Sports
Mookie Betts to miss several weeks after sustaining hand fracture in Dodgers' win
The good vibes derived from Tyler Glasnow’s dominant seven-inning start and Shohei Ohtani’s two-homer game were shattered in the seventh inning on Sunday when a 98-mph fastball struck the back of the left hand of Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who writhed on the ground for a few minutes before coming out of the game.
The Dodgers went on to defeat the Kansas City Royals 3-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 52,789 at Dodger Stadium, but they lost their dynamic leadoff man in the process — X-rays showed that Betts suffered a broken bone in his left hand, and though he won’t need surgery, he will be sidelined for several weeks, if not months.
“It’s a big blow, it is,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I feel really bad for Mookie. He was having an MVP season. It’s very unfortunate, but you’ve got to move on, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to be fine. We have really good players.”
Mookie Betts is hit by a pitch during the seventh inning Sunday against the Royals at Dodger Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Mookie Betts, left, writhes on the ground after being hit by a pitch as manager Dave Roberts and a team trainer tend to him during the seventh inning Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Betts, who is batting .304 with an .893 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 10 homers, 16 doubles, 40 RBIs and 50 runs, had a 1-and-2 count when he could not get out of the way of Royals reliever Dan Altavilla’s up-and-in heater. The ball hit Betts on the back of the left hand, which Betts clutched as he fell to the ground.
“I think that’s the first time I got hit in the hand, so I wasn’t sure [how bad it was],” Betts said after the game, his left hand wrapped. “I just went numb, and it hurt. Unfortunately, it’s broken. There’s nothing we can really do now.”
Betts did not travel with the team to Denver on Sunday night. He will be examined by Dr. Steven Shin, a hand specialist, on Monday.
“What’s next? I’m honestly not sure,” Betts said. “Obviously, I’ll be watching the boys, cheering them on, but other than that, it’s just rest, maybe use it as a mental break, be ready to go whenever it heals up.”
Betts moved from right field to second base over the winter and from second base to shortstop because of Gavin Lux’s throwing woes in early March.
The Dodgers have an excellent defensive option at shortstop in Miguel Rojas, but Rojas is nowhere near the hitter Betts is, and he has been slowed this season by leg injuries that prevent him from playing every day.
Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run off Royals pitcher Brady Singer in the third inning Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Roberts said utility man Kiké Hernández will also be used at shortstop. The team will recall left fielder Miguel Vargas from triple-A Oklahoma City to replace Betts on the roster. Ohtani will likely be moved to the leadoff spot in the order.
“It’s very tough to see as a teammate,” Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said of Betts. “He’s obviously a very important part of the team. If he’s out for some time, it’s really up to the rest of the team to pick him up.”
The Betts injury, which came on the same day the Dodgers put pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the 15-day injured list because of a rotator-cuff strain, put a damper on an otherwise successful afternoon for the Dodgers.
Glasnow allowed three hits, striking out nine and walking one, over seven scoreless innings, and Ohtani and Freddie Freeman powered the offense with solo home runs.
Setup man Daniel Hudson struck out two of three batters in a scoreless eighth inning, and closer Evan Phillips threw a scoreless ninth for his 10th save.
Glasnow gave the Dodgers much-needed length after the team employed a “bullpen game” on Thursday night against the Texas Rangers and were forced into another bullpen game when Yamamoto left Saturday night’s start against the Royals after two innings because of injury.
“I definitely knew I had to be efficient and try to fill up the zone,” said Glasnow, who improved to 7-5 with a 3.00 ERA in 15 starts. “I just tried to get ahead, mix up my pitches a bit more, not be so heavily reliant on the fastball, mix in the two-seamer, and it worked out today.”
Glasnow’s only real trouble came in the fourth, when Bobby Witt Jr. reached on a one-out infield single and Vinnie Pasquantino walked. He escaped the jam by striking out Salvador Perez with an 83-mph curve in the dirt and getting Adam Frazier to ground out to Betts, who ranged to the second-base side of the bag for Frazier’s grounder.
Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers during the first inning Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
“He was absolutely fantastic,” Ohtani said of Glasnow. “Really, no threats throughout the game.”
Glasnow needed only 85 pitches, 62 of them strikes, to complete seven innings. He leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball, which averaged 96.0 mph, and an 83-mph curve that he used to induce eight of his 15 swinging strikes. He also got five called strikes with the curve.
“I’ve been able to land it for strikes the last couple of starts,” Glasnow said of his big breaking ball. “I’ve made some mechanical adjustments to try to keep it in the zone as opposed to just always trying to strike out guys with it.”
Glasnow’s third pitch is usually an 89-mph slider that he threw 15 times on Sunday, but he also threw a 96.8-mph two-seam sinker 15 times on Sunday after throwing it only 64 times in his first 14 starts.
“It’s basically just a heater, so it’s not like you have to learn a new pitch, and I think it gets me behind my four-seamer, too,” Glasnow said. “I’ve been a lot more comfortable throwing it kind of up and in to righties, and today to a lefty. I’m just trying to mix it in a little bit more to not be so predictable.”
Ohtani gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead when he “used the big part of the field,” as Roberts likes to say, crushing a 451-foot solo home run — his second-longest of the season — to left-center field off Royals right-hander Brady Singer in the third inning.
Ohtani had been “getting a little too rotational” in his swing over the past week, Roberts said, causing him to pull off pitches early and hit too many ground balls to the right side, but he stayed on Singer’s 93-mph sinker for his 18th homer of the season, a laser that left his bat at 114.3 mph.
“That swing he took for that homer to left-center, that’s as good a swing as I’ve ever seen,” Roberts said. “When he does things the right way, gets his pitch, uses the big part of the field, it’s pretty special.”
Ohtani then crushed an 80-mph first-pitch slider from Singer over the right-field wall to lead off the sixth inning for his 19th homer of the season and 18th multiple-homer game of his career, this shot leaving his bat at 110.7 mph and traveling 400 feet.
Freeman followed with his 10th homer of the season, driving a 2-and-0 slider from Singer 401 feet to right-center field for a 3-0 Dodgers lead.
“That last homer was a slider down below,” Roberts said of Ohtani, “and for him to hit it like that instead of pulling it foul or hitting on the ground speaks to him seeing the ball better.”
The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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