shines

DETROIT — As Tarik Skubal crossed the field from the bullpen, he had to crane his neck to catch part of the tribute video playing on the massive screen behind him.

By the time he reached the Dodgers dugout, the crowd rose to give him an ovation. Skubal controlled his expression and wiped his face with the towel draped over his neck.

Less than four weeks ago, he said goodbye to the only organization he’d known — the Detroit Tigers drafted him in 2018 out of Seattle University. Now, he was back in the ballpark he’d called home for six years.

In the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Friday, Skubal showed why he was widely considered the best player available at the trade deadline, holding the Tigers to one run and four hits over six innings. The Dodgers’ offense continued to scuffle but did just enough to bounce back from a three-game sweep in Atlanta — the 14th time this month they played a game decided by a single run.

Skubal’s reception included some boos (and “Scuuuub”s) as he took the mound. Even though the trade was out of Skubal’s control, a faction of the Tigers fan base — including this reporter’s rideshare driver from the airport — was upset Skubal never reached an agreement for a contract extension with Detroit (62-72).

The Tigers’ last publicly discussed extension offer was four years and $75 million at the end of 2024 — which drastically pales in comparison to the contract he’s expected to garner in free agency this offseason.

The mutual affection between the player and Detroit, however, took center stage Friday, even as Skubal tamed the Tigers’ offense.

He quickly reined in his emotions. After a delay for a PitchCom malfunction, Skubal gave up a leadoff double to Detroit’s Gleyber Torres on a fastball down the middle. But then the left-hander retired the next 12 batters.

Skubal struck out the side in the third inning, getting Max Clark to swing through a changeup, Javier Báez to chase a high fastball and Torres to watch an off-speed pitch clip the bottom of the zone.

That streak ended with a double up the left-field line from Eduardo Valencia, who turned on an inside slider to lead off the fifth. Then with two outs, Clark stayed back on an outside fastball and sent it the other way for a triple that drove in the game’s first run.

The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.

Skubal induced Báez to fly out to center field and punched the palm of his glove on his way off the field.

The Dodgers (81-54) missed a chance to tie with one out in the sixth, when Kyle Tucker was thrown out at home trying to score on a pinch-hit single by Kiké Hernández. But they salvaged the inning when Teoscar Hernández drew a walk and Miguel Rojas smoked a single through the infield to tie the score.

In the seventh, the Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs and failed to squeeze in a run.

Evan Phillips took over on the mound in the bottom of the inning. Skubal’s pitch count stood at only 83, but he had thrown 100 pitches in each of his previous two starts.

The Dodgers finally took the lead in the eighth, manufacturing a run with singles from Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman on either side of a sacrifice bunt from Ben Rortvedt.

Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, The OurCoop County Ground, Derby (day two)

Durham 283: Clark 64, Lees 63, Stokes 53; Aitchison 5-70

Derbyshire 127-6: Jewell 28, Montgomery 28; Stokes 2-14

Derbyshire (3pts) trail Durham (3pts) by 156 runs with four first innings wickets remaining

Match scorecard

The Ben Stokes show rolled into Derby on a pulsating second day of the County Championship match between Derbyshire and Durham at the OurCoop County Ground.

The former England captain delivered another top all-round performance, scoring 53 with 11 fours and then taking a wicket with his first ball.

He had figures of 2-14 but then pulled up at the start of his fifth over and had to leave the field although he was back on before the close.

Ben Aitchison starred for the hosts, taking 5-70 to bowl the Division Two leaders out for 283 which included half-centuries from Alex Lees and Graham Clark.

That looked an even better score when Derbyshire collapsed to 127-6, 156 behind, with Matthew Potts and Will Rhodes both taking two wickets.

The prospect of seeing Stokes bat put a few on the gate and it was not long before he was striding to the middle.

Aitchison was getting the ball to nip around and he moved one in to trap David Bedingham lbw in the third over of a sunny morning.

Stokes edged his second ball just short of the slips but a lofted drive off Brett Randell suggested he was in the mood to repeat his hundred on this ground in the One-Day Cup last month.

Aitchison had Lees dropped on 58 by Brooke Guest diving across first slip, and he beat Stokes, who responded by glancing the next ball to the fine leg boundary.

Stokes moved into Bazball mode when he dropped to one knee to drive Nick Potts gloriously through the covers before a dismissive pull brought him another boundary.

It was, however, far from a smooth ride, with a clip off Anuj Dal just evading mid-wicket before an edge through the slips took him to a 56-ball fifty, before Dal pouched a leading edge in his follow-through to reduce Durham to 182-5.

Clark mirrored Stokes, hitting two sixes in a 57-ball half-century and with Ollie Robinson, took Durham to 260 before the second new ball gave the game another twist.

Aitchison got the rewards he deserved when he had Clark caught at second slip to end a stand of 78 from 129 balls and then beat Robinson’s drive.

Both Brydon Carse and Potts went cheaply, the latter bowled by a beauty from Aitchison who became the first Derbyshire bowler for 61 years to take five wickets in an innings in four consecutive first-class matches.

Durham had lost their last five wickets for 23 and Derbyshire’s openers soon discovered there was plenty there for the pace bowlers.

Harry Came and Caleb Jewell were beaten numerous times by Potts and Carse but clung on until Stokes inevitably broke through.

His first ball drew Came into a defensive push which flew to third slip and in his fourth over he swung one in to beat Jewell’s drive as he went for 28.

There was concern when Stokes went off feeling his lower left side but was back on after Rhodes removed Wayne Madsen.

Rhodes then tempted Matthew Montgomery (28) into a drive before Potts struck twice late on, removing Martin Andersson for 21 and Guest for one as Durham again demonstrated their promotion ambitions.

Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

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

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

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

Injury updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEW YORK — When Varun Venkatesh cast his ballot in New York’s primary this week, he thought about “a good litmus test for me as a voter.” He wanted to know what the candidates are doing for the Palestinian cause.

The 27-year-old Brooklyn resident decided to support Claire Valdez, who was backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, over Antonio Reynoso, another progressive who was the choice of the Democratic establishment, because she had “a clear and more consistent stance.”

Valdez triumphed in her congressional primary, as did two other insurgent candidates endorsed by Mamdani, and Israel was a key issue in each of the races. Now the question for Democrats is how many more voters like Venkatesh are out there as the party charts its path toward the November midterms and the next presidential election.

The war in Gaza, which began during Joe Biden’s presidency and undermined Kamala Harris’ bid to replace him, remains an open wound, and how Democrats attempt to stitch it closed will help define their future. A step in any direction risks alienating pieces of the party’s unwieldy coalition at a time when it’s trying to unify around the mission of retaking control of Congress.

“The Israel question has become defining,” said Matt Bennett, who leads the centrist Democratic group Third Way and frequently criticizes progressives as jeopardizing outreach to independent voters. He said some in Mamdani’s camp have embraced “a new level of extremism,” warning that “Republicans are very good at weaponizing crazy ideas on the fringe against mainstream candidates.”

Mamdani has no such concerns as he tries to reshape the Democratic Party from the mayor’s office of the country’s largest city. He sharply criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for defending what he calls “a status quo of immorality” in Gaza, and voters who celebrated his slate’s victories on Tuesday night chanted “Free Palestine.”

The mayor, meanwhile, argues that New York should shape Democrats’ search for their national identity in the coming years.

“When does the race for 2028 begin?” Mamdani asked last week on a stage with his slate of candidates. “It starts now.”

Israel-Palestine conflict animates Democrats’ left flank

Even for a party accustomed to searing debates between progressives and moderates, the schism over Israel has been blistering. Although the U.S. alliance with Israel once had bipartisan support, the ascendancy of Israel’s right wing led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strained those ties over the years. Then the war in Gaza shredded them.

Biden was denounced as “Genocide Joe” by pro-Palestinian supporters, who shifted their attention to Harris once she replaced him as the Democratic nominee for president two years ago.

“She was trying to the right thing,” said Jamie Harrison, who led the Democratic National Committee at the time. “It was a hard and awkward place to be in.”

Harrison said the war in Gaza helped cost Harris the state of Michigan, which has a sizable Arab American population. However, he doubts that it was a defining national issue then or now.

“It’s one thing to be in New York. But I can tell you that most places, including where I am in South Carolina, it’s not what people are talking about,” he said. “They are concerned about affording gas and groceries and housing.”

Harrison expects Democrats to look for middle ground in the future, which includes “still supporting Israel’s sovereignty” while calling for “reducing U.S. aid to Israel and changing the nature of the relationship.”

One primary victor blasted the ‘hug Bibi’ strategy

Finding middle ground has been difficult so far, as demonstrated by the primary in New York’s 10th congressional district.

Brad Lander, the former city comptroller backed by Mamdani, successfully challenged U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in the race.

Both candidates are Jewish, and both have criticized the Israeli government. But Lander says the war in Gaza is a genocide, and Goldman does not.

“Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake,” Lander said in his primary victory speech. He added, “We cannot keep paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars. Democratic voters are saying this, loud and clear.”

Ari Rassouli, a voter in the district, said the incumbent’s views on Israel were “one of the many reasons that I didn’t like Dan Goldman.”

Describing the war as a genocide, she said “a candidate that is in support of that has no place in our democracy at all.”

While talking to reporters on Tuesday, Lander acknowledged that Israel was among the top issues along with affordability and immigration.

“I like talking to Jewish voters who feel anxiety about the times we live in and say, ‘I have these values, I want to treat everyone like they’re equal and with dignity and created in God’s image. How do we navigate the times we’re in?’” he said.

He added with a smile, “Those are probably the longest conversations at the polls.” ___

Barrow, Peoples and Offenhartz write for the Associated Press. AP writers Anthony Izaguirre and Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.

It was a game eight years in the making. The first World Cup match on American soil in more than a generation and the start of a tournament that has the potential to alter the direction of soccer in this country for the next generation.

And the U.S. seized on every bit of that opportunity Friday, with Christian Pulisic setting up two goals and Folarin Balogun scoring twice in his World Cup debut, sparking an impressive 4-1 victory over Paraguay in a game that was far more one-sided than the score indicated.

The U.S., which needed a big effort to start the tournament, was on the front foot from the start, going in front to stay in the seventh minute — although it was Paraguayan midfielder Damián Bobadilla who got credit for the goal after stepping in front of Balogun and deflecting in a cross from Weston McKennie.

Pulisic, the American star who is under intense pressure to perform in this tournament, set up the goal, pushing the ball between a pair of defenders before poking it on for McKennie in the center of the box. Bobadilla then did the rest, inadvertently sticking his right foot in front of the ball and bouncing it by Paraguayan keeper Orlando Gil.

Balogun appeared to double the lead coming out of the hydration break midway through the opening half, but the goal was negated by an offside call. That only delayed the second goal, however, with Balogun making it 2-0 by one-timing in a perfect feed from Pulisic from the penalty spot in the 31st minute.

Balogun added to the U.S. advantage just before the intermission, running on to a perfectly weighted through ball from Malik Tillman, stepping through a challenge from Omar Alderete entering the penalty area and turning around Paraguayan captain Gustavo Gómez before left-footing a shot into the top left corner to complete his first brace for the national team.

Gil was just a spectator on the play, with no chance to best the save. The goal marked the first time Paraguay had given up three scores in a World Cup game — much less one half — since 2002 and it came at the end of what was arguably the best opening 45 minutes a U.S. team has played in the tournament in decades.

Gio Reyna scored the fourth U.S. goal on the final play of the game.

Pulisic left in favor of Sebastian Berhalter to start the second but the U.S. continued to dominate in every way it was possible to dominate, controlling the ball for nearly 60 of the 90 minutes and completing more than twice as many passes. Paraguay’s first shot on goal didn’t come until the 73rd minute when Mauricio, a halftime substitute, took advantage of a slow-reacting U.S. defense to pull a goal back.

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino also got a solid game out of center back Chris Richards, playing for the first time since tearing two ligaments in his left ankle a month ago.

The Americans will face Australia in the second of three group-stage games next Friday in Seattle, where a draw will all but guarantee them a spot in the round-of-32, something Pulisic said should be just the first objective for this team.

This World Cup is the largest and most ambitious sporting event in history, with three host countries — Canada and Mexico, in addition to the U.S. — and a record 48 teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across four time zones. A long run by the American team, playing on home soil, could excite a nation and give soccer the kind of boost it hasn’t seen since 1994, the last time a World Cup was played here.

It could also change the narrative of a tournament whose run-up was clouded by outrageously high ticket prices, travel bans, the threat of ICE raids at tournament venues and the war in the Middle East, the first to pit a World Cup host against a World Cup qualifier.

And the U.S. portion of that tournament opened with pomp despite those circumstances, with Thai pop star Lisa, Nigerian recording artist Rema and Brazilian singer Anitta headlining a 10-minute mini concert staged before a massive replica of the World Cup trophy set over a blue map of the U.S. Katy Perry mounted a stage of her own an hour later to debut her song “Wonder” as the flags of the 48 participating countries circled around her.

President Trump did not attend the game, just as Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum skipped her country’s opener Thursday in Mexico City and prime minister Mark Carney missed Canada’s first game Friday in Toronto. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took Trump’s place in the Hollywood-heavy crowd of 70,492 that packed SoFi Stadium, one which included Tom Cruise, David and Victoria Beckham, Halle Berry, Rob Lowe, Becky G, Jaime Foxx, Paris Hilton, Bill Gates, Justin Trudeau and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

That crowd was a sea of blue and red — the U.S. and Paraguay share the same colors — but the cheering was primarily for the Americans since Paraguay rarely mounted a threat.