toughest

No, he didn’t.

Yes, they did!

No, it’s inconceivable that Philadelphia Phillies’ reliever Orion Kerkering would botch a grounder and throw it away with the season on the line.

Yes, it happened with the bases loaded and the Dodgers scored to steal a National League Division Series clinching 2-1 victory in 11 taut innings Thursday at Dodger Stadium!

Clinched, just in time.

Clinched, when they could have clenched.

Clinched, like a champion.

With their backs quickly approaching the wall, faced with a loss that would return the series to Philadelphia for a deciding Game 5, the Dodgers dug in and lashed out and, at the last possible minute, shoved the talented and favored Philadelphia Phillies out of their path to take a three-games-to-one series win and clear the way toward their second consecutive World Series title.

And they did it with a mad, mindless throw from a frozen, frightened reliever.

Has any postseason series ended with such an error?

It happened in the 11th, after Tommy Edman hit a one-out single to left, then moved to third one out later on a single by Max Muncy. Kiké Hernández walked to load the bases, bringing up the struggling Andy Pages, who entered the day with an .053 playoff average and had gone hitless in four previous at-bats.

He proceeded to hit into his fifth out… except Kerkering muffed the grounder. When the pitcher finally picked up the ball, he still had plenty of time to throw out Pages at first. Instead, he panicked and threw it home, launching it far over catcher JT Realmuto’s head.

Pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim scored the winning run as Kerkering stood stunned on the mound and the Dodgers danced wildly across the field.

How the Dodgers defeated the Phillies in the 11th inning in Game 4 of the NLDS.

They now advance to the National League Championship Series, where they will be heavy favorites against either the Milwaukee Brewers or Chicago Cubs.

A victory in that seven-game set will land them back in the World Series, where they will be even heavier favorites against whatever inferior team the American League can muster.

Yeah, the rest of their journey should be the easy part, the Dodgers already conquering their Goliath equal in a Phillies series that was essentially the World Series.

Remember last fall when they defeated the San Diego Padres in a tense five-game fight before cruising to the title? This was that. This was the two best teams in baseball. This was the Dodgers once again swallowing all the pressure and refusing to relent.

After a breathtaking six-inning scoreless pitching duel between the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez, the Phillies struck first in the seventh with a single, an error by reliever Emmet Sheehan, and a double by Nick Castellanos.

The Dodgers countered in the bottom of the seventh with two walks and a single followed by a bases-loaded walk drawn by Mookie Betts against closer Jhoan Duran.

This set the stage for the Error Heard ‘Round The World. This set the stage for what should absolutely be a second consecutive World Series championship.

Before these playoffs there was a lot of talk about the Dodgers’ late-season struggles that were symbolized by that blown no-hitter in Baltimore. They had no bullpen depth. They had no offensive patience. They were headed for another early October exit.

At least, that’s what outsiders thought. That’s not what the veteran, pressure-proof Dodgers thought.

“I think it boils down to the guys we have in the clubhouse,” said Max Muncy earlier this week. “We have a lot of experience, a lot of really good players. We’ve been there before. We accomplished it.”

Turns out, nobody knew the Dodgers like the players wearing the uniform.

“We knew who we are as a team all year long,” said Muncy. “Even though we weren’t playing up to it at certain points, we trusted who we were. Like I said, we knew who we were in the clubhouse, not one person faulted in there, even in the rough times.”

They were impressive in the four games against the Phillies. Here’s predicting they’re going to get even better before the month ends.

“I still think there’s another gear in there,” said Muncy. “I don’t think we fully reached where we can be at. And that’s not saying we are, and that’s not saying we aren’t. But I still think there’s a whole other level in there we haven’t reached yet.”

The Times’ Bill Shaikin quickly asked, “What would tell you you’ve reached it?”

“I think you would know,” said Muncy.

The media laughed. The rest of baseball shivered.

At the end of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Call looked at his hitting numbers, then looked himself in the mirror.

A former third-round draft pick who had already changed organizations once, he knew he had just had the kind of year that typically portends a short professional career.

As a 24-year-old outfielder at the double-A level in the Cleveland Guardians organization, Call had taken 325 plate appearances that year with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them — a rate of nearly 30% — he recorded a strikeout.

It wasn’t the only ugly stat in a season that saw Call bat just .205, reach base at a .266 clip and hit only five home runs. But it was the biggest sign of a fundamental flaw plaguing the right-handed hitter’s game.

“That,” he recalled recently, while reflecting on what became a turning point moment in his career, “just wasn’t gonna get it done.”

Six years later, Call joined the Dodgers as a trade deadline addition last week with a polar opposite reputation. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is one of the harder outs in all the majors. Since the start of last season, his .297 batting average ranks eighth among MLB hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. More important, over that same span, he ranks top 60 in strikeout rate and walk rate (with a 55-to-39 ratio overall), and 22nd in chase rate; consistently putting together some of the better at-bats in all the sport.

“This guy’s just a straight grinder, works at-bats,” general manager Brandon Gomes said after the Dodgers acquired Call from the Washington Nationals in exchange for two pitching prospects. “Playing against him, he’s always incredibly frustrating to try to game plan for and get out.”

“I’ve faced Alex a few times,” added future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. “He’s tough against lefties, a great defender. A good add, for sure.”

The Dodgers, of course, could have made splashier adds at the deadline. They were linked to All-Star caliber names, including Steven Kwan of the Guardians, but didn’t splurge to pay such inflated deadline prices.

Instead, they settled for Call, who was a smaller name but came with team control through 2029. They put their faith in his overhauled offensive skill set, hopeful a personal transformation more than half-a-decade in the making will make him a key piece in their pursuit of a second straight World Series title.

“That is my whole game,” Call said on the day he arrived with the club. “I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher, lengthen out the lineup.”

The origins of that mindset date to that 2019 season, and the pandemic-altered year that followed.

Entering 2020, Call committed to a change at the plate. In what was a crowded pipeline of outfielders in the Guardians system — highlighted at that time by Kwan, who has since blossomed into one of the best left fielders in the game — he recognized he needed a new identity. If he was going to reach the majors, it was going to start with simply working better at-bats.

“It’s a bad feeling,” he said, “having a cloud hanging over your head after a season like that.”

The only problem: COVID-19 came, the 2020 minor league season was canceled, and Call (like so many other minor-league long shots clinging to big-league dreams) was left effectively on his own.

So, he found different ways to improve his bat.

As the baseball world shut down, Call bought a portable Junior Hack Attack hitting machine with a self-feeding ball dispenser. And everywhere he went that year — from spring training housing in Phoenix to his childhood home in Wisconsin to his family’s offseason residence in Indiana — he sought out any place “I could find a hitting cage and an outlet” to use it, he said laughing.

His focus was simple. Work on hitting fastballs up in the strike zone. Eliminate what had been one of the biggest holes in his swing.

“For me, it’s just about having that mentality to where, it doesn’t matter if I have two strikes or if it’s an 0-0 count,” he said. “Believe I’m comfortable in every situation. I’m going to put the ball in play.”

By that winter, Call sought out a more advanced piece of training technology as well.

Over the previous couple years, a company called Win Reality had begun manufacturing virtual reality hitting goggles — using data-driven models, actual video and computer-generated images to recreate virtual at-bats against real pitchers from a hitter’s point of view inside Oculus-style headsets.

A handful of MLB teams, including the Dodgers, had invested in the system for their teams. In the months leading up to the 2021 season, Call decided to do the same for himself, buying the $300 product (and paying for its annual $200 software program) to help couple his new swing with a more discerning approach.

“[I was] just really practicing the zone,” Call said. “Knowing what pitches are my strengths and what pitches I don’t want to swing at until two strikes. Developing that plan and developing that approach.”

The training paid off.

At the start of the 2021 season, Call was sent back to double-A Akron. When he arrived, he was informed by manager Rouglas Odor that he would only be slated to play 2-3 games per week — a quick reminder of how far down the organization depth chart he’d fallen.

“I remember him being very disappointed,” Odor, now the Guardians’ big-league third-base coach, recalled this week. “But he took ownership of his career, and didn’t let what I told him affect him.”

Call’s chance arrived that May, after Kwan went down with a hamstring injury. And almost immediately, his COVID-year changes took effect. Over 180 plate appearances, Call hit .310, drew 21 walks and — just as he’d hoped — cut his strikeout rate by half, punching out only 26 times.

“He was a totally different hitter,” said Odor, who had also been Call’s manager during his dismal 2019 campaign. “Defensively, he was already to play in the big leagues. He made some unbelievable plays … But offensively, he found his stroke. His plate discipline was more consistent. And he had an unbelievable season.”

By the end of the season, Call had been promoted to triple-A. The next July, he earned a promotion to the majors.

The ascent from there wasn’t linear. In August 2022, he was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Nationals. In 2023, he played in 128 big-league games but hit only .200, sending him back to triple-A for most of last year.

Alex Call bats against the Houston Astros on July 28 as a member of the Washington Nationals.

(Karen Warren / Associated Press)

Still, his plate discipline didn’t waver (he struck out only 78 times in his 439 plate appearances in 2023, an 18% rate, while also drawing 53 walks). His VR routine only became more ingrained, seeing upward of 54,000 simulated pitches (or, essentially 25 seasons’ worth of throws) through his headset each year, as he told the Washington Post last month.

It all has clicked over the last calendar year, with Call following up a productive return to the majors at the end of 2024 with his best full-season performance this term.

“The type of player that I am, I can hit the ball over the fence, but it’s not really my full game,” Call said. “So for me, it was about trying to create as many opportunities to get on base as possible … I have to be able to hit the ball at good angles.”

Call is one of only four players with at least 200 plate appearances this season (along with Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres and Geraldo Perdomo) who strikes out less than 15% of the time, chases less than 20% of the time and whiffs less than 20% of the time. He has hit .236 with two strikes (better than everyone else on the Dodgers except Hyeseong Kim).

He had his first standout game with the Dodgers on Wednesday, when he singled, doubled and made a catch while crashing into the left-field wall to save an extra-base hit.

Eight at-bats into his Dodgers career entering Friday’s game, he has also yet to strike out once.

“I’m always proud of players like Alex, because he wasn’t this big prospect, but he became an everyday big-league player,” Odor said. “He had the urgency to make something happen in order to reach his goal, and his dream.”

And now, Call is aiming to take his career one step further — to be not just a productive big-league bat, but one capable of playing an impactful role on a title-contending club in Los Angeles.

“I always knew that I could do it and be an established major leaguer,” Call said. “It’s just, sometimes it takes a little bit of time. And I’m grateful that I was given that time, and just continued to get better.”

JUST 18 months ago she was flashing her diamond engagement ring on a sun-soaked holiday in Mauritius, toasting a future with the man she called her ‘King’.

But today Lioness Millie Bright is sporting a very different ring on her finger, with her life having seemingly been upended in the space of a week.

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It began with her shock withdrawal from the Euro 2025 squad due to not being able to “give 100 per cent mentally or physically” – a decision she admitted was “one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make”.

Physically, defender Millie is recovering from knee surgery which saw her miss a date with Prince William yesterday to collect her OBE from Windsor Castle.

On a personal level, this week it emerged she’s split from husband-to-be Levi Crew and fallen for married personal trainer and dad-of-seven, Dave Zetolofsky, 39.

She’s also been spotted with a new diamond ring on her little finger – though there’s no suggestion it’s an engagement ring. 

Meanwhile all mentions of Levi have been swiftly deleted from Chelsea captain Millie’s social media accounts, including that Christmas Day engagement post.

But people who know Millie, 31, are not remotely surprised by this single-minded determination to do what’s right for her. 

“Millie is not the type of woman to be troubled by self doubt or regret,” said a source, adding that she makes tough decisions, and sticks to them.

An onlooker said: “Millie’s had a chaotic few weeks with news of her split and pulling out of the England squad. But she’s as tough in real life as she is on the pitch.”

It’s arguably this ruthless, resilient mentality that has got Millie so far in life – going from earning £25 a week in a Yorkshire pit village to a historic victory in the 2022 Euros, leading the women’s national team to the 2023 World Cup final, winning 19 trophies with Chelsea and living in a Surrey mansion worthy of glossy magazine spreads.

Up until recently she shared this immaculate home with Levi, whom she was so devoted to that she proudly displayed a tattoo of his eye on her left arm, along with a tiger because “he gave her core strength through thick and thin”.

She raved about her “perfect kitchen” after it was fitted by high end designers Howdens to include a bespoke pet space under the breakfast bar for her beloved French bulldogs Zeus and Hera, named after Greek gods.

And the garden boasts an Explore ice bath which she uses for her post game ritual.

Millie is thought to have met heavily inked former pro kickboxer and martial arts enthusiast Dave in February.

She joined 21st Century Combat, the gym he co-owns with his wife Katie close to her Surrey mansion, and signed up to his gruelling exercise classes.

There is no suggestion that Millie or Dave cheated on their partners.

Eyes on the prize

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From an early age, Millie always had her eyes firmly fixed on the prize. 

Growing up among the Derbyshire collieries, little Millie’s childhood was quite idyllic. 

She first sat on a horse when she was one, and was riding by the age of three – insisting that horses were her “life rather than a hobby”.

Determined and dedicated, Millie would rise early and be out working in her family’s stable yard by 6am most mornings before school, rain or shine.

She competed every weekend, and the owl Millie has tattooed on her arm is a likeness of the one that flew back to her parents barn every year. 

But suddenly, at the age of nine, she decided to sacrifice it all after stumbling across football by accident.

Millie’s had a chaotic few weeks with news of her split and pulling out of the England squad. But she’s as tough in real life as she is on the pitch

Source

Bored while watching a friend train one morning at her local club, Killamarsh Dynamos, she decided to join in the session.

That was the moment everything changed, and from then on Millie’s life revolved around the Dynamos. 

Millie was such a key player that the club would later name their pitches after her.

Inevitably she outgrew the Dynamos and a few years later – dressed as one of the mustachioed runners from the 118 118 directory enquiries service for a charity run – she seized the opportunity to introduce herself to Paul Green, then manager of Doncaster Belles. 

He recalled that her handshake was so strong that day it took him aback.

Unable to refuse her, her contract was quickly a done deal.

‘Diamond in the rough’

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Another former Doncaster manager, John Buckley, remembers Millie as a diamond in the rough.

“From the minute she came in she was totally involved, a cracking girl,” he said.

Back then women’s football was not the big business it is today, and her wages were just £25 a week. 

Undeterred, Millie juggled two part time jobs – working as a fitness instructor and a horse groom at Esberger’s Yard in Todwick – to supplement her meagre income. 

In 2019 she recalled in an interview with the BBC how an ankle injury at that time not only robbed her of her earnings from football, but left her claiming benefits because she could not work her two other jobs either. 

From the minute she came in she was totally involved, a cracking girl

John BuckleyDoncaster manager

Ever supportive, her parents Nicola and Steve forked out for private surgery and the club paid for her rehabilitation.

“She was always so driven and eventually, she knew what she wanted to do – which was to play professional football,” said Sheila Edmunds, the president of the Doncaster Rovers Belles.

A family friend added: “It was always blood, sweat and tears with Millie, she would play until her entire body hurt.”

As her football career grew more demanding in her teens, Millie was forced to make another tough choice.

She had to abandon the stables for good – and now Millie is barred from horse riding at all by her insurers.

After that of course Millie soared to greater heights and spells in midfield meant she was a direct opponent of England legend Jill Scott, then at Everton. 

In one press conference Scott said: “The girl I played against tonight, that young girl – she’s the most aggressive player I’ve ever played against.” 

Millie’s mum and dad were in the stands at every game, along with her no-nonsense grandparents Margaret and Arthur.

Arthur Bramall, a tough former coal miner who spent his career at the Rossington colliery in Doncaster, is the person Millie relies on the most for honest feedback about her performance on the pitch.

Bitter blow

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Her decision to withdraw from the Euro 2025 squad as they began preparations for the tournament in Switzerland next month was a bitter blow for fans.

Millie admitted: “The demands of it are incredibly high and I would see it as a little bit selfish to take up an opportunity in a position from somebody else when I’m not 100 per cent there.

“It wasn’t an easy decision. I gave it a lot of thought. 

“But ultimately, I thought this was the best decision for the team, but also for myself and using this summer to really just zone into mentally, physically, getting myself back in tip-top condition and just happy again, all round, just feeling like myself. It’s obviously hard.”

Fans have rallied to support Millie on social media, as have her teammates, with Arsenal striker Chloe Kelly writing: “Proud of you always”.

Aston Villa‘s Rachel Daly posted: “Couldn’t be more proud. With you through everything my girl,” and a message on the official Lionesses account read: “We’re all with you, Millie.”

England manager Sarina Wiegman said: “She has to take care of herself. We will stay in contact and I hope she feels better soon.”

While she’ll no doubt find it difficult watching her team play on without her, Millie’s new love certainly provides a big shoulder to cry on.