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What Had Happened Was: 8/30/17

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    Miami Marlins v Washington Nationals
    Giancarlo Stanton #27 of the Miami Marlins hits a solo home run in the first inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on August 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. Patrick McDermott/Getty Images
    Rhiannon Walker By @InstantRHIplay

    Game. Blouses.

    • Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is now only two home runs away from tying the major league record for most homers in a calendar month. Thanks to a deep shot he sent into left field against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, Stanton is now tied with the Detroit Tigers’ Rudy York (1937) for most long balls in the month of August. Stanton, with his 51st home run of the season, is now chasing Sammy Sosa’s record of 20 home runs in a single month, set in June 1998.
    • Naomi Osaka won her first top-10 match over No. 6 seed Angelique Kerber, in a dominating 6-3, 6-1, victory in the first round of the U.S. Open. Osaka — whose victory was the best for a Japanese player since 2006, when Akiko Morigami upset world No. 3 Nadia Petrova at Roland Garros — needed only an hour and five minutes to win the match. Kerber became the first defending U.S. Open champion to lose in the first round since Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2005.
    • J.J. Watt’s initial fundraiser goal to provide relief for Hurricane Harvey victims was $500,000. When that was met, the Houston Texans defensive end raised it to $1 million, then $2 million, then $3 million and $4 million, until we finally reached Tuesday’s apex. After the success of the 24-hour donation challenge, Watt challenged his followers and all those who heard about his message to go for $5 million. (Editor’s note: The fundraising surpassed $5 million overnight.)

    Top three tweets

    1. LOOKING BACK ON IT

    2. LET THE DEBATES BEGIN 😈

    3. HE SAID WHAT HE SAID

    ICYMI

    On this day in sports history

    On Aug. 30, 1997, the Houston Comets won the WNBA’s inaugural championship, which was the first of four consecutive titles the team would win from 1997 to 2000. Hall of Fame guard Cynthia Cooper, the regular-season MVP and league scoring champion, scored 14 of her game-high 25 points in the second half to lift the host Comets past the New York Liberty, 65-51, in the one-game championship in front of a sellout crowd of 16,285 at The Summit.

    Picture-perfect

    Rhiannon Walker is an associate editor at The Undefeated. She is a drinker of Sassy Cow Creamery chocolate milk, an owner of an extensive Disney VHS collection, and she might have a heart attack if Frank Ocean doesn't drop his second album.

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