SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ bullpen often finds itself in trouble, even when things seem under control. A recent matchup against the Rockies continued to illustrate this pattern.

On Friday night, the Giants were just one inning away from securing a victory dominated by their bullpen against a fellow National League West rival. This would have marked their second such triumph in a week’s time.

Yet once more, their plans unraveled just shy of crossing the finish line.

Dylan Smith managed to regain his footing in a subsequent appearance. After allowing a decisive three-run homer in Colorado just five days earlier, Smith impressively navigated through a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the seventh inning, marking one of the most remarkable relief efforts by a San Francisco pitcher this year.

Later, Rafael Devers delivered a pivotal hit, granting the Giants a narrow lead late in the game. This had all the makings of a redemption tale for one of the league’s most beleaguered bullpens.

Turns out, there’s a reason these relievers aren’t considered reliable.

Tasked with closing out the one-run advantage, Caleb Kilian allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base, including a walk to pinch-hitter Troy Johnston, and allowed all three to come around to score in what turned out to be yet another agonizing loss, 4-3.

It was only made more painful by the false hope in the bottom of the ninth. Colorado closer Jordan Romano issued three walks, a confusing play went in the Giants’ favor upon video review and Rafael Devers made it a one-run game with his third RBI of the night.

But, even after Cole Carrigg was shown conclusively to have trapped a line drive off the bat of Casey Schmitt to load the bases with one out, Bryce Eldridge grounded out on the first pitch he saw from Romano’s replacement, Juan Mejia, who earned a one-pitch save for getting out of the fraught situation.

Dylan Smith escaped an even stickier jam, entering with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth, but four clean innings, it turned out, was too much to ask of this group of relievers. 

That, however, was the situation manager Tony Vitello was facing when he came out to get Robbie Ray with nobody out and the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

Ray walked the first three batters of the inning, finishing five-plus innings with six in total, setting up Smith to enter just about the stickiest situation imaginable.

But, against all odds, he got Tyler Freeman to pop out on a first-pitch slider, worked his way back from a 2-0 count to strike out Willi Castro and benefited from the glovework of Luis Arraez, who cleanly fielded a sharp grounder off the bat of Mickey Moniak for the third out.

Kilian, on the flip side, pitched himself into trouble he couldn’t escape. He was handed the loss and a blown save, his third in 11 opportunities. He has allowed nine earned runs in his past six appearances, raising his ERA to 4.74 from 2.97 before his last blown save.

Last week at Colorado, Giants relievers had limited the Rockies to just one one over seven innings in the final two games of the series before Smith served up a three-run homer to Kyle Karros in their 7-6 loss. Once again, the dam proved incapable of holding.

What it means

Falling to 3-5 against the NL West’s perennial bottom feeders, the Giants have now lost as many games to the Rockies this season as they did in 2024 and 2025 combined (21-5).

Who’s hot

Devers was responsible for all of the Giants’ runs, leading off the second with his 19th home run of the season to put them ahead 1-0, and finished 3-for-3 with an intentional walk and a sacrifice fly.

The solo shot, which he golfed onto the arcade in right field, was his 17th homer in his past 58 games dating back to May 6, when he hit his third of the season. At the time, Devers was on pace for just 14 over 162 games.

Now, if he can slug one more in the next two games, he would become the first Giants hitter since Barry Bonds to go into the All-Star break with at least 20 home runs.

Who’s not

Ray continued to limit runs, yielding three or fewer for the sixth time in his past seven starts to lower his ERA to a rotation-best 3.38, but the way he got there was concerning.

He put six runners on base via walks, including the first three batters he faced in the sixth. Shockingly (or not), it was still one away from a season-high seven back on May 24.

The left-hander struggled to land his pitches for strikes most of his time on the mound, finding the strike zone on only 53 of his 100 pitches, and it eventually caught up to him.

Ray threw only one strike to each of the three batters he walked to begin the sixth.

The one walk by Kilian, however, came back to hurt them the worst.

Up next

Tyler Mahle will try to complete five innings for only the second time in four starts since returning from a hamstring strain. It will be a rematch from the last time he took the mound, also against the Rockies, who got to him for four early runs in an eventual 7-6 loss last week at Coors Field.

The decision by a judge to delay ruling on whether to proceed with a trial for Tyler Robinson, the individual accused of attempting to assassinate Charlie Kirk, has ignited frustration and raised eyebrows.

Following a five-day series of pre-trial hearings to establish probable cause, Utah District Judge Tony Graf announced that he would postpone his decision regarding Robinson’s trial until September 1.

Many had expected Judge Graf to declare his decision at the end of the final hearing on Friday. However, in a swift legal filing, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, urged the judge for a ‘prompt’ ruling, citing what she termed ‘overwhelming evidence.’

Both the prosecution and defense teams requested additional time to review the hearing transcripts and prepare their briefings. Consequently, Judge Graf has scheduled another hearing, set for nearly two months from now.

Joshua Kolsrud, a lawyer and criminal defense attorney, expressed to The Daily Mail that he found the postponement to be ‘extraordinary.’

‘It is very unusual,’ Kolsrud said. ‘I have never seen a two-month delay on a probable cause hearing decision in my 19 years in law.’

Kolsrud said Graf’s inexperience as a judge, with less than a year on the bench, may have played a role in the hearings ‘taking up so much time.’

‘The judge takes every objection way too seriously,’ he said. ‘Some are clearly nonsense and an experienced judge would be quicker.’

The experienced trial lawyer said he has often seen judges come to quicker decisions at probable cause hearings. They have a lower burden of proof required to move forward than that expected of prosecutors in an actual trial. 

‘These hearings are are really about, ‘how much smoke is there to know if there is a fire?’ And the prosecution clearly met that,’ Kolsrud said. 

Soon after Graf concluded Friday’s hearing, Kirk’s widow Erika issued a legal filing urging the judge to come to his determination ‘promptly, based on the overwhelming evidence presented’ by prosecutors. 

‘A prompt determination is imperative in the interest of justice,’ Erika’s attorney Jeffrey Nieman wrote in the filing.

‘The Court is approaching the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death. Ten months have passed since the defendant was arrested, and the preliminary hearing has now concluded.’

The ‘overwhelming evidence’ that Kirk’s attorney believed had been laid out by prosecutors included DNA found on the rifle used to shoot Kirk.  

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney General Chad Grunander told the judge: ‘Your Honor’s heard four days of testimony now.

‘The evidence is overwhelming. It’s devastating.’

Graf’s decision to not find a conclusion on Friday also sparked the ire of conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, who issued a blistering tirade against the judge on her show soon after the hearing ended. 

‘Unfortunately, we will not be getting a decision today on the obvious conclusion that there is probable cause to hold Tyler Robinson over to trial in the case of Charlie Kirk’s assassination,’ Kelly said. 

‘I mean, honestly, despite the mountain of evidence against it, this is a joke that Judge Tony Graff is even indulging this.’ 

Kelly compared Graf to Judge Lance Ito, who famously oversaw the controversial murder trial of OJ Simpson in 1995. 

‘I’m sorry, he’s Judge Ito,’ she said. 

‘I’m over this guy completely. He has no confidence. He seems feckless up there. He seems like he’s terrified to make a decision. This is honestly absurd. Like, grow a pair, Judge.’ 

At Friday’s hearing, ATF forensic biologist Caitlin Oliver said that the DNA found on the rifle is ‘at least one trillion times more likely to have come from Tyler Robinson’ than anyone else. 

The evidence put forward by prosecutors also included several alleged confessions from Robinson after the assassination on September 10, 2025. 

On Thursday, prosecutors presented video footage of Robinson’s former roommate and transgender lover Lance Twiggs giving a police interview in April, where he alleged that Robinson confessed to him in the aftermath of the shooting. 

Twiggs claimed that Robinson went as far as to tell him he ‘wishes he hadn’t done it.’ 

Twiggs also said in his video testimony that Robinson left him a handwritten note on the day Kirk was assassinated, which read: ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.’ 

The alleged confession note was presented alongside text messages that prosecutors say Robinson sent on the day Kirk was shot, in which he also allegedly admitted to the crime.

In the texts shown in court, Twiggs told Robinson he did not believe the confession note, writing: ‘You’re joking right?… You weren’t the one who did it right?’

Robinson allegedly replied, ‘I am, I’m sorry.’

He then allegedly discussed trying to hide the evidence, writing that he ‘planned to grab my rifle’ from a ‘drop point’ near to the shooting scene.

‘If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence,’ he wrote, per the texts.

‘Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything in the news about them finding it. Will update you by midnight.’

Twiggs then asked Robinson how long he had been planning the shooting, to which he replied: ‘A bit over a week, I believe.’

Prosecutors also alleged that Robinson confessed to his parents, and then issued another confession in a chat room on the gaming platform Discord.

He allegedly wrote: ‘Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this. I’m surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments. Thanks for all the good times and laughs.’

Authorities said Twiggs quickly cooperated with investigators and offered his DNA for testing, and this week prosecutors said both Twiggs’ and Robinson’s DNA were found on a towel wrapped around the murder weapon.

The night’s opening swing was a spectacle that eclipsed the eventual outcome.

Despite facing issues with his knee, Shohei Ohtani appeared to be in fine form.

Ohtani was expected to pitch in the Dodgers’ 9-3 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. Unfortunately, he was scratched from his pitching duties due to “continued irritation in his left knee,” as stated by the team.

Yet, this setback didn’t prevent the multi-talented star from playing as the team’s designated hitter. Just three pitches into his initial at-bat, Ohtani launched a leadoff home run against All-Star left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, offering both power and peace of mind with his performance.

The concerns about Ohtani’s knee should not be underestimated, however, as they are indeed significant.

After plaguing him for a month, he is set to have it drained on Sunday and will likely get a pain-relieving injection after that.

The treatment plan will keep him from attending the All-Star Game. It also forced the Dodgers into a bullpen game on Friday that came with disappointing results.

Still, manager Dave Roberts insisted Ohtani’s status was no big concern either.

If this were October, Roberts said, Ohtani would’ve been pitching.

And even for the middle of July, he felt good enough to keep taking at-bats.

The leadoff homer only underscored such optimism, with Ohtani somehow getting to a fastball off the inside corner and launching it to the opposite field for a 381-foot drive to left.

It was Ohtani’s 21st home run of the season, his third in the last four games, and his 10th since his knee first began giving him problems back on June 10.

Even in a losing effort, it was a sigh of supreme relief.

What it means

The Dodgers did miss Ohtani’s arm on Friday, dropping the opening game of this first-half-finale series thanks to choppy performances from most of their relief staff.

It started with opener Kyle Hurt, who gave up two runs in the first on three singles and a walk. The Dbacks mounted three more two-run rallies in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, as well, in which Will Klein, Brock Stewart and Edgardo Henriquez combined to give up only two hits but walk four batters.

The Dodgers’ defense certainly didn’t help (more on that later), but the pitching performances were plenty bad on their own.

The low points: When Stewart gave up a two-run homer to No. 9 hitter Tim Tawa in the fourth, breaking a 2-2 tie; and when Edgardo Henriquez entered in the fifth with a runner on second, and immediately brought him home by balking and throwing a wild pitch.

Who’s hot

Rodriguez eventually settled down after his shaky start for Arizona, completing a six-inning, two-run, five-strikeout start.

But not before Andy Pages followed Ohtani in the first inning with a home run of his own.

The blast was one of three hits Pages recorded on Friday, in addition to singles in the third and sixth innings. That marked the All-Star outfielder’s ninth three-hit game this season, but only the second time it had happened since May 6.

The 3-for-4 performance pushed his batting average back up to .269 and his OPS to .807.

Who’s not

For most of the year, the Dodgers’ defense has been a strength.

This week, it looks like they’re already thinking ahead to next week’s All-Star break.

On Friday, the team committed three errors: A bad throw from right fielder Kyle Tucker in the first inning, sending the ball skipping into the dugout to score a run; another bad throw in the fifth from catcher Dalton Rushing, who fired too low to second base to put a Diamondbacks’ rally in motion; and yet another misfire from third baseman Tommy Edman in the sixth while trying to field a bunt.

In all, they accounted for three unearned runs of the eight Dodgers pitchers allowed.

More concerning is that, over the last three games, the club has now committed six errors overall –– including a couple that contributed to another loss on Tuesday.

Even with those recent struggles, the Dodgers still lead the majors in fielding percentage and fewest errors recorded on the season.

But, it has been a source of frustration of late for Roberts, who looked dismayed in the dugout Friday as his squad kicked the ball around the yard.

Up next

The Dodgers will go from a bullpen game to their staff ace on Saturday, sending Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-5, 2.49 ERA) to the mound for the final time before the All-Star break against Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (2-1, 4.84 ERA).

Former President Donald Trump has declared that the United States has 1,000 missiles “locked and loaded,” aimed directly at Iran, as a preemptive measure should the Islamic republic proceed with threats to assassinate him.

Trump laid out a detailed strategy for potential military retaliation, stating unequivocally that Iran would face complete decimation if it were to follow through on its long-standing threats. This stark warning was delivered to the public on Friday night.

The context for Trump’s bold statement arose from increased calls for his assassination, notably during the funeral proceedings for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In response to these renewed threats, Trump’s warning stood out for its severe implications.

Offering one of his most direct threats to date against Tehran, Trump disclosed that he had already given precise instructions to military officials on the nation’s course of action if Iran were to make any attempts on his life.

Writing in a fervent post on Truth Social, Trump stated, “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow if the Iranian Government acts on its threat to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!”

He continued: ‘Orders have already been given, and the US Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!’

Trump’s remarks came just hours after mourners attending Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran again chanted slogans calling for the  president’s death.

The comments also follow days of escalating military confrontation between Washington and Tehran, including US strikes on Iranian targets and retaliatory Iranian attacks across the Middle East.

The president’s latest declaration dramatically expanded on comments he made earlier this week, when he revealed he had already left standing instructions for overwhelming military retaliation if he were assassinated.

‘I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,’ Trump told the New York Post.

‘The only thing is, I’ve left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.’

Asked about recent intelligence reports suggesting Israel had uncovered a fresh Iranian assassination plot targeting him, Trump dismissed the idea that the threat was new.

‘No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,’ he said. ‘I’ve been number one for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.’

Iran’s hostility toward Trump dates back to January 2020, when he authorized the US drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport.

Since then, senior Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed revenge, while posters and banners calling for Trump’s death have frequently appeared across Tehran.

More recently, large ‘Kill Trump’ signs written in both English and Farsi have been erected in the Iranian capital, underscoring the regime’s continued anger over Soleimani’s killing.

The threat environment surrounding Trump has intensified over the past year following multiple disrupted assassination plots, including the July 2024 campaign rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a sniper’s bullet grazed his ear.

Trump has acknowledged the constant security risks surrounding his presidency.

During his final press conference in Ankara, Turkey, he admitted he may have viewed another White House run differently had he known the extent of the threats against his life.

Trump officials said that security concerns were also the reason the president chose to swap from his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One back to his older Boeing 747-200 jet for part of his journey home from the NATO summit.

The switch was designed as an element of ‘misdirection’ according to White House communications director Steven Cheung.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has simultaneously intensified military pressure on Tehran following a series of attacks on commercial vessels transiting the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

Officials have indicated that the scale and duration of the current campaign will depend entirely on Iran’s actions in the coming days, with the White House signaling it is prepared to sustain military operations if attacks continue.

Some administration advisers have privately referred to the military campaign by the informal nickname ‘Operation B**** Slap’ in internal discussions. 

However White House and Pentagon officials have stressed the phrase is unofficial and not the formal name of any military operation.

Trump has repeatedly insisted the United States will not tolerate attacks on international shipping or threats against American interests.

Those close to the president say the escalating confrontation with Iran has become deeply personal given the regime’s long-standing calls for his assassination.

The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.