{"id":579197,"date":"2026-02-18T12:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/579197\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:41:36","slug":"dodgers-hyeseong-kim-is-ready-for-his-closeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/579197\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Hyeseong Kim is ready for his closeup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Jack Vita<\/a>: With Tommy Edman<\/a> opening the season on the injured list, Hyeseong Kim<\/a> is a prime candidate to see an uptick in playing time at second base for the Dodgers<\/a> in the coming season. On Tuesday, he further solidified his case.<\/p>\n

With teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> throwing a live batting practice session on the backfields at Camelback Ranch, Kim took the World Series MVP on an unexpected ride. On the 16th pitch of Yamamoto\u2019s live batting practice, Kim crushed an opposite-field home run, dazzling the hundreds of Dodgers fans gathered to watch the team ready itself for its first slate of exhibition games that begin Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kim said he tweaked his swing last year after coming over from the KBO on a three-year, $12.5-million contract, and is continuing to progress and feel more comfortable with the adjustments he\u2019s made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swing changes we made last year, I would say I felt about 70% comfortable with,\u201d Kim said through an interpreter on Monday. \u201cAnd then, this offseason and spring training, we were able to recognize some of the other stuff that we needed to work on, so I\u2019m working very hard to make those changes again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading here<\/a> <\/p>\n

Miguel Rojas talks about Game 7 homer<\/p>\n

From Jack Vita<\/a>: When asked to describe Game 7 of the World Series<\/a> and his place in it more than three months later, veteran infielder Miguel Rojas<\/a> did not hesitate with his answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cGame 7 of the World Series was unbelievable,\u201d Rojas said at his locker inside the Dodgers\u2019<\/a> clubhouse at Camelback Ranch last week. \u201cBecause nobody believed that I was able to hit a home run in the ninth inning with one out, and in that spot. No way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rojas worked the count full, and on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman left a slider over the plate, which Rojas rocketed over the left field bullpen, leaving the 44,000 fans on hand at the Rogers Centre \u2014 and the 51 million viewers watching<\/a> \u2014 completely stunned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the most shocking World Series home runs I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Fox Sports commentator Tom Verducci said. \u201cHere I was thinking, \u2018Well, Ohtani\u2019s on deck, so he doesn\u2019t want to walk him.\u2019 Never in my mind did I ever think that he was going to hit a home run. It was even more shocking to me than the Rajai Davis home run off [Aroldis] Chapman in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading here<\/a> <\/p>\n

Former Dodgers star Walker Buehler signs with San Diego Padres<\/a> <\/p>\n

UCLA men are routed by Michigan State<\/p>\n

Jeremy Fears Jr. had 16 points and 10 assists, leading No. 15<\/a> Michigan State to an 82-59 victory<\/a> over UCLA<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The Spartans (21-5, 11-4 Big Ten<\/a>) bounced back with a strong performance after losing three of four games and falling five spots in the Associated Press Top 25 this week. Fears scored 11 in the first half to help MSU build a 20-point advantage.<\/p>\n

The Bruins (17-9, 9-6) have lost two straight games after winning five of six.<\/p>\n

UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau scored 22 points but didn\u2019t have much help. None of his teammates were in double figures until Skyy Clark made some late shots to finish with 12 points.<\/p>\n

Continue reading here<\/a> <\/p>\n

UCLA box score<\/a> <\/p>\n

Big Ten standings<\/a> <\/p>\n

This day in sports history<\/p>\n

1924 \u2014 Theresa Weld Blanchard wins her sixth and final U.S. figure skating championship. Sherwin Badger captures his fifth straight and final men\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

1928 \u2014 Sonja Henie, 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating champion. She easily beats Fritzi Burger of Austria and Beatrix Loughran of the U.S.<\/p>\n

1932 \u2014 Sonja Henie wins her sixth straight world title.<\/p>\n

1951 \u2014 Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan orders the arrest of three City College basketball players on bribery charges and two pro gamblers and two intermediaries in a game-fixing scandal involving college teams across the country.<\/p>\n

1961 \u2014 Bob Pettit of St. Louis scores a career-high 57 points in a 141-138 victory over the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

1964 \u2014 Wilt Chamberlain scores 52 points against Detroit, his second consecutive 50-point game.<\/p>\n

1972 \u2014 Randy Smith of Buffalo plays the first of what would become 906 consecutive games, an NBA record which took more than 11 full seasons to accomplish.<\/p>\n

1981 \u2014 Edmonton\u2019s Wayne Gretzky scores five goals and adds two assists to lead the Oilers over the St. Louis Blues 9-2.<\/p>\n

1986 \u2014 San Antonio\u2019s Alvin Robertson records the second quadruple-double in NBA history, with 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals in the Spurs\u2019 120-114 win over Phoenix.<\/p>\n

1990 \u2014 Dale Earnhardt blows a tire with one mile remaining in the Daytona 500, giving Derrike Cope the biggest upset in stock car racing history.<\/p>\n

1992 \u2014 Italy\u2019s Alberto Tomba wins the giant slalom in Albertville, France, to become the first Alpine skier to win the same event at two Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

1995 \u2014 Utah guard John Stockton becomes the first NBA player with 10,000 assists in a 108-98 victory over the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

2001 \u2014 Dale Earnhardt, the greatest stock car star of his era, is killed in a crash on the last turn of the last lap of the Daytona 500 as he tries to protect Michael Waltrip\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

2006 \u2014 Shani Davis becomes the first Black athlete to win an individual gold medal in the Winter Olympics, capturing the 1,000-meter speedskating race. Joey Cheek makes it a 1-2 American finish, adding a silver to his victory in the 500 at the Turin Games.<\/p>\n

2010 \u2014 Evan Lysacek becomes the first U.S. man to win the Olympic gold medal since Brian Boitano in 1988, shocking everyone with an upset of defending champion Evgeni Plushenko.<\/p>\n

2012 \u2014 Shenneika Smith\u2019s three-pointer from the wing with 8 seconds left lifts St. John\u2019s to a 57-56 win over No. 2 Connecticut, ending the Huskies\u2019 99-game home court winning streak. It\u2019s the Huskies\u2019 first home loss to an unranked opponent in nearly 19 years.<\/p>\n

2013 \u2014 Brittney Griner scores 25 points, including the 3,000th of her career, to help No. 1 Baylor rally past third-ranked Connecticut 76-70.<\/p>\n

2017 \u2014 Mikaela Shiffrin wins a third straight slalom title at the world championships to retain her unbeaten record at major events.<\/p>\n

2022 \u2014 Johannes Thingnes B\u00f8 of Norway wins his fourth biathlon gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics when he wins the men\u2019s mass start.<\/p>\n

Compiled by the Associated Press<\/p>\n

Until next time…<\/p>\n

That concludes today\u2019s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you\u2019d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com<\/a>. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Jack Vita: With Tommy Edman opening the season on the injured list, Hyeseong Kim is a prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1769,5,39,13528,13529,1562,1593,4,169,3480,13531,235,1200,5005,3998,13527,13530],"class_list":["post-579197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-associated-press","tag-baseball","tag-dodgers","tag-jason-preston","tag-kings","tag-lakers","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-sandy-alcantara","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-team","tag-teams","tag-times","tag-tuesday","tag-ucla-olympic-sports","tag-wimbledon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116091692531830363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}