outing

You’d be forgiven for not remembering the trade.

On June 2 this year, the Dodgers were in need of pitching help. At the time, their rotation had been ravaged by injuries, and their bullpen was overworked and running low on depth. Thus, the morning after their relievers had been further taxed following a short start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto against the New York Yankees, the Dodgers went out and added a little-known pitcher in a deal with the Seattle Mariners.

Will Klein’s origin story had quietly begun.

Almost five months before becoming a World Series hero for the Dodgers, pitching four miraculously scoreless innings in their 18-inning Game 3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, Klein joined the organization as a largely anonymous face, acquired in exchange for fellow reliever Joe Jacques in the kind of depth transaction the Dodgers make dozens of over the course of each season.

At that point, even Klein couldn’t have foreseen the star turn in his future.

He had a career ERA over 5.00 in the minor leagues. He had struggled in limited big-league action in 2024, battling poor command while giving up nine runs in eight outings. He had already changed organizations three times, and been designated for assignment by the Mariners the day before.

“I woke up to a 9 a.m. missed phone call and a text,” Klein recalled Tuesday. “Found out I was DFA’d. Really low then.”

Now, in the kind of serendipitous turn only October can create, Klein has etched his name into World Series lore.

“I don’t think that will set in for a long time,” he said.

As the last man standing in the Dodgers’ bullpen in Game 3, Klein pitched more than he ever has as a professional, tossing 72 pitches to save the team from putting a position player on the mound.

Afterward, he was mobbed by his teammates following Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run, then greeted in the clubhouse with a handshake and an accomplished “good job” from Dodgers pitching icon Sandy Koufax.

He had 500 missed messages on his phone when the game ended. He got 500 more as he tried responding to everyone Tuesday morning. His middle school in Indiana, he said, had even hung a picture of him up in a hallway.

“I woke up this morning still not feeling like last night had happened,” he said in a pre-Game 4 news conference. “It was an out-of-body experience.”

A thickly bearded 25-year-old right-hander originally from Bloomington, Ind., Klein’s path to Monday’s extra-inning marathon could hardly have been more circuitous.

In high school, he was primarily a catcher, until a broken thumb prompted him to focus on pitching. When he was recruited to Eastern Illinois for college, his ACT scores (he got a 34) helped almost as much as his natural arm talent.

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein also pitched in the eighth inning of Game 1 in Toronto, allowing no runs.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I’m big into academics,” Eastern Illinois coach Jason Anderson said by phone Tuesday. “If you can figure out science class, you can figure out how to throw a slider.”

Anderson wasn’t wrong. Though Klein was initially raw on the mound, posting a 5.74 ERA in his first two collegiate seasons, he worked tirelessly on improving his velocity, learning how to leverage the power he generated with his long-limbed, 6-foot-5 frame.

As his fastball crept toward triple digits, he started garnering the attention of MLB scouts. Though Klein’s junior season in 2020 was cut short after four outings by the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d shown enough promise in collegiate summer leagues beforehand to get drafted in that year’s fifth and final round by the Kansas City Royals.

Klein’s rise to the major leagues from there was not linear. His poor command (he averaged nearly seven walks per nine innings in his first three minor-league years) hampered him even as he climbed the Royals’ organizational ladder.

Klein reached the big leagues last year, but made only four appearances before being included in a trade deadline deal to the Oakland Athletics. This past winter, after finishing the 2024 campaign with an 11.05 ERA, he was dealt again to the Mariners.

The return in that package? “Other considerations,” according to MLB’s transaction log.

“His whole career has been [full of] challenges,” Anderson said. “He really just needed some time and somebody to believe in him.”

With the Dodgers, that’s exactly what he found.

Long before his arrival, Klein had admirers in the organization. The club’s director of pitching, Rob Hill, was immediately struck by his high-riding heater and mid-80s mph curveball when he first saw Klein pitch in minor-league back-field games during spring training in 2021 and 2022.

“I vividly remember his outings against us in spring training,” Hill said. “I was walking around, asking people, ‘Who is this guy?’ That was my first introduction to him.”

After being traded to the Dodgers, Klein was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma City to work under the tutelage of minor-league pitching coaches Ryan Dennick and David Anderson. There, he started to refine his approach and trust his high-octane arsenal in the zone more. In 22 ⅔ innings, he struck out a whopping 44 batters.

“[He was] never short for stuff,” Anderson told OKC’s team broadcaster at the end of the season. “It was just accessing the zone and forcing action.”

During four stints on the MLB roster over the second half of the year — during which he posted a 2.35 ERA in 14 outings — Klein also worked with big-league pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness on developing a sweeper to give him an all-important third pitch.

“I think our coaches have done a fantastic job of cleaning up the delivery, challenging him to be in the hitting zone, working on a slider,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a great young man. And it’s one of those things that you don’t really know until you throw somebody in the fire.”

The Dodgers didn’t do that initially this October, sending Klein to so-called “stay hot” camp in Arizona for the first three rounds of the playoffs.

But while Klein was there, Hill said it “was very notable how locked in he was” during bi-weekly sessions of live batting practice, with the pitcher “consistently asking for feedback and trying to continue to make sure his stuff was ready.”

During the team’s off week before the World Series, Klein was sent to Los Angeles to throw more live at-bats against their big-league hitters. He promptly impressed once again, helping thrust himself further into Fall Classic roster consideration as the team contemplated ways to shuffle the bullpen.

Still, when Klein learned he would actually be active for the World Series, he acknowledged it came as a surprise.

“I’m just going to go out there,” he told himself, “and do what I can to help all these guys that have worked their butts off.”

After holding his own in a scoreless inning of mop-duty in a Game 1 blowout loss to the Blue Jays, Klein started sensing another opportunity coming as Monday’s game stretched deep into the night.

“I realized that, when I looked around in the bullpen and my name was the only one still there, I was just going to [keep pitching] until I couldn’t,” he laughed.

Every time he returned to the dugout between innings, he told the coaching staff he was good to keep going.

“No one else is going to care that my legs are tired right now,” he said. “Just finding it in me to throw one more pitch, and then throw another one after that.”

Back in Illinois, Anderson was like everyone else from Klein’s past. Awed by how deep he managed to dig on the mound. Moved by a moment they, just like him, could have never foreseen or possibly imagined.

“Everything about him — his mentality, his work ethic, his obstacles, his path — it was like he was destined to be on that field at that time,” Anderson said. “That’s one of the greatest baseball games in history.”

And, against all odds, it was Klein who left perhaps its most heroic mark.

Roki Sasaki topped 100 mph a half-dozen times in four shutout innings of a rehab start for triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday, pushing himself back into the conversation for a spot on the Dodgers’ postseason pitching staff.

“We’ve all got to huddle up and figure out what’s the next plan,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I personally don’t know Roki’s plan after tonight.”

Sasaki struggled through four rehab appearances and seemed to have dropped off the Dodgers’ radar. But he gave up just a hit through the first four innings Tuesday before tiring in the fifth, when he gave up three runs, two walks, two hits and a hit batter.

He threw 90 pitches, 52 for strikes, striking out eight and walking four.

It’s unlikely Sasaki, 23, will be considered for a spot in the rotation but he could pitch out of the bullpen.

“Anything’s possible,” Roberts said. “I know he wants to contribute. So we’ve just got to see where he fits in. And we’ll have that conversation as an organization.”

Sasaki went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts before going on the injured list with a shoulder impingement in mid-May. In his first four rehab starts for Oklahoma City, he gave up 17 hits and 11 earned runs in 14 innings.

The Dodgers’ bullpen is starting to get crowded, however, with left-hander Alex Vesia returning from the injured list Tuesday. Vesia was 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA in 59 games before going to the sidelines on Aug. 23 with a right oblique strain. Right-hander Ben Casparius was optioned to Oklahoma City to create a roster spot for Vesia. Casparius was 7-5 with a 4.64 ERA in 46 games.

Roberts said as the postseason roster begins to come together the decisions on who stays and who goes with 2 ½ weeks left in the regular season become harder.

“The conversation with Ben yesterday wasn’t fun for anyone,” he said. “It starts to get tougher.”

He’ll have to have another one of those talks Wednesday before activating utility player Tommy Edman from the injury list. Outfielder Justin Dean, who has appeared mostly as a defensive replacement, batting just twice in 18 games entering Tuesday, is the most likely to be sent down.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In truth, there was very little notable action on Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Which, in effect, is exactly how Justin Wrobleski liked it.

In the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the Kansas City Royals — a victory that clinched the weekend series and gave the club a 5-1 record on this past week’s road trip — Wrobleski continued to quietly impress as a depth pitching option for the Dodgers, pitching six scoreless innings that were short on flash but long on substance; serving as the latest productive outing in his suddenly auspicious sophomore season.

“Justin’s confidence is at an all-time high,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And he’s a confident young man already.”

Entering the game behind opener Lou Trivino at the start of the second, Wrobleski made easy work of a struggling Kansas City offense, giving up just three hits and one walk in a six-strikeout showing as the Dodgers (53-32) pulled away at the plate.

Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer in the second. Will Smith added a solo shot in the sixth. And by the time the team tacked on two more runs in the seventh, such extra insurance was already looking unneeded.

Instead, Wrobleski further raised his stock in what has been a surprise midseason rejuvenation, turning in his best career performance at the big-league level.

Over his 83-pitch outing, the Royals (39-45) only once managed to even put a runner in scoring position. They squandered all three leadoff hitters who reached base. And during their best opportunity to rally in the third, Wrobleski mowed through the heart of their order, sandwiching one strikeout of Jonathan India and fielder’s choice grounder from Vinnie Pasquantino with a statement-sending punchout of Royals star Bobby Witt Jr., getting him to whiff on a 96-mph fastball and putaway two-strike slider.

“Bobby Witt is one of the best hitters in the game,” Roberts said. “And for him to beat him with the fastball, he wasn’t doing that last year.”

Indeed, few saw Wrobleski’s surge coming this season.

After a choppy eight-game debut last year, when he had a 5.70 ERA, the 24-year-old left-hander’s first opportunity in the majors this season was a total disaster, giving up eight runs in five innings to the Washington Nationals back on April 8.

Wrobleski was optioned back to the minor leagues after that, and made only one MLB appearance over the next two months: a four-inning outing in mop-up relief duty during a May 15 blowout of the Athletics.

At the start of June, however, he was called back up to make a spot start in St. Louis, turning in a decent six-inning, four-run effort. And since then, he has continued to get better each time out. In his last 20 innings — all of them coming in bulk relief — he has conceded just four earned runs while striking out 21 batters. His overall ERA in five June appearances was 2.73.

“Having that bad one in Washington, honestly, set me back in a good way,” Wrobleski said. “I had to go back down, make a few adjustments.”

And now, he joked, that D.C. start “feels like it was three years ago.”

The biggest difference with Wrobleski of late has been his fastball. In that April start against the Nationals, it averaged just 93 mph. In every outing since, it has sat around 96-97 mph, and topped out above 99 mph.

Wrobleski credited the improvement with some small mechanical tweaks, having adopted a wider base in his pre-pitch stance and incorporated a rocking motion in his delivery to help him direct his momentum toward the plate.

But also, he said he has simply found a way to throw with maximum effort more consistently — coupling it with an increased reliance on his sinker to attack the zone and induce quick outs.

“I think it just goes back to me being me,” said Wrobleski, an 11th round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2021. “That’s how I got here was doing that. I got away from it a little bit, tried to quote-unquote ‘throw strikes,’ and when you do that, it leads to results that are not desirable. But at the end of the day, [I just want to] throw my best stuff for as long as I can until they take the ball. I think that’s been a major key.”

As a result, Wrobleski’s name is quickly rising among the hierarchy of young Dodgers pitching.

The fact that he was even on this road trip was a sign of the organization’s growing confidence in his abilities.

During the team’s last homestand, fellow young talent Emmet Sheehan returned from Tommy John surgery with four sharp innings, and seemed primed to occupy an open spot in the Dodgers’ rotation moving forward. However, with Sheehan not yet fully built up, the club elected to option him back to triple A and have Wrobleski pitch twice in a six-day span this week, with a five-inning, two-run outing in Colorado on Tuesday preceding Sunday’s gem in Kansas City.

Sheehan should be back in the majors soon, having pitched six perfect innings with 13 strikeouts in a start with Oklahoma City on Wednesday (manager Dave Roberts said Sheehan’s next outing will also be with OKC, though he could still rejoin the Dodgers before the end of their upcoming homestand).

But now, he’s not the only former prospect showing flashes of being an impact option in the majors.

“He’s changed a lot,” Roberts said of the team’s evaluation of Wrobleski. “We’ve always valued him and thought a lot of him as far as the talent. But right now, he’s getting major league hitters out … And in the spirit of getting opportunities while earning them, he’s doing that.”

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.

Twelve weeks into the season, the Dodgers are already turning to a 12th different starting pitcher in their revolving door of a rotation.

For Ben Casparius, it’s an opportunity he’s patiently waited for all season.

Though Casparius is technically still a rookie, the 26-year-old right-hander has seen a lot in his young MLB career. Last year, he went from starting the season as an overlooked double-A prospect (one who didn’t even get an invite to big-league spring training) to finishing it pitching key innings in four postseason games, including as an opener in Game 4 of the World Series.

This spring, a rash of bullpen injuries ensured he’d have a spot on the opening-day big-league roster. More injuries to top right-handed relievers pushed him into a de facto leverage role.

At every step, the former fifth-round draft pick has excelled, posting a 2.86 ERA over 44 innings this year with 46 strikeouts and only nine walks.

Along with fellow rookie reliever Jack Dreyer, Casparius has become one of the unsung heroes responsible for helping the first-place Dodgers overcome their injury-riddled start.

“We don’t win this game tonight without Ben,” is the kind of quote manager Dave Roberts has uttered more than once, and most recently after Casparius pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief in a come-from-behind win against the New York Mets on June 3.

“He’s had to grow up really quickly for us,” Roberts added that night, “and he’s got the respect of his teammates.”

Now, however, Casparius is getting a new level of respect from the team’s decision-makers, too.

After exhausting virtually all their other starting pitching alternatives to this point — from struggling minor-league arms such as Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Justin Wrobleski, to a bulk-inning option such as Matt Sauer — the Dodgers are finally entrusting Casparius with a starting role.

For all the value he brought in the bullpen, they simply couldn’t afford to keep him out of the rotation any longer.

“Where we were at [earlier this season], we felt that there was more value [having him come] out of the ‘pen and being kind of a versatile type reliever,” Roberts said. “But where we are at now currently, he’s certainly showing that he’s 1 of 5.”

Casparius got his first shot at a more traditional start on Wednesday in San Diego, producing four innings of one-run ball in an outing he didn’t know he was making until the night before.

In the days leading up, the Dodgers had lost Tony Gonsolin to an elbow problem — already their fourth starter to get injured just since the start of the season. They had demoted Knack to the minors, and watched Wrobleski give up four runs in six innings to the St. Louis Cardinals as his replacement. They saw Sauer get roughed up as a bulk-innings pitcher Tuesday against the Padres, and Miller implode in a 10-run outing in triple-A that same night.

Suddenly, the team was down to just three healthy starters it could trust: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw.

Emmet Sheehan might be part of that group before long, continuing his recovery from Tommy John surgery with a third triple-A rehab start on Thursday in which he pitched 3 ⅓ innings (once he completes four innings, Roberts said, he will be a viable option for the big-league club). Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are also making progress towards returning, though none of them are likely to be back until sometime next month.

Emmet Sheehan, left, with Ben Casparius and River Ryan during the World Series ring ceremony in March, made his third triple-A rehab start on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Thus, with a Wednesday rubber match against the Padres looming, the Dodgers decided to reassign Casparius from multi-inning reliever to their latest fill-in starter.

“We like this kind of transition right now,” Roberts said. “Figuring out how we get through this period before we get other guys back to health … potentially there’s a chance to continue to build him up, which right now makes sense.”

In a win over the Padres that kept the Dodgers in sole possession of first place of the NL West entering another key series this weekend against the San Francisco Giants, Casparius responded with quality production. He limited damage (with the help of an Andy Pages outfield assist) to one run during a bases-loaded jam in the second. He retired the side in order in each of the other three innings he pitched.

Most notably, he also fought to take down an inning more than initially expected — lobbying to stay in the game for the fourth despite Roberts’ pregame assertion he likely wouldn’t pitch past the third (not since May 5 had Casparius thrown more than three innings in an outing).

“He wasn’t going to come out of that game after three,” Roberts said. “He wanted to stay in for the fourth.”

It gave Casparius the chance to flash his full arsenal of starting-caliber stuff; from a big-breaking combination of sweepers and curveballs, to a late-biting cutter that can induce soft contact, to an upper-90s mph fastball that, one point, even Padres star Manny Machado outwardly endorsed, pointing to Casparius with an approving nod of his head after swinging through a 98-mph heater up in the zone for a first-inning strikeout.

“I saw that,” Casparius said. “He’s one of the best players in the game, so it’s pretty cool.”

Casparius also showcased his evolved mental approach.

During his minor-league career, Casparius started in 57 of his 79 career appearances. Moving to the bullpen full-time at the start of his major league career gave him perspective he believes will benefit him in his return to a starting role now.

“Taking that reliever mindset, pitch by pitch, inning by inning, has helped me to slow the game down in general,” Casparius said. “So I think it’s been kind of a blessing. And then whatever happens going forward, I think I can just use that to keep going.”

Eventually, Casparius could be shifted to the bullpen again. Once the Dodgers get healthier, his value as a multi-inning relief option will likely mean resuming his swingman role.

But for now, Roberts has already confirmed that “the next time he’s on the mound, it will be as a starter.”

And for a pitcher who, despite his success out of the bullpen, has continued to view himself as a starter long-term, it represents an opportunity that might have been borne of out necessity, but was also long-ago earned.

“Obviously, I’ve been doing it for the majority of my professional career, so it’s something I’m comfortable with routine-wise,” Casparius said of starting games. “I’m just looking forward to what’s going on and what’s coming up next.”

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.

LEGENDARY British actor Tim Curry was seen on a rare outing in Los Angeles today, 13 years after suffering a major stroke.

The 79-year-old was spotted leaving Gelson’s supermarket wearing a red sweater, matching trainers, and black trousers.

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Also sporting dark sunglasses and clutching a paper bag, Tim was pushed in a wheelchair by his carer.

Tim’s 2012 stroke left him partially paralysed on one side of his body and affected his speech.

The health crisis forced him to step away from acting and public life for several years.

A celebrated actor, Tim is known for his charismatic performances in film, television, and theatre.

He became a cult icon playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

His other notable roles include Wadsworth the butler in the cult classic Clue and Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

The stroke had a severe impact on Tim’s mobility, leaving him reliant on a wheelchair and carers for support with everyday tasks.

Since 2012, Tim has undergone extensive physical therapy and rehabilitation to regain as much movement and speech as possible.

He has kept a low profile in recent years, rarely seen in public and not active in major acting projects.

However, Tim has made some notable appearances and engaged with fans through interviews and virtual events.

In 2015, almost three years after his stroke, he made a rare public appearance at the Actors Fund Tony Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles.

There, he received a lifetime achievement award and spoke openly about his recovery, highlighting how maintaining his sense of humor was vital to coping with his health challenges.

More recently, since 2023, Tim has participated in virtual video chats with fans through conventions like GalaxyCon.

He has also shared occasional video messages on social media, providing insight into his life post-stroke and answering fan questions about his recovery and career.

In addition to these appearances, Tim marked a notable return to acting in 2024 with a role in the horror film Stream – his first feature film role in 14 years.

The film was released in select theaters in August 2024.

He has also remained active in voice acting, lending his talents to animated series and projects, further demonstrating his enduring passion for performance.

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