Dodgers sweep the Angels
From Maddie Lee: Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki’s first pitch after giving up a double to Angels star Mike Trout proved he wasn’t afraid to go back into the strike zone.
He landed his forkball, the slower version of the new splitter that he introduced this season, for a strike to Nolan Schanuel. Then he tested Schanuel with another forkball, this time out of the zone, and a low fastball.
Now behind in the count, he went back to the first spot, this time with the fastball. Schanuel fouled it off. Time to switch things up with a slider, which Schanuel also got a piece of. Then the putaway pitch: a forkball on the edge of the plate for a whiff.
“It was one of those things where you kind of just picked one of the three [pitches] that you wanted to use to get ahead,” catcher Dalton Rushing said Sunday after the Dodgers routed the Angels, 10-1. “And then from there, you can kind of play the chase card with him a little bit, and get outside of hitters’ comfort zone. And obviously with the stuff that he has, it’s easy to miss barrels. And we hadn’t quite gotten to see that just yet, and today was obviously a big step.”
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Dodgers box score
MLB standings
UCLA softball advance to super regional
From Jordan Puente: Four UCLA players hit home runs, helping the Bruins defeat South Carolina 15-1 on Sunday to win the Los Angeles Regional at Easton Stadium.
UCLA advances to the NCAA super regional round and will host Central Florida, which upset favored Florida State at the Seminoles’ home stadium in Tallahassee, Fla.
Bruins senior Megan Grant hit a grand slam during the rout of South Carolina, extending her NCAA-record single season tally to 40 home runs.
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Sparks lose to Toronto
From Steve Galluzzo: The Sparks were determined to end a season-opening four-game homestand with their second straight win against Toronto. Instead, the expansion Tempo avenged a four-point defeat two days earlier with a 106-96 victory Sunday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.
Guard Kelsey Plum, who started the day tied for the WNBA lead in scoring at 26.3 points per game, paced the Sparks with 28, Dearica Hamby scored 21 and Nneka Ogwumike added 17 points and seven rebounds.
Trailing by 13 at one point in the fourth quarter, the Sparks cut the deficit to six on Plum’s two free throws with 4:27 left, but they got no closer. The Sparks fell to 1-3 (tied with Seattle for last place in the Western Conference) while Toronto improved to 2-2.
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Sparks box score
WNBA standings
Hat trick defeats LAFC
Hany Mukhtar scored three goals, his first hat trick since 2023, and Nashville SC beat LAFC 3-2 on Sunday night.
Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS MVP, became the seventh player in MLS history with at least five regular-season hat tricks.
Nashville (9-1-3) leads MLS with 30 points this season and is unbeaten, with five wins, in its past seven games. San José and Vancouver are tied atop the Western Conference with 29 points apiece.
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LAFC summary
MLS standings
Angel City plays to scoreless draw
Angelina Anderson made one save for her second shutout and became the first goalkeeper to hold Portland scoreless this season as visiting Angel City played the Thorns to a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Mackenzie Arnold made three saves for Portland (6-2-2) in her fourth shutout of the year. Angel City (3-4-1) ended a four-game skid.
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Angel City summary
NWSL standings
Aaron Rai wins PGA Championship
Aaron Rai shifted into high gear Sunday and pulled away from a world-class field with one amazing shot after another until he became the first English-born player in more than a century to capture the PGA Championship.
Rai, who dreamed of being a Formula 1 driver until he turned to golf as a boy, was three shots behind and approaching the turn at Aronimink Golf Club when he delivered a performance worthy of a major champion.
He made a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-five ninth during a stretch when he one-putted seven straight greens to take the lead.
And on the closing holes when the contenders needed him to stumble, Rai holed a birdie putt of some 70 feet across the 17th green for the clincher.
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PGA Championship leaderboard
This day in sports history
1920 — Man o’ War, ridden by Clarence Kummer, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1½ lengths over Upset.
1931 — Fifteen-year-old Eddie Arcaro rides his first race, finishing sixth, at Bainbridge Park, Ohio.
1957 — Bold Ruler, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Iron Liege. It’s the sixth and last time Arcaro wins the Preakness.
1960 — European Cup Final, Glasgow: Ferenc Puskás scores 4, Alfredo Di Stéfano 3 as Real Madrid routs Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3; 5th consecutive title for Los Blancos.
1968 — Forward Pass wins the Preakness Stakes by six lengths to give Calumet Farm a record seven wins in by an owner in the race. Judy Johnson becomes the first female trainer to saddle a horse for the Preakness. Her horse, Sir Beau, finishes seventh in the field of 10.
1971 — The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in the seventh game to win the Stanley Cup.
1971 — 4th ABA Championship: Utah Stars beat Kentucky Colonels, 4 games to 3.
1985 — Patricia Cooksey becomes the first female jockey to compete in the Preakness Stakes. Tank’s Prospect wins the race and Cooksey’s mount, Tajawa, finishes sixth in the field of 11.
1990 — Edmonton’s Jari Kurri becomes the leading goal scorer in Stanley Cup history when he scores his 90th postseason goal in the first period of Game 2 of the finals against Boston. Kurri adds two more goals as the Oilers beat the Bruins 7-2.
1994 — 2nd UEFA Champions League Final: Milan beats Barcelona 4-0 at Athens.
1996 — Louis Quatorze carries Pat Day to the jockey’s third straight Preakness Stakes victory. Louis Quatorze, 16th in the Kentucky Derby, runs 1 3-16 miles in 1:53 2-5 to equal the race record set by Tank’s Prospect in 1985.
1997 — Chris Johnson makes an 8-foot par putt on the second playoff hole to win the LPGA championship over Leta Lindley. It’s the third playoff in the championship since the tournament began in 1955, and the first since 1970.
2008 — Rafael Nadal beats defending champion Roger Federer 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3 to win the Hamburg Masters, adding the only major clay-court title missing from his impressive collection.
2008 — Boston’s Paul Pierce and Cleveland’s LeBron James combine for 86 points in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. James outscores Pierce 45-41 in the shootout, but Boston advances with a 97-92 win.
2013 — Oxbow, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, leads from start to finish at the Preakness. It’s the sixth Preakness victory for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and 14th Triple Crown victory, the most in horse racing history.
2014 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Shoal Creek G&CC: Kenny Perry wins his third of 4 Champions Tour majors by 1 stroke from Mark Calcavecchia.
2019 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (85,854): Gabriel Jesus & Raheem Sterling each score twice as Manchester City thrash Watford, 6-0, completing an unprecedented domestic treble.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1912 — Detroit players went on strike to protest Ty Cobb’s suspension. To avoid a forfeit and fine, manager Hugh Jennings recruited college players and others; they lost to the Philadelphia A’s 24-2. Joe Travers gave up all 24 runs on 26 hits.
1929 — The Brooklyn Dodgers outslugged the Philadelphia Phillies for a 20-16 victory in the first game of a doubleheader. Brooklyn’s Babe Herman and Johnny Frederick each had five hits. Frederick scored five times to give him a major league record eight runs in two games. The Phillies won the second game 8-6. The teams combined for a record 50 runs in a doubleheader.
1933 — The first All-Star Game is announced for July 6th at Comiskey Park. It will be played as part of the Chicago World’s Fair celebration.
1956 — Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees hits home runs from both sides of the plate for the third time in his career, setting a major league record.
1957 — Dick Williams of the Orioles hit a ninth-inning, tying solo home run against Chicago’s Paul LaPalme seconds before 10:20 p.m. — the curfew set so the White Sox could catch a train out of Baltimore. If Williams had done anything else, Chicago would have won. The game was later replayed from the beginning and Baltimore won.
1968 — Frank Howard hit his 10th home run in a six-game span to power the Washington Senators to an 8-4 victory over Detroit at Tiger Stadium.
1981 — Dodgers rookie Fernando Valenzuela finally loses a game, 4-0, to the Philadelphia Phillies. He is now 8-1 and his earned run average increases to 0.90.
1990 — Chicago Cubs Ryne Sandberg’s errorless game streak at second base comes to an end after 123 games and 584 chances. Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds had held the previous record of 91 games.
1990 — The Baltimore Orioles tied an AL record with eight consecutive singles in a seven-run first inning against Bobby Witt to beat the Texas Rangers 13-1. The eight straight singles equaled a record set by the Washington Senators against Cleveland in 1951 and matched by the Oakland Athletics against Chicago in 1981.
1999 — Edgar Martinez hit three home runs — tying a major league record with five homers in two games — to give the Seattle Mariners a 10-1 win over the Minnesota Twins. He homered twice in the opener of the series.
2000 — Mark McGwire homered three times and had a career-high seven RBIs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals over the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2.
2003 — The Texas Rangers swept three games at Yankee Stadium for the first time in the franchise’s 43-year existence, winning 5-3.
2004 — Randy Johnson, 40, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, retiring all 27 hitters to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0. It was the 17th perfect game in major league history and the first since the New York Yankees’ David Cone did it against Montreal on July 18, 1999.
2009 — Mark Teixeira homered from both sides of the plate and the New York Yankees finished a four-game sweep of Minnesota with a 7-6 victory.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.