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From Jack Harris: During his team’s resurgence at the plate in recent weeks, in which the Dodgers have once again looked like their high-powered selves, Dave Roberts has used one adjective in his praise of the club above all else.
On more than one occasion, the manager has highlighted his lineup’s “fight” at the plate, extolling their ability to battle off pitches, extend at-bats and keep the team in games.
“We always talk about it here in the clubhouse,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “Don’t give away at-bats. Fight through the at-bats. See a lot of pitches. And try to get a good one.”
On Tuesday, in the kind of comeback the club had not experienced in almost 100 years, the Dodgers epitomized everything Roberts and his players had been talking about, exploding for seven runs in an historic ninth-inning rally to snatch an unlikely 11-9 win over the Colorado Rockies.
“Man, there’s a lot to unpack,” Roberts said afterward, still buzzing from the franchise’s biggest ninth-inning comeback since 1957, and first in which they’d erased a five-run ninth-inning hole without playing extra innings since 1929. “That fight, I couldn’t be more proud of the guys.”
With a 9-4 lead, closer Tyler Kinley in the game and the bottom of the Dodgers order due up in the ninth, the Rockies couldn’t get over the finish line.
Instead, the Dodgers loaded the bases on a single and two walks. They got back within one on a pinch-hit grand slam from Jason Heyward. And then — in a moment that not only flipped the script of Tuesday night’s game, but also defined the identity the Dodgers have been striving for this season — Hernández came to the plate, stayed alive in a two-strike at-bat, then launched a towering three-run home run the other way.
One Sasaki throws hard, another hits homers. Will Rōki or Rintaro be MLB’s next Japanese star?
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WILLIE MAYS DIES
From Mike Kupper: It came to be known simply as “The Catch,” and is, perhaps, the most recognized defensive play in baseball’s long and storied history, the play that made rising star Willie Mays famous.
It was the first game of the 1954 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants in New York’s old Polo Grounds.
The Polo Grounds, the Giants’ home field, was an old stadium reminiscent of a gigantic bathtub. The foul-line distances were short, 277 feet in left field, 258 in right, but the center-field fence, the far rim of the tub, was 455 feet from home plate.
Cleveland’s Vic Wertz, a lefty, came to bat with runners on first and second in the eighth inning of a 2-2 tie, facing another lefty, Don Liddle, just in from the bullpen. Liddle, working a 2-and-1 count, threw a fourth-pitch fastball and Wertz tagged what would have been a three-run homer to center field anywhere else.
Not in the Polo Grounds.
Mays, playing a shallow center field, was off at the crack of the bat and, running hard with his back to the plate, caught up to the ball just steps from the wall, snagged it over his left shoulder, pivoted quickly and rifled the ball back into the infield, losing his cap and his balance in the process. The Giants escaped the inning unscathed, then won the game in the 10th on pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes’ 270-foot pop-fly homer over the right-field fence on the way to a four-game sweep.
Mays, who the San Francisco Giants announced died Tuesday afternoon at age 93, went on to a fabulous career as the flamboyant Say Hey Kid — some consider him the best of the best — but his name and “The Catch” are forever intertwined.
He spent 22 seasons in the major leagues, most with the Giants in New York and San Francisco, leading the team to three National League pennants and a World Series championship. A center fielder who could “do it all,” Mays had a lifetime batting average of .301 with 3,293 hits, 660 home runs — good for sixth on the all-time list — and 339 stolen bases.
ANGELS
Sal Frelick robbed Taylor Ward of a tying home run with a leaping catch in center field for the final out of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 6-3 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.
The Angels staged a three-run rally in the ninth and then got two more runners on base, bringing Trevor Megill into the game as the Brewers’ third reliever of the inning.
Ward drove a 384-foot fly to center, but Frelick confidently ran back and made a one-handed grab on the warning track, stretching just above the yellow line representing the top of the outfield fence.
CLIPPERS
From Broderick Turner: Former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy and the Clippers have agreed on a deal for him to become the top assistant on head coach Tyronn Lue’s staff, the team announced Monday.
Van Gundy’s priority will be as the Clippers’ defensive coordinator, a role he takes over in the wake of Dan Craig joining the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach last month.
Van Gundy, 62, who coached New York and Houston, coached Lue for one season in 2004 with the Rockets. The two maintained a relationship as members of the USA Basketball staff, where Lue is an assistant coach.
SPARKS
DeWanna Bonner scored 16 points, Alyssa Thomas had 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists and the Connecticut Sun beat the short-handed Sparks 79-70 on Tuesday night for their 10th straight victory in the series.
The game was marred by an apparent knee injury to Sparks rookie Cameron Brink. Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in the WNBA draft, fell awkwardly on a drive to the basket in the first quarter and did not return. Once over to the sidelines, Brink hobbled toward the locker room before a pair of Sparks personnel lifted her off her feet and carried her.
“Cam has a knee injury and will be evaluated tomorrow,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said.
DARIUS MILES
From Steve Henson: Former Lakers and Clippers guard Darius Morris died at age 33 of coronary artery disease, although the “effects of cocaine, hydrocodone and ethanol” played a role, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner.
Morris, who played for the Lakers alongside his mentor Kobe Bryant after starring at Windward High in Mar Vista and the University of Michigan, was found dead May 2 by a Los Angeles-area apartment manager doing a welfare check.
The death was ruled an accident by the medical examiner. The last time Morris was known to be alive was April 22, when he spoke to his mother and complained of flu-like symptoms, the medical examiner’s report said. Foul play was not suspected.
SOCCER
From Kevin Baxter: Robbie Rogers was back at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday. It wasn’t his first visit since playing his final game for the Galaxy eight years ago; his two young children, Caleb and Mia, love coming to the games, he said.
Yet it was the first time he came to the stadium to receive a bobblehead in his likeness, sit in the president’s suite and celebrate Pride Month by taking part in a national television broadcast on Apple TV.
“We know how special a player he was and how much he meant to our organization,” Galaxy president Tom Braun said.
In 2013, Rogers became the first out gay male to play a game in a major U.S. pro sports league. It was a historic moment, one that seemed a harbinger of things to come. A month earlier Jason Collins, an NBA free agent, came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated interview. Less than three months later Michael Sam, a standout defensive lineman at the University of Missouri, came out to his teammates. He would soon become the first out gay player selected in the NFL draft.
Then, nothing.
In 2018, Minnesota United midfielder Collin Martin came out, but he would play fewer than a dozen games in MLS after that. In 2021, the Raiders’ Carl Nassib announced on Instagram that he was gay. He played two seasons with the Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then retired.
Landon Donovan was told new hair transplant wouldn’t show up on TV. Part of it was missing
CRICKET
From Anthony De Leon: Three months before the start of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, USA Cricket drastically shifted the program’s direction ahead of the most important tournament in U.S. men’s cricket history, where they would serve as co-host.
USA Cricket ousted chairman Michael Voss and his entire selection committee. Some tied to USA Cricket said the committee members’ terms expired, but a variety of media outlets have documented allegations of unfair player selection policies.
An influx of youth followed, led by 34-year-old Los Angeles-born Ravi Timbawala, a former U.S. national player and active cricketer.
The organization named Timbawala as chief selector and tasked him with building a competitive roster while the cricket world focused on the United States.
A team built on short notice has become the unexpected darling of the cricket world as it prepares for the Super Eight stage of the World Cup.
STANLEY CUP FINAL
A slow start. Some bad decisions. A frantic but futile finish. A postgame vow that things will get better. The Florida Panthers have waited forever to call themselves champions, a wait that will now last at least a few more days.
And another long flight to Alberta awaits — with this Stanley Cup Final suddenly looking very tight.
The Panthers gave up two power-play goals and a shorthanded score, got into a 3-0 hole before trying to rally and wound up falling 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the title series on Tuesday night. It was the second consecutive time Florida was thwarted in a chance to win the Cup, after an 8-1 embarrassment in Edmonton over the weekend.
Schedule and results
All times Pacific
Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers
at Florida 3, Edmonton 0 (box score)
at Florida 4, Edmonton 1 (box score)
Florida 4, at Edmonton 3 (box score)
at Edmonton 8, Florida 1 (box score)
Edmonton 5, at Florida 3 (box score)
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
*Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., ESPN
*-if necessary
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1867 — Ruthless, ridden by J. Gilpatrick, wins the inaugural Belmont Stakes at Jerome Park in the Bronx. The filly earns $1,850 for her victory.
1914 — Harry Vardon wins his sixth and final British Open by shooting a 306, three strokes ahead of J.H. Taylor at Prestwick Club.
1936 — German heavyweight boxer Max Schmeling knocks out previously unbeaten Joe Louis in the 12th round. Schmeling’s victory sets off a propaganda war between the Nazi regime and the United States on the eve of World War II.
1938 — FIFA World Cup Final, Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris, France: Luigi Colausig & Silvio Piola each score 2 goals as Italy beats Hungary, 4-1.
1954 — Ed Furgol edges Gene Littler by one stroke to win the U.S. Open, the first golf tournament to be televised nationally.
1955 — Jack Fleck beats Ben Hogan by three strokes in a playoff round to win the U.S. Open.
1973 — Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) and Willie Davis (Dodgers) both record 2,000th MLB career hit; Rose, a single in 4-0 win vs SF Giants; Davis, a HR in 3-0 win vs Atlanta Braves.
1977 — Hubert Green wins the U.S. Open by one stroke over Lou Graham.
1986 — Len Bias, the second pick in the NBA draft made by the Boston Celtics two days before, dies of a heart attack induced by cocaine use.
1992 — Evander Holyfield wins a unanimous decision over Larry Holmes to remain unbeaten and retain the undisputed heavyweight title.
1999 — Dallas wins its first Stanley Cup, as Brett Hull’s controversial goal at 14:51 of the third overtime gives the Stars a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6.
2000 — NBA Finals: Lakers beat Indiana Pacers, 116-111 in Game 6 to win the franchise’s first title in 12 years; MVP: Shaquille O’Neal.
2005 — Michael Campbell answers every challenge Tiger Woods throws his way for a two-shot victory in the U.S. Open. Retief Goosen, the two-time U.S. Open champion, turns in a collapse that ranks among the greatest in major championship history. He loses his three-shot lead in three holes and closes with an 81 to tie for 11th at 8 over.
2006 — Cam Ward stops nearly everything giving the Carolina Hurricanes their first Stanley Cup title with a 3-1 victory over Edmonton in Game 7.
2011 — Rory McIlroy runs away with the U.S. Open title, winning by eight shots and breaking the tournament scoring record by a whopping four strokes. McIlroy shoots a 2-under 69 to close the four days at Congressional in Bethesda, Md., at 16-under 268.
2015 — Alex Rodriguez homers for his 3,000th career hit as the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2.
2016 — Dustin Johnson atones for his past mishaps in the majors winning the U.S. Open by three shots. Shane Lowry, who began the final round with a four-shot lead, Jim Furyk and Scott Piercy finish tied for second.
2016 — LeBron James and his relentless Cavaliers pulls off an improbable NBA Finals comeback to give the city of Cleveland its first title since 1964. James delivers on a promise from two years ago to bring a championship to his native northeast Ohio, and he and the Cavs become the first team to rally from a 3-1 finals deficit by beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 93-89.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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