insight

Dodgers fall to the Marlins

From Maddie Lee: Right-hander Shohei Ohtani shook his head slightly as he walked off the field, having escaped the fifth inning with just one run yielded, stranding the bases loaded.

He strode through the dugout and straight back into the tunnel, with time to reset before coming back out for the sixth.

That was a luxury he wouldn’t have had if he was also hitting in the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the Marlins on Tuesday. His usual leadoff spot was coming up third in the bottom half of the inning.

“More times than not, it’s been fine,” pitching coach Mark Prior said in a conversation with The Times before the game. “But there are occasions where those conversations in between with the catcher or the staff doesn’t always happen. By him not hitting, it at least allows us to make sure that we’re hopefully, on the same page, and maybe we’re seeing things the same way.

“Obviously, one of the best hitters, so you like him in there offensively. But for the long-term goal of keeping them fresh all year, I think these are smart decisions when we can do it, when it makes sense.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to White Sox

Drew Romo hit the first two home runs of his career as the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 5-2 on Tuesday night. It was the fifth loss in a row for the Angels.

Colson Montgomery homered in the second off Angels starter José Soriano (5-1), ending his shutout streak at 25 2/3 innings. The right-hander gave up three runs and six hits over five innings, raising his major league-leading ERA from 0.24 to 0.84.

Davis Martin (4-1) outpitched Soriano, giving up one run and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. Martin struck out seven and walked one.

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Angels say rodent infestation at one offending stadium concession stand has been cleaned

Angels box score

MLB standings

Austin Reaves a game-time decision for Game 5

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Less than four weeks after suffering a Grade 2 left oblique muscle strain, Austin Reaves is closing in on a return with the Lakers in position to clinch a spot in the Western Conference semifinals.

Reaves will officially be a game-time decision before Wednesday’s potentially series-clinching Game 5 against the Houston Rockets at 7 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena. He was questionable for Games 3 and 4, warming up on the court before each game, but is “trending in the right direction,” he said Tuesday.

The Lakers have a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series despite playing without Reaves and leading scorer Luka Doncic, who is out because of a Grad 2 left hamstring strain.

“JJ [Redick] specifically was like you have to be comfortable with your body and what you can do to go out there and help us be successful,” Reaves said of his coach in his first comments to reporters since suffering the injury on April 2. “And I want to get back out there as fast as I can.”

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LeBron James needs sidekicks back to help Lakers hold off Rockets

Ex-Lakers assistant admits role in gambling schemes, could face years in prison

Lakers playoff schedule

First round
All times Pacific

at Lakers 107, Houston 98 (box score)
at Lakers 101, Houston 94 (box score)
Lakers 112, at Houston 108 (box score)
at Houston 115, Lakers 96 (box score)
Wednesday: Houston at Lakers, 7 p.m., ESPN
*Friday: Lakers at Houston, 6:30 p.m., Prime
*Sunday: Houston at Lakers, TBD

*-if necessary

Oilers beat Ducks to force a Game 6

Leon Draisaitl scored a pair of goals and Evan Bouchard chipped in with three assists as the Edmonton Oilers staved off elimination by beating the Ducks 4-1 on Tuesday night.

The Oilers now trail the best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series 3-2 with Game 6 on Thursday night at Honda Center.

Vasily Podkolzin and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers who had previously yielded six separate leads to slip away in the first four games of the series.

Ducks summary

NHL playoffs schedule

Ducks playoffs schedule

All times Pacific

at Edmonton 4, Ducks 3 (summary)
Ducks 6, at Edmonton 4 (summary)
at Ducks 7, Edmonton 4 (summary)
at Ducks 4, Edmonton 3 (OT) (summary)
at Edmonton 4, Ducks 1 (summary)
Thursday: Edmonton at Ducks, 7 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max, KCOP-13
*Saturday: Ducks at Edmonton, TBD

*-if necessary

This day in sports history

1901 — His Eminence, ridden by Jimmy Winkfield, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1 1/2 lengths over Sannazarro in the only Derby ever raced in April.

1961 — ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” debuts.

1963 — LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Augusta CC: Marilynn Smith beats Mickey Wright by 1 shot in 18-hole playoff.

1970 — Lakers guard Jerry West hits a 60-foot desperation shot at the buzzer to tie Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. The Knicks outscore the Lakers 9-6 in the overtime for a 111-108 win.

1980 — NFL Draft: Oklahoma running back Billy Sims first pick by Detroit Lions.

1981 — NFL Draft: South Carolina running back George Rogers first pick by New Orleans Saints.

1985 — Tony Tubbs captures the WBA heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Greg Page in Buffalo, N.Y.

1986 — NFL Draft: Auburn running back Bo Jackson first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

1990 — Pat Riley becomes the winningest coach in NBA playoff history as the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 104-100. Riley’s 100th victory put him ahead of Red Auerbach.

1998 — For the first time in the 124-year history of the Kentucky Derby, a redraw is ordered during the post-position draw. Churchill Downs officials allowed ESPN to control the announcing of the draw. Commentator Chris Lincoln called the No. 15 pill twice while picking the draft order for post positions.

2000 — Lennox Lewis knocks down Michael Grant three times in the first round and knocks him out at 2:53 of the second at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles. The combined weight of 497 pounds made it the heaviest title fight ever.

2003 — Indiana outscores Boston 5-0 in overtime for a 93-88 victory, cutting the Celtics’ first-round series lead to 3-2. It’s the first overtime shutout in NBA playoff history.

2006 — NFL Draft: North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams first pick from Houston Texans.

2007 — Phoenix guard Steve Nash has 23 assists, one shy of the NBA playoff record, to help Phoenix to a 113-100 victory over the Lakers.

2010 — The NCAA’s Board of Directors approve a 68-team format for the men’s basketball tournament beginning next season. It’s the first expansion since 2001 when the tourney went from 64 to 65 teams.

2014 — Clippers owner Donald Sterling is banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments he made in an audio recording. The Clippers’ owner is also fined $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed under the NBA Constitution.

2018 — Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal equals his Open-era record for most wins at the same event (11 Monte Carlo) with his 11th Barcelona ATP title.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1902 — Baltimore Orioles infielder John McGraw is hit by pitches five times, but home plate umpire Jack Sheridan refuses to allow him to take first base. In the 9th inning, McGraw is hit for the last time and sits down in the batter’s box in protest. American League president Ban Johnson will suspend McGraw for five games.

1918 — Center fielder Tris Speaker executed the fourth unassisted double play of his career in the Cleveland Indians’ 8-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

1922 — The New York Giants hit four inside-the-park home runs in a 15-4 win at Braves Field in Boston. George Kelly hit two and Ross Youngs and Dave Bancroft hit the others. Youngs also hit for the cycle and added a double while going 5-for-5 and driving in five runs.

1931 — Wes Ferrell of the Cleveland Indians pitched a 7-0 no-hitter over the St. Louis Browns, including his brother Rick. Wes also knocked in four runs with a homer and a double.

1933 — In a strange play at home plate, catcher Luke Sewell of the Washington Senators tagged out two Yankees runners on the same play. Lou Gehrig had held up, thinking a fly ball would be caught. Dixie Walker closed up on him, and both were tagged out trying to score.

1958 — Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox becomes the tenth major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits.

1981 — Steve Carlton struck out Montreal’s Tim Wallach in the first inning of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 6-2 victory over the visiting Expos to become the sixth major league pitcher — and first left-hander — to strike out 3,000 batters.

1986 — Roger Clemens set a major league record by striking out 20 batters as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 3-1.

1987 — Andre Dawson had five hits and hit for the cycle to lead the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory the San Francisco Giants.

1988 — The Baltimore Orioles ended their 21-game losing streak by winning their first game of the season, 9-0 over the Chicago White Sox on a combined four-hitter by Mark Williamson and Dave Schmidt.

1994 — Kirk Rueter of the Montreal Expos becomes the first major league pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 to start his career with a 10-0 record.

1996 — New York Mets closer John Franco becomes the first left-hander in major league history to record 300 saves.

1997 — Chili Davis of the Kansas City Royals becomes the 75th major leaguer to hit 300 home runs.

2005 — In the first matchup between 300-game winners in almost 18 years, the Cubs’ Greg Maddux outdueled the Astros’ Roger Clemens in Chicago’s 3-2 win over Houston. Maddux earned his first win of season and 306th of his career, allowing two runs on seven hits over six innings.

2006 — Albert Pujols sets a major league record with his 14th home run in April.

2007 — Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had an unassisted triple play in the seventh inning of the Rockies’ 9-7 win over Atlanta.

2015 — In what was believed to be the first major league game played without fans in attendance, Chris Davis hit a three-run homer in a six-run first inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2. After a pair of postponements caused by rioting in Baltimore, the Orioles and Chicago White Sox played at Camden Yards. The gates at Camden Yards were locked because of concern for fan safety following recent rioting in Baltimore after a 25-year-old Black man died in police custody.

2017 — Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle for the second time and Rougned Odor hit a tiebreaking two-run homer to help the Texas Rangers beat the Angels 6-3.

2017 — Yasiel Puig, Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner hit consecutive homers off Hector Neris in the ninth, helping the Dodgers rally for a 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Los Angeles trailed 5-2 before the three straight homers.

2020 — The Hall of Fame announces the cancellation of its annual induction ceremony in Cooperstown, NY, scheduled for the last week-end of July, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the ceremony will be combined one year later with the one for the Class of 2021.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

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

JOE Lycett has revealed he had to rush his 16-month-old son to hospital in a rare parenthood admission.

The comedian keeps his personal life notoriously private and shocked fans in 2024 when he revealed he had become a father, welcoming the little one with his long-term girlfriend.

Joe’s girlfriend, whom he refers to as ‘Denise’ to keep her real name private, remains out of the limelight, with their relationship very under the radar.

But appearing on Katherine Ryan’s What’s My Age Again Podcast, Joe spoke about his experience with fatherhood and detailed a recent health scare with the youngster.

Choosing not to share his name, Joe jokingly nicknamed his little one “the punisher”.

He explained: “The punisher was poorly recently, we had to go into hospital and whatever.”

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” I got a real sense of, ‘I would take any pain that you have, a thousand times over. I would bulldozer through a nursery to save you. I would do whatever it takes,” explained Joe of the unwavering love he has for the baby boy.

He later referenced the hospital incident again, confirming that the youngster had to be assessed in A&E.

Talking about how the family had a parking debacle during the hospital trip, he explained: “So, the punisher was ill. I drove to A&E, Birmingham children’s hospital.

“Parked up, took a picture of the Ringo number but didn’t do it straight away, like, ‘Oh, I’ll just wait while my son was unwell’, I thought, ‘I’ll do it in there’.

“So, he was being assessed and I was paying for parking whilst he was being assessed, so I had one eye on him and one eye on this,” said Joe, who continued to explain that he ended up getting a parking ticket for not doing so in time.

Joe also gave an insight into family life and his decision to become a parent as he said: “I always said I didn’t think I’d have kids but if one happened then I’d have a really good go at it.

“But then, I think, being in a stable, loving relationship, suddenly I was like, ‘Oh it would be fun to have a go at this’.

“Once we started talking about it, it became an inevitability.”

The comedian then touched on his decision to keep his family life, including his relationship, out of the public eye.

There are no family snaps on his social media, with his son and partner not featured anywhere online in connection to Joe.

Explaining the reason behind this, Joe said: “For the punisher, it’s up to him if he wants to do that later and be in the public eye.

“Because there is an inherit risk in being in the public eye, being known, having your face known and all of that.

“And if I end up doing something appalling he can change his surname and no one knows who he is, essentially.

“And then with Denise she just has a job where she works with vulnerable people.

“So if people know that I’m with her then it might affect her work. And also she has no desire to be in it – it’s weird to do what we do. “

You know him by his imitators, the ones he hand-picked for the show he made. Arguably the greatest comedy impresario of the modern age, Lorne Michaels, the lip-pursing, imperiously droll Canadian who created “Saturday Night Live,” has curiously enough never seemed like documentary material — there’s always been a strange satisfaction in him remaining an aloof, besuited guru, getting older but seeming beyond mystery. A well-timed impression always felt like enough. We’re laughing about someone we don’t know and there’s an odd purity in that.

Oscar-winner Morgan Neville’s “Lorne” — made with the begrudging OK of its subject as part of the 50th season hoopla — is, therefore, a curious instance of not being all that successful at unraveling the man, yet remaining perfectly enjoyable as a conduit for bite-size chunks of insight from not-so-famous associates and ultra-famous friends. It’s a well-meaning impression of a soul-searching documentary (and only an impression), but impressions can still be plenty entertaining.

Neville hedges his bet by filling us in on Michaels’ spotlight apprehension, making his reticence a through line. Interviewees joke about how inscrutable he is, guess at aspects of his biography, and early on we hear Michaels’ belief that explaining humor is pointless.

But would we have wanted a Jedi of few words to suddenly dissect his many brilliant casting choices or rehash the impetus to conceive the show, when it’s been written about repeatedly and even turned into a feature? Thankfully “Lorne” grasps this and instead decides the best narrative is one of Michaels as a force of stability amid constant change: shielding “SNL” from irrelevance and invasive network overlords, turning his unknowability into a kind of totem-like, hard-earned confidence, taking mentorship of talent seriously and accepting his mockability as the release valve that reinforces his wise stewardship.

Better to have dozens of funny, perceptive interviewees (Tina Fey, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Lily Tomlin) piece it together, than to expect much from the guy who doesn’t care to self-analyze anyway. Likewise, don’t expect anything noteworthy from a pal like Paul Simon, who would rather be facile about his friendship with Michaels than informative.

Being there for his weekly routine captures something of Michaels’ entrenched schedule, as well as the scary-fast prep swirling around him. Seeing everyone crammed into his office for a howdy-host confab looks like the coolest family get-together. Same with the table read for dozens of mostly-to-be-axed sketches — like a dinner at which everyone’s trying to get Grandpa to laugh. The night-of-broadcast scenes draw you into the tension of finalizing and problem-solving and Michaels’ engagement with all manner of details is captivating.

Neville is smart enough as a documentarian to leave out platitudes, but also to let access to Michaels’ Maine retreat be a vibe rather than some knockout reveal. The result is an ode of sorts to elusive bossdom, where the cryptic may remain cryptic, decoded just enough to let us appreciate the achievement.

You’ll probably go straight from “Lorne” to rewatching notorious moments like the controversial Season 3 “stunt baby” sketch — and this is no doubt Michaels’ preferred outcome. Because, all those impersonations of chilly indifference aside, he will be known by what he got on the air: a legacy of generation-defining comedy that’s more impressive than any dutiful biodoc could ever be.