Dodgers

The Shohei-inspired sushi roll, available only during games, features spicy tuna inside — representing Ohtani’s Japanese heritage — and avocado on top, representing California. “That’s the whole idea: the mixing of the cultures,” said owner Don Tahara. Other World Series specials — available all day, even when the game’s not on — include chili cheese fries, cocktail specials and Canadian poutine in a nod to the Blue Jays.

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and judging by the numerous emails on the topic I’ve received, fans really want to beat George Springer.

Springer was the MVP of the 2017 World Series that was won by the cheating Houston (no relation) Astros.

—Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are the best hitters on the Blue Jays and have been playing very well this postseason.

—Actually, the whole Blue Jays offense is doing well, hitting 296/.355/.523 and averaging 6.45 runs per game. They haven’t faced a starting rotation as good as the Dodgers’ however.

—Even if you discount his 2017 postseason stats, Springer remains one of the best postseason hitters of all time.

—The Dodgers will go with Blake Snell in Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2.

A quick chart for those of you who miss the days of starting pitchers pitching deep into games:

Most innings pitched by starters in a four-game LCS:

1979 Orioles: 33.1
1974 A’s: 29.2 IP
1983 White Sox: 29.1 IP
1990 A’s: 29.1 IP
2025 Dodgers: 28.2 IP
1983 Orioles: 28.2 IP

—Dodger pitchers have given up four home runs this postseason. Blue Jays pitchers have given up 18.

—How humble and cool is Shohei Ohtani? In the clubhouse after he was named NLCS MVP, he covered up his name on the trophy and replaced it with something that said Team Effort. You can see a picture of it here.

—Some bad news for the bullpen: Alex Vesia might miss the World Series because he and his wife are dealing with a “a deeply personal family matter.” From Jack Harris’ story:

“We have a little bit of time — I think 10 o’clock tomorrow or something like that — to finalize our roster,” Dave Roberts said. “But, yeah, we’re going through the process of trying to backfill his spot on the roster.”

One potential option for the Dodgers would be to place Vesia on MLB’s Family Medical Emergency List, which would require him to miss a minimum of three days but make it possible for him to rejoin the active roster later in the World Series.

—That would be a big blow to the Dodger bullpen. Vesia was one of the handful of guys they counted on this postseason. I would imagine Anthony Banda would fill his role as the main left-hander out of the pen.

—But the important thing is not how it hurts the Dodgers, it’s that Vesia and his wife come through this OK. Our best wishes to them.

—Which unlikely player will rise up to be a star this World Series? I’m going with Andy Pages, who is overdue to break his slump.

—The dream scenario: Dodgers win it at home, and have a big enough lead that Clayton Kershaw comes in to pitch the final inning.

—Because I had “4-0” and “4-3” on the mind (or, I’m just dumb), in the last newsletter I had the Dodgers defeating the A’s 4-3 in the 1988 World Series. It was 4-1 of course.

—What do the Dodgers need to do to win? Cool off Springer and Guerrero. Work the count and tire out the pitching staff, which pays off even more as the series progresses. The pitchers need to attack hitters and not just nibble around the corner. All of that is easier said than done though.

—Whichever team wins, Jose Ureña is guaranteed a World Series ring. He pitched for the Dodgers and Blue Jays this season. For the Dodgers he gave one run in three innings, for the Blue Jays, five runs in 12.1 innings. The Dodgers signed him on June 3 and released him on June 13.

—Familiar face Don Mattingly is the bench coach for the Blue Jays. Believe it or not, in his long, illustrious career, this is the first time he has been in a World Series.

—One thing the Dodgers have working in their favor: The Blue Jays don’t have many strong left-handed pitchers. They can’t just pound them with lefties like the Brewers did.

—The series won’t be easy. The Dodgers have made winning in the postseason look easy, but it isn’t. But there are four more wins left in them.

Prediction: Dodgers in 5.

Let’s take a look at how the teams compare and where they ranked among the 30 teams:

Batting

Runs per game
Dodgers, 5.09 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 4.93 (4th)
MLB average, 4.45

Batting average
Blue Jays, .265 (1st)
Dodgers, .253 (5th)
MLB average, .245

On-base %
Blue Jays, .333 (1st)
Dodgers, .327 (5th)
MLB average, .315

Slugging %
Dodgers, .441 (2nd)
Blue Jays, .427 (7th)
MLB average, .404

Doubles
Blue Jays, 294 (3rd)
MLB average, 258
Dodgers, 257 (13th)

Triples
Dodgers, 21 (T12th)
MLB average, 21
Blue Jays, 13 (26th)

Home runs
Dodgers, 244 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 191 (T11th)
MLB average, 188

Walks
Dodgers, 580 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 520 (13th)
MLB average, 513

Strikeouts
MLB average, 1,355
Dodgers, 1,353 (16th)
Blue Jays, 1,099 (29th)

Stolen bases
MLB average, 115
Dodgers, 88 (T21st)
Blue Jays, 77 (28th)

Sacrifice bunts
Blue Jays, 35 (3rd)
MLB average, 19
Dodgers, 13 (T20th)

Batting average with two out and runners in scoring position
Dodgers, .271 (1st)
Blue Jays, .264 (4th)
MLB average, .233

Pitching

ERA
Dodgers, 3.95 (16th)
MLB average, 4.15
Blue Jays, 4.18 (19th)

Team ERA after All-Star break
Dodgers, 3.45 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 4.23 (17th)
MLB average, 4.28

Rotation ERA
Dodgers, 3.69 (5th)
MLB average, 4.21
Blue Jays, 4.34 (20th)

Bullpen ERA
Blue Jays, 3.98 (16th)
MLB average, 4.08
Dodgers, 4.27 (21st)

FIP (click here for explainer)
Dodgers, 3.93 (7th)
MLB average, 4.16
Blue Jays, 4.27 (23rd)

Walks
Dodgers, 563 (5th)
Blue Jays, 517 (15th)
MLB average, 513

Strikeouts
Dodgers, 1,505 (1st)
Blue Jays, 1,430 (6th)
MLB average, 1,355

Saves
Dodgers, 46 (5th)
Blue Jays, 42 (T12th)
MLB average, 40

Blown saves
Dodgers, 27 (T7th)
MLB average, 24
Blue Jays, 23 (T14th)

Inherited runners who scored %
Dodgers, 26.1% (3rd)
Blue Jays, 27.6% (8th)
MLB average, 31.8%

Relief innings
Dodgers, 657.2 (1st)
Blue Jays, 597.1 (13th)
MLB average, 595

Relief wins
Dodgers, 44 (T1st)
Blue Jays, 44 (T1st)
MLB average, 33

Relief losses
Dodgers, 33 (T7th)
MLB average, 29
Blue Jays, 22 (T26th)

Fielding

Errors
Blue Jays, 86 (12th)
MLB average, 82
Dodgers, 68 (25th)

The players

When comparing the main players on the teams, keep in mind that players can move around depending on who is starting and managerial whim. For a full look at the Blue Jays statistically, click here.

DH
Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani. .282/.392/.622, 25 doubles, 55 homers, 102 RBIs
Blue Jays, George Springer, .309/.399/.500, 27 doubles, 32 homers, 84 RBIs

The best hitter on both teams bats leadoff. Far cry from the days when the DH would be the slow, aging, plodding slugger, batting fourth or fifth.

Catcher
Dodgers, Will Smith, .296/.404/.497, 20 doubles, 17 homers, 61 RBIs
Dodgers, Ben Rortvedt, .224/.309/.327, 2 doubles, 1 homer, 4 RBIs
Blue Jays, Alejandro Kirk, .282/.348/.421, 8 doubles, 3 homers, 20 RBIs
Blue Jays, Tyler Heineman, .289/.361/.416, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 17 RBIs

Don’t expect Rortvedt or Heineman to get too much, if any, playing time.

First base
Dodgers, Freddie Freeman, .295/.367/.502, 39 doubles, 24 homers, 90 RBIs
Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., .292/.381/.467, 34 doubles, 23 homers, 84 RBIs

Guerrero is red hot. He was named ALCS MVP after hitting .385 with three homers and he hit .529 in the ALDS. He has six home runs and 12 RBIs in 11 postseason games this season. Priority one will be slowing him down some.

Second base
Dodgers, Miguel Rojas, .262/.318/.397, 18 doubles, 7 homers, 27 RBIs
Dodgers, Tommy Edman, .225/.274/.382, 13 doubles, 13 homers, 49 RBIs
Blue Jays, Andrés Giménez, .210/.285/.313, 11 doubles, 7 homers, 35 RBIs
OR
Blue Jays, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, .262/.297/.334, 21 doubles, 2 homers, 40 RBIs

When I see good glove, no hit guys like Giménez in a World Series lineup and begin to think “easy out,” I stop myself and start thinking about Brian Doyle in the 1978 World Series. He was a career .161 hitter who hit .438 in that series.

Third base
Dodgers, Max Muncy, .243/.376/.470, 10 doubles, 19 homers, 67 RBIs
Blue Jays, Ernie Clement, .277/.313/.398, 35 doubles, 9 homers, 50 RBIs

Shortstop
Dodgers, Mookie Betts, .258/.326/.406, 23 doubles, 20 homers, 82 RBIs
Blue Jays, Andrés Giménez, .210/.285/.313, 11 doubles, 7 homers, 35 RBIs
OR
Blue Jays, Bo Bichette, .311/.457/.483, 44 doubles, 18 homers, 94 RBIs

The Blue Jays’ middle infield depends entirely on the health of Bichette. He has been out for six weeks because of an injured left knee, but says he will be ready for the World Series. If he is, then Giménez slides over to second. If not, the Giménez plays short and Kiner-Falefa plays second.

Left field
Dodgers, Kiké Hernández, .203/.255/.366, 8 doubles, 10 homers, 35 RBIs
Blue Jays, Nathan Lukes, .255/.323/.407, 19 doubles, 12 homers, 65 RBIs

Center field
Dodgers, Andy Pages, .272/.313/.461, 27 doubles, 27 homers, 86 RBIs
Blue Jays, Daulton Varsho, .238/.284/.548, 13 doubles, 20 homers, 55 RBIs

Right field
Dodgers, Teoscar Hernández, .247/.284/.454, 29 doubles, 25 homers, 89 RBIs
Blue Jays, Addison Barger, .243/.301/.454, 32 doubles, 21 homers, 74 RBIs

Barger is Max Muncy, if Muncy didn’t draw any walks.

Of the Blue Jays, Giménez, Lukes, Varsho and Barger bat left-handed. Heineman is a switch-hitter.

Starting pitchers

Dodgers
*Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA, 61.1 IP, 51 hits, 26 walks, 72 K’s
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA, 173.2 IP, 113 hits, 59 walks, 201 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, 1-1, 2.87 ERA, 47 IP, 40 hits, 9 walks, 62 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 4-3, 3.19 ERA, 90.1 IP, 56 hits, 43 walks, 106 K’s

Blue Jays
Kevin Gausman, 10-11, 3.59 ERA, 193 IP, 155 hits, 50 walks, 189 K’s
Shane Bieber, 4-2, 3.57 ERA, 40.1 IP, 34 hits, 7 walks, 37 K’s
Trey Yesavage, 1-0, 3.21 ERA, 14 IP, 13 hits, 7 walks, 16 K’s
Max Scherzer, 5-5, 5.19 ERA, 85 IP, 87 hits, 23 walks, 82 K’s

These are the four pitchers who started for the Blue Jays in the ALCS. It’s conceivable they could use left-hander Eric Lauer as a starter, or as an opener, to help neutralize Ohtani and Freeman. He started for them during the season before going to the bullpen when Bieber joined the rotation.

The main relievers

Dodgers
*Alex Vesia, 4-2, 3.02 ERA, 5 saves, 59.2 IP, 37 hits, 22 walks, 80 K’s
Emmet Sheehan, 6-3, 2.82 ERA, 73.1 IP, 49 hits, 22 walks, 89 K’s
Blake Treinen, 2-7. 5.40 ERA, 26.2 IP, 30 hits, 19 walks, 36 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 1-1, 4.46 ERA, 36.1 IP, 30 hits, 22 walks, 28 K’s
*Anthony Banda, 5-1, 3.18 ERA, 65 IP, 45 hits, 34 walks, 61 K’s

Blue Jays
Jeff Hoffman, 9-7, 4.37 ERA, 33 saves, 68 IP, 54 hits, 27 walks, 84 K’s
Louis Varland, 1-0, 4.94 ERA, 23.2 IP, 24 hits, 9 walks, 28 K’s
*Mason Fluharty, 5-2, 4.44 ERA, 1 save, 52.2 IP, 36 hits, 24 walks, 56 K’s
*Eric Lauer, 9-2, 3.18 ERA, 104.2 IP, 90 hits, 26 walks, 102 K’s
Seranthony Dominguez, 2-1, 3.00 ERA, 21 IP, 12 hits, 12 walks, 25 K’s

*-left-handed

Postseason numbers

How the Dodgers and Blue Jays have done this postseason:

Batting

Alex Call, .750/.857/.750, 3 for 4, 2 walks
Ben Rortvedt, .429/.500/.571, 3 for 7, 1 double, 1 RBI, 3 K’s
Miguel Rojas, .375/.444/.375, 3 for 8, 1 RBI
Kiké Hernández, .306/.375/.417, 11 for 36, 4 doubles, 4 RBIs, 4 walks, 9 K’s
Mookie Betts, .293/.370/.439, 12 for 41, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 6 RBIs, 4 walks, 4 K’s
Tommy Edman, .286/.306/.486, 10 for 35, 1 double, 2 homers, 6 RBIs, 1 walk, 12 K’s
Will Smith, .286/.375/.286, 8 for 28, 2 RBIs, 3 walks, 10 K’s
Teoscar Hernández, .268/.302/.585, 1 double, 4 homers, 11 RBIs, 2 walks, 11 K’s
Freddie Freeman, .231/.333/.410, 9 for 39, 4 doubles, 1 homer, 1 RBI, 5 walks, 11 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, .220/.333/.634, 9 for 41, 1 triple, 5 homers, 9 RBIs, 7 walks, 17 K’s
Max Muncy, .214/.389/.357, 6 for 28, 1 double, 1 homer, 1 RBI, 7 walks, 6 K’s
Andy Pages, .086/.135/.114, 3 for 35, 1 double, 1 RBI, 9 K’s
Dalton Rushing, 0 for 1, 1 K
Team, .256/.340/.430, 17 doubles, 2 triples, 13 homers, 35 walks, 93 K’s, 4.6 runs per game

Blue Jays

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., .442/.510/.930, 19 for 43, 3 doubles, 6 homers, 12 RBIs, 6 walks, 3 K’d
Ernie Clement, .429/.444/.619, 18 for 42, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer, 7 RBIs, 1 walk, 2 K’s
Nathan Lukes, .333/.381/.410, 13 for 39, 3 doubles, 7 RBIs, 3 walks, 5 K’s
Addison Barger, .286/.375/.514, 10 for 35, 2 doubles, 2 homers, 4 RBIs, 5 walks, 7 K’s
Daulton Varsho, .273/.304/.500, 12 for 44, 4 doubles, 2 homers, 8 RBIs, 2 walks, 12 K’s
Andrés Giménez, .263/.317/.447, 10 for 38, 1 double, 2 homers, 8 RBIs, 2 walks, 5 K’s
George Springer, .239/.321/. 609, 11 for 36, 5 doubles, 4 homers, 9 RBIs, 5 walks, 11 K’s
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, .238/.238/.333, 5 for 21, 2 doubles, 1 RBI, 1 K
Alejandro Kirk, .222/.286/.467, 10 for 45, 2 doubles, 3 homers, 7 RBIs, 4 walks, 7 K’s
Myles Straw, .222/.300/.222, 2 for 9, 1 RBI, 1 walk, 2 K’s
Anthony Santander, .200/.250/.200, 3 for 15, 2 RBIs, 1 walk, 5 K’s
David Schneider, .200/.385/.300, 2 for 10, 1 double, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Joey Loperfido, 0 for 1
Team, .296/.355/.523, 26 doubles, 1 triple, 20 homers, 33 walks, 64 K’s, 6.45 runs per game

Pitching

Anthony Banda, 0.00 ERA, 1.2 IP, 2 walks, 1 K
Jack Dreyer, 0.00 ERA, 2.2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 3 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 0.68 ERA, 13.1 IP, 7 hits, 1 ER, 8 walks, 18 K’s
Blake Snell, 3-0, 0.86 ERA, 21 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 5 walks, 28 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 1.13 ERA, 3 saves, 8 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER,, 2 walks, 6 K’s
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 2-1, 1.83 ERA, 19.2 IP, 13 hits, 4 ER, 4 walks, 18 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, 2-0, 2.25 ERA, 12 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 4 walks, 19 K’s
Alex Vesia, 2-0, 3.86 ERA, 4.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Blake Treinen, 7.36 ERA, 3.2 IP, 5 hits 3 ER, 2 walks, 5 K’s
Emmet Sheehan, 10.80 ERA, 3.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 2 walks, 2 K’s
Clayton Kershaw, 18.00 ERA, 2 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 3 walks
Edgardo Henriquez, infinity, 0 IP, 1 hit, 1 ER, 2 walks
Team, 9-1, 2.45 ERA. 4 saves, 92 IP, 56 hits, 25 ER, 38 walks, 104 K’s

Blue Jays

Chris Bassitt, 0.00 ERA, 2.2 IP, 3 K’s
Jeff Hoffman, 1.23 ERA, 2 saves, 7.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 walks, 12 K’s
Kevin Gausman, 2-1, 2.00 ERA, 18 IP, 10 hits, 4 ER, 9 walks, 12 K’s
Max Scherzer, 1-0, 3.18 ERA, 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 4 walks, 5 K’s
Louis Varland, 0-1, 3.27 ERA, 11 IP, 8 hits, 4 ER, 1 walk, 13 K’s
Seranthony Dominguez. 1-0, 4.05 ERA, 6.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 5 walks, 5 K’s
Trey Yesavage, 2-1, 4.20 ERA, 15 IP, 10 hits, 7 ER, 7 walks, 22 K’s
Shane Bieber, 1-0, 4.38 ERA, 12.1 IP, 16 hits, 6 ER, 3 walks, 15 K’s
Mason Fluharty, 6.23 ERA, 4.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 walks, 7 K’s
Braydon Fisher, 7.36 ERA, 3.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 1 walk, 6 K’s
Eric Lauer, 9.00 ERA, 3 IP, 4 hits, 3 ER, 1 walk, 5 K’s
Yariel Rodríguez, 10.13 ERA, 2.2 IP, 2 hits, 3 ER, 4 walks, 1 K
Brendon Little, 0-1, 12.00 ERA, 3 IP, 5 hits, 4 ER, 4 walks, 2 K’s
Tommy Nance, 13.50 ERA, 1.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 1 walk
Justin Bruihl, 54.00 ERA, 0.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER
Team, 7-4, 4.36 ERA, 2 saves, 97 IP, 84 hits, 47 ER, 44 walks, 108 K’s

Poll results

We asked, “Who will win the World Series?”

After 13,296 votes:

Dodgers in five, 44.5%
Dodgers in six, 40.7%
Dodgers in four, 6.3%
Dodgers in seven, 4.5%
Blue Jays in six, 1.9%
Blue Jays in seven, 1.2%
Blue Jays in five, 0.6%
Blue Jays in four, 0.3%

Up next

Friday: Dodgers (Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA) at Toronto (Trey Yesavage, 1-0, 3.21 ERA), 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Saturday: Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA) at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Monday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Tuesday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Wednesday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Friday, Oct. 31: Dodgers at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Saturday, Nov. 1: Dodgers at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-if necessary

In case you missed it

Alex Vesia might not pitch in World Series because of personal matter

‘It’s just in our DNA’: Why Dodgers treat title pressure as routine while chasing dynasty

Dave Roberts doesn’t think the Dodgers are villains

Hernández: Yamamoto’s interpreter almost quit after 2 days. Now he’s hoping his underwear can help in World Series

Cuban Andy Pages’ Dodgers success is bittersweet due to family separation

How a difficult season transformed Blake Snell into the Dodgers’ October ace

Shaikin: ‘I let down an entire nation.’ Canadians wanted Ohtani. They got a ‘Shark Tank’ star instead

Dodgers’ Justin Dean has not batted yet in the playoffs. Here’s how he still contributes

And finally

Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. 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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Sam Farmer: The offense topped 30 points for the first time all season.

The defense went from rattled to relentless.

And the special teams? The Chargers kicked three field goals in their 37-10 rout of Minnesota on Thursday night, but it’s what they didn’t do that was most resounding.

For the first time in four years, the Chargers didn’t punt.

What a turnaround for a team that was embarrassed on its home field four days earlier.

“They just set their minds to it that they weren’t going to be denied,” said Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, whose team pulled out of a tailspin in dramatic fashion after losing three of their previous four games.

The wire-to-wire win was sweet redemption for a Chargers defense that faltered in a big way Sunday in a 38-24 loss to Indianapolis.

Continue reading here

Chargers summary

NFL standings

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: The Dodgers announced Thursday that reliever Alex Vesia is away from the team as he and his wife “navigate a deeply personal family matter,” and manager Dave Roberts said his availability for the World Series is uncertain.

Vesia, who has been the Dodgers’ top left-handed pitcher in the bullpen this season, was not present at the team’s World Series media session on Thursday, and was not seen at the club’s open workout at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

Roberts said that the club was reviewing its options within MLB’s postseason roster rules, but that for now Vesia’s status was considered day-to-day.

Continue reading here

‘It’s just in our DNA’: Why Dodgers treat title pressure as routine while chasing dynasty

Hernández: Yamamoto’s interpreter almost quit after 2 days. Now he’s hoping his underwear can help in World Series

Shaikin: What might have been if the Angels had signed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a decade ago

WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Dodgers vs. Toronto
Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Saturday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Monday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Tuesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Wednesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Friday, Oct. 31 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Saturday, Nov. 1 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*-if necessary

LAKERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Marcus Smart picking up four fouls in 12 first-half minutes wasn’t the plan Tuesday, but the Lakers guard still saw a purpose behind the maddening calls.

For a team that signed the 31-year-old guard in large part for his tenacity, having Smart set the standard of physicality was the right way to start a season, even if the season-opening result went the wrong way for the Lakers.

“The toughest team,” Smart said, “sets the rules.”

“I’ve been in this league for 12 years and that’s always been the motto,” the former NBA defensive player of the year continued. “You see it. The team that comes out more physical, the momentum is kind of going their way, and that’s how it is. We want to be the toughest team from start to the end.”

Continue reading here

NBA GAMBLING PROBE

From Richard Winton and Salvador Hernandez: Federal prosecutors unsealed two indictments Thursday outlining an illegal betting scheme that has rocked the NBA and named current and former players, including former Clippers player and current Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.

Prosecutors are accusing the Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, a retired NBA player and friend of LeBron James, of using private insider NBA information, such as when players would sit out, to help others profit in leveraged bets online.

In a separate indictment from the East District of New York, Billups, who played with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s staff before earning the Trail Blazers head coaching job, is charged with rigging underground poker games that three of New York’s Mafia families backed, authorities said.

Continue reading here

KINGS

Adrian Kempe scored 37 seconds into overtime and the Kings beat Dallas 3-2 on Thursday night, handing the slumping Stars their fourth consecutive loss. It was the second game in a row in which Kempe scored the winning overtime goal.

Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves, and former Stars Corey Perry and Cody Ceci also scored as the Kings won in regulation for the first time this season.

Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson scored power-play goals for the Stars, and Johnston also had an assist. Jake Oettinger stopped 22 shots.

Continue reading here

Kings summary

NHL standings

DUCKS

Troy Terry snapped a tie in the third period, and the Ducks held off the Boston Bruins for a 7-5 victory Thursday night.

Mikael Granlund had two goals and three assists for the Ducks in their second straight win. Terry and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist, and Nikita Nesterenko had four assists.

Boston dropped its sixth straight game after opening Marco Sturm’s coaching tenure with three wins in a row.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1943 — The Green Bay Packers grab nine interceptions, seven off Frank Sinkwich, in a 27-6 victory over the Detroit Lions.

1948 — Chicago’s Bill Blackburn returns two interceptions for touchdowns to highlight a 35-point third quarter as the Cardinals beat the Boston Yanks 49-27.

1959 — Wilt Chamberlain plays in his first NBA game with the Philadelphia Warriors. Chamberlain plays his entire career — 1,045 consecutive games — without a disqualification.

1965 — Fran Tarkenton of the Minnesota Vikings passes for 407 yards and three touchdowns in a thrilling 42-41 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

1976 — The New York Marathon is run through the streets of the five boroughs for the first time. Bill Rodgers wins the race in 2:10:10, beating Olympic gold and silver medalist Frank Shorter. Miki Gorman wins the women’s division in 2:39:11, the 70th-fastest time over all.

1998 — Ricky Williams of Texas becomes the leading scorer in NCAA Division I history with 428 career points, scoring two touchdowns in a 30-20 victory over Baylor.

2003 — Se Ri Pak becomes the first woman to make the two-round cut in a men’s golf tournament since Babe Zaharias in 1945. Pak shoots a 2-over 74 on the Korean tour for a 2-over 146 halfway through the $250,000 SBS Super Tournament. Pak finishes tied for 29th place.

2008 — Make it 9-for-9 for the unstoppable Zenyatta. The 4-year-old filly, ridden by Mike Smith, stays perfect in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Santa Anita, roaring from last to first around the turn to win the race.

2010 — Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall ties an NFL single-game record with four interceptions, including a 92-yard interception-return touchdown, in the Redskins’ 17-14 win at Chicago.

2013 — A majority-female officiating crew works a college football game in an apparent first. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference bills it as the first time it’s happened in an NCAA game. Head linesman Yvonda Lewis, line judge Tangela Mitchell, field judge Sebrina Brunson and back judge Krystle Apellaniz are part of the seven-person crew for the Division II game between Miles and Lane. Miles wins 38-26.

2015 — Montreal beats the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 to extend their season-opening winning streak to nine games. The Candiens break the NHL record for most consecutive regulation wins to begin a season, set by Buffalo in 1975-76.

2015 — Lance Austin returns a blocked field goal 78 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the game, giving Georgia Tech a stunning 22-16 upset of No. 9 Florida State.

2021 — Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady becomes the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 600 touchdowns in a 38-3 win over the Chicago Bears.

Compiled by the Associated Press

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1992 — The Toronto Blue Jays take baseball’s championship outside the United States for the first time, beating the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in 11 innings in Game 6 of the World Series.

2012 — Pablo Sandoval becomes the fourth player to hit three home runs in a World Series game to lead the San Francisco Giants over the Detroit Tigers 8-3 in the series opener.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

TORONTO — The Dodgers announced Thursday that reliever Alex Vesia is away from the team as he and his wife “navigate a deeply personal family matter,” and manager Dave Roberts said his availability for the World Series is uncertain.

Vesia, who has been the Dodgers’ top left-handed pitcher in the bullpen this season, was not present at the team’s World Series media session on Thursday, and was not seen at the club’s open workout at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

Roberts said that the club was reviewing its options within MLB’s postseason roster rules, but that for now Vesia’s status was considered day-to-day.

“We have a little bit of time — I think 10 o’clock tomorrow or something like that — to finalize our roster,” Roberts said. “But, yeah, we’re going through the process of trying to backfill his spot on the roster.”

One potential option for the Dodgers would be to place Vesia on MLB’s Family Medical Emergency List, which would require him to miss a minimum of three days but make it possible for him to rejoin the active roster later in the World Series.

For now, however, Roberts said “we’re just going day-to-day with really no expectations.”

In the Dodgers’ team statement, the club said “the entire Dodgers organization is sending our thoughts to the Vesia family.”

From the hot tub in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, Yoshinobu Yamamoto saw his interpreter on his way to take a shower.

Yamamoto called out to him.

“What are those colors?” Yamamoto asked him.

Yoshihiro Sonoda, 48, wore only a pair of boxers that depicted a rabbit with rainbow-colored lasers shooting out of its eyes.

Sonoda explained bashfully, “These are my shobu pantsu.”

For more than a year, Sonoda had worn shobu pantsu — or game underwear — for each one of Yamamoto’s starts.

Sonoda chuckled as he recalled the incident. Several weeks have passed since then, and the superstitious interpreter still wears his lucky boxers on days Yamamoto pitches.

When Yamamoto takes the mound for the Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday in Game 2 of the World Series, beneath Sonoda’s team-issued sweatpants will be the rabbit and rainbow-colored lasers.

The kid is a little different.

Sonoda recalled thinking that last year on the first day of spring training. On a grass field near the players’ parking lot, he watched Yamamoto throw javelins as part of his workout routine.

When the Japanese right-hander was finished, Sonoda started collecting the projectiles.

Yamamoto stopped him.

“Please, you’re my interpreter,” he said. “You’re not my servant.”

Yamamoto picked up his javelins and carried them back to the clubhouse.

In the months that followed, Sonoda noticed how Yamamoto treated others. He wasn’t kind only to other players. He was also conscientious of the organization’s rank-and-file employees.

“He pretends he’s not watching, but he’s watching,” Sonoda said. “He seems like he’s not listening, but he’s listening.”

Every day the Dodgers are on the road, Yamamoto has Starbucks coffee delivered to the team hotel. He always orders something for Sonoda.

“I think Yamamoto is quite the gentleman, quite the high character,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He treats everyone from Hiro to myself to all the support staff with the highest of respect.”

Two days into the job as Yamamoto’s interpreter, Sonoda wanted to resign.

A former collegiate judo standout in Japan, Sonoda spent the previous two decades working in the entertainment industry as a lighting engineer, his credits including “Men in Black,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Succession” and “Nurse Jackie.”

He had no previous experience as an interpreter and was by no means a baseball expert. He was apart from his wife, who remained in her native Texas.

“I don’t want to quit, but I can’t do this,” Sonoda told traveling secretary Scott Akasaki.

Akasaki, who was once an interpreter for Hideo Nomo, asked Sonoda to reconsider.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, speaks to reporters with his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, in a press conference before Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS against the San Diego Padres.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

“You can learn about baseball if you study it,” Sonoda recalled being told by Akasaki. “But Yoshinobu chose you for a reason, and that’s something no other person has.”

Sonoda never shared his insecurities with Yamamoto, instead throwing himself head first into his work. He was taught how to interpret ball-tracking data by assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness and performance science manager Tyler Duncan. He consulted with veteran interpreters, including Shingo Horie of the San Diego Padres and Hiro Fujiwara of the New York Mets.

Last year at World Series media day, Yamamoto was asked about Sonoda.

“We were both rookies this year,” Yamamoto said. “Sonoda-san especially, he came from a different industry and I would think he endured a lot of hardship. But he didn’t let on about that being the case.”

Standing by Yamamoto’s side, Sonoda fought back tears.

Sonoda has a small notebook in which he tracks every pitch thrown by Yamamoto. In a night game in Baltimore last month, Sonoda took notes as usual, jotting down pitches types and their locations.

Yamamoto carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning.

When there were two outs, Sonoda had Shohei Ohtani on one side of him and trainer Yosuke Nakajima on the other.

Sonoda stopped taking notes.

“I thought I should prepare to celebrate,” he said.

Jackson Holliday homered, and the no-hitter was gone.

Sonoda blamed himself.

“If only I had taken notes on that at-bat …” he said.

Sonoda was a significantly better interpreter this season than he was last season. On his commutes to Dodger Stadium, he listens to audio of Horie interpreting for Yu Darvish or Fujiwara for Kodai Senga.

Yamamoto noticed.

“His efforts in the shadows have been to where I can feel them,” Yamamoto said. “He’s a very pure and straightforward person. I think he’s really wonderful.”

Last year, Sonoda received a set of national-park-themed underwear from his wife, who knew of his affinity for the outdoors. The Yellowstone Park pair featured a roaring bear, which reminded Sonoda of Yamamoto screaming on the mound. Sonoda started wearing the boxers on days Yamamoto pitched, switching to a different pair for the next start if he lost or didn’t pitch well.

A new season called for a new set of underwear, but a stretch of inadequate run support prompted Sonoda to unretire a pair he wore on the Dodgers’ World Series run last year, the ones with the rainbow-emitting rabbit.

“I’m very superstitious,” Sonoda said.

Sonoda is also grateful.

“I think there are 14 or 15 Japanese interpreters in the majors leagues,” he said. “I feel like I’m the most blessed.”

Blessed because Akasaki talked him out of resigning. Blessed because of the baseball education he received from McGuiness and Duncan. Blessed because he has mentors such as Horie and Fujiwara. And above all, blessed because he was paired with a player whom he considers as good a person as he is a pitcher, the kind of high-character individual for whom he would wear radiant underwear in the off chance it could improve his fortune.

From Jack Harris: For much of the year, the Dodgers’ starting rotation felt broken.

In large part, because the pitcher acquired to be its anchor was struggling to find himself.

It’s easy to forget now, with Blake Snell in the midst of a historic October performance that has helped lead the Dodgers back to the World Series. But for most of his debut season in Los Angeles, the two-time Cy Young Award winner and $182-million offseason signing was grappling with frustration, enduring what he described recently as “the hardest year of my career.”

First, there was well-documented early adversity: A shoulder problem that Snell quietly pitched through in two underwhelming starts at the beginning of the campaign, before sidelining him on the injured list for the next four months.

Then, there was an ordeal Snell detailed last week for the first time: In late August, on the same day his wife, Haeley, gave birth to the couple’s second child, Snell got so sick in the hospital that he fainted, was taken to the emergency room, and kept overnight hooked up to IV fluids.

“It’s been a lot,” Snell told The Times last week, while reflecting on a difficult season now primed for a triumphant final act. “But that’s what this is all about. Find the best in yourself. Fight through all the doubt, the bull—. And figure it out.”

Continue reading here

Shaikin: ‘I let down an entire nation.’ Canadians wanted Ohtani. They got a ‘Shark Tank’ star instead

WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Dodgers vs. Toronto
Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Saturday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Monday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Tuesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Wed., Oct. 29 at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Friday, Oct. 31 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Saturday, Nov. 1 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*-if necessary

CLIPPERS

Walker Kessler had 22 points and nine rebounds, Lauri Markkanen scored 20 and the Utah Jazz beat the Clippers 129-108 on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams.

Brice Sensabaugh added 20 points off the bench for Utah, which set a team record for points in a season opener.

The new-look Clippers appeared confused on the court at times in a disappointing debut for a team with lofty aspirations. Ivica Zubac led them with 19 points and seven rebounds. James Harden and Brook Lopez each scored 15. Kawhi Leonard had 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.

It was their most lopsided season-opening loss in 17 years.

Continue reading here

Clippers box score

NBA standings

LAKERS

From Bill Plaschke: The extraordinary athlete stepped on to the Crypto.com Arena court baseline during the first quarter of the Lakers season opener Tuesday night amid great buzz.

When his smiling face was later shown on the video board, he was enveloped in the night’s loudest individual cheers.

Luka Doncic? LeBron James?

No, Blake Snell.

One game under the unofficial Dodger regime, and the Lakers are already showing their new owners what they are missing.

They need more Dodgers.

With injured and bespectacled James watching stoically from the end of the Laker bench while new owner Mark Walter was witnessing the same mess in a baseline seat nearby, the Lakers stumbled their way to a 119-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Continue reading here

Lakers takeaways: Third-quarter struggles remain, when will LeBron James return?

Premiere of ‘Inside the NBA,’ er, ‘NBA Tip-Off’ starts with good-natured digs at ESPN

Michael Jordan says one free throw made him ‘the most nervous I’ve been in years.’ Here’s why

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1921 — Green Bay Packers play 1st APFA (forerunner to NFL) game; beat Minneapolis Marines, 7-6 at Hagemeister Park, Green Bay, Wis.

1949 — Don Doll of the Detroit Lions intercepts four passes in a 24-7 victory over the Chicago Cardinals.

1960 — Jim Martin of Detroit becomes the first kicker to kick two field goals over 50 yards in a game as the Lions beat the Baltimore Colts 30-17.

1964 — Joe Frazier dominates German Hans Huber for an easy points win to capture the boxing heavyweight gold medal in Tokyo.

1971 — Greg Pruitt rushes for 294 yards on 19 carries to lead the Oklahoma Sooners to an NCAA record 711 yards rushing and a 75-28 pounding of Kansas State.

1976 — Pittsburgh’s Tony Dorsett rushes for 180 yards in a 45-0 rout over Navy to become the top career rusher in NCAA history with 5,206 yards.

1988 — Dan Marino passes for 521 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions as the Miami Dolphins lose to the New York Jets 44-30. Marino completes 35 of 60 passes as he produces the second-best single-game total yardage in NFL history.

1993 — The Toronto Maple Leafs break the NHL record for most victories at the start of the season, winning their ninth straight game by beating the second-year Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.

1999 — Florida State’s Bobby Bowden gets his 300th win with a 17-14 win over his son, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. With the victory Bowden joins Bear Bryant, Pop Warner, Joe Paterno and Amos Alonzo Stagg as the only major college coaches to reach 300 victories.

2000 — The New York Jets, trailing 30-7 at the end of the third quarter, come back to beat the Miami Dolphins 40-37 in overtime on Monday night. The Jets score four touchdowns and a field goal in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

2005 — San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson is held to a career-low 7 yards rushing in 17 carries and fails to score in the Chargers’ 20-17 loss at Philadelphia, ending his NFL record-tying streak of games with a touchdown at 18.

2008 — Carolina’s Brandon Sutter gives one of hockey’s most famous families another milestone, scoring his first NHL goal in a 4-1 loss at Pittsburgh. The 19-year-old Sutter, son of New Jersey Devils coach Brent Sutter, is the ninth member of the Sutter family to play in the NHL.

2011 — Tim Tebow rallies the Broncos for two touchdowns in the final 2:44 of the fourth quarter to force overtime, and Matt Prater’s 52-yard field goal gives Denver an improbable 18-15 victory over the stunned Miami Dolphins. The Broncos appeared beaten when they trailed 15-0 with 5:23 left and took over at their 20.

2016 — Jay Ajayi ties an NFL record by surpassing 200 yards rushing for the second game in a row, helping the Miami Dolphins rally past the Buffalo Bills 28-25. Ajayi rushes for 214 yards in 29 carries after totaling 204 yards a week earlier in a win over Pittsburgh.

2019 — All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving pours in 50 points, setting a new NBA record for points on debut with a new team as his Brooklyn Nets go down 127-126 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Compiled by the Associated Press

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1945 — Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals, minor league farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Broderick Turner: The Lakers were not whole for their season opener and that meant Luka Doncic had a heavier load to carry while LeBron James sat on the bench injured in this game against rivals Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

So, the question while James recovers from sciatica injury on his right side, is who will fill his void and help Doncic navigate the stretch his running mate is out.

The Lakers didn’t get that complete answer Tuesday night, falling 119-109 to the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena despite Doncic’s impressive performance of a near triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.

James is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, but it was the first time over his career that he has missed a season opener.

He sat on the end of the Lakers’ bench dressed in a double-breasted suit, cheering his teammates on, offering words of encouragement when necessary, knowing that was the only way he could help until returns to the court in mid-November.

“It’s hard to forget about LeBron,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “The reality is when you’re focused on the group that you have, you gotta make that group work. Sometimes you can just be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point.’ Like it’s awesome, but you are focused. I’ll be honest with you, I did have one moment in that first half when we had a few possessions, couldn’t score against the zone, I think ‘That’d be great to have LeBron just to throw it to the high post.’”

Continue reading here

Lakers newsletter: How Luka Doncic got his joy back

Lakers box score

NBA standings

DODGERS

From Bill Shakin: If this World Series is going to turn into a food fight about the economics of baseball, Dave Roberts tossed the first meatball.

The Dodgers had just been presented with the National League Championship trophy. Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager, had something to say to a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, and to an audience watching on national television.

“They said the Dodgers are ruining baseball,” Roberts hollered. “Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball.”

The Dodgers had just vanquished the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that did everything right, with four starting pitchers whose contracts total $1.35 billion.

The Dodgers will square off in the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, who advanced to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1993 after beating the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS.

The Brewers led the major leagues in victories this year. They have made the playoffs seven times in the past eight years, and yet their previous manager and general manager fled for big cities, in the hope of applying small-market smarts to teams with large-market resources.

Continue reading here

ANGELS

From Chuck Schilken: Kurt Suzuki wrapped up his 16-year playing career with the Angels in 2022.

Now, three years later, he is starting his managerial career with the same team, as the Angels have hired Suzuki as manager.

The Angels announced the move Tuesday afternoon, making Suzuki the first non-interim MLB manager to be born in Hawaii.

Suzuki, a World Series champion with the Washington Nationals in 2019, played for the Angels in 2021 and 2022. He served as a special assistant to Angels general manager Perry Minasian the last three years and has no prior professional managing or coaching experience.

Continue reading here

————

From Steve Henson: Superstar Mike Trout testified Tuesday about two of his closest pals on the Angels, pitcher Tyler Skaggs and communications director Eric Kay. Trout said that Skaggs showed no signs of drug use but that he knew Kay had a drug problem.

Trout, a three-time American League most valuable player, has been with the Angels his entire 15-year career and is under contract through 2030. He was a teammate of Skaggs from 2014-19, when the left-handed pitcher died in a Texas hotel room July 1, 2019, after snorting a counterfeit oxycodone pill that contained fentanyl, a powerful opioid.

Kay was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison after being convicted in 2022 of providing the pills that led to the Skaggs’ overdose.

Continue reading here

WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Dodgers vs. Toronto
Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Saturday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Monday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Tuesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Wed., Oct. 29 at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Friday, Oct. 31 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Saturday, Nov. 1 at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*-if necessary

From Ben Bolch: As UCLA prepared to try to topple its highest-ranked opponent in nearly two decades, one coach talked about the challenges of beating an undefeated team, of stopping its vaunted rushing attack, of halting its quick starts.

The coach was Curt Cignetti.

His team just happened to be No. 2 Indiana, the pop-up juggernaut that the Bruins will try to take down on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

“We’re playing a 3-0 football team that’s undefeated, that’s 3-0 in the conference since they have retooled their staff,” Cignetti told reporters. “Very impressive football team.”

So startling is the transformation that the Bruins have made since their winless start that they are the ones now being praised by the coach of one of the nation’s top teams.

Continue reading here

UCLA quarterback Pierce Clarkson might avoid charges in his legal proceeding

KINGS

Adrian Kempe scored a power-play goal 1:50 into overtime to lift the Kings to a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night.

Kempe’s goal came 14 seconds after Pavel Buchnevich was called for hooking on Quinton Byfield, giving the Kings a four-on-three advantage.

Alex Laferriere also scored and Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves as the Kings ended a four-game losing streak, two of which came in overtime.

Continue reading here

Kings summary

NHL standings

DUCKS

Rookie Beckett Sennecke collected his third goal of the season and the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 on Tuesday night.

The 19-year-old Sennecke dropped to one knee to blast a feed from Mason McTavish past Juuse Saros with just over three minutes left in the second period to give the Ducks a two-goal lead they didn’t relinquish. Sennecke, the third overall pick in the 2024 draft, now has five points in five games.

Ross Johnston scored his first goal of the season and added two assists. Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry also scored for the Ducks. Jacob Trouba had two assists and Lukas Dostal made 26 stops.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1933 — Primo Carnera retains the world heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Paolino Uzcudun in Rome.

1950 — The Rams beat the Baltimore Colts 70-27.

1961 — Erich Barnes of the New York Giants ties an NFL record by returning an interception 102 yards for a touchdown in a 17-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

1966 — Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins scores his first goal.

1975 — The 10-team World Football League, citing lack of television and season ticket support, disbands before the 12th week of a 20-week season.

1976 — Twin brothers Tom and Dick Van Arsdale play together in a game for the Phoenix Suns, becoming the first and only pair of brothers to play for the same NBA club.

1984 — Future Pro Football HOF quarterback Ken Stabler retires after 17 seasons in the NFL with Oakland Raiders, Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.

1994 — Alcorn State’s Steve McNair becomes the NCAA’s career yardage leader with 15,049, surpassing the old mark set by Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer, who had 14,665. McNair’s 649 yards also breaks his own Division I-AA single-game record as he leads the Braves to a 41-37 win over Southern.

2000 — Bengals running back Corey Dillon rushes for an NFL single-game record 278 yards in a 31-21 victory over the Denver Broncos. Dillon betters Walter Payton’s 27-year-old mark by three yards.

2005 — Mount Union drops a regular-season game for the first time since 1994, losing 21-14 to Ohio Northern in a Division III matchup. The Purple Raiders, winners of 110 straight regular-season games, had not lost a regular-season game since they were beaten 23-10 by Baldwin-Wallace on Oct. 15, 1994.

2012 — Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling’s governing body following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accuses him of leading a massive doping program on his teams.

2014 — Serena Williams is routed 6-0, 6-2 by Simona Halep in the WTA Finals round-robin, one of the most one-sided losses in the 18-time Grand Slam champion’s career. The last time Williams managed to win just two games in a WTA Tour or Grand Slam match was in 1998 when she was 16.

2016 — Baker Mayfield has seven touchdown passes and 545 yards to help No. 16 Oklahoma beat Texas Tech 66-59 in the game that breaks the NCAA record for combined offensive yards with 1,708 yards.

2016 — Leonard Fournette breaks LSU’s single-game rushing record on just his first eight carries as the No. 25 Tigers beat No. 23 Mississippi 38-21. Fournette finishes with 284 yards rushing in his first action since aggravating a left ankle injury on Sept. 24. He averages 17.8 yards on 16 carries and his touchdowns go for 78, 76 and 59 yards.

2017 — The Phoenix Suns fire coach Earl Watson just three games in to the NBA season.

2020 — The National Hockey League announced the annual NHL All Star Game and Skills Competition would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2024 — LeBron and Bronny James become the first father-son duo in NBA history to appear in a game together as Lakers beat Minnesota Timberwolves 110-103.

Compiled by the Associated Press

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1975 — The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park Four games to three to win the World Series.

2001 — New York routs Seattle 12-3 in Game 5 to win the AL pennant for the 38th time. The Yankees become the first team since their predecessors in 1960-64 to win four straight pennants.

2016 — Kyle Hendricks outpitches Clayton Kershaw, Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras homers early and the Chicago Cubs won their first pennant since 1945, beating the Dodgers 5-0 in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

For much of the year, the Dodgers’ starting rotation felt broken.

In large part, because the pitcher acquired to be its anchor was struggling to find himself.

It’s easy to forget now, with Blake Snell in the midst of a historic October performance that has helped lead the Dodgers back to the World Series. But for most of his debut season in Los Angeles, the two-time Cy Young Award winner and $182 million offseason signing was grappling with frustration, enduring what he described recently as “the hardest year of my career.”

First, there was well-documented early adversity: A shoulder problem that Snell quietly pitched through in two underwhelming starts at the beginning of the campaign, before sidelining him on the injured list for the next four months.

Then, there was an ordeal Snell detailed last week for the first time: In late August, on the same day his wife Haeley gave birth to the couple’s second child, Snell got so sick in the hospital that he fainted, was taken to the emergency room, and kept overnight hooked up to IV fluids.

“This is awful,” he thought to himself then.

Which now, has made his dominant postseason — including an 0.86 ERA in his first three playoff outings, and a scheduled Game 1 start in the World Series on Friday night — all the more gratifying.

“It’s been a lot,” Snell told The Times last week, while reflecting on a difficult season now primed for a triumphant final act. “But that’s what this is all about. Find the best in yourself. Fight through all the doubt, the bull—. And figure it out.”

In many ways, figuring things out has been the story of the Dodgers’ entire season. From their inconsistent and injury-riddled offense. To their underperforming and injury-ravaged bullpen. To their ever-evolving rotation, most of all.

Early in the year, that group dealt with its own rash of injuries, losing Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and others in a harrowing flashback to 2024.

This time, most of their top arms returned healthy. But up until six weeks ago, they still faced genuine questions for the fall.

At that point, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was mired in an up-and-down stretch following his All-Star selection in the first half of the year, raising worries he could be tiring en route to making a career-high 30 starts.

Glasnow had returned from his early-season shoulder problem, but grinded through six starts from July 29 to Aug. 30 with an ERA above 4.00.

And while Shohei Ohtani was pitching well, he was also continuing to build up in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery.

Suddenly, it all left Snell to be the linchpin for the pitching staff — thrusting him to the center of the late-season resurgence that was soon to come.

“With every great starting staff, you got to have that anchor,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Having him get back to pitch the way he did, sort of raised the bar for everyone.”

This past winter, the Dodgers made Snell their top priority for a reason.

They looked at the patchwork rotation that nearly derailed their 2024 World Series run, and decided the year’s staff needed another star to build around.

Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani already provided a well-established foundation. Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May offered plenty of depth to withstand a 162-game marathon.

What was missing, however, was another bona fide ace; the kind capable of swinging postseason series and transforming October fortunes. In Snell, they saw such potential. His presence, they hoped, would complete their title-defense blueprint.

“As we were talking about ways that we could put ourselves in the best position to win a World Series in 2025,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the day Snell was introduced by the club, “all conversations kept coming back to Blake.”

For most of the year, of course, Snell’s impact was limited. After his two injury-hampered starts at the beginning of the season, he remained out of action until after the trade deadline.

During that time, the Dodgers slow-played Snell’s recovery — putting him through a meticulous process (similar to their handling of Glasnow and Ohtani) that was designed to have him ready for the stretch run of the season, and hopefully peaking in time for the start of the playoffs.

Upon his initial return in early August, Snell seemed to be on track, with the left-hander posting a sub-2.00 ERA in his first four outings off the IL.

Then, however, came another unforeseen setback, after he rushed home from an Aug. 22 outing in San Diego for the birth of his child.

By the time Snell’s wife went into labor later that week, the 32-year-old arrived at the hospital feeling “extremely sick,” he recounted last week. At one point, as he got up from a couch to go hold his newly born baby, he said he passed out and fainted right there in the room.

Snell was taken to the emergency room and stayed there overnight, getting two IVs to combat an unspecified illness undoubtedly compounded by exhaustion.

“I couldn’t really stand,” he said. “I just felt awful.”

And yet, a few days later, there Snell was back atop the Dodger Stadium mound; making sure that, after his extended absence earlier in the campaign, he wouldn’t miss another start.

“That’s what I signed up to do,” Snell said. “When I pitch, I just forget about it. I don’t allow a lot of excuses.”

Snell’s illness was unknown at the time, but the physical toll it had taken quickly became obvious. His velocity was noticeably down in a three-run, 5 ⅓ innings start on Aug. 29 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Six days later, he toiled again during a “frustrating” outing in Pittsburgh, yielding a season-high nine hits and five runs to the lowly Pirates.

Pushing through those games, though, gave Snell a key to hone in on for the rest of the season. “If this is who you are today, figure it out,” he told himself. And finally, with no more disruptions to his routine, improvement flowed quickly.

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell puts his arm around catcher Ben Rortvedt as they walk back to the dugout together on Sept. 17.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Snell struck out a season-high 11 batters over six scoreless innings in a Sept. 10 win against the Colorado Rockies. He topped that a week later with 12 punchouts in seven scoreless frames against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Snell said after that outing, which was followed by one more six-inning, one-run start in his regular-season finale in Arizona: “[I’m] starting to be able to play catch with more intent and work on stuff … Coming through in the push to the postseason, and being able to make it, that’s what the whole season is for.”

The old adage in baseball is that hitting can be contagious.

In the case of this year’s Dodgers, starting pitching evidently can be, too.

As Snell got hot in September, so did the rest of the team’s resurgent rotation. Yamamoto rediscovered his early-season form, winning National League pitcher of the month with an immaculate 0.67 ERA in four starts. Glasnow finished the month with a 2.49 mark, after finally refining the mechanics of his throw. Ohtani, meanwhile, got stretched out to six innings, maintaining his two-way dominance over repeated full-length appearances.

The bar had been raised, with the constant cycle of gems continuing to push it a little bit higher.

The pitchers rode off the momentum and relished in their shared success; to the point that Roberts joked they almost seemed to be competing to outdo one another.

“I think we’re all good,” Glasnow said. “So it was just a matter of time until all of us did good at the same time.”

But in these playoffs, no one has been more lethal than Snell. In his 21 innings so far, he has thrown a scoreless frame in all but one.

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell walks off the mound after striking out the last batter of the second inning of Game 2 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

He was good in his first start, producing seven innings of two-run ball against the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card round. He was superb in the next, going six scoreless against the Phillies in a hostile road environment.

His masterpiece, however, came in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series, when he tossed eight scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters, and ruthlessly toyed with a Milwaukee Brewers lineup helpless to adjust to his manipulative changeup.

“We’ve all known this: Blake, when he’s right, is the best pitcher in the game,” Kershaw, his future Hall of Fame teammate, said afterward. “To have a guy that can do that, set the tone, and just have a guy that you can count on like that, it’s huge.”

For his part, Snell continues to insist that “I feel like I could be way better.” After his repeated setbacks earlier this year, he claims that, “even now, I’m still battling.”

The numbers, of course, tell a different story. In the live-ball era (since 1920), only three other pitchers with 20 or more innings in a postseason had at least 20 strikeouts and a sub-1.00 ERA (Sandy Koufax in 1965, John Smoltz in 1996 and Justin Verlander in 2013).

On Friday night, Snell will be on the bump once again, trying to continue a dazzling streak for himself and his rotation.

What once felt like the hardest year of his career, is now four wins away from being the most fulfilling.

“It’s what you have to go through to win a World Series,” he said. “You can find an excuse, or you can find a way to figure it out.”

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I was hoping for Seattle, since they had never made the World Series before.

Here we are on Wednesday, with the World Series two days away. It will have been a week off for the Dodgers, while the Toronto Blue Jays will have had only three days off. They say that rust will hurt a batter more than it will a pitcher. Will the time off hurt the Dodgers?

Before this season, there have been four times when one league’s LCS went seven games and the other league’s went four games, giving them much more time off before the World Series. One of these you will be very familiar with:

1988
NLCS: Dodgers defeat the Mets, 4-3
ALCS: A’s defeat the Red Sox, 4-0
World Series: Dodgers defeat the A’s, 4-1

Oakland, which had the mighty Bash Brothers of José Canseco and Mark McGwire, hit .177 in the series, with Canseco and McGwire getting only one hit each (both were homers). They scored 11 runs in the series, and never more than four in a game, which came in Game 1 on Canseco’s grand slam off of Tim Belcher. This seemed not so much a case of rust as it was the A’s running into an outstanding Dodger pitching staff, led by Orel Hershiser, who pitched a three-hit shutout in Game 2. The Dodgers hit .246 in the series and outhomered the A’s, 5-2.

2006
NLCS: Cardinals defeat the Mets, 4-3
ALCS: Tigers defeat the A’s. 4-0
World Series: Cardinals defeat the Tigers, 4-1

The Tigers hit .199 in the series and scored 11 runs. The Cardinals went 83-78 during the season, including 12-17 in September, so they weren’t exactly a juggernaut. Plácido Polanco went 0 for 17, Curtis Granderson went two for 21 and Magglio Ordóñez went two for 19. They had three guys who hit .353 or better, so it was all or nothing for their offense. Neither side hit well, as the Cardinals hit just .226.

2007
NLCS: Rockies defeat the Diamondbacks, 4-0
ALCS: Red Sox defeat the Indians, 4-3
World Series: Red Sox defeat the Rockies, 4-0

The Rockies hit .218 in the series and scored 10 runs. The Red Sox hit .333 and scored 29 runs, so this was more a case of bad pitching by the Rockies, as their starting pitchers combined for an 8.33 ERA. The Red Sox hit an amazing 18 doubles in four games.

2012
NLCS: Giants defeat the Cardinals, 4-3
ALCS: Tigers defeat the Yankees, 4-0
World Series: Giants defeat the Tigers, 4-0

The Tigers hit .159 in the series and scored only six runs. Jhonny Peralta went one for 15, Prince Fielder went one for 14, Miguel Cabrera went three for 13. The Giants hit .242 and scored 16 runs.

So, the teams that had extra time off lost all four World Series and went 4-16 in the 20 games played. Three of the four hit below .200.

That stat does not bode well for the Dodgers, but it is an extremely small sample size. Keep in mind the Dodgers had six days off before the start of last year’s postseason, and that turned out just fine.

What are the Dodgers doing to combat the extra time off? Jack Harris wrote a story on it you can check out here.

Some key takeaways:

—Now, as they did back last year, the Dodgers are incorporating more simulated game activities into their schedule. On Sunday, they played a seven-inning sim game. On Monday, they took more rounds of live batting practice.

—“I think it’s nice to have rest and kind of let everybody take a deep breath and rest up or whatnot. … Just rest up and keep sharpening your skills.” Mookie Betts said.

—“All we’re trying to do right here is get four more wins to win a World Series,” Miguel Rojas said. “Last year, when we had the bye, and the year before, we were trying to get through one more month of baseball. You’re trying to prepare for that. You’re trying to get some guys healthy. I just feel like the difference with this one [versus] the one we had the last couple years is everybody is locked in on winning the World Series. We’re really close to doing that. And winning four more games is the most important thing.”

America hates the Dodgers

The people at Betonline.ag have analzyed tweets, hashtags and direct keyword phrases about whom fans are rooting for. On X, 92% of fans are rooting for Toronto.

The state-by-state rooting breakdown:

Dodgers – 4 states (California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah)
Blue Jays – 46 states (All other states)

Poll results

We asked, “Which team would you like to see the Dodgers play in the World Series?”

After 16,483 votes:

Seattle, 84.3%
Toronto, 15.7%

Poll time

What is your prediction for this World Series?

Click here to vote in our survey.

In case you missed it

Shaikin: Most MLB owners want to curb big spenders like the Dodgers. What does the union say?

World Series preview: Are the Dodgers actually the favorites? | Dodgers Debate

Here’s how to see the Dodgers in the World Series in person without a ticket

Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Blue Jays in the World Series

How Dodgers are navigating their World Series bye week: ‘Keep sharpening your skills’

Why the Dodgers’ return to the World Series was only a matter of time

Shohei Ohtani highlighted in film tracing history of Japanese and American baseball

And finally

Vin Scully and special guest Fernando Valenzuela throw out the first pitch before Game 2 of the 2017 World Series. 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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

No sooner had the Toronto Blue Jays clinched a World Series spot against the Dodgers than the torrent of memes, posts and tweets flowed, all with some version of this one-liner: Finally, Shohei Ohtani is on the plane to Toronto.

On a December day two years ago, as Ohtani navigated free agency: three reports surfaced: there was a private plane flying from Orange County to Toronto (true); Ohtani had decided to sign with the Blue Jays (false); and Ohtani was on a flight to Toronto (false).

When the jet landed, surrounded by reporters and photographers and even a news helicopter, an entire country fell into despair. The gentleman on the plane was not Ohtani.

He was Robert Herjavec, a star on “Shark Tank” and a prominent Canadian businessman with homes in Toronto and Southern California.

“It is my only claim to fame in the sports world: to be mistaken for someone else,” Herjavec said Tuesday.

Herjavec said he hopes to attend at least one World Series game in Los Angeles and another in Toronto. He is not the Dodgers’ $700-million man, but he said he would enjoy meeting Ohtani.

“I’m very disappointed,” Herjavec said with a laugh, “he hasn’t reached out to me for financial advice.”

He is no different than the rest of us, Ohtani’s teammates included. Watching Ohtani play calls to mind the words Jack Buck used to call Kirk Gibson’s home run: I don’t believe what I just saw.

“To me, as a layman and a couch athlete, the ability to throw a ball at 100 mph and then go out and hit three home runs?” Herjavec said. “It’s mind boggling.”

To be a successful businessman takes talent too, no?

“That’s the beauty of business,” he said. “I always say to people, business is the only sport where you can play at an elite level with no God-given talent.”

On that fateful Friday, Herjavec and his 5-year-old twins were en route to Toronto, and normally he would have known what was happening on the ground before he landed. However, he had turned off all the phones and tablets on board so he could play board games with his children in an effort to calm them.

“I gave them too much sugar,” he said. “They were wired.”

Upon landing, Canadian customs agents boarded the plane, in a hopeful search for Ohtani. Herjavec and his kids got off the plane, descending into a storm of national news because the Blue Jays are Canada’s team.

I asked Herjavec if he ever had disappointed so many people at any point in his life. He burst out laughing.

“That is such a great question,” he said. “That is my crowning achievement: I let down an entire nation at one time.”

The Blue Jays have a rich history. In 1992-93, they won back-to-back World Series championships, the feat the Dodgers are trying to duplicate.

The Jays have not appeared in the World Series since 1993, but that is not even close to the longest or most painful championship drought in Toronto.

The Maple Leafs, playing Canada’s national sport, have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967. That would be like the Dodgers or Yankees not winning the World Series since 1967.

“Speaking of letting people down,” Herjavec said.

The difference between Americans and Canadians, he said, is that Americans expect to win and Canadians believe it would be nice to win.

He counts himself in the latter camp. He can call both the Dodgers and Blue Jays a home team, but he is rooting for Toronto in this World Series.

“I have to,” he said, “because I’ve already disappointed the entire country once.

“I’m hoping, with my moral support, this will redeem me to Canadians.”

If this World Series is going to turn into a food fight about the economics of baseball, Dave Roberts tossed the first meatball.

The Dodgers had just been presented with the National League Championship trophy. Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager, had something to say to a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, and to an audience watching on national television.

“They said the Dodgers are ruining baseball,” Roberts hollered. “Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball.”

The Dodgers had just vanquished the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that did everything right, with four starting pitchers whose contracts total $1.35 billion.

The Brewers led the major leagues in victories this year. They have made the playoffs seven times in the past eight years, and yet their previous manager and general manager fled for big cities, in the hope of applying small-market smarts to teams with large-market resources.

The Dodgers will spend half a billion dollars on player payroll and luxury tax payments this year, a figure that the Brewers and other small-market teams might never spend in this lifetime, or the next one.

The Brewers will make about $35 million in local television rights this year. The Dodgers make 10 times that much — and they’ll make more than $500 million per year by the end of their SportsNet LA contract in 2038.

Is revenue disparity a problem for the sport?

The owners say yes. They are expected to push for a salary cap in next year’s collective bargaining negotiations. A cap is anathema to the players’ union. At the All-Star Game, union executive director Tony Clark called a cap “institutionalized collusion.”

The union could say, yes, revenue disparity is the big issue and propose something besides a cap.

But that is not what the union is saying. The union does not agree that revenue disparity is the issue, at least to the extent that the players should participate in solving it. Put another way: Tarik Skubal should not get less than market value in free agency to appease the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For the most part, the union believes the owners should resolve the issue among themselves.

And the fundamental difference might be this: To most of the owners, the Dodgers’ spending is the big problem, or at least the symptom of a big problem. This was Commissioner Rob Manfred at the owners’ meetings last February: “Do people perceive that the playing field is balanced and fair and/or do people believe that money dictates who wins?”

To the union, the problem is not one of perception. The union believes the problem is that the Dodgers’ spending exposes other owners who would love a salary cap that would give them cover — not to mention cost certainty that could increase profits and franchise values.

“Players across the league show up every day ready to compete and ready to win,” Clark told The Times. “Excuses aren’t tolerated between the lines, and they shouldn’t be accepted outside them either.

“When decision-makers off the field mirror the competitive drive exhibited on it, everybody wins and baseball’s future is limitless. Fans and players alike deserve — and should demand — far more accountability from those to whom much is given.”

Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB Players’ Assn., speaks during a news conference in New York in March 2022.

(Richard Drew / Associated Press)

In its annual estimates, Forbes had the Dodgers’ revenue last season at a league-leading $752 million and the Pirates’ revenue at $326 million. The Pirates turned a profit of $47 million and the Dodgers turned a profit of $21 million, according to those estimates.

The Pirates — and other small-market teams — make more than $100 million each year in their equal split of league revenue (national and international broadcast rights, for instance, and merchandising and licensing) and revenue shared by the Dodgers and other large-market teams. That means the Pirates can cover their player payroll before selling a single ticket, beer, or Primanti sandwich stuffed with meat, cheese and fries.

“The current system is designed so larger markets share massive amounts of revenue with smaller markets to help level the playing field,” Clark said. “Small-market teams have other built-in advantages, and we’ve proposed more in bargaining — and will again.”

The union would be delighted to get a salary floor — that is, a minimum team payroll. The owners would do that if the union agreed to a maximum team payroll — that is, a salary cap.

Whether the owners believe recent and potential future changes — among them a draft lottery, more favorable draft-pick compensation for small-market teams losing free agents, providing additional draft picks for teams that promote prospects sooner and for small-market teams that win — can begin to mitigate revenue disparity is uncertain. Whether the players can condition revenue sharing on team progress also is uncertain.

And, perhaps most critically to owners, the collapse of the cable ecosystem means many teams have lost local television revenue that might not ever bounce completely back, even if Manfred can deliver on his proposed “all teams, all the time, in one place” service.

Whatever the issues might be, fans are not throwing up their hands and walking away. The league sold more tickets this year than in any year since 2017. Almost every week brought an announcement from ESPN, Fox or TNT about a ratings increase, and the league did not complain about the outstanding ratings the Dodgers and New York Yankees attracted in last year’s World Series.

Dodgers fans celebrate after Shohei Ohtani hits the second of his three home runs in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 17.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Payroll is under the control of an owner. Market size is not.

Of the top 15 teams in market size, six made the playoffs. Of the bottom 15 teams in market size, six made the playoffs.

Is that a reasonable exhibition of competitive balance? Would the Dodgers winning the World Series in back-to-back years define competitive imbalance, even if they would become the first team in 25 years to repeat? The only other team currently dedicated to spending like the Dodgers — the New York Mets — has not won the World Series in 39 years.

The Kansas City Chiefs have played in the Super Bowl five times in six years, winning three times. That is because they have Patrick Mahomes, not because the NFL has a salary cap.

In the past three years, the Dodgers are the only team to appear in the final four twice — more diversity than in the final four in the NFL, NBA or NHL, each of which has a salary cap.

The league used to happily distribute information like that. After the winter chants about the Dodgers ruining baseball, the league started talking about how no small-market team had won the World Series in 10 years.

Payroll itself should not define competitive balance, but that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if an owner decides competing with the Dodgers would be no less futile by spending another $25 million on players.

It is premature to count heads now. However, at this point, you wonder whether any team besides the Dodgers and Mets would lobby against the league pursuing a salary cap in negotiations. If the owners really want a salary cap, they need to be prepared to do what the NHL did to get one: shut down the league for an entire season.

We should be talking about the magic of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. Instead, on its grandest stage, the talk around baseball will be all about whether its most popular team is ruining the game to the point of depriving us of it come 2027. Well done, everyone.

From Jack Harris: From the outside, the Dodgers know the easy narrative to their season.

About how, after beginning the campaign with the highest expectations imaginable, they spent much of the year failing to live up to the hype.

How, during what was already a dismal second-half slump, they seemed to reach rock bottom when they squandered a no-hitter and three-run lead in a stunning ninth-inning loss in Baltimore last month.

How, in the six weeks since, they’ve looked like a rejuvenated and refocused club, following that nightmarish defeat with a 15-5 finish to the regular season and torrid march through October — going 9-1 en route to a National League pennant and return trip to the World Series, which will begin with Game 1 on Friday night.

In hindsight, however, the Dodgers also insist the story isn’t that simple.

The peaks and valleys of this season, they felt, were never as extreme as they appeared.

Continue reading here

Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Blue Jays in the World Series

How Dodgers are navigating their World Series bye week: ‘Keep sharpening your skills’

Here’s how to see the Dodgers in the World Series in person without a ticket

Blue Jays defeat Mariners in ALCS, setting up World Series showdown with Dodgers

MLB POSTSEASON SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

ALCS
Seattle vs. Toronto
Seattle 3, at Toronto 1 (box score)
Seattle 10, at Toronto 3 (box score)
Toronto 13, at Seattle 4 (box score)
Toronto 8, at Seattle 2 (box score)
at Seattle 6, Toronto 2 (box score)
at Toronto 6, Seattle 2 (box score)
at Toronto 4, Seattle 3 (box score)

World Series

Dodgers vs. Toronto
Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Saturday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Monday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

Tuesday, Oct. 28 at Dodgers, Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Wed., Oct. 29 at Dodgers, Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Friday, Oct. 31 at Toronto, Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*Saturday, Nov. 1 at Toronto, Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020, ESPN Radio

*-if necessary

LAKERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Screens in the practice facility display the Lakers’ three mantras. JJ Redick repeats them on a loop. Players have started to parrot them as well.

“Championship habits. Championship communication. Championship shape.”

From the team’s three points of focus to the black “obsession” T-shirts designed by general manager Rob Pelinka, winning the Lakers’ 18th title is task No. 1 in Redick’s second season in charge.

Here are five story lines after training camp as the team opens the regular season Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors:

Continue reading here

With LeBron James out, Lakers lean on Luka Doncic to open season

Luka Doncic expecting tough test vs. Stephen Curry and Warriors without LeBron

The new NBA TV deal begins Tuesday. Where are my games?

LeBron James is off the hook for $865.66 as fan calls off ‘Second Decision’ lawsuit

CLIPPERS

The Clippers made an offseason push with a win-now perspective, adding a pair of former All-Stars in the backcourt and a pair of veterans up front, plus a promising 6-foot-11 rookie center.

The two areas of concern for the Clippers as they again take aim for the playoffs — and the hopes of advancing past the first round for the first time since their trip to the Western Conference finals in 2021 — are age and chemistry. When they open the season Wednesday against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, the Clippers likely will have the oldest team in the league with an average age of 33.2 years. By contrast, the Oklahoma City Thunder won the title last season at an average age of 24.7 years.

Can coach Tyronn Lue fit all the pieces of the puzzle together?

Continue reading here

RAMS

From Gary Klein: As the Rams begin their off week feeling good about themselves, opposing defensive coordinators have to be experiencing a slight sense of dread.

The Rams’ on Sunday defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars and improved to 5-2 without injured star receiver Puka Nacua, using the opportunity to fully showcase their developing weapons.

None more so than rookie receiver Konata Mumpfield and rookie tight end Terrance Ferguson.

Mumpfield caught the first of Matthew Stafford’s five touchdown passes, a five-yard play that put the Rams in the lead.

Mumpfield, a seventh-round draft pick from Pittsburgh, said he “prayed in college and high school to learn from” a player such as teammate Davante Adams, the three-time All-Pro who caught three touchdown passes.

“It’s kind of, like, amazing,” Mumpfield said. “Every time you step out there, you’re like, dang, you’re out there with a Hall of Famer and a guy that you watched. And just how he approaches the game and how cerebral he is with his technique and everything.”

Continue reading here

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1950 — Tom Powers of Duke scores six touchdowns — three rushing, three receiving — in a 41-0 victory over Richmond.

1956 — Billy Howton of the Green Bay Packers catches seven passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-17 victory over the Rams.

1961 — Eddie Arcaro wins the Jockey Club Gold Cup for a record 10th time. His mount, Kelso, wins his second straight Gold Cup.

1967 — The expansion Seattle SuperSonics win their first NBA game, a 117-110 overtime victory over San Diego.

1973 — Fred Dryer of the Rams becomes the first NFL player to record two safeties in a 24-7 victory over the Green Bay Packers.

1979 — Chicago Bulls guard Sam Smith scores the first 4-point play in NBA history during a 113-111 loss to the Bucks at Milwaukee.

2006 — Michigan State rallies from a 35-point, third-quarter deficit to beat Northwestern 41-38 in the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history. Brett Swenson kicks the winning 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left following an interception by Travis Key.

2007 — Rob Bironas kicks an NFL-record eight field goals, the last a 29-yarder with no time left to give Tennessee a 38-36 win over Houston. Bironas adds two extra points to set the NFL record for most points by a kicker, with 26. The Texans, trailing 32-7, survive backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels’ four touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. Rosenfels’ fourth touchdown pass, a 53-yarder to Andre’ Davis to put Houston up 36-35 with 57 seconds to play, ties an NFL record.

2007 — New England’s Tom Brady passes for 354 yards and a team-record six touchdowns in a 49-28 victory over Miami.

2012 — Tamika Catchings scores 25 points to help the Indiana Fever win their first WNBA title with an 87-78 victory over the Minnesota Lynx.

2017 — Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov extend their season-opening points streaks to nine games, sending the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-1.

Compiled by the Associated Press

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1975 — Carlton Fisk breaks up a thrilling contest with a homer in the 12th inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds and force a seventh game in the World Series.

1980 — The Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series for the first time in their 98-year history, defeating the Kansas City Royals 4-1 in six games.

1998 — The New York Yankees win 3-0 at San Diego, sweeping the Padres for their record 24th World Series championship.

2006 — Two rookie pitchers start the World Series for the first time. Anthony Reyes pitches into the ninth inning to help St. Louis cruise past Detroit and Justin Verlander 7-2 in Game 1.

2015 — Daniel Murphy and the New York Mets finish a playoff sweep of the Chicago Cubs with an 8-3 victory to reach the World Series. Murphy homers for a record sixth consecutive postseason game.

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The Blue Jays’ bullpen, frankly, has not been very good in this postseason. Entering Monday’s Game 7, the group had a 6.02 ERA and only one successful save.

In that Game 7, however, the Blue Jays showed the ability that still resides in that group.

Louis Varland, a right-hander acquired at the trade deadline, recorded four outs while giving up just one run, and has a 3.27 ERA in the playoffs. Seranthony Domínguez, another right-handed deadline acquisition, pitched a scoreless inning to lower his October ERA to 4.05.

Toronto used a couple starters from there, getting scoreless innings from Gausman and fellow veteran Chris Bassitt.

But at the end, the final three outs belonged to veteran right-hander Jeff Hoffman, a 2024 All-Star who had a disappointing debut season after signing in Toronto this offseason, but now has both of their postseason saves.

The Blue Jays’ one big bullpen weakness is its lack of dominant left-handed depth. Mason Fluharty has been their best southpaw, but has a 6.23 ERA in the playoffs. Brendon Little, Eric Lauer and ex-Dodger Justin Bruihl are also on their roster, but haven’t been any more effective.

If you crossed “see the Dodgers in the World Series” off your bucket list last year, here’s a bucket list update for you: See the Dodgers in the World Series, from the comfort of a hotel room with a full view of the field.

Not at Dodger Stadium, of course. In Toronto, however, where a hotel is built into the ballpark and 55 rooms allow you to open the curtains and catch the game without a ticket.

During the World Series, the nightly rate for these rooms starts at $3,999 (in Canadian dollars, or about $2,850 in U.S. dollars).

A view of the field from one of the rooms at the Toronto Marriott City Centre.

(Toronto Marriott City Centre.)

That is a lot of money. Then again, the rooms sleep up to five people, and good luck getting five World Series game tickets for that price.

You have to get to Toronto, and that costs a lot of money too. But you don’t need to pay separately for game tickets and a hotel, and you can get room service instead of standing in line at concession stands.

The rooms include chairs that face the field, so you don’t have to stand on your bed to catch the action. And you never know: a player could toss you a ball during batting practice, right through your window. Take a look:

Information and reservations: Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel.

TORONTO — George Springer put Toronto ahead with a three-run homer in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays advanced to the World Series for the first time since 1993 by beating the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

It was the first go-ahead homer in Game 7 history when a team trailed by multiple runs in the seventh inning or later.

The Blue Jays will host Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday night when the World Series comes to Canada for the third time. The defending champion Dodgers swept Milwaukee in the NLCS.

The Blue Jays were playing in a Game 7 for the first time since losing at home to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.

Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez each hit a solo home run for the Mariners in the team’s first Game 7 but Seattle failed to reach its first World Series, leaving the heartbroken Mariners as the only major league team without a pennant.

Addison Barger walked to begin the seventh and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single. Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo was removed after Andrés Giménez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Springer greeted Eduard Bazardo with his fourth homer of this postseason, a 381-foot drive to left field that got the sellout crowd of 44,770 roaring.

Toronto went 54-27 at home in the regular season and 4-2 at home in the AL playoffs.

Making his first bullpen appearance since Game 5 of the 2021 Division Series, Kevin Gausman pitched one inning of scoreless relief, working around three walks, to earn the win for Toronto.

Fellow starter Chris Bassitt pitched a perfect eighth and Jeff Hoffman finished for his second save this postseason.

Rodríguez opened the game with a double and scored on a one-out single by Josh Naylor. Daulton Varsho tied it with an RBI single off George Kirby in the bottom half before Rodríguez restored the lead for Seattle with a leadoff homer in the third.

Raleigh, who led the majors with 60 homers in the regular season, made it 3-1 with a leadoff homer against Louis Varland in the fifth.

Raleigh has 10 home runs in 15 career games at Rogers Centre, three of them in the postseason. He also homered at Toronto in Game 1 of a 2022 wild-card series and Game 1 of this year’s ALCS.

Naylor was called out to end the first after umpires ruled he interfered with Ernie Clement’s relay to first base on a double play by jumping into the throw and deflecting it.

Kirby yielded one run and four hits in four innings. He walked one and struck out three.

Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber permitted two runs and seven hits in 3⅔ innings. He walked one and struck out five.

Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. arrived at the stadium wearing a Maple Leafs hockey jersey with Auston Matthews’ name and number. The star forward is 0-6 in Game 7s with Toronto during his 10 seasons in the NHL.

From the outside, the Dodgers know the easy narrative to their season.

About how, after beginning the campaign with the highest expectations imaginable, they spent much of the year failing to live up to the hype.

How, during what was already a dismal second-half slump, they seemed to reach rock bottom when they squandered a no-hitter and three-run lead in a stunning ninth-inning loss in Baltimore last month.

How, in the six weeks since, they’ve looked like a rejuvenated and refocused club, following that nightmarish defeat with a 15-5 finish to the regular season and torrid march through October — going 9-1 en route to a National League pennant and return trip to the World Series, which will begin with Game 1 on Friday night.

In hindsight, however, the Dodgers also insist the story isn’t that simple.

The peaks and valleys of this season, they felt, were never as extreme as they appeared.

“Obviously, the season went the way it went,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said of a 93-win campaign that, despite including another NL West title, qualified as a disappointment compared to their preseason prognostications. “It’s a long season. It’s a lot of games. We dealt with a lot.”

But, Muncy added as beer and sparkling wine were sprayed all around him in the Dodgers’ clubhouse Friday night, in celebration of the team’s fifth Fall Classic trip in the last nine seasons: “We always knew what we had in the clubhouse. We always knew what we had on the field. Now, you’re starting to see it.”

This, indeed, was always the plan. One that, even in their worst moments, they believed would happen all along.

Last fall, the Dodgers’ run to a World Series championship truly did feel surprising. Their starting rotation was ravaged. Freddie Freeman entered the playoffs with ankle and rib injuries. And there were genuine October doubts to overcome, after upset first-round eliminations the two previous years.

That team also had identifiable turning points, from a belief-instilling clubhouse meeting called by manager Dave Roberts in mid-September, to an NL Division Series comeback against the San Diego Padres that catapulted them through the remainder of the playoffs.

When they finally reached the mountaintop, led by a hobbled Freeman and heroic performances from an overachieving bullpen, it was an accomplishment of determination and perseverance; a triumph that, even internally, not everyone always saw coming.

This year, by contrast, the Dodgers viewed their path differently.

On paper, the defining point of the season appeared to be that Sept. 6 loss to the Orioles — a day that began with another clubhouse meeting from Roberts, who gathered his team amid a stunning 22-31 slump that stretched to early July; then ended in disastrous fashion, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto lost a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth, before a withering bullpen imploded to lose the game in a walk-off meltdown.

“Losing that game, to a team that’s not even in playoff contention, you started thinking, ‘What’s wrong with us?’” infielder Miguel Rojas recalled.

But looking back last week, several other teammates said, the Dodgers never fully felt the panic that was swirling around them.

Instead, they trusted the talent of their record-setting $415-million roster to eventually rise to surface. They banked on getting healthy, then eventually turning the ship.

“We’ve been there before,” Freeman said. “We knew we were OK.”

“At some point, we were gonna start clicking,” Muncy added. “[We just needed] guys coming back and getting healthy.”

Early in the season, after all, the Dodgers had been healthy and clicking. Their 8-0 start was better than any defending champion in MLB history. Their 29-15 record through mid-May had them on a 107-win pace.

“You look at the start of the season, when we had everybody, we were playing really good,” Muncy said. “If our team was our team the whole year, maybe we would’ve lived up to those expectations.”

The Dodgers, of course, did not have their full team for much of the next three months, when they played exactly .500 baseball (49-49) from May 16 through that Sept. 6 loss in Baltimore.

On the mound, the rotation was battered by injuries to Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and Tony Gonsolin. That put added strain (and innings) on a bullpen still feeling the aftereffects of the previous October.

The lineup also dealt with its own injury problems. Freeman started the year still nursing his ankle, which required surgery over the offseason. Mookie Betts was behind the eight ball from the start following a spring-training stomach virus. In the summer, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and Kiké Hernández each missed time, then returned playing less than 100%. Muncy was in and out of action during the second half, too, suffering a knee injury in July and oblique strain in August.

In retrospect, Muncy noted, it was a dynamic that the Dodgers (who have MLB’s oldest average lineup age at 30.7 years old, and were coming off a physically taxing postseason run the previous year) always figured to grapple with.

“The reality of it is — and we all know this, everyone up top knows it — our team wasn’t going to make it through the full season without breaking at some point,” he said. “So it was just, how do you weather those [low] moments?”

Problem was, they didn’t always do that well, either.

For much of July and August, the Dodgers had one of the lowest-scoring offenses in baseball, suffering from an occasional lack of focus and intensity some people in the organization later attributed to a World Series hangover.

Their faulty bullpen only made matters worse, contributing to a 5-20 record in games decided by two runs or less from early July to early September.

When Roberts called for his pregame clubhouse meeting that day in Baltimore, it was only the latest in a string of speeches he’d delivered to different groups of players on the team in prior weeks. By that point, efforts to snap out of the second-half malaise had been ongoing for a while.

“We’re doing everything in our power, having closed meetings, doing everything that we can, to try to right the ship,” Shohei Ohtani said through an interpreter on the night the Dodgers fell to second place in the division after being swept by the Angels in August. “We just have to do a better job.”

“There’s no sugarcoating this,” Freeman echoed a few weeks later, when another confounding sweep to the Pittsburgh Pirates in early September was followed by another walk-off loss to the Orioles in team’s series-opener in Baltimore. “We need to figure this out, and figure this out quick.”

That, however, is where the 2025 Dodgers differed from the previous year’s team.

Even at their lowest, they didn’t feel hopeless.

Once they got healthy again, they believed better play would follow.

“Everyone was like, ‘We’re going to hit. We’re going to pitch well out of the bullpen. It’s just going to happen,’” Freeman said. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll get there.”

The main driver of the turnaround since was the pitching. Snell and Glasnow had already returned from their injuries by September, but didn’t find a rhythm until the final weeks of the year. Yamamoto also got hot, giving up just one run in his three starts after the near no-hitter. Emmet Sheehan and Clayton Kershaw, who had been out at the start of the year recovering from surgeries, flourished to give the rotation added depth.

Ohtani (while posting MVP numbers offensively) also built his way up to a full starter’s workload, after previously being limited to short outings coming off his second career Tommy John surgery.

Sasaki, meanwhile, made a late-season return in the bullpen, giving that group an anchor it had previously been missing.

“We started winning because our starting pitching was just so good,” Freeman said, after the group produced a 2.07 ERA in September and 1.40 mark in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

“As an offense, when you see your starting pitcher just throwing zeros over and over and over again, it’s like, ‘C’mon, just get one, get two, get three.’”

That kind of consistent production indeed began to reemerge too.

There was better health and improved individual performances, especially from Ohtani, Betts and Freeman (who combined for 22 home runs and 54 RBIs during the Dodgers’ resurgence in September). There was renewed emphasis from the coaching staff on quality at-bats and team offense (helping the Dodgers average 5.6 runs per game over their final 20 contests).

There was also increased accountability the players placed on one another, challenging themselves to elevate their game the closer they got to postseason baseball.

“We always knew we were going to be a really, really good team in October,” Muncy said. “Once you get to October, it’s, ‘Alright, it’s game time.’ That’s how we’re taking it.”

That mindset has continued to manifest in the playoffs, where many of the Dodgers’ biggest moments — from the wheel play they turned in Philadelphia, to the 11-inning marathon that sent them to the NLCS, to the string of low-scoring victories they pulled out against the Milwaukee Brewers — have been born of veteran poise and a battle-tested composure.

“It’s an advantage to having such a veteran group,” Kiké Hernández said. “We’ve played in a lot of big games together.”

And now, they’ll do so again in yet another World Series appearance, playing the kind of baseball just like they expected all along.

“Showing up to spring this year, it was, ‘Hey, we need to repeat,’” Muncy recalled. “It wasn’t like we wanted to repeat. It was like, ‘Hey, we need to’ … Because that’s just how good we are.”

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. With two weeks left in the football regular season, teams are trying to wrap up league titles. But one thing we’ve already learned: St. John Bosco’s collection of receivers are second to none.

Carson Clark of St. John Bosco catches 62-yard touchdown pass and leaves Logan Hirou of Santa Margarita chasing him.

(Craig Weston)

When you have four top receivers and spread the ball to each, you are close to unbeatable. That’s what St. John Bosco has with receivers Madden Williams, Carson Clark, Daniel Odom and DJ Tubbs. Each caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Koa Malau’ulu in a 27-14 win over Santa Margarita last week. Here’s the report.

Upon further reflection, this has to be the best receiving group ever for St. John Bosco, which is 8-0. When Malau’ulu has time to throw and the Braves mix in a little running, their offense is something else. Williams, a Texas A&M commit, has improved every season. Odom, an Oklahoma commit, and Clark, a San Jose State commit, patiently waited their turns. And Tubbs, only a sophomore, is a future college commit.

Los Alamitos won its eighth consecutive football game and first in the Alpha League with a 41-22 win over Edison.

The player drawing rave reviews is running back/defensive back/punter Lenny Ibarra, who’s committed to Army and rushed for 216 yards and two touchdowns while repeatedly refusing to go down unless tackled by multiple players. One opposing coach sent me a text: “Ibarra=Skattebo,” referring to the former Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo, known for his punishing running.

Los Alamitos closes the regular season with games against San Clemente this week and a showdown against Mission Viejo on Oct. 30.

Caden Jones of Crean Lutheran continues to be one of the best athletes in Southern California. The starting point guard for the basketball team, he’s also a terrific quarterback. He passed for 314 yards and five touchdowns in a win over La Habra.

Crespi took control of the Del Rey League race with a 31-16 comeback win over Salesian. Somto Nwute had three sacks for the unbeaten Celts (8-0).

It was a big week for freshman quarterbacks. Ezrah Brown of Orange Lutheran was 17 for 17 passing for 368 yards and three touchdowns in a win over JSerra. Ford Green of Westlake passed for 287 yards and three touchdowns in a double overtime win over Newbury Park. Westlake, 0-10 last season, is 8-0. Marcus Washington of Cajon passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Redlands East Valley.

Long Beach Wilson defeated Long Beach Poly for the first time since 1991.

The Southern Section is scheduled to announce the site for its Division 1 championship game on Monday, and the speculation is a return to the Rose Bowl, where St. John Bosco and Mater Dei played in 2022, drawing almost 16,000.

Here’s a list of top individual performances from last week.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Here’s this week’s complete schedule.

What a week it was for City Section football.

Garfield running back Ceasar Reyes set a school record with 420 yards rushing and four touchdowns in win over South Gate

(Nick Koza)

Ceasar Reyes of Garfield turned in the greatest performance by a running back in Bulldogs history, rushing for 420 yards in 42 carries and scoring four touchdowns in a 39-28 win over South Gate that clinched at least a share of the Eastern League title. Here’s the report. It’s now time for the game that draws the largest regular season crowd: the East Los Angeles Classic. Garfield faces Roosevelt on Friday at East Los Angeles College.

Palisades improved to 8-0 and clinched at least a share of the Western League championship by holding off University 19-17. University had the ball on the Palisades eight-yard line with 49 seconds left when a lost fumble cost the Warriors a potential huge upset victory.

King/Drew defeated Dorsey 17-16 to set up a Coliseum League title decider on Friday night at Crenshaw.

Eagle Rock is going to be the Northern League champion after defeating Franklin 42-28. Quarterback Liam Pasten passed for 290 yards and four touchdowns and Melion Busano rushed for 92 yards and one touchdown, caught a touchdown pass and had an 81-yard kickoff return.

Here’s this week’s top 10 City rankings by The Times.

‘The Lion’ roars at Eagle Rock

Senior Melion Busano of Eagle Rock has become one of the best running backs in the City Section after never playing football until sophomore year.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Melion Busano has become one of the best City Section running backs at Eagle Rock in his senior season, and how he even started playing football in his sophomore year is a story itself.

Here’s the report.

Lessons from Max

Loyola’s Max Meier (97) rushes against Gardena Serra at SoFi Stadium.

(Craig Weston)

Stanford-bound Max Meier of Loyola lost his home to the Palisades fire and lost his best friend, Braun Levi, to a suspected drunk driver. The lessons he has learned this year alone and his attitude of giving his all every day is something inspirational.

Here’s the report.

The Southern Section flag football playoffs begin this week, with unbeaten JSerra (23-0) seeded No. 1 in the Division 1 bracket.

Here’s the complete brackets.

JSerra owns two wins over No. 2-seeded Orange Lutheran, the defending Division 1 champion. This is a much more balanced Division 1 bracket, with lots of challenges ahead for all 16 teams. JSerra hosts Trabuco Hills on Thursday and Orange Lutheran hosts Redondo Union. Nine of the 16 teams are from Orange County.

Dos Pueblos quarterback Kacey Hurley.

(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)

Ventura County is represented by a top opener, with Oxnard playing at Camarillo. Dos Pueblos is another title contender, hosting Etiwanda.

Girls volleyball

Sierra Canyon is seeded No. 1 for the Southern Section Division 1 girls volleyball playoffs.

Here’s the link to complete pairings.

Notes . . .

Long Beach Poly’s football team has forfeited a nonleague game against Tustin because of an ineligible player, dropping to 3-5. . . .

Newport Harbor’s water polo team won the North-South challenge championship, defeating Cathedral Catholic 15-11 in the final, avenging its only defeat during a 25-1 regular season. . . .

Wrestler Michael Kase from Chaminade has committed to Cal Poly. . . .

Kicker AJ Salo of Chaminade has committed to the University of Chicago. . . .

Junior swimmer Chloe Teger of Villa Park has committed to North Carolina State. . . .

Redondo Union will be hosting a terrific group of girls basketball teams Nov. 24-29, including defending state champion Etiwanda. . . .

Tajh Ariza (right) and Malachi Harris of Westchester celebrate after winning the City Section Open Division title on Friday night.

(Nick Koza)

Tajh Ariza, the 6-foot-9 senior who had transferred from Westchester to St. John Bosco, has now left St. John Bosco and will enroll at a prep school. Ariza is committed to Oregon and was the co-City Section player of the year last season at Westchester. . . .

Junior infielder Sam Pink of Great Oak has committed to San Diego State for baseball. . . .

Cornerback Jayden Crowder from Santa Margarita has committed to USC. . . .

At the Orange County cross-country championship, Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio set a course record at 13:56. Irvine senior Summer Wilson won the girls sweepstakes race in 15:47.3.

From the archives: Miller Moss

Former Bishop Alemany quarterback Miller Moss in 2019. He led Louisville to an upset of No. 2 Miami.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s been a long journey for former Bishop Alemany and USC quarterback Miller Moss. Last week, he helped Louisville upset No. 2 Miami.

Good grades and good patience have always been the impressive qualities displayed by Moss. He missed his senior year in 2020, which was the COVID season. He spent 2021 through 2024 at USC. After leaving USC, there was little doubt he’d have success wherever he ended up. Louisville offered a new beginning.

Here’s a story from 2020 on his decision to choose USC out of high school.

Here’s a story from 2024 when Moss fulfilled a dream, being named the starting quarterback at USC.

Here’s a story from last summer when Moss returned to hold a youth camp after losing his home to the Palisades fire.

Recommendations

From Nebraska, a story on how transfers are changing high school sports.

From ESPN, a story about a lawsuit in Ohio trying to allow high school athletes to profit off NIL.

From Footballscoop.com, a story on a coach in Pennsylvania having to resign under parental pressure after disciplining players.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Loyola and UCLA quarterback Jerry Neuheisel.

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 [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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In the opening moments of a new film called “Diamond Diplomacy,” Shohei Ohtani holds the ball and Mike Trout holds a bat. These are the dramatic final moments of the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

The film puts those moments on pause to share the long and complex relationship between the United States and Japan through the prism of baseball, and through the stories of four Japanese players — Ohtani included — and their journeys to the major leagues.

Baseball has been a national pastime in both nations for more than a century. A Japanese publishing magnate sponsored a 1934 barnstorming tour led by Babe Ruth. Under former owners Walter and Peter O’Malley, the Dodgers were at the forefront of tours to Japan and elsewhere.

In 1946, however, amid the aftermath of World War II, the United States government funded a tour by the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Director Yuriko Gamo Romer features archival footage from that tour prominently in her film.

“I thought it was remarkable,” she said, “that the U.S. government decided, ‘Oh, we should send a baseball team to Japan to help repair relations and for goodwill.’ ”

On the home front, Romer shows how Ruth barnstormed Central California in 1927, a decade and a half before the U.S. government forced citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps there. Teams and leagues sprouted within the camps, an arrangement described by one player as “baseball behind barbed wire.”

The film also relates how, even after World War II ended, Japanese Americans were often unwelcome in their old neighborhoods, and Japanese baseball leagues sprung up like the Negro Leagues.

In 1964, the San Francisco Giants made pitcher Masanori Murakami the first Japanese player in Major League Baseball, but he yielded to pressure to return to his homeland two years later.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Masanori Murakami, shown on the a pro baseball field in 1964, was the first Japanese athlete to play in Major League Baseball.

(Associated Press)

In 1995, when pitcher Hideo Nomo signed with the Dodgers, he had to retire from Japanese baseball to do so. (The film contains footage of legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda teaching Nomo to say, “I bleed Dodger blue.”)

Now, star Japanese players regularly join the majors. In that 2023 WBC, as the film shows at its end, Ohtani left his first big imprint on the international game by striking out Trout to deliver victory to Japan over the United States.

On Friday, Ohtani powered the Dodgers into the World Series with perhaps the greatest game by any player in major league history.

In previous generations, author Robert Whiting says in the film, hardly any American could name a prominent Japanese figure, in baseball or otherwise. Today, Ohtani’s jersey is baseball’s best seller, and he is a cultural icon on and off the field, here and in Japan.

Fans cheer as Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani hits his third home run during Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“Suddenly, a Japanese face is the face of Major League Baseball in the United States,” Romer said. “People here can buy bottles of cold Japanese tea that have Shohei’s face on it.

“I know people who don’t care about baseball one iota and they’re like, ‘oh, yeah, I know who that is.’”

“Diamond Diplomacy” will show on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Newport Beach Film Festival. For more information, visit newportbeachfilmfest.com.

Would the Dodgers have paid $4 million for Shohei Ohtani’s production on Friday night?

“Maybe I would have,” team owner Mark Walter said with a laugh.

Four million dollars is how much Ohtani has received from the Dodgers.

Not for the game. Not for the week. Not for the year.

For this year and last year.

Ohtani could be the greatest player in baseball history. Is he also the greatest free-agent acquisition of all-time?

“You bet,” Walter said.

Even before Ohtani blasted three homers and struck out 10 batters over six scoreless innings in a historic performance to secure his team’s place in the World Series, the Dodgers were a target of complaints over the perception they were buying championships. Their payroll this season is more than $416 million, according to Spotrac.

During the on-field celebration that followed the 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts told the Dodger Stadium crowd, “I’ll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!”

What detractors ignore is how the Dodgers aren’t the only team that spent big dollars this year to chase a title. As Ohtani’s contract demonstrates, it’s how they spend that separates them from the sport’s other wealthy franchises.

The New York Mets spent more than $340 million, the New York Yankees $319 million and the Philadelphia Phillies $308 million. None of them are still playing.

The Dodgers are still playing, and one of the reasons is because of how opportunistic they are.

When the Boston Red Sox were looking for a place to dump Mookie Betts before he became a free agent, the Dodgers traded for him and signed him to an extension. When the Atlanta Braves refused to extend a six-year offer to Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers stepped in and did.

Something else that helps: Players want to play for them.

Consider the case of the San Francisco Giants, who can’t talk star players into taking their money.

The Giants pursued Bryce Harper, who turned them down. They pursued Aaron Judge, who turned them down. They pursued Ohtani, who turned them down. They pursued Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who turned them down.

Notice a pattern?

Unable to recruit an impact hitter in free agency, the Giants turned their attention to the trade market and acquired a distressed asset in malcontent Rafael Devers. They still missed the postseason.

The Dodgers don’t have any such problems attracting talent. Classified as an international amateur because he was under the age of 25, Roki Sasaki was eligible to sign only a minor-league contract this winter. While the signing bonuses that could be offered varied from team to team, the differences were relatively small. Sasaki was urged by his agent to minimize financial considerations when picking a team.

Sasaki chose the Dodgers.

Players such as Blake Snell, Will Smith and Max Muncy signed what could be below-market deals to come to or stay with the Dodgers.

There is also the Ohtani factor.

Ohtani didn’t want the team that signed him to be financially hamstrung, which is why he insisted that it defer the majority of his 10-year, $700-million contract. The Dodgers are paying Ohtani just $2 million annually, with the remainder owed after he retires.

Without Ohtani agreeing to delayed payments, who knows if the Dodgers would have signed the other pitchers who comprise their dominant rotation, Yamamoto, Snell and Tyler Glasnow.

None of this is to say the Dodgers haven’t made any mistakes, the $102 million they committed to Trevor Bauer a decision they would certainly like to take back.

But the point is they spend.

“We put money into the team, as you know,” Walter said. “We’re trying to win.”

Nothing is stopping any other team from making the financial commitments necessary to compete with the Dodgers. Franchises don’t have to make annual profits to be lucrative, as their values have skyrocketed. Teams that were purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars are now worth billions.

Example: Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 for $183.5 million. Forbes values them today at $2.75 billion. If or when Moreno sells the team, he will receive a huge return on his investment.

The calls for a salary cap are nothing more than justifications by cheap owners for their refusal to invest in the civic institutions under their control.

The Dodgers aren’t ruining baseball. They might not do everything right, but as far as their spending is concerned, they’re doing right by their fans.

Wow, what a week in sports. USC defeats Michigan, a Dodger pitches a complete game for the first time in the postseason since 2004 and they sweep the Brewers to go to the World Series for the second consecutive year after being 0-6 against Milwaukee during the regular season. Perhaps Michael Conforto will be added to the roster and win MVP in the World Series.

Jeff Hershow
Woodland Hills

While basically sleepwalking through the first three games of the NLCS, Shohei Ohtani saves his best for last. He goes “Hollywood” and produces the single greatest performance in MLB history as the final curtain comes down on the Milwaukee Brewers and extends the Dodgers’ magical journey to repeat as World Series champions.

Stay tuned for the sequel!

Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa

It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it’s superhuman Shohei! He pitches a shutout, strikes out 10, and hits three tape-measure home runs. Wow!

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

In the history of Major League Baseball, has there ever been a player like Shohei Ohtani? I don’t think so. Shohei is the best ever. Enough said.

Chris Sorce
Fountain Valley

Now that the Dodgers have effortlessly powered their way back into the World Series, it’s quite obvious that $400 million actually does buy what it used to!

Jack Wolf
Westwood

At last, the second coming of the Dodgers has happened. We’ve been waiting for it and hoping for it, and now it’s here. Great offense, great defense and superb pitching. Our new chant should be “all the way L.A., all the way.”

Cheryl Creek
Anaheim

Statistically speaking, there is a case to be made in comparing the postseason accomplishments of Sandy Koufax and Blake Snell. From a historical perspective, there is no comparison.

Koufax is a legendary lifetime Dodger who pitched until he physically was no longer able to do so. Snell famously refused to take the ball in his last Giants start to save himself for a free agency money windfall.

Bill Waxman
Simi Valley

Stop the presses! The world is still spinning on its axis! Holy Toledo, Dave Roberts finally figured out a starting pitcher’s arm doesn’t fall off after 100 pitches. Too bad he didn’t come to that revelation during Blake Snell’s Game 1 performance, but better late than never as the saying goes.

Ken Blake
Brea