UCLA quarterbacks thriving on the field and in virtual reality

• April 27, 2023

LOS ANGELES — The quarterback battle is continuing at UCLA football’s spring practices, both in real life and in virtual reality.

Ethan Garbers, a redshirt junior and contender for the starting position, has been equipped with a GoPro camera every practice that films his every repetition. Quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson said Garbers wears the camera because he gets a lot of repetitions, but it’s not an indication that he’ll be the starter.

“I’m watching (practice) from 50 feet back the whole field, 50 feet high or the end zone,” Gunderson said. “That’s not the view that they see it from. It’s a really, really good teaching tool to say, ‘Well, why didn’t you see this?’ ‘Well, Coach, that’s why I didn’t see it, I can’t.’”

The quarterbacks can wear an Oculus virtual reality headset and review the 360-degree footage as a training tool.

Although Gunderson didn’t give any hints Thursday morning as to who is ahead in the quarterback race, Garbers did have a productive day. He threw a touchdown pass to tight end Grant Norberg in a 7-on-7 drill and later during a live period orchestrated a three-play touchdown drive from the 20-yard line.

“Even last year when Dorian (Thompson-Robinson) was the guy, I was still treating it like it was my team, like I was going to be the starter,” Garbers said. “I think that’s, for every quarterback, that’s how you’ve got to treat every single day that you’re doing this and it’s important to have that mindset. You’re one snap away, one play away.”

Garbers played in six games last season and was 26 for 37 with two interceptions and two touchdowns.

Highly recruited freshman Dante Moore is on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of college game experience, but his quick release and accuracy have drawn attention. He completed a 25-yard pass to Cam Brown during a live period Thursday morning.

“It’s really impressive,” Gunderson said. “Off the field, he’s always in that building with a smile on his face. He’s fun to be around. He’s been a joy so far. He’s a football junkie and he likes being around the team.”

Gunderson also said he liked Kent State transfer Colin Schlee’s big arm and powerful throws as well as senior Chase Griffin’s experience and leadership ability.

Emotions run high

There was some chippiness toward the end of Thursday morning’s practice in the final live period in what has otherwise been an even-keeled series of spring practices.

Defensive back Jaylin Davies was involved in a scrum after he nearly broke up a pass to Kyle Ford. Multiple players jumped in before the group was separated and the team switched to designated offensive and defensive drills on opposite sides of the practice facility.

Gunderson rooting for DTR

The NFL draft begins Thursday night with several former UCLA players eligible. Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson could be a Day 3 pick, and Gunderson has his fingers crossed.

“I’m hoping that he goes to the best situation possible,” the Bruins quarterbacks coach said. “I think here we’ve prepared him and given him everything we can to get him to the best place.

“So hopefully he can hit the ground running, he can go in there and learn and really soak in more. But excited for whenever, whatever it is. I hope it’s the best situation possible.”

Other Bruins in the NFL draft mix include running back Zach Charbonnet, Antonio Mafi, Jake Bobo, Jon Gaines II and Kazmeir Allen.

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​ Orange County Register 

What to watch: ‘The Citadel’ is a sexy, bonkers thriller — and worth your time

• April 27, 2023

The flood of streaming options surges this week with the release of Prime Video’s hugely hyped actioner “Citadel”; HBO Max’s take on the oft-told Candy Montgomery murder case, “Love & Death”; Paramount+’s redo of the seminal 1987 erotic thriller “Fatal Attraction” (yes, the boiled bunny movie); and Hulu’s adaptation of the daring literary thriller “Saint X.”

My pick, though, for the best of the week goes to “Sisu,” the stand-up-and-cheer action thriller from Finland that lands in theaters this week. And I can’t overlook the peppy “Polite Society.”

Here’s our rundown.

“Citadel”: In this visually arousing spy thriller, the impossibly gorgeous Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden are at the center of a smackdown between two rival agencies — one good but put out to pasture, the other dubious and posing a clear and present danger. Old memories re-emerge and fuel a cinematic bullet train that’s built around kickass action, sultry gazes and frenetic editing. Subtlety is all but extinct in every frame of this six-part Amazon extravaganza from the sometimes marvelous Russo brothers. It’s like a cocaine/Red Bull cocktail. Stanley Tucci co-stars as a former agent with worthwhile intel and he brings gravitas to this over-the-top malarkey. Either you’re gonna love this unruly behemoth or bemoan the sorry state of blockbuster entertainment. Honestly, I kind of dug it and love the pairing of the main stars who appear to be having fun at toying with each other and this “Mission: Impossible”-like scenario. Details: 3 stars out of 4; two episodes debut April 28, one additional episodes drops every Friday through May 26.

“Love & Death”: Hollywood loves to latch onto a story or a franchise and never let go. Such is the sensational murder case of Candy Montgomery, the ‘80s churchgoing momma from Texas who took up an ax and gave her former lover’s depressed wife 41 whacks. This time, scribe David E. Kelley takes a stab at bringing something different to this lurid, true-crime story. He gets about halfway there. At seven episodes, the HBO Max series overstays its own welcome but its two aces in the hole are Elizabeth Olsen as the to-the-point Montgomery, who has it all but desires to spice up her life, and Tom Pelphrey as flashy attorney/church member Don Crowder. Does it improve upon Hulu’s tighter, more intense “Candy” starring Jessica Biel, or the the more interpretive 1990 teledrama “A Killing in a Small Town” with Barbara Hershey? Not entirely. It makes you wonder what might have happened if Kelley branched out and concentrated on the life and career of Crowder, giving scene stealer Pelphrey more time to shine. Now that would have been one hell of a story. As is, “Love & Death” hits all the same notes as its predecessors. Details: 2½ stars; three episodes drop April 27, then one every week through May 25.

“Fatal Attraction”: At just under 2 hours, Adrian Lyne’s deliciously overheated 1987 erotic thriller — wherein a two-timin’ hubby hooks up with a woman who becomes an unhinged stalker when he tries to end the affair — achieved all it intended, even giving us some steamy kitchen sink sex even as it outraged some for how it portrayed mental illness. Now comes Paramount+’s flabby, un-sexy redo from Alexandra Cunningham. The series opens with once hot-shot attorney Daniel Gallagher (Joshua Jackson) getting paroled after a 15-year sentence for the murder of  Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan). Alex made life hell for Dan and his family after their affair, but also obsessed about other men she encountered. Since this is laboriously strung out, we spend time with Dan trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), and even his ex-wife Beth (Amanda Peet) while trying to clear his name. Both Jackson and Caplan tackle the iconic roles with passion and put their own stamp on them, but the pacing and the lack of sparks make this fizzle. I lasted through five episodes and walked away with the clear feeling it needed tightening — which you can say for a good many streaming series now. That said, it has it moments along with some delightful Easter egg references to the giggle-worthy original, including (of course) a white bunny and that unforgettable fury-fueled line from Alex that gets delivered with perfect deluded annunciation by Caplan: “I’m not going to be IGNORED, Dan!” That almost makes this “Fatal” worth watching. Details: 2 stars; three episodes drop April 30, followed by one episode each Sunday until the final two chapters are released May 28.

“Saint X”: My favorite limited series out this week comes from Hulu, but it’s likely to divide viewers. That’s because it takes a very conventional and sordid mystery premise — a college-age vacationer turns up dead in the Caribbean, with suspects aplenty — and then fires up a much more provocative tale about fear, racism, privilege and the dangers of hiding from our real selves. Yes, it’ll take a bit to readjust expectations, but executive producer Leila Gerstein’s version of Alexis Schaitkin’s novel legitimately deserves all of its eight episodes. It also dares to make all of its characters flawed, painfully real and sometimes irritating. Just like all of us. But for that reason you might get fed up with Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey) a New York documentary-maker who risks everything to find the truth about happened to her sister Alison (West Duchovny, David Duchovny and Tea Leoni’s daughter) on the final day of their vacation on Saint X. Dee Rees directs the first episode of this thoughtful series that says so much more than you’d expect. In pivotal roles as resort workers, Jayden Elijah and Josh Bonzie deliver the best performances — two you won’t forget. Details: 3½ stars; three episodes drop April 26 on Hulu with new episodes weekly.

“Sisu”: Sometimes after a grueling day at work where everyone’s demanding a pound of flesh from you, you need an action-packed movie where the Nazis get the crap beat out of them to properly unwind. That’s what you get and so, so much more in director/screenwriter Jalmari Helander’s gonzo masterpiece — a gory, irreverent smackdown of fascism set in WWII-era Finland and featuring an invincible 60something gold prospector with a cute dog and a lean and mean physique. With minimal dialogue, some of the best editing you’ll find in any film this year, arresting visuals and ridiculous action and stunts, “Sisu” is a ready-made genre classic and further evidence that Helander, director of “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” and “Big Game,” deserves to be in the big leagues. Action movies don’t get much better than this. Details: 4 stars; in theaters April 28.

“Polite Society”: In this hyperactive but thoroughly enjoyable action comedy, Londoner and wanna-be stuntwoman Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) suspects that the intentions of her sister’s (Ritu Arya) dreamy, filthy rich beau Salim (Akshaye Khanna) aren’t entirely noble. So she takes some rather bumbling steps to put the breaks on the courtship. Writer/director Nida Manzoor’s feature debut packs a comedic and subversive feminist punch, taking aim at arranged marriages and showing how damaging it is to marginalize women and not allow them to fully pursue their dreams. That it accomplishes all of that through humor and pratfalls without ever getting heavy-handed about its themes is a credit to Manzoor’s innate skill. She’s a filmmaker on the rise. Details: 3 stars; in theaters April 28.

“The Black Demon”: Sometimes after a grueling day at work where everyone’s demanding a pound of flesh from you, you need a killer shark movie to properly unwind. This is not that movie, though it begins with a twinkle of promise. Josh Lucas gives one of the most erratic performances of 2023 as a slick oil company man who takes the fam on a vacation near Baja while he inspects a decommissioned oil rig. The locals are none too keen to see his brood and soon they all — in a laughable plot development — get stranded on the rig where a menacing (and poorly lit) mega shark lurks. Marital spates, giggle-worthy overacting and bargain-basement special effects put this on a par with that 1987 shark stinker “Jaws: The Revenge.” Even the family dog screws up here, barking with his mouth closed. Details: 1 star; in theaters April 28.

Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Nob Fire closes at least 16 miles of Pacific Crest Trail

• April 27, 2023

The Nob Fire burning in the San Bernardino National Forest led authorities to close Pacific Crest Trail from the 15 Freeway up to the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forest borders on Thursday, April 27.

The closure will be in effect until June 30 but the road could re-open earlier, according to Delyn Sieliet, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest.

She estimated the closure at 16 miles. The Pacific Crest Trail Association, in an announcement on its site, put it at more than 19 miles.

The fire also shut down both lanes of Lytle Creek Road from “the last residential house to the end of the pavement,” she said.

The Nob fire burned 200 acres and was 5% contained as of Thursday morning.

No one has been injured, Sieliet said. The fire is moving mostly west, further into the forest, she added.

“It’s in a pretty remote area,” she said. “This is a very steep rugged area.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The Nob fire started near Gobblers Knob, northwest of Lytle Creek, on Wednesday and was first reported to authorities at 10:16 a.m. About 170 firefighters, three water-dropping helicopters and three air tankers were at the scene Thursday.

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​ Orange County Register 

Dick Groat dies at 92; former Pittsburgh Pirates star also played in NBA

• April 27, 2023

By Will Graves | Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — Dick Groat, a two-sport star who went from All-American guard in basketball to a brief stint in the NBA to ultimately an All-Star shortstop and the 1960 National League MVP while playing baseball for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, has died. He was 92.

Groat’s family said in a statement that he died Thursday at UMPC Presbyterian Hospital due to complications from a stroke.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family and Pittsburgh community,” Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement, calling Groat “a great player and an even better person.”

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, left, and Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon, right, flank Dick Groat at a ceremony honoring Groat before a 2014 game in Pittsburgh. Groat played basketball and baseball at Duke in the early 1950s, earning All-American honors in both.

Groat, who was from the Swissvale neighborhood just east of Pittsburgh’s downtown, starred at Duke in basketball and baseball in the early 1950s, earning All-American honors in both. His No. 10 jersey hangs inside Cameron Indoor Stadium after the program retired his number following the end of his senior season in 1952.

Groat attempted to play both baseball and basketball professionally, signing with the Pirates and being drafted by the Fort Wayne Pistons of the then-fledgling NBA within weeks of each other in 1952.

While Groat said basketball was his first love, a stint in the military during the mid-1950s redirected the arc of his athletic career.

After leaving the service, Pirates general manager Branch Rickey persuaded Groat to focus on baseball, a decision that turned into a lengthy 14-year career split between Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Groat made the All-Star team in five seasons and led the majors in hitting in 1960 when he batted .325.

That season ended with Groat earning NL MVP honors for a Pirates team that upset the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

Groat finished with 2,138 career hits during a major league career that spanned from 1952-67. The Pirates announced last week that Groat would be inducted into the team’s recently established Hall of Fame later this summer.

A member of the college basketball and college baseball Halls of Fame, Groat was a two-time All-American guard at Duke in the 1950s and remains the second-leading scorer in school history, averaging 23.0 points for the Blue Devils. He was taken third overall by the Fort Wayne Pistons in the 1952 NBA draft.

Groat played 26 games for the Pistons, averaging 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists. His basketball career, however, ended after he enlisted in the Army in 1953. He spent nearly two years in the service and when he was discharged, Rickey essentially threatened to take away Groat’s signing bonus if he didn’t turn his attention to baseball.

Groat relented and became one of the most consistent shortstops of his era. He played in eight All-Star games (there were two games a season for a brief period in the 1950s and 1960s) and during Pittsburgh’s improbable run to a World Series title in 1960, it was Groat and not future baseball Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski who spearheaded the Pirates’ unlikely rise from perennial also-ran to championship club.

The list of players who finished behind Groat in the 1960 NL MVP voting includes Hall of Famers Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Eddie Matthews.

A smooth defender who teamed with Mazeroski to lead the NL in double plays five times — a record that still stands — Groat played 1,290 games at shortstop for the Pirates, fourth on the club’s all-time list.

Pittsburgh traded Groat to St. Louis in November 1962. Groat responded by having the best statistical season of his career in 1963, finishing second in MVP voting behind Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax while hitting .319 with a major league-leading 43 doubles. Groat won a second world championship that fall as the Cardinals toppled the Yankees in seven games.

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Groat played briefly for Philadelphia and then the Giants before retiring after the 1967 season. He remained active in the Pittsburgh area following his playing days, including spending four decades as a color commentator for the University of Pittsburgh basketball team.

Groat is survived by daughters Tracey, Carol Ann and Allison, along with 11 grandchildren.

​ Orange County Register 

Fryer: Orange County releaguing plans just got more interesting

• April 27, 2023

Maybe the Trinity League football group stays as it is.

Or maybe the top six football programs in Orange County are placed in the same league, with a potential mix of public and private schools in that group.

And perhaps the Freeway League stays out of the football-only league plan and keeps its six schools together for football and everything else.

Orange County high school athletic directors met Monday to discuss possibilities for new league structures that will be in place for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

The plan for football-only leagues gathered support. That plan would be the creation of leagues that exist only in football. Those football leagues would be organized by using teams’ performances of the past two seasons to create a power-points profile and using that profile to place teams in football leagues. That power-points profile would be weighted: 65 percent would come from the most recent of the two seasons, with the other 35 percent derived from the first of the two seasons.

Three variations of the football leagues plan came out of the athletic directors meeting.

One of those three football proposals could lead to high-performing public school football teams like Los Alamitos and Mission Viejo landing in a six-team league with national powerhouses Mater Dei and St. John Bosco. If that proposed system was in place now Los Alamitos and Mission Viejo would be in that six-team group for the 2023 football season and current Trinity League football teams JSerra and Servite would not.

After that group of the top six power-points profile teams is assembled a second-tier group of six teams would be assembled and so on.

And that’s where the Freeway League comes in with this football-only leagues model. La Habra’s football team might be in that second-tier league with the likes of Edison, San Clemente and Yorba Linda, but La Habra’s other sports teams would remain in the current Freeway League, a league that’s been the same for 41 years, with Buena Park, Fullerton, Sonora, Sunny Hills and Troy.

But most of the Freeway League’s six schools want to stay out of the football-only leagues business and wants to remain intact for all sports. At least one school, though, would like to see La Habra playing elsewhere.

La Habra has won 21 of the past 25 Freeway League football championships, has won 93 of its past 95 league games and last season went 5-0 in the league with an average winning margin of 29 points.

Some Orange County athletic directors prefer that the Trinity League football group stay as it is, then using the power points profile system to organize the other 69 11-man football teams in the Orange County Area. The Orange County Area is not strictly based on geography, as St. John Bosco of Bellflower is placed in the Orange County Area for league affiliation purposes.

Mission Viejo football coach Chad Johnson supports that idea.

“If everything is equal,” Johnson said, “then I have no problem having the best teams grouped with the best teams. But when there are a lot of inequities … can we really make it equal or do we keep it separated?”

Johnson was an assistant coach at St. John Bosco so he knows about the inequities. Yes, Mission Viejo and many other public schools in a variety of sports get talented transfers and have student-athletes who reside outside of their attendance areas.

The large private schools’ major advantages are in fundraising. Most of the county’s public school football programs don’t have a golf tournament that raises thousands of dollars, something that is as common in the Trinity League as a pregame prayer.

And there’s more, like coaching stipends.

“When I was at Bosco we had an admissions department that helped us get out there to get kids and we had a much higher budget,” Johnson said. “I know coaches who were at my school who went from being a varsity coach here to working at Santa Margarita as a freshman coach where they’re making three times more than they made here.

“I want a budget that matches the teams we’re going to be in a league with, an advancement department to run a gala and a golf tournament to raise money like Mater Dei does. If we can do that, then put us in that league.”

Orange County high school principals meet May 15 at Christ Cathedral to discuss the proposals and select one that will be the way leagues will exist for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

That will be fun.

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​ Orange County Register 

California passes 1st-in-nation train emissions rules

• April 27, 2023

By Sophie Austin | Associated Press/Report for America

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Every day, locomotives pull rail cars filled with food, lumber, oil and other products through railyards near neighborhoods in Oakland, Commerce, San Bernadino and other California cities.

They run on diesel, a more powerful fuel than gasoline, and burning all that diesel produces pollution that is harmful for people who live nearby, as well as greenhouse gases. California’s Air Resources Board is trying to change that.

The agency voted Thursday to approve a rule banning the use of locomotive engines more than 23 years old by 2030 and increasing the use of zero-emissions technology to transport freight from ports and throughout railyards. The rule would also ban locomotives in the state from idling longer than 30 minutes if they are equipped with an automatic shutoff.

California would have to get authorization from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with the rule, which would be stricter than federal standards. Other states can sign on to try to adopt the California rule if it gets the OK from the Biden administration.

The rule is the most ambitious of its kind in the country.

“It’s going to be groundbreaking, and it’s going to address the diesel crisis that’s been poisoning communities near railyards for literal decades,” Yasmine Agelidis, a lawyer with environmental nonprofit Earthjustice said before the agency vote.

Diesel exhaust is a health hazard. According to California regulators, diesel emissions are responsible for some 70% of Californians’ cancer risk from toxic air pollution. The rule would curb emissions on a class of engines that annually release more than 640 tons of tiny pollutants that can enter deep into a person’s lungs and worsen asthma, and release nearly 30,000 tons of smog-forming emissions known as nitrogen oxides. The rule would also drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions from locomotives, by an amount akin to removing all heavy-duty trucks from the state by 2030.

It’s important to tackle emissions from a sector that often burdens low-income residents and communities of color, and that has plans to expand passenger rail, said Air Resources Board Chair Liane M. Randolph.

Rail companies can participate in incentive programs run by the state to ease the cost of transitioning to zero-emissions locomotives, the agency said.

For activists and residents who’ve lived in areas affected by heavy rail pollution, the fight for cleaner trains is decades in the making.

Jan Victor Andasan, an activist with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, grew up in West Long Beach and now organizes residents there. It’s a neighborhood near the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that is “surrounded by pollution” from trains, trucks and industry.

“We support rail, but we support rail if they’re doing all their best to mitigate their emissions,” Andasan said.

Supporters of the proposed rule shared stories Thursday of children who live near railways having to share inhalers to ease asthma symptoms and families taking extreme measures to rid their homes of diesel fumes.

Some activists would like California to go further, for example to limit locomotive idling to 15 minutes. They are also concerned that increased demand from online shopping is causing more rail traffic that burdens communities.

But some say it’s too soon to implement the locomotive standards. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, said the rule would be expensive for rail companies, and increased costs will mean higher prices for many goods that move by rail.

The Association of American Railroads said in a statement “there is no clear path to zero emissions locomotives.”

“Mandating that result ignores the complexity and interconnected nature of railroad operations and the reality of where zero emission locomotive technology and the supporting infrastructure stand,” the group wrote.

Freight railways are an efficient means to transport the roughly 1.6 billion tons of goods nationwide across nearly 140,000 miles, much cleaner than if those goods were trucked, it said.

Kristen South, a spokesperson for Union Pacific, said in a statement the rail company wants regulators to continue to work with them to come up with a more “balanced” solution that is not too ambitious for the current technology and infrastructure.

Union Pacific is working to cut greenhouse gas emissions in part by spending $1 billion to modernize locomotives and testing out engines powered by electric batteries, South wrote.

“We need the strongest, most protective in-use locomotive regulation because we know these CARB rulings have impact not only in California but across the U.S.,” said Cecilia Garibay, a project coordinator with the 50-member Moving Forward Network based at Occidental College.

The EPA recently approved California rules aimed at reducing emissions from heavy trucks. The rules will require zero-emission trucks, depending on the type, to make up between 40% and 75% of sales by 2035.

Heidi Swillinger lives in a mobile home park in San Pablo, a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area, along the BNSF Railway. She estimates that her home is just 20 feet from the tracks. She said it’s not uncommon for diesel fumes to fill her house, resulting in a “thick, acrid, dirty smell.”

“Nobody wants to live next to a railroad track,” Swillinger said. “You move next to a railroad track because you don’t have other options.”

Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

​ Orange County Register 

Pirates steal series from Dodgers on rough day for Julio Urias

• April 27, 2023

PITTSBURGH — Before boarding the team flight out of Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Dodgers needed to take a careful inventory of their equipment. The Pirates stole everything else.

Even the Dodgers’ best pitcher at controlling the running game, Julio Urias, couldn’t completely stop the Pirates’ thievery. They stole three bases in the first inning against Urias, running their total for the three-game series to 12 on the way to a 6-2 defeat of the Dodgers on Thursday afternoon.

Eight of the 21 runs the Pirates scored in winning two of three from the Dodgers were aided and abetted directly by stolen bases. The Dodgers have now given up a major-league high 38 steals in 44 attempts. Half of the six times the Dodgers have actually thwarted a steal attempt came on pickoffs by Urias, including one Thursday.

“It created a lot of offense for them,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know how many bases they stole, but it was certainly double digits. … It was something that, like I’ve said for the last few days, it’s hard to not see it, what’s going on and we’ve got to continue to try to manage it. But that was a big difference in how many bases we gave up.”

The rules changes MLB has implemented this season, encouraging more action on the bases, has created a new way of doing business for teams like the Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks – young, athletic teams that put the ball in play and run aggressively.

The Dodgers have played those two teams 11 times in the early going and lost seven. The Pirates and Diamondbacks combined to steal 24 bases in 25 attempts in those games, averaging over five runs per game against the Dodgers.

They look like two prime examples of teams that have benefitted from baseball’s new world order.

“Yeah, they are,” Roberts said. “I don’t think they put a roster together based on things that have changed with the landscape of baseball. It certainly, in my opinion, levels the playing field and that’s a good thing for baseball.

“Just the bases that we’ve given up, it’s a lot. I’m not discounting that at all. But I think it’s more magnified because of the teams that we’ve played early on.”

The Dodgers finally did some running of their own and it turned an early 1-0 lead into a 2-0 lead.

Singles by Mookie Betts and Jason Heyward put runners at the corners in the first inning. Heyward stole second – just the 10th successful stolen base by a Dodger this season – and scored with Betts on David Peralta’s two-out single.

The Pirates stole that lead away from the Dodgers too.

Leadoff hitter Tucupita Marcano started the running with a bunt single, advancing to third on a wild throw by Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes.

Bryan Reynolds drove him in with a single. After Andrew McCutchen also singled, he and Reynolds moved up on a double steal – and scored on a sacrifice fly and a bloop single to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.

“He had that first hitter with two strikes and it was starting to get into starting off on a good note,” Roberts said. “But then the two-strike bunt I think changed the dynamic of that inning. They capitalized. Couple other base hits, couple stolen bases put them in a situational hitting situation and they capitalized and scored some runs.

“When he gets ahead of that first guy, wants to put up a zero and then a two-strike bunt, we throw the ball away, he’s at third base and they hit a fly ball or base hit, another base hit, stolen base, stolen base and then a base hit or sac fly and they’ve got the lead. It kind of flipped the game, the momentum pretty quickly.”

It stayed a one-run game until the sixth inning when the Pirates scored three runs on back-to-back home runs by Connor Joe and Rudolfo Castro. It was the third consecutive start in which Urias has given up back-to-back home runs – Patrick Wisdom and Cody Bellinger and then Bellinger and Trey Mancini did it to Urias in his previous two starts.

The six runs Urias gave up to the Pirates were the most earned runs he has allowed in a start since June 2021. It is part of a poor three-start stretch by the left-hander. Urias has allowed 14 runs in 14 ⅔ innings over that time and batters are hitting .344 (22 for 64) against him with those six home runs.

“I have to pitch better. That’s what I have to do,” Urias said in Spanish.

“I feel like I’m too inconsistent right now and I’m paying the price.”

A lineup missing Max Muncy, Will Smith and J.D. Martinez was unable to fight back. The final 15 Dodgers batters went down in order against Pirates starter Mitch Keller and the bullpen.

“We kind of found our way in that position each game differently,” Roberts said of being short-handed due to injuries and paternity leave. “With the guys that we have, we’re going out there expecting to win. Today, I thought we had some good momentum and we just couldn’t keep that momentum from the first.

“As far as the guys that are here, there are some things we’ve got to get better at on both sides of the baseball. But we’re going to get our team back here, our full-strength team, soon.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Festival Pass: 🐴🤠🍻 Stagecoach returns to Indio this weekend; here’s what you need to know

• April 27, 2023

Festival Pass is a newsletter that lands in your inbox weekly. But during prime festival season you get bonus editions, too! Subscribe now.

Happy Thursday!

Yee-Haw! It’s time for Stagecoach!

The annual three-day country music festival is hitting the Empire Polo Club in Indio on April 28-30 and things are going to look a bit different this year.

Festival organizers over at Goldenvoice have rearranged the stages to give some of the activations additional space. They’ve also created new lounge, bar and VIP areas in the process.

We cover all of that and so much more in our Stagecoach preview with talent buyer Stacy Vee. Read about all of the changes and new amenities here.

Country music duo Brooks & Dunn played the very first Stagecoach back in 2007. They’ll be back to play the Mane Stage just before Sunday headliner Chris Stapleton on April 30 and we caught up with Ronnie Dunn to talk about the longevity of the pair and the lasting impact of its early ’90s hit “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.” Read our full interview with Dunn here.

While the desert is yee-hawing all weekend long, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles will be celebrating country icon Willie Nelson‘s 90th birthday with a massive lineup of special guests performing a variety of Nelson’s hits from throughout his lengthy career. We talked to event promoters about how the two-day, star-studded event featuring guests like Dwight Yoakam, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Tom Jones, Gary Clark Jr., George Strait, Emmylou Harris and more came together.

A look back at Coachella Weekend 2

The second weekend of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is always slightly different than the first, but this year, it was wildly different. With Sunday headliner Frank Ocean bowing out of Weekend 2, he was replaced by Weekend 1 Sahara Tent surprise act Blink-182 and fans on-site had a lot of mixed emotions.

A few of the acts brought out different surprise guests for Weekend 2, including Gorillaz, which invited Beck and even Friday headliner Bad Bunny on stage for songs. Gorillaz vocalist Damon Albarn even boldly proclaimed that Weekend 2 was superior to Weekend 1 and he certainly looked to be having a blast.

Saturday headliners Blackpink were back for a fiery encore performance and Labrinth surprised fans by teaming up with Sia and Zendaya during his turn. And electronic duo Sofi Tukker got a boost during their performance courtesy of Bob’s Dance Shop, who we tracked down for a quick interview backstage.

Unlike Weekend 1, Sunday ended with a big ‘ol bang as Blink-182 closed out the main Coachella Stage with so much pyro and fireworks. The whole event officially wrapped with a DJ set on a satellite stage featuring Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred Again.

The Weekend 2 fan fashion had a different style and vibe and guests were also able to celebrate both Record Store Day and Earth Day on-site with several activities.

See our Coachella Weekend 2 photo galleries 

Coachella 2023: Our 50 best photos from Weekend 2

Coachella 2023: See photos of performers and fans from Sunday, Weekend 2

Coachella 2023: See photos of performers and fans from Saturday, Weekend 2

Coachella 2023: Photos of festival fashion during Weekend 2

Coachella 2023: Photos of performers and fans from Friday, Weekend 2

Get all of our coverage from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival here.

As always, thanks for reading and keep rockin’.

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Read previous editions of the Festival Pass newsletter

Festival Pass:  With Coachella Weekend 1 in the books, here’s what to expect for Weekend 2

Festival Pass:Who to see, what to eat and where to go at Coachella

Festival Pass: BeachLife’s country music event, BeachLife Ranch, will return in September

Festival Pass:  Goldenvoice’s Power Trip metal fest is coming to Indio

Festival Pass: Punk in the Park brings music and craft beer to Ventura

Festival Pass: A tacos, tequila, margarita and hip-hop festival is coming to Norc

Festival Pass: Boots in the Park hits Norco with headliner Cole Swindell this weekend

Festival Pass: Rolling Loud takes over Hollywood Park in Inglewood this weekend

​ Orange County Register