Sports

From Bill Plaschke: They pull giant boxing gloves over aging, sometimes shaking hands.

They approach a black punching bag on weary, sometimes wobbly feet.

Then they wail.

They hit the bag with a left-handed jab, a right-handed reverse, a hook, another hook, an uppercut, another jab, bam, bam, bam.

They end the flurry with kicks, side kicks, thrust kicks, wild kicks, their legs suddenly strong and purposeful and fueled by a strength that once seemed impossible.

Outside of this small gym in a nondescript office park in Monrovia, they are elderly people dealing with the motion-melting nightmare that is Parkinson’s disease.

But inside the walls of Kaizen Martial Arts & Fitness, in a program known as Kaizen Kinetics, they are heavyweight champs.

Ranging in age from 50 to 90, spanning the spectrum of swift strides to wheelchairs, they are the most courageous athletes I’ve met.

I am in awe of them, perhaps because I am one of them.

I, too, am living with Parkinson’s disease.

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Indiana 111, at Oklahoma City 110 (box score, story)
at Oklahoma City 123, Indiana 107 (box score, story)
Wednesday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

UCLA BASEBALL

From Benjamin Royer: Since coming to Westwood, Roch Cholowsky has had Omaha on his mind.

The Big Ten Player of the Year — a projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB draft by some analysts — turned Charles Schwab Field in Omaha into a playground during the Big Ten tournament, winning player of the tournament honors despite UCLA not claiming the championship.

So far, in the NCAA tournament, Cholowsky had been uncharacteristically quiet for his standards. He still made hard plays look easy as a “premium shortstop” — as UCLA coach John Savage glowed about his defensive skills — but his bat wasn’t making its usual noise.

Cholowsky finally had his moment Sunday.

Cholowsky’s RBI single off that strike in the fifth, a part of his two-for-five day, clinched UCLA’s spot in the Men’s College World Series with a 7-0 victory over Texas San Antonio. The two-game sweep of the Roadrunners gave the Bruins their sixth berth to Omaha and first since 2013, when they won it all.

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DODGERS

From Kevin Baxter: The Dodgers have sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound to give a slumping team a lift countless times during his 18-year career. And they’ve rarely been disappointed.

They did it again on a sultry Sunday afternoon in St. Louis and once again Kershaw delivered, earning his first win of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals that broke a two-game losing streak and ended a slide that had seen the Dodgers lose five of their last seven.

“He’s been a stopper for many years. He’s been a staff ace for many years. He’s going to the Hall of Fame,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “So he understands. And he’s going to be prepared.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

George Kirby struck out a career-high 14 during seven innings of two-hit ball, and the Seattle Mariners snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Angels on Sunday.

Kirby (1-3) issued no walks while retiring both his first 11 and his final 10 batters. His strikeouts were the most by a Mariners pitcher since James Paxton had 16 in May 2018, and he matched Miami’s Max Meyer for the most strikeouts in a major league game this season.

Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer in the fourth for the Halos, who struck out 18 times overall while losing for only the second time in six games.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

LAFC

Denis Bouanga had a goal and two assists, Eddie Segura scored his first goal since 2020 and LAFC extended its MLS unbeaten streak to nine games with a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on Sunday night at BMO Stadium.

Bouanga converted from the penalty spot in the 59th to give LAFC (7-4-5), which had 56% possession and outshot Kansas City 21-5, a 2-1 lead.

Dejan Joveljic scored a goal for the fourth consecutive game when he ran onto a through ball played ahead by Manu García, and scored from near the penalty spot to make it 1-0 in the 39th minute.

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LAFC summary

MLS standings

FRENCH OPEN

Coco Gauff won the French Open for the first time by defeating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 in Saturday’s final for her second Grand Slam singles title.

The second-ranked Gauff made fewer mistakes in a contest that was full of tension and momentum swings to get the better of Sabalenka for the second time in a Grand Slam final. She also came from a set down to beat the Belarusian in the 2023 U.S. Open final.

Gauff raised the winner’s trophy aloft, then kissed it several times. She held her hand over her heart when the U.S. national anthem played. She is the first American woman to win at Roland-Garros since Serena Williams in 2015.

She then thanked her parents for doing everything “from washing my clothes to keeping me grounded and giving me the belief that I can do it.”

“You guys probably believe in me more than myself,” Gauff said in her on-court speech.

It was the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 final in Paris since 2013, when Williams defeated Maria Sharapova, and just the second in the last 30 years.

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————

Carlos Alcaraz rallied from two sets down and saved three match points to beat Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) on Sunday and win the French Open title for a second straight year.

Alcaraz, who won his fifth Grand Slam tournament in as many finals, produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the clay-court tournament.

It was even better than his performance here last year, when he came back from 2-1 down in sets in the final against Alexander Zverev. But this time Alcaraz emulated Novak Djokovic’s feat from the 2021 final at Roland-Garros, where he fought back from two sets down to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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Tennis great Stan Smith on life lessons, Arthur Ashe’s legacy and his namesake shoes

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINAL

Edmonton vs. Florida
at Edmonton 4, Florida 3 (OT) (summary, story)
Florida 5, at Edmonton 4 (2 OT) (summary, story)
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1888 — James McLaughlin sets the record for wins by a jockey in the Belmont Stakes, six, when he rides Sir Dixon to a 12-length victory. McLaughlin’s record is matched by Eddie Arcaro in 1955.

1899 — Jim Jeffries knocks out Bob Fitzsimmons in the 11th round in New York to win the world heavyweight title.

1930 — Paavo Nurmi runs world record 6 mile (29:36.4).

1934 — Olin Dutra edges Gene Sarazen by one stroke to win the U.S. Open.

1940 — Lawson Little beats Gene Sarazen by three strokes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open golf title.

1945 — Hoop Jr. wins the Kentucky Derby, which is run one month after a national wartime government ban on racing is lifted.

1946 — Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in 8 for heavyweight boxing title.

1973 — Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, wins the Belmont Stakes in record time to capture the Triple Crown. Secretariat sets a world record on the 1½-mile course with 2:24, and a record for largest margin of victory in the Belmont, 31 lengths.

1978 — Larry Holmes scores a 15-round split decision over Ken Norton for the WBC heavyweight title in New York.

1979 — Coastal, ridden by Ruben Hernandez, spoils Spectacular Bid’s attempt at the Triple Crown with a 3¼-length victory over Golden Act. Spectacular Bid finishes third.

1984 — Swale, ridden by Laffit Pincay, wins the Belmont Stakes by four lengths over Pine Circle. Swale dies eight days later.

1984 — French Open Women’s Tennis: Martina Navratilova beats Chris Evert 6-3, 6-1; 2nd women in Open Era to hold all 4 Grand Slam titles at once.

1985 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 29 points to lead the Lakers to a 111-100 victory over the Boston Celtics and the NBA title in six games.

1990 — Monica Seles holds off four set points in the first set tiebreaker and goes on to become the youngest winner of the French Open, beating two-time champion Steffi Graf 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. Seles is 16 years, six months.

1991 — In the first all-American men’s final at the French Open since 1954, Jim Courier rallies to beat Andre Agassi 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 for his first Grand Slam title.

1993 — Patrick Roy makes 18 saves and the Montreal Canadiens capture their 24th Stanley Cup, beating the Kings 4-1 in Game 5.

2001 — Stanley Cup Final, Pepsi Center, Denver, CO: Colorado Avalanche beat defending champion New Jersey Devils, 3-1 for 4-3 series win; Avalanche 2nd title.

2001 — Jennifer Capriati beats Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 to win the French Open, her second consecutive Grand Slam title.

2003 — The New Jersey Devils end the Mighty Ducks’ surreal season, winning the Stanley Cup with a 3-0 victory. Mike Rupp, who had never appeared in a playoff until Game 4, scores the first goal and sets up Jeff Friesen for the other two.

2007 — Rags to Riches, a filly ridden by John Velazquez, outduels Curlin in a breathtaking stretch run and won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first of her sex to take the final leg of the Triple Crown in more than a century.

2010 — Chicago’s Patrick Kane sneaks the puck past Michael Leighton 4:10 into overtime, stunning Philadelphia and lifting the Blackhawks to a 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 for their first Stanley Cup championship since 1961.

2013 — Rafael Nadal becomes the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the French Open final, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

2018 — Justify becomes the 13th Triple Crown winner by winning the Belmont Stakes with Mike Smith aboard.

2019 — French Open Men’s Tennis: Rafael Nadal beats Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1; 3rd straight French singles title; 12th overall; first to win 12 singles titles at same Grand Slam; 18th major.

2022 — The controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series gets underway at the Centurion Club, Hertfordshire; PGA suspends 17 participating players.

2024 — French Open Men’s Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz becomes the youngest man to win grand slams on all three surfaces, coming back to beat Alexander Zverev 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in a final lasting 4 hours 15 minutes

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1901 — The New York Giants set a major league record with 31 hits in beating Cincinnati 25-13. Al Selbach of the Giants went 6-for-7 with two doubles and four singles and scored four runs.

1906 — Boston snapped a 19-game losing streak by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3.

1914 — Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates got the 3,000th hit of his career off Philadelphia’s Erskine Mayer in a 3-1 loss to the Phillies at the Baker Bowl. Wagner’s hit, a double, came in the ninth. Wagner joined Cap Anson as the only members of the 3,000-hit club.

1935 — The St. Louis Cardinals became the 10th team in major league history to score a run in every inning in a 13-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.

1946 — Commissioner Happy Chandler imposed five-year suspensions on players who jumped to the Mexican League and three-year suspensions for those who broke the reserve clause.

1946 — The New York Giants’ Mel Ott became the first manager to be ejected in both ends of a doubleheader. The Pittsburgh Pirates won both games, 2-1 and 5-1.

1963 — Playing the first Sunday night game in major league history because of excessive heat during the day, the Houston Colt .45s handed the San Francisco Giants their seventh straight loss in Houston, 3-0. Turk Farrell and Skinny Brown pitched the shutout.

1966 — Rich Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, Tony Oliva, Don Mincher and Harmon Killebrew homered in the seventh inning for the Minnesota Twins in a 9-4 victory over the Kansas City Athletics.

1979 — Nolan Ryan struck out 16 batters as the Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 9-1. It was the 21st time in his career he struck out 15 or more batters in one game.

1986 — White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver (306) and Angels hurler Don Sutton (298) had the highest composite win total (604) for opposing pitchers since 1926, when Walter Johnson (406) faced Red Faber (197). Sutton pitched a two-hit shutout to beat the White Sox 3-0.

1990 — Eddie Murray of the Dodgers tied Mickey Mantle’s record by homering from each side of the plate in the same game for the 10th time in his career. The Dodgers beat the Padres 5-4 in 11 innings.

1998 — Cecil Fielder of the Angels and Yamil Benitez of the Diamondbacks each hit grand slams in the same inning in Anaheim’s 10-8 win over Arizona. It was the first time both teams hit grand slams in the same inning since 1992.

2008 — Ken Griffey Jr. became the sixth player in baseball history to reach 600 homers with a drive off Mark Hendrickson in the first inning of the Cincinnati Reds’ 9-4 victory over the Florida Marlins.

2014 — Lonnie Chisenhall had nine RBIs and three home runs in a five-hit game, Michael Brantley scored five times and the Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers 17-7.

2015 — Chris Heston pitched the first no-hitter in his 13th career start, leading the San Francisco Giants over the New York Mets 5-0. The rookie allowed three baserunners — all on hit batters. He also had a two-run single for his first big league RBIs and finished with two more hits than the Mets.

2019 — The Nationals accomplish a very rare feat as four consecutive batters hit solo homers in the 8th inning in Petco Park in San Diego to break a 1-1 tie. Pinch-hitter Howie Kendrick starts things off against Craig Stammen, and is followed by Trea Turner, Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon, who all go yard. This is only the ninth time in major league history this has happened, and the Nats were the last to do so, on July 27, 2017.

2019 — Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz shot in the back while visiting in his native Dominican Republic.

2022 — The Twins open the bottom of the 1st against the Yankees with three consecutive homers off Gerrit Cole at Target Field, by Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa. This is the first time in franchise history this has happened.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

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Khan Younis, Gaza – In the ruins of his home in Khan Younis, 75-year-old Shaker Safi gently thumbs through fading photographs of his son Mohammed’s sporting career.

Medals, trophies, team huddles, and group photos of young athletes coached by Mohammed now serve as a haunting memorial to a dream destroyed by war.

On November 15, 2023, Mohammed Safi – a football coach and physical education teacher – was killed in an Israeli air strike.

He had spent years building a legacy of hope through sport, training at schools and community clubs, and transforming underdog teams into local champions.

A graduate in physical education from Al-Aqsa University, Mohammed was the head coach of Al-Amal Football Club in southern Gaza and was widely admired for his work nurturing young talent aged between six and 16.

“My son dreamt of representing Palestine internationally,” Shaker says, surrounded by remnants of his son’s accolades. “He believed sport could lift youth from despair. But war reached him before he could reach the world.”

Now displaced, Mohammed’s wife Nermeen and their four children – 16-year-old Shaker Jr, Amir, 14, Alma, 11, and Taif, 7 – live with the painful void created by his death.

The children cling to their father’s last football and coaching notes as keepsakes.

Nermeen, an art teacher, gently wipes away Taif’s tears when she asks, “Why did they take Daddy from us?”

“He was a man of dreams, not politics,” Nermeen says. “He wanted to become an international referee. He wanted his master’s degree. Instead, he was killed for being a symbol of life and youth.”

Mohammed Safi is one of hundreds of athletes and sports professionals who have been killed or displaced since the war began.

According to the Palestinian Olympic Committee, 582 athletes have been killed since October 7, 2023, many of them national team players, coaches, and administrators.

Sports replaced by survival

For those who remain alive in Gaza, survival has replaced sporting ambition.

Yousef Abu Shawarib is a 20-year-old goalkeeper for Rafah’s premier league football club.

In May 2024, he and his family fled their home and took shelter at Khan Younis Stadium – the same field where he once played official matches.

Today, the stadium is a shelter for displaced families, its synthetic turf now lined with tents instead of players.

“This is where my coach used to brief me before games,” Yousef says, standing near what used to be the bench area, now a water distribution point. “Now I wait here for water, not for kickoff.”

His routine today involves light, irregular training inside his tent, hoping to preserve a fraction of his fitness. But his dreams of studying sports sciences in Germany and playing professionally are gone.

“Now, I only hope we have something to eat tomorrow,” he tells Al Jazeera. “The war didn’t just destroy fields – it destroyed our futures.”

When he looks at the charred stadium, he doesn’t see a temporary displacement.

“This was not collateral damage. It was systematic. It’s like they want to erase everything about us – even our games.”

Hope beneath the rubble

Still, like the patches of grass that survived the blasts, some hope remains.

Shadi Abu Armanah, head coach of Palestine’s amputee football team, had devised a six-month plan to resume training.

His 25 players and five coaching staff had been building momentum before the war on Gaza. The team had competed internationally, including in a 2019 tournament in France. Before hostilities began, they were preparing for another event in November 2023 and an event in West Asia set for October 2025.

“Now, we can’t even gather,” Shadi says. “Every facility we used has been destroyed. The players have lost their homes. Most have lost loved ones. There’s nowhere safe to train – no gear, no field, nothing.”

Supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the team had once symbolised resilience. Training sessions were more than drills – they were lifelines. “For amputees, sport was a second chance,” Shadi says. “Now they are just trying to survive.”

Shadi himself is displaced. His home, too, was bombed. “The clubs I worked for are gone. The players are either dead or scattered. If the war ends today, we’ll still need years to bring back even a fraction of what was lost.”

He adds, “I coached across many clubs and divisions. Almost all their facilities have been reduced to rubble. It’s not just a pause – it’s erasure.”

A systematic erasure

The scope of devastation extends beyond personal loss.

According to Asaad al-Majdalawi, vice president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Gaza’s entire sporting infrastructure is on the brink of collapse. At least 270 sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed: 189 completely flattened and 81 partially damaged, with initial estimates of material losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Every major component of Gaza’s sports system has been hit,” al-Majdalawi told Al Jazeera. “The Olympic Committee offices, sports federations, clubs, school and university sports programmes – even private sports facilities have been targeted. It’s a comprehensive assault.”

Among the fallen are high-profile athletes like Nagham Abu Samra, Palestine’s international karate champion; Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Palestinian to carry the Olympic flag at the 1996 Atlanta Games; Olympic football coach Hani al-Masdar; and national athletics coach Bilal Abu Sam’an. Hundreds of others remain injured or missing, complicating accurate assessments.

“This is not just loss – it’s extermination,” al-Majdalawi says. “Each athlete was a community pillar. They weren’t numbers. They were symbols of hope, unity, and perseverance. Losing them has deeply wounded the Palestinian society.”

He warns that beyond the immediate human toll, the interruption of sports activities for a year and a half will result in physical, psychological, and professional regression for remaining athletes. “You lose more than muscle and skill – you lose purpose.”

A global silence

Al-Majdalawi believes the international response has been alarmingly inadequate. When Gaza’s sports community reaches out to global federations, Olympic bodies, and ministers of youth and sport, they’re met with silence.

“In private, many international officials sympathise,” he says. “But at the decision-making level, Israel seems to operate above the law. There’s no accountability. It’s like sport doesn’t matter when it’s Palestinian. The global and international sports institutions appear complicit through their silence, ignoring all international laws, human rights, and the governing rules of the international sports system,” he says.

He believes that if the war ended today, it would still take five to 10 years to rebuild what has been lost. Even that gloomy timeline is based on the assumption that the blockade ends and international funding becomes available.

“We have been building this sports sector since 1994,” al-Majdalawi says. “It took us decades to accumulate knowledge, experience, and professionalism. Now, it’s all been levelled in months.”

As the war continues, the fate of Gaza’s sports sector hangs by a thread. Yet amid the ruins, fathers like Shaker Safi, athletes like Yousef, and coaches like Shadi hold on to one unyielding belief: that sport will once again be a source of hope, identity, and life for Palestinians.

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.

From Benjamin Royer: It was supposed to be a day off for Freddie Freeman.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quipped before the game that the 35-year-old veteran first baseman had begun to understand the value of an off day as he’s dealt with discomfort in his ankle this season.

But with the go-ahead run on second base in the eighth inning, Roberts summoned Freeman off the bench. Was it time for another magical, Freddie Freeman moment at Chavez Ravine?

Not so fast. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza called for an intentional walk, and up walked Michael Conforto. The 46,364 fans at Dodger Stadium already booed the struggling outfielder after his third-inning strikeout. Hitting .165 entering the game, he was one of the unlikeliest to lead the Dodgers to a comeback victory.

But all Conforto needed was one hit, one chance. And he delivered.

Against Mets setup man Reed Garrett, Conforto ripped a go-ahead RBI single into left field, helping the Dodgers complete a three-run comeback to defeat the Mets 6-5 and salvage a series split against a potential NL playoff opponent.

“It’s been a grind up to this point,” Conforto said. “All I want to do is go up there and help us win. A lot of those situations I’ve come up short, so to come through today was everything.”

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Will Dodgers’ pitchers ever get healthy? How the team is tackling its biggest problem

Shohei Ohtani thought he was ‘in trouble’ before Dave Roberts gifted him a toy Porsche

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Indiana 111, at Oklahoma City 110 (box score, story)
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wednesday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

FRENCH OPEN

As popular as Coco Gauff is, she knew full well that nearly all of the 15,000 fans at Court Philippe-Chatrier would be against her during the French Open semifinals Thursday. That’s because Gauff, an American, was taking on a French opponent — and one who came from nowhere, 361st-ranked Loïs Boisson.

So the No. 2-seeded Gauff turned to a trick that 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic has talked about using: When the partisan crowd was loudly singing Boisson’s first name, Gauff pretended they were chanting “Coco!” Not that it mattered much, truly, because Gauff was by far the superior player throughout a 6-1, 6-2 victory that earned her a second trip to the final at Roland-Garros.

Three years ago, Gauff missed out on a chance to leave with the trophy when Iga Swiatek beat her. This time, Swiatek won’t be around for the championship match on Saturday because her 26-match unbeaten run at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament ended earlier Thursday with a 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 loss to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

Edmonton vs. Florida
at Edmonton 4, Florida 3 (OT) (summary, story)
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1919 — Man o’ War wins his first race, a 5-furlong contest over a straightaway at Belmont Park. The 3-to-5 favorite wins by six lengths, covering the distance in 59 seconds.

1924 — Cyril Walker captures the U.S. Open with a three-stroke victory over Bobby Jones.

1936 — Granville, ridden by James Stout, wins the Belmont Stakes by a neck over Mr. Bones. Bold Venture, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, does not run in the race.

1946 — The National Basketball Assn. is founded at the Commodore Hotel in New York.

1966 — NFL & AFL announce their merger.

1969 — Joe Namath resigns from NFL after Pete Rozelle, football commissioner, said he must sell his stake in a bar.

1976 — 30th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat Phoenix Suns, 4 games to 2.

1981 — Summing, ridden by George Martins, wins the Belmont Stakes, spoiling Pleasant Colony’s Triple Crown bid.

1987 — Bet Twice, ridden by Craig Perret, breezes to a 14-length victory in the Belmont Stakes to deny Alysheba the Triple Crown. Alysheba is a distant fourth.

1987 — West Germany’s Steffi Graf, eight days shy of her 18th birthday, becomes the youngest women’s champion of the French Open when she beats Martina Navratilova 6-4, 4-6, 8-6.

1998 — Real Quiet is denied the Triple Crown when Victory Gallop edges him at the wire in the Belmont Stakes.

1999 — Andre Agassi rallies to win the French Open and become the fifth man to complete a career Grand Slam. After losing the first two sets, Agassi surges back to beat Andrei Medvedev 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Agassi won the 1992 Wimbledon, 1994 U.S. Open and 1995 Australian Open.

1999 — Juli Inkster wins the U.S. Women’s Open with a 16-under 272, the lowest 72-hole score in the championship’s 54-year history.

2007 — The Ducks capture the Stanley Cup with a 6-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators, ending the series in five games.

2010 — Rafael Nadal wins his fifth French Open title and avenges his lone Roland Garros defeat, beating Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Nadal improves to 38-1 at Roland Garros, with the only loss to Soderling in the fourth round a year ago.

2011 — The Bowl Championship Series strips USC of its 2004 title, leaving that season without a BCS champion. BCS officials vacated the championship after the Trojans were hit with heavy NCAA sanctions last year for rules violations committed during the 2004 and ’05 seasons.

2015 — American Pharoah leads all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 5½ lengths, becoming the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. The bay colt, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Victor Espinoza, is the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown.

2015 — Serena Williams overcomes a mid-match lull and a third-set deficit to win her third French Open title and 20th major singles trophy by beating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2.

2015 — Tiger Woods hits a new low with the highest score of his career — an 85 in the Memorial at Muirfield Village, the course where he has won eight times. Woods ends his front nine of the third round with back-to-back double bogeys and finishes with a quadruple-bogey 8.

2015 — UEFA Champions League Final, Berlin: FC Barcelona beats Juventus, 3-1 for 5th title and second treble (Spanish La Liga & Cup champions).

2018 — LeBron James passes Michael Jordan’s record of 109 for the most 30-point games in NBA playoff history in a 110-102 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

2023 — In a stunning development, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League agree to unify to create its own for-profit entity to be run by the PGA Tour and funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1918 — Casey Stengel, after being traded by Brooklyn in the offseason, made his return to Ebbets Field a memorable one. In his first at-bat, Stengel called time, stepped out of the batter’s box and doffed his cap. A bird flew out and the fans broke into laughter.

1934 — Myril Hoag hit a major league record six singles in the New York Yankees’ 15-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox.

1939 — The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. With two out, Harry Danning, Al Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo and Joe Moore connected as the Giants scored eight runs in the inning.

1945 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Boston’s Boo Ferriss scattered 14 hits to beat Philadelphia 5-2. Ferris, 8-0 on the year, tied the AL mark held by Chicago’s John Whitehead for wins at the start of a career.

1975 — Cleveland manager Frank Robinson hit two three-run homers in a 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers.

1986 — San Diego Padres manager Steve Boros was ejected before the first pitch of the game with the Atlanta Braves when he tried to give umpire Charlie Williams a videotape of a disputed play in the previous night’s 4-2 loss to Atlanta.

1992 — Eddie Murray drove in two runs at Pittsburgh to pass Mickey Mantle (1,509) as the all-time RBI leader among switch-hitters.

1995 — J.D. Drew of Florida State hit a record-setting three homers in his final three at-bats in a 16-11 loss to USC in the College World Series. Drew finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs and 12 total bases, also a series record.

1996 — For the second time in major league history and first in the AL, a cycle and a triple play took place in the same game. Boston’s John Valentin hit for the cycle, while Chicago turned a triple play in the Red Sox’s 7-4 victory. In 1931, Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein hit for the cycle in the same game that the Phillies turned a triple play against the Chicago Cubs.

2000 — The Rally Monkey is born, thanks to the Angels’ video crew playing a clip from the 1994 film Ace Ventura, Pet Detective on the JumboTron. With the words Rally Monkey superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild as the Angels score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5.

2003 — Insisting the corked bat, designed to put on home run displays during batting practice, was accidentally used in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball. Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president of on-field operations, agrees that the Cubs outfielder’s use of an illegal bat was an “isolated incident,” but one that still deserves a penalty.

2007 — Trevor Hoffman became the first major leaguer with 500 career saves when he closed out the San Diego Padres’ 5-2 victory over the Dodgers.

2017 — Scooter Gennett hit four home runs, matching the major league record, and finished with 10 RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds routed the St. Louis Cardinals 13-1. Gennett became the 17th player to homer four times in one game.

2022 — Eduardo Escobar hits for the cycle in an 11-5 win over the Padres; he is the first Mets player to do so since Scott Hairston in 2012, and the first player for any team to accomplish the feat at Petco Park.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Kevin Baxter: The Dodgers made history when they opened the season with eight straight wins, something no reigning World Series champion had ever done. But they’ve been just a shade above mediocre since then.

“I wouldn’t say [I’m] worried. It’s kind of where we’re at right now,” manager Dave Roberts said.

“It’s been hard to gain traction.”

If anything, the Dodgers have been spinning their wheels. Because with Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the New York Mets, the team’s third loss in four games, the Dodgers fell to .500 over the last month and their lead in the National League West remained at just a game over the San Diego Padres heading into Thursday’s get-away day matinee with the Mets.

Since their historic start, the Dodgers have had just three winning streaks of more than two games, but three losing streaks of more than two games. For every three steps forward, the team has taken 2 ½ steps back.

And while the Dodgers entered Thursday with the fourth-best record in the league, over the last two months they have a lower winning percentage than the Milwaukee Brewers, the third-best team in the Central Division. The reason why, Roberts said, is pitching.

Continue reading here

Hernández: Can Clayton Kershaw contribute to Dodgers’ title chase? ‘I’m gonna bet on him’

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wednesday at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

ANGELS

Ceddanne Rafaela curled a home run around the Pesky Pole in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday and the Boston Red Sox rallied after trailing four different times to beat the Angels 11-9.

The Angels blew 4-0, 7-5, 8-7 and 9-8 leads, with Rafael Devers bouncing a chopper between the gloves of second baseman Chris Taylor and shortstop Zach Neto behind second base to tie it 9-9 in the eighth.

Each of the first three times the Red Sox scored, the Angels answered with runs of its own. But after walking Mike Trout to lead off the ninth, Cooper Criswell (1-0) got the next three batters out to give Boston a chance to walk it off.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Jared Verse and Braden Fiske joined the Rams last season as something of a one-two punch.

The former Florida State teammates were drafted in the first and second rounds, respectively, and lived up to their billing as individuals and as a collective force.

Verse, an edge rusher, became the NFL defensive rookie of the year. Fiske, a defensive lineman, was a finalist for the award.

“I think we did good, but I think we became more focused on helping the team than trying to do our own little thing and having a good little duo going on,” Verse said, adding, “So now we finally took another step — having another year together to figure out, ‘Hey, this is how I work, this is how he works.’

“So, I feel like this year is going to be a good one for us to play together.”

As they prepare for their second seasons, the two young stars are part of a front that could rank as one of the NFL’s most dynamic.

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Rams lifting contest? Aaron Donald ready to put Jared Verse ‘through it’

Ex-Rams long snapper Jake McQuaide disrupts church by demanding answers in porn scandal

ANGEL CITY

From Benjamin Royer: Alexander Straus was fewer than two weeks from his first training session as Angel City FC coach. Yet, Angel City CEO and co-founder Julie Uhrman wanted to see her new manager at work.

She flew to Portugal, where Straus was completing his three-season stint as FC Bayern Munich coach — a club the 49-year-old Norwegian led to three consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga titles and a 57-7-2 league record.

As Uhrman watched Straus coach Bayern Munich at the inaugural World Sevens Football tournament, she already was familiar with his technical acumen that was on display en route to a championship victory over Manchester United. That was not a surprise.

But what caught Uhrman’s attention was Straus’ relationships with his players.

Continue reading here

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

Edmonton vs. Florida
at Edmonton 4, Florida 3 (OT) (summary, story)
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1884 — James McLaughlin becomes the first jockey to win three straight Belmont Stakes when he rides Panique to victory. He won with George Kinney (1883) and Forester (1882). McLaughlin repeats his feat in 1886-88. McLaughlin’s triple is matched by jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. in 1984.

1925 — Willie McFarlane beats Bobby Jones by one stroke in the second round of a playoff to capture the U.S. Open. Macfarlane shoots a 291 at Worcester (Mass.) Country Club.

1927 — Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard & 200-yard freestyle swim record.

1937 — War Admiral, ridden by Charles Kurtsinger, wins the Triple Crown with a three-length victory over Sceneshifter in the Belmont Stakes.

1943 — Count Fleet, ridden by Johnny Longden, wins the Triple Crown by 25 lengths in the Belmont Stakes. Count Fleet goes at off at 1-20 odds in a race with no place or show betting.

1952 — Jersey Joe Walcott scores a 15-round unanimous decision over Ezzard Charles in Philadelphia to retain the world heavyweight title.

1961 — The newly formed American Basketball League adopts the 3-point field goal.

1977 — The Portland Trail Blazers hold off the Philadelphia 76ers 109-107 to win the NBA championship in six games. Portland becomes the first team in the 31-year history of the league to win four straight after losing the first two games.

1985 — Steve Cauthen wins the Epsom Derby aboard Slip Anchor and became the only American jockey to win the English Derby and Kentucky Derby. Cauthen had ridden Affirmed to victory in the 1978 Kentucky Derby.

1993 — Julie Krone guides Colonial Affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race.

1994 — Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Sergi Bruguera produce the best day of tennis in Spanish history. Sanchez Vicario beats Mary Pierce 6-4, 6-4 in the French Open final and Bruguera retains his title by defeating another Spaniard, Alberto Berasategui, 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.

1999 — Steffi Graf wins her sixth French Open title and her first Grand Slam championship in almost three years, beating top-ranked Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

1999 — Charismatic loses his bid to become the 12th Triple Crown winner when he fractures his left front cannon bone and sesamoid while finishing third to Lemon Drop Kid in the Belmont Stakes.

2004 — Smarty Jones loses his Triple Crown bid and his perfect record when Birdstone runs him down near the finish of a thrilling Belmont Stakes. Birdstone, a 36-1 long shot ridden by Edgar Prado, returns $74, $14 and $8.60.

2005 — Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal beats unseeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina in four sets to win the French Open men’s singles title. The No. 4-seeded Nadal becomes the youngest men’s Grand Slam champion since Pete Sampras won the U.S. Open at 19 in 1990.

2011 — Rafael Nadal wins his record-equaling sixth French Open title, beating Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1 in the final.

2016 — Novak Djokovic becomes the first man in nearly a half-century to win four consecutive major championships and finally earned elusive French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, beating Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

2021 — Luis Saez rides Essential Quality to wins the 153rd Belmont Stakes.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1915 — Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander lost his no-hitter when Artie Butler punched a single with two outs in the ninth. Alexander struck out Bob Bescher for the final out to beat St. Louis 3-0. Alexander went on to pitch three more one-hitters during the season.

1929 — The Cincinnati Reds scored nine runs in the sixth inning en route to a 21-4 romp over the Chicago Cubs.

1935 — Chicago White Sox rookie John Whitehead loses to St. Louis 2-0. It was his first loss after winning his first eight starts, an AL record for the start of a career.

1949 — Commissioner Happy Chandler lifted the ban on all players who had jumped to a league in Mexico.

1955 — Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees hit a home run off Chicago’s Billy Pierce that traveled about 550 feet. The ball cleared the left-field upper deck at Comiskey Park.

1959 — Pittsburgh’s Dick Stuart hit the longest home run at Forbes Field. Stuart smashed a shot over the center-field wall off Chicago pitcher Glenn Hobbie.

1966 — Leo Cardenas of the Reds hit four home runs in a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs. Cardenas hit two home runs in each game as Cincinnati won the opener 8-3 but dropped the second game 9-5.

1986 — San Diego’s Steve Garvey was ejected for the first time in his career when he argued a play at home plate. Garvey, the on-deck hitter, protested the last out of a triple play by the Atlanta Braves. Television replays showed that Bip Roberts was indeed safe. The Padres lost 4-2.

1989 — The Blue Jays lost their debut in the SkyDome as Glenn Braggs hit a two-run homer to lead the Milwaukee Brewers past Toronto 5-3. The $375-million complex featured a $100-million, four-section, retractable roof.

1997 — Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners became the first Seattle player to hit for the cycle in a nine-inning game. He completed the cycle with a double in the ninth of a 14-6 win at Detroit.

2001 — Colorado pitcher Mike Hampton had two homers, three RBIs and recorded his eighth win as Colorado defeated Houston 9-4.

2008 — Atlanta’s Chipper Jones became the third switch-hitter in major league history to hit 400 home runs. Jones’ homer off Ricky Nolasco was one of his four hits in the 7-5 comeback win over Florida. Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray were the first two reach the milestone.

2013 — The Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners played the first game in major league history when each team scored five or more runs in the game when it was scoreless through the ninth. Alejandro De Aza and Alex Rios each had an RBI single in the 16th inning, and Chicago won 7-5.

2015 — Oakland’s Pat Venditte became the first pitcher in 20 years to throw with both arms in the same game, but the Boston Red Sox beat the Athletics 4-2 on a night a fan sustained life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a broken bat.

2021 — Team USA secured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics by winning the Americas Olympic Qualifier.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Jack Harris: It was a night of redemption at Dodger Stadium.

For the struggling home team, its recently beleaguered closer and its enigmatic third baseman most of all.

In a 6-5 win against the New York Mets on Tuesday, Max Muncy atoned for a costly fifth-inning error with a two-home run performance, including a game-tying blast in the bottom of the ninth.

Left-hander Tanner Scott snapped out of his recent funk, throwing a scoreless 10th inning a night after taking a loss in the same situation.

And after two consecutive frustrating defeats, the Dodgers finally bounced back on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off double in the bottom of the 10th; earning a win that kept them in sole possession of first place in the National League West, and chased a few demons for both Scott and Muncy in the process.

“We needed every bit of it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s good to see the resilience from a lot of our guys.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers star Freddie Freeman’s family appreciated kind gesture from slain Baldwin Park officer

Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball legend with ties to the Dodgers, dies at 89

Judge orders woman who accused ex-Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault to pay damages by default

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 11 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

ANGELS

Automatic runner Zach Neto scored on Taylor Ward’s bases-loaded double-play groundout to lift the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings on Tuesday night.

Nolan Schanuel had two RBIs and Neto added two hits and an RBI to give the Angels consecutive wins for the first time since capping an eight-game win streak on May 23.

Kenley Jansen (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the win a night after getting a save and Reid Detmers got his first save.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Puka Nacua is using organized team activities to hone his craft and prepare for his third NFL season.

But the Rams’ star receiver also recently took time to help others prepare to avoid potential health challenges.

Nacua last week returned from a trip to Samoa, where he and his mother joined medical professionals from Utah Valley University to provide testing, clinics and education about diabetes.

Nacua said his father, who died when Nacua was a youngster, experienced complications from the disease.

So the opportunity to travel with his mother to his maternal grandmother’s village was “kind of a full-circle moment” for his family, Nacua said Tuesday.

“To be able to go and improve the situation in the homeland was something sweet,” Nacua said after the team went through a workout.

Continue reading here

ANGEL CITY

From Kevin Baxter: It doesn’t seem that long ago that Christen Press was helping the national team to consecutive World Cup titles. She was unstoppable then, a key cog in the greatest women’s soccer team in history.

Yet she played her 155th and final match for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Press, just 18 days removed from those Olympics, became the first player signed by expansion club Angel City. She was bringing the NWSL to her hometown and was being rewarded with what was then the richest contract in league history.

Yet she’s started just 10 games since then, losing most of the last three seasons to a stubborn anterior cruciate ligament injury that took four surgeries to repair.

Press eventually will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but she isn’t ready for that trip just yet. If her body isn’t always willing, her mind and her heart are still keen on the sport, so Press makes her most valuable contributions now in the quiet of the locker room.

Continue reading here

L.A. PARALYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Already slated to be the first venue in the world to host events from three different Olympic Summer Games, the Coliseum will help break new ground for the Paralympics in 2028.

The iconic stadium is at the center of the first Paralympic Games in L.A. as it hosts the para track and field competition, LA28 announced Tuesday in an updated venue plan that placed 23 disciplines into their future Paralympic homes.

“This is a momentous occasion for the city of Los Angeles,” para swimmer and Inglewood native Jamal Hill said in an interview with The Times. “Being a native Los Angeleno, you always hear about this melting pot of Los Angeles and many times, that melting pot, the default is to really thinking like, ethnic or racial or even cultural based. … I think it’s really, really beautiful and inclusive now that that melting pot is really starting to cover ability.”

Continue reading here

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

Edmonton vs. Florida
Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1870 — Ed Brown becomes the first Black jockey to win the Belmont Stakes, with Kingfisher.

1927 — The United States wins the first Ryder Cup golf tournament by beating Britain 9½-2½.

1932 — Faireno, ridden by Tommy Malley, wins the Belmont Stakes by 1½ lengths over Osculator. Burgoo King, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, doesn’t race.

1966 — Ameroid, ridden by Bill Boland, wins the Belmont Stakes by 2½ lengths over Buffle. Kauai King, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, finishes fourth.

1974 — NFL grants franchise to Seattle Seahawks.

1984 — 1960 champion Arnold Palmer fails to qualify for the US Open Golf Championship for the first time in 32 years.

1987 — Danny Harris defeats Edwin Moses in the 400 hurdles at a meet in Madrid, ending the longest winning streak in track and field. Moses, had won 122 consecutive races dating to Aug. 26, 1977.

1988 — West Germany’s Steffi Graf beats 17-year-old Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union in 32 minutes with a 6-0, 6-0 victory to win the French Open for the second straight year.

1990 — Penn State is voted into the Big Ten. The school becomes the 11th member of the league and first addition to the Midwest-based conference since Michigan State in 1949.

1994 — Haile Gebrselassie becomes the first Ethiopian to set a world track record with a time of 12:56.96 in the men’s 5,000 meters at Hengelo, Netherlands.

1998 — Harut Karapetyan of the Galaxy scores three goals in five minutes for the fastest hat trick in MLS history in an 8-1 rout of the Dallas Burn. The seven-goal margin sets an MLS record.

2005 — Justine Henin-Hardenne beats a rattled and fumbling Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 to win the French Open, capping a comeback from a blood virus with her fourth Grand Slam title and her second at Roland Garros.

2005 — Eddie Castro sets a North American record for most wins by a jockey in one day at one track, winning nine races on the 13-race card at Miami’s Calder Race Course.

2008 — The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in 11 seasons with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 .

2011 — Li Na becomes the first Chinese — man or woman — to win a Grand Slam singles title. She beats Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the French Open final for her fifth career title and first on clay.

2016 — Garbine Muguruza wins her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open, denying the American her record-equaling 22nd major trophy.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1940 — The Pirates beat the Boston Bees 14-2 in the first night game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.

1940 — The St. Louis Cardinals play their first night game at Sportsman’s Park, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-1.

1951 — Pittsburgh’s Gus Bell hit for the cycle to lead the Pirates to a 12-4 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia.

1964 — Sandy Koufax pitched his third no-hitter, striking out 12, as the Dodgers beat the Phillies 3-0 in Philadelphia.

1968 — Don Drysdale of the Dodgers blanked the Pirates 5-0 for his sixth straight shutout en route to a record 58 2-3 scoreless innings.

1972 — A major league record eight shutouts were pitched in 16 major league games: five in the American League, three in the National League. The Oakland Athletics swept a pair from the Baltimore Orioles by identical 2-0 scores.

1974 — The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium was forfeited to Texas. Umpire Nestor Chylak had problems with fans all night on 10-cent beer night. The crowd got out of control when Cleveland tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth.

1989 — Toronto beats Boston 13-11 in 12 innings after trailing 10-0 after six. Red Sox starter Mike Smithson threw six scoreless innings before leaving in the seventh because of a foot blister. The Jays then scored two in the seventh, four in the eighth and five in the ninth and two more in the 11th on Junior Felix’s home run. It was the biggest lead the Red Sox have blown and their 12th consecutive loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.

1990 — Ramon Martinez struck out 18 and pitched a three-hitter, sending the Dodgers past the Atlanta Braves 6-0.

1996 — Pamela Davis pitched one inning of scoreless relief and got the win in a minor league exhibition game. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current minor league system. The 21-year-old right-hander pitched for the Jacksonville Suns, a double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Australian Olympic team.

2000 — Esteban Yan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays becomes the 77th major league player to hit a home run in his first at bat, but just the fourth American League pitcher and the first since the Angels’ Don Rose in 1972, the year before the designated hitter rule took the bat out of AL pitchers’ hands.

2005 — Rafael Palmeiro and Melvin Mora each hit grand slams to help Baltimore rally for a 14-7 win over Detroit.

2007 — Mark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez had a two-out homer in the 11th inning to lift Oakland to a 5-4 win over Boston.

2009 — Randy Johnson became the 24th major league pitcher to win 300 games by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader.

2012 — Mike Scioscia of the Angels became the ninth manager in AL history to manage 2,000 games with one club. The Mariners beat the Angels 8-6.

2018 — In a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge sets a record by striking out eight times.

2019 — San Francisco Giant Manager Bruce Bochy wins his 1,000th game as the manager of the Giants with a 9-3 victory over the New York Mets.

2022 — The rule preventing position players from pitching in a close game is invoked for the first time when Crew chief C.B. Bucknor objects to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts calling on OF Zach McKinstry to pitch the 9th inning against the Mets with his team trailing, 9-4. The rule, adopted before the 2020 season but not implemented until this year due to the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, states that a team cannot use a position player on the mound unless there is a difference of six or more runs between the two teams. Roberts is thus forced to use a real pitcher, Evan Phillips, to pitch the final inning.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Shotgun Spratling: There’s levels to a proper program build. Baby steps have to sometimes be taken, even if everyone involved would like to jump past several of those. Lessons have to be learned. Experiences, both positive and negative, have to be endured.

USC suffered through one of those difficult experiences, getting manhandled by national championship contender Oregon State for the second day in a row in the Corvallis Regional final. The No. 8 national seed shut down USC’s offensive attack in the winner-take-all regional final, eliminating the Trojans from the NCAA tournament with a 9-0 victory.

“Frustrating finish for sure,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said after being outscored 23-1 in back-to-back losses to the Beavers. “Proud of our boys and our coaching staff. Proud to wear this jersey. We’ve gotten better. Obviously, this weekend shows us that we’ve got to get better and be more competitive.”

Oregon State freshman James DeCremer, making just his second start of the season, held USC (37-23) to two hits in five scoreless innings. Then sophomore Eric Segura, who was pulled in the first inning of his start Friday after getting knocked around by Saint Mary’s, fired three scoreless innings.

Sophomore Laif Palmer entered after just USC’s third hit of the game. He induced the fifth double play of the day and got another groundout to close out the game. All three Oregon State pitchers fired mid-90s fastballs, something rare among USC pitchers and too much for the Trojan hitters to handle.

“We had a hard time controlling their arms,” Stankiewicz said. “The fastball was pretty hot.”

Continue reading here

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

West No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 11 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: It took the Dodgers until the ninth inning Monday night to erase their first two-run deficit.

But when Tanner Scott surrendered a pair of scores in the top of the 10th, they couldn’t do it again.

In a 4-3 extra-innings loss to the New York Mets on Monday, a night that started with frustration — then crescendoed with a late-game rally — ultimately ended in a familiar fizzle.

Despite tying it behind a seventh-inning home run and a ninth-inning sacrifice fly from Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers (36-24) once again stumbled beneath the weight of their slumping closer.

In the top of the 10th, Scott gave up an RBI double to Francisco Alvarez to lead off the inning. Francisco Lindor followed with a down-the-line single to bring another run for the Mets (38-22). The left-hander, who signed for four years and $72 million this offseason, has a 4.73 earned-run average in his first 28 outings.

And after coming back once on Monday night, the Dodgers’ magic ran out in the bottom of the 10th.

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Plaschke: Missed chance to sweep Yankees leaves Dodgers in a precarious spot

Dodgers injuries: Mookie Betts nears return, but Tyler Glasnow’s body ‘not responding’

Well, Sale! It’s the Dodgers who have the all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Mike Trout had three hits, including a three-run, 454-foot homer off the left-center field light stanchion in the Angels’ six-run first inning on Monday night, in a 7-6 win over the Boston Red Sox.

Zach Neto homered to lead off the game, and the Angels opened a 5-0 lead before before Red Sox starter Richard Fitts (0-3) recorded his first out. Jo Adell also homered in the first and added another solo shot in the sixth after Boston cut the lead to 6-5.

Jarren Duran had three hits for Boston, including a double to start the four-run fifth inning. Ceddanne Rafaela homered to make it 7-6 in the eighth.

Ryan Zeferjahn (3-1) was credited with the win, pitching a scoreless seventh inning and striking out two. Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for his 11th save, getting Romy Gonzalez on a line drive to the warning track in right to end it.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

L.A. OLYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: LA28 announced Honda as its automotive partner for the L.A. Olympics on Monday, securing a major founding-level partnership that will help the private organizing committee cover its estimated $7-billion budget.

Honda, which opened its U.S. headquarters in L.A. in 1959 and is now based in Torrance, will work with LA28 on an accessible vehicle fleet that maximizes electric vehicles for the Games to help move athletes and officials around Southern California. The partnership will support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and the Summer Games in 2028.

Financial terms of the top-tier partnership were not announced. Honda joins Delta and Comcast as LA28’s founding partners expected to lead the way in covering the estimated $2.5 billion in corporate sponsorship needed to stage the first Summer Games held in the United States since 1996.

Continue reading here

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

P3 Edmonton vs. A3 Florida
Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1944 — Bounding Home, ridden by G.L. Smith, wins the Belmont Stakes by one-half length over Pensive, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

1959 — European Cup Final, Stuttgart: Real Madrid beats Stade de Reims, 2-0; 4th consecutive title for Los Blancos.

1961 — Sherluck, ridden by Braulio Baeza, wins the Belmont Stakes. Carry Beck, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, finishes seventh.

1972 — French Open Women’s Tennis: American icon Billie Jean King wins her only French singles title; beats Evonne Goolagong of Australia 6-3, 6-3.

1984 — Patty Sheehan wins the LPGA championship by a record 10 strokes over Beth Daniel and Pat Bradley.

1991 — Thomas Hearns becomes a world champion for the sixth time, capturing the World Boxing Association’s light-heavyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Virgil Hill.

1992 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan scores a record 35 points, including a record six 3-pointers, in the first half as the Bulls beat Portland 122-89 in the opening game of the NBA Finals. Jordan finishes with 39 points and Chicago is only two points shy of the largest victory margin in the finals.

1999 — Four days after her first LPGA Tour victory, Kelli Kuehne ties the Women’s U.S. Open record with an 8-under 64 in the first round to take a one-stroke lead over Juli Inkster.

2001 — Karrie Webb wins the U.S. Women’s Open in a runaway for the second year in a row. Webb shoots a 1-under 69 for an eight-stroke victory, the largest margin at a Women’s Open in 21 years.

2004 — Calgary ties an NHL record with its 10th road win of the playoffs with a 3-2 overtime victory over Tampa Bay in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. The New Jersey Devils also won 10 road playoff games during their championship seasons of 1995 and 2000.

2006 — Jeff Burton has the biggest come-from-behind win ever in a Busch race, overcoming a 36th-place starting position in the Dover 200 for his second victory of the season.

2006 — Russia’s Nikolai Valuev retains his WBA heavyweight title in Hanover, Germany, stopping Jamaican challenger Owen Beck with a right uppercut in the third round.

2011 — Roger Federer ends Novak Djokovic’s perfect season and 43-match winning streak, beating him 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in the French Open semifinals. Federer advances to the title match against five-time champion Rafael Nadal. Nadal reaches his sixth final in seven years at Roland Garros by defeating Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

2012 — Tiger Woods won his 73rd PGA tour victory with a two-stoke win over Andres Romero and Rory Sabbatini in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Course.

2017 — UEFA Champions League Final, Cardiff: Cristiano Ronaldo scores twice as defending champions Real Madrid thrash Juventus, 4-1 for 12th title; Juventus loses 5th consecutive final.

2018 — Stephen Curry, Golden State, broke Ray Allen’s NBA Finals record for the most 3-pointers with nine in the Warriors 122-103 Game 2 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1918 — Dutch Leonard of the Boston Red Sox pitched his second no-hitter, blanking the Detroit Tigers 5-0.

1932 — Lou Gehrig became the first American League player to hit four home runs in a game, helping the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia A’s 20-13. The event was overshadowed by the resignation of John McGraw as manager of the New York Giants.

1954 — Henry Thompson of the New York Giants hit three home runs and drove in eight runs in a 13-8 win against the St. Louis Cardinals. Willie Mays drove in the other five runs with two homers.

1971 — Ken Holtzman of the Chicago Cubs pitched his second no-hitter, beating the Cincinnati Reds 1-0.

1978 — Dave Johnson became the first major leaguer to hit two pinch-hit grand slams in a season. His grand slam in the ninth inning gave the Philadelphia Phillies a 5-1 victory over the Dodgers.

1989 — The Dodgers and Houston played 22 innings at the Astrodome in the longest night game in National League history — 7 hours and 14 minutes. The Astros won the game on Rafael Ramirez’s RBI single off Jeff Hamilton, normally the Dodgers’ third baseman. When the game ended, Fernando Valenzuela was playing first and Eddie Murray was at third.

1989 — Nolan Ryan pitched his 11th career one-hitter and struck out 11 as Texas beat Seattle 6-1. It was Ryan’s 16th low-hit game (no-hitter or one-hitter), breaking Bob Feller’s record of 15.

1995 — Pedro Martinez of Montreal pitched nine perfect innings against San Diego before giving up a leadoff double to Bip Roberts in the 10th inning of the Expos 1-0 win.

2003 — Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Chicago’s 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.

2006 — Damion Easley hit three homers and had seven RBIs in Arizona’s 13-9 victory over Atlanta.

2008 — Randy Johnson took sole possession of second place on baseball’s career strikeout list after getting the Milwaukee Brewers’ Mike Cameron to go down swinging in the first inning. It was Johnson’s 4,673rd career strikeout, breaking a tie with Roger Clemens and leaving the Arizona Diamondbacks’ veteran ace behind only Nolan Ryan, who had 5,714 strikeouts in his career.

2017 — Albert Pujols hits his 600th home run of his career, the historic blast being a 4th-inning grand slam off Ervin Santana of the Twins in a 7-2 Angels win. He is the ninth player to join the exclusive fraternity.

2017 — Endinson Volquez of the Mets throws the first no-hiitter of the year, defeating the Diamonbacks 3-0.

2018 — Blake Snell ties an American League record by striking out the first 7 batters he faces for the Rays against the Mariners.

2022 — With a disappointing 22-29 record after splurging on free agents over the past few years, the Phillies fire manager Joe Girardi, who has failed to take them to the postseason in his two-plus seasons at the helm. Bench coach Rob Thomson is named manager on an interim basis to finish the season.

2024 —Padres player Tucupita Marcano faces a lifetime ban from baseball after an investigation by MLB found that he has placed bets on a large number of major league games, in contravention of very clear rule. He is suspected of having bet on Pirates games while injured last season; he has not played this season, also due to injury. The lifetime ban will be confirmed tomorrow and four other players will receive one-year suspensions for placing bets while they were in the minor leagues: Michael Kelly, Jay Groome, José Rodríguez and Andrew Saalfrank.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Tim Willert: UCLA‘s run at the Women’s College World Series ended Sunday, two innings after Bruins slugger Megan Grant extended it.

Laura Mealer‘s bases-loaded, walk-off single to right field in the bottom of the ninth propelled Tennessee to a 5-4 win and a semifinal meeting with Texas at 9 a.m. PDT Monday.

The Volunteers (47-16) did what UCLA couldn’t in the ninth: deliver with the bases loaded. The Bruins got singles from Savannah Pola and Jordan Woolery followed by an intentional walk to Grant. But Alexis Ramirez grounded out to first to end the inning.

Taylor Pannell hit a deep fly to left field to lead off Tennessee’s half of the ninth, a ball that caromed off Rylee Slimp’s glove and hit the white padding on the top of the wall but didn’t leave the field. The play was reviewed and ruled a double.

Mealer, who knocked in two runs in the first inning to give the Volunteers an early 2-0 lead, delivered again, this time on a 2-2 pitch from Taylor Tinsley, who came on in relief of UCLA starter Kaitlyn Terry.

“Just a great battle to the end,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “I could not be more proud. Period. Just the ability for us to be able to fight, the ability for us to come back, the epic [rally], just down to the last pitch … there’s something about what UCLA softball can do, with your backs against the wall and just rising to the occasion creates some amazing memories.”

Continue reading here

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score)
Oklahoma City 128, at Minnesota 126 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 124, Minnesota 94 (box score)

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score)
New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score)
at Indiana 130, New York 121 (box score)
at New York 111, Indiana 94 (box score)
at Indiana 125, New York 108 (box score)

NBA FINALS

West No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday, June 8 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 11 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Dave Roberts downplayed the easy narrative on Sunday afternoon.

“No,” he said when asked if his Dodgers had the New York Yankees’ proverbial number, having followed up their defeat of the Bronx Bombers in last year’s World Series with two impressive wins to start this weekend’s rematch at Dodger Stadium.

“I think we’ve had their number the last two nights,” Roberts said, “but today’s a different day.”

Was it ever.

Twenty-four hours after a total annihilation of the Yankees in a 16-run rout on Saturday, the Dodgers suffered the kind of setback that has so often plagued them this season, squandering the chance to build further momentum in a 7-3 loss that prevented a series sweep.

Continue reading here

Going bananas: Why Savannah Bananas tickets cost more than a Dodgers-Yankees rematch

Hernández: How Japan media track down Ohtani’s home-run balls

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

José Ramírez homered during a three-run fourth inning, Gavin Williams gave up only one hit in 6⅔ innings and the Cleveland Guardians defeated the Angels 4-2 on Sunday.

Ramírez extended Cleveland’s lead to 2-0 when he connected on a slider from Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz (3-7) and put it into the stands in right-center for his team-leading 11th homer to lead off the fourth.

Nolan Jones added a two-run single with the bases loaded for the other runs in the inning as the Guardians took two of three games in the weekend series.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

UCLA BASEBALL

From Benjamin Royer: UCLA baseball is one step closer to earning a trip to Omaha.

The Bruins continued to roll in every facet of the game in the Los Angeles Regional final, scoring early and trusting their bullpen to defeat UC Irvine 8-5 on Sunday night. The Bruins advance to the super regionals of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019 and will host the Texas San Antonio at Jackie Robinson Stadium this week.

UTSA defeated Texas 7-4 in the Austin Regional final, taking down the national second-seed Longhorns to advance to its first-ever super regional.

If UCLA beats UTSA, it’ll advance to the College World Series in Omaha for the first time since 2013.

Continue reading here

USC BASEBALL

From Shotgun Spratling: USC baseball wanted to be aggressive knowing it was entering a hostile environment, playing in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,347 at Goss Stadium.

The Trojans tried to set the tone early.

Instead, it backfired, costing them early opportunities, early momentum and ultimately Sunday night’s matchup in a 14-1 loss to Oregon State in the Corvallis Regional final.

USC has a chance for redemption Monday as Oregon State’s win forces a winner-take-all regional final at 3 p.m. PDT (ESPNU).

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UC IRVINE BASEBALL

From Benjamin Royer: In the game early Sunday that advanced UC Irvine to the Sunday night game against UCLA….

Under threat of elimination, UC Irvine‘s bats emerged once again.

Bringing the power for a second straight game, the Anteaters connected for five home runs Sunday, eliminating Arizona State 11-6 in the Los Angeles Regional of the NCAA baseball tournament.

Needing to win four straight games to advance to the super regionals after losing to Arizona State on Friday, UC Irvine is halfway to its goal.

Alonso Reyes — who had just one home run in 2025 entering Sunday’s game — ripped a two-run home run off of Sun Devils starter Derek Schaefer in the fourth inning. Later in the inning, after Arizona State coach Willie Bloomquist went with Lucas Kelly out of the bullpen, Chase Call cleared the batter’s eye in dead center field for a two-run home run to give the Anteaters a 6-1 lead.

Continue reading here

SPARKS

From Anthony De Leon: Sunday’s matchup between the Sparks and Phoenix Mercury felt like déjà vu. When the Sparks faced Phoenix last month, the game ended with a failed Sparks comeback.

In a twist of fate, Sunday’s comeback belonged to Phoenix.

Unable to stay ahead after building an 18-point lead, the Sparks fell 85-80 to the Mercury at Crypto.com Arena for their third consecutive loss.

As with the first meeting, the third quarter proved to be the Sparks’ undoing. After scoring just seven points in the third quarter of their loss to Phoenix on May 21, the Sparks were outscored 24-9 in the third Sunday.

Continue reading here

Sparks box score

WNBA standings

USC-NOTRE DAME POLL

We asked readers of of our Sports Report and USC newsletters: Could a smoother path to the College Football Playoff be worth losing the USC-Notre Dame rivalry?

After 1,154 votes,

Yes, 17.6%
No, 82.4%

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

P3 Edmonton vs. A3 Florida
Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday, June 6 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday, June 9 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1896 — Hastings, ridden by H. Griffin, edges Handspring by a neck to capture the Belmont Stakes.

1908 — Royal Tourist, ridden by Eddie Dugan, posts a four-length victory over Live Wire in the Preakness Stakes.

1909 — Joe Madden, ridden by Eddie Dugan, wins the Belmont Stakes by eight lengths over Wise Mason.

1935 — French Championships Men’s Tennis: Englishman Fred Perry wins his only French title, beating Gottfried von Cramm of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

1947 — After a six-year layoff, 13-year-old Honey Cloud wins the second race at Aqueduct. His jockey, Clarence Minner, takes his first ride in 10 years.

1962 — French Championships Women’s Tennis: In an all-Australian final Margaret Smith beats doubles partner Lesley Turner 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

1971 — European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Ajax beats Panathinaikos, 2-0; Dutch champions begin 3-year period of domination.

1985 — Nancy Lopez beats Alice Miller by eight strokes to win the LPGA championship.

1991 — Andrettis finish 1-2-3 in the Miller 200 at Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway in Milwaukee. Mario Andretti finishes third, his son Michael wins the race and his nephew John finished second.

1996 — Annika Sorenstam closes with a 4-under 66 to win her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open. Sorenstam’s 8-under 272 is the best ever in the Open.

2002 — Annika Sorenstam matches the LPGA record for margin of victory in a 54-hole event while winning the inaugural Kellogg-Keebler Classic. Sorenstam finishes at 21-under 195 to win by 11 strokes.

2005 — Jockey Russell Baze records his 9,000th career victory aboard Queen of the Hunt in the eighth race at Golden Gate Fields.

2007 — Daniel Gibson scores a career-high 31 points as Cleveland beats Detroit 98-82 to advance to the NBA Finals. The Cavaliers are the third team to come back from an 0-2 deficit in a conference finals, joining the 1971 Baltimore Bullets and 1993 Chicago Bulls.

2008 — Pittsburgh outlasts Detroit 4-3 in three overtimes of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Petr Sykora scores at 9:57 of the third overtime ending the fifth-longest finals game in NHL history.

2011 — Dirk Nowitzki makes the tie-breaking layup with 3.6 seconds left, and the Dallas Mavericks roar back from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Miami Heat 95-93 and tie the NBA finals at one game apiece. The Mavs outscore the Heat 22-5 down the stretch and pull off the biggest comeback win in an NBA finals since 1992.

2019 — US Open Women’s Golf, CC of Charleston: Lee Jeong-eun of South Korea wins her first major title; beats runners-up Lexi Thompson, Agel Yin and Ryu So-yeon by 2 strokes.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1928 — Les Bell of the Boston Braves hit three home runs and a triple at Braves Field, but the Cincinnati Reds came away with a 20-12 triumph.

1928 — The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1. All the runs came from three pinch-hit home runs.

1941 — Lou Gehrig died in New York at age 37.

1949 — The Philadelphia Phillies hit five homers in the eighth inning against the Cincinnati Reds. Andy Seminick hit two and Del Ennis, Willie Jones, and Schoolboy Rowe hit one apiece. Seminick had homered earlier in the game.

1959 — The Baltimore Orioles-Chicago White Sox game at Comiskey Park was delayed for nearly half an hour as a swarm of gnats overcame the field. Groundskeepers tried using bug sprays and torches, but the gnats wouldn’t budge. A postgame fireworks display was brought in from center field and a smoke bomb was attached to the framework. The gnats left and the Orioles defeated the White Sox, 3-2.

1990 — Randy Johnson pitched the first no-hitter in the Seattle Mariners’ history as he beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0. The 6-foot-10 left-hander, walked six and struck out eight while pitching the first no-hitter at the Kingdome, which opened for baseball in 1977.

1996 — Houston starter Darryl Kile tied the modern major league record by hitting four batters in a 2-0 loss at St. Louis, and the first to do it in the NL since Moe Drabowsky in 1957.

2000 — Tampa Bay’s Fred McGriff hit his 400th career home run, but the Devil Rays lost to the Mets 5-3.

2000 — Rick Aguilera of the Chicago Cubs became the 13th pitcher with 300 saves in a 2-0 win over Detroit. Aguilera reached the mark in 614 career appearances, third quickest.

2002 — Philadelphia pitcher Robert Person drove in seven runs with a grand slam and a three-run homer in an 18-3 win over Montreal. Person had just come off the disabled list and collected his first win of the season.

2005 — Kansas City completed a sweep of the New York Yankees with a 5-2 victory. The Royals, who have the worst record and second-lowest payroll in the major leagues, finished their first three-game sweep of the Yankees at home in 15 years.

2009 — Dan Uggla of the Marlins became the fastest second baseman to 100 homers in Florida’s 10-3 win over Milwaukee. Uggla’s two-run shot in the bottom of the second came in his 502nd game as a second baseman, beating Alfonso Soriano to 100 by 34 games.

2010 — Ken Griffey Jr. announces his retirement after 22 seasons in the major leagues. Hitting only .184 in part-time duty for the Mariners, he retires with 630 career home runs and six seasons of 40 or more homers. Most of his career was spent with Seattle and the Cincinnati Reds.

2010 — Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning on a call that first base umpire Jim Joyce later admitted he blew. First baseman Miguel Cabrera cleanly fielded Jason Donald’s grounder to his right and made an accurate throw to Galarraga covering the bag. The ball was there in time, and all of Comerica Park was ready to celebrate the 3-0 win over Cleveland, until Joyce emphatically signaled safe.

2011 — Aubrey Huff hit three home runs and matched his career best with six RBIs and the San Francisco Giants posted a 12-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Huff hit two-run homers in the fourth and ninth and a solo shot in the seventh.

2015 — In a memorable major league debut, Rangers 3B Joey Gallo hits a two-run homer in his second at-bat on the way to collecting 3 hits and 4 RBIs in leading Texas to a 15-2 beating of the White Sox.

2017 — Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers records his 2,000th career strikeout.

2018 — Jacob deGrom matches a career high set just two weeks earlier by racking up 13 strikeouts in 7 innings in a start against the Cubs.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

‘I was close to dying in car crash’

In an exclusive interview with the BBC in March, West Ham forward Michail Antonio reflected on his near-fatal car crash in December.

‘The cash came up to my torso’ – tales of a match-fixer

Moses Swaibu was one of the brightest prospects in Crystal Palace’s youth ranks, but he ended up in a shady world of cash, danger and fixing rather than football’s limelight.

The air crash and the underdogs – a triumph for Zambia’s lost generation

A story across two decades that laid bare a nation’s soul, and delivered triumph just as unexpectedly as it did disaster.

‘I’d still be playing in the Premier League if I had behaved’

Nile Ranger was a £10,000-a-week Newcastle United “wonderkid” with the world at his feet before his off-pitch behaviour attracted more headlines than his talent on it.

‘I was effectively homeless after getting sacked’

Former England captain Casey Stoney tells BBC Sport how she and her family have rebuilt their lives after her sacking by San Diego Wave.

The life, loss and legacy of Kevin Campbell

Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole, Tyrese Campbell and more discuss the life and tragic death of the former Arsenal and Everton striker.

‘I signed Barcelona deal – then had a stroke at 24’

Goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck suffered a stroke six months after being part of the England squad that reached the World Cup final.

The man who saved Wembley Stadium

How Arthur Elvin went from working in a tobacco kiosk to saving Wembley Stadium from demolition and running the stadium for 30 years.

‘Being misunderstood when you’re younger is so difficult’

Chelsea and England defender Lucy Bronze opens up for the first time about her autism and ADHD diagnoses.

‘I want to be the best player in the world one day’

On the streets they call him ‘Kego’ – the one-time wonderkid left to train alone in a concrete wilderness.

From Tim Willert: Jessica Clements hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the seventh inning early Friday morning to carry ninth-seeded UCLA past No. 16 Oregon 4-2 at the Women’s College World Series, after the Ducks tied the game in the top of the inning on a call at home plate that was overturned.

Catcher Alexis Ramirez also hit a two-run homer in support of Bruins’ starter Kaitlyn Terry, who pitched a four-hitter and gave up one earned run. UCLA (55-11) will play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PDT) for a spot in the semifinals. Oregon (53-9) will face unseeded Mississippi in Friday’s elimination game.

Oregon’s Paige Sinicki doubled inside the third-base line to lead off the seventh, but the ruling was challenged by UCLA. The call was upheld, but the next hitter, Dezianna Patmon bunted Sinicki to third with one out. Emma Cox followed with a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Woolery, who tried to throw Sinicki out at home. The throw to Ramirez was on time and Sinicki was ruled out at home for the second out.

Oregon challenged the call, and it was overturned after a video review showed obstruction by Ramirez.

Continue reading here

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score)
Oklahoma City 128, at Minnesota 126 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 124, Minnesota 94 (box score)

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score)
New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score)
at Indiana 130, New York 121 (box score)
at New York 111, Indiana 94 (box score)
Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

NBA FINALS

West No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. NY/Ind.

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday, June 8 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 11 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Before the start of the season, Dodgers first base and infield coach Chris Woodward pulled Mookie Betts aside one day, and had him envision the ultimate end result.

“You’re gonna be standing at shortstop when we win the World Series,” Woodward told Betts, the former Gold Glove right fielder in the midst of an almost unprecedented mid-career position switch. “That’s what the goal is.”

Two months into the season, the Dodgers believe he’s checking the requisite boxes on the path toward getting there.

“I would say, right now he’s playing above-average shortstop, Major League shortstop,” manager Dave Roberts said this week. “Which is amazing, considering he just took this position up.”

Betts has not only returned to shortstop this season after his unconvincing three-month stint at the position last year; but he has progressed so much that, unlike when he was moved back to right field for the stretch run of last fall’s championship march, the Dodgers have no plans for a similar late-season switch this time around.

“I don’t see us making a change [like] we did last year. I don’t see that happening,” Roberts said. “He’s a major league shortstop, on a championship club.”

“And,” the manager also added, “he’s only getting better.”

Continue reading here

Shaikin: ‘Another log on the fire.’ Yankees eager to avenge World Series meltdown against Dodgers

Dodgers acquire former All-Star closer Alexis Díaz in trade with Reds

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Tutu Atwell played quarterback. He played receiver, and he also played on defense.

Years before diminutive and speedy Atwell matured into an NFL prospect, the Rams receiver played flag football.

Could anybody stop him?

“Nah, nah,” Atwell said, chuckling.

So Atwell, a 2021 second-round draft pick who will earn $10 million this season, said he would be cool and fun if he got the opportunity in a few years to try out for the 2028 U.S. Olympic flag football team.

Atwell echoed the feelings of Minnesota Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson and other players in the league since NFL owners last week approved a resolution that would allow them to try out for flag football. The resolution limits only one player per NFL team to play for each national team in the Los Angeles Games.

NFL players would compete for spots with others already playing flag football.

“It’s great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “If that’s something that players say they want to be able to do, then I think it’s a really cool experience for them to be able to be a part of while also acknowledging that, man, there are some other guys that have been doing it.”

Continue reading here

USC-NOTRE DAME POLL

Let’s hear from you. Could a smoother path to the College Football Playoff be worth losing the Notre Dame-USC rivalry? Vote here and let us know. Results announced next week.

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary)
at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary)
at Edmonton 4, Dallas 1 (summary)
Edmonton 6, at Dallas 3 (summary)

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary)
at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary)
Carolina 3, at Florida 0 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 3 (summary)

STANLEY CUP FINALS

P3 Edmonton vs. A3 Florida
Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday, June 6 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday, June 9 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1903 — Flocarline becomes the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes.

1908 — Jockey Joe Notter misjudges the finish of the Belmont Stakes and eases up on his mount, Colin, whose career record to that point was 13-for-13. Notter recovers from his mistake and holds off Fair Play, who came within a head of defeating Colin. When he retired, Colin’s record stood at 15 wins in as many starts.

1911 — Ray Harroun wins the first Indianapolis 500 in 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds with an average speed of 74.59 mph.

1912 — Joe Dawson wins the second Indianapolis 500 in 6:21:06. Ralph Mulford is told he has to complete the race for 10th place money. It takes him 8 hours and 53 minutes as he makes several stops for fried chicken. The finishing rule is changed the next year.

1951 — Lee Wallard wins the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first driver to break the 4-hour mark with a time of 3:57:38.05.

1951 — Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.

1952 — At 22, Troy Ruttman becomes the youngest driver to win the Indianapolis 500.

1955 — Bob Sweikert, an Indianapolis native, wins the Indianapolis 500. Bill Vukovich, seeking his third consecutive victory, is killed in a four-car crash on the 56th lap.

1957 — European Cup Final, Madrid: Alfredo Di Stéfano and Francisco Gento score as defending champions Real Madrid beats Fiorentina, 2-0.

1974 — 17th European Cup: Ajax beats Juventus 1-0 at Belgrade.

1985 — The Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year with an 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 5.

1987 — Mike Tyson beats Pinklon Thomas by TKO in round 6 in Las Vegas to retain WBC/WBA heavyweight boxing titles.

1993 — Emerson Fittipaldi wins his second Indianapolis 500, by 2.8 seconds. Fittipaldi takes the lead on lap 185 and holds on, outfoxing Formula One champion Nigel Mansell and runner-up Arie Luyendyk.

2004 — In Cooper City, Fla., Canada easily beats the United States in a three-day cricket match, the first competition on American soil sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

2005 — Johns Hopkins wins its first NCAA lacrosse title in 18 years, beating Duke 9-8 to complete an undefeated season.

2009 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,391): Chelsea beats Everton, 2-1; Frank Lampard scores 72′ winner.

2010 — Dario Franchitti gets a huge break from a spectacular crash on the last lap to climb back on top of the open-wheel world to win the Indianapolis 500. Franchitti’s second Brickyard victory in four years helps his boss, Chip Ganassi, become the first owner to win Indy and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in the same year.

2011 — Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigns amid NCAA violations from a tattoo-parlor scandal that sullied the image of one of the country’s top football programs.

2012 — Roger Federer breaks Jimmy Connors’ Open era record of 233 Grand Slam match wins by beating Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the second round of the French Open. Federer, who owns a record 16 major championships, is 234-35 at tennis’ top four tournaments. Connors was 233-49. The Open era began in 1968.

2015 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,283): Arsenal beats Aston Villa, 4-0; Gunners’ 12th title.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1894 — Boston’s Robert Lowe became the first player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a game, leading the Beaneaters to a 20-11 win over Cincinnati. After hitting four straight homers, all line drives far over the fence, Lowe added a single to set a major league record with 17 total bases.

1922 — Between the morning and afternoon games of a Memorial Day twin bill, Max Flack of the Chicago Cubs was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Cliff Heathcote. They played one game for each team.

1927 — In the fourth inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, shortstop Jim Cooney of the Chicago Cubs caught Paul Waner’s liner, stepped on second to double Lloyd Waner and then tagged Clyde Barnhart coming from first for an unassisted triple play.

1935 — Babe Ruth made his last major league appearance. He played one inning for the Boston Braves against the Philadelphia Phillies. Jim Bivin retired Babe Ruth on an infield grounder in the Babe’s final major league at-bat.

1940 — Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants threw 87 pitches in a 7-0 one-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He faced the minimum 27 batters. Johnny Hudson, who singled, was caught stealing.

1956 — Mickey Mantle hit a home run that came within a foot-and-a-half of leaving Yankee Stadium. It hit the face of the upper deck in right field, 370 feet from home plate and 117 feet in the air. Mantle became the first player to hit 20 home runs by the end of May as the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 4-3.

1961 — Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bill Skowron each hit two homers to lead the New York Yankees to a 12-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox. Yogi Berra also added a homer.

1962 — Pedro Ramos of the Cleveland Indians tossed a three-hitter and hit two home runs, including a grand slam, for a 7-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

1977 — Cleveland’s Dennis Eckersley pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the Angels.

1982 — Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. began his record consecutive games streak by starting at third base against the Toronto Blue Jays.

1987 — Eric Davis hit a grand slam in the third inning, breaking two National League records and leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Davis became the first NL player to hit three grand slams in a month and his major league leading 19 homers broke the NL record for most homers in April and May.

1992 — Scott Sanderson became the ninth pitcher to beat all 26 major league teams as New York defeated Milwaukee 8-1. Sanderson joined Nolan Ryan, Tommy John, Don Sutton, Mike Torrez, Rick Wise, Gaylord Perry, Doyle Alexander and Rich Gossage as those who have defeated every club.

2001 — Barry Bonds hit two home runs, moving past Willie McCovey and Ted Williams into 11th place on the career list with 522. Bonds with 17 home runs in May, surpassed the mark set by Mark McGwire in 1998 and Mickey Mantle in 1956.

2003 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit a game-tying home run in the ninth and a go-ahead homer in the top of the 11th to lead Cincinnati over Florida 4-3.

2006 — Vernon Wells hit three home runs and Troy Glaus added two more in Toronto’s 8-5 victory over Boston.

2009 — Travis Tucker hit an RBI single with one out in the top of the 25th inning, leading Texas to a 3-2 victory over Boston College in the longest game in NCAA history. The game eclipsed the previous record of 23 innings, set in 1971 when Louisiana-Lafayette defeated McNeese State 6-5.

2010 — Albert Pujols hit three long home runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 9-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. Pujols homered in the first, fifth and ninth innings for his fourth career three-homer game.

2011 — Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game to lead Toronto to an 11-1 rout of Cleveland. Reyes avoided becoming the first pitcher to go winless in 29 starts. Oakland’s Matt Keough went 28 starts between wins in 1978 and 1979, matching the dubious mark first set by Boston’s Cliff Curtis in 1910 and 1911. Reyes went 0-13 with a 6.59 ERA in his 28 starts between wins.

2011 — Arizona’s Kelly Johnson became the second player in the majors this year to have four extra-base hits in a game as the Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 15-4. Johnson hit solo home runs in the third and sixth, doubled in the fourth and tripled in the seventh.

2015 — The Dodgers snap a 42-inning scoreless road streak in beating the Cardinals, 5-1. They are held hitless for five innings by Michael Wacha to beat an unenviable club record dating back to 1908, until a run-scoring single by Howie Kendrick in the 6th puts the team on the board and a three-run homer by Yasmani Grandal gives them the lead. It is Wacha’s first loss after opening the year with seven straight wins.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Gary Klein: As the Rams went through organized-team activities on Wednesday, the players on the field were not the most compelling storyline.

The distinction belongs to a certain NFL star player who potentially could be on the roster by training camp.

Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI, remains in play as a possible addition to a Rams team regarded as a Super Bowl contender, coach Sean McVay acknowledged after practice.

The Dolphins have made it known that they were open to trading Ramsey, who signed an extension in 2024 and is due to earn $24.2 million this season, according to Overthecap.com.

“We certainly haven’t closed the door on that,” McVay said when asked about Ramsey. “But there hasn’t been a whole lot of dialogue as of late…. We’ll see if that changes, but these things can happen quickly.”

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score)
Oklahoma City 128, at Minnesota 126 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 124, Minnesota 94 (box score)

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score)
New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score)
at Indiana 130, New York 121 (box score)
Thursday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Given the shorthanded state of the Dodgers’ current pitching staff, losses like Wednesday are the ones that hurt the most.

Seeking to end their East Coast trip with a three-game sweep against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field, the Dodgers got a productive five-inning, one-run start out of Clayton Kershaw in his third outing back from offseason foot and knee surgeries.

They had a late-game lead on a day an ominous rainy forecast never came to fruition.

Most of all, they had most of their top current relievers available, able to call upon names they trusted over the final few innings.

Dodgers relief pitcher Alex Vesia walks to the dugout after the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians Wednesday in Cleveland. (David Dermer / Associated Press)

Such a perfect alignment has been rare for the Dodgers lately. Which means, when it does come around, “we’ve got to win these games,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Instead, the Dodgers lost 7-4 to the Guardians on Wednesday, wasting Kershaw’s five-inning outing with a five-run meltdown in the bottom of the eighth inning.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

From Benjamin Royer: The hope was that the Angels could use Tuesday’s ninth-inning rally to muster up something worth talking about at the plate.

On Tuesday, Yoán Moncada homered. Taylor Ward singled. Luis Rengifo brought home a run with a line drive up the middle. Despite falling a run short, stringing a few hits together showed that the Angels could build off each other to produce runs.

However, instead of breaking through as an offense, the Angels were shut out by the Yankees 1-0 on Wednesday night, securing a sweep and turning the Angels’ eight-game win streak of weeks past into more of a blip on the radar than a sign of life.

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe struck out looking to end the game on a breaking ball well off the strike zone. After the game, O’Hoppe was adamant that it was a ball, as was manager Ron Washington, but said it’s just part of the game and “out of our control.”

Regardless, the Angels were scoreless entering their final three outs again — Angel Stadium playing home to an offense in need of a pulse check

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

UCLA SOFTBALL

UCLA’s bid for a 13th national championship begins Thursday with a familiar opponent at the Women’s College World Series.

The Bruins (54-11) face Oregon at Devon Park at 6:30 p.m. (PST) on the first day of a double-elimination tournament featuring Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Texas Tech.

Two finalists will play a best-of-three series to determine the NCAA softball champion beginning June 4.

The matchup between UCLA and Oregon will be the 131st meeting between current Big Ten teams and former Pac-12 rivals. The Bruins have dominated the series with 97 wins.

The teams played once previously in the World Series in 2015, with UCLA winning, 7-1.

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GALAXY

Substitute Ousseni Bouda scored in the 74th minute, and the San José Earthquakes extended the Galaxy‘s MLS-record season-opening winless streak with a 1-0 victory Wednesday night.

Bouda slipped between two defenders and got his third goal of the season on a precise pass from fellow substitute Preston Judd for the Quakes, who ended a four-game losing streak in the California Clasico rivalry.

The defending MLS Cup champion Galaxy (0-12-4) are edging toward historic ignominy after dropping yet another game at the stadium where they went unbeaten in 2024 and won their league-record sixth title in December.

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GOLF

From Jad El Reda: Saint Monica Prep students Macayla Story, Johnnie García and Nicolás Vallejo received life-changing scholarships thanks to golf.

Story vividly remembers the moment she received the acceptance letter. She was in Palm Springs when her mother called to tell her that a large envelope had arrived. The envelope contained a letter informing her she would be receiving the $125,000 Chick Evans Scholarship, a program supported by the Western Golf Assn. that will allow her to attend a university without having to worry about housing costs or tuition for four years.

“When I came back, I opened it with her by my side. I showed her the letter and she started crying. It was an incredible moment,” Story told L.A. Times en Español.

Story traveled to Chicago to work as a caddie for two months at Skokie Country Club, and Garcia and Vallejo did the program locally with Los Angeles Country Club. All they were guaranteed was pay for their work and a chance to apply for the lucrative scholarships.

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TRANSGENDER ATHLETES

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by allowing transgender students to compete in school sports, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The Justice Department is also throwing its support behind a pending lawsuit alleging similar violations of girls’ rights in the Riverside Unified School District, said U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who oversees much of the Los Angeles region, and Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Transgender track athletes have come under intense scrutiny in recent months in both Jurupa Valley and Riverside, with anti-LGBTQ+ activists attacking them on social media and screaming opposition to their competing at school meets.

Essayli and Dhillon, both Californians appointed under President Trump, have long fought against transgender rights in the state. Their announcements came one day after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing transgender youths to participate in sports.

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USC-NOTRE DAME POLL

Let’s hear from you. Could a smoother path to the College Football Playoff be worth losing the Notre Dame-USC rivalry? Vote here and let us know. Results announced next week.

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary)
at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary)
at Edmonton 4, Dallas 1 (summary)
Thursday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC*
Monday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary)
at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary)
Carolina 3, at Florida 0 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 3 (summary)

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1946 — Two-year-old fillies Chakoora and Uleta become the first thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. They’re flown from New York to Inglewood by the American Air Express Corp., a 2,446-mile trip that lasts 20 hours due to bad weather.

1968 — European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Bobby Charlton scores twice as Manchester United beats Benfica, 4-1; first English club to win the trophy.

1971 — Al Unser wins his second straight Indianapolis 500 with a record mark of 157.735 mph and finishes 22 seconds ahead of Peter Revson. The pace car, ridden by Eldon Palmer, crashes into the portable bleachers and injures 20 people.

1977 — A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win four Indianapolis 500s and Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman in the race. Guthrie is forced to drop out after 27 laps with mechanical problems.

1977 — Australian Sue Prell first female golfer to hit consecutive holes-in one; 13th and 14th holes at Chatswood Golf Club, Sydney.

1980 — Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year.

1983 — After three second-place finishes, Tom Sneva wins the Indianapolis 500 by 11 seconds over three-time champion Al Unser.

1985 — 29th European Cup: Juventus beats Liverpool 1-0 at Brussels.

1988 — Rick Mears overcomes an early one-lap deficit, then overpowers the rest of the field on the way to his third Indianapolis 500 victory. Mears gives team-owner Roger Penske an unprecedented seventh victory and fourth in five years.

1990 — Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker, the top two seeds, are bounced in the first round of the French Open by two European teenagers, the first time the top two men’s seeds are eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament. Edberg is swept easily in straight sets by 19-year-old Sergi Bruguera of Spain, and Becker loses to 18-year-old Yugoslav Goran Ivanisevic.

1991 — 35th European Cup: Red Star Belgrade beats Marseille (0-0, 5-3 on penalties) at Bari.

1993 — Wayne Gretzky’s overtime goal gives the Kings a 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Western Conference finals. The Kings become the first NHL team to play the full 21 games in the first three rounds.

1998 — Eighteen-year-old Marat Safin, ranked 116th in the world and playing in his first Grand Slam tournament, beats defending champion Gustavo Kuerten, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the French Open.

2005 — Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 when Danica Patrick’s electrifying run falls short. Patrick is the first woman to lead at Indy, getting out front three separate times for a total of 19 laps. But Wheldon passes her with seven laps to go and easily holds on.

2006 — Rafael Nadal passes Guillermo Vilas as the King of the clay courts and begins his pursuit of a second successive French Open trophy. Nadal earns his 54th consecutive win on clay, breaking the Open era record he shared with Vilas by beating Robin Soderling in straight sets in the first round at Roland Garros.

2011 — JR Hildebrand, one turn from winning the Indianapolis 500, skids high into the wall on the final turn and Dan Wheldon drives past to claim an improbable second Indy 500 win in his first race of the year.

2011 — Roger Federer sets another record by reaching the French Open quarterfinals, and Novak Djokovic closes in on a pair of his own. Federer extends his quarterfinal streak at major tournaments to 28 with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka. Djokovic maintains his perfect season to 41-0 and stretches his overall winning streak to 43 matches by beating Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

2012 — Serena Williams loses in the first round of a major tournament for the first time, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at the French Open. Williams enters the day with a 46-0 record in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

2016 — Alexander Rossi wins the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

2021 — UEFA Champions League Final, Porto: Kai Havertz scores just before halftime to give Chelsea a 1-0 win over Manchester City in an all-English final; Blues’ second CL title.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1916 — Christy Mathewson defeated the Boston Braves 3-0 for the New York Giants’ 17th consecutive road win.

1922 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled organized baseball was primarily a sport and not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws and interstate commerce regulations. The suit had been brought by the Federal League’s Baltimore franchise.

1928 — Bill Terry hit for the cycle to lead the New York Giants to a 12-5 win over Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Terry became the first player in major league history to include a grand slam as part of the cycle.

1942 — New York’s Lefty Gomez, self-described as the worst-hitting pitcher in baseball, banged out four hits while pitching a 16-1 four-hitter against Washington.

1946 — Edward Klep became the first white to play in the Negro leagues in a game played in Grand Rapids. Klep pitched seven innings for the Cleveland Buckeyes against the American Giants in his debut with the Negro American League team.

1956 — Dale Long went hitless for the Pirates, ending his major league record streak of home runs in eight consecutive games. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh, 10-1.

1965 — Philadelphia’s Richie Allen hit a 529-foot home run over the roof of Connie Mack Stadium off Chicago’s Larry Jackson in the Phillies’ 4-2 victory.

1976 — Houston’s Joe Niekro was the winning pitcher and hit a home run off his brother, Phil Niekro. The Astros beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1. It was the only home run hit by Joe in his 22-year major league career.

1990 — Oakland’s Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League stolen base record, but the Toronto Blue Jays still beat the Athletics 2-1. Henderson’s 893rd steal came in the sixth inning.

2000 — Oakland second baseman Randy Velarde turned the 10th unassisted triple play in regular-season history during a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees. With runners on first and second in motion, Shane Spencer hit a line drive to Velarde who caught the ball, tagged out Jorge Posada (running from first) and stepped on second to beat Tino Martinez.

2002 — Roger Clemens recorded the 100th double-digit strikeout game of his career, fanning 11 in seven innings against Chicago. Nolan Ryan (215) and Randy Johnson (175) were the others to have 100 double-digit strikeout games.

2002 — In an article in Sports Illustrated former NL MVP Ken Caminiti stated that about 50% of current major league players used some form of steroids.

2003 — Colorado, behind Todd Helton’s three home runs and Ron Belliard’s five hits beat the visiting Dodgers 12-5. Helton added a single and drove in six runs.

2010 — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in major league history, beating the Florida Marlins 1-0. It was the first time in the modern era that there were a pair of perfect games in the same season. Halladay faced three Marlins pinch-hitters in the ninth. Mike Lamb led off with a long fly ball, Wes Helms struck out, and Ronny Paulino to hit a grounder to third for the 27th out. Halladay struck out 11 and went to either 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters alone.

2013 — Chris Davis went 4 for 4 with two home runs, and the Baltimore Orioles overcame three homers by Ryan Zimmerman to beat the Washington Nationals 9-6.

2013 — Dioner Navarro had the first three-homer game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro drove in a career-high six runs and scored four times.

2014 — Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter faces the minimum 27 batters in spite of allowing three hits in a complete game shutout defeat of the Cincinnati Reds. The three Reds baserunners were erased on double plays.

2015 — Lewis-Clark State wins their 17th NAIA baseball title.

2021 — The Twins’ Josh Donaldson scored the two-millionth run in major league history.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by allowing transgender students to compete in school sports, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The Justice Department is also throwing its support behind a pending lawsuit alleging similar violations of girls’ rights in the Riverside Unified School District, said U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who oversees much of the Los Angeles region, and Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Transgender track athletes have come under intense scrutiny in recent months in both Jurupa Valley and Riverside, with anti-LGBTQ+ activists attacking them on social media and screaming opposition to their competing at school meets.

Essayli and Dhillon, both Californians appointed under President Trump, have long fought against transgender rights in the state. Their announcements came one day after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing transgender youth to participate in sports.

The legal actions are just the latest attempts by the Trump administration to scale back transgender rights nationwide, including by bringing the fight to California — which has the nation’s largest queer population and some of its most robust LGBTQ+ legal protections — and targeting individual student athletes in the state.

Both Trump in his threats Tuesday and Essayli and Dhillon in their announcement of the investigation Wednesday appeared to reference the recent success of a 16-year-old transgender track athlete at Jurupa Valley High School named AB Hernandez. Trump wrongly suggested that Hernandez had won “everything” at a recent meet — which Hernandez didn’t do.

In a comment to The Times on Wednesday, Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, said it was heartbreaking to see her child being attacked “simply for being who they are,” and despite following all California laws and policies for competing.

“My child is a transgender student-athlete, a hardworking, disciplined, and passionate young person who just wants to play sports, continue to build friendships, and grow into their fullest potential like any other child,” her mother said.

The mother of another transgender high school track athlete in Riverside County who is the subject of the pending lawsuit the Justice Department is now backing declined to comment Wednesday.

The Justice Department said it had sent letters of legal notice to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the California Interscholastic Federation and Jurupa Unified.

The U.S. Department of Education had previously announced in February that it was investigating the CIF for allowing transgender athletes to compete. Dhillon said the two federal departments would coordinate their investigations.

Bonta has defended state laws protecting transgender youth, students and athletes, and advised school systems and other institutions in the state, such as hospitals, to adhere to state LGBTQ+ laws — even in the face of various Trump executive orders aimed at curtailing the rights of and healthcare for transgender youth. On Wednesday, his office said it remained “committed to defending and upholding California laws.”

Scott Roark, a spokesman for the California Department of Education, said his agency could not comment. Jacquie Paul, a spokesperson for Jurupa Unified, said the school system had yet to receive the letter Wednesday, and “without further information” could not comment. A spokesperson for the Riverside Unified School District also declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

The CIF, in a statement, said it “values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law and Education Code.”

However, the sports federation also changed its rules for the upcoming 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, saying a cisgender girl who is bumped from qualifying for event finals by a transgender athlete would still be allowed to compete and would also be awarded the medal for whichever place they would have claimed were the transgender athlete not competing.

The changes brought renewed criticism from advocates on both sides of the political issue, including Chino Valley Unified school board President Sonja Shaw. Shaw is a Trump supporter running for state schools superintendent who has challenged pro-LGBTQ+ laws statewide and supports the latest investigation. She said that, in making the changes, CIF was “admitting” that girls “are being pushed out of their own sports.”

Dhillon said her office’s “pattern or practice” investigation will consider whether California’s laws and the CIF policies violate Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.

Title IX has been used in the past to win rights for transgender people, but the Trump administration has taken a strikingly different view of the law — and cited it as a reason transgender rights must be rolled back.

Dhillon said the law “exists to protect women and girls in education,” that it is “perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies,” and that her division would “aggressively defend women’s hard-fought rights to equal educational opportunities.”

Essayli said in a statement that his office would “work tirelessly to protect girls’ sports and stop anyone — public officials included — from violating women’s civil rights.”

LGBTQ+ advocates, civic institutions in California and many Democratic lawmakers in the state have denounced the framing of transgender inclusion in sports as diminishing the rights of women and girls and accused Trump and other Republicans of attacking transgender people — about 1% of the U.S. population — simply because they make for an easy and vulnerable political target.

Kristi Hirst, co-founder of the public education advocacy group Our Schools USA, said the Justice Department’s actions amounted to “bullying minors and using taxpayer resources to do so,” and that a “better use of public dollars would be for the Justice Department to affirm that all kids possess civil rights, and protect the very students being targeted today.”

The “pattern or practice” investigation is the second such investigation that Dhillon’s office has launched in the L.A. region in as many months. It’s also investigating Los Angeles County over its process for issuing gun permits.

Essayli’s separate decision to back the Riverside lawsuit adds another wrinkle to an already complicated case.

The group Save Girls’ Sports is suing over the inclusion of a transgender athlete in a girls’ track meet in October, a decision they allege unfairly bumped a cisgender girl from competition, and over a decision by high school officials to block students from wearing shirts that read, “IT’S COMMON SENSE. XX [does not equal] XY,” a reference to the different chromosome pairings of biological females and males.

Julianne Fleischer, an attorney with Advocates for Faith & Freedom who is representing Save Girls’ Sports, said Wednesday that Essayli’s decision to weigh in on behalf of the group was welcome.

“This case has always been about common sense, fairness, and the plain meaning of the law,” Fleischer said in a statement. “Girls’ sports were never meant to be a social experiment. They exist so that girls can win, lead and thrive on a level playing field.”

It was unclear how the case would be affected by Essayli’s interest.

The state and school district are asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. A hearing is scheduled next month.

Essayli, formerly a state Assembly member from Riverside County, made his name in politics in part by attacking what he has called the “woke” policies of California’s liberal majority in Sacramento. Shortly before he was appointed as U.S. attorney last month, other California lawmakers blocked a bill he introduced that would have banned transgender athletes from female sports.

Hernandez, the mother of the targeted Jurupa Valley athlete, said Trump and other officials were bullying children by “weaponizing misinformation and fear instead of embracing truth, compassion and respect,” and asked Trump to reconsider.

“I respectfully request you to open your heart and mind to learn about the LGBTQ+ community,” she said, “not from the voices of fear or division, but from the people living these lives with courage, love and dignity.”

Keyshawn Johnson is suing a sports agent for almost $1 million.

Johnson says he recruited several players, who are now in the NFL, to be represented by Christopher Ellison. The former NFL and USC star’s claim is based on an alleged oral agreement the men made a decade ago to pay Johnson for his efforts. Most of the $1 million represents back payments that Johnson feels he is owed.

A lawsuit filed May 23 in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges that Johnson and Ellison had agreed that Johnson “was to identify players, make the initial contact with them, and recruit them to be represented by” Ellison.

“In return for this player identification, recruitment and eventual entry into the highest level of the game of football, Defendant promised to pay Plaintiff a specific percentage of the player’s signed contract with the NFL,” the lawsuit states. “Each year, Defendant promised to pay Plaintiff one-third of the (3%) three percent commission Defendant made on each of the players’ salary.”

According to the lawsuit, Johnson successfully recruited four players — San Francisco 49ers defensive back Deommodore Lenoir, Chicago Bears defensive back Jaylon Johnson, Atlanta Falcons defensive back Mike Hughes and Green Bay Packers receiver Romeo Doubs — for Ellison but “has not received his earned percentage of Defendant’s full commission.”

Ellison did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. TMZ reports that the attorney and UCLA adjunct professor “denies all of the claims Johnson made in the suit.”

The lawsuit details each player’s contract and states that Johnson should have been paid “no less than $962,335 from his work on securing these player agreements.” But, according to the filing, no payment has been received.

“For several months, Defendant claimed he had not received any payments for the NFL’s recruitment of the players he represents,” the lawsuit states. “It is our reasonable belief that this is false.”

Since then, the filing alleges, Ellison “has become unresponsive to Plaintiff’s demands for payment.”

Johnson is seeking the full amount he states he is owed — as well as other damages, costs and fees — for causes of action that include breach of contract, unfair business practices and intentional misrepresentation.

A two-time All-American at USC, Johnson was named the MVP of the 1995 Cotton Bowl Classic and the player of the game in the 1996 Rose Bowl. During his 11-year NFL career, Johnson made three Pro Bowls and won Super Bowl XXXVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since retirement, he has become a sports media personality and, according to his lawsuit, “currently works to coach and develop prospective NFL players.”

From Jack Harris: For a few weeks now, the Dodgers have been in the “treading water” portion of their season, trying to work through injuries in their pitching staff and inconsistencies in the lineup to remain atop the National League West standings.

On Tuesday, in a 9-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field, two of their coldest hitters finally gave them some comfortable space to breathe.

In a game that was close until the final few innings, Michael Conforto and Max Muncy both showed long-awaited signs of life at the plate, each reaching base three times and each hitting late home runs to help the Dodgers pull away on a cool night in Cleveland.

“It’s big,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It adds the length [to the lineup] that we expected coming into this season.”

For much of this year, that length had been missing, the Dodgers forced to navigate around subpar production from both veteran sluggers — both at the plate and in the field.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score)
Oklahoma City 128, at Minnesota 126 (box score)
Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Friday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score)
New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score)
at Indiana 130, New York 121 (box score)
Thursday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

ANGELS

From Bill Shaikin: The adjective hit me like a line drive.

Wayne Randazzo, the television voice of the Angels, was detailing just how poorly the team’s relievers had performed. He recited the Angels’ earned-run average in the late innings, inning by inning. Over 5.00. Over 6.00. In the ninth inning, at that time, over 7.00.

“The numbers,” Randazzo said, “are gargantuan.”

What a colorful, descriptive and absolutely apt adjective. Not the “struggling” or “scuffling” or “slumping” a broadcaster typically offers, bland adjectives presented with the assurance that better times are ahead. No team can win with that kind of bullpen performance, and no one can guarantee that better times are ahead for a relief corps where only the closer has a successful track record.

For all that has gone wrong on the field for the Angels in modern times, they have struck gold in the broadcast booth. In pairing Randazzo with longtime analyst Mark Gubicza, the Angels just might have their best broadcast team since Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale half a century ago.

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————

Carlos Rodón pitched seven scoreless innings of five-hit ball, and Devin Williams barely survived a perilous ninth inning to earn his first save since April 17 in the New York Yankees’ 3-2 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.

Yoán Moncada homered in the ninth as the Angels ended a stretch of 16 scoreless innings in the series with two runs and three hits off Williams, the Yankees’ embattled new reliever. Williams lost the closer role last month after a shaky beginning to his New York tenure, and he hadn’t had a save opportunity since April 25.

After Moncada led off the ninth with a homer on his 30th birthday, Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Ward scored when Jo Adell grounded into a forceout, but Williams got pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe on a foul popup to secure his fifth save and the Yankees’ seventh straight series win.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

SPARKS

From Anthony De Leon: When the Sparks traded for Kelsey Plum, the buzz around her reunion with former championship teammate Dearica Hamby centered on one thing: their pedigree elevating the franchise.

On Tuesday night, fans got a glimpse of the potential that the duo could attain. The chemistry. The comfort. The way they fed off each other’s energy — stepping up when the Sparks needed it most, looking to build momentum off a previous hard-fought victory.

By the fourth quarter of an 88-82 loss to the Atlanta Dream (4-2) on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena, the Sparks (2-4) were on the verge of a comeback. A steal by Hamby near midcourt turned into an outlet on the fastbreak to Plum, who quickly dished it back for the finish, trimming the deficit to 66–63.

The second half belonged to them. Plum and Hamby combined for 39 points to rally the Sparks from a 40–31 halftime hole. Like clockwork, Plum buried a clutch three-pointer to cut the lead to 71–70 — the closest L.A. would get. Hamby’s late free throws pulled them to within two in the final minutes.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

LAFC

From Kevin Baxter: Carlos Vela, the first player signed by LAFC and still the club record-holder in goals, assists, games and minutes played, announced his retirement Tuesday. The team said in announcement that Vela will work with LAFC as its first Black and Gold Ambassador. He will also be honored on Carlos Vela Night at BMO Stadium on Sept. 21.

“Helping to build LAFC and winning trophies for the club is a highlight of my career,” Vela, 36, said in a statement issued by the team. “This club means so much to me and my family, and I am proud of everything we have accomplished together with the great fans of Los Angeles. I am excited to begin this next chapter in my journey here in L.A.”

Vela signed a designated-player contract with LAFC in August 2017, eight months before the team’s first game. He led LAFC to the playoffs in his first season, then set the MLS single-season goal-scoring record with 34 in 2019, when the team won the first of two Supporters’ Shields. Vela was named the league’s MVP that season

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GALAXY

From Kevin Baxter: The last time Bruce Arena and Dave Sarachan stood together on the sidelines at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy were beating the Colorado Rapids in the MLS Western Conference semifinals. That was 2016 and the win was the pair’s 18th playoff victory in eight seasons with the Galaxy.

It was also the last game they coached together in Carson.

They’ll be back on Wednesday, only this time Arena and Sarachan will be in the opposite technical area, standing in front of the San José Earthquakes’ bench. And in some ways it’s a bittersweet return. Because while both men have mostly fond memories of their time with the Galaxy, they return with the home team hungry and winless through 15 games, the longest drought in franchise history.

That makes the homecoming both welcome and challenging.

“I have nothing but good memories of my time in L.A. with the Galaxy. So it’s nice to go back,” Arena said.

“I like watching them and they’ve had tough times. But they’re better than their record indicates. We’re the next team up, which will be in some ways very, very challenging because you know they’re due to have success.”

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U.S. MEN’S SOCCER TEAM

From Kevin Baxter: With the World Cup, one the U.S. will play at home, just 380 days away, Captain America has decided to take a pass on the national team’s last major competition ahead of the tournament.

That’s Pulisic’s choice, of course. He’s played a grueling schedule with AC Milan this season, one that concludes Sunday, a week before the national team reports to camp in Chicago.

And he has permission.

“Christian and his team approached the Federation and the coaching staff about the possibility of stepping back this summer, given the amount of matches he has played,” said Matt Crocker, U.S. Soccer’s sporting director, noting that Pulisic has played more than 4,400 minutes for club and country the last 12 months.

Nor is Pulisic alone in his absence. Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson, Josh Sargent and Yunus Musah, Pulisic’s teammate in Milan, were also left off the 27-man roster summoned to training camp ahead next month’s Gold Cup, although some of those players will be participating in the Club World Cup.

Yet even if reason and rules are strongly on Pulisic’s side, the optics are bad.

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USC-NOTRE DAME POLL

Let’s hear from you. Could a smoother path to the College Football Playoff be worth losing the Notre Dame-USC rivalry? Vote here and let us know. Results announced next week.

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary)
at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary)
at Edmonton 4, Dallas 1 (summary)
Thursday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC*
Monday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary)
at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary)
Carolina 3, at Florida 0 (summary)
Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Sunday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1901 — Parader, ridden by Fred Landry, overcomes a bad start to win the Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Sadie S.

1904 — Bryn Mawr, ridden by Eugene Hildebrand, wins the Preakness Stakes by one length over Wotan.

1958 — European Cup Final, Brussels: Francisco Gento scores the winner in extra time as Real Madrid beats AC Milan, 3-2; 3rd consecutive title for Los Blancos.

1969 — European Cup Final, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid: AC Milan striker Pierino Prati scores 3 in 4-1 win over Ajax; second title for I Rossoneri.

1975 — 19th European Cup: Bayern Munich beats Leeds United 2-0 at Paris.

1978 — Al Unser wins his third Indianapolis 500, the fifth driver to do so, edging Tom Sneva by 8.19 seconds.

1980 — 24th European Cup: Nottingham Forest beats Hamburg 1-0 at Madrid.

1985 — The San Diego Sockers beat the Baltimore Blast 5-3 to win the MISL title in five games.

1995 — Jacques Villeneuve overcomes one penalty and wins by another in the Indianapolis 500. Villeneuve drives to victory after fellow Canadian Scott Goodyear is penalized for passing the pace car on the final restart.

1997 — 5th UEFA Champions League Final: Borussia Dortmund beats Juventus 3-1 at Munich.

2000 — Dutch swimming star Inge de Bruijn sets her third world record in three days, adding the 100 freestyle mark to the 50 and 100 butterfly marks she set previously at the Sheffield Super Grand Prix. De Bruijn becomes the first swimmer to finish under 54.00 in the 100 freestyle at 53.80 seconds.

2003 — Patrick Roy officially announces his retirement from the NHL.

2003 — 11th UEFA Champions League Final: Milan beats Juventus (0-0, 3-2 on penalties) at Manchester.

2006 — Sam Hornish Jr. overcomes a disastrous mistake in the pits and a pair of Andrettis — Marco and father Michael — to win the second-closest Indianapolis 500 ever, by .0635 seconds.

2007 — Duke has an almost unfathomable comeback fall short in a 12-11 loss to Johns Hopkins in the NCAA lacrosse championship game. The Blue Devils never finished their 2006 season, and then make it all the way back to the title game.

2011 — Novak Djokovic extends his perfect start to the season at the French Open, beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 for his 40th straight victory this year. Djokovic’s 40-0 start to 2011 is the second-best opening streak in the Open era, which started in 1968.

2011 — UEFA Champions League Final, London: FC Barcelona beats Manchester United, 3-1; 4th title for Barça.

2020 — The Boston Marathon canceled for the first time in its 124-year history. The race had originally been scheduled for April 20 before being postponed for five months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

2022 — UEFA Champions League Final, Paris: Carlo Ancelotti becomes first manager to win CL x 4 as Real Madrid beats Liverpool, 1-0.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1918 — Boston’s Joe Bush pitched a 1-0 one-hitter against the Chicago White Sox and drove in the lone run. The only Chicago hit was by Happy Felsch. It occurred when he threw his bat at the ball on a hit and run.

1939 — Philadelphia pitcher Robert Joyce was victimized two straight days by New York’s George Selkirk. Joyce gave up two homers to Selkirk a day earlier. Joyce came on in relief on this day and gave up two more homers to Selkirk. Selkirk ended with four homers in four at-bats against the same pitcher over two successive games. The Yankees won 9-5.

1946 — The Washington Senators beat New York 2-1 in the first night game at Yankee Stadium. The first ball was thrown out by General Electric president Charles E. Wilson.

1951 — After going 0-for-12 in his first three major league games, Willie Mays of the New York Giants hit a home run off Warren Spahn in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Braves.

1956 — Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a home run in his eighth consecutive game, a major league record. Long connected off Brooklyn’s Carl Erskine at Forbes Field.

1968 — The American League announced the league will be split into two divisions. The East division will consist of Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York and Washington. California, Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland and Seattle will make up the West.

1979 — George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hit for the cycle and added another home run to beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 in 16 innings.

1986 — Joe Cowley of the Chicago White Sox set a major league record by striking out the first seven batters he faced. He lasted 4 2-3 innings in a 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.

1995 — The White Sox and Tigers set a major league record with 12 homers, and combined for an American League-record 21 extra-base hits in Chicago’s 14-12 victory in Detroit.

1998 — Arizona manager Buck Showalter intentionally walked Barry Bonds with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the Diamondbacks held on to beat San Francisco 8-7.

2003 – Atlanta became the second team in major league history to start a game with three straight homers in its 15-3 win over the Reds. Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa and Gary Sheffield hit consecutive home runs off Jeff Austin in the bottom of the first. The Padres did it against the Giants on April 13, 1987.

2006 — Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run during the San Francisco Giants’ 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies to slip past Babe Ruth and pull in behind Hank Aaron and his long-standing record of 755.

2007 — Adrian Beltre tied a franchise record with four extra-base hits, including two homers, as Seattle pounded the Angels 12-5.

2010 — Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera hit three homers in a 5-4 loss to Oakland. Oakland’s Ben Sheets gave up three runs — on Cabrera’s first two homers — worked seven innings in his longest start of the season.

2012 — The Cubs end a twelve-game losing streak, their longest since 1997, with an 11-7 win over the Padres at Wrigley Field.

2013 — The Mets honor Yankees great Mariano Rivera, who has announced his retirement at the end of the year, by having him throw the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the two teams from the Big Apple at Citi Field, with retired Mets closer John Franco acting as his catcher for the occasion.

2016 — In the third inning of a game against the Dodgers, Mets P Noah Syndergaard is ejected for throwing at Chase Utley, in apparent retaliation for Utley’s aggressive slide which injured Mets SS Ruben Tejada in last year’s NLDS. Umpire Adam Hamari also tosses Mets manager Terry Collins for arguing his decision, then Utley gets his revenge when he opens the score with a solo homer off Logan Verrett in the 6th and adds a grand slam off Hansel Robles in the 7th. The Dodgers hit five homers in total as they win the game, 9-1.

2019 — Derek Dietrich continues his unlikely homer binge as he hits three, all two-run shots, in leading the Reds to an 11-6 win over the Pirates. With 17 homers this year, he has already topped his career high, and 12 of his last 17 hits have gone over the fence. For the Pirates, rookie Kevin Newman hits his first career homer, a grand slam off Lucas Sims.

2023 — Spencer Strider of the Braves becomes the fastest starting pitcher to record 100 strikeouts in a season, doing so in his 61st inning in an 11 – 4 win over the Phillies. Last year, Strider set the record for the fastest pitcher to reach 200 Ks in a season.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Oklahoma City bound.

UCLA softball is heading to its 33rd Women’s College World Series after rallying from a game down to win the Columbia Super Regional, defeating South Carolina 5-0 in the series decider at Beckham Field on Sunday.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “To be able to be a final eight [team] is a goal, and the ability to overcome day one is because they [players] were so committed to the process and allowed them to take a trip back to OKC.”

After Jordan Woolery kept UCLA’s (54-11) season alive with a walk-off home run in Game 2, she picked up right where she left off with a first-inning RBI single off South Carolina (44-17) starting pitcher Sam Gress. The Bruins failed to tack on runs with the bases loaded, but Kaitlyn Terry made sure the early tally was enough.

Terry threw 5 ⅔ innings of two-hit shutout ball with four strikeouts before giving way to Saturday’s starting pitcher, Taylor Tinsley. She allowed only one runner into scoring position through the first five innings, handcuffing South Carolina’s powerful offense all day. Between Terry and Tinsley over the last two days, the Bruins only allowed four runs and 12 hits, all singles, across their two victories.

“I think honestly it was just spinning the ball and trusting my stuff,” Terry said.

From nine runs given up on Friday to four Saturday and a shutout in the rubber game, UCLA’s pitching only improved as the series went on.

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score)
Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Friday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score)
New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score)
Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.

Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.

Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.

“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.

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Shohei Ohtani throws live batting practice session 19 months after Tommy John surgery

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

From Benjamin Royer: Angels manager Ron Washington knew his team needed cultural adjustments.

It wasn’t just handling the 40-man roster general manager Perry Minasian assembled. The 73-year-old skipper, in his second season leading the Halos, identified a characteristic missing from last year’s Angels. Washington said his goal was for the Angels to become a family.

Looking back on two weeks ago, when the Angels stumbled to a 17-25 record after a hot start to begin the season, Washington said he felt the buy-in to the family ideology already seeped into the walls of the clubhouse — featuring a roster makeup mixing veterans with postseason success along his young starters across his infield. The results, however, were yet to come.

“My clubhouse was already jelled,” Washington said. “We just had to start playing good baseball.”

The Angels didn’t just play good baseball. They were the best in baseball across the last two weeks. With seven of eight victories coming on the road — a three-game sweep of the Dodgers and a four-game sweep of the Athletics — the Angels riddled off an eight-game winning streak.

After dropping Saturday’s game to the Marlins (21-30) in 6-2 fashion, the Angels (25-27) couldn’t respond Sunday, falling 3-0 to Miami to lose the weekend series. Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera sailed through 5 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 10 as the Angels’ offense struggled to produce for back-to-back days and tallied just three hits.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

SPARKS

From Anthony De Leon: Against the Chicago Sky, the Sparks found themselves in a must-win situation, not in the grand scheme of the standings, but for peace of mind. A win to help with confidence and morale.

After a week riddled with injuries and a three-game skid, Sunday’s matchup carried weight beyond the court — it mattered in the locker room. The pressure was starting to show, with visible signs of frustration from head coach Lynne Roberts down to the end of the bench.

The Sparks were a team searching for anything to swing the momentum back in their favor.

That shift came in the form of their superstar, Kelsey Plum, who took it upon herself to ignite the turnaround with a shooting clinic in the third quarter. Her flurry helped lift L.A. to a much-needed 91-78 win over the Sky at Crypto.com Arena.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

INDIANAPOLIS 500

Alex Palou took the ceremonial swig of milk in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500. His wife had a sip, she in turn gave a sip to their baby, and team owner Chip Ganassi ended up with the bottle and took a drink, as well.

“Whole milk,” he said before switching to Spanish. “Esta muy, muy buena.”

Then, the first Spaniard to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” took a victory lap with them around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the back of a pickup truck. At one point, Palou climbed onto its roof and raised his arms in triumph, the winning wreath draped around his neck. He briefly lost his balance and Ganassi instinctively reached out to grab his star driver.

No need.

Palou rarely makes a wrong move.

“All my family around, it’s amazing, honestly,” he said, smiling. “All the team around, they make me look really good on the track.”

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary)
at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary)
Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
Thursday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC*
Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary)
at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary)
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Sunday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1963 — French Championships Men’s Tennis: Australian Roy Emerson beats home favorite Pierre Darmon 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

1963 — French Championships Women’s Tennis: Australian Lesley Turner wins the first of 2 French titles; beats England’s Ann Jones 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

1972 — Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title.

1982 — 26th European Cup: Aston Villa beats Bayern Munich 1-0 at Rotterdam.

1985 — Danny Sullivan misses almost certain disaster and holds off Mario Andretti and the rest of the fastest field in auto racing to win the Indianapolis 500. On the 119th lap, Sullivan spins his racer 360 degrees, narrowly avoiding both the wall and Andretti.

1987 — Boston’s Larry Bird steals an inbounds pass from Detroit’s Isiah Thomas and feeds over his shoulder to a cutting Dennis Johnson for the winning basket as the Celtics pulls out an improbable 108-107 win over Detroit in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

1988 — The Edmonton Oilers, with MVP Wayne Gretzky leading the way, beat the Boston Bruins 6-3 to complete a four-game sweep and win their fourth Stanley Cup in five years.

1991 — Rick Mears passes Michael Andretti with 12 laps to go and wins his fourth Indianapolis 500, by 3.1 seconds. Mears joins A.J. Foyt and Al Unser as the only four-time winners.

1993 — 1st UEFA Champions League Final: Marseille beats Milan 1-0 at Munich.

1994 — Haiti’s Ronald Agenor wins the longest match since the French Open adopted the tiebreaker. Agenor takes the 71st and final game of a second-round match with David Prinosil of Germany. His five-hour, 6-7 (4-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4, 14-12 victory involves the most games in a French Open match since 1973.

1999 — 7th UEFA Champions League Final: Manchester United beats Bayern Munich 2-1 at Barcelona.

2000 — New Jersey finishes the greatest comeback in a conference final when the Devils win the last three games of the series, beating the Flyers 2-1 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. Patrik Elias scores his second goal of the game with 2:32 to play for the win.

2004 — Andy Roddick loses at the French Open — to Frenchman Olivier Mutis, who is ranked 125th. With the five-set loss, Roddick joins Andre Agassi and eight other compatriots on the way home, making it the first Grand Slam tournament in more than 30 years without a U.S. man in the third round.

2005 — Americans Andy Roddick, James Blake and Vince Spadea fail to make it through the opening week at the French Open. For the second year in a row — and the second time at a Grand Slam event in more than 30 years — no American man makes it out of the second round.

2008 — Syracuse wins its 10th NCAA men’s lacrosse championship, beating defending champion Johns Hopkins 13-10 behind three goals from Dan Hardy. The crowd of 48,970 at Foxborough, Mass., is the largest to see an NCAA championship outdoors in any sport — the BCS football championship game isn’t an NCAA event.

2009 — NHL Eastern Conference Final: Pittsburgh Penguins beat Carolina Hurricanes, 4 games to 0.

2012 — Toronto FC ends its MLS record nine-game losing streak to open a season with a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union on a late goal by Danny Koevermans.

2013 — Tony Kanaan ends years of frustration by finally winning the Indianapolis 500. Kanaan drives past Ryan Hunter-Reay on a restart with three laps to go, then coasts across the finish line under yellow when defending race winner Dario Franchitti crashes far back in the field. The Brazilian finished second in 2004 and twice finished third.

2013 — Senior PGA Championship, Bellerive CC: Kōki Idoki of Japan wins his lone PGA event by 2 strokes from Jay Haas and Kenny Perry.

2015 — Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA Eastern Conference.

2018 — UEFA Champions League Final, Kiev: Real Madrid beats Liverpool, 3-1 for third straight title. Zinédine Zidane first manager to win 3 consecutive titles.

2019 — Indianapolis 500: 2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud of France finishes just two-tenths of a second ahead of Alexander Rossi for Team Penske’s record-extending 18th victory in the event.

2019 — Senior PGA Championship, Oak Hill CC: American Ken Tanigawa wins his first career major title by 1 stroke ahead of Scott McCarron.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1916 — Benny Kauff of the Giants was picked off first base three times by Boston’s Lefty Tyler. The miscues didn’t hurt as New York won its 14th consecutive road victory beating the Braves, 12-1.

1925 — In Detroit’s 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, Ty Cobb became the first to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits. He finished his career with 1,139.

1929 — Pinch-hitters Pat Crawford of the Giants and Les Bell of the Boston Braves hit grand slams in New York’s 15-9 victory.

1930 — Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who fanned only three times in 353 at-bats during the season, was struck out twice in the same game by Pat Caraway of the White Sox.

1937 — Billy Sullivan and Bruce Campbell appeared for the Cleveland Indians as pinch hitters. Each hit a home run, making this the first time two American League pinch hitters hit home runs in the same game. The Indians beat the Athletics, 8-6.

1956 — Cincinnati Reds pitchers John Klippstein, Hershell Freeman and Joe Black combined for 9 2-3 hitless innings, but lost 2-1 in 11 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies.

1959 — Harvey Haddix of Pittsburgh pitched 12 perfect innings before losing to Milwaukee 1-0 in the 13th on an error, a sacrifice and Joe Adcock’s double.

1962 — Sandy Koufax struck out 16 Phillies to lead the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory.

1969 — Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 500th career double, becoming only the third major leaguer to reach 500 doubles and 500 home runs.

1995 — USC and Fresno State combined for an NCAA postseason baseball record of 39 runs in the Trojans’ 22-17 win in the West Regional. USC scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break the record of 37 set by the Trojans and Houston in 1990.

1996 — The Chicago White Sox became the 16th team in AL history to hit four homers in one inning in their 12-1 win over Milwaukee. Frank Thomas, Harold Baines and Robin Ventura hit consecutive homers and Chad Kreuter added another in Chicago’s seven-run eighth.

1997 — Chicago’s Sammy Sosa and the Pirates’ Tony Womack hit inside-the-park homers in the sixth inning of the Cubs’ 2-1 win. It was the first time two inside-the-park homers had been hit in the same inning in 20 years.

2004 — Daryle Ward hit for the cycle and tied his career best with six RBIs in Pittsburgh’s 11-8 win over St. Louis.

2006 — Derek Jeter gets his 2,000th career hit, becoming the eighth player in Yankees history to reach the milestone.

2008 — Chase Utley tied the National League lead with his 16th homer and drove in six runs as Philadelphia routed Colorado 20-5. The Phillies batted around three times and had season-highs in hits (19) and runs.

2011 — The hot-hitting Boston Red Sox routed the Detroit Tigers 14-1 in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game. The Red Sox, who beat Cleveland 14-2 the previous day, scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998.

2016 — Major League Baseball hands out a suspension of 82 games to Braves OF Hector Olivera, following a domestic violence incident in April. It is by far the most severe penalty yet handed out under baseball’s new domestic violence policy.

2018 — Mike Trout has the first five-hit game of his career and drives in 4 runs to lead the Angels to an 11-4 win over the Yankees.

2021 — Commissioner Rob Manfred issues his ruling following the completion of the investigation of allegations of improper behavior towards a number of women against former manager and coach Mickey Callaway. Callaway is found guilty of violating Major League Baseball policies and is declared ineligible for the remainder of this season and all of 2022, after which he may apply for reinstatement. For their part, the Angels fire him from his position of pitching coach, from which he has been suspended since the allegations surfaced in February, and the Indians, who were Callaway’s employer when some of the offensive incidents took place, state that they will take steps to ensure a more respectful environment in which employees feel empowered to denounce workplace harassement in the future.

2023 — Craig Kimbrel becomes the eighth pitcher to record 400 career saves in Philadelphia’s 6 – 4 win over the Braves, barely two weeks after Kenley Jansen became the seventh.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Dylan Hernández: Slow down.

Previously limited to fastballs and splitters, Shohei Ohtani threw a handful of sliders and curveballs in his mid-week bullpen session, but that doesn’t mean he will be a two-way player again before the All-Star break.

Ohtani is lined up to potentially face hitters in a simulated game Saturday in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will pitch in the upcoming four-week stretch that could determine the course of the Dodgers’ season.

As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly.

The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound.

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score)
Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

ANGELS

Taylor Ward hit a go-ahead grand slam, Logan O’Hoppe also homered in a five-run seventh inning and the Angels rallied past the skidding Athletics 10-5 on Thursday for their seventh consecutive victory.

Ward and O’Hoppe both connected off reliever Grant Holman (4-1), sending the A’s to their ninth loss in a row. O’Hoppe had four homers in the series.

It was the second go-ahead slam in 10 days for Ward, who finished with three hits and five RBIs. He has an extra-base hit in eight straight games — one shy of the club record set by Darin Erstad in 1998.

Ward has 17 RBIs in his last 10 games. He and O’Hoppe each have 14 homers this season. Zach Neto also had three of the Angels’ 13 hits.

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Angels trade first baseman Ryan Noda to Red Sox for cash

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

UCLA SOFTBALL

From Ben Bolch: The Bruin Bombers. The Bash Brothers. The Splash Brothers.

Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant are open to any nicknames that reflect their standing as college softball’s most formidable hitting duo.

“Whatever anyone wants to call us,” Woolery said, “we don’t even care.”

Any credible nickname must recognize their staggering power. Bonus points are available for a reference to their native Bay Area. What’s not negotiable is the conveying of their connection, both as the best of friends and their proximity in UCLA’s batting order.

Woolery hits third, followed by Grant in the cleanup spot. It has been that way in every lineup card this season except for the three games in which Grant was either limited to pinch-hitting duties or sidelined because of a minor hamstring injury.

The payoff of pairing them together has been historic, a combination as proven as peanut butter and jelly or Simon and Garfunkel.

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USC BASEBALL

From Ryan Kartje: The first thing that catches your eye as you enter new Dedeaux Field — once you’ve navigated the ground floor of the parking structure, past the temporary batting cages in the construction zone beyond center field, down the path strewn with electric scooters, around “CONSTRUCTION ACCESS GATE #3” and onto the warning track of USC’s soon-to-be baseball home — is the actual field itself.

A new playing surface wasn’t something Trojans baseball players were clamoring for. They loved old Dedeaux Field and its charms. But plans for a football practice facility necessitated speeding up the timeline for upgrades on the half-century-old venue, and USC’s baseball program, with twice as many titles as any other school in NCAA history during that time, was told to make the best of it.

Of course, no one within the program was complaining about the prospect of a shiny new ballpark — least of all Andy Stankiewicz, the Trojans’ coach. But with a blank canvas on which to build a new version of Dedeaux Field, there was some upside. One is that every square inch of the park, down to the dirt, could now be given careful, meticulous consideration — with no expense spared.

“Every detail, every material was hand-picked,” says Scott Lupold, USC’s director of turf. He believes there will be no equal in the ranks of college baseball fields when his work is finished. The grade of the infield, he says, is perfectly flat. The gleaming green grass — Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass — is the finest on the market, the same you find in Dodger Stadium. And the dirt? You might catch yourself wondering if it’s dirt at all. “We were literally able to design every aspect of the surface how we wanted it,” Lupold says. As sports turf goes, this is his Sistine Chapel.

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The College Football Playoff will go to a more straightforward way of filling the bracket next season, placing teams strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions.

Ten conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director came to the unanimous agreement they needed Thursday to shift the model that drew complaints last season.

The new format was widely expected after last season’s jumbled bracket gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though those teams were ranked ninth and 12th by the playoff selection committee.

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC
Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC*
Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary)
Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1884 — Knight of Ellersie, ridden by S. Fischer, wins the two-horse Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Welcher.

1922 — Future world heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney suffers his only professional defeat in 15-round unanimous points decision against Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.

1936 — Rushaway, ridden by John Longden, wins his second derby in as many days, taking the 1 1/4-mile Latonia Derby at Latonia in Covington, Ky. Rushaway had won the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby, run at Aurora, Ill., the previous day.

1941 — In his 20th world heavyweight boxing title defense Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in round 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1953 — Native Dancer, ridden by Eric Guerin, avenges the loss in the Kentucky Derby by edging Jamie K. by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes.

1964 — Dale Greig runs female marathon world record (3:27:45).

1968 — AC Milan of Italy win 8th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Hamburger SV of West Germany 2-0 in Rotterdam.

1976 — Boston center Dave Cowens dominates the opener of the NBA Finals against Phoenix with a 25-point, 21-rebound performance and the Celtics defeat the Suns, 98-87.

1981 — Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas.

1991 — Paul Dougherty scores two goals and adds two assists to help the San Diego Sockers win their fourth consecutive Major Indoor Soccer League championship with an 8-6 victory over the Cleveland Crunch.

1997 — In the first all-freshman singles final in NCAA history, Stanford’s Lilia Osterloh beats Florida’s M.C. White 6-1, 6-1 to win the women’s singles tennis championship.

2001 — 9th UEFA Champions League Final: Bayern Munich beats Valencia (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) at Milan.

2005 — Anastasia Myskina is the first defending champion at the French Open to be eliminated in the opening round, losing to Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

2007 — UEFA Champions League Final, Athens: Filippo Inzaghi scores twice as AC Milan beats Liverpool, 2-1 for 7th title.

2009 — Alabama sophomore Kelsi Dunne becomes the first player to throw back-to-back no-hitters in NCAA postseason play. Dunne holds Jacksonville State hitless for the second straight day in a 9-0 softball victory. The two no-hitters tie the NCAA postseason record. It’s Dunne’s fourth of the season and a school-record six for her career.

2013 — Patrick Roy is named head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, his former team where he won two Stanley Cups.

2018 — NFL owners approve new NFL national anthem policy whereby players required to stand if they choose to be on the field for pre-game presentations.

2021 — Phil Mickelson wins the 2021 PGA Championship by two strokes to become the oldest major winner (50) in PGA history.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1901 — The Cleveland Blues, later known as the Indians, scored nine runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Senators 14-13.

1910 — In the top of the ninth inning in a game against Boston, Cincinnati’s Dode Paskert stole second base, third base and home plate. The theft gave the Reds a 6-5 win.

1924 — Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out 14 in a 4-0 one-hitter over the Chicago White Sox for his 103rd shutout.

1925 — Cincinnati pitcher Pete Donohue had five hits — four singles and a homer — in beating the Philadelphia Phillies 11-2.

1935 — The first major league night game, scheduled for Cincinnati, was postponed because of rain.

1948 — Joe DiMaggio hit three consecutive home runs, the first two off Bob Feller, to lead the New York Yankees to 6-5 win over Cleveland.

1962 — New York’s Joe Pepitone hit two homers in the nine-run eighth inning of the Yankees’ 13-7 triumph over Kansas City.

1970 — The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants battled for 15 innings, with the Padres winning 17-16. Nate Colbert led San Diego with five hits and four RBIs.

1984 — The Detroit Tigers won their 16th consecutive road game, 4-2 at California, tying an AL record.

1991 — Tommy Greene, making the 15th start of his major league career, pitched a no-hitter and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Montreal 2-0.

2000 — The Orioles defeat the Mariners‚ 4-2. Seattle’s Rickey Henderson draws his 2‚000th career walk in the 9th inning‚ making him the third player to reach that level‚ after Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.

2002 — Dodgers slugger Shawn Green became the 14th man in major league history to homer four times in a game and set a big league record with 19 total bases. He went 6-for-6, scoring six times with seven RBIs in a 16-3 win at Milwaukee.

2003 — Jeremi Gonzalez earned his first major league victory in nearly five years as Tampa Bay beat the Angels 3-1. Gonzalez won for the first time since June 28, 1998, while with the Chicago Cubs. He had elbow surgery in 1998 and ’99 before the Cubs released him in 2001.

2005 — Left-hander Mark Mulder of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes just the 12th National League pitcher since 1976 to throw a complete game shutout of 10 innings or more when he blanks the Houston Astros, 1-0, in 10 innings. Greg Maddux posted the last extra-inning shutout in the National League in 1988.

2009 — Jason Giambi hit his 400th homer in the Oakland Athletics’ 8-7 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the 44th player to reach the milestone.

2011 — Corey Hart hit his first three home runs this season and drove in seven to tie both club records, lifting Milwaukee to an 11-3 win over Washington.

2018 — The Seattle Mariners sign a new 25-year lease to continue playing at Safeco Field. The lease will take effect at the expiration of the current 20-year lease at the end of the season, a lease which was signed when the ballpark opened in 1999.

2023 — Gerrit Cole records the 2,000th strikeout of his career when he fans Jorge Mateo of the Orioles in the 2nd inning, becoming the third-fastest pitcher to the mark in terms of both games pitched (278) and innings pitched (1,714 2/3).

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The YULA and Shalhavet baseball teams have been banned from participating in next year’s Southern Section playoffs and placed on probation for pulling out in the middle of this year’s playoffs to participate in a Jewish baseball tournament in Ohio.

CIF rules do not allow schools to play in non-authorized events during the season of their sport.

Messages left for YULA have not been returned. A Shalhavet athletic representative said he was not allowed to comment.

The fact two Jewish schools decided a Jewish tournament was more important than the Southern Section baseball playoffs is fine — if they had not accepted playoff invitations. But they won their first-round playoff games, then forfeited to play in the Jewish tournament.

It provides clear evidence that whoever is in charge doesn’t take participating in CIF sports seriously and that should be a concerning message to parents and athletes at the two schools.

It’s tough enough for kids of Jewish faith to be taken seriously when they play sports and want to be the best. This episode perpetuates stereotypes and harms the progress made at the two schools by other coaches and other athletes.

From Ryan Kartje: With the contract between USC and Notre Dame set to expire and one of college football’s most storied rivalries in serious danger of ending, officials at USC extended an offer to Notre Dame earlier this month in hopes of continuing the historic series for at least one more season — through the fall of 2026 — a person familiar with the negotiations not authorized to discuss them publicly told The Times.

The future of the rivalry beyond that, in the eyes of USC’s leaders, hinges in large part on what happens with the format of the College Football Playoff — namely, the number of automatic qualifiers guaranteed to the Big Ten in future playoff fields. And until those questions are answered, USC leaders agree the best course forward for its century-old rivalry with Notre Dame would be to continue their arrangement one season at a time.

Anything else would be “a strategically bad decision,” a USC source said.

That timeline is where the two rivals find themselves at an impasse. Notre Dame is seeking a long-term extension of the series, and in an interview with Sports Illustrated earlier this week, Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua not so subtly suggested that it was USC putting the rivalry at risk.

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NBA MVP

The case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was simple. He’s the best player on an Oklahoma City Thunder team that had the best record this season and set a league mark for margin of victory. As if that weren’t enough, he also won the scoring title.

That’s an MVP season.

Gilgeous-Alexander was announced Wednesday as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, his first time winning the award. It’s now seven consecutive years that a player born outside the U.S. won MVP, extending the longest such streak in league history.

It ultimately was a two-person race. Gilgeous-Alexander received 71 first-place votes and 29 second-place votes; Denver’s Nikola Jokic got the other 29 first-place votes and the other 71 second-place votes.

Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo was third, getting 88 of the 100 possible third-place votes. LeBron James of the Lakers came in sixth, James Harden of the Clippers was 11th.

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score)
Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: On Tuesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made a decision.

A day after Teoscar Hernández returned to the Dodgers’ lineup, activated from the injured list Monday following a two-week absence because of an adductor strain, Roberts decided to sit the veteran slugger for the second of a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It was a surprise choice, but with a simple reason.

Knowing Hernández would play only twice this week coming off his injury, Roberts wanted to ensure he would be available Wednesday to face former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes.

“I just felt like having him in there tomorrow,” Roberts said Tuesday, “I feel good with.”

Twenty-four hours later, the result was even greater than he expected.

In the Dodgers’ 3-1 rubber-match victory over the Diamondbacks, Hernández delivered the night’s biggest swing in the bottom of the sixth, taking a wrecking ball to what had been a flawless outing from Burnes with a three-run home run that turned the game upside down.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Logan O’Hoppe hit two home runs and drove in three runs, Jo Adell and Zach Neto also homered and the Angels beat the Athletics 10-5 on Wednesday night for their season-high sixth straight victory.

O’Hoppe led off the fourth with his second homer of the game, third in two nights and 13th of the season, just before Adell hit his sixth. Neto’s two-run homer in the third, his eighth, gave the Angels the lead for good at 4-3. The Angels had five two-run innings.

Taylor Ward had three hits, including a triple and double. Jorge Soler had three hits, with two doubles and two RBIs.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

SPARKS

Satou Sabally scored 25 points, Alyssa Thomas added 19 and the Phoenix Mercury held off the Sparks 89-86 on Wednesday night.

Two free throws from Kelsey Plum had the Sparks, who trailed by 14 early in the fourth quarter, within one at 78-77 with 2 1/2 minutes to play in a game of long runs but Thomas scored the next six Phoenix points.

Plum kept pace, scoring the last 11 points of the game for the Sparks. That included the 500th 3-pointer of her career and then a shot with four seconds left. On that tightly contested desperation shot from the left wing, her foot was on the line so the Mercury led 87-86.

A second later Sabally made two free throws and Plum’s half-court heave wasn’t close.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

TUSH PUSH

From Chuck Schilken: NFL owners have decided to keep the “Tush Push,” the signature short-yardage play of the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, after a vote Wednesday at their spring meeting in Eagan, Minnesota.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that the vote was 22-10 in favor of the ban, falling short of the 24 votes it needed to go into effect. The teams that are said to have joined the Eagles in voting against the proposal were the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Tennessee Titans.

The “Tush Push” is a version of a quarterback sneak in which two or three players line up behind the signal caller and help drive him forward in short-yardage situations.

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Colts owner Jim Irsay, a music lover and philanthropist, dies at 65

COLLEGE BASEBALL

From Benjamin Royer: Mike Gillespie had a premonition about Ben Orloff.

The USC and UC Irvine coaching legend guided Orloff for two years as an Anteater, watching Orloff become the baseball program’s all-time hits leader with his peak bat-to-ball abilities. But it wasn’t Orloff’s eye-popping swing or swift speed on the basepaths that captivated Gillespie the most. It was the future he imagined for his star infielder, the then-Big West Conference player of the year.

“I don’t know how else to say it: His instincts, his clue, his feel for the game, his baseball IQ, is like nothing else,” Gillespie said as Orloff’s collegiate career wrapped up in 2009. “He should be a major league manager. He might be wasted as a major league manager, because they can do so little, in terms of all these little things.”

The American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall of Famer, who died in 2020, continued: “He probably should be a college coach, a college head coach.”

It’s mid-May and Orloff sits in the office Gillespie once occupied. Orloff is bald with a bright smile. He’s just 38, and yet this is his 12th season on the UC Irvine coaching staff — and his seventh as the Anteaters’ head coach.

Orloff settles down at a table, crosses his legs and is ready to reminisce, talk shop — and praise the mish-mosh ballclub that’s set the Big West aflame for the second consecutive season in which it won its second regular-season conference championship under the coach.

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2028 L.A. OLYMPICS

From Kevin Baxter: A bipartisan group of Congressional representatives are calling on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to streamline the government’s visa processing system to ensure visitors from abroad will be able to attend next year’s FIFA World Cup as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The World Cup, which kicks off in less than 400 days, is expected to generate $3.75 billion in economic activity in the U.S. With SoFi Stadium in Inglewood hosting eight games, the economic impact on Southern California is estimated at nearly $600 million.

But cost-cutting measures proposed by Rubio could threaten that by reducing staff and closing some embassies and consulates, increasing visa wait times and making an already cumbersome system more complicated and costly. That could keep tens of thousands of fans at home.

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary)
Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC
Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC*
Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Thursday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1877 — Baden-Baden, ridden by C. Holloway, catches Leonard just before turning into the stretch and wins the Kentucky Derby by two lengths.

1885 — Tecumseh, ridden by Jimmy McLaughlin, wins the Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Wickham.

1902 — Mastermam, ridden by John Bullman, wins the Belmont Stakes by two lengths over Renald.

1906 — Whimsical, the favorite ridden by Walter Miller, wins the Preakness Stakes by four lengths over Content.

1954 — Hasty Road, ridden by Johnny Adams, edges favored Correlation by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes.

1963 — European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: José Altafini scores twice as AC Milan edge Benfica, 2-1 for first title to an Italian club.

1975 — Artis Gilmore scores 28 points and grabs 31 rebounds to lead the Kentucky Colonels to a 110-105 victory over the Indiana Pacers for the ABA championship.

1988 — Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins trades bucket for bucket with Boston’s Larry Bird in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals until the Celtics escape with a 118-116 victory. Wilkins finishes with 47 points and Bird has 34 — with 20 of his points scored in the fourth quarter. The teams shoot a combined 58.8% from the field, the second highest mark in playoff history.

1988 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Sherri Turner birdies final 2 holes to win her only major title, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Amy Alcott.

1991 — NFL Owners agree to add 2 teams in 1994.

1993 — Riddick Bowe successfully defends his IBF and WBA heavyweight titles with a second-round knockout of Jesse Ferguson at RFK Stadium in Washington.

1994 — Toronto NBA franchise unveils name “Raptors” & logo.

1996 — 4th UEFA Champions League Final: Juventus beats Ajax (1-1, 4-2 on penalties) at Rome.

1997 — The Chicago Bulls win the lowest-scoring playoff game in NBA history, a 75-68 victory over the Miami Heat. The 143 combined points were two fewer than the previous postseason low set by Syracuse and Fort Wayne in 1955.

2003 — Annika Sorenstam becomes the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years when she shoots a 71 in the first round of the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas. Sorenstam misses the cut the next day by four shots.

2004 — English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,350): Manchester United beats Millwall, 3-0; Ruud van Nistelrooy scores 2 and Cristiano Ronaldo 1 in Red Devils’ 11th title win.

2005 — Paula Creamer, 18, makes a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win the Sybase Classic by one stroke and become the second-youngest first-time winner on the LPGA Tour.

2006 — Pat Summitt becomes the newest millionaire coach — and the first in women’s basketball. Tennessee raises Summitt’s salary to $1.125 million for next season and extends her contract six years.

2009 — Dara Torres sets an American record in the 50-meter butterfly at the Texas Senior Circuit No. 2 meet at Texas A&M. The 42-year-old, breezes to victory in the 50 fly, touching the wall in 25.72 seconds to beat her record time of 25.84 seconds from the morning preliminaries. Both her times beat Jenny Thompson’s American record of 26.00 seconds, set in Barcelona in 2003.

2010 — UEFA Champions League Final, Madrid: Internazionale beats Bayern Munich, 2-0; Inter’s 3rd title and first treble (Italian Serie A & Cup).

2016 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G&CC: Germany’s Berhard Langer wins sixth of 13 Champions Tour majors by 6 strokes from Olin Browne.

2021 — 30 year old Scottish light-welterweight boxer Josh Taylor becomes Britain’s first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era by beating Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

2022 — PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Southern Hills CC: 2017 champion Justin Thomas beats Will Zalatoris by 1 stroke in a 3-hole playoff after 54-hole leader Mito Pereira double bogeys the 72nd hole.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1933 — Joe Sewell of the New York Yankees struck out for the first time this season, during a 3-0 win over Cleveland. Sewell would strike out only three more times in 524 at-bats.

1942 — Ted Williams is sworn into the U.S. Navy, but will remain with the Red Sox until he is called for active duty.

1957 — The Boston Red Sox hit four home runs in the sixth inning of an 11-0 win over Cleveland. Gene Mauch, Ted Williams, Dick Gernert and Frank Malzone connected. All the homers came on the first 16 pitches from Cal McLish.

1958 — Ted Williams hits his 16th career grand slam to provide the Red Sox with the margin in an 8-5 win over the A’s. Ted’s 4th-inning blast, off Jack Urban, ties him with Babe Ruth for second place on the career slam list.

1959 — Baltimore’s Hoyt Wilhelm pitched a one-hitter against the New York Yankees for a 5-0 win. Jerry Lumpe’s single in the eighth spoiled the no-hit bid.

1963 — Mickey Mantle hit a pitch from Kansas City’s Bill Fischer off the right-field facade at Yankee Stadium in an 8-7 victory over the A’s.

1968 — Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit three home runs, a double and a single in a 13-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Stargell’s double just missed going out, as it bounced off the railing of the left-field bleachers.

1976 — St. Louis’ Reggie Smith hit three home runs — two right-handed and one left-handed — and drove in five runs in a 7-6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Smith’s third homer came with two out in the ninth and broke a 6-6 tie.

1977 — Boston and Milwaukee hit a combined 11 home runs in a 14-10 Red Sox victory at Fenway Park, tying a major league record. The Red Sox connected for six and the Brewers hit five in the first game of a doubleheader.

1983 — Cliff Johnson of the Toronto Blue Jays hit his 18th career pinch homer. The homer, off Baltimore’s Tippy Martinez, tied Johnson with Jerry Lynch on the career pinch home run list.

1990 — Andre Dawson sets a major-league record when he is intentionally walked five times during a 16-inning, 2-1 Cubs win over the Reds.

1998 — The Mets acquire catcher Mike Piazza from the Marlins in exchange for OF Preston Wilson, P Ed Yarnall and a player to be named. Piazza has barely spent a week with Florida, following a trade from the Dodgers.

1998 — Brian Cox went 6-for-6, including a grand slam in a 10-run third inning, as Florida State rolled past Delaware 27-6 in the NCAA Atlantic II Regional. Freshman Matt Diaz hit three home runs for the Seminoles.

2000 — Milwaukee beat Houston in the first game of a doubleheader, 10-9, coming back from a 9-2 deficit to tie the score with seven runs in the bottom half of the ninth inning. The Brewers won the game in the 10th on a home run by Jose Hernandez.

2001 — The Twins score 8 runs in the 3rd inning to give Brad Radke an 8-0 lead, then hold on to edge the Mariners, 12-11. The M’s will use the momentum to win their next 15 and set a franchise record.

2008 — Ken Griffey Jr. hits his 200th home run as a member of the Cincinnati Reds. He becomes the fourth player in major league history to hit 300 for one team and 200 with another. Preceding him are Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Jimmie Foxx.

2008 — Boston’s J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell hit grand slams to help Daisuke Matsuzaka remain unbeaten as the Red Sox posted an 11-8 win over the Kansas City Royals.

2009 — Michael Cuddyer hit for the cycle and matched his career high with five RBIs as Minnesota defeated Milwaukee 11-3. Cuddyer hit a three-run homer in the first inning, doubled in the third and singled in the fourth before completing the cycle by tripling on a broken-bat liner into the left-field corner in the sixth.

2012 — C.J. Wilson and Ernesto Frieri combined on a one-hitter to give the Angels a 4-0 win over Oakland. Cliff Pennington had the only hit — a one-out single in the fifth — for Oakland.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

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With the bases loaded and her team down by one run in the seventh inning, JuJu Brower stood in the batter’s box for El Modena in a Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal playoff game Wednesday. Her team was trying to rally against one of the hottest softball teams, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

Brower hadn’t been fully cleared by her doctors to play catcher because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in August suffered while playing flag football. She had been cleared to hit, something she was doing for four weeks. Then came her most important at-bat of the season. She delivered a two-run single up the middle to help El Modena come away with a 6-4 victory and advance to Saturday’s semifinals against Temescal Canyon.

“It means a lot,” Brower said of her hit and the comeback. She had to go through months of rehab just to get back on the field, from stretching to leg exercises.

El Modena started the game with consecutive home runs by Kaitlyn Galasso and Kylie Tafua. After that, Notre Dame pitcher Aliyah Garcia threw five consecutive scoreless innings to help the Knights take a 4-2 lead going into the seventh. Charley Tapia had a home run and triple.

But the fifth inning was the key moment for the Knights. They had the bases loaded and none out against No. 2 pitcher Ashley Driskill. She got a 1-2-3 double play, then a flyout to end the threat.

Then El Modena scored four runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead and eliminate the Knights, Monica Garcia had a run-scoring single to support Brower’s hit. Notre Dame had been hitting home runs in bunches during playoff wins over Orange Lutheran and El Segundo.

El Modena coach Bobby Calderon praised Brower. for her dedication to make it back to the field this season. “For her to come through at that moment shows how much she believes in our team,” he said.

Norco 9, Chino Hills 1: Ashley Duran had three hits for the top-seeded Cougars, who will play Ayala on Saturday in the other Division 1 semifinal.

JSerra 7, Palos Verdes 1: Melia Munoz had a two-run home run and Annabel Raftery had four hits to lead JSerra in Division 2. JSerra will play Great Oak in the semifinals.

Santa Margarita 2, Ganesha 1: Sawyer Denser pitched the Eagles into the Division 2 semifinals. She struck out eight. Sofia Zavarella had a solo home run. Santa Margarita will play Los Alamitos, a 7-1 winner over La Serna.

Baseball

Carson 4, Taft 2: Xavier Allen hit a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to enable the Colts to advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m. City Section Division I championship game at Dodger Stadium.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The biggest sports league in North America is coming to the biggest sporting event in the world.

NFL players will be allowed to participate in the 2028 L.A. Olympic flag football competition, league owners approved Tuesday.

The resolution, passed at the league owners meetings in Eagan, Minn., permits NFL players to try out for flag football, but limits only one player per NFL team to play for each national team in the Olympics. An exception was made for each NFL team’s designated international player, who is allowed to play for his home country.

“To have the greatest Games really requires you to have the greatest collection of athletes the world has ever seen,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said, “and today puts us one step closer to that.”

Tuesday’s vote will lead to further negotiations with the NFL Players Assn., the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and national governing bodies to iron out more details about the sport’s safety measures and schedule. The resolution proposed that injury protections and salary-cap credit will cover any players who are injured during flag football activities, while Olympic flag football teams must implement minimum standards for medical staff and field surfaces to be eligible for NFL player participation and the schedule should take reasonable measures to limit conflicts with NFL commitments.

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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota
at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score)
Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Wed., May 28 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana
Wednesday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT*
Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*

*if necessary

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Even as their pitching injuries have mounted in recent weeks, the Dodgers haven’t panicked.

On multiple occasions, team officials have noted how none of the seven pitchers who have gotten hurt since the end of spring camp suffered relatively serious injuries. In time, they promised, the staff would get back close to full health.

On Tuesday, signs of that optimism finally began to appear.

Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell (both out with shoulder inflammation) continued their throwing progressions, with Glasnow making some light pitches off a mound slope for the first time since going on the injured list last month, according to manager Dave Roberts.

Kirby Yates (hamstring strain) began playing catch just days after hitting the IL, raising his hopes of being back within the two-to-four week time frame the team has targeted. Blake Treinen (forearm sprain) also continued his catch play, while Michael Kopech (shoulder impingement) was set to make a rehab outing with triple-A Oklahoma City.

Most of all, though, Shohei Ohtani checked off another important box in his return from a 2023 Tommy John surgery, taking another step closer to resuming two-way duties for the first time as a Dodger.

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————

From Jack Harris: Tuesday didn’t start as a game the Dodgers necessarily had to win.

But, by the time extra innings arrived on a nervy night at Dodger Stadium, the team was in a situation where they simply couldn’t afford to lose.

Not after entering the day with four consecutive losses, a season-long skid caused primarily by a banged-up pitching staff. Not after Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like an ace, a stopper and a Cy Young candidate all wrapped in one, spinning seven scoreless innings in a nine-strikeout gem. And certainly not with his brilliance in danger of being wasted after closer Tanner Scott blew a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before yielding a two-run blast in the top of the 10th.

“I don’t know if it was a must-win,” manager Dave Roberts said, sidestepping such superlatives with the season still only two months old. “But certainly given Yoshi’s outing, you don’t wanna waste that … You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws [that well].”

Somehow, in a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t; flipping the script, changing the narrative and snapping their losing streak with the most dramatic of endings.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Logan O’Hoppe homered and had a tiebreaking RBI single as the Angels beat the Athletics 7-5 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight win.

Kenley Jansen gave up pinch-hitter Seth Brown’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth but struck out Tyler Soderstrom to get his 10th save and hand the Athletics their seventh straight loss.

Yoán Moncada had a tying three-run homer in the fifth to tie it 4-4 before O’Hoppe’s RBI single put the Angels ahead for good.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

CHARGERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Chargers welcomed Arctos as a limited partner Tuesday as NFL owners approved a sale that transferred some the team’s shares to the Dallas-based private equity firm that already has ties to the Dodgers.

“Arctos’ track record in major professional sports speaks for itself,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement, “and we are grateful for their alignment moving forward during this time of tremendous growth for our organization.”

According to a league memo The Times obtained last week, Arctos acquired 8% of the team’s shares. Spanos and his family will retain control of the Chargers organization with approximately 61% of the franchise.

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U.S. WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM

From Kevin Baxter: Naomi Girma was called up to the women’s national soccer team Tuesday for the first time this year, joining 23 others for friendlies with China and Jamaica.

Girma, who was named to FIFA’s global Best XI last year, has been sidelined with calf injuries but recently returned to fitness, going 90 minutes in two of Chelsea’s last three games in the Women’s Super League. Her last appearance for the U.S. came in the gold medal final of the Paris Olympics in August.

Sisters Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, who started their second senior national team match together last month, were also called up but this time with Gisele, a defender, making the roster as a winger. Alyssa has four goals and two assists this season for Angel City, for whom her sister also plays.

The U.S. will play China at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minn., on May 31 and Jamaica on June 3 at Energizer Park in St. Louis. Here’s the roster:

Goalkeepers: Claudia Dickey (Seattle Reign FC), Mandy McGlynn (Utah Royals), Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United).

Defenders: Kerry Abello (Orlando Pride), Crystal Dunn (Paris Saint-Germain), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC), Naomi Girma (Chelsea FC), Tara McKeown (Washington Spirit), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Emily Sams (Orlando Pride), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC).

Midfielders: Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Heaps (OL Lyonnes), Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current), Lo’eau LaBonta (Kansas City Current), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC), Lily Yohannes (Ajax).

Forwards: Lynn Biyendolo (Seattle Reign FC), Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current), Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC), Emma Sears (Racing Louisville), Ally Sentnor (Utah Royals), Alyssa Thompson (Angel City FC), Gisele Thompson (Angel City FC).

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

Conference finals

Western Conference

Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton
Wednesday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC
Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN
Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ANC*
Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*

Eastern Conference

Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida
Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary)
Thursday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Wed., May 28 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1881 — A small group of tennis club members meets at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to form the world’s first national governing body for tennis: the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. The new organization is created to standardize tennis rules and regulations and to encourage and develop the sport.

1891 — Australian boxer Peter Jackson and future world heavyweight champion Jim Corbett fight a No Contest in 61 rounds at California Athletic Club, San Francisco.

1932 — 1st Curtis Cup for Women’s team amateur golf: US wins, 5½-3½ at Wentworth Club (Wentworth, England).

1966 — Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title.

1966 — Kauai King, the Kentucky Derby winner ridden by Don Brumfield, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths over Stupendous.

1971 — Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens (replay).

1977 — Heavily favored Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths over Iron Constitution, a 31-1 shot.

1979 — The Montreal Canadiens win their 21st Stanley Cup by beating the New York Rangers 4-1 in Game 5.

1981 — The New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup in five games with a 5-1 triumph over the Minnesota North Stars.

1988 — Risen Star, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, spoils Winning Colors’ bid to become the first filly to win the Triple Crown by capturing the Preakness Stakes.

1989 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Nancy Lopez wins her 3rd LPGA C’ship by 3 strokes from Ayako Okamoto of Japan.

1995 — The Penske Racing Team is shut out of the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field when two-time winners Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi fail to qualify. Unser is the first Indianapolis 500 winner to fail to qualify the next year.

2005 — Afleet Alex, ridden by Jeremy Rose, regains his footing and his drive after being cut off by Scrappy T in a frightening collision and breezes home to win the Preakness Stakes. Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finishes third.

2005 — English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,876): Arsenal beats Manchester United, 5-4 on penalties after 0 – 0 (a.e.t.); Gunners’ 10th title.

2006 — Detroit holds Cleveland to the lowest point total in a Game 7 in NBA history and advances to its fourth straight Eastern Conference final with a 79-61 win over the Cavaliers.

2006 — The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles in the same year.

2008 — UEFA Champions League Final, Moscow: Manchester United beats Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties after scores tied at 1-1 after extra time; first all-English final in the competition’s history.

2009 — Evgeni Malkin scores three goals — two in the third period — for his first NHL playoff hat trick and leads Pittsburgh to a 7-4 win over Carolina and a 2-0 advantage in the NHL Eastern Conference finals. Teammate Sidney Crosby scores the first goal of the game for a record-tying sixth goal to start a playoff game. Bobby Hull of the Blackhawks (1962) and Edmonton’s Fernando Pisani in 2006 also had six game-opening goals in a playoff year.

2011 — Shackleford wins the Preakness, holding off a late charge from Animal Kingdom to win as a 12-1 underdog. Ridden by Jesus Lopez Castanon and trained by Dale Romans, Shackleford wins by three-quarters of a length in 1:56.21.

2011 — Bernard Hopkins, at age 46, becomes the oldest fighter to win a major world championship, taking the WBC light heavyweight title from Jean Pascal in Montreal. He takes the WBC, IBO and The Ring magazine titles from the 28-year-old Pascal (26-2-1), the Canadian fighter who was making his fifth defense. Hopkins (52-5-2) broke the age record set by George Foreman in a heavyweight title victory over Michael Moorer in 1994.

2016 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Manchester United beats Crystal Palace, 2-1 (a.e.t.); Jesse Lingard scores 110′ winner.

2016 — On same card, American boxer Jermell Charlo KOs John Jackson in 8th to claim vacant WBC super welterweight title, and Jermall Charlo beats Austin Trout on points to retain IBF version; first twins to hold world championships in same weight division.

2017 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G&CC: Defending champion Berhard Langer wins by 5 strokes from Scott Parel & Scott McCarron.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1926 — Earl Sheely of the Chicago White Sox hit three doubles and a home run against the Boston Red Sox. Sheely doubled in each of his last three at-bats the previous day to give him seven consecutive extra-base hits, tying a major league record. The six doubles in the two games also tied a major league record.

1930 — Babe Ruth hits three consecutive home runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the A’s.

1943 — In the fastest nine-inning night game in American League history, the Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators 1-0, in 1 hour, 29 minutes.

1948 — Joe DiMaggio had two home runs, a triple, double and single to lead the New York Yankees to a 13-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

1952 — Duke Snider’s home run highlighted a 15-run first inning in the Dodgers’ 19-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Brooklyn. Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Billy Cox each made three plate appearances in the first inning.

1986 — Rafael Ramirez of Atlanta had four doubles in seven at-bats as the Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 9-8 in 13 innings.

1996 — Larry Walker drove in a career-high six runs, hitting a pair of two-run homers, a triple and a double in the Colorado Rockies’ 12-10 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. His 13 total bases set a club record.

1996 — At Fenway Park, Seattle pounds out 19 hits to beat Boston, 13-7. Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the 7th-youngest player to collect 200 homers when he connects in the M’s six-run 4th inning. Jay Buhner hits a two-run shot in the inning, the 5th game in a row he’s connected, and Edgar Martinez adds four hits in the game.

1997 — Roger Clemens earned his 200th career victory, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-1 win over the New York Yankees.

2000 — For the first time in baseball history, there were six grand slams in a single day. Garret Anderson of the Angels hit the record-breaker off Kansas City’s Chris Fussell. J.T. Snow of San Francisco, Brian Hunter of Philadelphia, Jason Giambi of Oakland, and Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green of the Dodgers connected with the bases loaded before Anderson. The old mark of five was set in 1999.

2002 — The Diamondbacks set down the Giants, 9-4, behind Randy Johnson. Johnson notches the 3,500th strikeout of his big league career in the contest.

2004 — In his return to Texas, Alex Rodriguez is roundly booed by fans at the Ballpark in Arlington. The fans continue to show their displeasure as the Yankees third baseman drives a 2-1 pitch over the fence during his 1st-inning at-bat.

2004 — Jose Cruz Jr. went 4-for-4 with a homer and three doubles, leading Tampa Bay to a 5-3 victory over Cleveland.

2005 — The Texas Rangers set two club records in an 18-3 rout of the Houston Astros. Texas got home runs from Rod Barajas, Hank Blalock, Laynce Nix and Mark Teixeira in an eight-run, four-homer second inning. Texas slugged a team-record eight homers total on the day, also receiving blasts from Kevin Mench, Richard Hidalgo and two from David Dellucci.

2009 — Albert Pujols of St. Louis hit a homer in the first inning that knocked out the “I” on the Big Mac Land sign located in Busch Stadium’s left field. The Cardinals won 3-1.

2009 — Joe Mauer hit a grand slam, two doubles and drove in a career-high six runs as Minnesota routed the Chicago White Sox 20-1.

2010 — Dan Haren doubled twice, drove in three runs and pitched eight strong innings, offsetting Edwin Encarnacion’s three home runs for Toronto, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Blue Jays 8-6. Haren allowed four runs on nine hits and two of Encarnacion’s three homers.

2013 — Mike Trout hit for the cycle and drove in five runs to lead the Angels in a 12-0 rout of Seattle Mariners.

2015 — The Brewers’ Will Smith is ejected for having rosin and sunscreen on his forearm in the 7th inning of Milwaukee’s 10-1 loss to the Braves. Smith explains that he simply forgot to wipe off his arm before leaving the bullpen when called into the game. He will receive an eight-game suspension as well.

2018 — Baseball has a new phenom as 19-year-old Juan Soto of the Nationals, making his first start ever in the outfield after striking out as a pinch-hitter in his debut the day before, crushes the first pitch he sees from Robbie Erlin of the Padres for a three-run homer. He goes 2-for-4 in 10-2 win by Washington. He is the first teenager to homer since teammate Bryce Harper did so in his rookie year in 2012.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.