The Sports Report: Dodgers use many arms to defeat Giants

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

From Jack Harris: Clayton Kershaw would have loved to have seen Tyler Glasnow square off against Logan Webb on Tuesday night.

A national television audience on TBS, surely, would have too.

Instead, in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium, it was Webb vs. Ryan Brasier … and Ryan Yarbrough … and Michael Grove … and the two other pitchers the Dodgers used in the first of what is likely to be many bullpen games this season.

“We’ve been doing it for quite some time,� manager Dave Roberts said. “I think we’ve been a lot of trailblazers for some ideas that have come with some resistance.�

Indeed, anyone surprised the club was already opting for such a patchwork pitching plan this early in the season probably shouldn’t be.

Over the last several years, as Roberts noted, the Dodgers have increasingly prioritized starting pitcher rest. The days of letting their rotation members actually take the ball once every five days have passed. Now, the team wants its starters getting five, six, even seven days off as often as possible, in hopes of preserving their health and maximizing their performance.

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Shohei Ohtani focused on swing after quiet, yet productive, opening week with Dodgers

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LAKERS

From Dan Woike: The Lakers are kind of stuck between two desires, two plans of action for the last two weeks of the regular season.

On one hand, their run of good play over the last two months and a favorable closing schedule has given them a chance to play their way out of the back end of the NBA’s play-in tournament.

Continuing to win is the pathway to providing more cushion than a scenario where a single loss would end their season.

But there’s another factor at play — the health of the team and, in particular, its stars.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis were both able to play Tuesday in the Lakers’ 128-111 win, but with the second of back-to-back games against the Wizards on Wednesday in Washington, and consecutive games against Cleveland and Minnesota when they return home, workloads are on their minds.

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CLIPPERS

From Broderick Turner: Even with leading man Kawhi Leonard out with a sore right knee, the Clippers still clung to their goal.

And that was to finish their four-game trip in the right fashion with a win in Sacramento while Leonard was in Los Angeles getting treatment on his knee.

But it was not to be for the Clippers, the pop just not there, the shots failing to go in the basket when it mattered the most, the 26-point deficit they found themselves under in the fourth quarter too much to overcome during a 109-95 loss to the Kings on Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center.

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UCLA FOOTBALL

From Ben Bolch: For a moment, it were as if nothing had changed. UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond walked onto the practice field Tuesday morning and found his new football coach in a familiar spot.

“He caught me over there by the running backs,� DeShaun Foster said with a smile after the Bruins’ second spring practice and first that was open to the public. “It was like, man, if you had come out here a little earlier you would have seen me on the defensive field.�

After going from running backs coach to head coach, Foster has made some changes of his own in an attempt to give his team more of a family feel beyond welcoming fans, recruits and former players to practice. Names adorned the backs of jerseys for the first time anyone who had been around the program for decades could remember.

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USC BASKETBALL

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: She steeled herself, wiped her tears and took the dais. JuJu Watkins answered the first question without a hitch after USC’s season ended abruptly on Monday in the Elite Eight with a loss to Connecticut. But it was the mention of her teammates that finally broke the freshman.

USC’s star guard buried her face in her hands as she thanked “the best teammates in the world.� She tried to say more. She stopped herself as her voice grew thicker with emotion.

Guard McKenzie Forbes, seated to her left, patted Watkins on the leg. Like she had been all season, the graduate transfer from Harvard was there for support.

The unique blend of the freshman’s star power with mature upperclassmen was just as critical to USC’s best season in decades as Watkins’ immense talent. The Sierra Canyon product will remain the face of USC’s continued resurgence as the Trojans welcome the No. 1 recruiting class in the country next year, but the six seniors who supported Watkins won’t be forgotten either.

“They have completely changed a narrative about a program,� coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “That’s really powerful. The way that the country’s going to see USC women’s basketball is really different than it was four months ago. … I think their legacy is that they got us somewhere. Now it’s on all of us to say, ‘What’s next?’

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ANGELS

Tyler Anderson pitched seven scoreless innings, Aaron Hicks homered and the Angels beat Miami 3-1 on Tuesday, sending the Marlins to their worst start in franchise history.

Anderson (1-0) scattered four hits, walked two and struck out five. The left-hander was lifted after 83 pitches.

Hicks’ solo blast in the fourth put the Angels ahead 1-0. He drove a fastball from Miami starter Jesús Luzardo inside the foul pole in right for his first homer with the team.

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CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: The Chargers are still more than five months away from playing the initial game of the Jim Harbaugh era.

But where the team is headed was evidently quite obvious during the first meeting on the first day of the first phase of Harbaugh’s first offseason program.

“We’re going to be physical,� new tight end Hayden Hurst said. “We’re going to come right at you. You see us pop up on the schedule, it’s going to be a long Sunday.�

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SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: If the U.S. makes a deep run in the next World Cup — or even in this summer’s Copa América — Italy might deserve part of the credit.

Since 2022, a record 10 Americans have played in Italy; six of them were on the 23-man roster for last week’s CONCACAF Nations League final. And five of the 20 teams in Italy’s top-tier Serie A have American owners.

For Luigi De Siervo, the league’s chief executive, that’s a relationship that favors both sides.

“It’s not a coincidence,� he said. “Italian clubs are closely watching the development of soccer in the U.S.�

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DUCKS

Alex Killorn scored twice, Troy Terry had a goal and two assists and the Ducks ended a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

“It feels good to win,� said Killorn, who has 17 goals this season. “We haven’t done that in a long time. It’s been tough. It’s nice, especially at the end of the road trip to go home with a good feeling.�

Mason McTavish and Cam Fowler rounded out the scoring for the Ducks, and rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger had three assists for his first multipoint game.

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MEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

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All times Pacific

FINAL FOUR
Saturday
No. 11 North Carolina State vs. No. 1 Purdue, 3:09 p.m., TBS
No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 1 UConn, 5:49 p.m., TBS

Monday
Championship (Glendale, Ariz.), TBS

WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Women’s bracket

Women’s schedule
All times Pacific

FINAL FOUR
Friday
No. 3 North Carolina State vs. No. 1 South Carolina, 4 p.m., ESPN
No. 3 Connecticut vs. No. 1 Iowa, 6 p.m., ESPN

Championship: Sunday, noon (Cleveland), ABC

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1930 — The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup with a two-game sweep of the Boston Bruins.

1966 — Tom Seaver signs with the NY Mets.

1975 — Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it, title awarded to Russian Anatoly Karpov.

1983 — 2nd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: USC beats Louisiana Tech, 69-67.

1987 — Chicago Cubs trade Dennis Eckersley to Oakland A’s.

1988 — Louisiana Tech wins the NCAA women’s basketball championship with a 56-54 come-from-behind victory over Auburn.

1988 — Amy Alcott shoots a 1-under 71 to win the Dinah Shore by two shots over Colleen Walker.

1988 — Mario Lemieux wins NHL scoring title, stopping Gretzky’s 7-year streak.

1989 — Michigan beats Seton Hall 80-79 in overtime to win the NCAA basketball championship. Rumeal Robinson hits two free throws with three seconds left for the Wolverines. It’s the first time that a first-year coach, Steve Fisher, wins the national title.

1994 — Charlotte Smith’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gives North Carolina a 60-59 victory over Louisiana Tech in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game.

1995 — UCLA wins its first national basketball championship in 20 years and record 11th NCAA title, keeping Arkansas from repeating with an 89-78 victory.

1996 — St Francis Fighting Saints sets college baseball runs record with 71.

2000 — 62nd NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Michigan State beats Florida, 89-76.

2004 — St. Louis clinches its 25th consecutive NHL playoff berth, the longest in major league sports, with a 4-1 win over Nashville.

2006 — Joakim Noah dominates UCLA with 16 points, nine rebounds and a record seven blocks to key a 73-57 blowout for Florida’s first national title in men’s basketball.

2007 — After a nine-year title drought, Tennessee and coach Pat Summitt are NCAA champions. The Lady Vols capture an elusive seventh national title, beating Rutgers 59-46.

2012 — Brittney Griner scores 26 points and grabs 13 rebounds to help Baylor finish off an undefeated season with an 80-61 win over Notre Dame in the women’s national championship game. Baylor becomes the first team in NCAA history to win 40 games.

2017 — Justin Jackson delivers the go-ahead three-point play and North Carolina scores the last eight points for a 71-65 win over Gonzaga and an NCAA title that heartbreakingly eluded the Tar Heels last year.

2019 — San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich is ejected after an NBA record low 63 seconds in the Spurs 113-85 loss in Denver; receives 2 technical fouls in a verbal confrontation with a referee.

Compiled by the Associated Press