The Sports Report: Jason Heyward is the man of the moment in Dodgers’ victory

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

From Mike DiGiovanna: Jason Heyward hammered a pinch-hit three-run home run to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night to break a tie score and lift the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners before a crowd of 48,395 in Chavez Ravine.

The third pinch-hit homer of his 15-year career may have also helped save Heyward’s job with the Dodgers, who will soon have to decide who utility man Chris Taylor replaces when he comes off the injured list, with Heyward, outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and utility man Kiké Hernández the most vulnerable players.

The score was tied 3-3 when Will Smith was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth and Max Muncy walked. Tommy Edman struck out, but Heyward turned viciously on a 99-mph fastball at the top of the zone from Mariners reliever Anthony Munoz and sent a 108-mph laser over the short wall in right for a 6-3 lead.

The Dodgers had trimmed a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 when Gavin Lux and Muncy each hit solo homers in the fourth, Lux sending a 390-foot shot to center field to continue his torrid one-month stretch and Muncy driving a 407-foot shot to the back of the right-field bullpen for his second homer in two games since returning from an oblique strain.

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Plaschke: Gone but never forgotten: Dodgers should bring Justin Turner home

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Tyler Anderson outlasted Cole Ragans in a matchup of All-Star pitchers and Zach Neto hit a go-ahead homer as the Angels beat Kansas City 9-5 on Tuesday night to end the Royals’ five-game winning streak.

Anthony Rendon, Kevin Pillar and Logan O’Hoppe drove in two runs apiece for the Angels, who had lost three straight and six of seven overall. Nolan Schanuel walked three times, and Jo Adell and Jack Lopez each drove in a run.

Anderson (10-11) gave up five runs and 12 hits while pitching into the seventh, when Kansas City closed a five-run deficit to two. It was good enough to make Anderson the first Angels lefty since Hector Santiago in 2016 to reach 10 wins.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: On what ostensibly was the Rams’ final workout before their once-postponed, it’s-really-supposed-to-happen, long goodbye to Thousand Oaks, star quarterback Matthew Stafford reintroduced himself to the huddle.

Stafford, held out of team drills for nearly all of three workouts because of a hamstring issue, ran the offense Tuesday for the first time in nearly a week.

The 36-year-old Stafford shared first-team reps with Jimmy Garoppolo and finished the workout with a play-action keeper he punctuated with a run around right end.

“He did his own number there,� coach Sean McVay said. “That wasn’t the call. Looked pretty good.�

Stafford’s return without incident enabled the Rams a sigh of relief.

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CHARGERS

From Anthony De Leon: Another day, another step forward for Justin Herbert.

On his first day back Monday, returning from a plantar fascia injury in his right foot, the Chargers included their star quarterback in seven-on-seven drills. On Tuesday, Herbert was under center during 11-on-11 periods for several plays.

With Herbert sidelined since last month, a practical worry was the quarterback’s connection with the revamped receiving corps now that former star starters Keenan Allen (Chicago Bears) and Mike Williams (New York Jets) are elsewhere.

Yet, Herbert appeared to have no difficulties acclimating with the crew he last practiced with in July. He mainly made connections with veteran Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston, the Chargers’ No. 1 draft pick last season.

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USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: Barely one day after he’d officially realized his lifelong dream of being named USC’s starting quarterback, Miller Moss was already ready to put his childhood triumph in the rearview mirror.

“It’s hard in what we do to stop and smell the roses,� Moss said on Tuesday. “I mean, obviously, it was a goal I set for myself a long time ago, and I’m happy I accomplished that. But I don’t think it’s necessarily about that now. It’s about going and winning games.�

USC coach Lincoln Riley made a point Tuesday to note that Moss didn’t run away with the job after entering camp with a significant lead over Nevada Las Vegas transfer Jayden Maiava.

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SPARKS

DiJonai Carrington scored 19 points, and the Connecticut Sun used a late 14-0 run to defeat the Sparks 69-61 on Tuesday night in the first WNBA game to played at the Boston Celtics’ TD Garden.

A franchise record sellout crowd of 19,125 saw the Sun storm back after they trailed 59-55 with less than four minutes to play.

Carrington scored twice in the lane sandwiched around a three-point play by Alyssa Thomas, and in less than a minute Connecticut was up 62-59 with the crowd roaring.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1901 — William Larned wins the first of seven men’s singles titles in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championship.

1914 — Walter Hagen captures the U.S. Open golf title by edging Chick Evans.

1931 — Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run as the Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns 11-7.

1985 — Mary Decker sets the world record in the mile run with a time of 4:16.71 in Zurich.

1990 — Kelly Craig becomes the first female starting pitcher in Little League World Series history, opening for Trail, British Columbia. She fails to retire any of the three batters she faces but the Canadian champions rally for an 8-3 victory over Matamoros, Mexico.

2003 — Paul Hamm puts together a near-perfect routine on the high bar to become the first American man to win the all-around gold medal at World Gymnastics Championships. Needing a 9.712 or better to beat China’s Yang Wei, Hamm strings together four straight release moves during his 60-second routine — one of the toughest feats in gymnastics — for a 9.975 and the gold.

2004 — American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins his 6th gold medal of the Athens Olympics even though he doesn’t swim the final of men’s 4 x 100m medley relay; US wins in world record 3:30.68.

2008 — At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yukiko Ueno pitches 28 innings in two days, including seven to shut down the U.S. softball team, 3-1, and give Japan the gold medal. It was the first loss for the Americans since Sept. 21, 2000 — 22 straight games. LaShawn Merritt upsets defending champion Jeremy Wariner to lead a U.S. sweep of the 400 meters track event. David Neville gets the bronze.

2010 — Kyle Busch makes NASCAR history with an unprecedented sweep of three national races in one week, completing the trifecta with a victory in the Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch, winner of the Nationwide race a day earlier and the Trucks race on Aug. 18, becomes the first driver to complete the sweep since NASCAR expanded to three national series in 1995.

2011 — The Sparks run off 16 straight points to overcome a 15-point, second-half deficit and hand the Tulsa Shock their WNBA-record 18th consecutive loss, 73-67. The Atlanta Dream lost 17 in a row in their inaugural season of 2008.

2016 — Kevin Durant scores 30 points and helps the Americans rout Serbia 96-66 for their third straight gold medal. That caps an Olympics in which the U.S. dominated the medal tables, both the gold (46) and overall totals (121). The 51-total-medal margin over second-place China the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in nearly a century.

Compiled by the Associated Press