Sports
Hernández: Yoshinobu Yamamoto bounces back from struggles to deliver under pressure
The shortest player on the field at Dodger Stadium looked as if he was the tallest.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was a giant on Friday night.
And to think the 5-foot-10 right-hander from Japan started for the Dodgers in Game 5 of their National League Division Series only because they figured their relievers couldn’t pitch the entire game.
Yamamoto turned the anticipated bullpen game for the Dodgers into something more conventional. The three innings they were counting on him to pitch became four, and eventually five. He never conceded a run.
When the game was over, the Dodgers were spraying sparkling wine and pouring beer on each other in their locker room, celebrating their passage to the NL Championship Series. In the middle of the celebration was Yamamoto, the unlikely pitcher of record in the 2-0 victory over the San Diego Padres.
Yamamoto was inconsistent for the majority his first season with the Dodgers, his adjustment to the major leagues delayed by a shoulder injury that sidelined him for three months. Not what the Dodgers were expecting from a player they signed in the winter to a 12-year, $325-million contract.
However, as Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter pointed out, “He showed up tonight.”
Bottle in hand and smile on his face, Walter continued, “Shut them out for five innings. Takes guts to do that when you struggle a little.”
A little?
Six days earlier, Yamamoto was absolutely destroyed, by the same opponent, in the same stadium. He lasted only three innings in a Game 1 defeat and was charged with five runs.
“Of course, I wasn’t able to get away with it right away,” Yamamoto said in Japanese.
Yamamoto explained that he received words of encouragement from teammates. When the Dodgers were in San Diego for Games 3 and 4, Yamamoto was invited out by Kiké Hernández.
“We talked for about two hours,” Yamamoto said.
Yamamoto added, “I think I owe my performance today to my teammates.”
Hernández said there was a reason the Dodgers invested as much in Yamamoto as they did. He said it wasn’t because he projected to be great one day in the future.
“He is great,” Hernández said.
The Dodgers could have started Jack Flaherty. However, Yamamoto was on the same six-day cycle on which he was kept in the regular season. Plus, the Dodgers thought they could rely on a pitcher who was known in his home country for his resiliency.
Around this time last year, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman watched the Japan Series between the Orix Buffaloes and Hanshin Tigers. He saw Yamamoto give up a career-worst seven runs in a Game 1 defeat, but he also saw how Yamamoto responded to the setback. In Game 6, Yamamoto threw a 138-pitch complete game and struck out 14 batters to set a Japan Series record.
Talking to Yamamoto after his Game 1 debacle in this division series, Friedman said, “You could get the sense that he wanted the ball.”
Manager Dave Roberts called attention to Yamamoto’s international experience.
“When you pitch for the WBC, for the country of Japan, those are the highest stakes you can have,” Roberts said.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the first inning against the Padres on Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts figured national pride would again be a motivating factor for Yamamoto. Pitching opposite him in Game 5 was Yu Darvish, making this postseason game the first to feature two Japanese starters. The contest was broadcast live in Japan on network television.
Yamamoto returned to the Dodger Stadium mound as a new pitcher.
Between starts, the Dodgers had worked with Yamamoto on the positioning of his glove, which they believed revealed to the Padres in Game 1 which pitches he was about to throw. He started Game 5 by retiring the side in order. Yamamoto gave up successive singles to Kyle Higashioka and Luis Arráez in the third inning, but forced Fernando Tatis Jr. to ground into a double play.
Yamamoto retired the next six batters to protect the 1-0 advantage gifted to him on a home run by his muse, Hernández. Before reaching the steps descending into the dugout in the middle of the fifth inning, Yamamoto was tightly embraced by Roberts. Yamamoto had thrown only 63 pitches, but Roberts was mindful that he hadn’t pitched into the sixth inning since he blanked the New York Yankees over seven innings on June 7. His night was over, at least on the mound.
Later in the clubhouse, Yamamoto was reliving his night when Shohei Ohtani approached him with a bottle of sparkling wine pointed in his direction. Ohtani emptied the bottle’s contents on Yamamoto.
“He was overwhelming,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “It was the kind of pitching that overwhelmed and didn’t let the opponent get close.”
An extremely light drinker, Yamamoto said that even the magnitude of this victory couldn’t drive him to imbibe any of the adult beverages provided to the players.
However, he joked, “The alcohol got in me through my skin.”
At that moment, the ups and downs of the previous six months were forgotten. If a disastrous performance in October can diminish a player’s regular-season achievements, the opposite also has to be true: A memorable game in the playoffs can minimize a player’s regular-season failures.
On Friday night, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was a hero.
Sports
Chargers’ Justin Herbert gushes over Madison Beer in heartfelt birthday tribute: ‘Changed my life forever’
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Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert gushed over 27-year-old singer Madison Beer in a heartfelt birthday tribute on social media, offering fans a rare glimpse into the couple’s relationship.
The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback, who normally shies away from the public eye, posted a series of photos to his Instagram Stories on Thursday.
Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers warms up prior to a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at SoFi Stadium on Dec. 8, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
“Happy birthday to my favorite person of all time,” Herbert wrote in a post that showed the couple on the sidelines of one of his NFL games. “I love you so much. You’ve changed my life forever.”
In another photo appearing to show the couple out to dinner, Herbert wrote, “I am the luckiest guy alive…”
Herbert, who turns 28 later this month, shared another photo of the “Make You Mine” artist petting goats and captioned the photo, “My goats.”
The couple was first linked together in August when they were spotted together on the set of one of Beer’s music videos in Los Angeles. Herbert and Beer were photographed in October on the sidelines of a Chargers game at SoFi Stadium, seemingly confirming the dating rumors.
Quarterback Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers and singer Madison Beer attend an NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 24, 2025. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The same month, Herbert went viral after blocking a rogue basketball from hitting Beer when the two sat courtside at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
Herbert signed a five-year, $262.5 million extension with the Chargers in July 2023. Despite proving himself to be one of the elite young quarterbacks in the NFL, Los Angeles’ offensive struggles have seen the team fall short in back-to-back playoff appearances.
Quarterback Justin Herbert (10) of the Los Angeles Chargers blocks a basketball from hitting Madison Beer as they attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 24, 2025. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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The team’s offensive coordinator, Greg Roman, was fired in January and replaced with former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, who is regarded as one of the top offensive minds in football.
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Sports
Shohei Ohtani’s second-inning grand slam propels Japan to a rout in World Baseball Classic opener
The last time Shohei Ohtani was seen wearing a World Baseball Classic uniform with “Japan” across his chest, he was striking out Mike Trout of the United States on a ninth-inning, full-count slider to give his country a victory in the championship game three years ago.
So much has happened in Ohtani’s life between then and now. He has a wife and a daughter, a new interpreter, a new Major League team, two World Series championships and three more Most Valuable Player awards.
Yet unforgettable WBC memories continue. This time, he delivered from the batter’s box instead of the pitcher’s mound.
In the second inning of Japan’s WBC opener against Chinese Taipei on Friday at the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani smacked a hanging curve a few feet over the right-field wall for a grand slam, triggering an offensive onslaught that resulted in a 13-0 victory.
“I thought it might land as an out, so above all, I really wanted to get the first run on the board,” Ohtani told reporters afterward.
Ohtani led off the game with a double and singled in his second at-bat of the second inning, when Japan put up a WBC-record 10 runs. He added a run-scoring single in the third inning, giving him five runs batted in.
In 2023, Ohtani hit and pitched Japan to the WBC title, batting .435 with eight RBIs and allowing only two earned runs in 9 2/3 innings on the mound. This year, he will only bat, saving his pitching for the Dodgers, who begin their quest for a third consecutive World Series title in three weeks.
Japan’s starting pitcher Friday was a decorated Dodger nevertheless. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, MVP of the 2025 World Series, threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, walking three and striking out two while giving up no hits.
His command wasn’t pinpoint — he threw 53 pitches, 33 for strikes — but it is still spring training, even though the atmosphere was electric for Japanese players competing in front of a crowd of 42,314 that included actor Timothy Chalamet and superstar Bad Bunny.
“I know there will be some tough battles ahead, but if the fans and the team can unite and everyone can help build the excitement together, it will really encourage us,” Ohtani said.
Sports
Russell Wilson escalates feud with Sean Payton, labels Broncos coach ‘classless’
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Russell Wilson and Sean Payton spent just one NFL season together, but tension lingered after a rocky year.
And it appears the tension that built up from that tumultuous stretch continues to linger.
Wilson’s interview on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, recorded before last month’s Super Bowl between Seattle and New England, recently resurfaced.
In the interview, Wilson doubled down on his October comment labeling Payton “classless,” saying he felt slighted by his former coach’s remarks.
Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos talks to quarterback Russell Wilson on the sideline during an NFL preseason football game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium Aug. 11, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
“[When] you’ve been on the same side or this and that, and I got the same amount of rings as you got, meaning Sean, right?” said Wilson, who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks as Payton did coaching for the New Orleans Saints.
“I got a lot of respect for him as a play-caller, this and that, but to take a shot, I don’t like. I don’t think it’s necessary, you know, I mean, especially when I’m not even on your own team anymore. So, for me, there’s a point in time where you have to, I’ve realized, I’ve stayed quiet for so long. There’s a there’s a time and place where I’m not.
“I know who I am as a competitor, as a warrior, as a champion, too, and, you know, I’ve beaten Sean, too. You know, like we’ve been on the same place and the same thing. And so, it’s not a matter of disrespect. Just don’t disrespect me.”
Sean Payton and Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos during an a game against the Minnesota Vikings at Empower Field at Mile High Nov. 19, 2023, in Denver, Colo. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
After a rocky one-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024, Wilson joined the New York Giants last offseason. However, he was relegated to a backup role after just three games.
Rookie Jaxson Dart quickly showed promise once he had the chance to start, but his season was briefly derailed by injury. Jameis Winston — not Wilson — stepped in for Dart in a handful of games. Dart threw three touchdowns in a Week 7 matchup with the Broncos, nearly pulling off an upset in what was eventually a close loss.
After the game, Payton said Dart provided a “spark” to the Giants’ offense.
“I was talking to [Giants owner] John Mara not too long ago, and I said, ‘We were hoping that that change would have happened long after our game,’” Payton said.
The New York Giants’ Russell Wilson attempts to escape a sack by Dallas Cowboys defensive end James Houston (53) in the first half of a game Sept. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Payton also said the Broncos would have faced less of a challenge had Wilson been under center.
“Classless … but not surprised,” Wilson responded in a social media post. “Didn’t realize you’re still bounty hunting 15+ years later though the media.”
Despite last season’s struggles and chatter about his football future, Wilson does not appear ready to call it quits in 2026.
“I wanna play a few more years for sure,” he said. “I think, for me, I’ve always had the vision of getting to 40, at least. I think the game is different. Quarterbacks, we get hit. It’s not, you know, we get hit hard, but … there’s certain rules. I mean, back in the day when I started, bro, it was you just get [clobbered].
“I mean, so I feel like the game allows you to, you know, live a little longer, I guess. I feel healthy. I feel great. But I think, more than anything else is, do you love the game? Do you love studying? Do you love the passion for it all? Do you love the process? Do you love the practice? Do you love — everybody loves the winning part of it, but it’s process. There’s a journey that you got to be obsessed with. And that part I’m obsessed with.”
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