The Sports Report: Yoshinobu Yamamoto leads Dodgers to victory

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

From Jack Harris: Yoshinobu Yamamoto is starting to give the Dodgers that feeling.

The feeling that every time he takes the ball, the team will get a quality start. That whenever he ascends the mound, a string of zeros will follow. That, most importantly, on days he pitches, the Dodgers should be positioned to win.

“You start to have that feeling like, ‘It’s Yamamoto’s day,’” manager Dave Roberts explained with a smile before first pitch. “This is win day.”

Tuesday was indeed another of those days, with Yamamoto dazzling in an eight-inning, two-run start to guide the Dodgers past the Miami Marlins 8-2 at Dodger Stadium.

The game was Yamamoto’s third straight quality start, lowering his ERA to 2.79. It was his longest outing in the majors and made him only the second starter for the Dodgers (25-13) to pitch past the seventh inning.

And when asked for his thoughts on Yamamoto’s performance postgame, Roberts annunciated his one-word answer.

“Fan-tas-tic,” the manager said. “Really great job.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Second round

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 5 Dallas
at Oklahoma City 117, Dallas 95 (box score)
Thursday at Oklahoma City, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Dallas, 12:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Dallas, 6:30 p.m., TNT
*Wed., May 15 at Oklahoma City, TBD, TNT
*Saturday, May 18 at Dallas, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
*Monday, May 20 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., TNT

No. 2 Denver vs. No. 3 Minnesota
Minnesota 106, at Denver 99 (box score)
Minnesota 106, at Denver 80 (box score)
Friday at Minnesota, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Minnesota, 5 p.m., TNT
*Tuesday at Denver, TBD, TNT
*Thursday, May 16 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
*Sunday, May 19 at Denver, TBD, TBD

Eastern Conference

No. 1 Boston vs. No. 4 Cleveland
at Boston 120, Cleveland 95 (box score)
Thursday at Boston, 4 p.m., ESPN
Saturday at Cleveland, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday at Cleveland, 4 p.m., TNT
*Wed., May 15 at Boston, TBD, TNT
*Friday, May 17 at Cleveland, TBD, ESPN
*Sunday, May 19 at Boston, TBD, TBD

No. 2 New York vs. No. 6 Indiana
at New York 121, Indiana 117 (box score)
Wednesday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at Indiana, 4 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Indiana, 12:30 p.m., ABC
*Tuesday at New York, TBD, TNT
*Friday, May 17 at Indiana, TBD, ESPN
*Sunday, May 19 at New York, TBD, TBD

*-if necessary

ANGELS

Kevin Pillar homered twice and drove in six runs, helping Patrick Sandoval and the Angels beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-0 on Tuesday night.

Logan O’Hoppe had four hits and two RBIs for the Angels (13-23), who had dropped three in a row and five of six. Willie Calhoun walked twice and scored three times.

Sandoval (2-5) struck out seven in seven innings in his first win since April 3 against Miami. The left-hander gave up three hits and walked one.

“Tonight belonged to Sandoval, he was outstanding,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “That’s the eighth straight game that our starters have given us six (innings) and that’s what we’re trying to do with these guys.”

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NFL

From Sam Farmer: The Rams, Chargers and Dallas Cowboys are here every summer, and now the New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders are on their way.

Southern California has become to NFL training camps what Arizona and Florida are to MLB’s spring training.

The Saints plan to hold training camp at UC Irvine this summer, and the Raiders are putting the finishing touches on a deal to move their camp to Costa Mesa. Both are one-year agreements.

There is no other place in the country with such a cluster of training camps, especially notable considering the Los Angeles market went without an NFL team from 1995 through 2015.

“It’s not a surprise, given the weather, the number of players from here and the overall experience that they would want to come back and hold training camp,” said Kevin Demoff, chief operating officer of the Rams. “There are not many better places to practice in the summer, or in any time of the year, than Southern California.”

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SPARKS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Sparks were poised to host Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on May 24 at the snug Walter Pyramid, a venue that seats 4,000.

It was an odd choice that left lots of potential revenue on the table, as other WNBA teams tried to maximize the number of seats they had available for games featuring Clark, college basketball’s all-time scoring leader and the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft.

With the Lakers, Clippers and Kings knocked out of the playoffs, the Sparks announced they moved the game against the Fever along with contests against the Dallas Wings on May 26 and Minnesota Lynx on June 5 to Crypto.com Arena. The venue seats 19,067 for basketball games.

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LAFC

From Kevin Baxter: When Gian Neglia took over as sporting director of the Las Vegas Lights in February, it was a team in name only.

That’s not a figure of speech but a literal description of the situation Neglia inherited. The Lights, who played in the second-tier USL Championship, had no coach, no players and no employees on the soccer side when he joined the team less than two weeks before training camp was scheduled to start.

“We didn’t know where we were going to have training camp. So we needed to find a place, we needed to set up games,” Neglia said. “You really sit down and think about everything that we did and everything that needed to be done in the time frame that it needed to be done, you might think to yourself, well, maybe this isn’t the right move to make.”

He certainly wouldn’t have thought that three months later the Lights would be preparing for arguably the biggest match in team history, a U.S. Open Cup round of 32 match against LAFC on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

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DUCKS

From Kevin Baxter: The Ducks will have the third pick in next month’s NHL entry draft. It’s the third time in four seasons the Ducks have had a top-three overall draft pick.

San Jose will pick first, followed by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Boston University forward Macklin Celebrini is widely expected to be the top pick. Celebrini, a 17-year-old freshman, won the Hobey Baker Award this year, making him the youngest player to be selected college hockey’s top player.

The Ducks (27-50-5) had the third-worst record in the NHL this season and were one of 11 teams that had a chance to secure the No. 1 overall pick in Tuesday’s draft lottery. The team has missed the playoffs in each of the last six seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.

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NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Second round

Western Conference

C1 Dallas vs. C3 Colorado
Colorado 4, at Dallas 3 (OT) (box score)
Thursday at Dallas, 6:30 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Colorado, 7 p.m., TNT
Monday at Colorado, TBD, ESPN
*Wed., May 15 at Dallas, TBD
*Friday, May 17 at Colorado
*Sunday, May 19 at Dallas, TBD

P1 Vancouver vs. P2 Edmonton
Wednesday at Vancouver, 7 p.m., ESPN
Friday at Vancouver, 7 p.m., ESPN
Sunday at Edmonton, 6:30 p.m., TBS
Tuesday at Edmonton, TBD, ESPN
*Thursday, May 5 at Vancouver, TBD
*Saturday, May 18 at Edmonton, TBD
*Monday, May 20 at Vancouver, TBD

Eastern Conference

M1 New York Rangers vs. M2 Carolina
at New York 4, Carolina 3 (box score)
at New York 4, Carolina 3 (2 OT) (box score)
Thursday at Carolina, 4 p.m., TNT
Saturday at Carolina, 4 p.m., TNT
*Monday at New York, TBD
*Thursday, May 16 at Carolina, TBD
*Saturday, May 18, at New York, TBD

A1 Florida vs. A2 Boston
Boston 5, at Florida 1 (box score)
Wednesday at Florida, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Friday at Boston, 4 p.m., TNT
Sunday at Boston, 3 p.m., TBS
*Tuesday at Florida, TBD
*Friday, May 17 at Boston, TBD
*Sunday, May 19 at Floria, TBD

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1907 — Canadian Tommy Burns retains his world heavyweight boxing title after beating ‘Philadelphia’ Jack O’Brien on points in 20 rounds.

1915 — Regret, ridden by Joe Notter, becomes the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby, with a 2-length wire-to-wire victory over Pebbles.

1937 — War Admiral, the favorite ridden by Charles Kurtsinger, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1 3/4 lengths over Pompoon.

1943 — Count Fleet, ridden by Johnny Longden, wins the Preakness Stakes by 8 lengths over Blue Swords.

1954 — William Parry O’Brien becomes the first man to throw the shot put more than 60 feet with a 60-5¼ toss at a meet in Los Angeles.

1967 — Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.

1968 — Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland A’s pitches a perfect game, beating the Minnesota Twins 4-0. It is the first perfect game in the American League regular season in 46 seasons.

1970 — Walt Frazier scores 36 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 113-99 victory over the Lakers and the NBA championship in seven games.

1984 — On the day the Olympic torch relay begins, the Soviet Union announces it will not take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Soviet National Olympic Committee Union said the participation of Soviet athletes would be impossible because of “the gross flouting” of Olympic ideals by U.S. authorities.

1993 — Lennox Lewis of Britain scores a unanimous 12-round decision over Tony Tucker in his first defense of the WBC heavyweight title in Las Vegas.

2001 — Randy Johnson becomes the third pitcher to strike out 20 in nine innings. He doesn’t finish the game as the Arizona Diamondbacks go on to beat Cincinnati 4-3 in 11 innings.

2012 — Josh Hamilton becomes the 16th player to hit four home runs in a game, launching a quartet of two-run drives against three different pitchers to carry the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

2014 — The Houston Texans takes South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney with the first pick in the NFL draft. The draft’s other big name, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, sits until Cleveland makes its third trade of the round and grabs the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner at No. 22.

2018 — Seattle Mariners MLB left-hander James Paxton hurls a no-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Compiled by the Associated Press