Sports
Plaschke: Tyler Glasnow and the Dodgers' rotation are a midsummer mess in need of help
The Dodgers have a starting pitching problem.
They may not want to admit it, they certainly dread the thought of addressing it, but on a sweltering Friday night at Dodger Stadium, there was no escaping it.
Facing the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a statement weekend series, they needed their ace to be their ace.
For a second consecutive start, Tyler Glasnow failed them.
With their rotation fractured by injuries and frequented by recent ineffectiveness, they needed their $136.5-million offseason acquisition to begin answering career-nagging questions about strength and durability.
For the third time in his last five starts, there were only more questions.
None of it seemed to matter at the end of the night, the Dodgers using three home runs by the incredibly unsung Will Smith and a dramatic two-run, two-strike eighth-inning single by Freddie Freeman to steal a late 8-5 victory amid familiar postseason roars.
But those “Fre-ddie, Fre-ddie” chants?
For the Dodgers to overcome past October hauntings, in three months those cheers need to be, “Ty-ler, Ty-ler, Ty-ler.”
They need Glasnow to be better. They need their entire rotation to be better. And barring that, they have barely three weeks to make it better, the July 30 trade deadline approaching and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman facing a task that for two years has been terribly left undone.
The Dodgers need to make the one deal that could make the other $1.2 billion in deals worth it. They need to trade for the one thing that has eluded them for two collapses.
They still need to find one more starting pitcher whom they can trust to take the ball in October.
No more ignoring it. No more Lance Lynning it. No more counting on kids to suddenly grow up or injuries to miraculously heal.
As Friday night once again revealed, if Tyler Glasnow is The Guy, they might need a second guy.
Fighting through warm dead air and a pesky Brewers offense, Glasnow was an ace for five innings. Problem was, he pitched six.
Glasnow was near perfect for those five innings, allowing only one base runner on an error. Problem was, in the middle of it all, he made a perfect mess.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow reacts after giving up a grand slam to Milwaukee’s Rhys Hoskins.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Clinging to a two-run lead in the fourth inning, Glasnow suddenly lost his grip and fell hard, allowing five runs in a span of six hitters.
His overall line will show just three allowed hits in six innings. But the way he fell apart in giving up those five runs was startling, and something that will get this team beat in the playoffs.
It started with an infield single to Brice Turang, Glasnow’s first allowed hit. It seemed to rattle him. He then walked William Contreras.
One out later, he gave up a 15-hop single through the right side by Willy Adames to ruin his shutout, and now he really seemed hurried and distracted, walking Garrett Mitchell to load the bases for Rhys Hoskins.
One pitch later, Glasnow grooved a fastball down the middle and Hoskins punched it over the center field fence for a grand slam.
Glasnow settled down to throw two more hitless innings, but the damage had been done, both to the game and the perception that he can shoulder this heavy load.
Their starting pitching starts with him, and the Dodgers have to wonder, will he be there for them when it counts?
He’s pitched 110 innings this season, only 10 shy of the most innings he’s pitched in any season in his nine-year career. He’s never worked this much, this consistently, this deep into the schedule. He’s never been this healthy for this kind of stretch. He’s basically never been here before.
And is it showing? You decide.
In his last two starts he’s allowed 10 runs in nine innings. In his last five starts he’s allowed 16 runs in 29 innings. His ERA has climbed from 2.53 in early to 3.47 after Friday night.
“I thought Tyler was great all night outside of that inning where he gave up a couple of seeing eye grounders, the walks hurt us and obviously the Hoskins homer, but outside of that, he was good,” said manager Dave Roberts afterward.
Roberts won’t be so forgiving if this happens in October. It took Smith being only the fourth Dodger catcher in history to hit three homers in a game for the Dodgers to survive Glasnow, and chances are, that sudden power surge is not happening in October.
“I think the infield hit, the walk … I think he started getting a little frustrated, a little quick,” Roberts acknowledged. “I don’t know if it was losing command or just not making pitches when he needed to.”
Whatever it was, it will be tough to overcome in the playoffs, and, as Glasnow assuredly has learned by now, around here nothing else matters.
“That inning especially, the timing was a little weird and then not executing, kind of falling behind then just heater up and he put a good barrel on it,” said Glasnow.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow reacts during a win over the Angels in June.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Give him credit for calming down long enough to finish with two strong innings.
“I didn’t have a choice, I guess,” he said. “I just had to go throw.”
Admire that, but feel free to worry that in the playoffs, he’ll be out of the game after giving up a five-spot, with no chance for redemption, not for him or a rotation that has recently done a pretty good imitation of him.
In the Dodgers’ last seven games, their starting pitching has a 9.00 ERA, and all the Fre-ddies in the world can’t fix that.
Glasnow was pelted for five runs in three innings against the San Francisco Giants. James Paxton was pummeled for nine runs in four innings against the Giants. Gavin Stone allowed four runs in three innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Each of those three possible postseason starters have recently come up empty, and a fourth, Bobby Miller, has also struggled lately, sending the wrong message at the wrong time.
And those are just the healthy ones.
The Dodgers also can’t count on injured Yoshinobu Yamamoto, injured Clayton Kershaw, injured Walker Buehler or injured Dustin May.
You know who they are counting on for Sunday’s series finale? A prospect named Justin Wrobelski, who will make his major league debut after two triple-A appearances.
Which brings the issue back to Glasnow. If he’s right, everything behind him will seem right. But, barring a trade, if he’s not working, nothing behind him will work.
Shohei Ohtani might be this team’s most valuable player, and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts their most inspirational players, but make no mistake.
As of this harried moment, Tyler Glasnow is their most important player.
Roberts acknowledged they will watch his innings moving forward.
“We’re monitoring it,” Roberts said. “I think more on the micro, in the sense of how he’s feeling, how he’s throwing the baseball, recovering versus a hard and fast, there’s a certain amount of innings that he can pitch this year. So I think that’s kind of the approach we’re going, but we certainly know he’s encroaching on that.”
However, before Friday’s game, when I asked Roberts if he held his breath with each Glasnow start, he adamantly said no.
“I don’t think there’s been anything for me up to this point that I’ve been with him that feels that I hold my breath,” he said.
Better start.
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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.
No. 8 UCLA stuck with right-hander Taylor Tinsley throughout the Los Angeles Regional and that faith in the senior paid off.
During the Bruins’ NCAA tournament opener at Easton Stadium, Tinsley gave up 10 runs before her teammates rallied for a walk-off win. She returned less than 24 hours to pitch against South Carolina, giving up two earned runs in a victory. Tinsley was back in the circle Sunday afternoon, yielding one run in UCLA’s 15-1 victory over the Gamecocks to advance to the super regionals.
“I am proud of Taylor’s resiliency, the ability to do whatever she can to help this team,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “She got stronger through the weekend. I am proud of that.”
Tinsley and her teammates will host Central Florida in a super regional that begins Friday.
“I feel good,” Tinsley said after pitching three key games in three days. “I could have gone more innings if needed.”
South Carolina right-hander Jori Heard gave up only one hit through two innings, keeping UCLA’s potent bats relatively quiet. The Gamecocks had runners on first and second with two outs in the second, but Tinsley escaped the inning with a pop-up to left field.
The Bruins got on the board first with a two-run home run from left fielder Rylee Slimp in the third inning. The Bruins followed it up by loading the bases with no outs in the fifth for right fielder Megan Grant.
Grant cooked up a grand slam to make it 6-0. She has 40 home runs, extending her hold on the NCAA single-season home run record. Oklahoma freshman Kendall Wells trails Grant with 37 homers.
“Its just incredible because I am blessed to be able to say the number 40,” Grant said.
South Carolina broke through on an RBI single from left fielder Quincee Lilio to cut UCLA’s lead to 6-1 in the fifth inning after being held to just one hit since the first inning. The Gamecocks couldn’t cash in the rest of the way.
The Bruins resumed scoring in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded and Grant at bat again. Fans at Easton Stadium anticipated another grand slam, holding up their cellphones hoping to catch some magic. Grant served up a two-run RBI single to expand the lead 8-1.
Jordan Woolery added to the scoring with a two-run RBI double down the left-field line, and Kaniya Bragg hit a home run to left-center field. Soo-jin Berry put a bow on the win with one more home run.
Sports
Pro wrestling star learns what ‘land of opportunity’ means in US as he details journey from Italy to America
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Cristiano Argento has been tearing up opponents in the ring for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as he worked his way up the ladder to get a few shots at some gold.
But the path to get to one of the most prestigious pro wrestling companies in the U.S. was long and a path that not many wrestlers have taken.
Argento was born and raised in Osimo, Italy – a town of about 35,000 people located on the east side of the country closer to the Adriatic Sea. He told Fox News Digital he started training in a ring at a boxing gym before he got started on the independent scene in Italy. He wrestled in Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark before he came to the realization that, to become a professional wrestler, he needed to make his way to the United States.
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Cristiano Argento performs in the National Wrestling Alliance (Instagram)
He first worked his way to Canada to get trained by pro wrestling legend Lance Storm. He moved to Canada, leaving most of his friends and family behind and without a firm grasp on the English language.
“At the time, my English was horrible. I didn’t speak any English at all,” he said. “But I was with my friend, Stefano, he came with me and he translated everything for me. I probably missed 50% of the knowledge that Lance Storm was giving to us because I was unable to understand. I was only given a recap and everything I was able to see. I’m sure if I was doing it now with a proper knowledge of English, it would have been a different scenario.
“Eventually, I moved back to Italy after the training and I said, OK, now, I want to go to the U.S. So, I studied English more properly, and eventually I got my first work visa that was in Texas. I was in Houston for a short period of time. I trained with Booker T at Reality of Wrestling. I got on his show, which was my debut in the U.S. That was awesome. I eventually got a new work visa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I currently live since 2017. Since then, my wrestling career, thankfully, kept growing, growing, growing and growing until now wrestling for the NWA. One of the bigger promotions in the U.S.”
Argento said that his family thought he was “nuts” for chasing his pro wrestling dream.
He said they were more concerned about his well-being given that he was half-way around the world without anyone he knew by his side in case something went sideways.
“My family, friends, everybody was like why do you want to move to the opposite side of the world not knowing the language, not knowing anybody, by yourself, to try to become a professional wrestler? And I was like, well, we have one life, I love, and that’s what I’m gonna do,” he told Fox News Digital. “Eventually, my family was really supportive. But when I first said, ‘Hey, mom and dad, I want to do that.’ They looked at me like, ‘Are you nuts? Are you drunk or something? What are you talking about?’ And I said, no that’s what I want to do. And they knew I loved this sport because in Italy I was traveling around Europe, spending time in Canada training, so they started to understand slowly that’s what I want to do with my life. They were proud of me.
Cristiano Argento works out in the gym. (Instagram)
“They’re still proud of me. I think more like the fact that you’re gonna try that, that it’s hard than more like you’re gonna leave us. The fact like, oh, my son is gonna go on the opposite side of the world for a six-hour time difference and we’re gonna see him maybe, when, like, I don’t know. Not often. I think it was more that. And for me too, it was really hard. It was heartbreaking not being able to see my family every day or every month. Like once a year if I’m lucky. I think that was the biggest part for them because of concern or that I was here by myself and if I have any issue or any problem, I didn’t have nobody. So they were scared. Like, you get sick, if you have a problem, anything, and they’re not being able to be here next to me. But they were really supportive since day one.”
Argento is living out his dream in the U.S. He suggested that the moniker of the U.S. being the “land of opportunity” wasn’t far from what is preached in movies and literature – it was the real thing.
“I was inspired by people who came to the U.S. and made it big,” Argento told Fox News Digital. “The U.S. was always like the land of opportunity. That’s how they sell it to us and this is what it is. I feel like, in myself, that was true because anything I tried to do so far I was able to reach a lot more than if I wasn’t here. I’m not yet where I’d like to be but I see like there’s so many opportunities in this country. Not just in wrestling but like in any business to reach the goal. I’m really happy of the choices I did here.
National Wrestling Alliance star Cristiano Argento poses in Times Square in New York. (Instagram)
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“But my big inspirations were big-time actors who moved to the country, who didn’t know English, with no money, no support system. I had one dream, I have to go right there to make it happen and I’m gonna go and do it and I’m gonna make it happen. So those people were always the biggest inspiration even if it wasn’t in wrestling, just how they handled their passion, how they pursued their dream without being scared of anything, how far you are, how alone by yourself … You don’t know the language, you’re like, let’s go, let’s do it.”
Outside of the NWA, Argento has performed for the International Wrestling Cartel, Enjoy Wrestling and Exodus Pro Wrestling this year.
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