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.
The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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