TORONTO — Tyler Glasnow threw seven, maybe eight, pitches in the bullpen. There was no more time to wait. The red emergency light was flashing.
For 14 years, Glasnow has made a nice living as a pitcher. He has thrown hard, if not always durably or effectively.
There is one thing he had not done. In 320 games, from the minors to the majors, from the Arizona Fall League to the World Series, he never had earned a save.
Until Friday, that is, and only after the Dodgers presented him with this opportunity out of equal parts confidence and desperation: Please save us. The winning run is at the plate with no one out. If you fail, we lose the World Series.
No pressure, kid.
He is not one of the more intense personalities on the roster, which makes him a good fit in a situation in which someone else might think twice, or more, at the magnitude of the moment.
“I honestly didn’t have time to think about it,” Glasnow said.
In Game 6 on Friday, the Dodgers in order used a starter to start, a reliever to relieve, the closer of the moment, and then Glasnow to close. In Game 7 on Saturday, the Dodgers plan to start Shohei Ohtani, likely followed by a parade of starters.
Glasnow, who said he could not recall ever pitching on back-to-back days, could be one of them.
“I threw three pitches,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”
The Dodgers had asked him to be ready to go in relief on Friday, so he moseyed on down to the bullpen in the second inning. He didn’t really believe he would pitch. After all, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had thrown consecutive complete games. If Yamamoto could not throw another, Glasnow did not believe he would be the first guy called.
He was not. Justin Wrobleski was, protecting a 3-1 lead, and he delivered a scoreless seventh inning. Closer Roki Sasaki was next, and the Dodgers planned for him to work the eighth and ninth.
Glasnow said bullpen coach Josh Bard warned him to be on alert. Sasaki walked two in the eighth but escaped. He hit a batter and gave up a double to lead off the ninth, and the Dodgers rushed in Glasnow.
“I warmed up very little, got out there,” Glasnow said. “It was like no thinking at all.”
The Dodgers’ scouting reports gave Glasnow and catcher Will Smith reason to believe Ernie Clement would try to jump on the first pitch, so Glasnow said he threw a two-seam fastball that he seldom throws to right-handed batters. Clement popped up.
The next batter, Andrés Giménez, hit a sinking fly ball to left fielder Kiké Hernández. Off the bat, Glasnow said he feared a hit.
If the ball falls in, Giménez has a single and the Dodgers’ lead shrinks to one run. If the ball skips past Hernández, the Blue Jays tie the score.
Glasnow said he had three brief thoughts, in order:
1: “Please don’t be a hit.”
Hernández charged hard and made the running catch.
2: “Sweet, it’s not a hit.”
Hernández threw to second base for the game-ending double play.
3: “Nice, a double play.”
Wrobleski tipped his cap to his new bullpen mate.
“He’s a beast, man,” Wrobleski said. “To be able to come in in that spot, it takes a lot of mental strength and toughness. He did it. I didn’t expect anything less out of him, but it was awesome.”
Wrobleski was pretty good himself. The Dodgers optioned him the maximum five times last year and four times this year. He did not pitch in the first three rounds of the playoffs, and his previous two World Series appearances came in a mop-up role and during an 18-inning game.
Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski reacts after striking out Toronto’s Andrés Giménez to end the seventh inning in Game 6 of the World Series on Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On Friday, they entrusted him with helping to keep their season alive. They got three critical outs from Wrobleski, who is not even making $1 million this season, and three more from Glasnow, who is making $30 million.
“We got a lot of guys that aren’t making what everybody thinks they’re making, especially down in that bullpen,” Wrobleski said. ”We were talking about it the other day. There’s a spot for everybody. If you keep grinding, you can wedge yourself in.”
He did. He was recruited by Clemson out of high school, then basically cut from the team.
“They told me to leave,” he said.
Did a new coach come in?
“No, I was just bad,” he said. “I had like a 10.3 ERA.”
Glasnow signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Hart High in Santa Clarita. In the majors, the Pirates tried him in relief without offering him a chance to close. Did they fail to recognize a budding bullpen star? “I never threw strikes,” he said. “I just wasn’t that good.”
We’ve all heard stories about the kid who goes into his backyard with a wiffle ball, taking a swing and pretending to be the batter who hits the home run in the World Series.
Glasnow doesn’t hit.
“I’ve had all sorts of daydreams about every pitching thing possible as a kid — relieving, closing out a game, starting in the World Series,” he said. “I thought about it all the time. So it’s pretty wild. I haven’t really processed it, either. I think going out to be able to get a save in the World Series is pretty wild.”
The game-ending double play was reviewed by instant replay, so Glasnow missed out on the trademark closer experience: the last out, immediately followed by the handshake line. Instead, everyone looked to the giant video board and waited.
Eventually, an informal line formed.
“I got some dap-ups,” he said. He smiled broadly, then walked out into the Toronto night, the proud owner of his first professional save. For his team, and for Los Angeles, he had kept the hope of a parade alive.
Shohei Ohtani wore the same mask of calm that he always wears.
He spoke with detachment, as he often does.
By the time Ohtani walked into the interview room at Dodger Stadium after his team’s 6-2 defeat in Game 4 of the World Series, however, he was already devising his redemption.
“Of course, I’d like to prepare to be available for every game in case I’m needed,” Ohtani said in Japanese.
He wants to pitch again, even after he was saddled with the loss on Tuesday night by the Toronto Blue Jays.
He wants to pitch again, even after the physical demands of reaching base nine times in an 18-inning victory the previous night clearly diminished him on the mound.
If Ohtani pitches, he would almost certainly pitch in relief.
Pitching in middle relief doesn’t make sense for Ohtani, considering that when he departs the game as a pitcher, rules would require the Dodgers to play him in the outfield or lose him as a hitter for the remainder of the game.
They might as well use him as a closer, and they might as well use him in a World Series clincher, either in Game 6 or 7.
He won’t let the disappointment of his World Series pitching debut scare him away from pursuing another dream. He isn’t afraid of failure.
Game 4 was a failure.
The six-hour 39-minute game the Dodgers played the night before offered Ohtani cover. He reached base a record nine times. He homered twice and doubled twice. His leg cramped at some point. He went to sleep at 2 a.m.
But Ohtani didn’t take any of the excuses that were offered to him.
“I have no plans of saying the game yesterday was this or that,” he said.
The truth was revealed in his play.
Ohtani looked exhausted. He sweated profusely and looked as if he might be dehydrated. He looked, well, human.
His fastball uncharacteristically never touched 100 mph, but he pitched well for the most part. His only notable mistake was an elevated sweeper he threw in the third inning to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that was deposited over the left-field wall for a two-run home run.
Ohtani struck out the side in the fourth inning, as well as the first batter he faced in the fifth. Manager Dave Roberts said that pitching coach Mark Prior approached Ohtani in the sixth innings and asked him how much he had left.
“He said he had three more innings,” Roberts said.
Ohtani couldn’t make it out of the seventh inning. In fact, he couldn’t even record an out in the seventh, starting the inning by giving up a single to Daulton Varsho and a double to Ernie Clement. With Ohtani clearly gassed, Roberts called in Anthony Banda, who allowed the two inherited runners to score.
Ohtani’s final line: Six innings, four runs, six hits, a walk and six strikeouts.
He said his goal was to pitch seven innings.
Ohtani didn’t have the game he wanted in the batter’s box, either. It didn’t help that he didn’t have any form of lineup protection. No. 9 hitter Andy Pages, who batted in front of him, was 0 for two and is now batting .080 this postseason. Mookie Betts, who batted behind him, was hitless until the eighth inning when the game was already out of reach. Betts is batting .158 in this World Series.
Ohtani walked in the first inning but was hitless in the three at-bats that followed. Not one of the 14 pitches he saw from Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber was near the middle quadrant of the plate.
Being a starting pitcher and leadoff hitter in the same game was hard enough. Being a starting pitcher and a leadoff hitter in the same game after an 18-inning battle was revealed to be downright impossible. Because if Ohtani couldn’t do it, nobody could.
Instead of moping over the setback, Ohtani has started eyeing his next boundary-pushing maneuver: To be a leadoff hitter and high-leverage reliever in the same game.
The World Series is now tied, two games apiece. The fixation Ohtani has with finding new methods to win games could be why the Dodgers finish as champions again.
Beyond the Cuban diaspora, the genre known as reparto is overwhelmingly unknown. But on the streets of Havana and Hialeah, Miami, reparto is inescapable, pulsing from balconies and portable speakers on the beach.
Born in Cuba’s working-class neighborhoods — known colloquially as repartos — this hyperkinetic fusion of reggaetón, timba and Afro-Cuban rhythms has become the island’s score. In the mid-2000s, artists like Chocolate MC and Elvis Manuel built the genre’s sound on distorted synth stabs, shouted call-and-response hooks, and the distinct Cuban clave beat that makes your body move before your brain can even catch up.
It’s also become a platform for youth navigating scarcity, surveillance and dreams of escaping poverty. The lyrics, characteristically and unapologetically obscene, reflect the realities of life in marginalized communities. But alongside its rhythmic bravado, reparto’s explicit language often veers into the dehumanizing and misogynistic.
The music centers on women, but more often than not, as objects: the perra to conquer, the diabla to tame, the culo to catalog in explicit detail. And it’s no surprise: The genre’s blunt portrayal of women mirrors the machismo deeply embedded in everyday Cuban life.
It’s a refrain you’re bound to hear in any and every nightclub: “¿Donde están las mujeres?” But the next time 10 reparteros link up for a track, they probably won’t call a woman. Within a genre that revolves so heavily around their bodies, women’s voices still remain rare.
So, ¿dónde están las mujeres? Or, where are the women making reparto?
“Chocolate is the king, but who is the queen?” says Seidy Carrera, known artistically as Seidy La Niña. “There’s a space that needs to be filled with women. There’s no f—ing women!”
At the onset of reparto, early reparteras like Melissa and Claudia slipped brief female cameos into club anthems. More than a decade later, due to Cuba’s only recent, and still extremely limited, internet access, these artists and their collaborations have a seemingly untraceable digital footprint. Still, most playlists orbit male voices, and collaborations rarely invite women to the booth: “When reparteros come together on a track, they never call a woman,” she says.
Carrera, 32, was born in the reparto El Cotorro and raised in Miami since she was 6. The self-proclaimed queen of reparto, the paradox defines her career: She fights for space in a scene whose appeal lies in her raw neighborhood realism, but detractors question her authenticity as a gringa, or as they would call her, yuma.
“I feel resistance every day, every single day,” she says. In response, she reclaims the discriminatory language used against her; onstage, she chants “más perra que bonita,” flipping the curse-word from insult to empowerment.
“It’s empowering to say, I’m more perra than pretty. To me, being a perra is being a woman who’s exclusive, who makes her own money. In my case, … nobody opened the door for me, nobody gave me a hand.”
For Havana-based singer-composer Melanie Santiler, 24, the double standard hits her before she can even sing her first note: “I feel that I have to do twice as well. I have to put in double the thought, double the effort, double the talent, always having something more to say,” she says.
“It’s exhausting. It’s exhausting being a woman, having to get up and tell yourself, damn, I have to look pretty and put together. I spent my whole life in school with an onion bun because I didn’t want to do my hair,” Santiler says and laughs, messy bun flopping around her face.
Reaching almost 5 million YouTube views on her 2025 viral collab, “Todo se Supera” with Velito el Bufón, she’s broken into the reparto space as one of the genre’s most distinctive voices. Beside this rise, she’s faced a newfound pressure to dress a way she normally wouldn’t, a beauty standard her masculine counterparts don’t face.
Aliaisys Alvarez Hernández — better known as Ozunaje — says she doesn’t face the same criticism in the urban Cuban music scene, likely due to her sexuality and more masculine appearance. “Reparto is a genre for men, that’s how I see it,” she says. “I dress like a man, I practically live my life like a man, so what I write resembles what men are already saying. That also gave me an impulse, where I feel like more feminine artists, they have to work harder.”
A former rhythmic gymnast from La Habana, Hernández, 23, stumbled into music when friends recorded her singing a demo of “Cosas del Amor” in her living room. Someone uploaded the video, it went viral, and suddenly, she had a career. Since that start, Hernández refuses to only be compared with other reparteras.
Her goal has always been to be measured against men, since “that’s who people actually listen to.” Dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, paired with a deep, raspy delivery, helps her lyrics resonate with locals without the extra hurdle of hyper-sexualized expectations.
Hernández’s androgynous wardrobe and open queerness bring another layer of potential discrimination, but despite the rampant homophobia persistent in present-day Cuba, she doesn’t feel much resistance. “The worst word they throw at me is tortillera, but it doesn’t affect me,” she says, adding, “People like my style, they like that I dress like a guy. Everybody tells me, you have tremendo flow, I love your aguaje, so I haven’t faced any bullying. Never.”
Misogynistic currents in reparto mirror those in early reggaetón, reflecting the average street machismo. The genre’s marginal roots complicate blanket condemnations, since the same raunchy lyrics often encode critiques of class exclusion. Still, reaching bigger stages will require editing the most gratuitous slurs, if only to broaden the music’s export potential. At least, Ozunaje thinks so.
“Reparto came from people who were poor, who had nothing, who were desperate to get out. Nobody imagined it would get this big. Now it’s reaching the whole world, so the vocabulary has to evolve,” she says.
Santiler echoes this critique. “It’s become really repetitive. I think right now, everyone is talking about the same thing. It’s been really easy. Facilista,” she says, using the Spanish term for taking the easy way out. Santiler loves reparto’s swing, but calls most of it objectifying, pointing to Bad Bunny’s “Andrea” and “Neverita,” along with C. Tangana’s “El Madrileño,” as proof that urban music can expand beyond bedroom conquests.
“The street already says these things, and reparto just writes it. It’s an image of what’s happening. But I grew up with other types of music and other types of references, so I’d like to expand beyond that, to make something fresh.”
Santiler adds that the basis of reparto, both in her gratitude and her criticism, comes from pride.
“I love Cuba, I love my country. The current generation of Cuba doesn’t reject their identity — they’re doing the opposite. They want to create a new culture, to create a new movement, and they want the world to know Cuba again,” she says.
But just the same, the Dodgers outfielder declined to stay with the team at the historic — and allegedly haunted — Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee during the first two games of the National League Championship Series against the Brewers this week.
Hernández told reporters before Game 2 on Tuesday that his wife, Jennifer, was the one who insisted on finding somewhere to stay other than the 137-year-old hotel that has been the source of spooky tales from MLB players for decades.
“I don’t believe in ghosts. I have stayed there before. I never see anything or hear anything,” Hernández said. “But my wife is on this trip, and she says she doesn’t want to stay in there. So we have to find another hotel.”
Hernández added, however, that his wife told him that she has heard from other players and their wives that there had been “something happening” over at the team hotel.
Asked to elaborate, Hernández said he had been told that in “some of the rooms, the lights, goes off and on, and the doors — there are noises, footsteps. … I’m not the guy that I’m gonna be here saying, ‘Oh yeah, I experienced that before,’ because I’m not, and I don’t think I’m gonna experience that.’”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked during his pregame media availability Tuesday if he had any ghost stories to share from the team’s stay at the Pfister.
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“I don’t,” Roberts said. “Those stories went away when I was about 10 years old. So, no, not anymore. I’m OK to go to bed now.”
Over the years, not everyone has been as at ease about staying at the creepy old digs. In 2005, then-Dodgers closer Eric Gagne told The Times’ Steve Henson that the place freaked him out.
“It’s old, weird and scary,” Gagne said. “It’s very creepy. I don’t sleep well there.”
Henson also noted at the time that former Dodgers third baseman Adrián Beltré had “reported a ghostly presence turning on lights and tickling his toes” during a 2001 stay at the Pfister. Fellow Times staff writer Kevin Baxter reported in 2007 that Beltre Beltronce insisted on sleeping with a bat for protection after he had a brush with a ghost” at the hotel.
One-time Dodgers infielder Michael Young told ESPN that he once heard loud stomping noises in his room while he was trying to sleep.
“So I yelled out, ‘Hey! Make yourself at home. Hang out, have a seat, but do not wake me up, OK?’” Young said. “After that, I didn’t hear a thing for the rest of the night.”
Current Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts decided a couple of years ago he doesn’t want to take any chances at the spooky spot.
“I don’t know if they’re real or not, nor do I care,” Betts said of the hotel’s alleged ghosts after a 2023 game against the Brewers in Milwaukee. “My boys are here, so we just got an Airbnb. That’s really it.”
Betts admitted to the Orange County Register that the Airbnb rental was “just in case” the scary stories were true and “it was a good excuse” not to stay at the creepy old building.
Last, during another series in Milwaukee, Betts appeared to confirm that he will continue to find alternative lodging for road games against the Brewers.
“You don’t want to mess with them,” Betts said of the Pfister’s alleged ghosts. “I’m staying at an Airbnb again. That part is not gonna change.”
The Dodgers more than survived their two games in Milwaukee this week, riding dominant performances by starting pitchers Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take a 2-0 National League Championship Series lead over the Brewers.
The Dodgers who checked in to the Pfister Hotel also appear to have survived another stay in downtown Milwaukee. And with the next three games (if that many are necessary) taking place at Dodger Stadium, they have the chance to make sure they avoid returning to the (allegedly) haunted haunt this postseason.
A judge temporarily blocked California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s attempt to take over Los Angeles County’s beleaguered juvenile halls on Friday, finding that despite evidence of a “systemic failure” to improve poor conditions, Bonta had not met the legal grounds necessary to strip away local control.
After years of scandals — including frequent drug overdoses and incidents of staff violence against youths — Bonta filed a motion in July to place the county’s juvenile halls in “receivership,” meaning a court-appointed monitor would manage the facilities, set their budgets and oversee the hiring and firing of staff. An ongoing staffing crisis previously led a state oversight body to deem two of L.A. County’s halls unfit to house children.
L.A. County entered into a settlement with the California Department of Justice in 2021 to mandate improvements, but oversight bodies and a Times investigation earlier this year found the Probation Department was falling far short of fixing many issues, as required by the agreement.
On Friday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Hernandez chastised Bonta for failing to clearly lay out tasks for the Probation Department to abide by in the 2021 settlement. Hernandez said the attorney general’s office’s filings failed to show that a state takeover would lead to “a transformation of the juvenile halls.”
The steps the Probation Department needs to take to meet the terms of the settlement have been articulated in court filings and reports published by the L.A. County Office of the Inspector General for several years. Hernandez was only assigned to oversee the settlement in recent months and spent much of Friday’s hearing complaining about a lack of “clarity” in the case.
Hernandez wrote that Bonta’s motion had set off alarm bells about the Probation Department’s management of the halls.
“Going forward, the court expects all parties to have an ‘all-hands’ mentality,” the judge wrote in a tentative ruling earlier this week, which he adopted Friday morning.
Hernandez said he would not rule out the possibility of a receivership in the future, but wanted more direct testimony from parties, including Probation Department Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa and the court-appointed monitor over the settlement, Michael Dempsey. A hearing was set for Oct. 24.
The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The Department remains fully committed to making the necessary changes to bring our juvenile institutions to where they need to be,” Vicky Waters, the Probation Department’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement. “However, to achieve that goal, we must have both the authority and support to remove barriers that hinder progress rather than perpetuate no-win situations.”
The California attorney general’s office began investigating L.A. County’s juvenile halls in 2018 and found probation officers were using pepper spray excessively, failing to provide proper educational and therapeutic programming and detaining youths in solitary confinement for far too long.
Bonta said in July that the county has failed to improve “75%” of what they were mandated to change in the 2021 settlement.
A 2022 Times investigation revealed a massive staffing shortage was leading to significant injuries for both youths and probation officers. By May of 2023, the California Board of State and Community Corrections ordered Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar shuttered due to unsafe conditions. That same month, an 18-year-old died of an overdose while in custody.
The county soon reopened Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, but the facility quickly became the site of a riot, an escape attempt and more drug overdoses. Last year, the California attorney general’s office won indictments against 30 officers who either orchestrated or allowed youths to engage in “gladiator fights.” That investigation was sparked by video of officers allowing eight youths to pummel another teen inside Los Padrinos, which has also been deemed unfit to house youths by a state commission.
In court Friday, Laura Fair, an attorney from the attorney general’s office, said that while she understood Hernandez’s position, she expressed concern that teens are still in danger while in the Probation Department’s custody.
“The youth in the halls continue to be in grave danger and continue to suffer irreparable harm every day,” she said.
She declined to comment further outside the courtroom. Waters, the Probation Department’s spokesperson, said she was unaware of the situation Fair was describing but would look into it.
Despite the litany of fiascoes over the last few years, probation leaders still argued in court filings that Bonta had gone too far.
“The County remains open to exploring any path that will lead to better outcomes. But it strongly opposes the DOJ’s ill-conceived proposal, which will only harm the youth in the County’s care by sowing chaos and inconsistency,” county lawyers wrote in an opposition motion submitted last month. “The DOJ’s request is almost literally without precedent. No state judge in California history has ever placed a correctional institution into receivership.”
Under the leadership of Viera Rosa, who took office in 2023, the Probation Department has made improvements to its efforts to keep drugs out of the hall, rectify staffing issues and hold its own officers accountable for misconduct, the county argued.
The department has placed “airport-grade” body scanners and drug-sniffing dogs at the entrances to both Nidorf and Los Padrinos in order to stymie the influx of narcotics into the halls, according to Robert Dugdale, an attorney representing the county.
Dugdale also touted the department’s hiring of Robert Arcos, a former high-ranking member of the Los Angeles Police Department and L.A. County district attorney’s office, to oversee security in the facilities.
The motion claimed it was the Probation Department that first uncovered the evidence that led to the gladiator fight prosecutions. Bonta said in March that his office launched its investigation after it reviewed leaked footage of one of the incidents.
For Kiké Hernández, the regular season is little more than a six-month warm-up. Real baseball is played when the evening air turns crisp and the leaves begin to change.
And when summer turns to fall few players have stepped up bigger than Hernández, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in another Wednesday, spurring a Dodger comeback that ended in an 8-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and a sweep of their National League wild-card series.
“October Kiké is something pretty special,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “And the track record speaks for itself. He’s one of the best throughout the history of the postseason.”
It’s a reputation he’s earned.
A .236 career hitter in the regular season, Hernández has hit .286 in 88 postseason games. He slashed .203/.255/.366 in an injury-marred regular season this year, but two games into the playoffs he’s hitting .500, leads the Dodgers with three runs scored and ranks second to Mookie Betts with four hits. He also made a splendid over-the-shoulder catch while racing to the warning track in the first inning Wednesday.
“Some guys are built for this moment. He’s definitely one of them,” said third baseman Max Muncy, standing in the middle of the Dodgers’ batting cage during the team’s postgame celebration, his blue T-shirt soaked in champagne as a teammate poured beer over his head.
Hernández, wearing goggles but not a shirt, made a brief appearance at the victory party but departed to celebrate with family before the champagne and beer began to puddle on the plastic sheeting that covered the floor.
His teammates were all too happy to speak about him in his absence.
“He’s a guy who is not shy from the from the moment,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “I feel like the regular season for him is not enough.”
Rojas said he learned that first hand after rejoining the Dodgers in 2023. Although the team’s playoff run was brief, Hernández led the team with two RBIs and was second in hits and average.
“I saw it on TV before. But when I got here I saw that it was real,” he said. “He always wanted the moment and he showed it tonight with a big double to tie the game.”
That came with one out in the fourth, when his line drive to center field scored Muncy from first to tie the score, 2-2. Four pitches later he scored on Rojas’ single, putting the Dodgers ahead to stay.
But Hernández wasn’t finished. Two innings later he led off with a squibber up the third-base line that was going foul before it hit the bag for a single, starting a four-run rally that put the game away. The bottom third of the Dodger lineup — Hernández, Rojas and catcher Ben Rortvedt — combined to go six for 12 with five runs and two RBIs.
“Kiké is Kiké,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said above the din of the celebration. “That’s the guy you get when October starts.”
Before that? Not so much. But for Hernández, the postseason has become redemption time.
“I know they brought me here for these types of moments,” he said before Wednesday’s game.
“The beautiful thing about the postseason is that once we get to the postseason, everything starts at zero. You can have a bad year and you flip the script and you start over in the postseason. You have a good postseason, help the team win, and nobody ever remembers what you did in the regular season.”
Hernández, 34, owes much of his fall heroics simply to the opportunity to play on the sport’s biggest stage. In a dozen big-league seasons, he’s made the playoffs 10 times, playing in 21 postseason series with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and winning two World Series rings.
“I’ve been blessed to be on the right team at the right time,” he said. “Being a good postseason player is kind of an individual thing, but not really. You’re on a team that doesn’t make the playoffs, you can’t be a postseason player.
“I just happen to be on a lot of really good teams, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of chances.”
With his performance Wednesday, he assured himself at least three more chances in the division series with the Phillies. And Rojas expects him to take full advantage.
“He always wants the moment and he wants to be out there,” he said. “I’m learning from him every single day. He’s the most prepared guy that I’ve ever played with.”
With two outs in the top of the first, Yoshinobu Yamamoto induced a routine fly ball down the right-field line. Outfielder Teoscar Hernández positioned himself under it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the inning would have ended there.
This time, however, Hernández committed a horrifying mistake. The ball hit off the heel of his mitt. The Cincinnati Reds suddenly had runners at second and third base. And what should have been a clean opening frame instead turned into a two-run disaster, with Sal Stewart slapping a single through the infield in the next at-bat.
For the Dodgers, it was an immediate test.
Of their mental resolve after a self-inflicted miscue. Of their veteran composure in the face of an early deficit. Of the kind of resiliency that was so key in their World Series run last year, and will need to be again for them to repeat as champions.
In an eventual 8-4 comeback victory, they successfully, triumphantly and assuredly passed.
Behind 6 ⅔ clutch innings from Yamamoto, a go-ahead two-run rally in the fourth inning keyed by a Kiké Hernández double, and a back-breaking four-run explosion in the sixth after Yamamoto had escaped a bases-loaded jam, the Dodgers eliminated the Reds in this best-of-three opening round.
Despite another late tightrope act from the bullpen, which gave up two runs in the eighth before Roki Sasaki finished things off in the ninth, the team booked their place in the NL Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Dodgers did not make it easy on themselves. They were dealt a full range of October theatrics. But they prevailed nonetheless with a hard-fought victory — the kind that could catapult them into the rest of this month.
Facing their early 2-0 deficit, the Dodgers never panicked.
Ben Rortvedt doubles during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The turnaround started with Yamamoto, who finally ended the first inning by striking out Elly De La Cruz, then didn’t let another runner reach base for the next four innings.
The offense, meanwhile, chipped away at veteran Reds right-hander Zack Littell, stressing him with constant early traffic before eventually breaking through in the third, when Ben Rortvedt sliced a leadoff double down the left-field line and Mookie Betts scored him with an RBI single.
The Dodgers then went in front in the fourth, thanks to a big swing from a familiar postseason hero. After a leadoff single from Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández smacked an elevated fastball into the right-center field gap. Muncy scored all the way from first to tie the game. Hernández, whom the Dodgers have re-signed each of the past two offseasons thanks largely to his playoff reputation, had his latest moment of fall-time magic.
Hernández would come around to score in the next at-bat, when Miguel Rojas dumped a base hit inside the right-field line.
From there, the score remained 3-2 until the sixth inning — when the game climaxed in two memorable sequences.
First, Yamamoto had to wiggle out of red-alarm danger, facing a bases-loaded jam with no outs after the Reds led off with three-straight singles. At that point, the right-hander’s pitch count was climbing. Blake Treinen started to get loose in the bullpen. But manager Dave Roberts, as he promised entering the playoffs, kept his faith in his starter.
Yamamoto rewarded him for it.
After Austin Hays bounced a grounder to Betts that the shortstop threw home for a forceout, Yamamoto slammed the door with back-to-back strikeouts. Stewart fanned on one curveball. De La Cruz couldn’t check his swing on another. Yamamoto celebrated with a primal scream. A crowd of 50,465 erupted around him.
The cheers continued into the bottom half of the inning, as the Dodgers finally pulled away with an outburst from their offense. It started with a single from Kiké Hernández, marking his second-straight two-hit game to begin these playoffs. It was aided by a throwing error from Stewart at first base, allowing Rortvedt to reach safely and put runners on the corners. Shohei Ohtani then knocked in one insurance run on an RBI single. Betts added another with a one-hopper that got past third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes for an RBI double.
And fittingly, it was Teoscar Hernández who delivered the death blow, following an intentional walk to Freddie Freeman with a two-run, bases-loaded, redemption-rich double.
The Dodgers eventually stretched the lead to 8-2, when Betts drove in his third run of the game with his third double of the night in the bottom of the seventh — giving him four total hits in a contest for the third time in his career.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts speaks with pitcher Emmet Sheehan before removing him from the game in the eighth inning Wednesday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Then came the bullpen, which once again thrust itself into danger after Emmet Sheehan gave up two runs in the eighth on two singles and two walks; his command so shaky, Roberts decided to pull him in the middle of an at-bat against Will Benson after he nearly plunked the batter in an 0-and-2 count.
However, it was mostly smooth sailing from there. Alex Vesia took over, and retired the side by striking out two of three batters (even though there was another walk in-between).
The ninth inning, meanwhile, belonged to Sasaki, who retired the side in order with 100-mph fastballs and his trademark splitter, ending a night of theatrics by sending the Dodgers to the next round.
It was picture day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, one of those quaint baseball traditions that has endured long past its usefulness.
So the team set up three rows of aluminum risers in shallow center field and the players, wearing impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse just before 3 p.m., passing up batting practice to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a unique last-day-of-school vibe.
“It’s a weird day,” manager Dave Roberts agreed.
But picture day also serves to bring the end of the season into tighter focus since it usually happens in the final three weeks. And the players who climb those risers are the ones who will decide the team’s postseason fate.
That was especially true for the Dodgers, who rode another splendid pitching performance — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot in the playoff rotation, was backed by four homers, including a pair of solo shots from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night in more than a month.
The win, the team’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two games over the second-place Padres with just 17 left to play.
“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ starting pitching is already in postseason form, posting a 1.41 ERA over the past five games. On Tuesday it was Sheehan’s turn on the mound and he set down the first 15 Rockies in order, becoming the third Dodger starter in four games to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
He wound up scattering three hits and a walk over seven innings, striking out nine to earn his fourth victory in five decisions. The win was also Sheehan’s fourth victory in as many appearances against Colorado.
Roberts said his team’s starting pitchers are all competing to one-up each other, giving the significance of the games now.
“They’re feeding off one another,” he said. “The pitchers are of the mind that these are very, very important games. It’s kind of the playoff mentality. The catchers are calling games in that vein.
“The defense has been really focused getting off the baseball. There’s a heightened level of focus across the board.”
That even spread to the offense, said Mookie Betts, whose two-run home run in the third extended his streak of reaching base safely to 15 straight games.
Mookie Betts is very happy after his two-run homer in the third inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s really neat being on this side,” Betts, who had multiple RBIs for a fourth straight game, said of watching the Dodger pitchers work. “If you kind of take a step back and look at it, there’s a lot of teams that would ask for something like this. Those guys give us opportunity to win every day.
“It’s really important for us as on the offensive side not to take that for granted.”
Although the Dodgers entered Tuesday second to last in the majors with an average of 3.14 runs a game in September, against Colorado starter Germán Márquez (3-13), whose ERA (6.31) looks more like a mortgage rate, they ran out to a 5-0 lead after five innings. As a result the focus turned to Sheehan, who needed just 59 pitches to cruise through five perfect innings, striking out five.
“I probably knew,” Sheehan, pitching on the 60th anniversary of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game, said when asked if he was aware he was more than halfway to matching that. “But I was definitely not thinking about it.”
The right-hander said he tried to cross up the Rockies by moving away from his fastball and going with a slider to the glove side instead.
“I felt like I was executing the slider pretty well,” he said. “The more I throw it, the easier it gets to get it to that spot. It’s an important pitch for me.”
Kyle Karros ended the suspense when he lined Sheehan’s first pitch of the sixth inning over a leaping Max Muncy at third for a single. Two more singles brought Karros around to score, ending the shutout as well.
Still Sheehan (6-3) was more than good enough to win for the fourth time in five decisions, lowering his ERA to 3.32 and forcing his way into the conversation over a role on the postseason roster.
“He’s unflappable,” Roberts said. “He knows he’s talented and he knows how to execute pitches. He’s got good stuff. No moment is too big for him. So I can’t speak to what role, but I know that he’s a viable option for us now and going forward.”
Tuesday’s win also left Sheehan unbeaten on picture day, something he nearly skipped as the scheduled starting pitcher.
“I wasn’t going go out there,” he said. “But I was like, I missed the last two. I gotta be out there.”
PITTSBURGH — It was not quite a benching. But it served as a reminder nonetheless.
Last year, in many ways, Teoscar Hernández was the heart and soul of the Dodgers. Not their best player. Nor their biggest star. But someone who provided effervescent vibes in the clubhouse, veteran leadership in the dugout and clutch hits in several of the season’s biggest moments at the plate.
“Teo is a guy that we counted on a lot last year,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a guy that I really admire, because he can balance the fun part of baseball but also have that edge.”
This year, however, frustration has doused much of the fun. Struggles have dulled his usual edge.
Between injuries, slumps, defensive miscues and mechanical swing flaws, Hernández has endured one of his worst career seasons. He is batting just .247, his lowest since 2019. He has a .734 OPS, the lowest of his career and just a smidge above league-average. His limited range in right field has led to a flurry of dropped balls and some of the poorest defensive metrics of any big leaguer at the position. And going back to the last week of June, no other Dodger player (not even Michael Conforto) has been worth fewer wins above replacement than Hernández’s negative-0.5 mark, according to Fangraphs.
“For me, not being the same as last year is a little frustrating,” Hernández said. “I don’t want to be like that. I want to be better than last year. But it’s baseball. It’s life. You just have to keep working, keep trusting in yourself and the things that you can do to help the team.”
Last weekend, however, Roberts had a different idea. In the midst of Hernández’s latest cold spell, the outfielder was unexpectedly benched for Sunday’s series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He’s an every-day guy,” Roberts said that day. “But I do think that where we’re at, you’ve got to perform, too, to warrant being out there every single day.”
The move wasn’t punitive, with Roberts also accounting for Monday’s off day in hopes “a two-day reset could help” the two-time All-Star.
But still, with the stretch run of the season nearing, the manager was dropping a hint to his star slugger as well.
“I think we’ve lost a little bit of that edge over the last couple months,” Roberts said Tuesday of Hernández, having had “numerous conversations” to communicate the same message with him personally.
“For me, I want to see that edge, that fight, that fire, and I’ll bet on any result. I just want to see that. We’re past the mechanical part of [his struggles with his swing]. Let’s just get into the fight. I’ve seen it. And I believe that’s what’s to come in the next month and beyond.”
This is not the position the Dodgers expected to be in when they re-signed Hernández to a three-year, $66 million contract this offseason — a move Roberts described as a “no-brainer” at the time after pushing for the front office to bring the free-agent back to Los Angeles.
He trusted Hernández’s bat, which mashed 33 home runs and 99 RBIs in his debut Dodgers season in 2024. He appreciated Hernández’s heartbeat, and how he delivered one of the season’s biggest swings in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series.
In bringing Hernández back, the Dodgers hoped that his mere presence would elevate the rest of the roster for this year’s championship defense.
“He knows his value for our ballclub,” Roberts said. “He knows my expectations of him individually.”
Only, to this point, Hernández has struggled to replicate that same intangible magic.
After a blistering start to the season (.315 average, nine home runs, and an MLB-most 34 RBIs through his first 33 games), the outfielder suffered a groin/adductor strain while stretching for a line drive in Miami, landing him on the injured list for two weeks. When he returned, he looked far from 100%, struggling to rediscover his swing or cover much ground in right. Before long, a slump took hold. And as it stretched on through the summer — compounded by foot contusion on a foul ball he suffered in July — frustration began to mount.
“It’s tough when you feel good and then something happens and you have to miss … whatever the amount of games might be,” Hernández said. “It was one of those for me this year. I got injured, then I came back. I fouled it off my foot and then missed games [again].”
He later added: “For me, being hurt is more frustrating than having a bad year. I’d rather be on the field having a bad year, than not being on the field and just fighting back and forth.”
Staying on the field, of course, hasn’t alleviated Hernández’s problems. After the All-Star break, he said his body finally started feeling better. On Tuesday, he proclaimed his groin and foot to be back to full health.
And yet, over his previous eight games, he had batted only three-for-27 leading up to Sunday’s removal from the lineup. Worse than that, he had fallen back into a habit of chasing too much, leading to non-competitive at-bats at a time Roberts had been trying to emphasize the opposite.
“[I want to see] Teo getting back to having that edge,” Roberts reiterated.
In Hernández’s return to the lineup Tuesday, some positive signs finally presented themselves. He fought off a pair of two-strike pitches before lining a second-inning single. He did the same thing in the third inning to drive in a run. Defensively, there was another awkward moment, when Hernández failed to make a sliding catch on a shallow fly ball down the right-field line in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ four-run first inning. But even on that play, Roberts argued postgame, Hernández got a good jump and covered a lot of ground — breaking into the kind of hard-charging sprint that hadn’t always been there earlier this season.
“If I see a good jump getting off the ball, good effort, I’ve got no problem with it,” Roberts said.
Really, that’s all Roberts is hoping for from Hernández moving forward now.
To have the kind of consistent intensity level that has wavered at times this season. To rekindle that balance of having fun and playing with an edge down the stretch run of the season.
“We’re going to see that,” Roberts said. “I have no doubt.”
“You just leave everything on the field,” Hernández echoed. “I’m going to keep working, keep doing my routine, keep doing the stuff that I normally do to get back on track. And hopefully I get the results that I want to help the team.”
DENVER — Mookie Betts was back at shortstop and Teoscar Hernández remained in right field for the Dodgers on Tuesday, a day after two questionable fielding plays in the outfield led to two runs in a 4-3 walk-off loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies.
Hernández’s defense has increasingly become a matter of concern for manager Dave Roberts and Monday’s loss was followed by a meeting involving Roberts; Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations; and Betts, who has expressed a willingness to move back to right field where he was a six-time Gold Glove winner.
Hernández is ranked 64th among National League right fielders with a defensive WAR of -0.4 and his two errors are tied for fourth-most in the league.
“He’s got to get better out there. There’s just no way to put it,” Roberts said after Monday’s game of Hernández. “It’s not a lack of effort. But, you know, we’ve just got to kind of get better. We do.”
Betts, meanwhile, twice led the American League in fielding average and putouts as the Boston Red Sox’s right fielder. But he’s played shortstop full-time this season.
“Defense is a big part of postseason baseball and winning baseball,” Roberts said.
Betts’ move to the infield has arguably weakened the Dodgers in two ways: Hernández’s defense and Betts’ offense. Playing the infield, especially shortstop, is far more taxing mentally than playing in the outfield and Betts is slashing a career-low .242/.312/.370 this season.
Moving Betts back to right field would likely mean using Alex Freeland or Miguel Rojas at shortstop, at least in the short term. Freeland played nearly 300 games at shortstop in the minors while Rojas has played more than 940 games there in the majors.
Hernández, second on the team with 74 RBIs and tied for second with 20 home runs, would then move to left field — a less-demanding position defensively than right field — in place of Michael Conforto, whose .190 batting average is the worst in the majors among players with at least 300 at-bats.
Moving Betts back to the outfield could be easier for Roberts when utility players Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Kiké Hernández return from the injured list, giving the manager more depth and flexibility. Kim, who will begin a rehab assignment this week, is the furthest along and could be back by early next week.
Shohei Ohtani was four weeks into his major league career when former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt pitched a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium. Ohtani, then a rookie with the Angels and now a global superstar with the Dodgers, was 23.
Today, Ohtani is 31, and McCourt still has no official response to his pitch.
In an effort to accelerate a decision, as The Times reported last month, McCourt’s lobbyists latched onto a state bill designed to expedite transit projects and persuaded legislators to add language that would put an even speedier timeline on potential legal challenges to the gondola.
That bill is scheduled for consideration by an Assembly committee Wednesday, and more than 100 community members rallied Monday in opposition to the bill — or, at least, to the part that would benefit the gondola project.
The Los Angeles City Council last week approved — and Mayor Karen Bass signed — a resolution urging state legislators to drop the gondola part of the bill or dump the bill entirely.
“We are fighting a billionaire,” City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez told the crowd. “How you doing today?”
There were snacks and stickers, T-shirts and tote bags, even bandanas for dogs (and there were lots of very good dogs). There were signs, both earnest and amusing (“Frank McCourt and the Aerial Cabins of Doom”).
Even if McCourt wins in Sacramento, Hernandez said, the City Council must approve the gondola project. In 2024, the council authorized a Dodger Stadium traffic study, intended to evaluate alternatives to the gondola, which could include expanding the current bus shuttles from Union Station and introducing the park-and-ride buses such as the ones that have operated for years at the Hollywood Bowl.
Last month — 16 months after the council authorized the study — the city’s department of transportation invited bidders to apply to conduct the study, via a 56-page document that explains what the city wants done, how to do it, and when the work should be completed.
Sixteen months?
Colin Sweeney, spokesman for the transportation department, said the preparation of contracts requires compliance with various city rules, coordination with several city departments, and availability of city staff.
“This process can take up to 24 months,” Sweeney said.
An artist’s rendering of the Dodger Stadium landing site of a proposed gondola project that would ferry up passengers to games.
(Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies / Kilograph)
The traffic study is due next fall. If it is delivered on time, that could be nearly a three-year wait for one study in advance of one vote for one of the several governmental approvals the gondola would require.
Is the city — or, at least, the elected representatives opposed to the gondola — slow-walking the project?
“We’re not slow-walking nothing,” said Hernandez, whose district includes Dodger Stadium. “This is how the city moves.”
The councilmember pointed to the tree behind her.
“It takes us 15 years to trim a tree,” she said.
Excuse me?
“We’ll trim this tree this year,” Hernandez said, “and we won’t get to it again for 15 years.”
The industry standard, she said, is five years.
In L.A. she said, it can take 10 years to fix a sidewalk, three to five years to cut a curb for a wheelchair, nine months to one year to repair a street light.
“When you have enough resources, you can do things like put a new section into a bill to fast-track your project,” Hernandez said. “When you have money, you can do that.”
But I wanted to flip the question: If McCourt can spend half a million bucks on lobbyists to try to push his project forward, and if he is approaching a decade with no decision, what hope do the rest of us have?
We need housing. We need parks.We need shade. And, yes, we need better ways to get in and out of Dodger Stadium.
Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez speaks during a news conference in December.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“Do I believe we need to fast-track really good projects that have shown that there are financial plans behind them that will benefit the community?” Hernandez said. “If there are ways to do that ethically, let’s do it. But, if we’re talking about fast-tracking a project because you’ve got access to change state law, that’s not something we should be doing.
“Do I think there’s a lot of barriers to achieving good projects, whether they are housing developments or other transportation? I do. I think we can cut through some of that. I think we should.
“We need to deliver quicker for our people.”
It’s not just the city of Los Angeles. The gondola project has slogged through Metro since 2018.
Love him or loathe him, like the gondola or hate it, does Hernandez believe McCourt — or any other developer — should be able to get a yes or no on his proposed project within eight years?
“I believe he should, yeah,” Hernandez said. “One hundred percent. I think he should.”
Even if the gondola is approved, who knows whether any fan would be able to ride it to see Ohtani play? For now, the gondola is not approved, not financed, and not under construction. Ohtani’s contract with the Dodgers expires in another eight years.
Reporting from Sacramento — The state ethics agency cited the serious illness and death of key witnesses in its decision to drop charges that political contributions were laundered to the 2010 campaign of Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina).
Ending a protracted legal battle that began three years ago, the state Fair Political Practices Commission has also notified Hernandez’s attorney that it will not pursue allegations that the candidate failed to report spending on a mass mailing on the West Covina City Council elections.
“After a full investigation, the Enforcement Division did not find sufficient, reliable evidence to conclude that your client violated the [Political Reform] Act in this instance and is closing the file on this matter,” wrote Zachary W. Norton, an attorney for the FPPC, to Hernandez’s lawyer.
The state agency launched the probe after receiving a citizen complaint questioning loans of $100,000 that Hernandez made to his campaign in 2009 and 2010.
The commission issued a finding of probable cause in January. At that time, an attorney for the state agency alleged Hernandez’s committee filed “an inaccurate semi-annual campaign statement with the Secretary of State, falsely reporting information regarding the true sources of contributions received.”
Hernandez challenged the allegations, and in preparing for an administrative hearing, commission attorneys found “inconsistencies in previous witness testimony” and that key witnesses were not available, Norton said.
“Specifically, one key witness has serious medical issues that would prevent him from testifying and another has passed away,” Norton wrote in the case-closing letter. “The standard for proving a violation of the Act administratively is based on the preponderance of the evidence and, at this point, the evidence is not sufficient to meet that standard.”
The allegation involving failure to report a mass mailer was dropped after Hernandez’s campaign provided information that the campaign staffer who approved it was not authorized to do so, Norton said.
Jimmy Gutierrez, an attorney for the Assemblyman, said the letter provides false excuses for why the case was dropped.
“They had issued probable cause findings with no facts whatsoever and they know it,” Gutierrez said. “There was absolutely no merit to it whatsoever.”
The Dodgers are leading the majors in on-base-plus-slugging percentage as an offense this year. They are second in the National League in scoring, and third in team batting average.
They have the league’s top players in hitting (Will Smith batting .324 and Freddie Freeman batting .306) and OPS (Shohei Ohtani at .982 and Smith at .963).
They figure to have several players who will get MVP votes at the end of the season, including the odds-on favorite for the award in Ohtani.
And yet, as the club enters the stretch run of the season, their lineup might be the biggest question mark in their bid to defend last year’s World Series championship. Since the start of July, they have scored the third-fewest runs in the majors, have the second-lowest team batting average and the fourth-lowest OPS.
They stayed relatively quiet at the trade deadline, hopeful a number of struggling superstars would get things going over the campaign’s final two months. But to this point, only Freeman (who endured a two-month slump before heating up again on their recent nine-game trip) has shown tangible signs of a late-season revival.
“If you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently,” manager Dave Roberts said this past weekend, after utility outfielder Alex Call became the team’s only deadline addition to the lineup. “That’s something that we’re all counting on … Now it’s up to all of us to go out there and do our jobs.”
While that’s true of most hitters in the lineup, all the way down to Andy Pages and (even before his most recent ankle injury flare-up) Tommy Edman, there are three star-level players in particular the Dodgers have been waiting to round back into form.
Here’s a look at the problems plaguing each of them:
Mookie Betts
First 15 games: .304 average, .554 slugging percentage, .954 OPS
Last 87 games: .222 average, .327 slugging percentage, .616 OPS
When asked on Sunday for the umpteenth time this season if he knew what was wrong with Mookie Betts’ swing, Roberts failed to come up with an answer.
“Honestly, no,” Roberts said. “I know that he and the hitting coaches have been working diligently, consistently, intentionally. I think that the first thing, the easiest thing, to say is it’s a mechanical thing. So I guess kind of that’s where he’s at. But also, I do believe that there’s a mental part of it, too, which is sort of beating him down a little bit.”
When Betts was presented with the same question later Sunday afternoon, after running a season-long hitless streak to 17 at-bats and watching his batting average dip to .233, he was left searching for divine intervention.
“I’ve done everything I can possibly do,” he said. “It’s up to God at this point.”
Betts’ struggles are not for a lack of effort. He spends hours in the batting cage before (and sometimes after) almost every game. He has tried mechanical tweaks and mental cues and fundamental drills that in the past would get him back on track.
His approach has largely remained sound, as he ranks in the top 20% of big-leaguers in chase rate, whiff rate and strikeouts percentage, per Baseball Savant’s Statcast data.
And while his bat speed is in the 11th percentile of MLB hitters (and down almost two mph from his 39-homer season in 2023), it’s also about the same as he had last year, when he was still a .289 hitter with 19 home runs (in just 116 games) and a .863 OPS (which only trailed Shohei Ohtani for the best on the team).
“I really don’t know what else to do,” he said. “I don’t have any answers.”
Perhaps the most confounding metric: Betts is in the 99th percentile in “squared-up” rate, a metric that effectively determines when a ball is hit off the sweet spot of the bat.
But, even when Betts does make solid contact, he simply isn’t generating as much power as he usually does — ranking among the bottom third of big-league hitters in average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage; and watching fly balls that used to leave the yard die at the warning track, if they even make it that far.
While he has been a victim of some bad luck (his expected .252 batting average is almost 20 points higher than his actual mark), he has had no choice but to “go back to the drawing board” time and time again this year — gradually grating on his confidence as answers continually fail to appear.
“I don’t know anybody in the world that would have confidence in the stretch that’s going on [for me],” he said. “It sucks when you don’t get stuff done.”
Betts can be a streaky hitter. And the Dodgers’ hope is that, at some point over these final two months, he’ll find something that unlocks more pop in his bat, and go on the kind of heater that can make him an effective producer at the top of the lineup again.
Until that happens, however, questions will persist. About whether his shortstop play is to blame for his offensive decline (a theory multiple rival evaluators have increasingly pointed to of late as a reason for his struggles). About whether age is simply catching up to the soon-to-be 33-year-old veteran. And about whether he will ever be the same hitter he was once, amid a season-long slump almost no one saw coming.
Shohei Ohtani
First 70 games (before resuming pitching): .297 average, 1.034 OPS, 24% strikeout rate
Last 40 games (since resuming pitching): .230 average, .886 OPS, 31% strikeout rate
The easy demarcation line for Ohtani this year has been before and after he returned to pitching in mid-June, with offensive production dropping even as his stuff has ticked up on the mound.
Ohtani has still been a relatively productive hitter since then, continuing to hit home runs at a league-leading pace (he is tied with Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead with 38 on the year).
But he has become a much easier out the last couple months, as well, epitomized first and foremost by his climbing strikeout rate.
An over-aggressive approach would figure to be the easy explanation here. And there have been times, Roberts noted, the slugger appears to get into a “swing mode” that prevents him from laying off bad pitches.
But on the whole this season, Ohtani is actually swinging less often than he did last year, chasing pitches at an almost identical rate and continuing to draw more walks than almost anyone in the majors (his 71 free passes are seventh-most this season).
Ohtani’s problem has been an increase in swing-and-miss, with the reigning MVP coming up empty on more than one-third of his hacks.
It might simply be a byproduct of the added physical workload he has taken on since resuming two-way duties. But he has insisted such problems remain fixable, citing a lack of balance and consistency in his swing mechanics.
Like Betts, Ohtani can also be prone to more extreme highs and lows over the course of a year. Last season, for example, he hit just .235 with an .886 OPS in August, before turning around in September and batting .393 with a 1.225 OPS.
The Dodgers could use another late-season tear like that again this term. Whether he can do it while also ramping up as a pitcher looms as one of the biggest questions facing the Dodgers down the stretch this year.
Teoscar Hernández
First 33 games (pre-groin strain): .315 average, nine home runs, .933 OPS, 18% strikeout rate
Last 57 games (post-groin strain): .211 average, seven home runs, .619 OPS, 28% strikeout rate
Hernández’s midseason drop-off is perhaps the easiest to explain of any recently scuffling Dodgers hitter.
Before suffering a groin/adductor strain in early May, he was on an All-Star (and potentially even MVP-caliber) pace after re-signing with the Dodgers in the offseason.
Since then, however, the 32-year-old simply hasn’t looked the same — both at the plate, where he hasn’t been able to drive the ball as he usually does, and in the field, where his range has been clearly limited.
To that end, a foul ball he took off his foot last month hasn’t helped matters either.
There have been some recent signs that Hernández is getting healthy again. His slugging percentage has started to tick back up since getting a week off for the All-Star break. He has had more hard contact, especially to center and the opposite field.
“At the beginning [after my injury] it was a little hard,” Hernández said after hitting home runs in consecutive games at Fenway Park last week. “First I got my groin, then I got the foul off my foot. Couldn’t put a lot of weight [on it] for like two weeks. Thank God there was the break in there. I got those four days off, going through that and getting some treatment, getting some rest. And finally feel like myself again.”
But, it still hasn’t resulted in a total reversal of fortunes, with Hernández finishing the road trip going just five-for-25 with nine strikeouts and only one extra-base hit.
Last year, Hernández’s ability to be a run-producer behind the Dodgers’ star trio of hitters was crucial to both their regular-season and postseason offensive success. Lately, though, he has been more strikeout-prone and less opportunistic at the plate, contributing to a string of frustrating recent defeats marked by squandered chances in leverage opportunities.
“He’s bearing down, and he’s not trying to give at-bats away,” Roberts said. “He’s grinding.”
Much like the Dodgers’ other scuffling stars, the team will need him to fully snap out of it, and live up once again to the expectations the club had for him and the lineup at large.
Seth Hernandez has imagined his name being announced for years at the MLB amateur draft. It finally happened Sunday. The Gatorade national player of the year and two-time L.A. Times player of the year from Corona High School was chosen No. 6 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates have been successful with Southern California pitchers, having drafted Gerrit Cole (Orange Lutheran), Paul Skenes (El Toro) and Jared Jones (La Mirada) in the past. And they took Warren pitcher Angel Cervantes in the second round on Sunday.
It was an historic opening draft for Corona High, because for the first time, a single high school produced three first-round draft picks. Shortstop Billy Carlson went No. 10 to the Chicago White Sox and third baseman Brady Ebel went No. 32 to the Milwaukee Brewers in joining Hernandez.
“It’s nuts,” said Corona coach Andy Wise, who went to gatherings at the Hernandez and Carlson houses. “It’s an absolute honor to have those kids in our program, and I couldn’t be happier for their families.”
Hernandez was considered the best right-handed high school pitcher in the draft after a sensational senior season in which he struck out 105 batters in 53 1/3 innings while walking only seven using a 99-mph fastball. His ERA was 0.39.
Wise said he has coached no one better. Hernandez missed his first two years of high school being home schooled. The last two seasons his pitching record was 18-1. He has a very good slider and changeup. He’s uniquely ready for the pressure and exposure ahead, having been watched closely for years by scouts and interviewed over and over.
Shortstop Gavin Fien from Great Oak was taken No. 12 by the Chicago White Sox.
In the second round, shortstop Cooper Flemming from Aliso Niguel went to Tampa Bay and shortstop Quentin Young from Oaks Christian was selected by the Minnesota Twins. Tennessee shortstop Dean Curley, a Northview grad, was chosen by the Cleveland Guardians.
The Colorado Rockies made USC third baseman Ethan Hedges the second pick of the third round. He’s a former Mater Dei standout. Former Lakewood pitcher Anthony Eyanson from LSU was selected by the Boston Red Sox at No. 87. Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame first baseman Jack Gurevitch of San Diego went to the St. Louis Cardinals at No. 89. Former Huntington Beach pitcher Ben Jacobs of Arizona State went No. 98 to the Detroit Tigers.
High school shortstop Eli Willits from Oklahoma was taken No. 1 by the Washington Nationals.
Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández was not born and raised in Los Angeles.
A North Hollywood mural seemingly inspired by the San Juan, Puerto Rico, native’s stance on immigration sweeps shows that doesn’t matter.
Hernández began a June 14 Instagram post by stating, “I may not be Born & Raised, but this city adopted me as one of their own.”
Local artist Louie Palsino has cemented the second part of that statement in a new mural on the side of the Noho Tires & Wheels building on the 5600 block of Lankershim Boulevard. It features Hernández’s image surrounded by the words “Born X Raised” and “Los Angeles.”
Hernández said plenty more in the post, which seems to have inspired Palsino. The two-time World Series champion expressed support for his adopted city’s immigrants and dismay at how many of them were being treated in a series of sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sweeps in Los Angeles have sparked protests locally and elsewhere in the country.
“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández wrote. “Los Angeles and Dodger fans have welcomed me, supported me and shown me nothing but kindness and love. This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”
Under the name Sloe Motions, Palsino has painted a number of high-profile murals, including one in the Fashion District of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that was vandalized, restored, then vandalized again all within the last few months.
He declined to discuss the Hernández mural for this story, instead directing The Times to a statement he posted about it on Instagram last week.
“Thank you @kikehndez for standing up for what is right and for Los Angeles,” Palsino wrote. “this ain’t a political post or anything to stir up any government agenda to divide us. this is just paying homage to standing up for what is right and a real one.god over government.”
Palsino painted the Hernández mural on a building that already featured two of his other Dodgers-themed pieces — one of legendary broadcaster Vin Scully on an adjoining wall and one of iconic Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela on the gate in front of the garage’s driveway
When the gate is pulled open, a split image of Valenzuela and Hernandez is created.
Local artist Louie Palsino has painted several Dodgers-themed murals on the Noho Tires & Wheels building in North Hollywood, including images of (clockwise from left) Vin Scully, Kiké Hernández and Fernando Valenzuela.
(Chuck Schilken / Los Angeles Times)
Hernández has been a Dodgers fan favorite since his first stint with the team in 2015-20. In 2017, he hit three home runs, including a grand slam, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs to help send the Dodgers to the World Series.
Last postseason, Hernández was a key member of another Dodgers championship team. He hit one of the Dodgers’ two solo home runs in a 2-0 win against the San Diego Padres in the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series. He then contributed seven hits and four RBIs in the NLCS against the New York Mets and five hits against the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. If the Dodgers put Kiké Hernández on the injured list, does that count as another injured pitcher?
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There are few Dodgers who have been more loved than Hernández. He plays almost every position and plays them well. He is the Dodgers’ version of Mr. October come the postseason. He plays catch with kids in the stands occasionally before games. He brings a fun-loving spirit to the team, something that was noticeably missing when he was playing elsewhere.
But it’s time for him to stop pitching.
The goofy looking helmet and the lobbed pitches were cute at first. But they have grown increasingly less cute as time has gone on (though he doesn’t wear the helmet every time now). It borders on disrespectful, especially when the Dodgers have a big lead. It’s more like “You can’t hit our real pitchers, so try this guy.” It’s Little League.
Sure, the Dodgers are playing within the rules, but that doesn’t make it more palatable. Yes, they want to save a bullpen arm, but they aren’t even doing that anymore. He came in June 14 against the Giants with an 11-0 lead and gave up five runs in two-thirds of an inning. He had to be relieved by Anthony Banda. He came in Sunday against the Nationals with a 13-3 lead, gave up four runs in one-third of an inning and had to be relieved by Alex Vesia. So, what is pitching him accomplishing exactly?
This really points to a bigger problem in baseball, if I can sound like an old guy for a moment. It’s sort of sad that any team with eight relief pitchers has to turn to a position player in order to preserve arms. Yes, the game is different. Pitchers are asked to throw as hard as they can on every pitch, and just about every pitcher, especially in relief, has a 95-mph-or-better fastball. In the late ‘70s, the Dodgers had a four- or five-man bullpen. In 1977, it was mainly Charlie Hough (can you imagine a knuckleballer being a closer today?), Elias Sosa, Mike Garman and Lance Rautzhan. The 1988 Dodgers had Jay Howell, Alejandro Peña, Tim Crews, Brian Holton and Jesse Orosco.
And this isn’t just limited to the Dodgers. Last season, 40 position players pitched in a game, some in multiple games. They pitched 66 1/3 innings and had a 7.08 ERA. In 2006, no position players pitched. In 2021, it happened 112 times. That’s ridiculous. Might as well bring in the stilts guy from the Savannah Bananas to pitch.
Of course, this is a byproduct of starters not able to go past five innings for the most part. This season, the six Dodger pitchers with the most starts are averaging 5.26 innings per start. In 1988, Orel Hershiser averaged 7.82 innings a start. The five top Dodger starters average almost seven innings a start. In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela averaged 7.69 innings per start. The four top Dodger starters averaged 6.77 innings per start. So, there’s a need for more relief pitchers today.
But you have eight and need to use a position player? Something has gone wrong when that happens. And can we please stop talking about how “we are preserving arms” when there are more pitching injuries now than any time in history?
Will this change one day? Not soon, but it could. It will take a team who is willing to develop starters who can go deep into games, and then win consistently doing that. The stolen base disappeared from the game until Maury Wills won an MVP award and would at times single-handedly win games for the Dodgers. Four-man rotations were around for years until the Dodgers switched to a five-man rotation and found much success.
There is something lost when you can’t cheer a Clayton Kershaw when he walks off the mound with two outs in the eighth inning, clinging to a 2-1 lead, and then watch one reliever come in and close it out. That’s how legends are made and how baseball elevates itself as a sport. That’s what kids talk about on the way home. The noise of that crowd when the pitcher comes out. It’s not the same when Kershaw stays in the dugout after five innings, and the 17th reliever the Dodgers have used this season, just called up that day, comes in to pitch. Followed by the 18th pitcher. The kid doesn’t go home in awe of that. Those little moments have been lost. Let’s hope one day in the future they come back.
In the meantime, don’t let Hernández pitch, since you don’t seem to be preserving anything by doing so.
Welcome back, Max Muncy
At the end of April, may baseball pundits across the land called for the Dodgers to get rid of Max Muncy and trade for Nolan Arenado of the Cardinals. Muncy was through. It was all over. He was toast. (If you are wondering what was said in this newsletter, dig out the April 28 edition, or, if, you have a digital subscription to The Times, you can read it here).
On April 28, Muncy was hitting .180/.295/.236 with five doubles, no homers, 14 walks and 34 strikeouts in 105 plate appearances.
On April 29, Muncy started wearing glasses during games. He homered. On Sunday, he hit two homers, a grand slam and a three-run homer.
Since April 29, he was hitting .268/.410/.514 with four doubles, two triples, 11 homers, 41 RBIs, 35 walks and 30 strikeouts in 183 plate appearances.
“You look at the last 30 days, I think he’s been our best hitter,” Dave Roberts told reporters after Sunday’s game. “We never wavered in our confidence, and we’ve shown that, and he’s proven us all right.”
Muncy has gone from being one of the worst hitters to someone who should get All-Star consideration. It’s a testament to him, it’s a testament to the Dodgers not giving up on a veteran and it’s a testament to optometrists everywhere.
Quiet on the set
While I’m channeling my inner “old man yells at cloud,” let’s talk a little bit about how loud Dodger Stadium is. It has gotten so loud, you can’t talk to people seated next to you between batters.
Recently, Times reporter Bill Shaikin took a decibel reader to Dodger Stadium. It topped out at 95 decibels, which is the sound a jackhammer makes if you are 50 feet away from it. It’s also the level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss. To be clear, it wasn’t always at 95; it was 95 during the pregame lineup introductions. And it gets louder than that when a home run or another exciting play happens.
But I get emails every week from readers, both young and old, complaining about how their ears are ringing a day after going to a Dodger game. Or that they can’t hear their seatmate. Shaikin took his decibel reader to Angel Stadium and San Diego’s Petco Park. Dodger Stadium was louder, especially in the hour before the game.
The players Shaikin talked to seem to love it.
“I think it’s great,” Clayton Kershaw said. “Even on the road, I’d rather have that than quiet. St. Louis was just really quiet. It almost felt like golf at times.
“The louder, the more fun, the better. The Dodgers have the best sound system out there. So why not use it?”
Mookie Betts: “It’s just all part of an entertainment show. There is no ‘too loud.’ ”
Will Smith is leading the league in batting average (.328) and on-base percentage (.425) and is seventh in slugging (.544). Freddie Freeman is second, third and 11th in those categories. Shohei Ohtani is 10th, fifth and first…
In the May 19 newsletter, we discussed the tough 29 games the Dodgers were about to play, all against teams at the time in or on the cusp of a postseason spot and how we’d get a real sense of how good the Dodgers are after that. The games were: seven against the Mets; three with Cleveland; three against the Yankees; three against St. Louis; three against Arizona; seven against San Diego; three against San Francisco. The Dodgers went 17-12 in those games. So, they’re pretty good. Six of their next nine games are against the two worst teams in baseball, the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. Now watch them go 2-4 against them. …
Tyler Glasnow, on the IL since April 28, made his first rehab start Sunday, pitching two scoreless innings for triple-A Oklahoma City. He walked three and struck out one, throwing 48 pitches….
If you want to vote for the All-Star Game starters this season, you can do so online by clicking here….
On Friday, the Dodgers announced they have committed $1 million toward assistance for families of immigrants affected by the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, as well as plans for further initiatives to be unveiled in the coming days. “What’s happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected,” team president Stan Kasten said in a statement. “We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.”
These names seem familiar
A look at how some prominent Dodgers from the last few seasons are doing with their new team (through Sunday). Click on the player name to be taken to the Baseball Reference page with all their stats.
From 1992, rookie Eric Karros hits a walk-off home run against the Pirates. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. It’s awards time for high school baseball and softball.
All-star teams
Quentin Young of Oaks Christian sends a slider over the fence in left field at Cleveland High on Monday. Oaks Christian won 5-3.
(Craig Weston)
Pitcher Seth Hernandez of Corona is The Times’ baseball player of the year for the second consecutive season. He improved on his performance and put together a two-year run in which he went 18-1. Here’s a profile on the impact he made.
The Times’ All-Star baseball team includes Quentin Young of Oaks Christian. He moved to shortstop and hit 14 home runs. Here’s a look at the All-Star team.
Second-year coach Andy Rojo has St. John Bosco in the Division 1 final.
(Nick Koza)
The coach of the year is St. John Bosco’s Andy Rojo, who guided the Braves to their first Southern Section Division 1 championship along with the Southern California Division 1 regional championship and their first Trinity League title since 2017. Here’s the report.
The Times’ coach of the year is Rick Robinson of Norco. He put together a team of young and old and guided the Cougars to the Southern Section Division 1 championship. Here’s the report.
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Dorsey football coach Stafon Johnson with son Deuce, a junior receiver.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Dorsey football coach Stafon Johnson used to be a star running back for the Dons and USC. He knows all about running the ball, so there was a little comedy seeing the Dons playing in a seven on seven passing tournament at Western High. Except Johnson has embraced the passing game with the arrival of quarterback Elijah McDaniel, a sophomore transfer from Warren. And Johnson’s son, Deuce, is a standout junior receiver.
So the Dons will be active this summer in passing tournaments. Not that Johnson wouldn’t prefer to run the football. He’ll never lose his love for seeing running backs gain yards.
City Section coaches had their annual meeting at the Rams’ locker room at SoFi Stadium to discuss changes and updates for the fall season.
It was announced that View Park Prep won’t have a football team this season, leaving Metro League teams scrambling to fill games.
Former L.A. Jordan quarterback James Boyd, who was the City Section player of the year, is the new head coach for the Bulldogs. He’s 33 years old.
La Serna won the Los Altos passing tournament. Orange Lutheran won the Chargers tournament using three quarterbacks. Schurr won the SGV tournament.
Notes . . .
Offensive lineman Sam Utu of Orange Lutheran has committed to Alabama. . . .
Defensive back Derrick Johnson of Murrieta Valley has committed to Oklahoma. . . .
Safety Logan Hirou of Santa Margarita has committed to UCLA. . . .
Offensive lineman Cooper Javorsky of San Juan Hills has committed to UCLA. . . .
Tight end Beckham Hofland of Los Alamitos has committed to Boise State. . . .
Former Gardena Serra defensive lineman Robert James has changed his commitment from Fresno State to UCLA and will play for the Bruins this fall. . . .
Former Orange Lutheran linebacker Talanoa Ili, now at Kahuku, has committed to USC. . . .
Defensive lineman Kingston Schirmer of Corona Centennial has commited to Cal. . . .
Tyler Lee of El Camino Real was chosen the City Section player of the year in boys volleyball. Here are the complete All-City teams. . . .
Sophomore Shalen Sheppard of Brentwood is returning home with a gold medal playing for the USA U16 national team. One of the great basketball players in SoCal next season. pic.twitter.com/pfOIbP6sZc
Shalen Sheppard of Brentwood won a gold medal representing the USA U16 national basketball team. He’ll be a sophomore. . . .
Luke Howe of El Camino Real.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Luke Howe of El Camino Real is the City Section player of the year in baseball. Here’s the complete All-City team.
Addison Moorman of Granada Hills is the City Section player of the year in softball. Here’s the complete All-City team.
DeAndre Cole is the new boys basketball coach at Compton Centennial. . . .
Jake Tatch of JSerra has been selected the Gatorade state player of the year in boys soccer. He’s headed to Michigan. . . .
Oaks Christian water polo coach Jack Kocur is the head coach for the USA Junior National team at the World Aquatics U20 Water Polo championships this summer. . . .
Deon Green is the new girls basketball coach at Chino. . . .
Chaminade has decided to add a flag football team. . . .
St. John Bosco closer Jack Champlin has committed to Washington. . . .
Former Servite star Max Thomas of USC finished second in the 100 meters at the NCAA track and field championships and helped the Trojans, coached by former Taft great Quincy Watts, win the NCAA title. . . .
The Fairfax basketball tournament originally scheduled to be held this week at Fairfax High has been changed to Pan Pacific Park.
From the archives: Max Muncy
Former Thousand Oaks High School shortstop Max Muncy celebrates following a home run during a game in 2021.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Thousand Oaks grad Max Muncy, the “other” Max Muncy, is getting hot in his return to playing for the Athletics.
He got recalled from the minor leagues and started showing power. He’s playing third base while his former Thousand Oaks teammate, Jacob Wilson, is the shortstop. Muncy graduated in 2021 and Wilson in 2020.
From the Washington Post, a story on an adaptive tennis program making a difference.
From NFHS.org, a story on how to start archery as a P.E. program.
From the Los Angeles Times, a look back at the life of former Verbum Dei star David Greenwood.
Tweets you might have missed
UCLA’s John Savage showing you can get to College World Series with local talent. Among high schools with players making major contributions: Servite, Mater Dei, SO Notre Dame, Palos Verdes, Calabasas, Ocean View, Granada Hills, Glendora, Santa Margarita, Harvard-Westlake.
It’s different coaching in City Section. I overheard a football coach saying they had scheduled a seven on seven game but the QB had to work. Others didn’t know who would play this fall because of grades. So many challenges. And yet, they keep coaching trying to make a difference
The Dunlaps are on the move. Former Harvard-Westlake forward Brady Dunlap is now at St. Louis after being at St. John’s. His father, Jeff, is now an assistant coach at Georgia State. Good luck to both.
— Crescenta Valley Football (@cvhsfalconsfb) June 11, 2025
Until next time….
Prep Rally will take the next two weeks off and return on July 7.
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Years from now, when Seth Hernandez is pitching in the major leagues and pro baseball commentators are debating just how good he might become, those who saw him throw during his two years of high school baseball at Corona High will gladly offer their fondest memories.
The statistics are impressive enough: In 53 1/3 innings this season, he struck out 105, gave up 19 hits and three earned runs for an ERA of 0.39. The most impressive statistic was walking only seven batters while using a 99-mph fastball. It showed his pinpoint control and how much he had improved over his junior season, when he walked 15 in 56 innings.
“That was his goal,” coach Andy Wise said. “What are we going to do to get better?”
His pitching mechanics became more consistent, generating the kind of power and accuracy to cause people to repeatedly use the word “special” in describing him on the mound. There also was the time he hit two three-run homers in the Panthers’ Southern Section Division 1 playoff victory over Los Osos.
Seth Hernandez of Corona.
(Nick Koza)
He wasn’t perfect, though, losing 2-0 to St. John Bosco in the Division 1 semifinals, finishing his high school career with an 18-1 pitching record for two seasons. He didn’t mope. He didn’t make excuses afterward. He knew there would be more challenges ahead.
“I’m still a kid,” he said.
For a season of excellence, Hernandez has been named The Times’ baseball player of the year for the second consecutive season. He’s expected to be a high pick in next month’s amateur draft. He also was named the Gatorade national player of the year.
One of his strengths for years has been his ability to perform while being watched by scouts, fans and opponents. He’s comfortable in his environment, used to the attention and is particularly ready to begin his pro career and keep on a path toward pitching in the big leagues.
With Southern California having produced first-round draft picks such as Paul Skenes (El Toro), Gerrit Cole (Orange Lutheran), Trevor Bauer (Hart), Max Fried (Harvard-Westlake) and Jack Flaherty (Harvard-Westlake) in recent years, it’s pretty clear that Hernandez’s resume fits in well and offers confidence in his abilities.
He’s also glad he decided to play high school baseball after being home-schooled.
“At the end of the day, I have brothers for life and I’ll never forget the memories I spent with them,” he said of his high school days.
From Jack Harris: There was a one-handed finish. A slow stroll out of the batter’s box. And a leisurely, long-awaited trip around the bases.
It’d been a while since Teoscar Hernández last admired such a momentous home run ball.
It was a sight the struggling Dodgers had come to sorely miss.
Ever since returning from an adductor strain last month, Hernández had endured one of his coldest stretches at the plate since joining the Dodgers last year. He was batting .171 over 20 games since his mid-May return to the lineup. He had just three hits in 38 at-bats over his last 10 contests.
That slump, which also included only one home run since April 28, finally reached a tipping point ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, with manager Dave Roberts moving Hernández out of his customary cleanup spot in the batting order in favor of hot-hitting catcher Will Smith.
“I love him in the four [spot] when he’s right,” Roberts said pregame. “But clearly the last few weeks, he’s been scuffling.”
In what was a tie score at Petco Park, on a day first place in the National League West was up for grabs, Hernández delivered the decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres, belting a three-run home run to straightaway center that sent the club a pivotal series victory.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
NBA FINALS
Oklahoma City vs. Indiana
Indiana 111, at Oklahoma City 110 (box score, story) at Oklahoma City 123, Indiana 107 (box score, story) at Indiana 116, Oklahoma City 107 (boxscore, story) Friday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC Monday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC Thursday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC* Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*
*if necessary
ANGELS
Jo Adell homered in a wild six-run sixth inning and the Angels overcame two homers by Brent Rooker to beat the Athletics 6-5 at Angel Stadium on Wednesday and sweep a three-game series.
Adell’s 13th homer was his sixth in nine games.
His two-run shot capped a rally that saw Athletics starter JP Sears ejected after giving way to reliever Grant Holman (4-2) with one out. Holman walked Mike Trout on a 3-2 pitch he believed was a strike to load the bases. Holman hit Taylor Ward to bring in a run and Jorge Soler followed with a two-run single. That’s when Sears was tossed after yelling animatedly from the dugout.
The Rams linebacker delicately gripped a paintbrush, dipped it into a cup of green paint, and began filling the outline of a bird traced onto a wall of an Altadena school rebounding from the Eaton fire.
A few feet away, Rams tight end Terrance Ferguson and defensive lineman Ty Hamilton maneuvered their huge frames to add their own artistic touches to the hallway mural.
It was the latest rookie bonding experience for the 2025 draft class, a six-player group that includes several expected to play prominent roles for a team regarded as a Super Bowl contender.
But the disappointment that rendered Herbert motionless on the sideline in Houston had faded in his memory, he said. Offseasons tend to have that rejuvenating effect.
“If I spend any more time worrying or focusing on a loss like that, I would be doing a disservice to my teammates,” Herbert said Wednesday on the second day of Chargers minicamp. “Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, like I said at the end of the year, but you gotta move on.”
Despite the crushing wild-card loss that prolonged the Chargers’ seven-year playoff win drought, Herbert maintained that his offseason has been business as usual.
Rickea Jackson scored a career-high 30 points, Azura Stevens had 19 points and 10 rebounds in leading the Sparksto a 97-89Commissioner’s Cup win over the Aces in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
The Aces were without star center A’ja Wilson for the final 11 minutes of the game after she left with 1:17 left in the third quarter with an injury. She was accidentally hit in the face on Dearica Hamby’s drive to the basket.
Jackson went 11 of 17 from the field, including four of eight from three-point range, and four of five at the free-throw line to top her previous best of 25 points against Dallas last season.
From Kevin Baxter and Erik Kirschbaum: Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited.
Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday marking the one-year countdown to the tournament’s kickoff, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee, acknowledges there’s still a lot of tidying up that has to be done before the guests arrive.
“As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces,” he said. “Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we signed up for this, we knew we would be working to the end to get ready.”
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest and most complex sporting event in history, with 48 national teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Edmonton vs. Florida at Edmonton 4, Florida 3 (OT) (summary, story) Florida 5, at Edmonton 4 (2 OT) (summary, story) at Florida 6, Edmonton 1 (summary, story) Thursday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT Tuesday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1920 — Man o’ War wins the Belmont Stakes, which was run at 1 3/8-miles, in 2:14 1/5. He shatters the world record by 3 1/5 seconds and sets the American dirt-course record for that distance.
1930 — Max Schmeling beats Jack Sharkey on a fourth-round foul for the vacant heavyweight title in New York. Schmeling becomes the first German — and European — heavyweight world champion.
1939 — Byron Nelson wins the U.S. Open in a three-way playoff with Craig Wood and Denny Shute.
1948 — Citation, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown with an eight-length victory over Better Self. It’s Arcaro’s second Triple Crown. He rode Whirlaway in 1941.
1948 — Ben Hogan wins the U.S. Open with a record 276, five fewer than Ralph Guldahl’s 1937 record.
1979 — Bobby Orr becomes the youngest player in NHL history to be selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame. The 31-year-old is inducted months after officially ending his NHL career as the Hall waives its usual three-year waiting period.
1981 — Larry Holmes stops Leon Spinks in the third round for the WBC heavyweight title in Detroit.
1983 — Patty Sheehan wins the LPGA championship by two strokes over Sandra Haynie.
1984 — 38th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat Lakers, 4 games to 3, to win the championship title.
1990 — Egypt, a 500-1 shot, stuns the Netherlands when Magdi Abdel-Ghani makes a penalty kick with eight minutes remaining to tie the World Cup favorites 1-1.
1991 — The Chicago Bulls win the first NBA championship in the team’s 25-year history with a 108-101 victory in Game 5 over the Lakers. MVP Michael Jordan scores 30 points, Scottie Pippen has 32 and John Paxson 20.
2002 — NBA Finals: Lakers beat New Jersey Nets, 113-107 for a 4-0 sweep and 3rd straight title; MVP: Shaquille O’Neal for 3rd consecutive Finals series.
2005 — Annika Sorenstam closes with a 1-over 73 for a three-shot victory over Michelle Wie in the LPGA Championship. The 15-year-old Wie shoots a 69 to finish second. It’s the highest finish by an amateur in a major since 20-year-old Jenny Chuasiriporn lost a playoff to Se Ri Pak in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open.
2008 — The Boston Celtics overcome a 24-point deficit and beat the Lakers 97-91 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. No team has ever overcome more than a 15-point deficit after the first quarter, and the Celtics post the biggest comeback in the finals since 1971.
2009 — Pittsburgh’s Max Talbot scores two second-period goals as the Penguins beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Stanley Cup at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
2011 — The Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA title by winning Game 6 of the finals in Miami, 105-95. Jason Terry scores 27 points and Dirk Nowitzki adds 21 as the Mavericks win four of the series’ last five games.
2013 — Andrew Shaw scores on a deflection in triple overtime to lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins in a riveting Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Blackhawks gets third-period goals from Dave Bolland and Oduya to erase a 3-1 deficit.
2016 — Sidney Crosby sets up Kris Letang’s go-ahead goal midway through the second period and the Pittsburgh Penguins win the fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history by beating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final.
2017 — Kevin Durant caps his spectacular first season with the Warriors by bringing home an NBA championship. Durant, who joined Golden State last July, scores 39 points in a finals-clinching 129-120 victory over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
2019 — Stanley Cup Final, TD Garden, Boston, MA: St. Louis Blues beat Boston Bruins, 4-1 for a 4-3 series victory; first title in franchise history.
2021 — Danish soccer midfielder Christian Eriksen suffers an on-field cardiac arrest during a Euro 2020 match with Finland in Copenhagen. Eriksen is revived with a defibrillator and the game controversially continues with a 1-0 Finland win.
2023 — NBA Finals: Denver Nuggets beat Miami Heat 94-89 to win the franchise’s first title; MVP: Denver C Nikola Jokić.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1922 — Hub Pruett struck out Babe Ruth three consecutive times, and the St. Louis Browns beat the New York Yankees 7-1.
1928 — Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees had two triples and two homers in a 15-7 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
1939 — The Baseball Hall of Fame was dedicated at Cooperstown, N.Y.
1954 — Milwaukee’s Jim Wilson pitched the year’s only no-hitter, blanking the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0.
1957 — Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals broke the National League record for endurance when he played in his 823rd consecutive game. The previous mark was established in 1937 by Pirates first baseman Gus Suhr.
1959 — The San Francisco Giant’s Mike McCormick tossed a 3-0, five-inning no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies. Richie Ashburn singled in the top of the sixth for the Phillies, but the hit didn’t count because the game was stopped by rain.
1962 — In Milwaukee’s 15-2 rout of the Dodgers at County Stadium, the Aaron brothers both homer in the same game with Tommie connecting in the bottom of the eighth after his older brother Hank had hit one out in the second.
1970 — Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates hurled a 2-0 no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader against the San Diego Padres. Ellis walked eight and hit a batter, and Willie Stargell hit two homers.
1981 — Thirteen games were canceled due to the players’ strike.
1997 — After 126 years, baseball broke its tradition and played interleague games. The San Francisco beat the Texas Rangers 4-3.
1999 — Cal Ripken went 6-for-6, homering twice and driving in six runs as the Baltimore Orioles scored the most runs in franchise history with a 22-1 rout of the Atlanta Braves.
2006 — Jason Grimsley was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball, less than a week after federal agents raided his home during an investigation into performance-enhancing drugs.
2007 — Justin Verlander pitched a no-hitter to lead the Detroit Tigers over the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0. Verlander struck out a career-high 12, walked four and benefited from several stellar defensive plays.
2009 — Chicago right fielder Milton Bradley had a bad day at Wrigley Field. Bradley lost Jason Kubel’s pop-up in the sun for a single, couldn’t catch Michael Cuddyer’s RBI bloop double, made a baserunning blunder and, most egregiously, flipped the ball into the stands after catching Joe Mauer’s one-out sac fly.
2009 — New York Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped Alex Rodriguez’s lazy popup with two outs in the ninth inning as two runs scored, helping the Yankees escape with a wild 9-8 victory over the Mets.
2010 — Daniel Nava hit the first pitch he saw as a big leaguer for a grand slam — only the second player to do it — leading the Boston Red Sox to a 10-2 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. Nava connected on a fastball from Joe Blanton in the second inning. Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a slam on the first pitch he saw Sept. 2, 2006, for Cleveland against Texas.
2011 — Realignment is on the table again as Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association are in discussions to renew the collective bargaining agreement, which expires on Dec. 11. One of the options being discussed would see one team moving from the National League to the American League to create two 15-team leagues, with the Houston Astros the likeliest candidate for a move.
2012 — Alex Rodriguez ties Lou Gehrig’s record by hitting his 23rd career grand slam.
2016 — Sam Cohen put UC Santa Barbara into its first College World Series with a pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 4-3 victory over second-seeded Louisville 4-3 in the Super Regionals.
2017 — Royce Lewis, a high school shortstop from California, is selected first overall by the Minnesota Twins in the 2017 amateur draft.
2018 — Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera suffers a season-ending injury when he tears a biceps tendon while swinging at pitch in the 3rd inning of a game against the Twins. He had already missed all but one game of May with a hamstring injury.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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SAN DIEGO — There was a one-handed finish. A slow stroll out of the batter’s box. And a leisurely, long-awaited trip around the bases.
It’d been a while since Teoscar Hernández last admired such a momentous home run ball.
It was a sight the struggling Dodgers had come to sorely miss.
Ever since returning from an adductor strain last month, Hernández had endured one of his coldest stretches at the plate since joining the Dodgers last year. He was batting .171 over 20 games since his mid-May return to the lineup. He had just three hits in 38 at-bats over his last 10 contests.
His struggles, which also included only one home run since April 28, had become so pronounced that they finally reached a tipping point ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, with manager Dave Roberts moving Hernández out of his customary cleanup spot in the batting order in favor of hot-hitting catcher Will Smith.
“I love him in the four [spot] when he’s right,” Roberts said pregame. “But clearly the last few weeks, he’s been scuffling.”
With one swing in the top of the sixth, however, Hernández finally started to look right again.
In what was a tie game at Petco Park, on a day first place in the National League West was up for grabs, Hernández delivered the decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres, belting a three-run home run to straightaway center that sent the club a pivotal series victory.
Hernández’s sixth-inning at-bat was everything his recent trips to the plate hadn’t been during his weeks-long slump.
He finally got ahead in a 2-and-0 count — something Roberts had noted was a rarity for the 32-year-old slugger of late, in large part because of his inability to punish mistakes in his hitting zone.
“Balls that he should move forward, he’s not,” Roberts said. “And with that, there’s more chase, because he’s getting behind.”
And when Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada did serve up a mistake over the plate, Hernández didn’t miss it, clobbering a 2-and-1 fastball down the middle for a 420-foot drive that broke open the game.
The Dodgers (41-28) got other heroics in Wednesday’s rubber-match triumph, one that gives them a two-game lead in the division over the Padres (38-29).
Ben Casparius gave up just one run in a four-inning start, replacing originally listed starter Justin Wrobleski in what could be a permanent move to the starting rotation for the rookie right-hander (or, at least, until the rest of the Dodgers’ banged-up pitching staff gets healthy in the coming months).
“With things that are going on with the rotation — and obviously the way Ben’s performed, being a former starting pitcher — we like this kind of transition right now,” Roberts said of Casparius, who had been serving as a swingman in the bullpen for most of the season. “What that means after today, we’ll see … Potentially there’s a chance to continue to build him up, which right now makes sense.”
Michael Conforto, meanwhile, got the game tied at 1-1 with an opposite-field homer in the fifth, marking just his second long ball since April 5.
Even in the sixth inning, Hernández wasn’t alone. With one out, Freddie Freeman legged out an infield single, despite playing through not only his gimpy right ankle but also “a little quad thing” Roberts said he has been dealing with in recent days. Then, Smith reached base for the first of three times on the day by drawing a key one-out walk.
Four pitches later, both preceded Hernández on his trot around the bases after he came through with his go-ahead swing.
The Padres didn’t go away down the stretch. A Hyeseong Kim throwing error led to one run in the sixth, trimming the Dodgers’ lead back down to two runs. Then in the seventh, the command problems that plagued recently activated reliever Michael Kopech during his minor-league rehab stint last month reared their ugly head, with the right-hander issuing three-straight one-out walks in the seventh to load the bases.
Anthony Banda, however, escaped that jam in a continuation of his recent return to form (he has given up just three runs over his last 13 outings). Tanner Scott maintained his own recent turnaround with a scoreless eighth inning (giving him five consecutive scoreless appearances) before Alex Vesia emerged for his third save of the season in the ninth.
