Aaron Civale pitched one-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 1-0 on Saturday night to surpass their win total from last season.
Chicago improved to 42-69 with its 10th win in 14 games since the All-Star break. It finished with a 41-121 record in 2024, breaking the modern major league record for most losses in a season.
The White Sox scored their only run on Kyle Teel’s RBI single in the second against Kyle Hendricks (6-8). Teel drove in Luis Robert Jr., who reached on a leadoff single.
Civale (3-6) struck out eight in 6⅓ innings. He is 2-0 in his last three starts, yielding an unearned run and seven hits in 17⅓ innings.
The Angels (53-58) got their only hit when Zach Neto beat out a slow roller down the third base line leading off the fourth. It was the team’s third consecutive loss. Nolan Schanuel walked after Neto’s hit. But Civale retired the next three batters.
Mike Trout sat out a second straight game after he missed Friday’s series opener with illness.
Brandon Eisert retired each of his five batters, and Jordan Leasure finished the one-hitter for his third save in seven opportunities.
Brooks Baldwin had two of Chicago’s six hits.
The White Sox (42-69) played without infielder Miguel Vargas, who was scratched because of a left oblique strain.
Andrew Benintendi had a double and a home run, Lenyn Sosa also homered among his two hits, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 6-3 on Friday night.
White Sox starter Shane Smith gave up two runs and two hits while striking out four over 4⅓ innings in his first start since July 11 following a stint on the 15-day injured list. Jordan Leasure (4-6) earned the win in relief, striking out four in 1⅔ innings.
Benintendi and Sosa each hit solo home runs in the second inning off Angels starter Tyler Anderson (2-7), and Luis Robert Jr. had a sacrifice fly drove Miguel Vargas home in the fourth inning to make it 3-0.
Gustavo Campero‘s second home run of the year, a two-run blast to deep center field in the fifth, got the Angels within one, but Colson Montgomery answered with a deep homer of his own in the sixth inning.
Campero’s baserunning error prevented the game-tying run from scoring in the seventh, ending what was a bases-loaded, one-out threat for the Angels.
Logan O’Hoppe scored on Zach Neto‘s sacrifice fly to bring the Angels within one again, and Nolan Schanuel appeared to drive in Travis D’Arnaud with a two-out single, but Campero was thrown out at third prior to d’Arnaud crossing the plate.
Sosa had an RBI single in the eighth and Josh Rojas added a solo homer in the ninth.
Steven Wilson got the last six outs for his second save of the year for Chicago (41-69).
Mike Trout did not play for the Angels (53-57) because of illness.
Montgomery continued his second-half tear with a solo home run, which represented his 18th RBI since the All-Star break. He is now tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the most RBIs since the break.
It took just one game coming out of the All-Star break for Dave Roberts to know Mookie Betts still wasn’t right.
A week ago, Roberts was hopeful that Betts — coming off his first missed All-Star Game in a decade — would return from the break refocused and rejuvenated; ready to snap out of a career-worst start to his season and rediscover a swing that has eluded him for much of the campaign.
Instead, in the Dodgers’ second-half opener Friday night, Betts went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. His batting average dipped to .241 (more than 20 points worse than he has ever posted in a full season) while his OPS fell to .688 (the worst it has been all year). And, as has been the case for most of the summer, his signs of frustration were abundantly clear, with the 32-year-old looking lost at the plate.
Thus, when Roberts set his team’s lineup for Saturday, the manager made a surprise decision to leave Betts out of it, giving his superstar shortstop an unplanned day off after calling Betts on Saturday morning to discuss the state of his game.
“Talking to him, seeing where his head is at, seeing where he’s at mechanically, I just thought tonight was a night where I felt he needed to be down,” Roberts said hours later, ahead of the Dodgers’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“He was more than willing and wanted to be out there. But for me, I wanted to take it out of his hands [so he could] have a day. I’ve talked about this before, just having players watch a baseball game. And I understand we just had four days off at the break. But still showing up at the ballpark, and not participating, watching, that’s a different mindset, psyche than being at home. So for him to come here, show up, not play, know he’s not going to play, I feel good about the work he’s going to put in today. Also, I think, for the mind it will be beneficial.”
Betts did not talk to reporters Saturday, but did go through his normal set of pregame infield drills at shortstop — further confirming that, indeed, his absence from the lineup had nothing to do with any sort of injury-related issue.
While Roberts said his “expectation” is that Betts will be back in action Sunday, he left the door open to giving Betts another day off for the series finale.
“It’s going to be a day-to-day thing,” Roberts said. “It’s going to be my decision on how I feel he is mentally to take on that night’s starter.”
There was no specific moment from Friday’s game that convinced Roberts such a break was warranted. Instead, it was the fact that so little had seemingly changed from where Betts was before the All-Star break, when he reached the midway mark in a three-for-24 slump and batting just .185 over his previous 31 games.
“He’s not used to struggling like this,” Roberts said of Betts, who also has only 11 home runs and a .377 slugging percentage. “There’s a part of it where you feel like you’re letting people down, letting the team down. That weight that is just natural for him to carry is there. That’s a little bit from last night, just seeing him.”
Betts has struggled to identify the cause of his decline — one so stark, he has a below-league-average mark of 95 in the all-encompassing OPS+ metric (effectively meaning he has been 5% less productive than a league average hitter).
In an interview before Friday’s game, he said he has cycled through various “feels” with his swing in hopes of getting his mechanics realigned. Hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc pointed to inefficiencies in the way Betts “loads” his arms and hands, which he believes have impacted the slugger’s bat path and swing sequence.
“There’s no exact [fix], where you can do this, this and this,” Van Scoyoc said, “because he has to find something for him that works organically that gets him lined up.”
To that end, Roberts’ hope is that Saturday’s day off will help.
That it comes just two days into the second half signals how urgent Betts’ struggles have become.
“He understood,” Roberts said. “He’s a guy that wants to be out there every single day. But I think he understood that it was my decision and I think it’s best for him, I think it’s best for our ball club. He’ll be ready when called upon.”
It’s an age-old question when it comes to the Dodgers, cast upon a new-look roster battling familiar injury-related headaches.
In a best-case scenario, the Dodgers could end the season with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani (in some capacity) headlining their rotation.
In the bullpen, they could have Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol bolstering more heavily-used arms like Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Kirby Yates — plus wild card options in Ben Casparius, Emmet Sheehan and Jack Dreyer to serve in more versatile roles on the mound.
But best-case pitching scenarios, of course, have often been unrealized fantasies with the franchise in recent years.
Thus, down the stretch this season, the Dodgers’ top priority (after winning the division and securing a first-round bye) will be keeping their arms as healthy as possible.
That will be most important with Glasnow (who just returned from a shoulder injury) and Snell (who should be back from his own shoulder problem in the next couple of weeks). To this point, the Dodgers have signaled a reluctance to urgently pursue a starter at the trade deadline. And even if they did, the lack of available front-line options means it’d be difficult to insure against either (or, in a nightmare world) both going down again.
The Dodgers have been interested in adding to the bullpen, and might set their sights on a legitimate closer given Scott’s season-long struggles. But still, much of their depth will depend on Treinen (who is also nearing a return from a forearm injury), Kopech (who went on the 60-day IL after a knee surgery, but is still expected back this season) and Graterol (who is also still expected to return after missing the first half recovering from offseason shoulder surgery).
The Dodgers also have their fingers crossed on Roki Sasaki (hoping he can return in late August from his own shoulder issue) and haven’t yet ruled out Tony Gonsolin (though he has remained shut down since suffering an elbow injury). But for now, their primary hope is to keep Glasnow and Snell upright, and replenish an overworked bullpen with late-season reinforcements.
SAN FRANCISCO — They’ve underperformed relative to preseason expectations, but worked around serious roster limitations.
They’ve wowed with an undefeated 8-0 start, a star-studded offense that tops the majors in scoring, and a comfortable division lead in a competitive National League West. And yet, they’ve left so much to still be desired, both on the mound from their injury-plagued pitching staff and at the plate amid uncharacteristic slumps from several veteran stars.
No, the Dodgers have not played like “The Greatest Team Ever” in the first half of the season. Their record-setting $400-million payroll is not bidding for any all-time wins mark.
But, after grinding out a 5-2 extra-innings win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday to enter the All-Star break with a key divisional series victory, their first half has been a quiet success nonetheless, concluding with the Dodgers (58-39) holding a 5 ½-game lead in the NL West, the top record in the NL and still the best odds of being baseball’s first repeat champion in a quarter-century.
“I think the win-loss, the standings are great,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think there’s just a lot of improvement that we need to do, we need to be better at.”
Indeed, Sunday epitomized the duality of the Dodgers’ first 97 games.
Their starting pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, completed his stellar start to the season with a seven-inning gem, keeping the Giants (52-45) off the scoreboard while giving up three hits, two walks and striking out seven batters.
If the Dodgers were to pick a first-half MVP, perhaps only Shohei Ohtani would outpace Yamamoto, who enters the break as a first-time All-Star thanks to his 9-7 record, 2.59 earned-run average and six separate outings of six or more scoreless innings (tied for second-most such starts in the majors this year, behind only Tarik Skubal).
“He’s been really good,” Roberts said before the game, wholly convinced the 26-year-old Japanese right-hander would bounce back from his ugly five-run first inning in Milwaukee last week. “He’s just to the point where he knows he’s a really good pitcher, he’s an All-Star and he has high expectations for himself. He’s just been very valuable.”
However, the back end of the bullpen remained a problem, with closer Tanner Scott blowing a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth by giving up a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Luis Matos on a hanging slider at the knees.
Scott, a $72-million signing this offseason, has converted only 19 of his 26 save opportunities this year. He has a 4.09 ERA and eight home runs given up. And his struggles have made the bullpen a prime area of need for the Dodgers entering the trade deadline.
“[He’s] just in-zone too much,” Roberts said, “and getting beat by [the slider] or getting beat by the fastball in similar locations.”
The Dodgers’ offense has been equally quixotic.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman both hit the midway point mired in extended slumps — though Freeman made a couple key contributions Sunday, lining an RBI double in the fourth inning before putting the Dodgers back in front in the 11th with a bloop single that dropped in center.
“It’s just good to actually hit a couple balls,” Freeman deadpanned postgame. “That’s been the hardest thing the last couple months.”
Freddie Freeman hits a run-scoring single in the 11th inning Sunday against the Giants.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
Meanwhile, Ohtani has pitched superbly in his limited action on the mound, but his offense has declined since resuming a two-way role. When he singled in the fifth inning Sunday, it marked his first hit this year to come on the day immediately following one of his pitching starts.
“When you’re starting to try to break it down, I think you can cut it any way you want,” Roberts said when asked about Ohtani’s increasingly noticeable dip in production. “But when he’s in the lineup, he makes the lineup better.”
And though catcher Will Smith has a healthy lead for the NL batting title, earning his third-straight All-Star nod with a .323 mark, others toward the bottom of the lineup have been cold, from Teoscar Hernández (who is hitting barely .200 since returning from an adductor injury in May; though he added an infield single in Sunday’s 11th inning rally) to Andy Pages (whose All-Star candidacy fizzled with a .220 average in his last 16 games, despite also chipping in with an RBI single in the 11th) to Tommy Edman (whose defensive versatility has been valuable, but finished the first half in an 0-for-23 slump).
“I always expect more from our guys,” Roberts said, sounding less than satisfied with the state of his club at the midseason marker. “And they expect the same thing.”
Such struggles, after all, are reminders of how the Dodgers remain fallible in their pursuit of another World Series.
Their banged-up pitching staff remains another wild card in their pressure-packed title defense (though Tyler Glasnow has already returned, Blake Snell and Blake Treinen should be back shortly after the All-Star break, and Roki Sasaki is on track for a late August return after throwing a long-awaited bullpen session this week).
And for large swaths of the first half of the season, it all made the Dodgers look exceedingly mortal; none more so than during the seven-game losing streak that preceded their back-to-back wins against the Giants to close out this weekend’s series.
“I mean, obviously, we didn’t want to lose nine in a row going into the break,” Freeman said. “So getting a couple of wins and ending it on a good note after a really good first half that we played, that was big today.”
However, their issues have still done little to no damage to the team’s long-term chances, with a frustrating but fruitful opening act to this campaign leaving the Dodgers right where they want to be — even if, as Sunday epitomized, they haven’t gotten there the way they would have hoped.
“First place is first place,” Freeman said. “I think we’re OK with where we’re at.”
Jose Herrera hit a two-run double in a four-run fourth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-1 victory over the Angels on Sunday.
Blaze Alexander had two hits as the bottom of the Diamondbacks’ order was productive in a positive result just before the All-Star break. Alexander was batting eighth and Herrera ninth for Arizona, which won for just the fourth time in its past 12 games.
Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly (8-5) overcame early control trouble to give up one run and one hit over five innings. He had six strikeouts, with two of his four walks to the first three Angels batters of the game.
Mike Trout drove in a run for the Angels, who fell short in their bid to earn a third home series sweep since the start of June.
Angels right-hander José Soriano (6-7) gave up five runs, but just one was earned over five innings, with three walks.
The Angels led 1-0 after Trout’s RBI single in the third inning.
The Diamondbacks moved in front 4-1 in the fourth inning on a game-tying grounder from Eugenio Suarez, an RBI double from Alexander and Herrera’s two-run double. Suarez added an RBI double in the fifth.
Key moment: With runners at first and second and nobody out for the Diamondbacks in the fourth, Angels third baseman Yoan Moncada misplayed Suarez’s grounder to his left, opening the door for the four-run inning. Moncada, who has been bothered with knee soreness, was replaced on defense in the sixth inning by Kevin Newman.
Key stat: Kelly is 5-1 with a 2.67 ERA in his 11 starts that have come immediately after an Arizona loss, with opponents batting under .200 in those games.
Up next: Both teams return to action Friday after the All-Star break: Arizona is home to the St, Louis Cardinals; The Angels are at Philadelphia.
