The Sports Report: For the Rams, losing could be winning

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Bill Plaschke: The quarterback is creaky. The running game is questionable. The receiving corps is inconsistent. The offensive line is uncertain. The defense is untested.

The Rams enter the 2023 season with the league’s youngest team, one of the league’s most depleted rosters, and a brilliant but taxed coach who has been on the verge of walking away.

Ah, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

That light is powerful enough to transform, famous enough to sell, and close enough to touch.

His name is Caleb Williams.

The most important Rams race this season might not be a climb to the top, but a sprint toward the bottom.

Can they be bad enough to finish with the league’s worst record and the opportunity to draft the most NFL-ready quarterback in a decade?

How perfect would it be if a fallen Los Angeles Super Bowl champion entered its next chapter led by USC’s Heisman Trophy winner?

At first glance, this appears an impossibility. The Rams aren’t going to tank, nor should they. From Kevin Demoff to Les Snead to Sean McVay, they have arguably the most competitive braintrust in local sports. Don’t forget how recently they cashed in all their chips for a title. It’s outrageous to believe they would lose on purpose.

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Rams’ offense sounds different with another LaFleur in coach Sean McVay’s ear

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Will Julio Urías pitch again for the Dodgers?

Two days after the left-hander’s arrest on suspicion of felony domestic violence, it remained an unanswered question for the team Tuesday, casting a cloud of doubt over the Dodgers’ pitching plans for the rest of the season.

“It’s certainly very unfortunate,” manager Dave Roberts said, at the start of a six-game trip for which Urías did not accompany the team. “Right now, it’s essentially in the authorities’ and Major League Baseball’s court, to do their due diligence. Obviously Julio is not here with us, and for us, we’re just sitting and waiting as the process continues until we know more.”

Urías was arrested Sunday night while leaving the LAFC-Inter Miami soccer match at BMO Field. He was booked in a Los Angeles jail and released on $50,000 bond Monday morning. He has a court date Sept. 27. Details of the alleged incident have not been made public.

“Extremely disappointing development,” said Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who called Urías on Monday to inform him he wouldn’t be traveling with the team this week.

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From Jack Harris: It was the same high wind-up. The same right leg kick. The same over the top delivery.

What wasn’t the same about Clayton Kershaw on Tuesday night: His usually reliable fastball velocity.

At 35 years old, Kershaw long ago lost the mid-90s mph life his fastball used to boast. In his last two starts, however, his velocity readings have tanked to near-career lows — reviving sudden questions about a lingering shoulder injury that, after costing him all of July, is threatening to affect his performance for the rest of the campaign.

After averaging a season-low 89.6 mph with his fastball last week, Kershaw’s four-seamer was sitting at 88.4 mph Tuesday, failing to eclipse 90.0 mph with even a single pitch, according to MLB’s Baseball Savant system.

The left-hander still managed a decent outing in the Dodgers’ 6-3 loss to the Miami Marlins.

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Dodgers box score

Q&A: Here’s what comes next for Julio Urías and the Dodgers after his arrest

NL WEST STANDINGS

Dodgers, 84-53
Arizona, 71-68, 14 GB
San Francisco, 70-69, 15 GB
San Diego, 66-74, 19.5 GB
Colorado, 51-87, 33.5 GB

WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify

Philadelphia, 76-62
Chicago, 75-64
Cincinnati, 73-68

Miami, 71-67, 0.5 GB
Arizona, 71-68, 1 GB
San Francisco, 70-69, 2 GB
San Diego, 66-74, 6.5 GB

For full standings, go here

ANGELS

From Bill Shaikin: It was the first home game of what was supposed to be the Angels’ first meaningful September in six years. It was a beautiful Labor Day evening, 74 degrees at game time, with the home team facing the team with the best record in the American League.

The Angels, they could have been a contender. They could have been somebody. Their place could have been sold out.

Alas, the Angels are done, a full month before the season is done.

On Monday, Shohei Ohtani did not play. Mike Trout did not play. On resale sites, you could buy a ticket for $2.

In September, the Angels’ promotions include two player items: a Trout bobblehead and a Trout hockey jersey. The injured Trout has played one game in the last two months. It is uncertain whether Ohtani, scratched from Monday’s lineup because of what the Angels said was tightness in an oblique muscle, might play again this season.

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From Sarah Valenzuela: Reid Detmers gave the Angels a quality start against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night, and the offense pieced together a couple of late rallies.

It wasn’t enough to prevent the Angels from dropping the series after a blown save in the ninth by Carlos Estévez led to a 5-4 loss in 10 innings. Austin Hays scored the winning run for Baltimore on Jordan Westburg’s ground out to short.

Detmers gave up two earned runs, nine hits, walked one and struck out four over 6 ⅔ innings. He departed to an ovation from the crowd.

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Angels box score

All MLB box scores

AL WEST STANDINGS

Houston, 79-61
Seattle, 77-61, 1 GB
Texas, 76-62, 2 GB
Angels, 64-75, 14.5 GB
Oakland, 42-97, 36.5 GB

WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify

Tampa Bay, 84-55
Seattle, 77-61
Toronto, 77-62

Texas, 76-62, 0.5 GB
Boston, 72-67, 5 GB
New York, 69-69, 7.5 GB
Cleveland, 66-73, 11 GB
Angels, 64-75, 13 GB

For full standings, go here

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: His answers typically are straightforward — lacking gloss and glitz — a football coach sounding like a football coach. Mostly Xs with very few Oohs.

The Chargers didn’t hire Kellen Moore to bring electricity to their news conferences, only their offense.

“He’s a calm guy,” wide receiver Keenan Allen said. “He’s not tripping too much. Probably never seen him yell. I don’t think he can get mad.”

The qualities Moore hasn’t shown at the podium or in practice are the same ones the Chargers hope spring to life for quarterback Justin Herbert and their playmakers in 2023:

Creativity. Explosiveness. Unpredictability.

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USC FOOTBALL

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Raleek Brown flashed the Heisman pose during his first college game. A year later, the dynamic sophomore wasn’t even on the sideline during USC‘s second game of the season.

After limited playing time early in the season while switching from running back to receiver, Brown is “looking at the possibility of redshirting,” coach Lincoln Riley said Tuesday after USC’s practice.

“That’s part of the world right now,” the coach said. “I can still certainly foresee him being a big part of the team this year. You just never know week-to-week and you never know as years go on, different opportunities present themselves, so he’s going to continue to work, we’re going to continue to develop him like crazy.”

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PAC-12

From Bill Dwyre: As we ponder the end of the Pac-12 Conference, should we celebrate the new Pac-2, or commiserate that so much of college sports has dropped into a giant cesspool? So many questions.

Should we feel bad for the wallflowers, Oregon State and Washington State, who now become the tragic twosome? Nobody wants to dance with them. OK, maybe the Mountain West will flirt, but from the Pac-12 to the Mountain West? C’mon.

Can the jilted pair look past their rejection, claim their sovereignty, and simply demand all the Pac-12 assets left behind? Or can they play each other every weekend, home and away — or maybe at the Rose Bowl, Coliseum, or Husky Stadium overlooking Lake Washington? Fans in those places might be starved for some real football after doses of Rutgers and Nebraska.

Think about it. Oregon State is pretty good, and if it stayed that way next season, when the Big Ten has gobbled up its usual opponents, and beats Washington State 11 times, the Beavers would have to be in the College Football Assn.’s playoffs with all the big guys. What a story. Oregon State beats USC in the playoffs and Johnathan Smith refuses to shake Lincoln Riley’s hand.

The real questions about all this foolishness is not why it happened. That’s easy. Money. Greed that leads to money. Egos that salt the greed that leads to money.

No, the real question is where is the outrage?

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LAKERS

From Dan Woike: The Lakers have agreed to a deal with Christian Wood, putting a bit of an exclamation point at the end of their offseason roster shaping by adding the talented big man.

Wood will sign for the veteran’s minimum on a two-year deal with a player option in the second season, according to a person familiar with the situation. If things go according to plan, though, he won’t be exercising it. Wood’s ability to stretch the floor on the offensive end — he averaged 16.6 points on 37.6 percent shooting from three last season in Dallas — is among the best in the league for players at his position.

He’s 6-foot-10 and will turn just 28 at the end of the month, giving the team another player in his prime in free agency to go with signings Gabe Vincent and Taurean Prince. The Lakers, in addition to keeping Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura, also added former lottery picks Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish on low-risk free-agency deals.

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SPARKS

Alyssa Thomas had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists for her sixth triple-double of the season and the Connecticut Sun beat the Sparks 90-76 on Tuesday night.

Thomas also set the single season assist mark, passing Courtney Vandersloot’s record of 300 set in 2019. The Sun’s point-forward has 304 this season.

The Sparks (16-22) dropped into a tie with the Chicago Sky for eighth in the WNBA standings — with two games remaining. The Sparks continue their three-game road trip at New York on Thursday, followed by a trip to Seattle to close the regular season on Sunday. The Sky hold the tiebreaker with the Sparks.

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U.S. OPEN

Coco Gauff dealt just fine with the heat, the humidity, her big-hitting opponent and the task of trying to reach the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time, defeating 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-2 on Tuesday.

Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, is the first American teenager to reach the final four at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams was the runner-up to her older sister, Venus, in 2001.

“Last year, I lost in the quarterfinal stage, and I wanted to do better this year,” Gauff said. “Still have a long way to go, but I’m happy and I’m ready to get back to work for the next one.”

This was the 16th victory in her past 17 matches for Gauff — a first-round exit at Wimbledon in July sure feels like ages ago. Her best Grand Slam showing so far was making it to the final at Roland Garros last year.

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U.S. Open results

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1920 — Jack Dempsey knocks out Billy Miske in the third round to retain the world heavyweight title. It’s the first radio broadcast of a prizefight.

1920 — Bill Tilden wins his first of seven U.S. Open men’s singles titles, defeating Bill Johnston, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y.

1941 — Bobby Riggs beats Frank Kovacs in four sets to win the men’s title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Sarah Palfrey Cooke wins the women’s title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Pauline Betz.

1975 — Chris Evert wins her first of six singles titles in the U.S. Open with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, victory over Evonne Goolagong. In the men’s semifinals, Manuel Orantes performs one of the great comebacks in tennis history, saving five match points to defeat Guillermo Vilas, 4-6, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, after trailing two-sets-to-love and 0-5 in the fourth set.

1980 — Chris Evert Lloyd beats Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia to win her fifth U.S. Open singles title in the last six years.

1980 — John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors battle in perhaps their greatest U.S. Open match. McEnroe edges Connors in the semifinal, 6-4, 5-7, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in front of a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium.

1991 — A pair of teenagers play a level of tennis beyond their years in a women’s semifinal match at the U.S. Open. Seventeen-year-old Monica Seles beats 15-year-old Jennifer Capriati, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3) to advance to her first U.S. Open final.

1993 — Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic beats Martina Navratilova 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Navratilova’s loss leaves the United States without a women’s quarterfinalist for the first time in the tournament’s history, dating to 1887.

1995 — Cal Ripken plays in his 2,131st consecutive major league game to surpass Lou Gehrig’s 56-year record. Ripken receives a 22-minute standing ovation and later hits a homer in Baltimore’s 4-2 win over the Angels.

1996 — Baltimore Orioles’ Eddie Murray’s 500th career HR.

2003 — In the U.S. Open, No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne wins the all-Belgian women’s singles final, beating No. 1 Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-1.

2008 — US Open Women’s Tennis: Serena Williams wins her third US title; beats Jelena Janković of Serbia 6-4, 7-5.

2017 — CoCo Vandeweghe becomes the third American to get into the U.S. Open women’s semifinals, beating top-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3. Madison Keys completes the sweep for American women, giving the host country all four U.S. Open semifinal spots for the first time in 36 years. The 15th-seeded Keys takes 69 minutes for a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 418th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. The Americans haven’t had all four semifinalists at the U.S. Open since 1981, when Tracy Austin beat Martina Navratilova for the title. Chris Evert and Barbara Potter also made the semifinals.

2017 — FIFA orders that a World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal be replayed after the referee is found guilty of match manipulation and banned for life. South Africa beat Senegal 2-1 in the qualifier last November, helped by a penalty awarded by Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey for a nonexistent handball.

2020 — World #1 tennis player Novak Đoković is sensationally disqualified in 4th round of US Open after hitting a ball in frustration, striking a line judge; trailed Pablo Carreño Busta 5-6 in 1st set.

—Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally...

Cal Ripken Jr. sets the consecutive games played record. Watch and listen here.