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Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. It’s too hot. I’m convinced that the Earth has been torn from its orbit and is hurtling toward the sun.

Trade deadline review

The Dodgers made some acquisitions at the deadline, the big one being Tarik Skubal. Let’s take a look:

Acquired Skubal from the Tigers for minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith

Andrew Friedman recently told reporters, “There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game. Any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations.”

Participate he did, as the Dodgers got the top player available. Skubal won the last two AL Cy Young Awards when he went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA last season, leading the league in ERA both seasons. He also led in strikeouts in 2024 with 228. Last season he struck out 241. You can see all of his stats here.

Skubal was taken by Detroit out of Seattle University in the ninth round of the 2018 draft. He reached the majors in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, going 1-4 with a 5.63 ERA in eight starts. He has gotten better each season since until this season, where he is 7-6 with an ERA of “only” 2.81.

Skubal was born in Hayward, Calif., on Nov. 20, 1996. He was a freshman All-American for Seattle in 2015, then missed most of the 2016 and all of the 2017 season after having Tommy John surgery. He pitched again in 2018 and was drafted by Detroit.

After winning his second Cy Young last season, he set the arbitration record by getting $32 million for 2026 (the Tigers had countered with $19 million). On May 4 this season, he had surgery to remove loose bodies in his pitching elbow (the same surgery Edwin Díaz had). He came back on June 13 and since then he has gone 4-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 59.1 innings, giving up 43 hits and walking 10 while striking out 77. The Dodgers will be on the hook for about $10 million of his salary this season.

Was this a good trade? Well, for now, yes, as the Dodgers are a better team with Skubal than without him. Long term, it depends on a lot of things. Will he be a key factor if they win the title again? He’s a free agent after this season, will the Dodgers re-sign him? Will the three prospects the Dodgers gave up turn out to be good to great major leaguers?

In 1987, Detroit was battling for the AL East and pulled off a deadline deal, acquiring Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves. Alexander went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA for the Tigers, who won the division thanks in large part to that. So, a great trade, right?

Well, Alexander retired two years later, and the prospect the Tigers sent to the Braves turned out to be pretty good: John Smoltz.

Hope, 21, is an outfielder who has hit at every level of the minor leagues. He is hitting .291/.368/.525 at double-A this season. He is considered by all sources to be one of the top 100 prospects in baseball, ranked 63rd by Baseball America, 27th by MLB and 18th by Baseball Prospectus.

Ryan, who turns 28 this month, pitched for the Dodgers in 2024, with a 1.33 ERA in four starts. He has been hampered by injuries ever since. He had arm surgery in August 2024 that sidelined him for the 2025 season. He made eight starts for triple-A Oklahoma City this season, with a 4.46 ERA. He has great stuff, but his age and injury history indicates he might never get a real chance to show it.

Smith, 21, was drafted in the third round in 2023. He missed the 2024 season because of injuries. He made only nine starts with a 6.00 ERA last season and in 21 starts in Class A ball this season, he was 0-7 with a 4.36 ERA, striking out 113 in 74.1 innings.

Acquired Ben Rortvedt from the New York Mets for Chayce McDermott

Rortvedt is a familiar name to Dodgers fans, as he filled in admirably when needed for Will Smith last season and took the backup catcher job from Dalton Rushing. He hit only .224/.309/.327, but he seemed to always get key hits, or laid down a bunt when needed. And the pitching staff loved him. It was as if he had been a Dodgers catcher for years. Look at the team ERA by catcher last season:

Rortvedt, 2.89 (140.1 innings)
Rushing, 3.87 (325.1)
Smith, 4.00 (865.1)
Chuckie Robinson, 5.14 (seven)
Austin Barnes, 5.16 (103)

Doesn’t it seem like Barnes has been off the team for a few seasons already?

McDermott has a career 12.00 ERA in 15 major league innings.

Acquired Hunter Feduccia and Jacob Kmatz from the Tampa Bay Rays for Jack Suwinski and $250,000 in international bonus pool money

The Dodgers acquired another old friend by getting Feduccia, who is also a catcher. He played in eight games for the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025 before he was traded to Tampa Bay for Rortvedt and pitcher Paul Gervase. Feduccia is one of those Dodger prospects who never panned out, as he is hitting .207/.297/.290 in 104 major league games. But, he knows the Dodger pitching staff and the Dodgers are better with Rortvedt/Feduccia than with Robinson/Eliezer Alfonzo.

The reason the Dodgers acquired two catchers is because of some bad news. Rushing has a torn UCL in his right elbow and more than likely won’t be able to play catcher again this season, though he may be able to serve as a right-handed pinch-hitter. With Rushing out, and Will Smith still sidelined by his neck injury, the Dodgers turned toward defense. Neither Rortvedt nor Feduccia have proven to be starting catchers, but they have been solid backups. The question is, who will get the most playing time the rest of the way? They both bat left-handed.

Acquired pitcher Kris Bubic from the Kansas City Royals for Carlos Duran

This reminds me of the trade for Danny Duffy at the 2021 deadline. Duffy was a good pitcher who was injured, but the Dodgers hoped he would return in time to help down the stretch during the 2021 season. He didn’t return. They signed him in the offseason hoping he would return from injury to help during the season. He didn’t return. He then retired.

Bubic was on the 60-day IL for the Royals, and is on that IL for the Dodgers. He was an All-Star last season for the Royals, finishing the season 8-7 with a 2.55 ERA in 20 starts (116 innings). He was 3-2 with a 4.11 ERA in nine starts this season before going on the IL because of shoulder soreness. The Dodgers hope he can return before the end of the month.

But let’s not hold our breath awaiting that, OK?

Duran, 25, had a 3.38 ERA in 42.2 innings at triple-A Oklahoma City.

Acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen from the Colorado Rockies for Nick Frasso and Landyn Vidourek

This trade happened on July 20, but we will include it. Halvorsen was, wait for it, on the 15-day IL for the Rockies because of shoulder inflammation. He is currently off the IL and has pitched 5.1 scoreless innings at Oklahoma City. He reaches 100 on the radar gun and has a 4.31 career ERA in 71 innings in the majors.

Frasso, 27, was selected in the fourth round by Toronto in the 2020 draft, was sent to the Dodgers for Mitch White in 2022 and never reached the majors with L.A. He had shoulder surgery before the 2024 season and sat out the season.

Vidourek, 22, an outfielder, was chosen by the Dodgers in the third round of the 2025 draft. He has power but strikes out a lot, fanning 141 times in 317 at-bats in the minors, where he is hitting .205/.357/.369.

So, there you have it. Your new Dodgers. The Dodgers are a better team today than they were before the deadline. It guarantees nothing though. They got Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer in previous years and did not win the title.

The Dodgers rotation, if everyone is healthy:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Skubal
Shohei Ohtani
Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow

Next in line: Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Eric Lauer, Emmet Sheehan.

Here’s what the other NL contenders did. I won’t comment, because this newsletter is long enough already and there’s still another item after this one, but if you click on each player’s name, you will be taken to their stat page at baseball-reference.com.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Acquired Lars Nootbaar from the St. Louis Cardinals for Daniel Eagen, Sandro Santana and a player to be named later.

Atlanta Braves

Acquired Tyler Uberstine from the Boston Red Sox for Eli White.
Acquired Duncan Davitt from the Chicago White Sox for Joey Bart.
Acquired Brent Suter from the Angels for Nacho Alvarez Jr.
Acquired Tyler Mahle from the San Francisco Giants for Anthony Molina.
Acquired Lane Thomas and Bailey Falter from the Kansas City Royals for Carter Holton and Lucas Braun.

Chicago Cubs

Acquired Kevin Gausman from the the Toronto Blue Jays for Brett Bateman and Ty Southisene.
Acquired Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor from the New York Mets for Jefferson Rojas.
Acquired Ryan Zeferjahn from the Angels for Moises Ballesteros and Mason McGwire.
Acquired Braxton Garrett from the Miami Marlins for Jonathon Long and Jace Beck.
Acquired Aaron Civale and cash from the Athletics for Aiden Moffett.
Acquired David Peterson from the New York Mets for Cole Mathis.

Miami Marlins

Acquired Brandan Bidois, Hyun Seung Lee, and Brian Sanchez from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Lake Bachar.
Acquired Victor Vodnik from the Colorado Rockies for Connor Norby and Aiden May.
Acquired Jonathon Long and Jace Beck from the Chicago Cubs for Braxton Garrett.
Acquired Brayden Taylor, Adrian Santana and Jacob Kisting from the Tampa Bay Rays for Liam Hicks.

Milwaukee Brewers

Acquired Antonio Senzatela from the Colorado Rockies for Mark Manfredi and Juan Martinez.
Acquired Dustin May and JoJo Romero from the St. Louis Cardinals for Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale.
Acquired Bo Naylor and Codi Heuer from the Cleveland Guardians for Blake Perkins and Craig Yoho.
Acquired Braden Shewmake from the Houston Astros for cash considerations.

Philadelphia Phillies

Acquired Luis Arraez and Caleb Kilian from the San Francisco Giants for Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair.
Acquired Colby Thomas from the Athletics for Seth Johnson.
Acquired Manuel Colon and cash considerations from the Kansas City Royals for Nolan Hoffman.
Acquired Brooks Raley from the New York Mets for Luke Gabrysh and John Spikerman.

San Diego Padres

Acquired Robbie Ray from Giants for Miguel Mendez and Joniel Hernandez.
Acquired Hunter Stratton from Pirates for Andrew Moore.
Acquired Casey Mize and Gage Workman from Tigers for Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf.

For full reports on all the trades across the majors, I suggest visiting mlbtraderumors.com.

What, me worry?

So, the Dodgers have lost six in a row and were swept in two consecutive series. Time to worry or panic?

To find the last time the Dodgers lost six in a row and were swept in consecutive series, you have to go all the way back to … July 2025. The Dodgers woke up on July 4 leading the NL West by nine games. They then proceeded to get swept twice:

lost to Houston, 18-1
lost to Houston, 6-4
lost to Houston, 5-1
lost to Milwaukee, 9-1
lost to Milwaukee, 3-1
lost to Milwaukee, 3-2

The then lost their first game against the Giants, 8-7. After that, they were in first place by only four games.

Then they won two in a row and lost three more in a row. They went 5-13 over one stretch that month and went 10-14 in July. They lost five in a row to start September. They ended up winning the division by three games, but did not get a first-round bye.

My memory fails me, what happened in the postseason last season?

If the Dodgers get a couple of major injuries and lose like 15 in a row, then we can begin to panic. But they are going to make the postseason, and anything can happen in the postseason. They could be swept in the first round, they could win it all again. It’s all part of the ride.

Up next

Friday: Dodgers (Roki Sasaki, 5-5, 4.64 ERA) at Arizona (Merrill Kelly, 8-9, 5.04 ERA), 6:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 11-7, 2.76 ERA) at Arizona (Brandon Pfaadt, 6-1, 3.66 ERA), 5:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Dodgers (*Justin Wrobleski, 11-3, 3.31 ERA) at Arizona (*Eduardo Rodriguez, 10-4, 2.71 ERA), 1:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

All times Pacific

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong put on a show as NL MVP talk heats up: ‘He’s a great player’

‘Dodgers do all the right things.’ Tarik Skubal dismisses the ‘ruining baseball’ critics

Two of Rob Reiner’s children pay tribute to their late parents with Dodgers ceremonial first pitches

Dodgers add catchers Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, pitcher Kris Bubic at trade deadline

Dodgers Debate: The Dodgers will stop at nothing to win

Inside the aggressive push Andrew Friedman and Dodgers made to acquire Tarik Skubal

Shaikin: ‘L.A. is America’s team.’ But the Brewers should have been Tarik Skubal’s team

Plaschke: Tarik Skubal trade brings Dodgers hate, envy … and another championship

And finally

Vin Scully is interviewed by Roy Firestone. Watch and listen here.

Until next time …

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Ryan Kartje: The initial concept for USC’s Bloom Football Performance Center was first born on the back of a napkin. It was late November 2021, and Lincoln Riley was on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was slated to be introduced as USC’s coach.

The then-hypothetical facility had been a critical contingency for Riley, who never toured USC’s facilities, but knew — like most people around college football — that the Trojans were seriously lacking in that department. For years, USC officials had resisted doing anything about it. The John McKay Center hadn’t even been around a decade, they’d inevitably say. Plus, there was the not-so-insignificant problem of where to build a new facility on campus.

Riley knew that. And he asked anyway.

“That was a little bit, in that moment, my way to test how committed SC was,” Riley said Thursday. “This honestly was probably the biggest test of commitment for, ‘How invested are we to get this program back?’ When that was met with no hesitations, that was a pivotal part of me taking this job. I think it’s fair to say, if that commitment hadn’t been made, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

Almost five years later, the plans Riley sketched out that morning have been brought to life in one of college football’s finest facilities, the towering jewel of a $225-million capital project at USC that also includes a new baseball stadium (Dedeaux Field) and a women’s soccer and lacrosse field (Rawlinson Stadium).

Bronze plaques of previous USC players adorn the wall of the Mark and Mary Stevens Trojan Legacy Wall at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center.

(Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The three-story, 163,000-square-foot football-only facility opened Wednesday night, with Riley reflecting back on that napkin and marveling at how far the program had come since. But this gleaming building and its array of amenities had far exceeded his initial expectations, he said.

He called it “magical.”

“You can say or promise that you’re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that’s what our university has done,” Riley said. “I’m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.”

Continue reading here

UCLA opens training camp

From Connor Dullinger: You compete. Or you complain.

UCLA head coach Bob Chesney coined it at the beginning of preseason camp last year in Harrisonburg, Va., before leading James Madison to a 12-2 record, a Sun Belt championship and its first College Football Playoff appearance.

“You either compete or complain, you can’t do both,” Chesney said on Aug. 5, 2025. “You are either full of pride and won’t allow yourself to have mental, physical and emotional lack of discipline and toughness, or you fill yourselves with pity and you have a lack of all three of those things.”

Chesney carried that same tune on his first day of fall camp in Westwood, leading his new team.

The Bruin faithful got its first taste of their newly minted head honcho at his introductory news conference on Dec. 9, where he made promises of turning around the football program, elevating it to its height of the past, and reengaging the Bruin community.

And Chesney has not wavered since.

And that consistency includes the way he is training his players leading up to UCLA’s opener against California, where the former Pac-12 rivals will meet for a night game between two first-year head coaches.

Continue reading here

Sean McVay not sure what Aaron Donald will do

From Gary Klein: Rams coach Sean McVay said Thursday that he and Aaron Donald “probably talk every day.”

But it’s apparently still wait and see as to whether the star defensive lineman will return from a two-year retirement and rejoin a Rams team that is favored to win the Super Bowl.

McVay said Donald, a three-time NFL defensive player of the year, “looked great” during a workout on Tuesday at Loyola Marymount with defensive line coach Giff Smith and team trainers, and that Donald was continuing to go through his decision-making process.

“Things are going in the right direction,” McVay said. “He’s feeling good but we’re not to where we’re able to say whether or not he is or isn’t ready to do it.”

Continue reading here

Zach Neto leads Angels over Orioles

Zach Neto hit a three-run home run to lift the Angels over the Baltimore Orioles 4-1 in the final game of the series on Thursday afternoon.

Wade Meckler singled on a ground ball in the third inning that was overthrown by Orioles starting pitcher Brandon Young at first, advancing him to second. Nolan Schanuel was then walked to set up Neto’s 411-foot homer that went over the center-field wall.

Schanuel hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh for Meckler to score the fourth run of the game.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Sparks upset the Lynx

Rae Burrell scored 17 points, and Erica Wheeler had four in a game-ending 8-0 run and the Sparks ended Minnesota’s 10-game winning streak, beating the WNBA-leading Lynx 89-82 on Thursday night.

Kayla McBride hit a three-pointer to give Minnesota (25-7) an 82-81 lead, but the Lynx missed their final seven shots and went scoreless over the final 4:53.

Nneka Ogwumike had a go-ahead layup, Wheeler hit a pull-up 10-footer, and Monique Akoa Makani and Wheeler had the final two baskets in the late run for the Sparks (12-18). The Sparks beat the Lynx for the first time in three tries this season.

Continue reading here

Nneka Ogwumike says she isn’t giving up on Sparks’ season despite adversity

Sparks box score

WNBA standings

This day in sports history

1952 — Bion Shively, 74, drives Sharp Note to victory in the third heat of the Hambletonian Stakes.

1982 — Speed Bowl wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats with 25-year-old Tom Haughton in the sulky, the youngest to win the Hambletonian.

1992 — Sergei Bubka, the world record-holder and defending Olympic champion, fails to clear a height in the pole vault.

2005 — Justin Gatlin dominates the 100 meters at the track and field championships in Helsinki. The Olympic champion wins in 9.88 seconds, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of Michael Frater of Jamaica. The margin of victory is the largest in the 10 world championships held since the meet’s inception in 1983.

2012 — Aly Raisman becomes the first U.S. woman to win Olympic gold on floor. She picks up a bronze on balance beam on the final day of gymnastics at the London Olympics and just misses a medal in the all-around.

2016 — Jim Furyk becomes the first golfer to shoot a 58 in PGA Tour history. Three years after Furyk became the sixth player on tour with a 59, he takes it even lower in the Travelers Championship with a 12-under 58 in the final round.

2016 — American swimmer Katie Ledecky sets a new world record with a time of 3:56.46 to win the gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

2021 — Kevin Durant with 29 points leads USA to his third and the team’s fourth consecutive Olympic men’s basketball gold medal with an 87-82 win over France in Tokyo.

2021 — Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra wins his country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1907 — Walter Johnson won the first of his 417 victories, leading the Washington Senators past the Cleveland Indians 7-2.

1922 — Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns hit two home runs in the sixth inning of rout over the Washington Senators.

1923 — Cleveland’s Frank Bower went 6-for-6 with a double and five singles as the Indians routed the Washington Senators 22-2.

1956 — The largest crowd in minor league history, 57,000, saw 50-year-old Satchel Paige of Miami beat Columbus in an International League game at the Orange Bowl.

1963 — Jim Hickman of the New York Mets hit for the cycle in a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Hickman’s cycle came in single-double-triple-homer order.

1985 — The strike by the Major League Baseball Players Assn. ended with the announcement of a tentative agreement. The season resumed Aug. 8.

1999 — Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his 3,000th hit, with a two-run shot in Tampa Bay’s 15-10 loss to Cleveland. Boggs already had a pair of RBI singles when he homered off Chris Haney in the sixth inning.

2004 — Greg Maddux became the 22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.

2007 — San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 to break Hank Aaron’s storied record with one out in the fifth inning, hitting a full-count, 84-mph fastball from Washington’s Mike Bacsik. Noticeably absent were Commissioner Bud Selig and Aaron. The Nationals won 8-6.

2016 — Ichiro Suzuki tripled off the wall for his 3,000th hit in the major leagues, becoming the 30th player to reach the milestone as the Miami Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 10-7.

2016 — Baltimore’s Manny Machado became the second player in major league history to homer in the first, second and third innings, driving in a career-high seven runs in a 10-2 victory over Chicago.

2018 — Bartolo Colon of Texas became the winningest pitcher from Latin America in the Rangers’ 11-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners. After six tries, the 45-year-old right-hander got his 246th victory and finally broke the tie with Nicaragua’s Dennis Martinez. Colon gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings and improved his record to 6-10.

2021 — Host nation Japan wins its first ever gold medal in Olympic baseball by defeating the United States 2-0.

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.

Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.

The five words every baseball soul outside of Los Angeles dreaded hearing.

The Dodgers are going to three-peat.

The six words that every baseball soul everywhere must now acknowledge.

It’s over. The chase for baseball’s best pitcher, the hunt by baseball’s best team, the pennant race, the World Series, all of it.

It’s over. The Dodgers just stole it all again, three months early but right on time, their third consecutive championship cemented when they traded for the Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner and quite simply the best pitcher in baseball.

Everybody wanted him. The Dodgers were the only team with enough assets to get him. Of course they were. They always are.

And in return, they surely will win a third consecutive championship against a withering and overmatched group of pretenders that could add Skubal only in their dreams.

He cost the Dodgers minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith. So? None of the three is considered a top-five Dodgers prospect in what appears to be a scandalously one-sided deal.

He could be a free agent this winter and may cost $400 million to retain. So? The Dodgers have that much in their couch cushions.

The Dodgers’ injury-scarred rotation needed a stud starting pitcher like Skubal and, as this column noted last month, there was no excuse for baseball’s wealthiest and smartest team not to grab him.

So the Dodgers grabbed him. Of course they did. They are rushing full bore toward that three-peat and, to the delight of the most appreciative fans in baseball, nothing is going to get in their way.

“Everything that we do is in mind with the partnership that we have with our fans, the 50,000 people that come out here every day,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, in a Sunday afternoon news conference, later adding, “And so for us, it’s about doing our part to try to back up our end as much as we can in partnership with them to hopefully have another parade.”

Friedman has won many trades in the dozen years he’s run the Dodgers, but this may be his greatest swindle yet. Think about it. He acquired the hottest pitcher on the market for three mostly unheralded prospects nearly two full days before the trade deadline.

Geez, Detroit, you think you could have taken more time to scour the market? And with the prospect-rich Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves in the mix, you think you could have done better than one good outfielder, one injury-prone 28-year-old pitcher and one anonymous dude going nowhere?

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, can’t wait to see Tarik Skubal “in Dodger blue.”

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The Dodger player reaction was shock, disbelief then joy.

“They were fired up, obviously,” said Friedman.

Nobody was more excited than Friedman, who showed rare emotion when talking about his latest triumph.

“Watching Tarik Skubal pitch in the playoffs last year was must-see TV,” he said. “I was in awe watching the energy, the dominance he exhibited there, and I can’t wait to see it in Dodger blue.”

The rest of baseball will hate them for this. They don’t care. Critics will say this is yet another example of how they are ruining the game. They could give a rip.

A move like this — the insanely rich getting insanely richer — could be cited this winter as a reason for the game shutting down over a labor dispute. Not their problem.

With a sore Shohei Ohtani looking increasingly doubtful for a meaningful October on the mound, with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow still sidelined because of injuries, Skubal can slide into the No. 2 spot in a rotation that, if everyone gets healthy, could wind up being the best in baseball history.

Tarik Skubal was a two-time Cy Young winner for the Detroit Tigers.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Of course, in the immortal words of Kobe Bryant, the job is not finished.

There are still questions, even for a team that has all the answers.

Skubal is a tremendous postseason pitcher, with a 2.04 ERA in six starts, but will his surgically repaired left elbow survive through his third postseason?

After pushing 200 innings the last two seasons, he underwent a newfangled minimally invasive procedure on May 6 to remove a loose body from his elbow. Recovery time for a similar surgery performed the old-fashioned way is two to three months, but he was back on the mound in a game just a month later.

Will this new operation hold up? Time will tell, but the Dodgers will be holding their breath.

After Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Skubal, the Dodgers have another potentially big question. What do they do about Ohtani?

He’s got a balky knee, and now a painful biceps, and the Dodgers have kept him off the mound for a moment, but what happens in October?

By acquiring Skubal, the Dodgers can afford to pull Ohtani out of the rotation altogether and allow him to focus on hitting, which has taken a bit of a hit with the pitching issues. But would he accept such a move, which might feel like a demotion? Ohtani always has put winning first, but he also began the season openly acknowledging his quest for a Cy Young Award. So there’s that.

The Dodgers still will need some good fortune to round out the rotation.

Tarik Skubal returned to the mound in June after surgery to address an elbow issue.

(Jason Miller / Getty Images)

They say Snell and Glasnow are both on the verge of returning from what has essentially been season-long injuries. But, come October, they’ll both be 33, so believe only what you see.

Roki Sasaki has been tremendous since the All-Star break — that new glove has been a giant success — but he’s still never started a postseason game. And for all his surprise greatness this summer, Justin Wrobleski also has yet to start a postseason game.

It all could get interesting. But it shouldn’t be suspenseful.

Skubal solves all mysteries. Skubal ends all arguments. Skubal saves the summer.

The Dodgers are the most championship-driven and fan-devoted team in all of sports. They will do whatever it takes, however it takes, whenever it takes, to win.

Five words that unequivocally prove it.

Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.

CHICAGO — The boo birds were active at Wrigley Field this week, as the Dodgers were swept by the Cubs in a three-game series.

The vitriol for the World Series favorites, days after they traded for the best player available at the deadline (two-time CY Young winner Tarik Skubal) touched almost every player in the Dodgers lineup. But Cubs fans’ boos were by far the most enthusiastic for the right fielder who’d departed their team in free agency this past winter.

Kyle Tucker, for his part, dodged the first question that mentioned the hostile reception he received in his first series back at Wrigley Field since signing a four-year, $240 million contract with the Dodgers over the offseason.

“I liked playing here last year,” Tucker said after the game Monday. “There were some really great guys over there, and they have a good team. So it’s nice being back and playing here. I liked it.”

When pressed on whether he understood the boos, Tucker said: “I don’t know. I tried my hardest last year. I tried playing through a hand fracture and calf thing, just trying to get back to the playoffs for them and trying to do what I could to help out the team last year with them. Hit really well in the first half, and second half didn’t go as great, and kind of didn’t end up great at the end of the year. But I had a good run.”

Let’s unpack that.

This year, Dodgers fans have mostly seen a version of Tucker who’s on pace for one of the worst offensive seasons in the four-time All-Star’s career. But when the Cubs landed Tucker in a blockbuster trade with the Astros before the 2025 season, hoping he’d elevate their offense, he did just that for the first three months of the season.

His best month was June (.982), when, unbeknownst to the public, he was playing through a small fracture in his right hand.

Not being able to grip the bat properly eventually took a toll on his swing mechanics, sending him into an extended slump. When he finally seemed to be coming out of it in late August, a left calf injury sidelined him in early September.

When the injury lingered far longer than initially expected, hoping to return in time to contribute in the postseason, Tucker made the unorthodox decision to travel to Tampa to work with the physical therapy group that helped him recover from a fractured shin the year before.

Unable to completely eradicate the symptoms of his strained calf, Tucker returned to the Cubs lineup as the designated hitter the last weekend of the regular season and through the playoffs, where he went 7-for-27 with a home run in Game 4 of the NLDS.

Through the ups and downs of the season, Tucker still came out of it with a 2025 Silver Slugger award. He had the second-highest OPS on the team (.841) among players with at least 100 plate appearances, behind former Dodger Michael Busch (.866).

In response to Tucker’s comments Monday, Cubs fans on social media said they were upset with Tucker for playing through his hand injury, and for leaving the team to address his calf injury — which seemed to set up a no-win situation for his relationship with the fan base.

Tucker’s union with the Cubs was always expected to be short term. That was always the case from the moment they acquired him one season away from what was projected to be a lucrative free agency. Nothing had changed by the last out of the team’s 2025 season, as they fell one win shy of meeting the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

With the Dodgers, Tucker has yet to put together a real hot streak at the plate. He’s hit far better in away games (.828 OPS) than at home (.601) this year.

On the road again, Tucker went 5-for-11 in three games against the Cubs this week — perhaps a sign of good things to come, in a season full of false starts.

“Just working every single day, just trying to be consistent with my work and what I do in the cage and everything and trying to translate it out onto the field,” he said Monday. “Felt pretty good today. Had good at-bats the past couple days and stuff. So just trying to continue that moving forward into tomorrow’s game and so forth.”

His biggest moment of the series came Tuesday. In his first at-bat of the game, he lifted a solo home run into the left-field bleachers and trotted around the bases to a chorus of boos.

It was the Dodgers’ only run of the game.

Dodgers’ skid reaches six

From Maddie Lee: Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went directly to Shohei Ohtani’s competition for NL MVP with his gripe.

Ebel, who coached Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this year, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play center field every day?

Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”

He was exaggerating slightly. Ohtani’s leadoff homer came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t really how Crow-Armstrong felt.

“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.

The National League MVP race transformed into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6, which extended their season-high losing streak to six games.

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Dalton Rushing out with torn UCL

From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers ended up with an acute need at the trade deadline after all.

Catcher Dalton Rushing’s elbow injury was diagnosed as a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, as manager Dave Roberts first told AM 570’s David Vassegh.

“It’s a bummer because he has made a lot of strides,” Roberts said “Even just this right here, you’re talking about over 125 plate appearances that you’re missing out on, and also opportunities to catch major league innings. So I feel for Dalton.”

He’ll be shut down from throwing for four to six weeks, Roberts said. But the plan is for him to resume hitting before then. Asked if Rushing could catch again this season, Roberts said he believed there was a “very small” chance.

“I hope I’m wrong,” Roberts said. “He’s a tough kid, and so for him to go through this speaks a lot. So I think that would be great if he can. Certainly a possibility with the time, but we’re certainly trying to keep the bat alive, for sure.”

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Angels lose again

Tyler O’Neill and Coby Mayo hit successive homers in the fourth inning, Trevor Rogers took a two-hitter into the seventh and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels 5-2 Wednesday night.

Despite unloading several key players before Monday’s trade deadline, the Orioles remain in the thick of the AL wild-card race after winning the first two games of this series against the last-place Angels.

Baltimore (56-58) will seek to complete a three-game sweep on Thursday. With a victory, the Orioles will move within a game of .500 for the first time since April 30.

Jose Siri homered for the Angels, who have lost 10 of 12.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Sparks lose to Sky

From Marisa Ingemi: The Sparks couldn’t build off of Sunday’s win Wednesday and dropped to seven games under .500 with a 95-88 loss in Chicago. It aligned with the story of the 2026 Sparks, where being fully competitive has been just out of reach except for a few flashes.

A decent middle of the game was overwhelmed by a bad opening and closing. Chicago scored 33 points in the first quarter and 34 in the fourth to keep the Sparks from fully closing in. Dearica Hamby led the Sparks with 22 points and 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.

The Sparks (11-18) fell into a 15-point hole in the first after Chicago rattled off five three-pointers. The Sky (12-19) led 48-38 at the half.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

Chargers back in San Diego

From Sam Farmer: This is where it all started for Jim Harbaugh, this idyllic hilltop University of San Diego campus with its sweeping views of the city and ocean, Spanish Renaissance architecture and courtyards lined with palm trees.

Harbaugh had been an assistant coach elsewhere, learning the ropes as an offensive consultant at Western Kentucky and quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders, but this was his first chance to be a head coach. It launched a second career for the longtime NFL quarterback, taking him to Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers — where his team fell just short of a Lombardi Trophy — to a national championship at Michigan, and now to the Chargers, with whom he’s beginning his third season.

The Chargers have moved training camp to USD for Tuesday and Wednesday this week, reuniting Harbaugh with a place legendary Raiders owner Al Davis advised him not to come.

“Awww, Jimmy, Jimmy, I thought you wanted to be a pro coach,” Davis, voice dripping with disappointment, told him in 2004 when he learned Harbaugh was leaving his Raiders gig.

“But Mr. Davis, you coached college football,” Harbaugh countered.

“Yeah,” Davis said, “but that was at USC, not U-S-D.”

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Chargers assistant coach Max McCaffrey is making a name for himself

Rams love Sean McVay’s camps

From Gary Klein: NFL training camps are two weeks of hot practices.

Two weeks of dorm life and meetings. Separation from family.

For the Rams, under coach Sean McVay, it’s also apparently something else.

“How he runs it,” safety Kam Curl said, “it’s love.”

Love?

Let’s be clear: Training camps no longer are the two-a-day-workout, full-contact slogs of decades past.

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New eligibility rules should help USC

From Ryan Kartje: During his eight seasons as a head college football coach, Lincoln Riley often faced a frustrating conundrum when it came to playing freshmen: Were a handful of plays at the end of a blowout really worth burning a whole year of eligibility?

“I can remember at times going to a player in the game,” Riley said Tuesday. “‘We can probably play you like five to 10 plays at the end of the game. But if you do that, we can’t play you anymore, or we’re going to have to take your redshirt.’ We’re having to talk about that in-game. … You had to be ready to adjust on the fly.”

But after years of meticulously monitoring that playing time, those adjustments will no longer be necessary, after the NCAA adopted new eligibility rules in June. The new model gives athletes a blanket five years to compete, effectively eliminating the need for redshirts or special waivers. It also could alter how rosters are constructed.

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This day in sports history

1958 — Glen Davis of Columbus, Ohio, sets a world record in the 400 hurdles with a time of 49.2 in Budapest, Hungary.

1966 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Brian London in the third round to retain his world heavyweight title.

1972 — South African Gary Player wins his second PGA golf championship with a two-stroke victory over Jim Jamieson and Tommy Aaron.

1978 — John Mahaffey beats Tom Watson and Jerry Pate on the second playoff hole to win the PGA Championship.

1984 — American athlete Carl Lewis wins long jump (8.54m), his second of four gold medals at Los Angeles Olympics.

1991 — Debbie Doom of the U.S. pitches her second consecutive perfect game in women’s softball at the Pan American Games. Doom threw a perfect game at the Netherlands Antilles in the opener and matches that performance against Nicaragua, winning 8-0.

1992 — Carl Lewis leads a U.S. sweep in the long jump in the Olympics with a mark of 28 feet, 5 1-2 inches on his first attempt. Mike Powell takes the silver and Joe Greene the bronze. Kevin Young demolishes one of track’s oldest records with a time of 46.78 seconds in the 400 hurdles. Bruce Baumgartner becomes the first American wrestler to win medals in three straight Olympics, taking the gold in the 286-pound freestyle division.

1994 — Jeff Gordon wins the Brickyard 400, the first stock car race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1995 — Canada’s Donovan Bailey wins the 100 meters at World Track and Field Championships in Goteborg, Sweden, marking the first time since 1976 an American fails to win a medal in the event at a major meet.

2001 — Two-time champion Marion Jones is disqualified and has her string of 42 consecutive 100m final victories snapped by Zhanna Pintusevich-Block of Ukraine at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton, Canada.

2006 — Tiger Woods (30) becomes the youngest player with 50 PGA Tour wins with a three-stroke victory over Jim Furyk in the Buick Open.

2006 — Floyd Landis is fired by his team and the Tour de France no longer considers him its champion after his second doping sample tested positive for higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone.

2006 — Sherri Steinhauer wins the Women’s British Open for the third time, and the first since it became a major.

2008 — Sammy Villegas, a former University of Toledo basketball player, is charged with point shaving. Villegas is accused of shaving points during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

2008 — Kim Terrell-Kearney wins the first professional championship match featuring two Black bowlers, beating Trisha Reid 216-189 in the U.S. Bowling Congress’ U.S. Women’s Open. Terrell-Kearney collects her second U.S. Women’s Open title and third career major title.

2010 — Tyson Gay upsets the defending world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt in a race between the two fastest runners in history. Gay beats the Jamaican at the DN Galan meet in 9.84 seconds at the same stadium where Bolt last lost a race two years ago. Bolt finishes second in 9.97.

2015 — Ryan Lochte becomes the first man to win the 200-meter individual medley four consecutive times at the world swimming championships. Lochte comes home strong on the freestyle lap and touches first in 1:55.81 in Kazan, Russia.

2017 — I.K. Kim won the Women’s British Open, hanging on with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory over Jodi Ewart Shadoff and her first major championship.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1908 — John Lush threw a six-inning, rain-shortened no-hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0. It was Lush’s second no-hitter against the Dodgers.

1933 — Pinky Higgins of the Philadelphia Athletics hit for the cycle and drove in five runs in a 12-8 win over the Washington Senators.

1952 — Satchel Paige, 46, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to pitch a complete game or a shutout when he beat Virgil Trucks and the Detroit Tigers 1-0 in 12 innings.

1972 — Hank Aaron hit his 660th and 661st career home runs to break Babe Ruth’s record for most home runs with one club. The 661st came in the 10th inning to give the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds.

1981 — As a result of a seven-week strike, major league baseball players approved a split-season format. The New York Yankees, Oakland A’s, Philadelphia Phillies and Dodgers were declared the first-half champions and automatically qualified for the divisional series.

1985 — The Major League Baseball Players’ Assn. went on strike.

1986 — The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-11 in a record-setting battle of grand slams. Texas’ Toby Harrah hit a grand slam in the second inning before Larry Sheets and Jim Dwyer connected for grand slams in Baltimore’s nine-run fourth.

1988 — Rich Gossage registered his 300th save, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4.

1999 — Tony Gwynn went 4-for-5, singling in his first at-bat to become the 22nd major leaguer to reach 3,000 hits, as the San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos 12-10.

2001 — Boston’s Scott Hatteberg performed the ultimate baseball opposite. Hatteberg hit a grand slam one at-bat after lining into a triple play as the Red Sox defeated the Texas Rangers 10-7. Hatteberg lined into a triple play in the fourth inning and in the sixth he hit his second career grand slam to move Boston ahead for good.

2002 — At 32, Robb Nen became the youngest player to record 300 saves, as San Francisco beat the Chicago Cubs 11-10. Nen became the 16th member of the 300-save club.

2007 — St. Louis tied a major league record with 10 straight hits in a 10-run fifth inning, with pitcher Braden Looper and Aaron Miles getting two apiece in a 10-5 victory over San Diego.

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.

CHICAGO — Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went directly to Shohei Ohtani’s competition for NL MVP with his gripe.

Ebel, who coached Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this year, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play center field every day?

Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”

He was exaggerating slightly. Ohtani’s leadoff homer came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t really how Crow-Armstrong felt.

“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.

The National League MVP race transformed into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6.

“Over the course of a season, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Ohtani, a four-time MVP, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s too early to think about that. So in a way for me it’s more important for the team to win and for me to contribute to that.”

Though Crow-Armstrong played along with the MVP talk, he came around to a similar sentiment.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” he said. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about and it’s fun to acknowledge and I think it’s absolutely OK to pay attention to. But it’s not following me up to the plate.

“If you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, like, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

Ohtani was considered the runaway MVP favorite early in the year, while his pitching performance also put him in the Cy Young conversation. But his extended absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and defense have made the race more interesting.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday leading the majors in fWAR (7.5), followed by Ohtani (6.4).

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Pete Crow-Armstrong drops the bat after hitting his second home run against the Dodgers.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as [Ohtani] feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s cool. But … I would feel much more accomplished taking them (the Dodgers) down at some point. I want to see this group (the Cubs) in October because I think it’ll be a dangerous, dangerous group in the playoffs.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts irked Cubs fans a week and a half ago when, asked to evaluate Ohtani’s season overall, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said before the game Wednesday. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

That continued in the finale of the three-game series, for Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani.

Ohtani, struck first, notching the 32nd leadoff homer of his career and 29th as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise history, behind Mookie Betts (32).

In the bottom half of the inning, Crow-Armstrong matched Ohtani with a tying blast.

The next inning, he delivered a two-run double, and in the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard to put the Cubs up 5-1.

Not to be outdone, Ohtani led off the fifth inning with a single, but the Dodgers failed to score. Then in the eighth, he made it his first multi-homer game of the season, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

“He’s a great player,” Ohtani said of Crow-Armstrong. “But I’m really focused on myself on the hitting side of things right now, really working towards hopefully getting back on the mound and working on that side of the game as well.”

Ohtani’s timeline back to the mound is nebulous at this point. Roberts didn’t have a specific day circled to resume playing catch, and Ohtani didn’t provide one, either.

“It’s getting pretty good day by day,” Ohtani said of his knee. “It’s hard to tell at this point what the schedule is going to look like. First I need to do [weighted ply balls], then go into long toss, then go into a bullpen progression. Rather than rush the progression of this I would rather make sure we’re headed in the right direction. But making sure we’re taking the right steps.”

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t necessarily need to build up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the year. Ohtani said he’d leave the timing of his progression up to the front office.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Freddie Freeman pulled

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman left the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after a pitch hit his right hand. But X-rays came back negative, Roberts said.

“I obviously didn’t come out of that at-bat because I knew it hit my bat as well,” Freeman said. “It hit bat, then hand and pinched my hand onto the bat. Next pitch, I swung. I could swing, and I swung again. As the adrenaline wore off, pain got a little bit more.”

Freeman said he expects to be ready to return to the lineup by the Dodgers’ next game, against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.

CHICAGO — The Dodgers ended up with an acute need at the trade deadline after all.

Catcher Dalton Rushing’s elbow injury was diagnosed as a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, as manager Dave Roberts first told AM 570’s David Vassegh.

“It’s a bummer because he has made a lot of strides,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 7-6 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday, which extended the Dodgers’ season-high losing streak to six games. “Even just this right here, you’re talking about over 125 plate appearances that you’re missing out on, and also opportunities to catch major league innings. So I feel for Dalton.”

He’ll be shut down from throwing for four to six weeks, Roberts said. But the plan is for him to resume hitting before then. Asked if Rushing could catch again this season, Roberts said he believed there was a “very small” chance.

“I hope I’m wrong,” Roberts said. “He’s a tough kid, and so for him to go through this speaks a lot. So I think that would be great if he can. Certainly a possibility with the time, but we’re certainly trying to keep the bat alive, for sure.”

Even if Rushing doesn’t return behind the plate, his left-handed bat off the bench could be valuable for the Dodgers down the stretch and even into the postseason. As constructed, the Dodgers don’t have an equivalent for pinch-hitting situations.

Next, Rushing, in conversation with the team and medical staff, will have to decide whether he needs to undergo surgery to repair the ligament. He did not make the trip to Chicago, so he was not available to comment on the situation.

“Over the next couple weeks, I think that we’ll have a better idea of how he’s responding with time,” Roberts said. “I do think that there’s really not much cost, outside of two weeks or whatever, to kind of wait and see how he responds to some treatment and some kind of stuff that they decide to do.”

Depending on the severity of a partial UCL tear, rehab and strengthening the muscles around the elbow can sometimes at least put off surgery. If that’s not a viable option, there are a range of operations to address UCL injuries — from reinforcement with an internal brace, to full reconstruction (Tommy John surgery).

Elbow surgeries tend to come with a lengthy recovery timeline. So, even if surgery becomes inevitable, as long as Rushing can hit and the Dodgers think he can contribute off the bench into the postseason, holding off any operation until the offseason could make sense.

Rushing’s injury will impact not only the catching corps but also the offense, necessitating a shift to defense-first catchers.

Taking on starting catcher duties for nearly two months with Will Smith (neck) on the injured list, Rushing had an .809 OPS when the Dodgers scratched him from the game Sunday with what they initially called minor arm irritation.

“I think that it was something that was there, and then it just showed itself Sunday,” Roberts said.

Though Smith has been at least hitting in the batting cages, he’s had a back-and-forth recovery from an injury the Dodgers initially hoped wouldn’t need an IL stint.

“Everything keeps moving forward, which is a good thing,” Roberts said. “There’s no timeline as far as when he faces pitching, let alone when he goes out on a [minor-leauge rehab assignment]. Then we’ll have more clarity on a projected date of return, but right now I don’t know.”

So, the Dodgers acquired an entirely new catching tandem before the trade deadline Monday. On Tuesday, they activated Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, both catchers who have played for the Dodgers in recent years. They optioned Eliezer Alfonzo and designated Chuckie Robonson for assignment.

Rortvedt, who Roberts said could get the “taking a lion’s share for the foreseeable future,” caught two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in his Dodgers debut Tuesday. Feduccia caught Lauer on Wednesday.

Lauer gave up six runs and 11 hits to the Cubs and lasted just four innings, in his worst appearance as a Dodger. Wednesday marked the Dodgers’ first loss with Lauer on the mound, snapping a streak of nine games.

The Cubs completed a three-game sweep, during which the Dodgers were outscored 22-12. They’ve been swept for two straight series, also dropping all three home games to the Red Sox last weekend. The Dodgers were last swept in consecutive series last year, getting swept by the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers July 4-9.

MVP standoff between Ohtani, Crow-Armstrong

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani gestures towards the dugout after hitting a home run to lead off Wednesday’s game.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

The frontrunners in the National League MVP race traded leadoff home runs at Wrigley Field Wednesday.

First was Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who notched the 32nd leadoff homer of his career and 29th as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise history, behind Mookie Betts (32). And he made it his first multi-homer game of the season in the eighth inning, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong matched him with a tying blast in the bottom of the first inning. In the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard for his third multi-homer game of the season.

Roberts irked Cubs fans a week and a half ago when, asked to evaluate Ohtani’s season overall, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

Ohtani was considered the runaway MVP favorite early in the year, while his pitching performance also put him in the Cy Young conversation. But his extended absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and defense have made the race more interesting.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday leading the majors in fWAR (7.5), followed by Ohtani (6.4).

Ohtani is expected to begin playing catch in the near future, but Roberts didn’t have a specific day circled for catch play or his return to the mound.

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t necessarily need to build up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the year.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Tarik Skubal starts, but Dodgers lose

From Maddie Lee: Southpaw Tarik Skubal’s experience pitching in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field came with a hostile reception. Cubs fans booed him as he approached the bullpen gate in right field to warm up before the game. They jeered even louder and longer as he took the mound in the bottom of the first inning.

That’s what came with the “Los Angeles” scrawled across the chest of his new blue jersey. Over the weekend he’d gone from the top trade candidate in baseball, to a symbol of the Dodgers’ evil reign.

A sports betting site even seized on the moment and paid for an airplane to fly a “THE DODGERS RUINED BASEBALL” banner over Wrigley Field a few hours before the game Tuesday — although it was upside down.

As the boos quieted, he authored a quality start in his Dodgers debut. But that wasn’t enough to serve as the team’s new stopper, as the Dodgers’ offense fell flat. They stumbled to a 5-1 loss and extended their skid to a season-high five games and ensured a second straight series loss.

“There’s certainly no panic,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve been through a lot of these things, this core group of guys. I think that you just got to kind of reset, flush it, find a way to win a game, and not let it just compound. But it never feels good to lose.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Orioles

Pete Alonso hit a two-run single, Tyler O’Neill had his third pinch-hit homer of the season, and the trade-depleted Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels 3-1 on Tuesday night.

Cade Povich pitched six scoreless innings in his first start in nearly three months for the Orioles, who traded Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer at the deadline but remain in contention for a wild-card playoff berth.

Christian Franklin made his major league debut, starting in Ward’s former spot in left field, and scored on Alonso’s third-inning single against former Oriole Grayson Rodriguez (3-4).

The Angels had 11 hits but went one for 12 with runners in scoring position.

Rodriguez pitched a season-high seven innings, giving up two runs and three hits to lower his ERA to 7.24. The Orioles traded him to the Angels in the offseason for Ward, who was shipped to Seattle at the deadline.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Gianni Infantino’s FIFA reign is in peril

From Kevin Baxter: When Gianni Infantino was chosen to replace Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA, he was seen as a reformer, someone who would bring transparency and openness to soccer’s international governing body, which had long been mired in scandal and deceit.

A decade later the reformer has been exposed, hoisted by his own petard after a secret partnership with a member of President Trump’s family circle to sell 20% of the World Cup to private investors was exposed. It was a deal so brazen it made past FIFA transgressions seem quaint by comparison.

Less than two weeks after Infantino closed one of the most successful World Cups in history, one that brought in a record $15 billion in revenue, The Times of London revealed that Infantino had begun bribing FIFA’s 211-member associations, giving them until Sept. 19 to accept his plan to sell a stake in the commercial and tournament rights to the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments to a private equity firm headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and an inveterate White House counselor.

Sign on, the federations were told, and you’ll get $20 million. Decline, and FIFA will give you just a fraction of that.

Under pressure, Infantino announced Friday he was withdrawing the plan, known as the FIFA Forward Enterprise. But it turns out there was more to the proposal than originally thought.

Much, much more.

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This day in sports history

1936 — At the Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens wins his third of four gold medals, winning the 200-meter race in an Olympic-record 20.7 seconds.

1954 — The first election for the Boxing Hall of Fame is held. Twenty-four fighters are elected, with the most noteworthy from the modern era Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong. Fifteen are selected from the pioneer era including John L. Sullivan, Gentleman Jim Corbett and Jack Johnson.

1967 — The Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 13-7, in a preseason game, for the first AFL victory over an NFL team.

1984 — American Joan Benoit wins the first Olympic marathon for women in 2:24:52, finishing 400 meters ahead of Norway’s Grete Waitz.

1991 — Sergei Bubka becomes the first to clear 20 feet outdoors in the pole vault, breaking his own world record by a half-inch at the Galan track meet in Malmo, Sweden.

1997 — Michael Johnson wins his third straight 400-meter title at the world championships in Athens, Greece, capturing the gold medal in 44.12 seconds.

2005 — Jason Gore shoots a 12-under 59 in the second round of the Nationwide Tour’s Cox Classic in Omaha, Nebraska.

2006 — Warren Moon becomes the first Black quarterback to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio; joined by Troy Aikman, John Madden, Rayfield Wright, Harry Carson and Reggie White.

2007 — Lorena Ochoa wins the Women’s British Open — the first women’s pro tournament played at venerable St. Andrews — for her first major title.

2012 — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt claims consecutive gold medals in the marquee track and field event at the Summer Games in London. Only about fifth-fastest of the eight runners to the halfway mark, Bolt erases that deficit and overtakes a star-studded field to win the 100-meter dash final in 9.63 seconds, an Olympic record that lets him join Carl Lewis as the only men to win the event twice.

2012 — Britain’s Andy Murray cruises past Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in the Olympic tennis singles final at Wimbledon. Serena and Venus Williams win the doubles title, as Serena becomes tennis’ first double-gold medalist at an Olympics since Venus won singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games. Ben Ainslie earns another gold medal in the Finn class to become the most successful sailor in Olympic history.

2014 — The San Antonio Spurs hire WNBA star Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, making her the first woman to join an NBA coaching staff.

2017 — Justin Gatlin spoils Usain Bolt’s farewell beating him in the 100 meters at the world track championships in London. Bolt gets off to a slow start and Gatlin holds him off at the line in 9.92 seconds. American sprinter Christian Coleman takes silver in 9.94 seconds and Bolt took bronze in 9.95.

2018 — The Springfield Lasers win their first World TeamTennis title edging the Philadelphia Freedoms 19-18. The Lasers were 0-5 in WTT championship finals and winless in three meetings with the Freedoms during the 2018 regular season.

2018 — Georgia Hall of England catches Pornanong Phatlum in a final-round duel at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the Women’s British Open for her first major title.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1921 — Pittsburgh radio station KDKA and announcer Harold Arlin provided listeners with the first broadcast of a major league game. The Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5.

1927 — Philadelphia’s Cy Williams hit for the cycle, drove in six runs and scored three times to lead the Phillies to a 9-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1931 — For the second time in his career, Jim Bottomley got six hits as the St. Louis Cardinals beat Pittsburgh 16-2 in the second game of a doubleheader.

1932 — Detroit pitcher Tommy Bridges lost his bid for a perfect game on a bloop single by the 27th Washington batter, pinch-hitter Dave Harris. The Tigers beat the Senators 13-0.

1933 — Sammy West of the St. Louis Browns had four extra-base hits in a 10-9, 12-inning win over the Chicago White Sox.

1942 — Don Kolloway’s two-out steal of home in the fifth inning was the only run as the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 1-0.

1969 — Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell became the only player to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. Stargell’s shot off of Alan Foster cleared the right-field pavilion and landed 506 feet from home plate.

1973 — Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves pitched a 9-0 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. He walked three and struck out four in recording the first no-hitter by the franchise in Atlanta.

1975 — The first eight batters for Philadelphia Phillies got hits for a major league record, en route to a 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.

1984 — Cliff Johnson of the Blue Jays hit his 19th career pinch homer to set a major league record as Toronto beat the Orioles 4-3 at Memorial Stadium.

1999 — Mark McGwire became the 16th member of the 500 home run club, hitting two homers — Nos. 500 and 501 — in the St. Louis Cardinals’ loss to San Diego.

2001 — The Cleveland Indians tied a major league record and became the first team in 76 years to overcome a 12-run deficit to win, defeating the Seattle Mariners 15-14 in 11 innings.

2005 — Albert Pujols became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 11-3.

2006 — Trevor Hoffman set a major league record with his 11th 30-save season and the San Diego Padres defeated the Washington Nationals 6-3.

2007 — Tom Glavine earned his 300th victory in an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The 41-year-old left-hander became the 23rd pitcher with 300 victories and only the fifth lefty to win 300.

2013 — Alex Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 (211 games) and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players in a drug case — the most sweeping punishment since the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago. Ryan Braun’s 65-game suspension last month and previous punishments bring to 18 the total number of players disciplined for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a closed anti-aging clinic in Florida accused of distributing banned performing-enhancing drugs.

2019 — Jonathon Villar of the Orioles hits for the cycle in a 9-6 loss to the Yankees.

2021 — Team USA is headed to the Olympic Gold Medal Game for the first time in 21 years, beating South Korea, 7-2 at the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Teenager Eui-lee Lee holds the U.S. to two runs in five innings, one a mammoth homer by Jamie Westbrook, but five relievers are called on in the sixth when the US scores five times. Jack López drives in two for the US while Hye-seong Kim goes three for three in a losing cause. Ryder Ryan gets the win in relief of Joe Ryan.

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.

CHICAGO — Southpaw Tarik Skubal’s experience pitching in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field came with a hostile reception. Cubs fans booed him as he approached the bullpen gate in right field to warm up before the game. They jeered even louder and longer as he took the mound in the bottom of the first inning.

That’s what came with the “Los Angeles” scrawled across the chest of his new blue jersey. Over the weekend he’d gone from the top trade candidate in baseball, to a symbol of the Dodgers’ evil reign.

A sports betting site even seized on the moment and paid for an airplane to fly a “THE DODGERS RUINED BASEBALL” banner over Wrigley Field a few hours before the game Tuesday — although it was upside down.

As the boos quieted, he authored a quality start in his Dodgers debut. But that wasn’t enough to serve as the team’s new stopper, as the Dodgers’ offense fell flat. They stumbled to a 5-1 loss and extended their skid to a season-high five games and ensured a second straight series loss.

“There’s certainly no panic,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve been through a lot of these things, this core group of guys. I think that you just got to kind of reset, flush it, find a way to win a game, and not let it just compound. But it never feels good to lose.”

The first pitch Skubal threw as a Dodger, en route to holding the Cubs to two runs and four hits in six innings, was a sinker that zipped through the top of the strike zone at 96.3 mph, according to Statcast, to get ahead in the count against Cubs MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong.

For the next four pitches, he alternated between his four-seam fastball and off-speed pitches — first his changeup and then curveball. And to finish off the at-bat, he located a sinker at the bottom of the zone for a called strike three.

It was a strong first impression, and his first strikeout of six.

“Going to bed last night, excited,” Skubal said. “It felt like my major-league debut, kind of same type of vibe in terms of the nerves running through. But I think that’s all good stuff.”

Skubal retired the first six batters he faced, with the help of a sliding catch by center fielder Andy Pages and a diving grab by right fielder Kyle Tucker.

To end the second inning, Skubal got new Cub Tyrone Taylor to chase a changeup just outside. Skubal skipped backward off the mound and buried his fist in the pocket of his glove in celebration.

The next inning, Skubal wavered ever so slightly. He gave up a first-pitch solo home run to Dansby Swanson.

“I think everyone around the league and he himself would say he’s an aggressive pitcher, he comes after you,” Swanson told reporters. “ He likes to get strike one, he likes to get strike two. You’ve just got to be ready to hit pitches he may leave over the plate, and he doesn’t do that very often. He’s been so good for a reason.”

Then, after another sliding catch by Pages and a strikeout, he gave up a single to Crow-Armstrong and walked Seiya Suzuki.

In his first high-pressure situation of the night, Skubal induced Alex Bregman to fly out on a changeup.

Then, he was back to cruising. Skubal put together perfect fourth and fifth innings.

“He creates really tough angles,” said catcher Ben Rortvedt, after his first game since the Dodgers reacquired him at the trade deadline. “Really commands the glove side really well. And his off-speed is really good, his changeup is elite. It’s two fastballs you can put on a dime. It’s just really good stuff.”

In the sixth, an unlucky bounce pushed the go-ahead run across the plate.

With one out, Skubal walked Suzuki on four pitches. Then he missed his spot with a fastball to Bregman, who roped a line drive to deep right field. Tucker tracked it back to the warning track but just missed the catch as he slammed into the wall. The double put runners on second and third.

Skubal held the Cubs at bay for one more batter by getting Michael Busch to skip a groundball to second baseman Tommy Edman, playing on the edge of the infield grass. He fired home for the second out of the inning.

Then came that dose of misfortune. Skubal’s fastball did its job, as the Cubs’ Nico Hoerner drove it into the ground. Bouncing off the plate, the ball shot up in the air, and then it settled in the grass, giving Bregman enough time to score the go-ahead run.

Ian Happ, left, Seiya Suzuki, middle, and Pete Crow-Armstrong run after beating the Dodgers.

(Melissa Tamez / AP)

The Wrigley faithful turned up the heat, taunting “Skuuuuubaaaaalll.” They’d done something similar in the National League Division Series last year to Brewers ace Freddy Peralta.

“The fans are what create the environment,” Skubal said. “It’s a ton of fun to play in front of crowds like that. Even if they’re booing me or whatever it is, I think that’s what makes the game of baseball really fun, the competition really fun, and the atmosphere is really fun. I’m sure that’s not going to be the only rowdy atmosphere on the road. I plan on pitching in front of those atmospheres for the rest of the season, and then obviously, when it comes postseason time, I’ll be ready to go.”

Skubal bore down and got out of the inning with a flyout from Taylor. That changeup, designed to get him to chase, wrapped up Skubal’s outing at 85 pitches.

“For me, I want him wanting for more, feeling good,” Roberts said. “This is me still learning him. Where we’re at, I’m going to err on the side of being smart and cautious, and knowing that he can still give us more. I’m going to push him, but tonight is not the night. I just felt that that extra inning wasn’t worth the squeeze.”

When Skubal walked off the mound, his team trailed 2-1, their only run a solo homer from Tucker, who’d been booed throughout his first series back at Wrigley since departing the Cubs in free agency.

The Cubs, on the other hand, continued to rally against the Dodgers’ bullpen.

“Just a rut,” veteran leader Mookie Betts said after the loss. “It’s OK. We’re going to be OK.”

The manager of the team that most needed Tarik Skubal sat in his office Sunday at Angel Stadium. The Milwaukee Brewers, the team that opened play Sunday with the best record in the major leagues, did not get Skubal.

The Dodgers did. Of course they did.

“L.A. is America’s team,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Not based on the cries from across America, from fans outraged that the Dodgers helped themselves to the best available talent yet again to baseball insiders mystified that the Detroit Tigers could not land a better return for Skubal than the three prospects the Dodgers swapped, or at least taken a couple more days to pursue a better return.

“Was I rooting for the Dodgers to get Skubal? Personally, no,” Angels pitcher Brent Suter said. “I was hoping another team that hadn’t won the World Series the past couple of years was going to get him.”

Suter pitched for the Brewers for seven years.

Pitcher Tarik Skubal walks to the dugout during a matchup between the Tigers and the Orioles Wednesday in Detroit.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

“They have a loaded farm system,” he said. “I thought they were going to get him.”

The road to the World Series runs through Los Angeles. The Brewers also posted the best record in the majors last year, then the Dodgers swept them in the National League Championship Series.

In last year’s NLCS, the Brewers started an opener twice, Freddy Peralta once and José Quintana once. In a five- or seven-game series this October, the Brewers could have started Jacob Misiorowski twice and Skubal twice.

That could have mitigated the Dodgers’ huge advantage in slugging. The Dodgers have seven players in double digits in home runs. The Brewers have four.

But any and all statistics obscure the larger point: If you’re a Brewers fan, when is your year?

The Brewers never have won a World Series. They are in line for their eighth playoff appearance in nine years.

Sustainable success is nice, and difficult to achieve. Much credit to the Brewers, who play in baseball’s smallest market.

But the point of the game is to win the World Series. If you’re not going all in when you have the best record in the majors for the second consecutive year, when are you going all in?

If not now, when?

“I know we made our efforts, too,” Murphy said. “I trust the way we operate. I understand the way we operate.”

Milwaukee Brewers infield players celebrate after defeating the Angels Saturday at Angel Stadium.

(William Liang / Associated Press)

This is all the more maddening in Milwaukee because, in 2008, the Brewers tried their best. That July, they traded four prospects for Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia. Only one, outfielder Michael Brantley, developed into a productive major leaguer. That’s the norm, not the exception, in multiprospect trade packages.

As it turned out, the Brewers lost in the first round of the playoffs, and Sabathia did not survive the fourth inning of his lone postseason start. Then he signed with the New York Yankees. So what? The Brewers went for it, and their fans believed.

After the trade for Skubal, Fangraphs increased the Dodgers’ chance to win the World Series from 25% to 31%. That still means a two out of three chance the Dodgers do not win.

“He’s an amazing player,” Suter said, “but it doesn’t mean a guaranteed World Series. It doesn’t guarantee anything.”

I could not believe the number of fans that reached out to say small-market teams could not match the Dodgers’ proposal because they had little chance to re-sign Skubal as a free agent.

Again, so what? We’re playing to win the World Series, not the Baseball America prospect rankings.

The Brewers, with small-market resources, touted former Angels infielder Luis Rengifo as a significant winter free-agent signing. The Dodgers countered with Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker.

“L.A. is America’s team and has all the big names,” Murphy said. “Now they just added to that, with maybe the best pitcher in the game, certainly one of the greats in this era.”

If the Brewers and Dodgers meet again in October, Murphy will only be too happy to tell us who the underdog is.

“It’s going to be David and Goliath,” Murphy said. “We haven’t earned that right yet. We haven’t got there yet.

“If we get there, I’m sure the narrative will be pretty similar: the haves and the have-nots.”

Murphy wanted to make one thing perfectly clear: Fans across America might despise the Dodgers, but he does not.

“They’ve got a bunch of great dudes,” he said. “Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Teoscar [Hernández]. I don’t know [Shohei] Ohtani. He doesn’t even know who I am. But I feel like Ohtani is a great dude. I can just tell by his presence.

“How can you not love [Max] Muncy? Doc [manager Dave Roberts] is my good friend. [Coach Dino] Ebel, we’ve got his whole family playing for the Brewers.”

The Brewers made first-round picks of Ebel’s sons Brady and Trey over the past two years, paying $5.55 million in signing bonuses. The Ebel boys are top prospects. They can look forward to a long stay in Milwaukee.

Maurice Jones-Drew will forever be etched into the memories of the Bruin faithful.

Whether it was his 322 rushing yard and five-touchdown performance against Washington in 2004.

Or his electrifying punt returns — boasting a career average of 23.2 yards per return which ranks second in NCAA history.

Or his unanimous All-American selection as an all-purpose back and returner in 2005.

The tailback captured the hearts and eyes of everyone who watched.

And while the current generation of Bruins never saw the three-time Pro Bowler play in the blue and gold, they will see the same surname stitched on the back of a UCLA jersey in 2027 with three-star recruit Duece Jones-Drew, who committed to his father’s alma mater on May 3.

Despite Maurice’s affinity for the place he once called home, he hoped that his son would not follow his footsteps to Southern California.

“I wanted to push him away from UCLA as much as possible because I wanted him to go there because he wanted to go there,” Maurice said. “I wasn’t really involved in the recruitment as much because I wanted him to enjoy and go through this process like I did. I wanted him to go to a school that he wanted to go to because it’s his football career. It’s his life. It’s going to be his journey, and I wanted him to feel comfortable wherever he went.”

So the 2017 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inductee stuck to his word.

Duece talked to all the coaches. The 5-foot-8 De La Salle running back visited other schools without his father to eliminate any bias or influence. He even drove down by himself from the Bay Area to Los Angeles for UCLA’s Junior Day.

And initially, it looked like Duece was going to stay away from his father’s alma mater after the firing of head coach DeShaun Foster and the potential exit of running backs coach AJ Steward.

But new head coach Bob Chesney retained Steward and the running backs coach encouraged Duece to attend Junior Day.

And shortly after Duece visited UCLA, he knew where he wanted to play — so much so that his parents had to stop him from committing too early.

“Coach Chesney came in and he really changed my mind on what UCLA was, and coach Steward really was on me about getting to campus and experiencing what the new coaching staff was like,” Duece said. “I went there for the Junior Day in January and I fell in love. I love what they believe in and how they compete every day to be the best version of themselves.”

Despite the urge to commit on the spot, the three-star prospect heeded his parents’ advice and took his final visits to the other schools on his list, which included California, Arizona and Utah.

And after juxtaposing his experiences on all his other visits to his experience in Westwood, he had a clear decision.

“My parents always taught me to be myself, and I knew that UCLA was the best school for me, education-wise, and having my dad be there and be such a great player there as well,” Duece said. “I wanted to commit when I went down there in January, but I listened and waited, and I feel like that was the best decision for me. To go visit other schools and see where UCLA stood on my board, and they stood leaps and bounds above Cal and Arizona.”

Throughout the recruitment process, Maurice worried that it would be easy for people to assume that his son only got offered by UCLA because of his legacy there or that he pushed him to commit to the Bruins.

But despite all of the encouragement he gave his son to not hastily pick UCLA, when Duece made his commitment official, there was no one more ecstatic.

“When he picked UCLA, I was excited. I don’t know what the word would be. It’s probably more than that,” Maurice said. “But I was happy that he felt comfortable going somewhere because these next three, four years are where you’re going to make the most leaps and bounds going from a young man to a man, and to be able to pick a school and feel the same way that I felt when I picked UCLA, it was everything I thought it would be.”

Maurice also noted that his son has the same opportunity he had when he committed to former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell in 2002 — to turn around a struggling program and create a long-lasting legacy.

But that would only be possible with the right people at the top.

And for Maurice, it felt right with Chesney.

“We preach certain things in our household, and coach Chesney preaches and practices those things,” Maurice said. “Hearing coach Chesney talk, hearing all the coaches talk, their strength staff, their training staff — everybody’s on the same page. It’s constant communication. They have a plan of how they operate, how they raise young men on and off the field. It’s a great opportunity to go to a place that needs to be put back where it needs to be.”

Above all, Maurice is looking forward to being a fan.

“I know he’s a terrific player, he’s a great student and I’m excited to see what he can do,” Maurice said of his son. “I don’t know if I still have any records, but if I do, I’m sure they’ll be broken by the time he’s out of there. I can’t wait to watch him and cheer for him and love him up and hug him and do all the stuff that dads get to do when they watch their boys.”

Time for the Bruins to go camping

UCLA preseason camp kicks off on Thursday on the UCLA campus. Chesney and his staff will lead the Bruins through workouts at Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine from Aug. 10-14. Many coaches opt to spend at least a few days away from campus during preseason workouts to promote more team bonding. UCLA will kick off Chesney’s debut season at Cal on Sept. 5.

Betts wins prestigious Honda Cup

UCLA center Lauren Betts shoots over Duke’s Toby Fournier during an Elite Eight game in Sacramento on March 29.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Former UCLA All-American Lauren Betts earned one more award to cap her successful run as a Bruin.

Betts was named 2026 Honda Cup winner at the Collegiate Women Sports awards last week, becoming the seventh Bruin and 20th basketball player to win the top award in college women’s sports. Honda awards are presented to top performers in 12 NCAA sports and they compete for the top overall prize — the Honda Cup.

Betts helped UCLA win its first women’s basketball NCAA national championship, earning the tournament’s most outstanding player award. She led UCLA in scoring (17.1) and rebounding (8.8) while averaging 27.7 minutes per game.

In case you missed it

Bob Chesney, UCLA top players share their belief Bruins will win at Big Ten media days

Plaschke: Bob Chesney is going to do the impossible at UCLA — win

Big Ten commissioner pushes back on talk of breaking away from NCAA with SEC

Teen obtained UCLA jersey worn by Kareem in trade for his radio. Decades later, he’s set to make a fortune

UCLA Unlocked: Are you ready to make room on the Bob Chesney bandwagon?

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Dodgers lose fourth in a row

From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers came away from the trade deadline with major wins — a two-time Cy Young Award winner in Tarik Skubal, necessary catching depth with Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, and a 2025 All-Star in pitcher Kris Bubic.

All of that momentum, and the staggering amount of talent on the roster, have overshadowed the Dodgers’ recent poor play. A clean slate against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field was a chance to set a new tone after being swept by the Boston Red Sox at home. Instead, they lost 10-5, extending their losing streak to a season-high tying four games.

“This is a playoff-contending team,” manager Dave Roberts said of the Cubs before the game. “We’ve got to play well. Like I said [Sunday], we got outplayed. Outcompeted against. So we need to play better. We’re going to play better this series. I don’t know the results, but we will play with more urgency.”

The Dodgers (69-44) essentially played out that prophecy to begin the game. Against left-hander Matthew Boyd, Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages hit back-to-back singles, and Tommy Edman roped a three-run homer to left.

Then Boyd settled in. He got out of the inning with three straight flyouts — Cubs fans enthusiastically booing Kyle Tucker, who was never expected to re-sign with the team when he hit free agency after one season in Chicago, when he flied out to right field.

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‘Dodgers do all the right things.’ Tarik Skubal dismisses the ‘ruining baseball’ critics

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

From Ryan Kartje: One of college football’s most hallowed rivalries will continue on, after all.

After months of back-and-forth negotiations, USC and Notre Dame announced Monday that they’ve agreed to a four-year series beginning in 2030 when the Irish will open the season against the Trojans at the Coliseum. The following year, the teams will play in Week 1 at Notre Dame Stadium and the two games after that will be played somewhere between Week 1-3 of the 2032 and 2033 seasons.

USC ended up getting exactly what it asked of Notre Dame more than a year ago, when the two sides first sat down to talk about renewing their rivalry series. USC’s leadership sought to shift the game to the beginning of the season, first offering to play during Week 0 of the 2027 season. But Notre Dame rejected multiple scheduling offers.

That changed in recent weeks, as Notre Dame opted to cancel a home-and-home series with Indiana in 2030 and 2031 to accommodate their longtime rival.

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Angels made good trade deadline moves

From Bill Shaikin: No date will ever top Oct. 27, 2002, the date the Angels won their lone World Series.

We could talk about Sept. 30, 1984, the date Mike Witt threw the Angels’ lone perfect game. Or June 9, 2009, the date the Angels drafted the best player in franchise history, Mike Trout. Or July 29, 2018, the date Vladimir Guerrero became the first player to wear an Angels cap on a Hall of Fame plaque.

Or, if you care to look at it from a cynical angle, that fateful fall day in 1979 when then-general manager Buzzie Bavasi said he could replace Nolan Ryan, who had just gone 16-14 in his final year in Anaheim, with “two 8-7 pitchers.”

This isn’t about trivia. This is to say that Monday might well be remembered as one of those significant dates in Angels history.

In recent years, the Angels have deluded themselves and their fans with such beliefs as: they had assembled a young core that could win; Shohei Ohtani really wanted to stay; and the universally and consistently poor rankings of their minor-league system should be dismissed.

On Monday, John Mozeliak changed all that. The Angels’ interim general manager traded seven players off the major-league roster ahead of the trade deadline, including five within the final nine hours. Mozeliak imported nine prospects, only one of which will report to the major-league team.

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World Cup was good practice for the 2028 Olympics

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Like most good stories, this one requires planning. Organizers with the L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission spent nearly nine years preparing to bring the FIFA World Cup to L.A. The most popular sporting event in the world was just the start of a mega-event trilogy that turns the page to Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium and will culminate with the largest Olympics ever in 2028.

“We are on the international stage for three years,” said Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive officer of L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission, or LASEC, said. “What story are we telling and how are we doing that?”

The World Cup was a riveting first chapter. The 39-day tournament brought more than 560,000 fans to SoFi Stadium for eight matches, 250,000 fans to 10 official fan zones and a projected $892 million in economic impact across L.A. County, according to LASEC.

The expanded World Cup, with 48 teams and 104 matches over 16 venues in three countries, is only a logistical qualifying match compared to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The first Olympics in L.A. in 44 years will welcome 11,198 athletes across 51 sports from more than 200 countries competing over 20 days. The 2028 Paralympics will come to L.A. for the first time with a 23-para sport schedule that will begin competition before the opening ceremony for the first time.

Despite the difference in scale, John Harper, chief operating officer of LA28, called the successful World Cup’s local matches “an immense learning opportunity for us in a lot of ways.”

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MLS has a new commissioner

From Kevin Baxter: Larry Berg, the co-managing owner of LAFC, was chosen Monday to become the third commissioner in MLS history when Don Garber retires in December.

Berg has been with LAFC since the club’s founding, helping build the team into the league’s most successful franchise since entering MLS in 2018. He has held ownership stakes in Italy’s AS Roma and Welsh club Swansea City and has served MLS as co-chair of the league’s sporting and competition committee.

Berg, 60, also spent more than three decades in private equity, serving as a senior partner at Apollo Global Management before retiring in 2022.

“I’m honored to lead Major League Soccer into its next era,” Berg, a lifelong soccer fan and player, said in a statement released by the league. “Thanks to the vision and commitment of so many people, Major League Soccer has achieved tremendous success, but I believe our greatest opportunities are still ahead.

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Mauricio Pochettino stays as U.S. coach, agrees to 4-year extension through 2030 World Cup

This day in sports history

1936 — American athlete Jesse Owens wins his 2nd gold medal at the Berlin Olympics; beats German Luz Long in the long jump final with an Olympic record.

1945 — Byron Nelson wins his 11th consecutive PGA Tour event, beating Herman Barron by four strokes. Nelson finishes the year with a record for most tournament wins (18) in a season.

1984 — Carl Lewis wins the 100-meter dash in 9.99 seconds at the Los Angeles Summer Games. U.S. teammate Sam Graddy wins the silver in 10.19 and Canada’s Ben Johnson gets the bronze with a time of 10.22.

1996 — Laura Davies shoots a 6-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Nancy Lopez and Karrie Webb in the du Maurier Classic.

1996 — The Atlanta Olympic Games end with U.S. boxer David Reid’s stunning gold-medal knockout, and the women Dream Team’s romp over Brazil. Reid captures America’s only boxing gold, knocking down Cuban Alfredo Duvergel, while the U.S. women roll to a 111-87 victory behind Lisa Leslie’s 29 points. A record 11,000 athletes from 197 countries make it the biggest Olympics.

2011 — Cappie Pondexter scores 15 points to lead New York past Chicago 59-49, and the Liberty hold the Sky to a WNBA-record one point in the fourth quarter.

2012 — Michael Phelps wins another gold medal as the United States wins the medley relay at the London Olympics. Phelps leaves the sport with a record 18 golds and 22 medals overall. At these games, he wins four golds and two silvers.

2012 — Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to join Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the Golden Slam — winning the Olympics and the four majors. In a men’s semifinal match, Roger Federer outlasts Juan Martin del Potro in a 19-17 final set and clinches his first Olympic singles medal. Canadian equestrian Ian Millar rides into Olympic history by competing in his 10th games — the most of any athlete.

2013 — Missy Franklin claims her record sixth gold medal on the final day of the world championships in Barcelona, becoming the most successful female swimmer ever at a world meet. Franklin eclipses the record shared by Tracy Caulkins — who won five times in 1978 — and Libby Trickett, who did it in 2007.

2013 — Stacy Lewis wins the Women’s British Open after a marathon final day. Lewis finishes with a pair of birdies on the Old Course at St. Andrews and closes with an even-par 72. It’s her second major on the LPGA Tour, and it ends a record streak of 10 straight majors won by Asian players. Forced to play 36 holes, Lewis is the only player at par or better from the last 21 groups that tee off.

2018 — British swimmer Adam Peaty improves his own world record in the 100-meter breaststroke to 57.1 seconds at the European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

2021 — Sydney McLaughlin sets a world record in in the women’s 400m hurdles, 51.46s, for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

2024 — At the Paris Olympics Noah Lyles becomes the first American sprinter to win the 100m gold medal in 20 years; his time 9.784s edges Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by 0.005s

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1884 — Pud Galvin pitched the most lopsided no-hitter in major league history as the Buffalo Bisons routed the Detroit Wolverines 18-0. It is the second career no-hitter for Galvin.

1910 — Jack Coombs of the Philadelphia A’s and Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox hooked up in a 16-inning scoreless tie. Coombs struck out 18 and allowed three hits.

1945 — Bill Salkeld of Pittsburgh hit for the cycle in a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirate catcher went 5 for 5 and drove in all five runs.

1945 — Boston’s Tom McBride became the third player to drive in six runs in an inning as the Red Sox pounded Washington 15-4. McBride had a bases-loaded double and triple during the Red Sox’s 12-run fourth inning.

1953 — New York’s Vic Raschi set a record for a pitcher by driving in seven runs in a 15-0 win over the Detroit Tigers.

1963 — New York’s Mickey Mantle, batting for the first time in two months after breaking his left foot, hit a pinch home run as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-10 for a split of a doubleheader.

1973 — John Briggs of the Milwaukee Brewers went 6-for-6 in a 9-4 win over the Cleveland Indians.

1979 — Atlanta knuckleballer Phil Niekro set modern major league records with four wild pitches in one inning (fifth) and six in one game. The Braves lost to Houston 6-2.

1982 — Joel Youngblood became the first player in major league history to play and get a base hit for two different teams in two different cities in the same day. In the afternoon, his hit drove in the winning run for the New York Mets in a 7-4 victory at Chicago. After the game, he was traded to the Montreal Expos and played that night in Philadelphia. He entered the game in right field in the fourth inning and later got a single.

1985 — Tom Seaver, 40, became the 17th 300-game winner in major league history with a six-hitter — all singles — as the Chicago White Sox defeated the New York Yankees 4-1 on Phil Rizzuto Day.

1985 — Rod Carew of the Angels got his 3,000th hit in a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins, his first major league team.

2006 — Chase Utley went 0-for-5 night in Philadelphia’s 5-3 victory over the New York Mets, ending a 35-game hitting streak that tied him for the 10th longest in major league history and the fourth longest in National League history.

2007 — In the second inning of a 3-2 loss to the Padres, Barry Bonds hits his 755th career home run to tie Hank Aaron for the all-time record.

2007 — Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 victory over Kansas City.

2010 — Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th home run and became the youngest player to attain the milestone. His two-run, first-inning drive off Toronto’s Shaun Marcum put New York ahead, and the Yankees coasted to a 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays.

2021 — Japan moves into the gold medal game in the Tokyo Olympics.

2022 — The Angels tie a record by hitting seven homers but still losing the game, 8-7 to the A’s, also setting a record for most runs scored in a game, all on solo homers. Shohei Ohtani hits a pair, followed by Kurt Suzuki, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Jared Walsh and Mickey Moniak. However, Oakland scores six times in the 3rd and adds a two-run blast by Ramon Laureano in the 4th to negate the Angels’ long balls.

2024 — With a 13-7 loss to the Twins, the White Sox’s losing streak reaches historic proportion at 20 games. It is a new franchise record and tied for third all-time, trailing only the 21 losses by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles to start that season, and the 23 consecutive losses by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.

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.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Let’s examine some top linebackers and running backs to watch.

Speed matters

Los Alamitos’ Kamden Tillis, right, celebrates a touchdown with teammate Ashton Gogue (13) against Edison on Thursday in an Alpha League football game at SoFi Stadium.

(Craig Weston)

Top teams have top linebackers, and representing the City Section is De’Andre Kirkpatrick from Crenshaw, a San Diego State commit who one day has the chance to be compared to former Crenshaw standouts Hayes Pullard and Daiyan Henley.

Kirkpatrick is 6 feet 3, 220 pounds and doesn’t like running backs. He throws them to the turf like a rag doll.

Another outstanding City Section linebacker/defensive end is Elyjah Staples of Marquez, a Cal commit who plays wherever his team needs him.

One school with multiple top linebackers is Servite with Allen Kennett and Isaiah Leilua. St. John Bosco’s Josiah Poyer has improved so much that he’s a USC commit and now covers offensive players going out for passes with expertise and confidence.

Isaiah Phelps of Oxnard Pacifica is a tackling machine. George Hastings of Agoura is only 5-11 but versatile, smart and repeatedly making an impact. Sevelino Taliauli of Long Beach Poly is a Colorado State commit. Noah Curtin of Chino Hills had 122 tackles.

Kane Casani of Loyola has worked nonstop in the weight room to become stronger and faster after averaging 13 tackles a game. Matthew Charles of Chaminade is ready for a breakout junior season, and the Eagles also have Washington State commit Josiah Rand. Wyatt Bogdan, 6-3, 220 pounds, had 81 solo tackles for Laguna Beach as a junior.

Among running backs, Stanford-bound AJ McBean has moved from Mira Costa to Gardena Serra and will have five returning starters up front to help him look good.

Noel Washington of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame showed flashes of brilliance as a sophomore. Malachi McFarland of Damien is going to get the chance to handle the ball much more to take advantage of his speed.

Jaxsen Stokes of Sierra Canyon has convinced his coach that there’s no smarter play call than giving him the ball. Kamden Tillis of Los Alamitos is coming off a 1,500 yards season. Sophomores Adrian Petero of Santa Margarita and Asir Nembhard of Mater Dei picked up valuable experience as freshmen contributors.

Malaki Davis of Corona Centennial is 215 pounds with speed. Maliq Allen of St. John Bosco came back after transferring to Inglewood and adds experience and speed to the backfield. Malaki Buchanan of Victor Valley is a sophomore with a 10.37 100 meters time. Kevika Mata’utia-Martinez of La Habra rushed for more than 1,400 yards as a junior.

Aidan Crecion (left) has grown to 6 feet 5 and passed his father, Gabe, who was a tight end at Chaminade and UCLA. Aidan will be a junior receiver at Oaks Chrisitan.

(Crecion family)

The opening game between Oaks Christian and Chaminade on Aug. 21 will have special meaning for Gabe Crecion, who was a star tight end and baseball player at Chaminade before moving on to UCLA. His son, Aidan, has grown to 6 feet 5 and is a promising junior receiver for Oaks Christian.

Orange Lutheran has recently added two highly regarded transfers in tight end Hudson Ploog from Troy and offensive lineman Austin Attalah from Cajon. But remember, first-year coach Ray Fenton talked last season at Los Alamitos how much fun it was coaching neighborhood kids instead of transfers. Unfortunately, this is what the Trinity League has become known for — transfers. Coaches get fired for losing records in the Trinity League.

Junior receiver and 100 meters standout Benjamin Harris of Servite has committed to Oregon State.

First-year St. Bernard coach Dean Herrington is getting used to his new drive from Valencia to Playa del Rey. Once school starts, he’ll be leaving at 5 a.m. trying to beat the traffic. Asked how his new team was doing, Herrington said, “It’s trying to change the culture and gets to practice all the time.” Herrington’s 13-year-old grandson, Bradley Rees, is a quarterback in waiting and two years away from high school.

Former Edison standout Hunter White has returned to take over coaching defensive backs at his alma mater. It’s the first time he’s been coaching since helping out his father, Dave, some 10 years ago.

With the arrival of quarterback Ethan Grant from Los Angeles, Crenshaw has the luxury of having two competent quarterbacks. Danniel Flowers started as a junior but also could see action as a receiver this season.

The Moore sisters, Nylah (left), a senior, and freshman Cinzia will be standouts at Eagle Rock in flag football and basketball.

(Eristheo Raif)

The arrival of freshman Cinzia Moore to join her sister, Nylah, at Eagle Rock is big news in City Section flag football. Nylah is Eagle Rock’s returning quarterback. Cinzia is 5 feet 9. Both will also be standouts for the girls basketball team.

Here’s the report.

Flag football practices officially begin for Southern Section teams Monday, with first games allowed Saturday.

Sierra Canyon, which has a team for the first time this season, keeps picking up transfers from Orange County (maybe the housing is cheaper in Chatsworth). The latest is sophomore Angelina Dubois from Orange Lutheran. She joins Orange Lutheran teammate, quarterback Makena Cook, at Sierra Canyon, along with last year’s Division 1 player of the year, Ava Irwin from JSerra.

The NFL Chargers are hosting a huge flag football tournament Aug. 14 and 15 that will provide an early look at top teams.

Notes . . .

Jaden Soong of St. Francis High added the Junior PGA Championship on Friday to his golf resume.

(Courtesy Chris Soong)

Jaden Soong, who will be a junior golfer at St. Francis this fall, won the Junior PGA Championship last week, continuing to build upon a resume that’s off the charts. He won the CIF state championship as a freshman. Here’s the report.…

Call it the passing of the high jump torch. Former Olympic high jump Dwight Stones presents JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame the high school player of the year award from the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame .

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame high jumper JJ Harel, the two-time state champion, announced he will compete for Israel at the U20 World Championships. That means he will probably represent Israel for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He will be a freshman at USC this coming school year….

Harvard-Westlake is nearing completion of its $200-million River Park Sports Complex that began construction in 2024. Here’s the report and video...

Rolling Hills Prep, under basketball coach Harvey Kitani, left for China last week for a 10-day trip that will have the team playing three exhibition games….

Narbonne is appealing its three-year playoff ban in football for City Section rules violations. Last year was the first season of no playoffs. The appeal is expected to be heard in September….

Fountain Valley and Edison have played football games against each other for 57 consecutive years. Fountain Valley is pausing that game this season as it tries to build up its program. It’s not unusual. Crespi paused playing rival Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for the last two years and will resume the rivalry this season after going from 0-10 in 2022 to 10-1 last season….

Pitcher Timmy Carey from Cypress has committed to Pepperdine….

Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and UCLA pitcher Justin Lee signed with the Phillies after being selected in the 20th round of the amateur draft. Former Loyola and USC catcher Augie Lopez signed with the Padres….

Baseball player Grant Horsley from Newport Harbor has committed to Navy….

Camren Hughes of Palos Verdes came on strong last spring running the 200 and 400 and now he’s headed to UCLA in September. He’d be a first-round pick for intramural football.

From the archives: Jaquez brother/sister duo

Jaime Jaquez Jr. poses for a photo with his sister Gabriela Jaquez in 2021.

(UCLA Athletics/UCLA Athletics)

Time is flying by with lots of changes for Jaime and Gabriela Jaquez, the brother/sister duo from Camarillo who became stars at UCLA and are now pro basketball players.

Jaime was was sent to the Milwaukee Bucks from Miami in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade. After helping UCLA’s women’s team win the NCAA championship, Gabriela was a first-round WNBA draft pick by the Chicago Sky and is averaging 8.3 points in her rookie season.

Here’s a story from 2022 on how Gabriela would not be denied getting a scholarship from her dream school.

Here’s a story from 2025 of Jaime returning to Camarillo to have his jersey number retired.

Recommendations

From the562.org, a story on Lakewood dropping boys and girls lacrosse after failing to find coaches.

From the Orange County Register, a story looking at JSerra first-year football coach Hardy Nickerson, the first Black head coach in the Trinity League.

From Athlon sports, a story on St. Francis phenom golfer Jaden Soong.

From USA Baseball, a story on Harvard-Westlake pitchers Justin Kirchner and James Venick.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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CHICAGO — Just a few days ago, new Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal was on the other side, on a mid-market Detroit Tigers team that had hoped to unseat the Dodgers from the top of the league, before a disappointing season made them sellers at the trade deadline.

Still, with that perspective, he wasn’t going to entertain any talk about the Dodgers ruining baseball.

“I don’t really sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they’ve done,” Skubal said from the Barrel Room at Wrigley Field on Monday. “They’ve developed a really good organization. They draft well. They acquire talent really well. They retain talent. It’s a winning organization. Now the complaints seem to be [happening] because they’ve won the last two World Series. I don’t think it was like that three years ago. So I don’t really sympathize with people that are complaining. Because the Dodgers do all the right things.”

Skubal didn’t want to talk about his impending free agency. And he said he did not have any conversations with Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris about preferring to be traded to the Dodgers. Before the trade, he told Tigers reporters that he wanted to remain with the only team he’d known and compete for a championship there.

“Initial reaction, there was a lot of emotions,” Skubal said. “I spent eight years with the Detroit Tigers. That place will always be special to me no matter what. In the same breath, I’m excited to be here with these guys. When you watch them from across the way, see them do their thing on TV, you just have a lot of respect because they play the game the right way.

“The entire focus of this organization is on winning championships and that is my entire focus — playing baseball — so we’re very much aligned. I’m ready to go out there and compete and give this organization and city everything that I’ve got.”

The Dodgers put the final touches on their trade deadline, adding catching depth as Dalton Rushing went on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left elbow. The Dodgers added two backstops they’re already familiar with in Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia. They also added left-hander Kris Bubic, who is dealing with a shoulder injury.

It was clear all along, however, that Skubal was going to be the biggest splash of the deadline — for any team, really. And fuel for frustrated baseball fans upset about the Dodgers acquiring another star player.

“I think the Dodgers have done a fantastic job in player development,” said Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who also engaged in trade talks for Skubal. “They have a really good farm system, and Scott [Harris] did the best thing you could do for the Tigers and got a lot of talent back. And obviously they did the best thing for their team.

Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws in the outfield before the team’s game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday.

(David Banks / Associated Press)

“And he’s an incredible pitcher. I mean, there’s no question about that. And I guess we’ll see firsthand. But I know there’s been a reaction around baseball about it, but they put themselves in positions to do that deal, and they did, and that’s exactly what they should be doing.”

Skubal had accepted by the end of his last start that he was going to be moving on.

“Losing that game kind of felt like that was kind of it for me in Detroit,” he said. “So not surprised, but that didn’t make the news any easier because I love a lot of those people there. I’ve got a lot of respect about what they do and how they go about their business. A lot of those guys are like my best friends on and off the field. I wish those guys nothing but the best. I’ll be rooting for them, unless we’re playing.”

He officially starts a new chapter Tuesday, taking the mound for the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.

“They’ve been a pretty good baseball team without me,” he said. “So I’m going to show up and kind of be a chameleon in a sense and fit right in with these guys and just jell with them. They’ve got the winning recipe. They know what it takes to win.”

CHICAGO — The Dodgers came away from the trade deadline with major wins — a two-time Cy Young Award winner in Tarik Skubal, necessary catching depth with Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, and a 2025 All-Star in pitcher Kris Bubic.

All of that momentum, and the staggering amount of talent on the roster, have overshadowed the Dodgers’ recent poor play. A clean slate against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field was a chance to set a new tone after being swept by the Boston Red Sox at home. Instead, they lost 10-5 to open the three-game series.

“This is a playoff-contending team,” manager Dave Roberts said of the Cubs before the game. “We’ve got to play well. Like I said [Sunday], we got outplayed. Outcompeted against. So we need to play better. We’re going to play better this series. I don’t know the results, but we will play with more urgency.”

The Dodgers (69-44) essentially played out that prophecy to begin the game. Against left-hander Matthew Boyd, Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages hit back-to-back singles, and Tommy Edman roped a three-run homer to left.

Then Boyd settled in. He got out of the inning with three straight fly outs — Cubs fans enthusiastically booing Kyle Tucker, who was never expected to re-sign with the team when he hit free agency after one season in Chicago, when he flied out to right field.

Dodgers left-handed All-Star Justin Wrobleski struggled. For the second start in a row, he surrendered four home runs.

The first three came with men on base, expediting the damage. And they came from all over the Cubs lineup. In the first inning, No. 2 hitter Seiya Suzuki lined a fastball into the stands for two runs. The next inning, it was No. 9 hitter Kevin Alcántara who put the Cubs (64-49) ahead with a two-run blast. In the third, cleanup hitter Carson Kelly jumped on a slider for a two-run shot.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, right, is tagged out by Chicago Cubs first baseman Michael Busch, left, on a pickoff at first base in the second inning Monday.

(David Banks / Associated Press)

Wrobleski finally threw a hitless fourth, working around a leadoff walk to briefly stymie the Cubs’ offensive push. Then in the fifth, he threw a sinker down the middle to left-handed hitter Michael Busch, who drove it out for a solo homer.

Busch, a former Dodger, coincidentally is part of the Skubal trade tree. The Cubs acquired him and reliever Yency Almonte for pitching prospect Jackson Ferris and outfield prospect Zyhir Hope. Hope was part of the trade package for Skubal.

Roberts pulled Wrobleski after Busch’s home run. The seven earned runs he gave up tied a season high. But this time, he only pitched 4⅓ innings, compared to the 8⅔ innings he threw against the Atlanta Braves on May 10.

The Dodgers countered with a one-run rally in the fourth, and Teoscar Hernández hit a solo home run onto Waveland Ave. in the sixth inning.

The Cubs, however, squashed thoughts of a potential comeback with a three-run rally in the sixth against Edgardo Henriquez and Tanner Scott.

The late actor and director Rob Reiner was a devoted Dodgers fan.

Sunday would have meant a lot to him.

Jake and Romy Reiner threw out the ceremonial first pitches at Dodger Stadium before the team’s game against the Boston Red Sox, more than seven months after their parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, were found dead at their Brentwood home.

Jake Reiner, a 35-year-old actor and reporter, threw his pitch straight down the middle to Dodgers outfielder Alex Call behind the plate. Romy Reiner, a 28-year-old actor and writer, sent her pitch a little high and outside, but her catcher, Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas, had no trouble handling it.

Afterward, the siblings shared a heartfelt hug next to the mound.

Jake Reiner, who co-hosts the Dodgers-based podcast “The Incline,” wrote about his and his father’s connection through the Boys in Blue in a Substack column posted in April.

“We loved the Dodgers more than anything,” Jake wrote. “We went to so many damn games. I’ll never go to Dodger Stadium again without feeling my dad’s presence and hearing his voice tell me why Shohei Ohtani should never bat in the leadoff spot.”

When Rob Reiner threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Dodgers-Braves game in 2010, Jake was photographed helping him warm up.

Rob Reiner told People in 2023 that he became a diehard fan through his own father, Carl Reiner, and that he made it a point to pass the same love for the sport on to Jake. The family has had Dodgers season tickets for about 60 years, with Reiner telling People that he and Jake “would go to at least 25 or 40 games a year.”

“Every time we come to the ballpark, even today when we walked in, I said to Jake, ‘There’s nothing like being at the ballpark,’” Rob Reiner said. “I love coming here. We look out at the grass. The green, it’s so beautiful.”

Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 70, were found by Romy Reiner when she went to their home the afternoon of Dec. 14. Another son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents by stabbing in December. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Nick Reiner has struggled with addiction for years and had been living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property, according to a family friend. His mother was said to have become increasingly concerned about his mental health in the weeks leading up to her death.

“The Dodgers express our deep sorrow and share our condolences over the passing of longtime fan Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele,” the team posted Dec. 15 on X.

CHICAGO — The Dodgers added catching depth on Monday with a familiar name.

They acquired journeyman backstop Ben Rortvedt from the Mets for right-hander Chayce McDermott, the team announced hours before the trade deadline.

The move marked the third time in a little over a year that the Dodgers have acquired Rortvedt. They also traded for him before the deadline last year and claimed him off waivers for several days in February.

The Dodgers designated McDermott for assignment on Friday in the midst of a reliever shuffle to prepare for a bullpen game.

The team felt comfortable with backup catcher Dalton Rushing taking on the bulk of the catching duties while catcher Will Smith continues to work back from a lingering neck injury that’s kept him sidelined since early June. But depth at the physically taxing position is always valuable.

That point was highlighted Sunday, when the Dodgers scratched Rushing from the lineup with what they called minor arm irritation.

In Rortvedt, the Dodgers bring in an experienced catcher who is familiar with their pitching staff back into the organization. Not on the Mets’ 40-man roster, Rortvedt has spent the season in Triple-A Syracuse, where he posted a .733 OPS.

Also Monday, the Dodgers acquired left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic from the Kansas City Royals for right-hander Carlos Duran, according to a person familiar with the but not authorized to speak publicly. Bubic, who is on the 60-day injured list with left elbow soreness, last pitched on May 14 against the Chicago White Sox. He made 20 starts last year for the Royals, going 8-7 with a 4.11 earned-run average.

Dodgers have Skubal, but are swept by Red Sox

From Maddie Lee: Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman felt good enough about his trade discussions with the Detroit Tigers for two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal that he gave manager Dave Roberts a positive update shortly before the team’s game against the Red Sox on Saturday.

“I heard that it was pretty much done,” Roberts recounted Sunday afternoon. “But there’s obviously things that have to go on with medical, so it wasn’t actually even finalized. I just heard that it was pretty much close.”

Friedman, however, wasn’t ready to exhale until he got final word from the Tigers during the game.

“I had no idea and was trying to emotionally hedge,” he said. “I wasn’t getting too high or too low on it until we actually found out.”

There was, it turned out, no need to stress. On Saturday, the Dodgers agreed to trade three prospects — outfielder Zyhir Hope (No. 25 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100), right-handed pitcher River Ryan (No. 68) and right-hander Brady Smith — to the Tigers for one of the best starters in baseball.

Continue reading here

Shaikin: Dodgers traded just 3 minor leaguers for Tarik Skubal. Why couldn’t your team do that?

Shaikin: ‘L.A. is America’s team.’ But the Brewers should have been Tarik Skubal’s team

Plaschke: Tarik Skubal trade brings Dodgers hate, envy … and another championship

————

From Joaquin Ruiz: The Dodgers were swept for just the second time this season after the red-hot Boston Red Sox hit four home runs, including three off embattled starter Emmet Sheehan, to take an 8-4 win on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.

Boston hit three home runs in four at-bats in the third inning, with Sheehan giving up blasts to Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida as the Dodgers suffered their second three-game sweep at home in less than a month.

“It was bad execution,” Sheehan said. “I just missed my spots.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Teammates in awe of Myles Garrett

From Gary Klein: The Rams knew the resume. Saw the highlights. Gathered all the intel required.

But they were not aware of Myles Garrett’s aura.

How could they?

It’s not tangible, nor easily defined.

It’s just there.

“You just feel him,” coach Sean McVay said Friday.

McVay felt and said that before. About Aaron Donald. About Jalen Ramsey.

But listening to Rams players talk about Garrett, this feels different.

Mystical.

“You can just feel his aura,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said.

Safety Quentin Lake explained it the same way.

“Just his presence,” Lake said, “his aura.”

Continue reading here

Khalil Mack is a great influence on Chargers teammates

From Joaquin Ruiz: A tempting life as a full-time family man nearly pulled Khalil Mack away from football.

“I was leaning towards coming back the whole time,” Mack said of mulling retirement before signing a one-year, $18-million contract in March to remain with the Chargers. “But it’s just considering the stage of life my kids are at, that balance of being a dad and a husband but still trying to follow the dream. I feel like I’m still in a position to do both.”

The future Hall of Famer decided the show must go on.

And now, with championship aspirations entering his 13th season, and fifth in Los Angeles, Mack is basking in his role as the Chargers’ elder statesman.

“Priceless,” defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary said of the 35-year-old outside linebacker’s presence. “He’s the flag bearer of our culture on defense. He leads the way with his actions. … When it’s time for him to say something, he’s going to say something.

Continue reading here

Angels beat the Brewers

Walbert Ureña pitched three-hit ball over six innings and Wade Meckler hit a two-run homer off Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski as the Angels beat the Brewers 3-0 on Sunday.

Ureña (7-7) struck out seven and walked three as the Angels (43-69) broke a five-game losing streak. The rookie right-hander has a 2.54 ERA and a 2.25 ERA since May 1, a stretch in which he has given up one or fewer earned runs in 12 of 16 starts.

Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn replaced the injured Sam Bachman with a runner on second and one out in the eighth. He struck out Brice Turang, gave up an infield single to Jackson Chourio and struck out Garrett Mitchell with runners on first and third to end the inning.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Sparks beat the Fire

Dearica Hamby scored 23 points, Nneka Ogwumike had 20 of her 22 in the second half and the Sparks — after learning star teammate Kelsey Plum was traded — ended a six-game losing streak with a 106-101 win over the Portland Fire on Sunday.

Plum, sidelined since June 21 with a leg injury, was sent to the Phoenix Mercury late Saturday night. The Sparks are now 3-9 without Plum.

Ogwumike hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:25 to play, making it 98-96. Hamby followed with a layup off an Ogwumike assist. In the last 24 seconds, Ogwumike and Erica Wheeler went six for six from the foul line.

Continue reading here

Sparks got some strong assets for Kelsey Plum as they start another rebuild

Sparks box score

WNBA standings

This day in sports history

1852 — The first intercollegiate rowing race is held on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., where Harvard beats Yale by four lengths on the 2-mile course.

1936 — American sprinter Jesse Owens wins the 100m (10.3 seconds) in front of Adolf Hitler in a famous race at the Berlin Olympics, first of four gold medals at the Games.

1949 — The National Basketball Assn. is formed by the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Assn. of America.

1955 — Scott Frost, driven by Joe O’Brien, wins the Hambletonian at Good Time Park in Goshen, N.Y. He goes on to become the first trotting Triple Crown winner.

1985 — France’s Lutin D’Isigny becomes the first trotter to sweep the International Trot and Challenge Cup in consecutive years with a 3:03.1 time in the 1½-mile test.

1990 — The PGA Tour announces it will not hold tournaments at golf clubs that have all-white memberships or show any other signs of discrimination.

1996 — Andre Agassi, the Dream Team and the U.S. women’s 400-meter relay team win Olympic gold medals, while the American men’s 400 relay settles for silver. With Carl Lewis idled by a coach’s decision and Leroy Burrell injured, the men’s 400 team is shocked by Canada — the first time the U.S. lost the event at the Olympics.

2003 — Annika Sorenstam completes a career Grand Slam at the Women’s British Open, beating Se Ri Pak by a stroke in a thrilling head-to-head showdown.

2006 — Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta needs surgery to remove a ruptured blood vessel in his head after his race car collides with a deer that wandered onto the track during a test session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

2012 — Michael Phelps rallies to win the 100-meter butterfly for his third gold of the London Games and No. 17 of his career. It’s Phelps’ third consecutive win in the event at the Olympics, and his 21st career medal. Missy Franklin sets a world record in the 200 backstroke for the 17-year-old’s third gold in London.

2013 — Sixteen-year-old Katie Ledecky wraps up a brilliant performance at the world swimming championships with her fourth gold medal and second world record. The youngster turns it on over the final four laps of the 800 freestyle to win in 8 minutes, 13.86 seconds and take down the mark of 8:14.10 set by Britain’s Rebecca Adlington at the 2008 Olympics.

2016 — The International Olympic Committee approves baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding to be included in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

2016 — Elaine Thompson Herah of Jamaica wins the 200m gold in Tokyo to become the first female to win the 100/200 double in consecutive games.

2017 — Brazilian soccer forward Neymar transfers from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record transfer fee of $222M on a 5-year deal.

2023 — Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi becomes first WNBA player to reach 10,000 points as she drops 42 points in a 91-71 win over the Atlanta Dream.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1901 — Cleveland pitcher Ed Scott pitched a complete game and hit a solo home run off Bill Reidy in the top of the 10th for an 8-7 win against Milwaukee. It was the last game of Scott’s major league career.

1906 — Washington pitcher Tom Hughes hit a solo home run off Fred Glade in the tenth inning for 1-0 win over the St. Louis Browns. He became the first pitcher to win a 1-0 extra-inning game with his own home run.

1914 — New York Yankee catcher Les Nunamaker threw out three Detroit Tigers trying to steal second base on one inning. It will be the only time a backstop has accomplished this feat this century.

1923 — Major League Baseball canceled all games after the death of U.S. President Warren G. Harding in San Francisco on Aug. 2.

1933 — Lefty Grove of the Philadelphia A’s became the first pitcher since Aug. 2, 1931 — a span of 308 games — to shut out the New York Yankees, winning 7-0.

1944 — Tommy Brown, 16 years and 8 months old, played shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers in both games of a doubleheader loss, 6-2 and 7-1, to the Chicago Cubs. He had a double and scored a run.

1948 — Cleveland’s Satchel Paige made his first major league start and went seven innings to lead the Indians to a 5-3 victory over the Washington Senators.

1959 — The second game of All-Star play this year was won by the AL 5-3 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox singled in the deciding run in the seventh inning.

1961 — The Pittsburgh Pirates scored a 19-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals for the largest shutout score in an NL night game.

1969 — The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 19-17 in a wild game at Connie Mack Stadium. Trailing 9-6, the Reds scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to take a seven-run lead. The Reds tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning for an 18-9 lead. The Phillies responded with seven runs on the home half of the sixth and another run in the seventh to get within one run. Cincinnati’s Tony Perez homered in the eighth to make it 19-17. The Phillies two-out rally in the ninth ended with Ron Stone lining out to right with runners on first and second.

1969 — Pinch-hitter Rich Reese hit a grand slam to power the Minnesota Twins to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles and end Dave McNally’s 15-game winning streak. His two victories at the end of 1968 had given him 17 straight wins.

1982 — Frank White of the Kansas City Royals hit for the cycle in a 6-5 win over the Detroit Tigers. It was the second cycle of his career.

1987 — Minnesota’s Joe Niekro was caught with a file on the mound and was ejected during the fourth inning of the Twins’ 11-3 win over the Angels. Niekro would be suspended for 10 games by American League president Bobby Brown, who didn’t believe Niekro’s story that he had been filing his nails on the bench and stuck the file in his back pocket when the inning started.

2004 — Tony Batista hit a grand slam in the 12th inning after tying the game with a two-run homer in the ninth, leading Montreal over St. Louis 10-6.

2006 — Chase Utley singled in the first inning of Philadelphia’s 8-1 win at St. Louis to extend his hitting streak to 35 games.

2006 — Matt Murton tied a major league record with four doubles and drove in five runs to help the Chicago Cubs salvage a split of a doubleheader with Arizona 7-3.

2015 — Adrian Beltre became the first major leaguer since the 1930s to hit for his third career cycle and the Texas Rangers held on for a wild 12-9 victory over Houston. Beltre hit a solo homer in the fifth inning for the Texas Rangers, completing the cycle in his first four at-bats.

2024 — By stealing three bases in a 10-0 Dodgers win over the Athletics, Shohei Ohtani becomes the first member of the 30-30 club this season (he has already hit 33 homers). In reaching the two marks in 108 games, he is the third fastest to do so in history, beaten only by Eric Davis (90 games in 1987) and Alex Rodriguez (107 games in 1998).

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.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman felt good enough about his trade discussions with the Detroit Tigers for two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal that he gave manager Dave Roberts a positive update shortly before the team’s game against the Red Sox on Saturday.

“I heard that it was pretty much done,” Roberts recounted Sunday afternoon. “But there’s obviously things that have to go on with medical, so it wasn’t actually even finalized. I just heard that it was pretty much close.”

Friedman, however, wasn’t ready to exhale until he got final word from the Tigers during the game.

“I had no idea and was trying to emotionally hedge,” he said. “I wasn’t getting too high or too low on it until we actually found out.”

There was, it turned out, no need to stress. On Saturday, the Dodgers agreed to trade three prospects — outfielder Zyhir Hope (No. 25 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100), right-handed pitcher River Ryan (No. 68) and right-hander Brady Smith — to the Tigers for one of the best starters in baseball.

The teams officially announced the trade Sunday.

Even as the Dodgers signaled a potentially low-key trade deadline in the lead-up — “we try to do everything we can to avoid not having to do something,” Friedman said last week — many rival executives and scouts had come to see the Dodgers landing Skubal as practically inevitable.

Of course, the World Series favorites didn’t need to acquire Skubal. But if they wanted him, they’d get him.

And they did.

“Friday it started picking up a little bit,” Friedman said. “But [Saturday] it was much more aggressive back and forth and a lot of different conversations. Obviously being on our side, you didn’t really know how long the process was gonna go, whether it was gonna go into Sunday, into Monday. But obviously we were of the mind to be aggressive and try to get a deal done.

“We were of the mind to be aggressive for one player this deadline, and fortunately we were able to line up.”

Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, speaks to reporters on Jan. 21.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Two aspects of the trade did, however, take the industry by surprise: the timing and the return.

The Dodgers pulled off the trade without disrupting their major-league squad. Ryan, who made four major-league starts in 2024, has the stuff to compete in the majors, but health has kept him from another call-up.

“Obviously they felt good going through it,” Friedman said. “We gave up a lot of talent. Those guys are really good, and have a chance to be really good major-league players. But with where our core is, this moment in time, it was something that we felt like, erring on the side of aggressive made the most sense right now.”

Skubal joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani as postseason rotation options, creating an enviable surplus if all five are healthy in October.

“I think it’s arguably the best rotation of all time — as if it wasn’t before as well,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “Hope he’s ready to win a ring.”

Said veteran utility player Miguel Rojas: “It’s a statement from this organization to the rest of the league and the world that they’re not just satisfied with what happened the last couple years. … It’s kind of like a pressed button for us to kind of continue to go and not let the rest of the league catch up to our standards.”

Of course, health is never guaranteed. Skubal and Snell have undergone surgeries to remove loose bodies from their pitching elbows. Skubal has made nine appearances since, and Snell is scheduled to make one more rehab start before being activated off the injured list.

Glasnow, on the verge of a rehab assignment, has been sidelined for nearly three months with back spasms, an injury the Dodgers initially hoped wouldn’t even need an IL stint.

Ohtani’s nagging knee problem creates the most uncertainty. Ohtani hasn’t pitched in nearly a month, despite receiving an Orthovisc injection to lubricate the joint. He could restart playing catch this week in Chicago, Roberts said.

“We’re as confident as we can be that he’s going to be back and he’s going to start throwing soon and building back up,” Friedman said. “You can never perfectly predict the future but if you said, ‘Hey, place a bet on it,’ I would be very confident placing it that he would be back pitching.”

Pitcher Tarik Skubal is congratulated by teammates after playing in his final game with the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

With this much time off, however, Ohtani will need to build back up to a starter’s workload without the benefit of a rehab assignment, similar to what he did last season. The timing of his return to the mound will dictate how long the build-up will be.

“We have a plan to build him up slowly, methodically,” Roberts said. “And that would have happened if this trade would have happened or not.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers are filling his spot in the rotation with the best possible option. Skubal is scheduled to make his Dodgers debut Tuesday against the Cubs in Chicago.

And the Dodgers aren’t necessarily done dealing. As of Sunday afternoon, they still were engaged on “a number of different conversations on a number of different fronts,” Friedman said.

When asked if the Dodgers could still add to the major-league roster, however, Friedman said that was “less likely.”

“Never say never,” he said. “Fortunately, we don’t have that acute need that we have to do this or our team is in real danger.”

He did, however, mention the Dodgers’ lack of an acute need before acquiring Skubal too.

The Dodgers were swept for just the second time this season after the red-hot Boston Red Sox hit four home runs, including three off embattled starter Emmet Sheehan, to take an 8-4 win on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.

Boston hit three home runs in four at-bats in the third inning, with Sheehan giving up blasts to Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida as the Dodgers suffered their second three-game sweep at home in less than a month.

“It was bad execution,” Sheehan said. “I just missed my spots.”

Boston got to Sheehan early with a pair of RBI singles from Yoshida and Caleb Durbin in the first inning.

The Dodgers (69-43) responded with three runs in the second as Eliézer Alfonzo collected an RBI with a groundout against Red Sox starter Jake Bennett. Andy Pages then drove in two more runs on a single to right. He also hit an RBI double in the seventh for the Dodgers’ final run.

Sheehan (4-8), who has a 6.39 ERA over his past seven starts, gave up six hits and five runs over just 2⅔ innings.

Reliever Wyatt Mills also struggled, giving up two runs over two innings.

Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan walks off the field during the third inning against the Red Sox on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t know,” Sheehan said about his rough stretch. “If I knew, I would fix it, but I’m going to keep trying to fix it. … The only thing I can do is try to get better. There’s no other option.”

Added Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “I just don’t think [Sheehan] was sharp today at all. … They took a lot of comfortable swings [and] aggressive swings. There were some strikeouts and some swing-miss. But the end of the day, it’s about limiting runs, and if you can’t keep the ball in the ballpark, then it’s hard to win.”

Bennett (7-4), settled in after his rough second inning and threw 5⅔ innings as Boston won for the 27th time in 32 games after outscoring the Dodgers 20-10 in the three-game series.

Jarren Duran, a Cypress native, added to Boston’s lead with a 420-foot solo homer to center field off reliever Kyle Hurt in the sixth. It was Duran’s first homer since July 5 against the Angels.

Boston (60-51) closed out the scoring in the eighth, with Durbin scoring on a wild pitch from Mills and Andruw Monasterio scoring on a ball that got past Alfonzo.

“I think that if you look at it, unemotionally, they outplayed us,” Roberts said about Boston’s sweep. “They were hungrier. You’ve got a lot of players over there that are under control. They’re fighting a higher seed in the postseason. They’re playing good baseball, and they outplayed us.

“It’s not an excuse. I don’t feel good about it, but that’s kind of what I saw.”

Skubal arrives

Newly acquired Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal greets center fielder Andy Pages in the eighth inning of an 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, acquired by the Dodgers in a trade with the Detroit Tigers on Saturday, was in the Dodgers’ dugout during the game, exchanging pleasantries with his new teammates and coaches.

The team also shared a video of Skubal settling in on social media.

“We got better,” said Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz. “That’s the only thing I can say. We got … one of the best pitchers in the league, and now we have him as a teammate. So that’s a really good plus for us.”

Injury updates

Miguel Rojas (ankle) was available off the bench despite exiting Saturday’s game after fouling a ball off his foot.

“I felt better today, able to put some weight on it,” Rojas said, adding that his X-rays were negative. “The good thing is no break. So, I’m fine. If Doc needs me and the situation presents itself … I need to be available every single day.”

Dalton Rushing was scratched with minor right arm irritation; Alfonzo started in his place.

“Dalton had some arm irritation when he was playing catch before the game, which is very uncommon,” Roberts said, adding that X-rays were negative. “I didn’t want to take a chance and kind of push him anymore, so that’s why I decided to scratch him.

“He got treated today, and my expectation is he’s going to be with us on the plane, and then kind of day to day.”

World Series champions for the past two years add Skubal to star-studded roster that already includes Shohei Ohtani.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers.

Skubal got the news on Saturday night during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a pitching star to join the World Series champions for the past two years.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to be a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller-coaster a little bit.”

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers, which already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.

The Dodgers are in first place in the National League West and before adding Skubal were already the favourites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000.

ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series in October. He has a $32m annual salary, a record total in arbitration after the team offered $19m, and is expected to sign an enormous contract in the off-season.

The 29-year-old left-handed pitcher said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.

“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.

Your team could have done this.

Is baseball headed for a lockout this winter? Yes.

Because the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal? No.

The Dodgers play a video before each home game, which includes these words from a sinister-sounding voice: “You need teams like us to point your finger and say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ ”

In this case, “you” means the owners of the other 29 teams. You can hear them wailing now: Baseball is rigged, and only a salary cap can unrig the sport. The Dodgers are the back-to-back champions, and they just picked up the best player on the trade market.

They. Have. Too. Much. Damn. Money.

But here’s the thing: All the money the Dodgers lavish upon their major league roster isn’t what made the trade for Skubal possible.

Oh, all that money helped put them in position to where Skubal could help them in October, but Skubal could have helped the Milwaukee Brewers or the Chicago Cubs or the Tampa Bay Rays or the Atlanta Braves or the New York Yankees or the Philadelphia Phillies.

When the Detroit Tigers took bids for Skubal, they liked the Dodgers’ offer the best. And here is what the Dodgers offered: three prospects, none a first-rounder, none ranked among baseball’s top 20 prospects.

Outfielder Zyhir Hope was drafted in the 11th round, by the Cubs. When the Cubs needed a corner infielder, the Dodgers shipped them a surplus major leaguer, Michael Busch, in exchange for two prospects. One was Hope, whose professional experience was limited to 11 games of rookie ball.

Pitcher River Ryan was drafted in the 11th round, by the San Diego Padres. When the Padres needed a left-handed bat that could play the outfield, the Dodgers shipped them a surplus major leaguer, Matt Beaty, for a prospect that had yet to make his professional debut, Ryan.

Pitcher Brady Smith was drafted in the third round, by the Dodgers. This is his second professional season.

The Dodgers developed Hope and Ryan from minor leaguers into top prospects, and the Tigers hope some of that Dodgers development dust has rubbed off on Smith.

Tarik Skubal delivers during a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles on July 29.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

For now? The prospect rankings on the league website put Hope at No. 25 and Ryan at No. 68. The Baseball America prospect rankings put Hope at No. 55, with Ryan outside the top 100. Neither ranking includes Smith among the top 100.

As Baseball America editor-in-chief J.J. Cooper wrote, Hope was the third-best outfielder on the Dodgers’ double-A team.

That might be the greatest testament of all to the Dodgers’ player development system, particularly considering all of their winning means they draft at the end of every round, every year.

Maybe the trio of prospects never pans out, at least not the way the Tigers hope. Two of three prospects traded at the deadline never do, according to Baseball America research.

Will money come into play here? Yes, but not yet. Skubal is a free agent at the end of the season, and not every team could afford $300 million or $400 million or so to sign him to a long-term contract.

But, for these final months of the season, the cost to pay Skubal is $9 million. Any team can do that. And, if the owner of your team tells you he could not have done that, the proper response would be to laugh, and then chant “Sell the team!”

And, as the Brewers and Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays prove just about every year, any team can afford to build an excellent player development system.

Look, I am not going to try to tell you that every team could sign Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker.

But the New York Mets, in the largest market in the major leagues, certainly could. Their Saturday was not spent trading for Skubal. It was spent taking trade offers for players on their last-place team and commemorating the 40th anniversary of their 1986 World Series championship team — their last championship team.

In Anaheim, the last-place team in the second-largest market in the major leagues lost to the Brewers, the team in the smallest market in the major leagues — and, as of Saturday, the team with the best record in the majors.

Market size need not be destiny, if you can scout and sign and coach and develop players. The owners could learn from that, but it’s easier to point at the Dodgers and say, “That’s the bad guy.”

Instead, some poor league employee probably stayed up late Saturday night, planning how to splice clips of Skubal wearing a Dodgers uniform into the “Level the Playing Field” ad campaign the owners are running to persuade fans to take their side in collective bargaining. Imagine what they could do with clips of Skubal waving to fans in a championship parade.