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While I do typically create a story for each guest recap, so I can add them to our stream of recaps, I usually do it a few days later. But if ever a game deserved to be front paged immediately, it’s this one. The D-backs tied a franchise record, coming from 7-0 down against the Cardinals to walk it off on Max Kepler’s double (below). The win moved them to one-half game back in the wild-card race, and also clinched the season series against St. Louis. That could be key, come the end of the season. Just ask the 2024 D-backs…

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have been linked to starting pitcher Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers as a potential trade target with the trade deadline approaching, but those priorities might need to change.

The Dodgers might need to address the catcher position.

Will Smith has served as the Dodgers' primary catcher since 2019.

He has played at least 110 games in each of the past five seasons, but might not be available to reach that mark again this season. Smith has played 52 games this season, but is currently on the injured list. He has not played since June 5.

There’s a level of uncertainty around Smith’s status for the rest of the season due to an inflamed disk in his neck.

“He's taking a week of doing no activity to hopefully calm his neck down,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Friday, July 17. “… he hasn't been able to get over the hump. ... It just wasn't recovering. It was flaring up.”

What Ryan McMahon thought was a ray of optimism might have sounded more frightening to those who have watched the Yankees over the past month.

“We got another game later today,” McMahon said in between games of a doubleheader Sunday, “so the day’s not completely spoiled yet.”

A few hours later, it looked headed that way thanks in part to another dismal offensive performance.

But shortly after Fernando Cruz blew a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, Jazz Chisholm Jr. picked him up in the bottom of the frame, belting a home run the other way that lifted the Yankees to a 2-1 win over the Dodgers, splitting a doubleheader and avoiding a series sweep in The Bronx.

Chisholm’s disappointing year — “I’ve sucked all season,” he acknowledged Sunday night — has been one of the bigger reasons the Yankees lineup has faltered without Aaron Judge, but he has now saved them in two of their past six games with a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later.

“I think I just forget about all the stuff that happened early in the game and just lock in on that one at-bat,” Chisholm said. “Just try to help my team win any way I can.”

Sunday’s winning blast came off Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips in a 1-1 game and, along with some terrific work from the bullpen besides Cruz, proved to be just enough on a night when the Yankees squandered chances throughout, going 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

“That was a big win, obviously,” said Cody Bellinger, who has been scuffling for about a month but delivered an RBI single in the first inning for the 1-0 lead. “A really good team over there. Pitching was tremendous today. … Scraped one early and they kept us in this game, then Jazz with the huge homer.”

Even after getting dominated by Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game in the opener Sunday afternoon, the Yankees (55-44) finished the day just 1 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays (who were swept by the Red Sox) for first place in the AL East — the closest they have been since June 29.

The rematch of the 2024 World Series featured a pair of 2-1 games — the Dodgers (63-37) taking the second-half opener on Friday — and another close game in Sunday’s Game 1 (the Yankees trailed 3-1 entering the eighth) before the wheels came off as Aaron Boone used his lowest-leverage relievers in an attempt to save his best arms for the nightcap.

That was painful in the moment, but paid dividends in Game 2 as Boone pieced together a bullpen game — 2 ²/₃ innings from Ryan Yarbrough, 2 ¹/₃ innings from Paul Blackburn, two innings from Brent Headrick, one-third of an inning from Fernando Cruz and 1 ²/₃ innings from David Bednar — to reach the finish line.

“You’re not sure exactly how you’re going to piece together the night game and a lot of people did a really nice job to allow us to get that victory,” manager Aaron Boone said.

The Dodgers, whose relentless at-bats forced Cam Schlittler out of Game 1 by the fifth inning, could not do the same in a battle of bullpen games in the nightcap, as the Yankees led 1-0 after seven innings.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

But Cruz entered for the eighth and his second pitch was a splitter over the heart of the plate that pinch hitter Tommy Edman lifted into the right field seats to tie the game 1-1.

Cruz went on to issue back-to-back walks with one out, leading Boone to call on Bednar to face the top of the order.

Bednar entered and put out the fire, striking out Shohei Ohtani and getting Andy Pages to pop out.

Then, after Chisholm provided the lead, Bednar started off the ninth by walking Freddie Freeman on 10 pitches before retiring the next three batters in order.

“We trust [Bednar] for a reason,” Headrick said. “He’s the best closer in the game and we love having him on our team.”

Things could have been easier on the bullpen if the Yankees lineup had cashed in on key opportunities earlier in the game.

They had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth inning but could not score.

Then in the fifth, they loaded the bases with no outs and still could not push any of them across as Jasson Domínguez struck out, Chisholm popped out on the first pitch and Anthony Volpe whiffed on a full count — a flashback to Game 1 of the doubleheader.

But Chisholm found redemption in his final at-bat to salvage the day.

“I feel like we match up against any team in the league,” Chisholm said. “I feel like we beat ourselves a lot. That stuff, we’re going to clean up as it goes.

“I just feel like we got to keep on trusting each other. We’ve put in the work every day. Guys don’t come here and just not do anything. Guys come in here and work every day. That’s not the problem right now. I just feel like when we trust each other, we play a lot better.”

NEW YORK — At the end of a very long doubleheader day at Yankee Stadium, it took until the penultimate inning of Sunday’s nightcap for someone to finally deliver a fatal blow.

With the score tied in the bottom of the eighth between the Dodgers and Yankees, New York second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. delivered the night’s decisive swing, taking Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips deep to lift the Yankees to a sweep-averting 2-1 win.

For New York, salvation should have come much sooner in a series finale that saw the Dodgers go with a bullpen game.

After scoring a quick run in the first off opener Will Klein, they let the Dodgers hang around and stay within striking distance, squandering a string of repeated chances to further pad their lead.

In the fourth, they had runners at second and third with only one out but came up empty thanks in part to a nice play by third baseman Max Muncy to field a ground ball and throw a runner out at home. In the fifth, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs off three singles against Jack Dreyer but couldn’t scratch even one run across after Brock Stewart came in and sandwiched an infield pop-up between two strikeouts.

Finally, in the eighth, the Dodgers made their hosts pay, with Tommy Edman coming off the bench for a game-tying pinch-hit home run.

But then, it was the Dodgers’ turn to waste an opportunity. They got two runners aboard later in the inning with one out, only to watch Shohei Ohtani strike out and Andy Pages pop out against Yankees closer David Bednar.

Thus, the stage was set for Chisholm to launch his game-winning blast in the bottom half of the frame, belting an opposite-field drive off a low fastball from Phillips that stayed over the middle of the plate. 

What it means

The Dodgers did not complete a three-game sweep of the Yankees but still leave the Bronx with a series win to begin this nine-game road trip.

At 63-37, they continue to own the best record in the majors, plus an 11 ½-game lead in their division.

Despite Sunday night’s loss, they also got an encouraging performance out of the bullpen — a positive sign for a team that might need to use more bullpen games to compensate for Ohtani’s continued absence from the starting rotation.

Who’s hot

The Dodgers didn’t produce much at the plate Sunday night.

But backup rookie catcher Eliezer Alfonzo provided one memorable moment.

In the third inning, Alfonzo roped a line drive into center for his first career MLB hit, finally breaking through two weeks removed from his emotional debut to snap his 0-for-9 stat line previously.

The knock led to the Dodgers’ best early chance of the night, with Ohtani legging out an infield single behind him. But a flyout from Pages after that ended the inning –– which would be the Dodgers’ only at-bat with a runner in scoring position until their pivotal squandered chance in the eighth.

Who’s not

Two weeks ago, Mookie Betts looked like he was back.

Now, he’s simply back to his previously disappointing form.

After going hitless in four at-bats Sunday night, Betts is now just 4-for-38 over his last 11 games with only one extra-base hit. That slump has dropped his season batting average, which was up to .248 on July 2, back down to .226. His OPS has also fallen from .750 to .689 in that time.

Up next

The Dodgers continue this East Coast road trip with a three-game series against the Phillies beginning Monday. Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81 ERA) will start Monday’s opener at Citizens Bank Park against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez (11-4, 2.62 ERA).

Sometimes it’s the small victories. After a managing blunder from Aaron Boone in the series opener and a thorough humbling at the hands of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the second game relegated the Yankees to losses in the first two games of the series, it became imperative that the Yankees find a way to avoid the sweep in both the doubleheader and the series.

Despite Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler going in the first two games of the series, the Yankees improbably received their best pitching performance of the series from a hastily assembled bullpen game in the finale. It was far from a vintage performance by the offense against the Dodgers’ cobbled together bullpen game, the Bombers wasting a pair of scoring opportunities in the middle innings to leave the door open for a Dodgers comeback that thankfully stalled before they could take the lead. Jazz Chisholm Jr. provided the decisive blow with the go-ahead solo home run in the eighth, and every reliever not named Fernando Cruz was lights-out to secure the victory, 2-1.

Last time Ryan Yarbrough faced the Dodgers, he authored one of the most improbable starts of any pitcher in baseball last year. He held their mighty lineup to a run in six innings last June at Chavez Ravine, out-dueling Yamamoto in the process — part of a crucial eight-start stretch where he allowed two or fewer runs in seven of those outings to help save the Yankees’ season as the rotation was inundated with injuries in May and June.

He managed to tap into some of that same magic tonight. He retired the first eight batters he faced, needing just 17 pitches to go six up, six down in the first two innings. He couldn’t quite make it through three, Eliezer Alfonzo tallying a single for his first big league hit with two outs and then Shohei Ohtani following with a squibber infield single to the left side. That prompted Boone to call on Paul Blackburn as the first man out of the bullpen. It was expected that Elmer Rodríguez would follow Yarbrough as the bulk reliever — the rookie called up as the Yankees’ designated 27th man earlier in the day — but it’s understandable that Boone go to the recently-minted relief ace Blackburn given the high leverage of the situation. Indeed, Blackburn got Andy Pages to fly out to left to strand the pair he inherited.

The offense had to wait until the fourth to register their first hit (and run) against Yamamoto, so it was nice to see them come out of the blocks firing against opener Will Klein. Paul Goldschmidt kept the first inning alive with a two-out double to the opposite field and Cody Bellinger cashed him in with an RBI single lined up the middle. Jasson Domínguez followed with a single of his own, but Jazz stranded the pair in place by striking out to end the frame.

Kyle Hurt was called up as the Dodgers’ designated 27th man for the doubleheader and entered as the bulk reliever in place of Klein to start the second. Things quieted down for a spell with the two bulk guys in the game, until the Yankees gave themselves a golden opportunity to grow their lead in the fourth. Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells drew a pair of one-out walks and both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. However, as we have seen countless times in the Boone era, the Yankees made an out at home on an ill-conceived contact play, José Caballero hitting a routine grounder to third and Max Muncy’s throw home beating Volpe by a step-and-a-half. Trent Grisham grounded out to first to strand runners on the corners as the Yankees failed to score.

If you think that was bad, just wait until you see what they did the next inning. They loaded the bases with no outs on three straight singles by Ben Rice, Goldschmidt, and Bellinger to bring Jasson Domínguez to the plate. However, he flailed at four pitches out of the zone to strike out, Jazz popped up a first pitch changeup that was left middle-middle and Muncy caught it in foul territory, and then Volpe chased a 3-2 fastball off the plate for the inning ending strikeout to strand the bases loaded. Probably the worst three batter sequence you are likely to see to Houdini themselves out of scoring a run.

Thankfully for the Yankees, the first two members out of their bullpen appeared to pitch with a steely determination to avoid the sweep. Blackburn gave them 2.1 scoreless innings allowing a hit and a walk. Brent Headrick was even more impressive, twirling two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh and racking up three strikeouts. However, all those wasted opportunities were fated to come home to roost, and indeed they did upon Cruz’s entrance in the eighth. Normally excellent for large stretches this summer, Cruz grooved a 1-0 splitter to pinch-hitter Tommy Edman, and he crushed it to right for the game-tying solo home run. Cruz walked a pair to force Boone out of the dugout to call on his closer, and David Bednar slammed the door on the burgeoning rally to strand the pair.

You wondered whether yet another gut-punch in this series would spiral into a third straight loss. However, Jazz had other ideas in the eighth. He atoned for his pop out with the bases loaded in the fifth with a booming go-ahead solo shot off reliever Evan Phillips. Ryan McMahon followed with a pinch-hit double and Wells drew a walk, the pair advancing into scoring position but ultimately getting stranded by a Grisham pop out.

Bednar navigated around a leadoff Freddie Freeman walk in the ninth, striking out a pair in the frame to nail down the five-out save. The offense remained anemic, scoring two or fewer runs in all three games, and overcame their 11 stranded runners and 2-for-10 showing with runners in scoring position. However, every win is a win, and it’s hard not to feel like this one counts as double given that Yankees were previously 1-9 in their last 10 home games. Thanks to the Rays’ sweep, the Yanks are only a game and a half back of the AL East lead.

The Yankees next welcome the Pirates to the Bronx for three games, thankfully with Paul Skenes having just pitched yesterday. Ryan Weathers gets the series opener against Braxton Ashcraft, who was an All-Star in his own right. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm ET Monday night with the broadcast returning to YES.

Box Score

18 innings in one day can sometimes be too much for one team to handle, and that was the case for the Dodgers as they dropped the second half of a doubleheader to the Yankees 2-1.

After both aces battled earlier on Sunday, both teams were relegated to using their bullpens. The Dodgers struck first in the first half of the doubleheader, but old friend Cody Bellinger continued his exciting week with an RBI single against Will Klein to put the Yankees on top 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning.

Both teams were gridlocked throughout the majority of Sunday night, as the Dodgers collected just three hits against the Yankees bullpen through the seventh inning. That all changed when Tommy Edman connected on a Fernando Cruz sinker in the top of the eighth inning and drilled it out to tie the game. It was Edman’s first home run of the season as a left-handed hitter and it was his first home run this year in a regular MLB ballpark.

As soon as the Dodgers found their clutch gene, the Yankees returned the favor against Evan Phillips in the bottom of the eighth inning as Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched an opposite field, go-ahead home run to once again give New York a one-run lead.

David Bednar came in to fan the flames that Cruz created in the eighth inning, and he locked down the door with a scoreless ninth inning to help the Yankees avoid a Dodgers sweep.

Game notes

• Eliézer Alfonzo lined a single up the middle in the top of the third inning, giving him his first career hit at the big league level. Alfonzo finished the game 1-2 before being pinch hit for Dalton Rushing, and he is now hitting .091 over his first 11 big league plate appearances.
• Old friend Ryan Yarbrough was the opener for the Yankees on Sunday night, going 2 2/3 innings while allowing just two hits and picking up a strikeout.
• Brock Stewart and Kyle Hurt provided the most length out of the Dodger bullpen, with both right-handers combining for four no-hit innings while striking out three and walking two.
• Several hitters on the Dodgers are enduring sluggish starts to the second half of the season, as Mookie Betts went hitless over the three games while Freddie Freeman went 1-9 over the weekend with six strikeouts, including a three-strikeout performance on Friday.

Game particulars

• Home runs— Tommy Edman (2); Jazz Chisholm Jr. (14)
• WP—David Bednar(4-3): 1 2/3 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
• LP—Evan Phillips(0-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

Up next

The Dodgers continue their east coast excursion in Philadelphia on Monday as they begin a three-game series with the Phillies (4:10 p.m. PT, ESPN). Emmet Sheehan faces All-Star Cristopher Sánchez.

Eliezer Alfonzo jumped on a first-pitch cutter, keeping his hands inside to send it into shallow center field.

Two weeks after making his major league debut under tragic circumstances, Alfonzo recorded his first hit.

“The guys have been supporting me, pushing me every day,” Alfonzo said. “And they told me, ‘You’re going to get it here at Yankee Stadium, it’s going to be really good.’”

It was a heartwarming moment early in the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the New York Yankees in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader. By dropping the series finale after an 8-2 win in the opener, the Dodgers settled for a series win instead of sweep.

Read more:'That's why he's our ace.' Yoshinobu Yamamoto shines with latest complete-game gem

With starting catcher Will Smith sidelined indefinitely because of a neck injury, Alfonzo has served as the backup to Dalton Rushing for the last two weeks.

The morning of Alfonzo’s debut, his sister and stepmother, who had been missing since two powerful earthquakes devastated Venezuela last month, were found dead. Alfonzo still played, honoring them on the field.

“It was good to see him shorten up and get a knock,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously he has gone through a lot so it was good to get that first major league hit here. Behind the plate, he’s been great.”

Alfonzo’s familiarity with the Dodgers’ pitching staff from spring training has helped provide some stability in Smith’s absence. But he had yet to contribute at the plate, going 0 for 9.

Until the third inning of Sunday’s nightcap.

Read more:Shaikin: Shohei Ohtani's knee troubles creating a major pitching dilemma for Dodgers

Alfonzo rounded first base, kissed his closed right hand and pointed to the sky. Then he turned to the visitors dugout, grinned and lifted both fists above his head.

“The first thing I said, as soon as I saw the ball going through, [was] ‘Thanks, God, for this,’” Alfonzo said.

A pitching change later in the inning, after Shohei Ohtani singled, gave Alfonzo a chance to grab a drink of water outside the dugout. His teammates flocked to him, reaching over the railing for high-fives.

Ohtani, who Alfonzo said had encouraged him with “Let’s get the first hit today” before the game, greeted him with: “Congratulations! I told you.”

Notching his first hit at Yankee Stadium was even sweeter, Alfonzo said, because of his grandmother’s affinity for the Yankees.

His teammates made sure to get the ball back. And Teoscar Hernández held it up to show him.

Alfonzo’s two-out single didn’t start a rally. But in the bottom of the fourth, he helped squash one.

Dodgers right-hander Edgardo Henriquez was on the mound as their third pitcher in a bullpen game, and his command was faltering, to the tune of back-to-back walks and a wild pitch. Then with runners on second and third, he induced José Caballero to hit a grounder to third baseman Max Muncy.

Anthony Volpe, the Yankees’ runner on third, took off on contact. Muncy threw on the run to Alfonzo, who was set up on the inside of the basepath. Alfonzo made a diving tag on Volpe to prevent a run.

The Dodgers (63-37) used seven pitchers, the first six combining to limit the Yankees (55-44) to Cody Bellinger’s first-inning RBI single for seven innings. Brock Stewart had a standout performance, entering in the fifth with no outs and the bases loaded and retiring three straight batters. He then threw a clean sixth. Alex Vesia struck out the side in the seventh.

Utility man Tommy Edman’s pinch-hit homer in the eighth tied the score, but with two men on, Ohtani struck out and Andy Pages popped out against Yankees closer David Bednar. In the bottom half, Yankees star Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a solo homer off Evan Phillips to regain the lead. Freddie Freeman led off the ninth with a walk, but Bednar retired the next three Dodgers to end it.

“I think everyone’s pleased with the results of the series,” Phillips said. “But I think what we do well here as a team is treat games individually and just go out there and try to perform well as a group each and every game. So sure, you can look back on the series and reflect and say this was a quality series, but I think everybody’s disappointed about the loss.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Yankees (55-44) beat the Los Angeles Dodgers (63-37) to avoid the three-game sweep at home, 2-1 the final score.

The Yankees now trail the Tampa Bay Rays (56-42) for the AL East lead by just 1.5 games.

Here are the takeaways....

-- The Bronx Bombers took the lead thanks to a two-out rally in the first inning. Paul Goldschmidt doubled, and Cody Bellinger singled him home.

-- Due to the doubleheader, both teams had unusual starting pitchers take the mound tonight. For the Dodgers, reliever Will Klein served as the opener, but was taken out in the second inning. With a fresh bullpen thanks to Yoshinobu Yamamoto's heroic complete game earlier in the day, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts used seven different pitchers in this game. Meanwhile, Yankees manager Aaron Boone handed the ball to lefty Ryan Yarbrough, who pitched a scoreless 2.2 innings. Paul Blackburn picked up where Yarbrough left off, keeping Los Angeles from scoring for another 2.1 innings. Brent Headrick continued to shine in relief for New York, refusing to allow the Dodgers to reach base across two innings, striking out three of the six batters he faced.

-- The Yankees held onto a 1-0 lead for the majority of the game. They could have (and probably should have) had a much safer lead, as they stranded nine baserunners through seven innings, including squandering the bases loaded with nobody out in the fifth. The Dodgers finally broke through in the eighth, tying the game 1-1 when switch-hitter Tommy Edman took a Fernando Cruz splitter out of the park for a solo homer. With two runners on base, David Bednar came in to record the final two outs of the inning.

-- With one out and nobody on base in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. faced Dodgers righty reliever Evan Phillips and blasted his fastball to the opposite field for a home run, restoring the Yanks' lead to 2-1. Ryan McMahon entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Anthony Volpe, sending a frozen rope to center field which bounced on the warning track and leaped the wall for a ground-rule double. With runners on second and third and two outs, Phillips got Trent Grisham to produce a meek infield fly to limit the damage.

-- Facing the heart of the Dodgers' batting order, Bednar stayed in the game with the save on the line in the ninth inning. Leading off, Freddie Freeman worked a ten pitch at-bat and drew a walk before being subbed out of the game for pinch runner Alex Freeland. Bednar battled back, striking out Mookie Betts swinging with a nasty splitter and forcing Kyle Tucker into a groundout via fielder's choice. Edman flied out to shallow left field for the third out, sealing a nervy 2-1 win for the Yankees as Bednar earned his 19th save of the season.

Game MVP: Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Jazz came up clutch with his 14th homer of the year to give New York a late lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Highlights

Cody Bellinger gets the Yankees on the board first! pic.twitter.com/6FvtFG6S3q

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 19, 2026

JAZZ CHISHOLM JR. HOMERS AND THE YANKEES LEAD! pic.twitter.com/Ivr9kj1gyd

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 20, 2026

What's Next

The Yankees continue their home stand tomorrow night against the Pittsburgh Pirates (52-48) at 7:05 p.m.

The scheduled pitching matchup is Ryan Weathers (4.15 ERA, 1.24 WHIP) for the Yankees and Braxton Ashcraft (3.49 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) for the Pirates.