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Austin Riley hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning and the Atlanta Braves rallied past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 on Tuesday in the opener of a best-of-three National League wild-card Series.

Duran (0-1), who gave up just two homers in 61 regular-season games, gave up a single to Michael Harris II before hitting Ozzie Albies with a pitch. Riley drove the go-ahead blast over the wall in right-center field. Harris had three hits.

The Braves can clinch the series Wednesday and end the Phillies’ history of postseason success in the NL East rivalry. Philadelphia beat Atlanta in the 1993 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023 NLDS.

Riley’s go-ahead homer was especially satisfying after he hit only .219 with 19 homers in a frustrating regular season.

“Especially knowing how my season was not the way I wanted it, that’s why the postseason is a clean slate,” Riley said, adding he was “trying to do something good” for his teammates.

Braves ace Chris Sale said Riley never let his struggles affect his approach to the game during the regular season.

“You couldn’t tell if he was the leading MVP candidate or if he was struggling,” Sale said. “I really mean that. He’s the same guy. He kept doing the work and had a great moment.”

Sale dueled early against Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo, who was sharp after missing time down the stretch with left shoulder inflammation. Luzardo was expected to make an abbreviated start, but he pitched one-run ball over five innings with 77 pitches.

“In my mind if we got 75 pitches from him today we would be in a pretty good spot,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said of Luzardo. “… He kind of gave us more than we thought honestly.”

Egyptian FA has decided to rest Salah to protect him from playing on artificial turf, which has a higher risk of injuries.

Mohamed Salah will not travel with ⁠Egypt’s ⁠squad to South Sudan for their second Africa Cup of Nations qualifier because the ⁠match will be played on artificial turf, the Egyptian Football Association said ⁠on Saturday.

Record seven-time AFCON champions Egypt were held to a goalless draw by Angola at Cairo International Stadium on Friday in their opening qualifier.

Two-time African Footballer of the Year, Salah, who ‌joined Turkiye’s Trabzonspor from Liverpool last month, started against Angola but did not complete the match after coach Hossam Hassan substituted him midway through the second half.

“The Egypt national team’s technical staff, led by Hossam Hassan, has ⁠decided to rest Mohamed Salah ⁠for the match against South Sudan scheduled for September 29 because of the playing surface,” the EFA said on social ⁠media.

“It was agreed between the national team’s technical staff and ⁠Mohamed Salah before the Angola ⁠match that he would not play against South Sudan, and the technical staff preferred this approach in order to ‌protect the player,” the EFA added.

Salah has scored 68 goals for Egypt and is just one short of matching coach and ex-player Hassan’s all-time record of 69 for The Pharaohs.

Tuesday’s match between South Sudan and Egypt will be played ‌at ‌Juba Stadium, which has an artificial turf pitch. Such surfaces pose a higher risk of injuries than those with natural grass.

Egypt are in Group B of the AFCON 2027 qualifiers, alongside Angola, South Sudan and Malawi. The 2027 AFCON will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, featuring 24 teams.

Though Egypt are the most successful African side, they haven’t won the championship since 2010.

Townsend, who won 13 caps for England, said that he did think it was strange to see two rollers either side of the pitch during the warm-up.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’ve never seen that before in my career, what are they doing?’ But we got called to warm-up. Didn’t think anything of it,” he said.

“The next I saw him was when I was literally underneath him and thankfully no serious damage. A couple of bumps and bruises but managed to walk away unscathed, luckily.”

Townsend, who has had numerous setbacks with injuries during his career, said the roller incident was “definitley not going to stop me from continuing”.

“They (his team-mates) were very surprised that I continued the warm-up. They were telling me to go to the doctor,” he said.

“It was quite heavy, but I was able to kind of lift [it], force it off me. So when it was completely on me, I was getting crushed a little bit.

“I was able to get my left arm up and relieve some of the pressure, and then I was able to get my team-mates around me who were able to lift it, and I was able to squeeze out but at that moment where it was crushing my left leg, it was quite terrifying, I must say.”

Townsend was concerned his ankle and left knee, which have both been operated on, would be damaged in the incident.

He said: “I thought, either my left ankle was going to snap or my left knee is going to snap. I thought I was done. I was very fortunate that I was able to hobble away and recover within a few minutes.”

The midfielder made light of the incident on Instagram, referencing one of his recent posts in which he compared a sun-drenched Thai away trip with previous visits to Stoke’s Bet365 Stadium.

He wrote: “It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all.”

The United States wants a new “notification mechanism” with China to warn each other when an artificial intelligence incident becomes serious enough to threaten national security.

The proposal, effectively an “AI hotline”, was discussed on Sunday during talks in New York between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week.

The two leaders are expected to consider establishing a broader US-China dialogue on AI, including the proposed notification system, around which details remain limited.

The initiative comes amid an intensifying contest for AI supremacy between the world’s top two economies, together with increasing warnings from tech giants that guardrails are necessary around the ever-growing technology.

So, what do we know about this so-called hotline, and where is the AI battle between the US and China headed?

What did the US say about this mechanism?

US Treasury Secretary Bessent said Washington had proposed creating a US-China AI dialogue, with particular focus on national security and a notification system covering “common goals and common threats”.

“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent told reporters after Sunday’s discussions.

Trump’s science and technology adviser Michael Kratsios told Fox News on Sunday that the “key thing” Washington wants to discuss is “avoiding shared risks”.

Exactly what would trigger a notification has not been publicly revealed.

“The US and China absolutely need to be able to share information with each other as threats evolve. This seems like an obvious win for both sides,” Scott Singer, co-director of the China AI Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera.

“The relationship needs guardrails to keep citizens of both countries safe, and this is a productive first step.”

How did China respond?

Beijing has so far said very little.

China’s official Xinhua news agency acknowledged that He and Bessent discussed issues related to AI, but did not say whether Beijing had accepted Washington’s proposed notification mechanism.

Xinhua said the officials held “frank, in-depth and constructive exchanges” on economic and trade issues.

He and China’s chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang left Sunday’s talks without speaking to reporters.

What other ‘hotlines’ do the US and China have?

The proposed AI mechanism would not be the first time a special crisis channel was established between Washington and Beijing.

In 1997, former US President Bill Clinton and his then Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin agreed to create a “direct secure telephone link” between their respective countries.

The two countries have had a military hotline since 2008, designed to allow senior defence officials to communicate during potentially dangerous incidents. It gives both sides 48 hours to respond, though US officials have complained that sometimes no one picks up.

After the US shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in 2023, then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought a call with his Chinese counterpart, but Beijing declined the request.

Why now, and what concerns are there around AI?

Earlier this month, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei warned in an essay that AI capabilities have been advancing rapidly, and he proposed pacing the development of frontier models to give governments and researchers more time to manage their risks.

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails,” he wrote.

His assertions were endorsed by his rivals – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly argued that the US must maintain its advantage over China and has resisted calls from technology executives for a slowdown in AI development. He has said that “whoever wins AI, wins”.

Carnegie Endowment’s Singer does not expect the “fierce competition for AI to slow down”.

“It has the potential to confer tremendous economic and strategic advantage to both countries. But even competitors can find space to cooperate,” he noted.

“Competition and cooperation can coexist. The key for right now is for both sides to act in their own self-interest. Finding some basic areas for cooperation flows very naturally from that.”

Where is the US-China AI war headed?

The US remains ahead in several of the most important features of the AI race, but China has been closing the gap.

American companies continue to dominate private investment and production of leading AI models. According to Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index Report, US companies invested $285.9bn in AI in 2025, compared with $12.4bn in China.

The US also has an advantage in the most advanced semiconductors needed to train cutting-edge models.

However, Chinese companies have demonstrated that they can produce resilient AI models despite US restrictions on their access to the most advanced AI chips.

In January, the release of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek made headlines after it was built using only a fraction of the money its competitors had spent on their own AI programmes. Share prices of US tech companies plummeted.

China possesses advantages in other areas of the AI supply chain, most notably in the production of critical rare earth minerals used in advanced technology and in generating more than twice as much electricity as the US, giving it access to the huge amounts of relatively cheap power needed to operate AI data centres.

What is the Xi-Trump summit about?

Xi’s state visit to the US will take place from Wednesday to Friday, with Trump expected to welcome him at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Trump has said he expects to discuss “almost everything” with the Chinese leader.

Trade remains a central issue, with Beijing and Washington having yet to reach a lasting settlement on tariffs, which have dominated Trump’s relationship with China in his second term as president.

Last month, Trump’s White House accused dozens of countries of helping China to illegally bypass US tariffs.

Meanwhile, the US Congress last week passed a bill that gives Trump sweeping powers to impose sanctions on Russia’s crude exports as well as steep tariffs on buyers of Russian energy, a measure that will impact Moscow’s biggest customers, China and India.

Trump’s war with Iran is also expected to feature. Beijing ranks among Iran’s key economic allies, purchasing a large share of Tehran’s oil exports and attempting to broker an end to the near seven-month-old US-Israel war on Iran.

Other long-standing disputes hang over the summit, including China’s dominance of rare-earth supplies and Taiwan.

The US AI proposal could represent a rare area where the two rivals may find a way to hammer out a deal, experts say.

“I think establishing a permanent channel exclusively focused on AI would genuinely be a major victory. AI has been caught up in the broader ebbs and flows of the US-China relationship, and the 2024 dialogue failed because frontier AI risks got mixed in with other issues,” Singer said.

“This time looks like it might be different, and having an AI risk channel is a necessary precondition to mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Cal Raleigh had two hits and three RBIs, Josh Naylor had two hits and two RBIs and the Seattle Mariners kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a 7-2 victory over the Angels on Wednesday night.

Randy Arozarena also walked, singled and scored three runs for Seattle, which is 5 1/2 games behind Texas and Houston in the American League West and 6 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox for the third AL wild-card spot with nine games left.

It was 2-2 when Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi (1-6) walked Arozarena and Dominic Canzone with one out in the fifth. Raleigh roped an RBI double to left for a 3-2 lead, and Julio Rodriguez was walked intentionally to load the bases.

Angels first baseman Vaughn Grissom made a sliding, backhand stop of Naylor’s potential double-play grounder, but his throw to second sailed into left field for an error, two runs scoring on the play for a 5-2 Seattle lead.

Mariners reliever Carlos Vargas (1-0) struck out Josh Lowe and Christian Moore — each on three pitches — with the bases loaded to end the bottom of the fifth, and Seattle pushed the lead to 7-2 on RBI singles by Canzone and Raleigh in the sixth.

Kikuchi threw 37 pitches during a two-run, three-hit first in which the Mariners scored on Raleigh’s sacrifice fly and Naylor’s RBI single.

CINCINNATI — Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell left his start against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday after one inning, with what the team identified as left groin tightness.

Snell gave up one hit, a single to Sal Stewart, which he quickly erased with a successful pick-off that caught Stewart in an inning-ending run-down.

Snell threw 19 pitches. Blake Treinen replaced him in the second inning.

Wednesday marked Snell’s eighth start of the season. His 2026 debut was delayed by shoulder fatigue. After one start, he landed back on the injured list to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow.

Since returning, he hasn’t given up more than one run in a start. Through Wednesday’s abbreviated outing, Snell has a 1.86 ERA.

Snell has a history of left groin and adductor strains. He spent time on the IL in 2021, 2022 and 2024 for such injuries.

CINCINNATI — A simple change opened up a dramatic offensive turnaround for Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández.

Hernández’s two-run homer Tuesday, in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win against the Reds, was his second home run in as many nights, as the team trimmed its magic number to clinch the division to two. And, significantly, this one was against a right-handed pitcher.

“It’s been very helpful,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “As certain guys are not seeing the ball as well, it’s nice to kind of backfill with guys like Teo swinging the bat. And when you can slug like he can, you can win baseball games, and he can carry us for a while. And the last 10 days, something like that, it’s been really good from him.”

Through the end of August, Hernández had just a .668 OPS against right-handed pitchers this season. So, when manager Dave Roberts was asked in Detroit whether the Dodgers would consider setting up a left-field platoon with the team’s September call-ups, he said yes.

Hernández homered off Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez on the last day of the series. And before the Dodgers opened a three-game set against the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, Hernández met with the hitting coaches.

Against Valdez, Hernández was in a closed stance, to delay his front hip from opening, according to Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates. But the team’s hitting group thought a return to a familiar setup could be a long-term solution.

“It was a great meeting we had,” Bates said. “We all talked about it, and then he felt comfortable enough to do it, and then the rest is to his credit. He’s just been who he is.”

In the past, Hernández had used a “twister tap” as his stride. He started in a more open stance, tapped his toe in line with the pitcher, and then set his foot down. But lower-body injuries the last couple of years — a left groin strain last season and a left hamstring strain earlier this season — forced him away from it.

His improved health and hip flexibility opened up the avenue for him to return to that timing mechanism.

“When Teo’s hips are loose that way, and his front leg looks like an Elvis knee, it’s a good sign for us,” Bates said. “Because that means that he can open and close it without his upper body going with it.”

The advantage of the twister tap, as Hernández explained it, is how repeatable it is. A more traditional stride can be sped up or slowed down.

“Just being able to control my body and being in a good position,” Hernández said earlier this month. “I can see the pitch a little sooner and identify what kind of pitch it is and if it’s going to be a strike or a ball.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches during one of his seven shutout innings against the Reds Tuesday.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

With that change, he’s rewarded the Dodgers for deciding against platooning left field. Hernández entered Tuesday with a .777 OPS against right-handed pitchers — a sample size of just 28 plate appearances but still a significant jump.

“The biggest thing is his plate coverage away,” Bates said. “Because now he can spoil pitches, and he’s staying in at-bats longer.”

Hernández’s dramatic offensive turnaround, along with fellow corner outfielder Kyle Tucker’s improvement, have helped steady a Dodgers offense that’s missing Shohei Ohtani (on the IL with right biceps and left knee injuries) and includes a hobbled Freddie Freeman (right knee soreness).

Rookie Josue De Paula, mostly filling in for Ohtani at designated hitter, has already shown he can take mature at-bats and provide some pop. But he’s still finding his footing in a new league.

It lengthens the Dodgers lineup for Hernández, after a slow start to his year, to return to being a veteran power threat — just in time to, ideally, carry the momentum into the postseason.

On Monday, he launched his two-run shot off left-hander Nick Lodolo. On Tuesday, he replicated the feat off right-hander Rhett Lowder.

On the second pitch of the at-bat, Hernández recognized a hung slider, and he roped it over the left-field fence at 109.3 mph, according to Statcast. The blast put the Dodgers up 3-0 in the third inning, with Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto settling into a groove on the other side.

Yamamoto had walked the first two batters he faced, but he reigned in his control to pitch seven scoreless innings and allow just one more baserunner, on a double by Reds star shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

The Dodgers also scored on Hunter Feduccia’s second-inning single and Alex Freeland’s seventh-inning homer. And the Dodgers bullpen completed the shutout.

Freeman staying in the lineup

Freeman was all smiles after his three-hit game Tuesday — after going hitless for his last four games.

“I was supposed to be off tomorrow, but I played myself in there,” he said. “So I’m very excited.”

Roberts explained: “He was joking, saying, ‘If I get three hits, then can I be in there tomorrow?’”

Sure enough, the mechanical adjustments he made in the batting cage — focusing on getting his foot down early and making contact out in front — got him there.

“I’m just trying to find something that gives me results,” Freeman said. “We’re at the time where we’re just trying to get hot for five weeks here. So kind of like I did in the World Series a couple years ago, I did the step-out move. That’s not sustainable over six months. I’m not trying to find something that’s sustainable.”

Though Roberts has been trying to find opportunities to rest Freeman, he saw promising signs Tuesday beyond the results.

“Just my eyes, just watching him move, I feel good about him going tomorrow,” Roberts said.

De Paula, Freeland and third baseman Max Muncy will be out of the lineup Wednesday, Roberts said.

The sheer ferocity of the strike to beat Jan Oblak was one thing, but the raw emotion shown by Alexis Mac Allister as he grabbed the Liverpool badge on his shirt and celebrated in front of the Kop told you all that you needed to know.

Just a day earlier, Mac Allister had spoken with a different kind of emotion inside the press room at Anfield as he expressed his sadness at Liverpool not offering him a new contract during the summer.

The Argentine, who is currently contracted until 2028, spoke passionately about his love for the club and the city and how he didn’t feel like he had anything to prove – but there was an admittance that he needed to show the level he knew he could perform at.

Thankfully for Andoni Iraola and Liverpool, Mac Allister did just that by letting his football do the talking in their 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid.

From the outset against Diego Simeone’s side, the midfielder seemed like a man on a mission. He blazed over early on from outside the box then picked up a booking just before the half-hour mark. Seeing Simeone wave an imaginary yellow card when he wanted a second booking for his compatriot just before half-time told a story in itself.

Simeone could only watch on when Mac Allister’s left foot connected with the ball from outside the box and leave a diving Oblak with no chance – turning the game on its head after Marcos Llorente’s opening goal and Dominik Szoboszlai’s equaliser.

It wasn’t quite like the strike that produced an actual seismic event – reaching a peak magnitude of 1.74 on the Richter scale – when Mac Allister found the top corner against Tottenham in 2025 on the day Liverpool won the Premier League, but it was more than good enough to beat one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

Even Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who’d never be accused of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, was a little worried during his monthslong absence because of a persistent neck injury that he might not be healthy by the end of the season.

“‘It was kind of the ‘who knows how long it’s going to take,’” Smith said when the Dodgers activated him at the beginning of the month. “But at some point I was going to be fed up and just kind of deal with it.”

It apparently didn’t come to that. And in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, Smith’s fifth time in the lineup since returning from the injured list, he put the Dodgers ahead with a first-inning home run and guided Dodgers left-handed starter Tarik Skubal through 7 ⅓ innings of two-run ball.

“He called a great game,” Skubal said of his Team USA teammate. “And the targets that he sets up, and the way that he goes about it, he gives me a ton of confidence back there.”

A neck problem that was initially expected to resolve on its own in a few days turned into a nearly three-month IL stint. With the revolving door behind the plate in Smith’s absence, getting him back down the stretch and into the postseason was going to be key.

While Smith was on the IL, backup catcher Dalton Rushing was thrown into the starting role, learning how to balance the defensive responsibility of serving as the main backstop at the major-league level with a desire to also contribute offensively.

Rushing seemed to be getting the hang of it, with Chuckie Robinson and then Eliézer Alfonzo behind him, before he hurt his right elbow right before the trade deadline. The Dodgers traded for an entirely new catching duo, Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt, who held down the position until Smith’s return.

“It was frustrating early,” Smith said. “Just looking for answers why it was taking longer, but we finally got those answers. And then it was kind of a pretty straightforward process from there. So last month or two hasn’t been too bad.”

Smith and the Dodgers sought multiple doctors’ opinions. He was eventually diagnosed with an annular tear and given two possible recovery timelines. Though they proceeded with hope for the earlier return, the longer one came to fruition.

Now, the Dodgers are carrying three catchers, trying not to overwork Smith in his first weeks back. He’ll be out of the lineup Wednesday and play two of three games in Miami, manager Dave Roberts said.

With Rushing back on the IL for the same elbow injury, Feduccia can also serve as a left-handed bat off the bench, and Alfonzo gives the team more substitution flexibility.

Entering Tuesday, Smith had already thrown out three baserunners attempting to steal in his first week back in action. But despite some hard contact, hits weren’t falling for him. He went two for 17 with a single and a double in the same time period.

“Will is just very consistent, dependable,” Roberts said. “I know he’s taking really good at-bats. Hitting some balls to the warning track.”

On Tuesday, batting third in the lineup against Reds left-handed starting pitcher Nick Lodolo, he showcased the kind of influence he can make on both sides of the ball.

In Smith’s first at-bat, he battled for nine pitches, finally lifting a changeup over the left field wall.

“That was really good to see,” Roberts said. “With Will, it’s just great having him in there because you know you can count on the at-bat quality, and obviously having him behind the plate has been good.”

The next inning the Dodgers (88-57) doubled their score when Tommy Edman — hitting in the leadoff spot in place of Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), who was out of the lineup Tuesday as the Dodgers ease him back from a four-day absence over the weekend — was hit in the leg by a pitch with the bases loaded.

The Reds then tied the score in the third, as Elly De La Cruz launched a two-run homer off Skubal. But the Dodgers pulled ahead again two innings later, courtesy of the red-hot bat Teoscar Hernández has been swinging in September.

Tarik Skubal pitches in the second inning Tuesday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Hernández avenged his ill-fated inside-the-park home run attempt — he was thrown out at the plate on an aggressive send two innings earlier — with a well-struck RBI single.

Skubal wrapped up his deepest start of his Dodgers tenure to a standing ovation. He’d limited the Reds to just four hits, while recording five strikeouts in an efficient performance.

Flame-throwing reliever Edgardo Henriquez replaced Skubal, tasked with recording the last two outs of the eighth. He did so with the help of an ABS challenge from Smith that secured an inning-ending strikeout.

Lefty Tanner Scott earned the save, retiring three straight batters after a leadoff walk, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to six games.

“It’s the last stretch,” Smith said at the beginning of the month. “We’re fighting for seeding as well. So yeah, it’s definitely time to step on the gas.”

BOSTON — Reid Detmers struck out nine and gave up one hit over six shutout innings, Zach Neto was four for five with a two-run homer, and the Angels beat the Red Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night to end Boston’s five-game winning streak.

Vaughn Grissom and Jose Siri hit RBI singles and the Angels scored twice on double-play grounders, providing ample offense for Detmers (5-8), who got his first win since a 1-0 decision over Kansas City on Aug. 15.

Detmers struck out at least one in all six innings he pitched and allowed only three runners. He retired the last 10 batters he faced after hitting Jahmai Jones with a pitch in the third, then was pulled before the seventh after throwing a career-high 112 pitches.

The Angels outhit Boston 15-4 and won for the just the third time in their last 15 games. They also avoided a potential season sweep, improving to 1-4 against the Red Sox.

Boston went without a hit from Wilyer Abreu’s single in the first until Trevor Story led off the seventh with a double off of José Fermin, who gave up Boston’s run when Nick Sogard drove in Story with a single.

Neto gave the Angels a cushion in the eighth with his 24th homer to left-center off Raymond Burgos.

Patrick Sandoval (1-5) struck out seven in six innings for Boston, but also gave up four runs, 10 hits and two walks. His two-out walk of Mike Trout in the third helped lead to two runs when Siri and Grissom followed with consecutive singles to put the Angels up 3-1.

As Shohei Ohtani strode up to the plate Monday, Michael Bublé’s voice crooned over the Dodger Stadium speakers as always. But after four games out of the lineup, the song seemed to be asking fans to believe:

“I’m feeling … good.”

Ohtani at least looked more comfortable in the batter’s box than he did Wednesday, when pain in his biceps had him shaking his right arm. But his performance at the plate still remains in a slump — he went 0 for 3 with a walk in the Dodgers’ 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

“It’s hard to really feel 100% at any time in the season,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So I wouldn’t say I’m there.”

Roberts will continue to closely monitor Ohtani, saying he’ll see how the superstar designated hitter feels Tuesday before finalizing any decisions about playing time.

The Dodgers and Ohtani have all but ruled out his return to the mound this season.

“Disappointing,” Ohtani said. “But I want to make sure that when I look back at this season, that I used this as an experience, a learning experience and make sure that I use that as something to improve upon for next season.”

Roberts said he hoped Ohtani could improve his offensive production by not pitching.

“That’s one part of the thought, to sort of take the pitching off of his plate and really try to let him lock in on being a hitter and get on track,” Roberts said. “Because the last couple of weeks he just hasn’t been himself in the box.”

In the six games before Roberts sat Ohtani because of health concerns, he only had two hits.

“I’m confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward,” Ohtani said. “I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worst scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all.”

Teoscar Hernández is showered with sunflower seeds after hitting a three-run home run in the sixth inning Monday against the Reds.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Ohtani flew out in his first at-bat, and then struck out on a Chase Burns slider below the zone. He struck out again against Brandon Williamson to end the fifth before reaching base in the seventh on a walk.

“It was certainly good to get him back out there, but there was certainly nothing to kind of write home about,” Roberts said. “I think the main thing is that there was nothing alarming from the at-bats. To take four days off, to come out of it feeling good, I think that’s a win in itself.”

The Dodgers (87-57) caught a break with Burns — considered a top-five National League Cy Young candidate — since the Reds (69-75) had him on a pitch limit in an effort to manage his workload.

Burns held the Dodgers hitless through three innings, striking out Ohtani as his last act before handing duties to the bullpen.

Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan, recalled on Monday as the Dodgers optioned right-hander Bobby Miller, gave up a home run to Elly De La Cruz in the first before outdueling the Reds’ bullpen. He gave up three hits, one run and struck out 10 over 5⅔ innings.

Sheehan will remain in the rotation and is scheduled to start Sunday in Miami, Roberts said.

Against Williamson in the fifth inning, Teoscar Hernández lined a leadoff single into left field. After Alex Call was hit in the right foot with a pitch, Miguel Rojas chopped a grounder to Reds third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, whose errant throw allowed two runs to score as Rojas dashed to third.

The next inning, Hernández punctuated his recent hot streak by lining a three-run homer into the Dodgers’ bullpen — with the highest exit velocity (112.6 mph) of any ball he’s put in play since 2024, according to Statcast.

Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during the third inning against the Reds on Monday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Though Dodgers relievers Seth Halvorsen and Jack Dreyer each gave up a run, the Dodgers tacked on insurance in the eighth inning with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from pinch-hitting Will Smith. And the team extended its winning streak to five games.

Ohtani didn’t play a part in any of the Dodgers’ scoring, but at least he was back in the batter’s box.

“It felt like, ‘long time no see,’” he said.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was flawless over his first five innings in the Dodgers’ 8-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, giving up no hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.

“It comes down to starting pitching,” Roberts said pregame, after his team gave up 13 runs in a loss Tuesday. “And obviously it’s a young, hungry team out there. Came out last night swinging the bats, so it’d be nice to put up a zero, get a lead, and go from there.”

Roberts’ wish appeared granted, as the Dodgers led 3-0 in the first after Freddie Freeman ended his career-long 47-game homer drought with a three-run blast against Cardinals lefty Brycen Mautz.

But the once-cruising ace encountered turbulence. He later gave up a pair of two-run homers, with the Cardinals’ Thomas Saggese launching the first in the sixth and Leo Bernal the second in the eighth.

The Dodgers showed fight amid chaos on Tuesday.

“[Tuesday] night I really liked the way we just kind of fought, saw some different arms, got the closer up, and things to build on,” Roberts said pregame.

On Wednesday, not even a Mookie Betts two-run homer in the seventh could lift the Dodgers (82-57) to a win.

Yamamoto’s night was done after seven innings. He threw 93 pitches, had eight strikeouts and gave up five hits, two walks and four runs, a few mistakes away from a completely different outing.

Tanner Scott stepped in for Yamamoto in the eighth, allowing a Joshua Báez double three pitches in. And after Ivan Herrera moved Báez to third via a groundout, Alec Burleson tied the score at five with a sacrifice fly to right.

Jack Dreyer kept things stable with a clean ninth. However, in the 10th, Brock Stewart (0-2) uninspiringly gave up three runs. Orange County native Nathan Church got the Cardinals’ wheels turning iwith a single up the middle, advancing José Fermin to third. Saggese delivering the go-ahead run on an infield single. One pitch later, Báez put the game out of reach with a two-run double

The Dodgers could only get one run back in the bottom of the miserable 10th.

CT3 comes home

Chris Taylor, his wife Mary and son Theo watch a video tribute to his career before the start of Wednesday’s game.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers welcomed back former longtime utility player Chris Taylor to Dodger Stadium and presented him with a video tribute and his third World Series ring.

“It’s pretty much what I identify my career as — over 90% of my entire career was in Dodger Blue,” Taylor said. “This is the place I call home. Always proud to be a Dodger, and it means a lot to me that they would do this for me. So, I’m extremely humbled.”

Taylor, a 12-year veteran who retired earlier this season, said Wednesday night was the first time he was able to watch a game with his family.

Injury Updates

Shohei Ohtani reacts after striking out in 10th inning Wednesday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Roberts said the plan is still for Shohei Ohtani to return to pitching this season. However, there is no timetable for when he’ll throw his next bullpen session, and shutting down Ohtani as a pitcher remains a distant possibility.

“We’re not there quite yet, but it’s certainly an option,” Roberts said.

Roberts also shed light on some of the work Ohtani’s doing to get back on the mound.

“He’s doing plyos,” Roberts said. “He does that a handful of times a week. … That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Will Smith was given a breather after going one for five with two RBIs in his first game back from a three-month stint on the IL on Tuesday.

“It was good to see him get a knock,” Roberts said. “I thought he swung the bat pretty well. So, it’s a premeditated day off today. He’ll be back in there tomorrow, but I guess no news is good news.”

It wasn’t a full day off, as Smith pinch-hit for Hunter Feduccia in the ninth and scored the Dodgers’ run in the 10th.

Rōki Sasaki’s blister is healing as planned, and he shouldn’t miss additional time.

“I saw him yesterday at the end of the bench; it’s healing well,” Roberts said. “He’s still moving his arm, playing catch. So I think it’s going to be a shorter term getting him back.”

Roberts doesn’t yet know whether Sasaki will take a spot in the bullpen or rotation upon his return.

Gavin Stone could potentially pitch in September, according to Roberts.

“Gavin’s been good,” Roberts said. “I think right now — and again, this is not talking to the guys in the, you know, player development — but it’s more of just getting him to stay upright, stay healthy, is the win for 2026.”