Even playing in their raucous Rogers Centre north of the border in the opener Friday, the cute little Toronto Blue Jays were supposed to be a far inferior team, eh?
Uhhhh…
For baseball’s burgeoning dynasty, there suddenly looms disaster. For the dominating Dodgers, this is now a World Serious.
The Blue Jays didn’t just win Game 1, they hammered the Dodgers into a maple-leafy pulp, 11-4, battering their ace and bruising their ego and sending a message.
It was delivered in the ninth inning, when the fans rained a chant down on Shohei Ohtani, who spurned the Blue Jays in his free agent sweepstakes two years ago and whose two-run homer meant nothing Friday night.
“We don’t need you… we don’t need you.”
When the game ended shortly and mercifully thereafter, another unspoken message had been sent.
You know where you can stick your broom…
Truly, the only thing getting swept in this series is the Dodgers’ aura of invincibility, as the Blue Jays did exactly what they needed to do by hitting them precisely where it hurts.
Welcome to the postseason, Dodger bullpen.
Now get lost.
Wearing down ace Blake Snell for 29 pitches in the first inning and 100 pitches by the sixth, the pesky Blue Jays hitter loaded the bases with none out when Snell left the game for the maligned and recently ignored Dodger relievers.
Rather predictably, all Hortons broke loose.
Emmet Sheehan lasted four hitters and allowed three baserunners. Ernie Clement singled in a run, Nathan Lukes walked to force in a run and Andrés Giménez singled in a run, and have you ever heard of any of those guys?
Enter Anthony Banda, and exit an Addison Barger fly ball into the right-field stands for the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history. Add an ensuing single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a home run from Alejandro Kirk and you pretty much get the picture.
The Dodgers gave up nine runs in the sixth inning, more than twice as many runs as they gave up in the entire four-game National League Championship Series win against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Worse yet, they allowed, for the first time this postseason, some doubt.
Did the seven days off since the NLCS sweep ruin their timing as brief October vacations have done to Dodger teams in the past? After all, this is the fifth time in World Series history a team coming off a sweep played a team that was stretched to seven games, and in the previous four times, the team that was stretched won the series.
The Dodgers will roll out another ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in Game 2 Saturday. He pitched a complete game in his last start, so maybe there’s no cause to worry.
Or maybe the Blue Jays just gave them 11 good reasons to worry.
After all, Toronto began the game as a heavy underdog, and for three good reasons, but none of their fears were realized.
They were starting Trey Yesavage, a rookie pitcher who began the season in the Class-A Florida State League pitching for the Dunedin Blue Jays in front of 328 fans against the Jupiter Hammerheads. The 22-year-old was the second-youngest starting pitcher in World Series opener history. He had made just six total major-league starts, and just last week was shelled for five runs in four innings by the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS.
”I don’t want to be out there on the mound thinking too much because for me, I’m at best when I’m just black dead out there and not thinking at all,” he said before the game.
He indeed seemed clueless, but he survived three walks and four hits in four innings by yielding just two runs.
Second, the Jays were starting Bo Bichette at second base even though he had not played the position in six years and never in the major league. The team’s standout shortstop, had also not played anywhere in 47 days since he was sidelined with a sprained knee.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” said Bichette.
You know what’s crazier? He singled, walked, turned a double play, and made a great stop-and-throw on a grounder before being removed for a pinch-runner in the sixth
Third, the Blue Jays were also starting an outfield trio known only to family and close friends. Kudos to all those who had Myles Straw, Daulton Varsho and Davis Schneider on your bingo card.
Varsho homered. Enough said.
“I think that there’s a lot of firsts for a lot of these guys… I think that players are going to feel certain things that they haven’t felt before,” said Jays manager John Schneider beforehand.
Afterward, that applied to the suddenly shaken Dodgers.
When Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts was asked Friday afternoon about the pressure his team felt, he said, “None. None whatsoever.”
Clayton Kershaw blew a kiss to his family, pounded a fist in his glove, then made the familiar trot from the Dodgers’ dugout to the Chavez Ravine mound.
This time, however, he did it alone.
In what was his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, coming one day after he announced that he would retire at the end of this year, Kershaw took the field while the rest of his teammates stayed back and applauded.
Share via
On a night of appreciation for his 18-year career, the moment belonged to him — and an adoring fan base that has watched his every step.
The first time Kershaw ever pitched at Dodger Stadium, he was a much-hyped and highly anticipated 20-year-old prospect. His talent immense. His Hall of Fame future in front of him.
When he did it for potentially the last time on Friday night, he was a much-beloved and long-admired 37-year-old veteran. Hardened by the failures that once defined his baseball mortality. Celebrated for the way he had learned to overcome them.
Few athletes in modern sport play for one team, for so long. Fewer still experience the emotional extremes Kershaw was put through, or manage still to weather the storm.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride,” he said. “We’ve had our ups and downs for sure.”
Between boundless cheers and intermittent boos, historic milestones and horrifying heartbreaks, triumphant summers and torturous falls.
In regular-season play, baseball has maybe never seen a more accomplished pitcher. Kershaw’s 2.54 ERA is the lowest in the live-ball era among those with 100 starts. He is one of the 20 members of MLB’s 3,000 strikeout club. He is one of four pitchers to win three Cy Youngs and an MVP award.
In October, however, no one’s history has been more checkered. There were implosions against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and 2014. The infamous fifth game of the 2017 World Series against the sign-stealing Houston Astros. The nightmare relief appearance in 2019 against the Washington Nationals. Nine trips to the playoffs in his first 11 seasons, without winning a championship once.
In those days, it made Kershaw’s relationship complicated with Dodger Nation. He was heroic until he wasn’t. Clutch until the autumn. It didn’t matter that he was often pitching on short rest, or through injuries and strenuous workloads, or in situations no other pitcher would have ever been tasked. He was the embodiment of the Dodgers’ repeated postseason failings. The face of a franchise that could never clear the final hurdle.
1
2
3
4
5
1.Clayton Kershaw reacts after getting San Francisco’s Jerar Encarnacion to hit into a double play in the third inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium.2.Kershaw acknowledges the cheers from the Dodger Stadium crowd after exiting the game in the fifth inning.3.Kershaw acknowledges the crowd after leaving the game in the fifth inning.4.Kershaw is congratulated by his teammates as he exits the game.5.Kershaw is embraced by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as he leaves the game in the fifth inning.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s almost like a relationship, right?” Kershaw said. “You’ve been in it 18 years with them. There’s some great times, and then there’s some times where you probably want to break up for a minute.”
In his case, though, that’s how such an enduring bond was built.
He persevered through such struggles. He kept coming back every season. He finally got over the hump with World Series titles in 2020 and 2024. He never shied away from even his darkest moments.
“With that responsibility as the ace, you’ve got to take on a lot of scrutiny or potential failures,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Everything wasn’t optimal for him. But he never complained about it. Never made an excuse for it.
“I think the fans, certainly at his highest moments, have shown their love for him and support. In those other times, I think it’s just, the fans have been hurting along with him. Wanting so much for a guy that’s been such a stalwart and a great citizen and person for this city and organization.”
“I think the respect, the universal respect, is certainly warranted 10 times over.”
The left-hander threw 4⅓ innings of two-run ball, striking out six batters on four hits and four walks, but it wasn’t his stats that mattered. He struggled with his command, averaged only 89 mph with his fastball, and left the mound with the Dodgers trailing, but the memories from this night will go far beyond that.
From the moment Kershaw emerged on the field at 6:23 p.m., fans rose to their feet. They cheered and chanted his pregame routine in the outfield and bullpen. They roared when his name was introduced shortly before first pitch.
They knew this could be his Dodger Stadium send-off, a sentimental opportunity to say thank you for all he accomplished and all he endured.
Kershaw felt a swirl of emotions, as well, sitting teary-eyed in the outfield while taking in the scene before the game began.
“You’re trying to focus on the night and getting outs, but it’s a special day,” Kershaw said. “It’s the last time here, potentially, and this place has meant so much to me for so long. I didn’t want to not think about it.”
At the start of the first inning, his teammates made sure he wouldn’t. As Kershaw headed to the mound, the Dodgers’ fielders made an impromptu decision to stay back and let him be serenaded with an extended ovation.
“I didn’t love it,” Kershaw joked. “But it was a great gesture.”
And as he stood on the mound alone, he smiled and waved at a moment 18 years in the making.
“This is one of those moments where Dodger fans, you all have seen him for 18 years and watched his career grow and everything that he’s gone through,” Roberts said. “People are going to back and go, ‘I was there for the last time he started a home game at Dodger Stadium.’”
From there, the night was surprisingly tense.
Kershaw gave up a home run on the third pitch of the game to Heliot Ramos. He spent the next four innings battling traffic, stranding two runners later in the first, another two in the second, and two more in the third after a Wilmer Flores RBI single.
By the fourth, it was clear Kershaw was not long for the evening. His pitch count was rising. The bullpen was active. And with two outs in the inning, Willy Adames was extending a two-strike at-bat.
On the ninth pitch of that battle, however, Kershaw finally got a whiff on a slider. For the first time since the first inning, Dodger Stadium erupted once again.
Watch Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s full start against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Kershaw returned to the mound in the fifth, and struck out Rafael Devers with a fastball at the knees.
With that, his night was over, along with maybe his Dodger Stadium career.
“I feel like the moments that we have right there in front of us, it’s history,” second baseman Miguel Rojas said.
“You had to just kind of be there to really feel the emotions,” shortstop Mookie Betts added.
In the stands, applause echoed through a sell-out crowd of 53,037 — which included former teammates Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson and AJ Pollock; as well as other Los Angeles sports icons from Magic Johnson to Matthew Stafford (a childhood friend of Kershaw’s from Texas).
After receiving hugs from his infield, and embracing Roberts with an apology (“I’m sorry I pitched so poorly tonight”) and a request (“Not trying to be disrespectful, but I’m keeping this ball”), the pitcher then made the slow walk back from the rubber.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw makes a hugging gesture as he walks off the mound to a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He took a deep breath. He gave a hugging motion to his family sitting in the loge level. He donned his cap, and repeatedly said thank you to a crowd that never ceased to cheer.
“It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but you guys have stuck with me,” Kershaw, who also re-emerged from the dugout for a raucous curtain call, reiterated in a postgame on-field interview.
“Dodger Stadium is a super special place, and the fans are the main reason why,” he added in his postgame news conference with reporters. “They continue to come out and support us. Every night, it’s 50,000 people. I wish I had better words other than I’m just so honored and thankful to hear those ovations. I’ll never take that for granted.”
Now, one more October awaits — with the Dodgers (87-67) officially clinching a postseason berth Friday after roaring to the lead on back-to-back home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the bottom half of the fifth.
Kershaw’s role in this last title chase is uncertain. With a loaded rotation, but shaky relief corps, the Dodgers’ best use for him could come out of the bullpen. Roberts said he envisions Kershaw fitting somewhere on the playoff roster. Kershaw said he can “do the math” and is prepared “to do whatever I can to help.”
Either way, his legacy with the Dodgers, and its forever indebted fan base, had already long before been graciously cemented.
“I’m kind of mentally exhausted today, honestly, but it’s the best feeling in the world now,” Kershaw said. “We got a win, we clinched a playoff berth, and I got to stand on that mound one last time. I just can’t be more grateful.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jo Adell homered and drove in every run for the Angels in their 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
Adell hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning for the second consecutive game. His three-run shot to center field on the first pitch he saw from reliever John Schreiber gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in this one.
Yoán Moncada, aboard on a single when Adell went deep, doubled off Lucas Erceg (6-4) in the eighth before scoring on Adell’s two-out single for a 4-3 advantage. Adell’s 33 homers and 90 RBIs are career highs.
Reid Detmers struck out two in the ninth for his third save.
Angels star Mike Trout sat out again after getting scratched from the lineup Tuesday night because of a skin infection on his left arm.
Salvador Perez had a one-out double in the seventh for the Royals off winning pitcher Robert Stephenson (1-0). It was his 33rd double this season and the 625th extra-base hit of his career, tying Frank White for third on the franchise list. Adam Frazier doubled to tie it at 3.
Mike Yastrzemski had a sacrifice fly in the first inning to help the Royals take a 2-0 lead against Caden Dana, making his first start this season and the fourth of his career. Dana allowed two hits and one earned run over five innings.
Royals rookie Ryan Bergert gave up one hit and left with a 2-0 lead after issuing a leadoff walk to Zach Neto in the sixth. Bergert struck out six and walked three.
Kansas City (70-69) has lost three in a row and seven of 11.
Key moment
Kyle Isbel was on second base in the eighth when Angels reliever Andrew Chafin struck out Bobby Witt Jr. for the second out. Chafin then fanned Vinnie Pasquantino in a 12-pitch duel to keep it 4-3.
Key stat
The Angels have won the first two games of the series, improving to 162-144 at Kaufmann Stadium.
SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers finally landed a lot of little jabs as an offense Sunday against the San Diego Padres.
And in a pivotal, sweep-evading 8-2 win at Petco Park — which once again tied the two teams for first place in the National League West standings — it allowed their slumping lineup to deliver some badly needed knockout blows.
For the first time this weekend, the Dodgers looked like themselves at the plate.
They bashed four home runs, none bigger than a tie-breaking three-run shot from backup catcher Dalton Rushing in the seventh that ultimately decided the game.
They strung together seven hits and four walks, cracking a Padres pitching staff that had smothered them over the first two games in this rivalry’s final renewal of the season.
Most importantly, however, they did all the little things that have too often gone missing during their recent two-month funk; one in which they’ve ranked 24th in the majors in scoring since the start of July, and let what was once a nine-game lead in the division turn into a dogfight down the stretch.
They extended at-bats. Battled with two strikes. And, at long last, earned the kind of pitches their star-studded roster could wallop.
“For us to come out here and execute as an offense, way better than we did the last couple days, that’s a big boost for us,” said first baseman Freddie Freeman, who had two home runs to help the Dodgers salvage the series finale.
“When you expand the zone, the slugging percentage is going to go down, because pitchers are going to continue to expand,” manager Dave Roberts added. “But when you earn good counts and get good pitches, control the zone, then slug happens. You can’t always chase it. Which, I thought, today we did a really good job of.
Ahead of first pitch, Roberts spoke at length about the team’s recent offensive struggles — following up on his Saturday night critique of the club’s increasingly all-or-nothing approach.
“We haven’t really been in-sync,” Roberts said. “It’s been disjointed a lot, as far as the offense.”
Freddie Freeman, right, is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel after hitting a home run in the sixth inning Sunday.
(Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)
When asked if that meant his team needed to adopt more of a small-ball mentality, however, Roberts pushed back.
“I think it’s a fair question,” he said. “But I couldn’t disagree more.”
After all, his team is still stocked full of All-Stars, MVPs and future Hall of Famers. At their core, they are built to bludgeon opponents — not slap singles and drop down sacrifice bunts.
“Slugging is still a part of it,” he said. “I definitely don’t want guys to hit like I did.”
Around the margins, though, there were ways Roberts felt the Dodgers (74-57) could better position themselves to do that. Like trying to work better counts, stay alive with two strikes, and striking a better balance between patience and aggression.
“I want my cake, and [to] eat it as well,” he quipped, a devilish smile on his face.
“I’d be shocked,” he added, “if we don’t see a different offensive output from here forward, starting today.”
The change started in the first inning, with the Dodgers putting Padres starter Nick Pivetta under immediate stress.
Shohei Ohtani drew a five-pitch leadoff walk. Mookie Betts shortened up his swing on an 0-and-2 slider to line a single up the middle. Freeman loaded the bases by grinding out a full-count free pass.
It was a string of small victories, that provided cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernández the perfect chance to slug.
Hernández tried to, getting a fastball over the plate in a 3-and-1 count and launching a deep fly ball that seemed destined to be a grand slam. The drive, however, hung up just enough for Ramón Laureano to rob it at the wall.
The sacrifice fly brought in the Dodgers’ only run of the inning — giving them a 1-0 lead that would soon be erased on Elias Díaz’s two-run homer in the third off Yoshinobu Yamamoto (the only runs he allowed in a six-inning start).
Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Padres in the first inning Sunday.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
Still, it set the tone for a flurry of offense that would follow, when a weekend of non-existent offense finally started to turn.
“Getting the guys on and scoring in that first inning was huge,” Freeman sad. “Even though we could have got more out of it, just getting one run across was a good boost for us coming off the last couple games.”
In the sixth, Freeman hit his first home run of the day, crushing another center-cut fastball from Pivetta to right-center for a tying blast.
Then, against Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada in the seventh, the club put all the pieces together in a five-run rally.
Andy Pages rolled a single through the left side to lead off. Michael Conforto came up next, fouled off a full-count slider, then took a borderline fastball at the top of the zone for a stress-inducing walk.
Miguel Rojas couldn’t get a bunt down after that, eventually swinging away for a fly out to center.
But, in what was easily his best moment of a trying rookie season, Rushing connected on the fatal blow seven pitches later — resetting after a bad first strike call, fouling off his own two-strike slider to keep the at-bat alive, then clobbering another slider to right for his go-ahead three-run homer.
“When I’m in the box and I get put in a hole, it’s almost like, ‘All right, I’m going to find my way out,’” said Rushing, who entered the day batting just .184 with two home runs. “I kind of played the game with him. He threw every pitch that he had, and I was totally banking on just being able to put a good swing on the ball whatever he threw.”
“I think today,” Roberts added, “was a big step in the right direction for him.”
The same, of course, was true of the Dodgers’ entire offense — which also got a second homer from Freeman later in the seventh, then another when Ohtani belted his 45th homer of the season in the ninth.
They got back to doing the little things right. They reeled off one big swing after another as a result.
“Today was more indicative of what we’re going to do, we expect, going forward,” Roberts said. “The fight, the grind, taking what the pitcher is giving you — and then if there’s slug there, it’s there. Just the byproduct of good at-bats all day.”
Gavin Lux hit an early two-run homer and the Cincinnati Reds used three leadoff triples to beat the Angels 4-1 on Monday night.
TJ Friedl had a leadoff single in the first inning off Victor Mederos, making his second career start, and Lux followed with his fifth homer for a 2-0 lead.
Elly De La Cruz led off the fifth with his fourth triple this season before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Austin Hays to make it 3-1. Hays tripled in the third but was stranded.
Ke’Bryan Hayes hit the Reds’ third leadoff triple when center fielder Luis Rengifo let the ball get over his head in the eighth. Matt McLain’s sacrifice fly pushed it to 4-1. The three triples were the most for the Reds since they hit five in a 17-9 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 13, 2019.
Brady Singer (11-9) went six innings for Cincinnati and yielded only an RBI double by Taylor Ward in the first. Singer is 3-1 in four August starts, giving up five runs over 21⅔ innings.
Scott Barlow replaced Luis Mey with two on and two outs in the eighth and struck out Jo Adell swinging to keep it 4-1. Barlow fanned three more in the ninth for his first save this season.
Mederos (0-1) gave up three runs on nine hits and three walks in five innings.
Key moment: Singer retired nine straight batters until Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout hit back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth. Singer retired Ward on a shallow fly to right and struck out Yoán Moncada looking to keep it 3-1.
Key stat: The Reds used their ninth straight victory over the Angels to pull within one game of the Mets for the final National League wild card.
On the first day of spring training, at a Camelback Ranch facility adorned with ever-present reminders of the team’s 2024 World Series title, a Dodgers staff member took in the scene, then chuckled while reflecting on the club’s trek to a championship.
“Last year was not a fun year,” the staff member said. “At least, not until the end.”
Indeed, in the afterglow of the franchise’s first full-season title in more than three decades, the turbulent path getting there became easy to forget.
Last season’s Dodgers dealt with a wave of injuries to the pitching staff, inconsistencies in the lineup, and the club’s lowest full regular-season win total (98) in six years.
Fast-forward six months, and this year’s Dodgers find themselves in a similar place.
They are again navigating absences on the mound and in the bullpen over the last several weeks. Their offense has gone from leading the majors in scoring over the first half of the season, to suddenly sputtering over the last month and a half.
And after a 7-4 loss to the Angels on Monday, in the opener of a three-game Freeway Series at Angel Stadium, they are on pace for only 92 victories with a 68-51 record, clinging to what has dwindled to just a one-game lead in the National League West over the San Diego Padres.
Little fun. Lots of frustration.
Monday’s game was a lost cause from the start.
Despite getting an extra day of rest this week, after flipping places in the rotation with Tyler Glasnow for Sunday’s loss against the Toronto Blue Jays, Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned in one of his worst starts in the majors.
He gave up a home run to Zach Neto on his first pitch of the night, and another run later in the first inning after two walks (one of them on a missed third strike call from home plate umpire Dan Iassogna) and a Yoán Moncada single.
Then, in the fifth, his outing completely fell apart. Five of the first seven batters of the inning reached base (four singles and a hit by pitch). Four runs crossed the plate (including two on a Mike Trout single). And after Yamamoto walked his fifth batter with two outs, manager Dave Roberts was forced into an early hook, removing Yamamoto after 4⅔ innings and six runs (the most Yamamoto has yielded in his 41-game MLB career).
The Dodgers’ lineup didn’t do much better.
Over the first six innings, they failed to figure out Angels right-hander José Soriano and his upper-90s mph sinker, managing just two hits while striking out six times.
By the time they finally put a runner in scoring position in the seventh, the deficit had grown to 7-0 on Neto’s second home run of the night (this time off Alexis Diaz). And even then, they came up empty, with Alex Freeland grounding into an inning-ending double-play against former Dodgers reliever Luis García with the bases loaded.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto runs the bases after hitting a home run in the first inning Monday night.
(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)
Eighth-inning home runs from Shohei Ohtani (his 42nd of the season, and the 100th of his career at his old home stadium in Anaheim) and Max Muncy (a three-run drive inside the right-field foul pole) put the Dodgers on the board at long last.
But it was far too little, much too late — allowing the Angels (57-62) to improve to 4-0 against the Dodgers this season after sweeping a series at Chavez Ravine back in May.
When coupled with Sunday’s maddening loss to Toronto (a defeat that left Roberts outwardly perturbed in his postgame news conference), the last 48 hours have represented another backward step in a Dodgers’ campaign that is quickly growing full of them.
It has zapped whatever momentum was building after the team’s two series-opening victories against the AL East-leading Blue Jays last weekend. It has dropped the club to 12-19 since the Fourth of July, the fifth-worst record in the majors over that span. And, most consequentially, it has opened the door for the Padres (who have won three in a row and five out of six) to potentially take the division lead ahead of their visit to Dodger Stadium on Friday.
The only silver lining: The Dodgers overcame similar struggles last year, doing just enough down the stretch to win the division and march all the way to an unlikely championship.
But they were hoping to avoid such headaches this season, and mount a more enjoyable defense of their title.
With less than two months remaining in the season, that dream has come and gone.
The Dodgers can still win another World Series. But the road to this point has been anything but fun.
It might be a cliché this time of year, how injured players who return after the trade deadline can serve as de facto deadline acquisitions themselves.
Immediately after Muncy went down with a knee injury in early July, the club’s lineup entered a deep midseason slump. Its actual deadline acquisitions, which included only one hitter in outfielder Alex Call, had underwhelmed the fan base.
Thus, when Muncy returned to action Monday night, the Dodgers were desperately hoping the veteran slugger could provide a spark.
Twenty-four hours later, he did it with two thunderous swings.
In the Dodgers’ 12-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Muncy officially christened his comeback with a four-for-five, four-RBI performance that included a pair of no-doubt home runs off Miles Mikolas — picking up almost exactly where he left off before suffering a July 2 knee injury that he feared would end his season.
“As I was laying there on the ground that night, I thought for sure this is it,” Muncy recalled this week, after not only recovering from what proved to be just a bone bruise, but doing it two weeks faster than the initial six-week timeline the team had expected.
“It’s hard to stay positive in a moment like that,” Muncy added, while reliving Michael A. Taylor’s slide into his left knee a month earlier. “But extremely thankful and blessed to be back on a baseball field this year.”
Muncy did have some rust to knock off, going hitless in three at-bats with a walk and strikeout in his first game back Monday night against crafty Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray.
On Tuesday, however, Mikolas gave him the chance to do some long-awaited damage.
In the first inning, after Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly, Muncy clobbered a center-cut, first-pitch sinker 416 feet into the right-field pavilion, giving the Dodgers a quick 2-0 lead.
In the third, after the Cardinals leveled the score on Nolan Gorman’s two-run homer off Emmet Sheehan an inning earlier, Muncy went deep again, whacking an elevated fastball 404 feet for a two-run blast.
The Dodgers (66-48) wouldn’t relinquish the lead again, going on to their first double-digit scoring effort since June 22 thanks to a five-run rally in the seventh, when Muncy also added an RBI single, and two more runs in the eighth, when Muncy tacked on his fourth hit.
There were other positive signs for the Dodgers’ recently scuffling lineup on Tuesday.
Mookie Betts, who was mired in a career-long five-game, 22 at-bat hitless streak, recorded three knocks: A double right before Muncy’s second homer in the third, a line-drive single in the fifth, and a seeing-eye grounder in the eighth.
Andy Pages, who was batting just .211 since the All-Star break, made hard contact on doubles in the sixth and the seventh.
And Teoscar Hernández, who was hitting just .213 since returning from a groin strain in May, came roaring to life with a two-homer game, going back-to-back with Muncy on a solo home run in the third before smashing a game-sealing three-run drive after Muncy’s RBI single in the seventh.
Leading up to the deadline, manager Dave Roberts cited that subset of slumping hitters as potential quasi-deadline additions in their own right. Part of the reason for the team’s relative inaction at the deadline was its trust that the healthy, but scuffling, members of its lineup would get back on track down the stretch.
Still, Muncy’s eventual return had long been seen as the Dodgers’ biggest potential boon, especially after they went from leading the majors in scoring before he got hurt to ranking last in runs over the 25 games he missed.
“We’ve certainly missed him,” Roberts said ahead of Muncy’s return Monday. “The night he came off the field, you’re starting to think of it potentially being season-ending. So to get him back in a month, we’re all excited. He’s put in a lot of work to get back with this timeline. And yeah, we’ve needed him.”
Two games in, the importance of his return is already being felt.
PHILADELPHIA — José Soriano limited Philadelphia to two runs in seven innings, Taylor Ward had a three-run double and the Angels beat the Phillies 8-2 on Sunday for a series victory.
Soriano (7-7) gave up six hits and struck out five. He was touched for a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Rafael Marchan, and the Phillies mustered little else until Otto Kemp’s two-out home run in the sixth.
The Angels scored five runs in the second against Ranger Suarez (7-4), who yielded six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Zach Neto singled in a run in the second, and Ward followed with his three-run double. LaMonte Wade Jr. homered in the sixth.
Key moment: With a run in and the bases loaded in the second, Mike Trout worked a full count against Suarez. The next pitch looked borderline, and plate ump Steven Jaschinski called it a ball. That forced in a second Angels run to Suarez’s chagrin. He was really unhappy after the Angels’ next hitter, Ward, cleared the bases.
Key stat: The Phillies’ Kemp, replacing injured Alec Bohm at third base, committed two errors. That’s three errors in six starts at third for Kemp, who has split another 24 games between first base and left field with only one error.
Up next: The Angels take on the New York Mets in a three-game series beginning Monday night, with Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.34 ERA) set to oppose the Mets’ Kodai Senga (7-3, 1.39). The Phillies host Boston for three beginning Monday night, with Zack Wheeler (9-3, 2.36) facing the Red Sox’s Walker Buehler (6-6, 6.12).
Nolan Schanuel injured
The Angels’ Nolan Schanuel was hit by a pitch and left the team’s game against the Phillies on Sunday.
(Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch.
Schanuel appeared to take a changeup from Suarez off the upper wrist of his left arm in the first inning. He hurried down the first base line in obvious pain. After being checked by a trainer, Schanuel remained in the game.
Schanuel did not play the field in the bottom of the inning. Wade replaced him at first base, batting second.
The Angels said Schanuel was diagnosed with a left wrist contusion and is listed as day to day.
Schanuel is hitting .274 with eight home runs and 40 RBIs through 95 games in this, his third season.
Travis d’Arnaud hit a pinch-hit RBI single down the left-field line in the ninth inning to give the Angels a 6-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Zach Neto and Yoan Moncada each hit home runs in the first inning for the Angels, while Nolan Schanuel and Rengifo each had three hits as the Angels improved to 7-3 against National League West teams.
Randal Grichuk hit a pair of home runs and drove in three runs as the Diamondbacks dropped to 3-7 since July 2.
Arizona right-hander Ryne Nelson gave up four runs on seven hits with four walks over four innings, while Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson gave up four runs on eight hits with two walks over five innings.
Neto and Moncada powered a four-run first inning for the Angels, while the Diamondbacks followed with a four-run second that included Grichuk’s home run and a two-run double from Alek Thomas.
After Rengifo gave the Angels a 5-4 lead with a double in the fifth inning, Grichuk tied it with another home run in the eighth.
Kenley Jansen (3-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Angels.
Neto has seven leadoff home runs, all this season, and tied the franchise record previously held by Brian Downing (1987).
For the Chicago White Sox, it was not a question of whether Shane Smith was the best pitcher they had to offer against the Dodgers — he was very likely their best.
Among White Sox pitchers with 10 or more starts, the rookie right-hander had the best strikeout-per-nine inning rate (8.2), as well as the lowest earned-run average (3.38) entering the game. Smith had been respectably good on a young White Sox roster that has been anything but.
Yet, Smith couldn’t make up the gulf in quality between the best-in-the-National-League Dodgers (54-32) and the worst-in-the-American-League White Sox (28-57). The Dodgers would make sure of that in quick fashion. A four-run, two-out rally in the first inning separated the teams quickly in a 6-1 victory to begin the six-game homestand.
“I think we’re really pitching well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re getting a lot of contributions from guys in the middle to the bottom of the order which is huge. We’re getting timely hits.”
“Obviously, that gauntlet of going through 26 games of some really good opponents record-wise, getting through that, not letting down, staying on the gas — I think that’s good, and finishing strong going into the break.”
Whereas Smith was chased from the game in the fifth inning, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was excellent again. A week after being pulled after five innings in Denver — because of a lengthy rain delay — Roberts called on the sure-to-be All-Star to pitch with an extended leash.
Yamamoto gave up one run, a two-out RBI double to Lenyn Sosa in the fourth inning, but twirled his way through an otherwise overmatched White Sox lineup, retiring the final 10 batters he faced. The right-hander tossed seven innings, gave up one run and three hits, while striking out eight, walking one and bringing his earned-run average down to 2.51.
“Any given night, a big league team can get you,” Roberts said, “and I was just happy that he was still aggressive and using the split, putting hitters away, but he’s doing what he needs to do.”
Across his last 12 innings, Yamamoto has given up just four hits.
Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after hitting his 30th homer of the season.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“I think I’m pitching with really good form,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter after the game. “I think it’s becoming very clear what I have to do.”
White Sox first baseman Miguel Vargas — the former Dodgers top prospect who the franchise parted ways with at the 2024 trade deadline in exchange for Michael Kopech and Tommy Edman — represented the heart of the Chicago lineup, batting cleanup with his .229 batting average and 10 home runs entering the game.
Vargas, who failed to bring the power in an 0-for-4 effort, received a 2024 World Series ring from Roberts and general manager Brandon Gomes during pregame batting practice. Yamamoto set him down his first three times at the plate Tuesday.
“Yoshinobu did spectacular work today,” Shohei Ohtani told NHK, a Japanese television station, after the game.
Of more promising White Sox prospects, rookie Chase Meidroth faced a potential NL Cy Young award candidate. In the third inning, Yamamoto struck out Meidroth with a three-pitch combo: 95-mph fastball on the edge of the strike zone, a 92-mph cutter on the outside corner and a splitter down and in, forcing a swing more than a foot above where the pitch landed.
Andy Pages struck two run-scoring hits — a double and a single — en route to a two-for-four day at the plate. The 24-year-old Cuban slugger sits in sixth in the most recent NL All-Star outfielder voting, and ended Tuesday with a .294 batting average and 57 RBIs, the latter statistic being the best on the Dodgers.
“He’s earned it,” Michael Conforto, who struck the two-RBI single that capped off the four-run first, said of Pages’ All-Star candidacy. “What you may or may not see is just how hard he works… really just doesn’t seem to take days off.”
Ohtani, who was not a part of the Dodgers’ hit parade that led to their first five runs across three innings, joined the run-scoring effort in the fourth with a no-doubt solo home run — 408 feet and 116.3 mph, halfway up the right-field pavilion — off of Smith, his 30th this season. As fireworks unexpectedly shot up from the Dodger Stadium parking lot during the ninth inning — it was a reminder that Wednesday could bring fireworks on the field as Clayton Kershaw takes the mound three strikeouts away from being the 20th MLB player to reach the 3,000-strikeout milestone.
Etc.
Kopech returned to the 15-day injured list — of which he recently returned from on June 7 — with right-knee inflammation. He said before Tuesday’s game that he wasn’t sure what caused the injury, and would characterize the ailment as discomfort rather than pain.
Roberts said there isn’t a timeline for Kopech’s return, but said it was a short-term issue. The 29-year-old, who received a cortisone shot in his knee, had yet to give up a run in eight scoreless appearances out of the bullpen.
In pitchers on their way back from injuries, Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) will throw his third rehabilitation with triple-A Oklahoma City on Thursday. The expectation is that Glasnow will pitch five innings/75 pitches, Roberts said.
The Dodgers manager added that Blake Snell (left shoulder inflammation) and Blake Treinen (right forearm sprain) will throw to live hitters Wednesday, the next step in their recovery progression.
“Hopefully we’re starting to turn the corner a little bit,” Roberts said.
Next Ohtani start
Ohtani will next start on the mound Saturday against the Houston Astros — a 4:05 p.m. start — and southpaw Justin Wrobleski will again piggyback off the two-way star’s opening effort.
OMAHA — For 12 years UCLA waited to return to Omaha and the College World Series. It waited 15 total hours to play the fourth inning of its game with Louisiana State. Now, the Bruins will have wait several months to play again.
UCLA fell behind in the first inning for the second time on Tuesday and couldn’t complete an improbable comeback. The Bruins’ season ended at Charles Schwab Field in a 7-3 loss to Arkansas.
Starting pitcher Cody Delvecchio showed rust in his first appearance since March 28. Arkansas’ Wehiwa Aloy sent a 2-2 pitch into the UCLA bullpen at 108 mph off the bat to give the Razorbacks a 2-0 lead after two batters. Delvecchio lasted four more innings before coach John Savage went into his bullpen. Six pitchers worked through trouble, with the biggest mistake leading to Logan Maxwell’s two-RBI double to the wall in center field in the seventh. The Bruins’ pitchers received limited support.
UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky throws against Arkansas in the College World Series on Tuesday night.
(Mac Brown / UCLA Athletics)
The Bruins failed to score with runners on second and third with one out in the first and again with two outs in the fifth. They had runners on the corners with one out and Roch Cholowsky at the plate in the eighth. The star shortstop grounded into a 6-3 double play.
UCLA’s ninth-inning rally fell short. Mulivai Levu started the inning with a triple down the right-field line and scored on an error. AJ Salgado scored on the next play, a throwing error after a Payton Brennan single. Brennan eventually scored on a wild pitch.
UCLA hit .167 as a team and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position before the ninth inning.
Max Muncy’s 2025 season has been nothing if not enigmatic.
But lately, after a woeful opening month on both sides of the ball, the good (his bat) has been outweighing the bad (his glove).
In the Dodgers’ 6-5 win against the New York Mets on Tuesday, such a duality came into plain view.
In the first inning, Muncy punctuated a four-run ambush of Mets starter Tylor Megill with a two-run home run deep to right field. In the fifth, he committed a costly error at third base that fueled New York’s go-ahead two-run rally. Yet, in the ninth, the veteran slugger capitalized upon his chance for redemption, clobbering his second long ball of the night to tie the score — and set up Freddie Freeman for a walk-off double (with a lot of help from Brandon Nimmo’s poor outfield defense) in the bottom of the 10th.
After an ice-cold opening month with the bat, Muncy has caught fire over his last 22 games, batting .314 with eight home runs (including six in the last seven games), 28 RBIs, 14 walks and only 10 strikeouts.
His defense remains a glaring weak spot, exposed repeatedly in key situations during the Dodgers’ slog through May and the opening days of June.
But for now, his production at the plate is giving him a long leash to work through such issues.
Without his offense Tuesday, the Dodgers likely would’ve lost their third straight game.
When Muncy came up as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers hadn’t scored since his first home run eight innings prior.
Megill had found his footing, retiring 16 of his final 17 batters over a six-inning start. The Dodgers had wasted a golden opportunity to come back in the eighth, coming up empty even after getting the go-ahead runs on second and third base with no outs.
Muncy, however, extended the game with one swing, connecting on an elevated fastball for a no-doubt missile that traveled 408 feet. He flipped his bat as he left the box. He rounded the bases with a steady, confident gait.
An inning later, after Tanner Scott broke out of his recent struggles by holding the Mets scoreless in the top of the 10th, Freeman walked it off on a fly ball that Nimmo let fall at the warning track in left, getting all turned around as the ball came barreling toward the earth to let automatic runner Tommy Edman score with ease.
NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.
Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.
Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.
“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.
They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive game.
It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.
Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).
And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.
“Tonight was one of those nights that we just gave them extra outs, and they took advantage,” Roberts said.
“It’s been pretty frustrating,” echoed third baseman Max Muncy. “Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
There was no bigger self-inflicted wound than the one Muncy suffered in the bottom of the first.
After two strikeouts from Landon Knack to start the inning, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Muncy bobbled on a high hop, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first.
It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.
“It’s one of those things where I’m just really not good defensively right now,” Muncy said. “Not going to shy away from it, but all I can do is keep showing up every day, working on it, trying to figure things out, trying to get better. That’s what I’ve been doing.”
On Sunday, however, there was nothing Muncy could do.
One pitch later, Pete Alonso whacked a hanging curveball from Knack for a two-run homer. The Mets (32-21) wouldn’t squander the lead the rest of the way.
“We were trying to get it down a little bit, and obviously left it up,” Knack said. “I would say he’s a little more aggressive with runners on, so was able to take advantage of it.”
As Alonso rounded the bases, Muncy stared stoicly into the distance.
“It makes you feel like the game is on your shoulders. That’s how I feel, at least,” Muncy said. “It’s a play that needs to be made, and I should have made it. It’s just a frustrating one.”
There were plenty of other moments, however, that left the Dodgers (32-21) shaking their head.
After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, their offense had the chance to add on more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.
Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for Knack had disappeared. And despite repeated opportunities to claw back later, the Dodgers failed to scratch anything else across the plate.
In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Smith to promptly ground into a double-play.
Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.
In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Senga … only for the right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.
In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).
“I think that the tale is we’ve just got to play clean baseball, have a good offensive approach, because we’re going to see some good pitching,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers in the midst of a 29-game stretch against nothing but playoff-contending teams.
“Case in point is Shohei didn’t get a fifth at-bat [tonight], because they made plays and they got a couple double plays and things like that. All that stuff matters. So that stuff that’s really highlighted when you’re playing against good ballclubs.”
The Mets scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corner. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat led to a run.
The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount — ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss in Queens.
The crack of the ball off Jordan Woolery’s bat in the first inning sent a sharp, resounding message — the Bruins weren’t going to let their opponent dictate the tone this time.
Woolery, UCLA’s RBI leader, went two for three with a three-run homer, a triple and five RBIs to lead the Bruins to a 10-0, six-inning shutout over San Diego State in Game 2 of the Los Angeles Regional on Saturday afternoon.
The No. 9 Bruins (51-10) cruised into Game 6 of the regional, where they’ll have a chance to clinch a spot in the Super Regionals with one more win. Their opponent has yet to be determined for Sunday’s 4:30 p.m. PDT first pitch.
It was a complete role reversal. Just a day after UCLA’s bats stayed quiet through the first four innings in an eventual victory over UC Santa Barbara, the Bruins opened their second regional matchup with intent.
On the first pitch, Jessica Clements ripped a leadoff double. One pitch later, Savannah Pola dropped down a bunt and, spotting an uncovered second base, the speedy second baseman turned it into a heads-up double.
With runners in scoring position, Jordan Woolery did what’s become second nature — she brought them home, and did so with a bang.
Staying patient in the box, Woolery worked the count full, waiting for a pitch she could drive. She then clobbered a high fly ball that just cleared the glove of San Diego State center fielder Julie Holcomb, sailing over the wall for a three-run homer.
A candidate for national player of the year, Woolery is one of UCLA’s most consistent threats near the top of the lineup. She entered the regional ranked fifth in the nation with 75 RBIs — the second-highest single-season mark in program history.
Woolery added another RBI later, legging out a triple after a diving attempt by the Aztecs’ right fielder missed and the ball skipped past, allowing Clements to score. The hit brought her total to six RBIs for the weekend.
In an encore to her heroics at the plate and dominance in relief the night before, Kaitlyn Terry took the mound with poise and command. The left-hander turned in a smooth outing, giving up only two hits and one walk while striking out five.
Her only trouble came in the bottom of the third. A walk, an infield single and a fielding error loaded the bases, giving San Diego State a prime chance to take the lead. But Terry stayed composed.
After recording two outs, Terry dug in for a seven-pitch battle with Angie Yellen — and won, inducing a routine groundout to end the inning and preserve the Bruins’ lead.
From there, she settled in and found her rhythm, retiring nine straight batters and striking out three, earning the complete-game shutout victory.
A six-run rally in the sixth inning sealed the game via the run rule. Kaniya Bragg opened the onslaught with a two-run double, followed by an RBI single to right field from Terry. Then, just like the night before, Megan Grant delivered the finishing blow — a two-run triple that slammed high off the center-field wall, narrowly missing a three-run homer.
With the win, the Bruins notched back-to-back mercy-rule victories — their 27th of the season, extending a program record.
