Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

LATIMES.COM/SPORTS S D3

oids, according to the league. “We have not received from our medical communi- ty any information that would lead us to believe opioids are a widespread issue in baseball,” deputy com- missioner Dan Halem said. However, Halem said, the increasing prevalence of opioid abuse in the general population could present an opportunity for the league and union to work together toward protecting players’ welfare. It is unclear at this point whether the league and union would consider suspending players who might test positive for opioids, referring them to a con- fidential testing program, or both. In the minors, players are referred to treatment after a first positive test for a drug of abuse and sus- pended after a second. No drug in modern his- tory has killed more people in a single year than fentanyl, The Times reported last week. More than 31,000 people in the United States died last year after taking fentanyl or a similar substance, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An Orange County man who called himself “oxygod” was sentenced last week to 171 ⁄ 2 years in prison for selling opioid pills laced with fentanyl. Authorities found nearly 100,000 phony oxyco- done pills in the man’s apart- ment. Under the current major league drug policy, oxyco- done and fentanyl are con- sidered “drugs of abuse,” and players are not tested for such drugs without rea- sonable cause, or unless part of a treatment program. Any minor leaguer testing positive for a drug of abuse could be subject to random testing throughout his major league career, Halem said. In the majors, he said, club doctors, ath-

letic trainers and other per- sonnel are trained to identify and report signs and symp- toms of potential abuse. Opioids are tightly regu- lated, as federally controlled substances that require a le- gitimate medical prescrip- tion and carry a significant risk of abuse. “None of our doctors pre- scribe opioids, other than for short-term use in connection with surgery,” Halem said. Although players can ap- ply for a therapeutic use ex- emption, or TUE, to allow for the use of an otherwise banned substance, Halem said the league has not granted any exemptions for opioids. “There are no TUEs for long-term use of controlled substances,” Halem said. “It’s all for pain manage- ment in connection with an invasive procedure for a short duration.” According to Skaggs’ player page on the league website, he last underwent surgery in 2014. In a statement following the release of the autopsy results, the Skaggs family said it was “shocked” to learn that “the circumstances sur- rounding Tyler’s death ... may involve an employee of the Los Angeles Angels.” The family hired famed Texas attorney Rusty Hardin. The Angels retained a Texas lawyer as well, and the results of several investi- gations could determine whether the family files a wrongful-death lawsuit that could take years — and tens of millions of dollars, or more — to resolve. Halem said the league is deferring its investigation until the conclusion of the police investigation, in the hope that law enforcement can share its findings and thus narrow the areas the league would need to probe. “We have not been briefed by law enforcement at this point,” Halem said.

MLB to discuss

tougher testing

[MLB,from D1]

CHICAGO — Brian Goodwin left his mark on a game, just as Mike Trout has done so often for the Angels. Goodwin’s two-run homer in the eighth inning tied the score, and Justin Upton hit a solo shot in the ninth that proved to be the winner as the Angels rallied to beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 on Friday night, snapping a four-game losing streak. Chicago led 4-2 with one out in the top of the eighth before reliever Aaron Bum- mer walked pinch-hitter Taylor Ward. Goodwin fol- lowed with a two-run homer that ruined a quality start by White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito. Goodwin had replaced Trout in the fifth inning. Trout left the game with right toe discomfort. “It’s not easy. You know what you miss whenever Mike is not in the lineup,” Goodwin said. “It brings

everything to the table. It’s not really for me to fill his shoes, but it’s just go out and do what I’m supposed to do, play my game, produce. “I’ve been in pretty much a similar situation all year, so I can’t say I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to prepare for it.” Goodwin has been reli- able for the Angels all season. “He’s come up huge for us a number of times,” Angels manager Brad Ausmus said. “He’s done an outstanding job for us. This is a guy we picked up two days before the season started and he’s become an intricate part of our team both offensively and defensively.” Despite the injury, Trout was able to appreciate the late-inning heroics. “Brad [Ausmus] picked the right guy,” Trout said. “I’ve been dealing with it for a little bit now. I’ve been trying to play through it, just really sore,” Trout said of his injury. “I was grinding through it in the third and fourth inning and it just got to the point where it affected how I was running.” Trout said he will try to play on Saturday. On the first pitch in the ninth inning, Upton hit his 12th homer of the season, off closer Alex Colome to give the Angels the lead.

Trout’s backup

keys comeback

for Angels

BRIAN GOODWIN gets high-fives after his home run in the eighth inning tied the score in Chicago.

Tannen MauryEPA/Shutterstock

Goodwin hits home

run to help team end

losing streak after star

outfielder exits game.

ANGELS 5 CHI. WHITE SOX 4

associated press

run with two outs in the
ninth.
Pinch-hitter Russell Mar-
tin walked, but Dodgers
catcher Will Smith, in a rare
battle of players with the
same name, struck out to
end the game.
Arizona’s win over Cin-
cinnati kept the Dodgers’
magic number at four,
meaning the earliest the
Dodgers can clinch their sev-
enth straight NL West title is
Sunday.
It took 99 pitches for Ker-
shaw to complete four-plus
innings, 12 coming on a walk
to Kevin Pillar that put two
on with no outs in the fifth,
an exhausting duel that left
manager Dave Roberts little
choice but to pull his starter.
Both of Kershaw’s run-
ners scored on pinch-hitter
Mike Yastrzemski’s two-run
double to right-center field
off reliever Dylan Floro.
Mauricio Dubon capped a
four-run fifth with a two-run
single off Floro to give San
Francisco a 5-1 lead.
Kershaw, who opened the
season with 23 consecutive

starts in which he threw six innings or more, has now thrown five and four innings, respectively, in his last two starts. He looked a little off-kil- ter Friday night, working at a deliberate pace, stepping off the rubber several times and bouncing a number of breaking balls in front of the plate. The Giants fouled off 32 of his pitches. “You could see his frus- tration early,” Roberts said. “He couldn’t get into a rhythm. It was a grind for him. It seemed like they were spoiling pitches, taking good at-bats, and it drove up his pitch count.” Kershaw escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first, a second-and- third, no-out jam in the second and a two-on, two-out jam in the third, and Pollock staked him to a 1-0 lead with a solo homer to left-center in the second. But Dubon’s homer off the left-field foul pole in the fourth tied the score, and the Giants opened a four-run lead in the fifth. Pollock

homered to center to lead off the fifth, and Joc Pederson’s leadoff double and Cody Bellinger’s two-out RBI single pulled the Dodgers to within 5-3 in the seventh. “I’m still kind of learning A.J., and I don’t think he’s a streaky guy because of the way he prepares every day,” Roberts said. “But hopefully he’s approaching a hot streak, because tonight was a special night for him.” The Dodgers’ rotation entered the game with a major league-best 3.14 ERA, .658 opponents’ on-base-plus- slugging percentage and 1.07 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched). But the starters have shown some wear and tear over the last two weeks, posting a 5.67 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in their last 14 games, in which they’ve gone 7-7. Hyun-Jin Ryu, a Cy Young favorite for much of the season, has a 9.95 ERA in his last four starts and will be skipped in the rotation next week. Kershaw has given up earned runs in nine innings

of his last two starts. Walker Buehler was tagged for six earned runs in five innings of his last start. “A lot of our momentum all year long has been starting pitching,” Roberts said. “When you have consistent starting pitching, guys who go deep in games, that’s con- tagious, and it gives you a chance to win on a nightly basis. “If you look back at the last two weeks, the common factor is our starters haven’t been consistent. You expect them to turn it around.” The Dodgers honored Gi- ants manager Bruce Bochy, who is retiring after this season, before his final series in Chavez Ravine, with Vin Scully narrating a video trib- ute to Bochy and Roberts presenting him with a framed Sandy Koufax jersey signed by the Hall of Fame pitcher. “I loved playing for him,” said Roberts, who played his final two seasons for Bochy in San Francisco in 2007 and

“I’m excited for him to
see his next chapter.”

A.J. POLLOCK CELEBRATEShis second of three home runs with Gavin Lux in the second inning Friday
night at Dodger Stadium. It was the second time Pollock has hit three homers in a game.

Kelvin KuoAssociated Press

Short night for Kershaw

[Dodgers, from D1]

BASEBALL

Ned Colletti is not the re-
tiring type. The former Dod-
gers general manager
turned 65 in April, but while
many of his peers are transi-
tioning away from work, Col-
letti took on a second job Fri-
day as a professional scout
for the San Jose Sharks.
Colletti, who led the Dod-
gers to five playoff appear-
ances in nine years (2006 to
2014) as GM, will continue in
his role as a pregame and
postgame analyst on the
team’s SportsNet LA tele-
casts. His offseasons will
now be spent scouting the
American Hockey League
and NHL for the Sharks.
“I don’t see it as work,”
Colletti said. “I watch so
many baseball and hockey
games ... it’s really what I do.
It’s what I’ve been doing my
whole life. I love the work. I
talked to the Dodgers, the
Sharks, and they were aware
of my thought process.
“The regular seasons
don’t really overlap. The
postseasons do, but most of
the scouting I’ll be doing for
the NHL will be done when
baseball starts. I’ll mix and
match a little bit in October.
It kind of blends perfectly.”
Colletti grew up in Chi-
cago rooting for the Black-
hawks, and one of his first
jobs in sports was as a beat
writer covering the Flyers for
the now-defunct Philadel-
phia Journal in 1980-81.
Colletti went on to a near-

four-decade career in baseball, including 13 years with the Chicago Cubs and nine as an assistant GM of the San Francisco Giants (1997 to 2005). He has known Sharks GM Doug Wilson for more than three decades, and the two had spoken for years about finding a role for Colletti. “Hockey is one of my great passions,” Colletti said. “I’ve had a deep inter- est in it for as long as I can re- member, going back to my youth. I spent a lot of time in a lot of GM offices and coaching offices and world junior tournaments, just trying to learn it, dig deep into it. “I know a handful of GMs. I’ve known Doug Wilson for years, and we started kick- ing this idea around. I thought it would be the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Hill climber Rich Hill, sidelined since June 20 because of a left fore- arm strain, threw to hitters in a two-inning, 33-pitch simulated game Friday, his final step before returning to the rotation next Thursday in Baltimore.

“It went well, it felt good,” said Hill, who gave up a home run to Jedd Gyorko in the first inning. “That first inning, I was excited, a little jumpy. The second inning I was much more relaxed, my mechanics were good, I had the same release point.” Manager Dave Roberts has penciled in Hill for four starts this month, the last one scheduled for the Sept. 29 regular-season finale at San Francisco. That will give Hill time to build from a two- inning, 30-pitch start next Thursday to about five innings and 75 pitches. Hill said his intention is to return as the team’s fourth starter for the play- offs — and not pitch in relief — but the Dodgers are also considering left-hander Jul- io Urias for that spot. “That’s been the plan the whole time,” Hill said. “If anything needs to be amended along the way, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Rotation shuffle The Dodgers will skip Hyun-Jin Ryu in the rotation next week, pushing the struggling left-hander’s next

start back by nine or 10 days. Ryu, who entered August as the National League Cy Young Award favorite, is 1-3 with a 9.95 ERA in his last four starts, giving up 21 earned runs and 31 hits, including five homers, in 19 innings, his season ERA jump- ing from 1.45 to 2.45. “Right now,” Roberts said, “to forgo a start in early September makes more sense.” Walker Buehler’s next start, originally scheduled for Sunday, will be pushed back a few days to give the right-hander extra rest. Urias will start Sunday, and Buehler probably will pitch Tuesday in Baltimore.

Short hops Max Muncy (right wrist fracture) took soft-toss swings and played catch at 60 feet Friday, the infielder reporting no pain but a little stiffness. “It’s feeling all right,” said Muncy, who hopes to return by the end of next week. “It’s progress. That would be the best way to describe it.” ... Catcher Austin Barnes was recalled from triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

NED COLLETTI,the former Dodgers general manager, will be scouting for the San Jose Sharks. “Hockey is one of my great passions,” he said.

Lenny Ignelzi Associated Press

DODGERS REPORT

Colletti

has new

job for

resume

By Mike DiGiovanna

Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

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