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Mookie Betts continues his torrid start to lead Dodgers past the Nationals

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Mookie Betts continues his torrid start to lead Dodgers past the Nationals

There was a lull in early April, when he went two games without a hit and seven games without a run batted in, but other than that, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts has been on an opening-month rampage, one that continued with a career-high-tying five hits in Tuesday night’s 6-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.

A sellout crowd of 52,718 in Dodger Stadium saw Betts hit two doubles, three singles, score twice and drive in two runs to provide a jolt to a team that had lost four of five games. Betts now is batting .388 with a 1.190 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, six homers, five doubles, 18 RBIs and 22 runs in 20 games,

“He’s pretty locked in right now–it’s fun to watch,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “He’s so locked in to what he’s trying to do with his defense that I feel like that’s carrying over to his offense. He’s fully in tune with what his body’s doing right now, and I feel that’s allowing him to get the most out of what he’s trying to do on both sides of the ball.”

Betts is a six-time Gold Glove Award-winning right fielder who was moved to second base over the winter and then to shortstop–a position he hadn’t played regularly since high school–in early March.

The 5-foot-9, 180-pounder is determined to mold himself into a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop, so he goes through grueling pregame workouts every day, taking dozens of ground balls–to his left, to his right, directly at him with pace, slow rollers he has to charge–throwing to first base and working on double-play feeds and pivots.

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And his offense has not suffered one bit.

“I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as he works before a game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know how he does it. You would think that he expends too much energy, but he’s just so mentally tough that he can handle it. He’s not a very physical guy, but it certainly hasn’t affected performance.”

Does Betts worry that, over the course of a six-month, 162-game season, he might work so hard before games that his tank is not full for the games?

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s a balance, but I can’t not put in the work,” Betts said. “That’s me. I’m always going to put in work. I’ll overwork before I take a day off. I just gotta figure it out.”

Betts singled to right field to open the first inning Tuesday night and eventually scored on Teoscar Hernández’s double-play grounder.

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He followed a single by center fielder Andy Pages, who was called up from triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday and smacked the first big-league pitch he saw into right field, and an RBI single by Austin Barnes with an RBI double to left-center for a 3-0 lead in the second.

Kiké Hernández’s 431-foot solo homer to center gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead in the fifth. Betts doubled to right-center and scored on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI infield single for a 5-2 lead in the seventh, and his RBI single to right made it 6-2 in the eighth.

“I think the thing that stands out most is his plate discipline,” Roberts said of Betts. “He’s just not chasing. He really is controlling the strike zone. Even to be able to get a hit the other way, he’s using the big part of the field.”

The score would have been more lopsided if the Dodgers’ $700-million man had delivered in the clutch.

Three times, Shohei Ohtani stepped to the plate with runners in scoring position, and three times the slugger swung at the first pitch, producing a 108-mph groundout to second base in the second, a routine grounder to second in the fourth and a fly ball to center field in the seventh.

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Ohtani is now one for 19 (.053) with runners in scoring position this season, paltry numbers for a guy who entered Tuesday with a .289 career average, a .618 slugging percentage, 1.036 OPS and 45 homers with runners in scoring position.

“Shohei is obviously a very aggressive hitter, but he can do a better job of getting into a count,” Roberts said. “Right now, he’s been super aggressive, more than he’s ever been with runners in scoring position. So we’ve got to temper that back, make these guys continue to make pitches. We’ll address that.”

The Nationals cut the lead to 3-2 in the third when Jacob Young singled and stole second and Jesse Winker crushed a 73-mph curve from left-hander Ryan Yarbrough 429 feet into the right-center field seats for a two-run homer.

But Yarbrough, pitching in a bulk role after Kyle Hurt opened the game with two scoreless innings, shook off the homer and retired 12 straight batters from the fourth through seventh innings.

“The biggest difference was getting ahead, keeping them off-balance and getting quick outs,” Yarbrough said. “With Young and Winker, I was falling behind.”

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The promotion of Pages, the 23-year-old Cuban native who had season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder just three weeks into 2023–an injury suffered on a swing in his first triple-A game–headlined a flurry of pregame moves on Tuesday.

The Dodgers also recalled Hurt and right-handed reliever Eduardo Salazar and optioned right-hander Ricky Vanasco and left-hander Nick Ramirez, who each threw two perfect innings of relief Monday night.

Outfielder Taylor Trammell was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Salazar. Top pitching prospect Landon Knack will be called up from triple-A to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Nationals.

With outfielder Jason Heyward’s recovery from a lower-back injury going much slower than expected and utility man Chris Taylor mired in a brutal 1-for-33 season-opening slump, manager Dave Roberts said Pages would start against Nationals right-hander Jake Irvin Wednesday and get a considerable “runway” to play over the next few weeks.

“I’ll try to get him in as much as I can to see what we have,” Roberts said of Pages, who hit .371 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 15 games for Oklahoma City this season. “He’s a complete player. A very heady player. He lives and breathes baseball. Very good defender. He’s got plus power.

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“And coming back from this really traumatic surgery he had last year, he’s been nothing but fantastic since spring training. We’re really excited.”

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ESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd

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ESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd

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Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.

While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.

Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)

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Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.

The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”

Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.

WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME

Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)

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Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”

Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.

“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”

Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.

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After 55 years as a broadcaster in L.A., Randy Rosenbloom is leaving town

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After 55 years as a broadcaster in L.A., Randy Rosenbloom is leaving town

It’s time to reveal memories, laughs and crazy times from Randy Rosenbloom’s 55 years as a TV/radio broadcaster in Los Angeles. He’s hopping in a car next Sunday with his wife, saying goodbye to a North Hollywood house that’s been in his family since 1952 and driving 3,300 miles to his new home in Greenville, S.C.

“When I walk out, I’ll probably break down,” he said.

He graduated from North Hollywood High in 1969. He got his first paid job in 1971 calling Hart basketball games for NBC Cable Newhall for $10 a game. It began an adventure of a lifetime.

“I never knew if I overachieved or underachieved. I just did what I loved,” he said.

Randy Rosenbloom (left) used to work with former UCLA coach John Wooden for TV games.

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(Randy Rosenbloom)

John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian and Jim Harrick were among his expert commentators when he did play by play for college basketball games. He called volleyball at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games for NBC and rowing in 2004. He’s worked more than 100 championship high school events. He did play by play for the first and only Reebok Bowl at Angel Stadium in 1994 won by Bishop Amat over Sylmar, 35-14.

“There were about 5,000, 6,000 people there and I remember thinking nobody watched the game. We ended up with a 5.7 TV rating on Channel 13 in Los Angeles, which is higher than most Lakers games.”

He conducted interviews with NFL Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Johnny Unitas and boxing greats Robert Duran, Thomas Hearn and Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s worked with baseball greats Steve Garvey and Doug DeCinces. He called games with former USC coach Rod Dedeaux. He was in the radio booth for Bret Saberhagen’s 1982 no-hitter in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium. He was a nightly sportscaster for KADY in Ventura.

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Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.

Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.

(Randy Rosenbloom)

He was the voice of Fresno State football and basketball. He also did Nevada Las Vegas football and basketball games. He called bowl games and Little League games. He was a public address announcer for basketball at the 1984 Olympic Games with Michael Jordan the star and did the P.A. for Toluca Little League.

Nothing was too small or too big for him.

“I loved everything,” he said.

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He called at least 10 East L.A. Classic football games between Garfield and Roosevelt. He was there when Narbonne and San Pedro tied 21-21 in the 2008 City championship game at the Coliseum on a San Pedro touchdown with one second left.

Probably his most notable tale came when he was doing radio play-by-play at a 1998 college bowl game in Montgomery, Ala.

“I look down and a giant tarantula is crawling up my pants,” he said. “My color man took all the press notes, wadded them up and hit the tarantula like swinging a bat.”

Did Rosenbloom tell the audience what was happening?

“I stayed calm,” he said.

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Then there was the time he was in the press box at Sam Boyd Stadium and a bat flew in and attached itself to the wooden press box right next to him before flying away after he said, “UNLV wins.”

Recently, he’s been putting together high school TV packages for LA36 and calling travel ball basketball games. He’ll still keep doing a radio gambling show from his new home, but he’s cutting ties to Los Angeles to move closer to grandchildren.

“I’m retiring from Los Angeles. I’m leaving the market,” he said.

Hopefully he’ll continue via Zoom to do a weekly podcast with me for The Times.

He’s a true professional who’s versatility and work ethic made him a reliable hire from the age of 18 through his current age of 74.

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He’s a member of the City Section Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He once threw the shot put 51 feet, 7 1/2 inches, which is his claim to fame at North Hollywood High.

One time an ESPN graphic before a show spelled his name “Rosenbloom” then changed it to “Rosenblum” for postgame. It was worth a good laugh.

He always adjusts, improvises and ad-libs. He expects to enjoy his time in South Carolina, but he better watch out for tarantulas. They seem to like him.

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Becky Lynch enters exclusive WWE club with Women’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 42

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Becky Lynch enters exclusive WWE club with Women’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 42

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Becky Lynch entered an atmosphere no other WWE women’s superstar has ever reached as she won the Women’s Intercontinental Championship over AJ Lee on Saturday night at WrestleMania 42.

Lynch became the first person to hold the Women’s Intercontinental Championship three times after she pinned Lee. She first won the title against Lyra Valkyria in June 2025 and then again against Maxxine Dupri in November.

Becky Lynch celebrates with the belt after defeating AJ Lee during their women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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She dropped the belt to Lee at the Elimination Chamber, sparking a monthslong feud with her.

Lee gave Lynch the chance at the title in the weeks prior to WrestleMania 42. But it appeared Lee played right into Lynch’s plans. Despite arguing with referee Jessica Carr for most of the match, Lynch was able to tactfully tear down a rope buckle and use it to her advantage.

Lynch hit Lee with a Manhandle Slam and pinned her for the win.

WWE STARS REVEAL WHAT MAKES WRESTLEMANIA SO SPECIAL: ‘IT’S THE SUPER BOWL OF PRO WRESTLING’

AJ Lee reacts after losing to Becky Lynch in their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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It’s the second straight year Lynch will leave Las Vegas as champion. She returned to WWE at WrestleMania 41, teaming with Valkyria, to win the women’s tag titles. She will now leave Allegiant Stadium as the women’s intercontinental champion.

Lynch is now a seven-time women’s champion, three-time women’s intercontinental champion and two-time tag team champion.

Becky Lynch withstands AJ Lee during their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match on night one of WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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Lee’s reign as champion ended really before it could really begin. WrestleMania 42 was her first appearance at the event in 11 years. It’s unclear where Lee will go from here.

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