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Bullpen comes to the rescue as Dodgers open trip with win over Nationals

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Bullpen comes to the rescue as Dodgers open trip with win over Nationals

After weeks of worrisome late-game blunders, there finally was redemption for the Dodgers bullpen Tuesday night.

On a night their starting pitcher failed to complete five innings, and their lineup managed only one run before the final couple of frames, it was five other numbers that keyed a 4-1 Dodgers win over Washington at Nationals Park.

0. 0. 0. 0. 0.

As in, the five goose eggs the Dodgers’ once-struggling bullpen put on the scoreboard.

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“The bullpen,” manager Dave Roberts said, “was really good tonight.”

Entering the night, the unit had been anything but lately, emerging as one of the biggest concerns during the Dodgers’ underwhelming 13-11 start to the season.

The group was without injured right-handers Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen (the latter will begin a rehab assignment this week). It had compiled a 4.35 ERA through the opening month, the 10th-worst mark in the majors. And it had been a common culprit during a 3-6 homestand last week.

But Tuesday against the rebuilding Nationals, relievers Michael Grove, Alex Vesia, Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips helped the Dodgers overcome an early offensive lull, then hang on to a narrow lead late, combining for 4-1/3 scoreless innings in a victorious start to a nine-game trip.

“We’re always gonna be ready to go down there,” Phillips said.

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While starter James Paxton surrendered just one run in his fourth start, the veteran left-hander again struggled with his command. He walked three batters (he has 17 this season) and struck out just one, forcing Roberts to replace him with one out in the fifth after 89 laborious pitches.

On the other side of the plate, the Dodgers’ lineup was kept silent by the Nationals’ own left-handed veteran, Patrick Corbin.

Last year Corbin’s 5.20 ERA was third worst in the majors among qualified starters. This season his 8.06 mark entering Tuesday ranked dead last, after he gave up five runs in 6⅓ innings at Dodger Stadium last week.

In his rematch against the Dodgers, though, the 34-year-old looked like his former All-Star self. He spun 5⅓ shutout innings. He walked three batters but gave up just three hits while collecting three strikeouts.

It was only once Corbin left the game that the Dodgers finally found life. Later in the sixth, they manufactured a two-out rally that culminated with Kiké Hernández’s tying single. In the eighth, James Outman put the Dodgers in front with an RBI double and Miguel Rojas singled him home. Then, in the ninth, Shohei Ohtani supplied an exclamation point with his sixth home run, clobbering a 450-foot, second-deck blast that exploded off his bat at 118.7 mph.

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“It looks like a cruise missile,” Outman said. “That was absurd.”

Underpinning the entire performance was the bullpen.

Grove stranded the two runners he inherited from Paxton in the fifth, then got two outs — with a walk in between — in the sixth.

Vesia took over from there, stranding Grove’s runner with a deep flyout before returning to the mound for a scoreless seventh.

And once the Dodgers took the lead in the eighth — a rally that started with a single and steal from Teoscar Hernández — Roberts’ late-game decisions were easy.

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Hudson, the former Nationals closer who has returned from two injury-plagued seasons to become the Dodgers’ set-up man, worked around a two-out walk in the eighth to lower his ERA to 2.45.

Phillips had a more adventurous appearance in the ninth, loading the bases on three walks and a single — the Nationals ran into one out on the bases — before ultimately surviving with his sixth save and a sub-1.00 ERA.

“Fortunately,” a relieved Phillips said, “I was able to finish it out today.”

Indeed, and as he and the Dodgers celebrated in the handshake line, it was the bullpen at last that deserved the credit — and not the blame — in a close, low-scoring contest that wasn’t decided until the final innings.

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Tom Brady appears angry with Jeff Ross' Robert Kraft joke during Netflix roast: 'Don't say that s— again'

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Tom Brady appears angry with Jeff Ross' Robert Kraft joke during Netflix roast: 'Don't say that s— again'

Tom Brady knew that everything was on the table for his live Netflix roast on Sunday night, including the ending of his marriage to Gisele Bündchen.

But when “roast master” Jeff Ross said a joke about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Brady seemed quick to shut it down. 

During Ross’s joke presentation, he mentioned Brady being taken 199th overall in the NFL Draft, and he said he walked into Kraft’s office to tell him something.

Robert Kraft and Tom Brady attend Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Super Bowl Party at the Marquee Nightclub at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Feb. 10, 2024. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Fanatics)

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“’I’m the best decision your organization has ever made,’” Ross said. 

But Ross wasn’t done. 

“’Would you like a massage?’” he said.

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WARNING: VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

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The Los Angeles Forum was a mixture of laughs and groans as Ross poked fun at a serious charge that Kraft had faced in early 2019. 

Robert Kraft in November 2023

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports)

In February 2019, Kraft was charged in a multicounty investigation of massage parlors that included a secret video recording in the spas’ lobbies and rooms. Police said the recordings showed Kraft and other men engaging in sex acts with women and paying them.

Kraft would plead not guilty to the charge, issued a public apology in March 2019 and would be cleared of a soliciting sex charge in 2020.

Brady turned toward Ross once the joke was said, and as Ross looked over at Kraft in the crowd, Brady came into frame and tried to whisper something to Ross. But it was caught by a microphone.

“Don’t say that s— again,” he said quickly to Ross, who acknowledged it with a laugh.

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Tom Brady poses on red carpet

Tom Brady attends the Netflix Is A Joke Festival’s “The Greatest Roast Of All Time: Tom Brady” at Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, on May 5, 2024. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

Brady likely knew there were going to be some things said that he might not like, but he seemed to want the subject of the jokes to stay with him, not his former owner.

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Shohei Ohtani has sweeping Dodgers dreaming of a different October

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Shohei Ohtani has sweeping Dodgers dreaming of a different October

This wasn’t October. This can’t be confused with October. This has nothing to do with October.

Yet make no mistake, the Dodgers’ weekend sweep of the Atlanta Braves at a rollicking Dodger Stadium was a fair predictor of an entirely different sort of October.

An October with Shohei Ohtani.

Goodness, the imagination soars, like a 464-foot blast into the lunging grasps of the pavilion partiers.

My, the possibilities seem endless, like a 412-foot rocket that disappears over the center-field fence.

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Ohtani authored both moments during Sunday’s 5-1 sweeping victory, once again leaving witnesses searching for adjectives.

“He just keeps doing things that we haven’t seen before,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

Leading this team to its first full-season title in 36 years would qualify as something else few have seen before, wouldn’t it?

Heavens, the potential is enormous.

Ohtani, who was elsewhere while the Dodgers were failing in 10 of their previous 11 postseasons, filled his first playoff atmosphere here with ohhs and ahhs and oh yeahs.

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Ohh, he wrecked the pitching staff of the team with baseball’s best record for eight hits in 12 at-bats with three home runs and six RBIs in the three games.

Ahh, he had a game-tying single in extra innings on Friday, a tone-setting homer on Saturday, and two homers among his four hits on Sunday.

Oh yeah, he signed with the Dodgers this winter because he wanted to experience the sort of playoff setting that eluded him during six years in Anaheim, so it only figures he would soak it all in.

I asked him after Sunday’s game if he could feel the big-game atmosphere.

“Yeah, very much so,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton.

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Shohei Ohtani greets Dodgers teammate Teoscar Hernández after hitting a home run in the eighth inning Sunday.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

He was asked what it feels like to hit a ball 464 feet, the longest Dodgers homer this season, a leadoff shot in the eighth inning that landed deep in the left-center field seats.

“Slug is part of my game,” Ohtani said. “So being able to express that in a game situation like that … is important as well.”

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That first part belongs on a T-shirt, no?

Slug Is Part Of My Game.

“That’s deep, people don’t hit the ball out there,” said Roberts when asked about those traveling 464 feet.

Equally as deep is a Dodgers roster dotted with key new players who do not bear the dark stain of postseasons past.

This Dodger team has a new pitcher, James Paxson, who is now 4-0 with a 3.06 ERA after throwing five strong innings Sunday.

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Paxson has a 3.46 postseason ERA in three starts for the New York Yankees, so he understands the importance of this weekend’s furor.

“We played really well,” he said. “We showed how well we can play against a really good team.”

This Dodgers team also has a new outfielder, Teoscar Hernández , who hit his eighth homer Sunday and has equaled Ohtani’s 25 RBIs.

Hernández has two homers in four postseason games, so he also seems suited for the big stage.

“With our offense, every game is winnable,” Roberts said.

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With Ohtani in the middle of it all, every game this weekend felt like a victory from the first pitch to Randy Newman. The Dodgers outscored the Braves 20-6 and trailed for only brief spells in what amounted to a three-day fiesta capped by Sunday’s Cinco de Mayo roars.

“I saw signs of postseason … it was good to see our guys play to the level and energy that the fans had this series,” Roberts said.

Ohtani said the feeling was contagious.

“I just feel like we’re overall playing really well, so that’s really helping me have quality at-bats and just feeling good overall,” he said.

The scary part for opponents is that both of his Sunday home runs were essentially opposite-field hits, which means his bat has discovered its mojo.

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“When I feel confident that I can hit in that direction, then I know I can cover other pitches really well,” Ohtani said.

Paxson explained that in human terms.

“He’s awesome,” the pitcher said with a gasp. “So much power.”

The Dodgers could have used that power last October when they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a series in which they never led.

Shohei Ohtani runs past Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel after hitting a home run in the first inning Sunday.

Shohei Ohtani runs past Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel after hitting a home run in the first inning Sunday.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

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The Dodgers could have used that slug two postseasons ago when they couldn’t score in a four-game loss to the San Diego Padres.

And, yes, certainly, they will need every bit of Ohtani this fall if they once again meet the Braves. They are 3-1 against Atlanta during their postseason run, but it is the Braves who delivered the most recent blow with a four-games-to-two triumph in the 2021 National League Championship Series.

It’s far too early to be forecasting a rematch. It’s way too reckless to be celebrating a May sweep.

Yet as this weekend proved, it’s not too early to start believing.

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For the last 11 years, the Dodgers didn’t have anyone like Shohei Ohtani.

Now they do, and anything is possible.

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Former Bears quarterback Bob Avellini dead at 70

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Former Bears quarterback Bob Avellini dead at 70

Former Chicago Bears quarterback Bob Avellini, who spent all nine of his NFL seasons in the Windy City, died Saturday. He was 70 years old.

The Bears announced that Avellini lost a battle with cancer.

“Bob was one-of-a-kind, a fierce and tough competitor,” the Bears said in a statement. “He’s perhaps best remembered for leading the Bears on an improbable run in 1977 to our first postseason appearance in fourteen years. He will be missed.”

Bob Avellini of the Chicago Bears drops back to pass during the game against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field in Chicago on Oct. 2, 1977. Avellini played for the Bears from 1975 to 1984. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

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In 1977, both Avellini and Walter Payton, the Bears’ star running back who reached the Hall of Fame, had their best career seasons.

Payton was certainly the beating heart of Chicago’s offense, rushing for a league-high 1,852 yards with 14 touchdowns on the ground.

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But Avellini had a career-high 2,004 yards on 154 completions with 11 touchdowns over 14 games.

Bob Avellini runs

Bears quarterback Bob Avellini is shown during a game at Soldier Field in Chicago circa 1977. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

As the team’s statement said, the Bears hadn’t made the playoffs in 14 years until 1977, when they finally broke the drought. However, the Bears were blown out by the Dallas Cowboys, 37-7, and Avellini threw four interceptions to one touchdown on 25 attempts.

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Avellini had a 23-27 regular-season record in 73 games from 1975 through 1984, throwing for 7,111 yards and 33 touchdowns.

Bob Avellini looks into camera

Quarterback Bob Avellini of the Chicago Bears is shown circa 1979. (Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios)

The Queens, New York City, native was in the same draft class as Payton, with the Bears picking Avellini 135th overall in the sixth round of the 1975 NFL Draft out of Maryland.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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