler missed a short putt.
In today's SI:AM:
🇨🇦 Canada moves on
🏈 Breer's NFL Takeaways
⚾ MLB mock draft
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The World Cup is picking up steam
If you caught Canada's late victory over South Africa yesterday afternoon, there's plenty more excitement to come.
This week is shaping up to be arguably the finest stretch of the entire World Cup. Sure, the decisive matches will be spectacular, and the global diversity of the group stage was a delight, but this week delivers the ideal blend of high stakes and relentless action.
There will be 15 win-or-go-home matches between now and Friday (three per day). Unlike the group stage, a traditional powerhouse can't simply brush off a bad result against an underdog. Perhaps best of all for U.S. fans, draws are no longer an option. If the match is level after 90 minutes, teams will play an additional 30 minutes. If it remains tied after that, you'll get the nerve-shredding drama of a penalty shootout.
I'll admit I was wrong about the expanded World Cup format. I feared it would water down the group stage, but I underestimated the depth of quality teams in the field. Who could have predicted that DR Congo and Cabo Verde would reach the knockout rounds? I wouldn't expect either to win their next match (against England and Argentina, respectively), but their early runs served as a reminder that soccer can be wonderfully unpredictable. And this week offers 15 opportunities to witness something extraordinary.
A landmark WNBA game
Anyone who follows both international soccer and the WNBA faced a tough call yesterday at 3 p.m. ET: watch the Canada-South Africa knockout match or the Fire-Mystics game? Well, Portland and Washington ensured fans could catch the thrilling finales of both contests.
The Fire-Mystics game tied a WNBA record by requiring four overtime periods to decide a winner. It stretched nearly four hours before Washington claimed a 124–123 victory.
Portland's Carla Leite and Washington's Sonia Citron were the standout performers, each finishing with 32 points. Leite hit a wild, off-balance three off the backboard as the buzzer sounded at the end of regulation to force OT and nailed another deep three in the dying seconds of the first overtime to keep her team alive. Citron converted a clutch layup through traffic to level the score with 15 seconds remaining in the second overtime, and Portland's Bridget Carleton hit a smooth turnaround jumper to force the fourth OT. Citron's layup with 21.4 seconds left in the fourth overtime turned out to be the decisive basket.
The only other WNBA game to reach four overtimes was on July 3, 2001, when the Mystics defeated the Storm, 72–69. Comparing the scores of those two games is a compelling way to highlight the strides the WNBA has made since its early years. That 2001 game was tied at 50 after regulation, a total today's teams routinely surpass by halftime. No game has ended with both teams scoring fewer than 50 points since 2008.
That 2001 game was a grind. The two teams combined for just 10 points across the first three overtime periods. Yesterday's game, by contrast, was a genuine thriller played before a sold-out crowd. The league has traveled a remarkable distance in the past 25 years.
Red Sox sweep Yankees in dramatic fashion
The Red Sox' walk-off win over the Yankees last night will either stand as the highlight of a forgettable season or mark the beginning of a remarkable turnaround.
Boston rallied from behind to win in walk-off fashion in the 10th inning on Sunday Night Baseball and complete a four-game sweep of the rival Yankees for the first time since 2018.
New York, after being held hitless for more than seven innings by Sonny Gray, tied the game in the top of the ninth thanks to a throwing error by Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu. The Yankees pushed across two runs in the top of the 10th to take the lead, but Boston pounced on reliever Fernando Cruz in the bottom half and won on Jarren Duran's walk-off single.
The Red Sox' chances of salvaging their season remain slim. They sit in last place in the AL East at 36–46, 12 ½ games behind the first-place Rays and 4 ½ games out of the final wild-card spot. They haven't played significantly better since firing manager Alex Cora and five assistant coaches in late April. Unlike the Phillies, who dismissed their manager around the same time and have since gone on a tear, Boston is 26–29 under new skipper Chad Tracy.
Red Sox players and fans erupted in celebration after Duran's clutch hit—and rightfully so. A comeback victory to complete a four-game sweep against your fiercest rival is a massive moment, regardless of where the season stands. It's possible the sweep ignites something in this struggling club. Fangraphs still gives them a 17.8% chance of reaching the playoffs. But if Boston falls short of the postseason, Red Sox fans will still look back on 2026 as the year Jarren Duran walked off the Yankees on national television to seal a sweep.
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The best of Sports Illustrated
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. The Cubs' game-saving double play.
4. Some quick hands by the Valkyries' Kayla Thornton to create a fast break opportunity.
3. Junior Caminero's towering 463-foot blast. (Caminero has gone deep in each of his last four games and has seven home runs over his last six games.)
2. Brandon Nimmo's catch while crashing into the wall to record the final out of the Rangers' win over the Blue Jays. (Texas swept all four games in Toronto this weekend.)
1. Stephen Eustáquio's powerful strike for Canada's winning goal against South Africa.
Today's best reads
World Cup Best Bets and Goal Scorers Today (Predictions for Canada-South Africa)
South Africa vs. Canada Prediction, Odds, Best Prop Bet for World Cup Round of 32
Fire vs. Mystics Prediction, Odds, Best WNBA Prop Bet for Sunday, June 28
Jesse Marsch Had a Vision and Now Canada's World Cup Dream Reaches for the Stars
Scotland vs. Brazil—World Cup: Live Score and Match Stats
Dan Gartland writes Sports Illustrated's flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, and hosts the "Stadium Wonders" video series. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously contributed to Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a Fordham University graduate, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).