The Sports Report: Another bad Bobby Miller outing as Dodgers lose

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

From Jack Harris: The at-bat that mattered most to the baseball world Tuesday night came in the third inning at loanDepot Park, when Shohei Ohtani continued his push toward 50-50 history by belting a second-deck blast for his 48th home run.

In the Dodgers’ 11-9 loss to the Miami Marlins, however, the Japanese slugger and favorite for National League most valuable player seemed more worried about his other at-bats in a one-for-five performance; most notably, a sixth-inning opportunity when he stranded runners on the corners with his third strikeout of the game.

“The homer helped kind of close the gap,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, after a game in which the Dodgers never recovered from a poor Bobby Miller start (four runs, two innings) and shaky performance from the bullpen (seven runs in six innings).

“But not being able to hit with runners on first and third,” Ohtani added, “that’s something I’m looking back on.”

Such an answer illustrated the duality of Ohtani’s late-season mindset.

The global superstar has tried to block out the incessant chatter surrounding his pursuit of Major League Baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-stolen base season — an unprecedented mark he seems increasingly likely to reach with 11 games to go, standing at 48-48.

“It’s something I will look back on at the end of the season,” Ohtani said last week, as the spotlight began to intensify. “I’m trying to be less cognizant of it.”

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ANGELS

Rookie Eric Wagaman homered for the second straight game, Griffin Canning threw six innings of three-hit ball, and the Angels dealt the Chicago White Sox their 116th loss with a 5-0 victory on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.

The White Sox were trying to equal a season-high, four-game winning streak. Instead, they moved one step closer to the majors’ post-1900 record of 120 losses by the 1962 expansion New York Mets.

Chicago is 36-116 with 10 games left and has the fourth-most losses in a season since 1900. The 2003 Detroit Tigers hold the American League mark with 119 losses.

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Angels box score

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SPARKS

From Andrés Soto: If you’ve watched the Sparks this season, their home finale went about exactly as you might have expected.

The Sparks got off to a hot start, building an advantage on the boards that led to a noticeable 12-2 margin in second-chance points as they took an eight-point lead into halftime. Then, an absolutely horrid third quarter stretch snowballed as the Phoenix Mercury came roaring back to defeat the Sparks 85-81, handing them their eighth consecutive loss, tying a franchise record to close out their home schedule.

After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Sparks opened the second quarter on a 10-2 run to take control of the game thanks in large part to strong performances off the bench from Li Yueru and Zia Cooke, whose nine points each tied Dearica Hamby for the team lead at the half. Rickea Jackson was starting to find her groove in the second half as well, getting to the line and shooting a perfect four for four on her free throws.

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GALAXY

From Kevin Baxter: You don’t have to look long or far to spot the differences between this year’s Galaxy team and last year’s.

The lineup? Eight of the 11 players the Galaxy started in Saturday’s El Tráfico win over LAFC weren’t with the team at the start of last season. The standings? The Galaxy were 13th in the 14-team Western Conference table at this point last season, this year they have the second-best record in the league and are closing in on their first conference title since 2011.

And what about their record. Last year the Galaxy won eight games all season; they’ve already won twice as many this year, clinching a playoff berth with five games left.

For coach Greg Vanney, only the numbers have changed. The team’s values, philosophy and goals, he said, have remained constant. And that consistency, a little luck and a few other things the naked eye can’t see are what has really fueled the team’s best season in a decade.

“We had to sort out our roster a little bit. But the vision for what we wanted and how we felt the team could be successful didn’t change,” he said. “A lot of things have to come together for you to have a turnaround like we did. A lot of credit [goes] to just the vision for what we wanted to do, sticking to it, and then finding the players who fit into that vision.”

Maybe. But there’s more to it than that.

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USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: Lincoln Riley is not the type of coach to divulge more information than is absolutely necessary. Especially when that information might offer an upcoming opponent even a sliver of a hint about USC’s plans or personnel. Specifics are regularly side-stepped. Injury inquiries are stiff-armed away.

Sherrone Moore, his coaching counterpart at Michigan, appeared to share similar feelings about protecting state secrets. That is, until this week, when Moore decided to share with the world, three games into his tenure at Michigan, that he was making a change at quarterback.

Moore made it official in a news conference Monday that Michigan would replace Davis Warren, a former walk-on who struggled through three starts, with Alex Orji, a running threat with limited experience as a passer. Why Moore decided to do so publicly, squandering the element of surprise with Riley and his defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, has yet to be explained.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1899 — The Cincinnati Open begins. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States still played in its original city and is now known as the Cincinnati Masters & Women’s Open.

1938 — The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers 2-0. Left end Dick Plasman tackles Arnie Herber in the end zone in the fourth quarter for the win.

1946 — Joe Louis knocks out Tami Mauriello in the first round at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

1966 — Baltimore quarterback Johnny Unitas throws 4 touchdown passes in 38-23 win at Minnesota to surpass Y.A. Tittle as NFL’s career leader with 212; finishes career with 290 TD passes.

1967 — U.S. yacht Intrepid beats the Australian yacht Dame Pattie in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.

1977 — U.S. yacht Courageous beats the challenger Australia in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.

1982 — In a rare father-son matchup, coach Jack Elway leads San Jose State to its second consecutive upset of quarterback John Elway and Stanford 35-31 in Palo Alto, Calif. John Elway completes 24-of-36 passes for 382 yards and three touchdowns. Spartans quarterback Steve Clarkson, throws for 285 yards, three touchdowns and scores on a three-yard keeper for the win after a Cardinal fumble. Stanford reaches the Spartans’ 26-yard line, but Elway gets sacked on four consecutive plays to end the game.

1996 — Roger Clemens equals his own major league record, fanning 20 batters and pitching a four-hitter to lead Boston over the Detroit Tigers 4-0.

2003 — Atlanta clinches its 12th straight division title when second-place Florida is mathematically eliminated from the NL East race. The record title streak started in 1991, when the Braves won the NL West. They moved to the East Division in 1994 and trailed Montreal by six games when the strike stopped the season in August.

2005 — Green Bay’s Brett Favre joins Dan Marino and John Elway with 50,000 yards passing and also breaks Elway’s single-stadium NFL touchdown record of 180 with a 4-yard toss to Tony Fisher with 4 seconds left of a 26-24 loss to Cleveland at Lambeau Field.

2011 — At 16, Lexi Thompson becomes the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour event. The 16-year-old Floridian closes with a 2-under 70 to win by five strokes over Tiffany Joh at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala. Thompson shatters the age record for winning a multiple-round tournament held by Paula Creamer, who won in 2005 at 18.

2011 — Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton sets an NFL rookie record by throwing for 432 yards against the Green Bay Packers. Newton, who tied the record by throwing for 422 yards in last week’s loss at Arizona, completes 28 of 46 passes with one touchdown in the 30-23 loss to the Packers. Newton’s 854 yards passing is also the most yards for a player in his first two games.

2013 — American Jordan Burroughs earns another wrestling world title. Burroughs, a gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics, extends his undefeated streak to 65 matches with a 4-0 victory over Iran’s Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei in the 163-pound category at the Laszlo Papp Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary.

2016 — Detroit’s Anquan Boldin has a touchdown catch in the Lions’ 16-15 loss to Tennessee, to join Terrell Owens as the only players in NFL history to have at least 1,000 career receptions and a touchdown catch with four teams.

Compiled by the Associated Press