shark

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

They still have a chance for a late addition.

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

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

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

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

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

That could open the door for Wrobleski and Scott.

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

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

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

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

Wrobleski, however, strengthened his.

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

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

Justin Wrobleski was great for seven innings Tuesday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

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

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

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

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

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

Defense unravels late

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

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

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

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

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

Ohtani on track

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

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

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

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

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

June 13 (UPI) — A woman is in critical condition after a shark attack at a popular Sydney beach Saturday, and she was saved by a nearby lifeguard.

The 35-year-old woman hasn’t been identified. She had serious bite injuries on a leg and an arm from the morning attack at Coogee Beach, a police statement said. She and two friends were swimming about 100 feet from the shore, when she was bitten, ambulance official Michael Corlis said. Lifeguard Tony Waller said the shark was about 11 feet long.

Lifeguard Charlie Verco told The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney that he saw the shark while he was on his paddleboard.

“I saw the shark come out of the water and just the size of it shocked me,” Verco said. “I kept paddling towards her and the shark took her underwater and I was going, ‘What do I do now?’ A couple of seconds later, she popped up again.”

Verco said the victim was too weak to get onto the paddleboard, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the beach. Other people helped them get to shore.

Ian Ferguson, an off-duty doctor at the beach with his family, said there was a “big cloud of blood in the water.”

Ferguson and other bystanders applied tourniquets and gave first aid to the woman on the beach. Her leg bite was about a foot wide, and her bone was exposed, he told The Telegraph. The wound on her arm was similar.

They got her to a nearby rugby field where she was flown by helicopter to a hospital.

This is the fourth shark attack in Australia in the past five weeks. Three men have been killed by sharks while spearfishing.

On June 6, a man, 35, died after he was bitten while spearfishing near Michaelmas Island on the western coast. A 38-year-old man died after he was bitten by a 13-foot shark on May 16, then a 39-year-old man was killed in Queensland, in the northeast part of the country, on May 24.

In January, a 12-year-old boy died in the hospital after being attacked by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.

Since 1791, when records began, there have been nearly 1,300 shark attacks in Australia, with 260 of them fatal. Australia has averaged two to three fatal shark attacks per year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database. There were five last year.

Shark attacks have become more common as water sports like surfing and scuba diving have become more popular.

The man was fishing when he was bitten by a shark, police say.

A man has died after he was bitten by a shark off the south coast of Michaelmas Island in Western Australia.

The 35-year-old was attacked while spearfishing with his family close to the town of Albany, police said.

The man was treated by paramedics but died of his wounds.

Police said a 4.5metre (15ft) shark of an unknown species was spotted by a witness near Michaelmas Island, which does not receive many visitors.

The state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development urged people to take “additional caution” in the area and to stay abreast of shark sightings.

This is the fourth shark killing this year in Australia.

Last month, a man died after being attacked by a great white off Rottnest Island near the city of Perth, and another man died in a shark attack off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.

In January, a 12-year-old boy was killed by a shark in Sydney Harbour.

Australian scientists believe increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are shifting sharks’ migratory patterns, which may be contributing to a rise in attacks.

The majority of shark attacks occur along Australia’s east and southeast coasts, with an average of about 20 incidents recorded each year, according to the Institute of Health and Welfare.

May 24 (UPI) — The second fatal shark attack in less than two weeks in Australia has claimed the life of a 39-year-old man who was out spearfishing with friends at the Great Barrier Reef, authorities said Sunday.

Queensland Police identified the victim as a resident of Mount Sheridan, Australia, a suburb of Cairns, who died from a critical head injury inflicted by a bull shark while boating with three companions at Kennedy Shoal along the Barrier Reef on Saturday.

The fisherman was killed only eight days after a Perth man was fatally attacked by a shark while spearfishing in the water at a tourism hotspot in Western Australia.

Queensland Police Inspector Elaine Burns told reporters during a briefing Sunday the victim was hauled back onto his 23-foot boat by his friends, who then raced to shore in an attempt to save his life.

They were met by first responders at the Hull River boat ramp but it was too late.

“This is a tragic incident for everyone involved, and we will continue to provide support to the family and those who were on board with him,” Burns said, adding that the witnesses were deeply shaken by what they had seen.

“That’s quite a terrifying thing to see happen right in front of you,” she said.

Bob Katter, who represents the far northern Queensland district in Australia’s Parliament, took to social media to decry the latest shark fatality and called for the seaborne predators to be culled.

“This is a completely unnecessary heartbreaking tragedy, and all North Queensland mourns with this family tonight,” he wrote. “We understand there be more clarity over the coming days about what eventuated, but locals have been raising concerns about the exploding shark populations, particularly bull sharks, which are completely out of control, for years.”

Katter cited a local charter boat operator who told him that as they were reeling in a Spanish mackerel, six bull sharks began fighting over it.

“So much for them being a so-called endangered species,” he said, adding, “Another North Queenslander is dead. Another family is shattered. And still the people sitting in cushy air conditioned offices in Brisbane and Canberra think they know better than the people who live and work in these waters.”

But Richard Fitzpatrick, a marine biologist with James Cook University in Cairns, cautioned that the true size of the bull shark population remains unknown.

“We don’t know the population structure for these sharks at all,” he told 7News Australia. “We simply do not know how many are out there,” he added, noting that the school and government partners are only just now about to launch the first comprehensive bull shark population study covering Australia’s entire East Coast.

The pooled data sets will allow researchers to “finally work out what that population structure is.”

The man was rushed to ⁠shore after being bitten on Sunday near ​Kennedy Shoal, but died shortly afterwards.

A man has died after a shark attack off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia, police say.

The man was rushed to ⁠shore after being bitten on Sunday near Kennedy Shoal, a shallow reef about 45km (28 miles) off the coast, a Queensland Police Service spokesperson said.

The man was met by an ambulance but died shortly afterwards, the spokesperson said without identifying him.

According to local media, beaches in the area have been closed while police assess safety conditions.

The incident is the second fatal shark encounter in Australia in a little more than a week.

On May 16, a 38-year-old man died after being bitten by a shark near Perth off the west coast.

The majority of shark attacks occur along Australia’s east and southeast coasts with an average of about 20 incidents recorded each year, according to the Institute of Health and Welfare.