sport world

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Mother Nature supplied the spectacular lightning in the distant San Gabriel Mountains but it was Alta Loma Little League and Upland Foothill reliever Tommy Pincin who supplied the thunder. Alta Loma advanced into the wier’s brac...

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Mother Nature supplied the spectacular lightning in the distant San Gabriel Mountains but it was Alta Loma Little League and Upland Foothill reliever Tommy Pincin who supplied the thunder. Alta Loma advanced into the wier’s bracket of the Section 8 Touament Saturday with a 13-0 win over Apple Valley American in a game that lasted just four iings. Upland Foothill also advan...

LOS ANGELES — Right tackle Andre James cut down two would-be Hawai’i rushers and right guard Michael Alves cleared out another as ruing back Nate Starks saw a rushing lane larger than almost anything the UCLA offense had produced in more than a year. The senior ruing back galloped through, untouched for 25 yards. With quarterback Josh Rosen and the receivers surging, UCLA’s ruing game is hop...

Notes and observations as USC and Texas prepare for a game that can’t possibly match their 2006 encounter ... LOS ANGELES >> You might be surprised to hear which USC coach was in tears in the locker room immediately after the Trojans lost to Texas, 41-38, in the BCS title game. Was it Pete Carroll? Steve Sarkisian? Ed Orgeron? No, someone who has a less-emotional image: Lane Kiffin. Perhaps ...

ANAHEIM>> Although the Angels are finally getting the kind of starting pitching they need, they are nonetheless slipping in the wild card race. Despite a fourth consecutive game in which the Angels starter gave up two runs or fewer in at least five iings, the Angels were losing, 5-2, to the Houston Astros in the ninth iing at press time on Thursday night. The Angels were in jeopardy of f...

LOS ANGELES >> Before Stephen Carr dashed for 52 yards along the north sideline of the Coliseum in USC’s win over Stanford, he ran through a vast hole. Carr, the Trojans’ freshman ruing back, was untouched past the line of scrimmage. The hole, on the left side of USC’s offensive line, might have been close to 10 yards, based on TV replays. Why was it so gaping? Start with left guard Chris ...

LOS ANGELES >> A big question going into the season was how defenses wanted to try and stop a USC offense capable of passing or ruing with equal success? Stanford faced the dilemma at halftime Saturday night, as the Cardinal watched USC quarterback Sam Daold pass for 225 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. “Stanford decided to play softer and take away the throw in the second h...

At the conclusion of an NFL debut week defined by stifling defense and overmatched offenses, Philip Rivers cocked his right arm and fired a deep pass into the Denver night sky. Seven minutes remained in the AFC West’s Monday night tete-a-tete, and the Chargers, fresh off forcing their second tuover of the fourth quarter, still trailed by two scores as Rivers’ throw soared toward a streaking Trav...

SAN FRANCISCO – Breathe. In. Out. The Dodgers’ 17-game out-of-body experience finally came to an end Tuesday night – they hope – with a white-knuckler of a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The win ended an 11-game losing streak, the longest since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and was only their second in the past 18 games (both started by Clayton Kershaw). With it, the Dodg...

The best reason to watch the Galaxy game in Carson this weekend (7:30 p.m. Spectrum SportsNet) is not to see L.A., plumbing new MLS depths, but to take in all-conquering, MLS-leading Toronto FC, already being talked about as the best team ever in MLS. Toronto (17-3-8) became the first MLS team to qualify for the playoffs last weekend, with U.S. inteational Jozy Altidore scoring twice in a 4-0 ro...

While Andrew Heaney’s MRI on Monday gave hope that he can pitch again this year, the club has now lost another starter for next year. Alex Meyer, who was already ruled out for the rest of this season, will undergo surgery to repair a to labrum in his shoulder, with an expected rehab time of 12 months. Meyer, the club and doctors finally determined the course of action on Monday, after exhausting...

It had been bothering her for a little while. She had thought it was a minor injury but before the start of the 2016 track and field season, Long Beach State redshirt junior Mikalya Florez went to a doctor, got an MRI and found out she needed ACL surgery. Florez was forced to miss both the track and cross country seasons. It was a tough break for Florez but she knew she could battle back. “I was p...

Tom Herman arrived at Texas with much fanfare. Herman, the former Houston coach and Ohio State offensive coordinator, replaced Charlie Strong last November following three consecutive seasons in which the Longhos finished below .500. The early retus? Texas, which visits USC at the Coliseum on Saturday, split its first two home games but has shown little trouble on offense. “I think Tom is one ...

THOUSAND OAKS >> No dramatic moment, no speech, no loud applause. The Rams simply conducted their defensive meetings Monday with Aaron Donald in attendance, and that normalcy had to feel superb. Donald, the Rams’ star lineman who ended his six-week contract holdout Saturday, got back to work at team headquarters. The plan, according to Coach Sean McVay, is for Donald to be on the field when ...

SAN FRANCISCO >> After losing 10 games in a row and 15 of their past 16, the Dodgers arrived at AT&T Park on Monday afteoon willing to go to extremes if that’s what it took to tu things around. They would have to. The dark clouds that have followed them the past two weeks dropped rain on AT&T Park, two separate delays – one before the game even started and another after just one ...

DENVER >>Everything began rolling downhill after the drop. Five minutes into the Los Angeles Chargers’ first NFL season, Casey Hayward was poised to score. The 5-foot-11 coerback had gotten his hands on the ball, jumping a pass intended for Broncos ruing back C.J. Anderson. There was nothing in front of him except green grass. This was not exactly a surprise. A year ago, Hayward led the...

LOS ANGELES >>At a Catholic Mass inside Dodger Stadium on Sunday moing, a priest attempted to perform an exorcism on the ballpark. Friday, pitcher Yu Darvish sprinkled salt in the Dodgers’ dugout, a Japanese custom intended to ward off evil spirits. It’s come to this. The Dodgers’ 8-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday was their 10th straight. Only a home run by Alex Verdugo in the ni...

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles’ celebration of landing the 2028 Olympic Games next week will include Inteational Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Bach will light the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s Olympic cauldron during the Rams-Washington game Sept. 17, the Southe Califoia News Group has leaed. Bach’s two-day visit to Southe Califoia will come four days after the IOC in Lima, Per...

SEATTLE — If the Angels hope to get to the postseason, they are going to have to reverse this trend with their starting pitchers. Ricky Nolasco provided the latest disappointing performance, allowing four runs in 3⅔ iings in the Angels’ 4-3 loss to the Seattle Marinerson Fridaynight. Angels starters have a 6.53 ERA in the last 20 games. The work of the bullpen and the offense has kept them fro...

Christian McCaffrey torpedoed USC’s defense the last two seasons. As Stanford upended the Trojans three times in 2016 and 2015, McCaffrey tallied 970 all-purpose yards. How tough was it to bring down the elusive ruing back? Reporters covering the Pac-12 championship game in 2015 overheard then-USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and other coaches swearing in an adjacent press box booth at Le...