Sports
Mookie Betts homers in return as Dodgers beat the Brewers
Mookie Betts — or, as he’s known around these parts, “Spooky” Betts — returned to the Dodgers’ lineup for the opener of a four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, refusing to stay with the team at the supposedly haunted Pfister Hotel for the second straight season.
Whether ghosts actually exist in the historic, 131-year-old downtown hotel is open to debate, but Betts wasn’t about to take a chance that they do.
“You don’t want to mess with them,” Betts said. “I’m staying at an [apparition-free] Airbnb again. That part is not gonna change.”
Another thing that hasn’t changed: Betts’ ability to make baseballs disappear.
Playing for the first time in seven weeks, Betts deposited a two-run home run over the left-field wall in the third inning to drive in the first runs of an eventual 5-2 win over the Brewers in American Family Field.
Betts, who prepared for his return by taking live batting practice in Dodger Stadium for three days, also hit a two-out RBI single in the seventh to help push the Dodgers to their fourth straight win.
“It’s probably on one hand, it really is,” manager Dave Roberts said, when asked how many major leaguers could come back after seven weeks, not play any minor league rehab games and have the game Betts had Monday night.
“[Brewers starter] Freddy Peralta is a heck of a pitcher, so to have the night he did against him was huge. And that two-out hit off [Bryan] Hudson to add the insurance run was big. It’s a lot more fun writing his name in the lineup.”
The lineup isn’t quite whole. Third baseman Max Muncy and utility man Tommy Edman, who is expected to play mostly center field, are expected to be activated next week.
But even with the loss of Betts for almost two months, Muncy for three months and injuries that have shelved 10 starting pitchers, the Dodgers (70-49) have the best record in the National League and are tied with Cleveland and Baltimore for the best record in baseball.
“It’s remarkable,” Roberts said. “It’s a credit to those guys in the room, the coaches, and everyone playing their tails off. And I still believe we haven’t played our best baseball in quite some time. The expectation is for us to be even better.”
Shohei Ohtani, who remained in the leadoff spot while Betts moved to the two-hole, followed Kevin Kiermaier’s fifth-inning single with his NL-leading 36th homer, driving a 3-and-0 fastball from Peralta 424 feet to left-center field to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. It was the first time in Ohtani’s career that he homered on a 3-0 pitch.
“He has the green light [on 3-0],” Roberts said. “He can fire whenever he wants to.”
Clayton Kershaw delivered his best start in four games since his late-July return from shoulder surgery, giving up one run and three hits in 5 ⅔ innings, striking out six and walking two for his first win of the season.
“It was a good game for us, all the way around,” said Kershaw, who leaned more heavily on his slow curve. “Personally, it was OK. Decent command all the way through. A couple of big spots I was able to get out of.”
Kershaw departed with a runner aboard and two out in the sixth, only to have his replacement, Joe Kelly, give up a two-run homer to William Contreras that cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2. Kelly has been tagged for five earned runs and five hits — three of them homers–in 3 ⅔ innings of his last five games.
The Dodgers got one run back in the seventh when Ohtani walked with two out, stole second — his 33rd stolen base of the season–and scored on Betts’ RBI single to right field for a 5-2 lead.
Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia struck out the side in the seventh, and right-hander Michael Kopech struck out two of four in a scoreless eighth, Jake Bauers with a 101-mph fastball and Willy Adames with a 98-mph fastball.
Kopech has given up one hit, struck out 10 and walked one in 6 ⅓ innings of six games since being acquired from the Chicago White Sox.
“He’s picked us up big-time,” Roberts said of Kopech. “In any leverage spot at the back end of the game, the strike-throwing is there, the consistent throw of the fastball, being able to mix in the slider, the cutter whenever he needs it, he’s neutral against left and right … those are the pieces I look for in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning.”
Daniel Hudson retired the side in order in the ninth for his ninth save Monday night, but would Roberts consider moving Kopech to closer?
“We’ll see,” Roberts said. “We’ve got time.”
Betts had not played since June 16, the day he suffered a left-hand fracture when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball.
He spent the first 2 ½ months at shortstop, a position he was thrust into because of Gavin Lux’s throwing woes in early March, but both Betts and the Dodgers decided last Friday that the team — and the player — would be better off with Betts in right field, the position Betts has won six Gold Glove Awards at.
Betts looked comfortable and confident in the outfield Monday night, quickly gathering Jackson Chourio’s sixth-inning line drive off the wall and firing back to second to hold the Brewers left fielder to a single.
“You know what? It just kind of happened, I didn’t even think about it,” Betts said. “Those are the intricacies of playing right field that I got to learn over 10 years. I didn’t get a chance to learn it [at shortstop] in two months.”
The Dodgers went 44-29, averaged 4.90 runs a game and hit .255 with a .770 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in their first 73 games with Betts. They went 25-20, averaged 4.98 runs a game and hit .248 with a .757 OPS in 46 games without Betts.
“Having Mookie back is awesome,” Kershaw said. “That ball off the wall in the sixth inning, to keep it to a single — stuff that not a lot of people can make look that easy–not to mention the homer and stuff. The lineup is starting to look like it should. It’s really cool.”
Unless you’re Amed Rosario and Jason Heyward. Betts’ return and position switch had a domino effect on the roster and lineup, with Rosario, a utility man, and Heyward, a right fielder, bearing the brunt of the move.
Rosario, who was batting .305 in 81 games, was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Betts just two weeks after he was acquired from Tampa Bay, the Dodgers choosing to keep the right-handed bats of utility man Kiké Hernández and shortstop Nick Ahmed over Rosario.
“You’re cutting ties with a really good ballplayer who is versatile, but it shows the talent we have in the room now and that’s potentially coming,” Roberts said. “I really like Amed a lot. It’s a tough decision. But with our lineup construction, I just didn’t see a lot of runway for him.”
The left-handed-hitting Heyward has started 48 games in right field, batting .204 with five homers and 24 RBIs, but with Gold Glove-caliber defender Kiermaier and Andy Pages platooning in center field and Teoscar Hernández entrenched in left field, Heyward will be reduced to a pinch-hitter with an occasional spot start.
“It’s awesome to get Mookie back in our lineup — he’s a tough guy to miss, so it will be fun to have him back,” said Heyward, a 15-year veteran. “The name of the game is helping the team win, and I’ll be ready for that.”
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With 48 teams competing and a grueling path through the knockout stage, reaching the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be an accomplishment in itself.
Only four nations will survive the tournament’s first 100 matches and earn a spot in the final four, putting themselves within two victories of lifting the most coveted trophy in sports.
Let’s take a look at the latest odds to reach the semifinals at FanDuel Sportsbook as of June 26.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
To Reach Semifinals
Argentina: +100 (bet $10 to win $20 total)
France: +110 (bet $10 to win $21 total)
Spain: +120 (bet $10 to win $22 total)
England: +165 (bet $10 to win $26.50 total)
Portugal: +210 (bet $10 to win $31 total)
Brazil: +270 (bet $10 to win $37 total)
Netherlands: +300 (bet $10 to win $40 total)
Germany: +330 (bet $10 to win $43 total)
USA: +380 (bet $10 to win $48 total)
Norway: +550 (bet $10 to win $65 total)
Colombia: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Belgium: +700 (bet $10 to win $80 total)
Morocco: +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Switzerland: +800 (bet $10 to win $90 total)
Mexico: +850 (bet $10 to win $95 total)
Japan: +1200 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
Croatia: +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Ecuador: +1600 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Canada: +1700 (bet $10 to win $180 total)
Austria: +1900 (bet $10 to win $200 total)
Here’s what to know about this oddsboard:
The Top 10: Argentina, France, Spain, England, Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands and Germany — all considered powerhouse countries — stand at the top of the board, with each nation listed at +330 or better to reach the semifinals. But right after that group? The USA and Norway. The Americans have never made it to the semifinals of the World Cup, and this is Norway’s first appearance in the tournament since 1998.
SAN DIEGO — Hodad’s is a third-generation small business, a San Diego treasure that makes a damn good burger. I dropped by one of their two restaurants last winter, but I didn’t see what I wanted on the menu.
The burger I get at Petco Park, I explained to the server. She knew exactly what I meant.
“The F— the Dodgers burger,” she said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
In San Diego, it had been an impish inside joke for years. If you didn’t know what FTD meant on the menu at the Hodad’s stands at Petco Park, the burger — with cheese, onion rings, pickles, mayonnaise and barbecue sauce — still was a good time.
When the Dodgers played here last month, a fan posted a picture of the menu board and explained what FTD stood for. The next day, Jomboy Media did the same, in a post with 1.6 million views.
“When I first saw that,” Hodad’s co-owner Shane Hardin told me, “I thought, ‘Oh, sweet, Jomboy, cool. We’ll get a little bump.’ ”
Then Hardin got a call from Delaware North, the company that handles the San Diego Padres’ concessions. People are talking, Hardin was told.
“And I’m like, ‘Cool, great, let ‘em talk, there’s no profanity anywhere,’ ” Hardin said.
The Padres and Delaware North did not see it that way. “FTD” was stripped from the menu boards at the four Hodad’s stands, initially replaced by the lame quartet of “Foul to Dinger,” “For the Division,” “For the Dugout” and “For the Diegans” and currently replaced by the strained quartet of “For the Dads,” “For the Dub,” “Faithful til Death” and (gulp) “Flyball to Deep.”
Another new name for the FTD burger at Petco Park.
(Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times)
The Padres declined comment for this column.
Hardin is more amused than annoyed, particularly given the origin of the FTD Burger. It’s been on Hodad’s Petco Park menu since …
“Was it the 2022 playoffs that the Padres beat the Dodgers?” he asked.
This is how a San Diegan tells time, but yes.
“The Padres hit us up and said, ‘We want a special menu item for the playoffs,’” Hardin said. “We go, ‘OK, without us ever saying what it meant, can we call it the FTD Burger?’ They said, ‘Oh, yeah, ha ha, that’s funny, go for it.’ And so we did.”
The burger has been sold at Petco Park ever since, with the same recipe, despite the online conspiracy theory that its three onion rings represented the Dodgers’ three World Series championship rings this decade.
“Dude, I don’t keep track of what the Dodgers have,” Hardin said. “I really don’t care.”
It is in that spirit that I am stunned the Padres made the change.
The San Diego Padres often sell “Beat LA” T-shirts in their team store.
(Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times)
The Padres, the team that sells “Beat L.A.” shirts in the team store. The Padres, the team that put up a meme of Clayton Kershaw crying on the video board. The Padres, the team that begged its fans not to sell their tickets to fans of “a team from a little ways up north” and also refused to sell tickets to that 2022 playoff series to anyone in Los Angeles County.
The Padres deserve a ton of credit for breathing life into what now is a feisty rivalry with the Dodgers. It is odd that, all of a sudden, they’re worried about decorum.
“I was under the impression that FTD was just kind of a fun ‘if you know, you know’ sort of thing,” Hardin said. “People will hold up signs saying ‘FTD’ and they’ll get on the JumboTron.
“At the end of the day, Hodad’s is a little rough around the edges. But we’re still a family place.”
Hardin isn’t upset with the Padres. It’s their ballpark, after all, and he enjoys being part of it.
“I love being there,” he said. “The relationship is great, honestly.”
And he had one other thing to say about the demise of the FTD label: “That first homestand after that news broke, we sold 50% more of that burger each game. I’ll take that.”
The Padres might want to reconsider. In baseball, curses are no joking matter, and the Curse of the FTD Burger might now have befallen the team.
When the Dodgers left Petco Park five weeks ago, the Padres were 1½ games behind them. Before the Padres’ next game, the Jomboy post went viral and the “FTD” name vanished.
As the Dodgers return here Friday, the Padres are nine games behind the Dodgers.
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Team USA’s final group stage match in the 2026 FIFA World Cup may not have had any implications for either team, but patriotism was in full force for the home country as Second Lady Usha Vance was among the many prominent figures at Los Angeles Stadium on Thursday night.
As the U.S. national anthem rang across the stadium, with players and fans singing in unison, the FOX Sports broadcast showed Vance in a suite with a huge smile on her face as “The Star-Spangled Banner” ended.
Vance was present at the match just two days after FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced that President Donald Trump would present the World Cup trophy to the winning team at the final in New Jersey on July 19.
U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance attends the 2026 World Cup Group D match between Turkey and the United States at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on June 25, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Vance was just the beginning of the stars that showed out in Inglewood, as Paris Hilton was seen presenting the match ball before kick-off. Then, cameras started to pick up the many high-profile faces throughout the crowd.
Among them were Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, a pair that many movie lovers know from their hit classic “Fight Club.” Some social media users even hoped that the discussion they were seen having was about a sequel.
TOM CRUISE, DAVID BECKHAM, KATY PERRY AND MORE CELEBRITIES SPOTTED AT 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP MATCHES
Also, movie star Ashton Kutcher was seen speaking with Los Angeles Rams standout wide receiver Puka Nacua, who knows the confines of SoFi Stadium (what it is called outside of FIFA play) very well.
Then, Colin Farrell, though Irish born, was rocking a replica Team USA jersey alongside his son in the stands to support the Stars and Stripes. Leonardo DiCaprio, Scottie Pippen and more were also seen in the seats.
U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance sings the anthem during the 2026 World Cup Group D match between Turkey and the U.S. at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on June 25, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
There has been a tremendous outpouring of support for the USMNT from everywhere, celebrity or not, throughout this tournament. The 4-2 win over Paraguay at the same Los Angeles stadium caused a frenzy in the stands, as the U.S. made a statement to begin the tournament on home soil for the first time since 1999.
USA WORLD CUP TEAM CLINCHES SPOT IN KNOCKOUT STAGE AFTER ANOTHER HISTORIC PERFORMANCE VS AUSTRALIA
Then, it was on to Seattle, where a 2-0 victory over Australia not only led to a spot in the knockout round, but led to a bellowing of the John Denver classic, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” from everyone in the stands. The USMNT saluted their fans after yet another successful match.
It was a much different look for the USMNT entering Thursday night’s matchup against Türkiye, with nine changes to the starting XI after the team had already secured its place in the knockout stage. The Americans will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on July 1.
Paris Hilton is seen with children before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D match between Türkiye and USA at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on June 25, 2026. (Sarah Stier/FIFA)
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No matter who’s on the pitch, some of the biggest names in the country are showing support for the team that has inspired tremendous national pride to kick off this tournament.
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