LATIMES.COM/SPORTS D5
BASEBALL
HOUSTON — Angels ra-
dio broadcaster Mark
Langston was transported
to a Houston hospital after
suffering a medical emer-
gency at Minute Maid Park
on Friday evening.
Langston was alert and
undergoing testing, the An-
gels announced. There was
no further information on
his condition, but he ap-
peared in good spirits when
team employees visited him
after the Angels lost 6-4 to
the Houston Astros.
Langston, who spent half
of his 16-year MLB career
pitching for the Angels from
1990 to 1997 before retiring
with the Cleveland Indians
in 1999, has been a member of
the Angels’ broadcast team
since 2012. A color analyst, he
served as the Angels’ lone
representative on two
games broadcast exclusively
by YouTube this season.
Langston, described by
those close to him as a very
healthy person, suffered the
undisclosed incident mo-
ments after announcing
lineups on the air for Fri-
day’s series opener between
the Angels and Astros. He
received CPR in the radio
booth before being moved.
“Just saw him and he
looks great and in good spir-
its,” television announcer
Mark Gubicza said when
reached by The Times.
Langston, who turned 59
on Aug. 20, is a California na-
tive. He went to high school
in Santa Clara and was
drafted in the second round
by the Seattle Mariners in
1981 out of San Jose State.
Langston was a three-
time All-Star and five-time
Gold Glove winner while he
was with the Angels. In his
first season after signing
with them as a free agent, he
combined with reliever Mike
Witt to throw a no-hitter on
April 11, 1990.
He might have made at
least 25 starts in each of his
first six campaigns in Ana-
heim if a labor dispute had
not cut short the 1994 sea-son.
Langston, who led the
American League in strike-
outs as a rookie in 1984 and
again in 1985 and ’86, was a
premier free agent when he
agreed to a five-year, $16-mil-
lion contract with the Angels
in December 1989. At the
time it was signed,
Langston’s deal was the
most lucrative the sport had
seen, surpassing the $13.6
million Dave Winfield was
guaranteed by the Yankees
in a 10-year contract before
the 1981 season.Barria struggles
In Friday’s 6-4 loss to the
Houston Astros, Angels sec-
ond-year pitcher Jaime Bar-
ria struggled to get a feel for
his slider, a pitch he throws
48% of the time. The power-
ful Astros exploited the
weakness, drilling Barria’s
go-to breaking pitch for
three home runs in the first
inning at Minute Maid Park.
Barria allowed six runs
on four homers over 2^2 ⁄ 3 in-
nings. His last pitch of the
night plunked catcher Rob-inson Chirinos in the shoul-
der.
Despite facing all nine
Astros batters in the first in-
ning, Barria remained in the
game. He recovered and re-
tired six in a row. The hang-
ing slider he threw to Carlos
Correa, who homered in the
first, with one out in the
third inning ended the
streak.
“I can learn from this,”
Barria said in Spanish. “I
practice something in every
bullpen. I try to make adjust-
ments the best I can. That’swhat this game is about.
You make mistakes but you
try to make as few as pos-
sible.”
Catcher Kevan Smith
saved the Angels from a de-
moralizing defeat. He
capped a fourth-inning,
three-run rally against
Houston starter Zack
Greinke with an RBI double
to right field.
All three of Smith’s hits
went to the opposite field, in-
cluding the solo shot he
smoked off Greinke’s first
pitch of the third inning.
Since snapping an 0-
for-29 skid on Sept. 5, Smith
has enjoyed a nice streak. He
has 14 hits in his last 33 at-
bats. His resurgence is a wel-
come development for a
team that lost its most pow-
erful sluggers — Mike Trout,
Shohei Ohtani and Justin
Upton — to season-ending
injuries last week.Injury updates
Trout had surgery on
right foot Friday to remove
the Morton’s neuroma that
had been bothering him for
about a month. He sent a
picture of it to manager Brad
Ausmus, who compared it to
uni, the mustard-colored ed-
ible part of a sea urchin. “It
looked larger than I thought
it was gonna be,” Ausmus
said. ... Upton will be on
crutches for two to three
weeks while he waits for the
platelet-rich plasma injec-
tion he received Friday to
take effect on his injured
right knee. ...Catcher Max
Stassi, bothered by a sore
oblique, hasn’t played since
Sept. 2 and likely won’t get
another chance. He went to
Nashville on Friday to see a
specialist. The Angels had
not received feedback from
the visit before playing the
Astros on Friday night. ...
Ohtani (knee) will likely be-
gin rehab activities next
week.Langston hospitalized in emergency
The Angels radio
broadcaster is said to
be in good spirits after
receiving CPR.
HOUSTON 6
ANGELS 4
By Maria Torres
JAIME BARRIAreacts after giving up a home run to Carlos Correa. Barria allowed four home runs.Eric Christian SmithAssociated PressThe indomitable Rich
Hillclimbed the Dodger Sta-
dium mound again Friday, re-
fusing to yield to a left-knee
injury that would have sent
the 39-year-old left-hander to
the injured list if not for the
playoffs starting in less than
two weeks.
Hill, wearing a brace on
the knee that gave way in an
abbreviated start in Balti-
more on Sept. 12, threw 17 bat-
ting-practice pitches to
Kristopher Negronand Ed-
win Riosunder the watchful
eyes of manager Dave Rob-
erts, pitching coach Rick
Honeycuttand president of
baseball operations Andrew
Friedman.
The high-intensity session
“went really well,” Hill said,
adding that the ball came out
of his hand “great,” and the
knee felt “really good with the
brace on.”
Hill will start for the
Dodgers on Tuesday in San
Diego. He also plans to pitch
in the Sept. 29 regular-season
finale at San Francisco, giv-
ing him two games to build
the arm strength to throw
four innings and 60 pitches in
Game 4 of the Division Series.
“I want to be part of this
postseason team, and I defi-
nitely think I can help in any
capacity when healthy,” Hill
said. “Obviously, I’d like that
to be as a starter. That’s not
my call. The biggest thing is
being ready.”
Roberts confirmed Hill
will start Tuesday, but he did
not commit to Hill starting
against the Giants. Hill could
relieve in the playoffs.
“He’ll throw two innings
against the Padres, and we’ll
go from there,” Roberts said.
“His goal right now is to help
our club going forward. He’s
been a big part of what we’ve
done this year. If he can do
that [as a starter], great. If he
can’t build up enough endur-
ance, then we’ll pivot and
have that conversation.”
Hill sprained the medial
collateral ligament in the
same knee in March and be-
gan the season on the IL. He
made his debut April 28 and
went 4-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 10starts before returning to the
IL because of a forearm strain
June 20.
He lasted just 27 pitches
against the Orioles before be-
ing pulled because of knee
pain. An MRI test showed the
break-up of scar tissue from
the earlier injury but no new
tears.
Hill made one adjustment
in subsequent throwing ses-
sions to ease stress on his
knee, moving his foot on the
rubber, but the biggest differ-
ence was donning the knee
brace he wore for his first
three starts of the season.
“The brace really neutral-
ized that MCL, and I really
don’t feel any differences in
my mechanics,” Hill said. “I
would feel confident pitching
without the brace, but I know
it’s not a very smart idea to go
out there and possibly tweak
it again.”
Was there anything in
Hill’s mechanics Friday that
gave Roberts pause?
“No, today was good — I
didn’t see him compromising
anything in his delivery,” Rob-
erts said. “He was letting it go.
The fastball was coming out
well and his breaking ball had
great shape.Turner to start
Justin Turner, sidelined
since Sept. 7 because of a left-
ankle sprain, drew a walk as a
pinch-hitter in the seventh in-
ning Friday and was replaced
by a pinch-runner.
Roberts said Turner will
start Saturday night and
Sunday against the Rockies.
“[Saturday] It will kind of
be like a spring-training
game,” Roberts said. “He’ll
start, take a couple of at-bats
and we’ll replace him. We’ll do
the same thing Sunday.”Flip-flop
The Dodgers moved
Walker Buehlerfrom Sun-
day’s scheduled start to Sat-
urday to shorten his layoff be-
tween games. Hyun-Jin Ryu
moved from Saturday to Sun-
day. Could the rotation order
of Clayton Kershaw
-Buehler-Ryu hold for the
playoffs?
“That’s what we envision
through next week,” Roberts
said, “but things can change.”DODGERS REPORTHill gets closer
to contributing
in postseason
By Mike DiGiovannalater, Lux grounded out to
end a seven-run, five-hit
rally in which the Dodgers
sent 12 men to the plate and
batted for 41 minutes.
A.J. Pollock provided the
biggest hit of the marathon
half-inning, a three-run ho-
mer, and the Dodgers
tacked on four insurance
runs in the seventh en route
to a 12-5 victory before 53,704
in Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers improved to
14-3 against the Rockies this
season and lowered their
magic number to clinch
home-field advantage
throughout the National
League playoffs to three over
Atlanta.
Clayton Kershaw earned
the win with six somewhat
shaky innings in which the
left-hander gave up four
runs and eight hits, includ-
ing three homers, struck out
five and walked one to
improve to 15-5 with a 3.15
ERA.
Nolan Arenado and
Charlie Blackmon hit back-
to-back, two-out homers in
the first inning. Of the ca-
reer-high 28 homers Ker-
shaw has yielded this sea-
son, 10 have come in the first
inning. Kershaw has also
given up 18 earned runs in 27
opening innings for a 6.00
ERA, almost double that of
his ERA in any other inning.
The Rockies pushed the
lead to 3-0 in the second
when Garrett Hampson
reached on an infield single,
stole second and scored on
Tony Wolters’ RBI single.
Cody Bellinger doubled,
took third on Seager’s single
and scored on Chris Taylor’s
sacrifice fly in the second to
trim the deficit to 3-1, but
Hampson led off the fourth
with a homer to left for a 4-1
Colorado lead.
It was the 13th homer
Kershaw has allowed in his
last six starts after giving up
15 homers in his first 21 starts
of the season. Kershaw had
plenty of time to regroup be-
fore the fifth.
Seager led off the bottom
of the fourth with a homer to
right off Rockies starter and
San Dimas High product Pe-
ter Lambert, continuing a
torrid six-game stretch inwhich the Dodgers short-
stop is batting .458 (11 for 24)
with a homer, two doubles
and six RBIs.
Taylor was hit by a pitch
and Lux, after Roberts’ the-
atrics and ejection, walked.
Both runners advanced on
Lambert’s wild pickoff
throw to second.
Struggling catcher Will
Smith, who was batting .127
(eight for 63) with one homer
and four RBIs in his previ-
ous 20 games, shot a ground-
er down the third base line
that Arenado made a diving
stop of but could not get his
throw to first in time. Taylor
scored on the infield single
to make it 4-3.
Colorado manager Bud
Black summoned left-
hander Sam Howard to face
Kershaw, who bunted the
runners up. Enrique Her-
nandez followed with a
pinch-hit, broken-bat RBI
single into shallow left to
make it 4-4.
Max Muncy, who struck
out in his first two at-bats,
roped an RBI single to right
to make it 5-4, and Pollock
blasted a full-count fastballfrom Howard over the wall in
center for a three-run homer
— his 15th of the season —
and an 8-4 lead.
Bellinger walked and
stole second, Seager struck
out against reliever Wes Par-
sons, and Taylor walked to
continue an inning that fi-
nally ended with Lux’s
grounder to first.
A well-rested Kershaw
took the mound for the
sixth, and after allowing a
leadoff single to Arenado, he
got Blackmon to ground into
a double play and struck out
Ian Desmond to end his 99-
pitch effort that would end
with the Dodgers notching
their 99th win of the season.
Kershaw, who improved
to 23-8 with a 3.28 ERA and
282 strikeouts in 42 career
starts against the Rockies,
was replaced by Kenta
Maeda, who threw a score-
less seventh.
The Dodgers pushed the
lead to 12-4 in the bottom of
the seventh on Taylor’s dou-
ble, RBI singles by Lux and
Hernandez and Muncy’s
two-run double to left-cen-
ter.MANAGERDave Roberts argues with plate umpire Greg Gibson after being ejected in the fourth inning.
Mark J. TerrillAssociated PressKershaw roughed up early in victory
[Dodgers, from D1]