The Sports Report: Dodgers are adding Blake Snell to the rotation

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

From Jack Harris: The Dodgers won the World Series last season in spite of their short-handed pitching.

Next year, they hope a reinforced staff can be the key to defending their title.

To that end, the Dodgers made a major move Tuesday night, agreeing to a five-year, $182-million contract with two-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher Blake Snell pending a physical, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.

The deal, which includes a $52-million signing bonus and some deferred money, was first signaled Tuesday night by Snell, who posted to Instagram a photoshopped image of himself in a Dodgers jersey. The caption read “LA” with an eyeballs emoji.

Suddenly, a year after the Dodgers added frontline arms Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow for more than $1 billion combined, their latest addition was clear. Once again, they had flung their wallet wide open. Once again, they had made a blockbuster addition to their starting rotation.

Snell, 31, has been one of the top left-handed pitchers in the game during his nine-year career. Though he has only once been an All-Star, the 6-foot-4 Seattle native won the American League Cy Young with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018, the National League Cy Young with the San Diego Padres in 2023, and has a 3.19 ERA and 1,368 strikeouts over 211 starts.

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LAKERS

From Dan Woike: The idea, JJ Redick said pregame, would be for the Lakers to get back to the plan he set in place when he became the team’s head coach. That plan, to take the long view and favor the process of the results helped the team win 10 of its first 14 games.

“We’re all competitive. I’m competitive. We have to be about the process and doing things the right way and building that consistency,” he said pregame Tuesday night. “I believe that if our group does that, we’ll have good results and results we can live with.”

But after two days of hammering home a need to be physical, two days after the Lakers were badly beaten in a third quarter by a rival where they “stopped playing” in their own coach’s assessment, they were again unfelt on the defensive end.

Facing a potent team in Phoenix, one that the Lakers are fighting with both in the West and in their NBA Cup group, the Lakers were again badly outclassed in the second half, losing 127-100 to the Suns.

They’ve lost three straight games.

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Lakers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: Only a handful of students showed up for the roll call Tuesday night, Thanksgiving week draining the usual pregame pep inside Pauley Pavilion.

The place wouldn’t stay quiet for long.

UCLA point guard Dylan Andrews collected the opening jump ball with a firm hand slap that could be heard in the upper reaches of the arena. He scored on the game’s opening possession after taking a pass from Kobe Johnson underneath the basket for a layup.

On the other end of the court, the Bruins forced a Southern Utah turnover when Skyy Clark dove onto the court for a steal, clapping in celebration after the Thunderbirds compounded their mistake with a foul.

It was going to be a long, painfully noisy night for the visitors.

Dominating in every facet, UCLA displayed plenty of life during an 88-43 rout that represented its fifth consecutive victory and easily its best showing of the early season.

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UCLA box score

AP men’s top 25 rankings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: The Rams made the playoffs five times in coach Sean McVay’s first seven seasons, qualifying three times by winning the NFC West and twice when finishing second.

With six games left, including division matchups against the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks, the Rams are in postseason contention thanks in part to a division devoid of a dominant team.

The Rams’ 37-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday dropped their record to 5-6. But the division title — and a guaranteed home game for the playoffs — is up for grabs because the Seahawks and Cardinals are 6-5 and the 49ers are 5-6.

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CHARGERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: In the thick of a playoff race, the Chargers have the attention of four prime-time games in six weeks. Now it’s a matter of what they can do in the spotlight.

A 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday pumped the brakes on the team’s rapid rise under coach Jim Harbaugh. Instead of loud music and joyous laughter, the team’s locker room was mostly silent as players emptied their lockers, got dressed and shuffled out as quickly as possible.

With one of the loudest home crowds of the season at SoFi Stadium, the loss felt like a missed opportunity for the Chargers (7-4) to capitalize on the growing interest around Harbaugh’s rebuild. But with a short week to prepare for a road game against the Atlanta Falcons, Justin Herbert insists it’s just the beginning of a new opportunity.

“These are the games that you want to be playing in November and December,” the star quarterback said, “and hopefully in January as well.”

Here are four things we learned from the loss:

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Hernández: If Justin Herbert is ‘incredible’ what does that say about the rest of the Chargers?

USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: A light rain fell over the Rose Bowl on Saturday night as Eddie Czaplicki took his place just behind USC’s 45-yard line. He didn’t expect to be needed, not with USC driving early in the fourth quarter against UCLA. But an ill-timed, third-down sack had knocked the Trojans out of field goal range. Now it was up to the best punter in college football to salvage the situation, like he had so often during USC’s season.

It was a critical moment in the crosstown rivalry, with the Trojans trailing 13-9, in need of a spark. But a familiar calm settled over Czaplicki. He took a deep breath, caught the snap, then sent the kick soaring toward the goal line, where it bounced once at the 5, landing softly in the arms of receiver Makai Lemon at the 1.

It was a perfectly precise punt, in the final stretch of a near-perfect season of punting. Back at midfield, Czaplicki put his palms together and bowed his head. “It was,” he said later, “almost like a zen thing.”

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UCLA FOOTBALL

From Ben Bolch: Two days after tensions flared going into halftime of the crosstown rivalry game, DeShaun Foster remained salty about UCLA being the only team punished.

Three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called against the Bruins after an exchange that Foster said he was told started when a USC player punched UCLA wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, leading to jawing between both teams on the way to the locker room.

“It could have been an offsetting penalty and then you move on, but they chose to give us three and them none,” Foster said Monday. “So I guess we were the only ones out there.”

Foster disclosed that Corey Miller, the team’s head football performance coach, received one of the penalties in addition to Gilmer and safety Bryan Addison. Foster said Miller was trying to keep the peace, not escalate tensions.

“He was kind of just separating people and keeping our guys from going onto their side,” Foster said, “so I think that they just kind of saw a big guy and was threatened by what he was doing, but he was just separating — keeping our guys from getting any closer to them.

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LAFC

From Kevin Baxter: Since entering MLS in 2018, LAFC has switched coaches, team presidents and cycled through hundreds of players. In just seven seasons the team has had three different jersey sponsors and even the name of its stadium has changed.

But two constants have remained from Day 1: the team’s success and John Thorrington, its general manager. And those things are related because under Thorrington’s watch LAFC has won more games, scored more goals and lifted more trophies than any team in MLS. So on Tuesday, the league will reward him for that success by naming him the MLS sporting executive of the year.

“Obviously I’m very flattered by it,” said Thorrington, whose team made it to the Western Conference semifinals for a third straight time this season, the only club in the league to achieve that. LAFC was upended there, however, falling to the Seattle Sounders in extra time, failing to reach the MLS Cup final for the first time since 2021.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1913 — Notre Dame and Texas meet for the first time in a Thanksgiving showdown. Both carry perfect records into the game, with Notre Dame not losing a game in three years and the Longhorns on a 12-game winning streak. The Fighting Irish build on a 10-7 halftime lead, scoring 20 unanswered points for a 30-7 win at Austin, Texas. The win gives Notre Dame a 7-0 season for rookie coach Jesse Harper.

1947 — Howie Dallmar of the Philadelphia Warriors sets an NBA record for the most field goal attempts with none made (15) in an 81-59 loss to the New York Knicks.

1949 — Steve Van Buren of the Philadelphia Eagles becomes the second NFL player, the first in 16 years, to rush over 200 yards. He runs for 205 yards in a 34-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

1960 — Trailing 38-7, the Denver Broncos score 31 points to salvage a 38-38 tie with the Buffalo Bills.

1960 — Detroit’s Gordie Howe scores his 1,000th point with an assist, and the Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0. It’s Howe’s 938th NHL game.

1961 — Detroit’s Gordie Howe becomes the first to play 1,000 NHL games.

1965 — Gordie Howe becomes the first NHL player to score 600 goals. The milestone comes in Detroit’s 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

1966 — The Washington Redskins set an NFL regular-season record for most points in a 72-41 victory over the New York Giants. Both teams also set records with 16 TDs and 113 total points.

1980 — Dave Williams returns Eddie Murray’s opening kickoff in overtime 95 yards to give the Chicago Bears a 23-17 victory over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. The Bears tied the score with no time remaining in regulation.

1994 — Joe Montana of the Kansas City Chiefs becomes the fifth quarterback to surpass 40,000 passing yards in a 10-9 loss at Seattle.

1998 — Texas’ Ricky Williams becomes the leading rusher in Division I-A history, breaking Tony Dorsett’s record set 22 years earlier.

2011 — The Connecticut women’s basketball team wins its 89th straight at home to set an NCAA record, beating Dayton 78-38 behind freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis’ 23 points.

2015 — James Harden scores 50 points to lead Houston past Philadelphia 116-114 for the 76ers’ 27th straight loss dating to last season, the longest losing streak in major U.S. pro sports. The previous record was set by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976-77 and matched by the 76ers in 2013-14.

Compiled by the Associated Press