Los Angeles, Ca
Yamamoto outduels Darvish in historic matchup as Dodgers beat Padres 2-0 to reach NLCS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out $1 billion for Japanese talent in the offseason and it’s paying off in the playoffs.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic postseason matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Friday and advance to the National League Championship Series.
“It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said.
Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.
He signed a $325 million, 12-year deal in December, shortly after the Dodgers lured superstar Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Angels with a record $700 million, 10-year contract.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wild-card New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday in Los Angeles.
“We’re ready for the next level,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players’ strike.
“We went through a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We fight, we fight and keep going,” star outfielder Mookie Betts said. “All season everybody says the Dodgers are winning the World Series, the Dodgers are winning the World Series. And we get to this series, and all of a sudden we’re the underdog.”
Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.
“We’d been in a little bit of a DS funk,” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “For the guys that had been there, they could feel that after we got down 2-1. The new guys wanted no part of that.”
The Padres’ big hitters went bust with their season on the line. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were 1 for 14 in Game 5 as Los Angeles pitchers retired their last 19 batters.
“Everybody was picking them to win because we have no pitching, we can’t hit with runners in scoring position, this and that,” a soaked Kiké Hernández said. “We’re the ones popping bottles now.”
San Diego’s powerful lineup went scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead back home.
“I think stunning is appropriate,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
Machado added, “It’s a devastating one for sure.”
Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to square off in major league playoff history. The 26-year-old Yamamoto was the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers history.
“It was awesome to be able to pitch with him, to share the mound on such a big stage,” Darvish said through an interpreter. “He’s not just a great pitcher, but he is a great human being, too. It was a great night for both of us.”
Yamamoto joined Orel Hershiser, Jerry Reuss, Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres as the only Dodgers pitchers with a scoreless start of at least five innings in a winner-take-all postseason game.
“For Yamamoto, I don’t think any of us can appreciate the pressure on a global scale,” Roberts said. “He was pitching for the country of Japan.”
Yamamoto handed the ball to a stellar bullpen that carried the Dodgers during the regular season when their starters were hit hard by injuries. Evan Phillips got five outs, fanning Profar and Machado in the seventh before Alex Vesia whiffed rookie standout Jackson Merrill to end the inning.
Vesia was warming up for the eighth when he exited with an injury. Michael Kopech came on and worked a perfect inning before Blake Treinen got three quick outs for his third career postseason save and second of the series.
With that, the NL West champs spilled out of the dugout for hugs and then headed back into their clubhouse for another celebration. Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Lux, Kopech, Walker Buehler and Tyler Glasnow huddled in a corner smoking victory cigars.
In the middle of the room, its carpet drenched in alcohol and music blaring, a laughing Ohtani delighted in opening bottles of beer and pouring them over the heads of teammates and staff members.
“Anytime you’re smelling like champagne, it means you’re doing something good,” Betts said.
The 38-year-old Darvish, who was Ohtani’s childhood idol, gave up an early home run to Kiké Hernández, then set down 14 in a row. Teoscar Hernández’s homer chased Darvish in the seventh and made it 2-0.
The Padres and Dodgers combined to retire 26 consecutive batters — the longest streak in a single game in postseason history.
Darvish gave up three hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked one. He dropped to 0-5 in elimination games — four of them quality starts.
“I thought Yu was magnificent again. Had them off balance. Couple of swings got him. Other than that, he was really good,” Shildt said.
Darvish and Ohtani teamed to help win last year’s World Baseball Classic for Japan, but they were rivals Friday. Ohtani struck out three times, including twice against Darvish in a game watched on Saturday morning in Japan.
“A lot of fans were looking forward to today’s matchup,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter.
Ohtani hit a tying three-run homer in Game 1, his playoff debut, but was mostly quiet the rest of the series after becoming the first player in major league history to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season.
The teams combined to score 43 runs in the first four games of the series, but the winner-take-all finale was a tense pitching affair in front of a sellout crowd of 53,183 that included Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and a Hollywood contingent of Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston and Jimmy Kimmel.
The wild-card Padres ended the series scoreless since the second inning of Game 3. They became the first team to lead 2-1 in a best-of-five series and fail to push across a run in the final two games.
Yamamoto successfully covered first base three times after inducing grounders, making it easier on Freeman, who started after missing Game 4 with a sprained right ankle.
Los Angeles led 1-0 on the drive by Kiké Hernández with two outs in the second. It was the 14th career postseason homer for Hernández, who was brought back to the Dodgers this season to make an impact in October.
The Dodgers staved off elimination in San Diego with an 8-0 victory in Game 4 to force the deciding game back home, where fans tossing balls and trash on the field caused a 12-minute delay in a Game 2 loss. The public-address announcer warned fans in the middle of the fifth Friday not to throw objects or go on the field.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Roberts said Vesia complained of cramping. He will have X-rays and an MRI.
UP NEXT
The Dodgers are headed to the NLCS for the 16th time overall and first since 2021 when they lost to Atlanta in six games. Los Angeles went 4-2 against the Mets during the regular season.
The Padres head into the offseason with plenty of promise for next year. They challenged the Dodgers for the NL West title down to the final days of the regular season.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
“Moana” has been called a box office flop, an unnecessary money grab by Walt Disney Studios, but what it hasn’t been called yet is a triumphant win for cultural representation on the big screen.
The live-action adaptation of the beloved 2016 animated movie “Moana” effectively bombed at the box office, making much less money than industry insiders anticipated.
While it failed to live up to the expectations of the box office and critics alike, the film did exceed the expectations of moviegoers of Pacific Island descent, and they’ve taken to social media to express just how much the movie means to them.
Moana is more than the main character’s name. It means ocean across several Pacific Islander languages.
One user explained how this kind of representation is more than entertainment.
“When I watched ‘Moana,’ I couldn’t hold back my tears. I heard the language of my parents, the language of my people. I saw our traditional Samoan clothing, our weaving, our siva, our culture, our values. I saw my people. I saw me.”
Another user said seeing Pacific Islanders on the silver screen influenced her own artistry.
“Representation matters. As a sometimes-Female-Polynesian-filmmaker (depending on the day and my imposter syndrome), seeing our stories on a screen this big makes me dream a little bigger too.”
Even the film’s star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, spoke to the film’s representation in a recent Instagram post.
“I feel that our movie ‘Moana’ will always serve a bigger purpose than just a film – it’s representation. Our Polynesian culture showcased to the world, and embraced by the world – with love, humility, warrior spirit and MANA.”
That representation was taken as a serious responsibility by the actors and creative team behind the scenes of Disney’s latest live-action remake.
“We got chosen for a reason,” Rena Owen, who plays Gramma Tala in the film, explains.
“Every single one of us, whether that’s an actor, whether that’s a creative, whether that’s a crew person. We’re raised that way, we’re raised in villages and we’re raised… on our earth, with our sky father and our moana, that’s what we all have in common. So, we just had to be ourselves.”
Disney once again leaned on members of its Oceanic Cultural Trust, a group formed over a decade ago to ensure cultural accuracy for the first “Moana” movie.
The trust’s lead consultant, Dr. Grant Muāgututiʻa, spoke about the work that went into bringing Moana to life on screen.
“We have a big responsibility to our folks who are gonna be watching the film. We’re elated that the film crew and the filmmakers were really receptive to all of the input that we had and we’re really happy with the way it turned out.”
Dr. Muāgututiʻa is a linguist by trade, serving as Assistant Professor of Linguistics at California State University San Marcos. He told KTLA he was thrilled that people of Samoan descent can hear their language spoken in a major Disney film.
“The mountaintop scene where you can hear both Jon Tui, who plays Chief Tui, and Catherine Laga’aia, who plays Moana speaking Samoan. And then the Siva Tau scene, where Seiuli Dwayne Johnson also speaks Samoan. I think those are special moments that are new, especially for our people to see. They’re able to experience real islanders that are proud of their culture.”
“Moana” Choreographer and Cultural Trust member Tiana Nonosina Liufau agreed.
“Seeing an all-Pasifika cast, and hearing them, there’s a lot of Mana in that, hearing these words come out of their mouth, something audiences can trace back to their genealogy, that’s priceless. All worth it.”
Crews worked overnight on what is expected to be a long-term effort to clean up and repair a broken water main that caused extensive damage in West Hollywood on Thursday.
Yellow tape remained in place Friday morning, blocking streets around Sunset Boulevard and Holloway Drive as crews continued pumping water out of the century-old trunk line.
Asphalt and soil were also being removed so crews could get a better look at the damaged 36-inch trunk line, a major feeder pipe serving the area.
-
Aerial view of flooded streets in West Hollywood following a water main break on July 16, 2026. -
Two men fell into a sinkhole that opened on a sidewalk after a massive water main break in West Hollywood on July 16, 2026. (KTLA) -
Aerial view of flooded Metro buses in West Hollywood following a water main break on July 16, 2026. -
Aerial view of flooded streets in West Hollywood following a water main break on July 16, 2026. -
Aerial view of flooded streets in West Hollywood following a water main break on July 16, 2026. -
A broken water main sent water gushing out of an apartment building and turned streets into rivers in West Hollywood on July 16, 2026. (KTLA) -
A broken water main sent water gushing into a parking garage in West Hollywood on July 16, 2026. (KTLA) -
Floodwaters from a water main break push parked cars into one another in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
Floodwaters from a water main break push parked cars into one another in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
Residents stand at the entrance to an apartment parking garage as floodwaters from a water main break rush past in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
A parking garage is seen flooding following a water main break in West Hollywood on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (KTLA) -
Floodwaters from a water main break push parked cars into one another in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
Floodwaters from a water main break push parked cars into one another in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
Floodwaters from a water main break push parked cars into one another in West Hollywood. July 2026. (KTLA) -
A broken water main sent water gushing into the streets of West Hollywood on July 16, 2026. (KTLA)
“First and foremost is our crews’ safety,” a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesperson said Thursday. “When we excavate, we are going to have to make sure the area is safe before we send crews in to proceed and start the actual repairs on the pipe.”
The water main ruptured around 3 a.m. Thursday, sending thousands of gallons of water rushing through West Hollywood streets, flooding dozens of garages and pushing parked cars into one another.
A Metro bus yard was also flooded, leaving several buses partially submerged.
The force of the water washed away dirt and gravel supporting the roadway, creating a massive sinkhole on Sunset Boulevard and a smaller one near Palm Avenue, where two people fell in.
“I’m astounded by the massive sinkhole that has just opened up before our eyes,” KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos reported Thursday from Palm Avenue.
The two men appeared to be uninjured.
As for the larger trunk line that burst beneath Sunset Boulevard, KTLA’s Carlos Herrera reported it was scheduled for replacement in 2031.
LADWP officials now hope to establish a repair timeline after getting a closer look at the damage Friday. For now, the intersection is expected to remain closed for anywhere from several days to several weeks.
The cause of the rupture remains under investigation.
Los Angeles, Ca
Arrest made in deadly shooting at 4th of July gathering in Compton; search for 2nd suspect continues
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna gave an update Thursday on several shootings over the Fourth of July weekend that left three people dead and several others injured.
Police arrested Antoine Jones, a 50-year-old man from the Los Angeles area, who they believe is responsible for the murder of a 19-year-old woman and the attempted murder of two additional surviving female victims who were attending a large community block party in Compton.
On July 4 at approximately 11:40 p.m., deputies from the Compton station responded to an apartment complex on the 700 block of West Laurel Street following reports of multiple people being shot.
Meah Bordenave-Jenkins, a 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was killed when gunfire broke out at the party.
Deputies located Bordenave-Jenkins and the two other women suffering from gunshot wounds outside of the apartment complex.
“While today’s announcement represents an important step towards justice for Meah and her family, our work is very far from being over,” said LASD Sheriff Robert Luna.
The LASD is also seeking the public’s help in identifying those responsible for the murder of Eric Washington, 37, a beloved community activist and former government staffer, and the attempted murder of another surviving man injured that same night at the same party.
Washington was reportedly killed while trying to deescalate a conflict at the party, his family said. Deputies found victim Washington suffering from a gunshot wound inside the complex.
Investigators later learned that another man had also been shot at some point during the incident.
Bordenave-Jenkins and Washington both died from their injuries. The remaining victims, two women and a man, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and have been released from the hospital. They have not been identified by police.
Detectives determined the two shootings happened moments apart at the party but appear to be separate and unrelated.
-
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A shooting at a Compton Fourth of July block party in the 2100 block of Grandee Avenue in Compton left one man dead and another injured on July 5, 2026. (OnScene.tv) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (Google) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV) -
A man and a women were killed and three others were injured, one critically, at a Fourth of July Party in Compton on July 4, 2026. (OnScene.TV)
Detectives identified Jones as the suspect responsible for Bordenave-Jenkins’ death and the attempted murder of the two surviving women. Authorities located Jones on July 14 in Los Angeles and took him into custody.
The LASD is still searching for the suspect or suspects responsible for the murder of Washington and the attempted murder of the surviving male victim.
“Although today’s arrest is significant, this investigation remains extremely active,” Luna said.
“There were hundreds of people at this gathering,” Luna said. “Somebody knows, somebody saw or somebody heard what happened.”
The LASD also announced they’re searching for a suspect in a separate shooting at a different Fourth of July gathering that occurred in the early morning of July 5.
At approximately 12:10 a.m., Compton deputies responded to the 2100 block of North Grandee Avenue, where they located a 30-year-old victim, Thaddeus Clark, and a second victim suffering from gunshot wounds at the gathering.
Clark, a father of three, did not survive his injuries, Luna said.
The LASD is urging anyone with information about Clark’s murder and the attempted murder of the surviving victim to contact the LASD Homicide Bureau.
Although these shooting incidents occurred at gatherings less than an hour apart, investigators found no evidence that the two were connected, Luna said.
Luna also announced three suspects have been arrested in connection with a shooting in East L.A. on July 5. It happened as crowds crossed the intersection near Whittier Boulevard and Leonard Avenue during a World Cup match.
Four people were hit by gunfire, including two men, one woman and a boy. None of the injuries were life-threatening.
The sheriff said the alleged shooter, a 15-year-old known gang member, was arrested. Two female suspects, ages 21 and 38, have been arrested in the Lancaster and Palmdale areas for their alleged roles in luring the primary victim to the location and assisting the shooting suspect in evading arrest.
They’re all facing four counts of attempted murder.
-
Politics6 minutes agoTrump escalates election attacks, threatens California over voter data
-
Science12 minutes agoRudolph Marcus, Caltech chemist who won Nobel Prize, dies at 102
-
Sports18 minutes agoCommentary: With Will Smith out indefinitely, Dodgers need to trade for a catcher
-
World30 minutes agoMandela Day: What his legacy means in today’s South Africa
-
News60 minutes agoICE shared Medicaid data it wasn’t supposed to have with Palantir
-
Los Angeles, Ca3 hours ago‘Moana’ is a triumph for Pacific Islander representation on the big screen
-
Detroit, MI3 hours agoFive shot during funeral at Detroit church
-
San Francisco, CA3 hours agoSan Francisco Giants Announce Intriguing Roster Move Ahead of Mariners Series
