Sports
Shohei Ohtani milestone can't hide Dodgers' bullpen woes in loss to Padres
Shohei Ohtani pulled even with a boyhood idol with a milestone home run in the first inning and added doubles in the fifth and seventh innings on Friday night, but the Dodgers’ hottest hitter was left holding the bat in the on-deck circle during the final out of an 8-7, 11-inning loss to the San Diego Padres in at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani sparked an early assault on Padres starter Michael King with a first-inning solo home run to left-center field that gave him 175 career homers, tying former New York Yankees and Angels slugger Hideki Matsui for the most homers by a Japanese-born major leaguer.
“I’m happy personally,” Ohtani said in Japanese through interpreter Will Ireton. “He’s known as a power hitter, a left-handed hitter like me. It’s an honor to be associated with somebody like that. Obviously, it’s a big deal in the Japanese baseball industry, so I’m going to look forward to the next one.”
The Dodgers followed Ohtani’s cue by adding three more homers — a Max Muncy solo shot, a Mookie Betts three-run bomb and a Teoscar Hernández two-run shot, which increased his major league-leading RBI total to 17 — in the second and third innings to take a 7-3 lead and position Yoshinobu Yamamoto for a win.
But San Diego torched the Dodgers bullpen for four runs in the sixth and seventh innings and nicked it for another run in the 11th, while the Dodgers couldn’t put a dent in the Padres bullpen over the final six innings, the difference in San Diego’s comeback victory in front of a crowd of 49,606.
“At times we were very good at collecting hits and keeping the line moving, and then in the later innings, we expanded the zone and our swings got bigger,” manager Dave Roberts said. “All you need is a base hit or to control the strike zone, and we didn’t do a good job of that. We caught a lead, but could’ve done a better job of finishing them off.”
Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough gave the Dodgers a chance by stranding the automatic runner on second base in the top of the 10th, and Will Smith advanced Freddie Freeman to third with a fly ball to deep center field to open the bottom of the 10th.
San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr., left, hits a two-run home run off Dodgers reliever Ryan Brasier in the seventh inning Friday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
But after Muncy was intentionally walked, Hernández struck out on three pitches from Enyel De Los Santos, and Kiké Hernández flied to center against closer Roberto Suarez.
Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia, who gave up two homers earlier in the week, retired the first two batters in the 11th but left an 0-and-2 fastball up and over the plate to rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill, who smacked it into left-center field for an RBI single and an 8-7 Padres lead.
“Alex did a nice job getting into leverage against Merrill, and you’ve just got to expand [the strike zone] right there,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to take advantage of that kind of leverage, and we didn’t do that.”
Suarez retired Chris Taylor, who is one for 32 with 17 strikeouts on the season, Miguel Rojas and Betts in order in the bottom of the 11th. The left-handed-hitting Taylor Trammell was available off the bench, but Roberts defended his decision to stick with the right-handed-hitting Taylor.
“He’s got to find his way,” Roberts said. “Chris has come up with big hits. So you’ve got to ride the guys, run them out there, and hopefully they find their way.”
Ohtani has certainly found his swing after a so-so start to the season, batting .458 (16 for 35) with four homers, seven doubles and six RBIs over his last eight games. He hit four balls with exit velocities of 102 mph or more Friday night and he was robbed of extra bases when Merrill made a diving catch of his second-inning drive on the warning track in left-center.
“Shohei, he’s doing it, man, he’s playing great baseball,” Roberts said. “He’s got that look in his eye like he wants to be at the plate. He’s just taking really good swings, hitting everything hard. I just marvel at what he’s done each day in his preparation, and just the talent is something that’s pretty remarkable.”
Yamamoto, who lasted only one inning against the Padres in his March 21 Dodgers debut in South Korea, giving up five runs and four hits in the 43-pitch outing, gave up three runs and four hits in five innings, striking out six and walking one, Friday night.
The 25-year-old right-hander was punished for two early mistakes, Manny Machado crushing a hanging curveball for a two-run homer to left field in the first and Ha-Seong Kim lining a fat fastball into the left-field seats for a solo shot in the second.
Yamamoto blanked the Padres over the next three innings, striking out Tyler Wade looking with a 95-mph fastball and Bogaerts looking at an 80-mph curve to end the fifth, but with his pitch count at 91, he was pulled after five.
“He did a nice job settling in, but unfortunately, like most of his starts, early on, he accrues a higher pitch count,” Roberts said. “Innings three, four and five, the breaking ball was sharp, the splitter was back, the fastball was good. But his pitch count was up at that point in time, and you just can’t run him back out there for the sixth.”
Reliever Daniel Hudson yielded a solo homer to Jake Cronenworth in the sixth, and Ryan Brasier gave up three runs in the seventh on a Xander Bogaerts’ RBI groundout and a Fernando Tatis Jr. two-run homer to left-center to tie the score 7-7.
“Huddy left a breaking ball that was up to Cronenworth, but I thought outside of that, he was good,” Roberts said. “You know, Braser tonight, I just didn’t think he was sharp, to be quite frank.”
Walker Buehler injury update
Walker Buehler’s third minor league rehabilitation start Friday, this one for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, was cut short after he was struck on the right hand by a comebacker in the second inning.
The erstwhile Dodgers ace, who is recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, finished the inning but did not come out for the third. Buehler gave up one run and three hits in the two innings, with one walk and no strikeouts, and threw only 27 pitches, well short of the 75-85 pitches he was slated for.
“I don’t think it was too serious,” Roberts said. “He came out as a precaution.”
Buehler made his first two starts for triple-A Oklahoma City, giving up three earned runs and five hits, striking out eight and walking two in eight innings, and was scheduled to make at least one more minor league start on Thursday before returning to the rotation.
Short hops
Ambar Roman, the 28-year-old Whittier resident who caught the ball Ohtani hit into the right-field pavilion for his first home run as a Dodger on April 3, met the Dodgers slugger and posed for pictures with him before Friday night’s game. “Just shook Ohtani’s hand … never washing my hand again,” Roman said in a social media post on X. “Best birthday ever!” … Right fielder Jason Heyward, put on the injured list because of lower-back tightness on April 3, took batting practice and ran wind sprints Friday and appears to be on track to return sometime next week. … Reliever Brusdar Graterol threw off a bullpen mound Friday for the first time since the right-hander was put on the 60-day injured list because of shoulder inflammation on April 2.
Sports
Indy 500: Counting Down The 10 Best Finishes In Race History
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
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.
Sports
UCLA softball pummels South Carolina to advance to NCAA super regional
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
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
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.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
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)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“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.
-
Kansas1 minute agoKansas Hispanic Education & Development Foundation offers more than scholarships
-
Kentucky7 minutes agoKentucky Wildcats News: Jamal Crawford dream lives on
-
Louisiana13 minutes agoLouisiana primary narrows field for open utility commission seats
-
Maine19 minutes agoThis New Maine Seafood Restaurant Just Opened in the Former Bar Futo in Portland
-
Maryland25 minutes agoMost Maryland sheriffs drop arrest agreements with ICE despite vows to fight a new state law – WTOP News
-
Michigan31 minutes agoSevere storm threat targets Southeast Michigan through Tuesday — What to know
-
Massachusetts37 minutes agoTrial of accused Boston serial rapist Alvin Campbell Jr. begins today
-
Minnesota43 minutes agoGas Prices In Minnesota Rise 25.5 Cents, Now Averaging $4.42 Per Gallon