Tyler

TORONTO — Tyler Glasnow threw seven, maybe eight, pitches in the bullpen. There was no more time to wait. The red emergency light was flashing.

For 14 years, Glasnow has made a nice living as a pitcher. He has thrown hard, if not always durably or effectively.

There is one thing he had not done. In 320 games, from the minors to the majors, from the Arizona Fall League to the World Series, he never had earned a save.

Until Friday, that is, and only after the Dodgers presented him with this opportunity out of equal parts confidence and desperation: Please save us. The winning run is at the plate with no one out. If you fail, we lose the World Series.

No pressure, kid.

He is not one of the more intense personalities on the roster, which makes him a good fit in a situation in which someone else might think twice, or more, at the magnitude of the moment.

“I honestly didn’t have time to think about it,” Glasnow said.

In Game 6 on Friday, the Dodgers in order used a starter to start, a reliever to relieve, the closer of the moment, and then Glasnow to close. In Game 7 on Saturday, the Dodgers plan to start Shohei Ohtani, likely followed by a parade of starters.

Glasnow, who said he could not recall ever pitching on back-to-back days, could be one of them.

“I threw three pitches,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”

The Dodgers had asked him to be ready to go in relief on Friday, so he moseyed on down to the bullpen in the second inning. He didn’t really believe he would pitch. After all, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had thrown consecutive complete games. If Yamamoto could not throw another, Glasnow did not believe he would be the first guy called.

He was not. Justin Wrobleski was, protecting a 3-1 lead, and he delivered a scoreless seventh inning. Closer Roki Sasaki was next, and the Dodgers planned for him to work the eighth and ninth.

Glasnow said bullpen coach Josh Bard warned him to be on alert. Sasaki walked two in the eighth but escaped. He hit a batter and gave up a double to lead off the ninth, and the Dodgers rushed in Glasnow.

“I warmed up very little, got out there,” Glasnow said. “It was like no thinking at all.”

The Dodgers’ scouting reports gave Glasnow and catcher Will Smith reason to believe Ernie Clement would try to jump on the first pitch, so Glasnow said he threw a two-seam fastball that he seldom throws to right-handed batters. Clement popped up.

The next batter, Andrés Giménez, hit a sinking fly ball to left fielder Kiké Hernández. Off the bat, Glasnow said he feared a hit.

If the ball falls in, Giménez has a single and the Dodgers’ lead shrinks to one run. If the ball skips past Hernández, the Blue Jays tie the score.

Glasnow said he had three brief thoughts, in order:

1: “Please don’t be a hit.”

Hernández charged hard and made the running catch.

2: “Sweet, it’s not a hit.”

Hernández threw to second base for the game-ending double play.

3: “Nice, a double play.”

Wrobleski tipped his cap to his new bullpen mate.

“He’s a beast, man,” Wrobleski said. “To be able to come in in that spot, it takes a lot of mental strength and toughness. He did it. I didn’t expect anything less out of him, but it was awesome.”

Wrobleski was pretty good himself. The Dodgers optioned him the maximum five times last year and four times this year. He did not pitch in the first three rounds of the playoffs, and his previous two World Series appearances came in a mop-up role and during an 18-inning game.

Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski reacts after striking out Toronto’s Andrés Giménez to end the seventh inning in Game 6 of the World Series on Friday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

On Friday, they entrusted him with helping to keep their season alive. They got three critical outs from Wrobleski, who is not even making $1 million this season, and three more from Glasnow, who is making $30 million.

“We got a lot of guys that aren’t making what everybody thinks they’re making, especially down in that bullpen,” Wrobleski said. ”We were talking about it the other day. There’s a spot for everybody. If you keep grinding, you can wedge yourself in.”

He did. He was recruited by Clemson out of high school, then basically cut from the team.

“They told me to leave,” he said.

Did a new coach come in?

“No, I was just bad,” he said. “I had like a 10.3 ERA.”

Glasnow signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Hart High in Santa Clarita. In the majors, the Pirates tried him in relief without offering him a chance to close. Did they fail to recognize a budding bullpen star? “I never threw strikes,” he said. “I just wasn’t that good.”

We’ve all heard stories about the kid who goes into his backyard with a wiffle ball, taking a swing and pretending to be the batter who hits the home run in the World Series.

Glasnow doesn’t hit.

“I’ve had all sorts of daydreams about every pitching thing possible as a kid — relieving, closing out a game, starting in the World Series,” he said. “I thought about it all the time. So it’s pretty wild. I haven’t really processed it, either. I think going out to be able to get a save in the World Series is pretty wild.”

The game-ending double play was reviewed by instant replay, so Glasnow missed out on the trademark closer experience: the last out, immediately followed by the handshake line. Instead, everyone looked to the giant video board and waited.

Eventually, an informal line formed.

“I got some dap-ups,” he said. He smiled broadly, then walked out into the Toronto night, the proud owner of his first professional save. For his team, and for Los Angeles, he had kept the hope of a parade alive.

As the trial about whether the Angels should be held at least partially liable for the death of Tyler Skaggs enters its third week, major league officials are closely monitoring the proceedings.

The trial is scheduled to last several more weeks, and it would be premature for the league to determine what action it might take against the Angels — if any — until all evidence is revealed in court and a verdict or a settlement is reached.

However, it is considered highly unlikely that the league would compel Angels owner Arte Moreno to sell the team.

Consideration of any action probably would be deferred until the league could conduct its own investigation and until a jury verdict, if there is one, is fully reviewed by an appeals court.

The Skaggs family is seeking $785 million in damages, as first reported by the Athletic, based on the allegation the Angels knew or should have known that former staffer Eric Kay was using illegal drugs, including the pills he provided to Skaggs on the night the pitcher died in 2019. The Angels deny the allegations.

The jury would not have to decide whether to award all of that money or none of it. The jury first would have to determine who was liable: the Angels, Kay, Skaggs and any other parties. Then the jury would decide what percentage of liability each of those parties should assume and what the financial compensation should be.

As an example, a jury could decide the damages should be $210 million — the amount the family listed as a minimum in a court filing — and the Angels should be held one-third responsible. Under that example, they would be assessed $70 million.

In 1943, Philadelphia Phillies owner William Cox was banned for life for betting on baseball.

If history is any indication, if the league believes an owner merits discipline, an owner would be more likely to be suspended than banned. In 1993, Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended one year for racist and insensitive comments.

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was suspended three times: two years for illegal contributions to President Nixon’s 1972 campaign; one week after publicly criticizing umpires; and two years and five months for paying a gambler to dig up disparaging information on All-Star outfielder Dave Winfield. That last suspension originally was announced as a lifetime ban; Steinbrenner was later reinstated.

Kay, who provided Skaggs with counterfeit oxycodone pills that were laced with fentanyl, is serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison. Skaggs died in his hotel room in Texas of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy, choking on his own vomit while under the influence of oxycodone, fentanyl and alcohol.

Witness testimony began Wednesday with an accusation of negligent supervision in the high stakes trial against the Angels by the family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

Tim Mead, an Angels employee of 40 years, was portrayed by the plaintiffs lawyer, Rusty Hardin, during four hours of direct examination as a well-meaning boss who repeatedly ignored company policy by failing to report the improper conduct of Eric Kay, the team communications director who gave Skaggs the fentanyl pills that killed him.

Hardin brought up a litany of instances where Kay likely violated Angels rules that could have resulted in discipline and even termination long before the July 2019 road trip to Texas during which Skaggs died in his hotel room after chopping up and snorting the illicit drugs provided by Kay.

Mead acknowledged that he knew of Kay’s years-long episodes of bizarre behavior, an extramarital affair with an intern, and problems with prescription medication, but that he never reported any of it to human resources.

Hardin asked if he was putting Kay ahead of the organization by doing everything he could to save him, allow him to regain his health and keep him employed.

Mead responded: “I guess I wasn’t consciously doing it at the time. … I was concerned about the organization, for him, his family and my staff.”

Hardin asked Mead if he was thinking of an obligation to organization or to Kay, and Mead replied, “A bit of both.”

Hardin: Did you recognize a conflict between those roles?

Mead: “Yes that entered my mind.”

Hardin asserted that it strains credulity that Mead asserted he knew nothing of Kay using or distributing illicit opioids when on the last day of the 2017 season Kay’s wife, Camela, reached out to Mead to infom him the family was conducting an intervention in their home that evening.

Mead and Tom Taylor, the Angels’ traveling secretary, visited the Kays the next morning, and Camela Kay testified during a deposition that the Kays directed him to Eric’s bedroom, where he had stashed 60 pills, stored in handfuls of 10 in small plastic bags.

Pressed by Hardin, Mead repeated that he couldn’t say he didn’t do what Camela Kay testified he did, but that he had no recollection of it. Mead insisted that he knew nothing of Eric Kay using or distributing illicit drugs to Skaggs or anyone else.

Cross-examination of Mead by Angels lawyers will take place Friday. The court is in recess every Thursday during what is expected to be a two-month trial.

Following Mead on the witness stand will be Taylor and team president John Carpino. More than 75 names are on the witness list, including current Angels star Mike Trout, former manager Mike Scioscia and several former players who testified in depositions that Kay or Skaggs gave them opioids.

Lawyers for the Angels and the family spoke to the jury for the first time Tuesday, delivering dramatically different opening statements.

Angels owner Arte Moreno sat in the front row along with Carpino, although neither one was present Wednesday. Skaggs’ widow, Carli, sat next to Tyler’s mother, Debbie Hetman. Tyler’s father, Darrell Skaggs, was absent because of poor health.

Representing Skaggs’ widow and parents are two lawyers with decades of experience representing high-profile and celebrity clients — Shawn Holley and Hardin.

Early in her career, Holley, 63, worked under Johnnie Cochran and was a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team in 1995. Since then, she has represented clients ranging from entertainment titans Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg, Axl Rose and the Kardashian family to athletes such as Trevor Bauer, Mike Tyson, Lamar Odom, Reggie Bush and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Hardin, 83, represented the Arthur Andersen accounting firm during the Enron scandal more than 20 years ago. He also has won favorable verdicts for numerous athletes such as Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Warren Moon, Scottie Pippen, Calvin Murphy, Steve Francis, Rudy Tomjanovich and Rafer Alston.

The Angels are represented by Todd Theodora, chief executive of the nationally respected law firm Theodora Oringher. Theodora and the Angels have had a longstanding professional relationship.

Theodora served as lead trial counsel for the Angels in the suit brought by the city of Anaheim in 2005 when the team re-branded as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city sought more than $300 million in damages against the Angels, who prevailed in a jury verdict.

Theodora wouldn’t comment on the Skaggs case because of the ongoing litigation, but after the Angels’ court victory regarding the name change, he described to The Times the all-consuming nature of a lengthy trial.

“You find yourself literally thinking about the case from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed and many times in the middle of the night as well,” Theodora said.

The stakes are high in the Skaggs trial. Holley delivered opening statements for the plaintiffs and said a fair estimation of Skaggs’ lost future earnings is $118 million. She added that the Angels must also compensate the family for “loss of companionship, solace, moral support and financial security.” And, Holley said, the family should be awarded punitive damages “not only because [the Angels] failed to keep Tyler safe, they put him in harm’s way.”

Taking a deliberate, soft-spoken approach, Holley walked the jury through a timeline of Kay’s drug use and eventual distribution of opioids. She said Angels team doctor Craig Milhouse wrote Kay numerous oxycodone prescriptions despite the fact he lacked any legitimate medical condition.

Holley attempted to establish that Kay’s drug use escalated year after year, saying there was “a complete failure by the Angels to grasp the magnitude of the problem.”

Holley said that Kay revealed his drug use in text messages and emails, and that a clubhouse attendant witnessed Kay snorting lines of drugs in a kitchen area outside the Angels clubhouse.

Citing evidence in Kay’s criminal trial — he is serving 22 years in prison for supplying Skaggs with fentanyl — Holley said Kay used his Angels email address to purchase illicit drugs on the website OfferUp.

By 2019, Kay’s drug usage had reached a point that he went through an outpatient treatment program that ended shortly before the Angels went on the road trip to Texas during which Skaggs died. Holley contended that human resources requires a “fitness for duty exam” before returning to work following a drug rehab stint.

“The Angels, again, did nothing,” she said. “So less than two months after learning Eric Kay had been dealing drugs to players, two months after Eric Kay overdoses and less than a month after outpatient rehab ended, the Angels decided to send Kay on the road trip. Within hours, Tyler Skaggs was dead.”

Theodora countered by saying the team “knows right from wrong,” and that it was Skaggs who engaged in “reckless choices that we teach our children and grandchildren not to do, for good reason.”

Theodora pointed out that in addition to the counterfeit fentanyl pill that Skaggs chopped up and snorted the July 2019 night he died in a Texas hotel room, he had a blood-alcohol level of .140 and a therapeutic level of oxycodone.

“The evidence will show he was not playing through pain, he was not prescribed these pills,” Theodora said. “It is downright shameless for anyone to say it was justified for someone to chop up and snort opioids, that they were just being used to get through a long season.”

Skaggs was involved in three crimes, Theodora said, “one, criminal possession; two, taking or ingesting illicit drugs; and three — as you’ll hear from five players — Tyler was distributing illicit pills to them.”

Opening statements and Mead’s testimony underscored the reasons a recent one-day settlement conference between the two sides went nowhere,

Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas, on July 1, 2019, before the Angels were scheduled to start a series against the Texas Rangers. The Tarrant County medical examiner found that in addition to the opioids, Skaggs had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12. The autopsy determined he died from asphyxia after aspirating on his own vomit, and that his death was accidental.

Prosecutors alleged Kay sold opioids to Skaggs and at least five other professional baseball players from 2017 to 2019. Several players testified during the trial about obtaining illicit oxycodone pills from Kay.

The Skaggs family filed their lawsuit in June 2021, alleging the Angels knew, or should have known, that Kay was supplying drugs to Skaggs and other players. Testimony during Kay’s criminal trial established that Kay was also a longtime user of oxycodone and that the Angels knew it.

The Angels responded by saying that a former federal prosecutor the team hired to conduct an independent investigation into Skaggs’ death determined no team executives were aware or informed of any employee providing opioids to any player.

More than four years after the family of deceased Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs filed a wrongful death suit against the Angels, jury selection will begin Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

Skaggs’ widow Carli Skaggs and parents Debra Hetman and Darrell Skaggs stated in a court filing that they seek at least $210 million in lost earnings and damages. A lawyer for the Angels said in a pretrial hearing that the plaintiffs now seek a judgment of $1 billion, although the lead attorney representing the family said the number is an exaggeration.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. Pretrial discovery included more than 50 depositions and the witness list contains nearly 80 names.

Lawyers for the Skaggs family aim to establish that the Angels were responsible for the death of the 27-year-old left-handed pitcher on July 1, 2019, after he snorted crushed pills that contained fentanyl in a hotel room during a team road trip in Texas.

An autopsy concluded Skaggs accidentally died of asphyxia after aspirating his own vomit while under the influence of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol.

Angels communications director Eric Kay provided Skaggs with counterfeit oxycodone pills that turned out to be laced with fentanyl and is serving 22 years in federal prison for his role in the death. Skaggs’ lawyers will try to prove that other Angels employees knew Kay was providing opioids to Skaggs.

“The Angels owed Tyler Skaggs a duty to provide a safe place to work and play baseball,” the lawsuit said. “The Angels breached their duty when they allowed Kay, a drug addict, complete access to Tyler. The Angels also breached their duty when they allowed Kay to provide Tyler with dangerous illegal drugs. The Angels should have known Kay was dealing drugs to players. Tyler died as a result of the Angels’ breach of their duties.”

The Skaggs family planned to call numerous current and former Angels players as witnesses, including future Hall of Famers Mike Trout and Albert Pujols as well as pitcher Andrew Heaney — Skaggs’ best friend on the team — in an attempt to show that Skaggs was a fully functioning major league pitcher and not an addict.

Pretrial filings and hearings indicated that the Angels were attempting to show that Skaggs was a longtime drug user who acquired pills from sources other than Kay. Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, testified during Kay’s 2022 criminal trial that her son admitted he had an “issue” with oxycodone as far back as 2013.

Hetman said her son quit “cold turkey” but she testified the addiction remained enough of a concern that Skaggs wasn’t prescribed opioids after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2014.

Judge H. Shaina Colover dashed a key Angels defense strategy when she ruled that Kay’s criminal conviction could not be disputed during the civil trial. Angels attorney Todd Theodora contended that new evidence indicated Skaggs died of a “cardiac arrhythmia, second to the fact that Tyler had 10 to 15 drinks in him, coupled with the oxycodone, for which Angels baseball is not responsible.”

Theodora said that if the Angels could prove Kay was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, neither Kay nor the team would be culpable in Skaggs’ death. Colover, however, ruled that Kay’s “conviction, based on applicable law and facts, was final.” Kay’s appeal was denied in federal court in November 2023.

Pretrial depositions of Angels players and support personnel provided a rare glimpse into the rowdy, often profane culture of a major league clubhouse.

Angels clubhouse attendants testified that Kay participated in stunts such as purposely taking an 85-mph fastball off his knee in the batting cage, having a pitcher throw a football at his face from short range, eating a bug and eating pimples off the back of Trout.

Tim Mead, the Angels longtime vice president of communication and Kay’s supervisor, acknowledged as much in his deposition, saying, “If you try to describe a clubhouse or a locker room in professional sports, or even college, and probably even the military in terms, and try to equate it to how we see — how this law firm is run or a corporation is run, you know, unfortunately, there’s not lot of comparison…. There’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of release.”

And a lot of painkillers. Former Angels players Matt Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian testified at Kay’s trial that he distributed blue 30 milligram oxycodone pills to them at Angel Stadium. Skaggs, testimony revealed, was a particularly frequent customer.

Testimony established that Kay was also a longtime user of oxycodone and that the Angels knew it. In a filing, the Skaggs family showed evidence that Angels team physician Craig Milhouse prescribed Kay Hydrocodone 15 times from 2009 to 2012. The Skaggs family also plans to call Trout, who according to the deposition of former Angels clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti, offered to pay for Kay’s drug rehabilitation in 2018.

Skaggs was a top prospect coming out of Santa Monica High in 2009, and the Angels made him their first-round draft pick. He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks a year later and made his major league debut with them in 2012.

Traded back to the Angels in 2014, Skaggs made the starting rotation, where he remained when not battling injuries until his death. His numbers were rather ordinary, a 28-38 win-loss record with a 4.41 earned-run average in 96 career starts, but his lawyers pointed to his youth and the escalating salaries given to starting pitchers in asking for a jury award of at least $210 million and as much as $785 million.

Skaggs earned $9.2 million — including $3.7 million in 2019 — and would have become a free agent after the 2020 season. Effective starting pitchers at a similar age and comparable performance can command multi-year contracts of $100 million or more.

Skaggs’ death prompted MLB to begin testing for opioids and cocaine in 2020, but only players who do not cooperate with their treatment plans are subject to discipline. Marijuana was removed from the list of drugs of abuse and is treated the same as alcohol.

MLB emergency medical procedures now require that naloxone be stored in clubhouses, weight rooms, dugouts and umpire dressing rooms at all ballparks. Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is an antidote for opioid poisoning.

PHILADELPHIA — The Dodgers spent more than $125 million on their bullpen last winter. But when they needed relief late in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday, they turned to a couple of starters who spent much of the season on the injury list.

And it worked out — though just barely — with Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki combining for eight of the final nine outs in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Alex Vesia got the other out, retiring pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa on a fly ball to center with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Sasaki then came on to close it out in the ninth, getting Bryson Stott, representing the tying run, to pop up in foul territory behind third base to end the game.

“What Glas did tonight, it’s not easy to do. And so for him to give us the innings he gave us tonight was huge,” third baseman Max Muncy said.

The four pitchers the Dodgers used all spent time away from the mound this season.

Starter Shohei Ohtani, who didn’t pitch at all last season, didn’t pitch until June and hadn’t thrown past the fifth inning until his final regular-season start. He went six innings against the Phillies, giving up three runs and three hits and striking out nine.

Glasnow missed more than two months with shoulder inflammation and other issues. Sasaki went to the sideline in early May with a right shoulder impingement and wasn’t reactivated until the final week of the season — as a reliever. Even Vesia missed a couple of weeks with an oblique strain.

But they were all ready for the start of the NDLS. Well, kind of — Glasnow said he was in the bathroom when the call came down for him to start warming up.

“The phone rang and they yelled my name,” he said. “Here we go. It definitely felt weird, but fun. [With the] adrenaline, there’s not as much effort to get the same stuff and [get] warmed up.”

When Glasnow first began throwing the Dodgers trailed 3-2. But by the time he entered the game they were front 5-3 on Teoscar Hernández’s three-run homer. So his assignment changed from keeping his team close to protecting a lead.

“For them to trust me to go out there and throw some big innings, it was awesome,” Glasnow said.

His first inning, the seventh, went pretty well, with Glasnow setting down the side in order. The first batter, J.T. Realmuto, reached on an error, but he was erased on a double play.

The eighth didn’t go as well. Trea Turner walked with one out, and although manager Dave Roberts had Vesia, a left-hander, in the bullpen, the right-handed Glasnow was allowed to face lefty sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

He struck out Schwarber on three pitches, but Harper singled to right. So when Alec Bohm walked to load the bases, Roberts finally called in Vesia, who got Sosa to pop out, ending the threat.

“The coaches put the trust in him and he just kept telling me, ‘You’re driving me. Just tell me what to do’,” catcher Will Smith said of guiding Glasnow through his first relief appearance since 2018. “He’s put trust in me and I put trust in him. And it worked out tonight.”

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki celebrates after the final out of a 5-3 win over the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

It worked out because Sasaki came out of the bullpen throwing gas, topping 99 mph on seven of his 11 pitches, including the final one, which hit 100. Sasaki, who earned the save, also pitched the final inning of the wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds and has thrown two scoreless innings, striking out three.

In fact, three pitchers who spent most of the season as starters — Emmet Sheehan, Glasnow and Sasaki — have combined to throw more innings out of the bullpen in the playoffs than the Dodgers’ regular relievers. That wasn’t the way the front office drew it up when they spent wildly on the bullpen over the winter. But it’s working.

“One real strength of this roster is our starting pitching,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said before the game. “It speaks to that depth. Those guys are really talented.

“And I can see it factoring in and helping us.”

It already has.

The man accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday afternoon in Utah, United States, where prosecutors are expected to formally charge him with murder.

Robinson is expected to attend the hearing remotely by video from his jail cell.

This is what we know:

What’s expected on Tuesday?

Robinson is behind bars as Utah County prosecutors move closer to filing charges in the killing.

Kirk, credited with rallying the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump reclaim the White House in 2024, was shot dead last week at Utah Valley University. Robinson was arrested two days later after a manhunt.

Prosecutors say charges could come on Tuesday, but the deadline could stretch to Friday if more time is needed to review what they call a “mountain of evidence”.

If the filing happens today, a news conference is likely.

“Assuming that we can file charges by Tuesday, we will hold a press conference to explain those charges and the next steps in this case. That press conference will be held Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at noon [18:00 GMT],” County Attorney Jeff Gray said in a press statement on Saturday.

The charges are expected to mirror Robinson’s initial booking.

“Our ability to file charges depends on how quickly we can gather and carefully review mountains of evidence. We will be thorough and deliberate at every stage of this case,” Gray added.

If charges are filed on Tuesday, Robinson’s first court appearance will follow the same day at 3pm (21:00 GMT) over Webex.

What charges are likely to be filed?

It is not clear yet, but Robinson was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail early on Friday morning on suspicion of three crimes:

• aggravated murder,
• obstruction of justice, and
• felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury.

Prosecutors have listed these offences in an affidavit filed with the court.

According to Gray, under Utah law, aggravated murder is punishable by death, life in prison without parole, or 25 years to life with the possibility of parole. Obstruction of justice carries a penalty of one to 15 years in prison, while felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury carries a sentence of five years to life.

According to a Public Safety Assessment Report filed in Utah state court, Robinson has no prior convictions and no history of violent offences.

He is currently being held without bail.

What else is happening on Tuesday?

FBI Director Kash Patel is preparing to face tough congressional scrutiny over his handling of the investigation into the killing of Kirk. Congresspeople are likely to press him on early missteps, including a now-corrected social media post wrongly claiming that a suspect was already in custody.

Patel will testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, where questions will likely extend beyond the Kirk case to his broader leadership of the FBI. Congresspeople are expected to challenge him on whether he can steady an agency riven by political infighting and internal turmoil since his appointment, at a time when toxic partisan divisions continue to grip the nation.

The hearing will start at 9am (13:00 GMT) at the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216. A livestream will be available here.

FBI Director Kash Patel is bracing for US congressional scrutiny over his leadership of the investigation into the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk https://t.co/aykF1L4KXx pic.twitter.com/URPxRhw3ad

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 14, 2025

What else do we know about Robinson?

Robinson grew up in St George, southwestern Utah, where his parents, married for about 25 years, run a granite countertop business.

Eldest of the three brothers, he lived with his family in a six-bedroom home. Social media posts show an active, close-knit household that travelled widely and enjoyed outdoor activities such as boating, riding in all-terrain vehicles, and target shooting.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since childhood, Robinson excelled in school, making the honour roll and scoring in the 99th percentile on national tests.

In 2021, he earned a scholarship to Utah State University but left after one semester. He is now a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship programme at Dixie Technical College in St George.

State records show he is registered to vote with no party affiliation and did not participate in the last two general elections. In their affidavit to the court, prosecutors said a family member of Robinson had told them that the 22-year-old had become “more political in recent years”. The relative also told prosecutors about a family dinner Kirk had attended before the September 10 shooting, where they had discussed Kirk. Robinson had mentioned, during that visit, about Kirk’s upcoming event at Utah Valley University.

“They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had. The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate,” the prosecutors wrote in the affidavit, referring to Robinson and the relative they spoke to.

Prosecutors have also said the ammunition recovered at the scene bore engravings tied to meme culture and anti-fascist themes.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox also said Robinson’s partner and flatmate, whom he described as “incredibly cooperative”, was transgender. However, though Kirk had anti-transgender views, investigators have not confirmed any link between that and his assassination.

At the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, a final farewell for one rock giant heralded the televised return of another.

Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler returned to the stage during the annual awards show, joining bandmate Joe Perry , singer Yungblud and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt to honor the life and music of late heavy metal pioneer and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who died in July at age 76. “Livin’ on the Edge” singer Tyler, 77, helped the VMAs pay tribute to Osbourne more than a year after Aerosmith announced its retirement from touring.

Sunday’s tribute was a medley of the hits “Crazy Train,” “Changes” and “Mama, I’m Coming Home”and began with Yungblud energizing the crowd with his take on the first song. Before making his way up to the stage, Yungblud kissed the cross necklace Osbourne had gifted him and appeared to mouth, “For Ozzy!”

Yungblud also offered VMAs attendees a taste of his performance from the Black Sabbath “Back to the Beginning” farewell concert in July. After plenty of head-banging during “Crazy Train,” he slowed things by singing an excerpt from “Changes,” which he had performed at Osbourne’s final show.

Finally, Tyler made his grand entrance with Perry, singing the opening lyrics to Osbourne’s “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” Images of Osbourne throughout his life faded in and out in the background. Yungblud joined Tyler for the tribute’s grand finale, harmonizing and trading lines to finish out the emotional power ballad.

“Ozzy forever, man!,” Yungblud yelled out at the end of the song, embracing Tyler.

Aerosmith announced its decision to step away from live performances after Tyler injured his vocal cords during a September 2023 show on the group’s Peace Out: The Farewell Tour. The rock band’s August 2024 announcement said Tyler had struggled with “getting his voice to where it was before his injury.”

“Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible,” the statement added. “We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision — as a band of brothers — to retire from the touring stage.”

Tyler reportedly returned to performing live months after that announcement, jamming with Aerosmith bandmate Tom Hamilton for his sixth annual Jam for Janie Grammy Awards viewing party in February at the Hollywood Palladium. He delivered a six-song set that also featured appearances by Bettencourt, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Lainey Wilson and other musicians, according to Billboard.

After the VMAs, Tyler’s daughter Mia Tyler praised her father’s stage comeback, sharing a snippet of the performance to her Instagram. “And that’s how you do a tribute,” she captioned her post. “Beautiful. Just beautiful.”

“And how good does my dad look??? So proud of him,” the younger Tyler added before sending her love to Osbourne’s loved ones.

The VMAs aired live on CBS from the UBS Arena in New York and saw LL Cool J pick up hosting duties. Lady Gaga, hours before her concert at Madison Square Garden, was the big winner of the night, taking home four prizes including artist of the year and best direction. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter followed with three wins apiece.

Mariah Carey joined the exclusive club of Video Vanguard award winners while Busta Rhymes and Ricky Martin picked up the Rock the Bells visionary award and Latin icon award, respectively. In true diva fashion, Carey jokingly threw some shade at the music show for previous snubs as she received the award from Grande.

“I can’t believe I’m getting my first VMA tonight. I just have one question: What in the Sam Hill were you waiting for?” she said, adding “I’m kidding, I love you MTV, this is amazing.”

BALTIMORE — The Dodgers’ pitching plans were thrown into flux again Friday.

The team’s scheduled starter for their series opener against the Baltimore Orioles, Tyler Glasnow, was scratched with what manager Dave Roberts said was back tightness. And in his stead, Shohei Ohtani was tapped to fill in on short notice, offering to take the ball two days after having his own scheduled pitching start on Wednesday scratched because of an illness.

“Shohei was up to it, feels good physically,” Roberts said. “Wants the ball tonight.”

According to Roberts, the team is hopeful Glasnow’s issue is not serious. They are targeting to have him pitch again early next week.

“We just didn’t want to put him in harm’s way,” Roberts said. “It’s not something where we got to the point where he’s hurt or anything like that. It’s back stiffness. So we feel that to not take this start will allow him to be able to start hopefully early next week.”

In the meantime, Ohtani will be on the mound Friday for the first time since Aug. 27, when he completed his first five-inning start of the season in his continued progression back from Tommy John surgery.

Roberts said Ohtani’s start Friday “could be a little shorter,” given the short-notice nature of how it came together.

But he was also hopeful that Ohtani’s willingness to take the mound now — as opposed to Monday, when he had been next scheduled to pitch — could provide the team a much-needed jolt, as they try to bounce back from a sweep against the Pirates in Pittsburgh earlier this week.

“For a guy who is a starter that’s got a routine, that was going to pitch a couple days later, to then change course speaks a lot to what this team needs,” Roberts said. “So I expect our guys to respond to that.”

Everton have signed Tyler Dibling from Southampton in a deal worth an initial £35m plus £5m in add-ons.

The 19-year-old midfielder has agreed terms on a four-year contract until June 2029.

Dibling becomes Everton manager David Moyes’ eighth signing of the summer transfer window.

“I think it’s the perfect match because of where the club is right now,” the England Under-21 international told Everton’s website., external

“Obviously with the new stadium, the fans here are unreal, and it has a family feel to it. I think it was the perfect fit and was a no-brainer to join.”

It’s time to grab your best fit and hit the blacktop of Chavez Ravine.

Tyler, the Creator had his fans searching for words after he announced the lineup for his annual music festival Camp Flog Gnaw in a puzzling manner.

The “Igor” artist posted an actual word search on his Instagram containing the name of the musicians joining him for the 11th edition of the two-day event. His signature carnival will be on the grounds of Dodger Stadium on Nov. 15 and 16.

This year’s edition will feature A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, Doechii, Earl Sweatshirt, Thundercat and 2 Chainz.

An eclectic mixture of artists — from the raw hip-hop of sounds from Clipse to the indie-pop tracks of Clairo and the melodic vocals of T-Pain — rounds out the lineup.

Fans can join a wait-list for tickets, which sold out right after release in May.

The festival was founded by Tyler, the Creator in 2012 and incorporates music and carnival attractions such as rides and games. Previous iterations of the fest have staged artists like SZA, Solange, Kaytranada, André 3000 and Fuerza Regida.

Tyler, the Creator is coming off the release of his ninth studio album, “Don’t Tap the Glass,” and a world tour for his previous EP, “Chromakopia.”

The Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and the Cardinals’ Sonny Gray squared off in an old-school pitchers’ duel Monday. But both were watching from the clubhouse when pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo’s two-out single in the ninth lifted the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory at Dodger Stadium.

Glasnow gave the Dodgers seven strong innings for the second time in three starts, allowing a run on three hits — none after the second inning — while striking out seven. Gray was even better in his seven innings, giving up just a fourth-inning solo home run to Freddie Freeman and a second-inning walk to Max Muncy.

Both then gave way to shaky bullpens, which is when things got interesting.

The Dodgers’ bullpen gave up more runs over a span of nine batters than Glasnow did all night. Anthony Banda went first, allowing a go-ahead homer to Iván Herrera three batters into the eighth inning. But the Cardinals’ Riley O’Brien gave the run right back in the bottom of the inning on a double to Teoscar Hernández.

Newcomer Brock Stewart started the ninth for the Dodgers, but he didn’t finish it. After Willson Contreras and Lars Nootbaar greeted him with singles to put runners at the corners, Pozo squirted a two-out single over the infield to score pinch-runner Garrett Hampson for the go-ahead run.

After Shohei Ohtani’s led off the ninth with a single, the Cardinals’ JoJo Romero finally shut the door, getting Mookie Betts to pop out and striking out Freeman. After walking Will Smith to put the tying run at second, he retired Muncy on a line drive to right to end the night.

Glasnow got off to a rough start, allowing three hits, including a solo homer by Masyn Winn, in the first two innings. But he settled in after that, allowing just one baserunner the rest of the way, though he would have nothing to show for it, finishing without a decision for the eighth time in 10 starts.

Gray, meanwhile, was dealing from the start for the Cardinals, setting down 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before Freeman tied the game with a one-out home run, his 13th of the season, in the fourth.

Freeman has hits in 12 of his last 13 games and is batting .500 over his last six games. But his home run would prove to be the only hit the Dodgers would get off Gray, who struck out eight and walked just one.

Sasaki set to throw

Right-hander Roki Sasaki is expected to throw the equivalent of three innings to hitters Friday and if that goes well, he could begin a minor-league rehab assignment next week. He has not pitched in nearly three months after going on the IL with a shoulder impingement.

Edman goes on injured list

Utilityman Hyeseong Kim, out since July 29 with a shoulder issue, is swinging a bat and taking grounders. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is optimistic he will be able to return soon. But another utility player, Tommy Edman, went on the IL with an ankle injury. With Kim, Edman and Kiké Hernández, another utility player, all out with injuries, Roberts has not had the usual versatility he has enjoyed in fielding a lineup.

Andrew Benintendi had a double and a home run, Lenyn Sosa also homered among his two hits, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 6-3 on Friday night.

White Sox starter Shane Smith gave up two runs and two hits while striking out four over 4⅓ innings in his first start since July 11 following a stint on the 15-day injured list. Jordan Leasure (4-6) earned the win in relief, striking out four in 1⅔ innings.

Benintendi and Sosa each hit solo home runs in the second inning off Angels starter Tyler Anderson (2-7), and Luis Robert Jr. had a sacrifice fly drove Miguel Vargas home in the fourth inning to make it 3-0.

Gustavo Campero‘s second home run of the year, a two-run blast to deep center field in the fifth, got the Angels within one, but Colson Montgomery answered with a deep homer of his own in the sixth inning.

Campero’s baserunning error prevented the game-tying run from scoring in the seventh, ending what was a bases-loaded, one-out threat for the Angels.

Logan O’Hoppe scored on Zach Neto‘s sacrifice fly to bring the Angels within one again, and Nolan Schanuel appeared to drive in Travis D’Arnaud with a two-out single, but Campero was thrown out at third prior to d’Arnaud crossing the plate.

Sosa had an RBI single in the eighth and Josh Rojas added a solo homer in the ninth.

Steven Wilson got the last six outs for his second save of the year for Chicago (41-69).

Mike Trout did not play for the Angels (53-57) because of illness.

Montgomery continued his second-half tear with a solo home run, which represented his 18th RBI since the All-Star break. He is now tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the most RBIs since the break.

Tyler Glasnow’s problems have been the same for years.

Spending too much time caught up in his own head, and not enough time actually pitching on the mound.

Ever since the Dodgers acquired the tall, lanky and Southern California-raised right-hander, those two issues have plagued the $136.5-million acquisition in ways that have frustrated him, the team and its fan base.

Glasnow made 22 starts last year (a career-high in his injury-plagued career) before a nagging elbow problem ended his season early. This term, he managed only five starts before his shoulder started barking, landing him on the injured list for another extended stint.

Through it all, Glasnow has talked repeatedly about the need to be more “external” on the mound — focused more on execution and compete-level than the aches and pains in his body and imperfections in his delivery.

Yet, with each new setback, the veteran pitcher was left scrambling for answers, constantly tinkering with his mechanics and toiling with his mindset in hopes of striking an equilibrium between both.

That’s why, as Glasnow neared his latest return to action, he tried to simplify things. For real, this time.

No more worrying about spine angle and release point. No more mid-game thoughts about the many moving parts in his throwing sequence.

“I don’t even know,” he said when asked last week how he changed his mechanics during his most recent absence, the kind of physical ignorance that might actually be a good thing in the 31-year-old’s case.

“I’m just going out and being athletic and not trying to look at it. And if there’s something I need to fix, or something the coaches see, then I’ll worry about it. But I’m just going out … [and] getting in that rhythm. Getting back into a starting routine.”

Two starts in, that new routine looks promising.

After pitching five solid innings of one-run ball in Milwaukee last week, Glasnow started the second half of the season with another step forward Friday, spinning a six-inning, one-run gem in the Dodgers’ 2-0 loss to the Brewers at Dodger Stadium.

“I’ve been feeling good since rehab, making changes and stuff,” Glasnow said. “Feel solid right now. So gotta keep going.”

As the Dodgers (58-40) came out of the All-Star break, few players seemed as pivotal to their long-term success as Glasnow.

The club is counting on him and fellow nine-figure free-agent signee Blake Snell (who, like Glasnow, missed almost all of the first half with a shoulder injury but could be back in action by the end of the month) to bolster a rotation that has missed them dearly.

It is hopeful they can join Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and in some capacity Shohei Ohtani, at the forefront of a pitching staff seeking significant improvement as it tries to repeat as World Series champions.

Granted, the Dodgers — who would like to avoid adding a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, and might have a hard time finding an impact addition such as Jack Flaherty last summer even if they try — did have similar hopes for Glasnow last season.

Even when he first went down with his elbow injury in mid-August, the initial expectation was that he’d be back well in time for the playoff push.

Instead, Glasnow’s elbow never ceased to bother him. When he tried ramping up for a live batting practice session in mid-September, he effectively pulled the plug on his season when his arm still didn’t feel right.

Ever since, Glasnow has lived in a world of frustration, spending his winter trying to craft a healthier delivery only to run into more problems within the first month of this season.

“Certainly the talent is undeniable,” manager Dave Roberts said last week, ahead of Glasnow’s return. “But I think for me, for us, you want the dependability. That’s something that I’m looking for from Tyler from here on out. To know what you’re going to get when he takes that ball every fifth or sixth day.”

On Friday, Glasnow produced a template worth following in a four-hit, one-walk, six-strikeout showing.

Flashing increased fastball velocity for the second-straight outing — routinely hitting 98-99 mph on the gun — he filled up the strike zone early, going after hitters with his premium four-seamer and increasing reliance on a late-breaking sinker.

“It’s like the one pitch I can be late with, and it’s in the zone,” Glasnow said of his sinker, which he had thrown sparingly prior to getting hurt. “I don’t necessarily have to be perfectly timed up for it to have a lot of movement. I think if I’m late on it, it’s kind of my go-to.”

His big-bending curveball, meanwhile, proved to be a perfect complement, with Glasnow pulling the string for awkward swings and soft contact.

He retired the first five batters he faced, and didn’t let a ball out of the infield until Brice Turang’s two-out single in the third. He was late getting to the mound at the start of the fourth, resulting in an automatic ball to the leadoff batter, but remained unfazed, retiring the side in order.

Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin hits a run-scoring double in front of Dodgers catcher Will Smith in the fifth inning Friday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Glasnow did wobble in the fifth against Milwaukee (57-40). Suddenly struggling to locate the ball, he walked leadoff hitter Isaac Collins on five pitches before giving up an RBI double to Caleb Durbin in a 2-and-0 count, when he left a sinker over the heart of the plate.

But then he settled down, escaped the inning without further damage, and worked around a high-hopping one-out single from Jackson Chourio in the sixth by striking out William Contreras and Christian Yelich.

“It’s not turn [my brain] off completely,” Glasnow said of his new, in-the-moment mentality. “But it’s not like, when I’m feeling bad, I resort more to, ‘How do we fix this?’ As opposed to like, ‘This is what I got today. Let’s just go get it.’ And I think a lot of that was due to the changes. I’m just in a better position right now to go out and be athletic.”

The outing marked Glasnow’s first time completing six innings since April 13 against the Chicago Cubs, and was his first such start yielding only one earned run since June of last year.

“He’s been able to stay in his rhythm, stay in his delivery, just be in compete mode,” Roberts said. “I think he’s in a really good spot. He’s healthy, feeling confident. And we’re better for it, for sure.”

Unfortunately for Glasnow, he was the second-best pitcher on the bump Friday. Opposite him, young Brewers right-hander Quinn Priester dominated the Dodgers over six scoreless innings, recording the second-most strikeouts of his career by fanning 10. Struggling veteran Kirby Yates didn’t help in relief of Glasnow, either, giving up a home run to Durbin in the seventh that sent the Dodgers to a disappointing defeat.

“They’re pitching us well,” Roberts said of the Brewers, who have won four straight games against the Dodgers over the last two weeks while giving up only four total runs. “We gave ourselves a chance, but we just couldn’t muster anything together tonight.”

Still, for a team with a comfortable division lead and the shortest World Series odds of any club in the majors, getting good starting pitching remains the most pressing big-picture concern for the Dodgers.

At the end of last year, and for much of the first half this season, Glasnow was unable to help. Now, he might finally be showing flashes he can.

“[I want to] just go out and be athletic,” Glasnow said last week. “Just go out and compete.”

ATLANTA — The name was a surprise, but the pick should not have been.

The bromide about teams picking the best available player rather than drafting for need does not apply to the Angels, at least not in the Perry Minasian era. The Angels’ front office must try to win now, with an ownership that does not believe in rebuilding, and without huge investments in major league free agency, international scouting or player development.

The Angels needed pitching. They drafted a college pitcher Sunday, in line with their no-margin-for-error strategy of selecting top college players and pushing them into the major leagues.

Their pick: Tyler Bremner of UC Santa Barbara.

It’s been an emotional year for Bremner, who lost his mother to breast cancer in June.

On the day after she died, he saluted her in a long Instagram post that started this way: “Saying goodbye to you has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life. Why did this evil disease have to come into the life of such a pure hearted soul. Somehow through all this pain, darkness, and suffering there is light.”

The last four words: “rest easy my angel”

When his name was called Sunday, Bremner thought of his mother.

“I went to the Angels,” he said. “It’s weird how life works.”

The Angels invited him to Anaheim for a private workout last week. In a draft in which the hype around college pitchers focused on three left-handers from the Southeastern Conference, Bremner said his advisers told him about an hour before the draft started that the Angels might pick him.

And, after the Washington Nationals took high school shortstop Eli Willits — the son of former Angels outfielder Reggie Willits — with the No. 1 pick, the Angels were on the clock.

They had their pick of any pitcher in the country. They could have grabbed one of the SEC pitchers, or Corona High phenom Seth Hernandez. They went with the big right-hander from the Big West, with a fastball and a changeup that might already be ready for Anaheim.

The immediate expectation was that the Angels would cut a discount deal with Bremner, enabling him to collect a seven-figure bonus while enabling them to allocate more of their draft pool to swipe talented lower-round players away from college commitments. Bremner and Tim McIlvaine, the Angels’ scouting director, danced around that topic on Sunday.

But, if you’re the Angels, none of that scheming really matters if you don’t hit on the second overall pick of the draft.

McIlvaine said Bremner’s changeup gives him a go-to pitch, with a slider under development and a body that has yet to fill out.

“There’s a lot you can really dream on,” McIlvaine said.

The Angels need him to be right, and they need Bremner as a starter. A two-pitch pitcher would make a fine major league reliever, and don’t be surprised to see the Angels consider launching his major league career in that role later this season, if they stay afloat in the wild-card race. That could give them nine of their first-round picks on their active roster.

But you don’t use a first-round pick on a setup man. The Angels drafted two other pitchers among the top 10 overall picks within the past five years, and Reid Detmers and Sam Bachman now are setup men. Under Minasian, who was hired after the 2020 season, the Angels have drafted one pitcher that has delivered more than 1.0 WAR: Ben Joyce, a potential closer but now an injured setup man.

And the Angels’ second-round pick Sunday: an actual reliever, from the SEC. He is Chase Shores, who closed the College World Series clincher for Louisiana State and threw 47 pitches clocked at 100 mph or harder during the NCAA tournament.

As Bremner said, life works in weird ways.

“If you look at his second half of the year,” McIlvaine said, “I’d put it up against anybody in the country.”

In the second half of the season, his mother was dying.

“She came out to all the games,” he said, “all the way to the point where her body wouldn’t let her any more.”

In his last two games, weeks before she died, he gave up one run in 13-⅓ innings, walking two and striking out 23. That resilience was not lost on the Angels.

“I think, funny enough, as she got worse, that’s when I got stronger on the field,” Bremner said. “I feel I did a very good job of using that kind of negative energy and challenging it into pitching.

“Pitching angry, or pitching for her, or pitching for something bigger than myself, I feel like, in a way, it helped me on the field. But it’s not easy mentally to wrap my head around what’s going on off the field while trying to compete at a high level.”

That made Sunday a very different, and entirely memorable, mother’s day.

“I know she is watching over me,” he said, “and I know she is so proud of me.”

His mother, Jen, was born in Canada. The Canadians already are calling for him to represent her home country in the World Baseball Classic next spring, to honor her memory after losing her to cancer. Another pretty good ballplayer plays for Team Canada for the same reason, so you never know: Bremner could be teammates with Freddie Freeman next spring and Mike Trout next summer.

Derek Dixon, the actor who raised allegations of sexual harassment against Tyler Perry, has broken his silence after suing the producer and media mogul for $260 million last month.

In his first interview since filing the bombshell lawsuit in June, “The Oval” actor Dixon told the Hollywood Reporter, “I couldn’t just let [Perry] get away with this.”

Dixon alleged in his complaint that when he worked for Perry from January 2020 to June 2024, the multi-hyphenate entertainer “sustained a pattern of workplace sexual harassment, assault and retaliation,” according to court documents reviewed by The Times. Dixon briefly appeared in BET’s “Ruthless” before landing a role in Perry’s “The Oval,” appearing in 85 episodes from 2021 to 2025.

“Everyone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them,” Dixon said to THR in a story published Thursday. “My goal is to help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don’t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.”

Seeking a response from Perry, The Times was referred Friday to the initial statement from Perry’s attorney Matthew Boyd, which denies Dixon’s allegations.

“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Boyd said in the statement. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

Dixon recalled to the trade outlet how he initially came to work for Perry and further spoke on the producer’s allegedly incessant attempts to spark a sexual relationship with his employee. In his suit, Dixon describes sexually suggestive text messages Perry allegedly sent, including one where he asks the actor “What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?”

More damning were the allegations of sexual assault Dixon raised against Perry in his lawsuit. The 46-page complaint detailed multiple incidents, including one at Perry’s guest house in Georgia when the producer pulled down Dixon’s underwear and groped his buttocks. Dixon’s complaint also alleged Perry sexually assaulted him during a previous stay at his guest house and during a meeting in the director’s trailer.

According to the lawsuit, Dixon refused Perry’s advances and walked a fine line, keeping his interactions with Perry professional but friendly enough to remain in his good graces. Recalling the alleged assault in the trailer, Dixon said it would seem Perry would back off and “say things like ‘We need to just be business.’”

“And I would think, ‘Great. Yes.’ Every time I thought it would stop,” he said.

Dixon claims in his lawsuit that Perry leveraged his standing in the entertainment industry — specifically his ability to bring the actor’s own TV series to life — “to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic.” The suit also says Dixon “woke up” in June 2024 and realized Perry was never going to be serious about helping Dixon ”grow his career.”

The actor reported the alleged abuse he experienced to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Though the lawsuit claims the complaint was not investigated, THR reports the case is pending. He told the magazine he felt compelled to sue Perry because “I was an employee, and he was my boss.”

He added: “For a long time, I convinced myself that it was part of the industry, or that somehow I had to accept it to keep working. But eventually, I couldn’t stay silent anymore.”

Since suing Perry, Dixon told THR he has received mixed reactions, including threats online and support from people who claim they experienced similar misconduct by Perry. He also said he decided to publicly accuse Perry as he feels attempts to settle matters privately “never result in the type of change necessary to protect victims.”

Despite going public with his allegations against Perry, Dixon said he fears that the producer “will be able to continue doing this without any major consequences.”

From Jack Harris: During the Dodgers’ season-long five-game losing streak this week, manager Dave Roberts cited a lack of “fight” from his lineup as the most troubling trend in the team’s recent skid.

On Wednesday in Milwaukee, more fight finally returned — only for the Brewers to still land the knockout punch.

In a 3-2 loss at American Family Field that extended the Dodgers’ losing streak to six games, the lineup once again scuffled in a five-hit performance while closer Tanner Scott blew a ninth-inning lead to waste Tyler Glasnow’s encouraging return from the injured list.

It was a grind of a game, with the Dodgers scoring their only runs on a bases-loaded walk following a hit-and-run play and a sacrifice fly that briefly gave them a 2-1 lead. Alas, Scott gave up a game-tying RBI single to Andrew Vaughn in the ninth, Jackson Chourio walked it off with another single against Kirby Yates in the bottom of the 10th, sending the scuffling Dodgers their longest losing skid since April 2019.

“Knowing the rough patch [we’re in], it’s really hard to take this one, because you just want to stop it,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

USC

USC freshman Alijah Arenas, who survived a Cybertruck crash earlier this year, should be at his first practice with the Trojans on Thursday, coach Eric Musselman said.

(Ryan Kartje / Los Angeles Times)

From Ryan Kartje: After surviving a fiery car wreck and successfully skipping his final year of high school to enroll at USC, incoming star freshman Alijah Arenas should be cleared to join the team for practice on Thursday, coach Eric Musselman confirmed.

The five-star guard arrives at USC this summer as the most highly anticipated recruit of Musselman’s tenure. Musselman — who coached Arenas’ father, Gilbert, with the Golden State Warriors — has said on multiple occasions that he expects Arenas to be a difference-maker as a freshman.

The question now is how quickly Arenas can get up to speed after missing the first month of summer practice with a team that was totally rebuilt through the transfer portal.

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LAFC

LAFC players surround Denis Bouanga to celebrate the goal he scored against the the Colorado Rapids Wednesday.

(Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

From Kevin Baxter: No club in MLS history played more games during a two-year span than the 103 LAFC played the past two seasons. It was an exhausting and unrelenting slog that saw the team play a game every five days.

Yet it may prove to be just a warm-up for what the team could face during the remainder of this season. Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the short-handed Colorado Rapids, which snapped a four-game winless streak in all competition, was LAFC’s 28^th match in less than five months. If it makes long runs in both the Leagues Cup and MLS Cup playoffs, the team will play another 29 times this season, with seven of those matches coming in the next 26 days weeks.

It’s a tortuous schedule, especially in mid-summer. But it’s also an unavoidable one.

“This schedule is what it is. We cannot change that,” said coach Steve Cherundolo, who got goals Wednesday from Denis Bouanga, Nathan Ordaz and newcomer Javairo Dilrosun. “It’s important not to waste any moments; moments meaning games you can win, moments also meaning chances in each game. So it’s important to play as effective as possible.

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ANGELS

The Angels’ Mike Trout hits a solo home run during the fifth inning of a win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday at Angel Stadium.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Jorge Soler hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning, Mike Trout went deep twice and the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 11-8 on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.

Trout hit a two-run homer in the third and added his 16th of the season in the fifth, a solo shot that gave the Angels a 6-5 lead. His fly ball out to center in the seventh advanced two runners before Taylor Ward drove in both with a single, tying the score at 8-8.

Travis d’Arnaud hit his sixth home run for the Angels in the fourth inning.

José Fermin (2-0), the seventh of eight Angels pitchers, worked a scoreless inning and earned the victory. Kenley Jansen picked up his 16th save.

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Angels box score

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MLB standings

HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS

New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried is a Harvard-Westlake grad selected to play in the All-Star Game. He could face off against Pete Crow-Armstrong, another Harvard-Westlake grad.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

From Eric Sondheimer: When Harvard-Westlake grads Max Fried of the New York Yankees and Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs are introduced on July 15 at the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta, their former high school coaches, Matt LaCour and Jared Halpert, will be in the stands celebrating the historic moment.

“We’re all proud on campus,” said LaCour, now the school’s athletic director and former coach of Fried.

“It’s kind of everyone wins if Max faces Pete,” Halpert said.

Harvard-Westlake has received attention for its success sending pitchers to the majors with Fried, Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty, all of whom were members of the 2012 team and first-round draft picks.

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WIMBLEDON

Taylor Fritz celebrates winning the his quarterfinal match against Karen Khachanov during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Tuesday.

(Kin Cheung / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: At least Novak Djokovic could laugh about it afterward.

Yes, he took what he called a “nasty slip” on his second match point at Wimbledon on Wednesday. Yes, he slid into the splits and ended up face-down on the Centre Court grass. And, yes, those sorts of things aren’t ideal for a 38-year-old seeking an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title.

Still, Djokovic dusted himself off and took the next two points, reaching the semifinals at the All England Club for a men’s-record 14th time with a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 22 seed Flavio Cobolli to set up a showdown against No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

“Well, I finished the match,” Djokovic said with a chuckle. “It did come at an awkward moment, but somehow I managed to … close it out. Obviously, I’m going to visit this subject now with my physio and hopefully all will be well in two days.”

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THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1926 — Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Open golf tournament for the second time with a 293 total.

1934 — Carl Hubbell strikes out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession, but the American League comes back to win the All-Star game 9-7 at the Polo Grounds.

1936 — Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein hits four home runs in a 9-6 10-inning victory over the Pirates at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.

1951 — Britain’s Randy Turpin defeats Sugar Ray Robinson in 15 rounds to win the world middleweight title and give Robinson his second loss in 135 bouts.

1960 — UEFA European Championship Final, Parc des Princes, Paris, France: Viktor Ponedelnik scores in extra time as Soviet Union beats Yugoslavia, 2-1.

1971 — Lee Trevino rebounds from a double-bogey on the next to last hole with a birdie on the final hole to win the 100th British Open by one stroke over Lu Liang-Huan. Trevino, who won the U.S. Open a month earlier, is the fourth golfer to win both championships in the same year, joining Bobby Jones (1926, 1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), and Ben Hogan (1953).

1976 — Johnny Miller shoots a 66 in the final round to beat 19-year-old Spaniard Seve Ballesteros by six strokes to take the British Open. Ballesteros, who starts the final round two strokes ahead of Miller, shoots a 74 and ends tied for second place with Jack Nicklaus.

1992 — The Major Soccer League, the only major nationwide professional soccer competition in the United States, folds after 14 seasons.

1999 — Team USA wins the Women’s World Cup over China in sudden death. The Americans win 5-4 in penalty kicks, with defender Brandi Chastain kicking in the game winner.

2010 — Paula Creamer wins her first major tournament, never giving up the lead during a steady final round of the U.S. Women’s Open. Creamer shoots a final-round 2-under 69 for a 3-under 281 for the tournament.

2010 — Spain wins soccer’s World Cup after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands. In the end, it’s Andres Iniesta breaking free and scoring a right-footed shot from 8 yards just past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

2011 — The United States advances to the semifinals after one of the most exciting games ever at the Women’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany. The U.S. beat Brazil 5-3 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie. Abby Wambach scores a thrilling goal to tie it in the 122nd minute, and goalkeeper Hope Solo denies the Brazilians again.

2016 — Andy Murray wins his second Wimbledon title by beating Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) on Centre Court.

2016 — Brittany Lang wins her first career major at the U.S. Women’s Open when Anna Nordqvist touches the sand with her club in a bunker for a two-stroke penalty in the three-hole aggregate playoff. The penalty occurs on the second hole of the playoff and is not delivered to the players until they were on the final hole after officials review replays in the latest controversy at a USGA event. Lang seals the win with a short par putt on the final playoff hole, while Nordqvist makes bogey to lose by three shots.

2017 — An independent review of the scoring in Manny Pacquiao’s contentious WBO welterweight world title loss to Jeff Horn confirms the outcome in favor of the Australian. A Philippines government department asked the WBO to review the refereeing and the judging of the so-called “Battle of Brisbane” in Australia on July 2 after Horn, fighting for his first world title, won a unanimous points decision against Pacquiao, an 11-time world champion. The WBO said three of the five independent judges who reviewed the bout awarded it to Horn, one awarded it to Pacquiao and one scored a draw.

2021 — Ashleigh Barty of Australia wins Wimbledon defeating Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

2022 — Wimbledon Men’s Tennis: Novak Đoković wins 4th straight and record equaling 7th Wimbledon singles title with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 win over Nick Kyrgios of Australia; Đoković 21 Grand Slam titles.

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 Houston Mitchell at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” It’s Mary Tyler Moore, of course, and you should know it.

To be precise, it’s Mary Richards, a person Moore played. But the smile was her own, and it worked magic across two situation comedies that described their time in a way that some might have regarded as ahead of their time. Although Moore proved herself as an actress of depth and range and peerless comic timing again and again, on the small and big screen and onstage, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made her a star, and incidentally a cultural figurehead, and are the reason we have a splendid new documentary, “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” premiering Friday on HBO. Were it titled simply “Being Mary,” there’d be little doubt who was meant.

Moore was driven to perform from an early age, which she relates to wanting to impress her father — though that seems too simple. She trained as a dancer, and right out of high school played a pixie, Happy Hotpoint, in a series of appliance commercials. (A visible pregnancy ended that job.) She played a faceless switchboard operator on “Richard Diamond, Private Detective,” from which she was bounced when she asked for more money, and a typical assortment of starlet roles in television and movies. A failed audition to play the older daughter on “The Danny Thomas Show” led to her being called for “Van Dyke,” of which Thomas was an executive producer. Creator Carl Reiner remembers, “I read about 60 girls, and I read the whole script with them. She read three lines, three simple lines. There was such a ping in it, an excitement, a reality to it.” They soon discovered her gift for comedy.

“The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which Moore played Laura Petrie to Van Dyke’s Rob, came into the world in the first year of the Kennedy administration, and there is something of that new White House, torch-passed-to-a-new-generation spirit in the Petries’ New Rochelle, N.Y., home. (Van Dyke was 35 when the show premiered — just old enough to be president himself — to Moore’s 24, but the two never seemed generationally distinct.) They were modern, with modern tastes. This was not the old-fashioned, small-town family comedy of “Father Knows Best” or “Leave It to Beaver.” If you lived in my household, you might have felt right at home with them.

Then again, “Dick Van Dyke” was not really a family comedy; some episodes might involve their son, Richie (Larry Mathews), but many more would not, and when child-rearing was the subject, it would more likely highlight the foolishness of the parents. The Petries were suburban in the sense of being connected to, not remote from, the city — sophisticated, fun, elegant. They threw parties, went out in formal wear, tried the latest dances. They were sexual. And they held the stage with equal strength and force.

If they were well on the safe side of bohemian, they were arty in their way, Rob a comedy writer, Laura, like Moore, a dancer — a former dancer in the show, which was not so ahead of its time to imagine a working mother. Still, the series found opportunities to let her dance. (“I will go to my grave thinking of myself as a failed dancer, not a successful actor,” Moore says in the documentary.)

Famously — and at once realistically and, for TV at that time, radically — she wore pants, tight ones; Moore is nearly synonymous with Capris. I turned on a random episode the other night (Season 4, Episode 1, “My Mother Can Beat Up My Father”), one I’d somehow never seen, in which a drunk at a restaurant bar begins to harass Laura. Rob tries to get him to back off, claiming he knows karate, and gets a punch in the nose — at which Laura, to her own surprise, flips the drunk with a judo move. (She’d learned self-defense when she was entertaining at Army bases.)

It winds up in a society column. Laura finds it funny. Rob, whose ego is as bruised as his proboscis, childishly lashes out.

Rob: “How come you never dress like a girl?”

Laura, incredulous: “What?

“Well, honey, I mean, shirts and slacks, shirts and slacks, that’s all I ever see when I come home.”

“You love me in shirts and slacks.”

“Yeah, well, but whatever happened to dresses?”

“Rob, you know, this is the stupidest conversation we’ve ever had.”

Mary Tyler Moore with Dr. Robert Levine, to whom she was married from 1983 until her death in 2017. Levine is an executive producer on “Being Mary Tyler Moore.”

(From Robert Levine / HBO)

“Dick Van Dyke” stories were divided equally between home and work, with the two worlds frequently intersecting. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” took that model and put Moore in the center of the action, amid a brilliant comic cast. Her move to Minneapolis, which begins the series and lands her in the newsroom at WJM, was not born from tragedy or pressure; she moves on her own initiative, recovering from nothing but the possibility of a life that won’t suit her.

That Mary was a single woman in no rush to be married was something new for television — but it could hardly be said that she lived alone; her apartment was subject to regular incursions from Rhoda (Valerie Harper) and Phyllis (Cloris Leachman), a company of women hashing out their different lives in a sort of dialectical comedy. (There were women in the writing room; Treva Silverman, whose comments are featured prominently in “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” was the first woman to win an Emmy with a solo credit.)

Whether this was or was not a feminist series is a question that still prompts think pieces. Gloria Steinem thought not, and Moore did not identify herself as such — though in the opening scene of the documentary, in a 1966 interview with a backward David Susskind, she does say, “I agree with Betty Friedan and her point of view in her book ‘Feminine Mystique’ that women are, or should be, human beings first, women second, wives and mothers third.”

Unlike the Norman Lear comedies — “All in the Family,” also on CBS, premiered a few months after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — the MTM-produced comedies, which also included the “Moore” spinoffs “Rhoda” and “Phyllis,” were contemporary and “adult” without being issue-oriented. But because they were realistic about their characters, they couldn’t help but engage with their times and the culture. If the feminism of “Mary Tyler Moore,” which is in a sense just a function of its intelligence, is not explicit, it is in the bones of the show. And Mary, like the woman who played her, “inspired as many women as Eleanor Roosevelt,” in the words of series co-creator James L. Brooks.

If Moore never repeated the massive television success of her first two series, well, that would have been practically impossible. Some failed later shows, including the sitcom “Mary,” which found her working at a Chicago tabloid, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Hour,” which blended variety with a backstage sitcom, go unmentioned in the documentary, but are not without interest and may be found floating in cyberspace. Various dramatic roles, onscreen and onstage, demonstrated the subtlety and depth of her acting, though you could find that in most any episode of “Mary Tyler Moore” as well.

Her last great triumph — though not at all the end of her career — was her Oscar-nominated turn in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People,” whose cold mother is deemed closer to her own character; she had a reputation, she says, for being “an ice princess.” Redford decided to cast her having once seen her walking on the beach, looking sad. (“He saw my dark side.”)

It is the point of nearly any show business biography that the person we know from their work is and is not the person who lived the life. Indeed, the very title “Being Mary Tyler Moore” suggests that “Mary Tyler Moore” was both a part she played and a person she was, similar in some respects and markedly different in others. Directed by James Adolphus, with Moore’s widower, Dr. Robert Levine, on board as an executive producer, the film has access to a wealth of family photos and home movies — including footage of her bridal shower, featuring a hilarious Betty White — and does a fine job of illuminating the private Moore, with testimony from (unseen) colleagues, friends and family.

It’s no secret that her life was marked by tragedy. (She was a private person, but she wrote books. And some things you can’t keep out of the papers.) She had a drinking problem. Her sister died from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Her son, Richard, accidentally shot himself. Diabetes led to numerous problems with her health. But “Being Mary Tyler Moore” is a happier story than one might expect, which in itself makes it a moving one. Moore and Levine were married from 1983 to her death in 2017, and they settled into a life filled with dogs and horses; there were good works too, on behalf of juvenile diabetes.

We can too easily measure the worth of a performer’s life by their professional success, as if there’s nothing more terrible than a canceled sitcom, a box office flop or the lack of good roles all but a few actors eventually face. “Being Mary Tyler Moore” reminds us not to make that mistake.

Tyler Perry is facing legal backlash to the tune of $260 million from an actor who appeared in his BET drama “The Oval” and is accusing the media mogul of quid pro quo sexual harassment, sexual battery and retaliation, among other counts.

Perry’s accuser, actor Derek Dixon, filed his lawsuit against the billionaire film and TV producer in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday. The actor claims Perry leveraged his power and standing in entertainment “to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic with Mr. Dixon — initially promising him career advancement and creative opportunities,” according to court documents reviewed by The Times. Tyler Perry Studios and the And Action production company are listed as co-defendants.

“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Perry’s attorney Matthew Boyd said in a statement to The Times. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

In his 46-page complaint, Dixon says he met the “House of Payne” creator in September 2019 when he was working as event staff for one of Perry’s parties. The multi-hyphenate entertainer offered Dixon the chance to audition for his show “Ruthless” a month after their first meeting. Perry claimed he would “change [Plaintiff’s] life” and offered him a small role in the TV series, “setting up the first stage in a series of escalating quid pro quo offers,” the lawsuit alleges.

From January 2020 to June 2024, Perry “sustained a pattern of workplace sexual harassment, assault and retaliation,” the lawsuit alleges. Dixon appeared in 85 episodes of Perry’s presidential drama “The Oval” from 2021 to 2025, according to IMDb.

Dixon accused Perry of relentlessly probing him about his sex life, making suggestive comments and expressing jealousy about his interactions with other men during the duration of their work together. The complaint features multiple screenshots of alleged conversations between Dixon and the media mogul, including messages in which the director asks “What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?” and likens the actor to a rose but says he is “so blocked that you refuse to be smelt [sic] or opened.”

The lawsuit — which evokes cases against Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey and other high-profile Hollywood figures accused of sexual harassment — also details multiple occasions where Perry allegedly groped the actor. The first was in January 2020 when Dixon stayed the night in a guest room at Perry’s home in Georgia and allegedly felt Perry “slip into bed behind him and start rubbing Dixon’s body around his inner thigh in a highly sexual and suggestive manner.” Dixon also accuses Perry of “violently” grabbing his throat in March 2020, groping his buttocks in a trailer later that year, and pulling down his underwear and groping his buttocks again in June 2021.

The complaint underscores that Dixon repeatedly refused Perry’s advances and walked a fine line, keeping his interactions with Perry professional but friendly enough to remain in his good graces. He claims the threat of Perry killing off his character constantly loomed over his “Oval” tenure. In addition to casting Dixon in his series, Perry also expressed interest in helping the actor develop a show, the lawsuit says.

Dixon distanced himself from Perry after the alleged June 2021 assault, the lawsuit says, but the producer’s “fixers” reached out with a new storyline for his “Oval” character and a pay raise. They also allegedly told Dixon he could not tell his castmates about the new perks.

Perry allegedly continued to ask Dixon about his sex life through the years that followed and in March 2024 plans to pitch Dixon’s show began to fall apart. After Perry offered Dixon a writing spot on one of his series in June 2024, Dixon “woke up and realized Perry was never going to be serious about helping Dixon” grow his career, the lawsuit says.

Dixon claims he reported the alleged sexual harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission but the complaint was not investigated. Dixon left “The Oval” and Perry allegedly retaliated by telling Dixon he could say only that he was taking medical leave. “Defendant made the leave of absence unpaid and therefore terminated Plaintiff’s employment causing Dixon additional loss of income and insult,” the suit says.

The lawsuit also includes allegations of work environment harassment, workplace gender violence, sexual assault, negligent retention and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The Dodgers’ lineup should be back at full strength soon.

When they’ll be able to say the same about their pitching staff is anyone’s guess.

First, the good news for the team: After fracturing the fourth toe on his left foot (the one closest to the pinky toe) last week and missing all three games against the New York Yankees, shortstop Mookie Betts went through a full slate of pregame hitting, baserunning and defensive drills on Monday and seemed probable to be available off the bench for the Dodgers in their series-opener against the New York Mets.

Assuming he continues to feel good, Betts should also return to the starting lineup on Tuesday, manager Dave Roberts said.

“That’s all contingent on if he recovers well tonight,” Roberts said.

Based on Betts’ activity level Monday, he certainly appeared to be ready to return. As one of the first Dodgers players on the field before the game, he spent several minutes running the bases, then went through a full session of infield grounders at shortstop. Betts also took batting practice, a day after Roberts said his swing in the batting cage “wasn’t compromised at all” by the freak injury.

“For me, I just want to make sure I move to make plays for those guys,” Betts said Sunday. “Hitting, hopefully that comes along. I just want to make sure I can play defense.”

As for the less encouraging update: A week after throwing his first bullpen session since going on the injured list in April with shoulder inflammation, Tyler Glasnow has been feeling general body discomfort, Roberts said.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers against the Phillies on April 6, 2025 in Philadelphia.

(Derik Hamilton / Associated Press)

Glasnow has continued to play catch, including on Monday afternoon in the outfield of Dodger Stadium. But Roberts said he is “not sure when he’s gonna get back on a mound.”

“There was one ‘pen, and then [his] body didn’t respond,” Roberts said. “So we’re trying to figure out when we can ramp him back up.”

Given Glasnow’s extensive injury history, such a setback qualifies as only mildly surprising. The 31-year-old has never made more than 22 starts or pitched over 134 innings in a major league season. And while he set both of those high-marks in his first season with the Dodgers last year — arriving in Los Angeles via a trade from Tampa Bay two winters ago and an ensuing five-year, $136.5-million extension — he never returned from an elbow tendonitis injury he suffered in August, despite repeated attempts to comeback in time for the playoffs.

“I know he’s just as frustrated as we all are [that] the process since we’ve had him, it just hasn’t been linear, as far as getting him back,” Roberts said. “He’s champing at the bit, so that’s a good thing. He’s very anxious to get back out here and help his team.”

Of the Dodgers’ injured quartet of star pitchers — which also includes Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani — Glasnow was initially expected to return first.

Now, however, he and Snell might be on more similar timelines. Snell made notable progress in his throwing progression this week and could begin throwing bullpens early next week.

“He’s in a really good spot physically and mentally,” Roberts said of Snell.

Sasaki has also been throwing lately, though Roberts noted it has been low-intensity. Ohtani, meanwhile, threw his second live batting practice over the weekend, and remains on track to return sometime after the All-Star break.

In the bullpen, the Dodgers should get a couple of reinforcements in the coming days.

Hard-throwing right-hander Michael Kopech (out since the start of the season with a shoulder injury) will be in Los Angeles this week after completing a minor-league rehab assignment, though exactly when he will be activated remains to be seen. Kopech yielded 11 runs and 11 walks in 6 ⅓ innings with triple-A Oklahoma City, and Roberts said the club wants to “evaluate, see how he is” up close before having him make his MLB season debut.

Another veteran right-hander, Kirby Yates, threw his second bullpen session on Monday since suffering a hamstring strain last month. He will next throw a live batting practice on Wednesday, and could be activated as soon as next weekend.