derail

What can derail the Dodgers?

From Maddie Lee: Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior was worried. But how worried? He couldn’t say at first.

The team had taken major steps to address Shohei Ohtani’s lingering left knee condition, presenting him with a plan to skip his last start before the All-Star break and have his knee drained that Sunday. And he’d co-signed it.

The swelling in Ohtani’s knee, however, had been more persistent than the team expected. And pitching seemed to irritate it.

“I would say, moderately concerned,” Prior eventually said in a conversation with The Times last weekend. “But no more concerned than I probably am with anybody else who’s had to deal with aches and pains. Hopefully, this break and this rest will get it to calm down a little bit, and then we’ll see where we’re at next weekend.”

Coming out of the All-Star break, the Dodgers face the most pressing question for their second half: Will they be able to manage Ohtani’s knee condition?

Of course, plenty of other questions loom: What approach will the Dodgers take at the trade deadline? Will the pitchers coming off the injured list in the second half provide enough depth? Can they maintain the best record in the majors?

But naturally, Ohtani’s health is tangled up in all those answers.

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Plaschke: Who says they don’t need him? Dodgers need to trade for Tarik Skubal

World Cup: Spain hopes to recapture 2010 magic

From Kevin Baxter: If something happened once, it can happen again. That’s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting at when he said “it’s like deja vu all over again.”

Berra, the late Yankee catcher and once New Jersey’s unofficial poet laureate, spent most of his life within walking distance of East Rutherford, N.J., where history could repeat itself all over again in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. And that makes his words newly relevant.

Argentina and Lionel Messi, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.

Sixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday’s game as the reigning European champion.

In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday’s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.

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World Cup schedule

All times Pacific
All games on Fox and Telemundo

Third-place match
France vs. England, Saturday, 2 p.m.

Championship match
Spain vs. Argentina, Sunday, noon

LeBron James remains mum on his next team

If LeBron James knows where he will play this coming season, he’s still not saying.

The NBA’s career scoring king and current free agent spoke publicly for the first time in weeks Thursday afternoon, though stopped short of revealing which team he’ll choose to play for this fall — despite at least one cry from someone in a jam-packed room shouting for him to “pick a team.”

“It’s going to be fun wherever I land,” James said.

The four-time NBA champion was recording an episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, a four-day event featuring dozens of athletes, celebrities and sports legends. Single-day general admission tickets were sold out, organizers said, and it’s likely that many of those patrons — there were at least several hundred there, phones out to capture the moment — were hoping to hear James’ next decision.

Not yet, he said.

“There’s no decision,” James said.

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This day in sports history

1939 — Henry Picard beats Byron Nelson 1-up in 37 holes to win the PGA championship.

1955 — Beverly Hanson beats Louise Suggs by three strokes in a playoff to capture the first LPGA championship.

1966 — Jim Ryun becomes the first American to hold the record in the mile since 1937. With a time of 3:51.3 at Berkeley, Calif., Ryun shatters Michel Jazy’s mark of 3:53.6 by 2.3 seconds.

1979 — Sebastian Coe breaks the world record in the mile with a time of 3:48.95 in Oslo, Norway. The time is rounded up to 3:49.

1983 — Bobby Hebert passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Michigan Panthers to a 24-22 win over the Philadelphia Stars in the first USFL championship game.

1983 — Tom Watson wins his second straight and fifth career British Open title. Watson shoots a 9-under 275 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England to finish one stroke ahead of Andy Bean and Hale Irwin.

1994 — Brazil wins a record fourth World Cup soccer title, taking the first shootout in championship game history over Italy.

2005 — Tiger Woods records another ruthless performance at St. Andrews, closing with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his 10th career major. He wins by five shots, the largest margin in any major since Woods won by eight at St. Andrews five years ago. He joins Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the career Grand Slam twice.

2006 — Stacey Nuveman and Lovieanne Jung each homer to power the United States to the World Cup of Softball title with a 5-2 victory over Japan.

2011 — Japan stuns the United States in a riveting Women’s World Cup final, winning 3-1 on penalty kicks after coming from behind twice in a 2-2 tie. Goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori makes two brilliant saves in the shootout. Japan, making its first appearance in the final of a major tournament, hadn’t beaten the Americans in their first 25 meetings.

2011 — Darren Clarke gives Northern Ireland another major championship, winning the British Open by three strokes over Americans Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.

2016 — Henrik Stenson shoots an 8-under 63 to beat Phil Mickelson by three strokes, becoming the first man from Sweden to win the British Open.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1924 — Jesse Haines of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Braves.

1925 — Tris Speaker is the fifth player to reach 3,000 hits.

1936 — Carl Hubbell’s 24-game winning streak over two years began as he beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0 on five hits.

1941 — Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak of 56 games was stopped by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Indians before 67,000 at Cleveland. The Yankees still won, 4-3.

1956 — In the second game of a doubleheader against Kansas City, Ted Williams hit his 400th home run. Williams connected in the sixth inning off Tom Gorman to give the Red Sox a 1-0 win over the A’s.

1966 — Chicago’s Billy Williams hit for the cycle to lead the Cubs to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader. Williams singled in the first inning, doubled in the third, had an RBI-triple in the fifth, homered to center in the seventh and popped out to third baseman in foul territory. The Cardinals took the opener 4-3 in 11 innings.

1969 — Jim Kaat, Gold Glove winner for seven straight years, was charged with three errors, leading to three unearned runs against the Chicago White Sox. Nevertheless, he won the game at Minnesota 8-5.

1974 — Bob Gibson struck out Cesar Geronimo of the Reds in the second inning to become the second pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts. Cincinnati beat St. Louis, 6-4.

1978 — Doc Medich of the Texas Rangers saved the life of a 61-year-old fan who had a heart attack just before a scheduled game at Baltimore. Medich, a medical student, administered heart massage until help arrived.

1987 — Don Mattingly became the first AL player to hit at least one home run in seven consecutive games as the New York Yankees disposed of the Texas Rangers 8-4.

1990 — Minnesota became the first team in major league history to pull off two triple plays in one game, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Boston as the Red Sox beat the Twins 1-0.

2007 — Ryan Garko hit a tying pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning and singled home the winning run in the 11th to give Cleveland a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.

2011 — Dustin Pedroia singled with two out in the top of the 16th inning, snapping a scoreless tie and giving the Red Sox a 1-0 victory over the Rays. It was the longest 1-0 game in the major leagues since the Brewers at Angels on June 8, 2004 went 17 innings.

2016 — Starling Marte hit a solo home run in the 18th inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 in a marathon game that lasted almost six hours. Pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy homered with two outs in the ninth inning for Washington.

2022 — Second-generation players take the first two spots in the 2022 amateur draft as SS Jackson Holliday, son of Matt Holliday, goes first overall to the Orioles, while OF Druw Jones, son of Andruw Jones, is selected second by the Diamondbacks.

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. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

WASHINGTON — The Senate is beginning a long series of votes Thursday on legislation to fund President Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies, moving toward passage of a three-year fix as Democrats have blocked the money for months in protest.

The roughly $70 billion bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January. The bill would fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.

First, though, Republicans must beat back a potential gauntlet of amendments that Democrats plan to offer, including to try and permanently ban Trump’s $1.776 billion settlement fund for allies who he believes have been politically persecuted. Democrats have said their first amendment Thursday morning will be to eliminate the fund and send the immigration spending bill back to committee.

Senate Republicans are using a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it has taken weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House — including a $1 billion proposal for White House security that they eventually scrapped and fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.

“The thing we’re trying to do here is to keep the focus on funding for ICE and CBP,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday evening, after the Senate voted to start debating the legislation. “This was narrow and targeted from the very beginning and clean, and we’re trying to maintain it that way.”

But it’s unclear if Republicans will have enough votes to fend off the Democratic amendments. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said this week that the fund would not move forward, and many GOP senators said Wednesday that they were satisfied with his remarks.

Yet Trump, who has been at odds with Senate Republicans in recent weeks, raised new doubts about the settlement’s future on Wednesday afternoon when he told reporters that the settlement is “very important” and said “I don’t know” whether it is dead or on hold.

“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said.

Democrats, Republicans plan to force votes on settlement

To pass legislation through the budget process called reconciliation, the Senate must first hold a long series of votes. Democrats are using that process to try and ban the settlement by law — and also kill the immigration spending bill.

After Trump’s comments about the fund, Schumer posted on X that “this is EXACTLY why” Democrats would be forcing votes to ban it.

Some Republicans also planned to try and put Blanche’s promise in writing. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has said he will offer an amendment to block any attempt at resurrecting the fund.

“We’ve got a sufficient number of Republicans who have been very clear they’ve got concerns there,” said Tillis.

ICE and Border Patrol money has been long fight

Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed in mid-February with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support. But ICE and Border Patrol remained without regular funding, and Republicans launched a new effort to pass three years of funding for those agencies with no Democratic votes.

Security money for Trump’s ballroom dropped

Work on the legislation was also delayed by Republican opposition to $1 billion in security funding for the White House, including for Trump’s new ballroom, that was added to the original bill.

Democrats and some Republicans questioned using taxpayer money for the massive project, and Republicans did not include it in the final bill when it was released on Wednesday.

Thune said he was working with his GOP conference to try and fight off any amendments and ensure he has enough votes for a simple majority to pass the bill in the 53-47 Senate.

“Keep in mind, we’ve got to keep them all together, make sure we’ve got 50 votes for it,” he said.

Republican House leaders said Wednesday they would like to clear the legislation before the end of the week, if the Senate can finish it. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said that House leaders were having internal conversations about the schedule.

“We just need to make sure everybody’s there,” Scalise said.

Jalonick and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press.

US State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott tells Al Jazeera that the United States is working to create conditions for “good faith conversations” between Lebanon and Israel, while accusing Hezbollah of trying to derail diplomacy through attacks and threats.