consecutive game

An eye-watering, cough-inducing thick stench of burning plastic permeated Dodger Stadium on Sunday morning. The smoke from the Boyle Heights warehouse fire had spread into every crevice and corner of the facility, inescapable despite the masks handed out to staff.

“It’s a little dark out there, little Gotham City when I was driving up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Major League Baseball approved the Father’s Day game to be played, according to Roberts. Still, the ominous atmosphere was hard to miss. When rolling up Vin Scully Avenue, a white smoke hung like a curtain behind the small hills on the other side of outfield walls, obscuring the normally scenic view of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Perhaps that should’ve been the first sign things wouldn’t go as planned for the Dodgers, who lost 12-1 to the Orioles. The loss marked the first time the Dodgers (49-29) have lost consecutive games since May 12.

“It’s everywhere in baseball, to be quite honest, but my concern is our team,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ recent performances. “I don’t know the answer. It happens sporadically with all teams.”

By the time Emmet Sheehan took the mound, the smell had diluted, and the sunshine broke through the haze. The 26-year-old hasn’t won in more than a month, despite what at the time appeared to be a bounce-back performance against the Chicago White Sox last week. Sheehan lasted 3 1/3 innings against Baltimore, none particularly worse than the first.

Sheehan (3-5) loaded the bases, and Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo put Baltimore (37-42) on the scoreboard with a softly hit ball that split first baseman Freddie Freeman and right fielder Kyle Tucker. A two-out single by Colton Cowser put the Orioles up by two. With the bases loaded, Sheehan worked out of trouble with two strikeouts and a pop out. But the inning cost him four hits and nearly 30 pitches.

“We just got to have a better approach or plan with respect to the game situation,” Roberts said before the game. “Go out there and conduct, good and bad, not always gonna get the results, but I just think that we’re just missing at times the layer of the right approach in that particular situation.”

Sheehan struggled the most with his slider. Normally, the pitch elicits about a 43% chase rate, though against Baltimore it plummeted to 18%. The nose-dive, mainly caused by his inability to throw the slider in the zone, made his other pitches look less competitive, and the Orioles started connecting with his fastball. He gave up two home runs on the pitch to Taylor Ward in the second and Cowser in the third.

Meanwhile, Max Muncy drove in the Dodgers’ only run in the first with a line drive to left field. Shohei Ohtani, who had reached first on a walk and took second on Freddie Freeman’s single, slid home as the throw came in. However, the ball bounced off Basallo’s gear and ricocheted away from the plate.

The Orioles scored runs in four consecutive innings before Edgardo Henriquez threw a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth. The team tacked on four runs in the seventh, when, with a man on, the Dodgers ereliever Jonathan Hernández intentionally walked Gunner Henderson, who had gone two for four. So, He then threw a belt-high sinker down the middle of the plate that Pete Alonso smashed into the right field bleachers for a three-run homer. Hernández could only watch the ball soar, hunched over.

Blaze Alexander hit a two-run homer in the eighth. But position-player pitcher Miguel Rojas dealt a 1-2-3 ninth inning, one of the team’s three innings it held the Orioles scoreless. By then, the skies had cleared enough for the faint outline of the San Gabriel Mountains to appear. The Dodgers, though, finished the game as uncompetitive as it had started.

Injury Updates

Catcher Will Smith will not travel with the team this week as the team takes on the Twins and the Padres, Roberts said before the game. Smith is expected to participate in some baseball activities and will have a better estimate of his return depending on how he feels after.

Teoscar Hernández is slated to play in a rehab assignment Tuesday with the triple-A Oklahoma City Comets before joining the team in its final June series against the Athletics.

Reliever Blake Treinen, on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, got some good news. The MRI did not show any structural damage, only inflammation that Roberts attributed to the wear and tear of the season. “I don’t think it’ll be a long thing,” Roberts said. “Obviously, he’s on the IL, so it’s going to be two weeks, but hopefully it’s not much more beyond that.”

The quarter mark of a season isn’t necessarily a make-or-break point, but for the Sparks, it was starting to feel like it was close to it.

An 89-72 win over the expansion Portland Fire on Sunday to close a 1-2 homestand felt more necessary than the Sparks might have wanted to admit. But after struggling on the road before losing consecutive games at home against Las Vegas and Dallas amid a three-game losing streak, the Sparks needed something to go right.

Especially defensively, where the Sparks had seemingly been getting worse. They had their best defensive game of the season Sunday, holding Portland to 36% shooting — the second-lowest mark against them this season.

Kelsey Plum finished with 16 points and six assists and Nneka Ogwumike had a double-double with 20 points and 17 rebounds. Dearica Hamby had 22 points with 12 rebounds, a solid response for the veteran forward following her struggles in recent games.

Before the game, coach Lynne Roberts admitted that she would consider benching some players if things didn’t improve.

“That’s the stage we’re at,” she said. “So that’s where we’re at. So stay tuned.”

The Sparks (5-6) stuck with their usual rotation and held the Fire to 72 points, the fewest they’ve allowed in a game this season.

Plum didn’t register a shot attempt until early in the third quarter when she hit a mid-range jumper to go ahead 45-43. The Fire defense smothered her, and while Erica Wheeler and Ogwumike made some shots early, the Sparks mostly didn’t make Portland (6-7) pay for doubling up their star.

The Sparks went on an 8-0 run in the first quarter while the Fire struggled to make shots around the rim.

But the Sparks’ offense went cold in the second quarter, allowing Portland to come back to lead by two at halftime. Portland also dominated on the boards to get extra possessions.

The Sparks adjusted to open the third quarter with six consecutive points. Portland struggled to hold on to the ball and turned it over nine times in the third quarter, allowing the Sparks to outscore them 23-12.

Portland couldn’t recover and the Sparks capitalized on turnovers to pull ahead by as much as 18.

The Sparks will play at the Seattle Storm (3-9) next on Wednesday.

While Kelsey Plum was out with an ankle injury for the past week, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts called her the “head of the snake” of the team’s offense.

Plum, who entered the night leading the WNBA in scoring, netted 27 points but couldn’t save the Sparks from a fourth-quarter collapse and a 104-96 loss to the Dallas Wings at Crypto.com Arena on Friday night.

The Sparks’ offense looked better, but it had no answers for the three-headed attack of Arike Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers and Jessica Shepherd, who spearheaded the Wings’ 63% shooting effort in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

The Sparks have lost three consecutive games for the first time since last June. They lost to Connecticut on May 30 before a poor offensive outing against Las Vegas on Tuesday. With Plum, they eclipsed their 69-point total from that game by midway through the third quarter Friday.

But Dallas’ offense was too much for the WNBA’s worst defense.

The Sparks led by as much as nine in the second quarter but surrendered the lead late in the quarter as the Wings shot 55% to cut the lead to one by halftime.

The Sparks led 78-77 going into the fourth after a back-and-forth third quarter, but Dallas went on a 15-5 run to lead by eight. It was the only cold quarter for the Sparks, who scored just 18 points, with more than half of their offense coming from Plum.

It was a two-point game with under two minutes to play when Ogunbowale collected a rebound off her own shot to give the Wings a two-possession lead before Plum missed a three-pointer and a free throw.

Nneka Ogwumike notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Ariel Atkins scored 16 points.

Ogunbowale scored a game-high 30 points while Bueckers posted a career-high 14 assists and Shepherd had 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Wings guard Odyssey Sims left the court in a wheelchair in the second quarter after she twisted her left ankle coming down from a rebound attempt; she didn’t return. In the fourth, Aziaha James had to be carried off by her teammates after she got hit hard by an Ogwumike screen.

The Sparks will host the expansion Portland Fire (6-6) on Sunday, who lost a tight game against Phoenix on Friday night.

NASHVILLE — Hany Mukhtar scored three goals, his first hat trick since 2023, and Nashville SC beat LAFC 3-2 on Sunday night.

Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS MVP, became the seventh player in MLS history with at least five regular-season hat tricks.

Nashville (9-1-3) leads MLS with 30 points this season and is unbeaten, with five wins, in its past seven games. San José and Vancouver are tied atop the Western Conference with 29 points apiece.

LAFC (6-5-3) has lost three consecutive games and is winless in four straight.

Mukhtar tapped a pass to Warren Madrigal at the top of the penalty box. Madrigal flicked a slick pass back to a charging Mukhtar for the finish from the right corner of the six-yard box in the 13th minute. The 21-year-old Madrigal has five goal contributions (three goals, two assists) in the past five games.

Mukhtar also scored on free kicks in the 21st and 59th minutes. The 31-year-old has 101 goals across all competitions in 229 appearances for Nashville.

David Martinez scored a goal for the second consecutive game in the 22nd minute and Denis Bouanga added a goal in the 68th for LAFC.

Brian Schwake had seven saves for Nashville.

Thomas Hasal made his second start this season in place of Hugo Lloris (thigh) and finished with one save. Lloris was injured in training Wednesday and is out indefinitely.

LAFC outshot Nashville 21-8, 9-4 on target.

Nashville’s Sam Surridge and Andy Nájar did not play. Surridge missed his fourth consecutive game because of what the club is calling a “middle body” injury. The 27-year-old forward, who was injured late in a 4-2 loss to Charlotte on April 25, has nine goals in seven appearances (four starts) this season. Nájar suffered a muscle injury in Wednesday’s 3-0 win at New England.

The Dodgers opened MLB rivalry weekend with a blast — three to be exact — in a 6-0 win over the Angels on Friday at Angel Stadium.

The Dodgers also achieved something last year’s World Series-winning team couldn’t — they beat the Angels. The Angels had won seven consecutive games against the Dodgers, the franchise’s longest winning streak against its crosstown rival.

“Couldn’t beat these guys last year, couldn’t beat the Brewers last year [in the regular season],” manager Dave Roberts said with a large smile. “So it was nice to beat these guys.”

What changed? The Dodgers’ offense took command. They lit up Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz’s fastball. Andy Pages hit a three-run home run and Max Muncy hit his 12th homer of the season on the next at-bat to break a scoreless game in the fourth inning. Both home runs came off four-seamers Kochanowicz left too far over the center of the plate.

Roberts praised Pages’ ability to recover from slumps and not dwell too much on being uncomfortable.

“A young player, when it starts to go south, you can’t stop it,” Roberts said. “The 0-4 turns into a one for 20 pretty quickly. That’s what happened last year at the end of the year. Now, he had a little swoon and found a way to let it be, take walks or get a hit here to there to do some damage control until you get back to swinging long.”

During Pages’ at-bat, a pitch ricocheted off Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe’s left hand. Playing in his first game since returning from the injured list, O’Hoppe stayed in the game despite appearing to be in pain. He left in the sixth because of irritation in his left wrist — the same wrist he fractured on April 25.

In the sixth, Teoscar Hernández tacked on two more runs with an opposite-field home run after an errant sinker from Kochanowicz. The 33-year-old wore a big smile after he crossed home and was showered in sunflower seeds.

“Just getting the confidence back there,” Hernández said. “Getting better pitches to hit, hitting the ball harder, getting on base, taking a lot more walks, just do[ing] the positive things for the team.”

Hernández had gone 23 days without a home run, and had been moved down in the lineup. The left fielder said he wasn’t bothered by the change, though he joked about Pages taking his place as the sunflower seed shower manager.

“It’s getting better,” Hernández laughed. “He’s going to have my job when I’m not here.”

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein delivers during the first inning against the Angels at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Shohei Ohtani also put together good at-bats. He walked and had a double, but he also struck out twice.

Freddie Freeman was notably absent. Roberts texted Freeman a couple nights ago and told him he would give him Friday off. Freeman, ever the competitor, tried to get Roberts to reconsider, but the Dodgers manager held firm.

Freeman is expected to return to the lineup Saturday with Kyle Tucker taking the day off.

“Tucker’s been trending for a while, Will’s been consistent, I think Teo’s on the way back too,” Roberts said. “We got a lot of guys that are swinging well, and to get Freddie off his feet tonight, I think it was a good thing in the midst of 13 in a row.”

The Dodgers (27-18) didn’t need Freeman with the way their bullpen was pitching. Will Klein opened after Blake Snell was placed on the injured list because of loose bodies in his left elbow. The Dodgers recalled left-hander Charlie Barnes to take Snell’s place on the active roster.

The quick pivot didn’t affect the Dodgers much. The team relied on eight pitchers — Klein, Edgardo Henriquez, Blake Treinen, Wyatt Mills, Kyle Hurt, Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Barnes — to hold the Angels to two hits. No one ate up more innings than Klein, who struck out two and surrendered one hit across two innings. They also kept Tanner Scott fresh in case he’s needed Saturday.

“The only guy that went multiples was Klein, but, again, coming out of tonight the offensive run production allowed us to do that and give us a little coverage,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers now have a chance to do something last year’s team couldn’t: win a series against the Angels (16-29).