From the hot tub in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, Yoshinobu Yamamoto saw his interpreter on his way to take a shower.
Yamamoto called out to him.
“What are those colors?” Yamamoto asked him.
Yoshihiro Sonoda, 48, wore only a pair of boxers that depicted a rabbit with rainbow-colored lasers shooting out of its eyes.
Sonoda explained bashfully, “These are my shobu pantsu.”
For more than a year, Sonoda had worn shobu pantsu — or game underwear — for each one of Yamamoto’s starts.
Sonoda chuckled as he recalled the incident. Several weeks have passed since then, and the superstitious interpreter still wears his lucky boxers on days Yamamoto pitches.
When Yamamoto takes the mound for the Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday in Game 2 of the World Series, beneath Sonoda’s team-issued sweatpants will be the rabbit and rainbow-colored lasers.
The kid is a little different.
Sonoda recalled thinking that last year on the first day of spring training. On a grass field near the players’ parking lot, he watched Yamamoto throw javelins as part of his workout routine.
When the Japanese right-hander was finished, Sonoda started collecting the projectiles.
Yamamoto stopped him.
“Please, you’re my interpreter,” he said. “You’re not my servant.”
Yamamoto picked up his javelins and carried them back to the clubhouse.
In the months that followed, Sonoda noticed how Yamamoto treated others. He wasn’t kind only to other players. He was also conscientious of the organization’s rank-and-file employees.
“He pretends he’s not watching, but he’s watching,” Sonoda said. “He seems like he’s not listening, but he’s listening.”
Every day the Dodgers are on the road, Yamamoto has Starbucks coffee delivered to the team hotel. He always orders something for Sonoda.
“I think Yamamoto is quite the gentleman, quite the high character,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He treats everyone from Hiro to myself to all the support staff with the highest of respect.”
Two days into the job as Yamamoto’s interpreter, Sonoda wanted to resign.
A former collegiate judo standout in Japan, Sonoda spent the previous two decades working in the entertainment industry as a lighting engineer, his credits including “Men in Black,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Succession” and “Nurse Jackie.”
He had no previous experience as an interpreter and was by no means a baseball expert. He was apart from his wife, who remained in her native Texas.
“I don’t want to quit, but I can’t do this,” Sonoda told traveling secretary Scott Akasaki.
Akasaki, who was once an interpreter for Hideo Nomo, asked Sonoda to reconsider.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, speaks to reporters with his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, in a press conference before Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS against the San Diego Padres.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
“You can learn about baseball if you study it,” Sonoda recalled being told by Akasaki. “But Yoshinobu chose you for a reason, and that’s something no other person has.”
Sonoda never shared his insecurities with Yamamoto, instead throwing himself head first into his work. He was taught how to interpret ball-tracking data by assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness and performance science manager Tyler Duncan. He consulted with veteran interpreters, including Shingo Horie of the San Diego Padres and Hiro Fujiwara of the New York Mets.
Last year at World Series media day, Yamamoto was asked about Sonoda.
“We were both rookies this year,” Yamamoto said. “Sonoda-san especially, he came from a different industry and I would think he endured a lot of hardship. But he didn’t let on about that being the case.”
Standing by Yamamoto’s side, Sonoda fought back tears.
Sonoda has a small notebook in which he tracks every pitch thrown by Yamamoto. In a night game in Baltimore last month, Sonoda took notes as usual, jotting down pitches types and their locations.
Yamamoto carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning.
When there were two outs, Sonoda had Shohei Ohtani on one side of him and trainer Yosuke Nakajima on the other.
Sonoda stopped taking notes.
“I thought I should prepare to celebrate,” he said.
Jackson Holliday homered, and the no-hitter was gone.
Sonoda blamed himself.
“If only I had taken notes on that at-bat …” he said.
Sonoda was a significantly better interpreter this season than he was last season. On his commutes to Dodger Stadium, he listens to audio of Horie interpreting for Yu Darvish or Fujiwara for Kodai Senga.
Yamamoto noticed.
“His efforts in the shadows have been to where I can feel them,” Yamamoto said. “He’s a very pure and straightforward person. I think he’s really wonderful.”
Last year, Sonoda received a set of national-park-themed underwear from his wife, who knew of his affinity for the outdoors. The Yellowstone Park pair featured a roaring bear, which reminded Sonoda of Yamamoto screaming on the mound. Sonoda started wearing the boxers on days Yamamoto pitched, switching to a different pair for the next start if he lost or didn’t pitch well.
A new season called for a new set of underwear, but a stretch of inadequate run support prompted Sonoda to unretire a pair he wore on the Dodgers’ World Series run last year, the ones with the rainbow-emitting rabbit.
“I’m very superstitious,” Sonoda said.
Sonoda is also grateful.
“I think there are 14 or 15 Japanese interpreters in the majors leagues,” he said. “I feel like I’m the most blessed.”
Blessed because Akasaki talked him out of resigning. Blessed because of the baseball education he received from McGuiness and Duncan. Blessed because he has mentors such as Horie and Fujiwara. And above all, blessed because he was paired with a player whom he considers as good a person as he is a pitcher, the kind of high-character individual for whom he would wear radiant underwear in the off chance it could improve his fortune.
PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani entered uncharted territory in his final pitching start of the regular season, shutting out the Arizona Diamondbacks over a season-high six innings in the Dodgers’ 5-4 walk-off loss Tuesday night.
The question now, with the start of the playoffs looming: When will the two-way star toe the rubber next?
After a season spent mostly in rehab mode as a pitcher, building his workload inning by inning as he slowly worked his way back from a second Tommy John surgery, Ohtani has checked every box in his recovery and looks primed for what will be his first career postseason pitching outing.
On Tuesday, his fastball was elite once again, topping out at 101.2 mph and accounting for five of his eight total strikeouts. The rest of his seven-pitch mix kept the wild-card-seeking Diamondbacks off balance, resulting in just five hits (all singles) and no walks.
Most of all, the right-hander was also efficient, needing only 91 throws to work past the fifth inning for the first time this year.
“Over the last three or four starts, there’s been a ramp-up of intensity and performance,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani, who has given up one run in 19 ⅓ innings over his last four outings to finish the regular season with a 2.87 ERA in 15 starts.
“I think that was his plan.”
Now, it’s up to the team to make a plan for its postseason pitching rotation and figure out exactly where Ohtani fits within it.
Roberts has virtually guaranteed that the reigning National League MVP will be used as a starter in next week’s best-of-three wild card round (which the Dodgers are all but assured of playing in, even if they sew up an NL West division title that has a magic number of three.
And as things currently stand, Ohtani would be lined up to go in Game 1, after the team moved his weekly pitching schedule this month to have him start on Tuesdays. Coincidentally or not, Game 1 of the wild-card round would be next Tuesday.
The reasons for opening that series with Ohtani on the mound are obvious — from his electric stuff, to his penchant for performing in big moments, to ensuring he does pitch in a series that could end in only two games.
However, Roberts insisted team officials “don’t know yet” how their postseason rotation will be ordered. Between the ever-present concerns about managing Ohtani’s two-way workload, and the team’s other wealth of starting options in what has been a resurgent rotation over the last month, there’s debate to be had about how to best maximize their $700-million superstar.
The Dodgers could, for instance, opt to start the wild-card series with Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Games 1 and 2, and save Ohtani for a potential Game 3. The benefit there: Ohtani could focus solely on his duties as designated hitter the first two games, and wouldn’t be required to play the day immediately after a pitching start (he is hitting only .138 in such games this season, and the Dodgers have made an effort to get him starts immediately before off days in recent months).
Because Ohtani isn’t as built-up as the team’s other starters, delaying his start could also ease the burden early in the series on a shaky bullpen, which coughed up a 4-0 lead Tuesday after rookies Jack Dreyer and Edgardo Henriquez combined to surrender three runs in the seventh, and closer Tanner Scott blew his 10th save in a two-run ninth punctuated by Geraldo Perdomo’s walk-off single.
“I think it just kind of gives us some options,” Roberts said of having Ohtani potentially lined up for a Game 1 start. “But the likelihood of him starting a playoff game in that first series is very high.”
Whenever Ohtani takes the mound again, the Dodgers are hopeful that concerns about his pitching stamina will be somewhat assuaged.
Up until this week, the team had a hard cap of five innings for whenever Ohtani took the mound. For the sake of his health, they were reluctant to waver from it, even when Ohtani had a no-hitter through five his last time out against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Prior to Tuesday’s series-opener at Chase Field, however, Roberts said that “if all goes well,” Ohtani would pitch into the sixth inning and that his leash could be further loosened in October after recent conversations between the player and club.
“I feel really good with the conversation I had with Shohei about how today could potentially play out,” Roberts said pregame. “This is me talking to the training staff, talking to Shohei, feeling like we’ve got a really good base now.”
Once the sixth arrived Tuesday night, Ohtani made Roberts’ decision easy. He had yielded just three hits to that point (one of them, a comebacker that got him in the palm of his glove in the third). The Dodgers had a comfortable early lead, after Teoscar Hernández homered in the second and belted a two-run, two-out triple in the top of the sixth (catcher Ben Rortvedt added a run with his first Dodgers homer in the seventh).
Five batters later, Ohtani’s night was done, the right-hander stranding a pair of sixth-inning singles by getting Gabriel Moreno to line out to center and retire the side.
The next time he takes the mound, it will be his first time pitching in a postseason setting. Whether it comes in Game 1, or later in the best-of-three wild card series, will now be up for the team to decide.
Bullpen reinforcements
The Dodgers have at least one bullpen reinforcement coming in this series, with rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki set to be activated on Wednesday in his long-awaited return from a shoulder injury.
However, the status of trade deadline acquisition Brock Stewart remains in question. Though Stewart completed a recent minor-league rehab stint, and was with the team in Arizona on Tuesday, Roberts said the club is still “making sure he feels good” after missing the last six weeks with a shoulder injury. It is unclear if he will be activated this week, as originally expected.
“[We’re] making sure he’s put in a position to feel good if he is activated,” Roberts said. “That’s no guarantee … We’ll know more tomorrow.”
Before Tuesday’s game, Stewart threw an extended flat-ground session in front of a team trainer and general manager Brandon Gomes. The three talked for several minutes once Stewart’s session was complete.
Clayton Kershaw blew a kiss to his family, pounded a fist in his glove, then made the familiar trot from the Dodgers’ dugout to the Chavez Ravine mound.
This time, however, he did it alone.
In what was his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, coming one day after he announced that he would retire at the end of this year, Kershaw took the field while the rest of his teammates stayed back and applauded.
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On a night of appreciation for his 18-year career, the moment belonged to him — and an adoring fan base that has watched his every step.
The first time Kershaw ever pitched at Dodger Stadium, he was a much-hyped and highly anticipated 20-year-old prospect. His talent immense. His Hall of Fame future in front of him.
When he did it for potentially the last time on Friday night, he was a much-beloved and long-admired 37-year-old veteran. Hardened by the failures that once defined his baseball mortality. Celebrated for the way he had learned to overcome them.
Few athletes in modern sport play for one team, for so long. Fewer still experience the emotional extremes Kershaw was put through, or manage still to weather the storm.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride,” he said. “We’ve had our ups and downs for sure.”
Between boundless cheers and intermittent boos, historic milestones and horrifying heartbreaks, triumphant summers and torturous falls.
In regular-season play, baseball has maybe never seen a more accomplished pitcher. Kershaw’s 2.54 ERA is the lowest in the live-ball era among those with 100 starts. He is one of the 20 members of MLB’s 3,000 strikeout club. He is one of four pitchers to win three Cy Youngs and an MVP award.
In October, however, no one’s history has been more checkered. There were implosions against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and 2014. The infamous fifth game of the 2017 World Series against the sign-stealing Houston Astros. The nightmare relief appearance in 2019 against the Washington Nationals. Nine trips to the playoffs in his first 11 seasons, without winning a championship once.
In those days, it made Kershaw’s relationship complicated with Dodger Nation. He was heroic until he wasn’t. Clutch until the autumn. It didn’t matter that he was often pitching on short rest, or through injuries and strenuous workloads, or in situations no other pitcher would have ever been tasked. He was the embodiment of the Dodgers’ repeated postseason failings. The face of a franchise that could never clear the final hurdle.
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1.Clayton Kershaw reacts after getting San Francisco’s Jerar Encarnacion to hit into a double play in the third inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium.2.Kershaw acknowledges the cheers from the Dodger Stadium crowd after exiting the game in the fifth inning.3.Kershaw acknowledges the crowd after leaving the game in the fifth inning.4.Kershaw is congratulated by his teammates as he exits the game.5.Kershaw is embraced by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as he leaves the game in the fifth inning.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s almost like a relationship, right?” Kershaw said. “You’ve been in it 18 years with them. There’s some great times, and then there’s some times where you probably want to break up for a minute.”
In his case, though, that’s how such an enduring bond was built.
He persevered through such struggles. He kept coming back every season. He finally got over the hump with World Series titles in 2020 and 2024. He never shied away from even his darkest moments.
“With that responsibility as the ace, you’ve got to take on a lot of scrutiny or potential failures,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Everything wasn’t optimal for him. But he never complained about it. Never made an excuse for it.
“I think the fans, certainly at his highest moments, have shown their love for him and support. In those other times, I think it’s just, the fans have been hurting along with him. Wanting so much for a guy that’s been such a stalwart and a great citizen and person for this city and organization.”
“I think the respect, the universal respect, is certainly warranted 10 times over.”
The left-hander threw 4⅓ innings of two-run ball, striking out six batters on four hits and four walks, but it wasn’t his stats that mattered. He struggled with his command, averaged only 89 mph with his fastball, and left the mound with the Dodgers trailing, but the memories from this night will go far beyond that.
From the moment Kershaw emerged on the field at 6:23 p.m., fans rose to their feet. They cheered and chanted his pregame routine in the outfield and bullpen. They roared when his name was introduced shortly before first pitch.
They knew this could be his Dodger Stadium send-off, a sentimental opportunity to say thank you for all he accomplished and all he endured.
Kershaw felt a swirl of emotions, as well, sitting teary-eyed in the outfield while taking in the scene before the game began.
“You’re trying to focus on the night and getting outs, but it’s a special day,” Kershaw said. “It’s the last time here, potentially, and this place has meant so much to me for so long. I didn’t want to not think about it.”
At the start of the first inning, his teammates made sure he wouldn’t. As Kershaw headed to the mound, the Dodgers’ fielders made an impromptu decision to stay back and let him be serenaded with an extended ovation.
“I didn’t love it,” Kershaw joked. “But it was a great gesture.”
And as he stood on the mound alone, he smiled and waved at a moment 18 years in the making.
“This is one of those moments where Dodger fans, you all have seen him for 18 years and watched his career grow and everything that he’s gone through,” Roberts said. “People are going to back and go, ‘I was there for the last time he started a home game at Dodger Stadium.’”
From there, the night was surprisingly tense.
Kershaw gave up a home run on the third pitch of the game to Heliot Ramos. He spent the next four innings battling traffic, stranding two runners later in the first, another two in the second, and two more in the third after a Wilmer Flores RBI single.
By the fourth, it was clear Kershaw was not long for the evening. His pitch count was rising. The bullpen was active. And with two outs in the inning, Willy Adames was extending a two-strike at-bat.
On the ninth pitch of that battle, however, Kershaw finally got a whiff on a slider. For the first time since the first inning, Dodger Stadium erupted once again.
Watch Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s full start against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Kershaw returned to the mound in the fifth, and struck out Rafael Devers with a fastball at the knees.
With that, his night was over, along with maybe his Dodger Stadium career.
“I feel like the moments that we have right there in front of us, it’s history,” second baseman Miguel Rojas said.
“You had to just kind of be there to really feel the emotions,” shortstop Mookie Betts added.
In the stands, applause echoed through a sell-out crowd of 53,037 — which included former teammates Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson and AJ Pollock; as well as other Los Angeles sports icons from Magic Johnson to Matthew Stafford (a childhood friend of Kershaw’s from Texas).
After receiving hugs from his infield, and embracing Roberts with an apology (“I’m sorry I pitched so poorly tonight”) and a request (“Not trying to be disrespectful, but I’m keeping this ball”), the pitcher then made the slow walk back from the rubber.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw makes a hugging gesture as he walks off the mound to a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He took a deep breath. He gave a hugging motion to his family sitting in the loge level. He donned his cap, and repeatedly said thank you to a crowd that never ceased to cheer.
“It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but you guys have stuck with me,” Kershaw, who also re-emerged from the dugout for a raucous curtain call, reiterated in a postgame on-field interview.
“Dodger Stadium is a super special place, and the fans are the main reason why,” he added in his postgame news conference with reporters. “They continue to come out and support us. Every night, it’s 50,000 people. I wish I had better words other than I’m just so honored and thankful to hear those ovations. I’ll never take that for granted.”
Now, one more October awaits — with the Dodgers (87-67) officially clinching a postseason berth Friday after roaring to the lead on back-to-back home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the bottom half of the fifth.
Kershaw’s role in this last title chase is uncertain. With a loaded rotation, but shaky relief corps, the Dodgers’ best use for him could come out of the bullpen. Roberts said he envisions Kershaw fitting somewhere on the playoff roster. Kershaw said he can “do the math” and is prepared “to do whatever I can to help.”
Either way, his legacy with the Dodgers, and its forever indebted fan base, had already long before been graciously cemented.
“I’m kind of mentally exhausted today, honestly, but it’s the best feeling in the world now,” Kershaw said. “We got a win, we clinched a playoff berth, and I got to stand on that mound one last time. I just can’t be more grateful.”
Shohei Ohtani said he is prepared to make a six-inning start in October. He said he is open to pitching out of the bullpen, even if remaining in the game after a relief appearance might require him to play in the outfield.
His unspoken reasons for wanting to do so are obvious: The Dodgers are terrible.
They aren’t terrible compared to the Colorado Rockies or Chicago White Sox, but they’re terrible for a team with the most expensive roster in baseball.
They’re terrible for a team with ambitions to repeat as World Series champions.
They’re terrible enough that Ohtani is sounding how he did when he played for the Angels.
Ironically, he signed with the Dodgers so that he wouldn’t have to be in this situation again. But here he is, sounding as if he thinks he has to do everything by himself.
The Dodgers have failed him.
Ohtani came up with the idea to defer the majority of his $700-million contract until after he retires, wanting the Dodgers to spend that money to build super teams around him. The Dodgers won a World Series last year, but the good times could already be over.
Instead of building another championship team, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman constructed an all-time clunker. Instead of creating a 120-win juggernaut on which Ohtani would be able to have his cake and eat it too, the Dodgers have placed him in a predicament in which he could have to decide between prioritizing either the upcoming postseason or his pitching future.
Winning the World Series again with Ohtani on rehabilitation mode will be extremely difficult for these Dodgers, if not downright impossible. Their 9-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night explained why, their bullpen imploding once again to waste another did-that-really-happen performance by Ohtani. At this point, their bullpen might as well be renamed the Nine Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
With Ohtani still in his first season pitching after his second Tommy John surgery, the Dodgers have limited his starts to five innings. That was the plan again on Tuesday, and five no-hit innings by Ohtani wasn’t about to make manager Dave Roberts stray from an organizational directive.
Removing Ohtani was a health decision, not a baseball decision.
However, by sticking to the plan, Roberts was forced to reenact his nightly routine of juggling sticks of dynamite. This time the explosion was immediate, as Justin Wrobleski gave up five runs to turn a 4-0 lead into a 5-4 deficit.
Roberts was loudly booed when he walked to the mound to replace Wrobleski, but how could anyone blame the manager for deploying the hard-throwing left-hander, who was one of the team’s most dependable relievers? It’s not as if the next pitcher shut down the Phillies. Edgardo Henriquez also gave up a homer.
Ohtani’s 50th homer of the season sparked an eighth-inning, two-run rally for the Dodgers that leveled the score, 6-6. The comeback made what happened later all the more deflating. Blake Treinen allowed three runs, and the game was over.
To recap: Ohtani pitched five no-hit innings and blasted a dramatic eighth-inning homer, and the Dodgers still lost.
As much as he provided, it wasn’t enough, which is why he was asked after the game about what more he could do.
Ohtani will pitch as a starter in the postseason but when asked if he could also be deployed as a reliever to help the flailing bullpen, he replied, “I’ve had different conversations with different people, and of course that’s come up.”
That’s when Ohtani presented a novel idea about how the Dodgers could use him.
“As a player, if I’m told to go somewhere, I want to be prepared to do so,” he said. “That’s on the mound and perhaps even in the outfield.”
The outfield?
Under baseball’s current rules, if Ohtani starts a game as a pitcher and is replaced on the mound, he could continue playing as a designated hitter. However, if he starts the game as a DH and pitches out of the bullpen, the Dodgers would lose the DH once his relief appearance is over.
Playing in the outfield would allow the Dodgers to use Ohtani as a reliever and keep his bat in their lineup after.
Told of what Ohtani said, Roberts replied, “He’s a great teammate. He wants to help us win a championship. So I’m all about it.”
Roberts looked delighted.
Of course he did. Any inning pitched by Ohtani is an inning not pitched by one of the Dodgers’ relievers. Any at-bat taken by Ohtani is an at-bat not taken by one of the team’s inconsistent hitters.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will soon have to make a major decision.
The organization can’t remain cautious with Ohtani and make a legitimate effort to retain their crown. They’re not good enough to do both. They will have to choose one or the other.
V from BTS got to be the devoted fanboy for once Monday night at Dodger Stadium, where he was lucky enough to share an embrace with Shohei Ohtani and give a deep bow on the field to Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The K-pop heartthrob posed for photos in the dugout with three-time MVP Ohtani, who returned to the mound this season in addition to continuing as the Dodgers’ designated hitter, and more pics on the field with pitching ace Yamamoto, who helped the team beat the Padres in San Diego on Sunday. Dude even spent a few minutes chatting up the legendary Clayton Kershaw.
Seems V — real name Kim Taehyung — might be a fan of pitching in general?
That’s a good thing, if true, because the K-pop star was at Chavez Ravine to deliver the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers shut out the Cincinnati Reds 7-0. BTS fans were definitely there in the crowd to support him.
The seven members of BTS — Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, Jung Kook and V — surfaced on social media in July after a long hiatus to announce that a new album would be coming in spring 2026, now that they all completed their mandatory 18-month South Korean military service.
Announcer Todd Leitz referenced the band’s “highly anticipated” reunion over the stadium PA system Monday. “NO more waiting now, V. The mound is yours!” he said.
Taking the mound, V delivered a strike to Yamamoto, who was crouched down as the honorary catcher. The pop star earned a “wow, what a pitch” from Leitz and screams from the fans in the stands.
“He’s been on the field for 30 minutes. We finally hit the crescendo with the first pitch tonight for V from BTS,” a voice is heard saying in a video chronicling the moment.
“Yeah, and he dotted up a strike, man,” another voice adds. “Good for him. He’s been out here practicing every 13 seconds. We got the crowd going nuts, we don’t know why. He’s over there playing catch, throwing halfway down the left field line. And you put the guy on the mound, turns into a pretty good strike thrower.”
After the pitch, V also got to speak the five legendary words that open every home game for the boys in blue: “It’s time for Dodger baseball.”
“Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music,” the band said in a statement July 1. “Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”
BTS last released an album, “Proof,” in June 2022 and performed live together later that year in their home country. Each member has released solo material since then, including Jung Kook’s song “Seven,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, and RM’s “Right Place, Wrong Person,” which reached No. 5 on Billboard’s album chart last year.
Times pop music critic Mikael Wood contributed to this report.
Lately, the only thing the Dodgers excel at is losing games they should win. When they hit they can’t pitch and when they pitch they can’t hit. They can’t move runners over or get a clutch hit and, of course, the relievers still can’t throw strikes. It all adds up to a good year … for the Padres.
Alan Abajian Alta Loma
To paraphrase the old adage, you can put lipstick on the Dodgers — for example, so and so is coming back … or recovering.
But any team that has played as inconsistently as they have at the plate, in the field, and on the pitcher’s mound is very unlikely to survive in multiple playoff short series. It’s virtually certain that type of team will get tripped up along the way. Especially one predicted to win 120 games.
Kip Dellinger Santa Monica
Mr. Plaschke is saying that the Dodgers’ failure to trade for bullpen help is the problem with the bullpen. Maybe he should point the finger at the guy (mis)using them.
John Vitz Manhattan Beach
Re: Bill Plaschke’s column on Dodgers at trade deadline — The Dodgers didn’t have an “inability” to improve their bullpen, it was an “unwillingness.” With the talent in their system, the Dodgers could have easily put together a package to get Mason Miller, David Bednar or similar. Impossible to know if there was any meaningful undisclosed trade talk to get better bullpen help, but it sure looks like the Dodgers simply decided not to do it. It also looks like it could be a big mistake.
John Merryman Redondo Beach
Truth be told, the story was about the incredible Angel comeback/sweep of the Dodgers. Once again the columnist focuses on the Dodgers’ injuries instead of the Angels’ mind-blowing bottom of the ninth rally. Will the “Summer Bummer” continue when the Padres invade Dodger Stadium?
Patrick Kelley Los Angeles
Who ARE these people and what have they done with our Dodgers?
They are two longtime Dodger villains, hated for two vastly different reasons.
As the last remaining position player from the Houston Astros’ trash-can-banging, and (in the eyes of most Dodgers fans) World Series-stealing 2017 championship team, Jose Altuve always receives a rude welcome from the fans at Chavez Ravine.
As one of the most productive visiting players in Dodger Stadium history, Christian Walker often shuts them up.
In the Houston Astros’ 18-1 Independence Day rout on Friday, both added another tortured chapter to the Dodgers’ history against the team. Altuve went three for three with a double, two home runs, two walks and five RBIs. Walker went four for five with one long ball and four RBIs.
The Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve celebrates with Christian Walker after hitting a two-run homer against Dodgers in the third inning at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Kevork Djansezian/Los Angeles Times)
On a day starting pitcher Ben Casparius once again struggled (giving up six runs in three innings), reliever Noah Davis gave up 10 runs in the sixth inning alone (the most the Dodgers had surrendered in one inning since 1999), and most of a sold-out crowd stuck around for every painful minute (waiting in somber silence for a postgame fireworks show), that was plenty to lift the surging Astros to most lopsided defeat the Dodgers have ever suffered at Dodger Stadium.
Six weeks ago, the retooled Astros were one game above .500 and 3 ½ games out of first place in the American League West; seemingly missing the other 2017 stars who have departed the franchise since their sign-stealing scandal came to light five years ago.
But now, they have won 27 of their last 37, own the second-best record in the AL, and are suddenly looking like unlikely title contenders; even after turning over almost the entirety of the roster from that infamous 2017 season.
“Certainly, there’s been some history with our organizations,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame when asked if any lingering feelings remained from the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. “But if you look at it in reality, most of those guys are gone. So it certainly doesn’t have any bearing on this series this weekend.”
Instead, in their most lopsided loss of the season, the Dodgers had bigger concerns to worry about Friday, with Altuve and Walker at the top of the list.
Altuve received his typical reception from the Dodgers faithful, serenaded with booming boos and loud chants of “cheater” during each of his at-bats. However, he followed Isaac Paredes’ leadoff homer in the first with a double off the wall. He took Casparius deep for a two-run home run on a curveball in the third. He added an exclamation point with a three-run homer in the Astros’ 10-run sixth — the most runs the Dodgers (56-33) had allowed in one inning since Fernando Tatis’ historic two-grand-slam inning in April 1999 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Walker was every bit as dangerous.
A 34-year-old slugger who dominated the Dodgers (and, most confoundingly, Clayton Kershaw in particular) during an eight-year career with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Walker was already emerging from an early-season slump in his first year with the Astros (53-35) entering this weekend’s series.
Then, back in the friendly confines of Dodger Stadium, he orchestrated a monster performance of his own from the five-spot of the Houston order.
In his first at-bat, Walker plated Altuve with a single the other way. Then, two batters after Altuve’s big fly in the third, Casparius left a fastball down the middle that Walker whacked for his 28th career home run against the Dodgers — and 20th at Dodger Stadium.
Only nine other players have hit that many home runs as visitors at the ballpark during their careers, a list that includes Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt and Willie Stargell, as well as Barry Bonds.
Walker also made a contribution in the sixth-inning onslaught.
After Davis gave up one run on two singles and two walks, the recently called-up right-hander plunked Walker with the bases loaded to force in another score, losing his grip on an 0-and-2 sweeper that left him visibly rattled on the mound.
Sensing Davis’ frustration, Roberts came to the bump for a motivational pep talk; eliciting memories of the mid-game hug he delivered to journeyman reliever Yohan Ramirez last season in Cincinnati.
This time, however, the mound visit had little effect. In the next at-bat, Davis threw a hanging sweeper that Victor Caratini belted for a grand slam. What was already a laugher became a full-fledged Fourth of July disaster.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three batters into his third start of the year on Saturday, Shohei Ohtani showed some brief frustration.
With one out in the first inning — on a day he was trying to pitch into the second for the first time this year — Ohtani gave up a line drive single to Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. Then, he walked Maikel Garcia on five pitches in the next at-bat, pulling four straight throws low and to the glove side to put two aboard.
As Ohtani received the ball back from catcher Dalton Rushing, he wore a stoic look, seemingly displeased with his lack of execution.
But he climbed back atop the mound, stared down the plate as Vinnie Pasquantino dug in, and absolutely bullied the Royals first baseman with three straight pitches.
A 99.2-mph fastball on the inside corner for strike one.
A 100.2-mph fastball on the inside black for strike two.
And then, a blistering 101.7-mph fastball — the hardest-thrown pitch of Ohtani’s MLB career — that Pasquantino took a helpless hack at, grounding into a tailor-made, inning-ending double-play.
Just like that, Ohtani was locked back in.
Though the Dodgers lost 9-5 to the Royals on Saturday, Ohtani turned in his best pitching performance yet. After escaping the first-inning jam, he retired the side in the second. Over 27 pitches, he threw 20 strikes and got three swings-and-misses, including on a 100-mph fastball and late-biting slider to strike out Jac Caglianone in the second.
Even over another small sample size, with Ohtani’s workload still limited as he works his way back from a second Tommy John surgery, the right-hander flashed the dominant potential of his stuff, both lighting up the radar gun and unleashing a flurry of unhittable off-speed offerings in his most complete performance yet since resuming his two-way role.
Things did not go well for the Dodgers (52-32) after Ohtani left the mound. Bulk man Ben Casparius gave up six runs in four innings, and now has a 7.82 ERA in his three outings piggybacking with Ohtani over the last three weeks.
He didn’t get much help from his defense, either. In the third inning, Teoscar Hernández failed to get to a flare down the right-field line with two outs, extending the inning ahead of a two-run double from Garcia in the next at-bat. Andy Pages also booted a ball in center field during a four-run rally from the Royals (39-44) in the fifth, an inning that was punctuated by a three-run, two-out homer from Pasquantino to center.
The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, never figured out crafty right-hander Seth Lugo, stranding all nine hitters who reached base against him (four hits and five walks) while striking out eight times.
Even though Freddie Freeman broke out of an extended slump with three hits, including a solo homer in the seventh inning, and two walks, the Dodgers never truly threatened to chip away at the lead until a four-run rally in the ninth, squandering a five-game winning streak to set up a series rubber match on Sunday.
All of that, however, paled in comparison to the impressiveness of Ohtani’s outing on the mound.
In his four innings so far this year, the 30-year-old has given up just one run and three hits. His fastball has routinely eclipsed 100 mph while his array of breaking stuff has kept opponents off balance.
The Dodgers are still being careful with Ohtani’s buildup, uncertain of when — or if — he will be fully stretched out for normal-length starts. But for now, the few innings he has contributed have been encouraging, quickly erasing any doubts about how his arm would respond from the second reconstructive elbow surgery of his career.
Pitching injury updates
It’ll be a little while longer before the Dodgers get more pitching reinforcements from triple-A Oklahoma City.
On Friday night, Tyler Glasnow gave up five runs on seven hits in his second rehab outing, but more consequentially managed only 2 ⅓ innings, well short of the four-inning goal the Dodgers had targeted for his start. Because of that, Roberts said Glasnow will likely need at least two more rehab starts before returning to the majors. He has been out since April because of a shoulder problem.
Emmet Sheehan’s next start will come in triple A, Roberts said, even after the right-hander pitched six perfect innings with 13 strikeouts earlier this week. Sheehan returned from Tommy John surgery earlier this month with a solid four-inning start for the Dodgers, but was optioned ahead of this road trip to continue building up in Oklahoma City. Sheehan will be a candidate to return to the majors after his next outing, perhaps near the end of the Dodgers’ upcoming homestand.
Back in Los Angeles, Blake Snell (shoulder) and Blake Treinen (forearm) continued their progression of bullpen sessions on Saturday, and are getting closer to throwing live sessions against hitters. Roki Sasaki (shoulder) has also continued to play catch and, according to Roberts, is finally “feeling really good” almost two months into his IL stint.
For so long, the biggest question surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s future as a pitcher was simple.
When, after a second career Tommy John surgery, would he finally get back on the mound? When, after a year and a half of exclusively hitting, would he be able to resume two-way duties?
Both times, he left his teammates and coaches in astonished amazement, giving them their first up-close glimpse of his dual-role skillset.
“I’ve seen [him throw] bullpens and lives and simulated games, or whatever,” manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “But to kind of watch it in real time, to go from the mound to the on-deck circle and then go to the batter’s box, it’s pretty remarkable. And he’s just handling it the right way. He’s just unflappable.”
What comes next, however, remains shrouded in some uncertainty.
Now that Ohtani is again pitching in live-game action, new questions are lingering about where his build-up will go from here.
“It’s going to be a gradual process,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on Sunday. “I want to see improvements with the quality of the pitches that I’m throwing, and then also increasing the amount of pitches. So it’s going to be gradual.”
It was no surprise that, in Ohtani’s return to pitching on June 16, he was limited to only one inning. It was a trade-off he and the team made to get him back into a real game sooner, agreeing to give him a live start even if they knew it wouldn’t extend past one frame.
Entering Ohtani’s second start on Sunday afternoon, however, the thinking was that the right-hander could be ready to push into the second — that, to eventually get stretched out for full-length starts, he would begin building up his workload by adding another inning each time out.
The way Ohtani pitched Sunday certainly warranted a second frame.
After giving up two hits and one run over a 28-pitch outing against the San Diego Padres six days prior, he collected two strikeouts in a scoreless 18-pitch frame against the Washington Nationals, his only baserunner reaching on a dropped pop fly by shortstop Mookie Betts.
“Overall, I was able to relax much better compared to my last outing,” Ohtani said. “The way my body moves when I pitch, it’s something that I worked on with the pitching coaches and I felt a lot better this time.”
However, in the top of the second, Ohtani was once again replaced on the rubber. Despite his improved execution and efficiency, it turned out he and the team had made a predetermined decision not to push him for a second inning quite yet.
“That was the original plan,” Ohtani said of being removed after the first.
“Going into today’s game,” Roberts added, “we felt really comfortable with one.”
It hammered home the reality of what lies ahead for Ohtani; the cautious, methodical and, as Roberts also described it, “gradual” pace with which the team will handle his pitching workload for the time being.
“I think that it’s more of just trying to get the foundation, the building blocks as he’s [pitching and] taking at-bats,” Roberts said. “[We are] erring on the side of caution … There’s no sense in rushing it right now.”
As Ohtani returns to pitching, there are new factors the Dodgers will have to monitor in his all-around performance.
Already, the reigning MVP has cut down on his base-stealing while ramping up as a pitcher: After swiping 11 bags in his first 50 games, he hasn’t even attempted a steal since throwing his first live batting practice session on May 25.
His place in the leadoff spot could be altered on days he pitches as well, with Roberts leaving open the possibility of moving him down in the batting order to give him more time to transition from pitcher to hitter (at least in the first inning of home games, when he currently has to hustle from the mound to the plate after the top half of the frame).
Then, there is perhaps the biggest question: Whether the burden of pitching will affect Ohtani’s all-important production with the bat?
That dynamic came under scrutiny this week, after Ohtani went just two-for-19 in the five games following his first pitching start.
“I don’t think that’s a fatigue thing,” Roberts insisted Sunday morning. “But we’ll manage it. I can only take him at his word, and the swing speed and all the stuff we sort of track is still in line.”
Ohtani did snap that slump after his inning on the mound Sunday, finishing the day with a three-run triple in the seventh and two-run home run in the eighth.
“I do feel like I do have to work on some things,” Ohtani said. “But at the same time, I do feel like I can perform better, even better than I used to be able to perform at.”
All of this is to say, while Ohtani has mastered his two-way role before (twice winning American League MVP while doing it with the Angels), the Dodgers are taking nothing for granted about his pitching comeback right now.
Before they begin adding to his pitching workload, they want to make sure they’ve accounted for any unintended side effects.
“All these conversations we have with him, obviously,” Roberts said. “He’s understanding of where he’s at, where we’re at, and appreciating the fact that as time goes on, we’ll get to a certain point.”
Before Sunday’s game, Roberts didn’t even commit to fully stretching out Ohtani like a traditional starter by the second half of the season.
“That’s kind of TBD,” he said when asked when Ohtani might be fully built-up for normal-length starts. “I think we’re always gonna be cautious. So I don’t even know what that’s going to look like, to be ‘fully built-up.’ I don’t think anyone knows what that looks like. Because it’s not a normal starting pitcher. So to say six [innings] and 90 [pitches], I don’t even know if we’ll get to that point.”
Could that mean using Ohtani as only a glorified opener for the rest of this season? Or stretching him out only if a currently shorthanded rotation doesn’t eventually get healthy?
Time will have to tell on those questions, with neither the Dodgers nor Ohtani ready to commit to any answers until they see how he continues to respond to his return to two-way duties.
“As we build more of a foundation, there will be some latitude,” Roberts said. “I think that we’re still gathering [information]. But again, once we ramp up more, it might be a different conversation.”
Upstaging Shohei Ohtani, especially on a day he pitches, is no easy feat.
But at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon, teammate Max Muncy did it twice — hitting two home runs and matching a career high with seven RBIs to lift the Dodgers to a 13-7 defeat of the Washington Nationals, and make Ohtani more of the sideshow in his second pitching start of the season.
Despite two strikeouts over a scoreless first inning from Ohtani to begin the day, Dodger Stadium had sat in relative silence for the next five innings.
Ben Casparius, who replaced the still workload-restricted Ohtani on the mound in the second, gave up a three-run home run in the third, when a flyball deflected off Hyeseong Kim’s glove at the wall before hitting a fan reaching over the barrier.
Michael Soroka, the former All-Star turned inconsistent journeyman, held the Dodgers hitless into the fifth, racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts while protecting the 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, however, an opportunity for the Dodgers finally arose.
Dalton Rushing led off with a slicing ground-rule double down the left-field line. Ohtani drew a walk with the help of two favorable ball-strike calls. Badly slumping Freddie Freeman was bailed out of an 0-and-2 count on a wild slurve from Soroka that hit his foot.
And suddenly, the Nationals had to go to the bullpen, summoning left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to face Muncy with the bases loaded.
After just three pitches to Muncy, Ferrer called out the grounds crew to rake the mound and smooth out his landing area on the downslope.
But at the plate, it gave Muncy time to think about his at-bat against Ferrer the night before, mentally lock in on what to expect, and catch his breath in the biggest moment of the game.
“When he’s ready, he’s ready,” Muncy said he told himself. “And let’s get a swing off.”
Muncy did on each of the next two pitches, fouling off one center-cut sinker before lining the next deep to left for a script-flipping, deficit-erasing, go-ahead grand slam.
“I saw the guy last night, so had a good idea of what he was throwing in there and how to approach it,” Muncy said. “I was trying to keep the ball off the ground, get something in the air, get at least one run in. Just trying to do a job. And I got a good swing off and got the ball in a good spot.”
Ohtani started the day as the main attraction.
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani delivers in the first inning against the Nationals on Sunday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
The two-way star drew a crowd as he came onto the field for pregame warm-ups and got loose in the left-field bullpen — prompting fans even up in the upper reserve-level deck to lean over railings and get a look at his dual-role talents.
And once the game began, Ohtani climbed atop the mound and showed progress from his season debut as a pitcher six days before.
“I thought he was considerably better today,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The stuff, the life of the fastball, the command of his pitches — much better.”
Ohtani’s scoreless inning included strikeouts of Luis Garcia Jr. on a sweeper and Nathaniel Lowe on a cutter, representing his first strikeouts since returning from Tommy John surgery. He worked around a dropped infield pop-up from Mookie Betts in an otherwise efficient 18-pitch, 12-strike outing. He hit 99 mph with his fastball while mixing in a healthy dose of sweepers, cutters and splitters to complement it.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a home run in the eighth inning Sunday against the Nationals.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
“Overall, I was able to relax much better compared to my last outing,” said Ohtani, who noted that the plan for Sunday’s start was to once again be limited to only one inning.
“I think that it’s just more of just trying to get the foundation, the building blocks as he’s taking at-bats,” Roberts added. “Getting an inning here, an inning there, and then just gradually progress.”
Ohtani also quieted recent questions about whether his return to pitching was affecting his bat.
After entering the day two-for-19 in five games since resuming two-way duties, Ohtani helped the Dodgers (48-31) pull away late. In the seventh, he laced a bases-loaded, three-run triple past the first base bag, turning a narrow one-run lead into a comfortable four-score cushion over the Nationals (32-46). In the eighth, he added more insurance, belting a two-run homer to left-center field for his National League-leading 26th long ball.
“When he’s going to the big part of the field, I think he’s really, really good,” Roberts said. “So today was good. And hopefully it quiets the noise a little bit with the days that he pitches.”
Not to be outdone, however, Muncy raised the ante himself in the latter innings, following Ohtani’s seventh-inning triple with a three-run home run to right three batters later.
“You look at the last 30 days, I think he’s been our best hitter,” Roberts said. “We never wavered in our confidence, and we’ve shown that, and he’s proven us all right.”
Indeed, Sunday continued a stunning mid-season turnaround for Muncy — giving him a .305 average with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs over his last 39 games; compared to a .177 average, one home run and seven RBIs in his first 35 contests.
It moved him into third place among National League third basemen this season with an .815 OPS — making a player who once seemed bound for trade rumors this summer unexpectedly on the fringes of the All-Star conversation.
And, it somehow managed to top the all-around production Ohtani displayed in his two-way encore, lifting the Dodgers to a weekend series win and 7-3 record overall on this 10-game homestand.
“It’s definitely a snowball effect,” Muncy said. “Confidence is high right now.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. The Dodgers have a new pitcher who looks exactly like Shohei Ohtani. They could be twins. It’s uncanny.
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The Dodgers have played seven games against the Padres and Giants in the last week, and went 5-2 in those games. Let’s take a quick look at some important things that happened.
We’ll start with Ohtani pitching again. In a surprise, the Dodgers announced Sunday that he would start Monday against the Padres, though he would pitch only one inning. He had been pitching live batting practice and, well, let’s have Dave Roberts explain:
“Just kind of talking to [pitching coach Mark Prior] and [president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman] and the doctors and medical and just kind of saying, ‘OK, we’ve done the three-inning live, it’s a little taxing or more taxing on my body.’ You’re at a point of, I don’t know if it’s diminishing returns. But he’s ready to pitch in a major league game. He let us know that.”
In his start, Ohtani reached 100 mph on his fastball and gave up one run and two soft singles. He wasn’t sharp with his command, which is to be expected. Of course, he was also the DH in that game and went two for four with a double and an RBI.
If you haven’t followed baseball long, it’s hard to impress upon you just how incredible what he is doing and has done is. To hit and pitch at a high level is very, very rare. In 2022 with the Angels, he hit .273/.356/.519 with 30 doubles, 34 homers and 95 RBIs at the plate and went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 166 innings on the mound, striking out 219. He finished second in MVP voting and fourth in Cy Young voting. In 2023, he went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA on the mound in 132 innings before he needed Tommy John surgery. At the plate he hit .304/.412/.654 with 26 doubles, 44 homers and 95 RBIs in 135 games. He led the league in homers, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He won the MVP award.
As Max Muncy said, “I always understood how hard it was to pitch and then come in and hit, but seeing him come off the mound and go to the dugout — I don’t know, it kinda hit a little different seeing it from our side. He didn’t even get a drink of water. Just put his helmet on, went right to the batter’s box. That’s really hard to do.”
It is expected that Ohtani will pitch about once a week, going an inning longer each time. Coming off of Tommy John surgery is always difficult, so don’t expect miracles. Then again, with Ohtani, miracles seem possible.
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The Dodgers won two of three from a scrappy Giants team. But the big news took place off the field. The Giants pulled off a trade with the Boston Red Sox, acquiring Rafael Devers, who had grown unhappy in Boston.
Devers was unhappy that the Red Sox were asking him to change positions (from third base to DH to first base). The Red Sox were unhappy that he was unhappy, seeing as how they were paying him $313.5 million over 10 years. So the Red Sox unloaded him for four players.
Devers immediately said he would play any position the Giants wanted. Which really endeared him to Red Sox fans. But he happens to be one of the best hitters in the game, and immediately makes the Giants better and gives them that superstar they were missing (compared to the Padres and Dodgers). It also shows that Giants GM Buster Posey is going to do whatever it takes to make the Giants win.
Devers is a career .279/.349/.510 hitter and has 40-homer potential (his career high is 38). You can peruse his career numbers here. While you never know what will happen when a new player joins a team, it certainly seems safe to predict that it just got harder to win the NL West.
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The Padres series was interesting because the Padres continue to reinforce their reputation as a bunch of whiny babies.
Monday night, Andy Pages was hit by a pitch from Padres starter Dylan Cease. Pages glared at Cease from the batter’s box, prompting Padres manager Mike Shildt to yell at Pages, saying, “Who the f— do you think you are?” It seemed unlikely that Cease was throwing at Pages, but Pages just stared and Shildt escalated things.
On Tuesday, Dodgers reliever Lou Trivino hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch in the third inning. There was a runner in scoring position, so Trivino is not throwing at Tatis in that situation. A couple of innings later, Padres starter Randy Vásquez threw a fastball inside and low to Ohtani, causing Ohtani to jump out of the way. The next pitch was another fastball inside, and it hit Ohtani in the leg. That was much more suspect. The umpires got together and gave a warning to both sides about throwing at hitters. This bothered Roberts, who came out to ask why the Dodgers were being warned when they didn’t throw at anyone. The umpire threw him out of the game before he could get two words out, despite letting Shildt ask about the situation. Roberts then got about as mad as you’ve ever seen him and argued for a while to the delight of the crowd.
Wednesday’s game was relatively quiet, but Thursday’s game heated up in the ninth after Tatis was hit by a pitch (the third time he had been hit this series). This caused Shildt to complain, which brought Roberts out. Shildt said something to Roberts, who didn’t like whatever was said. The two got in each other’s faces, which caused the benches to empty. Cooler heads prevailed. Ohtani was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the inning. He waved off his teammates from coming out of the dugout, but Padres pitcher Robert Suarez was ejected from the game.
In all, eight batters were hit by pitch in the series. It’s probably safe to say not all of those were accidents. The teams don’t play each other again until August, so there’s plenty of time for emotions to cool.
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It is only one start, so I don’t want to get over of my skis here, but Emmet Sheehan looked sharp Wednesday in his first start since missing all of last season because of Tommy John surgery. He could be the boost the rotation has been looking for. However, the Dodgers sent him to the minors Thursday to make room for reliever Jack Little.
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Thanks to their strong play the last week, the Dodgers now lead the NL West by 3.5 games over the Giants, and five games over the Padres. Arizona is eight back and Colorado 28.5 back.
Roki Sasaki
Some bad news on the Roki Sasaki front. He still feels discomfort when he throws, and it looks unlikely that he will return this season. If that’s the case, it’s one of the more disappointing rookie seasons in Dodgers history. Hopefully, he recovers and reaches his potential, but at this point, all you can do is hope.
Andy Pages
There was a point a few weeks ago when many people, including me, were wondering how much longer the Dodgers could stick with Andy Pages. He was not hitting well and was struggling defensively as well. The Dodgers are always very patient with players, especially on offense, and kept sending Pages out there.
And in June, here’s what he is doing:
.361/.364/.705, six doubles, five homers, 14 RBIs in 61 at-bats. Overall he’s hitting .290/.330/.509 with 12 doubles and 15 homers. He could very well make the All-Star team.
And one reason for that improvement? Teammate Teoscar Hernández. Pages told Times reporter Kevin Baxter: “He’s played in the major leagues for a long time now. He’s been through a lot of bad times. I went through that at the beginning of the season, for example, and last year too. And he’s given me advice that’s helped me a lot to get through that time.”
Pages’ family is still in Cuba, and Hernández has become a big brother, taking him out for dinner on off days or just getting together to play video games.
Another person the Dodgers were patient with is Max Muncy, who got off to a brutal start before he started wearing glasses. Since wearing glasses, here are his numbers:
.279/.414/.537, four doubles, nine homers, 34 RBIs, 32 walks, 30 strikeouts in 136 at-bats.
Maybe every Dodger should get his eyes checked. Speaking of which….
Michael Conforto
Michael Conforto had a brief surge in May when he started hitting better and it seemed he had turned a corner. But no.
In June, he is six for 40, a .150 batting average. It’s like having a non-Ohtani pitcher hitting in your lineup again.
The question I get asked more than any other is “Why do the Dodgers continue to play Conforto?”
Well, there are several reasons. They are paying him $17 million and don’t want to waste that investment. Conforto has a track record of success and being patient has worked out twice already this season (see Pages, Andy and Muncy, Max). They have the best offense in the NL already and can afford to be patient with him, especially since they are in first place. The pitching is more of a problem than the hitting right now.
It’s probably a combination of all of those things. A Conforto who can hit is a great advantage to the Dodgers come October, and the Dodgers always play the long game, while the fans are more interested in winning every game.
At some point, you have to figure the Dodgers move on and give more playing time to Hyeseong Kim. If it were me, I’d do it now. But I’ve managed the Dodgers to the same number of victories you have, plus, all the decisions I make on my couch work 100% of the time. So, this is a good way for all of us to learn about patience, and see what happens.
But there was good news Wednesday when Roberts said Kim had earned more playing time.
Hey, maybe Conforto should start wearing glasses.
Strange occurrence at Dodger Stadium
Some unmarked white vans and SUVs were at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, sparking speculation about immigration enforcement at the stadium. The Dodgers refused to allow the vehicles into the stadium parking lots.
Five agents, armed with pistols, stood next to the vehicles. They did not wear identifying items or badges. When asked by a Times reporter which agency they were with, they said “DHS” and declined to comment further.
The Dodgers released this statement: “This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled.”
But the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they weren’t at Dodger Stadium, instead saying it was Customs and Border Protection agents.
So, why did they identify themselves as DHS? Why did they leave when police arrived? There are more questions than answers at the moment.
There have been protests about ICE in downtown Los Angeles, and the Dodgers had been criticized by some of their fans for not making any public statements in support of the people targeted by immigration raids.
The team said Wednesday that it had solidified plans to work with immigration groups and would make an announcement Thursday. However, what happened Thursday delayed that announcement.
Team president Stan Kasten released a statement saying, “Because of the events earlier today, we continue to work with groups that were involved with our programs. But we are going to have to delay today’s announcement while we firm up some more details. We’ll get back to you soon with the timing.”
Top 10 second basemen
Who are your top 10 Dodgers first basemen of all time (including Brooklyn)? Email your list to [email protected] and let me know.
Many of you have asked for a list of players to consider for each position. Here are the strongest second baseman candidates, in alphabetical order.
Hub Collins, Álex Cora, Tony Cuccinello, George Cutshaw, Tom Daly, Delino DeShields, Mark Ellis, Jim Gilliam, Mark Grudzielanek, Billy Herman, Orlando Hudson, Jon Hummel, Jim Lefebvre, Howie Kendrick, Jeff Kent, Pete Kilduff, Lee Lacy, Davey Lopes, Gavin Lux, Bill McLellan, Charlie Neal, Willie Randolph, Jody Reed, Jackie Robinson, Juan Samuel, Steve Sax, Ted Sizemore, Eddie Stanky, Chase Utley, John Ward, Eric Young.
A reminder that players are listed at the position in which they played the most games for the Dodgers, which is why Gilliam and Robinson are listed here and not at other positions they played.
Up next
Friday: Washington (*MacKenzie Gore, 3-6, 2.89 ERA) at Dodgers (*Clayton Kershaw, 2-0, 3.25 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Saturday: Washington (Jake Irvin, 5-3, 4.23 ERA) at Dodgers (Dustin May, 4-4, 4.46 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Sunday: Washington (Michael Soroka, 3-5, 5.06 ERA) at Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani, 0-0, 9.00 ERA), 1:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
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.
With his arm forming a 90-degree angle at his elbow, Shohei Ohtani clenched his right hand like an umpire signaling an out.
The actual home-plate umpire, Tripp Gibson, didn’t make the same gesture.
Fernando Tatis Jr. was ruled safe at home. Three batters into his first game pitching for the Dodgers, Ohtani was charged with a run.
Ohtani pointed his glove at Gibson. He screamed. He turned his head in the direction of the Dodgers dugout, waving his glove as if to urge the bench to challenge the call.
The Dodgers saw another side of Ohtani on Monday in their 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres, but that entailed more than him taking the mound and throwing a couple of 100-mph fastballs.
Ohtani the pitcher, they learned, isn’t as playful as Ohtani the hitter. He snarls. He barks. He’s emotional, even downright combative at times.
This temperament could explain why Ohtani pitched the way he did in his first game in two seasons — why he threw as hard as he did, why he couldn’t control his fastball, why his sweeper lacked its usual movement.
Hitting is what Ohtani does for fun. Pitching is what he treats as work, and Ohtani was amped up to return to the mound.
“I was more nervous than when I’m just a hitter,” Ohtani said in Japanese.
His performance reflected that. In the one inning he pitched as an opener, he was charged with a run and two hits. He threw 28 pitches, of which only 16 were strikes.
Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for the Dodgers for the first time since signing with the team.
“My arm was moving a little too fast, so pitches were going more to the glove side than I anticipated,” Ohtani said.
His first pitch was a 97.6-mph fastball that was fouled off by Tatis. He averaged 99.1 mph with his four-seam fastball and 97.4 mph with his sinker, throwing 13 pitches at 98 mph or faster. He was clocked at 100.2 mph against Luis Arraez and 99.9 against Manny Machado.
That was considerably faster than Ohtani threw in live batting practice and considerably faster than the Dodgers were expecting him to throw in this game.
“I wanted to be around 95-96 as much as possible,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani gave up a single to Tatis on a 99.1-mph fastball that was left over the heart of the plate. Tatis advanced to second base on a 98.3-mph wild pitch and third on a single that Arraiz hit off a 98-mph sinker.
With runners on the corners, Ohtani thought he struck out Machado on a sweeper, but he was ruled to have checked his swing. Ohtani pointed at Gibson and appealed for a strike but to no avail. Ohtani unironically made a Joe Kelly pouty face.
Two pitches later, Machado scored Tatis with a sacrifice fly to center field.
“A little more animated than he usually is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani.
Roberts already knew Ohtani would be like this, as he’d spoken to people familiar with Ohtani, including former Angels manager Phil Nevin.
“I guess as a pitcher, he shows a lot more emotion and gets frustrated when things don’t go well or he doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do on the mound,” Roberts said with a chuckle.
Ohtani was more in control when he retired Xander Bogaerts for the final out of the inning, and he pointed to the at-bat as a highlight.
“I was able to relax and pitch,” he said.
Ohtani started by attacking him with a sweeper that was called for a strike. He followed that up with a 95.6-mph sinker that missed low, but forced Bogaerts to ground out for the third out on another sinker, this one on the inside half of the plate. That pitch was 95.4 mph.
After that, Ohtani strapped on protective gear and slipped on batting gloves while standing on the railing in front of the Dodgers’ bench. As a hitter, he finished the game two for four with a walk, two runs scored and two runs batted in.
In the batter’s box and on the basepaths, his demeanor softened. By the time he reached third base in the Dodgers’ five-run fourth inning, he was sharing laughs with Machado.
SAN DIEGO — Major League Baseball does not have a mercy rule for ending games early.
On Tuesday night at Petco Park, the Dodgers could have used one.
In recent years, the club has punted on plenty of games in the interest of protecting their often injury-riddled and shorthanded pitching staffs. But in an 11-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, they took the act of de facto forfeiture to levels even they hadn’t previously pioneered.
First, they let minor league call-up Matt Sauer wear it — in every sense of the phrase — over a nine-run, 13-hit, 111-pitch outing.
Then, in the face of a nine-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth, they sent position player Kiké Hernández to the mound to pitch the rest of the game, the earliest a true position player had ever taken the mound in a contest in Dodgers franchise history.
“Very awkward,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It doesn’t feel good.”
The Dodgers’ decision to pack, even before the seventh-inning stretch, it in was rooted in logic.
They are currently operating with only four healthy starting pitchers. Their equally banged-up bullpen is leading the majors in innings, and was coming off five frames of work in an extra-inning win the night before. And by the time Hernández took the mound in the sixth, the game had long been lost, the Padres (38-28) teeing off on Sauer with three runs two-out runs in the third inning, single scores in the fourth and fifth, and a four-spot in the sixth.
“I know that my job is just eat as many as I can,” said Sauer, who entered the game as a bulk man in the second inning after opener Lou Trivino tossed a scoreless first. “Obviously, today, didn’t have as good of stuff, but I felt like I was just out there pitching my ass off, trying to compete and trying to eat as many innings as I could for the bullpen.”
On the other side, Padres ace Dylan Cease mowed down the Dodgers, giving up three hits while striking out 11 batters over seven scoreless innings.
“We had a couple chances early,” Roberts said. “But I think when the game got away, you could just see things flip.”
Thus, the Dodgers (40-28) quickly turned their attention to Wednesday’s series rubber-match, one they will have to win to maintain sole possession of first place in the National League West.
Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández were removed from the game after the top of the sixth.
And knowing Wednesday’s starter will be left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who has a 7.20 ERA in three big-league outings this year and has spent much of the campaign in triple-A, Roberts decided not to waste any of his other available relievers on the latter innings either, inserting Hernández as pitcher the moment the Padres pushed their lead past eight runs with two out in the bottom of the frame (MLB rules prevent losing teams from using position players on the mound until they face an eight-run deficit).
“You just got to look at where our ‘pen is at, and appreciating what we have the next couple days, it wasn’t smart to chase and redline guys,” Roberts said. “A guy that was available tonight, [Michael] Kopech, I’m not going to pitch him down six or 7-0 in the sixth inning, to then not have him available tomorrow. As the rules are, we abided. That’s kind of what you do to essentially move forward and win the ensuing games.”
Still, a position player taking the mound in the sixth inning to finish off a blowout loss represented an almost unprecedented use of the tactic; one that has become so popular among MLB clubs in recent years that the league had to put in the eight-run restriction for when teams can do it.
Two years ago, the Cleveland Guardians had David Fry pitch four innings at the end of a rout against the Minnesota Twins, the first time a true position player had pitched at least three innings in a game since 1988, according to USA Today.
In 2018, the Arizona Diamondbacks used two position players for the final 4 ⅔ innings of a lopsided defeat at Coors Field to the Colorado Rockies.
Hernández’s 2 ⅓ innings (in which he gave up two runs, three hits and two walks) marked the longest pitching outing by a true position player in Dodgers history.
“Again, it’s about do you want to chase? And is it worth it versus [trying] to win tomorrow?” Roberts said. “I think those are things are part of the math … The goal was to come in here to win a series, and we got a really good chance to do that tomorrow.”
Given how Tuesday went, they better hope so. Because if not, their 10-run loss will be an embarrassment without much of a reward.
The most important pitches for the Dodgers on Tuesday came long before the start of their game that night.
In the second of a key three-game series against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers found themselves in an uncomfortably familiar position: Lacking an available starting pitcher amid a wave of early-season injuries, and turning instead to a collection of minor league arms thrust into big league duty; set to open the game with Lou Trivino, and then have Matt Sauer pitch bulk innings.
It’s not what the Dodgers envisioned entering the year, when they expected to have a rotation of potential All-Stars on the mound every day.
It was eerily similar to the circumstances they faced last October –– their Game 4, elimination-staving win against the Padres in last year’s National League Division Series, specifically.
Earlier Tuesday, however, the Dodgers had reasons for optimism: These current circumstances might not last much longer.
For the first time in a while, they could start to see light at the end of the pitching tunnel.
On the Petco Park mound, Ohtani threw the third live batting practice in his continued recovery from a 2023 Tommy John surgery, hurling 44 pitches over three simulated innings while racking up six strikeouts against a pair of rookie league hitters from the organization.
Back in Los Angeles, Glasnow threw the third bullpen session of his recovery from a shoulder inflammation injury, and could be getting close to facing live hitters himself in the near future.
And after Ohtani finished his session in San Diego, Snell threw 15 pitches in the bullpen, his first full bullpen session since suffering a setback in his recovery from shoulder inflammation back in April.
“Really encouraging,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You can start to see us get to the other side. It’s stuff to look forward to.”
Ohtani’s live session was the day’s biggest development. He made a significant jump in workload, going from the 29 pitches he threw two weekends ago at Dodger Stadium to a 44-pitch outing Tuesday that concluded with 23 throws in his third and final inning. But, after battling poor command in his previous live BP, he showed increased consistency and sharpness with all of his pitches, giving up just a ground-ball single and a lone walk while including 15 swings-and-misses with a variety of offerings.
“It wasn’t just pure power and velocity,” pitching coach Mark Prior said of Ohtani, whose fastball averaged around 94-96 mph. “He got some swing-and-misses on his off-speed pitches. He’s being able to keep guys off balance and mess up their timing. There’s different types of misses. I think from that standpoint, those are good things.”
Roberts came away so encouraged, he even hinted at a more optimistic timeline for when Ohtani –– who hasn’t pitched in a big league game since August 2023 –– might be able to join the team’s active rotation, saying the chances are “north of zero” that the right-hander could return before the All-Star break.
In recent weeks, Roberts had said Ohtani wouldn’t be back until after the Midsummer Classic.
“It’s tempting,” Roberts said. “I’m sure Shohei feels tempted to just kind of rip the Band-Aid off and get into a big league game. But I think we’re doing a good job of being patient. And truth be told, I don’t think anyone knows the right time to get him in a big league game. We’re still being very careful, I guess.”
Another notable development from Roberts on Tuesday: Ohtani might not have to complete “a full build-up” before pitching in big league games.
“Anything he can give us is certainly additive,” Roberts said, an idea underscored by Ohtani’s two-way player status, which would effectively make him an extra arm on the Dodgers’ staff without counting against their 13-pitcher roster max.
“I still stand by him, and [head team physician] Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache and the training staff are going to drive this,” said Roberts, who wasn’t sure when Ohtani would throw his next live session. “I’m just anxious for the next one.”
Glasnow and Snell have more steps to complete in their comebacks, from their own live sessions to likely minor league rehab stints.
Prior also noted that those two will have to be more fully built up before they are activated, given the already overworked state of the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Still, Snell said after two months of lingering shoulder pain earlier this year, the breakthrough he has experienced in the last two weeks has renewed his confidence about how he’ll perform when he returns.
“I’m very excited,” he said after throwing at about 70% intensity level in his 15-pitch bullpen. “After this ‘pen, the ramp up is gonna start, and I can start pitching, and I know I’m gonna be a factor on the team again.”
Prior offered similar encouragement with Glasnow’s recent work, noting his fastball is up to 95-96 mph.
“Everything looks good,” Prior said of Glasnow. “He really has been feeling good and the ball has been coming out really good.”
In the meantime, the Dodgers will have to continue to tread water. They currently have only four healthy starters in the rotation between Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May and Justin Wrobleski. And though Emmet Sheehan could be an option to return from his own Tommy John surgery after one more start in his minor league rehab next week, the recent loss of Tony Gonsolin –– and continued absence of Roki Sasaki, who has yet to progress past light catch play –– has only further limited the club’s pitching options.
That’s why, even on a day the Dodgers were patching together a pitching plan once again, they were finally feeling hopeful about the long-term state of their staff.
Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow are finally making strides toward returning.
The star-studded pitching staff the club had been planning for this season might soon become a reality once again.
Previously limited to fastballs and splitters, Shohei Ohtani threw a handful of sliders and curveballs in his mid-week bullpen session, but that doesn’t mean he will be a two-way player again before the All-Star break.
Ohtani is lined up to potentially face hitters in a simulated game Saturday in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will pitch in the upcoming four-week stretch that could determine the course of the Dodgers’ season.
As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly.
The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score) at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score) Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score) Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT* Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT* Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
*if necessary
ANGELS
Taylor Ward hit a go-ahead grand slam, Logan O’Hoppe also homered in a five-run seventh inning and the Angels rallied past the skidding Athletics 10-5 on Thursday for their seventh consecutive victory.
Ward and O’Hoppe both connected off reliever Grant Holman (4-1), sending the A’s to their ninth loss in a row. O’Hoppe had four homers in the series.
It was the second go-ahead slam in 10 days for Ward, who finished with three hits and five RBIs. He has an extra-base hit in eight straight games — one shy of the club record set by Darin Erstad in 1998.
Ward has 17 RBIs in his last 10 games. He and O’Hoppe each have 14 homers this season. Zach Neto also had three of the Angels’ 13 hits.
From Ben Bolch: The Bruin Bombers. The Bash Brothers. The Splash Brothers.
Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant are open to any nicknames that reflect their standing as college softball’s most formidable hitting duo.
“Whatever anyone wants to call us,” Woolery said, “we don’t even care.”
Any credible nickname must recognize their staggering power. Bonus points are available for a reference to their native Bay Area. What’s not negotiable is the conveying of their connection, both as the best of friends and their proximity in UCLA’s batting order.
Woolery hits third, followed by Grant in the cleanup spot. It has been that way in every lineup card this season except for the three games in which Grant was either limited to pinch-hitting duties or sidelined because of a minor hamstring injury.
The payoff of pairing them together has been historic, a combination as proven as peanut butter and jelly or Simon and Garfunkel.
From Ryan Kartje: The first thing that catches your eye as you enter new Dedeaux Field — once you’ve navigated the ground floor of the parking structure, past the temporary batting cages in the construction zone beyond center field, down the path strewn with electric scooters, around “CONSTRUCTION ACCESS GATE #3” and onto the warning track of USC’s soon-to-be baseball home — is the actual field itself.
A new playing surface wasn’t something Trojans baseball players were clamoring for. They loved old Dedeaux Field and its charms. But plans for a football practice facility necessitated speeding up the timeline for upgrades on the half-century-old venue, and USC’s baseball program, with twice as many titles as any other school in NCAA history during that time, was told to make the best of it.
Of course, no one within the program was complaining about the prospect of a shiny new ballpark — least of all Andy Stankiewicz, the Trojans’ coach. But with a blank canvas on which to build a new version of Dedeaux Field, there was some upside. One is that every square inch of the park, down to the dirt, could now be given careful, meticulous consideration — with no expense spared.
“Every detail, every material was hand-picked,” says Scott Lupold, USC’s director of turf. He believes there will be no equal in the ranks of college baseball fields when his work is finished. The grade of the infield, he says, is perfectly flat. The gleaming green grass — Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass — is the finest on the market, the same you find in Dodger Stadium. And the dirt? You might catch yourself wondering if it’s dirt at all. “We were literally able to design every aspect of the surface how we wanted it,” Lupold says. As sports turf goes, this is his Sistine Chapel.
The College Football Playoff will go to a more straightforward way of filling the bracket next season, placing teams strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions.
Ten conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director came to the unanimous agreement they needed Thursday to shift the model that drew complaints last season.
The new format was widely expected after last season’s jumbled bracket gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though those teams were ranked ninth and 12th by the playoff selection committee.
NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS
All times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary) Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN* Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC* Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary) Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary) Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1884 — Knight of Ellersie, ridden by S. Fischer, wins the two-horse Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Welcher.
1922 — Future world heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney suffers his only professional defeat in 15-round unanimous points decision against Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.
1936 — Rushaway, ridden by John Longden, wins his second derby in as many days, taking the 1 1/4-mile Latonia Derby at Latonia in Covington, Ky. Rushaway had won the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby, run at Aurora, Ill., the previous day.
1941 — In his 20th world heavyweight boxing title defense Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in round 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1953 — Native Dancer, ridden by Eric Guerin, avenges the loss in the Kentucky Derby by edging Jamie K. by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes.
1964 — Dale Greig runs female marathon world record (3:27:45).
1968 — AC Milan of Italy win 8th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Hamburger SV of West Germany 2-0 in Rotterdam.
1976 — Boston center Dave Cowens dominates the opener of the NBA Finals against Phoenix with a 25-point, 21-rebound performance and the Celtics defeat the Suns, 98-87.
1981 — Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas.
1991 — Paul Dougherty scores two goals and adds two assists to help the San Diego Sockers win their fourth consecutive Major Indoor Soccer League championship with an 8-6 victory over the Cleveland Crunch.
1997 — In the first all-freshman singles final in NCAA history, Stanford’s Lilia Osterloh beats Florida’s M.C. White 6-1, 6-1 to win the women’s singles tennis championship.
2001 — 9th UEFA Champions League Final: Bayern Munich beats Valencia (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) at Milan.
2005 — Anastasia Myskina is the first defending champion at the French Open to be eliminated in the opening round, losing to Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
2007 — UEFA Champions League Final, Athens: Filippo Inzaghi scores twice as AC Milan beats Liverpool, 2-1 for 7th title.
2009 — Alabama sophomore Kelsi Dunne becomes the first player to throw back-to-back no-hitters in NCAA postseason play. Dunne holds Jacksonville State hitless for the second straight day in a 9-0 softball victory. The two no-hitters tie the NCAA postseason record. It’s Dunne’s fourth of the season and a school-record six for her career.
2013 — Patrick Roy is named head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, his former team where he won two Stanley Cups.
2018 — NFL owners approve new NFL national anthem policy whereby players required to stand if they choose to be on the field for pre-game presentations.
2021 — Phil Mickelson wins the 2021 PGA Championship by two strokes to become the oldest major winner (50) in PGA history.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1901 — The Cleveland Blues, later known as the Indians, scored nine runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Senators 14-13.
1910 — In the top of the ninth inning in a game against Boston, Cincinnati’s Dode Paskert stole second base, third base and home plate. The theft gave the Reds a 6-5 win.
1924 — Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out 14 in a 4-0 one-hitter over the Chicago White Sox for his 103rd shutout.
1925 — Cincinnati pitcher Pete Donohue had five hits — four singles and a homer — in beating the Philadelphia Phillies 11-2.
1935 — The first major league night game, scheduled for Cincinnati, was postponed because of rain.
1948 — Joe DiMaggio hit three consecutive home runs, the first two off Bob Feller, to lead the New York Yankees to 6-5 win over Cleveland.
1962 — New York’s Joe Pepitone hit two homers in the nine-run eighth inning of the Yankees’ 13-7 triumph over Kansas City.
1970 — The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants battled for 15 innings, with the Padres winning 17-16. Nate Colbert led San Diego with five hits and four RBIs.
1984 — The Detroit Tigers won their 16th consecutive road game, 4-2 at California, tying an AL record.
1991 — Tommy Greene, making the 15th start of his major league career, pitched a no-hitter and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Montreal 2-0.
2000 — The Orioles defeat the Mariners‚ 4-2. Seattle’s Rickey Henderson draws his 2‚000th career walk in the 9th inning‚ making him the third player to reach that level‚ after Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
2002 — Dodgers slugger Shawn Green became the 14th man in major league history to homer four times in a game and set a big league record with 19 total bases. He went 6-for-6, scoring six times with seven RBIs in a 16-3 win at Milwaukee.
2003 — Jeremi Gonzalez earned his first major league victory in nearly five years as Tampa Bay beat the Angels 3-1. Gonzalez won for the first time since June 28, 1998, while with the Chicago Cubs. He had elbow surgery in 1998 and ’99 before the Cubs released him in 2001.
2005 — Left-hander Mark Mulder of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes just the 12th National League pitcher since 1976 to throw a complete game shutout of 10 innings or more when he blanks the Houston Astros, 1-0, in 10 innings. Greg Maddux posted the last extra-inning shutout in the National League in 1988.
2009 — Jason Giambi hit his 400th homer in the Oakland Athletics’ 8-7 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the 44th player to reach the milestone.
2011 — Corey Hart hit his first three home runs this season and drove in seven to tie both club records, lifting Milwaukee to an 11-3 win over Washington.
2018 — The Seattle Mariners sign a new 25-year lease to continue playing at Safeco Field. The lease will take effect at the expiration of the current 20-year lease at the end of the season, a lease which was signed when the ballpark opened in 1999.
2023 — Gerrit Cole records the 2,000th strikeout of his career when he fans Jorge Mateo of the Orioles in the 2nd inning, becoming the third-fastest pitcher to the mark in terms of both games pitched (278) and innings pitched (1,714 2/3).
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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Previously limited to fastballs and splitters, Shohei Ohtani threw a handful of sliders and curveballs in his mid-week bullpen session, but that doesn’t mean he will be a two-way player again before the All-Star break.
Ohtani is lined up to potentially face hitters in a simulated game on Saturday in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will pitch in the upcoming four-week stretch that could determine the course of the Dodgers’ season.
As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly.
The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound.
Which is a major gamble in itself.
Every one of their next 26 games will be against teams with winning records. Of them, 23 will be against teams that would have qualified for the playoffs if the regular season ended on Wednesday, the exception being the St. Louis Cardinals, who have won 13 of their last 17 games.
Starting on Friday at Citi Field with the opening game of a three-game series against the New York Mets, the stretch of games will include seven meetings with the San Diego Padres and three with the San Francisco Giants.
The Padres were 2 ½ games behind the Dodgers in the National League West entering Thursday. The Giants were just two back.
Considering the state of their pitching staff, the Dodgers could very easily emerge from this stretch of games in second, third, or maybe even fourth place in their division.
Roki Sasaki is targeting a return in late June from what the team described as a shoulder impingement, but the rookie never looked entirely comfortable before he went down, so who knows what he will offer them when he comes back.
Roki Sasaki is one of several Dodgers starting pitchers on the injured list.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“Not sure I’ve ever seen their pitching so decimated,” an executive from a rival team said.
The loss of frontline starters is nothing new for the Dodgers, whose injury problems last year practically forced them to acquire Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline. What’s new is their lack of depth.
The returns of Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw have mitigated the problem but only so much. Along with the inconsistent Dustin May and the consistently mediocre Landon Knack, Gonsolin and Kershaw represent the rotation’s final line of defense.
In previous seasons, the Dodgers always seemed to have 10 pitchers in their organization who could beat a mid- or low-level opponent on any given day. However, the inability to keep their young pitchers healthy has cost them much of that depth. Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Gavin Stone underwent major surgeries last year. Michael Grove had a shoulder operation this year. Injuries have turned Bobby Miller into a pedestrian minor leaguer, but if another starter is injured, the Dodgers could be forced to call him up again.
Dave Roberts expertly managed a depleted rotation and exhausted bullpen in the playoffs last year, and he’ll have to do it again less than two months into the regular season. He could have to punt on certain games. When his team is behind, he could have to ask his starter to pitch an extra inning or two so that he could save his high-leverage relievers for games in which they are ahead.
This isn’t to say Ohtani’s pitching comeback should be expedited. Whomever they have pitching, the Dodgers will have to score runs to win another World Series, and that starts with Othani. Before they unleash Ohtani the pitcher, they have to protect Ohtani the hitter.
Because of that, they have gambled on May pitching more games like the one he pitched on Wednesday night in a 3-1 victory over Diamondbacks. They have gambled on Kershaw figuring out how to pitch as a 37-year-old returning from multiple operations. And they have gambled on Roberts managing an injury-ravaged pitching staff.
The wagers will decide what kind of season this will be, whether this is a year in which the Dodgers will run away with the NL West or one in which they will have to fight until the final days of the regular season to determine which team is granted a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Tuesday didn’t start as a game the Dodgers necessarily had to win.
But, by the time extra innings arrived on a nervy night at Dodger Stadium, the team was in a situation where they simply couldn’t afford to lose.
Not after entering the day with four consecutive losses, a season-long skid caused primarily by a banged-up pitching staff. Not after Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like an ace, a stopper and a Cy Young candidate all wrapped in one, spinning seven scoreless innings in a nine-strikeout gem. And certainly not with his brilliance in danger of being wasted after closer Tanner Scott blew a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before yielding a two-run blast in the top of the 10th.
“I don’t know if it was a must-win,” manager Dave Roberts said, sidestepping such superlatives with the season still only two months old. “But certainly given Yoshi’s outing, you don’t wanna waste that … You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws [that well].”
Somehow, in a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t; flipping the script, changing the narrative and snapping their losing streak with the most dramatic of endings.
Down by two runs entering the bottom of the 10th, the Dodgers immediately cut the deficit in half with a leadoff RBI double from Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked, Mookie Betts advanced Edman with a fly ball, Ohtani stole second, and Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked with first base open. With the bases loaded, Will Smith got plunked by former Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller to force home the tying score. And then, finally, Max Muncy walked it off with a sacrifice fly to deep center, easily scoring Ohtani from third for a victory that felt both hard-earned and hardly deserved.
“I think it showed a lot out of us,” Muncy said afterward, standing in a celebratory clubhouse after what could prove to be a pivotal point in the season.
“We got punched in the mouth, and for us to punch right back, I think that was really big out of the group, out of the guys,” Muncy added. “Everyone not giving up, not hanging their head — we still had a chance to win the game. And guys went out there and did it.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts after striking out Arizona’s Pavin Smith to retire end the seventh inning.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Winning, of course, should have been a much simpler task for the Dodgers (30-19) on Tuesday night.
Yamamoto was spectacular, giving up no hits through his first six innings, stranding runners on the corners to complete his night in the seventh, and providing the Dodgers with the kind of outing that has been missing from their rotation amid a wave of crippling injuries over the last several weeks.
“Yoshi was fantastic,” Roberts said. “We needed every bit of it.”
An equally banged-up bullpen avoided disaster in the eighth, when Alex Vesia and Ben Casparius combined to work through a bases-loaded jam that preserved a narrow 1-0 lead.
“We just kept fighting,” Smith said. “That [was a] big shutdown inning.”
But all along, the Dodgers failed to open any cushion to fall back on late. Their only early scoring was courtesy of back-to-back two-out doubles from Freeman and Smith in the bottom of the fourth. In the seventh and eighth, they squandered opportunities for insurance, stranding a leadoff single from Muncy and a one-out double from Ohtani.
That meant, when Scott caught too much plate with an up-and-in fastball to Gabriel Moreno in the ninth, all it took was one swing to change the game, Moreno skying a solo blast that carried just far enough down the left field line.
“Just left it too much on the plate,” said Scott, who blew his third save in 12 opportunities.
Freddie Freeman scores on a double by Will Smith in the fourth inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
After the Dodgers came up empty again in the ninth — Kiké Hernández struck out in what started as a 3-and-0 count with two runners aboard — Scott made the same mistake to Corbin Carroll in the 10th, serving up a belt-high fastball the undersized slugger whacked the other way for a two-run blast.
“You sit there in the [10th] inning, you’re down two runs, and your bullpen is completely taxed,” Roberts said, “those [kind of losses] really sting.”
Instead, the Dodgers rallied, with Anthony Banda limiting any further damage in the top of the 10th before the lineup rallied in the bottom half.
“It’s a big swing,” Roberts said. “To get a win tonight, I’m gonna sleep a lot better.”
Without Yamamoto, none of it would have been possible.
After giving up eight runs over 11 combined innings in his previous two starts, every part of the 26-year-old right-hander’s stuff played up on Tuesday night. His fastball averaged 96 mph. His curveball induced one helpless swing from the Diamondbacks (26-23) after another. And until Ketel Marte singled on a line drive off the wall to lead off the seventh, it was starting to seem like an elevated pitch count (Yamamoto began that inning with 90 pitches, and finished his outing with an MLB career high of 110) might be the only thing standing between him and a pursuit of a nine-inning no-no.
“I thought he was going to go the distance tonight,” Muncy said of Yamamoto, who dropped his ERA to 1.86 with his third career MLB start of seven scoreless frames. “I thought he had the stuff to get the no-hitter.”
That’s why, when the game started to spiral out of control later, and their losing streak seemed primed to continue in the most painful way possible, the Dodgers entered the 10th inning knowing they needed to respond, and wary of the repercussions that would have accompanied such a crushing, wasteful loss.
“They [tied it] and then flipped the game, but we came back,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter afterward, his no-decision not feeling so bad after what transpired in the bottom of the 10th.
“A win like this is great,” he added.
Echoed Roberts: “We just put some at-bats together, man. And it was much needed.”
