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From Jack Harris: Ever since they returned from midseason treks to triple-A Oklahoma City, Bobby Miller and Walker Buehler have been in a similar boat.
The Dodgers continued to believe in their potential, even after porous and injury-plagued first halves of the season.
But to be counted on in October, they’d have to back it up with their late-season performances.
To this point, only one has answered the bell.
While Buehler has shown signs of life — and said he has felt more like his old self — with back-to-back encouraging starts, Miller continues to trend in the wrong direction, reaching perhaps a new low in his frustrating sophomore campaign in Wednesday night’s 10-1 loss to the Angels in Anaheim.
“I’m obviously not happy about it,” Miller said after a five-inning, seven-run start in which five runs scored in the bottom of the first. “But when that happens, you gotta forget about it and wash it. That happened and you just got to forget about it and move on.”
Miller’s first inning was an unmitigated disaster. He walked his first batter, then hit the next. He gave up two runs on back-to-back singles, then served up a first-pitch three-run homer to Mickey Moniak.
Hernández: Shohei Ohtani returned to Anaheim and proved why Dodger Stadium is a better home
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RAMS
From Gary Klein: Matthew Stafford does want distractions, especially when he walks into an opponent’s stadium.
So, unlike many athletes, the Rams’ veteran quarterback forsakes headphones upon arrival, and embraces a hostile environment when he jogs onto the field for pregame warmups.
“I want to hear all of it,” Stafford said Wednesday before practice in Woodland Hills. “I want to smell it. I want it to feel like it’s football. That’s part of football, especially going to an away game.
“That stuff just motivates me.”
On Sunday night, for the second time in eight months, Stafford is expected to get an earful when he returns to Ford Field in Detroit, where he starred for 12 seasons before he was traded to the Rams in 2021 in a deal that sent quarterback Jared Goff to the Lions.
Plaschke: What will Aaron Donald do? Rams chase championship without him … for now
CHARGERS
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: From his first day on the job, Jim Harbaugh was enamored with Justin Herbert’s leadership abilities. The fifth-year quarterback “leads from the front,” Harbaugh praised.
That is, unless Herbert is emerging from a broken elevator.
When about a dozen members of the Chargers’ traveling party were stuck in an elevator in Dallas last month during the preseason, Herbert was the last to scale the ladder to safety, letting everyone else crawl through a ceiling panel before him after they were trapped for two hours.
The gesture only solidified Harbaugh’s belief in the star quarterback who the Chargers hope to follow to success.
Hernández: Jim Harbaugh might sound quirky, but Chargers get the message as opener approaches
SPARKS
Caitlin Clark became the fastest player in WNBA history to make 100 three-pointers in a season and finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for her second career triple-double as the playoff-bound Indiana Fever beat the Sparks 93-86 on Wednesday night.
Clark connected on her second three of the game and 100th of the season midway through the third quarter and added two more to reach 102 and finish four of 10 from long range. The No. 1 overall draft pick is the first rookie with 100 threes.
She also became the first rookie and fifth WNBA player with multiple triple-doubles in a season, joining Alyssa Thomas, Courtney Williams, Sabrina Ionescu and Candace Parker.
PARALYMPICS
2024 Paris Paralympics live updates
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1949 — Pancho Gonzalez captures his second consecutive men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Gonzalez needs 67 games — the most ever in a final — to defeat Ted Schroeder, 16-18, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. Mary Osborne du Pont defeats Doris Hart 6-4, 6-1 for the women’s title.
1951 — Maureen Connolly, 16, wins the U.S. women’s singles title with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 victory over Shirley Fry.
1960 — Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) beats 3-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland by unanimous points decision to win Olympic light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Games.
1975 — Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia loses to Chris Evert in the U.S. Open semifinals, then appears at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service office in New York and asks for political asylum.
1987 — John McEnroe is fined $17,500 for tirades at U.S. Open.
1989 — Chris Evert’s illustrious career ends in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open when she blows a 5-2 first-set lead and is beaten 7-6, 6-2 by Zina Garrison. Evert’s record at the U.S. Open is 101-12 and she finishes her career with a match record of 1,304-145 and 18 Grand Slam titles.
1990 — Ivan Lendl’s bid for a record nine straight U.S. Open men’s finals ends in the quarterfinals. Pete Sampras wins in five sets, 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2.
1994 — 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice catches two touchdown passes and runs for another score in 44-14 rout of the Raiders; surpasses Jim Brown as NFL’s career TD leader with 127.
1995 — Cal Ripken Jr. ties Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 straight games.
1998 — Mark McGwire becomes the third player in baseball history to reach 60 home runs, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-0. He joins Babe Ruth and Roger Maris with 60 homers in a single season.
2002 — The U.S. men finish without a medal at the basketball world championships. Yugoslavia comes back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and defeats the U.S. 81-78. After going 58-0 using NBA players in international competitions, the Americans lose two straight.
2007 — Alicia Sacramone’s floor routine rallies the U.S. to the world women’s gymnastics title in Stuttgart, Germany. The Americans finishes with 184.4 points, beating defending champion China by .95 for their second world title, and the first won on foreign soil.
2011 — Antron Brown becomes the first NHRA racer to win the U.S. Nationals in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle, beating Del Worsham in the Top Fuel final. Brown, five-time winner this season, completes a successful transition to Top Fuel from Pro Stock Motorcycle in 2008.
2020 — 8-1 Underdog Authentic holds off heavy favorite Tiz the Law to win the 146th Kentucky Derby.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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