When Shohei Ohtani was asked about his woeful performance at the plate in the Dodgers’ National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last week, he first gave credit to the opposition.
Then, after a series that saw the Phillies counter him with one left-handed pitcher after the next, he was also quick to point out that he wasn’t alone.
“It was pretty difficult for left-handed hitters,” Ohtani said in Japanese amid the Dodgers’ clubhouse celebration following their Game 4 victory. “This was also the case for Freddie [Freeman].”
The Phillies did indeed make life tough on the Dodgers’ best lefty bats.
Freeman was only three for 15 in the series, albeit with a key Game 2 double and a .294 on-base-percentage.
Max Muncy was four for nine in the series, but spent most of it waiting on the bench, not getting a start in any of the three contests the Phillies had a southpaw on the mound.
And as a team, the Dodgers hit just .199 with 41 strikeouts in the four-game series.
However, no one’s struggles were as pronounced as Ohtani’s — the soon-to-be four-time MVP winner, who in the NLDS looked like anything but.
Ohtani struck out in each of his first four at-bats in Game 1. He didn’t get his first hit until grounding an RBI single through the infield in the seventh inning of Game 2.
After that, Ohtani’s only other time reaching base safely was when the Phillies intentionally walked him in the seventh inning of Game 4.
His final stat line from the series: One for 18, nine strikeouts and a whole lot of questions about what went wrong.
Ohtani, who was coming off a three-hit, two-homer wild-card round, did acknowledge Thursday night that “there were at-bats that didn’t go the way I thought they would.”
But, he quickly added: “The opposing pitchers didn’t make many mistakes. They pitched wonderfully, in a way that’s worthy for the postseason. There were a lot of games like that for both teams.”
The real question coming out of the series was about the root cause of Ohtani’s unexpected struggles.
Was it simply because of the tough pitching matchups, having faced a lefty in 12 of his 20 trips to the plate? Or had his faltering approach created more legitimate concerns, the kind that could threaten to continue into the NL Championship Series?
“I think a lot of it actually was driven by the left-handed pitching,” manager Dave Roberts said Saturday, as the Dodgers awaited to face either the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers in an NLCS that will begin on Monday.
“Hoping that he can do a little self-reflecting on that series, and how aggressive he was outside of the strike zone, passive in the zone,” Roberts said. “The at-bat quality needs to get better.”
For the Dodgers, the implications are stark.
“We’re not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance,” Roberts continued. “So we’re counting on a recalibration, getting back into the strike zone.”
From the very first at-bat of Game 1 — when he was also the starting pitcher in his first career playoff game as a two-way player — Ohtani struggled to make the right swing decisions.
He chased three pitches off the inside of the plate from Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez, which Roberts felt “kinda set the tone” for his series-long struggles, then took a called third strike the next two times he faced him.
From there, the 31-year-old slugger could never seem to dial back into his approach.
He went down looking again in Game 1 against left-handed reliever Matt Strahm. He led off Game 2 with another strikeout against another lefty in Jesús Luzardo. On and on it went, with Ohtani continuing to chase inside junk, flailing at pitches that darted off the plate the other way, and finding his only reprieve in a rematch with Strahm in Game 2 when he got just enough on an inside sinker.
Roberts’ hope was that, moving forward, Ohtani would be able to learn and adjust.
“Understanding when he faces left-handed pitching, what they’re gonna try to do: Crowd him in, off, spin him away,” Roberts said. “He’s just gotta be better at managing the hitting zone. I’m counting on it. We’re all counting on it.”
Roberts also conceded that Ohtani’s at-bats on the day he pitched in Game 1 seemed to be especially rushed.
“[When] he’s pitching, he’s probably trying to conserve energy, not trying to get into at-bats,” Roberts said. “It hasn’t been good when he’s pitched. I do think that’s part of it. We’ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.”
After all, while Ohtani might not have been the only struggling hitter in the NLDS, his importance to the lineup is greater than anyone’s. The Dodgers can only endure without him for so long.
Whether you like Harris or not, a possible run by the XX chromosome former vice president raises a perennial conundrum: Can a woman win the presidency?
She’s a professor of government and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University. She points out that post-election, Democrats can’t figure out who they are or what they stand for. In that disarray, it may seem easy and safe in 2028 to travel the well-worn route of “a straight, old white guy who fills the status quo.”
That may be especially true in the Trump era, when an increasingly vocal and empowered slice of America seems to believe that women do, in fact, belong in the kitchen making sanwhiches, far away from any decision beyond turkey or ham.
Post-2024, Harris’ defeat — and deciphering what it means — has caused a lot of “morning-after anxiety and agita,” she said. “We’re all doing research, we’re all in the field trying to figure this out.”
While confused Democrats diddle in private with their feelings, Republicans have made race and gender the center of their platform, even if they cloak it under economic talk. The party’s position on race has become painfully clear with its stance that all undocumented immigrants are criminals and deserving of horrific detention in places such as “Alligator Alcatraz” or even foreign prisons known for torture.
The Republican position on women is slightly more cloaked, but no less retrograde. Whether it’s the refusal to tell the public how Trump is included in the Epstein files, the swift and brutal erosion of reproductive rights, or claims, such as the one by far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk, that the only reason for women to attend college should be to get a “Mrs.” degree, Republicans have made little secret of the fact that equality is not part of their package.
Although Trump’s approval ratings have tanked over immigration, he did win just over half of the popular vote last fall. So that’s a lot of Americans who either agree with him, or at least aren’t bothered by these pre-civil rights ideas on race and gender.
Add to that reality the eager pack of nice, safe Democratic white guys who are lining up for their own chance at the Oval Office — our current California governor included — and it does beg the question for the left: Is a woman worth the risk?
“I’ve definitely seen and heard consultants and, you know, even anxious women donors say, ‘Maybe this means we can’t run a woman.’ And I think it’s completely normal for certain elements of the party to be anxious about gender,” said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, a grassroots advocacy group.
She too thinks the gender question is “logical” since it has been blamed — though not by her — as “the reason we lost to Donald Trump twice in a row, right? Whereas Biden was able to beat him.”
While Timmaraju is clear that those losses can’t — and shouldn’t — be tied to gender alone, gender also can’t be ignored when the margins are thin.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive political organizing group Our Revolution, which backed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016, said that gender and race are always a factor, but he believes the bigger question for any candidate in 2028 will be their platform.
Harris, he said, “lost not because she was a woman. She lost because she did not embrace an economic populist message. And I think the electorate is angry about their standard of living declining, and they’re angry about the elites controlling D.C. and enriching themselves.”
Greevarghese told me he sees an opposite momentum building within the party and the electorate — a desire to not play it safe.
“Whoever it is — male, female, gay, straight, Black, white, Asian — the candidate’s got to have a critique of this moment, and it can’t be a normie Dem.”
Brown, the professor, adds, rightfully, that looking at the question of a female candidate’s chances through the lens of just Harris is too narrow. There are lots of women likely to jump into the race. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are just two names already in the mix. Brown adds that an outside contender such as a woman from a political dynasty (think Obama) or a celebrity along the lines of Trump could also make headway.
The criticisms of Harris, with her baggage of losing the election and critiques of how she handled the campaign and the media, may not dog another female candidate, especially with voters.
“Whether Kamala runs again or not, I’m optimistic that the American people will vote for a female president,” Vanessa Cardenas told me. She is the executive director of America’s Voice, an advocacy group for immigrants’ rights.
“After the chaos, cruelty and incompetence of the Trump presidency, Latino voters, like most Americans, will reward candidates who can speak most authentically and seem most ready to fight for an alternative vision of America,” she said. “I believe women, and women of color, can credibility and forcibly speak to the need for change rooted in the lived experiences of their communities.”
Timmaraju said that regardless of what Harris decides, Democrats will probably have one of the most robust primaries in recent times — which can only be good for the party and for voters.
And rather than asking, “Can a woman win?” the better question would be, “Do we really want a system that won’t let them try?”
Six months to the day that flames ravaged Altadena and Pacific Palisades, Mayor Karen Bass was preparing to mark the occasion alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom and other leaders.
But instead of heading north to the Pasadena news conference last week, the mayor’s black SUV made a detour to MacArthur Park, where a cavalcade of federal agents in tactical gear had descended on the heart of immigrant Los Angeles.
In a seafoam blue suit, Bass muscled her way through the crowds and could be heard on a live news feed pushing the agents to leave.
Ultimately, she sent an underling to join Newsom and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla to discuss fire rebuilding and recovery, as she held an impromptu City Hall news conference decrying the immigration raid.
This is the delicate dance Bass has found herself doing in recent weeks. Recovering from one of the costliest natural disasters in American history remains a daily slog, even as a new and urgent crisis demands her attention.
The federal immigration assault on Los Angeles has granted Bass a second chance at leading her city through civic catastrophe. Her political image was badly bruised in the wake of the fires, but she has compensated amid a string of historically good headlines.
Killings have plummeted, with Los Angeles on pace for the lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years. Bass has also made progress on the seemingly intractable homelessness crisis for the second consecutive year, with a nearly 8% decrease in the number of people sleeping on city streets in 2024.
A “Karen Bass Resign Now” sign on Alma Real Drive on July 9 in Pacific Palisades.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
But there is a widening gulf between Pacific Palisades, where the annihilation remains palpable as far as the eye can see, and the rest of the city, where attention has largely flickered to other issues. Amid her successes, the mayor still faces harsh critics in the wealthy coastal enclave.
“The mayor has been very clear that every day that families can’t return home is a day too long, and she will continue taking action to expedite every aspect of the recovery effort to get them home,” Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said.
Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana, despite warnings of severe winds, when the conflagration erupted in early January. She floundered upon her return, fumbling questions about her trip, facing public criticism from her fire chief (whom she later ousted) and appearing out of sync with other leaders and her own chief recovery officer.
Those initial days cast a long shadow for the city’s 43rd mayor, but Bass has regained some of her footing in the months since. She has made herself a fixture in the Palisades, even when the community has not always welcomed her with open arms, and has attempted to expedite recovery by pulling the levers of government. Her office also led regular community briefings with detailed Q&A sessions.
Bass issued a swath of executive orders to aid recovery, creating a one-stop rebuilding center, providing tax relief for businesses affected by the fires and expediting permitting. The one-stop center has served more than 3,500 individuals, according to the mayor’s office.
Felipe Ortega raises the California flag at Gladstones Malibu on July 2 in Malibu. After sustaining damage from the fire, Gladstones reopened for business earlier this month.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
A number of restaurants and other amenities have also reopened in the neighborhood. The Starbucks on Palisades Drive is set to return later this month.
Bass frequently touts the Palisades fire recovery as the fastest in modern California history, though recent natural disasters don’t offer an apples-to-apples comparison.
Sue Pascoe, a Palisades resident who lost her home in the Via Bluffs neighborhood and helms a hyperlocal website called Circling the News, said the mayor has made some inroads.
“I think she’s tried very hard to repair relationships. She’s come up there a whole lot,” Pascoe said. “But I’m not sure it’s worked, to be honest with you.”
When Bass visits the Palisades, said Maryam Zar, head of the Palisades Recovery Coalition, residents tell her she has not done enough to hasten rebuilding.
“She always seems truly mind-boggled by that” accusation, Zar said. “She looks at us like, ‘Really? What have I not done?’”
The issue, in Pascoe’s view, is more about the limitations of the office than Bass’ leadership. Residents traumatized by the loss of their homes and infuriated by a broken insurance system and cumbersome rebuilding process would like to see the mayor wave a magic wand, slash red tape on construction and direct the full might of local government to reviving the neighborhood.
But Los Angeles has a relatively weak mayoral system, compared with cities such as New York and Chicago.
The mayor is far from powerless, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and a scholar of local government. But he or she shares authority with other entities, such as the 15-member City Council and the five-member L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
“To move things in L.A., you always need mayoral leadership, combined with the cooperation, collaboration — or hopefully not opposition — of a lot of powerful people in other offices,” Sonenshein said. “And yet, the mayor is still the recognized leader. So it’s a matter of matching up people’s expectation of leadership with how you can put the pieces together to get things done.”
Take the issue of waiving permit fees.
Construction workers rebuild a home on July 9 in Pacific Palisades.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
In February, City Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the fire-ravaged area, introduced a proposal to stop levying fees for permits to rebuild Palisades homes.
Pascoe and others cheered in late April when the mayor signed an executive order supporting Park’s plan.
But as Pascoe moved forward with rebuilding her longtime home, she was confused when her architect gave her a form to sign that said she would pay the city back if the City Council doesn’t move forward on the fee waivers.
As it turned out, Bass’ order did not cancel permit fees outright but suspended their collection, contingent on the council ultimately passing its ordinance, since the mayor can’t legally cancel the fees on her own.
Park’s proposal is still wending its way through the council approval process. Officials estimate that waiving the fees will cost around $86 million — a particularly eye-popping sum, given the city’s budget crisis, that may make approval difficult.
Apart from the limitations of her office, Bass has also confused residents and made her own path harder with a seemingly haphazard approach to delegating authority.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a discussion with local leaders and residents to mark 100 days since the start of the L.A. wildfires at Will Rogers State Beach on April 17.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Within a month of the blaze, Bass announced the hiring of Hagerty Consulting as a “world-class disaster recovery firm” that would coordinate “private and public entities.” To many residents, Bass had appeared to give the firm the gargantuan task of restoring the Palisades.
In reality, Hagerty was retained as a consultant to the city’s tiny, underfundedEmergency Management Department, whose general manager, Carol Parks, is designated by city charter as the recovery coordinator. Bass also brought out of retirement another former EMD chief, Jim Featherstone, who has served as de facto recovery chief behind the scenes.
But based on Bass’ public statements, many Angelenos thought the recovery would be led by a familiar face — Steve Soboroff.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and her disaster recovery czar Steve Soboroff, left, talk to media during a news conference at the Palisades Recreation Center on Jan. 27 in Pacific Palisades.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Soboroff, a developer, civic leader and longtime Palisades resident, signed on for a three-month stint as chief recovery officer and was initially tasked with creating a comprehensive strategy for rebuilding. But his role was soon dramatically scaled back. When he left in mid-April, Soboroff said he had been shut out from high-level planning essentially from the start and spoke candidly about his issues with Hagerty.
The city brought in a headhunter before Soboroff left, but the position has now been unfilled for longer than Soboroff’s 90-day tenure. (Seidl said Wednesday that the city is “in the process of interviewing and thoroughly vetting qualified candidates,” though he did not set a timeline.)
In June, Bass shifted course again by tapping AECOM, the global engineering firm, to develop a master recovery plan, including logistics and public-private partnerships.
Yet Bass’ office has said little to clarify how AECOM will work with Hagerty, and at a public meeting last month, leaders of the Emergency Management Department said that they, too, were in the dark about AECOM’s scope of work.
“We don’t know a whole lot about AECOM other than their reputation as a company,” Featherstone said at the City Council’s ad hoc recovery committee.
Seidl said Wednesday that AECOM would be working in “deep coordination” with Featherstone’s department while managing the overall rebuilding process. The firm is responsible for developing an infrastructure reconstruction plan, a logistics planning in coordination with local builders and suppliers and a master traffic plan as rebuilding activity increases, he said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, left, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and California Gov. Gavin Newsom tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades as the Palisades fire continues to burn on Jan. 8 in Los Angeles.
(Eric Thayer / Getty Images)
Hagerty, meanwhile, continues to work with EMD and has charged the city nearly $2 million thus far, Seidl said, most of which is reimbursable by the federal government.
Zar, head of the Palisades Recovery Coalition, said she was told to expect a meeting with AECOM more than a month ago, but that meeting has been delayed “week after week after week, for four or five weeks.”
“That organized recovery structure isn’t there, and that void is really creating space for Palisadians to be fearful, fight against each other, and be divided,” said Zar. “That our leaders and lawmakers have yet to come to the table with a plan is unforgivable.”
The work awarded to Hagerty, AECOM and another firm, IEM, which is assisting in federal reimbursements, prompted City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez to remark in June, “For a broke city, we find a lot of money to give out a lot of contracts.”
Bass’ 2022 mayoral opponent Rick Caruso has been a frequent — and very public — antagonist since the fires, questioning delays and taking other shots at the mayor.
Caruso’s Steadfast L.A., the nonprofit he launched to support fire victims, pushed for an artificial intelligence tool that could swiftly flag code violations in construction plans and trim permit processing times.
Steadfast representatives got buy-in from L.A. County. When they presented the tool to Bass’ team, they said they encountered general support but a plodding pace. Frustrated, Caruso reached out to Newsom, who, according to Caruso, quickly championed the technology, pushing the city to embrace it.
Bass’ spokesperson disputed the suggestion of delays, saying the mayor’s team has discussed technological innovations with Newsom’s office since February.
This week, L.A. County rolled out a pilot program in which fire survivors can use the AI plan-check tool. The city launched beta testing of the tool Wednesday.
The episode exemplified to Caruso why the recovery has moved slowly.
“There’s no decision-making process to get things done with a sense of urgency,” he said.
As the Rams went through organized-team activities on Wednesday, the players on the field were not the most compelling storyline.
The distinction belongs to a certain NFL star player who potentially could be on the roster by training camp.
Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI, remains in play as a possible addition to a Rams team regarded as a Super Bowl contender, coach Sean McVay acknowledged after practice.
The Dolphins have made it known that they were open to trading Ramsey, who signed an extension in 2024 and is due to earn $24.2 million this season, according to Overthecap.com.
“We certainly haven’t closed the door on that,” McVay said when asked about Ramsey. “But there hasn’t been a whole lot of dialogue as of late…. We’ll see if that changes, but these things can happen quickly.”
The Dolphins were not expected to trade Ramsey until after June 1 — which falls on Sunday — when their cap hit would decrease from $25.2 million to $6.7 million, according to Overthecap.com.
McVay reiterated that there remains “a lot of layers” that would have to be worked out in terms of compensation the Dolphins might be seeking and how they would handle money due to Ramsey.
Ramsey, 30, intercepted two passes last season, increasing his career total to 24. The three-time All-Pro, however, affects the game beyond his statistics.
“Obviously, we love Jalen,” McVay said. “We know him intimately. There would be some things that we would need to be able to do if that was the direction we went.”
But the Rams did nothing in free agency or the draft to upgrade the secondary.
Veterans Darious Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon return as the starting cornerbacks, with Cobie Durant, Emmanuel Forbes Jr., Derion Kendrick and Charles Wallace competing for playing time.
Quentin Lake, Kam Curl, Jaylen McCollough and Kam Kinchens are returning safeties.
“I feel good about where we’re at,” McVay said.
Darious Williams is confident in the group as well.
“I love that,” he said of the Rams not making changes. “I feel like everybody in the building kind of knows what they have, and I think they’re dead right on it. … They’ve got the right guys in the room that are going to hold it down.”
But Darious Williams also recounted how Ramsey brought out the best in him when they played opposite each other in 2021, when the Rams won the Super Bowl.
“I knew absolutely, when he was on the other side, you know, I better lock up because it’s not going to be a lot of times that people are going to want to try him,” Williams said. “That was a big thing for me, and I took it as a challenge and I took it as something I loved.
“Whatever is best for this organization is what’s going to happen.”
Etc.
Rookie tight end Terrance Ferguson, a second-round draft pick, said his experience so far exceeded his expectations. “Everyone’s poured into me, so it’s been an amazing experience,” he said. … Nacua was absent because he was returning from a family trip that was planned months ago, McVay said. … Stafford connected with Adams on several plays. “It’s fun just trying to communicate as much as I can with him,” Stafford said, adding, “It’s fun to work with guys that understand the game and still have a lot left in the tank.” Stafford also connected with Tutu Atwell for a long touchdown. … Running back Kyren Williams, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, is participating in workouts while the Rams and his agent attempt to work out a new deal. “Kyren has been the same stud that we know,” McVay said. “Great demeanor, great willingness to come out here to work to be able to get better. … We’ll see where this goes. But I think it’s been really healthy and positive progress for sure.” … Lakers coach JJ Redick attended practice.
