The Sports Report: Will a tight division race be a blessing for the Dodgers?
Howdy, I’m your host, Iliana Limón Romero, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who is probably preparing for Hello Kitty Night Monday at Dodger Stadium. Let’s get right to the news.
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From Mike DiGiovanna: The journey is just as important as the destination in the eyes of Miguel Rojas, which is why the veteran shortstop isn’t fretting over the fact that the Dodgers are in a dogfight for the National League West for the first time since 2021.
The Dodgers cruised to division titles the past two seasons, winning the NL West by 22 games in 2022 and 16 games in 2023, and what good did that do them?
Thrust into high-intensity games for the first time in weeks, the 100-win Dodgers were swept by 84-win Arizona in the NL Division Series last October, and their 111-win team lost to 89-win San Diego in a four-game NLDS in 2022.
Rojas believes the stress and intensity of a six-week tussle with the Padres and Diamondbacks for playoff spots will make the Dodgers far more battle-tested for October than they were the past two seasons.
MORE DODGERS
Shohei Ohtani’s 112-mph homer a slump-buster? Dodgers hope so in tight NL West race
Kevin Kiermaier and Michael Kopech finding new life with Dodgers
Why Tyler Glasnow felt obligated to say something about his sore elbow
ANGELS
From the Associated Press: Ramón Laureano homered for the second straight game and the Atlanta Braves wrapped up a 10-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Angels on Sunday.
Laureano continued to give the Angels trouble, just like he did during his six previous seasons in Oakland. The right fielder gave Atlanta a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when he drove a curveball from Jack Kochanowicz (1-3) 442 feet over the wall in left-center.
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OLYMPICS
From Bill Plaschke: The matter is complicated, but the message should be simple.
When the corrupt Olympic gods show up at Jordan Chiles’ doorstep demanding her bronze floor exercise medal, the UCLA gymnast should send them off with three words.
Go to hell.
It’s her medal, she won it fairly, she won it definitively, it doesn’t belong in this controversy, it doesn’t belong in Romania, it belongs in only one place, now and forever.
Draped around her neck.
The International Olympic Committee wants so badly to strip her of the medal, it already gave a duplicate bronze to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu on Friday, thus declaring the sole and rightful owner.
This is five-ringed robbery, an Olympic-sized heist, and UCLA’s Chiles should not stand still while her achievement is blatantly mugged.
MORE OLYMPICS
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RAMS
From Gary Klein: That tightness in quarterback Matthew Stafford’s hamstring? The twinge Rams coach Sean McVay described as a “little something” initially?
It’s looming as a larger issue.
Stafford was sidelined for most of the last two practices and McVay said Sunday that he was “not sure” if the 36-year-old Stafford would practice this week.
“He can throw and do some of those things,” McVay said during a videoconference with reporters. “As far as just some of the movement, if he’s feeling good, we haven’t decided that yet.
MORE RAMS
Rams preseason takeaways: Stetson Bennett bounces back in victory over Chargers
CHARGERS
From Sam Farmer: Chris Smith didn’t just saunter into his position as director of equipment operations for the Chargers. His career started at the ground floor.
As in the grass under his feet.
“We had a blank grass field at UC San Diego, and Sid said, ‘Oh, if you didn’t know, you’re painting the fields out there for training camp,’” said Smith, 58, referring to legendary equipment manager Sid Brooks, who was with the Chargers from 1973 to 2000 before a five-year stint at USC.
“I had never painted a football field in my life. So he handed me a schematic of a football field, and I had a group of four high school kids that were there to help me, and I had to figure it out. … And we did it.”
That was a lifetime ago for Smith, known around the Chargers facility as “Smitty.” He and assistant equipment manager Kevin Duddy have been with the franchise more than 30 years, and now oversee an entire wing of “The Bolt” — the team’s new training facility in El Segundo — that’s dedicated to equipment storage.
The wing is next to the locker room, and players drift in and out, clearly at home and at ease with the staff.
“These guys are like my uncles away from home,” safety Derwin James said. “I won’t even call them like they work for us. It’s like family, man. These guys are first class with everything.”
MORE CHARGERS
Chargers preseason takeaways: Easton Stick’s struggles continue in loss to Rams
Chargers’ injured quarterback Justin Herbert finally gives protective device the
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
From Benjamin Royer: A year after his younger brother claimed AVP Manhattan Beach Open glory, it was Trevor Crabb’s turn to hoist another pier plaque.
Crabb and his partner, Theo Brunner won Sunday’s final 21-18, 21-18 against U.S. Olympic pair Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, never losing in six matches as the first seed. Crabb grabbed his fourth Open winin five years and his first with Brunner as his partner.
“They just came back from the Olympics, and obviously we didn’t make it,” Crabb said. “[We] wanted a little redemption, and knew that deep down, we’re still the best team out here on any given day.”
The Crabb brothers met in Sunday morning’s Open semifinal — a rematch of the 2023 final. Taylor Crabb and his partner, Taylor Sander, pushed Trevor Crabb and Brunner to three sets for the first time all weekend.
“He ruined the four-peat,” Trevor Crabb said. “Today, I got the revenge.”
Unlike the men’s final, Olympic redemption was on the table later in the afternoon.
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
From Eric Sondheimer: A look at the top 25 high school football teams in the Southland heading into the 2024 season.
LITTLE LEAGUE
From Andrés Soto: Twelve-year-old Spencer Gordon was having a sleepover with his best friend, Jared, in his Northridge home on Jan. 17, 1994, when he was woken up by what he could only describe as an unrelenting boom.
“Deafening,” Gordon recalls now, 30 years later. “You couldn’t hear your own scream.”
Gordon saw Jared being flung across his bedroom as it shook, ricocheting off the walls. He tried to run away, but couldn’t find his footing as the seismic force kept knocking him down. His mirror and dresser both fell in front of his door, leaving him and Jared trapped until his dad broke the door down with his shoulder, reached over the dresser, and grabbed the kids with one arm and pulled them out as they rode out the rest of the 6.7 earthquake huddled together in the hallway.
The floor was littered with broken glass. Everything that was in the kitchen cabinets — dishes, glasses, pots and pans — fell out and became a two-foot high pile of debris. The water and power were out for six days. The swimming pool was half empty.
“Everything that could’ve fallen, fell and broke,” Gordon, now 42, recalls. “It was just absolutely terrifying.”
Gordon and his Northridge City Little League teammates now remember that summer as the time their world was turned upside down until their magical run to Williamsport, Pa., provided profound and cathartic joy.
SPARKS
From the Associated Press: A’ja Wilson scored 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds — her WNBA-record 17th game this season with 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds — to help the Las Vegas Aces beat the Sparks 87-71 on Sunday.
Wilson broke her own single-season record for 20-10 games of 16, set last season. The 6-foot-4 center has scored at least 20 points and grabbed 10-plus rebounds in eight consecutive games, also a WNBA record. The two-time WNBA most valuable player is averaging 29.3 points, 14.4 rebounds and 3.6 blocks while shooting 53% (85 of 161) from the field and 93.3% (56 of 60) from the free-throw line during that span.
Kelsey Plum made four three-pointers and finished with 18 points, Tiffany Hayes scored 11 and Jackie Young had 10 for Las Vegas (17-9).
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1909 — The first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Twelve-thousand spectators watch Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win a five-mile race with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track’s surface of crushed rock and tar breaks up in a number of places and causes the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.
1921 — Detroit’s Ty Cobb gets his 3,000th career hit at age 34, the youngest player to reach that plateau.
1934 — Helen Hull Jacobs wins the women’s title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships.
1981 — Renaldo Nehemiah sets the world record in the 110 hurdles with a time of 12.93 seconds in a meet at Zurich, Switzerland.
1984 — Lee Trevino beats Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins by four strokes to take the PGA championship at Shoal Creek, Alabama.
1993 — Sergei Bubka wins his fourth consecutive pole vault title at the World Track and Field championships at Stuttgart, Germany.
1995 — Mike Tyson starts his comeback, knocking out Peter McNeeley in 89 seconds at Las Vegas. McNeeley’s manager Vinnie Vecchione jumps into the ring to stop the fight after his boxer is knocked down twice in the first round.
2001 — Michael Schumacher gets his fourth Formula One championship and matches Alain Prost’s series record of 51 victories by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix.
2004 — American swimmer Michael Phelps wraps up the 200/400m individual medley double at the Athens Olympics when he wins the 200m (1:57.14 OR) ahead of teammate Ryan Lochte.
2016 — Usain Bolt scores another sweep, winning three gold medals in his third consecutive Olympics. At the Rio de Janeiro Games, Bolt turns a close 4x100 relay race against Japan and the United States into a typical, Bolt-like runaway, helping Jamaica cross the line in 37.27 seconds. Allyson Felix wins an unprecedented fifth gold medal in women’s track and field, running the second leg of the 4x100-meter relay team.
2018 — Novak Đoković beats Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Cincinnati Masters to become the first player to win all 9 Masters 1,000 tennis tournaments since the series started in 1990.
2018 — Jockey Drayden Van Dyke wins a record-tying seven races at Del Mar, including the $200,000 Del Mar Mile. He ties Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza for most wins in a single day in the seaside track’s history. Van Dyke’s only loss in eight mounts comes when he finishes second in the sixth race.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
