From Gary Klein: Safety Quentin Lake and running back Kyren Williams are key players for a Rams team with legitimate designs on a Super Bowl title.
Both are in the final years of their rookie contracts.
But while the Rams have been in negotiations with Williams’ agent about a possible extension, Lake will most likely have to play out the season before his future with the Rams is determined.
And history is not on his side.
Consider: Since the Rams returned to Los Angeles from St. Louis in 2016, they have not signed a safety they drafted to an extension.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Lake said Tuesday when asked about the situation, “as long as I take care of myself between these white lines everything will take care of itself.”
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From Ben Bolch: DeShaun Foster politely declined to specify how many wins he wanted in Year 2 other than to say “a lot.”
The UCLA coach was far more forthcoming when asked about his team packing the Rose Bowl to the extent that the Bruins did when Foster was running over opposing defenses a quarter of a century ago.
In fact, Foster went full Joe Namath mode in predicting a full stadium before the end of 2025.
“Yeah, it will be,” Foster said Thursday during Big Ten media days. “You guys will see that. You’ll see it this season. I’m guaranteeing that you’ll see it this season — as long as we’re playing the way that we need to play, they’ll show up.”
Here are five questions facing the Bruins as they prepare to open training camp Wednesday morning in Costa Mesa:
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: For the first half of July, the Dodgers’ slumping offense struggled to simply create consistent scoring chances.
In recent weeks, the problem has been more about capitalizing upon them.
Down the stretch in a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday however, the team finally found a few clutch late-game hits.
Will Smith and Freddie Freeman hit consecutive two-out RBI singles in the seventh inning, erasing the two-run deficit Tyler Glasnow had left behind in a disappointing four-plus-innings, four-run start.
ANGELS
Pinch-hitter Yoán Moncada keyed a four-run sixth inning with a two-run single and Gustavo Campero also drove in two runs as the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 8-5 on Tuesday night.
Texas took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the sixth, one scoring on Ezequiel Duran’s RBI single and the other on an error. But two walks by Rangers reliever Jon Gray opened the door for the Angels in the bottom half.
Campero tied it when he doubled to shallow left-center, with Texas center fielder Sam Haggerty coming up short on his attempt at a sliding catch. Moncada lined his two-out single to right for a 6-4 lead, and Zach Neto doubled to make it 7-4.
WORLD CUP
From Kevin Baxter: Landon Donovan can’t be sure he would have played international soccer had the World Cup not come to Pasadena in 1994, but he can say with certainty he wasn’t aware what international soccer was until then.
“I went to one game,” said Donovan, who was a 12-year-old prodigy the first time the World Cup was played in the U.S. “And I knew nothing — and I mean nothing — about soccer on the global scale. It opened my eyes because there was no soccer on TV, no internet. I didn’t know anything about it.”
Eight years after watching Romania eliminate Argentina at the Rose Bowl, Donovan was scoring the U.S. team’s final goal in the 2002 World Cup, helping the Americans reach the quarterfinals for the only time in the modern era.
The tournament will be back in the U.S. in less than 11 months, with the U.S. playing two of its three group games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. And Donovan is certain some of the people watching will be kids who, like him, will be inspired by their first up-close look at the global game.
“There’s millions of kids who maybe played a little bit, or thought about playing, or play a lot and go to a World Cup game. It changes their life forever,” he said.
SPARKS
From Kara Alexander: Thirteen months after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament, Sparks forward Cameron Brink made her season debut, stepping onto the court at the 2:39 mark of the first quarter.
Brink looked comfortable despite the long layoff, jumping into the midseason contest intensity with confidence. She was active and competitive throughout, playing 13 minutes and 55 seconds during her return.
“We’re thrilled to have her back, and I’m incredibly proud of her,” Sparks coach Lynn Roberts said. “She’s on a minutes restriction. … I told her that she needs to enjoy the moment. … It’s a hard injury to come back from mentally and physically, and she’s done it with a smile on her face.”
But the night marked the end of the WNBA’s longest active winning streak, as the Sparks fell 89-74 to the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1870 — Monmouth Park opens with a five-day meet.
1930 — Host Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 for soccer’s first World Cup in Montevideo.
1932 — The 10th modern Olympic Games open in Los Angeles.
1961 — Jerry Barber edges Don January by one stroke in a playoff to win the PGA title at Olympia Fields in Illinois.
1966 — England beats West Germany 4-2 at London’s Wembley Stadium to capture soccer’s World Cup.
1971 — In the NFL All-Star Game, the Baltimore Colts beat the All-Stars 24-17.
1976 — Bruce Jenner sets the world record in the Olympic decathlon with 8,618 points, breaking Nikolai Avilov’s mark by 164 points.
1984 — Michael Gross of West Germany sets a world record in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:47.44 at a meet in Munich.
1996 — The American softball team wins the gold medal, beating China 3-1 behind a controversial two-run homer from Dot Richardson in the first Olympic competition in that sport.
2009 — Seven more world records on the fifth night of the world swimming championships in Rome are set, pushing the total to 29 and moving past last summer’s Beijing Olympics. Ryan Lochte gets things rolling by breaking Phelps’ mark in the 200-meter individual medley. The Chinese women finish it off, eclipsing the 800 freestyle relay mark by more than two seconds, with the Americans also breaking the previous record but only getting silver.
2012 — In London, Missy Franklin, a 17-year-old from Colorado, wins the women’s 100-meter backstroke. Franklin has a brief 13-minute break after taking the final qualifying spot in the 200 freestyle semifinals before she had to get back into the water for the backstroke final. Ruta Meilutyte, 15, becomes the first Lithuanian to win an Olympic swimming medal by holding off a late charge from world champion Rebecca Soni of the U.S. in the 100 breaststroke.
2013 — Katie Ledecky crushes the world record in the 1,500 freestyle for her second gold medal at the world swimming championships in Barcelona, Spain. The 16-year-old American finishes with a time of 15:36.53 to beat the previous mark by more than 6 seconds — Kate Ziegler’s 15:42.54 in 2007.
2015 — North Korea wins its first gold medal at the world aquatics championships through 16-year-old Kim Kuk Hyang in women’s 10-meter diving. In her first international competition, Kim produces a stunning final dive, earning two perfect 10 scores from the seven judges, for a total of 397.05 points. On the next dive, the leader up to that point, world champion Si Yajie of China, makes an error to drop to fourth.
2021 — South African swimmer Tatjana Shoemaker sets a new women’s 200m breaststroke world record of 2:18.95 at the Tokyo Olympics.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1917 — Ty Cobb, Bobby Veach and Ossie Vitt, each went 5-for-5 in Detroit’s 16-4 romp over Washington.
1933 — Dizzy Dean struck out 17 Cubs for the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat Chicago 8-2.
1947 — The New York Giants defeated Ewell Blackwell and the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 in 10 innings, ending Blackwell’s 16-game winning streak.
1959 — Willie McCovey had four hits in four at-bats in his major league debut, with the San Francisco Giants. His hits included two triples in a 7-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1962 — The American League, led by homers from Leon Wagner, Pete Runnels and Rocky Colavito, powered past the National League 9-4, in the second All-Star Game of the year. Wagner of the Angels was named MVP.
1968 — Washington shortstop Ron Hansen pulled off an unassisted triple play, but the Cleveland Indians still won the game 10-1.
1969 — Houston, behind grand slams by Denis Menke and Jim Wynn, scored 11 runs in the ninth inning to pound the New York Mets 16-3 in a doubleheader opener at Shea Stadium. Mets pitchers Cal Koonce and Ron Taylor gave up the slams, marking the first time this century that two grand slams were hit in the same inning of a National League game.
1973 — Jim Bibby of the Texas Rangers pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against the Oakland A’s.
1980 — Houston Astros pitcher J.R. Richard had a stroke during a workout at the Astrodome and underwent surgery to remove a blood clot behind his right collarbone.
1982 — The Atlanta Braves returned Chief Noc-A-Homa and his teepee to left field after losing 19 of 21 games and blowing a 10½-game lead. The teepee was removed for more seats. The team recovered to regain first place.
1988 — John Franco of the Cincinnati Reds set a major league record with 13 saves in one month. Franco was tied with Sparky Lyle, Bruce Sutter and Bob Stanley.
1990 — George Steinbrenner was forced to resign as general partner of the New York Yankees by Commissioner Fay Vincent.
2008 — Kelly Shoppach of Cleveland tied a major league record with five extra-base hits, including a game-tying homer in the ninth, but Detroit beat the Indians 14-12 in 13 innings. Shoppach had two homers and three doubles.
2011 — The New York Yankees broke loose for 12 runs in the first inning of the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader, setting a franchise record en route to a 17-3 rout of Baltimore.
2012 — Kendrys Morales homered from both sides of the plate during a nine-run sixth inning, capping the burst with a grand slam that sent the Angels romping past the Texas Rangers 15-8. Morales became the third switch-hitter in major league history to homer as a lefty and righty in the same inning. Carlos Baerga did it for Cleveland in 1993 and Mark Bellhorn of the Chicago Cubs duplicated the feat in 2002.
2017 — Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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