Sports
Hernández: Overlooked parts of Dodgers' roster could jeopardize World Series aspirations
Now that federal investigators say they have solved the Mystery of the Missing Millions, Shohei Ohtani can focus entirely on baseball matters.
Such as whether his team can actually win a World Series.
These Dodgers are what they were expected to be — to a degree. Counting Ohtani, they have four of the best hitters in baseball. In Tyler Glasnow, they have a very good pitcher who can be great if he stays healthy.
Those aren’t their concerns. Their problems are in the previously overlooked parts of the roster.
They have an extremely top-heavy lineup. They have an unreliable bullpen. They have a shaky defense.
These shortcomings are why they have dropped three of their five games against the San Diego Padres, including a 6-3 defeat on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers have played one other National League team that was in playoff contention last year, the Chicago Cubs, and were beaten by them twice in a three-game series earlier this month.
This isn’t to say the Dodgers won’t win their division.
They should.
This isn’t to say the Dodgers won’t win 100 games again.
They should be back on pace to do so after their three-game series against the overmatched Washington Nationals this week.
This is about October.
The Dodgers have a great roster, which is why they will wear down the other teams in the NL West during a 162-game regular season.
What’s uncertain is whether they are a great team, which is what they will have to be to win the 11 games required to be crowned World Series champions. The first 18 games of the regular season have raised questions.
Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux stands in the dugout before a game against the San Francisco Giants on April 1.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“I would say at this point in time, there’s more that’s gone wrong with our club than has gone right,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers were in the middle of one of the more bizarre sports scandals in recent memory, as Ohtani discovered that his former interpreter allegedly stole more than $16 million from him.
The bottom of the lineup has been unproductive, as the team’s No. 6, 7, 8 and 9 hitters entered Sunday with a combined .194 average, which was the fifth-worst in baseball. In the loss to the Padres on Sunday, those places in the lineup were occupied by Teoscar Hernández, James Outman, Kiké Hernández and Gavin Lux. They were a combined 0 for 13 with two walks.
The bullpen hasn’t been much better, as the combined 4.64 earned-run average of their relievers ranked 22nd in baseball entering the series finale against the Padres.
Reliever Brusdar Graterol landed on the 60-day injured list with shoulder problems. Another prominent reliever, Blake Treinen, broke his ribs after he was struck by a comebacker in an exhibition game. Neither Graterol nor Treinen has pitched this season.
On the bright side, the Dodgers are 11-7.
“I think, to use a tennis analogy, we’re holding serve,” Roberts said.
Roberts pointed to the team’s improved defense, even though the Padres tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth inning on a throwing error by Betts, the former right fielder and second baseman who is now playing shortstop.
“To say where we’re at, whether it’s the standings or the win-loss, that’s a good thing,” Roberts said. “That speaks to the guys in that room.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts high-fives Gavin Lux after a win over the Giants on April 1.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts backed the players at the bottom of the order to eventually hit, citing their track records. He’s right. They should. But if their recent playoff disappointments have taught the Dodgers anything, it’s that hitting regular-season pitching isn’t the same as hitting postseason pitching. Will the bottom of their lineup vanish again in October?
The bullpen’s shortcomings have been magnified by the rotation’s issues. With a 3-0 record and 2.25 earned-run average Glasnow looks like an ace. In his most recent start, he struck out 14 batters over seven scoreless innings. However, the Dodgers are still in the process of figuring out what they have in the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, James Paxton and Bobby Miller, who was placed on the injured list. Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw should rejoin the team at some point, but the two former All-Stars are returning from major operations and the team can’t be certain of what it has in them.
If the Dodgers are forced to rely on their bullpen too much, they can once again find themselves in the position they were in on Sunday: with J.P. Feyereisen on the mound in the seventh inning of a tie game. Feyereisen, who didn’t pitch last year as he recovered from a major shoulder operation, loaded the bases and gave up a three-run triple to Jurickson Profar.
“Certainly not ideal,” Roberts said.
With Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson unavailable on this night because of their recent workloads, what choice did the manager have?
The Dodgers can take solace in the reality they have a foundation like any other team in baseball. Betts is hitting .375 with six homers. Ohtani is batting .338, Freeman .299 and Smith .371. They have something formidable to build on.
But the point is they still have to build. They need some players to play better. They need others to return from injuries. They need to find outside reinforcements at the trade deadline. Otherwise, this October will look like previous ones. The elements for that are in place too.
Sports
Ex-NFL star implores Russell Wilson to hang it up: ‘Do your TV thing’
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Russell Wilson has had his share of ups and downs in his NFL career.
He helped the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship in 2013 and was named to the Pro Bowl four times. But the last few years of his career arguably did some damage to his legacy as he’s spent the last three seasons with three different teams.
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New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 9, 2025. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)
Wilson is still on the free-agent market as he looks to latch on to a new team for 2026. However, former NFL star Aqib Talib implored Wilson to hang up the cleats.
“Do your TV thing, Russ. It’s over with, man. Once you’ve got to decide, do I even want to play?” Talib said on “The Arena: Gridiron.” “I think you don’t really want to play. I hate when guys get to the later part of their career and then they start doing the bounce-around thing and they’re not going to win. There was no chip in New York. That’s just going to be another stop on your resume.”
Wilson reportedly garnered some interest from NFL teams.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson stands on the field before a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Oct. 26, 2025. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
He told the New York Post that the New York Jets were one of them.
Wilson also was reportedly a candidate to take Matt Ryan’s spot on CBS’ “The NFL Today” after Ryan left to take a front office job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Wilson has 46,966 passing yards and 353 passing touchdowns in 205 career games, but the 2025 season with the New York Giants was one to forget.
Wilson started three games and made some bizarre decisions in a loss against the Chiefs. Jaxson Dart was named the starting quarterback. As he came in to take a few snaps while Dart was being checked for a concussion, Wilson was booed.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Oct. 19, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
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Should he end up signing with another team, Wilson will be entering his age-38 season.
Sports
Artists, community come together to welcome World Cup to Inglewood with murals and more
A lot has changed since Jacori Perry attended Morningside High School.
Perry is now a renowned artist who goes by the names Mr. Ace and AiseBorn.
The school is now known as Inglewood High School United.
And the lecture hall on that campus now features a large, ornate mural of a soccer ball being grasped by the hands of two people — freshly painted by the 2004 Morningside graduate as the city of Inglewood prepares to host eight World Cup games at SoFi Stadium starting next month.
Local artist Mr. Ace works on his mural at Inglewood High School United on May 11. The artists, whose real name is Jacori Perry, attended the school when it was known as Morningside High more than two decades ago.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
“If you told me that I would be back here painting one of the walls on this campus when I was in high school, I don’t think that I necessarily would have foreseen it,” Mr. Ace said as he was putting the finishing touches on his mural last week. “So I’m a little in amazement about just the way life works in that sense.”
He was one of several Los Angeles-based artists to participate in a Road to World Cup Community Day last month at Inglewood High United. Many of the artists — including Juan Pablo Reyes (“JP murals”), Michelle Ruby Guerrero (“Mr. B Baby”) and Angel Acordagoitia — sketched designs on portable panels (12-feet by 8-feet) and picnic tables for community members to paint.
The picnic tables will remain at the high school in front of Mr. Ace’s mural. The mobile murals will be placed throughout LAX to welcome visitors arriving for the World Cup.
Kathryn Schloessman, CEO of the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee, said in a news release that the event was “just one example of how the energy of the World Cup can be felt in neighborhoods across our region.”
“Students, artists, and volunteers came together to create a work of art that will live on well beyond the end of the tournament,” Schloessman said. “It’s a reflection of the creativity, diversity, and community pride that makes our region so special as we prepare to host the world for FIFA World Cup 2026.”
Community members were encouraged to take part in the painting process, no matter their skill level.
“We made it easy enough for people that have zero experience to a proficient level of experience, for them to all be involved,” said Reyes, who designed and helped paint two mural panels and three tables. “We did the sketch, and then I tried to dab a little bit of color — whatever color is supposed to be there, I dabbed a little bit of color right there, so they would have a guide. …
Students and community members help paint a mural panel during a Road to World Cup Community Day event May 2 at Inglewood High School.
(Dawn M. Burkes / Los Angeles Times)
“I was right there, kind of supervising, making sure that everything went as planned. And if anybody has questions, they’re more than welcome to let me know about them. But, yeah, it’s pretty easy for them to kind of be involved and feel that sense of ownership and have a sense of pride that, ‘Yeah, I was part of that mural-creation process.’ It’s a rich experience for them.”
Acordagoitia sketched several table-top designs for the public to paint at the event.
“They did great,” he said of the community members. “They helped a lot. They were asking questions. They got all the other colors correct. So, yeah, they were excited. A lot of kids were excited to see the live painting, because now kids are used to being on their phones. So that was a great experience for them.”
Acordagoitia also opted to paint a mural panel on his own because “it was a little more technical,” involving portraits of his 8-year-old son, a nephew and a friend.
“I wanted to focus more on the youth because that’s really our future,” he said. “So that’s, that’s the main thing about the mural, just about the kids, soccer, culture, community. It’s exciting for me, because I grew up playing soccer and to include soccer with art, it’s just a dream come true.”
Guerrero said “the community was a big help in filling in all the background colors that I need in order to build the detail and layers” on the two mural panels she designed.
“My whole style is based on culture. And I think that there’s a connection there with the World Cup and how I feel like it brings together all the culture and just, like, celebration,” Guerrero said. “It kind of goes hand in hand with the type of work I do, because my stuff is really festive, celebrating culture. And just as an L.A.-based artist, I think the collaboration made sense.”
The four artists also took part in another Road to World Cup Community Day in downtown L.A. at Gloria Molina Grand Park on March 14. At that event, the artists sketched designs on large sculptures shaped like soccer balls and an oversized picnic table, also for community members to paint.
While Mr. Ace opted to paint his permanent mural at Inglewood High School United on his own, he was sure to include the community theme into his work.
“The idea was really centered around just creating something that was community-based — something that represented the World Cup but also represented some sense of community,” he said. “And so what I did was try to create something that was symbolic, very direct in terms of its relationship to soccer and figuring out through that how to create something simple that [brings] into that a sense of community. And that’s how I landed on the two hands holding the soccer ball.”
Local artist Mr. Ace works on his World Cup-themed mural at Inglewood High School United on May 11.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Back when he was a student on that campus, Mr. Ace said he was always involved in art and knew he wanted a career as an artist. He struggled to come up with the right words to describe how it felt being back there creating a work of art to be shared with the students, all of the community and everyone who happens to see it on the way to a World Cup match.
“I guess there’s no words to really describe it,” he said. “I think if any artist gets the opportunity to paint at their own high school — especially if they’ve been doing large-scale works around the city, the country or the world — I think that is a little touching. When it’s attached to something like the World Cup … you know, a large part of my childhood was spent in Inglewood, so coming from my circumstances and life, I think it’s even more intriguing.”
Sports
Indy 500: Counting Down The 10 Best Finishes In Race History
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The best Indianapolis 500 finish could be subjective, depending on which driver a fan was rooting for to win.
It certainly is in the eye of the beholder.
So take this list for what it’s worth. One view of the 10 best finishes in Indianapolis 500 history. Of course, it skews to more recent decades when the runs have come a little faster and the finishes have had a tendency to be a little closer.
We’ll add one each day to this list of fantastic finishes ahead of the 110th running of the Indy 500 on May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
10. Ericsson outduels O’Ward (2022)
After a red flag, Marcus Ericsson held off Pato O’Ward in a two-lap shootout. The shootout didn’t last two laps, though, as there was a crash on the final lap behind them. Ericsson had a comfortable lead when the red flag came out for a crash with four laps to go, a situation where in past Indianapolis 500 races, they likely would have ended the race under caution with Ericsson as the winner.
9. Foyt survives chaos (1967)
How does a driver who wins by two laps end up on this list? It’s because the win nearly didn’t happen on the last lap. A big crash with cars and debris littering the frontstretch just ahead of Foyt as he came to the checkered flag forced him to navigate through the wreckage for the win.
8. Sato can’t catch Franchitti (2012)
This was one of those finishes where the leader holds on for the win, but boy did the leader have to hold on. Takuma Sato tried to pass Dario Franchitti early on the final lap but to no avail and Franchitti sped off for the victory. This was one of those Indy 500s that made you hold your breath all the way to the checkered flag.
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