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TORONTO — Shortly after the Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series, Yoshinobu Yamamoto approached his longtime personal trainer.

Lowering his head, Yamamoto said to Osamu Yada, “Thank you for everything this year.”

Yamamoto figured his season was over. He’d thrown 96 pitches over six innings, and he half-joked in the postgame news conference that he wanted to cheer on his team rather than pitch again the next day. Manager Dave Roberts had the same thought, saying Yamamoto would be the only pitcher unavailable in Game 7.

The trainer had other ideas.

“Let’s see if you can throw in the bullpen tomorrow,” Yada said.

By just being in the bullpen, Yada said, Yamamoto could provide the Dodgers a psychological edge over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“That’s how I got tricked,” Yamamoto said in Japanese with a laugh.

Yada’s guiding hand transformed Yamamoto into a legend on Saturday night.

Pitching the final 2 ⅔ innings of an 11-inning, championship-clinching 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Yamamoto won his third game of the World Series.

When he forced Alejando Kirk to ground into a game-ending double play, Yamamoto removed his cap and raised his arms toward the heavens. Catcher Will Smith rushed the mound and picked him up from the waist.

“I felt a joy I never felt before,” Yamamoto said.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith picks up Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto after the final out of a 5-4 win in 11 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Yamamoto pitched a complete game in Game 2. He pitched six more in Game 6. His contributions in Game 7 increased his series total to 17 ⅔ innings, over which he allowed only two runs.

The throwback performance earned him the series’ most valuable player award, as well as universal admiration.

“I really think he’s the No. 1 pitcher in the world,” Shohei Ohtani said in Japanese. “Everyone on the team thinks that, too.”

Freddie Freeman marveled at the workload shouldered by the 5-foot-10 Yamamoto, who was sidelined for three months last year with shoulder problems.

“I mean, he pitched last night, started,” Freeman said. “He threw the most innings out of our pitchers tonight.”

Freeman pointed out that in addition to pitching in three games, Yamamoto also warmed up to pitch in a fourth. Two days after his complete game in Game 2, he prepared in the bullpen to pitch a potential 19th inning in Game 3. The Dodgers won that game in the 18th inning.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Freeman said.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Yamamoto’s Game 7 performance, “For him to have the same stuff that he had the night before is really the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a major league baseball field.”

Did Friedman think any other pitcher could have done what Yamamoto did in this series?

“No, I don’t,” Friedman said. “In fact, yesterday morning I didn’t necessarily think Yama could either.”

Friedman said he didn’t think much of it when he was notified after Game 6 that Yamamoto was receiving treatment from Yada at the team hotel with the intention of perhaps pitching in Game 7. Friedman was told the next morning that Yamamoto received another round of treatment.

The possibility of Yamamoto pitching in Game 7 became real to Friedman after he performed his trademark javelin-throwing routine and played catch at Rogers Centre. Yamamoto still wasn’t convinced.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani and teammates after a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I didn’t think I would pitch,” Yamamoto said. “But I felt good when I practiced, and the next thing I knew, I was on the mound (in the game).”

Yamamoto’s interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, was prepared.

The superstitious Sonoda wears the same pair of lucky underwear on days Yamamoto pitches. He wore the rabbit-themed boxers for Game 6. Sensing Yamamoto might pitch again, Sonoda wore the same boxers for Game 7.

“Just in case,” Sonoda admitted, “I didn’t wash them.”

Yamamoto had never pitched on consecutive days as a professional, in either the United States or Japan. When was called on to relieve Blake Snell in the ninth inning, he was uncertain of how he would perform.

Inheriting two baserunners from Snell with one out, Yamamoto loaded the bases by plunking Kirk. He forced Dalton Varsho to ground into a force out at home, only to throw a curveball to Ernie Clement that was driven to the wall in left field. Defensive replacement Andy Pages crashed into Kiké Hernández on the warning track but held on to the ball, preventing the Blue Jays from scoring the walk-off run.

Yamamoto pitched a 1-2-3 10th inning and went into the bottom of the 11th with a 5-4 lead, courtesy of a homer by Smith in the top of the inning.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started the inning by pulling a 96.9-mph fastball for a double and advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Yamamoto walked Addison Barger to place runners on the corners, setting up the game-ending double play by Kirk.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” Yamamoto said. “I was so excited I couldn’t even recall what kind of pitch I threw at the end. When my teammates ran to me, I felt the greatest joy I’ve felt up to this point.”

Clayton Kershaw, whom Yamamoto wanted to send into retirement with another championship, embraced him harder than he’d ever embraced him. Roberts swallowed him an embrace.

Yamamoto was moved to tears.

Overwhelmed by the moment, Yamamoto didn’t sound as if he grasped the magnitude of what he’d just done. In time, he will.

On the night the Dodgers solidified their dynasty, Yamamoto made this World Series his.

Football supporters up and down the country have the opportunity to spend the night exactly like their England heroes – the stay is something I’ve never experienced before

Growing up as a huge football fan, I dreamed of playing for Leicester City and representing England. As you’re reading this, you already know it didn’t play out how I would have liked.

The next best thing was working in football; fortunately, I do. As a football writer, I experience the football world every working day and attend matches often.

To get my ‘football fix’, I play 5-a-side weekly at the local goals. But that feeling of living like a footballer was always unscathed. That was until I stayed at the Hilton Hotel at St George’s Park at Burton-on-Trent to stay in their brand new ‘Stay Like the England Teams’ room.

Anyone locked into the England social media channels is aware of St George’s Park and the views of the hotel when the players arrive. When my brother and I arrived at the hotel, the moments of bewilderment started.

For a start, we were escorted to the players’ entrance, the exact one Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, and Lauren Hemp use, via a buggy. We were greeted with a personalised ‘Welcome’ message before signing our own England contract, which comes with a special polarised photograph.

Upon entering the room, aptly named ‘Suite Caroline,’ it was quickly apparent what the thinking behind its design was. Three football shirts are hung up in a dressing-room style format, including one from Alex Scott, who made 140 appearances for her country.

The room was very spacious with a double bed, tea and coffee facilities, two bathrooms, two televisions and storage space for our bags. But the most exciting and best part of the room? The outdoor cinema.

Overlooking the well-decorated nature at St George’s Park, the outdoor area included a football-themed dugout with four heated seats and a big screen; it was the perfect location to make the most of the brand-new EAFC 26 video game.

There was more excitement to come; as part of the stay, you get an exclusive training experience. FA coach Ben met us at the reception and took us to the well-constructed Hilton Pitch for the hour-long session. My brother and I enjoyed some ball work at our pace before finishing with a competitive game – the sibling rivalry lived on and it got tasty!

Our love for the game was then widened even further with the behind-the-scenes look at the training facilities, from the Cryotherapy chamber and indoor futsal halls to the longest gym in Europe, where the national team players work on their strength and conditioning.

We also spent some time overseeing the Sir Bobby Charlton Pitch, the setting which the first-team players use. Based entirely on the Wembley Stadium pitch, it’s surreal to see where the nation’s best players train.

An hour later, it was time to dine like the players. Once again, great customer service came to hand with a member of the Hilton Hotel staff walking us through the hotel to the Executive Lounge on the second floor.

After receiving complimentary drinks (we opted for Peroni), we enjoyed some fancy canapés before indulging in two bowls of Indian selection and chicken wings. It was a nice and cosy environment to chill out after such a fun-packed day.

The food in general was excellent. Our dinner menu saw us enjoy a duck and orange parfait as a starter before a delicious grilled fillet of beef with roasted garlic mash, glazed vegetables, and red wine jus. Throughout our meal, the customer service was top-tier; we weren’t left without a drink once.

Into the evening, we returned to our room and discovered a series of cinema treats had been left for us including popcorn, jelly beans, and selected chocolates. Basically, the perfect blend when we watched GOAL in the outdoor cinema.

The room has been created away from the rest of the Hilton hotel, but you still get all of the top notch service and offerings; for example, at breakfast we had a choice of a set menu or the buffet, so we could replenish after the previous day’s training.

However if you want to experience it for yourself, you’re going to want to be quick. The ‘Stay Like the England Teams’ Suite is open for stays on select dates throughout November, December, and January. Rates are £650 a night with everything included; the training, the food, room, outdoor cinema and behind-the-scenes tour.

It may not be the cheapest of stays but I felt the price was more than good value given the standard of the room, the experiences and the complimentary extras. It’s worth noting that guests who enjoy the stay will be the only ones in the hotel who do so. It’s an exclusive experience that makes you feel like royalty. Football fans, particularly England supporters, it’s a must-do!

To find out more about the Stay Like the England Teams at St George’s Park, visit Hilton.com.

MILWAUKEE — Blake Treinen’s first save of the postseason was hardly a memorable performance.

He threw more balls than strikes. He walked the first batter he faced and nearly hit the second. And he got the final out on a pitch that was well out of the strike zone.

But he did get the final out, preserving the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opening game of the National League Championship Series on Monday.

And for Treinen and the bullpen he’s supposed to be anchoring, that counts as major progress.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work to try to get some things in a better place with myself,” Treinen said. “Today, I thought I executed almost every pitch.”

The fixes, he said, were simple mechanical tweaks that helped set up his pitches.

“Sometimes through catch-play and touching the mound a little bit, things start to click. And you’re kind of shocked at how a subtle tweak can change everything,” he said.

In the Dodgers’ World Series run last season, Treinen was as vicious as an ill-tempered Doberman, going 2-0 with three saves, a 2.19 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.

This year, not so much. In his first four playoff appearances more batters got a hit than struck out and five of the 12 men he faced reached base. That followed a disastrous September in which he went 1-5 with a 9.64 ERA.

He wasn’t so much putting out fires as he was starting them. The poor performances began to build on one another.

“At times this year, when it hasn’t gone well, th[ings] can speed up a little bit in your mind,” he said. “That’s the hard part, to carry the thoughts and focus on what you’re good at.”

But manager Dave Roberts, who has had Treinen for the last five seasons, kept giving him chances to turn things around.

“I think the best way to for me to kind of view it is whether you’re a position player slumping or a pitcher maybe not getting the outs at the clip that you want, we all know what our abilities are,” Treinen said. “Dave’s seen me at my best and at my worst, and so when he calls my name, I’m grateful that he has confidence in me.

“And I have confidence that he’s putting me in situations for the team to win. So there’s a lot of peace in that.”

Treinen may have been at peace but he didn’t have much wiggle room when he replaced Roki Sasaki on the mound Monday with two out in the ninth and the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead.

Sasaki, the team’s surprise playoff closer, had been lights out in the postseason, with just one of the 17 hitters he faced reaching base. Against the Brewers, he gave up two walks, a ground-rule double and a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the span of two outs. When Treinen entered, Milwaukee had the tying run on first and the winning run on third — and the right-hander immediately made things worse by walking William Contreras on six pitches to load the bases.

Treinen quickly got ahead of Brice Turang, the Brewers’ left-handed cleanup hitter, but courted disaster again when he sailed a 1-2 sweeper that nearly hit Turang. That would have forced in the tying run had Turang not instinctively danced out of the way, eliciting a groan from the sold-out crowd.

“It’s a natural reaction,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “When the ball is coming towards you, it’s a breaking ball, your natural reaction is to do that.

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the ninth inning against the Brewers in NLCS Game 1 on Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It happens. He’ll learn from that situation. But it’s hard.”

For Treinen, whose only luck lately has been bad luck, the break was one he quickly cashed by getting Turang to chase the next pitch, which was head high, to end the game.

That swing brought equal measures of joy and relief for Treinen, who has supplied little of either for the Dodgers this postseason. This time, he said it felt good to finally be able to contribute.

“Our guys have been playing great baseball,” he said. “Our bats are doing a great job. Our starters have been amazing. So [I’m] just doing my job to finish the game.”

He also did his job in picking up Sasaki, the hero of the NL Division Series win over the Phillies, who stood to be the goat if the Dodgers lost Monday.

“Any time as a professional, when you have the ability to pick up your teammates, there’s a lot of pride in it,” Treinen said. “You just want to do your part because it’s a team game.

“I’ve certainly had guys pick me up this year. To have the opportunity to pick someone else up, it feels good.”

And it’s been a long time since Treinen has felt that.

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo had set down 17 batters in a row going into the seventh inning of Monday’s National League Division Series game. The Dodgers hadn’t had a hit or a baserunner since the first.

And it didn’t look like they’d get another.

“Luzardo,” said Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman, “was amazing.”

Yet it was Freeman who brought Luzardo’s masterful night to an end and pushed the Phillies’ season to the brink, keying a 4-3 Dodger win that sends the best-of-five series to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday with Philadelphia a loss away from spring training.

“It’s huge. It’s absolutely huge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the two-game sweep on the road. “Guys are really stepping up.”

Especially in the seventh, when the Dodgers batted around, producing the kind of inning they rarely managed in the regular season, one that featured aggressive at-bats, smart baserunning and three two-out RBIs.

“All that coming together; just really good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Roberts said.

Teoscar Hernández got it started with a single to center. Freeman followed with a hit off the end of his bat into the right-field corner, a single he turned into a double when he refused to stop at first, surprising outfielder Nick Castellanos.

“I was trying to keep things going, put pressure on them,” Freeman said. “I just wanted to push the envelope in that situation since we hadn’t had anything going on since the first inning.”

Luzardo had given up one hit through six innings; now he’d given up two in the span of five pitches.

“He retired 17 in a row. He had 72 pitches. He’s pitching great,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

But after Freeman’s hit he was done, with Thomson summoning reliever Orion Kerkering. The Dodgers, however, were just getting started, and an out later Hernández put them ahead to stay, breaking smartly from third on Kiké Hernández’s slow roller by the mound, then sliding to the back of the plate to beat shortstop Trea Turner’s wide throw home.

Pinch-hitter Max Muncy followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Will Smith, whose two-out single on the first pitch he saw drove in two more runs.

“In that situation, it’s very easy to try to want to do too much,” Muncy said. “You have a chance to drive in a couple runs. It’s very easy to chase a pitch. But you’ve just got to be diligent with what you’re trying to do up there and just pass the baton to the next guy.”

Dodgers’ Will Smith hits a two-run single during the seventh inning of Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers’ rally had been built around a double that should have been a single, a run-scoring fielder’s choice that barely passed the mound, a walk and Smith’s one-hop single to left, the hardest-hit ball of the inning. When Shohei Ohtani grounded a single by diving second baseman Edmundo Sosa, the Dodgers led 4-0.

“Obviously some huge two-out hits by Will and then Shohei. Great play by Teo getting his foot in,” Freeman said. “A lot of good things happened in that seventh inning.”

The inning also silenced the sellout crowd of 45,653, which minutes earlier had been louder than a rock concert during a NASCAR race. When Matt Strahm, the third pitcher of the inning, finally got Mookie Betts for the third out, the fans booed the Phillies off the field.

The crowd came alive again in the ninth, when Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen once again melted down on the mound, gave up three hits and two runs without getting an out to let the Phillies back in the game. But Roki Sasaki then took them out again, retiring Turner on a groundball with the tying run on third, earning his second save in as many games.

When it was over the Phillies, who had the best home record in the majors this season, had lost consecutive games at home for the first time since June 1. And the Dodgers, unbeaten this postseason, were a win away from the NL Championship Series.

“Lots to unpack in that one,” Roberts said.

Freeman managed to put it all in perspective.

“We were just sitting at our lockers and Kiké said, ‘we just took two here’,” he said. “This is a hard place to play. Incredible fan base. It’s loud here.

“We obviously put ourselves in great position going into Wednesday.”

PHILADELPHIA — The Dodgers spent more than $125 million on their bullpen last winter. But when they needed relief late in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday, they turned to a couple of starters who spent much of the season on the injury list.

And it worked out — though just barely — with Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki combining for eight of the final nine outs in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Alex Vesia got the other out, retiring pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa on a fly ball to center with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Sasaki then came on to close it out in the ninth, getting Bryson Stott, representing the tying run, to pop up in foul territory behind third base to end the game.

“What Glas did tonight, it’s not easy to do. And so for him to give us the innings he gave us tonight was huge,” third baseman Max Muncy said.

The four pitchers the Dodgers used all spent time away from the mound this season.

Starter Shohei Ohtani, who didn’t pitch at all last season, didn’t pitch until June and hadn’t thrown past the fifth inning until his final regular-season start. He went six innings against the Phillies, giving up three runs and three hits and striking out nine.

Glasnow missed more than two months with shoulder inflammation and other issues. Sasaki went to the sideline in early May with a right shoulder impingement and wasn’t reactivated until the final week of the season — as a reliever. Even Vesia missed a couple of weeks with an oblique strain.

But they were all ready for the start of the NDLS. Well, kind of — Glasnow said he was in the bathroom when the call came down for him to start warming up.

“The phone rang and they yelled my name,” he said. “Here we go. It definitely felt weird, but fun. [With the] adrenaline, there’s not as much effort to get the same stuff and [get] warmed up.”

When Glasnow first began throwing the Dodgers trailed 3-2. But by the time he entered the game they were front 5-3 on Teoscar Hernández’s three-run homer. So his assignment changed from keeping his team close to protecting a lead.

“For them to trust me to go out there and throw some big innings, it was awesome,” Glasnow said.

His first inning, the seventh, went pretty well, with Glasnow setting down the side in order. The first batter, J.T. Realmuto, reached on an error, but he was erased on a double play.

The eighth didn’t go as well. Trea Turner walked with one out, and although manager Dave Roberts had Vesia, a left-hander, in the bullpen, the right-handed Glasnow was allowed to face lefty sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

He struck out Schwarber on three pitches, but Harper singled to right. So when Alec Bohm walked to load the bases, Roberts finally called in Vesia, who got Sosa to pop out, ending the threat.

“The coaches put the trust in him and he just kept telling me, ‘You’re driving me. Just tell me what to do’,” catcher Will Smith said of guiding Glasnow through his first relief appearance since 2018. “He’s put trust in me and I put trust in him. And it worked out tonight.”

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki celebrates after the final out of a 5-3 win over the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

It worked out because Sasaki came out of the bullpen throwing gas, topping 99 mph on seven of his 11 pitches, including the final one, which hit 100. Sasaki, who earned the save, also pitched the final inning of the wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds and has thrown two scoreless innings, striking out three.

In fact, three pitchers who spent most of the season as starters — Emmet Sheehan, Glasnow and Sasaki — have combined to throw more innings out of the bullpen in the playoffs than the Dodgers’ regular relievers. That wasn’t the way the front office drew it up when they spent wildly on the bullpen over the winter. But it’s working.

“One real strength of this roster is our starting pitching,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said before the game. “It speaks to that depth. Those guys are really talented.

“And I can see it factoring in and helping us.”

It already has.

One way to keep Dodger relievers from ruining the team’s postseason run is to keep the bullpen gate closed for as long as possible.

Blake Snell gave that strategy a whirl in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series Tuesday, pitching a solid — sometimes brilliant —- seven innings. But even then he and his teammates had to wait out the nightly bullpen meltdown before escaping with a 10-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

“Blake was fantastic tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You could see he was in complete control. The fastball was great. The change-up was plus.

“Kind of mixing and matching and he really was in control the entire game.”

The bullpen? Not so much. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

For Snell, it was that mixing and matching that made him so tough, Cincinnati manager Terry Francona said.

“The big difference-maker was his change-up,” Francona said. “It was his ability to manipulate the change-up, even vary it. He’d throw one that was 87 [mph] and one that was 82. And he threw two, three, four in a row at times at times, all different speeds.

“You throw a 97 [mph fastball] in there, and it becomes difficult.”

Snell was efficient from the start, retiring the side in the first on seven pitches. He set down the first eight Reds in order, then after giving up a double and walk in the third, retired the next 10 in a row, allowing him to pitch deep into the game.

Given the bullpen’s continued struggles, that’s likely to be a blueprint the Dodgers will continue to follow in the playoffs.

“It felt good to go deep in the ballgame,” said Snell, whose seven innings matched a season high. “I felt really in control, I could read swings and just kind of navigate through the lineup.

Dodgers fans cheer for Blake Snell as he walks off the mound in the fifth inning.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“The deeper that the starters go in the game, it means we’re pitching good. But it means you’re giving the bullpen a break. So it just makes for a different game that favors us.”

Tuesday’s start was Snell’s 11th, for three teams, in the postseason. But it was his first since 2022. Getting back to October was one reason why the left-hander signed with the Dodgers 10 months ago (the five-year $182-million contract the team was offered was another reason).

“It’s awesome,” said Snell, who was wearing a blue hoodie emblazoned with the Dodgers playoff slogan “Built For Fall” across the front. “There’s nothing better than pitching a postseason game in front of your home crowd. To be able to enjoy that, it meant a lot.”

And Snell took advantage, breezing into the seventh having given up just a hit. He didn’t give up a run until Elly De La Cruz’s fielder’s choice grounder with two out in the inning.

De La Cruz would score the Reds’ second run on Tyler Stephenson’s double three pitches later.

Snell got the next hitter to end the threat, with the seven innings pitched marking a career playoff best. He had matched his playoff high with nine strikeouts by the sixth inning, which he needed just 70 pitches to complete. He wound up throwing 91 pitches, giving up four hits and a walk, before Roberts went to the bullpen to start the eighth, with predictable results.

Alex Vesia was the first man through the gate and he retired just one of the three batters he faced. He was followed by flamethrower Edgardo Henriquez, who walked the first two hitters and gave up a hit to the third, forcing in two runs.

Jack Dreyer was next and he walked in another run. After entering the inning down by eight runs, Cincinnati brought the tying run to the on-deck circle with one out.

Dreyer eventually settled down, retiring the side, but the three pitchers needed 59 pitches — and 30 minutes — to get through the inning. By the time Blake Treinen came on to finish things off, starter Emmet Sheehan had started warming up.

All told, Roberts needed four relievers to get the final six outs, leaving the Dodgers hoping for a Snell-like performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 on Wednesday to avoid straining the bullpen further.

“Those guys are on their heels with the lead we have,” Roberts said of the Reds entering the eighth inning. “When you start being too fine and getting behind, you start giving them free bases, that’s how you can build innings and get momentum. So that’s what I saw in that inning there for sure.

“If we don’t feel comfortable using certain guys with an eight-run lead, then we’ve got to think through some things.”

Maybe Snell will get a chance to finish what he starts next time out. It’s certainly no worse than the alternative.

Blake Snell did not sound bitter. Somehow, he was not racked with regret.

Rather, when asked at his introductory Dodgers news conference this past offseason about the most infamous moment of his career, he took a brief moment to think. Then, unexpectedly, he expressed gratitude instead.

Five years ago, Snell was pitching the game of his life in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. With his Tampa Bay Rays facing elimination against the Dodgers, he had answered the bell with five one-hit, nine-strikeout, virtually flawless Fall Classic innings.

What happened next remains controversial to this day. Snell gave up a one-out single in the sixth inning to Austin Barnes. Rays manager Kevin Cash came to the mound with a stunningly quick hook. The Dodgers went on to mount a rally against the Tampa Bay bullpen, ending a three-decade title drought while the left-handed ace watched from the bench. And in the aftermath, the second-guessing of the decision was as immediate as it was decisive.

Almost everyone else in the baseball world thought Snell should have stayed in.

Over time, however, the pitcher himself came to view it as a valuable lesson.

“It was a moment in my life that I’m very appreciative of,” Snell said last winter, donning a Dodger blue jersey for the first time after signing with the club for $182 million as a free agent.

“If I wanted to stay out there longer, I should have done a better job before that game to make that decision easier on Kevin. It’s ultimately up to me to be a better pitcher there in that moment.”

Five years later, he’s about to get his chance for postseason redemption.

Snell’s debut season in Los Angeles did not go as planned this year. He made two underwhelming starts at the beginning of the campaign while quietly battling shoulder soreness. He spent the next four months sidelined on the injured list, returning in time to make only nine more starts down the stretch.

Although his final numbers were strong (a 2.35 ERA, 72 strikeouts in 61⅓ innings, and Dodgers wins in seven of the 11 games he did pitch), his injury left his overall impact limited.

To Snell and the team, though, none of that matters now. Their union was always rooted in postseason success. And on Tuesday night, when the Dodgers open a best-of-three wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds, it is Snell who will take the bump for Game 1 at Dodger Stadium.

“That’s why I came here,” Snell said amid the Dodgers’ division-clinching clubhouse celebration last week. “Get to the postseason, and see how good I can be.”

It’s an opportunity that’s been half a decade in the making.

Ever since breaking into the majors in 2016, and winning his first Cy Young Award with an immaculate 21-win, 1.89-ERA season two years later, Snell’s raw talent has never been in question. No starting pitcher in the history of the sport (minimum 1,000 career innings) has averaged more strikeouts per nine innings than his 11.2 mark. Even in the game’s modern era, few have possessed such a wicked arsenal, with Snell’s slider and curveball alone boasting a whopping career whiff rate of roughly 50%.

What Snell hasn’t done, however, is prove himself to be a workhorse. He has never had a 200-inning season. He has never gone six full frames in any of his 10 playoff starts. Through the years, he has been dogged by high walk rates and inefficient outings and a tendency to simply waste too many pitches. When Cash came to the mound in that sixth inning of the 2020 World Series, it only reinforced his five-and-dive reputation.

That’s why, when Snell looks back on that moment now, he views it through a lens of valuable perspective.

“I just learned, the manager’s job is to do whatever he thinks is gonna help the team win, and my job is to make him believe I’m the best option for us to win,” Snell said this past weekend, when asked about that ignominious Game 6 again. “And I didn’t do a good job of that, because he took me out.”

Thus, Snell has been on a different mission over the five years since. He not only wants to get back to the World Series and win his first championship. But he wants to do so as a bona fide October ace, the kind of anchor of a pitching staff that can get deeper into outings.

“[The playoffs are] where you want to see: What kind of player are you? How do you handle pressure situations? When everything is on the line,” Snell said. “That’s why I like it. It really allows you to understand who you are as a pitcher, where you’re at, and where you need to grow … How to find advantages to push yourself deeper in the game.”

The last time Snell pitched in the playoffs, such goals remained a work in progress. As a member of the San Diego Padres in 2022, he amassed just 13⅔ innings over three postseason starts, recording a 4.61 ERA while walking nine total batters.

Over the three seasons since then, however, he feels he has made more tangible strides. In 2023, he won another Cy Young by going 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA, averaging close to six innings per start despite a major-league-leading 99 walks. Last year might have been even more transformational, even as he battled injuries with the San Francisco Giants.

During his lone season in the Bay, Snell picked the brain of Giants ace Logan Webb, who has led the National League in innings pitched over each of the last three seasons. Their talks centered on the value of short at-bats, the importance of “dominating the inside part of the plate,” and the significance of executing competitive misses on throws around the edge of the zone.

“That was probably one of my biggest years of growth and development, in the sense of how to go deeper into games,” Snell said.

The results certainly backed that up, with Snell rebounding from an injury-plagued first half to post a 1.23 ERA over his final 14 starts. In an early August trip to Cincinnati (his last time facing the Reds ahead of this week’s playoff series), he threw his first career no-hitter on just 114 pitches.

“That no-hitter was insane,” said current Dodgers outfielder and former Giants teammate Michael Conforto, who like Snell went from San Francisco to Los Angeles as a free agent last offseason. “He just had everything working. He was hitting every corner. He knew exactly where he wanted to put it, and he put it there every time.

“That’s the kind of performance he’s capable of every time he goes out,” Conforto added. “It’s just a very, very tough at-bat. Especially when he’s throwing strikes.”

This year, Snell’s evolution has continued around the Dodgers — where manager Dave Roberts has lauded him as a “next-level thinker” for the way he can read opponents’ swings, figure out their tendencies in the batter’s box, and adapt his plan of attack to what he feels a given matchup requires.

Since returning from his early-season shoulder injury, Snell has increasingly tapped into top form. He has cut down on walks and wasted pitches. He has posted a 2.41 ERA over his nine second-half starts. His last three outings in particular: 19 innings, one run, 28 strikeouts and only five free passes.

The most important development has been his relationship with Roberts, who left Snell in the game after late-inning mound visits in each of his last two starts, and watched him escape high-leverage jams.

Those moments could be invaluable as the Dodgers enter the playoffs, giving Roberts a level of confidence to push his Game 1 starter and cover for what has been an unreliable bullpen.

“He understands his role on this ball club,” Roberts said. “When you put a starter in a position where they know they have to go deeper, you’ve got to just naturally be more efficient.”

It’s a skill Snell has been honing ever since that fateful October night five years ago. Starting Tuesday night, it’s about to be tested again.

“That’s everything,” Snell said of pitching in the postseason again. “To face the best when the stakes are highest, that’s what I’ve always wanted.”

Cleveland Guardians designated hitter David Fry was hit in the face by a 99-mph fastball thrown Tuesday by Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal at Ohio’s Progressive Field.

During a sixth-inning at-bat, Fry was attempting to bunt when the ball missed the bat completely and hit him in the nose and mouth area. He fell to the ground and remained there for several minutes while being treated by medical staff.

Fry eventually was able to walk to a cart under his own power. The 2024 American League All-Star gave a thumbs-up signal as he was being driven off the field. The Guardians later said Fry was undergoing tests and observation, possibly overnight, at the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus.

“He’s getting tested,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt told reporters after the game. “He stayed conscious the whole time. Definitely some injuries there, so I’ll give you an update tomorrow on David.”

Vogt added: “We’re all thinking about Dave and his family right now. Obviously, we’re glad he’s OK, but obviously it’s really a scary moment. So [we’re] thinking about him.”

As the incident took place, Skubal reacted in horror from the mound, immediately dropping his glove, removing his cap and covering his face with his hand. The 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner later told reporters it was “really tough” to see Fry like that.

“I’ve already reached out to him. I’m sure his phone is blowing up. I just want to make sure he’s all right,” Skubal said. “Obviously, he seemed like he was OK coming off the field and hopefully it stays that way.

“I know sometimes with those things that can change. So hopefully he’s all right. I look forward to hopefully at some point tonight or [Wednesday] morning getting a text from him and making sure he’s all good because there’s things that are bigger than the game and the health of him is more important than a baseball game.”

Cleveland won the game 5-2 to pull to a tie with Detroit at the top of the AL Central Division after trailing by as many as 15½ games this summer.

NEW YORK — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

“Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that’s acceptable to players,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”

ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that’s year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges.

At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

In the first test at the big League All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts and larger bases.

The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete. Not that everyone loves it.

“The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch that’s not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension,” former manager Bobby Valentine said.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978-87, maintained old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: “‘If you do that again, you’ll never get a strike.’ I’m cutting out some words.”

Management officials on the competition committee include Seattle chairman John Stanton, St. Louis CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner.

Players include Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit’s Casey Mize, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and the New York Yankees’ Austin Slater, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

Bill Miller is the umpire representative.

Blum writes for the Associated Press.

MILWAUKEE — Brandon Woodruff pitched five solid innings, Sal Frelick hit a three-run homer and Blake Perkins tied a career high with five RBIs to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 9-2 win over the Angels on Wednesday night.

Woodruff (7-2) gave up two hits and one run, struck out nine and threw 52 of his 69 pitches for strikes. He was pitching on 10 days rest to manage his workload after he missed last season while recovering from right shoulder surgery.

Angels starter José Soriano (10-11) exited with one out in the second after being struck by a line drive off the bat of Jake Bauers. Soriano sustained a right forearm contusion. X-rays were negative.

Connor Brogdon came on in relief and gave up an opposite-field single to Blake Perkins that drove in a pair. Frelick’s three-run homer later in the inning gave the Brewers a 5-0 lead.

Taylor Ward provided the Angels offense with homers in the fourth and sixth.

The Angels (69-83) have lost six straight, while the major league-best Brewers (93-59) have won four of five.

Key moment

After Soriano departed, the switch-hitting Perkins, batting left-handed, came up next and hit a grounder between shortstop and third on a 2-2 pitch from Brogdon to get the Brewers on the board.

Key stat

Mike Trout remains stuck on 399 career home runs after going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Trout has homered just twice since Aug. 6, the last coming on Sept. 11.

Up next

LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-11, 4.08 ERA) starts for the Angels against Brewers RHP Quinn Priester (13-2, 3.25) in the series finale Wednesday.

BALTIMORE — The Dodgers’ pitching plans were thrown into flux again Friday.

The team’s scheduled starter for their series opener against the Baltimore Orioles, Tyler Glasnow, was scratched with what manager Dave Roberts said was back tightness. And in his stead, Shohei Ohtani was tapped to fill in on short notice, offering to take the ball two days after having his own scheduled pitching start on Wednesday scratched because of an illness.

“Shohei was up to it, feels good physically,” Roberts said. “Wants the ball tonight.”

According to Roberts, the team is hopeful Glasnow’s issue is not serious. They are targeting to have him pitch again early next week.

“We just didn’t want to put him in harm’s way,” Roberts said. “It’s not something where we got to the point where he’s hurt or anything like that. It’s back stiffness. So we feel that to not take this start will allow him to be able to start hopefully early next week.”

In the meantime, Ohtani will be on the mound Friday for the first time since Aug. 27, when he completed his first five-inning start of the season in his continued progression back from Tommy John surgery.

Roberts said Ohtani’s start Friday “could be a little shorter,” given the short-notice nature of how it came together.

But he was also hopeful that Ohtani’s willingness to take the mound now — as opposed to Monday, when he had been next scheduled to pitch — could provide the team a much-needed jolt, as they try to bounce back from a sweep against the Pirates in Pittsburgh earlier this week.

“For a guy who is a starter that’s got a routine, that was going to pitch a couple days later, to then change course speaks a lot to what this team needs,” Roberts said. “So I expect our guys to respond to that.”

HOUSTON — Cristian Javier didn’t give up a hit in six innings and three relievers completed the two-hitter to help the Houston Astros to a 2-0 win over the Angels (62-72) on Friday night.

Javier struck out six, walked three and threw 85 pitches in six innings. He was making his fourth start of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June 2024.

He was relieved by Enyel De Los Santos (5-3), who gave up a double to Yoán Moncada for the Angels’ first hit of the game, but secured the win.

Kaleb Ort secured a four-out save — his first save of the season — after relieving Craig Kimbrel in the eighth. Kimbrel walked three and threw eight strikes in 25 pitches. Ort secured a fly out from Jo Adell to end the eighth, then finished with a perfect ninth.

Carlos Correa broke the scoreless tie with an RBI single in the seventh that scored Yordan Alvarez. The Astros (75-60) were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position before that hit off losing pitcher Luis García Jr. (2-1).

Alvarez drove in a second run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Cam Smith, who walked earlier in the inning.

Key moment: Before Correa’s single, Alvarez reached first base on a fielding error by second baseman Christian Moore. He scored after advancing on a bloop single from Jose Altuve.

Key stat: Javier’s six no-hit innings are tied for second-longest no-hit outing of his career with a nine-strikeout performance in the 2022 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. His career best was a seven-inning performance against the New York Yankees on June 25, 2022.

Up next: The Astros will send RHP Spencer Arrighetti (1-5, 6.21 ERA) to the mound against Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-9, 5.04) on Saturday.

GOALKEEPER Samuel Fossey has gone from shot-saver to lifesaver… by rescuing a player who had a heart attack on the pitch.

The Frenchman was playing for lower-league side US Oisseau on Saturday when an opponent collapsed after half-time.

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The unnamed AS Requeil player had gone into cardiac arrest.

However, Fossey used his training as a firefighter to keep the 40-year-old alive.

A plumber by trade, he used heart massage and a defibrillator on the opposing player until an ambulance arrived.

Fossey insisted: “I don’t think of myself as a hero. I just acted like a good citizen, and did my duty.

“We were playing a friendly match. I was keeping my eye on the ball when I heard my coach telling the ref a player was on the ground.

“I soon realised the player was ill, as he had not been in any collision.

“I joined the fire brigade in 2013, spent a few years with them and later rejoined them as a volunteer fireman.

“They provide training courses, and I do refreshers every year at their rescue centre.”

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

A witness added: “Everyone saw straight away it was a serious situation. 

“An Oisseau player quickly offered first aid, together with three people from the medical world who were in the stadium.

“They carried out heart massage and used a defibrillator for 20 minutes. 

“Their quick reactions and involvement saved the player’s life – there’s no doubt about it.”

The stricken player’s condition has since stabilised in a Le Mans hospital.

Oisseau president Quentin Cesse said: “Everyone at the club wishes him a speedy recovery.

“Football is a big family, and the amateur game has once again shown its solidarity.”

DENVER — When the Dodgers arrived in Colorado on Sunday night they had a golden opportunity to pad their narrow division lead against with the worst team in the majors. The best they could do was hold serve, needing Thursday’s 9-5 win over the Rockies to earn a split of the four-game series.

Now they head to San Diego for a crucial three-game series against the Padres with the division lead once again up for grabs.

“I wish we had won all four, but it just didn’t happen,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s just the way baseball is. So we’ve got to go out there and regardless of the standings, we’ve got to beat those guys.”

The standings, however, loom large. On July 7, the Dodgers led the division by six games. The margin is now just a game.

The Padres, who have won 12 of 19 games in August, are the third-hottest team in the National League this month. The Dodgers are a game over .500.

“It is what it is,” Roberts said. “It’s where we’re at right now and I can’t change it. I feel good about our club going into San Diego.”

His club will have a bit of momentum on its side after scoring 20 runs on 30 hits in the two wins at Coors Field. Thursday’s matinee saw four players finish with multiple hits, including third baseman Alex Freeland, who was a career-best three for five with a run scored and another driven in. Freeland had six hits in the final three games in Denver.

“It’s just like I’m building confidence now,” said Freeland, who entered Thursday hitting .180 since his call-up from Triple A Oklahoma City three weeks ago. “I’ve kind of spent a little time here now and I’m getting comfortable.”

The Dodgers also got a fourth straight strong effort from starter Clayton Kershaw (8-2), who gave up three runs in 5 2/3 innings. Kershaw has allowed just five runs over 23 2/3 innings this month, dropping his season ERA nearly 50 points to 3.13.

That was also good enough to keep his team in first, something he noted afterward.

Fans applaud as Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw heads to the dugout after being pulled from the mound in the sixth inning Thursday.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

“You can’t take anything for granted in Colorado, obviously,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re [one] up going in [to San Diego]. So we feel good about it.”

Freeland agreed.

“We definitely could have produced more. But you know what? We’re going to take this one today and take this momentum and bring it into San Diego,” he said.

After Kershaw won the opener of a three-game series with the Padres at Dodger Stadium a week ago, the teams were even atop the N.L. The Dodgers wound up sweeping that series and have won eight of 10 with the Padres overall this year.

“We’ve played well against those guys this year,” Roberts said. “They’re going to give us everything they have this weekend.”

The Dodgers got started early Thursday with Mookie Betts, who reached base four times, opening the game by walking on five pitches. Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run home run, his 16th of the season, to center field.

The Rockies cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning on a popup that got lost in the sun, a sacrifice bunt, a balk and an RBI groundout. But they would get no closer, with the Dodgers scoring in each of the first five innings to take an 8-2 lead.

Freeland had his first career triple along with a double and single, falling a homer shy of the cycle. He had six hits in the final three games in Denver. Betts finished two for three with two walks and two runs scoring while Freeman, who was two for five, raised his season average to .304 and is hitting .328 for August.

Notes: Roberts said pitcher/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani is fine after taking a line drive off his right thigh in Wednesday’s game. Ohtani was scheduled to have Thursday off and Roberts said he’ll be back in the lineup Friday. … The Dodgers will activate reliever Tanner Scott before Friday’s game in San Diego and reliever Kirby Yates on Saturday. Scott has been out a month with inflammation in his left elbow while Yates has missed three weeks with lower back pain. … Right-hander Roki Sasaki made progress in his second rehab start Wednesday, going 3 1/3 innings and giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits. He walked three and struck out two before leaving after 60 pitches. He will make another rehab start next week before the Dodgers make any decision on his role in September. The team had talked about using Sasaki in a relief role.

DENVER — Edgardo Henriquez has a gift. He can throw a baseball faster than all but a few humans in history.

Yet he prefers to think of it as something he and God created together, not something that was just given to him.

“We’ve worked for that,” said Henriquez, who frequently uses the plural pronoun when talking about himself. “All the work, the effort, the physics. And God’s reward, most of all.”

Wherever the lightning in his right arm came from, he’s making good use of it. Of the 83 pitches he’s thrown this season entering Wednesday’s game, 28 have topped 101 miles per hour. The fastest hit 103.3 on the radar gun last Saturday, making it the hardest-thrown pitch by a Dodger since Statcast began tracking speed in 2015 and likely the fastest pitch in franchise history.

Henriquez, 23, shrugs and smiles at the numbers.

“Now we have to stay consistent,” he said in Spanish. “Even growing up in Venezuela, I always threw hard.”

What he didn’t do in Venezuela was pitch because when he signed as a 16-year-old in 2018, Henriquez was a catcher. The Dodgers moved him to the other side of the plate a year later, when they got him to their Dominican academy.

The process was not a smooth one. The right-hander allowed 22 runs in 30 innings in his first season then, after sitting out the summer of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, he came to the U.S. a year later and went 2-3 with a 4.93 ERA in 13 games split between the Arizona Complex League and Single A Rancho Cucamonga.

The Dodgers projected him as a starter but after Henriquez missed the 2023 season to Tommy John surgery, he came back throwing gas and the team moved him to the bullpen. The results were spectacular, with Henriquez climbing four levels, from Low A Rancho Cucamonga to the majors, in six months to make his big-league debut in the final week of the regular season.

And he announced his presence with authority, topping 101 mph twice to earn the save in his third game.

Henriquez grew up in Cumaná, a historic beach city of about half a million people wedged between the Manzanares Rivers and Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, 250 miles east of Caracas. The oldest continuously-inhabited Spanish settlement in South America, it has been the birthplace and poets and presidents. But baseball players? Not so much.

Pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was robbed of a perfect game by an umpire’s call in 2010, is probably the best known of Cumaná’s big-leagues while Maracay, on the other end of the country, has produced more than two dozen players, among them all-stars Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera and Elvis Andrus.

“Maracay, yes. They say that is the birthplace of baseball in Venezuela,” Henriquez said. “But the truth is it’s Cumaná.”

Henriquez took to the game at an early age, playing on local fields and sandlots. And because he was among the biggest of the neighborhood kids, he was put behind the plate. The Dodgers liked his size — he looks much bigger than the 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds he’s credited with on the roster — and arm so they offered him $80,000 to sign as an international free agent with the intention of making him a pitcher.

Before the elbow-reconstruction surgery, Henriquez touched 101 mph with this fastball but he came back throwing even harder, averaging 99 mph and reaching 104 in the minors last summer. That earned him a September promotion and a spot on the roster for the Dodgers’ first two postseason series.

He was also in line for a spot on the opening day roster this season before a metatarsal injury in his left foot landed him in a walking boot, sidelining him for most of spring training.

Neither the Dodgers nor Henriquez will talk about how the injury happened.

“I’d rather keep that to myself,” the pitcher said this week.

Yet that setback proved just another obstacle for Henriquez to overcome, and after striking out 36 batters in 23 2/3 innings for Triple A Oklahoma City, he was summoned back to the Dodgers a month ago.

In some ways, he was a different pitcher.

“He looks much more confident,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think he was confident last year, but there was like a fake confidence, understandably. He knows his stuff plays here, so it’s good to see.”

His record-setting pitch came in his sixth of seven scoreless appearances when he struck out pinch-hitter Ryan O’Hearn out on a four-seam fastball in the seventh inning of a win over the San Diego Padres.

His parents, Edgar and Erika, where visiting from Venezuela and in the stands at Dodger Stadium for the pitch to O’Hearn, one that has generated a lot of attention on social media. As a result Roberts said pitching coach Mark Prior and bullpen coach Josh Bard are making sure Henriquez understands there’s more to pitching that just lighting up the radar gun.

As good as the four-seamer is, however, it may not be Henriquez’s best pitch. His cutter, which sits in the mid-90s, can be all but unhitable and he also has a devastating slider. He’ll need every bit of that repertoire to succeed in the majors, said Chris Forbes, the senior director of player development for the Colorado Rockies, because the number of hard-throwers is growing.

“If there isn’t deception, there isn’t ride, [hitters] can catch up if you don’t have something else that they can think about,” he said.

So far the hitters aren’t catching up: In seven innings this summer entering Wednesday, Henriquez has allowed just three hits and walked one while striking out four. Opponents are hitting .120 against him.

It’s been a rapid rise for Henriquez, who has gone from teenage catcher to big-league reliever, surviving a global pandemic, Tommy John surgery and a fractured bone in his foot to pitch for a World Series champion. But there’s still one goal left, albeit one he talks about only grudgingly.

On a team without set bullpen roles, Henriquez wants to be a closer, using his blazing fastball not just to demoralize hitters but to shut down games as well.

“Whatever God has in store for me. We’ll work wherever and keep going,” he said. “But yes, I’d like to be a closer.”

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?

Sarah Tamor
Santa Monica

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. took his time.

The Arizona Diamondbacks designated hitter didn’t swing at the first two pitches he saw from San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller — a fastball that registered at 102 miles per hour for a ball and an 89-mph slider — with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night in Phoenix.

The Cuban-American batter then fouled off the next four pitches, three of which were fastballs thrown between 101 and 104 mph. Miller’s seventh pitch of the at-bat was another scorcher, but Gurriel made contact and this time kept the ball in fair territory.

It traveled 439 feet and landed in the left-field stands for a two-run home run. Miller’s pitch was clocked at 103.9 mph, making it the fastest pitch to be hit for a home run since MLB started pitch tracking in 2008.

“It’s something that just happened,” Gurriel said after the game through an interpreter.

Miller said of the pitch: “Location could have been better, for sure. Ultimately, the result is what it is. I’m not going to sit here and regret what pitch I threw. Just got it out over the plate, a little bit high.”

Gurriel’s blast, which left the park at 107.1 mph, tied the game at 5-5. Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, they couldn’t keep up the momentum against their National League West rivals and eventually lost 10-5 in 11 innings.

“The real meaning was in the time of the game and what it meant to the team to tie the ballgame. That was the most important thing,” Gurriel said of his historic homer. “I mean, unfortunately, it didn’t turn into a win, but that was the most exciting thing.”

It was Gurriel’s second home run of the game — he also hit a two-run homer off Padres starter Yu Darvish in the first inning — and his 14th of the season. Before Tuesday, Gurriel had not hit a home run since July 1.

Gurriel is the ninth player known to hit a home run off a ball thrown at 102 mph or faster and only the second player to do so off a pitch thrown faster than 103 mph. In September, Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs went yard off a 103.2-mph pitch.

That pitch also happened to be thrown by Miller, who was with the Athletics at the time before being acquired by the Padres at the trade deadline last week. In his second appearance for San Diego, Miller pitched one inning, giving up one hit and a walk with two strikeouts. One of his pitches was clocked at 104.2 mph, the fastest ever tracked for a Padres pitcher.

“It’s a weapon,” Miller said of his fastball after Tuesday’s game. “But you still need to put together an at-bat for the guy, and work with him, as far as his swings and his approach in there.”

Between now and October, the Dodgers will be evaluating their increasingly healthy pitching staff, trying to identify the best 13 arms for their World Series push.

And for now, they remain hopeful that rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki could be part of that mix; writing an unexpected end to what once seemed like a lost 2025 campaign.

After being one of the biggest stories of the Dodgers’ offseason this winter, Sasaki has become more of an afterthought in the eight months since.

Back in January, the Dodgers’ acquisition of the Japanese phenom felt like a coup. The 23-year-old right-hander was billed as a future star in the making. He came advertised with a 100-mph fastball, devastating splitter and seemingly limitless potential as an ace-caliber pitcher. Most of all, he was a bargain addition financially, requiring only a $6.5-million signing bonus (for six years of team control) after making a rare early career jump from Japan.

The reality, to this point, has been nowhere near the expectation.

At the start of the season, Sasaki made eight underwhelming starts — with wild command and declining fastball velocity contributing to a 4.72 ERA — before being sidelined by a shoulder impingement.

Since then, he has sat on the injured list and largely faded into the background. An important piece of the Dodgers’ long-term plans, sure. But a wild card, at best, to contribute to their World Series defense this fall.

Lately, however, the narrative has started to shift again.

Over the last month, Sasaki has finally started progressing in a throwing program, twice facing hitters in recent live batting practice sessions. He has another three-inning simulated game scheduled for Friday, after which he could go out on a minor-league rehab assignment.

And after his early-season struggles to locate pitches or reach triple-digit velocities, the Dodgers have been encouraged with the changes he has made to his delivery and pitch mix. In a bullpen session Tuesday, Sasaki hit 96 mph with his four-seam fastball while also showcasing a two-seamer he has added during his time injured.

“I’m expecting to see pounding of the strike zone, conviction behind the throws, and just a better performer,” manager Dave Roberts said of Sasaki, who could rejoin the active roster near the end of August.

“At the end of the day, I just think that Roki has got to believe that his stuff plays here, which we all believe it does.”

The team’s title chances, of course, don’t exactly hinge on Sasaki. If their current rotation stays healthy, they should have more than enough starting pitching depth to navigate another deep October run.

But getting Sasaki back would provide some welcome pitching insurance.

He could also be a candidate to eventually shift to the bullpen, with Roberts leaving open the possibility of using him as a hard-throwing reliever come the end of the season (even though they intend to stretch him out to six innings as starter for now).

“We’re gonna take the 13 best pitchers [into the playoffs],” Roberts said. “If Roki is a part of that in some capacity, then that would be great. And if he’s not, then he won’t be.”

For much of the summer, it seemed like a long shot the Dodgers would be having such conversations about Sasaki at this point.

For all the hype that accompanied his arrival, the results made him look like more a long-term project.

In his eight early-season starts, his fastball averaged only 96 mph, and was punished by opposing hitters for its flat, relatively easy-to-hit shape. His slider was a work-in-progress, leaving him without a reliable third pitch.

His go-to splitter did induce the occasional awkward swing from opponents, and garnered much praise from teammates. But Sasaki failed to consistently use it to generate chase out of the strike zone.

As a result, he pitched from behind in the count too often (evidenced by his 24-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio). He seemingly lacked confidence to attack opposing hitters over the plate (and gave up six home runs in just 34 ⅓ innings when he did). And once he went down with his shoulder injury (which was similar to one that had bothered him during his Japanese career), the early stages of his rehab did not go smoothly, with Sasaki requiring a pain-relieving injection in June almost two months after initially going on the IL.

Since then, though, Sasaki has finally turned a corner.

He told reporters Tuesday that he now has “no pain” and is feeling “better about being able to throw harder” upon his return.

He has used his recent ramp-up as an opportunity to reset his mechanics, and clean up an arm path that Dodgers personnel believed was affected by his shoulder problems at the start of the season.

“What we saw early on is probably not indicative of what everybody expects and has seen from him in the past when he’s been 100%,” pitching coach Mark Prior said.

While out injured, Sasaki has also had an opportunity to sit back and watch big-league games up close, something Roberts and Prior insisted would be beneficial for a young pitcher who came to the majors with only 394 career innings over four seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.

“He’s down there in that [dugout] stairwell when we’re at home pretty much all nine innings,” Prior said. “You can’t not learn by just watching and at least having some experience … I think he understands now the importance of, ‘I’ve got to be ahead. I’ve got to attack the strike zone.’ He doesn’t necessarily need it to be executed precisely, but it’s got to be in the strike zone. You can’t be living behind in counts.”

There may be no bigger sign of growth than Sasaki’s embrace of the two-seam fastball.

Before he got hurt, it was a pitch that people within the organization thought could help keep hitters off his diminished four-seam heater. Prior said that, before Sasaki was shut down, the coaching staff had initiated a conversation about adding it to his repotoire.

“Clearly, everybody would love a fast, high-riding four-seam,” Prior said. “But even that being said, these [hitters] have gotten a lot better and know how to attack those things. So just giving them different looks and stuff to lean into and keeping the righties honest, just gives him some flexibilities and some options.”

The hope is that it will help Sasaki be more competitive when he returns, and complement the rest of his highly-touted arsenal.

That, when coupled with improved health and refined mechanics, will trigger a late-season resurgence capable of making him an option for the postseason roster.

“My every intention is to get back on the major league mound and pitch again,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “With that being said, I do need to fight for the opportunity too. I don’t think that I’ll just be given the opportunity right away.”

PHILADELPHIA  — José Soriano limited Philadelphia to two runs in seven innings, Taylor Ward had a three-run double and the Angels beat the Phillies 8-2 on Sunday for a series victory.

Soriano (7-7) gave up six hits and struck out five. He was touched for a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Rafael Marchan, and the Phillies mustered little else until Otto Kemp’s two-out home run in the sixth.

The Angels scored five runs in the second against Ranger Suarez (7-4), who yielded six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Zach Neto singled in a run in the second, and Ward followed with his three-run double. LaMonte Wade Jr. homered in the sixth.

Key moment: With a run in and the bases loaded in the second, Mike Trout worked a full count against Suarez. The next pitch looked borderline, and plate ump Steven Jaschinski called it a ball. That forced in a second Angels run to Suarez’s chagrin. He was really unhappy after the Angels’ next hitter, Ward, cleared the bases.

Key stat: The Phillies’ Kemp, replacing injured Alec Bohm at third base, committed two errors. That’s three errors in six starts at third for Kemp, who has split another 24 games between first base and left field with only one error.

Up next: The Angels take on the New York Mets in a three-game series beginning Monday night, with Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.34 ERA) set to oppose the Mets’ Kodai Senga (7-3, 1.39). The Phillies host Boston for three beginning Monday night, with Zack Wheeler (9-3, 2.36) facing the Red Sox’s Walker Buehler (6-6, 6.12).

Nolan Schanuel injured

The Angels’ Nolan Schanuel was hit by a pitch and left the team’s game against the Phillies on Sunday.

(Matt Slocum / Associated Press)

Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch.

Schanuel appeared to take a changeup from Suarez off the upper wrist of his left arm in the first inning. He hurried down the first base line in obvious pain. After being checked by a trainer, Schanuel remained in the game.

Schanuel did not play the field in the bottom of the inning. Wade replaced him at first base, batting second.

The Angels said Schanuel was diagnosed with a left wrist contusion and is listed as day to day.

Schanuel is hitting .274 with eight home runs and 40 RBIs through 95 games in this, his third season.