| From Jack Harris: Sunday was gut-check time for the Dodgers. |
| Even before they blew a late-game, three-run lead. |
| As a clearly frustrated Dave Roberts put it ahead of first pitch, the team needed to "not get embarrassed" in the face of a potential three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and play with a level of "pride" that had been missing the previous two nights in this unexpectedly challenging weekend series. |
| "Whatever it is, we've got to do it right now," the manager said. "We've got to win today. We've got to play better baseball. ... There's more in there. There just is." |
| In the 5-4, walk-off win over the Diamondbacks that followed, his team finally delivered despite self-inflicted adversity. |
| After letting the Diamondbacks (68-70) get back into the game, and nearly squandering Yoshinobu Yamamoto's seven-inning gem, the Dodgers prevailed on Will Smith's pinch-hit, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth, moving two games up in the National League West standings after the San Diego Padres' rubber-match loss to the Minnesota Twins earlier in the day. |
| Continue reading here |
| Dodgers box score |
| MLB standings |
ANGELS |
| José Soriano and two relievers combined for a two-hitter and Oswald Peraza hit his first home run since a trade from the Yankees to lead the Angels to a 3-0 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday. |
| Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was injured trying to make a catch on that hit when he crashed face-first into the metal scoreboard in left field. |
| He was bleeding and appeared to have a cut above his right eye. He held a smaller cloth to his head as he was slowly carted off the field while resting his head on the shoulder of a team employee who rode the cart with him. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance where interim manager Ray Montgomery said he would receive stitches to close the cut and be evaluated. |
| Soriano (10-9) allowed one hit and struck out eight in seven innings. Luis García allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth for his 25th save. |
| Continue reading here |
| Angels box score |
| MLB standings |
| |
USC FOOTBALL |
| From Dylan Hernández: This was what Lincoln Riley wanted. |
| A half-empty Coliseum. An overwhelmed opponent. The anonymous visitors from Palookaville booed as they marched onto the field. |
| Los Angeles is about big events, and there was nothing big about USC's season opener on Saturday, save for the margin of victory. |
| There were no conclusions to draw from the 73-13 victory over Missouri State. There were no definitive statements that could be made about the direction of the program. |
| Is Riley a fraud or is he actually building something other than a $200-million practice facility? |
| Was scheduling cannon fodder such as Missouri State a necessary step to reach the College Football Playoff or a cynical effort to conceal USC's mediocrity? |
| Nobody knows. |
| Continue reading here |
| |
UCLA FOOTBALL |
| From Bill Plaschke: Year 2 of the DeShaun Foster era began at UCLA late Saturday night with tarped seats, yawning fans and a frightening question. |
| What if this guy really can't coach? |
| Having endured Foster's numerous growing pains in a 5-7 debut season, the Bruin faithful were hopeful this second go-around would reveal him as the inspirational leader whom athletic director Martin Jarmond promised when he surprisingly picked him to replace Chip Kelly. |
| Still waiting. Getting uglier. Seriously worried. |
| In a season opener that was completely devoid of the "energy and passion" that Jarmond once claimed Foster possessed, the Bruins lost 43-10 to Utah in a game that ended with the Rose Bowl showing only one sign of life. |
| That came from the other team's fans, who filled the Pasadena night with the taunting chant of, "Let's go Utah." |
| Continue reading here |
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RAMS |
| From Gary Klein: Edge rusher Jared Verse was the 2024 NFL defensive rookie of the year. Lineman Braden Fiske was a finalist, following in the footsteps of 2023 finalist Kobie Turner. |
| So the Rams defensive front is not searching for an identity. |
| They already have one. |
| "For one, we're young," Fiske said at the start of training camp. "And two, we're relentless." |
| With the addition of veteran nose tackle Poona Ford, brought in specifically to help stop the run, the Rams are banking that the front-loaded defense can harass quarterbacks into mistakes — and prevent Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley from jetting for long touchdown runs. |
| The first test comes Sept. 7, when the Rams play host to the Houston Texans in the season opener at SoFi Stadium. Two weeks later, they travel to Philadelphia, where they will face Barkley and the defending Super Bowl-champion Eagles. |
| Continue reading here |
CHARGERS |
| From Sam Farmer: The Chargers gave up the fewest points in the NFL last season (301) and will need that kind of stout performance again to get a firm foothold in the AFC West. |
| They will be tested right away, as they open in Brazil against the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs — a team the Chargers haven't beaten since 2021 — then face Las Vegas and Denver in the following two weeks. All three division opponents in a row. |
| Coach Jim Harbaugh was especially pleased with his defense after it notched a strip sack and made a goal-line stand in a preseason victory over New Orleans. |
| "They just played with a lot of want-to and I'm thrilled with that," Harbaugh told reporters. "I love guys that play like they want to be on this team. They want to show that they belong. That's the way they practice and that's the way they go out and play in the game. That warms the cockles of the heart." |
| Continue reading here |
AFC WEST |
| From Sam Farmer: There are great coaches all over the NFL. Super Bowl champions. Coach of the Year winners. Future Hall of Famers. |
| But when it comes to head coaches, across the board, no division can match the AFC West. |
| Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh. |
| It's Mount Rushmore — or maybe Mount Passmore. |
| That's 10 conference championships and five Super Bowl rings, possibly the most accomplished quartet of coaches since the league went to eight four-team divisions in 2002. There are no weak links. |
| "I really appreciate the competition," said Carroll, coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. "I think it's amazing that we all have a chance to be in the same spot. It's good." |
| Continue reading here |
SPARKS |
| From Kara Alexander: The Sparks won a critical game Sunday, defeating the Washington Mystics 81-78 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. |
| Washington hit a trio of three-pointers in the final minute, but Dearica Hamby's jumper in the paint and Kelsey Plum's two free throws in the final 20 seconds were enough to seal a Sparks win. |
| Hamby led the Sparks with 20 points and 12 rebounds, recording her 11th double-double of the season. Plum added 18 points, four rebounds and seven assists. Rickea Jackson contributed 16 points and Azurá Stevens had 12 rebounds. |
| Continue reading here |
| Sparks box score |
| WNBA standings |
LAFC |
| Hirving Lozano and Anders Dreyer scored, and San Diego FC spoiled the home debut of LAFC forward Son Heung-min with a 2-1 victory Sunday night. |
| After Dreyer got the tiebreaking goal in the 66th minute, Western Conference-leading San Diego held on against a barrage of LAFC chances to extend its unbeaten streak to six matches in MLS play. |
| Denis Bouanga scored in the first half for LAFC, but the French star and Son both failed to convert golden scoring chances in the final minutes of expansion San Diego's first trip 120 miles north to BMO Stadium. CJ Dos Santos made three saves for the visitors, including a diving stop on Son in second-half injury time. |
| Continue reading here |
| LAFC summary |
| MLS standings |
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY |
| 1923 — The United States wins its fourth consecutive Davis Cup by beating Australia four matches to one. |
| 1946 — Patty Berg wins the U.S. Women's Open golf title by beating Betty Jameson in the final round. |
| 1971 — John Newcombe becomes the first top-seeded man to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open when he loses to Jan Kodes, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3. |
| 1972 — American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer beats Russian champion Boris Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik, Iceland; most publicized world title match ever played; Fischer 1st American to win title. |
| 1973 — George Foreman knocks out Jose Roman at 2:00 of the first round in Tokyo to retain the heavyweight title. |
| 1977 — Renee Richards, the 43-year-old transsexual who fought for more than a year for the right to play in the women's singles of a major tennis championship, is beaten in the first round by Virginia Wade, 6-1, 6-4. Tracy Austin, at the age of 14 years, eight months, 20 days, becomes the youngest player to play in the U.S. Open, defeating Heidi Eisterlehner, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round. Austin's mark is broken in 1979 by 14-year-old Kathy Horvath. |
| 1984 — Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State passes for a Division I-AA record 536 yards and nine touchdowns in a 86-0 rout of Kentucky State. Jerry Rice catches 17 passes for 294 yards and five touchdowns and breaks his own Division I-AA record for receiving yards. |
| 1987 — Fifteen-year-old Michael Chang beats Paul McNamee, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, to become the youngest man to win a match at the U.S. Open. |
| 1989 — Chris Evert becomes the first 100-match winner in 108 years of U.S. tennis championships. Evert, playing her final U.S. Open, beat Patricia Tarabini 6-2, 6-4. |
| 1993 — Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor play the longest tie-break in the history of the U.S. Open (38 points). Ivanisevic wins the first-round match 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (18). |
| 2007 — Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32. Julian Rauch's 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left puts the Mountaineers ahead of the Wolverines and Corey Lynch blocks a field goal in the final seconds to seal one of college football's biggest upsets. |
| 2012 — Eureka (Ill.) College quarterback Sam Durley passes for 736 yards in a 62-55 victory over Knox to break the NCAA single-game passing record. Durley completes 34 of 52 passes and throws for five touchdowns, including two in the final two minutes as the Red Devils close the Division III game with 17 unanswered points. |
| 2014 — Kei Nishikori outlasts Milos Raonic in a five-set marathon that ends a 2:26 a.m., tying the latest finish in U.S. Open history. |
| 2015 — Indiana's Tamika Catchings scores 13 points, and the Fever beat the Connecticut Sun 81-51 to reach the playoffs for a WNBA-record 11th straight season. |
| 2021 — Cristiano Ronaldo breaks the world record for goals scores in men's international football with his 110th and 111th goals for Portugal in a 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over the Republic of Ireland. |
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY |
| 1906 — The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 in 24 innings. Jack Coombs of the Athletics and Joe Harris of the Red Sox pitched all 24 innings. Coombs fanned 18. |
| 1930 — Wes Ferrell of Cleveland beat the St. Louis Browns 9-5 for his 13th straight victory. |
| 1931 — Lou Gehrig hit his third grand slam in four days as the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-1. |
| 1945 — The Philadelphia Phillies, behind Vince DiMaggio's grand slam, beat the Braves 8-3 in Boston. It was the fourth grand slam of the year for DiMaggio to tie a major league mark. |
| 1958 — Vinegar Bend Mizell of the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League record by walking nine batters and tossing a shutout. Mizell beat Cincinnati 1-0 in the first game of a doubleheader. |
| 1963 — Curt Simmons of the St. Louis Cardinals allowed six hits, drove in two runs with a triple and stole home plate in a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Simmons' steal of home is the last by a pitcher. |
| 1967 — Cincinnati's Bob Lee walked Dick Groat with the bases loaded in the 21st inning to give the San Francisco Giants a 1-0 victory at Crosley Field. |
| 1975 — Tom Seaver struck out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded 10 strikeouts in the Mets' 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh. |
| 1986 — Oddibe McDowell and Darrell Porter of Texas hit back-to-back pinch hit homers in the ninth inning off Boston reliever Steve Crawford, but the Rangers fall to the Red Sox 6-4. |
| 1998 — Mark McGwire broke Hack Wilson's 68-year-old National League record for home runs in a season, hitting his 56th and 57th in the St. Louis Cardinals' victory over the Florida Marlins. |
| 1999 — Twenty-two of baseball 68 permanent umpires found themselves jobless, the fallout from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract. Under the deal mediated by U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner, the union agreed the 22 "will provide no further services." |
| 2002 — Miguel Tejada hit a game-ending three-run homer to power Oakland to a 7-5 win, Oakland's 18th straight victory, over Minnesota. |
| 2007 — Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine, walked three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore. |
| 2008 — Arizona's Stephen Drew and Seattle's Adrian Beltre became the first players to hit for the cycle on the same day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the New York Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920. |
| 2014 — Cole Hamels and three Philadelphia Phillies relievers combined to pitch a no-hitter, beating the Atlanta Braves 7-0. Hamels pulled after six innings. Relievers Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and closer Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a hitless inning to finish off the fourth no-hitter in the majors this season. |
| 2018 — South Korea wins its third straight baseball Gold in the Asian games as they beat Japan 3-0. |
| 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. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here. |
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