Knott’s Soak City will get a little TLC in 2026

• November 15, 2024

Knott’s Soak City will get a little TLC when the 15-acre water park with two dozen slides, a lazy river and wave pool undergoes a major refurbishment for the first time in nearly a decade.

Knott’s Soak City water park in Buena Park will be refreshed and enhanced in 2026, according to Knott’s Berry Farm officials.

ALSO SEE: Six Flags Magic Mountain plans 21st roller coaster for 2026

The Soak City refurbishment is part of Six Flags’ plan to spend $1 billion on new rides, themed areas, seasonal events and other amenities at its 42 amusement parks and water parks over the next two years.

Additional details about the Knott’s Soak City upgrade will be announced in summer 2025.

ALSO SEE: Knott’s and Magic Mountain to offer season pass combo in 2025

Knott’s Soak City has made minor upgrades over the past few years to the areas around the wave pool, lazy river and a few food and beverage locations.

The last major refurbishment of Knott’s Soak City was in 2017.

Back then, Soak City got the Shore Break six-slide tower and the Wedge family raft slide along with a remodel of Longboard’s Grill and cabana seating areas.

ALSO SEE: Six Flags has no plans to close any theme parks

Don’t expect anything quite as elaborate for 2026. Water park enhancements tend to involve fresh paint, new landscaping and more shade.

Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags Magic Mountain will undergo a major refurbishment in 2025 that will upgrade food and beverage options, expand shaded seating and cabana areas and install new landscaping.

Other Six Flags parks are getting bigger water park upgrades in 2025 — including a new water coaster and kids play area at Ohio’s Kings Island and a kids slide tower and splash play area at Six Flags Over Texas.

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​ Orange County Register 

Lakers fall to Suns for 1st loss of season

• October 29, 2024

PHOENIX — Despite strong performances from Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, the Lakers dropped their first game of the season to the Suns, falling 109-105 on Monday night at Footprint Center to kick off their five-game trip.

Davis’ 30-point streak to start the season ended at three games. He finished with 29 points (12-of-24 shooting), 15 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

Hachimura finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Reaves scored 23 points (8-for-15 shooting), including 17 in the second half, to go with eight rebounds and three assists.

But with the Lakers trailing 107-104 with 37 seconds left after Davis blocked a Devin Booker jumper that would have put the Suns ahead by five, Reaves missed a potential game-tying open 3-pointer out of a timeout with Booker (game-high 33 points) grabbing the rebound.

“It was a great look, it just didn’t go,” Reaves said. “You wish you could have those back. I’ve been thinking about it ever since the game ended. If I make that shot, a tie game, maybe we get a stop and we get a bucket.

“But, [there are] many possessions in the game where could have [done] something better. Execution was really good. Got the look that we wanted. I just didn’t make the shot. But, I’m going to shoot that every time and live with the results.”

The Lakers got another stop while still down 107-104 with eight seconds left, but the Suns intentionally fouled LeBron James, who struggled offensively for most of the game, to prevent him from attempting a potential game-tying 3-point shot.

James made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. But the Lakers didn’t grab the offensive rebound and Bradley Beal (15 points) sealed the game with a pair of free throws, putting the Lakers at 3-1 on the season.

“I missed it on purpose to try to get the offensive rebound,” said James, who was noticeably under the weather and had been since Friday. “We had no more timeouts and didn’t come away with it.”

Kevin Durant had 30 points for the Suns.

“We said we wanted to be a process team – I liked our process,” coach JJ Redick said. “I liked the way we started the game. I liked our level of competition to compete on the defensive end. They put you in a lot of tough spots. I have to go watch it, but it felt like, in some ways, we lost to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker’s ability to make tough 2s.”

Booker scored nine fourth-quarter points while Durant scored eight in the quarter, which the Suns won 33-22. All of Durant’s fourth-quarter points came within two minutes in the fourth: a fadeaway jumper over Reaves to put Phoenix up 99-98 with 4:04 left; a pair of free throws to give the Suns a 101-100 lead; a 16-footer over Gabe Vincent after drawing the switch to put the Suns ahead 103-101 with three minutes left; and a seven-footer over Vincent and Hachimurua to give the Suns a 105-101 lead with 2:17 left.

“If there’s one thing to nitpick, it’s probably me,” Redick said. “I probably should have gone to the ‘fire’ [blitzing on defense] a possession or two earlier against KD. But I liked that group that we had out there defensively. I trust those guys.”

James was held to 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting, extending his record streak of double-digit scoring performances to 1,226 games but not doing so until late in the fourth when he knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 105-104 with 1:58 left in the game.

“I would say for him and our group, we missed a lot of paint 2s,” Redick said.

The Lakers shot just 21 of 50 inside the paint, with James, who shot 67.3% inside the paint last season, going 0 of 5.

Redick added: “For [James], those are shots that he makes. In the fourth, he had that miss on the lefty lay. Missed a couple of those one-leggers that were right there in the paint. We gave him the space. They were very intentional about flooding when he was on that iso on either wing. So it’s something we probably need to talk about about how we want to combat that against teams that do that.”

In a reversal from their game Friday night in Los Angeles, which the Lakers won 123-116 after erasing a 22-point, second-quarter deficit, the Lakers took a significant lead early.

The Lakers opened an 18-point advantage (26-8) midway through the first quarter and had a 31-15 advantage later in the period behind strong offensive play from Davis, hustle and taking advantage of the Suns’ slow offensive start.

Davis had 16 first-quarter points in nine minutes, with the Lakers also scoring seven second-chance points and getting easy baskets in transition.

But the Suns turned up their defensive intensity.

And the Lakers’ start-of-second and start-of-fourth quarter lineups, which have been an early bright spot, struggled in their minutes without Davis on the floor.

The Suns outscored the Lakers 17-4 in the seven minutes Davis sat between the first and second quarters, helping Phoenix take a 50-48 lead into halftime. The Suns outscored the Lakers 25-14 in the second, a quarter in which the Lakers only shot 27.3% (6 of 22) from the field.

“We should never have a 14-point quarter,” Redick said. “That’s on me as well. Part of that is me. I gotta make sure we’re running good offense. I felt like it was a little random. We got stalled out. We talked about it at halftime: for us to be a high-level offense, we gotta move bodies and we gotta move the ball. They gotta screen. They just kinda took us out of what we were doing initially and we were great in the second half. We executed great in the second half. It’s just that second quarter really hurt us.”

Reaves, Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell (14 points, eight assists) each scored eight third-quarter points, helping the Lakers win the quarter 35-26 and take an 83-76 lead into the fourth.

The Lakers’ start-of-fourth lineup struggled, allowing the Suns to open the quarter on a 14-3 run to take a 90-86 lead and helping them come away with the win.

The Lakers will continue their trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.

“Got to go in and try to not lose two in a row,” Davis said. “The mentality for us all year is to never lose two in a row.”

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Dodgers are now one victory away from a World Series parade

• October 29, 2024

NEW YORK — So close. So very, very close.

The Dodgers are now 27 outs away from the promised land, from winning a full-season championship for the first time since 1988 – and shutting up all the doubters and haters who criticize their 2020 title – and giving their fans the parade they missed out on four years ago.

And if the Dodgers do go on to win their eighth World Series championship, give a huge share of the credit to Walker Buehler. Heck, lavish it on the three starting pitchers that most observers – guilty as charged – and, if we’re being perfectly candid, much of the fan base doubted going into this postseason.

Buehler pitched five two-hit innings on Monday night, and probably could have gone out for the sixth as well, since the big game adrenalin that fuels him seemed to be pumping hard. But Dave Roberts was not inclined to let him face the top of the Yankees’ lineup a third time. Given the results posted by six Dodger relievers – on the eve of a bullpen game, no less – it turned out to be a wise move.

And through the first three games, starters Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Buehler posted a 1.65 ERA, giving up three runs in 16⅓ innings before turning things over to the bullpen.

“Certainly, there was a lot said about the rotation given the injuries we accrued coming into the postseason,” he said. “But I think that we just kind of came together collectively, feeling the 13 guys on our roster as far as pitchers were going to do a good job of preventing runs. Obviously, it doesn’t matter how you get them, and we’re doing a nice job of kind of piecing it together.”

Buehler made a little bit of history with his five shutout innings Monday night. He’s just the fourth pitcher, and the first Dodger, to throw at least five shutout innings while allowing two or fewer hits in two World Series games, last night joining his seven-inning effort in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series.

(Or, as we now remember that 18-inning classic, the Max Muncy game.)

And so, regardless of the inconsistency he’s shown over the course of this season in his return from Tommy John surgery (and a hip injury that derailed him in the middle of the season), it is not wise to bet against Buehler in big games.

“I’ve told you guys that’s kind of all I care about,” he said. “But … it makes kind of the regular season work it for me.

“As kind of brutal as it is to say, it takes that adrenalin and stuff to kind of really get me going mentally. I wish I would have felt that all year. I could tell you I’m excited to pitch every single game I’ve ever gone out there, but there is something different in the playoffs.”

His first outing in these playoffs, in Game 3 of the Division Series against San Diego, was not stellar, thanks to a five-run second inning in a 6-5 loss, but he wound up getting through five innings with no additional damage. His second outing, four shutout innings but 90 pitches in an 8-0 win over the Mets in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, was better.

Maybe he’s just built for Game 3. The more glaring the spotlight, the better he is.

Getting through this postseason and developing some momentum along the way, he said, is “really encouraging for me personally because I know it’s in there and I’ve just got to unlock it a little bit. But that feeling of there’s an organization relying on me today to win a playoff game, I think it’s kind of the weight that I like feeling and kind of gets me in a certain place mentally that it’s kind of hard to replicate (in the regular season).”

The Yankees in general have been flaccid offensively. They had four hits Monday night, had a runner thrown out at the plate when the lumbering Giancarlo Stanton tried to score on a single to left but was gunned down by Teoscar Hernández, and had only three other men reach second base.

That might not have mattered anyway. Even after Alex Verdugo’s two-run homer in the ninth off of Michael Kopech made it close, the Yankees are hitting .186 in the series overall and are 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position in the first three games.

And the heart of their lineup still has a hole in it: Aaron Judge did reach base twice Monday night, grounding into a force play and drawing a walk, but the presumptive American League MVP is 1 for 12 with seven strikeouts.

It was noted here that under similar circumstances, when Dave Winfield went 1 for 22 against the Dodgers in the 1981 World Series, the late George Steinbrenner started calling him “Mr. May,” a biting reference to Reggie Jackson’s “Mr. October” nickname. Given that history, would Judge be considered Mr. March right now, or maybe Mr. February?

But maybe the conversation should be less about the Yankees’ offensive failures and more about the Dodgers’ pitching accomplishments.They’ve now posted four shutouts in 14 postseason games, two each against the Padres and the Mets.

One of those, of course, was a bullpen game in San Diego, which turned out to be an 8-0 win in an elimination game.

And guess who starts for the Dodgers on Tuesday night: Good old TBA. Johnny Wholestaff gets a chance to put a seal on this championship Tuesday night, and of the leverage relievers only Blake Treinen wasn’t used in Game 3.

I don’t think anyone imagined the Dodgers would be playing with house money by this point – definitely not at the start of October, and not going into this series, either. But maybe it’s time to reevaluate.

The Dodgers won more games than anyone in the regular season, even with an injury list that kept expanding. The three MVPs at the top of their lineup have outplayed the Yankees’ Judge, Stanton and Juan Soto, and Game 3 gave not much more evidence than Games 1 and 2 that the bottom of the New York lineup can be productive.

Maybe the secret weapon was the five days off they received after closing out the Mets in six games in the NL Championship Series two Sundays ago. That gave Freddie Freeman time to rest and get treatment on his injured ankle, and look at the results. He’s 4 for 12 with seven RBIs and three very impactful home runs, including a two-run shot into the right field stands Monday night to get them off and running.

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“Obviously we all know how great a player Freddie Freeman is,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think clearly having those few days following their Championship Series probably served him well, and it helped him most notably probably in the batter’s box. He’s getting off swings you’re typically used to seeing Freddie get off, where maybe that wasn’t happening in the previous rounds with the injury.”

While Freeman continued his tear, Shohei Ohtani rejoined the lineup two days after partially dislocating his left shoulder. He wore what appeared to be a sling under his warmup jacket when he went out for pregame introductions, and he said it was “a device that keeps my shoulder warm.” He reached base twice (walking and scoring in the first inning and being hit by a pitch in the ninth), but he was not as impactful as normal.

“If it was more of the right shoulder, than I think it would have impacted my swing,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Thankfully, it was my left, so I don’t think it really did.”

For much of this season Ohtani carried this team. Maybe it’s only right that his teammates pick him up now.

The bottom line? They’re just 27 outs away. And yes, Roberts was asked about the perils of a 3-0 series lead, given that he was the impetus of the only team to overcome one in a baseball postseason series.

“Don’t talk about that,” he said. “Wrong guy. Way too early.

“… There’s just got to be urgency. I just don’t want to let these guys up for air.”

To be honest, I don’t think urgency will be a problem Tuesday night. Not when they’re this close to that parade.

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

Yankees on verge of being swept in World Series for 4th time

• October 29, 2024

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer

NEW YORK — Instead of closing in on title No. 28, the New York Yankees are on the verge of getting swept in the World Series for just the fourth time.

Aaron Judge again looked lost at the plate, starting pitching faltered for the second straight game and the Yankees dropped into a 3-0 Series deficit with a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers on Monday night.

In the quiet Yankees clubhouse, players insisted they could spark an improbable turnaround. No team has overcome a 3-0 World Series deficit.

“All it takes is one,” Judge said. “All it takes is one swing, one at-bat, one play, everything changes for us.”

Judge is 1 for 12 (.083) with no RBIs and seven strikeouts in the Series and is hitting .140 with 20 strikeouts in this postseason.

“It’s definitely shocking,” Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes said. “Obviously, you’re talking about one of the best players in the world right now.”

Judge is down to a .196 average with 15 homers, 31 RBIs and 86 strikeouts in his postseason career.

“I’m not doing any good for the team,” he said, “so just got to step up, take my walks when I can, drive the baseball if I get something to hit.”

New York has nine hits in the last two games, just three for extra bases, and struck out 11 times on Monday – four looking.

Its bottom four hitters are a combined 6 for 43 with three RBIs, including Alex Verdugo’s two-run homer with two outs in the ninth off Michael Kopech. Yankees hitters are 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position.

“It stinks,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said of the Yankees’ predicament. “It’s not going to be easy, for sure.”

Even New York’s bats are easy catches. When Anthony Volpe struck out against Daniel Hudson in the seventh inning, his lumber went flying over the Dodgers’ dugout. It hit the netting protecting fans in the prime seats, and Dodgers field coordinator Bob Geren snagged the lumber off the rebound.

“We’re playing kind of on the back foot a little bit,” Verdugo said.

In the Yankees’ first World Series home game since 2009, their best chance to rebound from an early deficit was when Giancarlo Stanton doubled in the fourth with the Dodgers ahead 3-0. Volpe hit a two-out single and Stanton was sent home by third base coach Luis Rojas. Teoscar Hernández made a perfect one-hop throw and Stanton, a slow runner, was tagged out by catcher Will Smith.

“In that situation, two outs, you gotta roll the dice on it,” Stanton said.

New York resembles the team that went 10-23 from mid-June through late July, not the one that started 50-22 and rebounded to win the American League East and its 41st pennant. In a Series with relatively little offense, the Yankees have been outscored 14-7, outhit .213 to .186 and outhomered 5-3.

The only team in big league history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven postseason series was the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 AL Championship Series. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts helped spark that stunning Red Sox comeback with a pivotal stolen base.

“Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “But right now it’s about trying to get a lead, trying to grab a game, and force another one, and then on from there. But we’ve got to grab one first.”

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Since winning the first two games of the 1981 Series at home against the Dodgers, the Yankees have lost seven in a row to them in the Fall Classic.

One out from winning the opener 3-2 in 10 innings, the Yankees have been outscored 12-4 since in this Series. Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt lasted six innings combined in Games 2 and 3.

Schmidt walked Shohei Ohtani on four pitches starting the game and Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run homer.

“Ended up pulling the cutter across the zone,” Schmidt said.

New York has been swept just three times in the World Series, by the 1922 New York Giants (including a tie game), the 1963 Dodgers and the 1976 Cincinnati Reds.

“If that team wins three in a row, then why can’t we win three in a row?” Verdugo said.

​ Orange County Register 

Calvin Austin’s 2 TDs help Steelers hold off Giants

• October 29, 2024

By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin pulled Calvin Austin III aside before the undersized wide receiver took the field for a punt return in the third quarter of a somewhat lifeless game against the New York Giants.

The Steelers were scuffling. The offense was moving the ball, just not into the end zone. Tomlin knew the 5-foot-9, 162-pound Austin had come close to breaking a big return several times this season. And the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach had a feeling.

“I thought it was his time,” Tomlin said. “And he thought it was his time. And he delivered.”

Not once, but twice.

Austin – who texted his friends over the weekend that he was due to break a big one – sprinted across the field and raced 73 yards for a touchdown after Tomlin’s little pep talk. He later added a 29-yard, over-the-shoulder scoring grab to give the Steelers the boost they needed to beat the Giants, 26-18, on Monday night.

Pittsburgh (6-2) won its 22nd straight home game under the Monday night lights behind Austin’s playmaking and a pair of late turnovers. T.J. Watt strip-sacked Daniel Jones with less than three minutes to go to end one New York drive, and rookie cornerback Beanie Bishop intercepted a Jones pass with 42 seconds to play to end it.

“It wasn’t as fluid as we’d like but that’s football,” Tomlin said. “We’ve got to guard against (caring about) style points.”

Good thing, because style points were in short supply on a night when three apparent touchdowns – two by Pittsburgh, one by New York – were nullified, the teams combined for 16 penalties, and drives regularly bogged down near the end zone.

The Steelers won their third straight and head into their bye week leading the AFC North by one game over Baltimore. After relying heavily on their defense over the opening month, the Steelers’ offense has found another gear since Wilson returned from a calf injury that forced him to miss the first six games.

The 35-year-old completed 20 of 28 passes for 278 yards in his second home start as a Steeler. His only real miscue was a fumble with 4:42 remaining that briefly opened the door for the Giants (2-6).

Watt closed it a few moments later after New York opted to not double-team him with the Giants driving for the potential tying score.

“He’s got a unique talent, a unique approach,” Tomlin said. “He gets unique results.”

Najee Harris ran for 114 yards, topping 100 for a third straight game for the first time in his career. Chris Boswell kicked four field goals to bail out an offense that bogged down regularly in New York territory.

Wilson also spread the ball around, connecting with eight players, a promising development for a team that has relied heavily – perhaps too heavily – on George Pickens to make something happen in the passing game.

Austin finished with three receptions for 54 yards. Van Jefferson added four receptions for 62 yards. Even third-string tight end MyCole Pruitt caught a pass.

“Guys are believers,” Wilson said.

Perhaps Austin the most. Before games, the third-year pro spends time reading notes he has stashed away on his phone from doubters he found online who felt he was too small to make it in the NFL. Yet there he was in the aftermath listening to fans chant his name after Pittsburgh put the finishing touches on a promising opening two months.

“We’re all competitors,” Austin said. “We are going to always bank on us, regardless.”

Giants rookie Tyrone Tracy ran for a season-high 145 yards, including a 45-yard sprint early in the fourth quarter that pulled New York within eight. The Giants tried a 2-point conversion, but the ill-conceived play to rookie receiver Malik Nabers behind the line of scrimmage was easily swatted away.

Jones, benched in the fourth quarter of a blowout loss to Philadelphia last week, completed 24 of 38 passes for 264 yards and the late pick. Darius Slayton finished with four receptions for 108 yards and Nabers caught seven passes for 72 yards. Greg Joseph booted four field goals for the Giants, who were undone by 11 penalties for 65 yards and a defense that let the suddenly potent Wilson-led Steelers offense pile up 426 yards.

“There was a lot of good things, just not enough of them,” New York coach Brian Daboll said.

It’s been that way for a while for the Giants, who are 2-6 for a second straight season. Two years removed from a breakout season that ended with New York making the playoffs and the Giants lavishing Jones with a lucrative extension, the franchise appears to be adrift.

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There were flashes of progress against the Steelers, but the Giants were undone by the kind of miscues – flags, turnovers and blown assignments – that have become far to frequent during their freefall.

“We hurt ourselves a lot tonight,” Jones said. “That’s the most frustrating part about it. We’ve got to be more detailed, starting with me. The good stuff that happened was negated by the mistakes.”

INJURIES

Steelers: Justin Fields served as the emergency quarterback behind Wilson and Kyle Allen after tweaking a hamstring in practice on Saturday.

UP NEXT

The Giants host Washington on Sunday.

After a bye, the Steelers visit the Commanders on Nov. 10.

​ Orange County Register 

Freddie Freeman homers again, Dodgers stifle Yankees for 3-0 World Series lead

• October 29, 2024

NEW YORK — Rapper Fat Joe sang before Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

The fat lady could be up next.

The Dodgers got a two-run home run from Freddie Freeman in the first inning and never looked back, moving within one game of their first full-season championship since 1988 with a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees.

Starting with Freeman’s 10th-inning walk-off grand slam in Game 1, the Dodgers have outscored the Yankees 12-4 while taking the first three games of this Series. They will go for the championship – and the first World Series sweep since 2012 (San Francisco Giants over Detroit Tigers) – in Game 4 on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. It would be only the second sweep in the 12 World Series meetings between these two rivals (the Dodgers also did it in 1963).

Shohei Ohtani has replaced Freeman as the wounded Dodger heroically playing on. Ohtani emerged for pregame introductions wearing a brace or heating pad on his injured left shoulder under his jacket and clutched his left arm close to his body when running the bases. He went 0 for 3 but reached base twice – on a walk and when he was hit in the foot by a pitch.

Freeman, meanwhile, has clearly recovered from the sprained ankle that hampered him so badly during the first two rounds of the postseason. He turned on an inside cutter from Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt in the first inning Monday night and lined it into the right-field seats for a two-run home run.

Freeman also homered in the third inning of Game 2, making him only the third player to homer in each of the first three games in a World Series (Barry Bonds in 2002, Hank Bauer in 1958). Freeman also homered for the Atlanta Braves in Games 5 and 6 of the 2021 World Series, giving him home runs in a record-tying five consecutive World Series Games. George Springer also did it for the Houston Astros in the 2017 and 2019 World Series.

“When you come into a road park, you want to try to strike early and quiet the crowd, and we were able to do that in the first inning,” Freeman said.

In perhaps his final game in a Dodgers uniform – he will be a free agent this winter – Walker Buehler recalled his own history. Pitching like the Buehler of old, he held the Yankees scoreless for five innings, allowing just two hits and two walks.

The 5.38 ERA of the regular season has been irrelevant in the postseason. Buehler allowed six runs in the second inning of Game 3 in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres – then gave the Dodgers 12 consecutive scoreless innings through the rest of his postseason. He has allowed just one run in his 18 career World Series innings.

“Walker Buehler, he’s been doing this his whole career in big games, big moments,” Freeman said. “Steps up when you need him.”

That six-run inning in the NLDS was fueled by poor defense – so they owed him one. The only time Buehler ran into trouble against the Yankees, the defense stepped up around him.

Giancarlo Stanton doubled with one out in the fourth inning (the first hit off Buehler). Mookie Betts made a diving catch on Jazz Chisholm’s sinking liner for the second out before Anthony Volpe dropped a single into left field. Teoscar Hernandez came up throwing, firing a 93.9 mph bullet (his fastest throw of the season via Statcast) on one hop to catcher Will Smith who tagged Stanton out to keep the Yankees scoreless.

After the power burst by Freeman, the Dodgers took more pedestrian routes to tacking on single runs in the third and sixth.

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In the third, Tommy Edman drew a leadoff walk, went to second on Ohtani’s ground out and raced home on Betts’ bloop single to right field. In the sixth, Gavin Lux was hit by a pitch, stole second and just beat the throw home to score on Kiké Hernandez’s single to center field.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made his bullpen calls with one eye on Tuesday’s pitching plan – and continued to make all the right choices, as he has throughout this postseason run.

But he had to survive scares in the sixth and seventh innings. Most dangerously, the Yankees put two runners on with two outs in the seventh. With Juan Soto on deck, Anthony Banda struck out Gleyber Torres when home plate umpire Mark Carlson called a 2-and-2 fastball clearly above the zone strike three.

The Dodgers were one out away from their fifth shutout of this posteason (which would have tied Cleveland’s postseason record from 2016) when Alex Verdugo hit a two-run home run off Michael Kopech.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

A spooktacular night for the community in Westminster

• October 29, 2024

Westminster’s Halloween Spooktacular had plenty of treats for the community.

Children gathered candy, families enjoyed cultural performances and a movie, there were ofrendas on display for Dia de los Muertos and more during the Friday evening event hosted at the Civic Center.

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Monday, Oct. 28

• October 29, 2024

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Monday, Oct. 28

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

MONDAY’S SCORES

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

CIF-SS PLAYOFFS

DIVISION 7

Round 2

Laguna Beach def. Barstow, 25-21, 25-21, 25-22

​ Orange County Register