rest

The Dodgers never waver in their game plan for the regular season: win enough games to secure a bye in the opening round of the playoffs and, in so doing, afford players all the down time they need during the summer to be in top form come fall. They do not need to hurry anyone off the injured list so they can squeak out another National League West title.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers and their increasingly perilous hope of a three-peat, they did not follow that game plan with Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers failed Ohtani this summer, and now all that remains is for them to cross their collective fingers and hope for the best.

Hope, as they say, is not a strategy.

The Dodgers should drop Ohtani from the postseason roster.

They won’t. They won’t even take him out of Wednesday’s lineup.

Amid headlines about how the Dodgers might have benched Ohtani for Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts said the thinking was more about coupling Tuesday’s day off with a second consecutive day of rest.

“It was never a benching,” Roberts said.

Roberts drew a parallel between what might have happened with Ohtani and what did happen with Freddie Freeman during the NLCS two years ago, when the Dodgers provided what the manager called a “reset” — a day off for the team, followed by a rest day for Freeman.

“And he ends up winning the MVP in the World Series,” Roberts said.

Freeman had been playing with a bad ankle for three weeks, and even then he had been more productive that October than Ohtani has been in this one. Ohtani has been playing with a bad knee and biceps for three months, and the Dodgers already have tried intermittent rest.

They tried that in September, twice. They touted their bye week before the start of the playoffs. They talked up their three days off before the start of the NLCS.

They went 0 for 4. Enough already.

Roberts said the Dodgers — not just Ohtani, but the coaching staff and the training staff — see progress. True, no doubt. But we’ve heard similarly encouraging words after each of Ohtani’s rest breaks.

“We’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him,” Roberts said, “and that’s it.”

Ohtani said Tuesday that his symptoms have subsided since the Dodgers put him on the injured list, for the minimum stay. That was a month ago.

Shohei Ohtani is just three for 20 this postseason.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

On Tuesday, he said his approaches can alternate between “focusing on reducing the symptoms and getting rid of the pain and/or just making sure that I’m moving well in the swing.”

There is no evidence so far that this might work, and an uncomfortable and increasing body of evidence that it might not.

Ohtani is batting .150 in the playoffs, with three hits in 20 at-bats. Of the 39 players with at least 20 at-bats this postseason entering play Tuesday, only three have a lower OPS than Ohtani’s .411.

One of them, Dodgers catcher Will Smith, has one hit in 23 at-bats. But he is hitting the ball hard: in the NLCS, one ball hit at 102 mph, another at 101, and every ball hit harder than the one Ohtani hit the hardest.

That exit velocity: 86 mph.

He has not pulled a ball in the series for a hit, or for an out.

Over his major league career, he has homered once every 14 at-bats.

He has not hit a home run since Aug. 18, a span of 107 at-bats. He has driven in one run since then; the Dodgers batted him cleanup in Game 2.

And, since hitting that last home run, Ohtani is batting .036 against fastballs thrown 95 mph or harder. The average fastball in this postseason: 96.2 mph, according to analyst Mike Petriello’s close-up of all the different ways Ohtani’s swing is fouled up.

Breaking balls? Brewers reliever JoJo Romero threw him one low and away in Game 2, and Ohtani lost his bat as he lunged to make contact.

When Ohtani spoke with reporters before the playoffs started, he said he might not know the full extent of his injuries or what he might need to do to rehabilitate them until after the postseason.

“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” he said then. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason, when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”

The Dodgers did not need Ohtani to win the NL West. They needed to shut him down for an extended period to maximize their chances of winning in October.

They failed to do that. They believed a few days of rest would allow them to nurse Ohtani through the rest of the season.

One big swing in October, and who cares? Ask Kirk Gibson, who hobbled to bat and then hit one of the most dramatic home runs in World Series history.

Here is what the Dodgers ought to keep in mind: That was the only at-bat Gibson took in that 1988 World Series.

ROSEMONT, Ill. — With UCLA coming off a national title and USC going for one of its own with star JuJu Watkins returning from injury, there may never have been more attention on women’s basketball in Los Angeles.

“If you intend to come,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said Wednesday at Big Ten media days, “you should probably get your tickets early.”

The success of the two West Coast schools has been a bigger problem for the rest of the Big Ten than Los Angeles basketball fans. In the two years since USC and UCLA left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, each school has topped the standings once and the Bruins have won the conference tournament twice, going on to the Final Four two years ago and winning the championship last April.

UCLA has some holes to fill this season but is still expected to be top-25 caliber. Watkins returns after missing last season with a torn ACL and will join the country’s top recruiting class to try to help USC return to the nation’s elite and extend the rivals’ dominance over their new league.

“Honestly, for me, I’m just excited to be back and whatever comes with that will come,” Watkins said. “I know the team is excited. We’re preparing for a great season ahead. I’m ecstatic.”

The question that poses for the rest of the conference is whether any of the legacy Big Ten teams can mount a challenge to this newfound tilt from Midwest to West. Iowa and Michigan look like the strongest contenders to break the California grip on the league, but there could be as many as eight other Big Ten teams in the preseason Top 25 poll.

“Our league is stronger and tougher than it has ever been,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “Every night, you’re going to face a top-25 opponent in our league. It’s incredibly, incredibly challenging.”

The Big Ten has been through this before. When Maryland jumped from the ACC in the fall of 2014, the Terrapins claimed at least a share of first place in six of the next seven seasons. Either Ohio State or Indiana topped the standings in the three years prior to the latest expansion, but since then it’s been all UCLA and USC at the top.

UCLA forward Sienna Betts, right, drives to the basket under pressure from Indiana forward Maya Makalusky on Feb. 15 at Pauley Pavilion.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

The Bruins have work to do after accounting for six of the first 18 picks in the WNBA draft, but have five returnees assuming larger roles, including sophomore Sienna Betts and junior Timea Gardiner.

“I think we’re not trying to repeat an outcome, we’re really just trying to repeat a process,” Gardiner said. “Really just giving everything we can to each and every day. We have such an amazing group that is committed to doing that, so we will let the cards fall where they may.”

USC, meanwhile, added the No. 1 and No. 5 recruits in the country and a pair of impact transfers to a Watkins-Jazzy Davidson backcourt after going 18-14 without the preseason Big Ten player of the year. The Trojans have loaded up the roster to make a run at the their first Final Four in 40 years. Gottlieb resisted when asked if she had built a super team, but didn’t exactly deflect the notion, either.

“I’ve never called it that,” Gottlieb said. “We’ve just tried to assemble a team that we think can have championship aspirations. We’ve got a lot of excellent players that are all going to play whatever role they’re asked to the best of their ability. If you do that at the highest level, it becomes a super team.”

Super team or not, the challenge the rest of the Big Ten continues to face has not changed.

“It’s great for our league,” Purdue coach Katie Gearlds said. “Obviously, UCLA winning the championship last year, USC as good as they’re going to be this year having Juju back healthy and the star power that they have, it just elevates and lifts our games and gets more eyeballs on us. I think if you talk to anybody that’s here, we all want to find a way to beat them, but it’s cool that we have them in our league and they are as good as they are.”

DeCock writes for the Associated Press.

With Temecula Valley off to a 6-0 start in high school football, the Golden Bears can thank senior kicker and punter Colin Elia for making major contributions.

He’s 13 for 13 on PATs and six for seven on field goals, including a long of 49 yards, and averaging more than 36 yards on punts.

He didn’t play football until his sophomore year when friends asked him to join the team. He finally convinced his parents to let him play. Let’s say it was a compromise. He wanted to play receiver. He got permission to be the kicker.

The rest is history.

“I’m joking with my mom she’s happy to let me play now,” Elia said.

He made a game-winning field goal as a sophomore on varsity when the other kickers were unavailable. Last season as a junior, he made 10 of 11 field-goal attempts. He continues to improve as he uses his soccer background.

One thing is certain: Pressure moments don’t bother him. In fact, he looks forward to them.

He also credits his long snapper and holder for helping him succeed.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

French high school students have been protesting for more than two weeks over conditions in schools, including overcrowded classrooms and staff shortages, and they show no sign of stopping.

The unrest began on September 21 when pupils blockaded a school in the Paris suburb of Creteil, and within a week, their protest had spread across the country with students and police clashing violently.

On September 29, the demonstrations coincided with a nationwide public sector strike, in which teachers joined other state workers against a proposed pay freeze. More than 6,100 people have since been arrested.

With the government under pressure to rein in spending as its debt rises, Al Jazeera looks at how much France invests in education, how it compares with the rest of Europe and how it measures up against what the country spends on healthcare and defence.

How much does France spend on schooling?

According to the latest data from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, France’s public spending on education amounts to 5.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). That figure does not include private spending, such as school fees paid by families.

The French Ministry of National Education uses a broader measure, known as domestic expenditure on education, which counts all the money that goes into education, whether from the state, local authorities, businesses or households. As well as teaching, it covers adult and continuing training and related costs such as school meals, boarding and transport.

By this measure, France spent 199.2 billion euros ($223bn) on education in 2025, equivalent to 6.7 percent of its GDP and 2.4 billion euros more than in 2024, according to provisional ministry figures.

Spending has more than doubled since 1980, even after accounting for inflation. But the economy has grown too, so education spending’s share of GDP is lower today than it was in the mid-1990s.

Secondary education accounted for the largest share of spending at 73.7 billion euros (37 percent), followed by primary education at 60 billion euros (30 percent), higher education at 45.6 billion euros (23 percent) and adult and continuing education at 19.7 billion euros (10 percent), according to the National Education Ministry.

How much do other European countries spend on education?

Among European countries, Sweden spends the largest share of its GDP on education at 7.3 percent in 2024, followed by Iceland (7 percent) and Belgium, Estonia and Finland (6.3 percent each), according to Eurostat.

The lowest spenders are Ireland (2.7 percent), Greece (3.9 percent), Romania and Italy (4 percent each), and the United Kingdom and Spain (4.1 percent each).

At 5.1 percent, France is joint 13th, level with the Netherlands and Slovakia, and above the EU average of 4.8 percent.

But above-average spending has not shielded France from a problem affecting much of the developed world. Teacher shortages are growing across countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to the OECD’s latest Education at a Glance report.

Rather than leaving posts empty, many countries are filling them with teachers who lack full qualifications. In the 2024-2025 school year, 9 percent of primary and secondary teachers across the OECD were not fully qualified.

In France, the strain is most visible in secondary schools. About 11 percent of secondary teachers are not fully qualified, compared with less than 3 percent in primary schools. Furthermore, lower secondary classes average 26 pupils, compared with 23 across the OECD.

That echoes what pupils have been saying during the latest protests: Classes are large, and absent teachers are not being replaced. Some also described dilapidated buildings, a shortage of tables and chairs and, in some schools, rodent infestations. The intense heatwaves that hit France this year exacerbated existing problems in neglected buildings, many of which have no air conditioning, students said.

Teachers also feel undervalued. Only 4 percent said their profession is valued in society, the lowest share of any country surveyed and far below the OECD average of 22 percent.

How much has spending changed?

Historical UNESCO data showed France’s education spending slipped from 5.5 percent of GDP in 2017 to 5.3 percent in 2022 although it remained the ninth-highest among 29 European countries with data. A brief rise to 5.7 percent in 2020 reflected the pandemic shrinking the economy, not extra spending.

France was one of 14 countries where the share fell. Norway and Denmark saw the steepest drops while Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic recorded the biggest rises.

What else are these nations spending on?

The protests have coincided with nationwide public sector strikes over the government’s proposed 2027 budget, which seeks 54 billion euros ($61.3bn) in savings as French President Emmanuel Macron’s government tries to rein in a large public deficit.

Unions and public sector workers object in particular to a plan to freeze state employees’ salaries, which is expected to save about 2 billion euros ($2.27bn).

Across Europe, most governments spend more on education than on defence, but healthcare takes the largest share of national income of the three, according to 2022 data from the World Bank and UNESCO.

France spent 11.9 percent of its GDP on healthcare in 2022, one of the highest shares in Europe.

When the Dodgers acquired left-hander Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, they expected him to be a big part of their postseason plans. But they didn’t necessarily pencil him in as their Game 1 starter.

After mulling over their options this week, the Dodgers are expected to announce Friday that Skubal will take the mound in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, confirmed a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Their plans for a sweltering 1 p.m. start Saturday against the Braves were first reported by the Athletic.

The rest of the Dodgers’ rotation order was not immediately clear, but right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who had seemed a strong option for Game 1 after his World Series heroics last year — pitched to batters during the Dodgers’ workout Wednesday. If he takes his usual five days of rest, that would line him up to pitch Game 3 in Atlanta on Tuesday. So, left-hander Blake Snell could pitch Game 2 Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

“To be honest, we can kind of really put all four guys in a hat and run them out there,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “But I think there is going to be more thought behind it.”

Skubal, who the Dodgers acquired from the Tigers for three prospects, has posted a 2.61 ERA in 10 starts for Los Angeles. He finished his regular season with a gem against the Giants last week: seven three-hit innings on just 75 pitches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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