Good morning. We don’t usually lead with ourselves, and we won’t make a habit of it. But this one is worth the space. Then: the Dodgers needed one win to take the West and lost, and lost Blake Snell after 19 pitches, which is the larger problem. A 20-year-old catcher in Denver talked an umpire out of ball four and then hit the next pitch 426 feet. And three hockey teams in our markets opened camp this week. Let’s get into it.
🚨 HEADLINES
🏆 First place. Our very own Eric Lambkins wins the PFWA’s column writing award — The Sporting Tribune.
⚾ Nineteen pitches. Snell exits with groin tightness; the clinch waits — Fredo Cervantes at Great American Ball Park.
⚾ First two. Ethan Salas homered twice in a 9-3 Padres win at Coors — Eric Evelhoch at Coors Field.
🏒 The C. The Kings named Drew Doughty their captain — Jack Janes in Los Angeles.
🏀 Patience. Steve Carp on where the NBA’s Las Vegas expansion talk actually stands — Steve Carp in Las Vegas.
⚽ Ten, finally. Angel City beat Seattle 3-1 for the 10th win in club history — Michelle Chavez at BMO Stadium.
See what else is trending at The Sporting Tribune.
📋 SCOREBOARD — WEDNESDAY
⚾ MLB: Reds 6, Dodgers 2 · Padres 9, Rockies 3 · Mariners 7, Angels 2
⚽ NWSL: Angel City 3, Seattle Reign 1
🏆 TST’S ERIC LAMBKINS WINS THE DAVE ANDERSON AWARD
The Professional Football Writers of America announced its 2026 Dick Connor Writing Awards on Wednesday. In the Dave Anderson Column Writing category, first place went to Eric Lambkins II of The Sporting Tribune, for his column “How petty voters in secret rooms tarnished Belichick’s moment.”
The numbers around it are the part worth sitting with. The competition drew 296 stories and 28 beat reporter portfolios. Nineteen PFWA members placed. Eight writers won a first place, and the other seven came from places like The Athletic — which took five — and ESPN.com.
In Lambkins’s category, second place went to Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer and third to Rob Reischel of Forbes.
The award carries the name of Dave Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist. The competition carries the name of Dick Connor of the Denver Post, the PFWA’s ninth president. It was judged this year by the Dallas Morning News’s Amy Hollyfield and four journalism educators — Mark Hyman, Vicki Michaelis and Malcolm Moran among them — and covered work published between Super Bowl LIX and Super Bowl LX.
It is Lambkins’s first top writing honor from the organization. Congratulations to him, and thank you for reading work that is worth reading.
GO DEEPER
› The Sporting Tribune’s Eric Lambkins II wins first-place PFWA column writing award (The Sporting Tribune)
› Eric Lambkins II: How petty voters in secret rooms tarnished Belichick’s moment — the winning column (The Sporting Tribune)
⚾ THE GROIN, AND THE WAIT
Blake Snell felt it before he ever took the mound.
“I felt good all day and then the second to last pitch of the bullpen, I threw a slider and I felt a grab,” he said.
He went out and tried anyway. Nineteen pitches later he was done, and Dave Roberts was following him off the field after the first inning.
“I was gonna try to get through five, but I just knew I didn’t have a good shot of doing that and remaining healthy,” Snell said.
Fredo Cervantes reports Snell has had groin trouble before and says this one doesn’t feel as severe, and that the Dodgers had no lingering concern going in. He wants a couple of days to see how it responds. Roberts left the door open to another regular-season start but drew the line clearly.
“I like where his head is at, but he just can’t afford any more setbacks,” Roberts said.
Put it next to the week. Skubal threw seven scoreless Monday. Yamamoto gave up one hit over eight Tuesday. Wednesday the third man in that October trio lasted an inning. The Dodgers do not need Snell in September. They need to know in three weeks whether they have him at all.
The rest of it. Will Smith put Los Angeles ahead with an RBI double in the third; Elly De La Cruz answered with a two-run homer off Seth Halvorsen in the bottom half — the fourth time in five nights De La Cruz has done something consequential against Dodgers pitching, after home runs off Skubal, Yamamoto and Evan Phillips and the only hit against Yamamoto. Los Angeles went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on. Mookie Betts went 3-for-4. Kris Bubic threw a scoreless eighth in his Dodgers debut.
They are 92-60 and still one win away. Justin Wrobleski starts this morning with Landon Knack behind him.
GO DEEPER
› Fredo Cervantes: Blake Snell exits early as Dodgers fall to Reds in Cincinnati (The Sporting Tribune)
⚾ HE ARGUED BALL FOUR, THEN HIT IT 426 FEET
The best half-inning of baseball in our markets this week belongs to a rookie catcher who had one big-league hit to his name on Sunday.
Eric Evelhoch has it: Ethan Salas came up in the second with the bases loaded and a full count. He took a pitch, the umpire called ball four, and Salas challenged it under the automated ball-strike system. The challenge won. Ball four was erased, the walk and the RBI with it.
Then he hit the next pitch — a middle-cut four-seamer — 426 feet to straight-away center.
He hit another one in the fifth, a 372-foot shot to right off an inside four-seamer, after Samad Taylor had already driven in two. Three RBI on the night, and the first two home runs of his career on the same evening.
The rest of a 9-3 win. San Diego scored in five of the first six innings and pushed across a first-inning run for the third straight game. Robbie Ray gave them six innings, three hits, three runs and six strikeouts for his 13th win, retiring 10 in a row from the second through the fifth. Dustin Harris tripled in a run in the fourth and scored in the sixth on a Ty France double. Manny Machado made a diving stop at third to rob a runner in the seventh.
The Padres are 83-69. Michael King (11-9, 3.03) closes the series this afternoon.
GO DEEPER
› Eric Evelhoch: Salas swats first two MLB home runs, Padres pour it on in win at Colorado (The Sporting Tribune)
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🍔 THE DEALS BOARD
Active today across Southern California — brought to you by Ike’s Sandwiches, home of the world famous Arash Markazi sandwich, which has fried chicken, purple slaw, wasabi mayo, honey mustard, and cheddar on a Dutch Crunch roll. Just ask for the 500 at any Ike’s location. One deal today. That is not a typo — it is the thinnest board of the season.
🥤 Mountain Dew — free 20-oz Baja Blast. Five balls cleared 420 feet Wednesday, and one of them was Ethan Salas’s 426-footer at Coors. Wallet pass at OTC Network stores.
Everything else is dark, and the reasons stack up. The Dodgers lost on the road, so Panda Express, Sunright, the Habit Burger Double Char and ampm all need a home game they didn’t play. They scored two, so the McDonald’s nuggets deal needed four more. They struck out five, so Jack in the Box needed two more. El Portal and Con Azúcar both need a win. The Angels lost 7-2, which closes the McDonald’s fries deal. And the Firehouse Subs window shut last night.
Friday changes it. The Dodgers are home against the Giants at 7:15, and a win at Chavez Ravine restarts nearly the whole board at once.
🏒 THREE CAMPS, ONE WEEK
Hockey came back to our markets this week, all at once.
The Kings named Drew Doughty captain. Jack Janes has it — the letter goes to a defenseman who has been in Los Angeles long enough to have earned it several times over.
The Knights are back on the ice, and Steve Carp’s framing from City National Arena is that the clock is ticking on this group. Vegas has spent the last two weeks extending Bowman and locking down Mark Stone; camp is where you find out whether that was enough.
And the Ducks open Thursday with Cutter Gauthier signed, one day after they beat the CBA deadline to get it done.
One more from Las Vegas. Carp also writes on where NBA expansion to Las Vegas actually stands, and the watchword in his headline is the right one: patience. Worth reading before the next round of speculation.
GO DEEPER
› Jack Janes: Kings name Drew Doughty as next captain (The Sporting Tribune)
› Steve Carp: Knights return to the ice with clock ticking (The Sporting Tribune)
› Steve Carp: Patience the watchword as NBA mulls expansion to Las Vegas (The Sporting Tribune)
📌 AROUND THE MARKETS.
The streak ends in Anaheim. Jack Haslett writes that missteps and errors ended the Angels’ winning ways in a 7-2 loss to Seattle, two nights after they’d taken the first two of the series.
Ten wins, and still alive. Angel City beat the Reign 3-1 at BMO Stadium to reach 10 victories for the first time in club history and keep a playoff push going. Denver Summit visits tonight — a chance to make it 11.
Cross-country. Holdenn Graff reports from the Bloom Football Performance Center as USC, 3-0, heads east for its Big Ten opener at Rutgers. The schedule gets real now.
Free at the Rose Bowl. Anthony Arroyo has UCLA making admission free for students against Purdue — a straightforward attempt to fix the thing everyone complains about at the Rose Bowl, which is that the students aren’t in it.
GO DEEPER
› Jack Haslett: Missteps and errors spell the end of Angels’ winning ways in loss to Mariners (The Sporting Tribune)
› Angel City reaches 10 wins for first time, keeps playoff hopes alive with 3-1 victory over Seattle (The Sporting Tribune)
› Holdenn Graff: USC heads cross-country for Big Ten opener at Rutgers (The Sporting Tribune)
› Anthony Arroyo: UCLA makes Rose Bowl admission free for students (The Sporting Tribune)
📺 WATCHLIST — THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
⚾ MLB: Dodgers at Reds — Great American Ball Park — 9:40 a.m. — SNLA
⚾ MLB: Padres at Rockies — Coors Field — 12:10 p.m. — Padres TV
🏀 WNBA: Sparks at Wings — Colle Park Center — 5:00 p.m. — USA
⚾ MLB: Twins at Angels — Angel Stadium — 6:38 p.m. — ABTV
🏀 WNBA: Aces at Storm — 7:00 p.m. — Climate Peldge Arena —USA
Coming up: The Dodgers open a homestand against the Giants on Friday and can clinch the NL West if they haven’t already. The Rams host the Giants on Monday night. Cruz-Bravo is Saturday at Pechanga Arena. UNLV and Hawai’i return from bye on Sept. 26, and Shohei Ohtani is eligible off the injured list on Sept. 23.
🎟️ GOING TO A GAME?
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⚾ Giants at Dodgers — Dodger Stadium (Friday) — $ 64
⚾ Twins at Angels — Angel Stadium — $4
🏈 Giants at Rams — SoFi Stadium (Monday) — $100
🌴 TST TRIVIA
Ethan Salas hit the first home run of his major-league career in the second inning Wednesday at Coors Field. The pitch before it, he did something that turned a run already on the board into no run at all. What was it?
Answer at the bottom.
🎧 THE SPORTING TRIBUNE TODAY
The Sporting Tribune Today airs weekdays at 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET on SportsGrid, hosted by Grant Mona and John Browner and built on reporting from our staff across Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawai’i. Our stories, photos and columns also run on SportsGrid’s website and app.
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Today’s episode: Eric Lambkins II wins the PFWA’s column writing award, what Blake Snell’s groin means for a Dodgers rotation three weeks from October, a rookie catcher who challenged ball four and then hit it out, and three hockey teams opening camp across our markets.
› Listen to the latest episode
Trivia answer: With the bases loaded and a full count, Salas challenged the ball-four call under the automated ball-strike system and won — wiping out his own walk and the RBI that came with it. Then he homered on the next pitch.
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