Expansions and annihilations

Subscribe to Scoreboard by clicking here! Read the archive here.

Hello on this Wednesday in sports, as we’re all hoping to have a better time today than the Seattle Mariners had in losing 22-0 (no, that’s not a typo) to the Milwaukee Brewers last night. We’ll dig into one of the most lopsided shutouts baseball has ever seen below — along with a feature on how the second-year Golden State Valkyries have become one of the fastest-rising expansion teams in WNBA history, ahead of tonight’s showdown with title-favorite Minnesota. Elsewhere, the White Sox and Cubs finish up an intra-city rivalry series that has already been epic so far, headlining the rest of today’s action:

The Main Events

All listed times are Eastern. 🚨= Elimination game

MLB:
⚾ Braves (52%) at Twins (48%) - 1:40 p.m. (MLB.tv)
⚾ White Sox (42%) at Cubs (58%) - 2:20 p.m. (Marquee / NBC Sports Chicago)
⚾ Yankees (54%) at Orioles (46%) - 6:35 p.m. (MLB Network / YES / MASN)
⚾ Championship check-in: Dodgers 33% to win World Series

WNBA:
🏀 Tempo (16%) at Mystics (84%) - 7:30 p.m. (WNBA League Pass)
🏀 Lynx (55%) at Valkyries (45%) - 10 p.m. (USA Network)
🏀 Championship check-in: Lynx 50% to win WNBA title

Soccer:
⚽ Champions League Playoff: Celtic F.C. (56%) vs. LASK (21%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ Champions League Playoff: N.E.C. Nijmegen (35%) vs. FK Bodø/Glimt (41%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ Champions League Playoff: ŠK Slovan Bratislava (51%) vs. NK Celje (23%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ NWSL: Racing Louisville FC (35%) at Seattle Reign FC (40%) - 6:30 p.m. (NWSL+)
⚽ MLS: Inter Miami CF (41%) at Philadelphia Union (38%) - 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV - MLS Season Pass)
⚽ MLS: Los Angeles FC (37%) at Colorado Rapids (35%) - 9:30 p.m. (Apple TV - MLS Season Pass)
⚽ EPL Championship check-in: Arsenal 45% to win the Premier League (New season starts 8/21)
⚽ MLS Championship check-in: Inter Miami 21% to win MLS Cup
⚽ NWSL Championship check-in: Gotham FC 31% to win

Football:
🏈 Super Bowl check-in: Rams 17% to win NFL championship
🏈 College Football Playoff check-in: Notre Dame and Ohio State 14% to win national title

Tennis:
🎾 Cincinnati Open - Men’s: Taylor Fritz 29% to win / Women’s: Aryna Sabalenka 33% to win

Golf:
⛳ FedEx Cup Playoffs: Scottie Scheffler 24% to win championship

Golden opportunity

As a general rule, expansion teams aren’t supposed to win right away. While there have been some exceptions — the Vegas Golden Knights’ runaway early success comes to mind — the initial seasons for a new franchise are usually about slowly (and painfully) building something for the future.

But don’t tell that to the Golden State Valkyries. Ahead of tonight’s blockbuster game hosting the WNBA title-favorite Minnesota Lynx (10 p.m. on USA Network), the Valkyries are second only to the Lynx in the standings with a 25-9 record in this, their second year of existence. We can never read too much into a single regular-season game, but the fact that Golden State even comes into this 1-versus-2 matchup at all, so early in their history, is notable.

Last year’s Valkyries were already on good historical footing. By going 23-21, their 52.3% winning percentage was second only to the 1998 Detroit Shock (17-13, 56.7%) for the highest expansion-year mark in WNBA history. (Excluding the league’s inaugural 1997 season, when technically every team was an expansion squad.) Along the way, Golden State had the WNBA’s fourth-best defense and established themselves as a particularly tough team to face as a visiting club — they went 14-8 at home in the Chase Center — under former Aces assistant coach Natalie Nakase, in her first year as a head coach.

They also found a gem in the expansion draft with Veronica Burton, a 5’9” guard who’d been criminally underused (playing just 12.7 minutes per game) by Connecticut the previous year. Burton immediately blossomed into one of the WNBA’s best two-way players, leading her new team in minutes, points, rebounds and assists as the Valkyries made the playoffs. Her success (and that of the Valks overall) proved the theory that, by not expanding for nearly two decades — the last previous WNBA expansion came in 2008 — the league had an enormous backlog of pent-up talent just looking for an opportunity.

And Golden State has made even more strides in their second season. Their defense remains strong — it’s the best in the WNBA by a fair margin according to points per 100 possessions — but their offense has improved from No. 9 to No. 7 in the league as well, giving them the league’s second-best net rating (+8.9) behind only Minnesota. Their 25-9 record — good for a 73.5% winning percentage — is easily the best in WNBA history for a team in its second season of play (again, excluding original WNBA squads).

Burton has improved even further — she deserves more MVP attention than she’s getting — and her supporting cast (led by Gabby Williams, Janelle Salaün and Kayla Thornton) is better, too. Now, we’ll see what all of that means against a team as great as Minnesota, who knocked GSV out of last year’s playoffs and has become as formidable as ever in 2026. The Lynx have lost just once since July 6 — but if Golden State can break through, it would announce their arrival as a title contender (they currently sit tied for fourth in the odds) more emphatically than anything they’ve done so far.

22 to nothing

There are one-sided beatdowns, and then there’s what happened in Tuesday’s Brewers-Mariners game. After cruising along with a 1-0 lead through four innings, Milwaukee put up 5 runs in the fifth, 5 more in the sixth, 2 in the seventh and NINE (!) in the eighth — punctuated by Seattle OF Julio Rodriguez forgetting how many outs there were and throwing the ball into the stands — to arrive at a stunning twenty-two to nothing scoreline. It tied the modern (since 1901) record for the most runs scored by the winning team in a shutout — Cleveland beat the Yankees 22-0 in 2004, as did Pittsburgh vs. the Cubs in 1975 — and was one of just 10 games in the entire history of baseball (which contains approximately a million games) where one team scored at least 22 runs and allowed zero.

What else we’re reading
Smart, short reads we liked while building today’s odds.

⚾

Next on deck…

Thursday (8/20)
⚾ MLB: Yankees at Orioles
🏀 WNBA: Fever at Wings
⚽ Copa Libertadores: Flamengo vs. Cruzeiro
⛳ Golf: FedEx Cup Playoffs: BMW Championship - Round 1
🏈 NFL preseason: 49ers at Chargers

Friday (8/21)
⚾ MLB: Braves at Brewers
🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Mystics
⚽ Premier League: Coventry City at Arsenal (Start of 2026-27 EPL season!!!)
⛳ Golf: FedEx Cup Playoffs: BMW Championship - Round 2
🏈 NFL preseason: Jets at Steelers

Saturday (8/22)
⚾ MLB: Braves at Brewers
🏀 WNBA: Fever at Liberty
⚽ Soccer: Hull City vs. Manchester United (EPL) / Inter Miami CF vs. Toronto FC (MLS)
⛳ Golf: FedEx Cup Playoffs: BMW Championship - Round 3
🏈 NFL preseason: Chiefs at Buccaneers
🎾 Tennis: Cincinnati Open - Men’s & Women’s Semifinals
⚾ Little League World Series: International & U.S. Bracket Play

🧠 Looking ahead

Stay tuned for more updates and in-depth analysis of these events and more as they unfold. We’ll be bringing you all the scores, highlights, and expert commentary.

Got a favorite team or sport you want us to cover more? Let us know!

All data current as of time of send.

— by Neil Paine

*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.