roberts

The Dodgers needed a pivotal win Sunday afternoon against the Milwaukee Brewers. And Tarik Skubal did his part, giving up just one earned run on seven hits over six innings.

“Seemed like they had a good approach,” Skubal, who threw a season-high 109 pitches. “My job doesn’t change. I got to continue to make pitches and continue to get ahead and throw strikes, and I felt like I did that.”

But it wasn’t enough.

Milwaukee’s Logan Henderson quashed the Dodgers’ offense, giving up just three hits and one run over seven innings, to give the Brewers a 6-2 win in front of an announced crowd of 45,828.

The Dodgers (74-51) lost the four-game series 3-1 and also dropped the season series against the Brewers 4-3. The Dodgers trail Milwaukee (77-48) by three games for the best record in baseball.

“I really wanted to win this game because it could matter,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But we didn’t, so now we got to move forward. I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us.”

Panic hasn’t — and presumably won’t — set into the Dodgers’ clubhouse. The two-time defending champions, however, are well aware they have lost 11 of their past 16 games.

“This has been cumulative,” Roberts said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been consistent offensively. … I just don’t see the consistent plan of attack, one through nine. The results are hard, hitting’s hard, but I do think that fighting and winning pitches, spoiling pitches — that’s care, hunger. 
And that’s a reason why [when] you look at four and a half months of the season, the Brewers have outscored us. … A team that’s young and hungry. It’s certainly not talent.

“We just haven’t played clean baseball for quite some time, and that speaks to the defense and not converting an out … it’s just not winning baseball. Our pedigree [and] what we typically do is control the zone, grind it, grind at-bats [and] create stress. We’re not doing that.”

Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers beats a tag attempt by Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt to score in the seventh inning Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The Brewers struck first with two outs in the second inning after Luis Lara grounded into a bases-loaded fielder’s choice; Tommy Edman dropped an awkward flip to second base from Mookie Betts, resulting in an error and a 1-0 Milwaukee lead.

Max Muncy got to Henderson in the fourth by hitting a tying home run 370 feet to right field. In the next inning, Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers hit a go-ahead single to right off Skubal, scoring Jackson Chourio from second after his double.

“I just got to be better in those moments,” Skubal said. “You know, the slider down and in to Lara’s got to be probably a little bit more down and in, and the changeup to Bauers has got to be a more quality pitch. … So as much as it’s in the kind of grind of at-bats, they also put some swings on some balls. But I need to execute some pitches and some two-strike counts a little better as well.”

The Brewers added two insurance runs in the seventh, as Bauers and Andrew Vaughn collected a pair of RBI knocks against left-handed reliever Alex Vesia. They got two more in the ninth after a second bases-loaded error by Edman came when he failed to field a choppy ground ball from David Hamilton, allowing Chourio and Lara to score.

“We have a lot of guys with reputations that can really pick the ball,” Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt said of the defensive woes. “I don’t think we’re really worried about [it]. All these things are going to help us in the long run.”

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts walks back to the dugout after striking out in the seventh inning.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers had a chance to crawl closer with one out in the eighth, with Teoscar Hernández on third and Hunter Feduccia on first. But Shohei Ohtani grounded into a double play against Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby.

Andy Pages hit a solo home run in the ninth, but it came too late to matter.

“It can’t happen all at once,” Roberts said of a potential turnaround. “It just kind of starts building, collectively. And once we do that, then you get the big hit, things like that. But it’s a process of: each pitch, pass the baton, valuing every single pitch. And mentally, it’s not easy, but we can do it. We’ve done it many times over before.”

The results just haven’t been there for the Dodgers.

As they head to Colorado for a three-game series against the last-place Rockies, the Dodgers aren’t expecting any breaks.

“Honestly, I think every team’s hungry because they’re chasing us,” Roberts said. “They’re trying to make a name for themselves or trying to play spoiler, whatever it is. But every team we play is going to bring their best. The guys we are going to play the next three games, they’re gonna bring their best, I promise you that.”

If there is a silver lining, it’s that Skubal seems to be acclimating just fine in L.A. — even if the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner hasn’t had his best game since joining the Dodgers.

“I just got to be more consistent,” Skubal said of his first three starts with the Dodgers. “Continue to get quality contact on the ground, and sometimes you need a little bit of luck … But the stuff on my hand is as good as it’s ever been. And honestly, my execution today was pretty good too.

“There’s always room for improvement … but [in] the same breath, you can’t beat yourself up too much. I’m not going to be perfect out there. But yeah, I need to be more efficient. That’s the standard that I hold myself to: pitching deeper into ballgames and giving our team a chance to win every time out.”

Injury updates

The Dodgers placed left-handed starter Justin Wrobleski on the 15-day injured list with left forearm inflammation and recalled right-handed reliever Kyle Hurt from triple-A Oklahoma City. Wrobleski, who has pitched a career-high 126⅓ innings this season, surrendered four runs and four hits in a loss against the Brewers on Saturday.

“We just felt collectively that Justin was the right person [to] back off the fatigue of the arm,” Roberts said. “It’s not something that he’s ever going to make an excuse for. But I do think that it’s smart for us, as an organization, to take that load off a little bit from him.”

Wrobleski has struggled recently, giving up 11 home runs over his past four starts.

Stewart, who was placed on the 15-day IL with right shoulder discomfort on July 31, said he’ll join the Dodgers on their upcoming road trip to Colorado and is hopeful he’ll be activated soon.

Put away the trumpets. Pack them up, put them in the attic, let them collect some dust.

Nobody wants to hear them.

Nobody wants to be subjected to one more triggering, off-key note of an Edwin Díaz dirge. Not anytime soon, not in any high-leverage moments for the foreseeable future.

Not after the Dodgers’ closer blew another save Thursday, his third in four appearances.

Not after another Díaz disaster class. This time, after he trotted in to Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco” as usual, he gave up four consecutive hits and coughed up a two-run lead before getting yanked in a 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium. It spoiled Max Muncy’s pinch-hit home run in the sixth inning that staked Díaz to a 4-2 lead.

Díaz was the high-profile free agent the Dodgers signed to lock down the ninth inning for the next three seasons, inking him to a $69-million deal to do it, a record for relievers.

He has an ERA of 11.57 for the season. And in the 5⅔ innings since returning from a procedure to remove “loose bodies” in his right elbow, he has given up 12 hits and three walks. On Thursday, he left everybody in the stands rooting for the Dodgers up in arms, booing.

Those folks might still be booing when they hear what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said saltily postgame: “Give me another option … I can’t just say change him to low-leverage. I have to have options.”

So plan a search party, do it by committee.

Or give the ball back to Tanner Scott. He isn’t perfect, but has 16 saves and was serviceable filling in for Díaz before he was activated off the injured list on July 29.

Just don’t give the ball to Díaz.

Not while the 32-year-old right-hander is flailing. Not while he’s flustered and frustrated — which you can’t spell without rust, though even Roberts admitted, “I don’t know how long you can use the rust thing, which I’ve certainly used.”

Go with anyone but Díaz, who has been the biggest disappointment of this Dodgers’ trek toward what they hope is a three-peat.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, center, pulls closer Edwin Díaz from the game in the ninth inning Thursday against Milwaukee.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

He’s not the only disappointment: Mookie Betts is hitting worse than ever before in his career while another newcomer, $240-million man Kyle Tucker, is hitting just .239 with 11 home runs. Fittingly, he flew out for the final out and went 0 for 4 on Thursday.

But Díaz was heralded as the best reliever on the free-agent market when the Dodgers signed him.

Instead, he’s making a run at Worst Reliever in the Game.

His slider hasn’t been sliding. He’s been consistently inconsistent. His location has been spotty — or right down the middle, and as he showed and told Thursday: “I was throwing my fastball right in the middle. When you miss in the middle, you pay.”

And, like Roberts, Díaz doesn’t know the answer, just that “I just gotta sit down with the pitching coaches to see what I’m missing and what they say to see if we can fix it and keep working hard.”

In a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, he stood with his hands on his hips and faced the music — and the facts, saying he’s ready to relinquish his closer role if Roberts wants to try another option.

“I just gotta see what they wanna do,” Díaz said. “I wanna do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job.”

Roberts would prefer he do the job for which he’s being paid so richly: “Everyone’s got a role, they all have jobs to do, and they all have to do their job. That’s it.”

But Díaz hasn’t been up to the job. He had a 10.50 ERA in seven shaky appearances before he went on the IL on April 20.

It can seem like the Dodgers print money with all their high-priced players, but they might as well be lighting it on fire with the relievers they’ve brought in.

For them, the concept of the high-priced reliever should be an oxymoron. Because being fooled once is a shame; being fooled twice — that’s moronic.

In 2025, they signed Scott — then considered perhaps the best relief pitcher on the free-agent market — to a four-year, $72-million contract.

And he blew his opportunities like a trumpet too, ending last season with a 4.74 ERA (second-worst of his career) and 1.263 WHIP with 60 strikeouts through 57 innings. He didn’t pitch for the Dodgers in the playoffs.

Now they’ve got the Díaz debacle to deal with before the postseason, when it looks like the Dodgers, if they don’t have their big-name closer to rely on, will again be forced to find other options.

It seemed no lead was safe during the Sparks’ matchup against the Mercury on Tuesday night before Phoenix rallied for a 94-87 win at the Galen Center, snapping its three-game losing streak.

The Sparks have lost nine of their past 11 games, but both teams are still fighting for a playoff spot with fewer than a dozen games remaining. Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said pregame that the players know what is at stake during the final stretch of the season.

The Sparks (12-20) sit in 10th place, one spot ahead of the Mercury (13-22) and outside of the eight-team playoff cut line, with 12 games remaining.

Kelsey Plum, who was recently traded from the Sparks to the Mercury, did not play during the first matchup against her former team because of a lower left leg injury.

“There are no gimme games in this league for anybody, whether you are in first or last — every game is hard,” Roberts said.

Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell led the Sparks with 19 each and Nneka Ogwumike added 18 points and nine rebounds. Cameron Brink finished with seven points and five rebounds off the bench.

After a slow start during a loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday, the Sparks splashed 23 points in the first quarter.

The Sparks claimed a 47-44 halftime lead after a steal by Burrell, which she followed with a crafty reverse layup in the final seconds.

The teams traded the lead throughout the third quarter.

The Sparks pulled ahead in the fourth, but Phoenix tied it 81-81 with 3:33 remaining after a bucket from the Mercury’s top scorer Noémie Brochant.

Brochant led the team with 24 points and five steals, making it difficult for the Sparks to rally.

Ariel Atkins cut the deficit to 90-87 after banking in a three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining, but the Mercury made their free throws and pressured the Sparks’ offense.

The Sparks had difficulty solving problems caused by the Mercury’s zone defense. And dominating the paint for stretches of the game, Hamby had four turnovers, including two in the fourth.

“It was kind of those one-on-one on the inside before they went zone,” Hamby said. “I feel like the second half was every time I went to my move, they were right there and on time with the turnovers.”

Roberts said that she expects to see the same zone defense on Thursday when the Sparks travel to New York to face the Liberty (20-14).

“The ball did not move. We were trying to throw dimes when you need to make the easy play,” Roberts said. “But that’s what zone does, you know? If we had shot better, they probably would have gotten out of it.”

Tarik Skubal made his home debut Monday, but the down-on-their-luck Dodgers still needed every bit of offense they could muster to back him up.

They held off Kansas City 6-5, salvaging the Dodger Stadium introduction of baseball’s premier trade-deadline acquisition.

Skubal, the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner, pitched five innings, giving up four hits and three runs. He struck out six.

It was a solid outing, but the Dodgers needed their slumbering bats to come alive too.

Max Muncy had a bases-loaded triple in the sixth to give the Dodgers a 5-3 advantage, their first lead of the game.

But the Royals answered in the seventh with a two-run homer by Kyle Isbel, forging a 5-5 tie.

In the bottom of the seventh, Freddie Freeman put the home team up for good, hitting a single to right that drove in Shohei Ohtani.

Impossible to know if the win marked a turnaround or simply a tourniquet for the Dodgers, who entered having lost eight of nine, including sweeps by Boston and the Chicago Cubs. They had lost seven in a row before finally winning Saturday at Arizona, then resuming the slide Sunday with a loss to the Diamondbacks.

On the flight home, manager Dave Roberts had a jarring realization.

“We’re a wild-card team right now,” he said. “We’ve got to get going and play with urgency.”

The Dodgers had 10 hits, a welcome development for a team that has had a terrible time seeing and reacting to pitches — and particularly fastballs.

The Athletic crunched the numbers and found no team in baseball has had as dramatic an increase in fastball percentage, with the Dodgers seeing that number climb steadily since May.

“It never feels good to be bullied,” Roberts said. “And to know that teams go after us with the fastball more than any team in baseball, that’s bothersome. That would bother me. … We’ve scored a lot of runs — fourth in baseball — but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The story is being the best version of ourselves, and that’s hitting the fastball and making adjustments in at-bats, situationally, all of it.

“So yeah, it’s something that I hope our guys will take that personally. We shouldn’t get bullied.”

By the fifth inning, the Dodgers were out of ABS challenges, with Miguel Rojas tapping his helmet to check on a called strike that was, well, squarely in the strike zone.

That came after an unsuccessful challenge by Andy Pages in the fourth, and his track record on those inquiries is grim. Thirteen of his 24 challenges were confirmed strikes.

Kansas City’s Jac Caglianone had 20/20 vision, with a pair of two-strike hits that gave the Royals a 3-0 advantage. The first was a low-velocity groundball threaded up the middle to drive in a run. In the third, he hit a two-run shot over the right-field wall.

It wasn’t until the fifth that Skubal finally punctuated “Jac” with a K.

By that point, the Dodgers had clawed their way back to 3-2, driving in runs with clutch hits by Ohtani and Freeman that got the crowd buzzing again.

Tuesday marks the return of Blake Snell, who underwent left elbow surgery and hasn’t pitched for the Dodgers since May 9. That’s back-to-back nights featuring multiple Cy Young Award winners.

Roberts said he would like to see Snell throw five innings, roughly 75-80 pitches, in his return.

“I feel very confident,” Roberts said when asked about Snell getting back up to speed. “I had a great conversation with him yesterday. He’s on a mission, and I like when great-talent players have that mindset.”

Likewise, Roberts said catcher Will Smith, recovering from an inflamed disc in his neck, is “pain free” and on track for an imminent return.

“He’s been throwing, the weight-room stuff each day,” he said. “It’s been better, so this is going to be a big week for Will. And my expectation is that he should be taking some pitching, some coaches’ batting practice at some point this week.”

CHICAGO — Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went directly to Shohei Ohtani’s competition for NL MVP with his gripe.

Ebel, who coached Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this year, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play center field every day?

Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”

He was exaggerating slightly. Ohtani’s leadoff homer came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t really how Crow-Armstrong felt.

“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.

The National League MVP race transformed into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6.

“Over the course of a season, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Ohtani, a four-time MVP, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s too early to think about that. So in a way for me it’s more important for the team to win and for me to contribute to that.”

Though Crow-Armstrong played along with the MVP talk, he came around to a similar sentiment.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” he said. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about and it’s fun to acknowledge and I think it’s absolutely OK to pay attention to. But it’s not following me up to the plate.

“If you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, like, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

Ohtani was considered the runaway MVP favorite early in the year, while his pitching performance also put him in the Cy Young conversation. But his extended absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and defense have made the race more interesting.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday leading the majors in fWAR (7.5), followed by Ohtani (6.4).

Chicago Cubs designated hitter Pete Crow-Armstrong drops the bat after hitting his second home run against the Dodgers.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as [Ohtani] feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s cool. But … I would feel much more accomplished taking them (the Dodgers) down at some point. I want to see this group (the Cubs) in October because I think it’ll be a dangerous, dangerous group in the playoffs.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts irked Cubs fans a week and a half ago when, asked to evaluate Ohtani’s season overall, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said before the game Wednesday. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

That continued in the finale of the three-game series, for Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani.

Ohtani, struck first, notching the 32nd leadoff homer of his career and 29th as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise history, behind Mookie Betts (32).

In the bottom half of the inning, Crow-Armstrong matched Ohtani with a tying blast.

The next inning, he delivered a two-run double, and in the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard to put the Cubs up 5-1.

Not to be outdone, Ohtani led off the fifth inning with a single, but the Dodgers failed to score. Then in the eighth, he made it his first multi-homer game of the season, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

“He’s a great player,” Ohtani said of Crow-Armstrong. “But I’m really focused on myself on the hitting side of things right now, really working towards hopefully getting back on the mound and working on that side of the game as well.”

Ohtani’s timeline back to the mound is nebulous at this point. Roberts didn’t have a specific day circled to resume playing catch, and Ohtani didn’t provide one, either.

“It’s getting pretty good day by day,” Ohtani said of his knee. “It’s hard to tell at this point what the schedule is going to look like. First I need to do [weighted ply balls], then go into long toss, then go into a bullpen progression. Rather than rush the progression of this I would rather make sure we’re headed in the right direction. But making sure we’re taking the right steps.”

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t necessarily need to build up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the year. Ohtani said he’d leave the timing of his progression up to the front office.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Freddie Freeman pulled

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman left the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after a pitch hit his right hand. But X-rays came back negative, Roberts said.

“I obviously didn’t come out of that at-bat because I knew it hit my bat as well,” Freeman said. “It hit bat, then hand and pinched my hand onto the bat. Next pitch, I swung. I could swing, and I swung again. As the adrenaline wore off, pain got a little bit more.”

Freeman said he expects to be ready to return to the lineup by the Dodgers’ next game, against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.

CHICAGO — The Dodgers ended up with an acute need at the trade deadline after all.

Catcher Dalton Rushing’s elbow injury was diagnosed as a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, as manager Dave Roberts first told AM 570’s David Vassegh.

“It’s a bummer because he has made a lot of strides,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 7-6 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday, which extended the Dodgers’ season-high losing streak to six games. “Even just this right here, you’re talking about over 125 plate appearances that you’re missing out on, and also opportunities to catch major league innings. So I feel for Dalton.”

He’ll be shut down from throwing for four to six weeks, Roberts said. But the plan is for him to resume hitting before then. Asked if Rushing could catch again this season, Roberts said he believed there was a “very small” chance.

“I hope I’m wrong,” Roberts said. “He’s a tough kid, and so for him to go through this speaks a lot. So I think that would be great if he can. Certainly a possibility with the time, but we’re certainly trying to keep the bat alive, for sure.”

Even if Rushing doesn’t return behind the plate, his left-handed bat off the bench could be valuable for the Dodgers down the stretch and even into the postseason. As constructed, the Dodgers don’t have an equivalent for pinch-hitting situations.

Next, Rushing, in conversation with the team and medical staff, will have to decide whether he needs to undergo surgery to repair the ligament. He did not make the trip to Chicago, so he was not available to comment on the situation.

“Over the next couple weeks, I think that we’ll have a better idea of how he’s responding with time,” Roberts said. “I do think that there’s really not much cost, outside of two weeks or whatever, to kind of wait and see how he responds to some treatment and some kind of stuff that they decide to do.”

Depending on the severity of a partial UCL tear, rehab and strengthening the muscles around the elbow can sometimes at least put off surgery. If that’s not a viable option, there are a range of operations to address UCL injuries — from reinforcement with an internal brace, to full reconstruction (Tommy John surgery).

Elbow surgeries tend to come with a lengthy recovery timeline. So, even if surgery becomes inevitable, as long as Rushing can hit and the Dodgers think he can contribute off the bench into the postseason, holding off any operation until the offseason could make sense.

Rushing’s injury will impact not only the catching corps but also the offense, necessitating a shift to defense-first catchers.

Taking on starting catcher duties for nearly two months with Will Smith (neck) on the injured list, Rushing had an .809 OPS when the Dodgers scratched him from the game Sunday with what they initially called minor arm irritation.

“I think that it was something that was there, and then it just showed itself Sunday,” Roberts said.

Though Smith has been at least hitting in the batting cages, he’s had a back-and-forth recovery from an injury the Dodgers initially hoped wouldn’t need an IL stint.

“Everything keeps moving forward, which is a good thing,” Roberts said. “There’s no timeline as far as when he faces pitching, let alone when he goes out on a [minor-leauge rehab assignment]. Then we’ll have more clarity on a projected date of return, but right now I don’t know.”

So, the Dodgers acquired an entirely new catching tandem before the trade deadline Monday. On Tuesday, they activated Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, both catchers who have played for the Dodgers in recent years. They optioned Eliezer Alfonzo and designated Chuckie Robonson for assignment.

Rortvedt, who Roberts said could get the “taking a lion’s share for the foreseeable future,” caught two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in his Dodgers debut Tuesday. Feduccia caught Lauer on Wednesday.

Lauer gave up six runs and 11 hits to the Cubs and lasted just four innings, in his worst appearance as a Dodger. Wednesday marked the Dodgers’ first loss with Lauer on the mound, snapping a streak of nine games.

The Cubs completed a three-game sweep, during which the Dodgers were outscored 22-12. They’ve been swept for two straight series, also dropping all three home games to the Red Sox last weekend. The Dodgers were last swept in consecutive series last year, getting swept by the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers July 4-9.

MVP standoff between Ohtani, Crow-Armstrong

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani gestures towards the dugout after hitting a home run to lead off Wednesday’s game.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

The frontrunners in the National League MVP race traded leadoff home runs at Wrigley Field Wednesday.

First was Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who notched the 32nd leadoff homer of his career and 29th as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise history, behind Mookie Betts (32). And he made it his first multi-homer game of the season in the eighth inning, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong matched him with a tying blast in the bottom of the first inning. In the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard for his third multi-homer game of the season.

Roberts irked Cubs fans a week and a half ago when, asked to evaluate Ohtani’s season overall, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

Ohtani was considered the runaway MVP favorite early in the year, while his pitching performance also put him in the Cy Young conversation. But his extended absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and defense have made the race more interesting.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday leading the majors in fWAR (7.5), followed by Ohtani (6.4).

Ohtani is expected to begin playing catch in the near future, but Roberts didn’t have a specific day circled for catch play or his return to the mound.

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t necessarily need to build up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the year.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman felt good enough about his trade discussions with the Detroit Tigers for two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal that he gave manager Dave Roberts a positive update shortly before the team’s game against the Red Sox on Saturday.

“I heard that it was pretty much done,” Roberts recounted Sunday afternoon. “But there’s obviously things that have to go on with medical, so it wasn’t actually even finalized. I just heard that it was pretty much close.”

Friedman, however, wasn’t ready to exhale until he got final word from the Tigers during the game.

“I had no idea and was trying to emotionally hedge,” he said. “I wasn’t getting too high or too low on it until we actually found out.”

There was, it turned out, no need to stress. On Saturday, the Dodgers agreed to trade three prospects — outfielder Zyhir Hope (No. 25 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100), right-handed pitcher River Ryan (No. 68) and right-hander Brady Smith — to the Tigers for one of the best starters in baseball.

The teams officially announced the trade Sunday.

Even as the Dodgers signaled a potentially low-key trade deadline in the lead-up — “we try to do everything we can to avoid not having to do something,” Friedman said last week — many rival executives and scouts had come to see the Dodgers landing Skubal as practically inevitable.

Of course, the World Series favorites didn’t need to acquire Skubal. But if they wanted him, they’d get him.

And they did.

“Friday it started picking up a little bit,” Friedman said. “But [Saturday] it was much more aggressive back and forth and a lot of different conversations. Obviously being on our side, you didn’t really know how long the process was gonna go, whether it was gonna go into Sunday, into Monday. But obviously we were of the mind to be aggressive and try to get a deal done.

“We were of the mind to be aggressive for one player this deadline, and fortunately we were able to line up.”

Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, speaks to reporters on Jan. 21.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Two aspects of the trade did, however, take the industry by surprise: the timing and the return.

The Dodgers pulled off the trade without disrupting their major-league squad. Ryan, who made four major-league starts in 2024, has the stuff to compete in the majors, but health has kept him from another call-up.

“Obviously they felt good going through it,” Friedman said. “We gave up a lot of talent. Those guys are really good, and have a chance to be really good major-league players. But with where our core is, this moment in time, it was something that we felt like, erring on the side of aggressive made the most sense right now.”

Skubal joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani as postseason rotation options, creating an enviable surplus if all five are healthy in October.

“I think it’s arguably the best rotation of all time — as if it wasn’t before as well,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “Hope he’s ready to win a ring.”

Said veteran utility player Miguel Rojas: “It’s a statement from this organization to the rest of the league and the world that they’re not just satisfied with what happened the last couple years. … It’s kind of like a pressed button for us to kind of continue to go and not let the rest of the league catch up to our standards.”

Of course, health is never guaranteed. Skubal and Snell have undergone surgeries to remove loose bodies from their pitching elbows. Skubal has made nine appearances since, and Snell is scheduled to make one more rehab start before being activated off the injured list.

Glasnow, on the verge of a rehab assignment, has been sidelined for nearly three months with back spasms, an injury the Dodgers initially hoped wouldn’t even need an IL stint.

Ohtani’s nagging knee problem creates the most uncertainty. Ohtani hasn’t pitched in nearly a month, despite receiving an Orthovisc injection to lubricate the joint. He could restart playing catch this week in Chicago, Roberts said.

“We’re as confident as we can be that he’s going to be back and he’s going to start throwing soon and building back up,” Friedman said. “You can never perfectly predict the future but if you said, ‘Hey, place a bet on it,’ I would be very confident placing it that he would be back pitching.”

Pitcher Tarik Skubal is congratulated by teammates after playing in his final game with the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

With this much time off, however, Ohtani will need to build back up to a starter’s workload without the benefit of a rehab assignment, similar to what he did last season. The timing of his return to the mound will dictate how long the build-up will be.

“We have a plan to build him up slowly, methodically,” Roberts said. “And that would have happened if this trade would have happened or not.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers are filling his spot in the rotation with the best possible option. Skubal is scheduled to make his Dodgers debut Tuesday against the Cubs in Chicago.

And the Dodgers aren’t necessarily done dealing. As of Sunday afternoon, they still were engaged on “a number of different conversations on a number of different fronts,” Friedman said.

When asked if the Dodgers could still add to the major-league roster, however, Friedman said that was “less likely.”

“Never say never,” he said. “Fortunately, we don’t have that acute need that we have to do this or our team is in real danger.”

He did, however, mention the Dodgers’ lack of an acute need before acquiring Skubal too.

The Dodgers patched two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani’s absence from the starting rotation with a pseudo-bullpen day on Friday. In a 9-4 loss to the Red Sox, Ohtani did his part with his bat, but the Dodgers’ pitching wavered.

“You just can’t chase every single win, every single night,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s not responsible. It’s just not the right process.”

Back in the Dodgers’ lineup after a day off to address lingering soreness in his left knee, Ohtani had the Dodgers’ first hit, an opposite-field double into the gap off Red Sox left-hander Ranger Suarez in the fourth inning.

That same inning, Ohtani scored the Dodgers’ first run, crossing the plate on a single from Freddie Freeman — who extended his hitting streak to 10 games, the longest by a Dodger this season.

The next inning, Ohtani kept the Dodgers’ rally going after the Red Sox (58-51) pulled Suarez. Facing left-handed Jovani Morán, Ohtani turned on a changeup and sent it into the right-field stands for a two-run homer.

The Dodgers (69-41) used just four pitchers, thanks to left-hander Cole Irvin, who the Dodgers called up on Friday to provide bulk.

After opener Edgardo Henriquez threw a scoreless inning, Will Klein’s struggles continued. Adding to his three-week skid, during which Klein’s been fighting bad mechanics, he gave up three hits, made an errant pickoff attempt, issued a walk and hit Willson Contreras in the helmet. He was charged with three runs (one earned) over 1⅓ innings.

Irvin replaced Klein. What began as a largely efficient outing fell apart in the seventh, when Irvin gave up five runs over 10 batters. He gave up eight hits and six runs over six innings. The effort at least kept the rest of the bullpen fresh.

“Orange County kid that gets to play for one of his hometown teams is pretty special, and I’m pretty thankful for that, and happy and blessed,” said Irvin, a product of Servite High School in Anaheim. “It sucks to lose, but there’s a part of me that’s proud that I get to wear Dodger blue.”

This time of year, bullpen depth is top of mind for teams across MLB, with the trade deadline on Monday approaching.

The Dodgers jump on opportunities throughout the year to add relievers. But Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, noted earlier this week that the team worked over the offseason to prevent them from having an “acute need” at the trade deadline. That includes their relief corps.

“When you have an acute need, it’s really challenging, because you’re paying 150 cents, 200 cents on the dollar,” Friedman said. “So we try to do everything we can to avoid not having to do something. But when you’re able to be in a position to be a little bit more selective and opportunistic about what potentially is available, it just puts you in a better position. So as much flexibility as we can have, the better.”

Díaz’s velocity is back

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz pitches against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz wasn’t perfect in his first two games back from the injured list. But after undergoing surgery to remove five loose bodies from his elbow, and a three-month process to return to a major-league mound, he wasn’t expected to be.

“My first game back, I was a little bit anxious,” Díaz said after giving up two hits and a run to the Mariners en route to recording the save on Wednesday. “But I threw strikes, I made pitches, and at the end of the day I got the W. Tomorrow, we’ll see the video to see what they were [seeing] on the fastball and make an adjustment and try the next time to make some pitches to make them chase.”

The biggest positive was his fastball velocity. Díaz’s velocity was down to begin the year, dipping to about 95.5 mph in his last two outings before landing on the injured list.

On Wednesday, his fastball averaged 96.9 mph and he touched 98.9 mph, according to Statcast.

“I thought the second day was better than the first, and it’s great to have him back,” Roberts said.

Díaz limited the Mariners to one hit in one scoreless inning Thursday and tallied two strikeouts.

After pitching back-to-back days, Díaz will be unavailable through Saturday, Roberts said.

Stewart injured

Dodgers pitcher Brock Stewart delivers against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 12.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers put Brock Stewart (2.45 ERA) on the 15-day IL with right shoulder discomfort as the corresponding active roster move for Irvin — a hit to the Dodgers’ right-handed, high-leverage depth. They also designated right-hander Chayce McDermott for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster.

“Should be short term,” Roberts said of Stewart’s IL stay. “He’s done a great job when he’s been active on really pitching well. So we’ve got to make sure, with the calendar on our side, we’ve got to protect him and take a couple weeks and then get him back. This is something that we are being proactive on and really try to talk through it with Brock and understanding our thought behind it, with the bullpen day just the coverage and not trying to put him or anyone else in harm’s way.”

This is Stewart’s third stint on the IL this season. He began the year recovering from the right shoulder surgery that ended his 2025 season. Then days after being activated in early May, he landed on the IL again, after aggravating a bone spur in his left foot. He returned again in late June.

“This is just more of a formality,” Roberts said. “I really believe, the training staff believes that it’s going to be short term.”

Not rushing Snell

The Dodgers had been considering bringing back Blake Snell (loose body elbow surgery) from his rehab assignment early to bridge the gap with Ohtani shut down from pitching.

They instead have decided to have Snell make another rehab start next week, when he’ll target five innings.

By utilizing a bullpen game Friday, the Dodgers built in a full week of rest for Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan, who are scheduled to start the next two games against the Red Sox. And they avoided pitching Justin Wrobleski on regular rest.

Shohei Ohtani has not pitched in a game for the Dodgers since July 3, though he admitted after Tuesday’s game that there’s more going on than just a sore left knee.

“My biceps is not 100%,” said Ohtani through interpreter Will Ireton while speaking with the media for the first time since before the All-Star break. “Just [a] similar issue with the knee. Do we consider pushing this? It is still July. So, I think the conversation would be a little different if we’re in August or September.”

Ohtani, who has remained in the lineup at designated hitter, has stalled in his throwing program after the team scratched a bullpen session tentatively scheduled for last Saturday that was to come on the heels of a roughly 30-pitch side session he threw last Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Ohtani received an orthovisc injection in his knee on July 12 and he skipped All-Star Game obligations in Philadelphia to allow for rest and recovery. But it remains unclear when Ohtani will return to the mound, and though manager Dave Roberts remains optimistic about him pitching again this season, concerns about building back up start to factor in.

“We are getting closer to that,” Roberts said. “You know, he’s a starting pitcher, and then, when you start missing three, four, five weeks of that build-up, then you’ve got to kind of start up again.”

Ohtani, who led off Tuesday’s 7-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners with a home run, clarified the origins of his knee problem and shared an estimate of where it’s at strength-wise.

“The discomfort was caused initially by the pitching,” Ohtani said. “So, it’s something I have to work around. In terms of running, I’m not exactly at 100% capacity. When I know it’s not, then it’s always a little harder to be aggressive on the basepaths.”

Ohtani and Roberts both said that the Dodgers haven’t reached a point of considering shutting down Ohtani from pitching.

“Everything that I’ve heard, that’s not the option,” Roberts said. “I guess anything’s possible, but for me, it’s highly unlikely.”

Added Ohtani: “The knee is where it is in terms of, for it to heal is the most important priority. I don’t think the team has really come to a place exactly where, do I pitch through it or not. That’s still really up in the air.”

In other injury-related updates, Kiké Hernández was activated Tuesday after being out since May 26 with a grade 3 oblique strain. Alex Freeland was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move.

“All you can do is take it one day at a time,” said Hernández, who did not play Tuesday. “And the best way that you can take things one day at a time is focusing on what you can do today to get better. And that’s what I did … literally going one day at a time and trying to be the best rehabber I could … the best teammate that I could. … It’s been a really long time. … So, I feel pretty good, and happy to see what I can do out on the field.”

Hernández had already made his season debut late — on May 25 — because of his recovery from offseason elbow surgery. Now, the 34-year-old utilityman is grateful to be back and eager to build on his four-for-four start over two games.

“A lot of nervousness,” Hernández said about playing again, mentioning that he had a panic attack when first learning of his worse-than-expected diagnosis. “I feel pretty good. … I feel like everything is in a pretty good spot right now. Trying to keep my 1.000 batting average going and be the best hitter in the league.

“[I’m] just happy to be back with the boys.”

Edwin Díaz will be the next to return.

The right-handed closer is scheduled to be activated Wednesday — fittingly, when 40,000 fans will receive an Díaz bobblehead — after missing three months because of right elbow surgery.

“He’s checked all his boxes,” Roberts said. “So getting him back in the mix is going to be fun for all of us as well.”

Meanwhile, Will Smith is starting baseball activities “pain-free” after sitting on the injured list since June 5 with a neck injury, Roberts added, and Tyler Glasnow will throw a live session Wednesday after being out since May with a back problem.

Dominic Canzone’s go-ahead home run in the eighth spoiled a Tuesday night of leaderboard climbing for Max Muncy and Shohei Ohtani as the Mariners beat the Dodgers 7-6 in the first game at Dodger Stadium since before the All-Star break on July 12.

With one out, Julio Rodríguez on first and the score tied at five, Canzone got all of Alex Vesia’s 82-mph slider, sending it 414 feet to center to help lift Seattle to its first win over the Dodgers in five years and first in Los Angeles since June 28, 2009.

“I mean it’s a pitch that’s had different results,” Vesia said. “Obviously it’s not the best pitch. I would have liked to have it more outside or more down. Kind of just flush it and on to the next one. Clearly need to be better in that situation. I felt like my stuff was good after that.”

Added manager Dave Roberts: “Alex made a really bad pitch, [an] 0-1 slider that was middle-middle, and they were hitting the ball out of the ballpark. So, that’s kind of the tale of the run prevention tonight.”

The Dodgers (67-40), with some much-needed help from dubious Mariners fielding, did have Ohtani on third and Muncy on second as the tying and game-winning runs in the ninth. But Seattle reliever Andrés Muñoz survived, putting an end to the thrilling opener of this three-game series.

Seattle won the offensive slugfest with 10 hits and five home runs to the home team’s 13 hits and two homers.

Canzone led the Mariners with two homers — his first, a solo shot, went 433 feet to center in the sixth — while Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and Rob Refsnyder all hit one apiece.

Mariners right-handed starter Luis Castillo struggled and surrendered five runs, 11 hits and a pair of homers through five innings. But Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski, coming off six innings of one-run ball in last Tuesday’s win in Philadelphia, wasn’t his best either. He surrendered five runs and four homers through six innings.

“They obviously had a good approach against me,” Wrobleski said. “We didn’t do the greatest job of kind of adjusting to their game plan. And yeah, they got me. That’s part of the game. … It’s definitely not a thing that I want to have happen again, but again, it’s a learning experience.”

“Going back and looking at it, I still threw the ball pretty well,” Wrobleski added. “I mean, I know that sounds crazy considering the number and the line … but at the end of the day … I didn’t do a great job of adjusting.”

Muncy and Ohtani, though, still had nights to remember.

Ohtani kick-started the scoring with his 10th leadoff homer of the season, which was also the 34th of his nine-year MLB career and 28th with the Dodgers. The 432-footer to center tied the two-way superstar with Davey Lopes for the second-most leadoff homers in franchise history. Mookie Betts is first on the list with 32.

“Tonight, he looked like himself,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who remains off the mound. “I do think that the road trip was exhausting for everyone. I do think that with the day off, he came in fresh and looked more like himself.”

Muncy, meanwhile, launched a home run 430 feet to right in the fifth to tie Eric Karros for the most homers in Dodger Stadium history with 130. Muncy, who has spent the past nine years with L.A. after spending his first two seasons in Oakland, could be standing alone by the end of the Dodgers’ current six-game homestand.

Injury updates

Kiké Hernández was activated Tuesday after being out since May 26 with a grade 3 oblique strain. Alex Freeland was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move.

“All you can do is take it one day at a time,” Hernández said. “And the best way that you can take things one day at a time is focusing on what you can do today to get better. And that’s what I did … literally going one day at a time and trying to be the best rehabber I could … the best teammate that I could. … It’s been a really long time. … So, I feel pretty good, and happy to see what I can do out on the field.”

Hernández had already made his season debut late — on May 25 — because of his recovery from offseason elbow surgery. Now, the 34-year-old utilityman is grateful to be back and eager to build on his four-for-four start over two games.

“A lot of nervousness,” Hernández said about playing again, mentioning that he had a panic attack when first learning of his worse-than-expected diagnosis. “I feel pretty good. … I feel like everything is in a pretty good spot right now. Trying to keep my 1.000 batting average going and be the best hitter in the league.

“[I’m] just happy to be back with the boys.”

Edwin Díaz will be the next to return.

The right-handed closer is scheduled to be activated Wednesday — fittingly, when 40,000 fans will receive an Díaz bobblehead — after missing three months because of right elbow surgery.

“He’s checked all his boxes,” Roberts said. “So getting him back in the mix is going to be fun for all of us as well.”

Meanwhile, Will Smith is starting baseball activities “pain-free” after sitting on the injured list since June 5 with a neck injury, Roberts added, and Tyler Glasnow will throw a live session Wednesday after being out since May with a back problem.

Ohtani’s status as a pitcher, however, remains murky. Roberts mentioned an undesirable ramp-up period being in play for Ohtani, as it has been over a month since he last pitched due to irritation in his left knee.

Ohtani himself clarified the origins of his knee problem and shared an estimate of where it’s at strength-wise.

“The discomfort was caused initially by the pitching,” Ohtani said. “So, it’s something I have to work around. In terms of running, I’m not exactly at 100% capacity. When I know it’s not, then it’s always a little harder to be aggressive on the basepath.”

Ohtani and Roberts both said that the Dodgers haven’t reached a point of considering shutting down No. 17 as a pitcher — but never say never.

“Everything that I’ve heard, that’s not the option,” Roberts said. “I guess anything’s possible, but for me, it’s highly unlikely.”

Added Ohtani: “The knee is where it is in terms of, for it to heal is the most important priority. I don’t think the team has really come to a place exactly where, do I pitch through it or not. That’s still really up in the air.”

But that’s not all. Ohtani shared that his biceps is bothering him, too.

“My biceps not 100%,” Ohtani added. “Just [a] similar issue with the knee. Do we consider pushing this? It is still July. So, I think the conversation would be a little different if we’re in August or September.”

“We are getting closer to that,” Roberts said. “You know, he’s a starting pitcher, and then, when you start missing three, four, five weeks of that build-up, then you’ve got to kind of start up again.”

Emma Roberts and Cody John have said “I do!”

After four years as an item, Roberts and John tied the knot during an intimate ceremony at John’s family estate in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Saturday.

Page Six published photos of the outdoor nuptials that showed Roberts’ 5-year-old son, Rhodes (whom she shares with ex Garrett Hedlund), walking his mom down the flower-lined aisle, the bridal party dressed in coordinating black ensembles, Roberts throwing her head back in laughter while John appears to be reciting his vows and Roberts’ Oscar-winning aunt, Julia Roberts, taking her seat.

Notably not in attendance was the “American Horror Story” actor’s father, Eric Roberts. He addressed skipping the party, telling Page Six, “I love my daughter, always have, always will.”

“It is perfectly wonderful for her to celebrate however she wants, with whomever she wants.”

Among the famous friends who gathered for Roberts’ big day were “American Horror Story” co-stars Sarah Paulson and Billie Lourd, Demi Moore, Kristen Stewart and wife Dylan Meyer, “Pretty Little Liars” star Ashley Benson and her husband, Brandon Davis.

Roberts and John — an actor who has appeared in television shows including “In the Dark,” “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” and “The Rookie” — have been together since the summer of 2022. John popped the question two years later, in 2024. Roberts announced the news via Instagram with a photo of the two beaming near a river and a caption that read, “putting this here before my mom tells everyone.”

Roberts shared a glimpse into the planning of her wedding look with Vogue, who captured designer Monique Lhuillier discussing the concept of the dress. “Working with Monique has been an absolute dream,” she told Vogue. “I wanted it to feel very vintage-inspired. I’m obsessed with antique books and and treasure hunting, and I love collecting old ephemera.

“So I really wanted that to like shine through in the dress. So for me, it wasn’t so much about the cut; it was like about what the color was going to be. So Monique actually designed a custom color, and it’s this antique kind of tea-stained color that is so beautiful. Because I realized that, on my wedding day, I kind of wanted to look like a ghost, a little like [an] antique ghost doll.”

Lhuillier posted some clips from the Vogue fitting on social media and wrote that designing Roberts’ gown was about capturing a feeling of timeless romance through a modern lens. “Every detail, from the custom Vintage Rose hue to the hand-draped silk chiffon, delicate lacework and sculpted corsetry, was created to reflect her effortless spirit while celebrating the artistry of couture.”

This is the first marriage for the “Holidate” star. Roberts split from “Tron” and “Country Strong” actor Hedlund in 2022 after an on-again, off-again three-year relationship. She was also famously linked to “American Horror Story” actor Evan Peters. The pair had a tumultuous seven-year relationship that spanned 2012 to 2019.

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.