roberts

ACTRESS Emma Roberts has tied the knot with her fiancee Cody John in a lavish Idaho wedding.

The American Horror Story star, 36, said “I Do” in front of close friends and family including the “Nerve” actress’s A-list aunt, Julia Roberts.

A source told Page Six that the ceremony took place in 95-degree weather and lasted about 45 minutes.

Emma looked gorgeous in a white chiffon wedding gown that featured a high slit as she held onto her son Rhodes’ hand as they walked down the aisle.

Cody, 29, looked stylish in a black tuxedo as he stood at the altar reading his vows to his new wife.

The couple got engaged back in July 2024, after nearly two years together.

At the time, Emma shared a photo of herself and Cody with the caption, “putting this here before my mom tells everyone.”

In the selfie, she was shown hugging her new husband while showing off her engagement ring on her finger.

Emma shares a son, Rhodes, with her ex-boyfriend, actor Garrett Hedlund.

The pair have co-parented Rhodes since the news of their breakup came out in January 2022.

“It’s been easy for Emma to co-parent with Garrett in a healthy way because she is so happy,” a source told Entertainment Tonight in October 2022.

Emma hails from New Jersey and is an American singer and actress.

She is the niece of Hollywood actress, Julia Roberts, and spent time on the sets of her aunt’s films when she was growing up, which inspired her to pursue a career in acting.

Her Hollywood debut was in the 2001 film, Blow, a role that gained her recognition and landed her an opportunity in Nickelodeon’s series, Unfabulous.

Emma has appeared in numerous films since her debut including Aquamarine, Nerve, Nancy Drew, and Hotel For Dogs and has starred in American Horror Story since 2013.

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani’s throwing program has stalled, with the Dodgers star canceling a bullpen session the team had tentatively scheduled for Saturday.

“Just doesn’t feel 100%,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s left knee. “And because I think that the last ‘pen that he had, there was a little bit of regression. So we want to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

It was going to be Ohtani’s second bullpen since receiving an orthovisc injection in his knee on July 12. He threw a roughly 30-pitch side session on Wednesday.

It’s unclear when he’ll throw off the mound next. But Roberts said he’s still optimistic that Ohtani will return to the rotation sometime in August.

“It was obviously not ideal, him throwing his last bullpen and going backwards, essentially,” Roberts said. “So obviously that’s disappointing because you throw a bullpen to continue to build up. So that was disappointing. But as far as worry, concern, we don’t have any of that.”

Roberts described a “fluid” process, with plenty of input from Ohtani, as he and Dodgers continue to navigate the knee issue. Because only pitching seems to be aggravating the injury, Ohtani will continue to play at designated hitter.

“From his words, the hitting, the running, as he has done the last couple nights, doesn’t affect him,” Roberts said. “So I can only go by what he and the training staff are telling me. So, unless I hear otherwise, that hitting compromises his health, then I’m going to keep putting him in the lineup.”

The Dodgers had initially hoped the injection and time off leading up to the All-Star break would allow him to get past the discomfort in his knee and not have to worry about managing it for the rest of the season.

Though Ohtani feels better than he did before the break, according to Roberts, the team wasn’t envisioning this kind of start-and-stop buildup.

The schedule does the Dodgers some favors. The off day Monday allows them to get through this coming week without filling Ohtani’s spot in the rotation. But in order to keep all their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, they’ll have to find a replacement — whether that be a bullpen day or another starter — by the first week of August.

Starting pitcher Blake Snell (arthroscopic elbow surgery) is on track to be close to a return from the injured list by then. In his second rehab start this month, he threw 2⅔ innings (49 pitches) for triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

He’ll be targeting four innings in his next start, according to Roberts. When asked if he’d need another rehab outing after that, Roberts said: “Let’s just get through that next one. Get through four innings and kind of read and react from there.”

Injury updates

Dodgers teammates Kiké Hernández, left, and Shohei Ohtani laugh after a win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on May 29.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers are set to welcome back utility player Kiké Hernández (strained left oblique) and closer Edwin Díaz (arthroscopic elbow surgery) from the injured list early in next week’s homestand.

Hernández is set to be activated Tuesday, as the Dodgers open a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners, Roberts said. And Díaz likely will return Wednesday, sliding back into the closer role that Tanner Scott has held in his absence.

Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) threw about 25 pitches in a one-inning live batting practice session Friday, Roberts said. He’s scheduled to throw to batters again next week.

NEW YORK — Miguel Rojas’ off day in Washington started early. Before visiting the White House, he and fellow World Series hero Will Klein and manager Dave Roberts met with members of Congress on Thursday morning.

“Other than going to the White House, there were a lot of people from California, senators from California that are not just people who work for the government, but they’re Dodgers fans as well,” Rojas said Friday before the Dodgers’ series opener against the Mets. “So it’s pretty cool to give people that watch games and support us throughout the year [an opportunity] to get to see us.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) posted on X, “Think we can do this every year, @Dodgers?” with three photos — one of himself with their back-to-back World Series trophies, another posing with a World Series ring on his finger, and a group shot that included Rojas, Roberts, Klein and Dodgers president Stan Kasten.

Rep. Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), whose district includes several San Fernando Valley neighborhoods, posted on social media that she thanked Rojas for hitting his tying home run in Game 7of the World Series.

“Thank you to Miguel and the team for stopping by Capitol Hill,” she posted on X. “We can’t wait to welcome them back again next year (with a THIRD trophy, perhaps?…).”

The Dodgers’ visit to the White House on Thursday frustrated the portion of their fan base that wanted their team to stand up against the president’s anti-immigration policies.

Only two players on the active roster who were part of the 2025 World Series team did not attend: shortstop Mookie Betts, who told reporters he’d rather spend time with his family, and reliever Edgardo Henriquez, who declined to comment via Dodgers PR.

“This is something that I don’t really think about [being] political,” Rojas said of visiting Capitol Hill and the White House. “…I’m representing the Dodgers, and I’m going to these events just because I’m part of the Dodgers, and the Dodgers are deciding to go there. And I feel, as a professional, your job doesn’t just stop when the game is over. You have to do some things outside the field that sometimes are tied to success and to the things that you do on the field. So, for me, it’s a privilege to get the opportunity to go to a place where you will never be if you don’t have success in sports.”

Roberts, who has also talked about separating the visit from politics, kept his review brief.

“It was good,” he said. “It was an honor to be there.”

Ohtani update

Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Saturday, his second since receiving an injection in his left knee at the beginning of the All-Star break.

“That’s the beauty of where we’re at right now,” Roberts said. “We’re not going to push him. There’s constant conversation going on each day. But the main thing is with Shohei and this pitching thing is to remain nimble.”

Even if Ohtani’s bullpen goes well, Roberts said he probably won’t be ready to return to the rotation next week.

“That’s too early,” Roberts said. “I feel good that it won’t be next week.”

NEW YORK — Kyle Tucker’s first home run in nearly a month lifted the Dodgers to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets on Friday night.

Starting pitcher Roki Sasaki held the Mets to just three hits, which included a solo homer from Luis Roberts Jr. that accounted for the only run Sasaki surrendered. He threw seven innings for the third time this season.

The extra velocity that Sasaki mustered in his last start against the New York Yankees — when he surpassed 101 mph in a regular season game for the first time in his MLB career — didn’t make an encore against the Mets (43-61).

Instead, Sasaki leaned on his splitter, throwing it 47% of the time, compared to his season average of 26%.

The Dodgers tied the score 1-1 in the fourth inning. Freddie Freeman, who finished with three hits, led with a single. Mookie Betts matched him, then Miguel Rojas stayed back on a changeup and sent it to deep right field for a sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers twice fell victim to Mets right fielder Carson Benge’s arm in the fifth and sixth. First, Shohei Ohtani was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple after a relay throw by Francisco Lindor. Benge threw out Freeman at the plate in the sixth on a Rojas popout to right.

Kyle Tucker follows through on a two-run home run for the Dodgers in the eighth inning of a 4-2 win Friday night over the New York Mets.

(Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

In the seventh, the Dodgers (66-38) started to build another rally. Dalton Rushing laid down a bunt with runners on the corners. But it bounced right to pitcher Brooks Raley, who flipped the ball to the plate to eventually snare Tucker in a rundown between third and home.

On the next at-bat, Ohtani drove in Teoscar Hernández from third on a sacrifice fly to center field.

Tucker’s two-run homer in the eighth provided the Dodgers some insurance they would end up using when Evan Phillips gave up a solo homer to Francisco Alvarez in the bottom of the inning. It was Tucker’s first home run since June 27.

Injury updates

Right-hander Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) has progressed to the live batting practice phase of his rehab progression, manager Dave Roberts said. It’s a promising sign for a pitcher who twice had to shut down throwing early in his rehab when he aggravated the injury.

Closer Edwin Díaz (arthroscopic elbow surgery) came out well from throwing on back-to-back days in a triple A rehab assignment.

“We talked about him flying across the country; doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Roberts said. “So I think he’s supposed to pitch on Sunday, and then if that goes well, he should be back with us when we get back on Tuesday.”

The Dodgers begin a six-game homestand Tuesday, against the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox.

Catcher Will Smith’s timeline to return from a neck injury remains unclear, after the Dodgers temporarily shut him down from baseball activities, beginning around the All-Star break.

“He’s pain free,” Roberts. “He’s getting back into being more active.”

PHILADELPHIA — Shohei Ohtani wrapped up long toss in the Citizens Bank Park outfield Wednesday afternoon, turned and headed for the two-story bullpen stairs.

Ohtani had initially been scheduled to take the mound for the Dodgers Wednesday against the Phillies. But, with the date of his next pitching start up in the air, his bullpen session still drew a lot of eyes.

Ohtani threw off a mound Wednesday for the first time since receiving an Orthovisc injection in his left knee to lubricate the joint. The side session of about 30 pitches, running through multiple pitch types, was similar to a normal between-starts bullpen, pitching coach Mark Prior said.

“It looked good,” Prior said. “Feels good. We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow.”

Asked if Ohtani said his knee was feeling 100%, Prior said they didn’t get into specifics.

“Just said, ‘How did you feel throwing?’ He said it felt great,” Prior said.

Ohtani, who was in the lineup Wednesday as the designated hitter, was not made available to comment before the game.

It’s still unclear when Ohtani will pick up pitching duties again. But manager Dave Roberts ruled out Ohtani starting on the mound this weekend against the Mets.

“It’s day by day with him,” Prior said. “We’re present today. He threw a bullpen, see where he comes in … Friday, since we’re off [Thursday]. We’ll make determinations after that.”

This bullpen session was a chance for Ohtani to test his knee, which before the injection seemed to be aggravated by pitching.

“It’s a big sign,” Roberts said. “Because the grass, the flat ground, all of that stuff is well and good, the arm is fine. So it’s more of getting down the slope, throwing over your front side. That’s kind of the big test. Usually the bullpens are right around 88 (mph), so we’ll see where he’s at.”

Ohtani has already been out long enough that the Dodgers will have to be mindful of his workload whenever he rejoins the rotation. His last start on the mound was July 3 against the Padres.

“I still think it hasn’t been so long that the equity that he’s built up with the pitch count is that much compromised,” Roberts said. “But with that, I can’t foresee him running out there and throwing 100 pitches his first outing.”

If he’s sidelined for too long, he could have to gradually build up with each start. But it’s hard to pinpoint where that delineation lies.

“I think the easy answer is to say every pitcher is different,” Roberts said.

When a pitcher purposely throws high and inside, the batter has four choices.

He can stare down the pitcher. He can charge the mound. He can get revenge by walloping the next pitch for a hit.

Or he can ignore the intimidation tactic and continue as if nothing happened.

The last choice is the wimp’s way out, since the batter will lose his teammates’ respect, while opposing pitchers will consider him a pushover and fire more brushback pitches at him.

Ever since the Dodgers visited the White House last spring to commemorate their 2024 World Series win, President Trump has launched a barrage of metaphorical fastballs trying to hurt Los Angeles — in the courts, in speeches and on social media, but especially via his deportation deluge that’s starting to simmer again.

So how have the Boys in Blue responded in defense of the metropolis they wear on their jerseys and the community that has sustained them for nearly 70 years, making Dem Bums one of the most valuable franchises in baseball?

They’re scheduled to visit the White House today so Trump can use them as a photo op and bask in their 2025 championship.

That’s like staying in the dugout during a bench-clearing brawl after a pitcher plonks a batter, then offering the offender a handshake the next inning.

Winning back-to-back titles and blazing through this season has brought Angelenos much-needed happiness during a terrible stretch for the city — but winning is what the Dodgers are supposed to do. They’re also supposed to do more.

This is the team of pioneers like Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax, Glenn Burke and Fernando Valenzuela. The squad whose mythology insists it’s a franchise apart from the rest of professional sports because the Dodger Way is kinder, braver and more willing to take moral risks that transcend baseball and make society better.

And yet manager Dave Roberts told Times sports columnist Bill Shaikin in February that he would gladly accept another White House invitation “to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”

Well, thank God the Dodgers broke baseball’s longstanding tradition of segregation long before Roberts, who is Black and Japanese American, was born!

Manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on from the dugout during a 2025 game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

(Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Most of the Blue Crew fans I know — who are mostly Trump haters, by the way — roll their eyes every time a wokoso member of Dodger Nation complains about the team’s White House visits or the failure of players, coaches and executives to speak out more forcefully against Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign. Politics have no place in baseball, my friends and family members will say.

But standing up for L.A. by snubbing Trump or calling out his war against us isn’t political at all.

Angelenos need a champion on the Dodgers to say what needs to be said: The City of Angels is wonderful, and Trump is wrong to target it. If you can’t stand up for the simple belief that we don’t deserve to be Trump’s personal piñata, then you have no place playing for the Dodgers.

Only two players have announced they’re not going to the White House: superstar Mookie Betts and fan favorite Kiké Hernández. The latter, a native of Puerto Rico, endeared himself to the Dodger faithful last year during the height of the immigration raids with an Instagram post that read, “I cannot tolerate watching our community continue to be violated, attacked, abused and separated. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and their human rights.”

This time around, Hernández told the Times that he’s not going so he can focus on a rehabilitation stint in the minors. When pressed by reporter Maddie Lee, he said, “I’d rather take a day off than do team activities.”

Nice way to rhetorically strike out, Kiké.

Betts, meanwhile, said he wants to spend time with his newborn child — as legitimate a reason as any. But then he sat down for a short interview with Fox News.

“I don’t know why the world sees athletes as political figures or these people that can make change,” Betts said. The future Hall of Famer, who like Roberts owes a lot to Robinson for paving the way for him and other Black players, hemmed and hawed as if he didn’t quite believe what he was saying.

Dodgers past and present haven’t been averse to political stands — they just usually happen to be of the conservative variety.

After his retirement, Robinson campaigned for Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful 1960 presidential bid but left the GOP eight years later, accusing Nixon of “prostituting himself to the bigots in the South” to win the presidency.

Other Dodger legends, from former owner Peter O’Malley to Steve Garvey to Tommy Lasorda, were proud, vocal Republicans as well. Reliever Blake Treinen pitched in a game with “Charlie Kirk” written on his hat after the assassination of the far-right commentator — you know, the guy who lambasted L.A.’s response to Trump’s immigration hammer as “open rebellion to American sovereignty and authority … in a corrupt blue city.”

Treinen — who skipped the Dodgers’ 2021 White House visit when Joe Biden occupied the Oval Office — was at it again this year when he and teammate Alex Call declined to wear Pride Night-themed caps, choosing instead to play with the standard-issue one. They followed the example of Dodgers titan Clayton Kershaw, who wore a Pride cap last year but adorned it with a verse from the Book of Genesis commandeered by MAGA Christians to accuse LGBT+ people of appropriating rainbow colors to celebrate their supposedly wicked ways.

Dodgers management didn’t browbeat Treinen and Call, and that’s fine — ballplayers should be entitled to share their personal thoughts, however noxious. I even understand why the team might want to ham it up with Trump this week — that’s what multimillionaires seem to want to do these days, after all.

Federal agents stage outside Gate E of Dodger Stadium on June 19, 2025.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

What offends me most is that Dodgers owner Mark Walter knows what Trump is doing to L.A. is wrong, even if he’ll never publicly say anything.

Last June, the team announced that it had prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot — the feds denied that this happened. The Dodgers also announced they would donate $1.1 million to nonprofits to assist people affected by the immigration raids — a response to community disgust about video of federal agents in front of a Dodger Stadium gate with people who had been detained at a nearby Home Depot.

Soon after, the Dodgers were hit with a federal civil rights complaint, filed by a legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller, accusing them of discrimination because of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. This year, Walter’s investment firm rid itself of all shares in GEO Group, which runs immigrant detention centers on behalf of the federal government.

Yet now, the Dodgers are going to the White House.

Enjoy the trip, fellas. Hey, maybe one of you will shake Trump’s hand and tell him that multicultural, immigrant, Dodgers-blue Los Angeles is all right.

Hey, maybe the Angels will win the pennant.

NEW YORK — He is baseball’s invisible man.

Remember when the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker? The prophets of doom wailed. The Dodgers had opened Pandora’s box, and out would fly a lockout, a pall of smoke over their games, and a plague of locusts.

The salary cap proposal was coming anyway. The Dodgers did play through wildfire smoke at Yankee Stadium last Friday. No locusts, at least not yet.

But no one foretold that the star to whom the Dodgers agreed last winter to pay an average of $60 million each year would be, well, average.

Over the first half of the season, Tucker’s OPS+ was 100, making him a player defined by that metric as “league average.”

He is batting .240, 30 points below his career average. He is on pace for full-season career lows in home runs (11) and OPS (.702).

His WAR is 0.9, below the 1.3 of Tyler Glasnow. By that metric, Tucker has contributed less to the Dodgers’ success this season than Glasnow, who has pitched in seven of the team’s first 100 games.

Hardly anyone outside Los Angeles has noticed, and hardly anyone in Los Angeles has gotten all worked up about it.

“I appreciate that our fan base, compared to some others, gives a lot more grace to players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I know he sees that as well.”

Here is what Tucker’s trials have cost the Dodgers: Absolutely nothing.

He had two hits, both singles, in 13 at-bats as his team won the weekend series against the New York Yankees. The Dodgers remain the owners of the best record in the major leagues.

Tucker’s four-year contract, lucrative as it is, was not accompanied by a withering spotlight. He does not need to lift his team into the postseason, a burden often borne by marquee free agents signed to put their team over the top.

With the Dodgers?

Shohei Ohtani is the face of baseball. Freddie Freeman’s son walked around the All-Star Game in a T-shirt that read “My Dad Has 2,500 Hits.”

Mookie Betts last played here as a World Series-winning, Gold Glove-winning right fielder; he returned as a World Series-winning, Gold Glove-caliber shortstop.

“I think it certainly helps being around a lot of other guys who have high expectations,” Roberts said.

Neither rain nor smoke nor heat can keep the Dodgers from their appointed October rounds. They need Tucker to prosper then.

Dodgers outfielder Kyle Tucker singles during the second inning against the New York Yankees on Friday.

(Caleb Bowlin / Getty Images)

“Obviously, we all want to play well all year,” Betts said. “It’s not like we’re kicking the can and nobody cares. Even then, we’d love to be ready in October.

“It’s really just about playing. You never know. You could have a great October and get one hit, and it could be the biggest hit.”

Said Tucker: “Everyone here is very talented. Everyone is here to help each other out. Everyone here just wants to get back to another World Series, and win it. So I’m trying to do my part and just play baseball.”

He insists he is not weighted down by the external expectations that accompany his contract.

“I think that’s the beauty of it, the thing that’s refreshing,” Betts said. “I don’t think he cares about any of that. He just wants to play well and do his thing and help the boys.

“I don’t think he really cares about the expectations.”

You may think “$60 million” when he comes to the plate. He does not.

“I try, regardless of what my situation is,” Tucker said. “Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve just got to try and do better.”

His strikeouts are up significantly this season. His bat speed is down slightly. His hard contact rate is down significantly.

He’s working on fixing his swing. He’s been working on it. He’ll keep working on it.

Roberts said the quality of Tucker’s at-bats have looked better over the past couple weeks, even if the results may not show it.

“The thing that I’ve appreciated since Day 1 is, he hasn’t run from his struggles,” Roberts said. “He’s owned it.”

Tucker made the All-Star Game in each of the four years preceding this one. The Dodgers are betting his level of performance will at least approach that in the second half.

Betts said he does not see anything specific to worry about with Tucker.

“I don’t see anything at all,” Betts said. “He’s a competitor. He’s already come through a bunch during the year. It’s not like he’s not doing anything.

“He’s not hitting .330 with 30 [home runs], like we all would dream we were doing, right? But, as a team, we’re doing OK.”

For now, the Dodgers are. Their true season starts in a little more than two months.

From Tucker, the accountability is appreciated. Production would be better.

NEW YORK — What if the Dodgers never get a full season of pitching from Shohei Ohtani?

In his first season with the Dodgers, he did not pitch at all. In his second, he did not pitch until June. And, halfway through this third season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admitted Sunday he could not say when Ohtani might pitch again.

“Don’t know yet,” Roberts said.

October might be your immediate concern, and it should concern the Dodgers too. Of the four starting pitchers they would plan to use in the postseason — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani — Yamamoto is the only one pitching major league innings right now. It’s not Tarik Skubal or bust, but the Dodgers should trade for someone they would start in a playoff game.

Yet, for a player with seven years left on his $700-million contract beyond this one, there might be a lot fewer opportunities to celebrate Ohtani as a two-way player than the Dodgers and their fans envision.

Ohtani did not pitch in his first year and a half with the Dodgers as he recovered from elbow surgery. When his rehabilitation was complete, he was good to go.

This is different. Ohtani is battling irritation in his left knee. Roberts used three concerning words to describe it: “wear and tear.”

There is no easy fix. The lubricant injection Ohtani received a week ago relieves symptoms for a short period of time, usually a few months. It is repeatable, but its benefits are not always felt right away.

The Dodgers had announced Ohtani would start Wednesday. Roberts said Ohtani experienced discomfort while playing catch, and that was enough for the Dodgers to push back his next start to…

“I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Roberts said. “It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”

Shohei Ohtani warms up before facing the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium on June 15.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

If it is a wear-and-tear thing, there might be no solution besides management over the remainder of his career.

“I think it’s a little bit, it’s just like all of us, all athletes, that kind of have wear and tear,” Roberts said. “That’s just part of it, and now it’s just kind of showing itself a little bit, and then you got to manage it. I think that it’s the years of sliding, pitching, hitting and all that stuff.”

Ohtani is aware of this. He is 32. This is his 14th professional season. He reported to spring training with the goal of winning the National League Cy Young award, in part because who knows how long you can do everything at an elite level on a baseball field?

“Inside, I’m assuming this is my last chance as a pitcher,” Ohtani told the Japanese sports magazine Number in an interview published last month.

In his first 10 starts this season, he posted a 0.74 earned-run average, never giving up more than two runs in a start. In the four starts since the knee irritation surfaced June 10, his ERA is 4.38, and he has given up at least three runs in each start.

Can he pitch effectively if he can tolerate the discomfort? Would he want to? Would the Dodgers want him to, given their investment in him as one of the most dynamic hitters in baseball history?

To this point, Roberts said, Ohtani has experienced the irritation only on the mound, not at bat. As a result, Roberts said, the Dodgers do not believe shutting down Ohtani as a hitter for a few days would help ease the discomfort.

Maybe this works, with the injection calming the knee long enough to get Ohtani through the season, or with the irritation waning. Even then, it’s going to take some time.

“The first step is getting him into a spot where he feels like, and we feel like, he can pitch and not regress,” Roberts said.

Ohtani has not pitched in 16 days, and let’s say he does not pitch for another 16. Then the Dodgers would be looking at building back Ohtani’s endurance as they ramp up for the playoffs. So, even if Ohtani can return, could he pitch deep into a postseason game?

Shohei Ohtani hits a home run against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium on June 16.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The Ohtani Effect is real, and grand. It is measured in T-shirts and ticket sales, tourists and movie promotions, bobblehead dolls and international corporate sponsorships.

But all of that should not obscure Ohtani’s greatness as a player.

If Aaron Judge cannot hit, he cannot help the Yankees, and they entered play Sunday 18-20 since he suffered a rib injury.

If Ohtani cannot pitch … well, he has hit 11 home runs since then, for the team with the best record in the major leagues.

The Dodgers do not believe Ohtani’s viability as a pitcher is in jeopardy, but we can already hear the cynics: In a worst-case scenario, if he could not pitch well again, would the contract be worth it?

It already is: Two full seasons, two World Series championships.

NEW YORK — The Dodgers don’t know when Shohei Ohtani will take the mound next.

He was tentatively scheduled to start Wednesday against the Phillies, after promising initial reports on his recovery from an injection in his left knee. But after seeing his knee’s response to playing catch, the team decided to give him more time.

“We just want to continue to give it the best chance to kind of get into a good spot,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And as he said, as we feel, it’s the pitching and the torque of landing on that leg that kind of gets it upset.”

It was clear enough from catch play that Ohtani’s start would have to be pushed back that Ohtani did not feel the need to test it by throwing off a mound, Roberts said.

“Where we’re at right now, how we’re proceeding, I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Roberts said. “It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”

That left a wide range of timeline possibilities, from days to weeks. Roberts did, however, rule out shutting Ohtani down from pitching for the rest of the season.

“I guess anything is possible, but I just don’t think that’s a possibility,” he said.

To fill Ohtani’s spot in the rotation this week, the Dodgers moved right-hander Emmet Sheehan’s start to Monday. Before the rainout bumped the second game of the series against the New York Yankees, Sheehan was scheduled to start Saturday.

For Sunday’s doubleheader, right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take the mound in the first game. The bullpen, and potentially multiple innings from the 27th man, will cover the nightcap.

“Honestly, a lot of it is where we’re at and how we’ve put ourselves in a good spot,” Roberts said of the MLB-leading Dodgers. “Could [Ohtani] probably do it? Sure. But right now, the benefits just don’t seem to outweigh the cost at this time of the season. So I think we still have plenty of time to get him to a good spot to then pitch.”

Ohtani, who went hitless in four at-bats as the designated hitter in Friday’s 2-1 win, was set to DH and hit leadoff in Sunday’s first game.

NEW YORK — Lost amid the headlines about Tarik Skubal, the Dodgers face this unexpected reality as the trade deadline looms: They would like to add a starting pitcher, but they need to add a catcher.

Will Smith has not played in six weeks. In a “best case” scenario, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday, Smith would miss another month.

That left Roberts to make a jolting admission, when I asked him if the team really can count on Smith returning this season.

“We don’t know,” Roberts said, “but we certainly are counting on it.”

Would it be nice for the Dodgers to get their three-time All-Star catcher back in time for October? Of course.

Should the Dodgers count on it? Of course not.

The Dodgers won’t know where Smith stands by the Aug. 3 trade deadline. That means now is the time to acquire a catching option they may or may not need later.

Dalton Rushing, the primary catcher in Smith’s absence, has a .799 OPS. Among the 24 major league catchers with at least 200 plate appearances entering play Friday, Rushing ranked fifth in OPS.

He is hitless in his last 13 at-bats. His batting average: .266 before Smith’s injury, .233 since then.

On defense, Rushing ranks next-to-last in defensive runs saved among major league catchers, ahead of only the Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe. On Friday, in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees scored their only run on Rushing’s passed ball.

In past Octobers, the Dodgers have prioritized defense at catcher. In the 2020 World Series, Austin Barnes caught ahead of Smith in four of the six games, including the final two.

In 2025, with Smith recovering from a hand injury, Ben Rortvedt started ahead of Rushing in the Dodgers’ first four postseason games. Rortvedt was a trade deadline acquisition last summer, picked up with pitcher Paul Gervase from the Tampa Bay Rays for catcher Hunter Feduccia.

Will Smith bats for the Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on April 22.

(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Rortvedt, currently playing in triple-A for the New York Mets, fits the profile of what the Dodgers need now: a defense-first catcher with major league readiness. With Smith injured, the Dodgers first tried and then cut minor league journeyman Chuckie Robinson at backup catcher. Their current backup, Eliezer Alfonso, made his major league debut in his ninth professional season; he is hitless in nine at-bats.

Could the Dodgers pursue an established catcher, say Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins or Francisco Alvarez or Luis Torrens of the New York Mets? Possible, but probably not necessary.

Rushing could be their guy. Smith could be back.

Smith has started and re-started baseball activities, only to find out that the inflamed disk in his neck flares up.

“He hasn’t been able to get over the hump,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers are trying another round of complete rest before asking him to try hitting or throwing again.

“We felt that, if he’s inactive, it gives it a good chance to get all the inflammation out, the soreness out, the pain, increase flexibility, all of it,” Roberts said. “Then he has a fighting chance to work his way back. Trying to do everything — even at a lesser dosage — just wasn’t feasible.”

Trying to trade for Skubal might not be feasible, at least so long as his Detroit Tigers remain in the American League wild-card race. The Tigers won seven of their final 10 games in the first half, and they face teams with losing records in 13 of their 16 second-half games ahead of the trade deadline, starting with the Angels this weekend in Anaheim.

The Dodgers do not need a depth starter. However, they might do well to find someone they would feel comfortable starting the third or fourth game of a playoff series, lest they count on Blake Snell (elbow) and Tyler Glasnow (back) and Shohei Ohtani (knee) all returning to the mound healthy and effective.

Important, yes. As important as another catcher, no.

For a team that will spend almost half a billion dollars on its player payroll and luxury tax this season, its most important trade deadline pickup could be a catcher making maybe $1 million.

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani was at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup Friday against the New York Yankees, five days after receiving an injection in his left knee. And he’s penciled in to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

Ohtani received an orthovisc shot in his knee to lubricate the joint and relieve irritation, manager Dave Roberts said, and did not have it drained.

“It gives him some relief in his knee which we were hoping to get,” Roberts said. “Then the four days off with no activity which gives it a chance to settle in.”

Ohtani was expected to be in the lineup for all three games against the Yankees. He planned to play catch and throw off the mound in the coming days, and the team would monitor his response before finalizing pitching plans.

Taking the mound Wednesday would give Ohtani more recovery time heading into the team’s day off. When asked if Ohtani would shoulder two-way duties Wednesday, Roberts said, “We’ll see when we get there.”

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits his 300th career home run against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on July 7.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

When it isn’t possible to have Ohtani pitch before a day off, Roberts would like to rest him the following day.

“It’s all contingent on how his knee is feeling,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s second-half workload. “I think we are certainly more prepared to back off on the workload if it calls for it. But Shohei wants to be out there as much as he possibly can.”

Asked if Ohtani would need offseason surgery, Roberts said: “I would highly doubt that.”

Coming out of the break, the Dodgers shuffled their rotation to have Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan and Yoshinobu Yamamoto face the Yankees in that order.

That leaves left-handed starters Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski (not necessarily in that order), to face the Phillies before Ohtani would take the mound.

Smith shut down

The Dodgers are shutting down catcher Will Smith from all baseball activities for a week as he continues to deal with a lingering neck injury. That pushes his return timeline back to at least August, if not later.

“It was flaring up, wasn’t recovering — however you want to word it,” Roberts said. “He didn’t feel like he was making any improvement.”

Smith has been sidelined since early June because of what he described as an inflamed disk. He initially treated it with rest and then an injection. But it still was bothering him during his latest buildup.

“I talked to the trainer, Thomas [Albert], today and he said that Will doesn’t feel any pain,” Roberts said. “Now with that, I think we’re in a much better spot.”

Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández (strained left oblique) was set to begin a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday. And left-hander Blake Snell was scheduled to take the mound for two innings Saturday in his first minor-league rehab start since undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow.

Air quality concerns

The MLB schedule got off to a smoky start out of the All-Star break. With wildfires in Canada raising air-quality concerns in the Northeast and Midwest on Thursday, the New York Mets’ game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was moved up an hour.

The smoke cleared over Yankee Stadium on Friday afternoon.

“I know that the players got a players’ union text that says it’s a full go,” Roberts said. “They feel good about it. The league feels good. I haven’t heard anything otherwise.”

2027 schedule

With a lockout widely expected to start Dec. 1 and no guarantee of an agreement in time to preserve the 2027 season, take MLB’s schedule announcement Thursday with a grain of salt.

Should collective bargaining negotiations wrap up in time, however, the Dodgers are set to open the season at Dodger Stadium on March 25 against the Atlanta Braves.

They end the season on the road, facing a pair of division rivals in the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks from Sept. 21-26.

Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández confirmed Friday what he posted as a comment on Instagram: he won’t be going to the White House on July 23, when President Trump will honor the team for its 2025 World Series championship.

Instead, Hernández (strained left oblique) is scheduled to be on a minor-league rehab assignment.

“It’s going to be hard to be in two cities at the same time,” Hernández said. “If I was active, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyways.”

Why?

“I’d rather take a day off than do team activities,” he said.

Last year, Hernández expressed his support for immigrants in Los Angeles on social media amid ICE raids authorized by the Trump administration.

The White House visit will be on a day off in the middle of a nine-game East Coast trip.

“I’m sure a lot of guys are going to participate and be there, and this is an individual choice,” Roberts said. “But I do expect a lot of our guys to be there.”

Scheduling conflicts when the Dodgers played the Nationals in Washington on April 3-5 pushed back the trip.

“This took a long time to get both sides together, and, honestly, like I’ve always said, my company line, my personal line is I hope that we get this invitation every year,” Dodgers manager Roberts said. “Because that’s the goal: to win a championship, to get this invitation to the White House. And I’m not a politician, and I’m doing something that teams have done for decades. And so that’s where I stand, really. I’m a baseball coach. That’s what I do.”

Back in 2019, Roberts suggested that he might not accept an invitation to the White House with Trump in office. But he did attend last year when the Dodgers celebrated their 2024 title.

Roberts said the Dodgers found out earlier this week that the White House visit had been scheduled.

“There was a lot of unknown,” Roberts said. “It’s an off day, and then how could we work this out logistically?”

That set off “a lot of phone calls, texts, and communication internally.”

Hernández’s injury rehab has moved along more quickly than Roberts initially expected. He landed on the injury list in late May after playing in just two games following offseason surgery on his left elbow.

“He looks normal,” Roberts said last weekend. “I’m not saying miraculous, but I’m really in disbelief how well he responded, given the injury.”

In Shohei Ohtani, who on Tuesday became the first Japanese player to hit 300 home runs in MLB, the Dodgers had the first National League All-Star voted in this year.

They still have a chance for a late addition.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been lobbying for two members of his pitching staff to be named replacement players: left-handed starter Justin Wrobleski and left-handed reliever Tanner Scott.

“There’s going to be some changes and some talks here,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. “There’s continual talks about both guys.”

Earlier Tuesday, MLB announced replacements for three NL pitchers who won’t be eligible to appear in the All-Star Game. Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft, Philadelphia’s Jesús Luzardo and St. Louis’ Riley O’Brien claimed spots as Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski and Miami’s Max Meyer bowed out.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Wrobleski said after holding the Rockies to one run through seven innings. “You want to be an All-Star. It’s something that, regardless of the year, whenever, it’s always a big deal. It’s something I wanted to do. It’s frustrating to not get that nod. But like I said before, it’s just more reason to try and keep getting better. Hopefully I can gain the respect of players and everybody else and maybe be in there next year.”

There should continue to be movement on the All-Star roster, especially on the pitching side, with rotation schedules limiting which starters can participate. Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, for example, is lined up to start Saturday, which may take him off the table for the All-Star Game next Tuesday.

That could open the door for Wrobleski and Scott.

Asked to make his pitch for Wrobleski, Roberts pointed to his ERA (2.69, No. 8 among qualified NL pitchers), average of more than six innings per start and 10 wins.

“We run a six-man rotation, and I just don’t want him to get dinged for not making a couple more starts that he potentially could have had,” Roberts said. “I just think that he’s performed enough to earn that opportunity.

“And also, Tanner had a rough one [Monday], but I still think that … he’s one of the elite relievers in the National League.”

Scott, after notching just his second blown save Monday, compared to his 12 saves and 2.70 ERA, didn’t have an opening to improve on his All-Star campaign Tuesday.

Wrobleski, however, strengthened his.

He stayed true to his identity, pounding the strike zone and inducing weak contact to go with nine strikeouts. The only run he gave up came on a groundout in the sixth inning with runners on the corners.

In a nod to Wrobleski’s new nickname, “The Shark,” coined by Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martínez, Dodger Stadium organist Dieter Ruehle played a snippet of the “Jaws” theme to punctuate Wrobleski’s punchouts, and as he walked off the mound for the last time.

Justin Wrobleski was great for seven innings Tuesday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Once Wrobleski’s job was done, he paced in the dugout, interrupted once in a while by a hug or handshakes from a teammate. Catcher Dalton Rushing held his hand up to his forehead like a shark fin.

The name and attacking reputation had stuck. Would it be enough for an All-Star nod?

“If it happens, great,” Wrobleski said. “If it doesn’t happen, some time off and just chill for a couple days. Either way, I’m all good.”

On the offensive side, Ohtani’s leadoff homer made him the first player to notch 300 home runs and 100-plus stolen bases in his first nine MLB seasons, according to ESPN Insights. Tuesday was his 1,101st game with at least one plate appearance. By that measure, he was the fifth-fastest to 300 home runs, according to mlb.com and Elias Sports Bureau, behind only Aaron Judge (953), Ralph Kiner (1,086), Ryan Howard (1,091) and Juan González (1,093).

“It was quite the homer,” Roberts said. “I mean, it was [112 mph] off the bat, low launch angle. It was squared up, got out in a hurry. And 300 — he got there pretty quickly for us. I just marvel at him every day.”

Defense unravels late

The Dodgers widened their lead to two runs but gave it up in the eighth on a pair of errors, including one on a sacrifice bunt.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas, who botched a grounder to his left earlier in the inning that enabled a run to score, was late breaking to cover third, leaving the bag wide open. Second baseman Alex Freeland tried to hit Rojas in stride with his throw and was charged with an error when it got away and the go-ahead run scored.

“Physical errors happen, and I’m OK with that,” Rojas said. “I’m not perfect, and I’m going to make errors, and physical errors are OK. But mental errors are the ones that are disappointing. I should have been on third base, I shouldn’t be putting Alex Freeland in the situation of throwing the ball with me on the run there. That’s the one that I kick myself for.”

Said Roberts: “This guy’s as dependable as they come. So that it happens, we don’t like it, doesn’t feel good, but you know that player. I give him a lot of grace, because he is very dependable.”

Right-hander Evan Phillips made his first major-league appearance in 14 months, after undergoing Tommy John surgery last summer, and had two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth inning. But the Dodgers offense didn’t muster a comeback, as the top of the batting order went down in order with two runners on.

Ohtani on track

Ohtani is still in line to pitch Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Roberts said.

The right biceps issue that flared in Ohtani’s final at-bat last Friday, and sidelined him Saturday, raised the question of whether he should skip his last start before the All-Star break. But Roberts said Ohtani’s catch play has been normal and he hasn’t reported any concerns with his biceps.

“As he goes through the next couple days, if he doesn’t feel great, we’ll pivot, and we’re prepared to pivot,” Roberts said. “But as we sit here, I don’t see that changing.”

Roberts said he doesn’t think Ohtani will pitch in the All-Star Game or participate in the home run derby. But he does expect him to take an at-bat or two as the NL’s starting designated hitter.

“He understands the responsibility he has,” Roberts said. “So I do think that there’s a middle for what’s best for him, what potentially could be downside, but also what’s best for the game.”

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. No animals were harmed in the production of this newsletter.

Dalton Rushing has certainly been in the spotlight lately. From his miscommunication with Shohei Ohtani to getting emotional on the bench. We put the spotlight on him recently in this newsletter, which you can read here.

This led to readers asking whether his teammates like him. And while you can never know what lies in the heart of a person, it seems very likely that they do. We quoted colleague Maddie Lee‘s story last time. This time, we look at a couple of interesting quotes from Katie Woo’s story in the Athletic.

Freddie Freeman: “Everyone here loves Dalton Rushing. The person he is in the clubhouse, before games, after games, doesn’t get to be shown on the field. But there’s that three-hour window where his emotions come forward, and it can be a lot. I wish people could see the Dalton Rushing inside the clubhouse, on the plane, on buses. It’s not what you see during the game. He’s a young guy who’s learning the starting role, who wants to be great, who is just learning, and we’re here to help, and that’s why you see so many people trying to help him.”

Miguel Rojas: “It’s really hard to change one person’s personality from one year to another. We have to understand and give him a little bit of a break, because he’s young. Now, if we’re seeing this next year, or the same thing happening two years from now, there’s probably going to be a conversation with the organization. You have to see growth.”

That sounds like two guys who like him, and are trying to help him navigate through all of this. Which is what teammates are for.

However, is Rushing in sync with the pitchers? Let’s take a look at the starting pitcher ERA with Rushing and with Will Smith in their career. We’ll include Austin Barnes and Ben Rortvedt too.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto
ERA with Rortvedt: 0.86 (21 innings)
Barnes: 1.64 (33)
Rushing: 1.75 (92.2)
Smith: 3.29 (221.2)

Justin Wrobleski
Smith: 2.60 (86.2)
Rushing: 3.75 (72)
Rortvedt: 6.14 (7.1)
Barnes: 10.90 (17.1)

Shohei Ohtani
Rortvedt: 0.00 (11)
Smith: 2.08 (82.1)
Rushing: 2.97 (39.1)
Barnes never caught him

Roki Sasaki
Rortvedt: 0.00 (2)
Barnes: 2.00 (9)
Smith: 4.32 (58.1)
Rushing: 6.21 (37.2)

Emmet Sheehan
Rortvedt: 0.00 (1)
Rushing: 3.04 (50.1)
Smith: 4.20 (124.1)
Barnes: 7.56 (16.2)

Tyler Glasnow
Rushing: 1.46 (24.2)
Rortvedt: 2.89 (18.2)
Smith: 3.42 (210.2)
Barnes: 5.40 (10)

Blake Snell
Rortvedt: 0.47 (19)
Smith: 3.26 (30.1)
Rushing: 4.80 (15)

Eric Lauer
Smith: 1.50 (6)
Rushing: 3.86 (23.1)

All Dodgers pitchers this season
Smith: 3.02 (393)
Rushing: 3.74 (341.1)
Chuckie Robinson: 4.88 (59)

All Dodgers pitchers in 2025
Rortvedt: 2.89 (140.1)
Rushing: 3.87 (325.1)
Smith: 4.00 (865.1)
Robinson: 5.14 (7)
Barnes: 5.16 (103)

You can see why the Dodgers liked Rortvedt so much.

Dave Roberts, millennium man

Dave Roberts got the 1,000th victory as Dodgers manager when they beat the Athletics on Tuesday.

“I mean, 1,000 didn’t even seem on my radar,” Roberts said after that game. “That’s a long time of consistent winning, let alone keeping a job for 11 years. That’s just kind of the life I chose. But yeah, to kind of put your head down and look back and go, ‘Oh my God, I’m here,’ it’s mind-blowing. I still feel like I’m getting better, and I still enjoy it.”

Roberts, who is in his 11th season as Dodgers manager, gave a hint as to how long he will be at the helm.

“I will not manage 20 years. Mookie wants me to manage until his contract expires [in 2032], so that’s something I am thinking about. But I can be certain I’m not going to do 20 years. It’s too much. I love it, but it’s a lot to give. To see myself doing that for another seven, eight, nine years, that’s a lot.”

Barring some unexpected collapse by the Dodgers for a couple of seasons, Roberts will be manager of the Dodgers for as long as he wants. He has won three World Series titles and will go into the Hall of Fame one day. He has grown considerably as a manager, as he has shown in the last two postseasons. There is always a vocal minority who doesn’t like him, or who thinks anyone could manage this team to a title. Nonsense. As Mookie Betts said:

“I would definitely say it’s probably the reverse. It makes it harder. It’s probably easy to write in a lineup, for sure. But to manage so many personalities, injuries, guys coming up, guys coming down, it’s a lot, especially losing. We went through our stretches where we weren’t playing well.

“And then it’s the other way, like, ‘Oh, you got this roster, and you’re still losing X, Y, and Z.’ But he just kind of handled it. Handled it with grace. And still come out on top. So, yeah, it’s probably easy to write in the lineup, but to manage it for 162-plus is really hard to do.”

Roberts became the 69th manager to win 1,000 games and the fourth Dodger manager, joining Walter Alston (2,040), Tommy Lasorda (1,599) and Wilbert Robinson (1,375). He also has the best winning percentage of any manager in history, winning 62.3% of his games. He is 1,003-607. Just behind him is Joe McCarthy, who won 61.5% (2,125-1,333). McCarthy won seven World Series titles, all with the Yankees, and is considered by many to be the greatest manager in history.

Sad news

Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo made his major league debut with the Dodgers on Sunday, but with a heavy heart. Alfonzo’s younger sister, Eliana, and stepmother, Patricia, died during the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela recently.

”Don’t really know what to say about it outside of my heart goes out to him and his family,” Roberts said before Sunday’s game. “He’s in [the lineup]. He’s going to play today, but obviously it’s heavy hearts. I don’t want to really go too far because I’ll get emotional, so I don’t know. I know it’s tough, very tough.”

After the game, Alfonzo said this about playing: “Honestly it was a little difficult, but at the same time thanking God always for everything. What happened, unfortunately, is out of my hands and part of life. Only God knows why they happen. I went out there to honor my sister and my stepmother, and give my best in a difficult moment.”

Keep these types of things in mind the next time you want to boo or yell at a player for making an error, mentally or physically. We don’t know what they are going through from day to day. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking these are baseball players making a lot of money and living the dream. But no one lives the dream 24/7.

Four All-Stars

Ohtani, Freeman, Max Muncy and Andy Pages were all elected as starters for this year’s All-Star team, and Yamamoto also made the team, giving the Dodgers four All-Stars this season, tied for the most with Atlanta and Philadelphia. It is Ohtani’s third All-Star nod with the Dodgers (he also had three with the Angels), Freeman’s fifth with the Dodgers (he also had five with the Braves), the third for Muncy, the first for Pages and the second for Yamamoto.

The franchise record for most players on the team is seven, done in multiple years while the Dodgers were in Brooklyn.

Dodgers named to the All-Star team at least four times:

11
Clayton Kershaw

10
Pee Wee Reese

Nine
Don Drysdale

Eight
Roy Campanella
Steve Garvey
Gil Hodges

Seven
Sandy Koufax
Duke Snider
Maury Wills

Six
Ron Cey
Jackie Robinson
Fernando Valenzuela

Five
Freddie Freeman
Mike Piazza
John Roseboro

Four
Mookie Betts
Pedro Guerrero
Cookie Lavagetto
Davey Lopes
Van Lingle Mungo
Don Newcombe
Mickey Owen
Johnny Podres
Preacher Roe
Don Sutton
Dixie Walker
Whit Wyatt

These names seem familiar

How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams (through Sunday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:

Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 98 ERA+, on the IL

Cody Bellinger, Yankees: .251/.348/.426, 374 PA’s, 17 doubles, 3 triples, 11 homers, 50 RBIs, 116 OPS+

Walker Buehler, Padres: 5-4, 4.61 ERA, 82 IP, 83 hits, 30 walks, 76 K’s, 91 ERA+

Mike Busch, Cubs: .234/.367/.391, 398 PA’s, 14 doubles, 2 triples, 11 homers, 47 RBIs, 114 OPS+

Michael Conforto, Cubs: .250/.345/.492, 148 PA’s, 10 doubles, 7 homers, 21 RBIs, 133 OPS+

Justin Dean, Cubs: .400/.500/.800, 6 PA’s, 1 triple, 3 RBIs, 259 OPS+

Caleb Ferguson, Reds: 1-0, 1.62 ERA, 1 save, 16.2 IP, 15 hits, 6 walks, 16 K’s, 278 ERA+

Jack Flaherty, Tigers: 2-8, 4.60 ERA, 76.1 IP, 74 hits, 37 walks, 92 K’s, 93 ERA+

Kenley Jansen, Tigers: 1-4, 4.98 ERA, 10 saves, 21.2 IP, 14 hits, 12 walks, 23 K’s, 87 ERA+

Craig Kimbrel, Rays: 0-2, 4.62 ERA, 25.1 IP, 22 hits, 10 walks, 23 K’s, 9Gavin 4 ERA+

Gavin Lux, Rays: on the IL

Dustin May, Cardinals: 5-6, 4.80 ERA, 84.1 IP, 83 hits, 24 walks, 78 K’s, 84 ERA+

Zach McKinstry, Tigers: .196/.274/.291, 225 PA’s, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 3 homers, 16 RBIs, 58 OPS+

James Outman, Tigers : .159/.234/.292, 124 PA’s, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers, 11 RBIs, 46 OPS+

Joc Pederson, Rangers: .242/.338/.466, 276 PA’s, 7 doubles, 2 triples, 14 homers, 31 RBIs, 133 OPS+

Luke Raley, Mariners: .228/.293/.466, 241 PA’s, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 14 homers, 35 RBIs, 114 OPS+

Ben Rortvedt, Mets: in the minors

Corey Seager, Rangers: .182/.292/.374, 219 PA’s, 6 doubles, 10 homers, 25 RBIs, 94 OPS+, on the IL

Justin Turner, Tijuana (Mexican League): .281/.394/.475, 216 PA’s, 17 doubles, 6 homers, 28 RBIs

Trea Turner, Phillies: .246/.283/.360, 364 PA’s, 15 doubles, 10 homers, 31 RBIs, 72 OPS+

Miguel Vargas, White Sox: .247/.363/.494, 304 PA’s, 17 doubles, 1 triple, 20 homers, 56 RBIs, 138 OPS+

Kirby Yates, Angels: 0-3, 2.75 ERA, 2 saves, 19.2 IP, 11 hits, 7 walks, 28 K’s, 154 ERA+

Note: Vargas was named to the AL All-Star team.

Up next

Monday: Colorado (*Kyle Freeland, 2-7, 7.25 ERA) at Dodgers (*Eric Lauer, 4-5, 4.84 ERA [3-0, 2.88 ERA with Dodgers]), 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Tuesday: Colorado (Michael Lorenzen, 3-9, 6.91 ERA) at Dodgers (*Justin Wrobleski, 10-2, 2.80 ERA), 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Wednesday: Colorado (Ryan Feltner, 3-2, 4.27 ERA) at Dodgers (Roki Sasaki, 3-5, 5.40 ERA), 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

All times Pacific

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Dodgers’ Edwin Díaz pushes back against alleged links to illegal cockfighting

Dodgers’ Eliezer Alfonzo to start after his sister and stepmother died in Venezuela

Dodgers sending four more players to MLB All-Star Game, tied for most selections

Shohei Ohtani and Dodgers taking cautious approach with his biceps ailment

How Dodgers’ Max Muncy, vying for his third All-Star selection, continues to evolve

Fan loudly expresses unbridled enthusiasm for Mexico’s World Cup goal … at Dodgers-A’s game

Dodgers Debate: Midseason awards

Walter Alston, Dave Roberts and everyone in between: The 10 managers in L.A. Dodgers history

And finally

Vin Scully tells us about Kirk Gibson‘s home run. Watch and listen here.

Until next time …

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

WASHINGTON  — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. led a fractured Supreme Court this year that both expanded a president’s power to run the government and dealt major defeats to President Trump.

In Trump’s second year back in the White House, Roberts and the court punctured his claim to have power with no limits.

The justices struck down his worldwide tariffs, ruling these import taxes are a matter for Congress, not the president.

They also threw out his executive order that would end the principle of birthright citizenship. The Constitution wrote this promise into law, Roberts said, and the president may not change it.

The court also ruled in December that the president did not have the power to put National Guard troops on the streets of Chicago.

The three decisions came over fierce dissents from conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. and with Neil M. Gorsuch in two of them.

The three liberal justices dissented angrily when the court ruled the administration may end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians.

They did the same when the court ruled the president may replace the top appointees of semi-independent agencies.

But they joined Roberts in a 5-4 ruling that affirmed the independence of the Federal Reserve and blocked Trump’s move to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Trump has won on most immigration fronts because Roberts and the conservatives believe Congress put the enforcement power in the hands of the administration. They point to the law authorizing temporary protection which says there shall be “no judicial review” of the decision to end the protection.

Roberts is a solid conservative who also tries to keep the court on a middle course. It’s an approach that rarely wins plaudits from the right and almost never from the left.

This year the chief justice prevailed with different coalitions.

This week, the court ruled by a 5-4 vote against the Republican National Committee and upheld state laws that allow for counting late-arriving mail ballots. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Barrett also joined the chief justice in the rulings on tariffs and birthright citizenship.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. speaks to the Georgetown Law School graduating class in 2025.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

This week, the court also limited the power of police to use cellphone data to look for crime suspects. This too came on a 5-4 vote when Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joined Roberts and the three liberals.

Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus, who has been a friend of Roberts’ since their time in law school, said the chief justice “is clearly working very hard” to put together majorities.

“It is not easy to formally preside over a court in which five of its members (Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch on the right and Justices Sotomayor and Jackson on the left) deride the kind of efforts at moderation that is the chief’s preferred signature and harshly condemn him when he strays from their own views.”

Washington attorney Roman Martinez, a former clerk for Roberts, said the court is “clearly right of center” but the decision on tariffs was the most important of the year.

“It is a huge deal for the court to say ‘no’ to the president on his major policy initiative,” he said.

Stanford law professor Michael McConnell agreed. “It’s hard to claim the court is in Trump’s pocket when he lost the major cases,” he said.

Trump responded to the tariff defeat by calling the justices in the majority a “disgrace to our nation” and “disloyal to the Constitution.”

They “sicken me,” he said of Justices Barrett and Gorsuch, his two appointees who joined Roberts in the 6-3 majority.

Trump went to the court in April to hear his top attorney defend his executive order on birthright citizenship. He left after an hour of mostly skeptical questions.

On the term’s last day, Roberts issued a clear and eloquent 26-page opinion setting out America’s history of according citizenship to children who were born in this country, without regard to their parents.

This view came from England “and crossed the Atlantic with the colonists — and was adopted with little fanfare after the Revolution,” he wrote. “Nothing is better settled,” Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1830.

But it was unsettled by the fight over slavery.

“In the odious decision of Dred Scott v. Sandford, this Court imposed the Southern States’ beliefs onto the Nation” and decreed Blacks could not become citizens, Roberts wrote.

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were among the many who condemned the court’s decision, he said.

“It took more than a decade — and the addition of names such as Antietam, Gettysburg, and Chancellorsville to our national canon — but Douglass’s vision of ‘our common humanity’ would be fulfilled,” he wrote.

The Reconstruction Congress wrote this rule into the 14th Amendment and said “All persons born” here are citizens by birth.

The principle of birthright citizenship had been upheld by the Supreme Court in 1898, the chief justice wrote, and it had gone unchallenged until Trump returned to the White House last year.

But Thomas filed a 91-page dissent arguing that immigrants must be “domiciled” here before their children may become citizens.

Alito filed a separate 39-page opinion branding the Roberts opinion a “serious mistake.”

On that note, the court adjourned for its summer recess.

Decades of Hollywood empire-building ended with a quake in 2017 when Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to sell much of his Fox entertainment holdings amid the rise of Netflix and other tech giants.

This week, another titan who has been instrumental in shaping American media and telecommunications began to unwind his Hollywood holdings.

Brian L. Roberts — who with his father built Comcast into a cable TV and internet colossus — announced his company would spin off its prestigious NBCUniversal unit into a separate publicly traded company sometime next year.

The move reverses Roberts’ purchase of NBCUniversal in 2011 — a bold bet that created a behemoth with popular programming and cable pipes to pump that content into consumer homes.

Comcast’s breakup marks the close of a Hollywood era, one dominated for 40 years by a class of maverick moguls: Murdoch, CNN founder Ted Turner, Viacom’s Sumner Redstone, cable titan John Malone and the Philadelphia-based Roberts family.

Now, a new crop of leaders has emerged, reflecting Silicon Valley’s vast influence over the film and and TV business, which has been upended by streaming and, now, artificial intelligence.

“There was a time that Murdoch, Malone and Brian were really industry leaders who could affect change,” said Bank of America managing director Jessica Reif Ehrlich in an interview. “That’s not true any longer.”

Analysts widely believe Monday’s announcement is a prelude to eventual sales of both Comcast and NBCUniversal, a theory that Comcast rejects.

Roberts, 67, told analysts he will remain involved in both NBCUniversal and Comcast after the separation. Still, he plans to relinquish his chief executive role after 25 years and a half century at Comcast. Roberts has picked trusted associates to run each firm, and his family will continue to hold controlling shares of both companies.

But the shift underscores a dramatic loss of clout by Comcast and other traditional media enterprises. Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Google’s YouTube have diminished the industry’s financial pillars — box office receipts and cable programming fees — and given consumers control over when and how they watch programming.

Murdoch was the first to flee. In 2014, he was rebuffed in his $80-billion bid to beef up his 21st Century Fox by buying HBO, CNN and other Time Warner assets. Murdoch’s defeat led to the Fox asset sale to Walt Disney Co.

Last fall, Comcast made a run for the same properties with a plan to unite NBCUniversal with Warner Bros.

Instead, 43-year-old tech scion David Ellison — with help from his billionaire father, Oracle software co-founder Larry Ellison — scooped up the prize for a staggering $111 billion.

The pending blockbuster merger of Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to reshape the industry and leave NBCUniversal increasingly vulnerable to a takeover.

“It looks like Comcast’s NBCUniversal was left standing on the dance floor without a partner,” MoffettNathanson media analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a Tuesday note to investors.

Paramount’s play for Warner Bros. came a month after Ellison finalized his family’s purchase of cash-strapped Paramount from Shari Redstone. The one-two acquisition punch would propel the Ellison family to top-tier moguls with influence over CNN, CBS News, HBO, Turner Classic Movies and two historic Hollywood studios.

“It’s a flagging industry. … The industry will have to consolidate to survive,” said C. Kerry Fields, a USC Marshall School of Business economics professor. “Those who have content plus [streaming] distribution are going to be the winners.”

Roberts knows distribution. His father in 1963 bought his first cable TV system in Tupelo, Miss. It was a quirky bet for Ralph Roberts, who figured his belts and suspenders business would soon be toast as beltless polyester pants became the rage.

Brian Roberts joined Comcast as a high school intern, setting up supermarket promotions. In 1975, he became a trainee cable installer, climbing poles and stringing cables. He joined Comcast full time in 1981 after graduating the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

For more than 30 years, he worked in tandem with his dad. With key associates, they built the nation’s foremost cable TV service — then the entertainment gateway — and grew stronger by offering internet, phone and then wireless service.

Analysts credit the 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal as a huge success; Comcast rescued a company that was on the ropes due to General Electric’s under-investment.

Over the years, Comcast rebuilt NBC and Spanish-language Telemundo, writing big checks for the best sports rights, including the FIFA World Cup, NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

Comcast also recognized value in theme parks and invested heavily, building Universal Studios as a formidable rival to Disney. NBC finished the season in first-place among traditional TV broadcasters and its L.A. film studio is an industry leader.

But the world has changed.

“One of the defining characteristics of this company has always been our willingness to look ahead, embrace change, and position ourselves for the future,” Roberts told analysts during a Monday call.

Reif Ehrlich, the Bank of America analyst, said Comcast needed to do something — or watch its stagnant stock sink farther.

Wall Street has punished the company amid steep losses in its cable TV and broadband internet units, and because NBCUniversal has historically generated its biggest profits from its cable channels.

In January, Comcast spun off those networks, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network and Golf Channel, to create a new entity called Versant.

But the move failed to boost Comcast’s battered stock, which dropped 3.3% on Wednesday to $23.73.

Five years ago, Comcast stock topped $50 a share.

“It was just a very challenged market on both sides, and it’s getting worse, not better,” Reif Ehrlich said.

Comcast faces competitors beyond traditional telecommunications firms, including AT&T and T-Mobile. SpaceX’s Starlink provides satellite internet service.

NBCUniversal must jockey alongside other well-capitalized players, including Amazon, Netflix and Disney. NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, has struggled to get traction. It counted 46 million paying subscribers as of the first quarter, a fraction of Netflix’s 325 million and the nearly 132 million subscribers of Disney+.

“It’s kind of a subscale player,” Reif Ehrlich said. “It’s just a real battle, and NBC has expensive sports rights.”

Roberts conceded the difficult landscape on the analyst call.

“The world is changing faster than ever,” Roberts said. “Technology, consumer behavior, competition, capital requirements are all evolving at an unprecedented pace … When we acquired NBCUniversal, more than 15 years ago, the industry looked very different.”

He will retain control for at least three years. The NBCUniversal spin-off is envisioned as a tax-free transaction for shareholders, providing a short-term buffer from deal-making to preserve that structure.

NBCUniversal could be up for grabs by 2029 — a pivotal year when the NFL is expected to open negotiations for a new round of broadcast rights. That auction is expected to draw heavy interest from Amazon and other streamers — not just veterans Fox, NBC, Disney’s ESPN and Paramount’s CBS.

“Brian Roberts has already proven his willingness to play the long game and with continued control should be the end decision maker,” Fishman said.

Much like Murdoch, who is now 95 and partially retired.

“Rupert was the smartest guy in Hollywood — he got out at the top,” Reif Ehrlich said.

He entrusted power to his 54-year-old son, Lachlan, who has been busy remaking Fox after the 2019 sale to Disney, which included Fox’s film and TV studios, streaming service Hulu and the FX and National Geographic channels. Fox also unloaded its regional cable sports networks — a savvy move before that business cratered.

The Murdochs kept Fox Sports, the Fox broadcast network, TV stations, Fox News Channel and the studio lot.

The company has been expanding. Lachlan Murdoch led Fox’s purchase of Tubi, which provides free TV channels and movies for smart televisions, keeping Fox in the streaming game. The company launched Fox News and weather products, and subscription service Fox One, which streams the company’s sports and news.

Earlier this month, Lachlan Murdoch stunned the industry by agreeing to pay $22 billion for Roku, a leading streaming platform that reaches 100 million viewers worldwide. Murdoch called the proposed purchase “a defining moment for Fox.”

SACRAMENTO — Is this series worth hyping?

The Dodgers welcome their bitter rivals to Dodger Stadium on Thursday for what should be a big four-game series, but the San Diego Padres are a mess. They trail the Dodgers by 12 games in the National League West. Their best batter by WAR, according to Baseball Reference, is journeyman infielder Ty France.

The Dodgers lost a game Wednesday by six runs, 7-1 to the Athletics. The Padres lost a game by 20 runs.

However, standings and statistics be damned, the Dodgers are coming for the Padres, their closest pursers in the division even if “close” is relative. The Dodgers didn’t have to say anything out loud, but you could see it on the field Wednesday.

Shohei Ohtani was the scheduled starting pitcher, but the Dodgers pushed him back so he could face the Padres this weekend. The Padres will face Roki Sasaki on Thursday, Ohtani on Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday.

And the Dodgers still won a series in Sacramento, behind Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski. Now comes a 10-game sprint to the All-Star break against division rivals, starting with the Padres.

“They’re all big for us,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We try to take every series with the same importance, but obviously winning that series is the goal.”

For the final game of the Athletics series Wednesday, with Ohtani held back, the Dodgers used Jack Dreyer as a first-inning opener, then handed the ball to triple-A callup Charlie Barnes and told him to go as long as he could.

That did not go well and still went exactly according to plan.

In what was billed as a bullpen game, Barnes handled the final seven innings, leaving the varsity bullpen in fine shape for the Padres series.

“For him to be able to save everyone else puts us in a great position for the four games this weekend,” Roberts said.

The innings were not great. The first batter Barnes faced, Jonah Heim, deposited a 444-foot home run on the roof of the Dodgers’ clubhouse beyond the center-field fence.

The A’s bunched 11 hits over the first four innings against Barnes and his 90-mph fastball, and still the Dodgers gave Barnes the rest of the game, because a 12-game lead affords you the chance to sacrifice today in order to line up your pitching for your tomorrows.

In all, Barnes gave up seven runs and 12 hits, including three home runs. He did make a very reasonable 79 pitches over his seven innings.

Barnes, a 30-year-old still in search of his first major league victory, barely had a chance to take in the evening before Roberts told him immediately after the game that he would return to triple-A, with Paul Gervase coming up as a fresh arm.

“It’s tough for me to enjoy it when you give up seven,” Barnes said. “That’s part of the business. I did my job in providing length. Any time they need that or may want that, I’ll do my best to give it to them.”

This was not all on Barnes, to be sure. When Wrobleski won his 10th game in a 9-3 victory on Tuesday, he said the offense deserved a fair share of the credit for his success.

“We bang,” Wrobleski said, “so you can get a lot of wins if you go deep in games and go five innings. That’s more of a team thing than it is a performance thing for me, but it’s super cool.”

After collecting 17 hits here on Monday and 14 more on Tuesday, the Dodgers mustered five hits Wednesday, including a 431-foot home run from Freddie Freeman.

The Dodgers went hitless with runners in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, two men on in the third and two more in the eighth.

Will Smith out until after All-Star break

The first half of the season will conclude with Will Smith in the same place he has been for the last month: the injured list.

The Dodgers’ three-time All-Star catcher has been on the IL since June 8 because of what the Dodgers list as neck inflammation. Smith said he had been diagnosed with an inflamed disk.

Roberts said he “just can’t see any world” in which Smith would return before the All-Star break, which concludes July 16.

“It’s certainly longer, I know, than all of us expected,” Roberts said. “But I don’t think it’s anything real, kind of affecting-the-season type thing.”

Will Smith has been sidelined by an injured neck.

(Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)

Roberts said Smith has not been able to accelerate his rehabilitation to the point of doing baseball activities.

Dalton Rushing, who has taken over as the Dodgers’ primary catcher in Smith’s absence, is batting .210 with one home run and 20 strikeouts in 19 games while Smith has been on the injured list. The Dodgers gave Rushing most of the day off Wednesday, although he struck out as a late-game replacement.

The Dodgers were 14-6 with Smith on the IL entering play Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, the team scratched shortstop Mookie Betts from the starting lineup because of a sore right wrist. Roberts said he expected Betts to play Thursday.

Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda celebrates after the Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos to win the NL pennant in 1981.

(Associated Press)

Years as manager: 1976-1996

Record: 1,599-1,439, .526 win pct

After serving as the team’s third base coach for four seasons, Lasorda took over as manager late in the 1976 season when Alston announced his retirement. He led the Dodgers to the National League pennant in his first two full seasons, losing both times to the Yankees in the World Series. He won his first World Series in 1981, knocking off the Yankees, and rallied his team to a surprise title in 1988 in which the Dodgers beat the heavily favored Athletics. Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, his first year of eligibility.

A fiery and vibrant presence who spent 71 years with the Dodgers, Lasorda managed nine players who won the NL rookie of the year award. The Dodgers also opened the Japanese player pipeline on his watch. Hideo Nomo, the first Japanese big leaguer to permanently relocate to the U.S., joined the Dodgers in 1995. Three decades later, the team features Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on its star-studded roster.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court on Monday gave President Trump new power to fire the heads of most independent agencies created by Congress — but not the Federal Reserve.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced two opinions, one of which bolstered the president’s power as the chief executive and a second which said this authority did not extend to the Federal Reserve board.

The first was a 6-3 decision that had the support of five conservatives, while the second had a 5-4 majority that included the three liberals.

Roberts, a former White House lawyer, has long been skeptical of independent agencies whose officials may wield regulatory power in conflict with the views of the president.

Since the 1880s, however, Congress has at times created independent agencies led by a bipartisan board of experts. In 1935, a unanimous Supreme Court had upheld these multi-member boards and commissions.

But Roberts and the court overturned that precedent and declared it conflicts with the executive power of the president.

“Our Constitution creates three branches, but only one President,” he wrote. “To discharg[e] the duties of his trust, the President must have the assistance of officers he can trust. … Subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people.”

The decision upholds Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, one of two Democratic appointees on the five-member Federal Trade Commission.

The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic appointee to the Federal Trade Commission.

(Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg / Getty Images)

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the ruling “distorts the structure of government to fit the majority’s theory of unitary, total executive control. The result is a President who emerges with far greater power than ever before. It is a power, however, that neither the People, nor Congress, nor the Constitution bestowed upon him.”

Under what has been dubbed the “unitary executive” theory, the court’s conservatives believe the president’s executive power in Article II of the Constitution overrides Congress’power in Article I to write the laws and structure the government.

The departments and agencies of the federal government exist only because Congress created them by law.

But in the second opinion, the court blocked Trump’s bid to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, an appointee of President Biden.

Roberts said the central bank dates back to the nation’s founding, and Congress created the Federal Reserve Board in line with “our Nation’s tradition of central banking protected from political interference.”

Trump tried to fire Lisa Cook in a social media post, he said.

But “the Federal Reserve’s Governors do not serve at the President’s pleasure — they instead serve staggered 14-year terms, and may be removed only ‘for cause’,” he wrote.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh cast a crucial vote to support the Fed’s independence. He said he joined the majority because it “confirms the longstanding historical practice and understanding that the Federal Reserve is an independent agency whose Governors enjoy for-cause removal protection consistent with Article II of the Constitution.”

The court did not finally decide on Cook’s case, except to say she deserved due process of law. She could not be fired without a hearing and evidence, the court said.

The setback for independent agencies came as no surprise, however.

Even prior to Trump’s election, Roberts has insisted agency officials must be accountable and under the control of the president.

Last year, the justices blocked lower court rulings that would have reinstated agency officials who were fired by Trump.

For most of American history, however, it had been understood that Congress had the power to structure the government and to create semi-independent agencies to carry out specific tasks like regulating railroad rates or the money supply.

These agencies and commissions were led by a bipartisan board of experts who were appointed with a fixed term. They could be fired only for cause, not because of a political disagreement with the president.

The Supreme Court upheld these multi-member commissions in 1935 on the grounds their work was more legislative and judicial than simply enforcing the law.

But the court’s current conservative majority has contended these commissions and boards wield executive authority and are therefore, subject to direct control by the president.

In creating such bodies, Congress often was responding to the problems of a new era.

The Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887 to regulate railroad rates. The FTC, the focus of the court case, was created in 1914 to investigate corporate monopolies.

The year before, the Federal Reserve Board was established to supervise banks, prevent panics and regulate the money supply.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market and the National Labor Relations Board to resolve labor disputes.

Decades later, Congress focused on safety. The National Transportation Safety Board was created to investigate aviation accidents, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission investigates products that may pose a danger. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission protects the public from nuclear hazards.

Typically, Congress gave the appointees, a mix of Republicans and Democrats, a fixed term and said they could be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

Slaughter was first appointed by Trump to a Democratic seat and was reappointed by Biden in 2023 for a seven-year term.

SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers claimed a series win against the San Diego Padres with a 4-2 victory Sunday, widening the gap between division rivals to 10 games.

The Dodgers (54-30), who have the best record in the majors, have won five of the first six games of a three-city trip that ends in Sacramento.

A bounce-back start from right-hander Emmet Sheehan made the Dodgers’ win Sunday possible. He held the Padres to one run, on Manny Machado’s fourth-inning homer, through five innings.

“Maybe being a little more comfortable in my mechanics,” Sheehan said after limiting the Padres to two hits. “But also just the focus in between starts of trying to get a little more execution instead of delivery thoughts. I had seven days, so I got to throw two bullpens this week, which is nice.”

It was the first time Sheehan held an opponent to a single run since May 8, when he threw 4⅔ innings against the Atlanta Braves.

“He just beared down and made pitches when he needed to,” manager Dave Roberts said, “versus feeling it with the mechanics or being uncertain.”

Mookie Betts stayed hot with his bases-loaded, two-run single off Padres starter Michael King to spearhead a three-run rally in the fifth. Betts also singled in the seventh.

Freddie Freeman had an RBI on a nine-pitch walk in the fifth, and Shohei Ohtani drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a single in the third.

“The last six weeks, Shohei’s been out of this world,” Roberts said. “Freddie’s been very consistent all year, and then now we got Mookie this last week on track. So it has been the better part of the season that we haven’t had all three of those guys. You can see it — when those three guys are threats, it just kind of takes a lot of pressure off everybody else.”

Over the three-game series, the Dodgers outscored the Padres 20-12. Here are offensive takeaways from the series:

Tucker ‘grinding’ through

Kyle Tucker hits a two-run home run against the San Diego Padres on Saturday in the Dodgers’ 15-3 win.

(Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker never had been through a stretch like this. He entered Sunday with a .719 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, the lowest he’s had 77 games into a season in his career.

“I feel fine coming to the field and everything, it’s just not being as productive as I normally am, or as I want to be, kind of sucks,” Tucker said in a conversation with The Times a couple of weeks ago. “But I’ve just got to come back for the next at-bat, or the next day, and whatever, and just move on.”

Has battling this uncharacteristic slump taught him anything?

“I’d rather not suck,” he said. “But just try and grab through and just whenever anything works or clicks or whatever, just don’t let it go.”

Tucker has had moments this season when it looked like he was heading toward an offensive turnaround.

In mid-April, he homered twice in three games, including a three-hit performance. In early May, he went on a six-game hitting streak. He hit .303 over a nine-game stretch in mid-June. But none led to sustained success.

So, when Tucker logged three hits, including a home run, on Saturday as the Dodgers routed the Padres 15-3, he was cautious in his optimism. Tucker even nitpicked the nine-pitch at-bat that ended in the pull-side homer.

“There were some pitches I swung at earlier in the at-bat that I thought should’ve gotten the job done earlier, just didn’t put a great swing on it,” he said after the game.

Manager Dave Roberts was more enthusiastic about that at-bat.

“He’s handled it well,” Roberts said. “He’s frustrated, certainly. But he hasn’t run from the work. Even [Friday] night after the game, he was hitting in the cage. … You hear the word ‘grind’ a lot, but he’s grinding. It’s good to see him have some success. I just liked that one at-bat tonight where it was just compete. It wasn’t about mechanics. It was about competing and getting the job done.”

On Sunday, Tucker singled in four at-bats.

Edman’s consistency

Tommy Edman hits against the San Diego Padres on Friday.

(Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)

There were times last year when utility player Tommy Edman could look at video of his swing and think, “OK, that doesn’t look like how I want it to look.” But there was only so much he could do in the middle of the season, while playing through nagging ankle issues.

“Part of it is kind of just breaking habits that I built last year,” said Edman, who underwent surgery on his right ankle in the offseason. “Was just getting into some bad movements with the lower body, probably just compensating for the ankle, and hips get out of whack, and that kind of stuff. So I’m hopeful that I’ll just be able to keep this up the rest of the year and just be consistent with it.”

Since returning from the injured list on June 16 to make his season debut, Edman is hitting .333 (11 for 33) with a .405 .on-base percentage. He hit his first triple and second double of the season in the Dodgers’ blowout win Saturday.

“I feel like this is kind of one of the rare times where both swings feel good, both from the right and left,” switch-hitting Edman said after that game. “It’s really tough to maintain both swings over the course of the season, so just happy that I feel that way.”

Betts is back

When Betts went three for four, a triple short of the cycle, in the Dodgers’ series finale in Minnesota last week, he couldn’t put his finger on a cue that had snapped his swing into shape over the last couple of weeks.

“Today, I was able to just find something,” he said then. “I don’t even know really what I found. After the home run the first at bat, I wasn’t sure what I did, but I just kind of stayed there. And I think that was the beauty of it. And not really fully knowing and just kind of going to play kind of let me know my training is paying off.”

It continued playing off. That performance kicked off a three-game homer streak. And by the end of his two-week heater, Betts had raised his OPS from .591 to .737.

By Saturday night, Roberts was ready to declare that Betts was back.

“I say ‘back’ because I just think there’s more intent with him in the batter’s box and a lot less indecisiveness,” Roberts said. “So for me, if he can have that kind of proactive approach, aggressive approach, then everything else is going to take care of itself.”

Betts credited his resurgence to a shift in how he prepares for games. Instead of taking 100 swings in the cage with a specific cue, he’s building up from a blank slate every day.

“I used to have things I would think about that would produce a swing, and now I’m actually just training my body every day,” he said. “So kind of one in the same, but they’re just two completely different ways of going about it. And still trying to get fully used to it, but it’s working, so I’m not changing it.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is planning for right fielder Kyle Tucker to be out for the rest of the series against the Minnesota Twins, after he left Monday’s game with low back spasms.

Roberts hopes to write Tucker into the lineup Friday, when the Dodgers open a three-game series in San Diego, after three days off, plus most of the game Monday.

“Hopefully he [can take] advantage of this, obviously to get right, but also kind of a mental reset,” Roberts said. “Hopefully the four days will suffice.”

Tucker, who said he felt a little better Tuesday but still sore, especially when rotating, is “pretty confident” that he’ll be able to avoid the injured list. And if he can take swings on Wednesday, he’ll probably be on track for that Friday return.

“But if he doesn’t, then we’ll have probably a tougher decision on Friday,” Roberts said.

Tucker, who has a .707 on-base-plus-slugging-percentage this season, has had a slow offensive start to his Dodgers’ tenure. He wasn’t ready to make any declarations about the potential benefits of time off to reset.

“Maybe,” he said. “We’ll see after I get back. We’ll see how that goes.”

The news on catcher Dalton Rushing, who exited Monday’s game to rule out a concussion, was more straightforward.

Rushing hadn’t yet gone through the second round of concussion testing needed to clear him to play when Roberts addressed the media Tuesday afternoon. But Rushing had told Roberts he was ready to play.

“That doesn’t carry too much weight until I hear from the medical staff,” Roberts said. “But it is good to know that he said he’s good to go. My hope is that he’ll be available off the bench in some capacity.”

As a downpour hammered the tarped field early Tuesday evening, it was unclear when exactly the Dodgers would be playing. But despite plenty of rain in the forecast Tuesday evening, the teams and Major League Baseball identified a window for the game.

The Twins announced an estimated 5:05 p.m. PDT first pitch, representing a 25-minute rain delay.

Nneka Ogwumike called game.

The 10-time WNBA All-Star and Sparks forward hit a buzzer-beating three-point shot to give the Sparks an electric 98-97 come-from-behind win over the New York Liberty on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

In a rematch of the WNBA’s first-ever game from June 21, 1997, the Sparks overcame a 17-point Liberty lead, all while celebrating the inaugural matchup — and iconic alumni — that changed women’s sports forever.

Ogwumike led the way with a game-high 24 points on 11 of 18 shooting while the rest of the starting lineup — Dearica Hamby, Erica Wheeler, Kelsey Plum and Ariel Atkins — all finished in double figures. Guard Rae Burrell also scored 19 off the bench.

Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts spoke highly of her team’s locker room pregame, even as L.A. entered riding a two-game losing streak. But the Sparks continued to fight, as Roberts expected, ultimately beating the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference.

“I think it’s good,” Roberts said. “I wish we were fully healthy. Not having [Cameron Brink] is a big loss, or an impactful absence. But we got [Kelsey Plum]. And obviously, as you guys know, she’s the head of the snake. So that gives us, the whole group, a little more confidence … a little swagger, maybe that’s the right word.

“But the mood is good. We’ve had some great wins and some tough losses … it’s the process. You have to stay present and not freak out or panic … We’ve got great people in that locker room.”

Without Brink, who remains out after suffering an ankle sprain against Golden State, the Sparks were glad to have Plum back. L.A. entered with a 6-0 record in games in which Plum recorded six-plus assists, and the four-time WNBA All-Star, in her return from a one-game absence due to a leg injury, finished with seven to go with 12 points.

New York led for most of the night despite a cold game from guard Sabrina Ionescu, who finished with a quiet two points. The rest of the Liberty’s starting five — Breanna Stewart, Satou Sabally, Leonie Fiebich and Jonquel Jones — delivered, though, with a combined 63 points.

“Well, they’re big,” Roberts said pregame of the Liberty. “I think the unique thing is New York is huge all the way across, and so that enables them to do some things that are unique. I think the other thing they’re doing is putting [Jones] and Stewie in kind of lead guard positions. … They’ve got Hall of Famers over there. It’s a talented roster, which presents problems in and of itself, but they’re a good team.”

However, after a halftime break honoring Sparks and Liberty legends like Lisa Leslie and Teresa Weatherspoon, among many others at half court, L.A. was rejuvenated for the final 20 minutes. And after rapper Warren G performed after the third quarter, the Sparks — and their crowd — had all the momentum in the world. Ogwumike just delivered the icing on the cake.

Sunday, before anything else, was a celebration of the WNBA’s existence and the pioneers who fought to bring the game to its current standing.

“Just know that we never took a day for granted,” Leslie said at halftime. “We appreciate every moment, every day, every moment that you guys supported the WNBA from New York to L.A. and everywhere in between.”

But after Ogwumike’s game winner? WNBA fans exited Sunday’s game spoiled.