Sun. Dec 22nd, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Jack Harris: At the start of the fifth inning Monday night, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard implored a quiet crowd in the Bronx.

The subdued 49,368 in attendance hardly reacted.

As he’d done so many times before this time of year, Walker Buehler had already extinguished any belief.

For much of this season — his first back from a second career Tommy John surgery — Buehler looked nothing like his old self. His once-overpowering fastball was getting crushed by opponents. His secondary stuff didn’t have the same life. His mechanics were so out of whack that, during a month-long stint on the injured list in the summer, he went to a private facility in Florida in search of any shred of consistency.

What was supposed to be a final showcase before a long-awaited free agency, instead devolved into a frustrating six-month grind.

October, however, has been a different story. And on Monday night, it culminated in what could be a poetic finish.

In a 4-2 Dodgers win that gave them a three-games-to-none lead in the World Series, Buehler delivered a vintage October gem to put them on the doorstep of a championship.

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Dodgers box score

Plaschke: One more win! Dodgers roll over Yankees to reach the precipice of a championship

Teoscar Hernández doing his part to make sure he earns a World Series ring

Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández talk World Series Game 3 win

‘It’s like you’re at the game.’ Fans enjoy cheering on Dodgers at immersive Cosm theater

Kid thought he was going to dentist. Dad took him to World Series and he caught Freddie Freeman’s grand slam

Shaikin: This Dodger’s girlfriend is ‘the Michael Jordan of field hockey.’ He’s just Ben.

In the battle of the brands, the Dodgers are strong but Yankees reign supreme

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WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE

All times Pacific
All games on Fox
All games at 5:08 p.m.

Dodgers vs. NY Yankees
at Dodgers 6, New York 3 (10) (box score)
at Dodgers 4, New York 2 (box score)
Dodgers 4, at New York 2 (box score)
Tuesday at New York
*Wednesday at New York
*Friday at Dodgers
*Saturday at Dodgers

*-if necessary

LAKERS

From Dan Woike: Before his first regular season game as the Lakers head coach, JJ Redick made a prediction.

“It’s going to drive me crazy if we lose,” he said. “I will tell you that.”

It took a week for the Lakers to get to see what that looked like.

Redick, in his postgame news conference, took accountability for the Lakers’ 14-point second quarter and for the hesitation in double-teaming Kevin Durant, two key factors, he said, in his team’s 109-105 loss to the Suns Monday night.

“He’s pissed,” Anthony Davis said of his new coach.

Postgame, Redick was visibly agitated when talking about the Lakers’ offense in the second quarter, their worst of the young season.

“We should never have a 14-point quarter,” he said after. “So that’s on me as well. Part of that is me. I gotta make sure we’re running good offense. I felt like it was a little random. We got stalled out. We talked about it at halftime. For us to be a high-level offense, we gotta move bodies and we gotta move the ball. They gotta screen. They just kinda took us out of what we were doing initially, and we were great in the second half. We executed great in the second half.

“It’s just that second quarter really hurt us.”

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Lakers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: The NFL trade deadline is a week away.

Coach Sean McVay last week all but extinguished buzz that the Rams will deal star receiver Cooper Kupp — especially with the Rams on a two-game win streak and positioned to possibly win the wide-open NFC West.

But on Nov. 5, the Rams still could be in the market as a buyer or seller.

McVay confirmed Monday that veteran cornerback Tre’Davious White and his representatives have been given permission to seek opportunities elsewhere.

The Rams signed White, 29, with the belief that the former All-Pro could rebound from Achilles surgery and help them in some role this season. White appeared to recover faster than expected and, with the Rams’ secondary hit by injuries during training camp, he started the first four games.

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CHARGERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Chargers defeated the New Orleans Saints, 26-8, at SoFi Stadium on Sunday to move above .500 approaching the midway point of the season.

What we learned from the victory, the Chargers now 4-3:

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1950 — Detroit’s Wally Triplett gains 294 yards in kickoff returns and ends up with 331 total yards as the Lions pound the Rams 65-24 on 41 third-quarter points.

1960 — Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) wins his first pro fight beating Tunney Hunsaker on points in 6 rounds in Louisville, Kentucky.

1961 — Oscar Robertson dishes out a franchise-record 22 assists during Cincinnati’s 139-132 win over visiting Syracuse. The “Big O” goes on to average a triple-double (30.8 ppg, 12.5 rpg and 11.4 apg) for the Royals during the 1961-62 season, becoming the first NBA player to average double figures in assists.

1969 — Tom Seaver wins NL CY Young.

1977 — Boston’s John Havlicek becomes the second player in NBA history to connect on 10,000 career field goals, reaching the milestone in a 103-98 loss at Cleveland.

1977 — Russell Erxleben of Texas kicks a 60-yard field goal in a 26-0 rout of Texas Tech for his third field goal of the season over 60 yards, an NCAA record.

1983 — Gil Fenerty rushes for 337 yards in a 18 carries and scores six touchdowns to lead Holy Cross to a 77-28 rout of Columbia.

1987 — Thomas Hearns wins unprecedented 4th different weight boxing title.

1994 — Arnold Mickens rushes for more than 200 yards for the eighth consecutive game, breaking the NCAA Division I-AA single-season rushing record as Butler beats Evansville 49-14. Mickens’ 244 yards gives him a total of 2,111, surpassing the record of 2,016 set by Towson State’s Tony Vinson.

2005 — Top-ranked USC wins its 30th straight game, routing Washington State 55-13. The Trojans tie Texas for the 11th-longest winning streak in major college football history.

2006 — With a a 34-31 victory over Denver, Indianapolis is the first team to start 7-0 in consecutive seasons since the 1929-31 Green Bay Packers did it three straight times.

2011 — Joe Paterno breaks Eddie Robinson’s record for victories by a Division I coach with No. 409 in Penn State’s sloppy 10-7 win over Illinois.

2014 — Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants succeed where no team had in 3 1/2 decades, winning Game 7 on the road for their third World Series title in five years. Bumgarner comes out of the bullpen to pitch five scoreless innings on two days’ rest as the Giants held off the Kansas City Royals 3-2.

2017 — Justin Rose mounts the third-largest final-round comeback in PGA TOUR history to win the WGC-HSBC Champions. Rose starts the final round eight shots behind Dustin Johnson, who ties a record for losing the largest lead in the final round. The historic 5-under 67 round by Rose is keyed by a back-nine 31. Rose finishes at 14-under 274 and Johnson who finishes with a 77, ties for second with Henrik Stenson and Brooks Koepka, two strokes back.

2018 — Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors, breaks the NBA record for most 3-pointers in a game with 14 in a Warrior’s 149-124 over the Chicago Bulls. The record was previously held by Thompson’s teammate Stephen Curry.

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.



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