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PHOENIX — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto went into his final start of the spring with a focus on throwing first-pitch strikes, while also hoping to test his composure with men on base.

He achieved both Friday, limiting the traveling half of the Padres’ split squad to three hits in five scoreless innings. The next time Yamamoto takes the mound for a game, it’ll be on opening day at Dodger Stadium against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

“There were a few things I wanted to try,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter after his part of the Dodgers’ 4-3 win. “And [Friday] I was able to get into the game very nicely.”

The game featured a possible preview of the Dodger’s opening-day lineup — “I don’t know, we’ll see, it’s some good players,” manager Dave Roberts said with a smile.

Few roster decisions remained, after camp cuts Wednesday included right-handers Kyle Hurt and River Ryan, and infielder Ryan Fitzgerald.

“They’re always difficult with guys hoping, expecting to break with us,” Roberts said of his conversations with cut players. “There’s obviously some good ones where you tell a guy that he’s going to make the club. But I think the main thing that just shouldn’t get lost is, it’s not always just about starting. It’s where you finish.”

As of Friday, Hyeseong Kim and Alex Freeland were still locked in a second-base battle. And the Dodgers had to sort out roles at the back end of the rotation.

Roberts said he expected to carry a swingman who would likely pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen early in the season, when the Dodgers’ schedule includes frequent off days, and later serve as a sixth starter.

Yamamoto, however, had been the clear choice to lead the rotation, long before Roberts made it official Monday.

“It’ll be nice to hand the ball to him and it’s not an elimination game,” Roberts said, referencing Yamamoto’s World Series MVP performance. “That’ll be fun for me.”

Coming off pitching meaningful games in the World Baseball Classic, Yamamoto had one last chance Friday for a tuneup.

He struck out the first three batters he faced, with first-pitch strikes to each.

The next inning, Yamamoto gave up back-to-back one-out singles. He escaped the jam with two more strikeouts. Yamamoto tallied seven strikeouts in an overall smooth performance.

“He came out, really, with a purpose,” Roberts said. “And I thought everything looked good, the fastball — the life to it, the command of it — the cutter, slider, curve ball was good, the split, everything was good. And very efficient. And pretty effortlessly got through five innings, so that was really good to see.”

Aden Holloway, the second-leading scorer for the Alabama men’s basketball team, was arrested Monday on a felony drug charge and may not be available for the Crimson Tide during March Madness, pending the university’s investigation into the matter.

Alabama coach Nate Oats said that after he told his players about the situation, the team went out and had “a really good practice” four days ahead of its first-round NCAA tournament game against Hofstra.

“Aden’s one of our guys, and everybody wants to wrap their arms around [him],” Oats said Monday during an appearance on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. “Everybody makes some mistakes in life, but [the players] also understand we’ve got to move on … and the team’s got to go play Friday.

“So I thought we did a good job of that this morning, kind of addressing the situation, what we currently knew at the time, and got our guys focused on practice.”

Holloway’s arrest came after the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force searched a residence near campus and “recovered more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash,” the Tuscaloosa Police Department said.

The 21-year-old player is facing a first-degree charge of marijuana possession, not for personal use, which is a Class C felony and carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000.

Police said Holloway also will be charged with failure to affix a tax stamp, another felony. Holloway was taken to jail shortly before 10 a.m. and was released less than an hour later on a $5,000 bond.

Alabama said in a statement Monday: “The University is aware of the allegations and is working to gather more information. The student has been removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct.”

Oats said players need to be held accountable if they fail to meet the standards set by the program.

“So, you know, we had to suspend [Holloway] pending the investigation by the UA office of student conduct,” Oats said. “And we’re certainly disappointed in his behavior. But that being said, we still love him. He’s still our guy. We’re helping him get the help he needs, and we’re going to continue to help him whatever way we can.”

Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, continues to prepare to face 13th-seeded Hofstra on Friday without a player who averages 16.8 points a game. Sophomore guard Labaron Philon Jr. leads the team with 21.7 points a game, and sixth-year senior Latrell Wrightsell Jr. is averaging 12.8 points.

“I did tell our team, this team more than any team I’ve ever coached is better equipped to handle a situation like this,” Oats said. “I don’t know how many games we went into where we had a game time decision. Guy goes, warms up, and we got to decide whether he’s going to play or not an hour before the game. … We’ve won plenty of games with guys not available, so our guys will be ready to go against Hofstra.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin expects his team to embrace lofty expectations that follow the Bruins any time they take the floor during the NCAA tournament.

The program has won an NCAA record 11 national titles and made 19 Final Four appearances.

No. 7-seed UCLA’s (22-11) push for another deep NCAA tournament run begins Friday against No. 10-seed Central Florida (21-11) in Philadelphia in the East Regional. If the Bruins win, they will face the winner of No. 2 Connecticut (29-5) versus No. 15 Furman (22-12).

Cronin was hoping the Bruins, who flew home from the Big Ten tournament in Chicago on Sunday morning, would get a break and open postseason play Friday rather than Thursday. He recalled playing in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship on Sundays and still getting assigned Thursday NCAA tournament games, but Purdue coach Matt Painter told Cronin on Saturday night that he should be in line for a Friday NCAA tournament opener and the forecast proved accurate.

Cronin said the universal UCLA program focus on NCAA tournament success drove his decision to hold forward Tyler Bilodeau and guard Donovan Dent out of a 73-66 Big Ten semifinal loss to Purdue on Saturday night at the United Center. Bilodeau’s injury was a minor knee sprain suffered in the win over Michigan State on Friday, while Dent suffered a minor calf strain early in the game against the Boilermakers. Both are expected to be ready to play Friday.

“Tyler could have played [against Purdue.] You know, Donny could have played. They would have been playing hurt,” Cronin said after the loss to the Boilermakers. “I wouldn’t have played them in a regular season game. I just try to take care of guys.”

The coach said the extra minutes played by Eric Freeny, Xavier Booker, Steven Jamerson II and Brandon Williams will help the Bruins when the full lineup is in place for NCAA tournament games.

He called the team’s effort to push eventual Big Ten champion Purdue valiant, but the games ahead in March simply mean more to the Bruins.

“With all due respect to the Big Ten, you could see how hard our guys are trying to win,” Cronin said. “But our guy are well aware, because they practice under 11 banners that say national championship every day. They warm up under another banner with 19 Final Fours on it. We don’t even have one with conference championships cause there’s 36 or something. There’s so many. So [this] week is what it’s about for us.”

UCLA enters the tournament on a 4-1 streak, looking especially strong since the calendar hit March.

“I was happy with the way we competed,” Cronin said when asked whether he learned anything about his players during a spirited Big Ten tournament run. “… We got talent, we just haven’t always had our mind on defense, which is very rare for teams that I coach. We got great guys. Since March 1 or whenever the heck we played Nebraska, it’s been a noted change in our team, we’ve just got to keep it up. And we’ve got to get some rebounds out of the five spot.

”… We’re at UCLA, no matter who we take the floor against in the NCAA tournament, we’re going to be the ones wearing the baby blues and four letters. So we believe in ourselves.”

UCF is coached by former Duke star Johnny Dawkins. Point guard Themus Fulks is a key leader for the Knights, earning third team All-Big 12 honors after averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 assists per contest during the regular season.

UCF posted top-25 wins over Kansas, Texas Tech and Brigham Young.

Makai Lemon got another chance Thursday to demonstrate his skills for NFL scouts.

About 50 of them — representatives from each of the 32 teams — gathered at USC to spend a few hours evaluating the school’s latest class of draft prospects. Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award last fall as college football’s top receiver, had everyone’s attention.

“Running good routes, catching the ball, running fast,” he said of his objectives for the day. “Whatever I showcase, let them know I can do it at a high level.”

It was a more comfortable setting than Indianapolis. At the scouting combine, Lemon’s performance at the podium drew scrutiny — not for anything he said, but for how he said it. He swayed. He was measured, unhurried, visibly unbothered. Some read it as detached. Others saw something else entirely.

“We don’t want a guy who’s phony and coached up,” said one team executive, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We want a guy to be his authentic self. As long as he’s not a jerk, we love it.”

Rams general manager Les Snead, who attended Thursday’s workout of 17 USC players, put it another way. “At the combine you’re usually getting some version of a personality,” he said. “A lot of times it’s, ‘This is my interview personality,’ and that’s not necessarily who they are 365 days a year.”

USC receiver Makai Lemon catches pass during a drill at the NFL combine in Indianapolis last month.

(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

The other USC prospects who participated in Thursday’s workouts were receivers Ja’Kobi Lane, Jaden Richardson and Jay Fair; running back Eli Sanders; tight end Lake McRee; offensive linemen J’Onre Reed and DJ Wingfield; defensive linemen Anthony Lucas and Keeshawn Silver; linebacker Eric Gentry; cornerbacks DJ Harvey and DeCarlos Nicholson; safeties Bishop Fitzgerald and Kamari Ramsey; punter Sam Johnson; and long snapper Hank Pepper.

Former Trojan linebacker Mason Cobb, who was on the team in 2024, also participated.

Lemon’s credentials are not in dispute. He finished last season with 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. At 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds he’s not big for the position, and according to a school release ran the 40 in 4.46 seconds, which is fast but not blistering. But those aren’t his main strengths.

“One of the underrated aspects when you’re watching wide receivers is toughness, and he kind of oozes toughness,” said Daniel Jeremiah, lead draft analyst for NFL Network. “He catches everything. He’s super strong physically and super strong to the ball.”

The technical detail that stands out for Jeremiah: Lemon doesn’t leave his feet to catch unless he has to. He stays grounded, keeps himself in position to do something after the ball arrives. Receivers who lunge and cradle in the air have nowhere to go. Receivers who catch with their feet under them turn completions into more yards.

“He’s got a really good feel for the game,” Jeremiah said. “I think he’s going to be a high-volume guy. I think he’ll catch 90-plus balls every year and be the quarterback’s best friend.”

Snead, who has a history of finding productive receivers that others miss — among them Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua — is skeptical of the 40 as a measuring stick.

“You rarely see a route in football where the receiver runs straight for 40 yards and then makes his break,” he said. “Even on a go route you’re usually trying to get an edge on the defender, so you’re not running straight. The 40 might tell you how many gears you have in your body. But sometimes you need to run a route in third gear and then shift into fourth or fifth, or decelerate.”

Jeremiah ranks Lemon among the two best receivers in this draft, giving a slight edge to Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, who projects as more of a down-the-field, big-play threat. Comparisons to Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown (also a former USC player) and Tampa Bay’s Emeka Egbuka have circulated. Jeremiah sees those, but also reaches back to Jarvis Landry, the former Louisiana State standout who made five Pro Bowl appearances.

“I actually think Lemon is a better player than Jarvis Landry coming out,” Jeremiah said. “When you’re instinctive, you’re tough and you catch everything, that’s a pretty high floor. Absolute worst case, you’re going to have a steady, dependable, reliable player.”

Watching from the sideline Thursday was Marqise Lee, who won the Biletnikoff in 2012 — the only other USC player to do so — and was a second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014. He has spent much of the past several months as a mentor to Lemon, and when the combine criticism arrived Lee wasn’t surprised by any of it.

“My biggest thing to him was just enjoy it,” Lee said. “I know he got a lot of backlash about the media stuff and things like that, but when you know the guy, he’s not a big talker. He’s calm, he’s all about business.”

Lee believes Lemon has the skills to thrive at the next level, but knows how much context matters once a player gets there.

“The league is different until you actually get there and get the opportunity to practice and go through it,” Lee said. “Some people have a hard time adapting. Once he gets on a team I’ll be texting him: ‘How’s the comfort level? How’s the offense?’ Because that stuff matters. Offensive coordinator, people loving you — all that matters.”

Lemon, for his part, already sounds like someone who has thought about this.

“I want to go in there and be myself,” he said. “Don’t want to try to be anybody else.”

Trent McDuffie was a young high school player in Southern California when the Rams returned from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016.

During Rams training camp that summer, McDuffie watched HBO “Hard Knocks” episodes about the team with his parents, and they were enamored by coach Sean McVay.

“I remember just being like, ‘Dang, I would like to play for that guy,’” McDuffie said Thursday.

McDuffie, an All-Pro cornerback acquired by the Rams in a blockbuster trade, recalled those thoughts during an introductory news conference at the team’s facility in Woodland Hills after he signed a record-breaking four-year extension that reportedly includes $100 million in guarantees.

“Fast forward all these years, and now I’m here and it’s just a full-circle moment,” he said of getting to play for McVay. “Watched this guy, wanted to play for this guy and now this guy wants me.”

To land McDuffie, Rams general manager Les Snead sent the Kansas City Chiefs the 29th overall pick and fifth- and sixth-round picks in this year’s draft, and a 2027 third-round pick.

The Rams also signed former Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson to a three-year contract that includes $34 million in guarantees.

The moves were a complete departure from last year, when the Rams wrongly gambled that a young and aggressive pass rush could offset their decision to not make a single upgrade to the secondary.

The additions of McDuffie and Watson to an already deep and talented roster that features reigning NFL most valuable player Matthew Stafford, the Rams will be a favorite to play in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in February.

And make no mistake: Like they did in 2021, the Rams will do anything possible to ensure that owner Stan Kroenke is walking the Super Bowl sideline in the stadium he built in Inglewood.

McDuffie noted that the Rams have been “knocking on the door, year-in and year-out” since his rookie season with the Chiefs in 2022. A winning culture already is in place.

“This team is ready to go,” said McDuffie, a first-round pick out of Washington who starred in high school at Anaheim Servite and Bellflower St. John Bosco highs. “I don’t think I’m coming in here with a team that doesn’t understand the value that they have.

“So those little nuggets that I feel I can just pour into guys that can get us over the hump, I’m going to do everything I can.”

Rams cornerback Jaylen Watson speaks during his introductory news conference in Woodland Hills on Thursday.

(William Liang / Associated Press)

McDuffie and Watson, a 2022 seventh-round pick, were part of Chiefs teams that won two championships in three Super Bowl appearances.

“We really learned what it takes to win a Super Bowl, get to the Super Bowl, the preparation and the time it takes to be detailed in your craft,” McDuffie said.

When news about the trade broke last week, one of the first calls McDuffie answered was from Rams star receiver Puka Nacua, a former Washington teammate.

“He was just screaming at the top of his lungs,” McDuffie said. “I’m like ‘Puka, bro, I miss this energy. I miss what you bring.’ I’m just excited to be back on the field with him.”

McDuffie and Watson also are excited about continuing their partnership, which began when they were among five defensive backs drafted by the Chiefs four years ago.

Watson, 27, grew up in Georgia but played two seasons at Ventura College before finishing his college career at Washington State.

Like McDuffie, he is happy to be back in Southern California weather.

“Everyone’s just so nice here,” Watson said of the region, before quipping, “then you’ve got your taxes.”

The 5-foot-11 McDuffie and the 6-2 Watson will give secondary coach Jimmy Lake — who coached McDuffie in college — options for matchups.

“That’s why I think me and Trent complement each other so well,” Watson said. “His strengths are short-area quickness, the small shifty guys. And my strengths are the big receivers.

“So we should be pretty diverse. We should be able to match up pretty well against a lot of different looks we get.”

McDuffie and Watson join a cornerback group that includes Emmanuel Forbes Jr. The Rams have until May 1 to determine if they will exercise a fifth-year option on Forbes, a 2023 first-round draft pick by Washington who was claimed off waivers by the Rams in 2024.

Forbes will earn about $2 million this season, but would be guaranteed $12.6 million if the Rams exercise the option.

The Rams will begin offseason workouts in April.

McDuffie is happy to be back home.

“It’s hot, the sun’s out,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Travis Kelce is on his way back to the NFL for a 14th season, and it was reported Monday that his destination will be a return to the Kansas City Chiefs, the only team for which he has played.

The Chiefs don’t have as much money to spend in free agency as many other teams, but Kelce, 36, is expected to turn down more lucrative offers to stay with the Chiefs, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said.

The Chiefs have $23 million–$25 million in available salary cap space. The team created room after restructuring quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ contract, releasing veteran tackle Jawaan Taylor, and trading elite cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams.

Kelce, one of the most popular players in the NFL and a certain Hall of Famer, contemplated retirement after the 2025-26 season. The Chiefs cratered to a 6-11 record, losing their last six games and finishing a distant third in the AFC West behind the Denver Broncos and Chargers. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

Kelce admits to having lost a step, but he still finished with 76 receptions on 108 targets and 851 receiving yards. He was voted to the Pro Bowl for the 11th year in a row and moved up to eighth on the all-time receiving list. He has more career receptions (1,080) than any tight end besides Tony Gonzalez (1,325) and Jason Witten (1,228).

His decision to return for one more season followed weeks of discussion with Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, teammates, family and close confidantes — including his fiancé and music megastar Taylor Swift. Kelce co-hosts the popular “New Heights” podcast every Wednesday during the NFL season with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles six-time All-Pro center Jason Kelce.

Kelce, who has made about $112 million in salary, is expected to take a pay cut and play the 2026-27 season for about $10 million. His two-year, $34.25 million contract extension expired after last season, making him a free agent.

“I just love this team,” Kelce said in January after the Chiefs’ last game. “I’m proud of the way we finished this, even though it ended the way it did. The guys still showed up and gave it their all. That’s all you can ask for, man. I’ve got so much love for this team, this organization and the people here.”

A week earlier, he admitted retirement had crossed his mind after the Chiefs’ last home game.

“A whole lot of emotions,” he told reporters. “You’ve got everybody in the world watching you. You get to go out there with the young guys on prime-time television. Young guys getting an opportunity to taste what this NFL life is like.”

Yet he also savored the moment, and hinted that he might enjoy the adulation of Chiefs fans a bit longer.

“You only get a few of those where you get to stand there and appreciate 70,000 Chiefs fans cheering for you,” he said. “I always embrace that moment.

“You feel the generations of happiness and the love [the fans] have. It’s a beautiful thing, man.”

The day after he saved the Dodgers’ season, Will Klein was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza.

He drove over to pick up his order. The guy that handed him the pizza told him he looked just like Will Klein.

“You should just look at the name on the order,” Klein told him.

Chaos ensued.

“He actually started screaming,” Klein said. “He just started flipping out, which was funny.”

Thing is, if it were two days earlier, the guy would have had no idea what Klein looked like. Neither would you.

On Oct. 26, Klein was the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen, a wild thing on his fourth organization in two years, a last-minute addition to the World Series roster.

On Oct. 27, the Dodgers played 18 innings, and the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen delivered the game of his life: four shutout innings, holding the Toronto Blue Jays at bay until Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run.

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein celebrates during the 16th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 27.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

When Klein returned to the clubhouse, Sandy Koufax walked over to shake hands and congratulate him.

That was Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers, the significantly older team, slogged through the next two games, batting .164 and losing both.

If not for Klein, that would have been the end. The Blue Jays would have won the series in five games, and there would have been no Kiké Hernández launching a game-ending double play on the run in Game 6, no Miguel Rojas tying home run and game-saving throw in Game 7, no Andy Pages game-saving catch and Will Smith winning home run in Game 7, no Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever.

There would have been no parade.

When Klein rescued the Dodgers, he had pitched one inning in the previous 30 days.

“You can never take your mind out of it,” he said. “You’ve got to stay prepared. Something might come up, and you don’t want to be the guy that gets thrown in the fire and just burns.”

The Dodgers are not shy about grabbing a minor league pitcher, telling him what he can do better and what he should stop doing, and seeing what sticks. If nothing sticks, the Dodgers are also not shy about spitting out the pitcher and designating him for assignment.

In his minor league career, Klein struck out 13 batters every nine innings, which is tremendous. He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.

The Dodgers scrapped his slider, mixed in a sweeper, and told him his arm was so good that he should stop trying to make perfect pitches and just let fly.

“A lot of times, pitchers are guilty of giving hitters too much credit, and hitters are guilty of giving pitchers too much credit,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.

“Part of our job is to show them information that helps instill some confidence. I think that really landed with Will.”

In his four September appearances with the Dodgers — after a minor-league stint to apply the team’s advice — he faced 17 batters, walked one, and did not give up a run. That’s why he isn’t buying the suggestion that something suddenly clicked in the World Series.

“Things were incrementally getting better,” he said, “and then you add that to the atmosphere. It amplifies it to 100. All the prep work and mental stuff that I had been doing, I finally got a chance to shine.”

Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “He’s done it in the highest of leverage. You can’t manufacture that. You’ve got to live it and do it. So, since he’s done it, I think he’s got a real confidence.”

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.

(John McCoy / Getty Images)

Klein last started a game three years ago, at triple A. After making 72 pitches in those four innings of Game 3, did he entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was meant to be a starter after all?

“No,” he said abruptly. “I hate waiting four or five days to pitch and knowing exactly when I’m going to pitch.

“When I did, the anxiety just built. I want to go pitch. I hate sitting there and waiting. That kind of eats at you. I like being able to go out to the bullpen and have a chance to pitch every day.”

The Dodgers are so deep that Klein might not make the team out of spring training. Whatever happens, he’ll always have Game 3.

In the wake of that game, a fan wanted to buy a Klein jersey but could not find one. So the fan made one himself before Game 4, using white electrical tape on the back of a Dodger blue jersey. I showed Klein a picture.

“That’s cool,” Klein said. “That’s pretty funny.”

Dave Wong, a Dodgers fan living in San Francisco Giants territory, also wanted to buy a Klein jersey.

“They didn’t have a jersey for him,” Wong said.

He settled for the Dodger blue T-shirt he found online and wore it to last Friday’s Cactus League game against the Giants, with these words in white letters: “Will Klein Appreciation Shirt.”

This, then, would be a Will Klein Appreciation Column.

That the “The Napa Boys” won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — or in this case, goblet of wine — almost feels like this meta comedy’s raison d’être. And to say its fusillade of jokes is hit-and-miss would also be a charitable take. They’re mostly miss, even if that, too, can seem like kind of the point.

Co-writers and co-stars Nick Corirossi and Armen Weitzman (Corirossi also directed) have assembled a series of scenes in search of a story, sending up pivotal moments from a hodgepodge of movies, some real (“Sideways,” “American Pie,” “The Lord of the Rings”), some invented. I’ll admit, it took a minute to understand what the filmmakers were doing (their grandiose statement in the movie’s press kit is purposely unenlightening) and, thus, for this grab bag of nonsense to sink in.

Still, once you realize what the heck it is you’re watching, you might just settle in for a more diverting — or less terrible — time than first expected. But the lower your entertainment bar, the better.

The barely-there plot finds a group of pals and wine aficionados, a.k.a. the Napa Boys, gathering in the California valley (Malibu subbed) for a screwball adventure that, among much else, will involve a coveted wine competition at something called the Great Grape Festival.

The hapless group includes its leader, the crassly horny Jack Jr. (Corirossi), sad-sack widower Miles Jr. (Weitzman), conflicted family man Kevin (Nelson Franklin), underdog vintner Mitch (Mike Mitchell) and a kinder, newer member known only — in an all-caps nod to “American Pie” — as Stifler’s Brother (Jamar Neighbors). Meanwhile, a devotee and “investigative podcaster,” Puck (Sarah Ramos), also joins the guys on their wayward journey.

The film’s goofy conceit is that this is the fourth installment of a Napa Boys movie series (based on nonexistent graphic novels), with the official on-screen title of “The Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier’s Amulet” (Dig that “Indiana Jones”-style font.) As a result, it unfolds as if the viewer is already intimate with a franchise’s culture and lore, dropping us smack into the thick of things with little, if any, context. Confused yet?

This ploy hands Corirossi (a former head creative at Funny or Die) and Weitzman a license to be as slapdash and surface as possible, which, it would seem, is also part of the picture’s wobbly in-joke. Because this alt comedy makes no bones about its characters or situations being even remotely logical or realistic, anything goes — and does. You sometimes wish it didn’t.

Case in point: After a meds mix-up, unruly Jack Jr. (he and Miles Jr. are always addressed with the suffix) unleashes his explosive diarrhea into a barrel of contest-qualifying wine, after which he “spontaneously” ejaculates into it. And then, natch, the judges must sample the concoction. It’s an awful, protracted sequence that begs the question, satire or not, is this truly the funniest bit they could hatch? (To be fair, it’s likely some viewers will, uh, eat it up.)

That aside, the film’s barrage of scenes, sketches, shout-outs and absurdist scenarios leading up to the climactic wine-making championship are largely harmless flights of farce. These involve sex, love, death, near-death, maybe incest, lots of wine tasting (why is the vino here iced-tea brown?) and a moose on the loose.

There are also rides in Jack Jr.’s showy “Wine Wagon” SUV (license plate: IH8MERLOT), beatific montages backed by swelling strings celebrating the “joys” of Napa Boys life (“To be a Napa Boy is to be free!”) and a surprise — and rather pointless — cameo by those other movie “brainiacs,” Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). There’s also an anxious visit to Jack Jr.’s onetime hookup, the now-elderly sexpert called the Milfonator (Eve Sigall). Oh, and is that really iconic filmmaker and vintner Francis Ford Coppola as the wine competition’s “super-secret celebrity guest judge”? (Two guesses.)

All this inanity takes place over the course of a handful of days, during which no one ever seems to change clothes. Couldn’t Jack Jr. have packed at least two Hawaiian shirts?

And what of the title’s elusive sommelier (DJ Qualls of “Road Trip” fame) and his mystical green amulet? He makes an almost tacked-on, Yoda-like appearance, but it’s too little, too late.

The game if uneven cast includes Paul Rust (channeling Paul Reubens, with whom he co-wrote 2016’s “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday”) as Squirm, Mitch’s insufferably cruel wine-making rival; David Wain (who directed and co-wrote “Wet Hot American Summer,” another spoofy touchstone here) as the wine contest’s even-handed host; and playing the guys’ various love interests: Chloe Cherry, Vanessa Chester, Riki Lindhome and Beth Dover.

Reportedly shot in under 10 days, the film features such fun needle drops as the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” Gerry Rafferty’s “Family Tree” and, of all things to accompany a seduction scene, “The Girls of Rock ‘n’ Roll” sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. How this proudly low-budget effort managed to license those tunes is as curious as so much else in this ragtag oddity.

PHOENIX — There are expectations surrounding new Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker — not surprising for someone with a four-year, $240-million contract.

But first things first.

“Last year I got one hit in spring [training], so hopefully I get more than that,” Tucker said, sharing a laugh with reporters after grounding out and walking in two plate appearances in his Cactus League debut on Sunday. “So, that’s the goal. But I mean, [I’m] just feeling comfortable.”

In a clubhouse full of superstar players, the feeling seems mutual with his teammates.

“I’m glad he’s with us,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said, adding: “Yeah, There might be other superstars on this team, but it’s not really anyone’s focus here. It’s all about getting in every day, working hard, helping us win a ballgame that day and working toward the ultimate goal of winning the World Series.”

It was a tale of two seasons for the 29-year-old Tucker in 2025.

Through the first three months of the year, Tucker had the Chicago Cubs’ offense humming, powering the club to a 53-35 start. Entering July, Tucker was batting .291 with a .395 on-base percentage, .931 OPS, 17 home runs, 52 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Tucker found himself in the middle of the National League MVP discussion as the Cubs sat in first place in the NL Central.

But from July 1 through the end of the season, he batted just .225, posting a .690 OPS, five home runs and 21 RBI, a far cry from his first half that earned him a start in right field in the All-Star Game.

It was later revealed that Tucker sustained a hairline fracture in June, which he played through. In September, he suffered a calf strain, landing him on the injured list.

He finished the season with a .266 batting average and 22 home runs, career lows for him. That did not deter the Dodgers, and it was an easy sell for Tucker as well.

“Every organization is unique in its own sense,” Tucker said. “But this organization obviously the last couple of years has done pretty well, so I think that’s a huge part of the front office and them doing their part and trying to get a great group together. Just great people and great athletes, and then trying to just put the best product out on the field for the city of Los Angeles and the fans. I think they’ve done a pretty good job of that so far. Hopefully, we can keep winning for them.”

Despite what happened last season with Tucker, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is confident in the newly-signed star.

“For me and the people that I talked to and how he goes about it, there’s nothing negative for me,” Roberts said last week. “I love guys that just come to work and love playing and competing. So, he just wants to win. He’s not a self-promoter; he’s not going to give [the media] a bunch of great soundbites. He wants to play to win, and I love guys like that. So, I’m excited to have him and get to know him even more.”

Tucker missed just under three weeks in the season’s final month. He would not return to the outfield in 2025, manning the designated-hitter spot for the Cubs, whose season ended at the hands of the Brewers in five games in the NL Division Series. Tucker says he felt good all offseason and is feeling even better in the early days of camp with his new team.

“It was a pretty healthy [offseason],” Tucker said. “At the beginning, I might have still been kind of nursing the calf a little bit. But it was kind of feeling pretty good right at the end. I think if we had moved onto the next series, I probably would have gone to the outfield, so I wish I could have gotten out there for that. Overall, in the offseason, I felt pretty healthy, and [feel pretty healthy] going into camp so far.”

Alex Vesia returns to the mound

Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia made his Cactus League debut in Monday’s 3-0 win over the Seattle Mariners — the first time he’s pitched in a game of any kind since his newborn daughter died last fall.

Entering Monday’s game in the fifth inning to a loud ovation, Vesia struck out one and retired the side in order. He then received a warm greeting by his teammates in the dugout.

“Being around the guys, it’s really been comforting,” Vesia said. “These guys are my brothers, I truly love all of them. It’s meant a lot.”

Dodgers set starting pitchers for the week

Before Monday’s game, Roberts revealed starting pitchers for this week. Gavin Stone will take the mound Tuesday, Roki Sasaki will start Wednesday before Tyler Glasnow makes his first start of the Cactus League Thursday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start for the second time Friday, in what will likely be his final start before joining Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic.

Over the last two offseasons, the Dodgers spent a combined $141 million on relief pitchers Edwin Díaz and Tanner Scott, both of whom are expected to make their first spring training appearances later this week.

“I think Tanner and Edwin are going either Wednesday or Thursday in the Cactus League games,” Roberts said. “Those guys, we’ll start to see them this week.”

Paul Fischer showed “Jaws” to his daughter when she was 10. She wasn’t scared. In fact, she loved it so much that she dressed as Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper for Halloween. To Fischer, who watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at age 4 (“I remember the melting heads but I don’t think I was traumatized”), it shows the staying power of some of the ’70s blockbusters.

“It’s the flip side of how these franchises became so massive and had such a long tail,” he said in a recent video call with The Times, discussing how each generation still finds “Star Wars,” “Raiders,” “E.T.,” “Jaws” and “The Godfather.” “They’ve created films that endured and that overshadow others.”

That is part of the impetus behind his new book, “The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema.” The book, Fischer’s third about film history, starts before the trio were “big mythical names” and instead were just a bunch of guys setting out to fulfill their dreams.

The narrative then follows their journeys from the late ’60s through the early ’80s, filling in the “ecosystem” the trio came up in and how they wanted to change the system to gain creative autonomy. Spielberg worked within the system, Coppola spent lavishly and even ostentatiously to build his own studio and Lucas found his independence through a quieter, more conservative and technology-driven route.

(Martin Scorsese, who was friends with the three and “the most interesting human being of that generation of filmmakers,” gets plenty of ink but was not a titular character, Fischer said, because he remained an outsider who just wanted to make movies, not change the system.)

“I’m not going to pretend I can tell you what was going on in their heads but I tried to make people feel like they were there when it happened,” Fischer said.

While none of the three men would be interviewed, Fischer had decades of quotes and conducted his own interviews with hundreds of people in the filmmakers’ orbits to get a fuller and more honest story. (He added that their representatives were uniformly helpful with fact-checking and providing photos. “There was never a door closed on me,” he said in an accidental reference to the final scene of “The Godfather.”)

Coppola, “who changed quite a bit, was the hardest one for me to pin down,” Fischer said. “There are layers of complexity to him and his willingness to treat the creative life as if it’s an experiment.” Blending that with his self-indulgent philandering and spending of money, he added, “you can change your mind about that guy every five minutes.”

During that era at least, Fischer said Lucas and Coppola seemed ”completely devoid of any self-awareness.” He chronicles how Coppola pressured Lucas to accept changes to his first feature, “THX 1138,” so the studio would release it while Lucas viewed that as Coppola pushing him to sell out. Meanwhile, Lucas was pushing Coppola to do a studio film for hire to keep his fledgling Zoetrope Studio afloat, making Coppola feel pressured to sell out. (That movie was “The Godfather,” so it worked out OK for Coppola.)

“They keep giving each other advice about how to do things and then betray that same advice when it applies themselves,” he said, although he added that he doesn’t “whip them for 300 pages for having giant egos,” and said it’s part of the recipe to be a visionary filmmaker, especially in the Hollywood studio system.

Ultimately, the book depicts Lucas as more of a sellout, acting like the studio suits he once detested as he pressures “The Empire Strikes Back” director Irvin Kershner to make changes, often based on budget and then focusing more on profitability as he conjured up characters like the Ewoks for “Return of the Jedi.” Fischer doesn’t believe Lucas would recognize that version of himself in the book. “He’s someone who lost his BS detector and has drunk his own Kool-Aid.”

In Fischer’s telling, the creative and business sides are interwoven and inseparable from each other and from the personal relationships — their friendships and rivalries with each other but also their relationships with those who worked for them or loved them.

“They were all able to do what they did because of wives or partners or friends or college classmates, who did a lot of the work without being household names,” he said. To fully tell the story, he devotes plenty of narrative space to Coppola’s wife Eleanor, and his most prominent mistress, Melissa Mathison, who later wrote “E.T.,” producer Kathleen Kennedy, who co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg, and Lucas’ wife, Marcia, who edited the first “Star Wars” trilogy (and Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”).

“How did these guys break through? Well, they were middle-class white dudes and these women looked after some of this stuff they couldn’t,” Fischer said. “Those aren’t the only reasons these guys became who they did but without that, they probably [wouldn’t have].”

Fischer celebrates the three men’s vision and talents — he calls “The Godfather” “a perfect film” and says Spielberg “speaks the language of a camera better than anybody else”— but the book makes clear how often they got lucky or were saved from themselves.

If Coppola had spent his money more judiciously, he might not have done “The Godfather;” Lucas resisted hiring Harrison Ford to play Han Solo as well as Ford’s creative contributions; and if someone had bankrolled the first feature film Spielberg pitched before latching onto “Jaws” — “a sex comedy San Francisco Chinese laundry riff on Snow White” — it could have sunk his career.

Additionally, Lucas and Coppola’s friendship frayed when the latter snatched back the directing gig for a film he had long ago promised to his buddy. “But imagine George Lucas making some weird low-budget, ‘Battle of Algiers’ version of ‘Apocalypse Now’ in the back streets of Sacramento,” Fischer said. “That sounds pretty crappy. And we would have lost one of the great, novelistic experiential movies that we have.”

Lucas, meanwhile, dangled his idea for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before Spielberg’s eyes, then told him that Philip Kaufman had dibs. “He’s a fine director but we would have lost something there too,” Fischer said. “There are these crossroads there but still there has got to be something special about these three or they couldn’t have had repeated successes like they did.”

Writing about their failures, foibles and frustrations did not lessen the hold that these three men and their movie magic have on Fischer. He recounts a story of his own connection to one film with undisguised delight and enthusiasm. After graduating film school at USC, he was producing a documentary (“Radioman”) in New York when he learned that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was doing some filming in Connecticut. “Obsessed,” he finagled his way onto the set and into a job. “All I did was turn off the air conditioning,” he said. “‘Roll camera,’ I flip it off. ‘Cut,’ I turn it on. I did that for four days. But when Harrison Ford walked by wearing that jacket, I was 5-years-old again. That was cool.”

Miller is a freelance writer in Brooklyn who frequently writes about movies.