The Sports Report: Dodgers sweep the Giants

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

Mike DiGiovanna on the Dodgers: Max Muncy celebrated his “go-get-it-out-of-the-ocean” bobblehead night Tuesday with his second homer in as many games, his solo shot in the third inning fueling a 3-1 victory before 52,342 in Chavez Ravine that gave the Dodgers a two-game sweep of their NL West rivals.

Walker Buehler delivered 6 2/3 super innings, giving up one unearned run and three hits, striking out seven and walking one, and the Dodgers beat one of baseball’s best pitchers in Kevin Gausman to cut San Francisco’s lead in the division to 1 ½ games.

Closer Kenley Jansen provided some drama in the ninth, hitting Alex Dickerson with his first pitch, walking Buster Posey and falling behind Brandon Crawford, who has a team-leading 17 homers, with a two-ball count.

Max Muncy watches his solo home run against Kevin Gausman during the third inning.

(Associated Press)

But the right-hander rebounded to strike out Crawford with an 84-mph slider. Jansen then got Wilmer Flores to pop out to shortstop and struck out Steven Duggar with an 86-mph slider to seal his 20th save and the team’s fifth straight win after being no-hit by Chicago Thursday night.

The Dodgers have won six of nine against the Giants this season, and Muncy has had a huge hand in that, batting .345 (10 for 29) with seven homers and eight RBIs in the nine games. He has a career .264 average, 15 homers and 44 RBIs in 44 career games against San Francisco.

“Max plays hard every night, he’s shown to perform on the big stage and in big games, and when you’re talking about Giants-Dodgers, the rivalry, he’s certainly had some success against those guys,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m glad he’s wearing a Dodgers uniform.”

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Pasadena police probe woman’s assault allegation against Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer

ANGELS

Shohei Ohtani homers in the fifth inning.

(Associated Press)

Jack Harris on the Angels: The best and worst of the Angels were on display Tuesday night.

Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs, his sensational season lifting to more stratospheric heights as he took sole possession of the MLB home run lead with his 27th and 28th long balls of this season.

Anthony Rendon had two hits and a walk, his first multihit game in almost three weeks. David Fletcher extended his hitting streak to 14 games. And José Iglesias had three hits, including a home run.

And yet … it wasn’t enough.

Instead, in an 11-5 loss to the New York Yankees, the Angels had statistically one of their worst pitching performances of the season, yielding three home runs and a season-high nine walks on a night starter Andrew Heaney gave up seven runs in three-plus innings and the bullpen had troubles of its own. It was a script Angels fans have seen many times before, a familiar dichotomy in which a majestic individual performance was overshadowed by mediocrity elsewhere on the roster.

“Everything’s improved,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said, noting that his team has played better of late, reflected by their 14-11 record in June, despite a 38-41 overall mark that leaves them 8½ games back in the American League wild-card race. “But we need to get on some kind of a more consistent roll.”

Ohtani provided the type of outburst Tuesday that should have helped spark such a run.

After flying out his first time up against Yankees starter Jameson Taillon, Ohtani returned to the plate in the third inning, got ahead 3-and-0 in the count, laid off a fastball down the middle, then smoked a changeup left over the outside corner.

The ball left Ohtani’s bat at 109.6 mph. It traveled 395 feet into the right-field bleachers. His 27th home run of the year, it moved him past Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the major league home run list too.

Two innings later, Ohtani went deep again, battling back from an 0-and-2 hole before scorching an elevated fastball 112.4 mph just over the wall in right field, bashing a two-run shot with a lightning-quick swing.

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CLIPPERS

Paul George is guarded extremely closely by Phoenix guard Devin Booker in Game 5.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Andrew Greif on the Clippers: Paul George never pretended he hadn’t seen or heard the criticism that followed his first year with the Clippers, but it rarely had moved from the world of social media and been said straight to his face as it was the night of Jan. 3 in Phoenix.

What started with the Clippers forward’s frustration over being fallen on during the fourth quarter quickly led to an argument with Suns guard Devin Booker. Reggie Jackson, one of George’s best friends, wrapped his arms around his teammate to separate them, but it didn’t stop George and Booker from trading words.

The exchange, according to George, had little to do with the play and more with the Clippers’ breakdown in the NBA bubble four months earlier, when George became the symbol of the franchise’s swift transformation from championship contender back to punchline.

“For whatever reason, there’s a lot of chirping and people just living in the past,” George said after the Clippers’ win that night. “Last year was last year. I’m in a new situation, I am in a different mind-set. Any of that hate stuff, you got to ask them. I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

Six months later, on Monday night inside the same arena, it still was coming at him: boos and cries of “Playoff P” — the self-bestowed nickname that has haunted his social media mentions for more than two years — during Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. And just as George delivered the assist on the game-winning three-pointer to beat the Suns in January, he didn’t wilt in the heat of the moment.

George appeared exhausted afterward. With Kawhi Leonard missing seven consecutive games, George has played 735 playoff minutes — 130 more than anyone else, and 150 more than his closest teammate.

TENNIS

Serena Williams serves before her injury Tuesday.

(Associated Press)

Henry Chu on Wimbledon: With unfortunate symmetry, retirement from injury salvaged one all-time great’s chances at the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world and doomed another’s.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams, both 39 and in the twilight of their dazzling careers, found themselves on opposite sides of fortune’s wheel Tuesday on the rain-slicked grass of Wimbledon. Federer moved into the second round when France’s Adrian Mannarino suffered an untimely slip late in their seesaw Centre Court contest, whereas Williams bade a tearful exit after her stumble in the match immediately following.

“This is obviously terrible that it’s back-to-back matches and it hits Serena as well,” Federer said afterward. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”

Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, was aiming for a record-equaling 24th Grand Slam event singles title on a surface that suits her fast, aggressive game. But it was also a surface that undid her Tuesday evening, under the closed Centre Court roof, when she lost her footing while returning a shot to Belarussian player Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 27.

Her right leg clearly bothering her, Williams lost the game, took a medical timeout and tried to soldier on through several more points. At 3-all and down a point on her service, the American star conceded to injury and a British crowd that has not always embraced her so warmly in the past, during her most dominant years, showered her with applause and admiration.

“Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on — and off — the court meant the world to me,” Williams said in a statement afterward.

OBITUARY

Greg Noll at Pipeline on Oahu in 1964

(Photo by John Severson
)

Steve Marble on surfer Greg Noll: Greg Noll, a legendary big-wave rider known for his ferocious and fearless style of challenging the sheer violence of the ocean, died Monday of natural causes, his family announced on Twitter. He was 84 and had been living in Crescent City in Northern California.

Gregarious with an outsize personality and salty sense of humor, Noll was also an entrepreneur who helped transform the sport with his own line of surfboards and was among the first to shape boards from balsa wood, making them lighter and easier to maneuver. But more than anything, he was a goodwill ambassador to the sport and a near mythical figure to those who sought out waves the size of freight trains.

Noll was born in San Diego on Feb. 11, 1937. His family moved to Manhattan Beach when he was 3. He was surfing by age 10, and by the time he reached his senior year in high school, he had moved to Oahu to chase the swollen winter waves on the island’s North Shore and leeward side.

NBA PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE/RESULTS

All times Pacific

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

No. 2 Phoenix vs. No. 4 Clippers
Phoenix 120, Clippers 114
Phoenix 104, Clippers 103
Clippers 106, Phoenix 92
Phoenix 84, Clippers 80
Clippers 116, Phoenix 102
Tonight: at Clippers, 6 p.m., ESPN
*Friday: at Phoenix, 6 p.m.

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

No. 3 Milwaukee vs. No. 5 Atlanta
Atlanta 116, Milwaukee 113
Milwaukee 125, Atlanta 91
Milwaukee 113, Atlanta 102
Atlanta 110, Milwaukee 88
Thursday: at Milwaukee, 5:30 p.m., TNT
Saturday: at Atlanta, 5:30 p.m., TNT
*Monday, July 5: at Milwaukee, 5:30 p.m., TNT

*-if necessary

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE/RESULTS

STANLEY CUP FINALS
All times Pacific

No. 2 Tampa Bay vs. No. 4 Montreal

Tampa Bay 5, Montreal 1
Today: at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., NBCSN
Friday: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
Monday, July 5: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
*Wed., July 7: at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., NBC
*Friday, July 9: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
*Sunday, July 11: at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m., NBC

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1916 — Amateur Chick Evans Jr. wins the U.S. Open with a record 286 total.

1929 — Bobby Jones beats Al Espinosa by 23 strokes in a 36-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open.

1962 — Murle Lindstrom wins the U.S. Women’s Open by two strokes over Jo Anne Prentice and Ruth Jessen.

1965 — The NFL grants Atlanta a franchise. Rankin Smith Sr., an Executive Vice President of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, pays $8.5 million for the franchise. It’s the highest price paid in league history at the time.

1978 — Willie McCovey becomes the 12th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs.

1991 — Wimbledon breaks 114 years of tradition by playing on the middle Sunday of the tournament, a move forced by a huge backlog of matches caused by rain earlier in the week.

1991 — Meg Mallon sinks a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to break a tie with Pat Bradley and Ayako Okamoto and win the LPGA Championship.

1994 — Diego Maradona is kicked out of the World Cup by FIFA for failing a drug test after Argentina’s June 25 victory over Nigeria in Foxboro, Mass.

1994 — Tonya Harding is stripped of her national title and banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. because of her role in an attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

1995 — Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians becomes the second switch-hitter and the 20th player in baseball history to reach 3,000 hits when he singles in the sixth inning against the Minnesota Twins. Murray joins Pete Rose, the career hits leader with 4,256.

2002 — Ronaldo scores both goals to lead Brazil to a 2-0 victory over Germany for the team’s record fifth World Cup title.

2012 — Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan becomes the first player in a Grand Slam tournament to win every point of a set on her way to beating French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-0, 6-4 in the third round of Wimbledon.

2013 — Inbee Park wins the U.S. Women’s Open for her third straight major this year. Babe Zaharias is the last player to win three straight majors on the calendar, but that was in 1950 when that’s all there were.

2015 — The United States defeat Germany 2-0 in semifinals at Women’s World Cup. Carli Lloyd converts a penalty kick for Team USA and a 1-0 lead. Substitute Kelley O’Hara scores in the 84th minute off a Lloyd cross to seal the U.S. team’s 2-0 victory.

2016 — Coastal Carolina capitalizes on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers win their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals. The Chanticleers are the first program since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in its first CWS appearance.

And finally

Eddie Murray gets his 3,000th hit. Watch it here.