San Diego, CA
Dodgers bats stay hot in another blowout win over Mets in Game 4 of the NLCS, LA leads 3-1.
Winning a baseball game in the playoffs is extremely difficult. Just ask the other 26 teams in Major League Baseball that are home watching the last four left standing.
But winning a baseball game in the playoffs without your all-star first baseman, starting second baseman, and shortstop, against the hottest pitcher in the postseason is even more difficult.
Mission Impossible?
Not for the arm-flailing, sunflower seed throwing, home run hitting Los Angeles Dodgers.
Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts both homered in Game 4, and the Dodgers defeated the New York Mets in blowout fashion, 10-2, on Thursday night at Citi Field. Los Angeles leads the series 3-1, and are now one win away from reaching their first World Series since 2020.
“It feels good,” said Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts of being one win away from the Fall Classic. “I like the us-against-the-world attitude that our guys have taken on. I think that’s kind of ironic with the Dodgers, but I like that. But I’m very excited to be in this position and I just want to keep our guys hungry and focused and not let these guys back in the series.”
On paper, Game 4 looked like a mismatch for the Dodgers. No Freddie Freeman or Gavin Lux, instead they had Andy Pages, hitting .167 in center, Chris Taylor, who hadn’t recorded a hit this postseason at second, and Tommy Edman batting cleanup.
When was the last time you saw a 5’8”, 180-pound, shortstop in the four-hole?
But none of that mattered for the Dodgers on Thursday. It was simply business as usual.
“I feel proud that we can hang our hat on the fact that there’s never been an excuse all year for our club as far as winning the division and winning 11 games in October, “said Roberts. “To not have Freddie start a playoff game, there was still no excuse. We were expecting to win this game tonight. It’s that next-guy-up mentality. It’s the fight that I’ve seen in these guys.”
The business of baseball is one Dodgers’ President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, knows well. He likes to construct his roster with as much versatility and flexibility as possible. He’s got more Swiss Army knives at his disposable than the entire population of Switzerland.
When the Dodgers were sputtering in mid-April, losers of seven of nine, Friedman called up Pages from Triple-A Oklahoma City to provide a spark. They went on to win their next six.
At the trade deadline he acquired Edman, a player he’d always coveted, despite the fact the utility player had not played a single game all season. Once he made his season debut on Aug. 19, the Dodgers went on to win 9 of their next 11.
Freidman didn’t even re-sign Kiké Hernandez until the final day of February, and he’s arguably been the Dodgers best player in the postseason.
“We’ve seen it a lot this year with the next-man-up mentality,” said Friedman of how his team has been able to step up this postseason despite all the injuries. “We saw it in the last round. We’ve had a lot of different things go on and guys have elevated their game and stepped up.”
All of them contributed to the victory in Game 4, but it was the Dodgers other two former MVPs that shouldered the load.
Betts and Ohtani combined to go 5-for-9 with two home runs, three walks, five RBI, and seven runs scored.
“We knew with Freddie [Freeman] being out we had to take care of business,” said Betts to MLB Network of the dynamic duo of he and Ohtani at the top of the lineup. “But it’s not just me and Sho, it’s the rest of the guys too. All of us have to step up.”
Mets’ starter Jose Quintana, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in six of his last seven starts, including back-to-back shutout appearances in the postseason, lasted just two pitches before he allowed an earned run in Game 4.
“They forced Quintana to come in on the strike zone,” said Mets’ manager Carlos Mendoza of the Dodgers approach at the plate. “And when he did, they made him pay.”
Ohtani greeted Quintana with a leadoff homer into the Mets’ bullpen, his first hit of the postseason without a runner on base.
SHOHEI OHTANI LEADOFF TANK
WELCOME TO #NLCS GAME 4 pic.twitter.com/LrUwXWpqMo
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
“The focus has been pretty much the same regardless of the situation if there’s runners on or not,” said Ohtani through a translator. “I kind of stick to the same plan, the same approach.”
The Mets’ responded in the bottom half of the inning, when their hottest hitter, Mark Vientos, homered into the Dodgers bullpen to provide the punch back that New York needed.
MARK VIENTOS! WE ARE TIED! pic.twitter.com/t70FJvkwf9
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
Edman, who knocked in three runs total, put the Boys in Blue back in front with a two-out, RBI double in the top of the third. Hernández followed with an RBI single.
Tommy Edman delivers for the @Dodgers 😤 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/YiFKbZcvkv
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
“I haven’t hit cleanup a lot in my life, and to do that in this lineup is pretty crazy. I just did my job today, had some good at-bats, and had a couple opportunities to get some runners in, and I cashed them in,” said Edman.
After that it was all Betts ,as he brought home two with a double in the fourth, and belted his third home run of the postseason with a blast in the sixth that silenced the raucous and ruthless crowd.
MOOKIE BETTS!
HE’S 3-FOR-4 WITH 4 RBI TONIGHT! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/tzFS5KHPEz
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
“I felt pretty good,” said Betts of his performance at the plate in Game 4. “It’s good to feel good. It’s good to help the team. Pitching did amazing. It was fun.”
Max Muncy, who replaced Freeman at first base, remained locked in at the plate. He broke the single postseason record for reaching base safely in 12 consecutive plate appearances.
Max Muncy has now reached base in 12 straight plate appearances 😤
He’s tied with Reggie Jackson for the most consecutive #Postseason plate appearances reaching safely. pic.twitter.com/6zdDXRWuSz
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
“I wasn’t even aware of that stat,” said a surprised Muncy when told of his record. “The biggest thing to me is that it means I’m getting base for my teammates and giving them a chance to drive me in and creating traffic out there for the opposing team.”
The hero of Game 5 of the NLDS, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, delivered another solid performance, allowing just two runs on four hits, with one walk and eight strikeouts in four and one-third innings.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto closes out his night by striking out Francisco Lindor 😤 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/SWtecYh1Xh
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
For the second straight game, the Mets were haunted by missed opportunities. They nearly stranded the bases loaded in the third, but a manager’s challenge overturned an inning-ending double play. Instead they stranded runners at the corners.
The Mets again loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, but were incapable of scratching a run across against the Dodgers bullpen. In total, the Mets were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base.
“They have executed and we haven’t,” said Mets’ MVP Francisco Lindor of their struggled with runners in scoring position. “I came up with bases loaded and didn’t come through. Today we had people on base multiple times and we didn’t come through. You have to execute with people on base.”
The Mets inability to get the big hit when they needed turned the boisterous sellout crowd of 43,882 into a venomous viper pit. They turned on their team, grunting, groaning, booing, and moaning until they headed for the exits in the bottom of the seventh inning.
After dispatching of the pesky Padres in the NLDS, the Dodgers appear to be firing on all cylinders in the NLCS. That bodes well for Game 5, so does the fact that right-hander Jack Flaherty, who threw seven shutout innings in Game 1, is expected to start on Friday.
“I think that Padres series was good for us,” said Chris Taylor. “It woke us up and got us in the right mindset right away. I really think this team has found another gear in the postseason and we’re showing it. We’re hungry.”
The Dodgers have now won five straight games at Citi Field dating back to the regular season. They need just one more win here to advance to their fourth World Series in eight years. But as the Dodgers know well, the potential clinching one is always the most difficult.
The Jewish community in Southern California is sharing their fears and hopes following the weekend’s strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on Israel, U.S. military bases and other targets in the Middle East.
The exchange of missiles in the Middle East is having a devasting effect on Iran’s defense capability, but retaliatory strikes in the region are taking a toll.
“Weapons of enormous capacity that are targeting civilian areas,” said Elan Carr, CEO of Los Angeles-based Israeli American Council.
Carr says toppling the Iranian regime, taking out its nuclear capabilities and freeing the Iranian people from this oppressive rule should have been done decades ago.
“This is about seeing the most evil regime, the world chief state sponsored terrorism to no longer have the ability to do what it’s been doing,” Carr said.
Sara Brown, regional director of the American Jewish Committee, said the U.S. and Israel are concentrating strikes on Iran’s missile sites and military industrial complex. Iran’s retaliatory strikes are focused on many civilian targets.
“We are hearing from our partners from around the region, who are terrified,” Brown said. “Across the Middle East right now, I think there is a tremendous amount of fear, but also hope and also resolve.”
AJC is the advocacy arm for Jewish people globally. Many members and partner groups are in harm’s way. Brown says the risk is great, but the potential reward is world changing.
“That Iranian people will get to choose leadership for themselves, that we will finally see a pathway forward for peace across the Middle East,” Brown said.
If wars of the past hadn’t produced lasting peace, then why now? Carr says Iran’s nuclear capabilities are destroyed and Iran’s military and proxies are weakened after Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas ambush.
“No more terrorist network throughout the Middle East. Think of what that could mean. Think of the normalization we could see,” Carr said.
President Donald Trump expects fighting to last several weeks. Some critics are concerned about a drawn-out conflict that could spread.
Carr is not convinced.
“Who is going to enter a war against the U.S. and Israel? Russia is plenty busy. China has no interest in jeopardizing itself this way,” Carr said.
Besides the six Americans killed as of Monday night, government officials say 11 people were killed in retaliatory strikes in Israel.
San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.
The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.
“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”
Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.
In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.
“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”
Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.
“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.
“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”
But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.
“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”
That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.
Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.
There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.
One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.
With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”
And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.
A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.
The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.
The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.
The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.
A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.
“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
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