Los Angeles Times - 26.08.2019

SPORTS

D MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

D

HOUSTON 11, ANGELS 2

Barria hoping to stick

The right-hander turns in anoth-

er solid outing in bid to stay. D3

Swaths of disappointed

people started streaming for

the exits during the top of

the ninth inning at Dodger

Stadium on Sunday. The

New York Yankees, the supe-

rior Goliath for at least the

weekend, had just tacked on

the final run in their 5-1 win

over the Dodgers. They pro-

duced it in opportunistic

fashion, the way runs must

come so often to thrive in the

postseason, when games

like this heavyweight tilt

matter beyond potential tie-

breakers and bragging

rights between fans.

Brett Gardner singled to

win a left-on-left matchup

with Adam Kolarek, ad-

vanced from first to third on

Kolarek’s wild attempt to

pick him off, and scored on a

flare off Gio Urshela’s bat

just over a drawn-in infield.

After beating the Dod-

gers at their own game with

nine home runs in the three

high-profile clashes, it was

the exclamation point to the

Yankees claiming perhaps

the most anticipated regu-

lar-season series on the

baseball calendar two

games to one.

If these teams meet again

in 2019, it will be in Game 1 of

the World Series on Oct. 22.

L.A. gets

bounced in

rubber game

Dodgers drop two of

three games in series,

which could prove

costly in the fall.

N.Y. YANKEES 5

DODGERS 1

By Jorge Castillo

MIKE TAUCHMANsteals second base in the fifth

inning as a bad throw gets away from Max Muncy.

Kent NishimuraLos Angeles Times

[SeeDodgers,D5]

Magic number

Combination of Dodgers

wins or losses by the divi-

sion’s second-place team

that will clinch the Na-

tional League West title.

12

Late after-

noon crept

into evening

at Chavez

Ravine on

Sunday, and

late October

was every-

where.

Smoke

from an Eagle Rock brush

fire billowed above the

Elysian Hills. The sun beat

upon the reserved-level

seats in right field. Shadows

edged across the diamond.

A blimp lazily hovered over-

head.

The Dodgers’ offense

slowly, painfully disap-

peared.

In the finale of a three-

game set against the New

York Yankees in what was

billed as a World Series

preview, the Dodgers’ bats

instead offered a World

Series review.

They swung quickly and

missed. They attacked

hastily and failed. They

hacked for the fences and

buckled at the knees.

Does any of this sound

familiar? Did anybody else

watching at Dodger Sta-

dium end the weekend in

shaded chills?

The Dodgers lost the

game, lost the series, lost

their feeling of home invinci-

bility. The final score was 5-1,

and if it still doesn’t feel like

October, check this out.

The score of the season-

ending loss to the Boston

Red Sox in the 2018 World

Series was 5-1.

The score of the season-

ending loss to the Houston

Astros in the 2017 World

BILL PLASCHKE

Offense offers up

an October rerun

[SeePlaschke,D5]

Three tweaks to

better baseball

ESPN broadcaster

Matt Vasgersian

offers up three ways

to make the game

more watchable. D2

Louisiana team

wins LLWS title

River Ridge, La., tops

Curacao 8-0 to give

the state its first

Little League World

Series crown. D3

This time, roars

are for Rory

McIlroy captures the

Tour Championship

and the $15-million

FedEx Cup prize. D6

Chip Kelly seeks victories

that never show up on his

record. They can come mid-

week, in late summer, when

there’s nothing more tan-

gible at stake than another

training camp practice.

“To have a really good

Wednesday,” Kelly said last

week when asked about his

ambitions for 2019. “That’s

our goal.”

Nobody seems to mind

that Saturdays didn’t go so

well for UCLA during the

coach’s return to the college
game. A losing record in his
debut season with the Bru-
ins hasn’t diminished hopes
for happier times among a
handful of high-level donors
and athletic department of-
ficials who recently spoke
with The Times.
The widespread expecta-
tion continues to be that
Kelly will make a program
that hasn’t been to the Rose
Bowl game since 1999 a sus-
tained national power de-
spite the underwhelming
initial results.
“Going 3-9,” said one
CHIP KELLYhas avoided criticism despite an booster who has donated a
underwhelming first season as UCLA’s coach.

Luis SincoLos Angeles Times

Kelly uses own yardstick

SEASON OPENER

UCLA at

Cincinnati

AT NIPPERT STADIUM

Thursday, 4 p.m. PDT

TV:ESPN.

UCLA football coach

is measuring success

on his terms as

expectations grow.

By Ben Bolch

[SeeUCLA,D6]

EL TRAFICO ::GALAXY 3 LAFC 3

The MLS standings show

that LAFC is the best in the

league. But whenever it

meets the crosstown rival,

the scoreboard tells another

story — as it did Sunday

when the Galaxy withstood

a furious second-half rally to

earn a 3-3 tie before a rau-

cous crowd of 22,757 at Banc

of California Stadium.

That left LAFC winless in

five editions of El Trafico, as

the rivalry is known, and it

was Zlatan Ibrahimovic who

kept it that way, scoring

twice in the first 16 minutes

to give the Galaxy a lead

LAFC couldn’t overcome.

And it’s a draw that may

prove to be a big loss for

LAFC after Carlos Vela, the

league’s leading scorer, was

taken out of the game in the

61st minute with a ham-

string injury. He will have an

MRI exam on Monday, and

DAVID BINGHAMand the Galaxy save their best for Adama Diomande and LAFC, their L.A. rival that
leads MLS this season but is winless in five games of the “El Trafico” series between the teams.

Photographs by Myung J. ChunLos Angeles Times

GALAXY RISE

TO OCCASION

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVICenjoys his second

goal with Favio Alvarez, top, and Uriel Antuna.

LAFC may be

best in MLS,

but not when it

plays its rival

The outcome
of the match
was second-
ary.
The ice
pack that was
wrapped to
the back of
Carlos Vela’s
right ham-
string was more important
to LAFC by several orders of
magnitude than the 3-3
draw it salvaged against the
Galaxy or the two-goal
deficit it erased Sunday
night at Banc of California
Stadium.
With only seven games
left in the regular season,
Major League Soccer’s most
valuable player was injured.
The MLS Cup that was
destined to be LAFC’s felt
as if it’s up for grabs.
A historic season for
both the player and fran-
chise was suddenly in dan-

DYLAN HERNANDEZ

By Kevin Baxter

LAFC’s season

is hamstrung if

superstar Vela

is not healthy

[SeeHernandez,D7] [SeeSoccer,D7]

0-2-3

LAFC’s two-year

record vs. Galaxy

35-10-11

LAFC’s record

vs. rest of MLS

LOCAL STUMBLING BLOCK

LAFC has the best record in MLS, but it still

hasn’t beaten the Galaxy in its two seasons.