SACRAMENTO — Pinch-hitter Jonah Heim launched a tying homer with two outs in the ninth and the Athletics surrendered 11 straight runs before rallying from seven down to defeat the Angels 12-11 in 10 innings Friday night.
Zack Gelof started the comeback with an RBI single in the sixth, and the A’s got two-run homers from Jacob Wilson in the seventh, Max Muncy in the eighth and Heim in the ninth to tie it 11-11.
Nick Kurtz walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to force home the winning run. It was the largest comeback win for the A’s (38-38) this season.
Gelof extended his hitting streak to 23 games — the longest active run in the majors.
Tyler Soderstrom hit a one-out double in the ninth before Heim connected for his second career-tying pinch-hit homer. The first came earlier this month in a 15-14 loss to Milwaukee in Las Vegas.
Henry Bolte drew a leadoff walk from Kirby Yates (0-3) in the 10th. Following a double steal, Muncy flied out and Gelof was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Samy Natera Jr. entered and walked Kurtz on five pitches, scoring automatic runner Lawrence Butler.
A’s starter Jeffrey Springs gave up six runs on four hits and four walks in 3 2/3 innings. Elvis Alvarado (3-1) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win.
José Soriano struck out six in five innings. He permitted six hits, four runs and four walks.
Up next: RHP J.T. Ginn (5-3, 2.91 ERA) pitches Saturday for the A’s in the third game of the four-game series. The Angels had not announced their starter.
Photo: Humberto Villalobos in February 2023, months before the last opposition primaries
While Washington’s focus seems to be shifting toward security and armed groups, Machado’s team keeps its priorities clear, looking beyond the immediate circumstances. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate keeps saying that an election will be the vehicle to channel a transition to democracy—an event where the anti-chavista movement sees itself as the clear winner. Following the 2023 and especially the 2024 elections (where the coalition successfully defended a clear victory for Edmundo González by collecting and publishing 85% of the official tally sheets), it is not far-fetched to say that this is where the Venezuelan opposition’s greatest strengths lie, even under adverse conditions.
At Caracas Chronicles, we sat down with Humberto Villalobos—Vente Venezuela’s electoral chief, who coordinated Machado’s famous defense machinery—to discuss the current gap between ideal electoral conditions and reality, now that the publication of the Panama Manifesto has opened the opposition to negotiating elections with chavismo, naming Machado as the leader (or conductora) of the process.
Machado’s team is proposing changes that, to a large extent, aim to “demolish” the electoral system as we know it. Among other measures, this involves migrating to a hybrid system that would get rid of the ExCle voting machines, (paper ballots would be counted by hand), establishing a CNE in a novel fashion, improving the Venezuelan Electoral Registry so it accurately reflects how the population is scattered both inside and abroad, and implementing a mechanism to legalize political party competition in practice.
Once a new CNE is formed and the electoral calendar is published, Villalobos says this study could contribute to the renewal of the Electoral Registry. Under the proposal, the Registry would be renewed in three months.
This is a baseline proposal that could change in a scenario where Villalobos views the US as the guarantor of an agreement: “Delcy will make proposals, we will too, and in the end, all those things will be considered to yield something reasonable.” He envisions an election that is “simpler to produce,” stripping away the obvious strategic advantages that chavismo has historically claimed for itself during elections. “Under other conditions,” Villalobos says, “none of this would even be on the table. But here they proved to us that they can pass an energy reform in 15 days. You could do something similar to make elections happen, something just as important as pumping oil.”
First: an independent citizen register
Villalobos began by describing the need to produce a rigorous study of the local and migrant populations to understand the country’s actual electoral reality. The opposition would gather information directly from the people to understand who still lives where the Electoral Registry says they do, who left the country, and how many voters would require a change in their polling station. Villalobos calls this empadronamiento: the creation of a citizen residency register. The objective, he notes, is for the majority of voters to update their addresses through a digital platform featuring biometric facial recognition (ABIS) identification mechanisms, or at registration points operated by a network of enumerators or empadronadores
Once a new CNE is established and the electoral calendar is released, this study could assist in overhauling the Electoral Registry, the current state of which Villalobos calls “disastrous.”
“While citizens are changing their voting addresses, they could also support a political party. From that, you would yield parties with validated groups of voters.”
The digital platform and the network already exist. Vente has started the process with its own members, and all current enumerators hold positions within the party: “We originally thought of it just for Vente, and as we grew, we envisioned it as a solution for all Venezuelans.” They would only need the people’s consent to use their data. Villalobos admits that managing a database of this scale carries an enormous burden of responsibility, but the alternative would mean negotiating while relying exclusively on data managed by the chavista state, which “treats it as its own asset.”
“At the end of the day, we are the only ones ready to do it. The systems being employed are the ones we already used in the 2024 presidential election. We simply added an extra feature that allows for enrollment of this type,” Villalobos asserts. “That feature handled half of the tally sheets we transcribed. And that gives you the certainty that you can handle millions. Furthermore, the guarantee is being provided by María Corina Machado.”
Second: ad hoc CNE, Electoral Registry, and political parties
The proposal rests on the premise that the CNE’s current structure is too flawed to fix simply by appointing a new board of rectors (or “electoral commission,” as Marco Rubio has called it). They propose a new, temporary electoral authority termed ad hoc CNE, an entity created specifically to manage an electoral transition. From that point on, it would only require a new specialized company to carry out the formal overhaul of the Electoral Registry
“More than one company is already preparing its bid under the terms we are working with,” Villalobos says. “That bidding process would have to be run by the new CNE, a natural process that nobody else can handle.”
Data from the independent, citizen register “would serve as a foundation” for the state provider to shorten the process. Villalobos assures that, in this manner, the new Registry could be ready in three months. Meanwhile, political parties that have been suspended or intervened since the last decade would be legalized through groups of voters that endorse these political organizations. “While citizens are changing their voting addresses, they could also support a political party. From that, you would yield parties with validated groups of voters. That would save us a lot of time.” The concept of groups of voters (grupos de electores) exists in Venezuelan legislation, though not necessarily for these purposes. A new statute for the ad hoc CNE, Villalobos suggests, could change that.
The electoral expert noted that one additional provider would be needed to manage the calendar and the elections. Identity verification made possible by the technology first implemented in the independent citizen register would thus help the ad hoc CNE assign party representatives and witnesses.
Third: goodbye to the machines
The most ambitious part of the proposal is to discard the electronic voting system that has been in place in Venezuela throughout this century and move to a mixed system featuring manual counting and automatic transmission.
According to Villalobos, paper ballots would be counted by hand by polling station members in the presence of party representatives. Afterward, a photo and a scan of the voting tally sheet would be taken. The data of all votes would then be transmitted from the polling station to the CNE, the political parties, international institutions linked to the electoral process, universities, and media outlets.
“It works almost like a blockchain, because you will have multiple repositories of the original document, which prevents it from being altered. It isn’t a galactic development like a voting machine that does absolutely everything,” Villalobos says. “It would be a matter of scanning something, transcribing it, and sending it. That fits on a smartphone.”
Villalobos noted they will push to ensure there are no polling stations where it is impossible to deploy a witness.
He maintains that the current system operates like a “black box” where voters are forced to accept the results transmitted by the machines, which he claims can be manipulated by those managing the CNE. But didn’t the physical tally sheets printed by these machines on July 28, 2024—which proved Edmundo González won the election by a 2-to-1 margin—serve to show that the count itself wasn’t manipulated, but rather that the CNE simply fabricated results declaring Maduro the winner? Villalobos insists that the current technology failed because, regardless, opposition witnesses were unable to obtain 15% of the tally sheets. He asserts that without representatives at a polling center, “there are ways they can change your result.”
“The extraordinary concept of having a machine that does everything is not dominant worldwide. In Colombia [referring to the first round of presidential elections where Abelardo de la Espriella secured the majority of votes], where the process was not the fastest, we already had the results of all tally sheets within an hour and a half. All of them, not a single one was missing.”
Finally, Villalobos was emphatic that voting must end strictly at a specific hour (in Venezuela, polling stations commonly close at 6 pm, but voting can be extended if there are still voters in line). He also stressed that the opposition will push to ensure there are no polling stations where it is impossible to deploy a witness. In the 2024 presidential election and previous ones, voting centers were set up inside Misiones Vivienda (state housing complexes), communal council headquarters controlled by the ruling party, and military bases—places where the likelihood of a clean process and of collecting the printed tally sheet is usually much lower.
“Voting systems were created to resolve conflicts. The first step is for all of us to believe we won’t be cheated, because otherwise, we go right back to the same thing,” he concludes. “In any election, they can change the result of a polling center if you don’t have anyone there. That’s why we are going to motivate people to stay at the centers, to have the fiesta right there. So that you walk away from that center knowing it is impossible for them to change the results.”
Tyra Banks has filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix and the directors of “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” claiming that she was manipulated and misrepresented in the series.
The three-part documentary, directed by married duo Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, revisited the reality show’s rise and many controversies, including former contestant Shandi Sullivan discussing what she described as a blackout sexual encounter that took place during Cycle 2 of the series and was a major plot point because Sullivan was in a relationship.
Sullivan said in “Reality Check” that she felt like producers should have stepped in considering she was heavily intoxicated, but instead they followed her into the bathroom and bedroom to record a sexual encounter with a male model. In a following scene, Banks lectures Sullivan about cheating and “carnal” temptation.
“Tyra Banks participated in the Netflix documentary series about ‘America’s Next Top Model’ because she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show’s legacy — its successes and its shortcomings,” reads the lawsuit. “There are aspects of the show for which Ms. Banks takes accountability and she wanted ANTM viewers to hear that from her directly.”
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the Central District of California, claims that the supermodel turned media personality participated in a 3½-hour interview, of which about 16 minutes was used.
“The producers used what could be stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed,” reads the suit. “The accountability Banks took ended up on the cutting room floor.”
The suit alleges that producers used “selective editing, deliberate omission and surgical manipulation of continuous footage” to create a false narrative that Banks “knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant’s trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked.”
Banks claims that she asked Netflix and the producers of the docuseries for access to the unedited footage of her 3½-hour interview, and proposed they work together to “correct the record.”
“Had they agreed, Ms. Banks could have made the truth public and this litigation would likely have been unnecessary,” reads the suit.
According to the suit, Banks was pitched the docuseries as a “definitive three-hour Netflix docuseries exploring America’s Next Top Model as a groundbreaking popculture phenomenon.” The pitch had a Netflix logo on its cover, and Banks had “long trusted and admired Netflix.” The streamer’s involvement was the reason Banks claims she considered the project.
Banks claims the pitch included promises that the documentary would unpack the show’s legacy “not as a takedown, but as a thoughtful in-depth reflection on its influence, evolution, and impact on fashion, television, and culture.”
The suit claims Banks was prepared for a fair comeuppance, but ultimately the former supermodel felt hoodwinked. “Nothing suggested that the project would falsely accuse Ms. Banks of covering up a sexual assault, or being indifferent to what a contestant characterizes as a traumatic experience.”
In February, directors for “Reality Check” revealed that Banks wasn’t invited to participate in the docuseries until well after production began
“It was like, ‘Hey, this can be a great addition, but definitely not a necessity,’” Sivan said. “People talking trash about her is very easy to find. … But having her passion, bringing this program to life, is something that only she could tell.”
Sivan and Loushy, who also helmed the acclaimed 2025 docuseries “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden,” said they treated “Reality Check” with the same level of care as previous heavyweight projects.
“There were things that were sensitive and important for me,” Loushy said, from the harassment that she said “ANTM” contestants endured to the insecurities that “to us as women, are sitting tight and hard every day on our heart.”
The directing duo hoped to examine the good intentions Banks and producers had, of turning the fashion industry on its head, empowering women and championing diversity, and the way those intentions evolved as the show moved through cycles.
“At the end of the day, was it a force of good, or was it a force of evil? I hope people keep debating that,” Sivan said.
Former Times staff writer Malia Mendez contributed to this report.
CHICAGO — Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer rubbed a new baseball between his hands as he walked back to the mound, a sold-out Rate Field coming alive around him.
Fireworks crackled over the center-field scoreboard. Digital pinwheels spun. Dreyer had just surrendered his second home run of the inning, transforming a low-scoring battle into a lopsided White Sox advantage.
The Dodgers’ recent bullpen problems persisted in a 6-4 loss Sunday, overshadowing a bounce-back effort from Emmet Sheehan. The Dodgers tried to come back in the ninth, but fell short.
“We’ve gotten bit by the long ball, obviously in Pittsburgh, and here tonight,” said bench coach Danny Lehmann, filling in Sunday for manager Dave Roberts while he attended his daughter’s college graduation. “But overall, it’s more the strike throwing and just getting ahead of guys and doing what they’re supposed to do.”
The Dodgers dropped the series 2-1, marking their first series loss since May 8-10 against the Braves.
Sheehan was charged with three runs in five-plus innings, a massive turnaround coming off the second-shortest start of his career, only rivaled by a planned one-inning outing at the end of last season.
On Sunday, he didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning.
“He got strike one and then understood when to leave the zone when he needed to,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “He did a great job of that. I think a couple of those guys picked up on tendencies, jumped on a pitch. I felt they were good pitches. I thought he did his job today and gave us a chance to win.”
Sheehan’s velocity has been an indicator of how synced up his delivery has been on any given start this season.
Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers against the Chicago White Sox in the first inning Sunday.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
On Sunday, his 95.1-mph average fastball velocity was 0.7 mph above his season average, according to Statcast — a promising sign. Results followed.
Sheehan retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced, just a hit batter away from perfection. With two outs in the fourth, he gave up a double to Colson Montgomery, on a low line drive up the first-base line, just out of reach of Freddie Freeman as he made a diving attempt.
Then against Braden Montgomery, Sheehan worked back from a 2-1 count for an inning-ending strikeout.
Out of Sheehan’s hand, the pitch looked like it was going to cross the plate on the inside corner, about belt high. But as Montgomery started his swing, the firm changeup veered away from his bat at a sharp downward angle.
Montgomery swung over the pitch. A fired-up Sheehan buried his fist in his glove and shouted. With that strikeout, he preserved the Dodgers’ one-run lead.
Freeman provided that run with a solo homer in the first inning. And Sheehan gave the Dodgers plenty of time to extend that lead. In the sixth inning, however, the White Sox finally got to him.
“I definitely felt better early,” Sheehan said. “And then more of the same towards the end. Just pretty frustrating.”
Sheehan’s fastball to Sam Antonacci wasn’t in a bad spot. But in an 0-2 count, he could have put it a little higher or farther inside. Antonacci drove it over the right-field fence.
A single, a stolen base and an RBI double later, Sheehan walked off the mound, the Dodgers trailing 2-1.
Just a few weeks ago, turning the ball over to the Dodgers’ bullpen was a promising move. They were still riding a franchise-record streak of 38 consecutive scoreless innings.
Lately, however, it’s been a rocky ride. The bullpen entered Sunday with a 6.71 ERA since ending that scoreless streak on May 25. Only the Giants and Rockies produced a worse mark over that stretch.
None of the Dodgers’ relievers have been dominant in recent games. Tanner Scott has been credited with three saves but also two losses. Kyle Hurt’s ERA has risen from 0.60 to 4.22. Dreyer, who went 10 straight games without giving up a run before landing on the injured list with left shoulder discomfort, has surrendered five home runs in seven appearances since returning on May 31.
Dreyer gave up three runs and three hits. Then Blake Treinen and Jonathan Hernández held the White Sox the rest of the way.
The Dodgers tacked on three more runs, on a sacrifice fly and an RBI double from Alex Freeland, and a solo homer from Mookie Betts. They stranded runners at the corners in the ninth.
Junior Caminero hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays avoided a series sweep with an 8-3 victory over the Angels on Sunday.
Victor Mesa Jr. added a two-run homer later in a five-run eighth for the Rays, who have won four of six despite losing the first two in their weekend visit to Angel Stadium. Ben Williamson connected early for his second career homer.
Cedric Mullins drew a leadoff walk from Sam Bachman (1-1) before Caminero hit his 15th home run to left field, ending his 10-game homer drought. Hunter Feduccia added an RBI single before Mesa hit his third career homer off Bachman, who hadn’t allowed a homer since May 5.
Donovan Walton hit his first homer for the Angels, whose four-game winning streak ended. The last-place Angels had won five of six during the best stretch of its dismal season, winning both of its home series this week.
Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez left the game with low-back tightness in the third inning after 47 pitches.
Kevin Kelly (4-2) pitched two scoreless innings in a Rays bullpen game. Garrett Cleavinger escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth created by Craig Kimbrel, who walked two and hit a batter with a pitch in the veteran reliever’s third appearance for Tampa Bay.
Chandler Simpson had a two-run single for Tampa Bay in the third, and Williamson added his first homer in a Rays uniform in the fourth for a 3-1 lead.
Angels outfielder Wade Meckler left in the fifth inning after crashing into the wall while trying to catch Williamson’s homer.
Walton connected in the fifth for his first major league homer since 2024 and only the fifth of his seven-year career. Jo Adell poked a tying single through the infield moments later.
Up next for the Angels: Walbert Ureña (4-4, 2.44 ERA) has made five consecutive outstanding starts going into Monday night at Arizona.
CHICAGO — Fans around Rate Field rose to their feet as Yoshinobu Yamamoto embraced his teammates before walking off the mound.
Of course, the Dodgers fans stood. But fans clad in White Sox jerseys joined them, waving White Sox hats in the air, acknowledging the brilliance they’d just witnessed.
In the Dodgers’ 7-1 win against the White Sox on Saturday, Yamamoto carried a perfect game bid into the eighth inning and a no-hit bid into the ninth.
Dating back to Yamamoto’s last start, against the Angels, he retired 45 straight batters, one shy of the major-league record set by Yusmeiro Petit in 2014.
In an eventful game, which included Shohei Ohtani returning to the lineup to homer in his first at-bat, a two-homer performance from Max Muncy, and a team-effort bounce-back after getting blown out the night before, Yamamoto’s performance on the mound stole the show.
Yamamoto, who exited with one out in the ninth inning and a pitch count of 109, was efficient even within each out. A 10-pitch strikeout in the third inning showed how Yamamoto wasn’t going to give in.
The Dodgers right-hander was one pitch away from striking out Jacob Gonzalez for seven straight pitches. But Gonzalez kept fouling off anything close to the strike zone.
For the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Yamamoto challenged Gonzalez with a cutter over the plate. And finally, Gonzalez swung through it.
The next inning, Yamamoto retired the side in eight pitches.
The only thing that slowed his roll was the mound itself. Yamamoto asked for the grounds crew to fix it in the sixth. And then he kept cruising.
Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing slaps hands with Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the ninth inning Saturday against the White Sox.
(Zoe Davis / Getty Images)
He had help from a steady defense behind him for much of the game.
The sixth inning included two highlight-worthy plays. Tristan Peters hit a sharp ground ball up the first-base line, and first baseman Freddie Freeman made a sliding stop, tossing the ball to Yamamoto at first to complete the play. Then left-fielder Alex Call ran into the retaining wall in foul territory to catch Edgar Quero’s fly ball for the final out of the inning.
For the most part, Yamamoto made it look easy. The hardest contact against Yamamoto came the third time through the lineup. In the seventh, he pumped a heater to the top rail against Miguel Vargas, who stayed on top of the pitch to send a line drive to left field — and right to Call.
In the eighth, he fell behind Colson Montgomery 3-1. But he worked back to a full count. Montgomery then scorched a line drive up the first-base line — into Freeman’s glove.
His perfect game bid ended two batters later, with two outs, on an error.
Yamamoto got Chase Meidroth to chase a slider, hitting a ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts. But Betts mishandled the hop. The ball shot to his left, where second baseman Santiago Espinal tried to salvage the play but couldn’t pick up the ricochet cleanly.
The no-hit bid was next to fall. Yamamoto piped a fastball down the middle to Peters, who sent it over the wall in right field.
Yamamoto stayed in for one more batter, inducing Quero to fly out, before handing the ball over to manager Dave Roberts. Left-hander Alex Vesia took over for the final two outs.
Ohtani returns, hits home run
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after hitting a home run against the White Sox on Saturday.
(Matt Marton / Associated Press)
Before Yamamoto took the mound, Ohtani’s return was the big story of the day.
As Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box for the first time, he was greeted by a smattering of boos.
He took his first swing at the second pitch of the game. And he sent it into the right-field stands. A no-doubter, proclaiming that his availability was no longer in doubt.
Ohtani returned to the Dodgers lineup after exiting against the Pirates on Thursday because of inflammation in his left knee.
“I think Shohei drove it,” Roberts said of the decision to play. “Training staff drove it. We took him out of the game the other night just for precautionary reasons. Yesterday, treated it up. Today he feels great. All the confidence that he can go out there and hit, feel good, not regress at all.”
The Dodgers (45-26) will continue to monitor Ohtani’s knee as he prepares to take the mound Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium.
“I think we’re full go,” Roberts said before Ohtani threw on flat ground Saturday. “But I do think once he’s out there playing catch and we see how his knee responds to the pressure, the torque will be some good information.”
Even before Ohtani’s knee swelled (it’s still unclear what caused the inflammation) the Dodgers planned to have him pitch the day before their off-day on Thursday.
They switched Ohtani and left-hander Justin Wrobleski in the rotation order, with Wrobleski set to pitch Tuesday on regular rest.
That remains the plan, even after Wrobleski was hit in the leg by a comebacker Thursday. He left the game with a bruised right hamstring.
The Dodgers considered bringing in a spot starter, Roberts said, in order to keep the full rotation on extra rest.
“But considering how Wrobo’s start went short, feels good after it, we feel the four days’ rest will be fine for him,” Roberts said. “And then where Shohei is at, we feel good about just leaving it status quo.”
Ohtani returned without restrictions in his designated-hitter role — except for one request from his manager, after a couple days of parsing whether a steal attempt that was snuffed out by a foul ball had contributed to Ohtani’s injury.
Though they didn’t find a clear inciting incident, Roberts made it clear Saturday: “There will be no base stealing.”
Consider it a save for the tournament, three points for soccer in America and maybe even a win for uniting the States.
The Americans on the pitch did all that, including making sure a sellout crowd of 70,492 fans got their money’s worth for their exorbitantly high-priced seats to watch football under Friday Night Lights at SoFi Stadium.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, right, celebrates with Sergino Dest and Chris Richards after scoring during a World Cup win over Paraguay on Friday at SoFi Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
It was not a clean sheet. And it wasn’t an elixir for all the issues — visas, tickets, transportation — that ailed the tournament in its buildup.
But the opening statement by the United States confirmed what we thought might be true. Only one thing could save this soccer tournament: soccer.
The U.S. delivered a performance to change the conversation — for the next few weeks and maybe longer.
Making history to alter history.
The United States scored multiple goals in a World Cup first half for the first time since 2002.
It got two of them from Folarin Balogun, the Brooklyn-born, England-raised forward of Nigerian descent who became just the second USMNT player to score two goals in a World Cup game and the first since 1930.
Got a perfect match from Chris Richards, the afro-rocking defender with the long, loping strides, who was 83 for 83 on his passes. That’s better than any player at a World Cup since 1966.
And if possession is nine-tenths of the law of attraction, know that the Americans possessed the ball 71% of the first half, most in the first half of a World Cup game in the modern era.
Landon Donovan, star of the 2002 team that reached the World Cup quarterfinals — a record that still stands — posted on X: “From start to finish, that was the most enjoyable day of soccer I’ve ever experienced.”
That’s the stuff that will get the American people going. Get us invested, get us behind them. That could convert even devout casuals.
Americans love a good underdog story. We also want the best, the finest, the biggest — and this, with its expanded field of 48, is the biggest version of the biggest and best tournament in the world.
And the only thing we love more than winning is dominating. The United States did that Friday against a Paraguayan team that had allowed only 10 goals in 18 World Cup qualifying matches, and whom the United States beat 2-1 in a tense match in November.
Fans cheer during the U.S. win over Paraguay in their World Cup opener Saturday at SoFi Stadium.
“The fans, amazing,” said Pochettino, the team’s accomplished Argentine coach. “On behalf of the whole team, a massive thank you to the fans. Because the energy that they [gave] to the team was amazing. We can do amazing things if the fans are in this as well.”
Friday was so good for soccer in America.
And so good for America. The kind of butt-kicking that’s chicken soup for a nation’s soul.
Maybe it’s idealistic and naive, or apple-pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, but I believe that they can win. (And by win, I mean make the quarterfinals again.)
There’s no removing politics from this World Cup, but wouldn’t it be fun to all rally behind a team together? Can’t you see the country coalescing behind the right wingers and left wingers on the pitch? Picture people celebrating the freedom inherent in Pochettino’s system? Cheering the all-for-one and one-for-all of this team of dual nationals and Americans raised abroad — or in Alabama?
Postmatch, Pochettino refused to single out any one player, instead giving reporters a recitation of his roster: “[Christian Pulisic] was amazing [setting up two goals]. Balogun was amazing, of course. Tim Ream was amazing, of course. Chris Richards was amazing, yes. Weston McKennie, he was amazing, amazing. Antonee Robinson, Alex Freeman, amazing. Sergiño Dest, amazing …”
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — USC’s 2026 baseball season will be defined by two words — progress and pain.
Just two outs away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2001, USC suffered a devastating 4-3 loss in game three of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, as North Carolina rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and snatched the trip to Omaha away from the Trojans on Owen Hull’s walk-off RBI double into the left-center gap.
“I’m proud of our boys,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “I’m disappointed in the results, but I’m never disappointed in our guys. They did something pretty special this year.”
Andrew Johnson did everything possible and then some to get USC (48-18) across the finish line. After already throwing 3 ⅔ innings of shutout baseball to close Game 1, Johnson went a season-high 7 ⅔ innings with two earned runs surrendered to get the Trojans to the doorstep of victory. He glided through North Carolina’s lineup for most of the day, at one point retiring 15 out of 17 batters.
North Carolina’s Cooper Nicholson celebrates during his team’s ninth-inning rally to beat USC in their super regional finale Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
(Laura Wolff/For The Times)
He ended the super regional with 133 pitches thrown in a little over 48 hours, on top of the 145 pitches he threw across two appearances in the College Station Regional for a total of 278 tosses in 22 ⅓ innings with five earned runs given up in a heroic postseason stretch.
“The goal from the beginning of the season is Omaha,” Johnson said. “We’re definitely not just happy that we made it to supers and moved past the regional, but for it was a great season and we can be proud of what we accomplished.”
A first inning run off a Caden Glauber balk, plus Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb’s solo home runs accounted for all the offense on a day when the Tar Heels (50-12-1) had their own star pitcher going. Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year Caden Glauber held the Trojans at bay for most of the game, striking out a career high 11 batters in 7 ⅓ innings.
USC coach Andy Stankiewicz talks to his players after their season-ending loss to North Carolina.
(Laura Wolff / For The Times)
Glauber’s work was enough to hold his team in the game, but USC still had a 3-2 lead heading to the fateful bottom of the ninth. After closer Adam Troy retired the first batter, a long, loud foul ball seemed to spark North Carolina.
Third baseman Cooper Nicholson crushed a ball more than far enough for a home run, but just foul into the left field corner. But the near-miss seemed to rattle Troy, who walked Nicholson after getting ahead 0-2 in the count and fell behind 3-0 to nine-hole hitter Carter French.
Stankiewicz made a pitching change mid at-bat, going to Chase Herrell. French lined a 3-2 single through the right side, leadoff hitter Jake Schaffner tied the score on a sacrifice fly and Gavin Gallaher drew a walk, bringing Hull to the plate with the series’ winning run at second.
USC appeared to survive at least with extra innings when a Hull foul ball looked ticketed for the third out, but it dropped with three fielders in the area to give him an extra life. Hull pounded his fourth double of the game, prompting mass hysteria from the 3,913 Tar Heel fans and ultimate heartbreak in the other dugout.
Stankiewicz has built his program in stages, finally making the NCAA tournament last year and then going a step further this year.
But he also knows these opportunities are never guaranteed, and it will take a lot of work to return to the super regional stage.
“It’s a step,” he said. “Things take a moment. Sometimes we want things to happen overnight as humans I guess, but sometimes it takes a moment. We’ve been at this thing for awhile now, and we feel like we’re certainly building it and folks are taking notice. Now we just can’t go backwards. This thing’s got to continue moving forward.”
A positive season, but a nightmare ending sure to haunt the Trojans until they finally return to Omaha.
Speaking to Alison Mitchell, former England player Phil Tufnell says the Lord’s pitch was “not a good look'” for Test cricket as he, alongside former England captain Michael Vaughan, criticise the surface used for the first Test between England and New Zealand.
USC baseball lost 4-0 in Game 2 of the NCAA Chapel Hill Super Regional, meaning its season and quest to break a 25-year College World Series drought will come down to a single game on Sunday.
North Carolina (49-12-1) turned to DeCaro with its season on the line, the seventh career NCAA tournament start for the veteran right-hander. DeCaro delivered a complete-game masterpiece, allowing just two hits — singles in the first and fifth innings — with eight strikeouts and one walk on a career-high 117 pitches.
Outside of giving up a solo home run to Colin Hynek in the second inning, Govel had a strong performance. After throwing 153 pitches across two appearances in the NCAA regionals, including 64 pitches in Monday’s clinching win over Texas A&M, he gave up just five hits and struck out three over five innings and 83 pitches to keep the Trojans in the game. His final pitch was a crucial one, inducing an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners to hold the game at 1-0.
But for all of his great work, the day was all about DeCaro’s dominance.
North Carolina found success against the Trojans’ bullpen in the sixth. Erik Paulsen hit a 339-foot home run over the left-field corner wall to double the Tar Heels’ lead, just the second home run given up by USC’s Sax Matson all season. The Tar Heels added two more on sacrifice flies in the sixth and seventh innings, but failed to drive in more with the bases loaded in the seventh and ninth innings.
Game 3 will be Sunday, with time and broadcast information still to be determined.
No stranger to coming through in a big moment, the Dodgers star was hoping to see a fastball up in the zone from Angels reliever Kirby Yates.
So Freeman stayed patient, working his way into a full count.
Then Yates gave him what he wanted — and Freeman delivered the 20th walk-off hit of his career.
The Dodger Stadium crowd erupted in celebration as Freeman watched the ball soar over the right-center field wall in the ninth inning of a 1-0 victory over the Angels.
Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off home run for the Dodgers in a 1-0 win over the Angels at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Freeman grinned as he rounded the bases. He threw a thumbs up at his teammates before they swarmed him in celebration. He finally had given the Dodgers something to cheer for after being held to just two hits over 25 at-bats.
“I’ve been feeling good lately,” Freeman said. “I was tweaking things early on, just trying to find a consistent feel for things. Sometimes it’s just get a couple of hits, get confidence and get going. Nothing really crazy. It’s the same routine, hitting some soft line drives at the shortstop, and things have been working.”
Through most of the game, the excitement was contained to a pitcher’s duel — a chess game of defensive plays, waiting to see who flinched first.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki was red hot in what would tie for his longest outing of the season. Sasaki, for the first time this season, threw triple digits in back-to-back appearances, topping 100.6 mph. The Japanese pitcher threw all three of his pitches harder than his yearly average.
Freddie Freeman watches his walk-off home run clear the wall in right-center field to cap a 1-0 win over the Angels at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“I’ve been experiencing a lot of good and bad since 2024,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo. “But I feel like I’m able to maintain this velocity. I think I’m confident about that, but I’m just keeping working on it to make sure I’m in a better place.”
With the speed uptick, Sasaki has also seen an inverse downtick in the earned runs column on his statline. His monthly ERA reached its zenith at 7.23 in his April starts, descending to its current 4.03 ERA.
In Sasaki’s best starts, the elevated velocity and pitch mix makes the right-hander lethal, giving him extended runway to pitch further into the game. Against the Angels (24-40), the elevated velocity allowed him to throw 4⅓ hitless innings in his career-high 11th appearance of the season. He pitched seven innings, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out 10.
It’s a return to how Sasaki looked when he played in Japan, manager Dave Roberts said. Confidence might be the clearest sign things are clicking. Sasaki thumped his chest after striking out Adam Fraizer in the fifth inning, a rare show of emotion.
“I certainly think we can all agree that the floor for Roki is much higher, and the expectation every time he takes the ball is high, and he’s earned that,” Roberts said. “If you look at the last six or seven stats, it’s been as good as any starter in the big leagues in the consistency of performance. So really proud of him and I know that he wants more, and the floor has just been raised.”
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the first inning of a 1-0 win over the Angels at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Some quick thinking from second baseman Miguel Rojas also helped preserve Sasaki’s strong start. On Nick Madrigal’s sharp line drive in the third inning, the pitcher reached for the ball and popped it up with the tip of his glove. The ball ricocheted off its intended course, but Rojas nabbed it with his bare hand, throwing it to first where a lunging Freeman caught it. The play was initially ruled as an infield single, but it was overturned on review.
“When it hits off a pitcher — you’re already going, committed to one way, then you gotta make another,” Freeman laughed. “The old guy’s still got it.”
Madrigal would break the Angels’ hitless run in the fifth with a double off the left-field wall. But, he was left stranded when Sasaki induced a groundout before his strikeout of Frazier.
The Dodgers (41-23) didn’t fare much better against Angels starter Reid Detmers. In the fourth, Freeman singled and moved to third on a forceout on Kyle Tucker. But, with two outs on the board, Will Smith struck out.
Andy Pages squandered a potential scoring opportunity when he was caught stealing in the sixth. The center fielder, who went one for four, has struggled at the plate in recent games. Against Arizona this week, Pages batted .176, collecting only three hits.
As the innings dragged, both the Dodgers and the Angels failed to find momentum. Reliever Chase Silseth took over in the seventh for Detmers, who gave up just two hits, walked two and struck out six. Silseth silenced the opposing batters, issuing only a walk to Smith.
Edgardo Henriquez took over in the eighth, striking out the first two batters he faced. Then, he hit Zach Neto with a pitch, and after Neto stole second, the Dodgers found themselves in a precarious position with Mike Trout at the plate. Not for long, though, as Henriquez struck out Trout.
Roberts, who had watched Rojas and Santiago Espinal go a combined 0 for 4, pinch-hit for both in the eighth. To a roaring applause, Max Muncy entered the batter’s box, his first plate appearance since a scary collision with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Ildemaro Vargas on Thursday. Muncy, though, went down swinging.
Tanner Scott took the mound in the ninth a day after he gave up a walk-off home run to Arizona’s Ketel Marte. Jo Adell hit a one-out single then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Donovan Walton. Roberts then put Blake Treinen into the game, and he got Oswald Peraza to ground out to first.
With Freeman’s sixth career walk-off home run, the Dodgers beat the Angels for the fourth consecutive time this season.
“Freddie just has aura,” Roberts said. “There’s not too many guys in baseball that you’d want in a game-winning situation, and Freddie does it once again.”
Angels second baseman Oswald Peraza walks back to the dugout after grounding out during the ninth inning against the Dodgers.
Trump seeks to shore up support among rural voters hard hit by tariffs, economic fallout of war with Iran.
Published On 5 Jun 20265 Jun 2026
United States President Donald Trump has sought to reassure farmers hard-hit by tariffs and the economic fallout of the US-Israeli war with Iran during a visit to Wisconsin.
The stop in Chippewa Falls on Friday for a farming roundtable comes months before the midterm elections in November. Trump was seeking to bolster support for Republican US Representative Derrick Van Orden, who has been targeted by Democrats hoping to take control of the chamber.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Van Orden has closely aligned with Trump and has long espoused the president as the best leader for rural Americans. Democrat challenger Rebecca Cook has proven a strong fundraiser and has led Van Orden in recent polls.
Democrats are considered favourites to take control of the US House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans, in the midterms.
“I love the place,” Trump said, referring to Wisconsin, “and hopefully you’re going to be voting Republican, because frankly, Republican is – I call it the sane way to go.”
Success for Democrats would allow the party to seriously restrict Trump’s agenda in the final two years of his term.
The Wisconsin visit was also more broadly aimed at shoring up support among farmers, who had largely backed the president in his 2024 election bid.
Farmers have been particularly hard-hit by Trump’s aggressive tariff policies, with many countries limiting imports of US products, notably soybeans, in response. The tariffs have also made importing items needed for daily operations more expensive.
The administration has sought to offset the fallout with temporary aid packages for farmers.
At the same time, fertiliser costs have surged since the US and Israel launched the war with Iran on February 28, with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz increasing prices of several key components, including urea.
An April survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 70 percent of farmers in the US reported they cannot afford all of their fertiliser needs.
The average gas price of $4.04 per gallon of petrol this week was also $1.08 higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.
Trump assured those gathered that the administration had “largely finished” the war “one way or the other”.
He vowed fertiliser and gas prices would come “way down”.
The visit comes as several polls have shown Trump’s overall approval rating hovering at all-time lows, about or under 40 percent.
His approval was lower on specific issues, with a Marquette Law School poll conducted from May 20-26 finding just 19 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of gas prices. Only 22 percent approved of his handling of inflation and cost of living.
Several top Republicans have also warned that several of Trump’s recent actions could risk alienating voters concerned about the economy.
That included a $1.8bn “anti-weaponisation fund” launched by the Department of Justice to repay individuals, including Trump supporters, who allege they were victims of political prosecutions.
The Department of Justice has since abandoned the plan.
Trump has also requested $1bn in funding for security for his controversial White House ballroom, despite earlier saying that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill.
Philadelphia’s Edmundo Sosa sauntered out of the box, motioning with one hand in a pump-wave in front of 51,794 Dodgers fans. The left fielder, who had taken over for Brandon Marsh in the top of the sixth, connected on a four-seam fastball that Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott left too far over the plate for a two-run home run that put the Phillies ahead.
The Dodgers had been playing with fire all night, but they couldn’t regain momentum after Scott’s struggles, losing to the Phillies 4-3 to set up a Sunday series rubber match.
The Dodgers (37-21) started strong, with pitcher Roki Sasaki giving up just three hits and one earned run over 5⅓ innings.
Sasaki’s elevated velocity posed early concerns for the Dodgers as he struggled more with his command. The right-hander crossed the 100-mph threshold for the first time this season on two pitches: a 100.4mph four-seam to J.T. Realmuto and another fastball, this time 100.1mph, to Kyle Schwarber.
Three of his four pitches — the four-seam, slider and splitter — averaged at least 1.2 mph faster than his yearly average. As a result, he struggled with location. Neither his slider and splitter hit the zone more than 45% of the time. Even his fastball hit the strike zone a mere 55%.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts warned about this scenario when Sasaki’s fastball had only reached an upper limit of 99.5 mph.
“I think now the velo is certainly in a good spot,” Roberts said before the game. “I do believe that if he wanted to throw 100 miles an hour, he could do that, but it wouldn’t be where he needed to throw it.”
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the first inning Saturday against the Phillies.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Still, the Phillies (30-28) struggled to generate consistent momentum despite Sasaki’s location problems. Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm hammered a four-seam fastball that skimmed the top of the strike zone over the center field wall. The rest of the Phillies lineup ended most of their at-bats with little luck, striking out seven times and walking only once.
Roberts pulled Sasaki with runners on first and second in the sixth. Left-hander Alex Vesia walked Bryce Harper but escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam by striking out Sosa and forcing Alec Bohm into a ground out to third.
By then, the Dodgers had already established a lead. Alex Call put them on the board in the second on a poked single through the gap between second and short. In the fourth, Call reached third on a double and throwing error from Adolis García. Santiago Espinal hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field, driving in Call.
Mookie Betts also found his footing after he went 0 for 3 on Friday. The shortstop struggled in the first four games of the Dodgers’ homestand, batting .200 across 15 plate appearances. Against the Phillies on Saturday night, Betts laced two singles and a double.
Andy Pages scored on a close play at the plate after Betts singled to shallow right field in the seventh. Although catcher J.T. Realmuto missed tagging Pages’ foot, the Dodgers center fielder’s cleat didn’t appear to touch the plate. After a long review, the safe at home call stood.
But the Dodgers’ good fortune didn’t last. Scott gave up an RBI single to Bryce Harper, and it was like the Phillies could sense exactly when the reliever’s pitches crossed over the zone. Scott (1-2) then gave up the home run to Soto before going down in order on three groundouts in the ninth.
Will Smith crouched, his left knee on the ground and his mitt grazing the dirt as his Team USA teammate Mason Miller strode towards the plate.
From there, the only way for his glove to go was up and through the slider that fell out of the strike zone as the Dominican Republic’s Geraldo Perdomo stopped his swing. But, in a full count, home plate umpire Cory Blaser called it strike three.
“That’s the work we do in the cage, and off the machine, and drills, and all that coming to fruition, and being applied to in-game,” Smith said in a recent conversation with The Times.
He has a slim chance of replicating that moment during the season, with the ABS challenge system implemented in MLB. If it had been in play during the WBC — as long as the Dominican Republic had challenges left — Perdomo surely would have used one on the final pitch of that 2-1 game.
And yet, as counterintuitive as it may sound, Smith dedicated time and effort during spring training to improving his framing.
“It’s important because you only get two challenges a game, offensively and defensively,” Smith said. “The whole team only gets those two. So the harder I can make it on the other team to challenge pitches, the better. The more strikes I can get and not have to challenge, the better. I think overall, it almost makes it more important, in a way.”
United States pitcher Mason Miller and catcher Will Smith celebrate a WBC semifinal win over the Dominican Republic.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
Framing had been a weakness in Smith’s game in recent seasons, according to Statcast’s catching metrics. His best season was 2023, when he recorded four runs saved via pitch framing. But he slipped to minus-eight and minus-10 the next two seasons. Entering the Dodgers’ series against the Phillies this weekend, he was at an even zero after 43 games at catcher this season, including 39 starts.
And now, when Smith doesn’t get a call, he has ABS to fall back on. Entering Friday, he’s challenged 41 calls through the ABS system from behind the plate, the 10th-most of any catcher. And he had a 71% success rate, the ninth-best mark among catchers with at least 20 challenges.
Because the catcher has the best vantage point, teams across the majors have made their catchers, not their pitchers, the point men for ABS challenges on defense.
ABS as a skill, however, isn’t just about getting the challenges right. Knowing the right times to take a risk is also key.
“There’s so many games within the game,” Smith said, “and that’s just another one of them.”
As Smith alluded to, under the challenge system — as opposed to fulltime ABS, which MLB also tested in the minors — it’s still possible to steal strikes.
“I like the challenge system because you still have the human error element to the game,” Smith said. “…Everyone always talks about how it’s a game of life, dealing with failure and dealing with ups and downs — the umpire screwing you or catching a break, that’s part of the game.”
Dodgers catcher Will Smith walks to the dugout after the fifth inning of a Dodgers-Marlins game at Dodger Stadium on April 27.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Now, the players have recourse for the egregious calls and the biggest moments of the game.
The margins are so slim, however, that if a hitter isn’t convinced enough on a borderline strike call, and the situation dictates caution, he may not challenge.
The same goes for a catcher on a borderline ball call.
That’s where Smith’s work on framing comes in. He describes it as a change in philosophy.
“For me, it’s more just understanding the move,” Smith said. “I had to drill it in a little bit obviously, but more understanding the move of going farther out to get it, working through the ball, more like towards the pitcher, as opposed to letting the ball kind of come back to you. That was just not how I’d ever done it.”
That’s what he did on that last pitch of the WBC semifinals. Moving through the ball creates a more seamless motion, compared to pulling it into the strike zone, making the frame job more convincing. And catching it out in front also stops the ball’s own movement before it gets too far out of the zone.
That’s how Smith made a pitch that appeared to cross the plate below Perdomo’s knees look like a strike from Blaser’s vantage point.
The effect Smith’s spring training work behind the plate will have on the Dodgers’ season will be subtler. Instead of a singular game-defining moment, it’ll be an edge here and there.
But over the course of a long season, that adds up.
The NBA’s owners are expected to meet Thursday to approve new “anti-tanking draft reform” via a “3-2-1 lottery.” I just know they’re the type of people who love a good board game — one with rules that take a half-hour to explain, by which time their guests’ eyes have glazed over.
Think they’ll get the hint if someone asks, “Y’all got any CLUE instead?”
Actually, I’d prefer to turn on the basketball game, that nuanced, ever-evolving sport that’s beautiful for its simplicity: Make or miss.
What’s wild is that a league that brings together the world’s best shooters keeps missing so badly on draft reform — unless it’s actually their feet that they’re aiming at.
Still, this new reported proposal — which will expand the lottery from 14 teams to 16 and penalize the three worst teams with poorer draft lottery odds than teams with the fourth- through 10th-worst records — might benefit the … Lakers?
You know those first-round picks they’ve been holding onto so that, come draft night, they’ll have three to offer in a deal? To use as bargaining chips for either a big name like the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo or, better yet, to acquire important foundational pieces to retrofit the roster around Luka Doncic?
Well, those three first-rounders should be much more valuable if other teams are disincentivized to trade their first-rounders, seeing how even middle-of-the-pack teams will have a shot at winning the lottery.
And not only will first-round picks be a rare commodity on the trade market going forward, but the Lakers’ picks could prove more practically valuable than previously imagined.
Without this reform, no one would expect the Luka Lakers to be a lottery team. But under the new proposal, all it would take, say, would be their star missing 30 games and the Lakers sliding into the eighth seed, which would give the team holding that pick a 2.7% shot at the No. 1 overall selection.
And hold on, wait a minute: Will that give Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and his growing cast of front-office colleagues pause this offseason? Imagine how it would look if they dealt away a pick that turns into one of the top guys in a future draft for a 3-and-D role player on a team that, for whatever reason, slips into eighth? It wouldn’t look good! It wouldn’t feel good.
But would it stop the Lakers from doing what they need to do this offseason? It shouldn’t. But it could! But it shouldn’t! No, really, it shouldn’t: Because after draft night, the Lakers’ next two tradable first-round picks will be in 2031 and 2033 — and, per ESPN, this week’s draft reform proposal will include a sunset provision that would allow it to expire after the 2029 draft.
At that point, if they’re smart, the owners would scrap it. Of course, they’ll probably make it even more onerous so they can feel smart?
No wonder the Lakers went and hired Rohan Ramadas — the guy with an astronautical engineering degree from USC — as an assistant general manager.
But what are we doing here? All this variance and randomness, all these rules on top of regulations, none of it is exactly arbitrary, but neither is it fair. Since the draft lottery odds were flattened in 2019, the team with the worst overall record has not once lucked into the No. 1 overall pick.
The NFL would never! Oh, that plucky little league. With its antiquated worst-picks-first draft system? Seems to be going OK.
The worst thing about what the NBA is up to is how much work they’ve made following along at home. You’ve heard of fan service? This league trades in fan disservice.
The league already ceded its regular season to the offseason, leaning into free agency drama as a driving source of year-round intrigue, letting team-building trump teamwork.
It already asked fans to bone up on contract law to be able to spell out the differences between the NTMLE (non-taxpayer mid-level salary exception) and RMLE (room mid-level salary exception).
Then the NBA introduced rules that incentivized stars to avoid free agency and to try, instead, to get traded — except then the league added a first and second apron to make it harder for teams to trade.
So the possibility of a dream sign-and-trade that has fans fired up? Odds are it won’t happen because it can’t; sign-and-trades are not permitted if the player acquired keeps a team above the first apron.
Perfectly clear? No?
Well, this won’t help: Let’s slather on another thick layer of basketball bureaucracy. To discourage tanking. (And encourage mere mediocrity! Middling is about to be the NBA’s new sweet spot.)
Let us proclaim that, oh, teams can’t land back-to-back No. 1 picks. Unless they can. Unless it’s Team A, by virtue of selecting first using Team B’s pick the previous season, that is eligible to pick first in consecutive seasons. Team B, though, it’s out of luck the next year, no matter what goes wrong.
Got it? Kinda? Sorta? No?
Moving on. Try to keep up.
Don’t forget, class, that some picks won’t be able to be protected. No, not the top few picks — there will be no protections on Nos. 12, 13, 14, or 15.
Yes, that appears actually to be a caveat of the proposed new system. Which, yes, is actually designed to sell Advil.
Fans can figure this stuff out, but at some point soon, they’re not going to feel like it. At some point, everyone’s eyes are going to glaze over and it’s going to be 3-2-1, turn the TV off!
On the eve of the City Section championship baseball game at Dodger Stadium, let’s explore a sometimes forgotten character trait: Patience.
When JJ Saffie walks onto hallowed ground Saturday as a starting left fielder for 10-time City champion El Camino Real High in the Open Division championship game against Birmingham, he will be finishing a journey few want to travel these days.
He spent three years on the junior varsity team waiting and grinding before getting his chance to start on varsity this season.
“Very patient,” he said. “Freshman year, played frosh-soph, called up for a few JV games. Sophomore year, on and off starter on JVs. Junior year is when it started clicking for me. I found my bat, I found the style I like to play, I started hitting real good.”
He was part of an outstanding JV team his junior year, called up as a pinch runner for the playoffs. He developed power and a knack for hitting balls over El Camino Real’s left-field fence during batting practice.
“I’ve hit two windows and six cars,” said the 18-year-old, who likes to cause mayhem for insurance companies.
El Camino Real celebrates a 4-3 win over Granada Hills to earn a trip to Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
(Craig Weston)
He’s hit two home runs this season and become a key player for the Royals.
Now he gets to start at Dodger Stadium, a moment every high school baseball player in the City Section dreams of reaching.
“I’m a big believer in good things will come to those who are patient,” he said. “I knew I needed to be patient, work on my game and eventually success would come my way and I’d have my opportunities and here’s my opportunity. I’m trying to prove that Saturday.”
El Camino Real needed a two-run single by RJ De La Rosa in the bottom of the sixth inning on Wednesday to defeat Granada Hills 4-3 in the semifinals at Cal State Northridge.
“I saw my pitch,” De La Rosa said. “I wanted to take advantage. It was the bottom of the sixth. The team needed me most and I pulled through. It was an amazing moment. These boys are my brothers. I will fight for them. I will do everything for them. I can’t wait to make some memories at Dodger Stadium.”
For Saffie, staying and fighting to get better rather than running away from a challenge is a great lesson for others.
“I had a few people tell me to transfer,” he said. “But my sister came here, my dad. I want to prove myself at this school.”
Top-seeded Birmingham will have junior Nathan Soto starting on the mound in the 1 p.m. game. It’s a big assignment and he’ll be working on his mental part of the game.
“It’s just another game,” he said after the Patriots’ 4-1 semifinal win over Carson. “I think it’s everyone’s dream to pitch there, but you have to keep it as a normal game.”
Pitcher Carlos Acuna grinded out a complete game in Birmingham’s 4-1 win over Carson to send the Patriots to Dodger Stadium.
(Craig Weston)
Birmingham can thank Carlos Acuna for putting together a sophomore season to remember. His pitching season is done. He finished with an 11-0 record after a complete-game win against Carson.
“It’s an amazing season he’s having,” coach Matt Mowry said.
In six of the seven innings on Wednesday, Carson got the leadoff batter aboard, forcing Acuna to work extra hard while throwing 102 pitches.
“He was on the edge of coming out,” Mowry said.
Acuna wouldn’t let him.
“I love this team,” Acuna said. “I want to play one last game.”
He’ll start on Saturday at second or third base in a game matching two of the most successful programs in City baseball history. El Camino Real is seeking a record 11th title. Birmingham wants its ninth title.
The 10 a.m. game at Dodger Stadium has Verdugo Hills taking on Taft in the Division I final.
Fans will come for the sun, the hot dogs, the fun of cheering on someone they know or enjoying a moment of distraction at Los Angeles’ most sacred stadium.
Just remember those are teenagers out there who’ve sacrificed and spent years working toward this moment. There’s no losers when you get to play at Dodger Stadium as a high school kid.
For Saffie, it validates his belief in trusting the process and trusting himself. He didn’t run when the going got tough. He persevered and learned a valuable lesson: patience still pays off.
SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers entered the late innings Monday in an unenviable position: trailing the Padres, whose biggest strength is their bullpen.
“When they have a lead they don’t relinquish it too often,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss Monday. “You know the numbers — when they’re ahead in the seventh inning they don’t lose. You do have to be a little more aggressive and capitalize when you do get those chances.”
Including Monday, the Padres are 20-2 when leading after six innings, 21-1 when leading after seven, and they have a perfect 22-0 record when leading after eight.
Even when Padres closer Mason Miller got off to an uncharacteristically wild start in the ninth inning Monday, the Dodgers failed to capitalize.
He walked Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker on nine pitches. And the next three batters — Will Smith, Max Muncy and Andy Pages — all have proven their ability to do damage in clutch moments.
But it was Miller on the mound, a rare reliever who could actually challenge for the Cy Young Award.
“In this kind of series, you know you’re going to have close games,” Freeman said after the game. “And we just couldn’t get it done.”
Miller got out of the jam with a fly out, strikeout and ground ball, and notched his league-leading 15th save.
Shohei Ohtani dives back to first base in the fourth inning.
(Tony Ding / Ap Photo/tony Ding)
“We still had really good at-bats,” Freeman said. “There’s a silver lining to it. Scoring off Mason is going to be really hard to do. It’s going to take one of those kinds of innings where you can maybe walk a couple of guys and get a bloop. Not much squaring up going on against him.
“But we had an opportunity, maybe with him throwing a lot of pitches might make him be down next game. You just try to have little wins.”
The Dodgers could also avoid him by claiming a lead. On Monday, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the Padres to three hits and one run — Miguel Andujar’s first-inning homer.
But the Dodgers’ offense, which scored 31 runs in a three-game series against the Angels, only managed four hits off Padres starting pitcher Michael King, and only one in the first five innings.
“You’re trying to cover realistically 30 inches,” Freeman said. “Because you have ball-to-strike pitches — you’ve got backdoor sliders that are starting as balls coming back, you’ve got front-door sinkers for lefties. So it’s not just the whole plate you’re worried about; you’re going to worry about a whole lot of different things. … He had all of it working tonight.”
The Dodgers finally strung some hits together in the sixth. With two outs and Hyeseong Kim on first, Shohei Ohtani beat out a swinging bunt, and the throw from Padres catcher Rodolfo Duran zipped past first base.
Kim, who took off from first on contact, rounded third hard but slammed on the brakes when third base coach Dino Ebel held up the stop sign.
“It’s kind of the timing of it, where [Fernando] Tatis [Jr.] came up with the ball, and Dino’s got to make the decision,” Roberts said. “You don’t know that he’s not going to come up with it clean. At that point in time, to be quite honest, Dino had the best view of the runner coming in, Kim, and where they were at on the field. So it’s one of those things, I’m definitely not going to second guess it.”
Kim was stranded there.
Then in the eighth, he again made it to third on a single from Ohtani with two outs. And again, he got stuck 90 feet away from tying the score.
Adam Frazier singled, leading off the ninth inning for the first hit against Athletics starter J.T. Ginn, and Zach Neto followed with a two-run homer that gave the Angels a 2-1 victory Monday night.
Neto drove a 2-0 sinker 413 feet to center field, stunning Ginn and the A’s while ending a six-game losing streak for the Angels. It was their third walk-off win this season.
Ginn (2-2) struck out 10 and issued one walk on 105 pitches. He also hit Neto with a pitch in the sixth.
The right-hander was perfect through 4 1/3 innings and came within three outs of the first major league no-hitter since Shota Imanaga combined with two Chicago Cubs relievers for a 12-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2024.
Lawrence Butler had a pinch-hit RBI single in the top of the ninth that drove in Zack Gelof for the first run of the game, but the Angels rallied to win despite getting outhit 7-2.
Walbert Ureña tossed six scoreless innings for the Angels, giving up four hits and striking out four. Ryan Zeferjahn gave up the first run of the game and walked the bases loaded, but Chase Silseth (1-0) worked out of the jam by getting slugger Nick Kurtz to ground into a game-ending double play.
Kurtz’s fifth-inning double extended his on-base streak to 41 games, tying Eddie Joost (1949) for the sixth-longest in A’s history. Kurtz is also tied with Kyle Schwarber last year for the longest in the big leagues across the last four seasons.
The referee blew the whistle a few minutes before 5 p.m., on April 26, to kick off the second half of a football game. The players re-emerged on the field, and the spectators once again gathered to witness the second round of the Guyaku Local Championship Football League in the Sabon Gari area of Guyaku, a small community in the Gombi Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria.
Just minutes into the match, another sound pierced the air across the football pitch, but it wasn’t the referee’s whistle this time. It was sporadic gunshots that alerted the players and the spectators that something terrible was about to unfold.
The gunshots continued from different directions, their sound drawing closer. As the confused crowd tried to make sense of the situation, some armed men arrived at the football field on motorcycles. They opened fire on the crowd, and in that instant, people scrambled for safety, while others fell dead on the pitch.
Within minutes, Istifanus Hassan, an eyewitness who narrowly survived the attack, said that everywhere was thrown into chaos as screams and smoke filled the air.
“We ran into the bushes, but they [terrorists] followed people with their motorcycles and were shooting them in the bush,” he recalled. Although he survived, Istifanus said what he witnessed while hiding in a nearby bush that evening may haunt him forever.
The terrorists burnt down houses, motorcycles, shops, and a church. They also looted at least three grocery shops and a chemist. “They used motorcycles to pack the items after killing the shop owners. They packed all the items and burnt the shops down,” he said, adding that they made away with medicines as well.
The terrorists looted a chemist and left with all the medicines, leaving behind an empty store. Photo: Hamman Basmani.
“I watched my community members and relatives fall dead to the ground. The men were targeted and shot in the head, and the women were spared,” Istifanus said.
But not every woman survived the attack. Other residents told HumAngle that all the women captured by the terrorists were left unharmed, but two women lost their lives in the incident. Their deaths were attributed to stray bullets.
One of the deceased was 28-year-old Sintiki Dimas, who went to the football pitch to sell snacks to spectators. As a petty trader, Sintiki relied on selling local snacks like kuli-kuli to support herself and her younger siblings.
Her mother, Bata Dimas, said Sintiki was killed while trying to flee, adding that her daughter’s trade was a great source of support to her eight younger siblings and the rest of the family.
The other woman, who also lost her life in the attack, was fleeing with her toddler strapped to her back when a bullet hit and killed her. “The baby was also shot on his leg, but he’s currently receiving treatment,” an eyewitness, who asked not to be named, told HumAngle.
The attack continued for hours.
By the following day, the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram breakaway, had claimed responsibility for the assault. The attack, which killed at least 33 residents and injured seven others, happened barely two months after ISWAP attacked a military base in Hong, a nearby local government area.
Residents say it exposed longstanding security gaps in the border community, triggered fresh displacement, and revived fears of a return to the deadly years of insurgent violence that have devastated the region.
The first attack in a decade
It is not the first time terrorists have invaded Guyaku, but it is the first time since 2015, when the Boko Haram insurgency was at its peak in Adamawa. Then, “they burnt almost the entire village to the ground that year, but luckily, we all fled, and no one was harmed,” said Hamman Basmani, the Wakili (community leader) of Guyaku.
By 2016, most residents who had fled the area had returned and resumed their usual activities.
Guyaku is an agrarian community, and residents – over a thousand of them, according to Hamman – mainly rely on farming for survival. Since the 2015 attack, he said, the residents had lived peacefully until the recent incident.
Guyaku sits near the border between Borno and Adamawa states. Map illustrated by Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle.
While other residents returned to Guyaku after the 2015 incident, Barnabas Benaiah was among those who did not. He relocated to Hong with his nuclear family, while his extended family remained in Guyaku.
“I’m not currently staying in Guyaku, but I’m always there,” he said, meaning that he visits regularly. He added that he feels attached to his hometown, which is why he stayed in a neighbouring town.
When ISWAP attacked Guyaku in April, Barnabas lost three family members. Two were his brothers, and the other was his niece. “They [his brothers] all had families and had left behind pregnant wives,” he told HumAngle.
Get our in-depth, creative coverage of conflict and development delivered to you every weekend.
Subscribe now to our newsletter!
Barnabas noted that the attack in Guyaku was tactical.
“They were after men,” he said, echoing testimonies from other residents. “Mostly young men, so they targeted spots where these men could be found, such as the football pitch, local joints, and front yards. They shot the men in the head, and when they encountered women, they told them to walk away because they had nothing to do with them. The women who died were hit by flying bullets.”
A recent academic study on gendercide in the Lake Chad insurgency found that such patterns have appeared in previous ISWAP and Boko Haram attacks, where adult men are often perceived as potential fighters, vigilantes, informants, or collaborators with the state.
Residents say the terrorists pursued residents who ran towards neighbouring communities and killed them, while also looting valuables, such as motorcycles. “They went to a commercial charging store and packed all the phones from there. They were still looting shops when soldiers from Garkida town arrived, so they abandoned some of the items and ran,” Barnabas said.
Tela Bala, Kwari, Kwana, and other communities within Guyaku were also affected. “[Several] people from these communities have now fled to urban centres,” he added.
Istifanus remained in the bush until the gunshots ceased. He came out and joined other residents in recovering dead bodies. Most of the corpses were found at the football pitch, while some were recovered in front of houses and across the street.
“The corpses I saw and counted that day were up to 28, but I couldn’t stay to continue identifying the bodies,” he recounted. “I became emotional and left.”
Hamman, the community leader, told HumAngle that other bodies were recovered in the bushes and roads leading to other villages days afterwards. He said that 33 bodies were found; 30 of them were men, and most were young.
Map showing hotspots of terror activities in towns neighbouring Guyaku. Illustrated by Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle.
Guyaku sits in Adamawa’s northwestern region. It is about 20 km from the border with Borno State and less than 15 kilometres from Kwapre, Banga, Larh, and Dabnz Kinging communities, each of which has been abandoned due to Boko Haram attacks over the years.
Guyaku, along with these border communities, falls within known terror hotspots, including forests like Alagarno and towns like Mandaragairu, where terrorists often operate and move through to attack surrounding hinterland communities along the southern Borno-Adamawa border.
In April, HumAngle reported how these abandoned agrarian communities fall within the direct line of influence of terror groups from major enclaves like Sambisa Forest and the other forests connecting local bushes in Adamawa State to those across the border in Borno, allowing them to remain geographically threatened by these groups.
Tale of terror
For residents in these communities, nowhere is safe anymore. During the April 26 attack, 39-year-old Alheri Gabriel was sitting outside his house, playing cards with his friends, when the terrorists rode towards them on motorcycles.
“At first, I was confused, and I thought they were trying to catch a thief because someone was running in front of them. I thought he was a thief, and had I tried to help them catch him, but I noticed they had guns,” Alheri recounted.
Suddenly, the terrorists ordered him to come forward, but he hesitated, and when they pointed a gun at him, he immediately started running as fast as his legs could carry him.
“While I was running, they shot me in the left shoulder, but I didn’t stop. I continued running, and they pursued me with their motorcycles, but I fled into a house and hid there until they lost track of me,” he told HumAngle.
Alheri sustained a gunshot wound to his left shoulder. He underwent surgery but is still unable to move it without pain. Photo: Alheri Gabriel.
He remained hidden while blood continued to gush from his injured shoulder. When the shooting ceased, he staggered into the street and was assisted by other residents. Alheri was first rushed to a hospital in Gombi town, along with other injured people, before being transferred to the Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, for further treatment.
Later, he learnt the men he had been playing cards with were all shot and their bodies set ablaze by the terrorists in the front yard.
He underwent surgery on May 1 and is still recovering, but he fears his life will never be the same. “I have a wife and young children. I’m a skilled photographer and a barber, and I don’t think I’ll be able to recover soon or resume work,” he said.
With a family to feed, Alheri hopes to recover soon so he can return to his business. However, something has changed. “I don’t think I’ll return to Guyaku,” he said.
His wife and children have fled to another town, where they are living with relatives.
Empty streets
More than a week after the ISWAP attack, residents – especially women and children – have continued to flee Guyaku despite assurances from the Adamawa State government that security would be strengthened in the area and that justice would be served.
“Only the men are left here, and we are not more than 20,” Hamman said, adding that residents are worried about the security gaps that exist in the area.
During an assessment visit two days after the attack, Ahmadu Fintiri, the Governor of Adamawa State, said, “We are intensifying security operations immediately to restore peace and ensure every resident feels safe in their home again. We will rebuild, and we will remain resilient.”
Grocery shops were looted and then set ablaze by the terrorists who invaded Guyaku. Photo: Hamman Basmani.
Despite those assurances, residents say the security presence in the community has remained inadequate. Although a group of soldiers, local vigilantes, and hunters were stationed there in the early days after the attack, the military officers have since withdrawn.
“The local security team goes round the community, but there is no security post or unit we can report to during emergencies,” Hamman said.
For many residents, however, the absence of formal security is not new. Guyaku has long relied on the local vigilante group for security, but they are poorly equipped to repel major terror attacks. The nearest police stations are in Gombi and Garkida, about a 30- to 40-minute drive away.
The lingering insecurity has also disrupted efforts to bury some of the victims. Barnabas said some of the corpses are yet to be buried as their family members have since fled the area. “A mass burial was scheduled, but no agreement was reached, so individuals began burying their dead, and those whose relatives fled were paired with other victims,” he said. “At the cemetery, we got a call that the terrorists had just been spotted, and that was how the burial rites were abandoned. Everyone fled,” he stated.
Hamman, who continues to lead the community during the crisis, said residents are pleading with the government to deploy more security personnel to the area.
“[They should] send soldiers to join hands with the vigilantes and protect us. If people see security personnel patrolling the area, they will want to come home. But if there are no security personnel, even if the people want to come back home, they will be discouraged.”
Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski had a chance to slam the door shut on the Braves’ second-inning rally. He fielded Sean Murphy’s comebacker, and set his feet to start a would-be inning-ending double play at second base.
Angled up the mound, however, he sailed the throw, which second baseman Alex Freeland wrangled to at least salvage an out.
The way the Dodgers’ offense has been scuffling, however, their 7-2 loss hinged on that four-run second inning.
“It’s just,one half-inning of being pissed off about it, and then you’ve got to keep going back out there and doing your thing,” said Wrobleski, who was charged with seven runs but gutted out a career-high 8⅔ innings. “So yeah, it’s frustrating. It’s annoying because now I look back at it and, yeah, that’s what cost me from having a good outing.”
With the Dodgers’ rubber-match loss, the Braves took sole possession of the best record in the majors. The Dodgers (24-16) dropped the series to the Braves (28-13) after scoring three or fewer runs in each game.
“I thought we turned the corner in Houston,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We kind of got back down a little bit this series. … It’s hard to articulate. There’s some empty at-bats, there’s some early outs that are not just quality outs. There’s the passing the baton to the next guy — and sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
After Wrobleski cruised through the first inning in just six pitches — first-pitch flyout, four-pitch strikeout, first-pitch groundout — he had an uncharacteristically long second inning.
After striking out Matt Olson, Wrobleski gave up three straight singles for the Braves’ first run. Michael Harris II bunted into the open space on the third-base side to reach base. The other two hits came from Austin Riley and Eli White, both of whom registered exit velocities of over 108 mph, according to Statcast.
Then came Wrobleski’s high throw.
Wrobleski walked the next batter he faced, No. 9 hitter Jorge Mateo, in four pitches, prompting a visit from pitching coach Mark Prior.
Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski pitched 8⅔ innings against the Braves on Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
With the bases loaded and facing Mauricio Dubón, Wrobleski hung an inside slider belt high. Dubón roped a grounder down the left-field line for a bases-clearing double.
The four runs Wrobleski gave up in the second were twice as many as he had allowed in his five previous starts combined.
Then he turned the outing around.
“Just bouncing back after that inning there, and just continuing to attack the zone and do what I do,” Wrobleski said. “I play this game with a long-term view and mindset of, in the long run, what works out, and what I know works. And just continue to do that and see how deep I can get into the game each time out.”
Wrobleski retired 16 straight to get through the seventh inning without further damage. Then in the eighth, he gave up a solo homer to reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin.
Wrobleski was back on the mound again in the ninth, a career first, but he gave up another solo homer, this time to Olson.
Wrobleski exited when his pitch count reached 100, drilling Mike Yastrzemski in the helmet with his final pitch. Wrobleski’s seven strikeouts tied his career high.
Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski reacts after giving up a home run to Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin in the eighth inning Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“For him again to go eight-plus was huge as we look out and have 10 in a row coming,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ offense again sputtered. In the sixth, they were handed a gift in the form of three straight two-out walks from starting pitcher Bryce Elder, before he was replaced by reliever Robert Suarez.
Max Muncy then drove a deep fly drive to right. But Braves right fielder Eli White caught it, and held on to it as he slammed into the wall, ending the frame.
“‘Who do I gotta pay off at this point?’” Muncy joked, noting the amount of hard contact he has had lately without results. “Next at-bat, I went up there and just said, ‘I’m going to swing straight up. But if I get in the air, they can’t catch it.’ And it kind of worked.”
More than kind of. Muncy put the Dodgers on the board with a two-run home run in the eighth. But it was too little too late.
“I think everyone’s trying to do a little bit more right now,” Muncy said. “We all know as a group that we’re struggling, and that’s just something that everyone’s trying to take on their own shoulder instead of just passing the baton — myself included. Once we get back to everyone just having really good team at-bats, I think things will start clicking for guys without even thinking about it.
“Just a rough stretch, and we’ve got to get through it.”
Betts on track
Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a double for the Dodgers against the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium on March 30.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Shortstop Mookie Betts (strained right oblique) is expected to be activated and in the lineup Monday, and the Dodgers will have to open a roster spot for him.
Betts’ injury created an opportunity for Hyeseong Kim, who began the season in triple-A. He entered Monday hitting .301 in 28 games, and in a shortstop platoon with Miguel Rojas, he’s shown off his glove.
“I think that he’s done a much better job of controlling the strike zone,” Roberts said. “He’s got the ability to put the bat on the ball, get hits, steal bases, play good defense. And I think he’s done all that.”
Freeland beat Kim in spring training for an opening day roster spot, but even though he has improved at the plate of late, Freeland entered Sunday with a .672 OPS. The Dodgers also have utility player Santiago Espinal, who has logged 34 plate appearances this season.
“Obviously we’ve got a tough decision,” Roberts said. “All of the options potentially for the corresponding move, these guys have done a great job and served a very good purpose for our club. It’s a good problem in the sense of where we’re at. But it’s a potentially tough conversation.”
Roster move
In order to add bullpen help, the Dodgers called up right-hander Wyatt Mills. Mills was a non-roster invitee in spring training, after signing a minor-league deal with the Dodgers last August. Mills, who underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2023, last pitched in the majors in 2022.
He was the only Dodgers reliever who pitched in Sunday’s game, allowing two hits.
In a corresponding move, the Dodgers optioned Paul Gervase, who threw three innings Saturday in the Dodgers’ 7-2 loss to the Braves, to triple-A Oklahoma City. And they transferred closer Edwin Díaz (elbow surgery) from the 15-day IL to the 60-day in a procedural move. Díaz isn’t expected to return from the IL until after the All-Star break.
1 of 2 | The demolition of the East Wing of the White House is seen in November 2025 in Washington, D.C. While President Donald Trump has touted the construction of a ballroom on the site as privately funded, a bill proposed by Republicans this week calls for $1 billion in taxpayer money for security upgrades. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
May 5 (UPI) — Senate Republicans have released an immigration enforcement package that includes $1 billion in taxpayer money earmarked for President Donald Trump‘s massive ballroom project at the White House — a project the president has widely touted as being fully funded by private donors.
That $1 billion is to be used for security improvements to the 90,000-square-foot space, including “security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing ModernizationProject, including above-ground and below-ground security features,” the bill says.
Since a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in late April, Republicans have said the ballroom is needed for presidential security. Trump administration court filings on the plan from early April say the project will be able to withstand drone attacks and include a bomb shelter and underground medical facilities, NBC News reported.
“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”
This $1 billion is part of a reconciliation bill that Congress plans to pass with only Republican votes, CNN reported. The full package contains about $70 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol. Democrats have earlier blocked such funding without reforms, including requiring judicial warrants and banning officers from wearing masks.
Trump has long said the ballroom project, which is expected to cost $300 million to $400 million, is a gift to the nation from private donors with “not one penny” of government funds to be used, NBC News reported. The president demolished the White House’s East Wing without congressional approval for the project, a move that’s drawn ongoing legal challenges.
Last week, after the Correspondents’ Dinner incident, the Department of Justice asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that challenged the ballroom plans. DOJ officials said “there is no better example of why this ballroom is necessary.”
Senate Democrats say they’ll try to force a vote to strip the $1 billion in ballroom money from the bill, which is expected to be voted on later in May.
In just five starts, José Soriano’s season with the Angels has gone from good to great — to historic.
Soriano pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning of the Angels’ 8-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night, ending San Diego’s eight-game winning streak with yet another dominant outing by the Angels’ right-handed Dominican ace.
Soriano (5-0) has an ERA of 0.28 after allowing just one run in his first 32 2/3 innings this season. He leads the majors with 39 strikeouts while allowing only 11 hits, and he’s tied with Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby for the lead with five wins.
Except for occasional control problems, Soriano has been overwhelming every lineup he faces — and Drake Baldwin’s first-inning homer for Atlanta on April 6 is still the only run he has allowed all season. His 17-inning scoreless streak is the second-longest in the majors this season, and opponents are batting .104 against his 0.73 WHIP — both the best in baseball.
Angels ace José Soriano delivers to the plate during the fifth inning of a win over the San Diego Padres at Angel Stadium on Friday.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)
“It’s like a hot knife through butter,” Angels slugger Jo Adell said. “It’s pretty crazy. It’s really special, and he’s a special talent. He’s always had the stuff to compete at this level, and he’s doing what an ace does. Whatever he’s done, just keep doing it.”
And after five straight dominant starts, Soriano has reached rare company.
The most recent pitcher to allow one earned run or fewer in each of his first five starts in a season with at least 15 total innings pitched was the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, when he won the NL Cy Young award in his groundbreaking rookie season. Walter Johnson also did it in 1913 — and nobody else.
Soriano is also the only pitcher in major league history to go at least five innings while yielding one or fewer earned runs and three or fewer hits in each of his first five starts to a season.
“I just feel confident to keep pitching like that,” Soriano said. “I believe in my catcher, and we’re on the same page. I think that’s a big part of the results we’re having.”
While Soriano dazzled his previous two opponents with back-to-back, 10-strikeout outings over 15 combined innings to win the AL Player of the Week award, he actually didn’t overwhelm the Padres’ veteran lineup.
San Diego drew four walks and forced Soriano to throw 99 pitches. The Padres loaded the bases in the third before Soriano got Jackson Merrill to ground out, but San Diego eventually chased him with a single and a walk with two outs in the sixth.
“The thing that impressed was that to us, he had to grind a little bit tonight,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think that’s the maturity showing up, where he’s learning how to pitch — and I say this lightly — without his best stuff. He learned how to navigate a great lineup over there without his best stuff … and it was pretty incredible. You can’t say enough.”
Soriano has a 99-mph fastball and a sinker that ranks among the best in baseball, but he’s also mixing in a curve that has flummoxed his opponents. The combination has been too much for any opponent through his first five starts.
“Knowing him from the past, you always thought of the high-90s sinker, and then he comes in breaking out the curveball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That pitch was very impressive from the dugout. Gave our guys trouble at the beginning. It’s really hard to lay off that pitch, and it complements his sinker. He did a great job tonight mixing his pitches. … He’s just a really good pitcher.”
