⚾️ Y! Sports AM: Learning how to lose

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⚾️ LEARNING HOW TO LOSE

(Tony Avelar/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)

With the Giants off to a 9-13 start, rookie manager Tony Vitello is finding his way through the ups and, perhaps more importantly, the downs of the MLB regular season. Because in this business, sometimes learning how to lose can be just as hard as figuring out how to win.

Jake Mintz, Yahoo Sports:

For the folks actually living it — players, staff, coaches — Major League Baseball is a binary endeavor. The sun rises. A game happens. You win or lose. Either way, the sun sets.

Yes, there can be silver linings in defeats or sour tastes after victories, but more often than not, one's happiness (or lack thereof) is defined by the result. That's the case for all professional sports, but MLB's near-daily regular-season schedule takes the dynamic to the extreme. There are 162 opportunities to revel in the ups or wallow in the downs.

Few professions operate this way, with such constant, tangible feedback. Each night, as heads hit pillows, the joys of that day's W or the frustrations of that day's L can often be the last thing to pass through a coach's or player's weary mind.

And so, the most reasonable approach becomes to smooth it all down, to avoid getting too high or too low, to focus instead on the bigger picture.

Over the years, this has turned into a well-worn, eye-roll-inducing cliché in the baseball world. But like many clichés, it is rooted in truth. Really, it's a survival mechanism, this performative even-keeled-ness. Ride the roller coaster at your own risk; better to flush it and move on.

(Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

New Giants manager Tony Vitello is learning this very crucial lesson on the job.

A college baseball lifer best known for turning the University of Tennessee into a Division I powerhouse, the 47-year-old is accustomed to winning at a preposterous rate.

In Knoxville, Vitello went 341-131 across eight seasons at the helm. That's a .722 clip, which, converted to a big-league campaign, would be a 117-45 season. He was even more prolific in the years preceding his surprise departure to San Francisco, running a 257-70 record over his final four seasons at Tennessee, good for a .785 winning percentage (127-35).

But things are different now. In part, that's because his 9-13 Giants have stumbled out of the gate, but it's mostly because MLB teams simply don't go 127-35. Vitello has never won more than 60 games or lost more than 27 in a single season. He will, barring enormous catastrophe, surpass both those marks this season.

For the top college programs, a typical regular season features 56 games. So each individual showdown quite literally means more within the context of an entire year. If MLB's regular season is about quality emerging over a large sample, SEC ball is about complete and total domination. Blink, and you've lost.

That means Vitello is used to acting aggressively and weaponizing his unshakable enthusiasm to animate his ballclub. But while that strategy worked wonders, won championships and turned him into a coaching icon, it's not easily replicable at the big-league level.

"To make a drastic move in college, when there's fewer games, might make sense," Vitello explained before a recent game. "With this, it's not necessarily do or die. We can maybe make this change, but let's not go crazy with this or that. It damn sure is a challenge."

The last word: "It's been very difficult [learning how to lose]," Vitello admitted when asked about this aspect of his transition. "It's something that I was warned about from some of my friends. You have to deal with it the right way. Otherwise it'll sink you."

🎓 STANFORD'S STUPENDOUS STREAK

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)

Sports are filled with stats that stretch the bounds of one's imagination. But even in that context, Stanford's latest achievement stands as one of the most remarkable feats in the history of college athletics.

50 in a row: The Cardinal — buoyed by the men's gymnastics title from this past weekend — have now won at least one NCAA team national championship in 50 consecutive academic years, a mind-boggling streak that (as you might imagine) is completely without peer.

• The second-longest streak belongs to D-III Kenyon, which won 31 consecutive titles in men's swimming and diving (1980-2010).
• The third-longest is a tie between USC (1959-78) and D-III Methodist (1993-2012), at 19 years each.

Consider this: The second-longest active national championship streak in Division I belongs to North Carolina, at seven consecutive academic years (2018-25). That's only 14% of the way to Stanford's.

By the numbers: Stanford has claimed 126 national championships during the streak, which began on Nov. 28, 1976, when the men's water polo team beat UCLA.

• 19 teams have contributed, including six who've won at least 10 titles: Women's tennis (20), men's tennis (15), men's gymnastics (11), men's water polo (11), women's swimming and diving (11) and women's water polo (10).
• The most titles the Cardinal have won in a year is six, doing so twice (1996-97 and 2018-19). And on three separate occasions, they won championships in two different sports on the very same day (1996, 2003, 2019).
• 14-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky (swimming titles in 2017 and 2018), seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe (tennis in 1978) and Hall of Famer Mike Mussina (baseball in 1988) are among the notable athletes that have left their mark on the streak.

Between the lines: Despite the school's wide-ranging athletic success, none of Stanford's titles during the streak came from the "big two" of football and men's basketball. In fact, the only national championship for either of those programs came in men's hoops in 1942.

Zoom out: It's not just the streak where Stanford has set itself apart. The Cardinal also have the most overall national championships, with 138. Fellow California institutions UCLA (126) and USC (115) are the only other schools with more than 100, while Texas (65) and Penn State (56) round out the top five in Division I.

Bottom line: "At most schools, a single national title at any point in time is a historic event," writes SI's Pat Forde. "At Stanford, it has been an annual happening since shortly after Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election. Nobody has ever done it better, for longer, with greater consistency."

🌎 THE WORLD IN PHOTOS

Anthony Edwards and the Wolves evened up the series against the Nuggets. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

🇺🇸 Denver, Colorado — Anthony Edwards (30 points) and the Timberwolves erased an early 19-point deficit to beat Jamal Murray (30 points) and the Nuggets, 119-114, and even the series before it heads to Minneapolis.

More NBA Playoffs: The Knicks blew a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter as C.J. McCollum (32 points) and the Hawks rallied for a series-tying 107-106 victory; The Cavaliers beat the Raptors, 115-105, to take a 2-0 series lead behind their "Big 3" of Donovan Mitchell, James Harden and Evan Mobley (83 combined points).

Kasperi Kapanen celebrates his game-winning goal. (Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

🇨🇦 Edmonton, Alberta — The Oilers beat the Ducks, 4-3, in their series opener behind two goals each from Kasperi Kapanen and Jason Dickinson. For the first time all season, Edmonton won a game without Connor McDavid recording a point.

More NHL Playoffs: The Hurricanes went up 2-0 on the Senators thanks to Jordan Martinook's 2OT game-winner; The Flyers blanked the Penguins, 3-0, to take a 2-0 lead in the Battle for Pennsylvania; The Stars beat the Wild, 4-2, to even the series.

Novak Djokovic poses for a photo with fans. (Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images for Laureus)

🇪🇸 Madrid, Spain — Some of the world's best athletes converged on Spain's capital on Monday for the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards, which celebrated the standout achievements and performances of the past year.

Among the winners: Carlos Alcaraz (Sportsman of the Year), Aryna Sabalenka (Sportswoman of the Year), Lamine Yamal (Young Sportsperson of the Year), Paris Saint-Germain (Team of the Year) and Lando Norris (Breakthrough of the Year).

💯 BIG NUMBERS

(Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

👟 2:01:52

Kenya's John Korir won his second straight Boston Marathon on Monday with a time of 2:01:52, shattering the previous course record by over a minute (2:03:02 by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011). He earned a cool $200,000 for his efforts — $150k for first and a $50k bonus for the record.

Repeat winners: Korir wasn't the only runner who went back-to-back on Monday. Fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi won the women's division with a time of 2:18:51 for her second straight victory, though it wasn't quite as fast as the course record she set last year (2:17:22).

⚽️ 10 games, 10 goals

Monaco striker Folarin Balogun — the USMNT's undeniable No. 1 option up top — is on an absolute heater right now, scoring 10 goals in his past 10 games for Monaco across all competitions. That includes eight straight Ligue 1 games with a goal, tied for the second longest streak in the league this century.

The flip side: Fellow USMNT star Christian Pulisic is in the midst of a worrying drought, as the AC Milan winger has gone 17 games without a goal for club and country in 2026.

(Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)

⚾️ 71.1% strikeout rate

Padres closer Mason Miller is the most dominant pitcher in baseball right now… and there's no close second. The flame-throwing righty has struck out 27 of the 38 batters (71.1%) he's faced in 2026, which is the highest strikeout rate by any pitcher in his first 11 appearances of a season since at least 1900. Seems good.

Scoreless streak: Miller (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8 saves) hasn't allowed a run since last August, a span of 32 2/3 innings. In that time — beginning with his third appearance after being acquired from the Athletics — he's faced 112 batters and allowed just six hits, all singles. He's struck out 69 and walked 11. It's completely ridiculous.

🎾 24 years later

Ben Shelton defeated Flavio Cobolli on Sunday to win the Munich ATP 500 title, becoming the first American man to win a clay-court event above the ATP 250 level since Andre Agassi in 2002.

What's next: "I have big ambitions for the clay courts," said Shelton, who's ranked No. 6 in the world after winning twice already this year. He'll be among the favorites at the upcoming Madrid and Rome Masters 1000 events, and could be a name to watch at next month's French Open.

📺 WATCHLIST: TUESDAY, APRIL 21

Caption

🏀 NBA Playoffs

Three home teams look to go up 2-0 tonight, with the Celtics hosting the 76ers in New York (7pm ET, Peacock), the Spurs hosting the Trail Blazers in San Antonio (8pm, NBC) and the Lakers hosting the Rockets in Los Angeles (10:30pm, NBC).

Beware the 0-2 hole: It might not seem that daunting to go down 0-2 in a seven-game series, but just 7.8% of NBA teams who've fallen into that hole have ever come back to win the series (28 of 359).

🏒 NHL Playoffs

There are four Game 2's in the NHL, with the visiting Canadiens up 1-0 at the Lightning (7pm, ESPN2) and the other three away teams down 1-0: Bruins at Sabres (7:30pm, ESPN); Mammoth at Golden Knights (9:30pm, ESPN2); Kings at Avalanche (10pm, ESPN).

So you're saying there's a chance? Going down 0-2 isn't quite as dire in the NHL, where teams have erased that deficit and come back to win the series 13.9% of the time (58 of 418).

More to watch:

• ⚾️ MLB: Yankees at Red Sox (6:45pm, TBS) … The first game of the season between the sport's biggest rivals.
• 🏒 PWHL: New York Sirens at Toronto Sceptres (7pm, Prime) … Two of the three teams fighting for the last playoff spot.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city. Get tickets now!

🏀 NBA TRIVIA

(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports)

Victor Wembanyama is the fourth Spur to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the most of any franchise.

Question: Can you name the other three Spurs who won DPOY?

Hint: 1986, 1992, 2015-2016.

Answer at the bottom.

🚫 FEWER SCREENS, BETTER SCENES

(The Masters)

Above: Patrons watch Rory McIlroy during the Masters. No cell phones permitted.

Below: Fans watch Scottie Scheffler during the RBC Heritage. Cell phones permitted.

(Screenshot via CBS)

Conclusion: More sporting events should ban cell phones.

Trivia answer: Alvin Robertson, David Robinson, Kawhi Leonard (2x)

Correction: Yesterday's story titled "Every NCAA winter champion" left out Wisconsin River Falls as the D-III women's ice hockey champs (their third straight title!). Our sincerest apologies to the Falcons.

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