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LOS ANGELES >> The Santa Ana Valley High School football team was about to play its second game of the season. It could have been any Saturday in September – Curtis Granderson wasn’t sure the year – but this game happened to be on Sept. 10, 2011. Granderson was in town because his New York Yankees were playing the Angels. Santa Ana Valley held a freshman pep rally that Friday, Sept. 9. The Y...

The Dodgers weren’t done when they acquired Yu Darvish and relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani in the final hour before the non-waiver trade deadline. They acquired veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations Friday. The Dodgers also received cash considerations to offset the approximately $3.8 million Granderson is owed in the final year of a four-year, $60 million contract he signed with the Mets. “A little bittersweet to do that,” Granderson said in a post-game TV interview Friday night, asked about leavin...

WILLIAMSPORT. Pa. >> It only took Joey Gray one swing of the bat to make his name ring throughout Little League circles at the World Series in Williamsport on Friday. A walk, a double from Drew Rutter, and another walk set the stage for Gray, who walked to the plate for a bases-loaded, first-iing at-bat against the Northwest’s Caiden Thomsen. Gray worked his way to a full count, then hit a towering shot over the right-field fence. It was the second grand slam of the Little League World Series, and it proved more than enough for Santa Margarita as Joey’s brother Bobby Gray took a no-hit...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.>> Jordan Spieth began his quest for the career Grand Slam by not making a putt longer than 5 feet. What helped was that Quail Hollow punished just about everyone at some point Thursday in the PGA Championship. Kevin Kisner and Thorbjo Olesen of Denmark emerged as the top surv...

PHOENIX >> Tony Watson was acquired at the non-waiver trade deadline last week because the Dodgers needed a lefty reliever who could come in and retire dangerous left-handed hitters like Jake Lamb. Maybe they still do. Lamb hit a grand slam off Watson in the seventh iing Tuesday night – his ...

Long Beach leaders on Tuesday agreed to begin negotiations for a five-year agreement with the Grand Prix Association to continue operating the aual IndyCar event that zooms through downtown each April. The city evaluated two race event proposals, one from IndyCar, the other from the World Automobi...

On the surface, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is a very successful aual event — considered by many to be the second-most important open-wheel race in the country — that benefits the city in many ways, financially and in world-wide prestige. But behind the scenes, one of the founders of the r...

While some of the Clippers’ top targets came off the board early in free agency, the franchise has remained committed to pursuing Denver forward Danilo Gallinari, although such a deal could require finding a third team to facilitate a sign-and-trade. Clippers executives spoke to the 28-year-old Gal...

LOS ANGELES >> LOS ANGELES – Rich Hill made history Wednesday night. But he’s probably happier about making progress. Hill gave up a home run and a double to the first two batters he faced but allowed just two more hits in five strong iings as the Dodgers beat the New York Mets, 8-2, extendi...

Albert Pujols becomes the 9th player in MLB history to join the 600 club after hitting his 600th career home run at Angels Stadium on June 3, 2017. Pujols hit 445 home runs during his 11-year stint with the St. Louis Cardinals and the last 155 of his career with the Los Angeles Angels. The home run was also a grand slam against the Twins. Unable to see the video on a mobile device? Click here. Advertisement ...

Of the 12 drivers remaining in NASCAR’s playoffs, the odds makers have ranked Austin Dillon last in the championship race. Very few expected him to make it out of the first round. Only he did make the cut, and now Dillon intends to creep even further into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. “I like this role,” Dillon said of being a longshot, “because it puts the pressure on the guys that I guess are projected to make it to the next round — whatever projections mean.” This is Dillon’s debut in the Chase and he went into last weekend’s elimination race at Dover in danger of being bounced from the field. But he stepped up with a strong eighth-place finish — his first top-10 in six weeks...

LOS ANGELES >> The Dodgers were so aoying at times in their 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, they were good. In the eighth iing, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez barely moved to catch a low line drive hit by Carlos Gonzalez. He dropped the baseball, tagged out D.J. Lemahieu between first and second base, then stepped on the bag to complete an iing-ending double play. In the fourth iing, second baseman Chase Utley flipped a no-look throw behind his back to retire Tyler Chatwood at first base -- a play the veteran admitted was “pretty lucky, but we’ll take it.” At other times, the Dodgers were so good that they were aoying. Yasmani Grandal was 3-for-3 as a left-handed hitter ...

PHILADELPHIA >> It is definitely not always suy in Philadelphia with a Phillies team deep in rebuilding mode. But the clouds parted long enough for the sun to shine on one of this city’s favorite former heroes Tuesday. Chase Utley hit two home runs and drove in five runs as the Dodgers routed the Philadelphia Phillies 15-5 in Utley’s first game back in his old workplace. With a Giants’ loss, the Dodgers hold a 1/2 game lead in the National League West. In 779 games at Citizen Bank Park over 13 years with the Phillies, Utley never had a two-homer game with as many as five RBIs. He did it in his first game back as an opponent with a solo home run in the fifth iing and a grand slam that c...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Diana Taurasi got the U.S. women’s basketball team off and ruing and their Olympic newcomers carried them the rest of the way to an easy rout in record fashion. Taurasi hit three 3-pointers in the first few minutes and the Americans beat Senegal 121-56 on Sunday in their Olympic opener. She finished with 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and Sylvia Fowles also had 15 points as the U.S. won its 42nd consecutive game in the Olympics. The Americans are trying to win a sixth consecutive gold medal. The game wasn’t expected to be close, and it wasn’t. The Brazilian fans tried to spur on the African country, cheering loudly every time they scored and booing the U.S. when...

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin hit out at “discrimination” against the country’s baed track and field athletes at a Kremlin send-off ceremony Wednesday for its depleted Olympic team. Fencers became the latest team of Russians to be cleared to compete in the Olympics by their sport’s goveing body ahead of the Moscow ceremony, but the IAAF rejected a bid by the bulk of the track and field team to be reinstated. More than 100 Russians from the 387-strong Olympic team have been baed so far from going to Rio de Janeiro. “We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history,” Putin said. “We caot and will not accept what in fact is pur...

LOS ANGELES >> Baseball’s deep dive into statistical analysis has created a new language of exit velocities, launch angles, FIPs, WHIPs and BABIPs. But this is another new concept courtesy of the analytics crowd – a 37-year-old “bounceback candidate.” Chase Utley posted career-lows across the board offensively last season. A .212 batting average, .286 on-base percentage, .629 OPS and only eight home runs in over 400 plate appearances. Combined with the fact that he would tu 37 in December, the numbers seemed to scream of a player in decline. His 140 plate appearances with the Dodgers over the final two months of the season didn’t paint any prettier a picture (he hit .202 with a .654 OP...

LOS ANGELES — It must have been such a relief for Yasmani Grandal to get out of a crouch Friday night. When he wasn’t catching 177 pitches from six Dodgers pitchers, Grandal celebrated his brief interludes of standing erect by hitting three home runs – and bunting for a single against a defensive shift – and driving in six runs as the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 10-6. Grandal added another single in the eighth iing for a career-high five hits. His three-homer game was the second by a Dodger this season. Corey Seager went deep three times against the Atlanta Braves on June 3 at Dodger Stadium. He joins Mike Piazza and Roy Campanella as Dodgers catchers to hit three home runs in a game...

LOS ANGELES >> Corey Seager tripled and scored the tiebreaking run on Justin Tuer’s sacrifice fly in the seventh iing to lead the Dodgers to their fifth straight victory, 7-5 over the slumping Baltimore Orioles on Monday night. Chase Utley had three hits and drove in two runs for the Dodgers, who have won 10 straight at home after rallying to claim the opener in just Baltimore’s second regular-season trip to Dodger Stadium. Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal hit back-to-back homers in the second iing for the Dodgers. J.J. Hardy and Joey Rickard drove in two runs apiece for the AL East-leading Orioles, who have lost five straight after a four-game sweep in Seattle. Joe Blanton (4-2) pitch...

LONDON — Chalk up another Grand Slam milestone for Novak Djokovic. The defending Wimbledon champion won his 30th straight match at a major touament Wednesday, sweeping into the third round with a clinical 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Adrian Maarino under the roof on Centre Court. The win gave Djokovic sole ownership of third place on the all-time list for most consecutive victories in Grand Slam play. Only Rod Laver with 31 and Don Budge with 37 have won more in a row. Asked whether he was surprised to reach the 30-match mark, Djokovic said: “No, not so much, because I do have lots of expectations for myself.” “But I’m very grateful obviously for the fact I’m able to play on such a high l...

FONTANA >> What does a young NASCAR Sprint Cup driver do five days before the circuit’s retu to Daytona Inteational Speedway? If you’re Chase Elliott, you fly into Southe Califoia from a Monday promotional appearance in Utah to speak with season-ticket holders at Auto Club Speedway at noon on a Tuesday. It was his second appearance at the track this year after the rookie posted a sixth-place finish in March is his first Auto Club 400. Although Elliott is sixth in the points standings, trailing leader Kevin Harvick by 89, he’s technically 12th. Eleven Cup drivers have taken a checkered flag this year in 16 races and secured a position in the championship Chase field of 16. Therefore, El...