10 essential home and garden chores to tackle in July

• July 10, 2024

By Dan Morris

July is the best month for tackling essential home and garden chores that keep your outdoor spaces vibrant and functional. With warm, dry weather and long days, it’s the perfect time to address a variety of maintenance tasks that enhance your home’s beauty, safety and functionality.

From refreshing your grill for summer barbecues to ensuring your garden tools are in prime condition, these tasks will help you maximize your outdoor areas. Here are ten home and garden maintenance projects that will allow you to enjoy a more beautiful, enjoyable and efficient home and garden all summer long.

Cleaning and inspecting outdoor grills

July is the ultimate month to give your outdoor grill some love. With summer barbecues in full swing, a clean and well-maintained grill ensures every meal is a sizzling success. Scrub off grease and food residue, check burners and gas lines for perfect operation and ensure you have a full gas tank. A clean, well-running grill guarantees your cookouts are safe and stress-free.

Maintaining garden tools and equipment

Summer gardening is a breeze when your tools are in tip-top shape. July is the perfect time to clean, sharpen and oil your garden essentials. Remove dirt and rust on shovels, hoes and pruners, and sharpen those blades for effortless cutting. Check power equipment like lawnmowers and trimmers to keep them running smoothly. Well-maintained tools mean the work gets done faster and with less hassle, freeing up more time to relax and enjoy your outdoor space.

Removing dead or damaged trees

Keep your home and garden safe this July by removing dead or damaged trees. It’s a much easier task when the ground is dry and solid, so tackle them now for an easier and cleaner garden. Inspect trees for signs of trouble and call a certified arborist to safely handle removal. Eliminating problem trees now prevents future headaches and keeps your yard looking its best, ready for summer enjoyment.

Chipping branches for mulch

Turn garden debris into garden gold this July by chipping branches for mulch. After pruning or storm clean-up, gather those branches and feed them into a wood chipper. Spread the nutrient-rich mulch around flower beds, shrubs and trees to lock in moisture, fend off weeds, and boost soil health. It’s an eco-friendly way to recycle and enhance your garden’s beauty and vitality, keeping everything lush and thriving through the summer heat.

Removing stumps

July’s warm weather is perfect for tackling those pesky stumps cluttering your yard. There are several methods to remove stumps, depending on the size of the stump and your budget. Consider using a stump grinder to grind the stump down below ground level for quick and efficient removal. Alternatively, you can dig out the stump manually using shovels and axes, or employ chemical stump removers to accelerate the decaying process. Whichever method you choose, removing stumps opens up space for new plantings and makes your garden more attractive.

Setting up bird baths and feeders

Transform your garden into a bird haven this July with the addition of bird baths and feeders. Summer is prime bird-watching season, and providing water and food invites these feathered friends to visit. Place bird baths in shady spots to keep the water cool and stock the feeders with seeds that local birds love. You’ll enjoy a lively, colorful garden filled with chirping companions, adding natural beauty and joy to your outdoor space.

Deadheading annuals and perennials

Keep your garden bursting with color by deadheading annuals and perennials in July. Snip off spent flowers to encourage continuous blooming, directing plants’ energy into new growth. Use sharp pruners and cut back to a healthy leaf or bud. Regular deadheading keeps your garden looking fresh and vibrant, ensuring a stunning display of flowers all summer long. It’s a simple task that makes a huge difference in your garden’s appeal.

Inspecting and cleaning wood stoves and fireplaces

Get ahead of winter by inspecting and cleaning chimneys and flues in July. Even though your stove isn’t in use, summer is the perfect time for maintenance. Check for creosote buildup, cracks or blockages. Hire a professional chimney sweep for a thorough clean. Addressing issues now ensures your stove is safe and efficient when the cold weather hits. Summer is also the best time to clean fireplace brick and tile. This can be a smelly task, so it’s good to air out the house at the same time.

Power washing decks and patios

Make your outdoor spaces shine by power washing decks and patios in July. The warm weather is perfect for blasting away dirt, mold and grime. Use a pressure washer to clean every nook and cranny, restoring surfaces to their former glory. A sparkling deck or patio not only looks fantastic but may also help prevent slips. Get ready to host summer gatherings on a fresh, clean backdrop.

Painting or staining outdoor furniture

This July, give your outdoor furniture a fresh look with a coat of paint or stain. The sunny, dry weather is ideal for quick drying and curing. Sand down surfaces, then apply a weather-resistant finish to protect against sun and rain. This simple update can transform your furniture, adding a vibrant, refreshed feel to your outdoor space.

Tick off the boxes, then relax

By dedicating some time this July to these ten essential home and garden tasks, you’ll set the stage for a season of outdoor enjoyment and relaxation. With a clean grill ready for cookouts, well-maintained tools for effortless gardening, and a yard free of hazards like dead trees and stumps, your home will be safer and more inviting.

Adding bird baths and feeders will bring natural beauty and joy, while freshly painted furniture and a spotless deck or patio will enhance your outdoor living experience. Embrace the summer and make your home and garden the best they can be.

Daniel Morris founded Fire and Saw, a site about chainsaws, wood stoves, tree care and related topics. He operates the site where he shares his passion for these subjects.

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​ Orange County Register 

22 years later, author Kevin Barry found the key to a novel he’d long meant to write

• July 10, 2024

In the woods near his home in Ireland, author Kevin Barry found the answer to something that had nagged him for more than 20 years.

“One day, late in the pandemic, I was walking in the mountains in County Sligo where I live now,” says Barry via Zoom. “I just saw it in my mind’s eye: A man and a woman riding double on a horse. And I thought, if they’re riding double, they need to get away from someplace quick. What’s their problem? Who are they? And that’s just the way they came.”

Into the west

For Barry, the acclaimed author of “Night Boat to Tangier,” “Beatlebone” and “City of Bohane,” the Irish woods felt like the landscape of an American Western, and the imagined couple sharing a horse unlocked a story he’d been wanting to tell for more than two decades. 

In his just-published new book, “The Heart in Winter,” set in the rough boomtown of 1891-era Butte, Montana, an Irish ne’er-do-well and the mail-order bride of a wealthy miner set off a powerful chain of events.

SEE ALSO: Read the Book Pages newsletter online for the latest coverage of bestsellers, authors and more

“It felt like I was paying back a debt to my younger self because it was the first novel I attempted when I was in my late 20s,” says Barry, who recalls another fortuitous day out in nature. 

“In 1999, I was a freelance journalist in Cork, Ireland, with a notion that I would write a novel. I wasn’t getting very far with it, but I was walking one day in the mountains in County Cork, and I found these abandoned copper mines and started to research the history of them. I learned that all the miners had moved en masse to Butte, Montana in the 1880s and ‘90s. And I thought, Wow, this is a Western — but it’s got Cork accents.”

“I could do this,” he remembers thinking. “I went to Butte in October ‘99 … and I got lots of great material for a novel, lots of stuff about the bars and the brothels and the opium parlors, all that great 1890s texture and detail.”

Barry says he tried to write the novel but couldn’t make it work at the time.

“I didn’t have the characters. They took another 22 years to appear,” he says, adding that it took his vision of the fugitive couple, Polly and Tom, to reveal the story. “I realized, ‘Wow, I have a way into my Butte, Montana novel now. It can be a smaller story than I envisaged when I first tried to write it.”

SEE ALSO: The Book Pages: Remembering Charles Portis with Jay Jennings

“What was nice was to go back to this idea after so many years was to realize that even at 29 I was on the right track, because it’s a great world for me,” says Barry, describing Butte’s transformation from mining camp to growing city and “incredibly multicultural place” full of Cornish, Chinese, Finnish and Irish immigrants in just a decade or so. “There were miners in Europe — around the world — they all made for Butte, Montana. The word was out. There was a huge rush on copper for the electrification of the United States, so they were making good money for the time, really good money.

“Irish people have always been economic migrants. We’ve always been economic refugees. We almost invented it,” says Barry. “People kind of know about the Irish miners that went to Butte, but they don’t know the extent of it, that a third of the city was Irish by the 1890s. 

“It’s very interesting to watch the way the Irish community organizes itself when it goes abroad like that,” he says. “The first thing they did was they opened about 38 pubs, OK?” 

From there, says Barry, the Irish took over law enforcement and the political apparatus. “They made it a real little Irish machine town. It was like a little Boston or a little Chicago.”

And all of that made for a better book, he says.

“Having a diaspora, having a history of migration in your country, it’s a great thing for a writer,” says Barry. “It opens up the world to you. You can put your characters pretty much anywhere in a believable way because we’ve always gone off, we’ve always traveled.

SEE ALSO: 5 Westerns that nearly killed the movie genre

Under the influence 

While the novel has some of the hallmarks of a classic Western, it’s also got the mucky realism of HBO’s “Deadwood,” the hardboiled romance of a film noir and the unlikely fashion sense of a certain revisionist Western. 

“I’ve always been as a fiction writer as influenced by film and television as I am by books,” says Barry. “I got into the 1970s kind of revisionist American westerns, the kind of “McCabe & Mrs Miller” type films, “Missouri Breaks,” and those great Terrence Malick neo-Westerns. “Badlands” and “Days of Heaven,” especially, were big influences on the voices in “The Heart in Winter.”

“There’s a special nod to Warren Beatty’s fur coat in ‘McCabe & Mrs Miller,’” says Barry, referring to a distinctive bit of outerwear that Tom and Polly wind up with at one point. “It’s a blonde fur coat. It’s the coolest fur coat a dude has ever worn.”

Beyond his love of film, Barry says he was aware of the novels of other writers including Charles Portis, Barry Hannah and, of course, Cormac McCarthy, whose work he consulted early in the writing while puzzling over a question about horses.

“Early on, I came to a scene with a horse and I got nervous because I don’t know very much about horses, so I said I better consult Mr. McCarthy on this. And I went to my shelves, and I picked down the first Cormac McCarthy I found, I think it was ‘All the Pretty Horses,’ and just opened and read about three pages at random. And I thought, Oh, [heck], he knows a lot about horses.”

Ultimately, Barry came up with a solution that worked for his dodgy daydreaming character, Tom. “What if Tom Roarke knows nothing about horses? What if he’s completely winging it on the horses front? Then I won’t have to do any research,” he says with a laugh. “You kind of solve your problems as a fiction writer as you go along.”

That’s not to say Barry avoided the trappings of genre writing; he embraced them. “When you’re writing a Western, and when you find yourself typing sentences like, ‘The sheriff said…’ you just have to go with it. You just have to commit. 

“I love to bring in genre tropes — the noir tropes and the classic Western tropes of posses and ‘lighting out for fresh territory,‘” he says. “When these genres collide, you can make sparks.”

An intimate epic

Even with its wide range of influences and the vast landscape the characters move across, the novel packs a lot of great writing into a remarkably quick read.

That’s not by accident.

“As a reader, I love the 200-page novel. I love that novel where I can go to my couch and go, right, this is Novel Night. I’m going to switch off all my devices and I’m just gonna read this book in a sitting,” he says. “It’s a lovely feeling to treat it like watching a great movie, you know? Make it a really intense experience. So my ambition is to write the three-hour novel where the reader could sit down and just fall into this world completely. 

“What I’m trying to do a lot of the time is get away from a lot of the traditional furniture of a novel and shortcut it and give these short, really intense scenes,” he says. “I like the short intense bang of it.”

SEE ALSO: C. Pam Zhang discusses her Booker Prize-nominated Western novel, ‘How Much of These Hills Is Gold’

“Where we are now, as readers in history, I think it makes a lot of sense to go for that much more short and intense experience,” he says. “People have a lot of pressure on their time.”

So Barry says that if someone is going to write a longer book, he’s looking for something really good.

“I don’t read an awful lot of historical fiction, but I go back to the best, which is Hilary Mantel,” says Barry, referring to Mantel’s towering “Wolf Hall” trilogy. “It never has the sense of stuff that happened hundreds of years ago. It feels so fresh. The intrigue feels like this could have been going on in the corridors of power last week, and she knows how to hide her research. There isn’t a sense on the page of all this research bogging it down.”

As well as historical elements, Barry researched how people spoke in the era, and the novel crackles with often salty language. 

“There are genuine Cornish slang words from the time,” says Barry, offering examples best not repeated here. “I was trying to keep a kind of freshness in the language … to make it feel like this wasn’t antique.” 

Sounds like a book

For those who enjoy audiobooks, Barry is a novelist you should get to know. As much as his work pops on the page, there’s something incredibly compelling about his audiobook narration. You’re in the presence of a true storyteller.

“I’m kind of a frustrated ham actor. I like to try the accents and all this. I was happy with most of my accents of this performance,” he says, before joking that one of his accents wasn’t up to his high standards: “My Cornish from the southwest of England? I think it’s a little bit of a hate crime against the Cornish people.”

SEE ALSO: In a pandemic-scarred Old West, ‘Outlawed’ finds women in peril and fighting back

But he recognizes the growth of audiobooks even at signings of physical books. “I had a launch event in Dublin recently at a great bookstore called Hodges Figgis,” he says. “And as I was signing books, I would say at least 20 percent of people said, ‘Oh, I really enjoyed hearing your last one’ or ‘I really enjoyed listening to your last one.’ It’s really exploded in recent times; that’s kind of great. I know I rehearse a lot for them.”

Barry says reading the work out loud has always been part of his process.

“Once I have a rough first draft, I’m kind of doing the voices and hearing it on the air, because I find it’s a shortcut to finding where the real narrative thread is — and you can also hear your evasions where you’re getting away from the real story much easier than you’ll see them on the on the laptop screen or in your notebook,” he says. “When you hear it aloud, you really kind of get to get to the quick of it. It’s always been an important part of my writing process. So it’s fun then at the end of it to go and do the readings and to do the audiobook and all that.” 

Living in the city

While the Irish writer’s imagination has been in snowy Montana over the past few years, Barry and his wife have been nearer to the sunny locale of readers of this paper.

“The last couple of winters I’ve been in Los Angeles in Silver Lake escaping the Irish winter,” says Barry, who has also spent time in Santa Barbara and Boston over the years. “I really like the way Silver Lake is pretty walkable by Los Angeles standards. You can kind of get by on an Uber on a short visit of a couple of months.”

So where did he walk in Los Angeles? It’s not hard to guess. “A couple of great stores, like Skylight Books in Los Feliz, Stories down in Echo Park. Fantastic stores, great stores.

“What I love about coming to the U.S.,” says Barry. “I love the independent bookstores. I love that sense of community that they foster and that they really, really work hard in a business that has a low kind of profit margin to keep it going,” says Barry, citing the readings, events and book clubs run out of local shops. 

“It’s such valuable work to keep books in a central place in our culture, which you know that’s a battle that we’re in, and there’s so much credit due to the indie bookstores for doing that.”

And as for Barry, he’s doing his best to make sure that both he and the reader are having a good time.

“For me, it’s a simple equation: I need to be having a good time at my desk or our beloved reader down the road isn’t going to be having a good time,” he says. “Books should be fun. We invented books to get us through the long, dark nights, you know?” 

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​ Orange County Register 

Sparks dominated by short-handed Lynx, lose for 10th time in past 11 games

• July 10, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Despite coach Curt Miller’s warning, the Sparks seemingly came out flat energy-wise, struggled offensively and quickly trailed by double digits in the first quarter on Tuesday night. They fought back, pulling within five points of the Minnesota Lynx in the second quarter but the comeback was not sustainable. It was too little too late.

The Sparks trailed by as much as 25 points in the third quarter and suffered an 82-67 loss to the short-handed Lynx at Crypto.com Arena.

“A game where we were outplayed, outcoached,” Miller said. “Again, this is why Minnesota is one of the top three teams in the league right now.

“The question is why did it take taking a haymaker in that first quarter to respond when all we’ve talked about is their execution, their physicality?”

Sparks All-Star forward Dearica Hamby had a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds in 37 minutes, but she was the only Spark who scored in double figures.

“For me, it’s leading by example,” Hamby said. “I have to start with a toughness and physicality from the start of the game. As a pro, you learn yourself but when you have to lead, I think I have to be more intentional about the tone that I set from the beginning. It may work for me but it doesn’t necessarily work for everybody so being more intentional.”

The Sparks (5-17) have lost 10 of their last 11 games and dropped to 0-3 against the Lynx (16-6) this season. The Sparks, who had 20 turnovers and never led in the game, will close the 40-game regular season in Minnesota on Sept. 19.

Bridget Carleton scored 16 points and Dorka Juhasz added 15 for Minnesota, which played without injured MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, the team’s leading scorer (20 ppg) and rebounder (10.2 ppg). The Lynx have won their past seven games at Crypto.com Arena and 13 of their last 14 meetings with the Sparks overall.

“Our margin is small and so you can’t be worrying about effort and energy in games when we need to spend our time more on schemes in what we’re going to do offensively and defensively,” Miller said before the game.

However, the Sparks did not heed Miller’s message early and trailed 29-16 at the end of the first. Minnesota took control early by making 11 of its first 16 shots (with points from nine players), while the Sparks shot 3 for 12 from the field.

“That’s what they do to everybody and that’s how good their execution and tempo is,” Miller said. “I’m not sure we were ready for the physicality and fight and as much as you preach it they have to have the desire when they walk out there. They just didn’t have it (Tuesday night). It’s my job to pull it out of them and have them ready … they just outplayed us, they out-executed us and certainly you would have to say out-coached us because no matter how much we talked about it, they did what they were fearful of what they could do.”

Hamby said even without Collier, Minnesota is a significantly more experienced team than the rebuilding Sparks.

“Lack of experience,” Hamby said of the Sparks. “There’s a few players on this team that have won championships but overall in this league, there hasn’t been a ton of success, individually within our team.

“Curt has had success. They’re giving us the game plan. He’s not perfect all the time, but we’re the five on the floor so we have to show up and the end of the day. He can only do so much and prep us so much. We have to start believing in ourselves, trusting ourselves and trust his plan.”

The Sparks fared better in the second quarter. Hamby’s 3-pointer pulled her team within 37-32, but the Lynx responded with a 10-1 run to open a 47-33 advantage late, highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers by All-Star guard Kayla McBride and Team Canada Olympian Carleton.

Carleton finished the night 4 for 4 from 3-point range as the Lynx shot 9 for 18 from behind the arc, while the Sparks were just 3 for 20.

The Sparks trailed 51-35 at halftime and 70-51 at the end of the third quarter.

“Toughness comes from believing in yourself … but also it’s just a passion and a heart thing,” Hamby said. “You can’t really teach that but I think once you start having confidence in yourself, it kind of translates. You want to be physical. You want to get up and show that you can defend. You want to do the extra things that we just don’t have that right now.”

Second-year forward Juhász started in place of Collier (left foot) and had 11 of her 15 points in the first half. McBride and Lynx reserve guard Cecilia Zandalasini each had 11 points.

For the first time this season, the Sparks starting lineup included center Azurá Stevens, who replaced the injured Stephanie Talbot (right foot), one of three players now sidelined including Cameron Brink (ACL) and Lexie Brown (Chron’s disease). Stevens finished with nine points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in a season-high 28 minutes.

“I feel good,” Stevens said. “It’s a condensed season so I’ve had reps in practice but we don’t really practice too much so I’m still getting used to the physicality of the game, incorporating my arm in that.

“Obviously, I haven’t played in a few months so just getting my footing back and that type of stuff so that can be frustrating at times but I think it starts with us defensively. Offense is going to come and go, some nights you might not hit shots but defense is something that you can control, so that’s something that we’ve been trying to harp on and keep reiterating because we know that in order to win we’re going to have to stop teams regardless of if the ball is going in or not.”

Stevens still believes her team can turn around the disappointing first half of the season and make the postseason for the first time since 2020.

“We can still make a push for playoffs,” Stevens continued. “I know it doesn’t seem like that but we can. So much can change over the second half of the season.”

Miller, who is 0-7 against the Lynx during his two seasons leading the Sparks, knew attacking Minnesota’s defense would take more than energy and effort.

“Minnesota, analytically, is off the charts defensive,” Miller said. “They are not easy to play against. They are the number one team in my opinion right now in congesting the paint.”

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve knew she would need to count on her defense to beat the Sparks.

“Like every road game we play, understanding that our defense is what gets us through the most difficult times of a home team’s runs, so try to limit the big runs because we’ll be locked in defensively. That is always our mindset,” Reeve said before the game.

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SENSE OF PRIDE

Reeve, a four-time WNBA champion (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017), explained how good it feels to witness the league’s growth.

“This season has been record-setting and I’ve been in the league a long time since 2001,” she said. “We’ve gone from not being really welcomed in our own practice facility to being celebrated and the attendance. We’ve just seen a lot in 20-plus years so I’m thankful that I’m still here, that we’ve evolved just how we conduct our business. That we are treating it more like our male counterparts in terms of men’s sports, investing and we’re learning that when you do that, there’s a return on that investment just like there was for men. Just being here to see that, that’s really exciting for me and that’s not lost on me. Every once in a while I look around and I go I’m glad I’m still doing this at this time because it’s been a journey and this team gives me joy.”

UP NEXT

The Sparks will have Wednesday and Thursday off before practicing again on Friday ahead of Saturday’s road game against the Dallas Wings.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels lose despite Logan O’Hoppe’s 2 homers against Max Scherzer

• July 10, 2024

ANAHEIM — In the summer of 2022, when Logan O’Hoppe was still in Double-A with the Philadelphia Phillies, his team faced Max Scherzer, who was rehabbing with the New York Mets.

“He carved me up then, punched me out twice,” O’Hoppe said. “That was a lesson learned. Can’t let anything go when he’s on the mound.”

The lesson paid off two years later, this time in the big leagues. O’Hoppe hit a pair of first-pitch homers against the Hall of Fame-bound Scherzer, although it wasn’t enough for the Angels, who lost to the Texas Rangers, 5-4.

“I watched him growing up a ton,” O’Hoppe said. “He’s been so dominant his whole career, but doesn’t matter being on losing end now.”

After O’Hoppe’s second homer, in the fourth inning, tied the score, it remained tied until Rangers slugger Adolis García hit a solo homer against Angels right-hander Luis Garcia in the top of the eighth.

“Tonight he tried to put us on his back,” Angels manager Ron Washington said of O’Hoppe. “We just came up short.”

It was the eighth loss in the last nine games for the Angels (37-54), who equaled their season-worst at 17 games under .500.

This season has been over for a while, leaving the Angels to simply see what they have for the future.

And they clearly have their catcher.

O’Hoppe, who also singled in his third at-bat against Scherzer, now has 14 homers, equaling his total from last season. He’s batting .282 with an .825 OPS.

It was the second multi-homer game of his career, including one last September in Seattle.

O’Hoppe got a first-pitch hanging curveball that he hit out to left-center in the second inning. In the fourth, Scherzer threw him a first-pitch fastball down the middle and O’Hoppe hit it out to center.

“I just knew I couldn’t let good pitches go with a guy like that on the mound,” O’Hoppe said.

The homer helped the Angels erase an early 4-1 deficit, but they never got the lead.

Starter Roansy Contreras had a second straight rough outing, allowing four runs in two innings. The Angels have given Contreras the ball three times as a starter, and he has yet to last more than three innings.

It seems he will continue in the rotation until the Angels are ready to bring up Reid Detmers, Chase Silseth, Kenny Rosenberg or Sam Bachman.

Contreras allowed a Josh Smith homer in the first inning, and in the third he couldn’t get a single out. He allowed three straight hits, driving in a run. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, he gave up an infield hit.

“He was getting ahead of hitters, and then when he needed to leave the strike zone, he didn’t,” Washington said. “It’s a growing time for him. He’s 24 years old. He’s got to learn those type of things. Hopefully he can gather that information and become the type of baseball player we need him to be.”

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Contreras was spared a loss, though, because the Angels were able to do some damage against Scherzer.

In between O’Hoppe’s homers in the second and fourth innings, the Angels scored two in the third on consecutive hits from Anthony Rendon, Nolan Schanuel and Taylor Ward.

Ward hit a routine single to right, but the ball skipped past right fielder Derek Hill. Ward, who hurt his knee on Sunday, tried to go all the way to third on the error, but he was thrown out.

After O’Hoppe’s homer tied it, his single int the seventh gave them a shot to take the lead. The Angels loaded the bases with two outs, but Schanuel grounded out to end the inning.

“We played our butts off tonight,” Washington said. “Put ourselves in position to do something really good. But we just couldn’t get that hit.”

LOGAN O’HAMMERED THAT ONE@Angels I #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/ZSqsownhbL

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) July 10, 2024

AND HE DOES IT AGAIN@Angels I #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/kqPiqm4uw2

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) July 10, 2024

Wash discusses the loss and O’Hoppe’s game@Angels I #AngelsLive pic.twitter.com/7zWhxhu9Iy

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) July 10, 2024

​ Orange County Register 

Man hospitalized after being shot multiple times in Santa Ana

• July 10, 2024

A man suffered multiple gunshot wounds in Santa Ana on Tuesday, July 9, police said.

The shooting occurred around 5:19 p.m. in a residential area on the 700 block of South Townsend Street. The man, whose identity was not released, was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper torso, Santa Ana Police Officer Natalie Garcia said.

The suspect has not been identified and the investigation is ongoing. Details on the circumstances leading up to the shooting were not immediately released.

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​ Orange County Register 

Lionel Messi, Argentina beat Canada to reach Copa América final

• July 10, 2024

By RONALD BLUM AP Sports Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Lionel Messi scored his 109th international goal and first of the tournament, leading defending champion Argentina over Canada, 2-0, on Tuesday night and into the Copa America final.

Julián Álvarez put the Albiceleste ahead in the 22nd minute and Messi redirected Enzo Fernández’s shot in off the face of goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau in the 51st. Messi has 28 goals in his last 25 matches for Argentina and 14 in Copa America play, three shy of the record.

Only Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo with 130 has more international goals than Messi, who turned 37 on June 24. Iran’s Al Daei had 108 or 109 from 1993 to 2006, with a lingering dispute over whether a goal against Ecuador in 2000 occurred in a full international match.

With a victory on its independence day, Argentina extended its unbeaten streak to 10 games. The Albiceleste will be playing for a record 16th Copa title when they square off with Uruguay or Colombia on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Trying to string together championships in consecutive Copa Americas around the 2022 World Cup championship, Argentina is trying to match the feat of Spain when La Roja won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships along with the 2010 World Cup.

Argentina fans gathered in Times Square on the eve of the match and filled the streets on Manhattan before heading to MetLife Stadium, site of the 2026 World Cup final. The crowd of 80,102 on a night with an 82-degree temperature and 82% humidity was overwhelmingly pro-Argentina, with only a few sections dominated by red-clad Canadian supporters.

It was among the biggest games for Canadian soccer, which went 0-6 in its only World Cup appearances in 1986 and 2022 and won its only major title at the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Argentina had beaten Canada, 2-0, in the tournament opener on June 20.

Canada star Alphonso Davies limped off after his right leg was caught in a clean challenge with Gonzalo Montiel and he was replaced in the 71st minute.

Making his 38th Copa America appearance, Messi had missed Argentina’s group stage finale with a leg injury and was subdued while playing 90 minutes in the quarterfinal win over Ecuador.

He was just wide from the top of the penalty area in the 12th minute after exchanging passes with Ángel Di María, then wide again in the 44th and put a chip over the crossbar in first-half injury time.

MetLife’s temporary grass surface appeared heavy, with water splashing and sand popping up during dribbles.

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Argentina went ahead after Rodrigo De Paul from the center circle played a long pass to Álvarez, who took a touch at the top of the arc to control the ball from Moïse Bombito. Álvarez took another touch to create space from Bombito and from near the penalty spot slipped the ball between the legs of Crépeau for his ninth goal in 35 international appearances.

Messi scored following a throw-in. He centered the ball to De Paul, who ran to the end line and cut the ball back. Koné’s attempted clearance went to Fernández, who teed up a shot that Messi redirected from just inside the 6-yard box.

Jonathan David was thwarted by Emiliano Martínez from close range in first-half stoppage time, and Martínez made a kick save on Tani Oluwaseyi in the 80th.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ Bobby Miller has worst start of career in loss to Phillies

• July 10, 2024

PHILADELPHIA — The Dodgers have a problem and it’s only getting worse.

On the same day they put Tyler Glasnow on the injured list for a midseason break, they watched Bobby Miller struggle through the worst start of his young career. Miller allowed a career-high nine runs on 10 hits in four innings Tuesday night as the Philadelphia Phillies bludgeoned their way to a 10-1 victory over the Dodgers.

“Tonight was embarrassing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“We still have a chance to win the series. That’s kind of where my head is, trying to flush this one and focus on tomorrow.”

It would help if they got a good start – something that has disappeared from their game recently.

With Miller’s debacle, Dodgers starters have allowed 45 runs in 44 innings over their past 10 games. The group is fooling no one – they have given up 51 hits, including 12 home runs, in that time.

Playing from behind on a nightly basis, the Dodgers have lost six of those 10 games and did not look to be on the same plane as the Phillies who have the best record in baseball.

The poor starting pitching has also overextended the Dodgers’ bullpen and they wound up sending Kiké Hernandez to the mound against the Phillies – in the seventh inning.

“I know that winning baseball games, sustaining winning, stems and starts with starting pitching. That’s a fact,” Roberts said. “Clearly we haven’t got the consistency out of that.”

Tuesday’s pounding was the latest low point for Miller, who has not looked right since returning from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for two months earlier this year. He didn’t pitch well on his minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment and now has a 9.87 ERA in four starts since rejoining the Dodgers’ rotation.

“I’m shocked. I’m a little shell-shocked right now, given what he’s done, expecting him to continue to take steps forward and to see where we’re at,” Roberts said of Miller.

After going 11-4 with a 3.76 ERA in 22 starts last season, Miller was expected to be a reliable member of the rotation this season. That hasn’t happened.

“It’s been tough. It really has,” Miller said. “But I’m going to use that as motivation in my next outing whenever that is. And yeah, just use this failure as motivation going into my next outing.”

The hard-throwing Miller has just nine strikeouts in 17⅓ innings since returning. His fastball velocity is down and has been all season. Batters are hitting .338 (24 for 71) against this version of Miller with five home runs. It’s all an indication that his shoulder might be back at full strength (he insists it is) but his stuff is not.

“Execution and getting ahead on everybody, just being in attack mode – that’s when I’m at my best when I’m on attack mode, get ahead of guys and put them away instead of going 0-2 and working to 3-2 a lot,” Miller said.

“Velocity is a little down, too. Stuff just doesn’t have enough bite to it right now and not putting guys away fast when I get deep into the count. A lot of 3-2 counts, a lot of walks, just everything all put together. I’m going to get back to where I need to be. I know that for sure.”

Miller couldn’t offer an explanation for why his velocity is down and his stuff doesn’t have as much “bite.”

“I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “I’m trying everything I can. Shoulder is strong right now so it’s probably just mechanics. It’s a little bit of everything. I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Roberts said the Dodgers are confident that Miller’s struggles are not an indication his shoulder has not healed.

“We’ve done all the stuff as far as on the testing, talking to Bobby as far as how he feels,” Roberts said. “Everything that we get lines up too. The strength’s there. He’s healthy. I think it might be more on the delivery side of it where we can tap into more velocity and commanding of the baseball. It could be. But like I said, we’ve done a lot of things and a lot of conversations that would argue that he is healthy.”

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Miller’s troubles against the Phillies started with two outs in the second inning. Miller walked Brandon Marsh, who promptly stole second base and scored on a single by Rafael Marchan. Johan Rojas beat out an infield single and both moved up on a wild pitch by Miller. Kyle Schwarber drove them in with a single, doing Miller a favor by being thrown out at second base.

Two innings later, the roof caved in on Miller.

The first five Phillies batters reached base, including three consecutive hits by the final three batters in the Phillies’ order. That trio (Marsh, Marchan and Rojas) went 5 for 5 with a walk, a double, two RBIs and six runs scored in Miller’s four innings.

Trea Turner hit a grand slam and Bryson Stott a solo home run for a six-run inning before Miller could escape to the air-conditioned, cheesesteak-scented safety of the Dodgers’ clubhouse.

He soon had plenty of company. Roberts began pulling his regulars from the game in the fifth inning.

Phillies starter Zack Wheeler left after five innings with lower back tightness. But all the Dodgers could muster was a solo home run by Cavan Biggio in the fifth inning.

​ Orange County Register 

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

• July 10, 2024

The SoCal Indie Bestsellers List for the sales week ended July 7 is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of Southern California, the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. James: Percival Everett

2. The God of the Woods: Liz Moore

3. All Fours: Miranda July

4. Funny Story: Emily Henry

5. The Midnight Feast: Lucy Foley

6. The Women: Kristin Hannah

7. Table for Two: Fictions: Amor Towles

8. Good Material: Dolly Alderton

9. Same As It Ever Was: Claire Lombardo

10. The Paris Novel: Ruth Reichl

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir: Griffin Dunne

2. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness: Jonathan Haidt

3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being: Rick Rubin

4. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War: Erik Larson

5. On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service: Anthony Fauci, M.D.

6. An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s: Doris Kearns Goodwin

7. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder: David Grann

8. The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI: Ray Kurzweil

9. Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk: Kathleen Hanna

10. Somehow: Thoughts on Love: Anne Lamott

MASS MARKET

1. 1984: George Orwell

2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

3. Children of Dune: Frank Herbert

4. Mistborn: The Final Empire: Brandon Sanderson

5. The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories: Oscar Wilde

6. The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien

7. Dune Messiah: Frank Herbert

8. Slaughterhouse-Five: Kurt Vonnegut

9. Dune: Frank Herbert

10. The Name of the Wind: Patrick Rothfuss

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: Gabrielle Zevin

2. A Court of Thorns and Roses: Sarah J. Maas

3. Beach Read: Emily Henry

4. Happy Place: Emily Henry

5. Just for the Summer: Abby Jimenez

6. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women: Lisa See

7. Wellness: Nathan Hill

8. The Idiot: Elif Batuman

9. Play It As It Lays: Joan Didion

10. Not in Love: Ali Hazelwood

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​ Orange County Register