It was excruciating. It was exhausting. It was ecstatic.
It was Fred-die, Fred-die, Fred-die, forever.
Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, winning the unwinnable, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship.
In the 18th inning of the longest World Series game in baseball history Monday, nearly seven hours after it started, Freeman smashingly ended it with a leadoff home run against the Toronto Blue Jays to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory and a two-games-to-one lead.
This time last year he was hitting an extra-inning, walk-off grand slam against the New York Yankees that propelled the Dodgers to the title. At the time, he was being compared to Kirk Gibson and his memorable 1988 World Series homer.
This time, he can only be compared to himself, a guy who was struggling so much in the postseason that both Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts had been intentionally walked in front of him late in the game.
Three times in extra innings, he could have ended the game with a hit. Three times he left runners stranded.
But, finally, Freddie once again became Freddie, driving the ball deep over the center field fence, thrusting his right hand in the air, and watching his teammates dancing and jumping and screaming with a jubilation not previously seen by this workmanlike team this postseason.
“I don’t think you ever come up with the scenario twice,” said Freeman. “To have it happen again, it’s kind of amazing, crazy, and I’m just glad we won.”
Nobody seemed happier than Ohtani, who left the scrum to run down to the bullpen to embrace teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite throwing a complete game two days ago, Yamamoto was preparing to pitch in this game because the Dodgers had run out of arms.
It was that kind of night. It was two seventh-inning stretches. It was umpires nearly running out of baseballs. It was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. eating in the dugout.
“It’s one of the greatest World Series games of all time,” said Dodger Manager Dave Roberts while meeting the media after midnight. “Emotional. I’m spent emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.”
When Ohtani returned toward the dugout he was hugged by water-spraying teammates, and for good reason.
Throughout the night Ohtani once again wrapped Dodger Stadium in his giant arms and shook it down to its ancient roots.
The win was set up after Tommy Edman made a perfect relay throw to the plate to gun down Davis Schneider in the top of the 10th, then Clayton Kershaw dramatically worked out of a base-loaded inherited jam in the 12th.
But before Freeman’s homer, Ohtani owned the night.
He led off the game with a ground-rule double. Then he gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a third-inning homer. Then he closed a 4-2 deficit with a fifth-inning RBI double. Then he tied the game at 5-all with a seventh inning home run.
Then, his aura became even crazier.
Four times in a five-inning stretch from the ninth inning to the 15th, Ohtani was intentionally walked — drawing a fifth walk on four pitches in the 17th. Twice the bases were empty. Once he had to pause at second base to relieve leg cramping. It was nuts.
Imagine a player so dangerous he is given a base four times with a World Series game on the line. One can’t imagine. That’s Ohtani.
“He’s a unicorn,” said Freeman. “There’s no more adjectives you can use to describe him.”
Remember 10 days ago when Ohtani had three home runs and struck out 10? Monday night was nearly as impressive because it was in the World Series, his four extra-base hits tying a record that had last been set in 1906.
And, yeah, he pitches again Tuesday in Game 4, so by the time you comprehend all this, he may have done it again.
“Our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” said Freeman with wonder.
Ohtani was so good, he was better than the Dodgers bad, which included bad baserunning, bad fielding, and a bit of questionable managing.
The Dodgers stranded the winning run on base in the ninth,10th, 11th, and 13th, 14th and 15th inning and 16th…and really should have won it in the 13th.
That’s when Roberts surprisingly batted for Kiké Hernández after a Tommy Edman leadoff double. Miguel Rojas bunted Edman to third, but Alex Call and Freeman couldn’t get him home.
That was only one of numerous potentially game-changing plays on a night when the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead, fell behind 4-2, tied it up at 4-all, fell behind 5-4, then tied it up again in the seventh. Who’d have thought it would remain tied for the next 11 innings?The Dodgers left 18 men on base. They were two-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Max Muncy went 0-for-7. Mookie Betts went 1-for-8. Freeman was just 2-for-7.
“Weird how the game works sometimes, huh?” said Freeman.
The official time of this one was 6:39, which wasn’t so long that one thought of actor Jason Bateman’s reminder to the crowd during a pregame cheer. He noted that the Dodgers had not clinched a World Series championship at Dodger Stadium since 1963.
Two wins in the next two days and they’ll finally do it again.
After Monday’s doubleheader sweep, it’s hard to believe they won’t.
Orion Kerkering picked it up and threw away the Philadelphia Phillies’ season.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Thursday, that’s how the Dodgers secured a walk-off, series-clinching 2-1 win that sends them to the NL Championship Series.
On a throwing error from Kerkering, who initially booted the broken-bat grounder before retrieving the ball in front of the mound.
On a toss home that went sailing to the backstop, even as catcher J.T. Realmuto motioned for Kerkering to get the sure out at first base.
On a brutal, inexplicable decision from the Phillies’ 24-year-old reliever, one that allowed Hyeseong Kim to score from third and pandemonium to be unleashed inside Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Dodgers 5, at Philadelphia 3 (box score) Dodgers 4, at Philadelphia 3 (box score) Philadelphia 8, at Dodgers 2 (box score) at Dodgers 2, Philadelphia 1 (11) (box score)
Chicago vs. Milwaukee at Milwaukee 9, Chicago 3 (box score) at Milwaukee 7, Chicago 3 (box score) at Chicago 4, Milwaukee 3 (box score) at Chicago 6, Milwaukee 0 (box score) Saturday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max
AL Division Series
Detroit vs. Seattle Detroit 3, at Seattle 2 (11) (box score) at Seattle 3, Detroit 2 (box score) Seattle 8, at Detroit 4 (box score) at Detroit 9, Seattle 3 (box score) Friday at Seattle, 5 p.m., Fox
New York vs. Toronto at Toronto 10, New York 1 (box score) at Toronto 13, New York 7 (box score) at New York 9, Toronto 6 (box score) Toronto 5, at New York 2 (box score)
*-if necessary
LAKERS
From Broderick Turner: Lakers All-Star forward LeBron James will miss the season opener with what the team said was a sciatica nerve injury on his right side, the team announced after practice Thursday. The Lakers said James will be re-evaluated in approximately three to four weeks and that further updates will be provided at that time.
James, who is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, was limited to mostly individual workouts while dealing with nerve irritation in the glute during training camp. He didn’t play in the Lakers’ first two preseason games.
The Lakers open the regular season Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors, but fans won’t get to see legends James and Stephen Curry share the court together at Crypto.com Arena.
From Gary Klein: Matthew Stafford has been regarded as one of the NFL’s top arm talents since he was selected No. 1 overall in the 2009 draft. The 17th-year pro ranks among the top 10 all-time in several passing categories.
But the Rams star quarterback has never finished a season No. 1 in yards passing.
Stafford, 37, came close a few times during his 12-season tenure with the Detroit Lions. He finished third behind Drew Brees and Tom Brady in 2011, second behind Brees in 2012, third behind Peyton Manning and Brees in 2013, and third behind Brady and Philip Rivers in 2017.
And in 2021, his first season with the Rams, he was third behind Brady and Justin Herbert.
Could this be the year Stafford finishes at the top?
Mason Marchment scored in his Seattle debut, Joey Daccord made 35 saves, and the Kraken beat the Ducks 3-1 on Thursday night to win their season opener for the first time in team history.
Vince Dunn and Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken, who had gone 0-3-1 in their previous four openers, including a 5-4 overtime loss to the Ducks in 2022.
Daccord, who last Friday became the first player in Arizona State hockey history to have his number retired, made 16 of his saves in the first period on 17 shots.
Beckett Sennecke scored for the Ducks in his NHL debut and Lukas Dostal made 28 saves.
1920 — The Chicago Cardinals play to a 0-0 tie with the Chicago Tigers in their first American Professional Football Association game. The game is held at Cubs Park, later renamed Wrigley Field.
1936 — Ohio State trumpet player John Brungart dots the ‘i’ in “Script Ohio” for the first time during halftime of the Buckeyes’ 6-0 loss to Pittsburgh at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. After Brungart, the honor began to go exclusively to sousaphone players, with exceptions made for well-known fans of the Ohio State program, like John Glenn, Jack Nicklaus and Bob Hope.
1964 — John Henry Johnson of Pittsburgh rushes for 200 yards to lead the Steelers to a 23-7 triumph over the Cleveland Browns.
1974 — Danny Gare of Buffalo scores 18 seconds into his first NHL game as the Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 9-5.
1979 — Quebec’s Real Cloutier scores three goals in his first NHL game, but the Nordiques lose 5-3 to the Atlanta Flames.
1981 — USC’s Marcus Allen rushes for 211 yards, his fifth straight 200-plus rushing game, in a 13-10 loss to Arizona.
1987 — Columbia sets an NCAA record with its 35th straight loss, 38-8 to Princeton.
1998 — New Hampshire’s Jerry Azumah becomes the first back in NCAA Division I-AA history to run for more than 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons. He has 165 yards and one touchdown in a 22-13 loss to Richmond.
2004 — New England wins its 19th straight game, setting an NFL record for consecutive wins — counting the playoffs — with a 24-10 victory over Miami.
2011 — NBA Commissioner David Stern cancels the first two weeks of the season after owners and players are unable to reach a new labor deal and end the lockout. Games originally scheduled to be played from Nov. 1 through Nov. 14 are wiped out.
2011 — Anthony Calvillo becomes pro football’s all-time passing leader in spectacular fashion with a 50-yard TD pass to Jamel Richardson that cements the Montreal Alouettes’ 29-19 win over the Toronto Argonauts. Calvillo needed 258 yards to break Damon Allen’s all-time CFL record of 72,381 yards.
2017 — The United States are eliminated from World Cup contention with a shocking 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad scores a pair of first-half goals and the United States will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1986. The 28th-ranked Americans needed merely a tie against 99th-ranked Trinidad, which lost its sixth straight qualifier last week.
2017 — The Vegas Golden Knights win their home opener and remain unbeaten three games into their inaugural season with a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Marc-Andre Fleury makes 31 saves for the Golden Knights, who become the first team in NHL history to begin their debut season with three straight wins.
2020 — 19 year-old Iga Swiatek of Poland wins her country’s first singles major title as she beats American Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 at the French Open.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1920 — Cleveland Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganns completes an unassisted World Series triple play.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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A day where, as a clearly frustrated Dave Roberts put it before the game, the team needed to “not get embarrassed” in the face of a potential three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and play with a level of “pride” that had been missing the previous two nights.
“Whatever it is, we’ve got to do it right now,” the manager said. “We’ve got to win today. We’ve got to play better baseball. … There’s more in there. There just is.”
Whatever Roberts was looking for, the Dodgers provided just enough Sunday.
Despite blowing a three-run lead that tied the game going into the ninth, the Dodgers prevailed on Will Smith’s pinch-hit, walk-off home run, beating the Diamondbacks 5-4 to move two games up in the National League West standings after the San Diego Padres’ rubber-match loss to the Minnesota Twins earlier in the day.
The win should have been simpler.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a seven-inning, one-run gem, tying his career-high with 10 strikeouts while also not allowing a walk. The Dodgers lineup, meanwhile, wore down Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt, scoring twice in the first and again in the fourth and fifth to chase him from the game early.
Tanner Scott almost wasted those efforts. In the eighth, he gave up a pair of two-out singles before Corbin Carroll took him deep for a tying three-run blast. Scott was booed off the mound, his earned-run average rising to 4.44 in a disastrous debut season in Los Angeles.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the fourth inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Smith, however, saved the day, coming off the bench and hitting the second pitch he saw into the left-field pavilion to ensure the Dodgers didn’t come out of this weekend empty-handed.
Of course, any feeling of progress from the Dodgers will remain tempered for now.
Friday and Saturday, after all, produced the kind of maddening performances from the club that have dogged them throughout the second half of the season.
The team looked lifeless at the plate both nights, scoring one run off Arizona’s beleaguered pitching staff in 18 total innings. They committed fundamental miscues on the bases and on defense, lapses Roberts boiled down to a simple lack of focus. And, as has become a recurring theme during their 22-27 rut since the Fourth of July, they once again played down to a level their $400-million roster simply shouldn’t.
“There has to be a point where that has to be sharpened,” Roberts said. “And that’s where, I feel, the time is now.”
Given the roller-coaster nature of the season, it’s impossible to know if — and when — the next drop is coming.
The Dodgers (78-59) have shown flashes of improvement at times in the last two months — like when they swept the Reds to start this homestand, or swept the Padres at the end of the previous one — only to quickly revert to a lesser version of themselves again.
1
2
3
1.Dodgers catcher Will Smith celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning Sunday.2.Freddie Freeman, left, and Alex Call, center, and other Dodgers players celebrate with Will Smith, right, as he crosses home plate.3.Will Smith, left, celebrates with Alex Call, right, and his Dodgers teammates.(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Asked why that has been the case pregame, Roberts struggled to find an answer.
He alluded to a potential World Series hangover, noting that “when you’re playing a long season, you’re defending champions, people are coming after you — which we know and understand — it’s just hard to keep that dialed-in focus every single night. That’s just reality.”
He highlighted the lack of consistent production from veteran players — coinciding with his decision Sunday to leave Teoscar Hernández on the bench, in favor of Alex Call in right field, amid a recent three-for-27 slump that has been compounded by persistently shaky defense.
“He’s an everyday guy,” Roberts said of Hernández, whom the team hopes will benefit from a “two-day reset” between Sunday’s day off and Monday’s travel day. “But I do think that where we’re at, you’ve got to perform too, to warrant being out there every single day.”
Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott pitches in the eighth inning Sunday.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts said that mindset applies to the rest of the roster as a whole, from left field (where Michael Conforto has been better of late, but is still batting under .200) to other superstars at the top of the lineup.
“No one is going to be exempt,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to ramp it up and we’ve got to be better. If some other guys deserve more opportunities, then they’re going to get them. That’s just the way it should be.”
It all reflected what Roberts hopes will be a switch-flipping moment from his club; that disaster-averting wins like Sunday outnumber the kind of clunkers they had on Friday and Saturday.
“I do think that a flip can be switched,” Roberts said. “Each day should be equally important. Every little play, pitch, should be equally important. ‘How you do anything is how you do everything,’ that kind of adage, I believe in that. When you’re playing a long season, it’s hard to be that locked in every single pitch. But I’m not going to not try to ask our guys to do that, though.”
Until the Angels rewrote it with a walk-off ending.
In the top of the ninth inning at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, Shohei Ohtani lifted the Dodgers to the verge of a badly needed win, breaking a tie score with the kind of moment that could have jump-started the stretch run of their season.
With former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen on the mound, and a split crowd in Anaheim rising to its feet, Ohtani blasted a go-ahead home run deep to right field. He flipped his bat. The Dodgers’ dugout went wild. After so many recent blown leads and late-game meltdowns in recent weeks, the team was three outs away from finally turning the tide.
Instead, the Dodgers found yet a new way to crumble.
Once again, they let a winnable game go meekly by the wayside.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Angels tied the score after Alex Vesia gave up a leadoff single, a walk and an eventual Nolan Schanuel sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the 10th, they sealed their fifth-straight victory over the Dodgers this season on Jo Adell’s big-bouncing, walk-off RBI single.
Now, the Dodgers have lost three in a row and 20 of 32 since July 4. Now, what was once a nine-game lead in the National League West has been completely obliterated. The Dodgers and San Diego Padres are tied atop the standings. The Padres will come to Dodger Stadium this weekend with all the momentum, where a scuffling Dodgers club will await them.
Tuesday featured many more deflating subplots for the club.
Emmet Sheehan gave up five runs in a five-inning start. The team erased one early two-run deficit, only to go down two runs again. The lineup left the bases loaded with the score tied to end the top of the fifth inning. Ohtani lined into a soul-crushing triple-play with two aboard in the sixth.
But nothing will sting like the final two innings — when a potential turning-point moment instead resulted in more familiar heartache.
Taylor Ward hit a game-ending three-run homer in the ninth inning, Zach Neto had a home run and three RBIs and the Angels beat the Chicago White Sox 8-5 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
In a tie game, Nolan Schanuel doubled with one out in the ninth before Mike Trout was walked intentionally. Ward went deep against left-hander Tyler Alexander (4-10) to set a career high with 26 home runs.
Taylor Ward has his fourth career walk-off and third career walk-off homer.
Right-hander Kenley Jansen (4-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Angels (54-58).
Colson Montgomery hit a three-run home run and drove in four runs for the White Sox. They lost for just the third time in their last 12 road games.
The White Sox (42-70) took a 4-0 lead in the first inning when Robert had an RBI single and Montgomery followed with a three-run home run against Jack Kochanowicz.
Chicago made it 5-0 in the third on Montgomery’s RBI single.
The Angels started their rally in the sixth with a leadoff home from Neto. Ward had an RBI single, and Trout scored on a wild pitch. The Angels tied it in the seventh on a two-run double from Neto.
Key moment: The White Sox brought in the lefty Alexander to face left-handed hitting Schanuel in the ninth and his second hit of the game was a double to right to start the decisive rally.
Key stat: Montgomery played in his 24th career game since his debut July 4, with all seven of his home runs coming over his past 10 games.
Up next: Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi (4-7, 3.30) is scheduled to start at home against Tampa Bay on Monday.
For 2 ½ hours of a sun-splashed Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgers were playing up to — or perhaps down to — recent expectations.
Their offense consisted mainly of a Shohei Ohtani home run while the starting pitching kept them in the game, but then everything appeared to go off the rails when manager Dave Roberts went to his bullpen.
This time there was a surprise ending though, with Freddie Freeman lining a two-strike, two-out, two-run single to left field to give the Dodgers a walk-off 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.
The win was just the second in six games since the All-Star break. But with the team beginning a nine-game, three-city road trip, its longest of the second half, Friday in Boston, Roberts believes the comeback could provide the spark the Dodgers have been missing.
“I hope so,” he said. “How we got here today, showing the fight, willing ourselves to get Freddie at bat. Freddie [taking] probably his best swing in a month. And to win a game like that, that’s momentum building.“
Maybe. Yet there was little reason to think the Dodgers were headed in the right direction entering the ninth inning.
Ohtani had given them the lead with a solo home run in the first inning. It was his fifth straight game with a home run, a career high that equaled the franchise record, giving him 37 for the season. Royce Lewis got that run back for the Twins in the third, leading off with his fifth home run of the season just inside the left-field foul pole. The score stayed that way until the seventh, when Tommy Edman looped a single over a drawn-in infield, putting the Dodgers back in front.
Which is when the game took a turn.
Tyler Glasnow, pitching for the third time since returning from the injury list, was brilliant again, holding the Twins to a run on three hits while striking out 12 batters over seven innings. But he was out of bullets after throwing 106 pitches, so Roberts went to the bullpen — and five batters later the Dodgers trailed, with the Twins scoring twice without ever getting the ball out of the infield.
Kirby Yates was first to the mound and he walked the bases loaded, missing the plate on 12 of his 18 pitches. Alex Vesia came in next to get Willi Castro to hit into a double play, but that allowed the tying run to score.
Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader then promptly untied it with a poorly hit ball that got over the leaping Vesia before dying on the infield grass as Brooks Lee raced home from third.
It was a script the Dodgers had seen before: Over the last four weeks, the team’s bullpen ERA has ballooned to 4.43. Only six teams in the majors entered Wednesday with a higher mark.
The rotation is largely to blame because, after losing three of his projected five starters in the season’s first two months, Roberts has had to use everything short of masking tape and bailing wire to keep a starting staff together. As a result, the Dodgers have used 16 starters this season and 37 pitchers overall.
Shohei Ohtani flips the bat after hitting a 441-foot home run to left-center in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
That rotation is getting healthier now that Glasnow, who has missed most of the season because of an inflamed shoulder, could soon be rejoined in the rotation by two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, The left-hander, out since April 2 with shoulder inflammation, is scheduled to make his final minor-league rehab start Saturday.
Until now the bullpen has had to shoulder much of the load of those injuries: Dodger starters have thrown a big-league low 467 3/2 innings this season, averaging less than five innings a start, while their exhausted relievers have pitched a major-league-leading 452 2/3 innings.
So perhaps it’s no coincidence that in the last two days the team has lost two relievers, with Tanner Scott going on the injured list because of elbow inflammation and Ben Casparius limping off the mound with a right calf cramp, joining 11 pitchers already on the sidelines.
Casparius underwent an MRI exam, which was negative, and is expected to be available on the road trip. He admitted Wednesday that the bullpen’s recent struggles led him to try to pitch through the soreness, likely making the injury worse.
“Going through the back of my mind [was] kind of gutting it out,” he said. “I think you can look at it a bunch of different ways, but I’m not necessarily sure I put the team in the best spot.”
If Casparius failed to pick the team up, however, Freeman didn’t miss his shot.
After leaving the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings, the Dodgers were down to their last strike when the slumping Mookie Betts beat out a weakly hit ball to third. The ball didn’t travel 90 feet but it went far enough for Betts to beat the throw by a whisker for his third hit in his last 29 at-bats.
The Twins then walked Ohtani intentionally before Esteury Ruiz worked a walk of his own to bring Freeman to the plate. And after taking two strikes, he fouled off a tough 1-2 pitch, then sliced a liner to left that fell in front of diving Bader to win the game.
“We needed that one,” said Freeman, who was hitting .210 in July before collecting two hits Wednesday.
The Dodgers celebrated by heading to the airport to board their charter to Boston, where they might be without Betts for at least a game.
Roberts said “everything is OK” with his shortstop but added that “there’s some things going on personally for him. We’ll see if he’s going to be there for the Friday game.”
As for the rest of the team, there’s hope the 6,300-mile trip, which includes stops in Cincinnati and Tampa Bay, will be long enough to get the Dodgers around the corner.
“Momentum is everything,” said Casparius, echoing his manager. “Maybe getting on the road and being uncomfortable might help us out a little bit in a weird way too. It’s a tough part of the year. Everybody around the league is going through this type of stuff.
“I think we’re going to turn a corner.”
Notes: Reliever Blake Treinen was scheduled to make back-to-back appearances for triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Thursday, and if things go well, he could re-join the Dodgers on the road trip. Treinen went on the injured list April 19 with forearm tightness. … Third baseman Max Muncy is scheduled to face live pitching at the Dodgers’ Arizona complex Thursday and could begin a minor-league rehab assignment next week, far sooner than expect. Muncy was the Dodgers’ hottest hitter when he sustained a bone bruise in his left knee three weeks ago. It was anticipated he would miss a month and half.
Travis d’Arnaud hit a pinch-hit RBI single down the left-field line in the ninth inning to give the Angels a 6-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Zach Neto and Yoan Moncada each hit home runs in the first inning for the Angels, while Nolan Schanuel and Rengifo each had three hits as the Angels improved to 7-3 against National League West teams.
Randal Grichuk hit a pair of home runs and drove in three runs as the Diamondbacks dropped to 3-7 since July 2.
Arizona right-hander Ryne Nelson gave up four runs on seven hits with four walks over four innings, while Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson gave up four runs on eight hits with two walks over five innings.
Neto and Moncada powered a four-run first inning for the Angels, while the Diamondbacks followed with a four-run second that included Grichuk’s home run and a two-run double from Alek Thomas.
After Rengifo gave the Angels a 5-4 lead with a double in the fifth inning, Grichuk tied it with another home run in the eighth.
Kenley Jansen (3-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Angels.
Neto has seven leadoff home runs, all this season, and tied the franchise record previously held by Brian Downing (1987).
Travis d’Arnaud knows Jacob deGrom better than any other catcher in baseball. He caught the hard-throwing right-hander 60 times when they played together with the New York Mets, the most frequent backstop the former Cy Young Award winner has thrown to in his career.
That familiarity did d’Arnaud and the Angels well en route to their 6-5 victory over the Rangers (44-47) on Monday night, in which Nolan Schanuel walked off their American League West foes in the ninth inning by drawing a bases-loaded, RBI walk.
The veteran catcher ambushed deGrom in the second inning for a two-run home run, just hitting the ball hard enough — 97.4 mph — over the left-field wall.
D’Arnaud’s home run broke deGrom’s Rangers franchise-record streak of 14 consecutive starts with two or fewer runs given up — and provided the Angels (44-46) with an early 3-2 lead.
“Getting lucky to hit a homer against any Cy Young winner is really special,” said d’Arnaud, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Later, with deGrom in line for the win, d’Arnaud tied the score during a two-out rally in the sixth against relief pitcher Shawn Armstrong, lining a double to deep left-center field to score Luis Rengifo, who reached base on a single.
The Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe douses Nolan Schanuel with a cooler of sports drink after he delivered a walk-off walk against the Texas Rangers Monday at Angel Stadium.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
“We were in every game right till the end, in every single game in Toronto, and so it showed we were still going to fight to the last out,” d’Arnaud said, when asked about not being able to come through as a team with three, one-run losses against the Blue Jays, “and today we were able to prevail, which is a huge step for us.”
A batter later, pinch-hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. channeled the “Throwback Week” theme at Angel Stadium, reverting to the clutch hitting that earned him the nickname “Late Night LaMonte” in San Francisco. The 31-year-old, wearing the ‘70s-style Angels uniform, singled to center to give the Angels a 5-4 lead.
Interim manager Ray Montgomery, who was ejected in the seventh innings arguing balls and strikes after Mike Trout looked at an inning-ending strike three call, said Wade waited for his opportunity to make an impact — even with limited at-bats after Jorge Soler’s return from injury creating a log jam in the outfield.
“Anytime off the bench you can get some sort of feeling and get some reps, it’s good, and you hope it carries over,” said Montgomery, who watched the remainder of the game from the clubhouse. “Huge at-bat by him.”
DeGrom didn’t flex the ace-caliber stuff he often tests foes with. On Monday, he gave up three earned runs and five hits across five innings, striking out five and walking two.
Yusei Kikuchi, coming off Sunday’s announcement that he earned an All-Star berth (his second of his career), didn’t live up to the pitcher’s duel billing either. The Japanese southpaw labored through an almost-20 minute first inning — in which he gave up a two-run home run to Corey Seager — and never settled down during his five innings.
“I didn’t have my best stuff, but the team really picked me up today,” Kikuchi said in Japanese through an interpreter.
Before d’Arnaud’s tying double, Kikuchi was bound to be the losing pitcher, giving up four runs on six hits, struggling to accrue the same strikeout success he’d achieved as of late. He struck out just four, tied for the second-fewest he’d tallied in 2025 and the first time he’d done so since late May against the Yankees.
But none of that mattered when Schanuel came to the plate with the bases loaded, after Zach Neto was intentionally walked, washing away an 0-for-4 night with his walk-off walk.
“I didn’t need a hit,” Schanuel said. “I put my pride aside.”
Reliever R&R
The Angels placed veteran right-handed relief pitcher Hunter Strickland on the 15-day injured list with right-shoulder inflammation on Monday afternoon. Strickland, who had pitched 22 innings in 19 games to the tune of a 3.27 earned-run average for the Angels, said he felt his arm get stiff before pitching against the Blue Jays on Sunday.
During his outing, in which Strickland struck out one batter in a scoreless inning, the 36-year-old said the stiff sensation in his arm got worse, causing the IL stint. Cuban righty Víctor Mederos was called up from triple-A Salt Lake City in his place.
“We’re just hoping for the best and see what they say,” Strickland said, adding that he will get an MRI on Tuesday.
Robert Stephenson (stretched nerve in right bicep) said he began throwing again on Monday — soft toss — after soft-tissue recovery helped “fully heal” the nerve.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be a quick process, but at least I can start building up,” said Stephenson, who is in the second year of a three-year, $33 million contract with the Angels.
Stephenson has thrown just one inning as a member of the Angels, hurting himself in his second appearance back from Tommy John surgery on May 30.
TORONTO — Addison Barger hit a walk-off single in the 11th inning and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their season-best winning streak to seven by beating the Angels 4-3 on Saturday.
George Springer added a two-run home run, his fifth in five games, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had three hits for the Blue Jays, who won their second straight in extra innings. Toronto won 4-3 in 10 innings Friday.
Barger, who broke his bat over his thigh in frustration after striking out against Kenley Jansen to send the game to extra innings, gained a measure of redemption when he lined the winning hit to right field off Angels right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn (5-3).
Toronto’s Braydon Fisher (3-0) pitched two shutout innings for the win.
Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer gave up two runs and five hits in four innings, the shortest of his three starts since coming off the injured list last month.
Scherzer threw 72 pitches, 46 strikes.
Angels outfielder Jo Adell opened the scoring with a bases-loaded walk in the first, but the inning ended when Barger caught Jorge Soler’s fly ball in right field and threw out Mike Trout at home plate. The outfield assist was Barger’s sixth.
Barger’s RBI single off Jack Kochanowicz tied the score in the bottom of the first but Adell restored the lead with a sacrifice fly in the third.
Nathan Lukes walked to begin the third and Springer followed with a 413-foot homer to straightaway center, his 16th.
The Angels tied it in the seventh on Nolan Schanuel’s two-out single off rookie Lazaro Estrada.
After throwing a ball to Logan O’Hoppe on his first pitch of the second inning, Scherzer struck out the side on nine straight pitches.
Up next
RHP Kevin Gausman (6-6, 4.18 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale against Angels LHP Tyler Anderson (2-5, 4.12).
Twenty-nine hours before his official return to the Dodger Stadium mound, Emmet Sheehan took a moment to get himself reacquainted with his home ballpark.
In an empty Dodger Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, Sheehan walked onto the field at Chavez Ravine, climbed up a slope he hadn’t toed since the 2023 season, and practiced his pitching motion a few times before returning to the clubhouse.
For Sheehan, such dry tosses are part of his normal pre-start routine. In any ballpark where he pitches, he likes to get a feel for the mound and its surroundings before the game.
The only difference this time: how long it had been since he’d taken the bump in a big-league stadium.
After an auspicious rookie season in 2023, in which his 4.92 earned-run average belied the potential he flashed with his low-arm-slot, high-velocity delivery, Sheehan missed all of last season and the first three months of this campaign after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
A former sixth-round draft pick who blossomed into one of the organization’s top pitching prospects during an impressive minor-league career, Sheehan became one of the many homegrown Dodgers pitchers to endure a major surgery after injuring his elbow in spring training last year.
In recent months, however, his relatively seamless recovery process had fueled excitement throughout the organization leading up to his return on Wednesday.
And over four sharp innings in the Dodgers’ 4-3 win against the San Diego Padres — one that ended on a walk-off home run by Will Smith in the ninth — the 25-year-old right-hander showed exactly why.
With his fastball sitting around 95 mph, and a tantalizing combination of sliders and changeups keeping Padres hitters off balance, Sheehan gave up just one run while striking out six batters in his big-league return.
He threw 65 pitches, 43 for strikes. He didn’t issue a walk, while yielding only three hits. And the lone score against him came when second baseman Tommy Edman failed to corral a hard-hit one-hopper with two outs in the top of the second.
Other than that, he posted nothing but zeroes.
Sheehan wasn’t the winning pitcher. That honor went to another former prospect, left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who followed Sheehan with five stellar innings of long relief, flashing his own promising signs (including a fastball that touched 99 mph at one point) after an up-and-down start to his big-league career.
For most of his outing, Wrobleski was protecting a 3-1 lead the Dodgers took in the bottom of the fifth, when Max Muncy hit a leadoff triple, Hyeseong Kim followed an Andy Pages sacrifice fly with a double, and slumping rookie catcher Dalton Rushing plated the game’s go-ahead runs on a two-run single.
But with the Dodgers’ bullpen worn thin from back-to-back bullpen games the previous two nights, Wrobleski went back to the mound in the ninth to try to finish things off. He couldn’t, giving up two runs after a Max Muncy throwing error put him in a jam.
However, Smith made sure it didn’t matter, coming off the bench in the bottom of the ninth to whack a walk-off home run just over the right-field wall.
Will Smith runs to first after hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning for the Dodgers against the Padres on Wednesday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Despite the late dramatics, it was Sheehan’s return that had the biggest future implications on the Dodgers’ season, giving their shorthanded rotation a badly needed, and highly intriguing, new option for the second half of the season.
While discussing Sheehan before the game, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers always “liked his makeup, his toughness, his ability to repeat his delivery, the swing-and-miss stuff, the preparation.”
But the way he navigated his Tommy John recovery — returning to action 13 months after undergoing the procedure last May — had added another element of optimism among team officials.
Roberts noted how Sheehan had seemingly increased his physical strength during his rehab, with the once lanky 6-foot-5 pitcher now possessing noticeably more mass. He also explained how Sheehan has “had a chance to watch a lot of baseball, learn and then now apply it.”
“I think that’s going to make him a better major league pitcher,” Roberts said.
One start back, signs of such growth were already becoming clear.
Nolan Schanuel hit a single into shallow center field in the 10th inning for the first walk-off hit of his career to drive in Jo Adell and give the Angels a 2-1 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night.
Reid Detmers (2-2) struck out two of three batters to strand the automatic runner in the top of the 10th.
Hogan Harris (1-1) took the loss for the A’s, who have lost 22 of 26 games.
The Angels trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth when Travis d’Arnaud hit left-hander T.J. McFarland’s first pitch for a pinch-hit homer and a 1-1 tie.
Angels starter José Soriano gave up one run and two hits and struck out a career-best 12 in seven innings. He walked two. He threw a career-high 110 pitches, 71 for strikes, and induced 22 swinging strikes.
The A’s Mitch Spence, making his second start since being moved from the bullpen, gave up three hits, struck out four and walked none in five scoreless innings.
Soriano was virtually untouchable through five no-hit innings in which he racked up nine strikeouts and walked one. He lost his no-hit bid in the sixth when Brent Rooker drove an RBI double to left-center field just beyond the reach of a diving Adell for a 1-0 A’s lead.
Veteran right-hander Hunter Strickland, who signed a minor league deal on May 6, escaped a runner-on-second, no-out jam in the eighth and has not yielded a run in 11 innings over nine appearances with the Angels.
D’Arnaud’s eighth-inning shot was the second pinch-hit homer of his career. His first came for the Atlanta Braves against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 4, 2021.
ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers’ offensive woes went from worrisome to a five-alarm emergency Saturday when they were lost their second game in less than 24 hours, falling 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Nolan Gorman started the winning rally with a ground-rule double in the ninth. He gave way to pinch-runner Jose Barrero, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Pedro Pages before scoring on Nolan Arenado’s pinch-hit single off Dodgers reliever Ben Casparius (4-1) to end the game.
The Cardinals appeared to have won the game in the eighth when Alec Burleson hit a one-hop comebacker that ricocheted off Casparius with two out. Casparius chased after the ball and made a hurried throw to first that pulled Freddie Freeman off the bag, allowing Masyn Winn to race home.
But the Dodgers matched that in the ninth on consecutive one-out singles by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. Freeman then struck out swinging, but the ball got away from catcher Pedro Pages, allowing Ohtani to score to tie the game.
The Dodgers left 12 runners on base and were hitless in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They are one for 25 with runners in scoring position in their two games in St. Louis.
The slump couldn’t come at a worst team for the Dodgers, who begin a three-game series Monday in San Diego. The Padres entered Saturday a game back of the Dodgers in the National League West.
The Dodgers wasted a splendid performance from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who allowed four hits while striking out nine in six scoreless innings, lowing his earned-run average to 2.20.
No Japanese pitcher has ever led an American major league in ERA; the Cubs’ Yu Darvish came closest when his 2.01 mark in the COVID-shortened 2020 season was second-best in the National League. Only two NL pitchers have better marks than Yamamoto this season.
The right-hander won four ERA titles in seven seasons with Orix in the Japanese Pacific League. Only Kazuhisa Inao, who debuted in 1956, won more. Three times Yamamoto had ERAs under 1.69 and his career mark in Japan was 1.72 in 188 starts.
BOSTON — Ceddanne Rafaela curled a home run around the Pesky Pole in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday and the Boston Red Sox rallied after trailing four different times to beat the Angels 11-9.
The Angels blew 4-0, 7-5, 8-7 and 9-8 leads, with Rafael Devers bouncing a chopper between the gloves of second baseman Chris Taylor and shortstop Zach Neto behind second base to tie it 9-9 in the eighth.
Each of the first three times the Red Sox scored, the Angels answered with runs of its own. But after walking Mike Trout to lead off the ninth, Cooper Criswell (1-0) got the next three batters out to give Boston a chance to walk it off.
In the bottom half, Abraham Toro singled with one out and Rafaela hit a 308-foot liner over the short wall that goes from the foul pole toward the bullpens in right.
Taylor Ward had four RBIs for the Angels, who were going for the three-game sweep.
Key moment
Before recording his first out, Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito allowed four runs on two doubles, two singles and a homer. Then Angels starter José Soriano gave up four singles and two walks to make it 4-3 before striking out Rafaela on his 25th pitch of the inning.
David Hamilton’s two-run double with one out gave Boston a 5-4 lead.
Key stat
Combined, the starting pitchers, allowed 14 runs in 5 1/3 innings.
Up next
The Angels are off Thursday, with RHP Kyle Hendricks (2-6, 5.34 ERA) slated to start the opener of a three-game series against Seattle on Friday night. The Red Sox are off Thursday before starting a three-game series in New York against the Yankees.
To say that St. John Bosco and Santa Margarita engaged in a championship baseball game on Friday night that will be remembered for a lifetime would be an understatement.
“This game was special, something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. You really had to fight for it,” said St. John Bosco left fielder Noah Everly.
It was a Southern Section Division 1 final filled with drama. Teenagers came through with big play after big play until finally in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the bases loaded, Miles Clark hit a walk-off single up the middle to give St. John Bosco a 3-2 victory and its first baseball championship before a sold-out crowd of 3,010 at Cal State Fullerton.
Incredible game ends with walk-off single by Miles Clark in B9. St. John Bosco wins D1 title over Santa Margarita 3-2. pic.twitter.com/ypUNfQqYra
“It hurts a lot,” Santa Margarita coach Chris Malec said. “It was a great effort by both sides. There were so many amazing moments.”
Unbelievable. The Great Escape in the seventh inning for Brennan Bauer. On 3-2 count with bases loaded fly out. End of 7, Bosco 2, Santa Margarita 2. pic.twitter.com/26mOk7XZOb
Let’s start with Santa Margarita pitcher Brennan Bauer, who threw five scoreless innings of relief and somehow escaped twice with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to keep the game going. First he had a 3-and-1 count to Everly and got a pop fly with one out. Then he had a 3-2 count with Moises Razo and got a fly out to the warning track.
“That’s all Brennan,” Malec said.
In 22 1/3 playoff innings, Brenann won four games and gave up one earned run.
Then there was Everly coming through with a stunning catch on the run in left field in the top of the ninth inning to prevent a Santa Margarita extra base hit with a runner on first.
“That was an extraordinary catch,” Malec said.
Said Clark: “Oh my goodness, Noah came through.”
Coach Andy Rojo raises the championship plaque after St. John Bosco’s 3-2 win over Santa Margarita.
(Nick Koza)
So did Clark against relief pitcher Ethan Russell in the bottom of the ninth. Bauer had run out of innings, having reached his 10-inning max after throwing five innings against Crespi in the semifinals. Russell walked Razo on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, setting the stage for Clark.
“We were locked in the whole game,” Clark said. “We didn’t lose our mental focus. I kept telling my guys we have to stay focused.”
Razo had a two-run double in the first inning to give the Braves an early lead. Santa Margarita took advantage of an error and closed it to 2-1 in the second on Brody Schumaker’s second hit. The Eagles tied tied it at 2-2 in the fifth with a squeeze bunt by Blake Ankrum, the third sacrifice of the game.
After Gavin Cervantes started on the mound and freshman Brayden Krakowski pitched into the sixth inning, St. John Bosco turned to its closer, Jack Champlin, who was magnificent. In four scoreless innings, he gave up one hit with four strikeouts. At one point, a Santa Margarita batter appeared to challenge Champlin after the count went to 3-0. Champlin struck him out, unleashing a fist pump.
St. John Bosco ended up being the most consistent team in the Southland for the 2025 season. The Braves went 27-4 and became the first Trinity League champion to win a Division 1 title. All the other Trinity League teams that have won Division 1 never won the league title. And beating top-seeded Corona 2-0 on Tuesday was quite an accomplishment itself.
From Tim Willert: Jessica Clements hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the seventh inning early Friday morning to carry ninth-seeded UCLA past No. 16 Oregon 4-2 at the Women’s College World Series, after the Ducks tied the game in the top of the inning on a call at home plate that was overturned.
Catcher Alexis Ramirez also hit a two-run homer in support of Bruins’ starter Kaitlyn Terry, who pitched a four-hitter and gave up one earned run. UCLA (55-11) will play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PDT) for a spot in the semifinals. Oregon (53-9) will face unseeded Mississippi in Friday’s elimination game.
Oregon’s Paige Sinicki doubled inside the third-base line to lead off the seventh, but the ruling was challenged by UCLA. The call was upheld, but the next hitter, Dezianna Patmon bunted Sinicki to third with one out. Emma Cox followed with a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Woolery, who tried to throw Sinicki out at home. The throw to Ramirez was on time and Sinicki was ruled out at home for the second out.
Oregon challenged the call, and it was overturned after a video review showed obstruction by Ramirez.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score) at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score) at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score) Oklahoma City 128, at Minnesota 126 (box score) at Oklahoma City 124, Minnesota 94 (box score)
Eastern Conference
No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score) Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score) New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score) at Indiana 130, New York 121 (box score) at New York 111, Indiana 94 (box score) Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Monday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
NBA FINALS
West No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. NY/Ind.
Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC Sunday, June 8 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC Wed., June 11 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC Friday, June 13 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC* Thursday, June 19 at NY/Ind, 5:30 p.m., ABC* Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*
“You’re gonna be standing at shortstop when we win the World Series,” Woodward told Betts, the former Gold Glove right fielder in the midst of an almost unprecedented mid-career position switch. “That’s what the goal is.”
Two months into the season, the Dodgers believe he’s checking the requisite boxes on the path toward getting there.
“I would say, right now he’s playing above-average shortstop, Major League shortstop,” manager Dave Roberts said this week. “Which is amazing, considering he just took this position up.”
Betts has not only returned to shortstop this season after his unconvincing three-month stint at the position last year; but he has progressed so much that, unlike when he was moved back to right field for the stretch run of last fall’s championship march, the Dodgers have no plans for a similar late-season switch this time around.
“I don’t see us making a change [like] we did last year. I don’t see that happening,” Roberts said. “He’s a major league shortstop, on a championship club.”
“And,” the manager also added, “he’s only getting better.”
Years before diminutive and speedy Atwell matured into an NFL prospect, the Rams receiver played flag football.
Could anybody stop him?
“Nah, nah,” Atwell said, chuckling.
So Atwell, a 2021 second-round draft pick who will earn $10 million this season, said he would be cool and fun if he got the opportunity in a few years to try out for the 2028 U.S. Olympic flag football team.
Atwell echoed the feelings of Minnesota Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson and other players in the league since NFL owners last week approved a resolution that would allow them to try out for flag football. The resolution limits only one player per NFL team to play for each national team in the Los Angeles Games.
NFL players would compete for spots with others already playing flag football.
“It’s great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “If that’s something that players say they want to be able to do, then I think it’s a really cool experience for them to be able to be a part of while also acknowledging that, man, there are some other guys that have been doing it.”
Let’s hear from you. Could a smoother path to the College Football Playoff be worth losing the Notre Dame-USC rivalry? Vote here and let us know. Results announced next week.
NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS
All times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary) Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary) at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary) at Edmonton 4, Dallas 1 (summary) Edmonton 6, at Dallas 3 (summary)
Eastern Conference
Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary) Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary) at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary) Carolina 3, at Florida 0 (summary) Florida 5, at Carolina 3 (summary)
STANLEY CUP FINALS
P3 Edmonton vs. A3 Florida Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT Friday, June 6 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT Monday, June 9 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT* Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1903 — Flocarline becomes the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes.
1908 — Jockey Joe Notter misjudges the finish of the Belmont Stakes and eases up on his mount, Colin, whose career record to that point was 13-for-13. Notter recovers from his mistake and holds off Fair Play, who came within a head of defeating Colin. When he retired, Colin’s record stood at 15 wins in as many starts.
1911 — Ray Harroun wins the first Indianapolis 500 in 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds with an average speed of 74.59 mph.
1912 — Joe Dawson wins the second Indianapolis 500 in 6:21:06. Ralph Mulford is told he has to complete the race for 10th place money. It takes him 8 hours and 53 minutes as he makes several stops for fried chicken. The finishing rule is changed the next year.
1951 — Lee Wallard wins the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first driver to break the 4-hour mark with a time of 3:57:38.05.
1951 — Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1952 — At 22, Troy Ruttman becomes the youngest driver to win the Indianapolis 500.
1955 — Bob Sweikert, an Indianapolis native, wins the Indianapolis 500. Bill Vukovich, seeking his third consecutive victory, is killed in a four-car crash on the 56th lap.
1957 — European Cup Final, Madrid: Alfredo Di Stéfano and Francisco Gento score as defending champions Real Madrid beats Fiorentina, 2-0.
1974 — 17th European Cup: Ajax beats Juventus 1-0 at Belgrade.
1985 — The Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year with an 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 5.
1987 — Mike Tyson beats Pinklon Thomas by TKO in round 6 in Las Vegas to retain WBC/WBA heavyweight boxing titles.
1993 — Emerson Fittipaldi wins his second Indianapolis 500, by 2.8 seconds. Fittipaldi takes the lead on lap 185 and holds on, outfoxing Formula One champion Nigel Mansell and runner-up Arie Luyendyk.
2004 — In Cooper City, Fla., Canada easily beats the United States in a three-day cricket match, the first competition on American soil sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.
2005 — Johns Hopkins wins its first NCAA lacrosse title in 18 years, beating Duke 9-8 to complete an undefeated season.
2009 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,391): Chelsea beats Everton, 2-1; Frank Lampard scores 72′ winner.
2010 — Dario Franchitti gets a huge break from a spectacular crash on the last lap to climb back on top of the open-wheel world to win the Indianapolis 500. Franchitti’s second Brickyard victory in four years helps his boss, Chip Ganassi, become the first owner to win Indy and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in the same year.
2011 — Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigns amid NCAA violations from a tattoo-parlor scandal that sullied the image of one of the country’s top football programs.
2012 — Roger Federer breaks Jimmy Connors’ Open era record of 233 Grand Slam match wins by beating Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the second round of the French Open. Federer, who owns a record 16 major championships, is 234-35 at tennis’ top four tournaments. Connors was 233-49. The Open era began in 1968.
2015 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,283): Arsenal beats Aston Villa, 4-0; Gunners’ 12th title.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1894 — Boston’s Robert Lowe became the first player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a game, leading the Beaneaters to a 20-11 win over Cincinnati. After hitting four straight homers, all line drives far over the fence, Lowe added a single to set a major league record with 17 total bases.
1922 — Between the morning and afternoon games of a Memorial Day twin bill, Max Flack of the Chicago Cubs was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Cliff Heathcote. They played one game for each team.
1927 — In the fourth inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, shortstop Jim Cooney of the Chicago Cubs caught Paul Waner’s liner, stepped on second to double Lloyd Waner and then tagged Clyde Barnhart coming from first for an unassisted triple play.
1935 — Babe Ruth made his last major league appearance. He played one inning for the Boston Braves against the Philadelphia Phillies. Jim Bivin retired Babe Ruth on an infield grounder in the Babe’s final major league at-bat.
1940 — Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants threw 87 pitches in a 7-0 one-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He faced the minimum 27 batters. Johnny Hudson, who singled, was caught stealing.
1956 — Mickey Mantle hit a home run that came within a foot-and-a-half of leaving Yankee Stadium. It hit the face of the upper deck in right field, 370 feet from home plate and 117 feet in the air. Mantle became the first player to hit 20 home runs by the end of May as the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 4-3.
1961 — Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bill Skowron each hit two homers to lead the New York Yankees to a 12-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox. Yogi Berra also added a homer.
1962 — Pedro Ramos of the Cleveland Indians tossed a three-hitter and hit two home runs, including a grand slam, for a 7-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
1977 — Cleveland’s Dennis Eckersley pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the Angels.
1982 — Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. began his record consecutive games streak by starting at third base against the Toronto Blue Jays.
1987 — Eric Davis hit a grand slam in the third inning, breaking two National League records and leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Davis became the first NL player to hit three grand slams in a month and his major league leading 19 homers broke the NL record for most homers in April and May.
1992 — Scott Sanderson became the ninth pitcher to beat all 26 major league teams as New York defeated Milwaukee 8-1. Sanderson joined Nolan Ryan, Tommy John, Don Sutton, Mike Torrez, Rick Wise, Gaylord Perry, Doyle Alexander and Rich Gossage as those who have defeated every club.
2001 — Barry Bonds hit two home runs, moving past Willie McCovey and Ted Williams into 11th place on the career list with 522. Bonds with 17 home runs in May, surpassed the mark set by Mark McGwire in 1998 and Mickey Mantle in 1956.
2003 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit a game-tying home run in the ninth and a go-ahead homer in the top of the 11th to lead Cincinnati over Florida 4-3.
2006 — Vernon Wells hit three home runs and Troy Glaus added two more in Toronto’s 8-5 victory over Boston.
2009 — Travis Tucker hit an RBI single with one out in the top of the 25th inning, leading Texas to a 3-2 victory over Boston College in the longest game in NCAA history. The game eclipsed the previous record of 23 innings, set in 1971 when Louisiana-Lafayette defeated McNeese State 6-5.
2010 — Albert Pujols hit three long home runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 9-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. Pujols homered in the first, fifth and ninth innings for his fourth career three-homer game.
2011 — Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game to lead Toronto to an 11-1 rout of Cleveland. Reyes avoided becoming the first pitcher to go winless in 29 starts. Oakland’s Matt Keough went 28 starts between wins in 1978 and 1979, matching the dubious mark first set by Boston’s Cliff Curtis in 1910 and 1911. Reyes went 0-13 with a 6.59 ERA in his 28 starts between wins.
2011 — Arizona’s Kelly Johnson became the second player in the majors this year to have four extra-base hits in a game as the Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 15-4. Johnson hit solo home runs in the third and sixth, doubled in the fourth and tripled in the seventh.
2015 — The Dodgers snap a 42-inning scoreless road streak in beating the Cardinals, 5-1. They are held hitless for five innings by Michael Wacha to beat an unenviable club record dating back to 1908, until a run-scoring single by Howie Kendrick in the 6th puts the team on the board and a three-run homer by Yasmani Grandal gives them the lead. It is Wacha’s first loss after opening the year with seven straight wins.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Jessica Clements hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the seventh inning early Friday morning to carry ninth-seeded UCLA past No. 16 Oregon 4-2 at the Women’s College World Series, after the Ducks tied the game in the top of the inning on a call at home plate that was overturned.
Catcher Alexis Ramirez also hit a two-run homer in support of Bruins’ starter Kaitlyn Terry, who pitched a four-hitter and gave up one earned run. UCLA (55-11) will play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PDT) for a spot in the semifinals. Oregon (53-9) will face unseeded Mississippi in Friday’s elimination game.
Oregon’s Paige Sinicki doubled inside the third-base line to lead off the seventh, but the ruling was challenged by UCLA. The call was upheld, but the next hitter, Dezianna Patmon bunted Sinicki to third with one out. Emma Cox followed with a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Woolery, who tried to throw Sinicki out at home. The throw to Ramirez was on time and Sinicki was ruled out at home for the second out.
Oregon challenged the call, and it was overturned after a video review showed obstruction by Ramirez.
Oregon led 1-0 in the fourth inning when Ramirez hit a two-out pitch from starter Lyndsey Grein over the left-field wall to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. It was the first runs the Bruins had scored against Grein in four games this season. The Ducks took two of three from UCLA in April.
After Woolery singled and Megan Grant walked to open the sixth, Grein was pulled in favor of Elise Sokolsky, who retired the next two batters.
Lightning and rain resulted in a 75-minute delay, and two brief power outages lasting less than a minute each, turned Devon Park dark in the first inning.
UCLA’s Jessica Clements hits a walk-off home run against Oregon at the Women’s College World Series.
(Ross Turteltaub / UCLA Athletics)
Oregon scored first against Terry in the third inning. Kaylynn Jones led with an infield single before a bunt by Katie Flannery. Jones took third on a ground out by Kai Luschar. Her sister, Kedre Luschar, then drove in Jones on a single to right field.
The Bruins nearly answered in their half of the inning when Savannah Pola drove a pitch from Grein 220 feet to the base of the center-field wall that was hauled in by Kedre Luschar to end the inning.
Tuesday didn’t start as a game the Dodgers necessarily had to win.
But, by the time extra innings arrived on a nervy night at Dodger Stadium, the team was in a situation where they simply couldn’t afford to lose.
Not after entering the day with four consecutive losses, a season-long skid caused primarily by a banged-up pitching staff. Not after Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like an ace, a stopper and a Cy Young candidate all wrapped in one, spinning seven scoreless innings in a nine-strikeout gem. And certainly not with his brilliance in danger of being wasted after closer Tanner Scott blew a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before yielding a two-run blast in the top of the 10th.
“I don’t know if it was a must-win,” manager Dave Roberts said, sidestepping such superlatives with the season still only two months old. “But certainly given Yoshi’s outing, you don’t wanna waste that … You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws [that well].”
Somehow, in a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t; flipping the script, changing the narrative and snapping their losing streak with the most dramatic of endings.
Down by two runs entering the bottom of the 10th, the Dodgers immediately cut the deficit in half with a leadoff RBI double from Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked, Mookie Betts advanced Edman with a fly ball, Ohtani stole second, and Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked with first base open. With the bases loaded, Will Smith got plunked by former Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller to force home the tying score. And then, finally, Max Muncy walked it off with a sacrifice fly to deep center, easily scoring Ohtani from third for a victory that felt both hard-earned and hardly deserved.
“I think it showed a lot out of us,” Muncy said afterward, standing in a celebratory clubhouse after what could prove to be a pivotal point in the season.
“We got punched in the mouth, and for us to punch right back, I think that was really big out of the group, out of the guys,” Muncy added. “Everyone not giving up, not hanging their head — we still had a chance to win the game. And guys went out there and did it.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts after striking out Arizona’s Pavin Smith to retire end the seventh inning.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Winning, of course, should have been a much simpler task for the Dodgers (30-19) on Tuesday night.
Yamamoto was spectacular, giving up no hits through his first six innings, stranding runners on the corners to complete his night in the seventh, and providing the Dodgers with the kind of outing that has been missing from their rotation amid a wave of crippling injuries over the last several weeks.
“Yoshi was fantastic,” Roberts said. “We needed every bit of it.”
An equally banged-up bullpen avoided disaster in the eighth, when Alex Vesia and Ben Casparius combined to work through a bases-loaded jam that preserved a narrow 1-0 lead.
“We just kept fighting,” Smith said. “That [was a] big shutdown inning.”
But all along, the Dodgers failed to open any cushion to fall back on late. Their only early scoring was courtesy of back-to-back two-out doubles from Freeman and Smith in the bottom of the fourth. In the seventh and eighth, they squandered opportunities for insurance, stranding a leadoff single from Muncy and a one-out double from Ohtani.
That meant, when Scott caught too much plate with an up-and-in fastball to Gabriel Moreno in the ninth, all it took was one swing to change the game, Moreno skying a solo blast that carried just far enough down the left field line.
“Just left it too much on the plate,” said Scott, who blew his third save in 12 opportunities.
Freddie Freeman scores on a double by Will Smith in the fourth inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
After the Dodgers came up empty again in the ninth — Kiké Hernández struck out in what started as a 3-and-0 count with two runners aboard — Scott made the same mistake to Corbin Carroll in the 10th, serving up a belt-high fastball the undersized slugger whacked the other way for a two-run blast.
“You sit there in the [10th] inning, you’re down two runs, and your bullpen is completely taxed,” Roberts said, “those [kind of losses] really sting.”
Instead, the Dodgers rallied, with Anthony Banda limiting any further damage in the top of the 10th before the lineup rallied in the bottom half.
“It’s a big swing,” Roberts said. “To get a win tonight, I’m gonna sleep a lot better.”
Without Yamamoto, none of it would have been possible.
After giving up eight runs over 11 combined innings in his previous two starts, every part of the 26-year-old right-hander’s stuff played up on Tuesday night. His fastball averaged 96 mph. His curveball induced one helpless swing from the Diamondbacks (26-23) after another. And until Ketel Marte singled on a line drive off the wall to lead off the seventh, it was starting to seem like an elevated pitch count (Yamamoto began that inning with 90 pitches, and finished his outing with an MLB career high of 110) might be the only thing standing between him and a pursuit of a nine-inning no-no.
“I thought he was going to go the distance tonight,” Muncy said of Yamamoto, who dropped his ERA to 1.86 with his third career MLB start of seven scoreless frames. “I thought he had the stuff to get the no-hitter.”
That’s why, when the game started to spiral out of control later, and their losing streak seemed primed to continue in the most painful way possible, the Dodgers entered the 10th inning knowing they needed to respond, and wary of the repercussions that would have accompanied such a crushing, wasteful loss.
“They [tied it] and then flipped the game, but we came back,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter afterward, his no-decision not feeling so bad after what transpired in the bottom of the 10th.
“A win like this is great,” he added.
Echoed Roberts: “We just put some at-bats together, man. And it was much needed.”
SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run 430-foot walk-off homer to centerfield to give the San Diego Padres a comeback 6-4 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.
Tatis dropped the bat emphatically and watched the ball fly after he connected on a cutter against Angels closer Kenley Jansen (0-2), who took the loss.
Padres reliever Jason Adam (4-0) earned the win with a scoreless ninth.
Matthew Lugo hit a pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh to give the Angels a 4-2 lead. Lugo’s homer followed an RBI double in the seventh by Jo Adell, igniting a three-run rally after the Angels had two outs and no baserunners.
Angels starter José Soriano gave up two unearned runs and four hits in seven innings.
Padres starter Dylan Cease pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and five hits while striking out 10.
The Padres ended their two-game losing streak and finally beat the Angels, who had won their last four games over San Diego dating back to last season.
Key moment
With the score tied 4-4 in the ninth, Elias Díaz earned a full count walk to lead off the inning against Jansen. Tatis followed with his walk-off homer.
Key stat
Padres hot-hitting Jackson Merrill came into the game with six straight multihit games and hits in 14 of his last 15 games. Merrill was 0 for 4 Tuesday, including two deep flyouts to the wall. Tatis has hit safely in 23 of his last 26 games.
Up next
The Angels’ Randy Vásquez (2-3, 3.76 ERA) starts Wednesday night in the finale of the three-game series. Kyle Hendricks (1-4, 5.30) will be on the mound for the Padres.
