DETROIT — The Dodgers’ game against the Tigers on Sunday at Comerica Park began in a rain delay.
First pitch was at 11:35 a.m. PDT following a 55-minute delay.
Dodger manager Dave Roberts was anticipating a potential delay a couple hours before the original game time.
“Then it’s supposed to kind of be isolated around 5:30 [2:30 p.m. PDT,]” Roberts said of the storm forecast. “So there is that window 2-5 p.m. [11 a.m.-2 p.m. PDT], that looks promising.”
Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow took the mound opposite Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez.
DETROIT — The same old story played out for the Dodgers on Saturday. They got a strong outing from their starting pitcher and an uninspiring performance by their offense, resulting in a close game.
This time the Dodgers lost, 2-1, despite left-hander Blake Snell’s five innings of one-run baseball.
The Dodgers’ last five games have been decided by one run. They’ve lost all but one of them.
It was Snell’s fourth game back from arthroscopic elbow surgery in May. He’s limited opponents to one run or none in every start. Saturday marked the first time he threw fewer than six innings since being activated this month.
He limited the Tigers to three hits and issued three walks. Four of those six baserunners reached before Snell briefly left the game in the third inning.
Snell had cruised through the first two innings, a Texas leaguer into shallow right field the only blemish on an otherwise perfect beginning.
The third inning, however, started to go haywire. Snell walked Javier Báez, traditionally a free swinger, to open the frame. Tigers rookie Max Clark laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy lost control of the ball as he tried to throw to first, enabling Clark to reach base as Báez advanced to second.
Against Gleyber Torres, Snell left a changeup too far over the plate for a ground-rule double. The high hop over the yellow line on the right-field fence saved a run, sending Clark back to third, but the Tigers pulled ahead 1-0.
Snell threw two pitches to Hao-Yu Lee and then, after a conversation with home plate umpire Chris Guccione, headed off the field and disappeared down the dugout tunnel.
There was no immediate explanation provided by the team or the umpires. Snell soon returned and resumed with a 1-and-1 count on Lee.
Snell got out of the inning without further damage, inducing Lee to pop out and, after walking Kevin McGonigle, striking out Dillon Dingler and Eduardo Valencia.
Snell made it six straight punch-outs by striking out the side in the fourth and kicking off a scoreless fifth with another. Snell’s outing ended with Dingler waving at an outside fastball for strike three.
The Dodgers’ offense, however, failed to give him run support. Through five innings, they mustered only two baserunners against Tigers starter Keider Montero.
In the sixth, they finally strung multiple hits together and got a run out of it. Alek Thomas led off with a double to left that ricocheted off the wall on a hop. Shohei Ohtani grounded out on a close play at first, moving Thomas to third. Then Freddie Freeman lined an RBI single to right.
The Dodgers went on to load the bases with one out. But, following a concerning pattern, they failed to squeeze any more runs out of the opportunity.
The Dodgers entered Saturday batting .211 with the bases loaded this month, putting them in the bottom third in the majors. When Tommy Edman grounded into a double play to end the sixth inning, it was their third with the bases loaded this month.
In the ninth, the Dodgers were a few feet from pulling ahead. With two outs and a runner on first, the Tigers brought in closer Kenley Jansen, the former Dodger, to face Teoscar Hernández.
In an 0-and-2 count, Hernández sent a cutter for a ride to deep left-center. But Báez made an over-the-shoulder catch a few steps from the wall.
Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer took the mound for the bottom half and, with runners on the corners, gave up a walk-off single to McGonigle.
DETROIT — Shohei Ohtani is not feeling “100%,” manager Dave Roberts revealed before the Dodgers game against the Tigers on Saturday. And that will be at the center of the team’s conversation about whether to start him Sunday.
It would be Ohtani’s first pitching start since July 3. He’s been just serving as the designated hitter in the meantime, while managing lingering inflammation and soreness in his left knee, primarily aggravated by pitching. But it’s not just his knee that’s ailing him, Roberts said after talking to the Dodgers training staff. His biceps issue from earlier in the year is part of the concern as well.
Ohtani threw a 20-pitch bullpen — shorter than his customary between-starts session — on Friday to tentatively set him up to throw the first inning Sunday.
“The knee, the body, just throwing, pitching, not 100%,” Roberts said. “What percent it is, I don’t know the answer.”
Roberts said he wanted to have clarity after the game Saturday, so he could notify Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who is set to pitch Sunday either way. If Ohtani pitches Sunday, it would be opening for Glasnow.
“I’m not going to ambush those guys, and I’m not going to ambush Glas,” Roberts said. “So I think I would say that after the game, we’ll know definitively.”
If Ohtani doesn’t pitch Sunday, Tuesday, likely before left-hander Eric Lauer, could in theory be an option. But if Ohtani doesn’t feel good enough to start Sunday, two extra days of rest probably aren’t to resolve the issue, making a longer leadup more likely.
“We’re still thinking about potentially the buildup and what that would mean, which is fair,” Roberts said. “But at the end of the day, it’s what’s best for Shohei, what’s best for us, what makes the most sense. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
The longer it takes for Ohtani to return to the mound, the fewer starts he’ll have to build up before the postseason.
“I wouldn’t bet against Shohei,” Roberts said. “But I still think that five innings to the end of the season is aggressive for anyone.”
Though Roberts said the question is more “when,” rather than “if,” Ohtani will return to the mound, the fact that Ohtani’s knee issue (and apparently biceps as well) has not yet resolved calls into question whether it makes sense for him to resume two-way duties this late in the year.
“To be quite frank, I just don’t see everything getting to 100% by the end of the season,” Roberts said. “But there’s a lot of pitchers that are not 100% and still viable. So again, it’s just not an exact science.”
If that holds true, the concern is twofold: both how Ohtani’s health could affect his performance on the mound and at the plate.
“Obviously, where we’re at right now with the pitching, the starting pitching certainly being a strength, his value offensively is hugely important, and so we can’t compromise that in any fashion,” Roberts said. “So, if throwing potentially cuts into that, that’s not worth the squeeze. So that’s something, for me, I’m very bullish on making sure we don’t compromise the hitting.”
Ohtani entered Saturday with a .218 batting average since Aug. 8, when he resumed playing catch. But Roberts pushed back on the impulse to draw a line between Ohtani’s recent offensive dip and his side work on the pitching side.
“It just hasn’t been a whole body of work on the throwing side,” Roberts said. “Honestly, for me, I think the pitch selection hasn’t been good.”
Regardless of Ohtani’s status for Sunday, the superstar’s feedback will continue to play a large role in the Dodgers’ decision-making.
“I think that as the competitor, he wants to do both, and I respect it,” Roberts said. “But nothing I’m saying changes his identity as a two-way player.
“I think in the moment, he still feels that there’s still an opportunity, and I’m not trying to say there isn’t. But I do think that at the end of the day, he’s very aware of our roster, strengths, weaknesses, and his value to the ball club, and whatever that means.”
DETROIT — As Tarik Skubal crossed the field from the bullpen, he had to crane his neck to catch part of the tribute video playing on the massive screen behind him.
By the time he reached the Dodgers dugout, the crowd rose to give him an ovation. Skubal controlled his expression and wiped his face with the towel draped over his neck.
Less than four weeks ago, he said goodbye to the only organization he’d known — the Detroit Tigers drafted him in 2018 out of Seattle University. Now, he was back in the ballpark he’d called home for six years.
In the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Friday, Skubal showed why he was widely considered the best player available at the trade deadline, holding the Tigers to one run and four hits over six innings. The Dodgers’ offense continued to scuffle but did just enough to bounce back from a three-game sweep in Atlanta — the 14th time this month they played a game decided by a single run.
Skubal’s reception included some boos (and “Scuuuub”s) as he took the mound. Even though the trade was out of Skubal’s control, a faction of the Tigers fan base — including this reporter’s rideshare driver from the airport — was upset Skubal never reached an agreement for a contract extension with Detroit (62-72).
The Tigers’ last publicly discussed extension offer was four years and $75 million at the end of 2024 — which drastically pales in comparison to the contract he’s expected to garner in free agency this offseason.
The mutual affection between the player and Detroit, however, took center stage Friday, even as Skubal tamed the Tigers’ offense.
He quickly reined in his emotions. After a delay for a PitchCom malfunction, Skubal gave up a leadoff double to Detroit’s Gleyber Torres on a fastball down the middle. But then the left-hander retired the next 12 batters.
Skubal struck out the side in the third inning, getting Max Clark to swing through a changeup, Javier Báez to chase a high fastball and Torres to watch an off-speed pitch clip the bottom of the zone.
That streak ended with a double up the left-field line from Eduardo Valencia, who turned on an inside slider to lead off the fifth. Then with two outs, Clark stayed back on an outside fastball and sent it the other way for a triple that drove in the game’s first run.
The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.
Skubal induced Báez to fly out to center field and punched the palm of his glove on his way off the field.
The Dodgers (81-54) missed a chance to tie with one out in the sixth, when Kyle Tucker was thrown out at home trying to score on a pinch-hit single by Kiké Hernández. But they salvaged the inning when Teoscar Hernández drew a walk and Miguel Rojas smoked a single through the infield to tie the score.
In the seventh, the Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs and failed to squeeze in a run.
Evan Phillips took over on the mound in the bottom of the inning. Skubal’s pitch count stood at only 83, but he had thrown 100 pitches in each of his previous two starts.
The Dodgers finally took the lead in the eighth, manufacturing a run with singles from Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman on either side of a sacrifice bunt from Ben Rortvedt.
ATLANTA — Lefty Tarik Skubal hasn’t had time to fully reflect on his time in Detroit. When he learned at the beginning of the month that he was being traded to the Dodgers, he had one night of emotional goodbyes, before shifting his focus the next morning to preparing to face the Cubs in a few days.
Friday won’t be the right time either. He’s scheduled to take the mound against the Tigers, the only organization he’d played for up until three and a half weeks ago, in the series opener.
“I play baseball, and I don’t really want to let any noise or anything outside change or take away from my ability to go play baseball and put our team in a position to win,” he said in a recent conversation with The Times. “So that’s where my focus is always at. It doesn’t matter if it’s opening day of the season, it doesn’t matter if it’s spring training, it doesn’t matter if it’s the dog days of July, it doesn’t matter if it’s the postseason. For me, the game is always the same game, and that’s something that I take a ton of pride in.”
Even in his short time with the Dodgers, Skubal has thrown himself into the task at hand, from the way he’s pitched, to his commitment to connecting with his new teammates, to how he’s handled questions about his impending free agency.
Oddly enough, after the World Series favorites traded for the best pitcher available, they lost the next six games as part of a seven-game losing streak.
“Everyone around here was like, ‘Hey, we win games here,’” Skubal said. “And I go, ‘I don’t know, maybe it’s me.’”
Eventually, the Dodgers did win a game with Skubal on the roster. They even swept two series straight — before running into the Braves this week. And as Skubal has settled in, he’s enjoyed the sheer abundance of baseball conversations going on around him all the time, whether it be a pitcher chatting with the pitching coaches about sequencing, or hitters breaking down how an opposing pitcher attacked him.
“No one’s ego is too big to ask a question and try to learn from anybody,” Skubal said. “So I think that’s what makes this team so good. I think that’s why they tick, and I think that’s why they’re so good, especially in September, is they’re just not afraid to fail. They’re going to try and learn as much from each other as possible. I just love being a part of that.”
Likewise, his new teammates have loved him embracing them right away.
“You can’t tell whether he’s pitching or not because his personality never changes,” Kiké Hernández said. “And I appreciate how talkative he is, like even during his starts, like in the middle of the game, which is kind of refreshing.”
Already, Skubal’s joining in on pregame handshake lines and slapping the dugout railing in time to Roki Sasaki’s warm-up music. After Miguel Rojas nicknamed him “Scooby Doo Pa Pa,” Skubal used the song that inspired the name on an Instagram post.
“At the end of my career, if the one thing [all my ex-teammates] say about me is, ‘Yeah, he was talented on the field, but he was an even better teammate,’ that’s what I want to be remembered as,” Skubal said.
Skubal is only under club control for the rest of the season, but he’s consistently said he doesn’t want to address free agency.
“I really am probably not going to get to that until this season’s done,” he said. “Until, hopefully, I’m holding up a trophy and I’m celebrating with these guys for two weeks, and I’m going to [have a headache] for a month after.”
A video clip from Skubal’s appearance on the podcast “Pardon My Take” caused a stir on social media, when he said, “I would love to play my whole career in Detroit” and expresses hope that the Tigers are involved in negotiations in November. But Skubal points out the missing context in that clip.
His response was to a question that described the Tigers trading him as an “unfortunate part of where baseball is.” He understood the premise as, smaller markets can’t retain their stars.
Pitcher Tarik Skubal (29) hugs Jack Flaherty in the dugout after getting pulled from his last start with the Tigers on July 29.
(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)
“Which I don’t agree with,” said Skubal, who has thought a lot about the larger picture as a member of the MLB Players Assn. Executive Subcommittee. “You can retain whoever. Now, the longer you wait, the harder it is to get guys to give away the years to hit free agency. I think that’s just the business of baseball, and that’s not any different than any other sport.”
He backed his point with counterexamples on each side: the Royals signing homegrown star Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year extension worth $288.8 million guaranteed, and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge still hitting free agency in 2022 (before ultimately re-signing).
“There’s narratives around the sport that I don’t agree with, and that’s one of them,” Skubal said.
Though Skubal excels at focusing on the present, he also seems to sense how much weight his words carry. Wanting to avoid out-of-context reading between the lines as he praised the Dodgers, Skubal made sure to note that he wasn’t comparing his new situation with his old one.
He’s made clear over and over how special his time in Detroit was to him.
Skubal’s resolve hasn’t been tested in exactly the way it will be on Friday. But he’s performed on that same mound under unique circumstances.
When Skubal took the mound in his last start for the Tigers on July 29, he knew it could be a turning point for him and the club. The Tigers lost in extra innings, but he made a quality start and recorded his 1,000th career strikeout before leaving the game to a standing ovation at Comerica Park.
“You really appreciate that stuff,” Skubal said. “And I went down the tunnel and had some conversations with coaches that were pretty emotional too.
“You appreciate everything because without fans, this game is nothing. If no one showed up, we wouldn’t be able to play baseball for a living.”
He’s sure to have quite the reception on Friday, too. And even though Skubal excels at compartmentalizing, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had one request for the Tigers.
“I hope they do the festivities the night after we win on Friday,” Roberts said, “so the emotion doesn’t get to him and he can just kind of enjoy the welcome back.”
The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.
Carr won seven of his 21 Super League matches in charge and leaves with the Tigers ninth in the 14-team table.
Chester, who has led the team in the past two matches, said last week that they were not “actively looking” for a new head coach.
Owner Martin Jepson said he was “sorry” that Carr had left the club.
“We have had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with and unfortunately not been in a position to provide more information to the fans. However, our actions have been, and always will be, in the best interests of the club,” he said.
Jepson confirmed that Jason Netherton would assist Chester and Luke Robinson for the remaining four games of the campaign.
The Tigers visit St Helens on Saturday, looking to build on last week’s win at Hull FC.
Ryan Johnson struck out five and gave up one run in five solid innings, Jorge Soler and Zach Neto delivered RBI hits and the Angels ended a four-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
Johnson (2-4) gave up two hits and walked three. The right-hander escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth when he struck out Dillon Dingler with an 82-mph sweeper. Samy Natera Jr., Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman worked scoreless innings of relief.
Ryan Zeferjahn, who gave up just two earned runs in 19 1/3 innings of his previous 18 games since June 1, gave up a homer to Riley Greene in the top of the ninth as Detroit closed within 3-2. But, Zeferjahn retired the next three batters and earned his third save.
Tigers reliever Drew Anderson (3-4) issued a pair of walks that set up the Angels’ tiebreaking rally in the fifth. Nolan Schanuel, who had three hits, singled to load the bases, and Soler followed with an RBI groundout for a 2-1 lead.
The Angels pushed the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Oswald Peraza singled, stole second, took third on Tyler Heineman’s groundout and scored on Neto’s RBI single to right.
Detroit starter Casey Mize gave up one run and five hits in 3 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking one. He left after being struck on the left hand by a 109-mph comebacker off the bat of Jo Adell in the fourth inning.
Tigers shortstop Kevin McGonigle homered to leadoff the game. The Angels tied it at 1 in the second when Vaughn Grissom led off with a double, took third on Josh Lowe’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Peraza’s infield single.
Tarik Skubal pitched seven dominant innings, Spencer Torkelson homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Detroit Tigers cruised to a 7-0 win over the Angels on Saturday night.
Skubal, winner of the past two AL Cy Young Awards, gave up five hits and struck out nine without issuing a walk. He induced 19 swinging strikes for the third straight start. Of his 87 pitches, 60 were strikes.
The Angels (38-61) advanced only one runner to second base against the left-hander when Logan O’Hoppe and Mike Trout singled with one out in the sixth, but Skubal (6-5) got Vaughn Grissom to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The Tigers (46-52) have won 11 of 14 games and are 24-14 since June 1 to move within 5½ games of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 3½ games of Boston for the third AL wild card. Detroit was 22-38 and 11½ games back in the division on May 31.
It took only five batters for the Tigers to build a 4-0 lead. Kevin McGonigle opened the game with a double, Dillon Dingler was hit by a pitch, Colt Keith hit an RBI single and Torkelson crushed a three-run homer to left-center with one out.
Detroit tacked on two runs in the second after loading the bases with no outs on singles by James Outman and McGonigle and another Dingler hit by pitch, his third in two games. Keith and Riley Greene followed with sacrifice flies for a 6-0 lead.
Torkelson led the fifth with 18th homer, a 420-foot shot to center off left-hander Brent Suter for a 7-0 lead. That gave the Tigers first baseman his first multihomer game since Sept. 7, 2023, at Yankee Stadium.
Grayson Rodriguez (3-3) lasted only four innings, giving up six runs and seven hits in a shaky start that sent the last-place Angels to their fourth straight loss and 12th in 14 games.
Up next: Tigers RHP Casey Mize (4-6, 2.79 ERA) opposes RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.75) in Sunday’s series finale.
Hao-Yu Lee lined a two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Detroit Tigers over the Angels 2-1 on Friday night.
Detroit reliever Keider Montero (6-5) struck out five in 3⅓ scoreless innings to earn the win, getting Denzer Guzman to ground out with runners on second and third to end the game.
Tigers third baseman Kevin McGonigle preserved the lead when he leaped to grab Oswald Peraza’s high chopper behind the bag with two on and made a long throw to first for the second out of the ninth.
Angels reliever Kirby Yates (0-5) hit a batter with a pitch to open the top of the ninth, walked another with one out and got Kerry Carpenter to fly to shallow left field for the second out. But the right-hander couldn’t put away Lee, whose clutch hit gave Detroit (45-52) its 10th win in 13 games.
Angels starter Reid Detmers, a top target of contenders looking to acquire a starter before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked none in six shutout innings, effectively mixing his 95-mph fastball with an 86-mph slider and 72-mph slow curve.
Ryan Zeferjahn retired the side in order in the seventh, and Sam Bachman struck out three of four batters in a scoreless eighth for the Angels, who have lost 11 of 13.
Tigers starter Troy Melton, a 25-year-old right-hander who attended nearby Anaheim Canyon High School, gave up one run and four hits in 5⅔ innings. He struck out nine and walked four in his first appearance at Angel Stadium.
Zach Neto‘s leadoff single and two walks loaded the bases for the Angels (38-60) in the first inning, and Josh Lowe drove in Neto with a grounder to second.
Before the game, the Angels announced they signed first-round draft pick Jared Grindlinger, a two-way standout from nearby Huntington Beach High School who will start his pro career as an outfielder.
Up next: Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (5-5, 3.09 ERA) will oppose Angels RHP Grayson Rodriguez (3-2, 7.55) on Saturday night.
Go get the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner and cement your October. Go get the marvelous Detroit Tigers left-hander and claim your three-peat.
Everyone will say you are ruining baseball, but you know what really would ruin baseball? If its reigning dynasty is wrecked by loose bodies or back spasms or a needle stuck in a left knee.
Everyone will say you don’t really need him, but unless you have some sort of time machine that can restore vitality to some of the veterans showing serious wear, you need him.
The 29-year-old Skubal is a pending free agent, so the Tigers have to trade him or lose him to a $400-million contract elsewhere. The Tigers could keep him for a possible pennant run, but Skubal is a pitcher, not a miracle worker, and his 44-52 team has to leapfrog six others to sneak into a wild-card spot.
He’s there for the taking and, more than any other team, the asset-rich Dodgers are in the best position to take him. They have the best minor leaguers. They have the best fringe major leaguers. Give the Tigers whatever anonymous talents they desire because, as Dodgers fans have learned, nobody will be lamenting the lost kids when the big leaguers are parading down Figueroa.
Yes, agreed, this is an insane column to write … if it hadn’t already been written.
“They need to surrender prospects and take on debt and do whatever it takes to trade for an ace starting pitcher or they have zero shot at a championship,” I wrote at the time. “They need to find somebody who can take the ball in one of the first two games of what could be a three-game wild-card playoff series or they have zero shot at surviving that series.”
One month later, failing to improve the team for one of the rare times in his brilliant career, Andrew Friedman struck out.
Three months later, they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs while rolling out a rotation of noodle-armed Clayton Kershaw, massively disappointing Bobby Miller and a human dinger machine named Lance Lynn.
Three years later it feels like it’s happening all over again, the Dodgers once again faced with a nightmare they’d rather ignore.
Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani puts on his batting gloves after pitching against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on July 3.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The team with four aces needs an ace. The team that began the season with two Cy Young candidates needs a third. The supernatural pitching staff needs help.
Start with Shohei Ohtani. They’re understandably acting like the knee-draining procedure he underwent last weekend was no big deal, but it pulled him off the mound and there has been no definitive word when he’ll return.
“We all know with where we’re at, who he is as a player, if there’s opportunities to be extra cautious and mindful, it’s just prudent,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media.
In less than three months, will “cautious and mindful” become “ready to roll?” Who knows? Ohtani is 32 with slowly diminishing tread on those overworked wheels. Then there are Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the injured starters who everyone thinks will just magically appear at full strength in the playoffs.
Believe that, and I’ve got some loose bodies to sell you.
Snell, 33, hasn’t lasted a full season in three years, and even though he’ll be pitching again soon, any season that includes even the most minor of elbow surgeries can have a problematic ending.
Glasnow, who turns 33 next month, has made but 25 starts in the last two seasons and missed the playoffs completely two years ago, and by now it feels like back spasms are the least of his problems.
The surprise bright spot of the rotation has been Justin Wrobleski, and last season he didn’t give up a run in four World Series relief appearances, but can he be trusted with the start? In Tuesday’s All-Star Game, deep-bombing Miguel Vargas reminded him how the heat increases when the expectations are higher.
The starting pitcher fears are heightened by the vulnerability of the man who is catching them. Will Smith will be back from his neck injury, but he’s lately shown some of the strain of his record-setting postseason workload. And do you really want Dalton Rushing talking trash behind the plate for pressure playoff battles?
To all these worries, add the bullpen, which has fallen back to earth after its club-record 38-inning scoreless streak. Edwin Díaz can’t come back soon enough and, oh wait, does that 10.50 ERA really belong to him?
Into this tightrope-walking atmosphere would step Skubal, who underwent a minimally invasive elbow procedure in May but came back stronger than ever. He has gone 36-15 over the last three seasons with two full years of sub-3.00 ERAs while being generally regarded as the best pitcher in baseball.
He might be a rental. So what? A third consecutive championship would be forever. The rest of the baseball world would cry foul. Who cares? The only sound that matters around here is the cheers accompanying one more title before the game goes dark.
The Dodgers’ rotation is hurting. The Dodgers’ window is closing. The Dodgers are on the verge of a three-peat, yet still one player away.
Wakefield Trinity ran in nine tries as they thrashed Castleford Tigers to boost their Super League top-four hopes at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Daryl Powell’s side climbed to third on 24 points after recording six wins in their past seven games.
Castleford were a mess and Wakefield took full advantage as Cameron Scott, Tom Johnstone and Caleb Hamlin-Uele each scored twice.
Lachlan Walmsley, Tyson Smoothy and Josh Rourke also went over, before Jason Qareqare replied a minute before time to avoid total humiliation for Castleford.
Scotland international Walmsley marked his spectacular one-handed finish in the corner by pulling out an Uno +4 card from his sock, with £180 being donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association by sponsors for every try celebration during Magic Weekend.
As majestic as Wakefield were, Castleford gave them a massive helping hand and Walmsley caught Jake Trueman’s kick and laid the ball off for Scott to go over in the right corner for their first score in the third minute.
It was one-way traffic and Trinity had two tries ruled out before winger Johnstone crossed in the left corner in the 16th minute.
Hamlin-Uele came off the bench to score their third try when he powered through two tackles to go over near the posts.
They were almost scoring at will as Castleford made mistake after mistake while missing 44 tackles.
Wakefield extended their lead to 20-0 when Scott collected Jack Sinfield’s pass and broke inside to go over for his second score.
They were enjoying themselves as Walmsley showed following his acrobatic try in the right corner after 47 minutes to make it 24-0.
Not to be left out, Trinity’s forwards got in on the act and Smoothy smashed through the Castleford defence to score by the posts on 51 minutes.
Hamlin-Uele scored his second try – and he will hardly record an easier one all season – as he walked through two Castleford tackles to go over.
Johnstone bagged his second try on 65 minutes when Wakefield passed the ball along their backline from a scrum, before Rourke caught Sinfield’s kick to crash over for their ninth try.
Qareqare, though, continued his hot streak with a 10th try in seven games, but it provided little consolation for ninth-placed Castleford.
For a quarter century, Venezuelan politics has revolved around a single divide: chavismo versus anti-chavismo. Entire political careers were built around that struggle, as parties rose and fell according to their ability to interpret it. Leaders were judged less by what they proposed than by how effectively and fervently they opposed the regime.
No one has embodied that tradition more successfully than María Corina Machado. Her achievement was not simply electoral. She transformed anti-chavismo from a coalition of parties and personalities into something closer to a political identity.
That transformation helped make Machado the dominant figure in Venezuelan politics since 2024. It may also explain why the beast showing its fangs at the other side of the Western border deserves to be taken seriously by the opposition.
Political movements rarely remain the property of the people who built them. Over time, people begin to invest parts of themselves in them. They become attached not only to leaders, but to their own idea of what those leaders represent. Their loyalties gradually shift from individuals to identities, at that point, succession becomes possible.
The curse of the trailblazer
Colombia’s recent election offers an intriguing illustration of how this process can unfold. At first glance, Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory looked like a victory for the Colombian Right. It may turn out to have been something more interesting.
De la Espriella did not defeat Uribismo. If anything, he inherited it. Many of his voters still admire Álvaro Uribe and some probably voted for him repeatedly. What changed was not their opinion of Uribe, but their sense of who now spoke most convincingly for the political tradition he created.
The Tiger did not campaign against Uribe’s legacy. He campaigned as its most uncompromising heir, as he described himself “más uribista que doña Lina” (Uribe ‘s wife). His appeal rested on a simple proposition: Uribe had been right all along, but those who claimed to represent his legacy lacked either the conviction or the will to carry it through to its logical conclusion. This is a very different kind of political challenge. It does not seek to replace a movement. It seeks to inherit it.
De la Espriella’s voters didn’t change their opinion of Uribe, but their sense of who now spoke most convincingly for the political tradition he created.
That possibility should sound familiar to Venezuelans.
The question is not whether Machado is losing support. By any reasonable measure she remains the dominant figure in the Venezuelan opposition. The more interesting question is whether anti-chavismo, having become an identity in its own right, could one day develop ambitions, expectations and frustrations that exceed her ability to contain them.
The strange thing about political victories is that they rarely belong entirely to those who achieve them. Over time, successful leaders create constituencies, expectations and myths that acquire a life of their own. What begins as a political movement gradually becomes a political identity, and once identities take root they stop asking permission from the people who created them.
The comparison that comes most readily to mind is Winston Churchill. The British prime minister lost the first election after the Second World War, in one of the great paradoxes of democratic politics. The standard explanation is that Britons decided the war had been won and wanted someone better suited to building the peace.
Bukele, Trump and Milei often feature more prominently in the imagination of many Venezuelans than the leaders who shaped domestic opposition politics before Machado.
The Venezuelan case may eventually present the opposite problem. Machado’s future challenger, once one emerges, is unlikely to argue that the struggle against chavismo has ended. If anything, the argument would be the reverse: not that Machado was wrong, but that she stopped too soon.
If such a figure were ever to emerge in Venezuela, it would likely appear first as a sentiment rather than as a politician.
A nameless threat
One can already glimpse fragments of that sentiment across the Venezuelan diaspora, in Miami, Houston or Madrid among voters who remain deeply committed to the opposition but increasingly impatient with the pace of events, and Machado’s approach to Trump’s plan. Many admire Machado, some even revere her. Yet admiration and impatience are not mutually exclusive sentiments.
A decade ago, one of the most common criticisms of Machado was that she was too confrontational. Today, some of her critics seem to believe she has not been enough of a hardliner. The shift may appear subtle. It is anything but that.
What unites these constituencies is not necessarily ideology. Many disagree on policy, strategy and even on the nature of a future Venezuelan transition. What they seem to share is a growing impatience with the political habits that defined the opposition during the previous two decades. Their political reference points are increasingly international. Bukele, Trump and Milei often feature more prominently in their imagination than the leaders who shaped Venezuelan opposition politics before Machado.
The result is a political vocabulary that would have sounded unfamiliar not long ago. Arguments about negotiations and elections increasingly coexist with arguments about strength, authenticity, betrayal and whether the opposition has shown sufficient willingness to exercise power rather than merely seek it.
The Tiger represents a possibility: that the greatest challenge facing anti-chavismo in the years ahead may not come from its enemies, but from the unresolved question of what victory should look like.
None of this means that a Venezuelan Bukele is waiting in the wings, nor does it suggest that Machado’s position is immediately threatened. As things stand, the opposite appears true. But political identities rarely remain frozen in time. They absorb new influences, adapt to new frustrations and develop new aspirations. The question is whether anti-chavismo is beginning to do the same.
Perhaps someone like Abelardo The Tiger never comes. Perhaps Machado successfully leads Venezuela through a transition and remains the uncontested leader of the movement she helped build. That remains the most likely outcome.
But history suggests that political movements rarely remain suspended in a single moment forever. The forces that transformed Machado into the dominant figure of Venezuelan opposition politics, frustration, perseverance, impatience, conviction and a refusal to accept the permanence of chavismo, are not forces she alone controls.
That is why The Tiger matters. The point is not whether it materializes as a candidate, a faction or a movement. The point is that it represents a possibility: that the greatest challenge facing anti-chavismo in the years ahead may not come from its enemies, but from the unresolved question of what victory should look like.
For 25 years, Venezuelan politics revolved around how to confront chavismo. María Corina Machado provided the most compelling answer that question has yet produced. The shadow crouched in the woods is the possibility that a different question is beginning to emerge.
And predators have a peculiar habit. They tend to show up before people eventually give them a name.
