The Sports Report: As trade deadline looms, Dodgers avoid sweep by Astros

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Jack Harris: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday there are many “paths” the team could take leading to Tuesday’s trade deadline.

When asked where the club could still upgrade its roster, Roberts listed many options.

“Whether it’s starting pitching, relief pitching, infield, outfield help,” he said, “what you do is assess all the organizations in baseball and opportunities to get better. I don’t think anyone can specifically say what it’s going to be. We’re just looking to get better.”

But when the team crossed the 48-hour threshold for the deadline on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers had yet to make a major trade. They’d yet to land an impact addition. And, even after avoiding a weekend sweep with a 6-2 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday, they remained mired with an 11-11 record this month, playing well below their World Series standards.

For many Dodgers fans, the frustrations of the team’s on-field play recently — when they’ve been without Freddie Freeman (family emergency list), Mookie Betts (broken hand), Max Muncy (oblique strain), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (shoulder) and others — have been dwarfed by concerns regarding the club’s deadline plans.

The team already has missed out on one deadline target in Randy Arozarena. While the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays had discussed an Arozarena deal since early this month, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, the Seattle Mariners ultimately outbid all other parties for the 29-year-old outfielder.

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ANGELS

Taylor Ward hit a grand slam to help the Angels erase an early 6-0 deficit, and Los Angeles beat the Oakland Athletics 8-6 on Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.

Ward’s fourth-inning slam into the Oakland bullpen in left-center off Osvaldo Bido (2-2) was the fourth of his career and the fourth by an Angel this season. His previous grand slam was on May 4, 2022, also against Oakland. He has 16 homers this season.

“It’s one of the most amazing feelings in baseball, besides maybe hitting a walk-off grand slam,” Ward said.

Brent Rooker hit a bases-clearing double in a six-run third inning for the A’s, who had won eight of 10 and had already secured their fourth straight series win.

Luis Garcia, pressed into duty as Angels closer after Carlos Estevez was traded to Philadelphia a day earlier, retired the side on nine pitches in the ninth for his fourth save.

Roansy Contreras (2-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

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NFL TRAINING CAMPS IN L.A.

From Sam Farmer: Location, location, location.

That’s what the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints were thinking when they decided to move their training camps to Southern California, joining the Rams and Chargers and traditional summer transplant Dallas Cowboys, who have set up shop in Oxnard almost every summer since 2001.

The stretch between Ventura County to Orange County represents the densest cluster of teams in NFL history, even more concentrated than the so-called “Cheese League” in the mid-1990s, when five teams held camps in Wisconsin and the Vikings stayed in neighboring Minnesota.

Southern California almost had a sixth team this summer as the Houston Texans quietly looked into moving their camp to Thousand Oaks, where the Rams were holding their temporary headquarters ahead of the completion of the Woodland Hills site.

With that in mind, we set out to visit all five Southland camps in a single day, understanding that the drive was doable but we would need a Star Trek transporter to actually see every team at practice. We would be on the grounds of each camp but would wind up interviewing a lot of blocking sleds and tackling dummies.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1751 — The first International World Title Prize Fight takes place in Harlston, England. The champion, Jack Slack of England, beats the challenger, M. Petit of France, in 25 minutes.

1960 — The first American Football League preseason game is played in Buffalo, N.Y. The Boston Patriots, led by quarterback Butch Songin, beat the Bills 28-7 before 16,474 fans at War Memorial Stadium.

1979 — Amy Alcott shoots a 7-under 285 to beat Nancy Lopez in the Peter Jackson Classic, later named The du Maurier Classic. The du Maurier is one of the LPGA Tour’s major championships from 1979-2000.

1986 — The U.S. Football League wins and loses in its lawsuit against the NFL. The jury finds the NFL violated antitrust laws, as the USFL claimed, but awards the USFL only $1 in damages.

1989 — Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor becomes the first person to high jump 8 feet, breaking his world record at the Caribbean Championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He surpasses his mark of 7-11½.

1992 — The U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team wins the gold medal, with Matt Biondi and Tom Jager becoming the first U.S. male swimmers to win golds in three Olympics.

1996 — Michael Johnson sweeps to victory in an Olympic 400-meter record 43.49 seconds, while Carl Lewis leaps into history in Atlanta. Lewis’ long jump of 27 feet, 10¾ inches earns him his ninth gold medal, equaling the American mark held by swimmer Mark Spitz.

2012 — Kimberly Rhode wins the Olympic gold medal in women’s skeet shooting, becoming the first American to take an individual-sport medal in five consecutive Olympics.

2012 — Dana Vollmer of the U.S. sets a world record to win the 100-meter butterfly at the London Olympics. Vollmer hits the wall in 55.98 seconds to shave 0.08 off the mark set by Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden at the 2009 world championships in Rome.

2021 — Sunisa Lee wins the women’s all-around gymnastics gold medal in Tokyo.

Compiled by the Associated Press