Logan Reddemann of UCLA tied a school record with 18 strikeouts against Rutgers in an eight-inning stint earlier this season.
(Craig Weston)
Bruins’ right-handed ace Logan Reddemann will be unavailable for the Los Angeles Regional with the same throwing-arm soreness that has kept him off the mound since improving his record to 8-0 in a win over Minnesota on April 17.
“Logan looks like he’s still a week away,” Savage said. “Looks like he’s got one more bullpen [session] and [one] more live session if we can get there, to the super regional. But he will not be available this weekend. … I think he’s missed six or seven starts now. We’ve held up the fort since he’s left. Our guys have done a really, really good job.”
Reddemann posted a 2.87 ERA with 89 strikeouts in the 59 2/3 innings he pitched in 2026.
Savage praised right-handed starters Wylan Moss, who will start Friday, and Angel Cervantes for stepping in for Reddemann throughout the year.
Moss, a sophomore, has a 5-1 record and the Bruins have won all but one of his six starts since Reddemann went down. Cervantes, meanwhile, has heated up as he grows comfortable as a freshman, making waves for his start against Oregon in UCLA’s Big Ten championship win on Sunday.
“Wylan’s kind of taking the ball on Fridays,” Savage said. “Clearly, he’s had some really good outings. … And then Angel, you know, clearly filled in for [right-handed pitcher Landon Stump]. Moved Landon to the bullpen, I think that was a really good move. Stump [has] done really, really good out of the bullpen, and Angel looks like a future star as a starter.”
A Cervantes video has gone viral for bringing a mini dinosaur named Jerry with him to the mound every time he pitches. He said glancing at the the dinosaur next to him in the dirt helps keep him calm and focused.
UCLA also will be relying on other arms, such as right-handed starter Michael Barnett, to stay afloat in Reddemann’s absence.
The Southern Section will hold nine baseball championship games this weekend, led by the Division 1 final at 7 p.m. Friday at Cal State Fullerton between St. John Bosco and Norco.
Here’s a look at top matchups:
FRIDAY
Division 1: St. John Bosco vs. Norco at Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m. Both schools will have their top pitchers ready to go, which means runs will be at a premium. Julian Garcia of St. John Bosco was in the dugout last season when the Braves won the title but couldn’t play as he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He’s come back with a flourish, going 8-1 with a 0.88 ERA. All the Braves’ key pitchers are available, including closers Jack Champlin and Brayden Krakowski. Norco will start Jordan Ayala, who shut out Orange Lutheran in the quarterfinals. It’s going to come down to defense and someone getting a clutch hit against very good pitching.
SATURDAY
Division 2: Ganesha vs. Loyola at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, 5:30 p.m.: Likely first-round draft pick Logan Schmidt will be on the mound for Ganesha, offering a huge challenge for the Cubs. He’s also the team’s top hitter. Loyola has faced top pitching all season in the Mission League and will have rising freshman Sheriff Hall on the mound. The Cubs also have players who can hit home runs, such as Jack Murray and Luca Marucci.
Updated baseball finals schedule. Brentwood has graduation Saturday. Game moved to 4 p.m. Mira Costa-Agoura has prom. Moved to 1 p.m. pic.twitter.com/ZdPmcZg29Q
Division 3: Mira Costa vs. Agoura at Cal State Fullerton, 4 p.m.. Both schools have prom in the evening, so watch for players rushing to cars after the game. Mira Costa has somehow made it to the final despite losing its No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers to injury. Others have stepped forward, and the hitting attack has been good in the playoffs. Austin Olness hit a two-run home run in a 12-0 semifinal win over St. Francis. Agoura, under first-year coach Adam Goldstein, is another overachiever. Senior Tyler Starling hits and pitches with the best, but it’s been underclassmen pushing the Chargers toward a title.
Division 4: Glendora vs. Laguna Beach at Cal State Fullerton, 7:30 p.m. Senior Tanner Grable leads Glendora with 36 hits and four home runs and also can pitch. Junior Dylan Yencho is having a big season for Laguna Beach, batting .455 with 50 hits and an 0.94 ERA as a closer.
Division 5: Kaiser vs. Culver City at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, 11 a.m. Senior Tino Cuellar is Kaiser’s leadoff hitter with 34 hits. Culver City finished second to Santa Monica in the Ocean League and has a productive freshman in Matthew Riesenberg, who has 36 hits, a .431 batting average and 29 RBIs.
Division 6: Brentwood vs. Covina at Cal State Fullerton, 1 p.m. The Eagles won’t have ace Jack Kaplan available after he threw a shutout in the semifinals, but there’s plenty of hot hitters, including junior Hudson Chase, who has 42 hits and seven home runs. Covina, which knocked out Lakewood and longtime coach Spud O’Neil in the semifinals, was second in the Valle Vista League to Charter Oak. Senior Lucas Thorpe has been providing key hits all season, including four in the semifinals.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Kelvin Washington: Welcome back to The Envelope. I’m Kelvin Washington, alongside the usual suspects, Yvonne Villarreal, also Mark Olsen. It’s good to have you all here. Everybody doing well?
Mark Olsen: Yeah, I’m doing great.
Yvonne Villarreal: Good to see you.
Washington: Well, first of all, I didn’t get the green [wardrobe] memo. It’s OK. Leave me out.
Villarreal: I’m trying to blend in with the chair.
Olsen: That’s why you pop
Villarreal: You do pop.
Washington: Well, you took what I was going to say. You don’t blend in. You always stand out.
Villarreal: Thank you.
Washington: That’s true. All right, so we’re kicking off Emmy season in here. And there’s obviously a million different things to have seen. We’ll start it off with Yvonne — I’ll go to you. What have you seen? Give me a couple of things that stand out to you that you’re enjoying.
Villarreal: Look, I’m always gonna mention “The Pitt.” Season 2 really captivated me. Also, there’s “Pluribus.” Can never go wrong with Rhea Seehorn. Also, one that — surprisingly for me, just given the subject matter — I really enjoyed this season, is “The Testaments.” And I think it’s because of, you know, the young cast and feeling that sense of hope that these young teenage girls are gonna get us out of this. Those are my picks so far.
Washington: Did you say that we need that?
Villarreal: We do need that.
Washington: OK, I just wanted to make sure.
Villarreal: I won’t mention reality TV, because I know it makes Mark a little…
Washington: Let’s make him a little squirmy.
Olsen: Maybe one of these days, I’ll try!
Villarreal: “One of these days”?
Washington: Twenty-five years into it.
Villarreal: “Real Housewives of Rhode Island” is all I’m going to say. I’ll just leave it there.
Olsen: Rhode Island?
Villarreal: Rhode Island.
Washington: Mark, I’ll go to you next, but just to your point there, Yvonne, I haven’t seen much of it, but I did have some guests at the morning show that I anchor from “Love on the Spectrum.”
Villarreal: Oh yeah.
Washington: Folks love that show. I mean, when I tell you that we had a couple of the guests come in and they’re walking around, people were screaming, “Can I get their picture?” So you’re talking about reality TV, just that, that’s a big one there.
Villarreal: They’re stars. And hearing who’s broken up already. I won’t spoil it, because you should watch that one.
Olsen: Wait a minute, how do people on your morning show rate “The Morning Show”?
Washington: Oh, that’s a good question. Some of the [story] lines or the feel hits a little too real, too close to home at times, that’s for sure. But I think it’s run its course a little bit as far as the watercooler [chatter] around the job a little. You know, it’s had some seasons here. But there are some things that, you know, some us look at each other like, “Clearly someone in the business is on there writing that show because that was too close to home.”
Villarreal: Lots of conniving.
Washington: But that’s all sensationalized. We’re just an ordinary morning show. None of that going on.
Villarreal: There’s no Billy Crudups out there.
Washington: Watch how I turn over here to Mark and we switch subjects. What about you, Mark? What are you watching? What do you enjoy?
Olsen: You know, it’s funny, I find as we’re in sort of like post-peak TV, I definitely find that I’m liking my TV to just feel like TV. And so I definitely like the Bill Lawrence universe, [that] kind of comfort watch — the new show “Rooster” with Steve Carell and Danielle Deadwyler, who’s just like so charming, so good on that show. I have really grown to like that show. I really enjoy the week-to-week. Even as I’ve maybe fallen off with some of his other shows, it’s funny how he’s always giving you a new show, like, “Oh I like this one!” And again [with] the week-to-week, “Oh it’s my day to watch ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’! Let me see what my good friends Jon Hamm and Olivia Munn are all up to.”
Washington: Are your neighbors like that?
Olsen: I have not had any disputes over dogs with my neighbors, no.
Washington: By the way, have you been, you mentioned Steve Carell, like he’s in his ‘zaddy’ era. It’s amazing what a beard does for a lot of people. No one ever necessarily thought of him as a heartthrob and all of a sudden I’ve heard, I’ve seen some things on Threads or whatnot, and they’re like, “Oh girl, I didn’t know Steve Carell…”
Villarreal: Some of us have known all along, OK?
Washington: I digress.
You guys mentioned a couple for me. “The Pitt” is unexpected — I was going to say every episode, really every 10 minutes. So that’s always a wild ride. And in “Paradise,” the shift from the previous season for me, because, you know, it’s not that I’m spoiling it, but just the shift into the outside and prior to, that dynamic to me was interesting. Almost like two different shows between Season 1 and Season 2. That for me is interesting to see how folks do and Sterling K. Brown, where’s he in all of this? So those are the ones that I’m looking at there.
I swing to you, [Yvonne]. You had a chance to speak with Carrie Preston, of course, in “Elsbeth.” Kind of a “Columbo”-style of a show, if you will. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Villarreal: This is the thing. We should never discount what’s happening on broadcast TV.
Washington: Good point.
Villarreal: “Elsbeth” is one of those shows that is so compelling. It really expanded, Robert and Michelle King’s “Good Wife” universe. They’ve had the spin-off, “The Good Fight,” and “Elsbeth” is in that universe, but it feels totally different. It’s this comedy procedural that follows Elsbeth, who we were introduced to as this eccentric lawyer, and in “Elsbeth” she’s moved from Chicago to New York as this NYPD consultant and de facto detective. And she has these really unconventional, unorthodox, eccentric methods to solving cases. And it’s really fun to watch and it was really fun to have this conversation with her.
Washington: All right, well, let’s get into it. Here’s Yvonne and Carrie now.
Carrie Preston, star of CBS’ “Columbo”-esque hit “Elsbeth.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Yvonne Villarreal: I’m always very eager to talk about this character that I’ve spent 15 years tracking. You made your debut as Elsbeth Tascioni in “The Good Wife,” and she leaves a memorable impression early on, with just three minutes [of screen time]. I did time it. What do you remember about the call about this character and what [creators Robert and Michelle King] told you about who she was?
Carrie Preston: They had offered me the role, and I was working on some other things and I had just dyed my hair red, but they didn’t know this yet. And so they all knew me as a blond and I thought, “Oh my gosh, I hope they’re going to be OK with this character being a redhead because in their minds I’m not that.”
But [Robert] called and he said, “We’re thinking about this character like a female Columbo.” I didn’t really watch a lot of “Columbo,” but I understood what he meant, which was, this is a person who is going to be coming at things in an unexpected and unorthodox way and people are going to underestimate her. I took that to heart. But nonetheless, I was going in as a guest. As a guest, you’re going into somebody else’s house, you wanna follow their rules, you don’t wanna jump in their pool and start swimming around without asking permission. So I was a little tentative with it, but I took myself to the set before we started shooting just to show them, “This is what I look like now, are we still good? Because I can’t change the hair right now ’cause I’m doing this other thing.” Luckily, they were like, “Oh I think that actually works really well for the character.” And little did I know, I was gonna then be the redheaded actor for a good 16 years now, or whatever it is. I look back at that time, I was just finding my way with this character and figuring out, “How can I make her something different but not too different that I don’t fit in with the world of the show and the landscape of that universe?” And so looking back, you can see how I was tiptoeing around and it took a little moment before they really let me just let what my instincts were telling me to do, fly.
Villarreal: Because you knew she would be coming back in some capacity.
Preston: I didn’t know. I did two episodes at the end of their first season. Did not get a call at all in Season 2. And I thought, “OK, well, I guess I was a little too weird or I wasn’t really what they were thinking.” You kind of start talking to yourself and then you go, “I can’t read their minds. I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing.” And that was a really fun time. Then they called in Season 3 and that was when they said, “OK, we’re gonna do a little arc; we want this to flesh this character out.”
Villarreal: She went on to appear in many episodes of “The Good Wife” and also [its spin-off] “The Good Fight.” Then they have the idea during the pandemic of, “We want to do a show centered around Elsbeth.” And I imagine that’s a thrilling call to get, just like that first call that you received. As an actor in this sort of fickle industry, where you’ve put in the time, when you get a call like that from these prolific TV producers that are really respected, and they say, “We see you as being able to lead a network series.” How do you wrap your brain around that?
Preston: It was kind of a slow buildup to that because even when I was doing “The Good Wife, “ at the end of that series they were talking about, “How can we spin off the show?” And some people like yourself and people who are in the industry, fans, et cetera, were saying, “Why don’t you spin it off with Elsbeth Tascioni?” And Robert King reached out and said, “Would you be interested in this?” And so I said, “Of course, I would do anything to be be doing that.” Then I heard they’re doing this spin-off and it’s starring Christine Baranski and Rose Leslie and Cush Jumbo — pretty much everybody but me. And I was like, “OK, well, I guess that’s what they’re gonna do.” But I did reach out again and said, “I’d love to be a part of this.” And they said, “Yes, we’re definitely gonna bring you on and have you continue as a guest.” I went and did other things. I did “Claws.” I had already been working on “True Blood.” So I was doing all these other shows and thinking, “OK, I guess this is their spin-off. I’ll just be a guest again, and that’ll be that.”
And again, people would keep calling and saying, “Hey, what if you did a spin-off of the spin-off?” And still I dared not dream. It really wasn’t until 2020 that it felt like it was more plausible, possible. They were coming to the end of “The Good Fight.” They had this idea. And it seemed like a good one, and it seemed like a good business model, frankly, to have Elsbeth Tascioni, maybe one or two other series regulars, and then bring in all these amazing guests. It still took another three years before we actually did a pilot that, then, got picked up. So it was just these many, many steps before we actually got to this. So each time, I tried not to hold on to that dream too much, but at the same time, treasure every moment, even treasuring just the thought that they pitched me as the center of a show to a network that hired them to write a script. Even that, I was like, “Wow, this is incredible.” When we finished the pilot, I looked at the crew and I said, “We need to really honor this moment because this might be it. This might be the last time [I’m] ever playing this character. And we came together, and we made something really special. Whether or not it’s going to go to series, we all know we did something really wonderful.” And I burst into tears. I was so grateful for that opportunity. So every moment is a moment of gratitude and humility, to be honest.
Villarreal: Was there any part of you that thought, “I don’t know if I can do this”? Or because you were reaching for it for that length of time, when it finally happened, you’re like, “I can do this.”
Preston: There is this sense of wanting to make sure that I am doing everything I can to make this situation collaborative, to lead in a way that is not overbearing, to be a part of an ensemble, not just with the cast but with the crew. All of these things that I’ve been meditating on for decades. And I direct as well, so I know what it’s like to lead, and I’ve learned from watching really great leads, and not-so-great ones that get caught up in certain things, that rob them of an opportunity of creating something in a collective way. So I was excited to take all of these things that I’ve learned along the way and funnel them and channel them into this opportunity. Every day is a blessing, every day is challenge, and every day I feel like I do something that I know I can do better the next day. I try to meditate on that, because I want this opportunity that I’m having to be as special for the 300 people that are around me who are doing this with me. That’s really my goal.
Villarreal: In the series, obviously, we’ve come to know Elsbeth as this Chicago lawyer; here she’s a New York City police consultant. I really want to know what Elsbeth would be like in Los Angeles. What do you think that looks like?
Preston: Elsbeth finds beauty wherever she goes. I think it would be tough for her because she so likes to be right in the middle of all of humanity and [in] L.A., you’re isolated a lot in your cars — having to kind of keep yourself sequestered from other people just because that’s how people get around. I bet she’d be on the subway, she’d be on transit, she’d be on buses, she‘d be out in the malls, she would be out on the beaches, meeting people, talking to people, learning about Venice Beach as compared to Sherman Oaks. She would be all about finding all the different vibes and how she fits in.
Villarreal: You’re known for being a scene-stealer supporting player. This role in particular sort of encapsulates that. Is playing a lead rather than a supporting player a particular kind of challenge? Do you have to learn how to have your character take up space differently?
Preston: I approach it the same way that I approach anything I do as a co-star, a supporting actor, a guest star, whatever. I’m there to serve the script and to work with the people who are around me to elevate a scene and make it work. And to make the the job of everyone around me easy. I really feel like when you come at it with that collaborative spirit, you don’t think about, “Oh, I’m the lead.” You don’t think about where you fall into that hierarchy. You’re just there to make the scene work. And I like that. Because then I don’t feel pressure to be something more than what that is. You’re building a house every day, and you’ve got to start with foundation and then move all the way up. You can’t just come in and the house is already built. That takes more than one person. And I like that, and I feel like Elsbeth is like that too. She’s very much about the other person. For me, if you’re ever stuck in an acting scene and you don’t know what you’re doing, you need to just focus on the other person, and then all of that other stuff starts taking care of itself. What does this person need? What am I giving this person? What am trying to get from this person? Just all the like the basic building blocks of acting and then you can get out of your own head and let the choices happen.
Villarreal: Something that’s so striking about the character is her physicality. She sort of darts into frame, or she’s crouching, even the movement of her hands as she’s reenacting what might have happened. What was that like, finding the movement of Elsbeth?
Preston: It started from the beginning. The scripts, at the beginning, would write in these pauses. They would just say “pause” in the middle of a sentence. And I was like, “Huh, what is that?” That became the most fascinating thing to me. “What’s happening there? What’s happening with this woman when she’s not speaking?” And, so, that’s where the physical stuff started coming. And in “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” there was a little bit of an evolution of that. The tote bags were brought in very early on by Brooke Kennedy, who was the producing director and one of the main directors on “The Good Wife.” She said, “I want her to always have something going on.” And I was like, “Great, I love that.” That’s a gift for an actor. I’m someone who, if you give me a prop, I’m gonna do something with it. I just like that. It’s fun. I’ve trained for the theater. So I love that idea. There’s a term that sometimes we use — I don’t know if it’s OK to say it — but sometimes we call each other “props-titutes.” If you get a prop, you can’t help it; you’re gonna have to do a thing with a thing. And so the bags and all that stuff — I started thinking, “Oh, I guess [with] this woman, her mouth is saying one thing, her mind is thinking another and her body’s doing a third thing.” As soon as I came up with that little weird math equation, things started locking into place.
Robert King directed the pilot. He created the show with Michelle King. Robert loves any kind of physical comedy. Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Lucille Ball, all of that stuff. He just loves it. He worships that stuff. We were doing a scene and he said, “I don’t want you to just walk up. Let’s have you like lean in like Charlie Chaplin or something.” And I was like, “Great!” So he had me lean into frame and wouldn’t you know, that just became then the signature thing for this new iteration of this character. And it became kind of a metaphor for the whole show. This woman is not ever gonna approach things straight. She’s always gonna approach things at an angle. That’s another fun, creative thing that you can run with. Then the writers and the directors and the other actors, we all just started playing with that. And I have to do these scenes where I sum up the entire crime. Sometimes it’s like a five-page monologue. Well, you don’t have that much time to memorize that stuff because you get the script and I’m learning 50 pages of dialogue every eight or 10 days. So the physicality helps me remember it. And I imagine it helps Elsbeth piece it together.
Villarreal: Are you like at home just [mimics exaggerated movements]?
Preston: Yes, I’m coming up with things.
Villarreal: Is Michael [Emerson, the actor], your husband, like, “What’s going on here?”
Preston: He lets me do my thing. What I’ll say to him is, “I’m gonna go close the door and talk to myself for a while.” And he’ll go, “OK.” I learn my lines by myself. I record my own cue lines. It all has to happen alone. Because I know I have to go back over and over and over again. And when somebody is running lines with me, I’m very concerned about how bored they must be. So I just have to do all that on my own. The funny thing is I learn my lines a lot when I’m on the train. I go back and forth between New York City and the Hudson Valley a lot. It’s like an hour and 20 minutes. So the people on those trains are seeing this crazy lady, because I’ve got my ear things in and I’m looking at my [script].
Villarreal: Do you have your own bags?
Preston: I’ve go my own bags, and I am sure if they don’t recognize me as Elsbeth, they just think I’m another insane person who lives in New York City and no one cares. The kooky redheaded lady on the train.
Villarreal: Let’s talk about that other element that’s so crucial to Elsbeth, which is the hair and the wardrobe. You talked earlier about how you dyed your hair for another role, and you didn’t know you’d be locked in for this long with it, but it’s such a feature of her. Obviously we’ve seen her wear wigs in the show.
Preston: Which was fun, to go back to my original blond look.
Villarreal: And you mentioned Lucy earlier, Elsbeth in the tutu this season was so, so good —
Preston: One of the best compliments that Jon Tolins, our showrunner, ever gave me was when he saw the dailies from that day of the tutu and dancing with the little 6-year-olds. Oh, my God, I was in heaven. He just wrote, “Lucy level.” And I was like [playfully belts a note], “This is a dream.” Because I decided this woman would really want to be trying to do her absolute best. She would really be wanting to try to dance the best way that she knew how, but her body doesn’t know how to do that. But her mind wants to. Plus, I like to entertain the crew. They often don’t laugh because the crew has seen everything and they’ve seen me do a million things. But if I can get them to laugh, that’s a win.
Villarreal: Her style is so intriguing — sometimes I’m like, this is what “And Just Like That” should have had, some of these wardrobe pieces.
Preston: Well, that’s Dan Lawson, our costume designer.
Villarreal: What does that do for you? And please tell me there is a bag closet. I’m obsessed with the bags.
Preston: Oh yes. If you were to walk into the costume shop and see my section, it’s like a circus had a party under a rainbow. There’s four or five racks of clothes, and they go on what seems like a mile. And then there’s [a] whole wall of the totes. And Dan finds special totes that he’ll shop for, but then he also has some of the totes made because he wants them — we decided early on it would be totes, of course, but like after the opera episode, she would then have an opera tote. We had to make very specific totes that would do callbacks to previous cases and things like that. Dan thinks about everything.
Villarreal: Do they put things in the totes?
Preston: They do, but early on there were a lot of things in the totes, and I was starting to have to go to physical therapy because people don’t understand when you’re working on a scene, it takes six hours to shoot a scene, and if I’m coming running in with totes on my shoulders a hundred times it’s gonna take a toll on my body.
Villarreal: But you also need things in them so they don’t fall down easily.
Preston: Carol [McLennan], who’s my on-set costumer, she’s constantly putting top sticks so that they’ll stay. She’s finding creative ways to safety-pin them on. The continuity of the bags, you have to make sure that they’re exactly the way they were for every take. It’s like I have a child — three children, my totes.
Villarreal: Such a feature of the show is obviously the sort of revolving door of guest stars. This season you’ve had Stephen Colbert, Griffin Dunne, Beanie Feldstein and Patti LuPone, who was in the finale. Are you ever just lost in the fact that you’re acting opposite these people? Is there a moment that stands out from that?
Preston: Dianne Wiest. I’m a huge, lifelong fan of Dianne Wiest, like top five. And when I found out she was gonna be in the episode where she plays a nun, a murderous nun, I just thought, “I’m not gonna be able to contain myself.” I usually reach out to everybody before to send them an email or a text or something and just tell them how thrilled I am that they’ve said yes. So I wrote her a thank-you for saying yes/stalker-level fan email. And she wrote back. And she’s like, “Oh, Carrie, I’m so happy to hear that.” It was just like, “Oh, my God, I could just hear her voice.” When she showed up — I mean, she’s Dianne Wiest. And she is wearing a nun’s habit, and I couldn’t stop staring at her face. She would catch me staring at her and then she would just smile, with that sweet gorgeous face of hers and I would say, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I know that it’s probably making you uncomfortable. I just am absolutely honored. I do not even understand how I got to be so lucky to have someone like you doing this.” And you could say that for every single person on the show. I fangirl on them in the way that the character fangirls on Diane Lockhart. You know what I mean? The same little spirit lives inside me that is Elsbeth. I have wonder and appreciation. And it’s become more infectious. She has become more infectious the more I play her.
Villarreal: There was the moment where, in the Griffin Dunne episode, where he’s threatening towards her. I’m trying to remember if there’s been a moment like that where I felt threatened for your character. What was that like filming with him?
Preston: It was wonderful. Robin Givens, who was our director, [and] who, as we know, is an actor as well, she was really directing us to reach a pretty scary place. I like it when our show gets scary like that because we have to remember that she’s hanging out one-on-one with murderers. She’s going into their space. And as unthreatening as she is, that in and of itself is threatening. And we need to remind the audience of that from time to time. She pushes buttons because she’s trying to get them to admit something, or she’s pinning the fly to the bulletin board and watching it squirm. And this one, I realized as I was playing it, I was like, “I’ve got to play up the flirtatious side because that’s what he gets really guarded about, the fact that he’s a womanizer. So if I play that up, it’s gonna infuriate him.” And so he backs me up, and then we realize there’s no way out. It’s great, but it’s scary. But she knows that he’s not gonna do anything to her because he still thinks he’s gonna get away with murder. But we added this one [look], and I wanted to make sure [it was kept]. I said, “Please, Robin, please don’t let them cut this.” I look back at him at the very end going, “Gotcha. I got you just where I wanted you. You fell into my trap.” And they kept that in the cut. I was very happy about that because we build these things together, and sometimes they just have to cut them for time. But they didn’t.
Villarreal: Because you’re also thinking with your director’s hat. And I know it must be hard to even think about whether you can direct an episode of “Elsbeth.” But is that something on your bucket list? Or would it just be too difficult to manage?
Preston: I love this job so much. This is the dream job, and I want to make sure that I am doing everything I can to do that in the best way that I can, every day. And I do feel like having directed myself before in the past, in things where I was just a part of the ensemble, the way I choose to direct, I found that I was shortchanging the acting a little bit. I don’t want to do that on this show. I do think it would cost the crew to have me do both things, and I care about them so much. I don’t have to prove that I can do both. The one thing I could do is direct the first episode of the season because I would be able to prep. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to prepare. I feel like I trust our directors. I love our writers. I love our crew and I love how things are going.
Villarreal: We know Elsbeth as this person with a keen ability to read people, who can sniff out liars, murderers. What was so interesting this season was to see her vulnerable side in her personal life. And see that she has her blind spots too. Were you excited when you saw that they were going to explore this side of her? And what was that like to play?
Preston: I think it’s always a good thing to deepen the character as you go along because, you know, we’re a police procedural; we have to figure out how to put a crime each episode, just structurally. But we want texture to the character, and having that vulnerable side really gave us that. As an actor, if you can find the drama in the comedy, it makes the comedy stronger, and vice versa. It was a wonderful way to stretch myself as an actor. It’s important to always show the heart of a character that you’re playing. The more specific you are, the more universal it is. And I think people can relate to her in that way. Everybody has felt heartbreak or confusion or duped or confused or distrustful of their own intuition and all of that stuff. And so the complexity of that was, of course, great to play.
Villarreal: Are you, Carrie, as perceptive as Elsbeth?
Preston: I do have a little bit of an empath in me. I do feel like I can read a room really quickly and I can kind of tell what people are thinking or what people are feeling. A vibe. I don’t know what it is, but it’s an empathic kind of nature. I have way more boundaries than I think Elsbeth does, but I’m not nearly as brilliant as that woman. I don’t know how many people in the world are. That’s what makes her so special. But I key into that side of her and I can relate to it.
Villarreal: Final question for you. The show will return for a fourth season. What do you want to see from Elsbeth? Who’s your dream guest star? It must shift because you guys are getting everybody.
Preston: We’re getting wonderful people who are interested in the show and I’m so proud of that and I know Jon is too. Jon Tolins is our showrunner. We’ve really, both of us, made it our personal missions to create an environment — and he creates scripts — that people want to come and participate in, and a welcoming place where somebody gets to play a delicious character for eight or nine days and then go on with their busy careers. I never would have dreamed that, for example, Steve Buscemi would have wanted to be on a show like “Elsbeth,” but he did and he asked to be on it. That blew our minds and it still is blowing our minds. So I could not even dream of most of the people that have come on. That said, you know, I’ve said this before, I’m a huge Meryl Streep fan. I would love for her to come on. We think often about, maybe we should see a parent of Elsbeth, a mother maybe. So we play around with different ideas for that, and that would be nice to see because we’ve seen Elsbeth as a mother, but we haven’t seen her as a daughter. We’ve seen her as a friend but we haven’t seen deep into her her origin story. So I think that could be a fun thing to tap in Season 4. But I trust Jon and the writers.
Villarreal: I want Diane Lockhart to stop by.
Preston: I know, wouldn’t that be great? Or Alicia. But I don’t know. We got Sarah Steele who played Marissa [in “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight.”] That was amazing. But like Michelle King was saying in an interview [for an L.A. Times’ Screen Gab event] yesterday, this show has kind of found its own place separate from that universe. It’s nice if we have people from that universe pop in, but it’s not required. And a lot of our fans never even watched those shows. So that speaks to what Jon and the writers are doing and what we’re, as a collective, bringing to the audience.
Villarreal: Thank you so much for being here. I, for one, can’t wait to see what the bag selection is like in Season 4.
The Granada Hills and Carson softball programs know each other so well they might as well put on their MaxPreps schedule before the season a date for their annual game to decide the City Section Open Division championship.
It’s happening for a fourth consecutive season Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Legacy High in South Gate. Last season, Granada Hills ended a three-game losing streak to the Colts.
On Wednesday, both teams won their semifinal games. Granada Hills’ No. 1 and No. 2 batters in the lineup, Elysse Diaz and Zoe Justman, had big games in a 12-9 win over San Pedro. They combined to go five for eight with five RBIs. Justman had a home run. Gina Evangelista hit an inside-the-park grand slam.
San Pedro scored five runs in the seventh to give the Highlanders a little scare.
At Carson, the Colts came away with a 12-2 semifinal win over Birmingham. Sophomore Anaiyah Popoalii had a home run, double and three RBIs. Olivia Lomeli went three for four with three RBIs. Pitcher Isabella Campos threw a complete game.
The salary cap – a £6.4m limit on squad spending, albeit with ‘credits’ on offer for home-grown talent and other factors which stretch the restriction to £7.8m – will remain the same.
Fly-half remains the highest paid position in the Prem on £260,000, with back row second at £192,000.
The lowest paid position is wing on £132,000, with prop on slightly more on £144,000.
Like Russell, Sale’s George Ford, Marcus Smith at Harlequins and Saracens’ Maro Itoje are among the excluded players, with their average salary £533,000.
Bottom side Newcastle spent the least of all clubs and failed to reach £4m overall.
“The cap continues to be supported by all and it is central to driving the competitiveness of the Prem,” chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor said.
“With six different winners in as many years, we should all be proud of our system that ensures that any club, on any given day, can compete for the biggest prize in English rugby.”
Together with their first league title since 1996, Bath lifted the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup last year.
The BBC’s hit thriller filmed in Bristol and Somerset has finally returned for its second season, but where was it filmed?
The cast filmed in Axbridge near Cheddar, Somerset(Image: BBC/NETFLIX)
Fans want to know if Little Kilton is a real place.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is back today (Wednesday, 27th May) and sees Pip Fitz-Amobi (played by Emma Myers) delving into another chilling missing person case.
This time, she’s determined to put predator Max Hastings (Henry Ashton) behind bars, but the disappearance of a key witness, Connor’s older brother Jamie, pushes her investigative skills to the limit.
Based on the bestselling novels by Holly Black, the first series became a huge hit thanks to its addictive, edge-of-your-seat twists and a global release on Netflix.
It is also famously filmed in Bristol and other parts of the West Country, standing in for Pip’s fictional village of Little Kilton.
With six thrilling new episodes now streaming on iPlayer, let’s take a look a little closer at the locations used in the second season.
Where was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 filmed?
The second series of the popular BBC and Netflix drama was once again filmed around Bristol and Somerset.
Much of the show’s interior scenes are shot at Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol, which reportedly includes the likes of school classrooms, investigation rooms, and darker interiors for the murder-mystery show’s more suspenseful scenes.
Bristol itself was also used for more urban areas of Little Kilton to highlight the second outing’s gritty tone. Clifton Village in central Bristol, including the Clifton Suspension Bridge, can also be seen briefly.
Standing in for the idyllic village of Little Kilton is Axbridge, a small town near Cheddar, Somerset.
The town square, the Old Station and Chestnut Avenue were all closed for filming in 2025, with a memorial, flags, and other decor put up for key scenes including the memorial service which kicks off season two. Axbridge’s St John the Baptist Church can also be seen.
Season two director Asim Abassi confirmed: “We filmed Little Kilton in the town of Axbridge, which is lovely but small, so you get the challenges of a tight-knit community curious about filming. But it is wonderfully quaint and perfect for Little Kilton.”
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This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows.
This includes the brand new UK drama Unchosen, starring Asa Butterfield and Christopher Eccleston.
Another key location this time around is an abandoned manor, which actor Zain Iqbal, who portrays Pip’s boyfriend Ravi, confirms is near Bristol.
And Abassi revealed it was his “favourite” location, adding: “It was originally meant to be something else, but I pushed for it to be a manor, so I am personally attached to it.
“It ended up being a phenomenal location and, to me, captures the essence of season 2.”
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 is available on BBC iPlayer and internationally on Netflix.
As part of the audit, they are considering numerous factors to work out why it has become such a problem.
For example, Spurs are analysing the “bounce” on the club’s home pitch in comparison to that at rival grounds and their Enfield training centre.
At present, the club have found there is no major difference between the conditions of other pitches in comparison to their home ground, but testing is ongoing.
There is a view that certain knee injuries are unavoidable – Odobert for instance damaged his ACL following an awkward landing.
It is also understood Spurs are confident the on-field treatment of Simons’ injury did not result in additional damage to the Dutchman’s knee.
There has been criticism from supporters after footage showed medics allowing the attacker to put weight on his knee despite having suffered a serious injury.
One of the key improvements Lewindon has recommended is to make medical support more individually tailored – based on factors including strength, fatigue and robustness.
Medical staff will compile bespoke profiles for each player that will include personal insights as well as physical and psychological information to ensure they can deliver expert individual support to treat – but also prevent – injury.
There is also set to be greater leeway for injured players to conduct part of their rehabilitation away from the club’s training facility.
Players across the Premier League are increasingly relying on external medical practitioners to aid their fitness and recovery, while many overseas footballers even return to their homeland for treatment.
That dynamic often causes friction but moving forward Tottenham are open to letting players leave their direct care provided all parties involved agree to one shared recovery plan – though Spurs would ultimately take responsibility for any problems that arise during the process.
The medical team will work closely alongside head coach Roberto de Zerbi and his staff over the summer amid concerns changing managers three times in under 12 months has contributed to their injury problems.
Tottenham will look to introduce an integrated structure that will ensure De Zerbi, or a member of his staff, the medical department and the player are involved in deciding when a player can accelerate their rehabilitation plans.
Psychology is also a key component of the ongoing review with the club set to employ a full-time head of psychology to work with the players and staff.
It was far from a convincing performance against Thistle, hardly surprising given what was at stake, and the relief from fans and players alike was obvious after the game.
“We wanted to make sure the players were remembered as legends at this club after winning the League Cup,” McLeish said.
“We didn’t want that black mark against our name.
“First half was nervy, cagey and full of mistakes. It wasn’t really tactical, just us controlling our emotions. We did that better in the second half.”
McLeish won three of his nine league matches after Robinson left, but he was unable to keep St Mirren out of the play-off spot as Kilmarnock shone after the split.
A change of approach initially yielded an upturn in performances, but results started to slide and a run of four defeats without scoring cost them.
The 36-year-old stand-in boss was unable to completely solve the goalscoring issues that plagued their season.
Key defender Alex Gogic says McLeish could do more with greater time, though, and would be happy for him to stay on.
“Yeah, of course, whatever the club chooses,” Gogic said.
“If he has a pre-season, it will probably be better than what it is. If the club decide to go his way, we’ll all be behind that.”
Former Dundee United and Partick Thistle boss Ian McCall says McLeish has done his chances no harm by steering St Mirren to safety.
“I don’t think he had any chance of getting the job if St Mirren were relegated,” McCall said.
“What he has done is conducted himself really well and given himself a real chance of the job.
“The power-that-be here took a real chance appointing a young lad like that. But he has come through it really well. He has talked really well.
“He came through one dodgy moment when Kilmarnock won here 3-0. But he’s come back from that really strongly.
“It didn’t just plummet when Craig McLeish took over. It was a bad run of results when Stephen Robinson was there after the cup final which brought this on. He certainly has a chance.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and my doctor told me to walk a mile every day. Now I’m 30 miles from home and don’t know what to do.
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Time to hear from a different voice about the Dodgers, and colleague and columnist Mirjam Swanson was kind enough to answer a few questions about the team.
Q. We are almost a third of the way through the season. How would you assess the Dodgers so far?
Swanson: Exactly where I thought they’d be! And where they thought they’d be, too, I imagine. Even without overexerting themselves (or Shohei Ohtani), forever keeping the main thing, the main thing, they’re one of baseball’s best teams.
As I write this, at 31-19, they have the third-best winning percentage in baseball and, even more tellingly, they have the second-best run differential: plus-98. Only the Atlanta Braves’ plus-104 is better.
They’re cruising along, weathering the expected injuries, deep enough to not have to rush anyone back, hopeful that all their most important pieces will be primed for postseason play.
In other words: Another year in the life of the Dodgers.
Q. The Dodgers are still the favorites to win the World Series. Which NL team would you say has the best chance to unseat them in the postseason, and which AL team would you say is best right now?
Swanson: Whomever the Dodgers face in the NLDS.
Because that club — be it the Padres, Cubs, Cardinals, Phillies or whoever — will have to beat the Dodgers only three times. There’s much more variance in a best-of-five series than in a traditional seven-game set.
But beating this team four times? Good luck.
As far as the American League? Does it matter? The AL is to MLB what the Eastern Conference is to the NBA: Meh.
The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees are the only teams that have consistently played good ball all season. The Cleveland Guardians have gotten hot, so now they’re in the same proverbial ballpark standings-wise, at 30-22.
But after that: The A’s and the Chicago White Sox, who are barely .500, won’t intimidate anyone come playoff time.
And those are the only five teams in the AL that are above .500. Woof.
Q. I get emails from readers who say the Padres are now the Dodgers’ biggest rival, not the Giants? Your thoughts?
Swanson: When I was schooling at the University of Oregon, fans there thought of UCLA as our rival (the football teams were both good or getting good at the time).
I’m pretty certain UCLA didn’t think much about Oregon. Because obviously … USC.
That’s kind of how it seems with the Padres-Dodgers situation.
The Padres and their people really might have it in for the Dodgers.
But the Dodgers have an already established historical rival that overshadows any tug-of-war of the moment. They have the Giants.
I posed this question to a Dodger fan in my life to see what he’d say, reminding him that the Giants have stunk lately.
His response: “Good.”
Q. At some point, the window will close on this team and they won’t make the postseason. I don’t think the window closes this season, but do you think that time is coming soon?
Swanson: What’s soon? Five seasons? Four? I think as long as this ownership group is involved and this front office is calling the shots, they can play the game — on the field and off, salary cap or no. The Dodgers are going to be able to keep that window propped open.
They spend big, but they also build smartly, so they’ve got prospects lined up, just waiting for a crack at the regular big league opportunity. (See: Dalton Rushing, River Ryan, Hyeseong Kim, who would be regulars by now on almost any other team.)
Especially with a dozen teams getting in every season, I’d be shocked if they didn’t put some distance on the Braves’ 14-consecutive-playoff-appearance record, which the Dodgers should tie this season.
But, no, I suppose they won’t go on winning at this clip for the next 50 years.
What about that bullpen!
The Dodger bullpen has pitched 38 consecutive scoreless innings. breaking the team mark of 33 set by the 1998 bullpen.
Dave Roberts: “They’re on a heater. It’s one of those things where when it doesn’t go well, they get the blame. And when it does go well, they don’t get a lot of credit. But they are getting the credit now, and it’s earned. Really happy for those guys. We spread those innings pretty well with a lot of different arms.”
The last time the bullpen gave up a run was in the seventh inning of a loss to the Giants on May 12. Blake Treinen gave up a run that inning. The Dodgers were 24-18 after that game. Since then:
And that doesn’t include the two scoreless innings Klein threw as an opener the day Blake Snell was put on the IL.
Catcher Dalton Rushing: “They’re pretty relentless. “Everyone wants the ball, regardless of who you are, regardless of the situation. They want to go out there, they want to succeed, they want to show out of the team. I don’t think it’s really in their head, what they’re doing right now — I don’t think they’re aware of it. But that’s the good thing about it. They just go out there, throw the ball and good results come.”
This is the fifth-longest streak in history. The top four (according the baseball-reference.com):
45.2 innings: 1962 Detroit Tigers 44 innings: 1966 Kansas City Athletics 41 innings: 2016 Kansas City Royals 38.2 innings: 2017 Cleveland Indians
If you are having trouble remember the 1998 Dodgers bullpen, which had the previous team record, the main arms were: Jeff Shaw, Antonio Osuna, Scott Radinsky, Mark Guthrie and Jim Bruske.
And you know no one in the current bullpen wants to be the one to break the streak.
Former Dodger Chris Taylor broke his left forearm while playing for the Angels’ triple-A Salt Lake team last week. On Friday, his name appeared on the retirement list, prompting “Chris Taylor has retired” stories throughout baseball media. On Saturday, it was removed from the list, prompting, “Chris Taylor has unretired” stories throughout baseball media. On Sunday, he finally, officially, definitely retired, stating on his Instagram page,
“Clearing up any confusion. I’ve officially decided to retire from the game I’ve dedicated my entire life towards. I’m beyond grateful to all of my coaches and teammates, and the organizations who allowed me to live out my childhood dream. I’ll forever cherish the memories along the way and most of all, the friendships that will last a lifetime. Thank you to the loyal fans who have supported me through my success and stuck with me through the struggles. Thank you to my parents and family who have been with me from the very beginning. My baseball journey would have never begun if it weren’t for you guys. Most of all, thank you to my wife Mary who has been my number one. You stepped up for our family and allowed me to see my dream through all the way to the end and then some. I cant wait to start our next chapter in life together with our boys.”
We will have a newsletter dedicated to Taylor in the next week or two. In the meantime, we thank him for all the wonderful moments he provided and wish him the best in retirement.
These names seem familiar
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams. Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Chris Taylor makes an incredible catch against the Brewers in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
It was the perfect season for Manchester City as they claimed their first league title in a decade – and in manager Andree Jeglertz’s debut campaign.
With no Champions League football to distract them, City were able to throw everything at the WSL title and they swept up the opposition.
They went on a 13-game winning streak between September and February and, at one point, had a 12-point lead over Chelsea.
They also kept key players Khadija Shaw and Vivianne Miedema fit, with the two scoring a combined 31 goals – half of the club’s overall tally.
With a squad packed with talent and depth, City will hope to compete on several fronts in Europe next year, but must replace Shaw, who looks set to leave.
Euphoria fans are less than impressed and say the huge twist in episode 7 was ‘insanely wasted’.
Euphoria Season 3 trailer released
The horrific fate of one character was finally revealed in HBO’s hit drama Euphoria – and fans aren’t happy.
Euphoria’s third and final season started airing just last month on HBO Max and the penultimate episode provided a dramatic twist ahead of the finale. The last batch of instalments have come following a four year gap after the second season.
Originally the series begun by following a group of wild high schoolers struggling as they approached adulthood. Viewers watched along as the classmates attempted to make sense of their futures.
It tackled the teenage landscape of substance-enhanced parties and anxiety-ridden day-to-day life. Fast forward to season 3 and the childhood friends must now grapple with the unforgiving realities of adult life.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Euphoria Season 3 Episode 7.
What happens to Nate in Euphoria Season 3?
Aside from some jumps around in time, one of the main events of Season 3, episode 7, sees a huge character death. We see Nate kidnapped by Naz over a $1 million debt he owed him. While the plan seemed to be for Cassie to use money generated by her online adult content to repay the debt, she instead shut down her account.
Naz, having already sent one of Nate’s fingers to Cassie, is losing patience waiting for his cash. He has Nate buried alive in a coffin with a tube protruding above ground. Meanwhile, another thug pays Cassie a visit. Not long after she answers the door, she finds herself slammed into a glass table. She is then taken into the bedroom and tied up.
Cassie is told she has 72 hours to come up with the money. With the idea that is how long Nate will be able to survive in his current spot underground.
However, a rattlesnake manages to slither down the pipe leading to Nate’s coffin. As he screams for help, the snake bites and kills him.
Alamo and Maddy are eventually roped in to help Cassie, with Alamo suggesting he will come up with the money demanded by Naz. He doesn’t. He shoots Naz dead instead. Following that, the coffin is dug up only for them to discover Nate’s body.
Most of Season 3 has not been well received by long time fans of the show and Nate’s death has been no exception. It didn’t take long for viewers to share their views online.
One, responding to an episode discussion on the Euphoria subreddit said: “Well, even after everything, I do want to just say thank you to Jacob Elordi for giving us a character we all hated. I really was not a fan of his storyline this season, but he gave us a powerful performance.”
Another added: “Can’t stop thinking about how Nate died in an objectively insane way but it still managed to feel unceremonious to me somehow.”
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Someone else said: “Nate’s character was so insanely wasted man… that death felt so anticlimactic he went from genuinely compelling in S1 and S2 to a plot device that did nothing but get tortured all season.”
One person replied: “I feel like Nate death would have been more impactful if the character actually acted like Nate at all this season, it felt like a new character that looks like Nate died.”
A viewer agreed: “Nate’s death completely anticlimactic and unearned, not at all related to any sort of karma for the shit he pulled in season 1-2, related to some random debt that we really didn’t give a shit about.”
Meanwhile, Euphoria creator and writer Sam Levinson, told Esquire about the character death: “There’s this kind of funny thing where I know what the audience wants in terms of justice or karma and with that in mind, I always think, ‘Well, how can I give it to them?’
“How can I give them what they want, but make it so horrific and anxiety-inducing that by the time it happens, the audience isn’t so sure they wanted it?”
And back with Lane Kiffin, the new LSU head coach who now has made Orgeron a member of his staff at three schools following their stint together as USC assistant coaches under Pete Carroll.
LSU announced Wednesday that the 64-year-old Louisiana native is returning to the Tigers as a special assistant for recruiting and defense.
“I’m excited to bring Coach Orgeron back to LSU,” Kiffin said in a statement. “He brings us tremendous value with his ability to recruit elite players nationally, but especially the impact he can have for us recruiting the great state of Louisiana.”
Orgeron played defensive line for four years at Northwestern State, then started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 1984. After spending the next decade-plus as an assistant on a variety of coaching staffs, including at Miami and Syracuse, Orgeron joined USC coach Paul Hackett’s staff as the defensive line coach.
When Carroll replaced Hackett before the 2001 season, he retained Orgeron on his staff and eventually also made him recruiting coordinator. Also in 2001, Carroll hired Kiffin, who started as tight ends coach and eventually worked his way up to offensive coordinator.
After winning two national championships under Carroll, Orgeron was hired as head coach at Mississippi before the 2005 season. He offered Kiffin a job on his staff as offensive coordinator, but the then-Trojans passing game coordinator turned it down (Kiffin would much later serve as the Rebels head coach from 2020 to 2025).
Orgeron went 10-25 at Mississippi and was fired after the 2007 season. After a year as the New Orleans Saints defensive line coach, Orgeron joined Kiffin’s staff at Tennessee as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.
When Kiffin returned to USC as head coach in 2010, Orgeron joined him as defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. On Sept. 29, 2013, Kiffin was fired by USC. Orgeron was named interim head coach but left the team at the end of the season after Steve Sarkisian became the permanent head coach.
Orgeron joined LSU as the defensive line coach in 2015. He became interim head coach the following September after Les Miles was fired and got the full-time job at the end of the season.
The undefeated 2019 season, with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow, was the peak of Orgeron’s stint with the Tigers. The team’s fortunes dipped after that, with Orgeron and LSU parting ways following the 2021 season. In six seasons with the Tigers, Orgeron went 51-20.
Less than five years later, Orgeron is reunited with the Tigers and his old friend Kiffin.
“Coach O understands my expectations and commitment to being a championship program,” Kiffin said. “I look forward to seeing him with recruits and his intensity working with our defensive players.”
The second World Cup to be played in the U.S. will kick off in less than three weeks but apparently some people can’t wait since the American team’s tournament roster was leaked to The Guardian on Saturday.
The Athletic said it had independently confirmed the 26-player list with multiple sources. U.S. Soccer is scheduled to formally release the team in a nationally televised event in Manhattan this week. Contacted by The Times for comment Saturday a U.S. Soccer spokesman said, “What I can tell you is we will make the official announcement Tuesday.”
But it’s the roster, and not the way in which it was released, that is of most importance here and among the striking omissions are midfielders Tanner Tessmann and Diego Luna. Tessmann had been called into six training camps under U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino and was seen as a potential starter for the U.S. before being shut down by his French club, Lyon, at the end of the season, leaving his fitness for the World Cup in question.
Luna, who plays in MLS for Real Salt Lake, also has been a regular under Pochettino, playing in 17 of the U.S. team’s 18 games in 2025, scoring four goals and contributing four assists. But he missed time earlier this season because of a knee injury and sat out his club team’s last two games with a muscle problem.
Thirteen of the 26 players who were selected — including midfielders Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie — were on the U.S. team in Qatar four years ago. They will be joined by defenders Miles Robinson and Chris Richards, who missed the last World Cup to injury, and forward Ricardo Pepi, one of the final cuts in 2022.
Richards was included on the roster confirmed by the Athletic despite tearing two ligaments in his left ankle in Crystal Palace’s penultimate Premier League match with Brentford last weekend. The final roster, which can include between 23 and 26 players, must be filed to FIFA by June 1. However teams can replace players up to 24 hours before their opening match in the event of injury or illness.
Reyna, one of the most gifted players in the U.S. talent pool, was named to the team despite having played just one full 90-minute game for club or country in the last four years. And in the last World Cup in Qatar, he was nearly sent home for a perceived lack of effort in training after he learned he wouldn’t be a starter in the tournament.
“No spot is guaranteed or safe,” he said of the World Cup during an interview earlier this month alongside his German club teammate Joe Scally, who also made the U.S. roster. “I want to be there. It’s a World Cup in your home country.
“It’s a dream come true.”
“It only happens every four years,” added Scally, who made the 2022 team but did not play in the tournament. “Everyone’s just super excited, especially to be in America. It’s going to be very special.”
Among the first-time World Cup selections are midfielder Malik Tillman, the German-born brother of LAFC midfielder Timothy Tillman; Mexican-born attacker Alejandro Zendejas, who plays for Club América in Liga MX; and Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, son of Gregg Berhalter, the U.S. coach in the last World Cup.
The inclusion of Zendejas on the roster was a bit of a surprise since his last appearance with the national team came in September but he has played well with América this season.
After Tuesday’s roster announcement in New York, the team will fly to Atlanta for training camp ahead of friendlies with Senegal in Charlotte, N.C., on May 31 and against Germany on June 6 in Chicago. The U.S. opens World Cup play at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on June 12, facing Paraguay.
ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City), Matt Turner (New England Revolution)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergiño Dest (PSV), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse) Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen), Tim Weah (Marseille), Alejandro Zendejas (Club América)
If there’s one thing in American sports that’s going to get people to sit up, lean forward and engage, it’s the home run. We all dig the long ball.
If anything can get someone to run home and turn on a softball game, it’s a big-time slugger from a big-time school mashing homers like nobody before.
Heard about Grant? She’s the UCLA softball player who’s hit an NCAA-record 40 home runs (so far) this season.
UCLA senior Megan Grant leans over and holds her helmet between pitches during a super regional game against UCF on Friday at Easton Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Forty! In 147 at-bats! That’s a home run every 3.68 at-bats!
If you’re wondering, Mark McGwire hit a home run every 7.3 at-bats in 1998, the year he finished with 70. And Barry Bonds went deep every 6.52 at-bats in 2001, when he hit his MLB-record 73 home runs.
Whenever she gets asked about her historic home runs, the red-hot, red-haired hitter is like, shucks: “I mean, it’s incredible,” she said. “I’m just honestly blessed to be able to say the number 40. But, yeah, that’s all I can say.”
She just wants to be thought of as a hard worker and a good teammate. But what Grant is going to be remembered for most is as the founding member of softball’s 40-home run club.
Her 40th home run came in her 58th game this season and on her seventh career grand slam — Grant Slam? — in the Bruins’ NCAA regional final victory over South Carolina last weekend.
Forty, a round number of round-trippers with a ring to it. And a sweet echo coming so soon after the Bruins women’s basketball team won its first NCAA championship, history to which Grant also contributed as a reserve before softball beckoned.
Side quest completed, the left-handed-hitting senior stepped back into the box to help the Bruins chase a 13th championship on the softball field.
Grant is soaking up the experience, and encouraging her younger teammates to, too: “‘Enjoy this, it’s so rare to be here’ … and, ‘Hey, we can do this, we can do it together.’”
A .469 hitter, she leads the nation in slugging percentage (1.333), on-base percentage (.650) and OPS (1.983). She bats second in UCLA’s NCAA record-breaking lineup that shattered Oklahoma’s 25-year-old previous record of 160 home runs. UCLA hit seven home runs during two super regional wins against Central Florida this weekend to push that record to 200.
With a 9-1 win Friday and a 14-4 victory Saturday, the Bruins advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the 34th time and for the third time in Grant’s astounding tenure.
UCLA senior Megan Grant (43) high-fives teammates during a win over UCF Friday at Easton Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Tip your helmet and toss Grant her bouquets — flower power — because there she is popping up on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and on the MLB Network. One of three finalists for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, she’s got guys discussing her exploits on a dad pod otherwise dedicated to NBA takes. Fans dressed up as chefs as a tribute to her nickname, “Chef Megan.”
Star power, power broker. Grant is a lift-all-boats attraction for a sport that’s been steadily carving out space in the public consciousness.
All over the country, college softball teams have been breaking attendance records. And ratings are up, up, up; ESPN said this has been its most-watched college softball regular season since 2009, with games averaging 292,000 viewers. The MLB-backed Athletes Unlimited Softball League is entering Season 2; Grant was drafted No. 4 overall by the Portland Cascade.
“People will pay to see her play,” said Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball legend and associate head coach.
Fernandez also is the general manager of the AUSL’s Utah Talons, for whom UCLA’s other senior slugger Jordan Woolery will play this summer.
The Bruins imported the latest in a lineage of Bay Area dynamic duos. The Oakland Athletics had the Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire; the Golden State Warriors gave us the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. And now UCLA has Walnut Creek’s Woolery and Grant, of San Bruno — the Bruin Bombers.
They’re the first teammates in NCAA history to each hit 30-plus homers in the same season, with 74 between them.
And, yes, chefs! Like Curry before her, Grant is cookin’ the competition, breaking the 31-year-old NCAA single-season home run record with No. 38 on May 9 against Nebraska.
Included among the record wreckage she’s leaving in her wake: Stacey Nuveman’s UCLA single-season record of 31 homers. For her career, Grant needs only one more to tie Nuveman’s Bruins record of 90.
But Grant’s got to get a pitch to hit first. After UCF walked her six times in two games, she has 74 walks this season and 69 base hits. She also has 13 hit by pitches.
“It’s very similar to Barry Bonds, right?” Fernandez said. “It’s either a walk or a home run. Like, you pick.”
The tale of the tape measure behind Grant’s greatness is the down-to-the inch precision of her preparation. The Mamba-esque magic is in the embracing behind-the-scenes monotony, powering through it.
“She was the hardest worker, always working. Never enough,” said Ray McDonald, Grant’s coach at the San Mateo-based Warrior Softball Academy since she was that kid with an electric, bat-busting swing. “It was eating and sleeping, hitting, and you know, shower. The essentials.”
“When we recruited her, Ray, he was like, ‘Coach, you better be ready to work,’” said Fernandez. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, I know how to work.’ And [then] I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, now I understand how people must have felt when I played.’
“There is an aspect of this game that people don’t realize unless you are in it. To be great, there’s a — for lack of a better word — monotony to the process. Can you master the same move over and over again? And she’s committed to it. To her drills, to the process, to her routine, all of it. There’s a lot of people who are committed to it when they’re not doing well: ‘Oh, got to get back to my drills.’ She has been committed to that process from the day she stepped on campus.”
The process includes working on her mind. That deep, deep breath before every deep, deep home run is a way to stay centered. To stay in the moment — and it is a moment.
For softball. For UCLA. For Grant, who, with all this power and responsibility, is hitting it out of the park.
CARSON, Calif. — Houston’s Guilherme Santos matched a first-half goal by the Galaxy’s Joseph Paintsil and the Dynamo and Galaxy played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Paintsil staked the Galaxy to a 1-0 lead with an unassisted score in the 30th minute and Santos answered in the 41st with assists from Jack McGlynn — his fourth — and defender Antônio Carlos — his first.
It was the third goal this season for Paintsil after he found the net 10 times in each of his first two seasons.
Santos has eight goals in his first 14 appearances in the league.
Jonathan Bond finished with five saves for Houston (7-6-1). Bond made 89 starts with the Galaxy from 2021 to 2023.
JT Marcinkowski saved three shots for the Galaxy (5-5-5).
Houston had played a club-record 13 straight matches without a draw to begin a season.
The league takes a break for the World Cup and will return to action on July 16.
It was a familiar sight: Caitlin Clark stepped to her left, paused and lofted a right-handed layup.
But looming tall, Cameron Brink smacked it out of bounds, caught on camera yelling a couple of curse words before chest-bumping teammate Erica Wheeler so hard she tumbled backward.
That’s the Brink that the Sparks were hoping for this season, and the version of the third-year center they fully expect to shine.
“That was quite the highlight,” coach Lynne Roberts said last week. “That’s what we see in practice, she’s been like that. I was just smiling. … I’m so proud of her.”
After the first game of the season, a 105-78 loss to Las Vegas, Roberts was asked about Brink playing only eight minutes, when she was a minus-19.
“We need Cam to produce,” Roberts said. “We need Cam to bring that defensive energy. We have so much confidence and belief in her. She’s got to get out on the floor with some confidence and do what she’s capable of doing.”
After the next game, when Brink contributed 11 points with five rebounds in that 87-78 loss to Indiana, Roberts wanted to end “the narrative” that the 24-year-old was off to a slow start. Then she netted 10 points in 16 minutes during a defeat of the Toronto Tempo.
The Sparks are in win-now mode but are yet to prove this version of the team can do that. Brink would be a cornerstone player for almost any team in the league, yet she’s coming off the bench with high expectations for her to be one of the team’s most important players.
“My teammates aren’t gonna trust me if I don’t believe in myself,” said Brink, who is averaging 8.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. “Coaches, same thing. So, you know, I’ve had a slow start, but I’m putting in the work with the coaches. They work with me every day. We watch film, shoot a little extra.”
The Sparks need Brink this season. In her first two seasons, she had moments. With Dearica Hamby starting and the addition of Nneka Ogwumike, she is coming off the bench again after doing so last year for the first time since her freshman season at Stanford.
Roberts has said she wants at least two of them on the court at all times. Through the first four games, Brink has played 16.2 minutes per game and the Sparks are minus-29 points when she is on the court.
“Coming into the league, it’s interesting because a lot of times people feel like they have to do something different or more,” Ogwumike said. “But I think one thing that she’s done is she’s really leaned into who she is, and that that level of self assurance is something that I think really plays out when she’s on the court as well.”
In 38 career games, she is already 10th all-time in blocks in Sparks history. Brink dealt with a 13-month layoff after tearing her ACL and meniscus just 15 games into her rookie season, and was slowly re-integrated last season in 19 games.
Sparks forward Cameron Brink tries to power her way past a Tempo defender during agame May 15.
(Jeff Lewis / Asociated Press)
What could really separate the Sparks from the rest of the league, though, would be if Brink plays to her full potential as a sixth player. There are few players in that role who can take over a game the way she can.
“I definitely feel like I have an understanding for just the speed of the game, the nuances and what we’re doing,” Brink said. “The playbook this year is much easier because it was the same as last year.”
The Sparks rebuild started last season with the addition of Kelsey Plum, where they gave up the No. 2 pick to Seattle that would become Dominique Malonga. Then, this offseason they added Ogwumike, Ariel Atkins and Wheeler while trading away their other young star, Rickea Jackson.
The Sparks still gave up 90-plus points in three of their first four games. Brink has the second worst plus-minus rating on the team, but has also made some of their important defensive plays and has 1.8 blocks per game.
“She erases a lot of mistakes out there,” Ogwumike said. “Being able to be out there and know that she has my back, and we’re looking for each other to be in good spots to do well, yeah, I’m just, I’m just happy that we’re rebuilding our chemistry early and fast.”
Brink was a star at Stanford but became known for her fouling habits. As a pro, getting one extra foul to work with, has helped considerably. She’s averaged seven fouls per 36 minutes in her first two seasons.
But the new officiating mandate to allow more freedom of movement is another hurdle. The path to being an elite pro has not been easy for one of the most dynamic college players of the past half-decade, but this season seems essential for Brink and the Sparks to find themselves, together.
Moments like that block of Clark‘s shot are signs the player they need is in there.
“It’s one of those things where you’re in awe,” Ogwumike said. “But also, you know she can do that. I always tell her, go out there and release everything and be yourself. That was very much a Cam Brink play.”
Kyle Busch, a two-time champion of the NASCAR Cup Series and the winningest driver in the association’s history, has died at age 41.
“We are saddened and heartbroken to share the news of the passing of Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup champion and one of our sport’s greatest and fiercest drivers,” NASCAR said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We extend our deepest condolences to the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and the entire motorsports community.”
No cause of death has been disclosed.
Earlier on Thursday, Busch’s family posted a statement on the driver’s X account saying that Busch had been hospitalized with a “severe illness” and would not be participating in this weekend’s NASCAR events at Charlotte Motor Speedway — including the Coca-Cola 600, a race Busch won in 2018.
According to the Associated Press, Busch became unresponsive on Wednesday while testing in the Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord and was transported to a Charlotte hospital.
In response to a request for information about Busch’s death, the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office emailed The Times a 911 call asking for an ambulance to come to the address of the General Motors Charlotte Technical Center at around 5:32 p.m. Wednesday.
“I have got an individual that [has] shortness of breath, [is] very hot, thinks he going to pass out and is … coughing up some blood,” said the caller, who added that the person was awake but “on the bathroom floor right now.”
Busch is not identified by name as the person experiencing the symptoms.
NASCAR officials confirmed that the Coca-Cola 600 will be held as scheduled. When Busch’s hospitalization was announced earlier Thursday, Richard Childress Racing said Austin Hill would drive the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in his place. Speedway officials indicated that Busch would be honored at the race.
During a Cup Series race on May 10 at Watkins Glen International in Dix, N.Y., Busch told his crew on the radio that he would need medical aid and a shot after the race. The TV broadcast mentioned that Busch had been dealing with a sinus cold all week. He ended up finishing in eighth place, his best Cup Series finish of the season.
Last week at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, Busch finished 17th in the Cup Series exhibition All-Star race but won his second Truck Series race of the year.
“Absolutely cannot comprehend this news,” Denny Hamlin, NASCAR driver and former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, posted on social media. “We just need to think of his family during this time. We love you KB.”
Busch raced in NASCAR’s top division for 22 full-time seasons, winning the Cup Series championship in 2015 and 2019 and the series regular-season championship in 2018 and 2019. He won 63 Cup Series races, 69 in the Truck Series and 102 in the XFinity Series, making him the winningest driver in NASCAR’s top three series combined.
The last time Busch missed a Cup Series race was in 2015, when he was recovering from a compound leg fracture and broken foot and was unable to take part in the first 11 events that season.
“A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation,” NASCAR said in a separate statement released Thursday, also on behalf of the Busch family and Richard Childress Racing.
“He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans. Throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR’s highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series.
“His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal ‘Rowdy Nation.’ … NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon.”
Born May 2, 1985, in Las Vegas, Busch was surrounded by racing. His father, Tom, was a mechanic and local racer who had relocated from Illinois with his wife, Gaye. Busch’s brother, Kurt, was seven years older and an eventual Cup Series champion (2004) and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
Working his way up from go-karts in cul-de-sacs and parking lots to full-bodied Late Model competition, Busch earned the respect of his older brother early on.
“You think I’m a pretty good race car driver?” Kurt Busch said in 2001, four years before his younger sibling’s rookie season. “Wait until you see my brother. He’s the best driver in the family.”
Busch made his O’Reilly Series debut for Hendrick Motorsports on May 24, 2003, with a second-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Entering the series as a full-time driver the next year, Busch won five races and finished second overall to Martin Truex Jr.
Around that time, Busch started what would become his signature celebration, a showman’s bow after each win.
Known as “Rowdy” and “Wild Thing” for his postrace fights and feuds with other drivers, Busch first reached the Cup Series in 2004 before his full-fledged rookie campaign the following season. The 2005 rookie of the year, Busch became the series’ youngest winner in his 31st start, one of four wins during his three full seasons at Hendrick.
Busch joined the Gibbs team in 2008 and remained there until switching to Childress and taking over the No. 8 Chevrolet in 2023.
After his win at Dover this month, Busch was asked how many races he wanted to win before he stopped racing.
“You take whatever you can get, man,” Busch said. “You never know when the last one is going to be, so cherish them all — trust me.”
Busch is survived by his wife Samantha, son Brexton, 10, and daughter Lennix, 4.
Summer is just around the corner. Get into the spirit of long, lazy days — first, let’s pretend those exist in ample supply beyond our dreams — by spending your Memorial Day weekend taking cues from our watch guide. There are plenty of options to suit your tastes, including a new take on one of cinema’s most iconic monster brides and a retrospective of Martin Short’s high-flying career in comedy, the final season of “Hacks” and another television series that expands the “Star Wars” franchise. No sunscreen is required.
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Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in a scene from “The Bride.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
“The Bride” (HBO Max)
Heavy buzz preceded the arrival of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feminist reboot of the horror classic “The Bride of Frankenstein” earlier this year. The casting of Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley as Frankenstein’s monster and his companion, respectively, along with Gyllenhaal’s obvious passion for the project, seemed to promise cinematic fireworks. However, it divided critics: Some brutally panned the film, calling it overbearing and ludicrous; others applauded the movie as an ambitious big swing that should not be ignored. And while most agreed that Buckley gave a committed performance as the ferocious Bride, her lead actress Oscar win for “Hamnet” did not save the film from bombing and vanishing quickly from theaters. Viewers can now decide whether it was truly a disaster or just misunderstood when “The Bride” hits HBO Max this weekend. — Greg Braxton
Steve Carell and Charly Clive play a father and daughter navigating their complicated relationship in the HBO comedy “Rooster.”
(Katrina Marcinowski / HBO)
“Rooster” (HBO Max)
If you’re looking for some easy laughs this weekend, and you’re a fan of series from Bill Lawrence like “Shrinking” or “Ted Lasso,” this HBO comedy may be right up your alley. The show follows Greg Russo (Steve Carell), a divorced author of “beach reads” who is offered a position at a university where his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), teaches. Katie, as much as she loves her dad, also wants some space as she navigates the messy relationship with her husband Archie (Phil Dunster), who has left her for a graduate student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai). (Katie does not take it well.) The show is filled with mishaps and misunderstandings that will make you belly laugh. But what also makes this show special is the supporting cast that absolutely kills it when they’re onscreen, including Danielle Deadwyler as Dylan, an English professor; John C. McGinley as Walter, the school’s president; and Robby Hoffman as Mo, Sunny’s friend and roommate. The series just wrapped its first season — I’m willing to bet you’ll binge this one. — Maira Garcia
Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara in “Marty, Life Is Short.”
(From Netflix)
“Marty, Life Is Short” (Netflix)
This delightful and moving documentary brings into focus Martin Short’s life and decades-long career in comedy. Don’t be fooled by its straightforward overview of Short’s rise to showbiz mainstay through his eccentric, vaudevillian brand of comedy. Directed by his longtime friend Lawrence Kasdan, who first collaborated with the comedian on the 1987 comedy “Cross My Heart,” the film goes beyond the bullet points, offering intimate insights about the lows of building a career and a touching look at him as a friend and family man. In addition to hearing directly from Short, the film features soundbites from people who know him well, including Andrea Martin, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, Eugene Levy and the late Catherine O’Hara. But the true standout moments come from the home footage provided by Short. It’ll leave you longing for a whole docu-series of his star-studded gatherings with some of the names mentioned above. What do you mean we get to see Short and Hanks, both shirtless on a boat, re-enact a scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” — in this scenario, Hanks’ Forrest Gump is the Sundance Kid and Short’s famous sketch-comedy character Ed Grimley is Butch — as they hurl themselves into the sea? That beats any reality TV moment or DIML vlog on TikTok I’ve seen this year. — Yvonne Villarreal
A scene from Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time,” featuring Finn the Human, voiced by Jeremy Shada, and Jake the Dog, voiced by John DiMaggio.
(Cartoon Network)
“Adventure Time” (Hulu, Disney+)
With the new “Adventure Time: Side Trips” due on Hulu and Disney+ on June 29, I am watching Pendleton Ward’s original series from the beginning, the better to appreciate its deep world-building and pick up whatever I might have missed the first time. Set in a lush, lively post-apocalyptic world where human boy Finn and shape-shifting dog Jake fight villains and party with friends, it’s gorgeously strange, beautifully designed and full of feeling. Characters include a pie-baking little elephant; Lady Rainicorn, half-unicorn, half-rainbow; a sort of sentient Game Boy; a vampire queen; and the Ice King, looking for a princess (Bubblegum, Flame, Lumpy Space, Hot Dog) to love him. A nexus of creative young animators, it’s the trunk of a tree whose branches include “Summer Camp Island,” “Steven Universe,” “Over the Garden Wall,” and “OK K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes,” which is to say, it’s possibly the most important cartoon show of the 21st century. At 283 episodes, there’s more than one can consume over even a holiday weekend, obviously, but you have to start somewhere. — Robert Lloyd
Clarke Peters, Alfre Woodard, Alfred Molina, Denis O’Hare and Geena Davis in “The Boroughs.”
(Netflix)
“The Boroughs” (Netflix)
In an isolated but fairly posh desert retirement community, freaky things are afoot. Strangely, no one seems to notice until cranky, grieving widower Sam (Alfred Molina) moves in. He hates the Boroughs at first sight and is only there because his now-dead wife signed them up in an apparently unbreakable contract. So of course he’s going to complain about every problem, from a broken door knob to, you know, a mysteriously dead neighbor. And before you can say, “The Thursday Murder Club” meets “Stranger Things” by way of “Scooby-Doo,” he’s reluctantly assembled a group of equally curious residents played by equally high-wattage actors including Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Denis O’Hare — all of whom make the Boroughs, and “The Boroughs,” well worth the price of admission, be it during nocturnal visits by monsters or an occasionally creaking plot.
Though still a criminally underrepresented demographic, aging boomers are having something of a moment on TV (see also “Only Murders in the Building,” “A Man on the Inside” and “Hacks”) and “The Boroughs,” (produced by the Duffer Brothers, who gave us “Stranger Things”) is a perfect example of why. The message of every unlikely-hero story is inevitably one of empowerment — kids/hobbits/retirees are just as capable of saving the day as muscle-bound men in their prime — and actors as strong and experienced as these can glide over plot holes and shoulder three times their weight in disbelief suspension without breaking a sweat. Getting the opportunity to watch such a group do it together is just as much fun as figuring out exactly what is going on at the Boroughs and who’s going to stop it. — Mary McNamara
A scene from Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord.”
(Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord” (Disney+)
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” is the shiny new “Star Wars” movie in theaters this weekend — the franchise’s first since 2019 — but let’s not forget that some of the galaxy far, far away’s best storytelling in recent years has been on TV. “Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord” follows the dark side warrior in the early days of the Empire’s reign as he works to rebuild his criminal syndicate while getting some revenge on gangsters that have betrayed him. Introduced and presumed dead after being cut in half in a lightsaber duel in “Episode I,” Maul’s resilience and dark ambitions were further explored in “The Clone Wars.” Maul is a formidable, manipulative, intelligent and vicious villain that’s ultimately doomed to fail, but there’s something about his relentless refusal to accept his fate that I find a bit admirable — even if he’s evil. A noir crime thriller, “Maul — Shadow Lord” is set in a gritty, metropolitan planet outside of the rule of the Empire, meaning, yes, the former Sith lord will cross paths with some Jedi on the run. There’s no better way to close out May than getting immersed in “Star Wars.” — Tracy Brown
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in the fifth and final season of “Hacks.”
(HBO)
“Hacks” (HBO Max)
With the series finale of “Hacks” approaching on May 28, it’s the perfect time to catch up on Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and Deborah’s (Jean Smart) latest schemes. Season 5 follows Deborah clawing her way back into public favor after her short stint as a late-night host. Going out with a bang, the show’s final season has been chock-full of guest stars, from Trisha Paytas and Tony Kushner to Jesse McCartney and “Property Brothers” duo Drew and Jonathan Scott. The dynamic between Deborah’s managers, Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter), is still ridiculously entertaining, even if Kayla still can’t get Jimmy’s coffee order right. Across the characters, the chemistry is palpable as “Hacks” builds to the pièce de résistance of Deborah’s career: a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. — Katie Simons
Animated characters from the Crunchyroll series “Classroom of the Elite.”
“Classroom of the Elite” (Crunchyroll)
The anime series revolves around Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, a stoic high schooler with a hidden brilliant mind who enrolls in an isolated boarding school. In this cutthroat school, designed as a meritocracy to identify Japan’s future leaders, students are pushed through unconventional tests — such as a survival challenge on a deserted island — and they risk expulsion if they fail. Bribery and backdoor deals run rampant. School officials turn a blind eye to violence — and there is plenty of it.
The show follows Ayanokoji and his classmates as they scheme to climb from the lowest tier, D-Class, to the coveted A-Class. Along the way, it invites the question of whether an archetypal meritocracy can truly exist in a system ridden with loopholes. The calculating Ayanokoji can be a hard protagonist to root for, as he brazenly uses his peers as pawns. By the end of the third season, we see Ayanokoji begin to occasionally open up to a select few classmates, though we’re constantly left to wonder if those moments are genuine or engineered. Season 4, which premiered in early April with weekly releases, picks up with Ayanokoji in his second year and brings a new slate of characters with murky motivations. — Iris Kwok
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and I’m wondering what babies think about. They don’t know any words!
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Reports of Shohei Ohtani’s demise were greatly exaggerated, as he has bounced back at the plate the last few games. He has been great on the mound this year, and after he defeated the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, his ERA dropped to 0.73.
Some wondered if this is the best start, through eight games, in history. Well, if you wondered that, you are forgetting another great player in Dodgers history.
A look at the best ERA’s after eight starts since 1920 (according to baseball-reference.com):
1. Fernando Valenzuela, 1981 Dodgers, 0.50 ERA 8-0, 7 complete games, 72 IP, 43 hits, 17 walks, 68 K’s
2. Mike Norris, 1980 Oakland A’s, 0.52 ERA 5-2. 6 CG’s, 68.2 IP, 33 hits, 25 walks, 49 K’s
3. Zack Greinke, 2009 Kansas City Royals, 0.60 ERA 7-1, 4 CG’s, 60 IP, 40 hits, 10 walks, 65 K’s
4. Jacob deGrom, 2021 NY Mets, 0.71 ERA 4-2. 1 CG, 51 IP, 22 hits, 7 walks, 82 K’s
Fernando’s start continues to be the greatest in history. The fact he pitched 72 innings and had seven complete games is incredible. In the game he didn’t complete, he pitched nine innings. The Dodgers won in 10.
If we limit the list to just Dodgers:
1. Fernando Valenzuela, 1981, 0.50 ERA 8-0, 7 complete games, 72 IP, 43 hits, 17 walks, 68 K’s
2. Shohei Ohtani, 2026, 0.73 ERA
4-2, 0 CG’s, 49 IP, 28 hits, 13 walks, 54 K’s
3. Sandy Koufax, 1963, 1.06 ERA
6-1, 5 CG’s, 68 IP, 33 hits, 12 walks, 59 K’s
4. Leon Cadore, 1920, 1.08 ERA 4-2, 6 CG’s, 83.1 IP, 65 hits, 13 walks, 34 K’s
The amazing thing about Cadore’s first eight starts in 1920: In his fourth start, the game lasted 26 innings. Cadore pitched all 26 innings, giving up one run and 15 hits. Strangely, he lasted only five innings in his next start and said his arm felt tired. He didn’t start again for 12 days. Slacker.
Any time you find yourself on a list between Fernando and Koufax, you’ve done well.
Game time
MLB has a daily trivia game on each team’s website that I enjoy playing. You might too. You can find it here.
Injury updates
Blake Snell had the less invasive NanoNeedle Scope procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow Tuesday, which means his recovery time will be shorter, probably two months instead of three. So, Snell could be back at the beginning of August.
Tyler Glasnow has had more soreness in his back that has stopped him from throwing. As soon as it calms down, he’ll start the comeback trail again.
Brusdar Graterol injured his back while with triple-A Oklahoma City and was moved to the 60-day IL. At this point, you have to wonder if we will ever see Graterol pitch again.
Pitcher Ben Casparius, already on the 15-day IL because of shoulder inflammation, was moved to the 60-day IL. Seems unlikely he will be back before the All-Star break.
Pitcher Bobby Miller is still on the 60-day IL with a shoulder injury. The timeline for his return is unclear.
Kiké Hernández is currently on a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City, where he is eight for 34 (.235) with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs. He can be activated on May 24.
Tommy Edman has been running the bases, but will need a rehab assignment of his own before he can come back from his ankle injury.
Everyone currently on the IL for the Dodgers:
Pitchers Ben Casparius (60-day) Jake Cousins (60) Edwin Díaz (60) Jack Dreyer (15) Tyler Glasnow (15) Brusdar Graterol (60) Landon Knack (60) Bobby Miller (60) Evan Phillips (60) Blake Snell (15) Brock Stewart (15) Gavin Stone (60)
Position players Tommy Edman (60) Kiké Hernández (60)
Halls of Fame
You know our annual Dodgers Hall of Fame voting? Well, I also compile The Times’ Sports Report newsletter, and have started a Hall of Fame for different sports there. The first three ballots are active, and you can only consider what they did in L.A. If you wish to participate, the ballots are:
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
MILWAUKEE — Left-hander Eric Lauer strode up the bullpen mound at Petco Park as the Dodgers-Padres series finale Wednesday transitioned into the late innings.
He had been available to provide length as a reliever, but the plan had been for him to throw either way, he said.
The Dodgers didn’t end up needing him to cover innings, so he tossed a side session. And now Lauer has the weekend to address the mechanical issues that plagued his bumpy first six weeks of the season with the Toronto Blue Jays before making his Dodgers debut Tuesday as a starter against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s nice having a little change of scenery, because it gives me a nice full-blown reset,” Lauer said. “I can get my feet back under me, I can get out of my head a little bit more, understand what makes me good and what’s got me to this point, and run with that.”
Lauer, who landed on waivers at a convenient time for the Dodgers, is their immediate answer to a sudden rotation depth problem.
They don’t expect him to save the day in the absence of Blake Snell (elbow surgery to remove loose bodies) and Tyler Glasnow (back spasms). But the Dodgers saw an opportunity to fill a hole in their roster and ideally help him reverse his early-season regression.
“We’ve had our guys take a look and we’ll sit down and talk through some stuff, see how much we can do on the fly, how much of it is not just subconscious,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “But we know the makeup is really good, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on him and helping him be as successful as he’s been in the past.”
As long as Lauer gradually improves, his presence allows the Dodgers to keep their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, without taxing their relievers with regular bullpen days, at least while they wait for other pitchers to return to health and/or build up their workloads.
Lauer’s only months removed from success. He owned a career-best 3.18 ERA last season and was even better in the postseason, authoring 5 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Dodgers in the World Series.
Dodgers reliever Will Klein, who threw opposite Lauer in the 18-inning Game 3 of the World Series, was one of the first people he met when he joined the team in San Diego.
“He introduced himself, and I was like, ‘All right, I know you, I remember you,’” Lauer said.
Coming off of winning the pennant, Lauer’s ERA ballooned this year to 6.96 ERA. In mid-April, the Blue Jays tried using an opener in front of Lauer when he faced the Diamondbacks. And his reaction made headlines.
“To be real blunt, I hate it,” he told reporters then. “I can’t stand it. But you work with what you got.”
This week, surrounded by different set of reporters in the visitors dugout at Petco Park earlier this week after joining the Dodgers, Lauer gave a knowing smile when the topic of usage with Toronto came up.
“There was no ill will there, there was no hurt feelings,” he said of his comments on openers. “It was a very simple question, I thought, how do you feel about an opener? I think if you ask most starters in the league, they would probably have the same response, that they don’t like it. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to do it. It doesn’t mean that I’m not a team player.”
He said he cleared it up with Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker and manager John Schneider right away.
“I’m not going to have a problem if there is somebody in front of me,” he said. “It’s part of the game, it’s become part of the game. And we’re all here to win ballgames. It’s not about any individual player. So that was a lot more than I expected that to turn into.”
So far, Lauer has praised the Dodgers’ communication. And he’s been reunited with pitching coach Mark Prior, who was the Padres’ minor-league pitching coordinator when Lauer began his professional career in San Diego’s system.
When Lauer diagnoses his season, he sees two sets of issues working in concert.
“A couple things had compounded for me, and it was just kind of eating at me a little bit too much,” Lauer told The Times. “And I work with a mental skills coach and stuff, to where that shouldn’t happen. But I wasn’t mentally my best, which was making me not my best physically, which made me start to want to tinker.”
Lauer feels like he has a hold on the mental side. Now it’s working from the ground up to get his delivery back in sync. The goal, as Lauer explains it, is to find positions that create tension in his delivery, and pattern them until they feel like second nature.
Making mechanical adjustments during the season, however, tends to be two steps forward, one step back.
Lauer isn’t expected to have it all figured out for his start Tuesday. The Dodgers just want to see him compete with whatever he has that day.
“We compete, and then we go back to the process,” Lauer said. “…Then hopefully the process over time becomes more patterned, more grooved. And then it becomes less process, more just fine-tuning to compete.”
The beloved Disney+ show recently returned to screens with a super-sized season two and a total of 12 episodes for audiences to get their teeth stuck into.
The new series of Rivals picked up straight off the back of the last outing as Tony Baddingham (played by David Tennant) planned to exact revenge on his Venturer TV rivals Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Declan O’ Hara (Aidan Turner).
Season two also brought into the fold some new faces in the form of Maxim Ays from The Larkins and Sanditon as Sebbie Carlisle and Wolfblood actor Bobby Lockwood portraying Dommie Carlisle.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s Agent Carter and Heartstopper star Hayley Atwell took on the part of the MP’s ex-wife and mother to his two children, Helen Gordon.
But what about her husband Malise Gordon, who was also Campbell-Black’s former show-jumping coach and mentor?
Here’s the lowdown on the star playing Malise in Rivals season two.
Who plays Malise in Rivals?
Malise is played by Hollywood star Rupert Everett, who is perhaps best known for 90s romcom My Best Friend’s Wedding alongside Julia Roberts and period drama An Ideal Husband.
With a career dating back to the 80s, Everett has had roles across film and TV and various genres.
Some of his previous projects include BBC ’s The Musketeers in which he starred opposite Rivals star Luke Pasqualino, The Happy Prince, Parade’s End, My Policeman, Everybody Loves Diamond, and The Serpent Queen.
Some of his more recent roles have included appearing in Nicola Coughlan ’s Channel 4 series Big Mood, Netflix ’s Emily in Paris and Madfabulous.
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A Disney+ subscribtion now starts at £5.99 per month and provides access to hit series like Rivals, Only Murders in the Building and The Bear, plus countless titles from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and more.
According to IMDb, Everett will be appeared in The Liar, The Resurrection of the Christ parts 2 and two and Out Late.
Speaking to the Radio Times about the dynamic between Campbell-Black and the Gordons, star Hassell teased that the couple had “really strong, fairly negative feelings” about the amorous politician and former Olympian.
Despite this, the pair were also “protective” towards Campbell-Black even though he had “really really hurt” them endlessly and they were “at the end of their tether”.
On the eve of the City Section championship baseball game at Dodger Stadium, let’s explore a sometimes forgotten character trait: Patience.
When JJ Saffie walks onto hallowed ground Saturday as a starting left fielder for 10-time City champion El Camino Real High in the Open Division championship game against Birmingham, he will be finishing a journey few want to travel these days.
He spent three years on the junior varsity team waiting and grinding before getting his chance to start on varsity this season.
“Very patient,” he said. “Freshman year, played frosh-soph, called up for a few JV games. Sophomore year, on and off starter on JVs. Junior year is when it started clicking for me. I found my bat, I found the style I like to play, I started hitting real good.”
He was part of an outstanding JV team his junior year, called up as a pinch runner for the playoffs. He developed power and a knack for hitting balls over El Camino Real’s left-field fence during batting practice.
“I’ve hit two windows and six cars,” said the 18-year-old, who likes to cause mayhem for insurance companies.
El Camino Real celebrates a 4-3 win over Granada Hills to earn a trip to Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
(Craig Weston)
He’s hit two home runs this season and become a key player for the Royals.
Now he gets to start at Dodger Stadium, a moment every high school baseball player in the City Section dreams of reaching.
“I’m a big believer in good things will come to those who are patient,” he said. “I knew I needed to be patient, work on my game and eventually success would come my way and I’d have my opportunities and here’s my opportunity. I’m trying to prove that Saturday.”
El Camino Real needed a two-run single by RJ De La Rosa in the bottom of the sixth inning on Wednesday to defeat Granada Hills 4-3 in the semifinals at Cal State Northridge.
“I saw my pitch,” De La Rosa said. “I wanted to take advantage. It was the bottom of the sixth. The team needed me most and I pulled through. It was an amazing moment. These boys are my brothers. I will fight for them. I will do everything for them. I can’t wait to make some memories at Dodger Stadium.”
For Saffie, staying and fighting to get better rather than running away from a challenge is a great lesson for others.
“I had a few people tell me to transfer,” he said. “But my sister came here, my dad. I want to prove myself at this school.”
Top-seeded Birmingham will have junior Nathan Soto starting on the mound in the 1 p.m. game. It’s a big assignment and he’ll be working on his mental part of the game.
“It’s just another game,” he said after the Patriots’ 4-1 semifinal win over Carson. “I think it’s everyone’s dream to pitch there, but you have to keep it as a normal game.”
Pitcher Carlos Acuna grinded out a complete game in Birmingham’s 4-1 win over Carson to send the Patriots to Dodger Stadium.
(Craig Weston)
Birmingham can thank Carlos Acuna for putting together a sophomore season to remember. His pitching season is done. He finished with an 11-0 record after a complete-game win against Carson.
“It’s an amazing season he’s having,” coach Matt Mowry said.
In six of the seven innings on Wednesday, Carson got the leadoff batter aboard, forcing Acuna to work extra hard while throwing 102 pitches.
“He was on the edge of coming out,” Mowry said.
Acuna wouldn’t let him.
“I love this team,” Acuna said. “I want to play one last game.”
He’ll start on Saturday at second or third base in a game matching two of the most successful programs in City baseball history. El Camino Real is seeking a record 11th title. Birmingham wants its ninth title.
The 10 a.m. game at Dodger Stadium has Verdugo Hills taking on Taft in the Division I final.
Fans will come for the sun, the hot dogs, the fun of cheering on someone they know or enjoying a moment of distraction at Los Angeles’ most sacred stadium.
Just remember those are teenagers out there who’ve sacrificed and spent years working toward this moment. There’s no losers when you get to play at Dodger Stadium as a high school kid.
For Saffie, it validates his belief in trusting the process and trusting himself. He didn’t run when the going got tough. He persevered and learned a valuable lesson: patience still pays off.
