It seems like the Dodgers have hit the All-Star break prematurely.

Judging by their recent performances, one might think they’ve already kicked off their vacation.

Saturday night was no exception, as the team suffered a 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers’ woes continued with another round of sloppy defense, a problem that had plagued them and contributed to two earlier losses this week. Adding to the slide was an unlikely stumble from All-Star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who allowed a staggering five runs in the sixth inning, essentially sealing the game.

However, the most alarming aspect of their current slump was the offense, which appeared utterly lifeless, underscoring their recent lack of competency.

For five innings, the Dodgers did nothing against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt. And even after they knocked him out with a couple runs in the bottom of the sixth, they squandered a chance to keep building a rally and get themselves back into the game.

Instead, they rolled over meekly the rest of the evening, watching Landon Knack come out of the bullpen for his season debut and give up three more runs to add insult to injury.

What it means

The Dodgers might be cruising toward October already.

But that doesn’t mean they can just sleepwalk their way to continued success.

On Saturday, they were hurt by a couple of misplays at third base from Max Muncy, who committed a throwing error in the third inning and couldn’t stop a double down the line from Tim Tawa in the sixth.

On the latter occasion, Yamamoto couldn’t negate the mistake either. Instead, he followed up an intentional walk to Nolan Arenado by serving up a back-breaking, three-run homer to James McCann, giving him a season-high six runs allowed this season.

Who’s hot

On Saturday? Not much of anyone in the Dodgers’ lineup.

The night started with nine consecutive outs against Pfaadt, who was making just his sixth start of the season after a move out of the bullpen. Then came several missed chances, including a two-on, no-out opportunity in the fourth and the short-lived rally in the sixth.

A double from Tommy Edman and RBI singles from Andy Pages and Mookie Betts got the Dodgers on the board in that latter frame, and forced Arizona to turn to the bullpen with Muncy and Kyle Tucker on deck.

The pitching change to left-hander Brandyn Garcia, however, worked perfectly, with Muncy taking a called third strike and Tucker frustratingly lacing a lineout to shortstop.

On the whole, the Dodgers finished the night with just six hits and were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Who’s not

Knack made his long-awaited return to the majors on Saturday, getting activated off the injured list pregame following an elongated rehab stint in triple-A Oklahoma City.

Nevertheless, his season debut did not go well, with the right-hander giving up one quick run in the seventh and two solo home runs to Arenado and McCann (his second of the night) in the eighth.

Knack was only activated now because the Dodgers –– fresh off their bullpen game Friday night –– were in need of bullpen coverage.

Struggling right-hander Kyle Hurt was optioned in a corresponding move, but manager Dave Roberts said he expected Hurt to rejoin the team sometime during the second half.

Up next

The Dodgers will try to avoid getting swept as they round out the first half on Sunday, with Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.91 ERA) facing off against Arizona rookie Mitch Bratt (who is replacing the injured Zac Gallen). 

Under the oppressive Florida heat at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, England struggled amidst the relentless temperatures and the determination of the Norwegian team on a steamy Saturday evening.

Despite their hardships and initial disadvantage, the team mirrored last week’s tenacity at the Azteca, standing firm and unyielding in the face of adversity.

With scorching humidity marking this as one of the hottest World Cup matches ever played, England fought tirelessly, flirting with a loss, as even their lightweight white shirts clung heavily with sweat.

Yet, Jude Bellingham seemed impervious to the exhausting conditions, undeterred by the factors that drained others.

Charging through these fiery trials, Bellingham once again became England’s savior, lifting them when Thomas Tuchel’s squad appeared overshadowed by Norway.

He scored once in the first half and, again, two minutes into the first period of extra time to seal a 2-1 win. His team-mates looked exhausted and beaten but he simply refused to yield.

This was his Miami heist and it took England to a World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday. 

Bellingham now has six goals in this World Cup and, amid his other heroics, he is in the thick of the race for the Golden Boot. His single-handed defiance was magnificent. It said: Fire, walk with me.

After the altitude test of their last-16 tie against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium last weekend this was a different kind of trial but England showed again that they are not lacking for fortitude. 

They did not play well. They have not played well for most of this tournament but they limited Erling Haaland’s contribution to a minimum and they keep finding a way to win.

They are exorcising their ghosts as they travel on this odyssey through the USA and Mexico. 

In Mexico City, England went to the Azteca Stadium where Diego Maradona had scored the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against them in 1986 and wiped away its pain with the country’s greatest victory on foreign soil, a 3-2 victory at altitude, with 10 men, in front of a hostile, impassioned crowd.

In Miami, England faced an opponent whose victory over them in Oslo in a World Cup qualifier in 1981 had spawned one of the most replayed passages of football commentary ever. England has spent 45 years being the punchline for somebody else’s joke and now we can smile at it more easily.

It may not have quite the same ring to it but it is worth a riposte after all those decades: Edvard Munch, Henrik Ibsen, the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, Roald Amundsen, Magnus Carlsen, A-ha, John Arne Riise, the Northern Lights, the Viking Row, Odin, Thor, Loki and Frigg… your boys took a hell of a beating.

Tuchel restored John Stones to the centre of England’s defence alongside Marc Guehi, meaning that Haaland was being marshalled by two Manchester City team-mates, with a third, Nico O’Reilly, at left back. They knew Haaland’s strengths. Haaland knew their weaknesses.

England dominated possession in the early stages and fed the ball wide to Noni Madueke, who was finding space on the England right. Madueke, in the side instead of Bukayo Saka, did not make the best use of it. Anthony Gordon, on the other flank, looked more of a threat.

England’s only half chance of the first quarter came right before the hydration break, when Madueke brought a long ball down expertly and drove it across goal. O’Reilly got his boot to it but could not direct it towards goal with any power and it was hacked away.

For once, the hydration break felt like necessity, not just an advertising opportunity. England’s players took bottles of fluids and wrapped iced towels round their necks. Seconds after the restart, Bellingham won a free kick on the edge of the Norway area. Kane blazed it high over the bar.

England suffered their first alarm 12 minutes before the interval when Stones was caught dawdling on the ball by Haaland inside the England area. The ball ran away from the Norway striker and Jordan Pickford claimed it but England’s escape only encouraged their opponents.

A minute later, Julian Ryerson crossed from the right and even though Haaland rose majestically to meet it, he could only direct his header straight at Pickford. There were gasps of awe from the crowd at the height of Haaland’s leap.

Norway were suddenly dominant. Kane lost the ball in the middle of the field and even though he claimed he had been fouled from behind, referee Clement Turpin waved play on. It reached Andreas Schjelderup on the left and he ran at Ezri Konsa before lashing the ball across goal. 

It may have been intended as a cross or as a shot but the effect was the same. It crashed against the inside of the far post and nestled in the net.

England reeled. Alexander Sorloth lashed a shot just over the bar and just when it seemed as if the game might get away from them completely, England conjured an equaliser in added time at the end of the half that started with a slice of luck when a Norway goal kick hit an overhead camera and fell to Elliot Anderson.

Play should have been called back but it wasn’t. The ball was moved to Anthony Gordon. 

He played a ball across the face of the area and Bellingham ran on to it, wrong-footing his marker and drifting left before drilling a low shot past Orjan Nyland. It was a brilliant, clinical finish, Bellingham’s latest feat of derring-do at this tournament. It was his fifth goal of this World Cup.

Kane had a goal ruled out for offside in the last seconds of the half but Tuchel was not happy with what he had seen and at half time, he replaced Madueke with Saka and brought Eberechi Eze on in place of Declan Rice, who had been struggling with illness all week. Sitting on the bench, Rice looked hollow-eyed.

Norway thought they had regained the lead when Torbjorn Heggem bundled a shot over the line from a corner 12 minutes after the interval but even though England’s defending had been poor, they escaped. VAR summoned the referee to look at a push by Haaland on Elliot Anderson just before the corner was taken and the strike was ruled out.

England escaped again 15 minutes from the end of normal time. They failed to clear a corner and when the ball was played back into the box, David Moller Wolfe looped a header over Pickford. Pickford was beaten but the ball cannoned against the face of the crossbar and was scrambled to safety.

Reece James came on for Anthony Gordon but none of Tuchel’s substitutions worked. 

England were being outclassed. Norway had complete control of the game and England offered next to no threat going forward. In the stands, the Norway fans did the Viking Row and began to party.

Finally, four minutes from time, Saka made a brilliant run to the byline and pushed a ball across goal. Kane and Eze tried to apply the finishing touch but the ball was hoofed into touch before they could reach it.

No sooner had extra time begun than England grabbed an unlikely lead. Morgan Rogers unleashed a shot from outside the area and Nyland spilled it. Bellingham reacted fastest, got to the loose ball and rammed it over the line. It was more than England deserved.

England were awarded a penalty when Djed Spence was brought down but the referee was told to review it and decided the Spurs defender had initiated the contact.

Nyland saved well from Spence and then Saka and then England withstood a Norway siege. Bellingham was substituted near the end, his job done.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has once again closed the critical Strait of Hormuz following an incident where its military fired a warning shot at a vessel allegedly straying off course. This action further threatens the fragile ceasefire agreement with the United States.

In response, the U.S. Central Command announced that its forces launched a third wave of strikes against Iran shortly after the incident. State media in Iran reported explosions in the coastal towns of Bandar Abbas and Sirik.

“The United States is determined to impose significant penalties and diminish Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels navigating through the strait,” stated the American military.

A container ship flying the flag of Cyprus was reported to have been hit, sustaining “substantial engineroom damage,” according to the U.S. Central Command. One civilian crew member is currently missing.

Prior to these developments, senior U.S. officials in Washington indicated that securing the strait is vital for advancing negotiations to solidify the recent peace deal. They stressed that Iran must publicly commit to keeping the waterway open to further discussions.

Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”

Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

A little more than an hour later, the U.S. announced its own new round of strikes.

“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

The latest flurry of shots from both sides followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels.”

Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said before the new round of strikes that he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.”

The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The U.S. urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Iran’s top diplomat also accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.

“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote on social media.

Trump says he responded to threats to kill him

Trump said he’s personally been the target of an Iranian plot, and he said the U.S. military would automatically retaliate if he was killed.

He wrote on social media early Saturday that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”

However, such retaliation would have to be ordered by Vice President JD Vance, who would become commander-in-chief if Trump were to be killed.

Trump said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. president has declared the ceasefire over but said the U.S. would continue negotiations.

U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round came as a result of what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners who were trying to sabotage the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.

After the U.S. wrapped up strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The strikes in Iran over two days – and prior to the ones in the wake of the warning shot – killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.