commanding

From Jack Harris: During the first five innings Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers patiently waited.

For impossible shadows to subside on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

For Milwaukee Brewers rookie star Jacob Misiorowski to lose steam amid an electric bulk-relief outing.

For the door to crack even slightly open, and give their veteran club — seeking a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series — the opportunity to burst through it.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the moment finally arrived.

And once the Brewers wavered, the relentless Dodgers pounced.

With a two-run rally fueled by professional hitting, aggressive baserunning and a little cat-and-mouse with the pitch clock, the Dodgers broke an early tie, took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish and moved to the doorstep of the World Series with a 3-1 win in Game 3 of the NLCS.

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Plaschke: Are these Dodgers the best postseason team in baseball history? They will be

Gold Glove finalist Mookie Betts’ fielding (and hitting) has Dodgers in position for sweep

Shaikin: It’s not easy to repeat as World Series champs, but Dodgers don’t seem to mind

Dodgers box score

MLB POSTSEASON SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

NLCS
Dodgers vs. Milwaukee

Dodgers 2, at Milwaukee 1 (box score)

Dodgers 5, at Milwaukee 1 (box score)

at Dodgers 3, Milwaukee 1 (box score)

Friday: at Dodgers, 5:30 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

*-Saturday: at Dodgers, 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

*-Monday: at Milwaukee, 2 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

*-Tuesday: at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

ALCS
Seattle vs. Toronto
Seattle 3, at Toronto 1 (box score)
Seattle 10, at Toronto 3 (box score)
Toronto 13, at Seattle 4 (box score)
Toronto 8, at Seattle 2 (box score)
Friday at Seattle, 3 p.m., FS1
Sunday at Toronto, 5 p.m., FS1
*-Monday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1

*-if necessary

From Ben Bolch: They’re calling their favorite audible again.

One quarterback guru contacts the other, asking for help in creating a dynamic offense.

The answer is always yes. The results say as much about Jerry Neuheisel and Noel Mazzone’s devotion to one another as they do about their ability to mass-produce yards and points for UCLA.

“No matter what happens,” Neuheisel said in an interview with The Times, “as long as you’re around him you have a smile on your face.”

The latest call came from the longtime apprentice to his mentor.

With the Bruins sputtering toward an 0-4 start, Neuheisel spoke with Mazzone about possibly returning to Westwood to assist with the offense. Just like he routinely had when he was UCLA’s offensive coordinator a decade earlier, Mazzone cultivated the necessary intelligence, learning that Neuheisel would be promoted from tight ends coach to playcaller before Neuheisel did.

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From Ryan Kartje: The call that King and Kaylon Miller waited their whole lives to receive came on their drive back from practice, late in their senior year at Calabasas High.

But Kaylon didn’t pick up. His phone marked the call as spam.

Fortunately for the twin brothers, their dream came with a follow-up text. When they called back, former USC offensive line coach Josh Henson delivered the good news. USC wanted both Kaylon, an offensive lineman, and King, a running back, to join the team as preferred walk-ons.

“We had to stop the car on the side of the road,” King said. “We were going crazy.”

“I turned to King, like, ‘What is life right now?’” Kaylon added. “There’s no way this opportunity is coming up.”

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KINGS

Filip Hallander scored his first career goal to give Pittsburgh the lead and the Penguins rallied to beat the Kings 4-2 on Thursday night.

Hallander, playing in his seventh NHL game, jammed in Rickard Rakell’s rebound at the near post for the short-handed goal at 6:50 of the third period to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead in the second game of a three-game California swing.

Evgeni Malkin, Connor Dewar and Sidney Crosby also scored, and Arturs Silovs made 30 saves for the Penguins.

Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala scored in the first period to give the Kings a 2-0 lead after one, but L.A. lost its third in a row. Anton Forsberg made 22 saves.

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Kings summary

NHL standings

DUCKS

Seth Jarvis scored his 100th and 101st NHL goals and added an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes remained the NHL’s only unbeaten team with a 4-1 victory over the Ducks on Thursday night.

Alexander Nikishin scored his first NHL goal and Shayne Gostisbehere matched his career high with three assists for the Hurricanes, who improved to 4-0-0 with their second win to start a six-game trip.

Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves against his former team for Carolina. Jarvis scored the Canes’ first two goals, giving him five in four games during his sizzling start.

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Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1948 — The Green Bay Packers intercept seven passes off Bob Waterfield in a 16-0 victory over the Rams.

1954 — Adrian Burk of the Philadelphia Eagles passes for seven touchdowns in a 49-21 victory over the Washington Redskins. Burk completes 19 of 27 passes for 232 yards and his longest touchdown pass is 26 yards.

1960 — The National League formally awards franchises to the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club Inc. headed by Joan Payson and a Houston, Texas, group headed by Judge Roy Hofheinz, Craig Cullinan and R.E. Smith.

1964 — Quarterback Jerry Rhome is responsible for 56 of Tulsa’s 58 points with seven touchdown passes, two rushing touchdowns and a 2-point conversion in a 58-0 shutout of Louisville.

1974 — The Washington Capitals beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 at the Capital Centre to earn the first victory in franchise history.

1989 — The Calgary Flames tie an NHL record by scoring two goals, both short-handed, in 4 seconds and also three goals in a 27-second span during the third period to pull into an 8-8 tie with the Quebec Nordiques.

1991 — Paul Coffey of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the highest-scoring defenseman in NHL history. Coffey gets two assists in an 8-5 victory against the New York Islanders at the Civic Arena, giving him 1,053 career points (309 goals and 744 assists). Coffey passes longtime Islanders star Denis Potvin.

1991 — Angel Cordero Jr. becomes the 3rd jockey to win 7,000 races.

1992 — Jari Kurri of the Kings scores his 500th goal in an 8-6 win over the Boston Bruins. Kurri becomes the first European-trained player and 18th player overall to reach the mark.

2000 — Patrick Roy sets an NHL record with his 448th career victory as Colorado beats Washington 4-3 in overtime. Roy snaps a tie with Terry Sawchuk, who held the mark since 1970. Sawchuk earned his 447th victory in his 968th game, while Roy wins No. 448 in his 847th game.

2015 — Star forward Cristiano Ronaldo becomes Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer across all competitions, overtaking club legend Raul with his 324th goal in a 3-0 win over Levante.

2015 — Jalen Watts-Jackson scoops up a flubbed punt attempt and lumbers 38 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the game, giving No. 7 Michigan State a shocking 27-23 win over No. 12 Michigan at the Big House.

2017 — Boston’s Gordon Hayward breaks his left ankle just five minutes into the season, a grisly injury that overshadows Kyrie Irving’s return to Cleveland and the Cavaliers’ 102-99 win over the shocked Celtics.

2021 — The Chicago Sky defeat the Phoenix Mercury 81-74 to win their first WNBA Championship three games to one. The Sky’s Kahleah Copper is named Finals MVP.

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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

In 2018, Paul Simon walked onto the Hollywood Bowl stage for what most in the crowd believed to be his last tour stop in Los Angeles, ever. Simon expected that too — he’d billed the event as his “Homeward Bound — Farewell Tour.” After 50 years of performing, a then-record three Grammy wins for album, a catalog of some of the most sophisticated and inquisitive American songwriting ever put to paper — he’d go out in full garlands.

So what a shock and delight when Simon, now 83, announced a few years later that he was not quite done yet. In 2023, he released a new album, “Seven Psalms,” an elliptical, gracious invocation for the arc of his life, drawing on biblical imagery and intertwined guitar fugues.

But even better, Simon would also return to the stage for a new tour, including a five-night run at Disney Concert Hall. For L.A. fans, these shows were one last chance to reconnect with Simon, who now had a profound late-career album to bookend his catalog. Those songs spanned from his years in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the ‘60s and ‘70s to a Sabrina Carpenter duet on “Saturday Night Live’s” 50th anniversary special.

Wednesday’s show — the last of the Disney hall stand — got to all of it, with Simon still in exquisite form in the last light of his performing career.

If Simon, seven years ago, had any doubts about his interest or ability to perform live at this exacting level, they must have disappeared the second he got a guitar in his hand at Disney Hall. The set opened with a full run of “Seven Psalms,” a short yet profound song cycle in which a dense, ornamental acoustic guitar figure recurs over several songs in an intimate valediction.

“Seven Pslams” belongs alongside David Bowie’s “Blackstar” or Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings” albums in the canon of wide-lens looks at the mystery of late life. Simon’s music was wise before its time even when he was a young man. But the perspective he has at this vantage, on the backside of 80 with a rejuvenated muse, was especially moving.

“I lived a life of pleasant sorrows, until the real deal came,” he sang on “Love Is Like a Braid.” “And in that time of prayer and waiting, where doubt and reason dwell / A jury sat, deliberating. All is lost or all is well.“

Simon’s band members for this stint — a dozen or so strong, spanning percussion, woodwinds and guitars — were mostly impressionists during this portion, adding distant bells and chamber flourishes to the patina of these songs.

While he kicked up his heels a bit on the bluesy “My Professional Opinion,” there was a trembling power in “Trail of Volcanoes” and, especially, “Your Forgiveness,” in which Simon took stock of his time on Earth and whatever lies next. “Two billion heart beats and out / Waving the flag in the last parade / I have my reasons to doubt,” he sang, followed by a gracious incantation: “Dip your hand in heaven’s waters, god’s imagination … All of life’s abundance in a drop of condensation.”

Paul Simon plays and sings Wednesday at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The hit-heavy back half of the show was a little rowdier. One fan even made a bit of history when he tossed a $20 bill onstage, which was enough for Simon to gamely oblige his request to play a verse of “Kodachrome.”

Simon and his band had looser reins here. “Graceland” and “Under African Skies” still radiated curiosity for the world’s musical bounty, with the fraught complexity of that album nonetheless paving a stone on the road for African music’s current global ascent. (He introduced his bassist, Bakithi Kumalo, as the last surviving member of the original “Graceland” band.)

An elegant “Slip Slidin’ Away” led up to a poignant “The Late Great Johnny Ace,” which took a tale of rock ‘n’ roll self-destruction and pinned it to a generational sense of cultural collapse. Simon didn’t reference any current events beyond the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and John Lennon assassinations, but you could feel a contemporary gravity in the song.

Veteran drummer Steve Gadd reprised his jazzy breaks for “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and the fatherhood ballad “St. Judy’s Comet” was a sweet, deep-cut flourish. (That mood continued when Edie Brickell, Simon’s wife and vocalist, slipped in from the side stage to whistle the hook on “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.) But the band hit full velocity on a pair of songs from “The Rhythm of the Saints.” “Spirit Voices” conjured an ayahuasca reverie with its thicket of guitars and hand percussion, while the sprawling and time-signature-bending “The Cool, Cool River” showed Simon the musician — not just the poet — still in absolute command.

Simon’s set never got to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “You Can Call Me Al,” but the final encore wrapped with just him and a guitar and the eternal hymn of “The Sound of Silence.” His guitar work retained all its original power in the opening instrumental runs, and Simon looked genuinely grateful that, perhaps even to his own surprise, the stage hadn’t lost its promise or potency for him just yet.

Who knows whether Wednesday was the last time Angelenos will get to see Simon perform live (this tour wraps next month in Seattle). If it was, then it was a beautiful benediction for one of America’s defining songwriters. But if it wasn’t, take any chance you get to see him again.

She had fielded questions regarding Earps’ retirement on Thursday, admitting it had been a “hard” start to the week.

Wiegman was visibly emotional, reflecting on the good times they shared together and unwilling to discuss how frustrating the sudden departure of the 32-year-old may be.

With only 13 caps for Hampton prior to kick-off, and none for the other two goalkeepers in the squad, fears were raised about their inexperience.

But when the team in front plays so well, it quickly becomes less of a concern.

Hampton spent the majority of the second half stood still, watching on as her team-mates tried to add to their five first-half goals, managing one more through Chloe Kelly.

Hat-trick hero Beever-Jones gave some insight into Wiegman’s talk before the Group A3 tie: “She said before the game, ‘it’s a new kit, it’s a new England, we have a new squad’.”

But it wasn’t a new England, it was a “vintage” England, according to Bardsley, who was waxing lyrical by the time the fifth goal came in only the 33rd minute, sealing a treble for Beever-Jones.

Lucy Bronze nodded in England’s second, while Beth Mead joined in on the action and substitute Kelly added the finishing touch with the sixth in the 62nd minute.

“This is reminding me of vintage England, casting myself back to 2022,” said Bardsley, who made 81 appearances for the Lionesses. “Portugal have been poor, but among the noise, it is so wonderful to see the girls with smiles on their faces.”

They were not the only ones with smiles on their faces as supporters danced and celebrated at full-time, clearly encouraged by what they had witnessed.

England’s form has dipped throughout the last 18 months. Just seven weeks ago they were beaten in Leuven by Belgium – who are bottom of the Women’s Nations League group – and two months after picking up a victory over world champions Spain at Wembley.

But the Lionesses showed they were up to the task when the pressure was on, buoyed by the return of key players Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood from injury.

“There has been a lot of noise [this week] and players wanted to put that to bed,” added Johnson.

“Questions in the press conference were relentless and they are going to be. They just want to talk about football and they made it all about the football.

“Mary [Earps] will be missed, but when you score six goals in the fashion they did, we are just talking about the football and how good England were.”