From Ryan Kartje: After shots were fired all summer over USC’s hand in the future of its rivalry with Notre Dame, coach Lincoln Riley reiterated during Big Ten media day on Thursday that he “absolutely” wants to maintain the historic matchup.
“Do I want to play the game? Hell, yeah, I want to play the game,” Riley said. “It’s one of the reasons I came here. But also, my allegiance and my loyalty is not to Notre Dame and not to anyone else. I’m the head coach of USC. I’m going to back USC. And I’m going to do everything in my power to make USC as good as it can be. I’m not going to let anything stand in between that.”
Riley has taken heat about the rivalry’s future since last year’s Big Ten media day, when he first shared concerns about how scheduling a marquee nonconference team could impact the Trojans’ playoff hopes.
Notre Dame has since used Riley’s comments as public leverage, putting the responsibility for the rivalry’s future on USC.
“It’s pretty black and white for me. You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them. Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season — I don’t care. I want to play USC every year because it’s great for college football.”
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USC’s Lincoln Riley feeling ‘refreshed’ as pressure mounts to win in Year 4
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From Ben Bolch: It’s easier for everything to go according to script when you have one.
As DeShaun Foster strode across the stage inside a convention center here Thursday afternoon, the UCLA football coach clutched several pages of prepared remarks that helped him navigate a lengthy opening monologue with poise and confidence.
Poking fun at his widely mocked and memed performance from a year ago, when he delivered a short, unrehearsed address filled with awkward pauses and an uneasy smile, Foster indulged reporters in a short recap of the lowlights.
“Last year I stood up here and reminded everyone that UCLA is in L.A., which looking back might have been the most obvious geography lesson in Big Ten history,” Foster said. “But you know what? Important things are worth stating clearly. We are in L.A., and we’re proud to be in L.A. This year we’re ready to show the Big Ten what L.A. football looks like when it’s firing on all cylinders.”
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Four months ago, the Dodgers were cast as baseball’s new evil empire, lapping rival contenders with lavish free-agent spending during an offseason that raised alarms about competitive balance within MLB.
“Coming into the season,” general manager Brandon Gomes recalled this week, “we were talking about how we’ve ruined baseball with all the talent we’ve got.”
Now, however, the narrative has shifted.
The Dodgers are a contender, yes, but riddled with the kind of flaws other front offices across the sport are trying to address in the run-up to next Thursday’s trade deadline.
As a result, the behemoth talk has subsided. The worries about Dodger domination have ceased.
“I haven’t heard anything about that lately,” Gomes quipped.
And it’s against this backdrop that the Dodgers will approach the deadline — trying to square their lofty preseason expectations with what has proved to be an imperfect start to the year, and needing to decide exactly how drastic of changes they’ll make for the rest of the way.
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ANGELS
Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco homered, Logan Evans gave up one run in five innings, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Angels 4-2 on Thursday night.
Rodríguez, who stole third base in the first inning, has 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases this season. The 24-year-old is the first player in MLB history with at least 15 homers and 20-plus stolen bases in each of their first four seasons.
Evans (4-3), a 24-year-old rookie, allowed three hits and walked three with three strikeouts. Andrés Muñoz pitched a scoreless ninth for his 23rd save.
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RAMS
From Gary Klein: Puka Nacua saw the numbers.
So, no doubt, did Rams general manager Les Snead and other team executives who handle contract negotiations.
When Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets this month signed a four-year extension that includes $90 million in guarantees, he became the latest young NFL receiver star to cash in before playing out his rookie contract.
Nacua is in the third year of his rookie deal with the Rams. He will be eligible for an extension in the offseason.
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LAKERS
From Broderick Turner: A call came from Luka Doncic a couple of times, at first making Marcus Smart think it wasn’t true and then eventually making him believe that Doncic was a Lakers salesman and that he wanted Smart to be a part of what they were building here in Los Angeles.
It wasn’t like they had a strong “relationship,” but Smart said he and Doncic have “a mutual understanding and respect for each other” from meeting on the court in past seasons.
So, when the calls came while Smart was training while trying to figure out his next move after he had agreed to a contract buyout from the Washington Wizards, he was swayed by Doncic to join the Lakers after clearing waivers.
Smart, who signed a two-year deal for $11 million with the Lakers, with a player option for the second season, smiled as he told the stories during his introductory news conference Tuesday about talking to Doncic and being persuaded to join him and LeBron James.
“It first came, my agent, I’m working out, and I get a call from my agent saying, you know, ‘Hey Luka reached out.’ And I’m like ‘yeah whatever’ you know?’ Like all right,” Smart said at the Lakers’ practice facility. “And then another day, same thing — Luka reached out again and now it’s real. It’s no longer what-ifs. It’s real and it’s something we need to talk about. And that was a great feeling, like I said, and that’s kind of what kind of got things going for me to be here and I’m excited to be here.”
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SPARKS
Kelsey Plum had 30 points and six assists, Dearica Hamby added 20 points and 11 rebounds and the Sparks beat the Connecticut Sun 101-86 on Thursday night.
The Sparks (10-14) have won four in a row, beginning with a 92-88 victory over the Sun at home July 13 that snapped a 13-game losing streak against Connecticut.
The Sparks set a season high for points and have scored 90 points or more in four consecutive games, tying the franchise record set in 2013.
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TOUR DE FRANCE
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar responded to attacks from archrival Jonas Vingegaard to cement his grip on the yellow jersey.
With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogačar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than four minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion.
Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4-kilometer (16.5-mile) daunting climb of the Col de La Loze up to the finish. At 2,304 meters of altitude, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour.
Two years ago, Vingegaard dropped Pogačar on that mountain on his way to his second Tour title but could not deal a decisive blow this time.
Riding behind O’Connor, Vingegaard and Pogačar closely watched each other in the final climb, surrounded by buoyant fans braving the cold temperature and the fog. Vingegaard attacked his Slovenian rival but Pogačar responded with ease. Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates had also tried to hurt the defending champion earlier in the day in the Col de La Madeleine, but their efforts left Pogačar unfazed.
The reigning world champion, who rides for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, never panicked and accelerated near the end to drop Vingegaard in the last 500 meters and increase his overall lead.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1902 — Jim Jeffries knocks out Bob Fitzsimmons in the eighth round to retain the world heavyweight title.
1956 — Swaps sets an American record in a 1 5/8-mile race at Hollywood Park. Swaps runs the course in 2:38 1-5.
1956 — Jack Burke Jr. defeats Ted Kroll 3 and 2 in the final round to win the PGA championship.
1976 — In Montreal, Edwin Moses of the United States sets an Olympic record in the 400 hurdles with a time of 47.63.
1982 — Janet Anderson wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf title, her first tournament victory.
1999 — 86th Tour de France: Lance Armstrong wins 1st of 7 consecutive Tour de France titles but is later disqualified for drug cheating.
2004 — Copa América Final, Estadio Nacional, Lima: Brazil beats Argentina, 4-2 on penalties; 2-2 after extra time.
2007 — Michael Rasmussen, the leader of the Tour de France, is removed from the race by his Rabobank team after winning the 16th stage. Rasmussen is sent home for violating (the team’s) internal rules. The Danish cyclist missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico.
2010 — Alberto Contador wins the Tour de France for the third time in four years. Contador holds off a next-to-last day challenge from Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, his runner-up for a second consecutive year.
2010 — Jamie McMurray’s victory in the Brickyard 400 gives owner Chip Ganassi the first team triple crown in American auto racing: winning the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year. McMurray won the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, and Ganassi IndyCar series driver Dario Franchitti won the Indy 500 in May.
2011 — The NFL Players Assn. executive board and 32 team reps vote unanimously to approve the terms of a deal to the end the 4½-month lockout. The final pact is for 10 years, without an opt-out clause.
2011 — Taylor Hoagland hits a two-run home run, Valerie Arioto and Megan Langenfeld have RBI singles and the United States beats rival Japan 6-4 to win its fifth straight World Cup of Softball championship.
2012 — Triple jumper Voula Papachristou is kicked off Greece’s Olympic team by the Hellenic Olympic Committee for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right political party.
2015 — Maya Moore scores a record 30 points to lead the West to a 117-112 victory over the East in the WNBA All-Star Game. The league’s reigning MVP scores eight straight points in the final 2 minutes to turn a one-point deficit into a 113-106 advantage.
2021 — USA’s men’s basketball lose to France 83-76 ending their 25-game Olympic winning streak.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1918 — Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators pitched a four-hitter in 15 innings to beat the St. Louis Browns 1-0. The only hit off him in the first 11 innings was a triple by George Sisler.
1930 — The Philadelphia Athletics came up with a triple steal in the first inning and again in the fourth in a 14-1 win over the Cleveland Indians.
1939 — Atley Donald of the New York Yankees set a rookie pitching record in the AL when he registered his 12th consecutive victory since May 9, with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Browns.
1941 — Lefty Grove of the Boston Red Sox won his 300th and last game, beating the Cleveland Indians 10-6.
1949 — Stan Musial of St. Louis hit for the cycle, going 4-5 and driving in four runs to lead the Cardinals to a 14-1 rout of the Broolyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
1956 — Roberto Clemente hit a game-winning inside-the-park grand slam to give Pittsburgh a 9-8 win over the Chicago Cubs at Forbes Field.
1961 — En route to his 61-homer season, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit four homers against the Chicago White Sox in a doubleheader to give him 40 for the year. The Yankees took both games, 5-1 and 12-0, and Maris moved 25 games ahead of Babe Ruth’s 1927 pace.
1962 — Stan Musial of St. Louis became the all-time RBI leader in the NL. His two-run home run in a 5-2 loss to the Dodgers gave him 1,862 RBIs, passing Mel Ott.
1978 — Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds singled to left off New York’s Craig Swan in the third inning to set a NL record of hitting safely in 38 consecutive games. The Mets won the game 9-2.
1990 — Kansas City’s George Brett hit for the cycle in the Royals 6-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
2000 — Mike Lansing of Colorado hit for the cycle. The Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 19-2.
2011 — Ian Kinsler homered and drove in four runs as the Texas Rangers pounded out the most runs and hits in the majors this season with a 20-6 rout of the Minnesota Twins.
2014 — Yasiel Puig tied a franchise record with three triples and added a double and two RBIs as the Dodgers moved within a half-game of NL West-leading San Francisco with an 8-1 win over the Giants.
2015 — Cole Hamels became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs in 50 years while leading Philadelphia to a 5-0 win. There was drama down to the final out, when rookie center fielder Odubel Herrera stumbled on the warning track, but managed to lean forward and catch Kris Bryant’s flyball to end the game. Hamels struck out 13 in the first no-hitter versus the Cubs since Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game in 1965.
2023 — The Braves turn the first triple play of the MLB season and it comes in highly unusual fashion. The play goes 8-3-5, a combination of outs not seen since 1884, as with runners on first and second in the 3rd, CF Michael Harris II catches a fly ball hit by Triston Casas of the Red Sox and fires to 1B Matt Olson to retire Adam Duvall, who had misjudged the force with which the ball was hit. Olson then fires to 3B Austin Riley to nab Masataka Yoshida, who had tagged up and was trying to advance while the Braves were busy attending to the other runner. In spite of the triple killing, Boston wins the game handily, 7-1.
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.
