Dodgers

DeShaun Foster was hired on a hunch.

What other way was there to evaluate someone who had no experience for the role he was being brought in to fill?

The hope was that the longtime position coach could quickly grow on the job as UCLA’s football boss while leveraging his unrivaled passion for restoring his alma mater to the glory it had last enjoyed during Foster’s playing days.

Nearly a year and a half later, there are an increasing number of signs indicating that Foster’s hire might have been a smart gamble.

After the Bruins won four of their last six games to end 2024 with a 5-7 record, Foster didn’t simply point to that late-season success as a reason to stay on the same path. Instead, he quickly pivoted to revamp a coaching staff that had been hired on the fly and generated one of college football’s most disappointing offenses.

Among the newcomers were several dogged recruiters who immediately revived the team’s ability to land the sort of elite high school recruits who had usually looked elsewhere under the Chip Kelly regime. UCLA’s 2026 recruiting class, which includes a quartet of four-star players and is currently ranked No. 21 in the country by 247Sports.com, could be the Bruins’ best since Jim Mora challenged the likes of Michigan and Ohio State for the nation’s top prospects.

Another encouraging development revealed itself Thursday inside a Mandalay Bay convention center in Las Vegas. Foster chased away the ghosts of his 2024 Big Ten media days bumble by delivering a 6 1/2-minute opening monologue that presented a coherent message amid a touch of self-deprecating humor, the coach referring to his infamous “We’re in L.A.” line from a year ago as “the most obvious geography lesson in Big Ten history.”

“You’re gonna see growth in my team this year, and you saw growth with me with this press conference,” Foster told a small group of Los Angeles-based reporters afterward. “But, you know, I was looking forward to this, and like I told you guys before, I’ve been waiting on this opportunity to come back out here.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between Foster’s latest public performance and his stumble a year ago was that he actually prepared this time, clutching several sheets of paper instead of riffing off the top of his head to regrettable results.

That’s not to say that Foster has fully silenced the doubters. As his team prepares to open training camp Wednesday in Costa Mesa, there are unknowns galore about a roster that will feature an almost entirely new defense and a transfer quarterback who has only a month to master the offense after transferring from Tennessee.

The baseline for success in Year 2 under Foster should be at least six wins and an accompanying bowl game, which would still fall well short of what the Bruins accomplished with Foster on their roster. Remember, they nearly made the first BCS title game at the end of Foster’s freshman season in 1998 (Damn you, lack of instant replay on the alleged Brad Melsby fumble).

But a winning season combined with a horde of promising prospects on the way would serve as the biggest signal yet that maybe, just maybe, Foster is the right guy for the job.

Promising debut

Nico Iamaleava walks off the field after the UCLA Spring Football Showcase on May 3.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

It would have been easy for UCLA to squirrel away its new 6-foot-6 quarterback until the season started, saving Nico Iamaleava from a fusillade of questions that felt like a Congressional hearing.

But there was the transfer from Tennessee on Thursday, facing one of the biggest scrums of reporters near the end of the final Big Ten media day.

“I wanted to bring him here,” Foster said. “Just, you know, it’s time to let you tell your story. A lot of people wrote a book for you and didn’t talk to him about it, so I just wanted him to be able to come out here … and, like, really tell his truth.”

Iamaleava told a fairly straightforward story about wanting to move closer to his Long Beach home to play in front of family for a team that he considered attending out of high school. More importantly, he never came close to getting frazzled by a series of probing, repetitive questions about the circumstances of his departure from Tennessee.

“He’s just somebody that I don’t think can really get rattled, you know?” Foster said. “Personality wise, he’s kind of quiet a little bit, but, you know, has confidence. But a quarterback, you’ve got to be able to function with stuff [happening] around you.”

Letting Iamaleava get the media scrutiny out of the way now was a smart move that will let him fully focus on something far more important — preparing for the season opener against Utah on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl.

Looking ahead

UCLA is installing a new grass practice field outside the Wasserman Center,

(Ben Bolch / Los Angeles Times)

For the first time since it slogged through the San Bernardino heat in 2016, UCLA will hold its football training camp off campus.

The team will use the Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa, a previous home to the Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders.

The site’s proximity to coastal breezes could prevent the Bruins from spending as much time soaking in ice baths as they did in San Bernardino, where temperatures routinely reached triple digits.

Right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said the team’s hotel was only four minutes away from the practice fields, meaning players won’t be stuck on buses for a long commute.

The move to train off campus was made in large part because UCLA is installing a new grass practice field outside the Wasserman Center, but it could have additional benefits for a team that’s integrating dozens of transfers and high school freshmen.

A bear market?

This could be a historic year for UCLA sports.

After finishing fifth in the Learfield Directors Cup that measures broad-based success in college athletics, the Bruins could challenge for the top spot in 2025-26 based on an extraordinary combination of returning talent and gifted newcomers.

What’s perhaps most intriguing is that the football and men’s basketball teams could join their Olympic-sport counterparts in winning big upon the arrival of Iamaleava and point guard Donovan Dent.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Times, UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said he was bullish on the Bruins’ chances to follow up a prosperous debut Big Ten season with even greater success.

“A lot of people put in a lot of work to put us in this position, and we’re going to keep working, you know?” Jarmond told The Times. “So I’m really, really proud and I’m really excited about what we’re doing and where we’re going.”

Opinion time

Does Terry Donahue belong on a Mt. Rushmore of UCLA football?

(Reed Saxon / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA has produced some legendary football coaches, from Terry Donahue to Red Sanders to Tommy Prothro. Its list of celebrated players is far longer, including numerous inductees into the college and pro football halls of fame.

Who are your favorites? If you had to pick four figures to place on a Mount Rushmore of UCLA football (say, along a Bel-Air hilltop overlooking campus), who would they be? Email your responses to [email protected] and we’ll post the results next week.

Remember when?

Foster has experience coming off a disappointing UCLA season with a tough opener at the Rose Bowl like his team will face late next month when Utah coach Kyle Willingham brings his team to Pasadena.

In their 2000 opener, the Bruins faced third-ranked Alabama at the Rose Bowl and it looked like things might get ugly. UCLA lost starting quarterback Cory Paus after the first drive with a sprained shoulder ligament. The Bruins fell behind when the Crimson Tide scored the first touchdown on a punt return.

But then backup quarterback Ryan McCann and Foster engineered a stunning 35-24 victory that coach Bob Toledo at the time called the second-greatest of his UCLA career behind only a double-overtime triumph against USC in 1996.

Foster tied a school record with 42 carries for what was then a career-high 187 yards and McCann completed 14 of 24 passes for 194 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown to Freddie Mitchell. You can watch that game here.

Unranked at the time, UCLA went on to win its first three games en route to a No. 6 ranking before finishing the season with a 6-6 record after a 21-20 loss to Wisconsin in the Sun Bowl.

In case you missed it

After successful Big Ten debut, UCLA has designs on something even bigger

‘It came down to me wanting to be back home’: Nico Iamaleava details move to UCLA

A year after stumbling at Big Ten media days, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster is poised and confident

Wide receiver Kaedin Robinson suing NCAA in bid to play for UCLA this season

‘It was a real blessing’: Ben Howland remains grateful long after leaving UCLA

Have something Bruin?

Thank you for reading the first UCLA Unlocked newsletter. Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on X @latbbolch. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. This week, with official football practice beginning on Monday, let’s look at the players who never pass up doughnuts, steaks or pancakes — the offensive linemen.

Looking for pancakes

Those with ambitions of winning football championships know it starts with the offensive line.

In the City Section, Birmingham has weaknesses to fix, but a big, experienced offensive line that will create openings for two promising running back transfers will be key to the Patriots’ City title hopes. Leading the way is junior Pablo Granados, an improving 6-foot-4, 280-pound left tackle who started as a sophomore.

San Pedro returns two All-City linemen in David Medina and Quincy Couch. Banning has Erick Hernandez, a 6-5, 260-pound senior. Kai Wheeler is a 6-2, 320-pound senior offensive tackle from Crenshaw becoming more agile and stronger.

Kodi Greene (No. 75) of Mater Dei blocks last season. He’s one of the nation’s top blockers.

(Craig Weston)

Mater Dei went unbeaten in the Southern Section last season aided by a strong offensive line, and two of the Monarchs’ top blockers return in Kodi Greene and Lex Mailangi. Servite might have the best sophomore lineman in Elisha Mueller. Alabama commit Sam Utu leads an experienced Orange Lutheran line that includes junior Lucas Rhoa.

Josh Haney at JSerra, Niniva Nicholson at Santa Margarita and Kaden Franco at St. John Bosco round out an impressive group of blockers in the Trinity League.

Cooper Javorsky, a UCLA commit at San Juan Hills, had a great off season to surge as a player and prospect. Andre White at Rancho Cucamonga and Elisha Faamatuainu of Murrieta Valley are big men to watch in the Inland Empire. Dylan Felli of Mission Viejo is the key blocker for quarterback Luke Fahey.

Blake Graham of Leuzinger is a 280-pound battering ram.

Schools deal with ICE raids

With downtown Los Angeles in the background, Contreras football coach Manuel Guevara prepares for another obstacle this season _ ICE raids that strike fear among his players and their parents.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

As high school football practices begin Monday, three downtown Los Angeles high schools, Contreras, Roybal and Belmont, are trying to deal with the effects of ICE raids in the community.

Summer practices have been disrupted. Coaches have been trying to keep players safe and calm fears of parents.

Here’s a look at the fears and obstacles ahead.

Unsung contributors

Micaiah Underwood operates Hart High’s drone on Wednesday morning.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Drone operators, managers and athletic trainers. As football practices begin Monday, coaches are relying on unsung contributors to help them manage programs.

Here’s a look.

This is the way

Hamilton coach Elijah Asante (left) and Jordan coach James Boyd are on friendly terms. Asante was his high school coach.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

There’s lots of challenges among City Section coaches, but the only way forward is to focus on players you have, teach them, allow them to have fun and prepare them for life ahead.

Here’s a look at why City coaches have stopped fighting and started sharing stories and ideas to move forward.

Notes . . .

Kinsley Spencer celebrates after scoring a run for Westchester Little League softball team that won the West Regional on Friday.

(Craig Weston)

The Westchester Del Rey softball team will be competing in the Little League World Series in North Carolina this week. Here’s the report. . . .

Quarterback Deuce Jefferson from Long Beach Poly has committed to Weber State. . . .

Corona High first-round draft picks Seth Hernandez, Billy Carlson and Brady Ebel received a combined $16,235,900 in signing bonuses. . . .

Warren graduate Angel Cervantes, a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, announced he would be attending UCLA. The hard-throwing Cervantes will be a key addition to the Bruins’ pitching staff. The deadline to sign a pro contract is 2 p.m. on Monday. Here’s the report. . . .

The Perfect Game All-American Game will be held Aug. 17 at Petco Park. Among the players selected for the West team is outfielder Blake Bowen of JSerra, infielder Trey Ebel of Corona, outfielder Isaiah Hearn of Chaminade, outfielder Anthony Murphy of Corona, pitcher Logan Schmidt of Orange Lutheran and outfielder Eric Zdunek of Orange Lutheran. . . .

Joseph Nava is the new wrestling coach at Santa Margarita. Ivan Buich, a former USC assistant, is the school’s new boys water polo coach. . . .

Defensive lineman JD Hill of Mission Viejo has committed to Northern Arizona.

From the archives: Jordin Canada

Former Los Angeles Sparks guard Jordin Canada in 2023.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

During her prolific high school basketball days at Windward, Jordin Canada said she wanted to become a nurse. Basketball, though, has taken up much of her time, from UCLA to spending eight years in the WNBA.

This season she’s playing for the Atlanta Dream, averaging 10 points a game. The former Los Angeles Times player of the year was at the beginning of the rapid growth of girls’ basketball in the Southland.

Here’s a story from 2013 when she was The Times’ player of the year.

Here’s a video from 2013 on Canada’s guard skills in the state championship game.

Recommendations

From Abqjournal.com, a story on former Mira Costa third baseman Kyle Karros.

From Themercedfocus.org, a story on a sportswriter switching sides.

From Burlisononbasketball, a story on late summer basketball movers.

From BaseballAmerica, a story on UCLA coach John Savage trying to keep building without lots of transfers.

From NFHS.org, a story encouraging multi-sport athletes in high school.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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BOSTON — The Dodgers had MLB strikeout leader Garrett Crochet on the ropes early Saturday night, after Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández each homered within the game’s first three at-bats.

But, in what became a frustrating 4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Crochet bobbed and weaved around every knockout blow the Dodgers tried to land.

“I thought we played hard. I thought we competed,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He made pitches when he needed to.”

Indeed, in a game that was decided on the margins — through high-leverage at-bats and two-strike battles and risky decisions that backfired on the basepaths — Crochet was just a little bit better than Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw, using his heavy fastball and premium all-around stuff to wiggle out of trouble in a way his aging 37-year-old counterpart couldn’t.

While Crochet limited damage over the rest of his six-inning start, striking out 10 batters to prevent each of the eight other Dodgers who reached base from scoring, Kershaw faltered when his back was up against the wall, yielding the lead in a three-run second inning before exiting after another run in the fifth.

“Obviously, when you’re facing a guy like Crochet, there’s not gonna be a ton of runs,” said Kershaw, who once invoked such fear from opponents but now has to grind with gradually diminished stuff. “Our guys did a good job getting a lead there early and really having good at-bats. Just frustrating not to be able to hold it.”

Making his first career regular-season start at Fenway Park (he had only previously pitched here in the 2018 World Series), Kershaw appeared to be battling his mechanics from the start. He delivered a first-pitch strike to only five of the first 14 batters. Even worse, he couldn’t put guys away on two-strike counts.

It culminated in the three-run second inning from the Red Sox (56-50). Trevor Story worked a leadoff walk. Carlos Narváez belted a double off the Green Monster. And, on a night he had two triples and a double, Jarren Duran laced a line drive to center that got over Andy Pages’ head to plate two runs (Duran would later score on a sacrifice fly).

All three batters did their damage with two strikes.

“Needed to figure it out a little bit better,” Kershaw said of the second inning. “The last few innings [after that], I actually felt pretty good with everything. Just couldn’t make the adjustment that second inning. And that’s what cost us.”

1

2

1. Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the first inning Saturday. 2. Boston starting pitcher Garrett Crochet delivers in the first inning Saturday. (Steven Senne / Associated Press)

Kershaw eventually settled down. He rediscovered his command in the third, working around a pair of singles with a double-play grounder and strikeout of Story. He found the kind of rhythm that has keyed his surprisingly strong 18th season from there, retiring seven consecutive batters to work his way into the fifth inning.

But with two outs in the fifth, Red Sox slugger Alex Bregman outlasted Kershaw in another two-strike battle, bouncing a single through the infield on the 10th pitch of the at-bat. Then, rookie star Roman Anthony drove him home with a double off the Monster.

Kershaw’s night ended there, with four runs (tying the second-most earned runs he has allowed this season) and only two strikeouts over 4⅔ innings raising his season earned-run average to 3.62.

“Could have been a super frustrating day,” Kershaw said. “Now it’s only mildly frustrating — just that that’s still in there, I can still get people out. It’s just that second inning got to me.”

Crochet, meanwhile, never wavered after the Dodgers (61-44) did their early damage.

“When you’re facing guys like Crochet, you don’t get so many good pitches to hit,” Hernández said. “The ones that you do, you just have to put it in play and hopefully you can get good contact, do some damage, like we did in the first inning. After that, he was throwing the ball very good. He didn’t miss many pitches in the strike zone.”

The Dodgers, in an effort to manufacture extra offense, didn’t help their own cause on the bases, either.

After the first-inning home runs, another rally fizzled when Freddie Freeman was thrown out trying to go from first to third base on a Pages single that was initially booted by Duran in left field.

The Dodgers challenged the call, with Roberts applauding Freeman’s aggressiveness from the dugout, but the out was upheld. Tommy Edman lined out to end the inning an at-bat later.

“I thought that was a good play, I liked that,” Roberts said of Freeman’s decision. “He’s got to make a perfect throw to get Freddie right there. But in a first and third [situation] with a two-run lead, if we get into a situational spot right there, it could’ve been a different game.”

Instead, the rest of the night was more of the same.

The Dodgers had two other innings end with outs on the bases. Hernández was caught stealing for the final out of the fifth (on a close play the Dodgers were unable to review after burning their challenge earlier, but one Hernández was told likely would’ve been upheld). Will Smith was gunned down trying to turn a single into a double in the seventh, after Crochet’s exit.

“If you try to play it straight and try to collect a bunch of hits, it’s just not going to happen,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ game plan on the bases. “We had a chance early and then he started bearing down and the velocity ticked up. Then hits were harder to come by.”

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani examines his bat before striking out in the fourth inning Saturday.

(Steven Senne / Associated Press)

And if that wasn’t enough, Ohtani squandered several more chances in deflating sequences at the plate.

Despite extending his National League lead with his 38th home run to start the game, the slugger also moved into the top-five of the NL in strikeouts with three in each of his remaining at-bats Saturday, finishing with 124 on the season.

In both the second and fourth, No. 9 hitter Hyeseong Kim managed to single off Crochet (surprising results given Kim’s recent struggles, which Roberts said have been magnified by a recent shoulder injury). But both times, Ohtani followed with inning-ending Ks, chasing out of the zone on a fastball up and a cutter that was well away.

The Dodgers, nonetheless, gave themselves one last chance against Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate after a two-out walk from Esteury Ruiz.

The batter representing that tying run: Mookie Betts, who was out of the starting lineup for a second straight game after spending the week back home in Nashville following a death in his family, but arrived at the ballpark shortly after first pitch to be available to pinch-hit.

His number was called with the game on the line, in what marked just his second trip back to Fenway Park since being traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers in 2020.

Alas, the former MVP brought a night of missed chances to a frustratingly fitting conclusion, getting rung up on a called third strike to set up a series rubber match Sunday.

Kenley Jansen signed his first professional contract with the Dodgers 21 years ago. He was Clayton Kershaw’s catcher in rookie ball. He has been honored as an All-Star four times. He has saved more games than all but three men in major league history, all of them Hall of Famers. He won a World Series with the Dodgers.

For all that Jansen has accomplished in his two decades in pro ball, there is one thing he has not experienced: He never has been traded.

That could happen in the coming days, with baseball’s trade deadline next Thursday. As we talked about that possibility Friday at Angel Stadium, and about how the sport can be a cold business at times, he dropped 11 words that stood out.

“I thought,” he said, “I would play my whole career with the Dodgers.”

Maybe you can go home again.

The Dodgers are urgently shopping for right-handed relievers. In Anaheim, Jansen is enjoying a season that by some measures is his best since 2021, his last season with the Dodgers.

First things first: Jansen did not sign with the Angels just to rack up saves. He is 36 saves shy of 500, a milestone reached only by Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

“I came here with one goal in mind,” Jansen said, “and the goal was to help this team turn around, to end that playoff drought. That’s what I’m here for.

“If they move me, I’d definitely feel disappointed we didn’t accomplish it.”

But let’s be real: The longest playoff drought in the majors is likely to hit 11 years. The Angels are 4-1/2 games out of a postseason berth, but they would have to pass six teams to sneak into the last wild-card spot in the American League playoffs. Baseball Prospectus projects their chance of making the playoffs at 2%.

The Angels demoted their fifth starter this month. They have been running bullpen games because they had no one in their farm system ready to fill the vacancy. They only have two starters you could pencil into their 2026 rotation.

They need pitching depth, and it would be organizational malpractice not to get some by trading their pending free agents, Jansen included.

Kenley Jansen pitches for the Dodgers against the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the NLCS on Oct. 19, 2021.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For the Angels, the optimal outcome would be a team desperate for a closer overpaying to get Jansen.

However, such a team would be more likely to overpay for the marquee names on the market, including Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins, Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians and Felix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles, with a second tier led by David Bednar of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ryan Helsley of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Dodgers hate to overpay.

Jansen has 17 saves and one blown save, with a 1.00 earned-run average in save situations and a 3.19 ERA overall. The latter is his lowest ERA since 2021. By ERA+, a statistic that accounts for league and ballpark factors, Jansen is at 133 — or 33% better than league average.

The only Dodgers relievers with an ERA+ above 133: left-handers Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer.

Dodgers relievers have thrown 49.1% of the team’s innings pitched; the highest percentage of any major league team. Vesia, Anthony Banda and the injured Tanner Scott rank among the top 20 in appearances. Ben Casparius, who earned his first major league save Friday, ranked second among major league relievers in innings pitched.

In an ideal world, the Dodgers would enter the playoffs with four primary right-handed relievers: Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips.

Phillips is out for the season. Treinen could return from the injured list next week, with Kopech possibly to follow next month and Graterol in September, but it is risky to count on injured players to return healthy and effective.

In a major league career that started in 2010, Jansen never has been on the injured list because of an elbow or forearm issue, and his two stints for shoulder inflammation were brief.

The Dodgers could drop Jansen into their mix of high-leverage right-handers. They would not want Jansen if he would want to be the unquestioned closer.

He is getting the job done as a closer, and he is getting closer to 500 saves. But the Dodgers’ analysts would probably take note of his career highs in exit velocity and hard-hit balls, and a .774 OPS against left-handers that compares unfavorably to his .600 career mark, and might want to spot him against a run of right-handers. Could be the sixth inning, could be the ninth.

Whether it’s the Dodgers or any other contending team, would Jansen consider a role outside the ninth inning?

“At that point, it’s just about getting rings,” Jansen said. “My goal is to win. You play for that, always. I understand there is a milestone I am close to. But, at the end of the day, it’s what you play for. You play to win. You play to win a World Series.

“If I have to go throw the sixth, seventh, eighth, I would do it. I’m a professional. I would do what I do best, and that is pitch.”

Jansen said he hasn’t given up on this Angels team, or this Angels season. He would love to win in Anaheim. The Angels could help him do that: Trade him for another pitching piece that could help them next year, then sign Jansen again over the winter.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. It’s time for some random thoughts about the Dodgers.

—This team seems to make more costly errors than any Dodger team in recent memory.

—Why is James Outman, who is hitting .137/.245/.269 over his last two seasons with the Dodgers (including .103 this season), in the majors while Ryan Ward, who is hitting .315/.401/.614 with 26 homers at triple-A Oklahoma City, sits in the minors? Maybe Ward (who hit .258/.317/.543 with 33 homers last season in triple A) will flame out in the majors, but we know Outman can’t hit. We don’t know what Ward can do yet.

—Would moving from shortstop help Mookie Betts hit again? Let’s take a look at his numbers last season:

when he started at shortstop: .308/.407/.500, 15 doubles, nine homers, 39 walks, 29 K’s in 240 at bats.

at right field: .273/.324/.517, eight doubles, nine homers, 14 walks, 21 K’s in 161 at bats.

He hit better as a shortstop last season, so perhaps that isn’t the problem after all.

However, I think the Dodgers are much better defensively with Betts in right and Miguel Rojas (or someone else) at short.

—The Dodgers have played poorly lately, but we still won’t have any sense of what this team really is until after the trade deadline.

—Betts is 32 and has always had one of the slowest bat speeds in the majors. We could be looking at how he’s going to hit from now on. Probably not, but the days of 39 homers and 107 RBIs may be over, regardless if he rebounds this season or not.

—A lot of people have asked what is up with Charley Steiner, who called part of the first game of the season and nothing since. The Dodgers remain mum, but we do know he was battling cancer last season. We wish him well.

—Tyler Glasnow looked like an ace Tuesday, giving up one run in seven innings while striking out 12. If he can stay healthy, that will be huge come the postseason. That’s a big if though.

—Austin Barnes is hitting .174 (4 for 23) for the Giants in triple A. He singled off Blake Snell, who was pitching a rehab game for the Dodgers, so some things never change. If he could have faced Snell his whole career, he’d be in the Hall of Fame.

—Dalton Rushing, who came up when Barnes was released to provide more offense, is hitting .216/.280/.297 in 27 games. With the Dodgers this season, Barnes hit .214/.233/.286. It was still the right move to make, but it hasn’t worked out like expected so far.

—Max Muncy is ahead of schedule as he works to return from a bone bruise in his knee. In May, who would have thought we’d be eagerly awaiting the return of Muncy?

—Bobblehead nights I’d like to see: A duo of reliever Mike Marshall and outfielder Mike Marshall. John Shelby, pounding his glove just before a catch. Jay Howell, with a lot of pine tar on the outside of his glove. Pedro Guerrero, holding a bat with no glove in sight. Jerry Reuss no-hitter bobblehead. Mickey Hatcher two World Series home runs bobblehead. Steve Yeager blocking home plate, with that flap hanging down from his mask. Bill Buhler with that can of freeze spray he used. Brian Holton and Tim Crews, unsung heroes of the 1988 team. The 1988 “Stuntmen,” Hatcher, Rick Dempsey, Dave Anderson, Franklin Stubbs and Danny Heep. Jim Wynn and Lance Rautzhan, two of my favorite Dodgers.

—Blake Treinen could be back in the next couple of weeks.

—I don’t wish for anyone to be injured, but this forearm inflammation that is sidelining Tanner Scott could be a blessing in disguise, giving him a chance to reset mentally and come back like the Scott of old. He is a much better pitcher than he has shown so far.

—The Dodgers are hitting .212 in July.

—The league might be catching up to Hyeseong Kim. He is hitting .191 this month with only one extra-base hit and on walk in 47 at bats.

—Tommy Edman is seven for his last 49 (.143)

—Michael Conforto is hitting better than Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández this month.

—There are 59 games left to go and the Dodgers are still in first place. We can always examine the negatives, but we have to remember the positives too.

—Baseball Reference ran a simulation 1,000 times of the remaining games and the postseason. Here are the teams that won the World Series at least 20 times in those simulations:

Chicago Cubs, won World Series 175 times
Detroit, 125 times
Milwaukee, 114 times
NY Yankees, 105 times
Houston (no relation), 95 times
Dodgers, 72 times
Philadelphia, 61 times
Toronto, 49 times
NY Mets, 44 times
Boston, 31 times
Seattle, 30 times
San Diego, 26 times
Tampa Bay, 26 times
Texas, 23 times

Trade prospects?

The trade deadline was Thursday at 3 p.m. PT. The Dodgers have needs. They signed relievers (Scott, Kirby Yates) in the offseason so they wouldn’t have to trade for relief help, yet here we are. An outfielder could be nice. I’ve long since stopped guessing what Andrew Friedman will do at the deadline, because it’s almost always something unexpected. Instead, we will look at the top players available at positions it seems the team needs help. Click on the player name to be taken to their stats page at Baseball Reference. They are listed in alphabetical order and stats are through Wednesday.

Starting pitchers

Sandy Alcantara, Miami: Won the NL Cy Young in 2022. Missed last season after Tommy John surgery, so you know that makes him extra appealing to the Dodgers. Has a 6.66 ERA this season, which I’m told is not very good.

Mitch Keller, Pittsburgh: Is only 4-10 with a 3.53 ERA and is owed $56 million over the next three seasons, so this seems unlikely, but possible.

Seth Lugo, Kansas City: Lugo throws nine different pitcher (think Rich Hill, only right-handed.) Finished second in AL Cy Young voting last season after going 16-9 with a 3.00 ERA. Has a 2.95 ERA this season.

Relief pitchers

Félix Bautista, Baltimore: It would take a slew of prospects to get him, but Bautista has thrown 161 innings in the majors and struck out 248 to go with a 2.01 ERA.

David Bednar, Pittsbugh: A two-time All-Star who has rebounded from a terrible 2024 season (5.77 ERA), Bednar would probably cost the least, as far as prospects go, in a trade. Led the league with 39 saves in 2023.

Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland: Had one of the best seasons ever by a closer last season (4-2, 47 saves, 0.61 ERA, 39 hits and 10 walks in 74.1 innings) but is having his worst season this year, if you can call 5-2, 22 saves and a 2.80 ERA “worst.”

Jhoan Durán, Minnesota: His fastball averages 100 mph. Had an off year last season (3.64 ERA), but has rebounded, posting a 1.94 ERA and 15 saves in 46.1 innings, giving up 37 hits and 16 walks while striking out 51.

Pete Fairbanks, Tampa Bay: He’s 31, but has added velocity to his fastball this season.

Ryan Helsley, St. Louis: Had 49 saves last season, but not quite as successful this season. 34 innings, 34 hits, 14 walks is not a shutdown reliever.

Griffin Jax, Minnesota: Has struck out 68 in 44 innings, but also has a 4.09 ERA. His FIP is 2.07 though, so he has been a bit unlucky.

Cade Smith, Cleveland: Only in his second season, he drew Cy Young votes as a rookie last year, when he struck out 103 in 75.1 innings. Has struck out 64 in 43.1 innings this season as the stup man for Clase. Could the Dodgers send over a package that could land them Clase, Smith and Kwan? They are one of the few teams that could.

Outfielders

Jarren Duran, Boston: Having an off season by his standards but finished eighth in MVP voting last season.

Steven Kwan, Cleveland: A three-time Gold Glove in left who hits for average and draws walks.

Cedric Mullins, Baltimore: He would give the Dodgers a true center fielder, but just an average bat. Hit 30 homers in 2021, but hasn’t had more than 18 since.

Luis Robert, Jr., Chicago White Sox: Good glove, and used to be able to hit, but not anymore. Hitting .206 this season. Continually linked to the Dodgers in trade rumors, but, well, let’s hope not.

Please note that this is not an all-encompassing list. It’s mainly the names that have been linked to the Dodgers at one point over the last several weeks. It doesn’t include players such as Jesús Sánchez, Bryan Reynolds or Mason Miller, who are also possibilities.

And, time for the warning I give out every year: Don’t fall for every rumor you see online. Some sites will try to lure you in with a headline such as “Dodgers, Rays discuss Mookie Betts deal” when what happened was the Rays GM called the Dodgers and asked “Any chance you will trade Mookie Betts?” And the Dodgers say “No.” Technically, they discussed a Betts deal, but did they really? If you want to keep track of what’s going on with the Dodgers, Jack Harris has it covered for us at latimes.com/sports/dodgers. Jack takes a look at the trade deadline here. For a broader picture, I recommend mlbtraderumors.com.

Ohtani ties record

Shohei Ohtani homered in his fifth consecutive game Wednesday, tying the Dodger record. A look:

Home runs in five consecutive games:

Ohtani, July 19-23, 2025 (five home runs total)
Max Muncy, Aug. 15-21, 2019 (five)
Joc Pederson, May 31-June 3, 2015 (five)
Adrián González, Sept. 27, 2014-April 8, 2015 (seven)
Matt Kemp, Sept. 28-Oct. 3, 2010 (five)
Shawn Green, July 21-25, 2001 (five)
Roy Campanella, June 11-17, 1950 (five)

A Dodger has homered in four straight games 35 times, including four times by Duke Snider and twice by Pedro Guerrero, Matt Kemp, Gary Sheffield and Reggie Smith.

Welcome back

Rich Hill, a fan favorite when he pitched for the Dodgers back when Gerald Ford was president, signed with the Kansas City Royals and gave up only one run in five innings of his first start. Hill, 45, is pitching for his 14th majors league team, tying the record set by former Dodger top prospect Edwin Jackson.

Hill has played for:

Angels
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago Cubs
Cleveland
Dodgers
Kansas City
Minnesota
NY Mets
NY Yankees
Oakland
Pittsburgh
San Diego
Tampa Bay

Players to play for 13 teams
*Octavio Dotel

12 teams
*Mike Morgan
Matt Stairs
Ron Villone

11 teams
*Paul Bako
Miguel Batista
*Henry Blanco
Bruce Chen
Royce Clayton
Bartolo Colon
Joe Gerhardt
LaTroy Hawkins
*Kenny Lofton
*Deacon McGuire
*Terry Mulholland
*Dennys Reyes
Fernando Rodney
Julian Tavarez
*Gus Weyhring
Rick White
*Todd Zeile

*-played for the Dodgers

Worst month?

The Dodgers are 6-11 this month. Have they had any months where they finished .500 or worse since their postseason streak began in 2013?

Months at .500 or worse by the Dodgers since 2013:

May, 2013, 10-17, .370
July, 2025: 7-11, .389
September, 2017: 12-17, .414
April, 2018: 11-14, .440
September, 2013, 12-15, .444
July, 2024: 11-13, .458
April, 2016: 12-13, .480
May, 2018: 14-14, .500
May, 2014: 15-15, .500
June, 2015: 15-15, .500
June, 2023: 12-12, .500

Note: This does not include short months (March or October) when they may have gone 0-1 or 2-3.

Up next

Friday: Dodgers (Emmet Sheehan, 1-1, 4.41 ERA) at Boston (Brayan Bello, 6-4, 3.23 ERA), 4:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Dodgers (*Clayton Kershaw, 4-1, 3.27 ERA) at Boston (*Garrett Crochet, 11-4, 2.19 ERA), 4:15 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani, 0-0, 1.50 ERA) at Boston (Walker Buehler, 6-6, 5.72 ERA), 10:35 a.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Beyond the bullpen, how aggressive will the Dodgers be at the MLB trade deadline?

Dodgers put Tanner Scott on IL, but hopeful he returns this season

Rich Hill isn’t finished yet. Former Dodgers and Angels player will pitch for his 14th MLB team

Hernández: ‘Still a threat.’ Why Shohei Ohtani needs to remain a two-player for Dodgers

From a day off to the leadoff spot, Dodgers try unraveling mystery of Mookie Betts’ slump

And finally

The Dodgers score five runs in the second inning of Game 2 of the 1988 World Series, including a key homer by Mike Marshall. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Ryan Kartje: USC star freshman Alijah Arenas will miss at least the next six-to-eight months after sustaining a serious knee injury that will require surgery, leaving his future with the Trojans in question.

An MRI this week found a slight meniscus tear, as well as a bone bruise, according to a person familiar with the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly, dealing a critical blow to both USC and a player it hoped could become a superstar in short order.

“Alijah is a tremendous worker, teammate, competitor and person,” USC coach Eric Musselman said in a statement. “He is understandably disappointed that he will not be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our No. 1 priority.”

The injury comes just two weeks after Arenas was cleared to practice with USC, and three months after he survived a carwreck in his Tesla Cybertruck. Now it’s unclear how much he’ll play for USC — if at all.

Continue reading here

DODGERS

From Kevin Baxter: 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.

Continue reading here

The California League is abandoning Modesto. How pro baseball might stick around

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer to power the New York Mets to a 6-3 win and series sweep of the Angels on Wednesday.

Alonso, mired in a 2-for-34 slump dating to July 10, homered two batters after Francisco Lindor broke a career-long 0-for-31 drought with an RBI single.

Brandon Nimmo hit his 14th career leadoff homer and Lindor added another RBI single in the fourth for the Mets, who swept a series for the fifth time this season.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Sean McVay has led the Rams to two Super Bowl appearances, one championship and six playoff appearances.

Now, as he prepares for his ninth season, the 39-year-old coach once again has a team regarded as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

The roster includes experience — quarterback Matthew Stafford is entering his 17th season — and young stars such as receiver Puka Nacua and edge rusher Jared Verse, the 2024 NFL defensive rookie of the year.

“I love the natural, just zest and the joy that this group has,” McVay said this week as players reported for training camp at Loyola Marymount.

Which is not to say that McVay, Snead and the Rams do not have concerns.

Here are five issues to watch as the Rams prepare for their Sept. 7 opener against the Houston Texans:

Continue reading here

CHARGERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: As the Chargers’ team bus rolled down the freeway past Poway and toward San Diego, Tony Jefferson couldn’t help but smile.

This feels like home.

Eight years after the Chargers left San Diego, the organization is reintroducing itself to the city with two days of training camp this week. Fans who couldn’t secure tickets to practice at the University of San Diego on Tuesday still clamored for a glimpse from the top of a nearby hill. Jefferson, a San Diego native who grew up rooting for the Chargers, has been happy to see the support grow after the franchise’s contentious departure.

“With any sports team that leaves the city, [fans] feel empty when it comes to that spot,” said Jefferson, who signed with the Chargers last year. “But I think we’re gradually filling that void back.”

Coach Jim Harbaugh’s numerous ties to San Diego and instantaneous winning appeared to smooth out a potential reunion with the city. When team executives approached him about returning to San Diego for training camp, the coach eagerly agreed. He suggested the University of San Diego campus, where he got his head coaching start in 2004 for the Toreros.

Continue reading here

ANGEL CITY

From Kara Alexander: Ever since she visited Los Angeles with her national team three years ago, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir knew she wanted to play in the National Women’s Soccer League one day.

When the opportunity to play for Angel City presented itself, Jónsdóttir was eager to join the league and play for new Angel City coach Alexander Straus.

“When Angel City came up, I was just really excited about it,” she said. “I know Alex. I played against him when he was at Bayern and so I knew he was a great coach.”

Three new players have joined Angel City (4-3-6) during the past few months, delivering an infusion of talent for a team that sits in 11th place in the 14-team NWSL standings. The league’s top eight teams advance to the playoffs.

Continue reading here

NASCAR

From Kevin Baxter: NASCAR is returning to Southern California, only its cars will be racing on the streets of Coronado and not on an oval in Fontana. The stock car racing circuit announced Wednesday it will be hosting a three-day series of races June 19-21, ending in a NASCAR Cup Series race on the U.S. Naval base in Coronado.

NASCAR did not race in Southern California last year for the first time since 1997, with the exception of 2021, when the schedule was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic. For much of that time, the races were held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, but that track was torn down in 2023 to make room for a giant warehouse complex. NASCAR preserved part of the grandstand and had hoped to built a half-mile oval track on the site, but that project has stalled and is unlikely to be revived.

NASCAR also raced on a temporary quarter-mile oval on the floor of the Coliseum, but that event has also been abandoned.

Next summer’s Coronado race, which came to fruition after years of careful negotiation, is the first NASCAR event to be run on an active military base. It is being timed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy and will feature a race weekend including an Xfinity Series race and a Craftsman Truck Series event.

Continue reading here

TOUR DE FRANCE

Sprint specialist Jonathan Milan pounced at the finish to win the 17th stage of the Tour de France after a crash in the last kilometer derailed rivals’ hopes on Wednesday.

Italian rider Milan, the green jersey holder, consolidated his lead in the points classification with an explosive finish to get his wheel just over the line ahead of Jordi Meeus, Tobias Lund Andresen, Arnaud De Lie, Davide Ballerini and others in a rain-soaked sprint finale.

It’s Milan’s second stage win of the Tour after his victory in similar fashion in Laval on Saturday.

But it was arguably more dramatic with rival sprinter Tim Merlier and others involved in a crash under the “flamme rouge” — the triangular red banner over the road signaling the final kilometer.

“The last 25 kilometers were really, really, fast,” said Merlier, who finished 25th, more than a minute behind. “I think I did a mistake. I took one roundabout on the wrong side and I lost a lot of positions. And then I knew I needed to move up. The moment I wanted to move up, I crashed.”

Milan was in trouble earlier in the stage when the peloton split into two groups, finding himself in the second one. He had Lidl-Trek teammates Quinn Simmons and Jasper Stuyven to thank for dropping back to help.

“I didn’t survive alone, I survived with the help of my teammates and I have to appreciate this. Without them, I would still be on one of the climbs, I wouldn’t be here,” said Milan, who clocked 71.1 km/h and is the first Italian to win two stages in the same Tour since Vincenzo Nibali in 2014.

There was no change atop the overall standings with three-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar maintaining his lead of 4 minutes, 15 seconds over main rival Jonas Vingegaard.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1908 — John Hayes wins the Olympic marathon in a record of 2 hours, 55 minutes, 18.4 seconds. Italian Dorando Pietri is the first athlete to enter the stadium, but collapses several times before being disqualified when officials help him across the line.

1931 — Paavo Nurmi sets the world record at 2 miles in a meet at Helsinki, Finland, with a time of 8:59.6.

1960 — Jay Hebert beats Jim Ferrier by one stroke to win the PGA golf tournament.

1967 — Don January wins a playoff by two strokes over Don Massengale to win the PGA championship.

1970 — The International Lawn Tennis Association institutes the nine-point tiebreaker rule.

1976 — John Naber of the United States becomes the first swimmer to break the 2-minute barrier in the 200-meter backstroke at the Olympics in Montreal.

1976 — Mac Wilkins of the United States sets an Olympic record in the discus with a toss of 224 feet in Montreal.

1977 — Hollis Stacy wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship by two strokes over Nancy Lopez.

1998 — Tour de France riders, angered by the drug scandal that has dominated the event, protest by delaying the start of racing for two hours. Armin Meier, a member of the Festina team who was kicked off the tour the previous week, admits to a French radio station that he used a banned drug.

2005 — Lance Armstrong wins his seventh consecutive Tour de France. All of the titles are stripped in 2012 for doping.

2008 — Nancy Lieberman makes a one-game appearance for the Detroit Shock after the 50-year-old Hall-of-Famer signed a seven-day contract earlier in the day. Lieberman, finishes with two assists and two turnovers, surpassing her own record as the oldest player in WNBA history. Lieberman held the record playing at age 39 in 1997 while playing for the Phoenix Mercury.

2009 — Ron Hornaday Jr. holds off a late challenge from Mike Skinner to win the AAA Insurance 200, making him the first driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to win four consecutive races.

2010 — Fourteen-year-old Jim Liu of Smithtown, N.Y., beats Justin Thomas of Goshen, Ky., 4 and 2 to become the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion. Liu, who turns 15 next month, is more than six months younger than Tiger Woods when he won the first of his three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles in 1991.

2011 — Cadel Evans wins the Tour de France, becoming the first Australian champion in cycling’s greatest race.

2014 — Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice receives a two-game suspension from the NFL following his offseason arrest for domestic violence. The six-year veteran was arrested following a Feb. 15 altercation in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with then-fiancee Janay Palmer.

2016 — Chris Froome celebrates his third Tour de France title in four years. The British rider finishes safely at the back of the main pack during the final stage, arm-in-arm with his teammates during the mostly ceremonial final stage ending on the Champs-Elysees. Froome, who also won the Tour in 2013 and 2015, becomes the first rider to defend the title since Miguel Indurain won the last of his five straight in 1995. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive titles for doping.

2019 — 19-year-old Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak breaks Michael Phelps’ 10-year-old 200m butterfly record in a time of 1:50.73, 0.78s faster than Phelps.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1909 — Nap Rucker of the Brooklyn Dodgers struck out 16 batters in a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1931 — In an 8-7 loss to Pittsburgh, Babe Herman of Brooklyn hit for the cycle for the second time in the season.

1947 — Jackie Robinson stole home for the first time in his major league career in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 4-2 win over Pittsburgh.

1948 — Chicago White Sox outfielder Pat Seerey become the first major leaguer to strike out seven times in a doubleheader.

1949 — Cleveland pitcher Bob Lemon hit two home runs to lead the Indians to a 7-5 victory over the Washington Senators in the opener of a doubleheader.

1968 — Hoyt Wilhelm of the Chicago White Sox passed Cy Young’s major league record when he made his 907th appearance. He retired with 1,070 appearances.

1973 — Bobby Bonds homered and doubled to lead the NL to a 7-1 rout of the AL in the All-Star game at Kansas City.

1983 — The “Pine Tar” home run was hit by the Kansas City Royals’ George Brett off New York pitcher Goose Gossage at Yankee Stadium. Brett’s shot came with two out in the top of the ninth to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. Brett’s homer was ruled an out because the amount of pine tar exceeded what was allowed. After a protest by the Royals, the final out and the Yankees’ half of the ninth was completed on Aug. 18.

1993 — Anthony Young of the New York Mets extended his record losing streak to 27 games when he walked in the winning run in the 10th inning for a 5-4 loss to the Dodgers.

1999 — In their biggest victory in 46 years, the New York Yankees routed the Cleveland Indians 21-1 as Chili Davis went 5-for-6 with six RBIs.

2010 — Tampa Bay won in Cleveland for the first time in nearly five years. The Rays snapped an 18-game losing streak with a 6-3 win against the Indians. Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon snapped an 0-21 personal losing streak as the visiting manager that began when he was the Angels interim manager in 1996.

2016 — Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza are inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Cooperstown, NY. Griffey obtained the highest percentage of the vote ever — 99.3% — in being elected in his first year of eligibility by the BBWAA, while Piazza made it on his fourth try. A crowd estimated at 50,000, the second-largest ever at Cooperstown, is on hand to witness the event.

2022 — The induction ceremony is held for the Class of 2022 at the Hall of Fame. Three of the seven men inducted — David Ortiz, Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva — are present to receive the honor. The others, all deceased, are represented by relatives — Gil Hodges, Minnie Minoso and Buck O’Neil — while Dave Winfield introduces 19th-century Black baseball pioneer Bud Fowler. Over 35,000 persons are present in Cooperstown, NY to witness the ceremony, and Dominican flags and Boston Red Sox gear, in honor of Ortiz, are well in evidence in the crowd.

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

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.

The day after he pitches, Shohei Ohtani turns into Michael Conforto.

Ohtani has played four games on days following his starts, and he’s taken a total of 15 at-bats in them.

He’s collected just one hit.

He’s struck out six times.

Ohtani pitched three innings in the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night, which led to manager Dave Roberts being asked about Ohtani’s anticipated Confortization on Tuesday.

“In the batter’s box, he’s certainly still a threat,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think right now we’re giving that too much thought.”

Good.

Suspicions that Ohtani’s pitching has negatively affected Ohtani’s hitting have become almost immaterial.

Ohtani will remain a two-way player.

He will remain a two-way player for the remainder of the regular season, and he will remain a two-way player in October.

He should provide more than a couple of innings here and there. He should be a full-blown starter.

Because he wants to. Because the Dodgers need him to.

Ohtani is the best hitter on a team that can’t hit much of anything lately. He is the best pitcher on a team with an injury-ravaged pitching staff that sustained another likely loss on Monday night when closer Tanner Scott departed the game with forearm pain.

His value as a two-way player was evident in the opening game of the three-game series against the Twins, as he gave up a leadoff homer to Byron Buxton and returned the favor by crushing a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning.

The 2-1 lead was gradually extended, by a pair of solo home runs by Will Smith and another bases-empty shot by Andy Pages.

Ohtani pitched three innings, the damage inflicted against him limited to Buxton’s homer even though he was plagued by control problems. Ohtani struck out three batters and was charged with four hits and a walk while throwing 46 pitches.

“I thought I wanted to go four innings, but my pitch count was piling up,” Ohtani said in Japanese.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani celebrates with teammate Mookie betts after hitting a two-run homer in the first inning Monday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

He will be extended to four innings in his next start, Roberts said.

The Dodgers might need every one of them, considering they have lost 10 of their last 13 games.

Ohtani didn’t know it at the time, but he spent six seasons preparing for something like this. On the Angels, he was a great player on a horrible team, which is what the Dodgers are at this moment.

The sorry state of the team didn’t stop Ohtani from trying to carry it then, and that’s not stopping him from trying to carry it now.

“I think he’s very mindful of where our team is right now,” Roberts said. “I feel he’s trying to will his way to kind of getting us over the hump. He’s competing. He’s taking really good at-bats. And he’s fighting. So I love what he’s doing.”

Ohtani has homered in each of the last three games.

“There’s just an extra level of focus I see in the decision-making at the plate,” Roberts said.

Roberts observed that Ohtani wasn’t driven by personal glory. He pointed to how Ohtani offered no resistance when he said he wanted to switch him and Mookie Betts in the batting order, with Ohtani dropping from the leadoff to No. 2 spot.

Ohtani batted first in every game until Sunday when Roberts moved a slumping Betts to the top of the lineup with hopes of jump-starting his season.

When Roberts texted Ohtani his thoughts the previous night, Ohtani replied by telling him to do whatever was best for the team, even if that meant batting him ninth.

“I have absolutely no problem with it,” Ohtani said. “What’s most important is that everyone can hit comfortably.”

Ohtani’s homers in the last two games came right after Betts reached base in front of him, with a single on Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers and with a walk on Monday against Twins starter David Festa.

“He wants to win,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “I think that him playing every day, him pitching, him taking walks when needed and switching spots with Mookie in the order, whatever is in the best interest of the ballclub, that’s what he’s doing.”

Ohtani is now 31. There are questions about whether his body can still withstand the workload required to play both ways, and rightfully so. But as the Dodgers have trudged through this midseason slump, Ohtani has revealed the spirit that was fundamental in making him the best player in the world. Roberts will wager the season on it. He has no other option.

From Broderick Turner: The Clippers went from “strongly, strongly considering” bringing Chris Paul back to the franchise to actually agreeing to a deal with the point guard on Monday.

Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, told the media Saturday in a Zoom that Paul “obviously possesses some of the qualities we just referenced” and that led to the two sides agreeing to a veteran’s minimum deal of about $3.6 million.

“Chris is one of the most impactful players ever to wear a Clippers uniform and it’s appropriate that he returns to the team for this chapter of his career,” Frank said in a statement Monday. “Chris will help fortify our backcourt with his exceptional ballhandling, playmaking and shooting. He is joining us as a reserve point guard and is excited to fill whatever role [coach Tyronn] Lue asks him to play. He wants to be part of the group and we’re fortunate to have him back.”

Paul joined the Clippers for the 2011-12 season and was with the team until 2017 as he teamed with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form the core of the “Lob City” teams.

“What I’d say about Chris is he’s a great player,” Frank said Saturday. “He’s a great Clipper.”

Continue reading here

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: It was quality over quantity for the Dodgers on Monday night. A bunch of empty at-bats, salvaged by a few emphatic drives that left the ballpark.

In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers’ slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.

Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.

A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers’ supposed powerhouse offense.

Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, “we’ve had more than half of our lineup really scuffle” for the last six weeks running.

Continue reading here

From a day off to the leadoff spot, Dodgers try unraveling mystery of Mookie Betts’ slump

Dodgers Dugout: Jaime Jarrín discusses Vin Scully, Fernando Valenzuela and Muhammad Ali

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Juan Soto hit a tying single in the seventh inning, Francisco Alvarez delivered a big double in his return from the minors and the New York Mets rallied past the Angels 7-5 on Monday night.

Brett Baty launched a two-run homer for the Mets, who erased an early four-run deficit to match their largest comeback victory this season. They scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on an error by catcher Logan O’Hoppe, and Brandon Nimmo added a sacrifice fly that made it 7-5.

Brooks Raley (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth in his second outing since coming back from Tommy John surgery, earning his first win since April 2024.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1921 — Jim Barnes wins the U.S. Men’s Open golf championship by edging Walter Hagen, Leo Diegel, Jock Hutchinson and Fred McLeod.

1962 — Gary Player of South Africa becomes the first non-resident of the United States to win the PGA championship.

1963 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the first round to retain the world heavyweight title. Liston took the title from Patterson with a first-round knockout in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1962.

1973 — Sue Berning wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship for the third time with a five-stroke victory over Gloria Ahret.

1984 — Kathy Whitworth becomes the all-time winner in pro golf tournaments by winning the Rochester Open. Whitworth, with 85 career wins, passes Sam Snead’s total of 84 PGA tournament victories.

1984 — Seve Ballesteros wins the British Open with a four-round 276, breaking the course record set by Ken Nagle in 1960 by two strokes. Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer finish two strokes behind.

1990 — Nick Faldo wins his second British Open crown in four years, defeating Payne Stewart and Mark McNulty by five strokes.

1996 — Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey becomes first weightlifter in Olympic history to win three gold medals. Suleymanoglu wins the 141-pound division by hoisting 413¼ pounds.

1998 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee ends her brilliant heptathlon career with a victory at the Goodwill Games. It’s her fourth consecutive Goodwill title. Earlier, the 4×400-meter relay world record of 2:54.29, set by the 1993 U.S. World Championship team, comes crashing down. Michael Johnson, the anchor on that 1993 team, anchors this United States 4×400 team, which finishes in a 2 minutes, 54.20 seconds.

2001 — David Duval shoots a 4-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the British Open title, his first major championship. He finishes at 10-under 274 for a three-stroke victory over Sweden’s Niclas Fasth.

2005 — Yelena Isinbayeva clears the 5-meter mark at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix in London for her latest world record. The Olympic champion easily clears 16 feet, 4¾ inches on her first attempt, barely nudging the bar.

2007 — Padraig Harrington survives a calamitous finish in regulation and a tense putt for bogey on the final hole of a playoff to win the British Open over Sergio Garcia.

2008 — Candace Parker scores 21 points and DeLisha Milton-Jones adds 19 before both are ejected after a scuffle in the final minute as the Sparks beat the Detroit Shock 84-81 at Auburn Hills, Mich. The WNBA game turns ugly in the final seconds as a collision between Parker and Detroit’s Plenette Pierson turns into a shoving match that has players and coaches from both teams leaving the bench.

2012 — Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France by protecting the yellow jersey during the final processional ride into Paris. Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome finishes second, 3 minutes, 21 seconds behind.

2012 — Ernie Els wins his fourth major championship in an astonishing finish, rallying to beat Adam Scott in the British Open when the Aussie bogeys the last four holes. Els, who starts the final round six shots behind, finishes off a flawless back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt for a 2-under 68. Scott was four shots ahead with four holes to play.

2018 — Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird plays in a record 500th WNBA game.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1905 — Weldon Henley of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a no-hitter, defeating the St. Louis Browns 6-0 in the first game of a doubleheader. It was the highlight of Henley’s 4-11 season.

1906 — Bob Ewing pitched the Cincinnati Reds to a 10-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies without a single assist by teammates.

1923 — Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out opposing pitcher Stan Coveleski for his 3,000th career strikeout. The Big Train, the first player in MLB history to reach 3,000 strikeouts, struck out five and allowed one run to give the Senators a 3-1 win over Cleveland.

1926 — Cincinnati had four triples in an 11-run second inning as the Reds beat the Boston Braves, 13-1. Curt Walker hit two in the inning to tie an NL record for most triples in an inning.

1932 — Philadelphia’s Mickey Cochrane hit for the cycle and drove in four runs to lead the Athletics to an 8-4 win over the Washington Senators.

1962 — Floyd Robinson of the Chicago White Sox had six singles in six at-bats in a 7-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

1964 — Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell hit for the cycle, drove in three runs and scored four times in the Pirates’ 13-2 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals.

1967 — The Atlanta Braves used a major league record five pitchers in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The pitchers were Ken Johnson, Ramon Hernandez, Claude Raymond, Dick Kelley and Cecil Upshaw.

1997 — Atlanta’s Greg Maddux turned in a masterful pitching performance, using 76 pitches in a complete game 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

2000 — Seattle’s 13-5 win over Texas was interrupted for 54 minutes when a rainstorm drenched fans at Safeco Field and the $517.6-million stadium’s roof wouldn’t close because of a computer problem.

2006 — Alfonso Soriano had three doubles, a triple and scored two runs to lead Washington to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

2012 — Seth Smith hit a tying homer in the ninth inning, Coco Crisp singled home the winning run in the 12th and the surging Oakland Athletics rallied from four runs down to stun the New York Yankees 5-4 and complete a four-game sweep. The Yankees had not been swept in a four-game series since May 2003 against Toronto.

2013 — Ryan Braun, the 2011 National League MVP, was suspended for the rest of the season and the postseason, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. The Milwaukee Brewers star accepted the 65-game ban, 15 games more than the one he avoided last year when an arbitrator overturned his positive test for elevated testosterone because the urine sample had been improperly handled.

2014 — The Minnesota Twins turn a triple play against the Yankees.

2022 — In their first game after the All-Star break, the Blue Jays set a team record for runs in a 28-5 beatdown of the Red Sox.

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

It was quality over quantity for the Dodgers on Monday night. A bunch of empty at-bats, salvaged by a few emphatic drives that left the ballpark.

In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers’ slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.

Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.

A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers’ supposed powerhouse offense.

Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, “we’ve had more than half of our lineup really scuffle” for the last six weeks running.

“The offense scuffling the way it has,” Friedman added, “was something that I didn’t expect over this kind of protracted period of time.”

On Monday, though, the Dodgers did rectify at least one issue plaguing their recent offensive struggles. After hitting only 19 total home runs in their first 15 games in July, they went deep four times against the Twins (48-52), with Andy Pages adding an insurance shot in the seventh inning against reliever Cole Sands. It marked only the fifth time this season they hit at least four homers in a single contest.

Ohtani provided the night’s first big swing, immediately erasing the leadoff blast he gave up to Byron Buxton in the top of the first while making his sixth pitching start of the season.

In his second game occupying the second spot in the batting order, the two-way star wasn’t forced to rush between the mound and the plate (something manager Dave Roberts hoped would be a side benefit of replacing him with Mookie Betts as the team’s leadoff hitter). He was able to go through his normal routine of on-deck swings while watching Betts draw a five-pitch walk.

Then, for the first time in his six games as a pitcher this season, Ohtani not only got a hit, but clobbered a hanging changeup in a 2-and-1 count, launching his 35th home run of the season 441 feet to straightaway center.

From there, the Dodgers (59-42) kept playing long ball.

Festa, a second-year right-hander who entered the night with a 5.25 earned-run average, retired the next nine batters he faced before Smith came up to lead off the fourth.

Festa got ahead 1-and-2 in the count, before throwing a changeup that Smith fought off and missing wide with a slider. Festa’s next pitch was a fastball left over middle. Smith, the one Dodgers hitter who has been swinging a hot bat of late, didn’t miss it, going the other way to make the score 3-1.

Festa was still in the game when Smith came back up in the sixth. Once again, the pitcher made a mistake, hanging a slider over the heart of the plate. Once again, Smith was all over it, sending a souvenir into the left-field pavilion for his 14th home run, and first multi-homer game since last July.

1

2

3

1. Shohei Ohtani rounds first after hitting a two-run homer Monday against the Twins. 2. Dodgers catcher Will Smith, right, celebrates with Freddie Freeman after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning. 3. Dodgers center fielder James Outman ends the game with a jumping catch at the wall in straightaway center field. (Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

With the two blasts, Smith raised his National League-leading batting average to .327. Since the start of July, he is 15 for 40 with a 1.163 OPS.

By the time Pages added to the lead in the seventh, whacking his 18th of the season deep to left, the game was already in hand.

Despite giving up plenty of hard contact and lacking the pinpoint command he’d flashed in his previous starts, Ohtani kept the Twins off the board over the rest of his three-inning outing, collecting three strikeouts over a season-high 46 pitches to finish the night with a 1.50 ERA.

After that, converted starter Dustin May followed with a productive bulk outing from the bullpen, scattering five hits over 4 ⅔ scoreless innings.

Dodgers closer Tanner Scott walks off the field with trainer Greg Barajas, left, after sustaining an injury during the ninth inning Monday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers did not get out of Monday unscathed. In the top of the ninth, closer Tanner Scott left the game alongside a trainer after walking one batter, hitting another and then spiking a slider that left him grimacing.

As he left the field, he appeared to be flexing his left throwing arm — a potentially troubling sign for a Dodgers team that was already in need of bullpen reinforcements ahead of next week’s trade deadline.

Roberts said Scott felt a “sting” in his forearm and is “emotionally not well.” He will undergo an MRI exam Tuesday.

But on Monday, at least, the team survived, with James Outman denying Carlos Correa a potential tying three-run homer off Scott’s replacement, Kirby Yates, with a leaping catch at the center-field wall for the night’s final out.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. Let’s take a sneak peek at receivers and tight ends to watch this fall.

Receiving position is loaded

Kayden Dixon-Wyatt of Mater Dei goes airborne against Servite.

(Craig Weston)

If a college team was able to sign the receivers from Mater Dei and St. John Bosco, there would certainly be some future pros in that group. Those two schools have great depth this season with quality receiver after quality receiver.

Ohio State commit Chris Henry Jr. is supposed to be back from injury for Mater Dei. He’ll be joined by another Ohio State commit Kayden Dixon-Wyatt. Gavin Honore is a Georgia commit. Add tight end Mark Bowman, a USC commit, and you have a special group.

St. John Bosco has Texas A&M commit Madden Williams, Oklahoma commit Daniel Odom, San Jose State commit Carson Clark and super sophomore DJ Tubbs, among others.

Junior Quentin Gates and senior Jalen Ross are top targets for quarterback Jaden Jefferson at Cathedral. Mission Viejo has Miami commit Vance Spafford joined by Santa Margarita transfer Jack Junker. Santa Margarita has the Mosley brothers, Trent, a USC commit, and sophomore Grant. Orange Lutheran returns Chris Flores Jr., who caught 60 passes last season, and promising junior Nico Bland. Also available is Loyola transfer Markus Kier, a Princeton commit.

USC commit Luc Weaver of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has improved his strength and speed and is set for a big senior season. Sierra Canyon has USC commit Ja’Myron Baker.

Troy Foster of Huntington Beach is coming off a junior season in which he caught 65 passes, 15 for touchdowns. James Leicester of Dana Hills had 13 TD catches. Damani Porras of Downey will be a key weapon for quarterback Oscar Rios after catching 15 TDs as a sophomore. Alijah Royster of Oxnard Pacifica made a huge impact as a sophomore with 13 touchdowns. Jordan Slye of Salesian is a talented two-way player entering his sophomore season. Long Beach Poly returns Kamarie Smith.

Jaylen Stokes from St. Pius-St. Matthias had 16 TD catches. Jack Cunningham returns as Ventura’s go-to receiver. Blake Wong has 40 receptions as a sophomore for Norco.

In the City Section, Paul Turner, a transfer from Palmdale, joins Birmingham and could provide a lift for the Patriots after 15 TD receptions last season. Palisades has picked up one of the fastest athletes in the state in Bishop Alemany transfer Demare Dezeurn.

It’s also a terrific year for tight ends with Mater Dei’s Bowman and Servite’s Luke Sorensen, a Nebraska commit, leading the way.

Long Beach Poly tight end Jaden Hernandez makes catch.

(Craig Weston)

There’s also 6-5, 230-pound Keawe Browne of Corona Centennial and 6-3, 235-pound Jaden Hernandez of Long Beach Poly. Andre Nickerson of Inglewood and Beckham Hofland of Los Alamitos are committed to Southern Methodist and Boise State, respectively.

Bishop Montgomery’s Caleb Tafua is a Texas A&M commit. Freshman Austin Miller of Bellflower is 6-4 and an impact first-year player.

Mira Costa special teams

Mira Costa kicker Nico Talbott (left) and punter Jackson Shevin.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

When it comes to special teams, Mira Costa is feeling it has a trio to turn to. Kicker Nico Talbott, punter/holder Jackson Shevin and long snapper Jackson Reach offer experience and talent for coach Don Morrow, who’s going into his 37th season as a varsity head coach, 33 years at Mira Costa.

Here’s the report.

Raul Lara visits LB Poly

Mater Dei football coach Raul Lara returned to his alma mater, Long Beach Poly, on Saturday for a passing tournament.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Mater Dei football coach Raul Lara had his team participate in the Long Beach Poly passing tournament Saturday. He was asked if he remembered how to get to Poly. “No,” he joked.

It was a homecoming for Lara, who graduated from Poly and was football coach for 13 years, winning five Division 1 titles.

Here’s the report.

Notes . . .

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame had two former players taken in the MLB draft, making it 29 players since 1993 chosen during the Tom Dill coaching era. The Knights have had more players selected before that, including Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell and Tim Foli, who was the No. 1 pick in 1968. . . .

Corona ended up with four players taken in the draft after Ethin Bingaman was taken in the 20th round by the Diamondbacks. . . .

Mira Costa senior pitcher Garrett Jacobs has committed to UCLA. . . .

USA Baseball announced the 88 players invited to its 18U national team training camp. Here’s the list.

Ontario Christian girls basketball standouts Kaleena Smith and Tatiana Griffin will compete in August in the Overtime Select women’s basketball league. Both will be captains. . . .

Former Villa Park principal Dr. Kenneth Miller is the new executive director of athletics at Mater Dei. Here’s a release from the school. . . .

The Southern Section announced its final transfer totals for the 2024-25 school year, and there were a record 7,099 transfers. That provides a strong indication that when the final state transfer total is released, it will exceed 17,000 for the second straight year. The CIF continues to debate whether there needs to be changes to its transfer rules, such as a one-time free transfer. But a proposal is months, if not years, away from from being introduced. . . . .

Orange Lutheran’s baseball team has added two big-time LSU commits as transfer students in 6-foot-5 pitcher Cooper Sides from Red Buff and infielder CJ Weinstein from Huntington Beach. . . .

CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti is set to become president this school year of the National Federation of State High School Assns. . . . .

The AAU Beach Volleyball Player of the Year is Mira Costa sophomore Christian Chow. His sister, London, won the same award in 2012. . . .

Kenneth Bell is the new boys basketball coach at Arleta. . . .

Mike Minjares is returning for a second stint as baseball coach at St. Bonaventure. . . .

Windward girls basketball coach Rachel Schrote has resigned to pursue other coaching opportunities, according to athletic director Tyrone Powell. She will be replaced by assistant Dante Dixon on an interim basis for the upcoming system. It’s a difficult coaching position dealing with parents and expectations. . . .

SoFi Stadium will be the site for several high school football games the week of Aug. 21-22. South Hills has confirmed it will face El Rancho on Aug. 22. Mayfair and Yorba Linda are also expected to play in one of the scheduled games. . . .

From the archives: Cody Schrier

Former JSerra and UCLA shortstop Cody Schrier

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former JSerra and UCLA Cody Schrier is performing well in the minor leagues for the Miami Marlins.

The 13th round draft pick in 2024 is batting .270 this season having played for two teams and has 22 stolen bases.

Here’s a story from 2019 about the Schrier brothers facing off in high school.

Recommendations

From the Washington Post, a story on a travel basketball team that’s a social media sensation.

From UWHuskieswire, a story on former Gardena Serra and UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson.

From MLB.com, a story on former Corona High standout Brady Ebel taking batting practice at Dodger Stadium as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time…

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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The day off was unanticipated.

The change to the lineup was even more of a surprise.

In what has become a season-long struggle by Mookie Betts and Dodgers coaches to get the slumping superstar back on track, this weekend brought the most glaring examples of experimentation yet.

First, on Saturday, manager Dave Roberts gave Betts an unexpected off day and providing what he felt was a needed mental reset after sensing Betts — who missed the All-Star Game for the first time in a decade this year — was still off despite his week-long break.

Then, on Sunday, Roberts gave the veteran slugger an unexpected challenge: Bumping him up from the two-hole to the leadoff spot in the batting order in hopes it would trigger something amid a career-worst season at the plate.

“Looking at how things are going, where Mookie is at emotionally, mechanics-wise, all in totality,” Roberts said, “I felt that giving him a different look in the lineup, hitting him at the top, something he’s obviously been accustomed to throughout his career, will put him in a mindset of just [trying] to get on base and just trying to take good at-bats.”

“There’s a lot of internal kind of searching that goes on with the mechanics and things like that,” Roberts added. “But I personally do feel that the external part of it — hitting at the top of the order, having a mindset to get on base — I think will help move this along better.”

It all served as the latest confounding chapter in what has been a trying season for Betts and his once-potent swing, the newest effort by the club to ease the frustration that has weighed on his mind amid a summer-long slump — while waiting for his mechanics to finally get back in sync.

Mookie Betts sits in the dugout in the first inning before batting against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“This is a process I’ve never been through,” said a dejected Betts, who entered Monday sporting a .240 batting average (ranking 120th out of 158 qualified MLB hitters), .684 OPS (132nd) and 11 home runs (tied for 89th), to go with well-below-league-average marks in underlying metrics like average exit velocity (29th percentile among MLB hitters), hard-hit rate (20th percentile) and bat speed (12th percentile).

“I don’t have any answers,” he continued. “I don’t know how to get through this. I don’t know. I’m working every day. Hopefully it turns.”

The leadoff exercise started with mixed results Sunday. Betts singled in the third inning, one at-bat before new No. 2 man Shohei Ohtani hit a home run. But, in a failed ninth-inning rally that sent the Dodgers to a series sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers, he finished a one-for-five day by lining out sharply to center field, ending the game with Ohtani stuck in the on-deck circle.

Betts will continue to lead off for the foreseeable future, with Roberts committing to keeping him at the top of the order — and Ohtani, the team’s previous leadoff hitter, in the two spot — at least until Max Muncy makes his expected return from a knee injury sometime next month.

“The only way we’ll know, we’ll find out, is once we do that for an extended period of time,” Roberts said. “I do think that there will be some fallout from that kind of external mindset of, ‘Hey, I’m hitting at the top of the order. My job is to get on base, set the table for Shohei and the guys behind him.’ I think that will lead to better performance.”

Until such a turnaround actually materializes, however, the search for answers to Betts’ struggles will go on, with the Dodgers continuing to try to unravel the mystery behind a sudden, unsettling slump no one saw coming.

“I just got to play better,” Betts said. “I got to figure it out.”

Indeed, while his superstar teammates were at All-Star festivities in Atlanta last week, Betts spent the break back home in Nashville, working on his swing at a private training facility.

In one clip that emerged on social media, Betts was seen doing one of the many drills that have helped him maintain offensive excellence over his 12 big-league seasons: Taking hacks with a yellow ball pressed snuggly between his elbows, trying to promote the fluid and connected motion that has eluded him this year.

“With Mookie, a lot of it has to do with how his arms and hands work, and getting his arm structure properly lined up,” hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. “It sets up how the bat slots, and how his body sequences.”

For Betts, a 5-foot-10 talent who has long exceeded expectations as one of the sport’s most undersized sluggers, such mechanical efficiency has always been paramount.

As he noted early this season, when his slump first came into focus in early May, he has never had the same margin for error as some of the sport’s more physically gifted star hitters. He can’t muscle doubles or hit home runs off the end of his bat. He can’t afford to have a bad bat path or disjointed swing sequence and be the same hitter who, just two years ago, batted .307 with 39 home runs.

“I can’t, unfortunately, not have my A-swing that day but still run into something and [have it] go over the fence or whatever,” Betts said back then. “Even when I have my A-swing, if I don’t get it, it’s not gonna be a homer. If I don’t flush that ball in that gap, they’re gonna catch it.”

And this season, much to his chagrin, flushing line drives and cranking big flies has become a frustrating rarity.

Identifying the reason why has led to countless potential theories.

At the start of the year, Betts believed he created bad swing habits while recovering from a March stomach bug that saw him lose 20 pounds and some of his already underwhelming bat speed.

But as he tried reverting to mental cues and mechanical feels that had recalibrated him in the past, nothing seemed to click in the same way they once did.

“The cues and feels that I’ve used my whole life, in Boston and L.A., just don’t work anymore,” he said this weekend. “So I’m just trying to find out who I am now, what works now.”

Some of that, of course, could be attributed to age. Betts will be 33 by the end of this season. He is coming up on 1,500 career games. Inevitably, even players of his caliber eventually start to decline physically.

Roberts, however, framed it more through the lens of evolution. On the one hand, he said of Betts, “I know he’s still in his prime. I know he’s as strong as he’s been in quite some time.” However, the manager added, “his body has changed and will continue to change,” requiring Betts to find new ways to maximize the power the team still believes he possesses.

“That’s the nature of hitting,” Van Scoyoc said. “He has to find something for him that works organically, that gets him lined up again.”

This dynamic is why, to both Betts and the Dodgers, his full-time move to shortstop this season hasn’t been to blame.

Betts has repeatedly pushed back against that narrative, pointing to the MVP-caliber numbers he posted while playing the position during the first half of last year (before a broken hand cost him two months and forced him to return to right field for the Dodgers’ World Series run) and the two-week tear with which he started this season (when he batted .304 with four home runs over his first 15 games).

Mookie Betts and the Dodgers continue to insist his season-long slump at the plate has little to do with his full-time move to shortstop.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

And though his new defensive role has come with some added challenges — Betts said on his Bleacher Report podcast last month that his daily pregame workload has increased while playing shortstop, to the point “it probably does weigh on you a little bit hitting” — he has also emphasized the confidence he has gained from his defensive improvements; his shortstop play serving as the one thing that has gone right in a season of offensive misery.

“I just can’t see that you go out there and stick him in right field tonight and he’s going to throw out two hits or three hits, or he goes to second base and he’s going to go on a heater,” Roberts echoed earlier this month, before reiterating Sunday that the team has not considered changing Betts’ position. “That’s hard for me to kind of imagine. It’s a fair ask. But I just don’t see that as the case.”

Instead, the focus has remained not only on Betts’ flawed swing mechanics, but the resulting side effects it has had on his approach at the plate.

One stat that jumped out to Roberts recently: In Betts’ last 99 plate appearances, he has walked only one time — a shockingly low number for a hitter with a walk rate of nearly 11% over his career.

To Roberts, it’s a sign that Betts, in his ongoing search to get his swing synced up, is failing to accomplish the even more fundamental task of working good counts and waiting out mistakes.

“If you’re ‘in-between’ on spin versus velocity, and [getting in bad] counts, you’re not as convicted [with your swing],” Roberts said, tying all of Betts’ problems into one self-fulfilling cycle that has only further perpetuated his lack of results. “So my eyes tell me he’s been ‘in-between’ a lot.”

Which is why, in recent weeks, Roberts had started to mull the idea of moving Betts into the leadoff spot.

After all, the manager hypothesized, if Betts can’t find his swing by grinding in the batting cage and analyzing his mechanics — as he did during his off day on Saturday — then maybe reframing his mindset in games can better help him get there.

“It speaks to how much faith I have in him as a ballplayer,” Roberts said. “To, where he’s scuffling, not move him down but ironically move him higher in the order. “I think that kind of support, and the different way that he’ll see the lineup as it’s presented each day, will kind of lead into a different mindset and I think that’ll be a good thing for all of us.”

For now, the Dodgers can only hope.

With Muncy still out, Freddie Freeman having his own recent slump compounded by a ball that hit him in the left wrist on Sunday, and the Dodgers stuck in a current 2-10 spiral that has seen their once-comfortable division lead dwindle leading up to the trade deadline, they need the old Betts more than ever right now.

Thus far, the search for answers has met no end.

“It’s hard,” Betts said, “but I got to figure it out at some point.”

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Doesn’t it feel like Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes were released last season? No, that was this season.

Ask Jaime Jarrín

We received many questions for Jaime Jarrín, who was kind enough to take time out of his day to answer some of those questions. Deputy sports editor Ed Guzman conducted the interview by phone. Because Jarrín was the longtime Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers, it seemed appropriate for a couple of the questions and answers to be in Spanish. In the case of multiple people asking the same questions, the person who asked the question first gets credit for the question. Questions without a name were asked by Guzman.

From Virgilio Del Rio: How did you prepare to become a sports broadcaster?

Jarrín: Well, before becoming a sports broadcaster, I was a newsman. I used to write news, I edited news, that was my experience. Sportscasting, I learned that when I came to this country. But back home, for four years, I was a newsman writing news, editorials and things like that.

(Follow-up question from Guzman): Once you were a broadcaster here in the States, did you ever want to broadcast games in English or were you always just focused on doing it in Spanish?

Jarrín: I always wanted to do it only in Spanish. I never really wanted to go into English-language because I thought that it was my duty to do this in Spanish. So I’m very proud to have done it all in Spanish.

From Jerry Smith of Los Angeles: You called the “Thrilla in Manila” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. What was that like?

Jarrín: It is my greatest experience doing sports because the atmosphere in Manila was unbelievable. I was there for I think it was two days before the fight and it was like a carnival there. Muhammad Ali was walking the streets around the arena, you know, promoting the fight and signing many things. And he was a great, great promoter. So it was unbelievable. And the day of the fight, it was so hot, so rainy, and the fight was held at 10 o’clock in the morning (to accommodate the international viewing audience). It was really a great, great experience.

From Alex Andrade of Paramount: How difficult or easy is it to switch from calling boxing versus calling a baseball game?

Jarrín: Well, it’s totally different. In boxing, I was the blow-by-blow announcer. So I didn’t have time to do commentary. Besides, I had a commentator with me, Mr. Cuco Conde, who was a very famous boxing promoter in Cuba.

So in my case, I just narrate the fight. In boxing, you have to follow the action through the blows that are thrown by the fighters. In baseball, you have time to describe what’s going on, you have time for anecdotes, important dates and things like that.

From Mark Layne: Do you have a favorite story about Vin Scully?

Jarrín: I was very fortunate. It was a privilege to spend so much time with him because on the road we were always together, having lunch together, then dinner at the ballpark. Same thing here in Los Angeles. We always had dinner together before the games. And to see how nice he was with everybody; he never refused to shake hands with anybody; he never refused to take a picture with anybody. He was very, very special. As a baseball announcer, as a sports announcer, he was the best of the best of all time. But as a human being, he was exceptionally beautiful.

Something very special I have to mention is the fact that when my wife passed away six years ago, he was the first one to call me and he talked to me for about 20 minutes. It was the most beautiful call I ever received.

The way that he talked about my wife, about our friendship, the way that he handled the language, his intonation, his delivery on the phone. It was really, really something very, very unique that I will never, never forget. Very touching.

Very touching.

From Paul Aist of Ventura: In your opinion, did Tommy Lasorda shorten Fernando Valenzuela’s career by overusing him?

Jarrín: In a way, probably, but it was because Fernando wanted to stay in the games. He used to tell me, “Jaime, when I start something, I like to finish that. And when I start a game, I want to finish that.” So I’m sure that Lasorda wanted to take him out earlier in many games, but he insisted on staying on.

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony is later this month for the newest class. What do you remember about your induction into the Hall of Fame in 1998?

Jarrín: I remember very well the phone call that I received from the head of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Around 8 o’clock in the morning, I got a telephone call. They told me, ‘Please, Jaime, be around a telephone because probably you are going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.’ And the telephone rang at around 9:30 in the morning. And it was the head of Cooperstown. And he said, ‘Jaime, it’s my pleasure to let you know that you have been selected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year along with Don Sutton and Larry Doby.’ You can imagine how excited I was.

My wife, Blanca, was standing there next to me near the phone. And she saw my face, my reaction, and she started crying. And that was really something very, very special, something that is in my heart for the rest of my life. It was very emotional. It was very, very incredible.

And then the ceremony in Cooperstown is something very unique, very special. I would say that before the ceremony, they put you with all the Hall of Famers in a room. And there were about, I would say, 25, 28-30 Hall of Famers. And to be there among them, it was, to me, like being in heaven. I couldn’t believe that I would be there next to Henry Aaron, next to Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax and Tom Seaver and all those Hall of Famers. It was something special, and that changed my life. Because before that, I was one of the many, many announcers doing baseball. But after the Hall of Fame, owners of the different ballclubs, GMs and people like that, they would look for me to take a picture, to shake my hand, to introduce themselves. So really, it was a turning point. Fantastic.

How much do you watch this year’s team?

Well, I follow every single game on TV. When I go to the ballpark, I go to the field, I go to the clubhouse, I say hello to the ballplayers. Then I go to the press box because I like to see the writers because they were so nice with me, English or Spanish. They wrote beautiful things about me, about my career. I like to see the employees at the press box. Then I stay for three, four or five innings and come home. So it’s perfect. The perfect combination. But I follow the team through TV when I am not at the ballpark, yes.

¿Qué opina usted sobre el pitcheo del equipo de esta temporada?

El pitcheo deja mucho que desear debido a las lesiones. Los Dodgers durante el invierno fueron en busca de verdaderos ases del montículo y lograron contratar a varios de ellos. Pero dos de ellos han estado lesionados todo el tiempo y eso ha desbalanceado completamente el desempeño del equipo de lanzadores.

Debido a las lesiones, también hemos tenido prácticamente cada juego en que los abridores únicamente lanzan tres o cuatro innings, máximo. Y eso ha minado mucho la fortaleza del bullpen. Y el bullpen se ha visto dismal en verdad, en lo que a potencia se debe debido al uso cotidiano prácticamente de todos los días.

Espero que en este descanso los Dodgers logren consolidar el excelente elenco de lanzadores que necesitan para poder llegar y ganar la Serie Mundial.

Hemos escuchado el cuadrangular de Kirk Gibson en la Serie Mundial en la transmisión de Vin Scully, y también en el relato de Jack Buck. Pero uno no puede encontrar el relato de ese jonrón de usted o de René Cárdenas. ¿Por qué no hay modo de escuchar ese relato?

La simple respuesta: porque en aquel entonces, lamentablemente, la estación de radio y los mismos Dodgers no se preocuparon en guardar las transmisiones. No tenemos ninguna, ninguna grabación de ninguno de los juegos de los Dodgers hasta hace pocos años. Es un misterio, en verdad. KWKW y KTNQ, las dos emisoras que estuvieron con los Dodgers en esos años, no se preocuparon en mantener grabaciones de eso. Y por eso es que no existe absolutamente nada en lo que respecta a nuestras transmisiones. Es una lástima, en verdad, pero es la realidad.

From Bruce Campbell of Los Angeles: Your wife, Blanca, died in 2019. What would you want people to know about her?

Well, you know, it was such a heavy blow to myself and my family, my two sons, Jorge and Mauricio. What can I tell you? She was such a beautiful person. She was so supportive of me. All the accolades that I have gained is thanks to her because she was behind me all the time. She never complained about my being absent because I used to travel with the Dodgers and sometimes, road trips took 16 days, 19 days. And she was so generous with people and everything.

The Jaime and Blanca Jarrin Foundation has expressed a desire to uplift underserved students by awarding scholarships to those pursuing careers specifically in law and journalism. Why those two areas?

Jaime: Jorge can answer that because he is on top of everything. He can express very well the goals of the foundation. I was very pleased when Jorge and Mauricio, along with my three grandsons, joined forces to create a foundation in order to preserve the image and the name of my wife, Blanca, who was a very generous person. So I was delighted when they told me about the project. And now, I just try to help my family as much as possible. Jorge and the rest of the family work very hard in trying to create the funds that we need for the scholarships.

Jorge Jarrín, Jaime’s son, who sat in on the interview: That’s easy, actually. You know, when we started this foundation in honor of my mom, in the back of my mind, I also knew the importance, as my father was nearing the twilight of his career, looking for a way to maintain and uphold the legacy that he has created as an immigrant coming to this country. You know, he knows the trepidation and the fear that comes naturally to an immigrant coming to a nation where he doesn’t necessarily really speak the language, doesn’t really know a lot of people, is looking to establish roots so that he can, in turn, he or she, in turn, can bring their family so that they can create a better life. So, that’s that legacy.

And when my mom passed away, I thought, this is the way to do that. Speaking selfishly for a moment, this is a way to accomplish two things. To honor the memory of my mom who created such an environment for us growing up that we never felt neglected. We never felt that we missed out on anything because my father was gone all the time. And there was no guilt. There was nothing negative along that line.

And so, knowing that my father, at this point, had been speaking to Latino homes for 60-plus years, I know how people react when they see my father for the first time, when they talk to him, when they have a chance to meet him in person. Because he represents, for many, their childhood growing up, their relationships with their parents, their grandparents, aunts and uncles. He gave them that commonality of which they can talk about together.

So, knowing that impact that he has on people, we thought it’s one thing to give scholarships. But for a lot of Latinos, to get a scholarship from Jaime Jarrin is even more special. We call them the Jarrín Scholars.

And the reason we did journalism, to get back to your original question, journalism and law, two reasons: The journalism honoring the career that my father chose to create, the path that he took. And the law, because we have been fortunate in addition to the Los Angeles Dodgers to have a long and steady career as a spokesperson for Los Defensores. Los Defensores is an organization, it is a cooperative legal marketing firm that represents a network of Spanish-speaking attorneys who are there to help people, Latinos, who don’t know the language well, who are intimidated, who may be undocumented.

But there are certain rights that they’re entitled to under the law, under the Constitution. And we try to empower Latinos to speak up for themselves, to not be afraid, to not be intimidated. So my father has had a 40-year career of being the voice of Los Defensores, too. So it only made sense that because of our association with Los Defensores that we also single out law because overall, we’re seeking to help those who are eventually going to be making decisions that affect us as a community and as a society. We want to empower them, we want to help them to be the best that they can be. Unfortunately, you look at for example the state of California, 49% of which are Latinos, and yet less than 3% Latinos pass the bar examination to become attorneys.

Less than 6% of the attorneys in the United States are Latinos. Yet it doesn’t reflect the numbers of our community in terms of its makeup of demographics, so there’s something not right here. And we’re trying to get those in a four-year college the help that they need, not only financially but because I’ve had students say to me: you saw me, you recognized me, and you’re willing to invest in my future. Because that’s what it is, it’s an investment and it’s a validation that we see them, we recognize them, we want to support them. That’s it in a nutshell.

—Thank you to Jaime Jarrín for taking time from their day to answer reader questions. The Jaime and Blanca Jarrín Foundation are having “Wine Night at the Ravine,” at the centerfield plaza in Dodger Stadium on Aug. 19. For more information and tickets, click here.

Next time

We’ll talk about Mookie Betts and the Dodgers continuing to scuffle (if they still are). Betts was benched Saturday to get a mental reset, then was moved to the leadoff spot Sunday, with Shohei Ohtani moving to the two spot. It has been a tough stretch. They score six runs, the opponent scores seven. But if they hold the opponent to two runs, the Dodgers score just once. When they hit well they don’t pitch, when they pitch well they don’t hit. And they don’t field well most of the time. Freddie Freeman was hit on the wrist by a pitch Sunday and had to leave the game. X-rays were negative, according to the Dodgers, but a wrist injury isn’t good for hitters.

Luckily for them, the Giants are playing worse, and the Padres are playing just OK.

Up next

Monday: Minnesota (David Festa, 3-3, 5.25 ERA) at Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani, 0-0, 1.00 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Tuesday: Minnesota (Simeon Woods Richardson, 5-4, 3.95 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 8-7, 2.59 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Wednesday: Minnesota (Chris Paddack, 3-9, 5.14 ERA) at Dodgers (Tyler Glasnow, 1-1, 3.10 ERA), 1:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Pitching injuries continue to be an issue in MLB. How it’s impacting pitchers at all levels

Is there a way to mitigate pitching injuries? The Rays (and Dodgers) may shed some light

New mural at Dodger Stadium honors Fernando Valenzuela

Dave Roberts gives Mookie Betts a day off as season-long slump continues

‘As lucky as we could be.’ Dodgers’ Max Muncy already recovering better than expected

Shaikin: Why the small-market Milwaukee Brewers might be America’s team

Four major questions the Dodgers face in the second half of the season

And finally

The Dodgers retire Fernando Valenzuela‘s number. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Jack Harris: The Dodgers held their annual Family Day on the field at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, rolling food trucks, bounce houses and a climbing wall onto the warning track in left field. Few of the players seemed to be in a festive mood, however.

That’s because the Dodgers warmed up for Family Day with a 6-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the team’s third straight loss and the 10th in 12 games in which they’ve been outscored 71-36. It’s the team’s worst 12-game skid since 2018.

The loss was also the sixth in as many tries against the Brewers in the last two weeks, making Milwaukee the first team to sweep a season series of more than four games from the Dodgers in 20 years.

“Guys are getting frustrated,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You see kind of more emotion coming in. We just haven’t played good baseball.”

But it gets worse: the Dodgers (58-42) might have lost first baseman Freddie Freeman for a spell. Freeman, who is among the team leaders in batting average (.292) and is third in runs (47) and hits (95), sustained a left wrist contusion after being hit by a José Quintana pitch in the sixth inning. Roberts said X-rays on Freeman’s wrist were negative and the first baseman is considered day to day.

“That one, I held my breath,” Roberts said. “I think we all did, because, you know, when you’re scuffling and to potentially lose a guy for four-to-six weeks is obviously very scary.”

In Freeman’s absence, catcher Dalton Rushing could play at first base.

Continue reading here

New mural at Dodger Stadium honors Fernando Valenzuela

Pitching injuries continue to be an issue in MLB. How it’s impacting pitchers at all levels

Is there a way to mitigate pitching injuries? The Rays (and Dodgers) may shed some light

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

José Soriano limited Philadelphia to two runs in seven innings, Taylor Ward had a three-run double and the Angels beat the Phillies 8-2 on Sunday for a series victory.

Soriano (7-7) gave up six hits and struck out five. He was touched for a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Rafael Marchan, and the Phillies mustered little else until Otto Kemp’s two-out home run in the sixth.

The Angels scored five runs in the second against Ranger Suarez (7-4), who yielded six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch.

Schanuel appeared to take a changeup from Suarez off the upper wrist of his left arm in the first inning. He hurried down the first base line in obvious pain. After being checked by a trainer, Schanuel remained in the game.

Schanuel did not play the field in the bottom of the inning, replaced by LaMonte Wade Jr.

The Angels said Schanuel was diagnosed with a left wrist contusion and is listed as day to day.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

CHARGERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: They lost a cherished teammate hours before they started training camp. But the Chargers receivers knew just what to do when they heard of Mike Williams’ sudden retirement.

“At this point [we’re] just treating it like the next man up,” receiver Quentin Johnston said. “Him leaving was unexpected, but at the same time, we just gotta fill in the blank and keep moving.”

Williams’ sudden departure has left an already questionable receiver group with even more to prove. The 6-foot-4 receiver was coming off one of the worst seasons of his career but was still expected to add a familiar, trustworthy face for quarterback Justin Herbert. When it came to winning 50-50 balls, Williams was one of the best ever, offensive coordinator Greg Roman said.

And in a group that was led by a standout rookie last year, the 30-year-old Williams was a much-needed veteran presence.

Continue reading here

BRITISH OPEN

Scottie Scheffler had all the time in the world to celebrate his latest major title. This British Open was never in doubt Sunday as golf’s No. 1 player delivered another dominant performance to win his second major this year and grab the third leg of the career Grand Slam.

Scheffler began with a shot into 10 inches for birdie. One hour into the final round, his lead already was seven shots and no one got closer than four the rest of the way at Royal Portrush.

He closed with a three-under 68 for a four-shot victory, sending him to the U.S. Open next year with a chance to make it a clean sweep of golf’s biggest titles.

Scheffler won the Masters by three shots in 2022 and by four shots last year. He won the PGA Championship by five shots in May.

Continue reading here

British Open leaderboard

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1876 — Princeton takes the team championship in the first IC4A (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes Association) track and field meet.

1957 — Lionel Herbert wins the PGA championship with a 2-1 final round victory over Dow Finsterwald.

1957 — Althea Gibson becomes first Black person to win a major U.S. tennis tournament.

1963 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA championship by two strokes over Dave Ragan to become the fourth golfer to win the three major United States titles.

1968 — Arnold Palmer becomes the first PGA golfer to earn $1 million over his career despite losing by one stroke to Julius Boros in the PGA championship.

1974 — Sandra Haynie edges Carol Mann and Beth Stone by one stroke to win the U.S. Women’s Open championship.

1979 — Spain’s Seve Ballesteros captures the British Open by three strokes over Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus.

1985 — John Henry, the greatest money winner in horse racing history, is retired. The 10-year-old won 39 races in 83 starts and earned $6,597,947 in total purses.

1985 — Sandy Lyle wins the British Open by one stroke over Payne Stewart.

1989 — Mike Tyson knocks down Carl “The Truth” Williams with a left hook and stops him 93 seconds into the first round of his heavyweight title defense. It is the fifth shortest heavyweight title fight in history.

1996 — Tom Lehman shoots a final-round 73 for a 72-hole total of 13-under 271 to win the British Open, two strokes better than Ernie Els and Mark McCumber.

1996 — Wayne Gretzky signs a two-year deal with NY Rangers.

2002 — Ernie Els squanders a three-stroke lead but outlasts Thomas Levet of France to win a four-man playoff that produces the first sudden-death finish in the 142-year history of the British Open.

2007 — Bernard Hopkins, in the twilight of his fighting days, ends Winky Wright’s 7 1/2-year unbeaten streak with a unanimous decision in their 170-pound bout in Las Vegas.

2009 — China’s Guo Jingjing easily wins her fifth straight world championship in 3-meter springboard. She captured her first springboard world title in 2001, and hasn’t lost since in the every-other-year competition.

2013 — Phil Mickelson wins his first British Open title with a spectacular finish. He birdies four of the last six holes for a 5-under 66 to match the best round of the tournament.

2013 — Britain’s Chris Froome wins the 100th Tour de France, having dominated rivals over three weeks. He rides into Paris wearing the yellow jersey he took in Stage 8 in the Pyrenees and never relinquished.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1921 — The Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees combined for an AL record 16 doubles in the Indians’ 17-8 victory. Cleveland had nine doubles and New York seven.

1945 — The Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Athletics played 24 innings in a 1-1 tie. Les Mueller pitched 19 2-3 innings for the Tigers.

1956 — Brooks Lawrence of the Cincinnati Reds had his 13-game winning streak broken when Roberto Clemente’s three-run homer led the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-3 victory.

1970 — San Diego’s Clay Kirby held the New York Mets hitless for eight innings but was lifted for a pinch hitter by manager Preston Gomez. With the Padres trailing 1-0 with two out in the eighth, Gomez elected to go for the win instead of letting Kirby finish. The Padres lost the no-hitter and the game, 3-0.

1973 — Hank Aaron of Atlanta hit his 700th home run in the third inning of an 8-4 Braves loss to Philadelphia. Aaron connected on a 1-1 fastball off Phillies pitcher Ken Brett.

1975 — Joe Torre of the New York Mets grounded into four double plays in a 6-2 loss to the Houston Astros. Felix Millan had four singles but was wiped out each time by Torre.

2001 — In their highest-scoring game in 58 years, the Dodgers routed Colorado 22-7. The 22 runs were the most scored by the Dodgers since Brooklyn beat Pittsburgh 23-6 on July 10, 1943, at Ebbets Field.

2006 — Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to reach 450 home runs when he homered in the New York Yankees’ 7-3 loss to Toronto. Rodriguez also got his 2,000th career hit.

2007 — Jamie Moyer and David Wells face off. The two combine for 88 years and 307 days of age, making it the second-oldest matchup of starting pitchers in major league history. The only older duel was between Don Sutton and Phil Niekro in June of 1987.

2008 — Detroit’s 19-4 victory at Kansas City marked the third time this season the Tigers scored 19 runs. The Boston Red Sox were the last team to accomplish that feat, scoring 19 or more four times in 1950. Detroit beat Texas 19-6 on April 23 and Minnesota 19-3 on May 24.

2015 — Shin-Soo Choo hit for the cycle, leading the Texas Rangers past the Colorado Rockies 9-0. Choo, who had three RBIs, doubled in the second inning, homered in the fourth and singled in the fifth. He completed the cycle with a triple to center to start the ninth.

2019 — The 2019 Hall of Fame Class is inducted in Cooperstown, NY, with six former players being honored: Harold Baines, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith. All are present, save for Halladay, who passed away in a plane crash in 2017 and, who is represented by his wife, Brandy. Rivera, the first player to be elected unanimously to the Hall, gets the honor of speaking last, befitting his status as the greatest closer in history.

2021 — Eddy Alvarez is named one of two flag-bearers for Team USA at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that will take place in two days — after a full year’s delay. A member of the U.S. baseball team, Alvarez previously won an Olympic medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in short-track speed skating and is vying to become one of the few athletes ever to win medals in both a summer and a winter Olympics. Sue Bird, a member of the women’s basketball team, will join him as a flag-bearer.

2024 — The Hall of Fame inducts its four newest members, constituting the Class of 2024, at its annual ceremony. Honored today are 1B Todd Helton, C/1B Joe Mauer, 3B Adrian Beltre and manager Jim Leyland.

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

When Clayton Kershaw signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers last February, it looked like it could have marked the start of a goodbye tour. The left-hander would take one more trip around the league, then settle into a rocking chair and wait for the Hall of Fame to call.

Instead, Kershaw has shown flashes of the pitcher who won three Cy Young Awards in four seasons, though now he gets by on guile and guts more than curveballs and sliders. On Sunday, however, he was undone by his defense in a 6-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It was the Dodgers’ third loss in as many games since the All-Star break and 10th in a dozen games overall, the team’s worst 12-game slump since 2018.

And the losses keep mounting in other ways as well, with first baseman Freddie Freeman sustaining a left wrist contusion after being hit by a José Quintana pitch in the sixth inning. Freeman is among the Dodgers’ leaders in batting average (.292) and is third in runs (47) and hits (95). With the team already missing third baseman Max Muncy and utility player Kiké Hernández, the possibility of losing Freeman for any stretch would be a significant blow.

The game ended with the slumping Mookie Betts lining out to center field with the bases loaded.

The Dodgers’ rotation has also been battered by injury, which is why Kershaw’s performances have been so important. Despite missing the first seven weeks of the season, he ranks third on the team with 11 starts and has given up two or fewer earned runs in eight of them — including Sunday, when he scattered five hits over 4 1/3 innings, exiting the game with the score tied 3-3 in the fifth.

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the first inning Sunday against the Brewers.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Kershaw, who left without a decision, would have pitched longer had a throwing error by third baseman Tommy Edman and a misplayed fly ball by center fielder Andy Pages not extended the Brewers’ fourth inning twice, forcing Kershaw to throw 29 pitches in the inning. And he battled to get that far, working with a fastball that rarely topped 90 mph and a curve he bounced to the plate more than once.

“It just speaks to the guy,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts before the game. “Even when he doesn’t have his best on that particular day, he does what’s called of him each time out.”

“He has adjusted, as far as using his whole pitch mix more,” Roberts continued. “He’s incorporating a lot more pitches and trying to keep guys more off a particular set, attacking guys differently.”

The Dodgers (58-42) gave Kershaw an early lead with a three-run third. Pages led with a double to left, then scored on a line-drive sacrifice fly by Dalton Rushing. After Betts followed with a single, Shohei Ohtani sliced a 2-0 sinker over the left-field wall for league-leading his 34th home run.

The defense gave all three runs back in the fourth with a two-out throwing error by Edman letting in a run and Pages misplaying a ball that bounced off his glove near the warning track in center for a tying double.

Esteury Ruiz’s first home run for the Dodgers put them back in front in the fifth, but the Brewers (59-40) went in front to stay in sixth, scoring three times off relievers Alex Vesia and Lou Trivino (3-1) on a double, three singles and a walk.

The Dodgers’ bullpen earned-run average of 4.38 ranks 12th in the 15-team National League. The team hasn’t gotten a scoreless game from its bullpen since July 3.

After Rushing’s bases-loaded infield single pulled the Dodgers to within a run in the ninth, Betts, who was elevated to the leadoff spot in the order in an effort to end a slump that had seen him start July hitting .174 with as many strikeouts as hits, lined out to center. He finished one for five, dropping his average to .240.

Notes: Pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen made rehab appearances for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Snell, who has been on the injured list since April 6 because of left shoulder inflammation, made 58 pitchers over four innings, giving up a run on four hits while striking out six. It was his third rehab appearance. Treinen, out since April 19 with a forearm strain, followed with a perfect fifth inning in which he struck out two. He could return to the Dodgers’ roster this week.

Tommy John surgery was never supposed to go this far.

It was once a cross-your-fingers-and-pray fix for a career-ending injury. Now, MLB teams cycle through as many as 40-plus pitchers a year, knowing that surgery is a phone call away.

Just ask John himself, a left-hander who never threw all that hard, only reaching the mid-80s on his sinking fastball. The soft-throwing lefty was having his best year as a Dodgers starting pitcher in 1974.

He didn’t have the strikeout acumen of teammate Andy Messersmith, or the ace makeup of future Hall of Famer Don Sutton. But what John did have was consistency. John consistently pitched late into games, and sent opposing hitters back to the dugout without reaching first base.

“The game of baseball is 27 outs,” said John, now 82. “It wasn’t about throwing hard. It’s, how do I get you out?”

He was the first to go under the knife. The first to lead pitchers through a dangerous cycle of throwing as hard as possible, knowing the safeguard is surgery.

“I threw one pitch and boom, the ligament exploded,” John said.

John’s arm injury left a sensation akin to what an amputee feels after losing a limb. In 1978, he told Sports Illustrated, “It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else.” He didn’t feel pain. He felt loss. His left arm was his career. It was the direct cause for his toeing the Dodger Stadium mound in the first place. Then, John went on to pitch another 15 years in MLB.

It’s the same loss that Hall of Fame Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax felt when he retired at age 30 after numerous arm injuries, which could have likely been fixed if current elbow and shoulder surgeries had existed in 1966.

It’s the same loss that Texas Rangers team physician Keith Meister sees walking daily into his office.

Today, Meister can view MRI scans of elbow tears and can tell pitchers where and how they hold the baseball. The tear patterns are emblematic of the pitches being thrown in the first place. The solution — Tommy John surgery, a once-revolutionary elbow operation — replaces a torn or partially damaged ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow with a tendon from somewhere else in the body. The operation is no quick fix. It requires a 13- to 14-month recovery period, although Meister said some pitchers may require just 12 months — and some up to 18.

Meister, who is currently tallying data and researching the issue, wants to be part of the change. Midway through an October phone interview, he bluntly stopped in his tracks and asked a question.

“What is the average length of a major-league career for a major-league pitcher?” he said.

Meister explained that the average career for an MLB pitcher is just 2.6 years. Along with numerous other interviewees, he compared the epidemic to another sport’s longevity problem: the National Football League running back.

“People say to me, ‘Well, that sounds like a running back in football,’” Meister said. “Think about potentially the money that gets saved with not having to even get to arbitration, as long as organizations feel like they can just recycle and, you know, next man up, right?”

Orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister, in his TMI Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery office in Arlington, Texas, in 2024, has advocated for changes to mitigate pitching injuries.

(Tom Fox / The Dallas Morning News)

Financial ramifications play close to home between pitchers and running backs as well. Lower durability and impact have led to decreasing running-back salaries. If pitchers continue to have shorter careers, as Meister puts it, MLB franchises might be happy to cycle through minimum-salary pitchers instead of shelling out large salaries for players who remain on the injured list rather than in the bullpen.

The Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays have shuffled through pitchers at league extremes over the last five years. In the modern era — since 1901 — only the Rays and Dodgers have used more than 38 pitchers in a season three times each. Tampa used 40-plus pitchers each year from 2021 to 2023.

Last year, the Dodgers used 40 pitchers. Only the Miami Marlins tasked more with 45.

The Dodgers have already used 35 pitchers this season, second-most in baseball. The Rays tallied just 30 in 2024 and have dispatched just 23 on the mound so far this season. What gives?

Meister says the Rays may have changed their pitcher philosophy. Early proponents of sweepers and other high-movement pitches, the Rays now rank near the bottom of the league (29th with just 284 thrown) in sweeper usage entering Saturday’s action, according to Baseball Savant. Two years ago, the Rays threw the seventh most.

Tampa is rising to the top of MLB in two-seam fastball usage, Meister said, a pitch he says creates potentially much less stress on the elbow. Their starting pitchers are second in baseball in the number of innings, and they’ve used just six starting pitchers all season.

“It’s equated to endurance for their pitchers, because you know why? They’re healthy, they’re able to pitch, they’re able to post and they’re able to go deeper into games,” Meister said. “Maybe teams will see this and they’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute, look what these guys won with. Look how they won. We don’t need to do all this crap anymore.’”

The Dodgers, on the other hand, rank ninth in sweeper usage (1,280 thrown through Friday) and have used 16 starting pitchers (14 in traditional starting roles). Meanwhile, their starting pitchers have compiled the fewest innings in MLB. Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of pitching, began his career at Driveline Baseball. The Dodgers hired him in 2020. Since then, the franchise has churned out top pitching prospect after top pitching prospect, many of whom throw devastating sweepers and change-ups.

As of Saturday, the Dodgers have 10 pitchers on the injured list, six of whom underwent an elbow or shoulder operation — and since 2021, the team leads MLB in injury list stints for pitchers.

“There are only probably two teams in baseball that can just sit there and say, ‘Well, if I get 15 to 20 starts out of my starting pitchers, it doesn’t matter, because I’ll replace them with somebody else I can buy,’” Meister said. “That’s the Yankees and the Dodgers.”

He continued: “Everybody else, they’ve got to figure out, wait a minute, this isn’t working, and we need to preserve our commodity, our pitchers.”

Outside of organizational strategy changes, like the Rays have made, Meister has expressed rule changes to MLB. He’s suggested rethinking how the foul ball works or toying with the pitch clock to give a slightly longer break to pitchers. He said pitchers don’t get a break on the field the same way hitters do in the batter’s box.

“Part of the problem here is that a hitter has an ability to step out of the box and take a timeout,” Meister said. “He has to go cover a foul ball and run over to first base and run back to the mound. He should have an opportunity take a break and take a blow.”

Meister hopes to discuss reintroducing “tack” — a banned sticky substance that helps a pitcher’s grip on the ball — to the rulebook, something that pitchers such as Max Scherzer and Tyler Glasnow have called a factor in injuries. Meister has fellow leading experts on his side too.

“Myself and Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache are very good friends, and we talk at length about this,” said Meister.

Meister explained that the lack of stickiness on the baseball causes pitchers to squeeze the ball as hard as possible. The “death grip on the ball,” Meister said, causes the muscles on the inner side of the elbow to contract in the arm and then extend when the ball is released. The extension of the inner elbow muscles is called an eccentric load, which can create injury patterns.

The harder the grip, the more violent the eccentric load becomes when a sweeper pitch, for example, is thrown, he said.

“Just let guys use a little bit of pine tar on their fingertips,” Meister said, adding that the pitchers already have to adjust to an inconsistent baseball, one that changes from season to season. “Not, put it on the baseball, not glob the baseball with it, but put a little pine tar on their fingertips and give them a little better adherence to the baseball.”

According to the New Yorker, MLB is exploring heavier or larger baseballs to slow pitchers’ arm movements, potentially reducing strain on the UCL during maximum-effort pitches.

Meister, however, said there does not seem to be a sense of urgency to fix the game, with a years-long process to make any fixes.

In short, Meister is ready to try anything.

For a man who has made a career off baseball players nervously sitting in his office waiting room, awaiting news that could alter their careers forever, Meister wants MLB to help him stop players from ever scheduling that first appointment.

“To me, it’s not about the surgery any more as much as it is, what can we do to prevent, and what can we do to alter, the approach that the game now takes?” Meister said.

“It’s very, very dangerous.”

Nine months after his death, Fernando Valenzuela stands immortalized in a new mural on the loge‑level wall at Dodger Stadium — a vibrant fusion of art and legacy unveiled Saturday.

Painted by Mexican American artist Robert Vargas, the mural shows Valenzuela tipping his cap to the sky in a Dodgers Mexican‑heritage jersey — featuring a green sleeve, red sleeve, white center — alongside two striking images of Valenzuela in his pitching stance. Vargas said the mural is meant to symbolize unity within the Latino community.

“I felt it very important to show that the Latino community has a place within these walls and has had a place within these walls,” Vargas said.

He wanted to reflect Valenzuela’s spirit that still lives in the hearts of many fans and feature the man behind the player.

“What he did in the community, is what resonates so much more for me than just the player — but the man, the person that he was,” Vargas said.

Valenzuela played for the Dodgers from 1980 to 1990. He grew up in Etchohuaquila, a small town in Mexico, and took Major League Baseball by storm in 1981, earning rookie of the year and Cy Young honors. Latino fans who previously felt little connection to the Dodgers were thrilled to see one of their own winning, sparking Fernandomania. Valenzuela wore No. 34 and it remains a popular jersey worn by fans at Dodger Stadium.

Claudio Campo choked up as he gazed at the tribute. Traveling from Phoenix with his son to celebrate the boy’s 11th birthday, Campo shared memories of a player whose greatness felt deeply personal. Valenzuela’s nickname, “El Toro,” are inked on Campo’s left arm.

“He was a staple for the people that didn’t have anything and then where he came from showed that anything is possible if you go ahead and revive what you are,” Claudio said.

Fans holding Valenzuela bobbleheads given away by the Dodgers took their pictures in front of the new mural Saturday night.

Longtime fan Dulce Gonzalez held back emotion as she showed off her shirt with the name “Valenzuela” written across it, describing the reason she started watching baseball.

“He was the first Latino player I could truly connect with and be proud of,” she said.

For Gonzalez, Valenzuela’s story resonated because he came from the same roots, offering representation she had longed for.

“We are a melting pot of races here, people love baseball from all races, but because I am Latina, I feel a little bit more connected,” she said.

Her son, Nicolas, dressed in a red and green Dodgers Mexican-heritage jersey, said Valenzuela helped heal some wounds after Mexican American families were displaced from their homes in Chavez Ravine shortly before Dodger Stadium was built on the same land.

“He really opened the city up to the Dodgers after a long difficult entry and he really represented triumph over adversity,” Nicolas said.

The Dodgers’ recently slumping offense was better Saturday night.

But for a team that has struggled to gain traction and string together wins for almost a month, even a seven-run, 10-hit performance wasn’t quite enough.

In an 8-7 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers put a badly-needed crooked number on the board early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the third to answer the Brewers four-run rally in the top half of the inning.

The Dodgers manufactured another run in the sixth, keeping the game close on a night Emmet Sheehan struggled in a season-worst start and the bullpen yielded three costly runs late. They even hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth, trimming what had grown to a three-run deficit back to one.

But every time it seemed like they were truly ready to break out, like their long-slumbering lineup was about to roar back to life, the Dodgers still came up ever-frustratingly short.

And no sequence epitomized those headaches like the end of the third.

After a Shohei Ohtani two-run homer, a Teoscar Hernández RBI double and a run-scoring wild pitch from Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, the Dodgers had the go-ahead run at third with no outs. They were 90 feet away from flipping the momentum entirely, and completing the kind of ruthless offensive onslaught that has evaded their $400-million roster for the last several weeks.

But then, in an immediate return to their uninspired form of late, the lineup went missing, squandering the opportunity with three quick outs — moments before the Brewers retook a lead their premium pitching staff wouldn’t again relinquish.

So goes life for the Dodgers these days, when even a largely productive day at the plate couldn’t prevent another series defeat to the Brewers or a ninth overall loss in their last 11 games.

Saturday could have been a more profound breakthrough. A game of not just incremental progress, but a total offensive turnaround.

Ohtani had a three-RBI day, starting with his towering 448-foot opposite-field blast. Hernández’s double was one of the best swings he has taken in the last couple months, a line drive into the right-center field gap that one-hopped off the wall. Tommy Edman broke an 0-for-29 skid with a sixth-inning single and eighth-inning home run. Miguel Rojas, one of the few who has impressed during the Dodgers’ recent struggles, followed Edman’s solo blast with one of his own in the next at-bat, completing a two-hit night that also included a walk.

But every time the Dodgers put the Brewers on the ropes, they failed to land the necessary knockout blow.

In a game they needed their lineup to pick up the slack left by a lackluster pitching performance, they repeatedly ran out of rope.

On the verge of taking the lead in the third, the Dodgers instead watched Andy Pages take a called third strike (which he reacted angrily to, despite the pitch being well in the zone), Michael Conforto ground out against a drawn-in infield and Edman hit a can of corn to left to retire the side.

The 4-4 tie was broken in the next inning, when Isaac Collins hit a leadoff home run over the short wall in right field to chase Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan from the game.

Trailing by two in the sixth, the Dodgers threatened again. Edman and Rojas both singled, setting up Ohtani for an RBI knock in left field. But then Will Smith grounded out to second to retire the side.

The final tease came in the eighth, after the Brewers opened up an 8-5 lead.

Edman lifted his home run to the left-field bullpen. Rojas went deep on a similar trajectory.

That brought up Ohtani, representing the potential tying run. But he watched a soaring fly ball die at the warning track in center.

Close, but not enough. Too little, once again coming frustratingly too late.

The bats, of course, were not the Dodgers’ primary problem Saturday.

Sheehan saw his recently promising return from Tommy John surgery derailed in a five-run, three-plus inning outing. During the Brewers’ four-run third, he missed wildly with an array of breaking pitches, and was punished for several sliders that failed to induce a whiff.

The defense wasn’t sharp either, with both Hernández and Pages failing to cut off balls in the gaps at various points.

And generally, the Dodgers have reverted to the overall shoddy play that led to a seven-game losing streak shortly before the All-Star break (three of which came in Milwaukee to the Brewers, who can complete a six-game season sweep of the Dodgers on Sunday).

But the lack of consistently timely offense remains the most confounding issue for the Dodgers.

That was the case even before the game, when manager Dave Roberts gave Mookie Betts — the most glaring underperformer among Dodgers hitters this season — a day off just two games into the second half in hopes it would allow him to clear his mind and work on his swing.

It felt just as prescient in the aftermath of yet another defeat, with the team still searching for a winning formula amid its most disappointing stretch of the year.

It took just one game coming out of the All-Star break for Dave Roberts to know Mookie Betts still wasn’t right.

A week ago, Roberts was hopeful that Betts — coming off his first missed All-Star Game in a decade — would return from the break refocused and rejuvenated; ready to snap out of a career-worst start to his season and rediscover a swing that has eluded him for much of the campaign.

Instead, in the Dodgers’ second-half opener Friday night, Betts went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. His batting average dipped to .241 (more than 20 points worse than he has ever posted in a full season) while his OPS fell to .688 (the worst it has been all year). And, as has been the case for most of the summer, his signs of frustration were abundantly clear, with the 32-year-old looking lost at the plate.

Thus, when Roberts set his team’s lineup for Saturday, the manager made a surprise decision to leave Betts out of it, giving his superstar shortstop an unplanned day off after calling Betts on Saturday morning to discuss the state of his game.

“Talking to him, seeing where his head is at, seeing where he’s at mechanically, I just thought tonight was a night where I felt he needed to be down,” Roberts said hours later, ahead of the Dodgers’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“He was more than willing and wanted to be out there. But for me, I wanted to take it out of his hands [so he could] have a day. I’ve talked about this before, just having players watch a baseball game. And I understand we just had four days off at the break. But still showing up at the ballpark, and not participating, watching, that’s a different mindset, psyche than being at home. So for him to come here, show up, not play, know he’s not going to play, I feel good about the work he’s going to put in today. Also, I think, for the mind it will be beneficial.”

Betts did not talk to reporters Saturday, but did go through his normal set of pregame infield drills at shortstop — further confirming that, indeed, his absence from the lineup had nothing to do with any sort of injury-related issue.

While Roberts said his “expectation” is that Betts will be back in action Sunday, he left the door open to giving Betts another day off for the series finale.

“It’s going to be a day-to-day thing,” Roberts said. “It’s going to be my decision on how I feel he is mentally to take on that night’s starter.”

There was no specific moment from Friday’s game that convinced Roberts such a break was warranted. Instead, it was the fact that so little had seemingly changed from where Betts was before the All-Star break, when he reached the midway mark in a three-for-24 slump and batting just .185 over his previous 31 games.

“He’s not used to struggling like this,” Roberts said of Betts, who also has only 11 home runs and a .377 slugging percentage. “There’s a part of it where you feel like you’re letting people down, letting the team down. That weight that is just natural for him to carry is there. That’s a little bit from last night, just seeing him.”

Betts has struggled to identify the cause of his decline — one so stark, he has a below-league-average mark of 95 in the all-encompassing OPS+ metric (effectively meaning he has been 5% less productive than a league average hitter).

In an interview before Friday’s game, he said he has cycled through various “feels” with his swing in hopes of getting his mechanics realigned. Hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc pointed to inefficiencies in the way Betts “loads” his arms and hands, which he believes have impacted the slugger’s bat path and swing sequence.

“There’s no exact [fix], where you can do this, this and this,” Van Scoyoc said, “because he has to find something for him that works organically that gets him lined up.”

To that end, Roberts’ hope is that Saturday’s day off will help.

That it comes just two days into the second half signals how urgent Betts’ struggles have become.

“He understood,” Roberts said. “He’s a guy that wants to be out there every single day. But I think he understood that it was my decision and I think it’s best for him, I think it’s best for our ball club. He’ll be ready when called upon.”

Max Muncy knew he had gotten lucky, after his ugly-looking knee injury earlier this month proved to be nothing more than a bone bruise.

But, when doctors explained how close he came to suffering something so much worse, from when Michael A. Taylor slid into his leg at third base on July 2, even Muncy was amazed by the infinitesimal margins.

“If the timing was just a millisecond different either way,” he was told, “you’re probably looking at surgery, and done for a long time.”

Instead, barely two weeks removed from having the outside of his knee bent inward on that play, Muncy was out doing early work at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon; running in the outfield, playing catch with coaches and performing agility drills in front of trainers without any obvious signs of pain or discomfort.

“We’re pleasantly, not surprised, but happy with the spot that I’m in right now,” Muncy said afterward, having also taken swings for the first time since his injury earlier on Friday afternoon. “It feels great. I’m moving well. Progressing quickly. We’re trying to be smart about it, and understand where we’re at, and what it’s gonna take to get back on the field. But we’re in a really good spot … We’re kind of right where we think we should be at.”

If not, it seems, already a few steps ahead.

While Muncy was initially expected to miss roughly six weeks with his left knee bone bruise, manager Dave Roberts struck a more optimistic tone as the Dodgers opened the second half of their season.

“He’s in great shape right now,” Roberts said Friday. “I don’t really know a timeline. But I do know … it’s going to be a lot sooner than anticipated, which is good for all of us.”

Since Muncy — who was one of the hottest hitters in baseball in May and June — got hurt, the Dodgers have not looked like the same offense. In their last 11 games entering Saturday, the club was 3-8, averaging less than three runs per game, and struggling to fill the gaping hole their slugging third baseman has left in the middle of the lineup.

Since the start of July, only the penny-pinching Pittsburgh Pirates have been worse than the Dodgers in batting average (.205) and OPS (.594).

“We’ve still got a lot of good players,” Roberts said. “But yeah, there’s a certain line of demarcation when Max is not in the lineup, what happens to our offense.”

The Dodgers’ problems, of course, go beyond Muncy’s absence. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman have all been slumping of late (or, in Betts’ case, for much of the season). Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman have been nowhere near their typical standard since returning from injuries in May. And the depth options the Dodgers have called upon have provided few sparks of life.

Still, Muncy figures to be a linchpin in the Dodgers’ long-term potential at the plate — with his recovery growing ever-steadily in importance as the rest of the lineup flounders in his wake.

“We got to figure out how to get something going,” said outfielder Michael Conforto, chief among the Dodgers’ underachievers this season. “Every time we go out there, we expect to score, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year. It’s just one of those stretches [where it’s] a little bit tougher to get runs in. But, you know, obviously, we have faith in our guys, and some big names in here that made their careers on scoring runs and driving guys in. I think we’ll be OK.”

Muncy, of course, is one of those proven names.

And in another fortunate stroke with his recovery, he remains confident his injury won’t significantly impact his swing once he does come back.

“If [the injury] was on the inside of the knee, it’d probably be a different story,” Muncy said. “But just being on the outside, I think it’s a good spot, knowing that I don’t feel it at all when I’m pushing off on the backside.”

Muncy tested that theory for the first time Friday, taking some light swings in the cage that he said “felt fine.”

“It’s a lot of work, more work than actually playing in the game, which always sucks,” Muncy said of his rehab process. “But it’s that way for a reason … You don’t want to have any other injuries that are a side effect from it.”

So far, even that latter concern has been quelled, with Muncy noting that “there’s no lingering side effects with it.”

“All in all,” he reiterated, “we’re about as lucky as we could be.”