A Grip on Sports: If you want to root for a Seattle pro team on a roll, maybe it’s time to start paying attention to the Sounders

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Remember all the way back to June, when the Mariners were the hot team out West? Yep, those were the days. Don’t fret, though. Seattle has the hottest team in the West still. It’s just in a different pro sport.

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• In case you missed it, and we’re sure many of you did, wrapped up as you might have been in politics or Caitlin Clark or just trying to survive the heat, the Sounders played again Wednesday night. And won again.

They are the hottest team in the MLS and have moved up the standings with alacrity, going from out of the postseason to within a point of fourth in the Western Conference in a month.  

Seattle has won its last five MLS matches. It is 12-2-4 in its last 18, including U.S. Open Cup play. And optimism, a sentiment in short supply around the Northwest these days, seems to be creeping back in. Not completely, mind you. Not with the recent schedule. Yes, the Sounders have not lost since June 8, when they lost 2-1 at woeful Sporting Kansas City. Since then, they have played seven MLS matches. They are 6-0-1 in those. Good for them.

But, in that time, they have played just once against a club that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. And they posted a draw in that match against Houston. Everyone else they’ve played? Outside, looking in.

In other words, the recent run has been built on the bones of crumbling teams.

That ends Saturday night in Seattle. LAFC comes to town. Until last night’s draw against Salt Lake, LAFC was tied for first in the West. With 44 points, it is still in second, seven ahead of Seattle.

As our resident soccer expert said last night, “It will be nice to see if (the Sounders) are actually a top, functional team or a bit better than the mediocre teams they just ran over.”

• We logged into our Comcast account this morning with one purpose. To watch the British Open – or, as those in across the pond call it, The Open – golf. For some reason we can’t determine, we can’t. At least not on our computer, which is all we want to use while the other person in our traveling party enjoys her sleep.

While we were doing the same overnight, Justin Thomas was doing what he’s done recently. Play well in a tournament’s first round. Last weekend, Thomas seemed to have broken out of his year-long slump, firing a 62 on the Scottish Open’s opening day.

That was fool’s gold, though, as Thomas odd woes continued. He followed up with three rounds in the 70s and finished 14 strokes behind winner Robert MacIntyre.

Which makes us wonder. Has Thomas, who has won 15 times on the PGA Tour, including two PGA Championships, found what he’s been missing since his last win, the PGA at Southern Hills in 2022? Or is his game still a little off and the first-round 68 (-3) will fade in memory over the weekend?

We can’t wait to find out. Especially if we can figure out how to watch.

• One guy we wished we could have watched, if only in a “what-happened” sort of way? Rory McIlroy. After leaving another major title on the Pinehurst greens last month, McIlroy opened his quest to snap a decade-long streak of failing in the majors with a 78 today. That’s one of his worst British Open scores. Ever. Oh, and the guy who leapfrogged McIlroy at the U.S. Open? Bryson DeChambeau was 5-over today as well.

• Finally, if you wonder why the Pac-12 is gone or why schools such as Stanford and Oregon will be playing conference contests in the Eastern Time Zone, there may be a little window opening into the power behind the conference thrones.

By threatening a lawsuit, the Florida attorney general’s office has forced the ACC to open its vault a bit and share the agreements it has with its television partners. The paperwork will be redacted, probably heavily, to protect “trade secrets,” but the public will finally get a peek behind the curtain.

It’s all part of the Florida AG’s attempt to back Florida State’s desire to leave the ACC for what it hopes is greener pastures. The power play, along with another by Clemson, has resulted in dueling lawsuits, accusations of financial malfeasance and worries about another tidal wave hitting college athletics.

A few thousand pages dominated by black lines aren’t going to move the needle too much but it is indicative of the cutthroat nature of college sports’ new world.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, this NIL story gave us the jitters. Not only is it the Wild West, it may only get worse as more changes come into the mix. … There are certain statistics that define the difference between winning and losing for Washington’s football team. … The Oregonian’s numbers countdown continues, with No. 45 for Oregon State and Oregon. … Colorado has rebuilt its offensive line once more. … Kyle Whittingham’s peers are now Big 12 coaches, not Pac-12 ones. … What does a successful season look like for Arizona State? … Arizona prioritized a Texas receiver and got him. … A former Arizona basketball player played for Serbia against the U.S. Olympic team Wednesday. And another Wildcat is still playing in an international tournament. … In baseball, Oregon State is developing new talent to keep its run of success going.

EWU: If you make a list of great Eagle quarterbacks, you could make an argument for putting Erik Meyer atop the list. And not just because of his statistics, as impressive as they were. Meyer also was the first Eagle quarterback standout of the 21st Century, leading the way as Eastern has produced many over the past couple decades. And now he’ll be the first EWU quarterback inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame. Dave Cook has more in this story previewing Saturday’s ceremony in Spokane. … The Eagles open their 2024 training camp July 30. That news leads off the S-R’s most recent local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, did Weber State’s Dillon Jones fall into the perfect situation with Oklahoma City? … The Wildcats have promoted a basketball assistant. … Montana and Montana State each had four players named to a recent preseason All-America football team. … Dan Hawkins has joined his son Cody’s staff at Idaho State.  

Indians: Dave Nichols takes a walk down Memory Lane with former Spokane pitcher Jason Fingers, covering not only his time with the Indians early in the century, but also his dad, former Oakland star Rollie, and why Jason has returned to the area to live. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, Hillsboro got the OK to begin building a new ballpark which will meet MLB standards.

Seahawks: Bob Condotta’s mailbag is on the S-R website today, so we’ve linked it once more.

Sonics: Yes, there is more talk on the franchise’s possible return.

Mariners: Andrés Muñoz is respected by his opponents. There is little better than that.

Sounders: Seattle is not only the hottest team, it may have moved into title contention after last night’s 2-0 victory.

Olympics: The U.S. Paralympic Team Trials are this weekend in Florida. There will be many athletes with Spokane ties in the mix. Madison McCord covers all of them today in this story. … We linked this before, but the Jerry Brewer column on the U.S. men’s basketball team appeared in the S-R this morning.

Golf: As the tournament began, there was a bit of discussion about Tiger Woods and his chances. There was actually a back-and-forth between Woods and Colin Montgomery.

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• In case you were wondering, we did get the USA broadcast to run on our Mac. We just had to do a couple work-arounds. The video is running in the upper-right-hand corner of our screen as we type. Until later …