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From Bill Plaschke: Far away from a field, hours before a game, Andrew Friedman just hammered out the biggest hit of the Dodger season.
Trading for the Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty?
Home run.
Acquiring a local kid who is experiencing a career rebirth, ranking among baseball’s leaders in several key categories, consistent and powerful all season?
Game changer.
Inserting into the rotation a 28-year-old right-hander with a 2.95 ERA and 133 strikeouts with just 19 walks?
Walk-off win.
After two years of trade deadline failures, Friedman rediscovered his big swing Tuesday, baseball’s brainiest executive stepping to the plate in the bottom of the ninth of baseball’s trade deadline and pulling off a last-gasp acquisition of Flaherty for two prospects.
This is big. This is really big. This is October big.
With minutes to spare at trade deadline, Dodgers land starting pitcher Jack Flaherty
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From Jack Harris: The Dodgers roster might look significantly different in the wake of five additions before Tuesday’s trade deadline.
But in a 6-5 walk-off loss to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, the team’s recent on-field scuffles seemed eerily unchanged.
Amid several weeks of blown leads and other close calls from the Dodgers’ overworked bullpen, the team squandered another late advantage in its series opener at Petco Park, when right-hander Blake Treinen gave up two solo home runs that tied the score in the bottom of the ninth inning.
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ANGELS
Matt Thaiss drove in a career-high five runs, Jo Adell hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and the Angels overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Colorado Rockies 10-7 on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.
Thaiss became the first Angels catcher to drive in five runs with two steals in the same game and the second catcher in major league history to achieve the feat after Detroit’s Mickey Cochrane in 1934.
Taylor Ward drove in three runs for the Angels, who trailed 6-2 after two innings and won for the sixth time in nine games.
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The Angels said Tuesday they are shutting down the rehabilitation for star Mike Trout after a recent setback in his recovery from meniscus surgery and put Anthony Rendon on the injured list.
Trout had surgery on May 3 to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.
“We’re going to shut down his rehab in general,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said of Trout. “He’s going to get reevaluated. He still doesn’t feel good, so we’ll see where that goes.”
Rendon was put back on the IL because of lower back inflammation. The veteran third baseman had been on the IL for most of the season because of a hamstring injury and played in 14 games upon his return.
RAMS
From Gary Klein: A few years ago, the NFL changed parameters for conversion kicks, moving them back to the 15-yard line for a 33-yard attempt. This season, there will be new XFL-inspired kickoff rules that have special teams coordinators scrambling to adapt.
Rams rookie kicker Joshua Karty is comfortable evolving with change.
“But field goals, I hope, are here to stay,” the former Stanford standout said Tuesday.
The Rams used a sixth-round draft pick to select Karty to fix their field-goal problem.
Last season, the Rams ranked 30th among 32 teams in field-goal success. Brett Maher and Lucas Havrisik made only 32 of 43 attempts. They were nine of 15 from 40 to 49 yards, and five of 10 from 50 yards and beyond.
CHARGERS
From Marissa Kraus: The Chargers’ second day of training camp in pads went two hours — the longest of the summer — but starting right guard Jamaree Salyer did not last until the end.
Salyer went down during a two-minute drill and briefly stayed on the field before standing and walking into the facility. He did not return and there was no word on the injury or its extent, but it did not appear to be serious since he was able to walk off.
Jordan McFadden, a 2023 fifth-round draft pick out of Clemson, is listed as his backup on the team’s depth chart.
Other than that, offensive coordinator Greg Roman seemed pleased.
“The first two days of pads saw great work,” Roman said. “There is always a process involved in that. We are working all together as a team and getting good work done. We should just keep progressing along those lines. I can’t say enough about how the guys are dialed in and focused. I think we are right on schedule.”
Some other takeaways from Monday:
From Ryan Kartje: The phone call in November only lasted about 30 minutes. But Lincoln Riley knew as soon as he hung up that he’d found his new defensive coordinator.
The fit with D’Anton Lynn, as Riley describes it now, was just that seamless from the start. The two coaches were so aligned on football philosophy that they “kind of finished each other’s sentences,” Riley said. And when it came to turning around a troubled defense in a hurry, Lynn had firsthand experience, having engineered a transformation across town.
On paper, it felt like a perfect match. But in practice, there are questions still to be answered about USC and its new defensive direction.
That process begins Friday, as USC opens preseason camp feeling optimistic about where its defense is heading. Considering where it ended last season — 121st in points allowed, 119th in yards per game — Lynn has his work cut out for him.
That’s just the beginning of questions facing USC as it opens its fall camp. Here are a few more to be answered in the coming weeks.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1954 — Joe Adcock hits four homers and a double to lift the Milwaukee Braves a 15-7 victory over Brooklyn.
1963 — The Cleveland Indians become the first American League club to hit four straight home runs. No. 8 hitter Woody Held hits a two-out homer off Paul Foytack and pitcher Pedro Ramos follows with his second homer of the game before Tito Francona and Larry Brown’s first major league homer finish this odd power surge.
1973 — Julius Erving, the American Basketball Association’s leading scorer, is traded by the cash-strapped Virginia Squires to the New York Nets for forward George Carter and cash.
1983 — Jan Stephenson beats JoAnne Carner and Patty Sheehan by one stroke to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
1990 — Nolan Ryan wins his 300th game, reaching the milestone in his second try, as the Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 11-3.
1993 — Mike Aulby becomes the third player in PBA history to win a tournament by rolling a 300 game in the title game. Aulby beats David Ozio 300-279 in the Wichita Open.
2007 — All-Star Kevin Garnett is traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to Boston for five players and two draft picks. The Celtics obtain the former MVP and 10-time All-Star from Minnesota for forwards Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green, guard Sebastian Telfair and center Theo Ratliff and two first-round draft picks.
2012 — Michael Phelps breaks the Olympic medals record with his 19th, helping the U.S. romp to a 4×200-meter freestyle relay victory at the London Games. With 19 medals spanning three Olympics, Phelps moves one ahead of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who got her haul in 1956, 1960 and 1964.
2012 — The team of Gabrielle Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber lives up to all the hype, winning the first U.S. Olympic title in women’s gymnastics since 1996.
2021 — Katie Ledecky wins the women’s 800m gold in Tokyo. This is the third consecutive Olympics she has won the race.
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.