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From Jorge Castillo: Back in March, when their starting rotation was intact and the projections were rosy, Dodgers officials envisioned Bobby Miller’s impending arrival as icing on another division-title cake. The prized prospect was supposed to appear in the majors sometime during the summer — after recovering from a shoulder injury — as a midseason showcase for a club coasting into October.
They would practice patience and deploy him with care. Maybe he would pitch so well that he would start games in the postseason. Maybe he’d become a weapon out of the playoff bullpen. Maybe the Dodgers wouldn’t need him at all.
The plan certainly wasn’t what has unfolded in recent weeks. Three months into the season, Miller isn’t a shiny depth piece for the Dodgers. He’s an essential, high-octane arm they’re relying on earlier than anyone expected to stay afloat in the National League playoff race.
And on Wednesday the Dodgers, after two days of dismal news for their starting rotation, gave him the ball against the Pittsburgh Pirates looking to rebound from a disappointing loss the previous night. Miller responded with a gutty effort, pitching around two costly mistakes to give the Dodgers 5 2/3 innings in a 6-4 win at Dodger Stadium.
The victory didn’t come without another late-inning scare.
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DODGERS POLL
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ANGELS
From Sarah Valenzuela: The Angels have hit a crossroads.
Mike Trout had surgery to address his hamate fracture on Wednesday and is not expected back for at least a month. Anthony Rendon, who was using a crutch to walk, was not placed on the injured list Wednesday, though the Angels will continue to evaluate him. The one note of promising health: Shohei Ohtani, who turned 29 on Wednesday, was in the starting lineup after departing Tuesday’s game early with a finger blister. He finished the series without a hit.
It’s been a series from injury hell for the Angels, never mind the two losses they suffered to the San Diego Padres before Wednesday. There is no help coming to them, at least not until after the All-Star break when some of their other injured players could return. And as the players have reiterated over the last two days, no one is feeling sorry for them.
The Padres completed the three-game sweep Wednesday with a 5-3 victory.
CLIPPERS
From Andrew Greif: For all of his life in basketball, Jason Preston wore glasses away from the basketball court yet never tried contacts during games. Leading into the 2021 NBA draft, the Clippers pegged Preston as seeing the floor better than almost any other passer, and yet the court could look a little blurry.
Since the Clippers’ season ended in April, Preston underwent laser eye surgery. Now when attempting three-pointers “the rim, you know, looks a little bigger,” he said Wednesday.
“Now it’s nice to have 20/20 vision when I’m playing,” he added.
SPARKS
From Annika Johnson: Jordin Canada’s electric, dark blue sneakers seemed to super-charge as they zipped across the Crypto.com Arena court on Wednesday night. The Sparks point guard was back, and in a big way.
Her return and roaring hometown fans were exactly what the Sparks needed after returning from an 0-3 trip but they still fell short, losing to the Atlanta Dream 90-79.
The game was more competitive than the Sparks’ 112-84 road loss to the Dream (8-8) on Sunday.
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THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1887 — Lottie Dod of Britain, 15, becomes the youngest woman to win the women’s singles championship at Wimbledon, defeating Blanch Bingley 6-2, 6-0.
1933 — The first major league All-Star game is played at Comiskey Park, Chicago. The American League beats the National League 4-2 on Babe Ruth’s two-run homer.
1957 — Althea Gibson becomes the first Black person to win a title at the All England Lawn Tennis Club by beating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2 in the women’s singles title match.
1968 — Billie Jean King wins her third consecutive women’s singles title at Wimbledon by beating Australia’s Judy Tegart 9-7, 7-5.
1975 — Ruffian, an undefeated filly, and Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure compete in a match race. Ruffian, racing on the lead, sustains a severe leg injury and is pulled up by jockey Jacinto Vasquez. She is humanely destroyed the following day.
1994 — Leroy Burrell breaks the world record in the 100 meters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Burrell’s time of 9.85 seconds betters Carl Lewis’ 9.86 clocking set in the 1991 World Championships.
1996 — Steffi Graf beats Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-3, 7-5 in the Wimbledon final for the German star’s 20th Grand Slam title and 100th tournament victory.
1997 — Pete Sampras wins the fourth Wimbledon title and 10th Grand Slam title of his career, easily defeating Frenchmen Cedric Pioline 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
1998 — Twenty-year-old Se Ri Pak becomes the youngest U.S. Women’s Open champion after making an 18-foot birdie on the 20th extra hole to beat amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn in the longest Women’s Open in history.
2003 — Martina Navratilova claims her 20th all-time Wimbledon title as she and Leander Paes beat Andy Ram and Anastassia Rodionova 6-3, 6-3 in the mixed doubles final.
2008 — Rafael Nadal ends Roger Federer’s bid to become the first man since the 1880s to win a sixth consecutive championship at the All England Club. Two points from victory, the No. 1-ranked Federer succumbs to No. 2 Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7 in a 4-hour, 48-minute test of wills that’s the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history — and quite possibly the greatest.
2013 — Twin brothers Mike and Bob Bryan capture their fourth straight major with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo at Wimbledon. The Americans become the first men’s team in Open-era tennis to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
2013 — Jimmie Johnson becomes the first driver in 31 years to sweep Daytona International Speedway. The Daytona 500 winner is the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1982, and the fifth overall, to win both races in a season at Daytona.
2014 — Novak Djokovic wins his second Wimbledon title and denies Roger Federer his record eighth by holding off the Swiss star in five sets. Djokovic wastes a 5-2 lead in the fourth set but holds on for a 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4 victory.
2014 — Florida teen Kaylin Whitney breaks the world junior record by running the 200 meters in 22.49 seconds at the U.S. junior national track and field championships in Eugene, Ore. The 16-year-old Whitney broke the world 17-and-under mark of 22.58 set by Marion Jones in 1992.
2019 — The Clippers acquire two NBA megastars in one day; Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard from Toronto in free agency, and Paul George from Oklahoma City for an unprecedented trade bounty of players and picks.
—Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.