Sports
Frustrated Dodgers fall to Reds, extend losing streak to five games
The Dodgers had to wake up early Sunday, after their 1:40 p.m. game against the Cincinnati Reds started 90 minutes early because of thunderstorms in the area.
The team’s bats, however, still looked asleep in a weather-delayed defeat at Great American Ball Park, with the Dodgers falling 4-1 to the Reds to suffer a weekend series sweep and their fifth loss in a row overall.
“It just seems like we’re running cold,” manager Dave Roberts said, peppered with a string of lineup questions that have become common in recent weeks.
“When you’re not hitting, it certainly seems lifeless,” Roberts added. “I know it’s not from care and preparation. But the bottom line is, it’s about results. And we’re not getting them right now.”
Not even close.
Instead, the Dodgers have endured their first five-game losing streak since 2019. They suffered their first series sweep since last June.
And, in what has been a recurring theme during the team’s extended two-week slide (they are 7-9 in their last 16 games), the offense remained the club’s biggest weakness, managing just five hits in a game that was delayed for an hour before the sixth inning by rain.
“It’s still a really good lineup, and we know it’s gonna flip,” second baseman Gavin Lux said. “But yeah, I think we all expect more out of ourselves. I think everyone does.”
Even before Sunday’s first pitch — which was moved up to 12:10 p.m. local time to avoid impending storms — Roberts was bemoaning his lineup’s recent slump, struggling in his pregame address with reporters to reconcile how a team so talented could look so listless at the plate.
“I think it’s lack of consistency of approach,” Roberts said. “We’re trying to cover too many parts of the zone, in my opinion, and we’re missing the fastball. I think that’s the crux.”
Indeed, the fastball has been the Dodgers’ most puzzling problem lately.
Entering Sunday, the club was batting just .197 against four-seamers since May 10 (fifth-worst in the majors during that span), had whiffed on 27% of them (second-worst in the majors) and were missing myriad opportunities where the pitch “should be moved forward,” as Roberts put it.
“They let us know,” Freeman said, noting that the team’s trouble against fastballs was a topic in hitters meetings this weekend. “So we’ll try and get on the heater tomorrow.”
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani stands in the dugout after grounding out during the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
(Jeff Dean / Associated Press)
Yet, in a game that saw the Dodgers (33-22) get shut out until the ninth inning Sunday, things only got worse.
Of the 28 four-seamers Reds pitcher threw in the zone, the Dodgers took 10 for strikes, fouled nine off, whiffed on five and hit four into routine outs.
Not one was turned into a hit. Not once did they punish a mistake over the middle.
“When you get a good pitch to hit,” Roberts said, “you gotta hit them.”
Couple that issue with the absence of Max Muncy (who is continuing to battle an oblique strain), a less than 100% Shohei Ohtani (who has been nursing a hamstring bruise) and almost no consistent production from the bottom of the lineup (their Nos. 6-9 hitters have batted an MLB-worst .148 the past 16 games, and were 0 for 12 on Sunday), and the Dodgers’ juggernaut offense has suddenly looked more Jello-ish in construction.
Soft. Flimsy. And lacking much consistency.
“You can’t miss balls at the belt and chase below also,” Roberts said, noting his team’s penchant to make outs on pitches out of the strike zone, as well, in recent weeks. “Bad combo.”
The Reds (23-30) took the lead Sunday with the kind of rally that has eluded the Dodgers recently.
In the third inning, Cincinnati scored four runs off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto on four hits and one walk. Three of the knocks came with two strikes. All four runs scored with two outs. Roberts sounded almost envious as he recounted the sequence postgame.
“The bottom line is that they found a way to fight with two strikes,” Roberts said. “When you fight, you get those breaks sometimes.”
The Dodgers, on the other hand, had no such luck.
In 28 at-bats between a first-inning single from Mookie Betts and a ninth-inning single from Ohtani, the Dodgers recorded just two hits — a pair of doubles by Teoscar Hernández in the fourth and seventh innings.
Both times, however, the team left Hernández stranded. And up until Freeman’s RBI double in the ninth, the club was not only 0 for five with runners in scoring position on Sunday (they finished one for eight), but had gone hitless in 22 straight at-bats with a runner at second or third base.
During this 16-game stretch, the Dodgers have batted just .189 with runners in scoring position in all.
“Obviously, we want to score as many runs as we possibly can, and we haven’t been doing that the last few games,” Freeman said. “You never know which at-bat is gonna break it open. Hopefully that [ninth-inning RBI] was the one.”
Freeman was the latest team member to downplay the team’s recent struggles at the plate, insisting that such slumps are inevitable over a 162-game season, and that confidence in the clubhouse hasn’t wavered.
“I don’t think anybody needs to question the confidence in our lineup,” Freeman said. “It’s mid-May, we’ll be fine.”
Still, since the start of this slide on May 10, the Dodgers are now batting .210 as a team (third-worst in the majors during that span), have 14 home runs (tied for 10th-fewest) and are averaging just 3.5 runs per game (a sharp decline from the 5.5 per game they were averaging previously).
It hasn’t yet hurt their overall numbers on the year yet. They are still second in the majors in both runs and OPS, and sixth in batting average. They also remain safely in first place in the National League West, holding the second-largest division lead in MLB with a 5½ game edge over the San Francisco Giants.
Nonetheless, when Roberts was asked if the recent malaise has come as a surprise to him, given the obvious talent on his $300-million roster, the manager softly nodded his head.
“It does, it does,” Roberts said. “It’s guys needing to be better. I mean, that part of it is simple. The execution part of it is harder. But having a plan and being consistent, that’s easy. It is. It really is.”
The Dodgers’ performance lately, however, has suggested otherwise, leading to the kind of exasperating, extended lull to which their star-studded offense was supposed to be immune.
Words for Ramírez
There was an unusual sequence near the end of Sunday’s game, after Dodgers reliever Yohan Ramírez — who hit two batters in a disastrous outing Friday — plunked two more hitters during an appearance in the eighth inning.
While Roberts came to the mound after Ramírez’s second hit batter, the manager didn’t remove the veteran right-hander from the game.
Instead, Roberts put his arms around Ramírez — a journeyman right-hander already on his third team this season — and spoke into his ear for several moments. Then, he let Ramírez stay in the game and escape a bases-loaded jam with a fly out in his next at-bat.
“He’s emotional and cares, and he’s trying to impress with a new ballclub,” Roberts said. “I just tried to reassure him and give him some confidence, love on him a little bit, and try to take a little bit of pressure off.”
“You just see the player, and you kind of feel what he’s got going on in his brain, in his heart, all that stuff,” Roberts added. “Sometimes I’m sure — I’ve never thrown a major league inning — but you feel like you’re on an island. So I wanted to show that we were all behind him.”
Sports
Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa open to fresh start elsewhere after disappointing season: ‘That would be dope’
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Tua Tagovailoa appears to be ready to move on from the Miami Dolphins – a feeling that seems mutual between the two sides.
Tagovailoa was benched for the final three games of the season due to poor performance. A day after the Dolphins’ season ended with a 38-10 loss to division rival New England, the sixth-year signal-caller appeared open to the idea of a “fresh start.”
Mike McDaniel speaks with Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) in the fourth quarter of a game against the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium on Sept. 25, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
“That would be dope. I would be good with it,” Tagovailoa said Monday, according to The Palm Beach Post, when asked specifically if he was “hoping for a fresh start.”
When asked by another reporter if he understood “fresh start” as playing “elsewhere,” Tagovailoa reportedly confirmed it.
The remarks came the same day that head coach Mike McDaniel confirmed that the team would be approaching the 2025-2026 season with a competitive mindset for the position.
“In 2026, I think there will be competition for our starting quarterback. What that is and how that looks, there’s a lot that remains to be seen. It’s the most important position on the football field, and you have to make sure you do everything possible to get the best person out there on the field.”
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa runs off the field during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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“Who that is – whether they’re in-house or somewhere else, that’s something that we’ll be extremely diligent on,” he continued. “But I know there will be competition for those reins. That much I do know.”
Tagovailoa threw for 2,660 yards with 20 touchdowns this season, but he struggled with accuracy and mobility, throwing a career-high of 15 interceptions. His poor performance comes just one season after signing a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension in July 2024.
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa speaks during a press conference after an NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
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The Dolphins face a serious decision regarding Tagovailoa, as releasing him next year would result in a $99 million dead cap charge. If the move is designated as a post-June 1 release, those charges would be split over two years, with $67.4 million allocated to the 2026 cap and $31.8 million in 2027.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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In a warm-up for his role in the upcoming Winter Olympics, Snoop Dogg was given a microphone during the second half of the NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Clippers on Monday night at the Intuit Dome.
Can’t wait for those Olympics! Snoop hilariously sizzled when Warriors coach Steve Kerr stormed the court in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ 103-102 victory.
“The Arizona Wildcat done came out of him. Look at him!” Snoop said, alluding to Kerr’s college team. “Aw, Rawwwr, rawwwr, rawwwr!”
Kerr was hit with two technical fouls in less than a minute. He nearly got one with 8:44 to play when Warriors guard Stephen Curry made a shot that appeared to be a continuation after a foul, but the officials nullified the basket.
Less than a minute later, Kerr found a new level of vehemence after the Clippers’ John Collins wasn’t called for goaltending on a shot by Gary Payton II. The four-time NBA championship coach flew into a rage, aggressively gesturing at officials and screaming.
Kerr picked up the two technicals — his first in nearly four seasons — and was held back by Payton and assistant coaches before exiting to the locker room.
Snoop Dogg, who had joined regular Peacock/NBC announcers Reggie Miller and Terry Gannon for the second half, rose to the occasion, his commentary keeping pace with Kerr’s antics.
“Oh, Steve gonna get thrown out! Get him out of there. Get him out of there! Back him up!” Snoop barked.
All Miller and Gannon could do was laugh as Snoop continued, referencing the location of the Intuit Dome and Kerr’s Southern California ties: “Steve back in Inglewood right now. Inglewooood!!! Get him, Steve! You in Inglewood, Steve!”
Snoop will join NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico in Italy in February, riffing on stories that unfold at the Winter Games the way he did at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The NBA game was an indication he’ll again be up to the task.
“We are excited to have Snoop bring his unique energy and passion to our NBA coverage,” NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said in a statement. “It will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Snoop, Reggie and Terry talk hoops with a side order of fun.”
Snoop said in the release that his debut as an NBA game broadcaster “is a dream come true for me. I can’t wait to bring a fresh vibe to the analysis.”
For the record, official Brian Forte acknowledged after the game that goaltending should have been called against Collins. Curry told reporters that he appreciated his coach’s passion.
“Two crazy calls in a row that you feel like can dictate the momentum of the game, it doesn’t mean a win or a loss, it just dictates the momentum,” Curry said. “I love that fired up Steve, for sure. Somebody had to do it.”
Visiting Los Angeles has been emotional for Kerr since the Pacific Palisades wildfire a year ago destroyed his childhood home, which his family bought in 1969. His mother, 90-year-old Ann Kerr, still lived in the house, located near Rivas Canyon, and was evacuated safely.
Sports
Russell Wilson not thinking about retirement, plans to play in 2026: ‘I know what I’m capable of’
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Russell Wilson went from starting quarterback of the New York Giants to third string just a few weeks into the 2025 season, leaving many to question if the 10-time Pro Bowler decides to play next season.
Wilson, 37, doesn’t sound like he’s mulling over his decision. He wants to play in 2026.
“I’m not blinking,” Wilson said, per SNY. “I know [what] I’m capable of. I think I showed that in Dallas, and I want to be able to do that again, you know, and just be ready to rock and roll, and be as healthy as possible and be ready to play ball.”
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New York Giants’ Russell Wilson attempts to escape a sack by Dallas Cowboys defensive end James Houston (53) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)
Wilson signed a one-year, veteran minimum deal with the Giants this past offseason worth $10.5 million, which had tons of incentives if he were to play the entire season.
That same offseason, the Giants traded back into the first round to select Jaxson Dart out of Ole Miss, and he proved during training camp to have NFL-ready chops under center.
GIANTS STICK WITH GM JOE SCHOEN DESPITE ANOTHER LOSING SEASON, CITING NEED FOR ‘CONTINUITY AND STABILITY’
Still, then-head coach Brian Daboll was steadfast in his decision to start Wilson despite Dart’s success. But, after just three games, where the Giants went 0-3, a change was made.
Daboll went with Dart in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers at home, and the rookie defeated Justin Herbert and company to not only get his first career win, but cement himself as the team’s starter moving forward.
Even then, Wilson remained positive, saying in interviews after practice that he understands the direction of the team and wanted to help Dart develop and grow in his new role.
New York Giants’ Russell Wilson, left, and Jaxson Dart, right, talk on the bench in the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)
In his three starts for the Giants, Wilson threw for 831 yards with three touchdowns to three interceptions, though all of those touchdowns came in a Week 2 overtime heartbreaker for New York. Over half of Wilson’s passing yards also came in that game, throwing for 450 in the 40-37 loss.
Wilson also said that he tore his hamstring during that game against the Cowboys.
“I played that game, you know, I tore my hamstring on Friday in practice – the last play of practice. And I had a Grade 2 (tear). I couldn’t tell anybody. I had to go and play on it just because I knew the circumstance, I had to play on it, no matter what,” Wilson explained.
“I actually ended up going to the Dallas Mavericks’ facility, training. And you know, just kept it quiet, just trying to get treatment on it and just knowing that I probably couldn’t run from the goal line to the 10-yard line if I wanted to, but I feel like… I got to play this game.”
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson (3) scans the field at the line against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium. (Rich Barnes/Imagn Images)
It will be interesting to see if Wilson will land anywhere, and better yet, if a team is willing to try him out as a starter again.
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