What's On Deck: Weekday Edition (July 20–23)

Introduction

Summer is in full swing and so is the sports calendar. Rolling into the week of July 20–23, 2026, there’s no shortage of action to track — whether you’re watching pitchers carve up lineups in a pennant race, monitoring the first snaps out of NFL training camp, or setting your calendar for Thursday’s opening round at the PGA Tour’s 3M Open.

Baseball is at its midseason peak. Football is shaking off its offseason sleep. Playoff races are tightening. And the storylines — the ones that will define the second half of the sports year — are just getting good.

Here’s everything you need to know before the week gets away from you.

Biggest Games This Week

MLB carries the full slate Monday through Thursday, and at this point in the season, every game carries pennant weight. Wild card spots are being carved out series by series, and no lead is safe.

Pittsburgh Pirates — Watch Paul Skenes. After losing nine consecutive decisions and watching his ERA balloon to 3.62, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner looked like himself again Sunday — seven strong innings, one run, a 7-1 Pirates win in Cleveland. Coming into the week at 9-8, the narrative around Skenes shifts from “is he okay?” to “is he back?” His next start this week could be the most important of his young career, with Pittsburgh sitting on the edge of a playoff conversation.

Los Angeles Dodgers continue to roll. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-6, 2.78 ERA) picked up the win in a Monday makeup game against the Yankees. Any time the Dodgers take the field this week, the rest of the NL feels the pressure. They remain the team to beat.

Tampa Bay Rays opened the week right — Sonny Gray improving to 12-1 with a 2.48 ERA in a win over Boston. If you haven’t been watching what Gray is doing in Tampa Bay, this week is the perfect time to start. More on that below.

MLS gets back to business on Wednesday, with FC Cincinnati hosting the Vancouver Whitecaps and LA Galaxy facing St. Louis City. Post-World Cup break MLS has a different energy — these teams are refreshed, the stakes are real, and the races for playoff position in both conferences are heating up.

Storylines You Need To Know

Sonny Gray Is Having a Historic Season and Nobody’s Talking About It.
12-1. 2.48 ERA. 101+ innings. AL-high 12 wins. In any other year, Sonny Gray would be the biggest story in baseball. But the Dodgers keep winning, Skenes keeps absorbing headlines, and somehow Tampa Bay’s ace is flying under the national radar while quietly building one of the best pitching seasons in the American League in recent memory. The Rays are in the wild card hunt because of him. Watch him before the rest of the country catches on.

NFL Training Camps Open This Week.
No games, but this is the moment the football calendar truly restarts — when starters and backups separate and off-season predictions either look smart or fall apart.

• Cleveland Browns: Shedeur Sanders vs. Deshaun Watson is the most compelling QB battle in the league. Sanders has been getting first-team reps. Watson is in the final year of his massive contract. The QB who opens camp ahead could define Cleveland’s next decade.
• New England Patriots: A.J. Brown arrived alongside Drake Maye. Early camp chemistry between these two is the most important thing happening in the AFC East right now, and nobody’s thrown a pass yet.
• Los Angeles Rams: Myles Garrett now anchors what may be the best defensive front in football. Camp will show whether the hype is real.
• Buffalo Bills: The Joe Brady era begins. Brady’s offensive mind paired with Josh Allen’s arm is one of the most intriguing coaching marriages in the league.

The Brandon Aiyuk Trade Machine Won’t Stop.
Reports continue linking Aiyuk to Washington. Jayden Daniels proved last season he can turn talented receivers into stars. The 49ers haven’t moved him yet — but camp holdouts have started over less. Watch the first days of 49ers camp closely.

Paul Skenes and the Pirates’ Redemption Window.
Pittsburgh took the series in Cleveland and looked like a team that believes in itself again. Skenes’ velocity has dipped from 98.2 to 96.9 mph — he says he’s not worried, but the Pirates need their ace at full capacity to hold a wild card spot. The next few starts will tell us everything.

Players To Watch

Sonny Gray — SP, Tampa Bay Rays: 12-1, 2.48 ERA, 101+ IP. The best pitcher in the American League right now, and it isn’t close.

Paul Skenes — SP, Pittsburgh Pirates: 9-8, 3.43 ERA. Coming off seven strong innings vs. Cleveland. Whether the redemption arc is real or a one-week blip is the biggest question in the NL wild card race.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto — SP, Los Angeles Dodgers: 10-6, 2.78 ERA. Every Dodgers start is an event. Yamamoto is leading one of the deepest rotations in baseball at his very best.

Shedeur Sanders — QB, Cleveland Browns: No game stats yet — just camp. First-team snaps tell the story of Cleveland’s future.

A.J. Brown — WR, New England Patriots: The new era of Patriots football starts this week. Brown’s early camp chemistry with Maye is the storyline to track in the AFC East.

Events Flying Under The Radar

PGA Tour: 3M Open Tees Off Thursday at TPC Twin Cities.
The 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota gets underway Thursday, July 23. The course plays firm and fast, punishes missed fairways, and first-round leaders often come from outside the top of the world rankings. Thursday afternoon tee times are worth tracking if you want to be ahead of the weekend narrative.

MLS Playoff Picture Tightening.
MLS returned from its World Cup break and the product on the field has been sharp. Wednesday’s fixtures carry genuine playoff positioning weight. The MVP race is quietly heating up too, though it rarely gets the national spotlight it deserves.

College Football Preseason Conversations Starting.
No NCAAF games yet, but the first AP Top 25 drops August 17. Ohio State and Oregon sit atop most early projections, with wide receiver Jeremiah Smith already being called the most exciting player in college football heading into fall. Now is the time to catch up before training camp storylines dominate.

The FadeThePublic Watch List

With Paul Skenes turning the corner, Sonny Gray pitching like a Hall of Famer, and the MLB playoff race tightening by the day — baseball is the story of this week. There’s only one hat for this moment. The Backwards K Baseball Snapback from FadeThePublic is the nod to the pitching purists — the ones who know that a line drive is fine, but watching a batter freeze on a called third strike is perfection. If you’re locked into the pennant race this week, this is the hat you’re wearing.

Closing Thoughts

This is one of those weeks where the sports calendar rewards the fans who show up. Baseball is in its most dramatic stretch of the season. Football is waking up and answering questions. Golf is teeing off. And somewhere in the summer heat of an NFL training camp, a quarterback battle is happening that could reshape a franchise for years.

Lock in the schedule. Pick your games. And don’t let the week slip by without at least one moment where you stop and say — yeah, this is why we watch.

See you on the other side of Thursday.

— FadeThePublic