By Don Wanlass
Contributing Writer
To no one’s surprise, the Dodgers are off to a fast start this season, winning six of their first eight games and scoring at least five runs in every game.
Imagine what they will be like when Shohei Ohtani starts hitting. Through eight games, Ohtani is hitting a modest .242 with no home runs and 3 runs batted in.
No worries. Mookie Betts is hitting .500 with 5 home runs and 11 RBI. Freddie Freeman is hitting .414 with a home run and 7 RBI.
Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, an off-season acquisition like Ohtani, isn’t hitting for average (.226 with 14 strikeouts), but he has 4 home runs and 9 RBI.
The pitching staff has a 4.07 earned run average, seventh best in the National League, but when you subtract the 15 runs the staff surrendered to San Diego in the second game of the season, it’s only 2.53.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up 5 runs in only one inning of work in that game, but bounced back in his second start to shut out the St. Louis Cardinals, allowing only two hits in his five innings of work while reducing his ERA from 45.00 to 7.50 in a game the Dodgers lost in extra innings.
Pitching remains the Dodgers biggest (only?) concern. Eight games into the season, the Dodgers have already used 17 different pitchers and have kept the Oklahoma City to Chavez Ravine shuttle busy by using relief pitchers for two or three innings at a time and then sending them back to Oklahoma City and calling up a fresh arm. And those are the healthy pitchers.
The Dodgers have seven pitchers on the injured list. Starter Walker Buehler and reliever Blake Treinen are on the 15-day injured list and Tony Gonsolin, Emmet Sheehan, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw and Brusdar Graterol are all on the 60-day list.
The Dodgers expect everyone but Gonsolin to be healthy at sometime this season. If that happens, look for a trade or two before the first of August.
As they have done for years under the leadership of team President Andrew Freidman, the Dodgers do things a little bit different than anybody else. Despite a pitching staff deeper than most other teams, they used a bullpen-by-committee game April 2, eight games into the season, to give their starters an extra day of rest.
Relief pitcher Ryan Brasier started the game, but pitched only an inning. Ryan Yarbrough then came in and pitched into the sixth inning. Alex Vesia bailed Yarbrough out of a sixth-inning jam and then gave way to starting pitcher Michael Grove for the seventh and eighth innings.
Closer Evan Phillips then bailed Grove out of an eight-inning jam, earning a four-out save in the process of the 5-4 win that was sparked by another Betts home run and a two-run single by Kike Hernandez.
I’m not a big fan of bullpen games and I think the Dodgers pamper their starting pitchers too much. Management understandably wants the pitching staff as fresh as possible for September and October, but the Dodgers dominate during the regular season only to fade fast once October begins over the last two seasons. Maybe a new approach might help.
One player they don’t need to worry about is Betts. Most major leaguers forced to adjust to a new position might struggle at the plate while concentrating on their defense. Especially when the move is from right field to shortstop. Not Betts.
He is second in Major League Baseball in hitting and first in home runs, RBI, base hits and runs scored. On a team that includes two other former most valuable players — Freeman and Ohtani — Betts may be the best overall player and could become the second player ever to win an MVP award in both leagues.
Hall of famer Frank Robinson did it for the Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.
The Dodgers begin their first road trip of the season April 5 with three games in Wrigley Field in Chicago and three games against the Minnesota Twins before returning home April 12 to face the San Diego Padres for three games.
Maybe the Midwestern spring weather will cool off Betts and company.
STAR POWER: The USC and UCLA women’s basketball teams both were eliminated from the NCAA tournament, but not before the two teams raised their brand along with the rest of women’s basketball.
UCLA was eliminated in the Sweet 16 by Louisiana State, 78-69 March 30. USC lost to the University of Connecticut in the Elite 8, 80-73 April 1.
Both local teams played well, losing close games in the last five minutes in games that were well played and exciting, exactly what you want in a sporting event.
The difference in the quality and quantity of stars between the men’s and women’s college games has never been so one-sided in favor of the women as it has been this year.
Connecticut is the defending champion in NCAA men’s basketball, but I couldn’t tell you a player’s name on that team. But I know Paige Bueckers is the star of the women’s team.
And Bueckers, who missed considerable time the previous two seasons because of injuries, is just one of the top four players who took center stage April 1 for the Elite 8 games in the women’s tournament.
Besides Bueckers at UConn, there was USC’s JuJu Watkins, LSU’s Angel Reese and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. Those four players — and their teammates — have helped elevate women’s basketball to new levels.
More than 12 million people tuned in to watch the Iowa-LSU game won by Iowa, 94-87. The game pitted Clark against Reese and was a rematch of the 2022 NCAA championship game, which was won by LSU.
It was the most watched women’s basketball game ever, surpassing the viewership of a game 41 years ago between USC and Louisiana Tech. The Trojans won that game, 64-58 behind Cheryl Miller. Kim Mulkey, now the coach at LSU, was the star for Louisiana Tech.
The women’s game has come a long way since then.
The final four, which begins April 5 in Cleveland, will feature North Carolina State versus South Carolina in the first game, followed by Iowa and UConn and Clark against Bueckers in the second
The winners play April 7 at noon on ABC.
If you like basketball the way it used to be played, when players made their layups and free throws, knew how to set screens and run plays and the stars shined in the brightest of spotlights, tune in. You won’t be sorry.
The men’s final four starts April 6 with North Carolina State versus Purdue in the early game, followed by Alabama and UConn.
North Carolina State is the sixth 11th seeded team to make the final four, knocking off Texas Tech, Oakland, Marquette and Tennessee to get this far. Their best player is DJ Burns, who has become a star in this year’s tournament.
He will go up against Zach Edey, perhaps the biggest player and definitely the biggest name in the men’s college game.
Edey won the John Wooden Award as the best college basketball player last season and is favored to win the award this year as well. But pro scouts can’t decide whether Edey, who is 7-4 and weighs 300 pounds, will make the transition to the NBA even though he is a dominant college player.
Most college players of the year turn pro immediately after winning the award. Edey came back for another year to improve his draft status.
Once upon a time, he would have been the consensus favorite to be the top pick in the NBA Draft this year. But his lack of quickness has NBA people concerned that the quick big men of today will prey on Edey’s weakness. It will be interesting to see how he does against Burns, who is seven inches shorter and 25 pounds lighter.
Alabama is a fourth seed and will be an underdog to UConn, which is trying to become the first team since Florida in 2006 and 2007 to win back-to-back titles.
Northwestern lost to the Huskies by 17 points in the second round of the tournament. U Conn has won every other game by at least 25.
The Huskies are led by 7-2 center Donovan Clingan, but guards Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer also can score.
Guard Mark Sears has been the top scorer for Alabama in the tournament.
The men’s title game is April 8 at 6 p.m.
WINDING DOWN: With less than two weeks to go in the NBA schedule, the Lakers and Clippers pretty much know where they are going to finish in the NBA Western Conference standings.
With seven games remaining, the Clippers are in fourth place, five games behind Minnesota and Oklahoma City, which are tied for second and two games ahead of Dallas and New Orleans, who are tied for fifth.
They aren’t going to catch Minnesota or Oklahoma City and they would have to flop badly to fall into fifth or sixth.
The Lakers, with six games left, are firmly established in ninth place and will more than likely play the Golden State Warriors in the first play-in game. From there, who knows what will happen.
Last year, the Lakers rode their play-in tournament win all the way to the Western Conference final, where they were swept by Denver. The Nuggets then went on to win the NBA title.
Both teams seem to be relatively healthy at this time of the season, although Kawhi Leonard was held out of the April 3 game against the Nuggets because of a sore knee.
For the Lakers, LeBron James has missed a couple of games down the stretch because of a bad ankle, but he knows how to manage his health and will be ready for the playoffs.
Gabe Vincent, a key off-season free agent signing who had played only five games all year and had knee surgery in December, returned to action March 31 against the Brooklyn Nets, scoring two points in 14 minutes of work. He did not play April 2 against Toronto.
Vincent averaged 15.8 points a game against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Eastern Conference finals last season, one of the reasons the Lakers reached out to sign him in the offseason.
If he is healthy, he gives coach Darvin Ham another option at backup guard where Spencer Dinwiddie has been playing well. Cam Reddish and Matt Christie will lose playing time.
