Rams lose to 49ers
From Gary Klein: Maybe, if the Rams still reach their intended destination at season’s end, they’ll look back at their very long trip to Australia — and purposely short stay — and be grateful.
A humbling punch in the face. A wake-up call. A rallying point that spurs them to even greater heights.
Until then, there is only one way to look at it:
The Rams embarrassed themselves, for a new part of the NFL world to see, in a humiliating 27-7 defeat by the San Francisco 49ers.
The Rams arrived here as the star-studded favorite to win Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium. They left star-crossed, stunned and searching for answers on their long flight back to Los Angeles.
The Rams sleep-walked through nearly all of the opener before a sold-out crowd of 100,021 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, in the first NFL game in Australia.
Coach Sean McVay’s strategy of arriving the day before the game backfired and resulted in a dull performance by a team featuring some of the NFL’s biggest stars.
“I don’t believe that’s why we didn’t play well enough, I really don’t,” McVay said. “It’s easy in hindsight to be able to say that was a miss.”
Rams poll
We asked, “Will the Rams win the Super Bowl and how many games will they win, counting the playoffs?”
After 1,172 responses:
Will the Rams win the Super Bowl?
Yes, 62.8%
No, 37.2%
How many games will the Rams win this season, including the playoffs?
18, 25%
17, 22.2%
16, 14.2%
15, 11.9%
14, 7.4%
20, 5.1%
9, 4.9%
19, 4%
12, 2.8%
Fewer than 10, 1.2%
10, 0.7%
11, 0.6%
Ohtani on IL raises questions
From Maddie Lee: When it comes to Shohei Ohtani‘s injury management, it’s tempting to dwell on the what-ifs.
What if the Dodgers forced him to give up pitching in July, when he needed a lubricant injection to alleviate irritation in his left knee?
It was clear by then that Ohtani was playing through multiple injuries. A right biceps problem popped up for the second time on July 3 — the last time he pitched in a game. The Dodgers said his knee inflammation was only aggravated by pitching and the biceps tightness was tied to hitting. And yet, they were confident that the MLB All-Star break would give Ohtani enough time to bounce back.
If the Dodgers had been more proactive, instead of starting and stopping Ohtani’s throwing program until his injuries forced a shutdown, would he be in the lineup Friday against the Miami Marlins instead of on the 15-day injured list?
Maybe.
Or maybe the injuries were significant enough that they would have affected him down the stretch regardless. Maybe seeing if he could return to the mound was worth the risk.
Maybe not.
Shaikin: Why it’s past time for MLB players, owners to get a 2028 Olympics deal done
UCLA confident a big Iamaleava game is coming
From Connor Dullinger: UCLA senior wide receiver Mikey Matthews expects the Bruins’ aerial attack to be as electrifying and dominant as their ground game was in a season-opening win over California.
The passing offense lived up to Matthews’ expectations against Cal — but only for a half.
After quarterback Nico Iamaleava completed 12 of 18 passes for 179 yards in the first half, he completed just two more passes for five yards — the Bruins’ only yardage in the third quarter.
The rushing attack carried the Bruins to victory, breaking open a tied game with three fourth-quarter touchdown runs.
Family values are key to Trent Mosley’s USC success
From Ryan Kartje: Since he was a boy, Trent Mosley was taught to live by the Five Ps: Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
The Five Ps weren’t so much a lesson in the Mosley household as “a lifestyle,” father Emmett Mosley explains. He can’t recall when or from whom he first heard the phrase, but ever since, the Five Ps have stuck with him. To the point that he and his wife, Cindy, made it a core tenet of their family. All four Mosley kids — their daughter, Jalyn, and three boys, Emmett Jr., Trent and Grant — were brought up on the principle that preparation was paramount.
So then, no one in the Mosley family was surprised to see Trent sprinting wide open in the second quarter last Friday night at the Coliseum, well on his way to another impressive performance in his second college game. Just like no one at USC is batting an eye at the freshman’s staggering start, which has him leading the nation with three touchdown catches and the Big Ten with 222 receiving yards.
To those who know Trent best, it’s like this sudden ascent to stardom simply was … inevitable. That’s the Five Ps at work, his father explains.
This day in sports history
1886 — The Mayflower defends the America’s Cup by beating Britain’s Galatea in two straight heats.
1937 — Don Budge beats Gottfried von Cramm in five sets to win his first U.S. Open men’s singles title. Budge wins 6-1, 7-9, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
1964 — ABC television cancels Fight of the Week, ending 18 years of regularly scheduled prime-time boxing on U.S. broadcast network television.
1976 — In the third race at Latonia, jockey John Oldham and his wife, Suzanne Picou, become the first husband and wife riding team to compete in a parimutuel race. Oldham finishes second aboard Harvey’s Hope and Picou rides My Girl Carla to an 11th-place finish.
1977 — In the last U.S. Open match played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, Guillermo Vilas beats Jimmy Connors, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0, for the men’s singles title
1982 — Chris Evert wins her sixth U.S. Open singles title, defeating Hana Mandlikova, 6-3, 6-1.
1982 — In a 23-16 loss to Illinois, Ralf Mojsiejunko of Michigan State kicks a 61-yard field goal in his first collegiate attempt.
1983 — Pittsburgh running back Franco Harris runs for 118 yards in Steelers 25-21 win at Green Bay to become only the third player in NFL history to rush for 11,000 yards.
1988 — Mats Wilander wins the longest men’s final in U.S. Open history, edging Ivan Lendl, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
1994 — Andre Agassi wins the U.S. Open with a three-set victory over Michael Stich and becomes the first unseeded player to beat five seeded players in a Grand Slam and the first unseeded champion since Fred Stolle in 1966. Andre wins 6-1, 7-6, 7-5.
1999 — U.S. Open Women’s Tennis: Serena Williams wins her first Grand Slam title; beats world No. 1 Martina Hingis 6-3, 7-6.
2001 — Sports comes to a standstill after terrorism in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, with major league baseball postponing a full schedule of regular-season games for the first time since D-Day in 1944.
2010 — James Madison, a top team in the Football Championship Subdivision, beats No. 13 Virginia Tech 21-16. The last time Virginia Tech lost to a I-AA team was 1985, when Richmond beat the Hokies 24-14 at Lane Stadium.
2010 — The Penn State women’s volleyball team has its record winning streak ends at 109 matches with a 28-26, 25-12, 25-18 loss to Stanford in a tournament at Florida. Penn State’s streak is the second-longest in Division I team sports, behind the 137 straight wins by the Miami men’s tennis program from 1957-1964.
2011 — Carolina’s Cam Newton becomes the first rookie to throw for more than 400 yards in his NFL opener in a 28-21 loss to Arizona. Newton, the No. 1 draft pick playing on the same field where he led Auburn to the BCS championship in January, completes 24 of 37 passes for 422 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
2015 — Roberta Vinci stuns Serena Williams to end her Grand Slam bid in one of the greatest upsets in tennis history. The 43rd-ranked Italian wins 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1912 — Eddie Collins set a major league record with six stolen bases for the Philadelphia Athletics in a 9-7 win over the Detroit Tigers. Collins stole six more in a game on Sept. 22.
1918 — The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 behind the three-hit pitching of Carl Mays to win the World Series in six games. This was Boston’s third championship in a four-year stretch — 1915, 1916 and this season.
1936 — Hod Lisenbee of the Philadelphia A’s tied a major league record for hits allowed, giving up 26 in a 17-2 rout by the Chicago White Sox.
1949 — The New York Yankees sent 18 men to the plate in the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader against Washington. In the 50-minute half-inning the Senators walked a major-league record 11 batters as the Yankees went on to a 20-5 win. New York won the second game 2-1 in one hour and 22 minutes.
1959 — The Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4, putting an end to reliever Roy Face’s 22-game winning streak. It was his only loss of the season as he finished with an 18-1 record.
1974 — It took the St. Louis Cardinals 25 innings — seven hours, four minutes — to beat the New York Mets. There were a record 202 plate appearances. Felix Millan and John Milner had 12 appearances apiece.
1985 — Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the all-time hit leader with his 4,192nd hit to break Ty Cobb’s record. Rose lined a 2-1 pitch off San Diego pitcher Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s last game in the majors.
1987 — New York Mets third baseman Howard Johnson, with 34 homers, became the first National League infielder to reach 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season. His 30th stolen base came in the fourth inning of a 6-4, 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
1996 — San Diego’s Ken Caminiti broke his own major league record by homering from both sides of the plate in a game for the fourth time this season. In a 6-5 win over Pittsburgh, Caminiti homered left-handed in the fifth inning, hitting a two-run shot. Batting right-handed in the seventh, he hit a solo shot to break his record set last year.
2008 — Albert Pujols drove in his 100th run with a sixth-inning double in the Cardinals’ 3-2 loss to the Cubs, becoming only the third player in major league history to reach the milestone in his first eight seasons. Pujols also extended his major league-record streak of reaching 30 homers and 100 RBIs in his first eight seasons, two more than any player in history.
2014 — Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton sustained multiple facial fractures, dental damage and cuts that needed stitches after being hit in the face by a pitch. Stanton was hit under the left eye by a fastball from Milwaukee’s Mike Fiers in the fifth inning of a 4-2 loss.
2021 — Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader of the Milwaukee Brewers throw a combined no-hitter to beat the Cleveland Indians 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.