The Sports Report: Dodgers come out flat and lose to Padres

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Jack Harris: There was only one way Shohei Ohtani wasn’t going to hit in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday night.

Stunningly, the Dodgers stumbled straight into the remote, far-fetched, absolute worst-case calamity.

With runners on first and second base, and the MVP frontrunner standing on-deck with no outs in a two-run ball game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called for Miguel Rojas to attempt a bunt on his first pitch at the plate.

However, when Rojas laid off a called strike, and the Padres infield shifted its positioning defensively, Roberts then changed his mind — and watched in horror at what happened next.

Rojas swung away and hit a ground ball to third baseman Manny Machado. He scurried to step on third before firing a throw to second. Then teammate Jake Cronenworth completed the relay with a quick strike to first base.

In a frenzied flash, the game was over.

Padres, 4. Dodgers, 2. In only the 28th major league game to end on a triple-play.

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

The Chicago White Sox remained tied with the 1962 New York Mets for the modern major league record of 120 losses in a season, rallying to score three runs in the eighth inning and beat the Angels 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Andrew Benintendi hit a tiebreaking, two-out single to help the White Sox (37-120) stave off infamy for at least one more night.

Fans voiced their displeasure with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf by chanting “Sell the team!” throughout the game and booed when the Angels’ Eric Wagaman grounded out to end it, apparently unhappy they didn’t get to witness history.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

CLIPPERS

From Anthony De Leon: With Clippers training camp approaching, questions continue to swirl around the health of star Kawhi Leonard following the inflammation in his right knee that sidelined him late last season and in the first round of the playoffs.

Leonard is dealing with swelling but is progressing toward full health, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said Tuesday.

At the start of last season, Leonard was the healthiest he had been in years and he appeared in 68 games. However, it was the third straight season he failed to finish, not counting the 2021-22 season, which he missed entirely.

Leonard has struggled with an extensive injury history during his Clippers tenure, including a partial tear of an anterior cruciate ligament that sidelined him for 2021-22, a meniscus tear during the 2023 playoffs and this current case of knee inflammation.

“It’s truly unfortunate that he’s had to deal with this, but we’re trending in the right direction,” Frank said. “The goal is to get him to 100% so he can have a great season, not just this year, but for many years.”

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From Ryan Kartje: The left tackle was cramping. The right guard was benched. The new right tackle was playing his first meaningful snaps, while the new right guard had played only a handful. All the while, 110,000 hostile fans roared with every missed block or botched assignment against the nation’s most fearsome defensive front featuring two top-15 NFL draft prospects on the interior.

“That’s as tough as it gets,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said Tuesday.

It was truly a nightmare scenario for USC’s offensive line, which came completely unraveled during a 27-24 loss to Michigan, raising serious questions about the depth and development of a group Riley and his staff assured would be fine without offseason additions from the transfer portal.

That confidence certainly looked misplaced Saturday, as Michigan’s pass rush steamrolled through the Trojan front with ease, pressuring quarterback Miller Moss 22 times. Still, Riley didn’t seem concerned on Tuesday about the line’s long-term trajectory, instead once again reiterating his belief that USC’s offensive line can be “really damn good” this season.

Some of that responsibility in getting there, Riley did acknowledge, does fall on him and his staff. The coach admitted he could have done a better job preparing the offense for Michigan’s defensive front.

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From Ben Bolch: Earlier kickoffs and more viewership.

That was supposed to be part of the appeal when UCLA stunned the world of college athletics by abandoning nearly a century’s worth of tradition and moving to the Big Ten.

It didn’t take long for that narrative to die.

Four games into their debut season in a coast-to-coast conference, the Bruins will play their latest game on the West Coast in more than three decades.

UCLA’s game against No. 8 Oregon on Saturday at the Rose Bowl is slated for an 8 p.m. PDT kickoff, the Bruins’ latest on the West Coast since they shook off the same bedtime start to beat Washington State in Pullman on Sept. 29, 1990.

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SPARKS

Curt Miller is leaving as coach of the Sparks after the WNBA franchise missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season and second under him.

The team on Tuesday announced Miller’s dismissal, saying the sides had “mutually agreed to part ways.”

The Sparks will begin their search for a new coach immediately.

The team was 25-55 in Miller’s two seasons at the helm. He is 165-141 as a head coach in the WNBA, including a stint guiding the Connecticut Sun. He was the WNBA Coach of the Year in 2017 and the league’s first executive of the year when he also served as general manager of the Sun.

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WNBA PLAYOFFS

First round
All times Pacific

No. 1 New York (32-8) vs. No. 8 Atlanta (15-25)
at New York 83, Atlanta 69
at New York 91, Atlanta 82

No. 2 Minnesota (30-10) vs. No. 7 Phoenix (19-21)
at Minnesota 102, Phoenix 95
Wed. at Minnesota, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
*Friday at Phoenix, TBD, ESPN2

No. 3 Connecticut (28-12) vs. No. 6 Indiana (20-20)
at Connecticut 93, Indiana 69
Wed. at Connecticut, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
*Friday at Indiana, TBD, ESPN2

No. 4 Las Vegas (27-13) vs. No. 5 Seattle (25-15)
at Las Vegas 78, Seattle 67
at Las Vegas 83, Seattle 76

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1926 — Walter Hagen wins his third straight and fourth overall PGA Championship. Hagen beats Leo Diegel 4 and 3 in the championship match at Salisbury Golf Links in Westbury, N.Y.

1949 — Louise Suggs wins the U.S. Women’s Open by 14 strokes over Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

1962 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson at 2:06 of the first round at Comiskey Park in Chicago to win the world heavyweight title.

1982 — Ricky Edwards rushes for 177 yards and four touchdowns to help Northwestern end its 34-game losing streak in a 31-6 victory over Northern Illinois.

1988 — Americans sweep the medals in the long jump at the Seoul Olympics; Carl Lewis wins his second gold of the Games with leap of 8.72m ahead of teammates Mike Powell and Larry Myricks.

1988 — Swimmer Matt Biondi wins his 5th gold medal of the Seoul Olympics anchoring the victorious American 4 x 100m medley relay team.

1994 — Oliver McCall scores a major upset by stopping Lennox Lewis 31 seconds into the second round to capture the WBC heavyweight title in London.

1995 — Jerry Rice has 181 yards receiving in San Francisco’s 27-24 loss to Detroit. It’s his 51st 100-yard game, which breaks Don Maynard’s NFL record.

1997 — WNBA announces it will add Detroit & Washington, D.C. franchises.

2000 — American basketball player Vince Carter jumps over 7 foot 2 Frédéric Weis in 2000 Summer Olympics, known in France as “le dunk de la mort” (the dunk of death).

2004 — Bobby Seck of Hofstra throws eight touchdown passes to tie an Atlantic 10 mark and set a school record in the Pride’s 62-43 victory over Rhode Island.

2005 — Fernando Alonso becomes Formula One’s youngest champion by finishing third in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Alonso, 24, a six-time winner in his third full season in Formula One, ends Michael Schumacher’s five-year hold on the title.

2010 — Collingwood and St. Kilda plays to a 68-68 tie, the first in an Australian Rules football grand final since 1977, setting up a rematch to decide the league title.

2013 — Skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA win the America’s Cup with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history to keep the oldest trophy in international sports in the United States. Spithill steers Oracle’s space-age, 72-foot catamaran to its eighth straight victory, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay. All but defeated a week ago, the 34-year-old Australian and his international crew twice rallies from seven-point deficits to win 9-8.

Compiled by the Associated Press