LOS ANGELES — The Philadelphia Phillies tried to tell everyone they wouldn’t panic.

No one believed it.

They kept saying that maybe a change of scenery to Dodger Stadium would relax them.

No one believed it.

They insisted that their powerful trio of All-Star hitters would break out.

No one believed it.

When the Philadelphia Phillies lined up Wednesday night on the Dodger Stadium field for handshakes, blasting the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-2 in front of a stunned sellout crowd of 53,689, they suddenly have a whole lot of believers.

The Phillies still are in trouble, of course, trailing the Dodgers 2-1 in this best-of-five National League Division Series, with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 9 at Dodger Stadium.

Yet, they are alive.

And they also have that dynamic the Dodgers badly wanted to prevent.

Momentum.

“Momentum’s always something that you don’t know if it’s real or not,’ Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said before the game. “You definitely feel it, though, as a player in certain situations, you feel the momentum change.

‘Obviously we want to finish this tonight, and we don’t want to let anything slip away from us. That’s one of those things, when you talk about momentum, if you don’t finish it tonight, you feel like it’s slipping away. That’s definitely not something you want to have happen.’

Well, it happened.

“We want to put these guys away,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game, “and don’t let them up for air.’

Well, after what transpired Wednesday, the Phillies suddenly have confidence too.

The Phillies, whose season was on life support after losing the first two games in front of their home crowd at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, believe they can pull this off.

After all, they became the first team in two weeks to beat the defending World Series champions, snapping the Dodgers’ nine-game winning streak.

While Ranger Suarez was brilliant in his five-inning outing coming in relief for Aaron Nola in the third inning, it was the Phillies’ powerful trio who reminded everyone just what they’re capable of doing to the opposition.

Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner, who were in a 2-for-21 skid entering the game, put on a power-hitting clinic for everyone to see.

There was Schwarber hitting two home runs, including a 455-foot blast in the fourth inning, with three RBIs.

Turner, who produced three hits and two RBI, broke the game open in the Phillies’ five-run eighth.

There was Harper who had a two-hit game and reached base three times.

Just like that, the Phillies looked like well … the Phillies.

They made sure that Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered the game with a 0.66 ERA in his last six starts, couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning.

It began with Schwarber, who had been hitless in his last 22 at-bats when he stepped up to the plate to lead off the fourth. The slump ended with one majestic swing of the bat.

Schwarber sent Yamamoto’s fastball nearly out of the stadium, landing 455 feet into the right-field pavillion. It was hit so far, and so hard (117-mph), that Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernandez didn’t move.

Just like that, the Phillies’ bats awoke.

Harper, who had also been handcuffed this series, followed by slapping a single to left field. Byson Stott singled and when Harper headed to third, center fielder Andy Pages tried to get him. The ball instead sailed past third baseman Max Muncy and bounced into the Dodgers’ dugout, scoring Harper with Stott advancing to third. Brandon Marsh made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Yamamoto came out for the fifth, but was immediately greeted by with singles by Bryson Stott and Trea Turner knocking him out of the game. It was his shortest outing since June 1.

The Phillies, after a double steal, then had a golden opportunity to blow open the game against left-handed reliever Anthony Banda. Yet, Schwarber struck out. Harper hit a shallow pop-up to right field. And after Bohm was intentionally walked, loading the bases, Brandon Marsh struck out on three pitches. Well, technically two ptiches – with Marsh being charged with an automatic strike on a pich clock violation.

The Phillies threatened again in the seventh inning off three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw coming into the game relief, with a leadoff single by Turner and a walk by Schwarber. But Harper flied out to right, and then Schwarber was picked off first base when he wandered too far, and the opportunity ended on Brandon Marsh’s line drive to right.

Finally, they broke through in the eighth on J.T. Realmuto’s homer, Turner’s two-run single, and a two-run homer by Schwarber.

Who knows what can happen now, with Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts vividly remembering the feeling of struggling in the postseason before ending his slump last year.

“I’ve been there…,’ Betts said. “When you get in that rut and it seems like it’s quicksand. No matter what you do you just can’t get out of it. It’s tough. Hell, I didn’t get out of it. So I have no advice or anything. I mean, shoot, I would have if I knew what to do.

“Good luck to those guys and we’ll see if they have the answer.”

For one night, they certainly did.

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Here’s how Wednesday’s game unfolded:

Kyle Schwarber home run blows it open

Coming back out for a second inning, Clayton Kershaw gave up a leadoff home run to J.T. Realmuto. He then walked Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos reached on an error before Bryson Stott bunted them to second and third. With one out, Trea Turner hit a two-RBI single to make it 6-1 Phillies. Then, Kyle Schwarber delivered his second home run of the game, a two-run shot that extended Philadelphia’s lead to 8-1.

Clayton Kershaw comes out of the bullpen

Trailing 3-1 in the seventh, Dave Roberts brought Clayton Kershaw out of the bullpen for his first appearance of the 2025 postseason. Kershaw was met with the Phillies’ best hitters and gave up a leadoff single to Trea Turner before walking Kyle Schwarber. The veteran left-hander got Bryce Harper to fly out and then Schwarber was picked off in a baserunning blunder for the second out.

After intentionally walking Alec Bohm, Kershaw retired Brandon Marsh on a hard-hit line drive to right, getting out of the inning without allowing a run.

Kershaw, retiring at the end of the season, won three Cy Youngs and an MVP award, surely heading for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Phillies still lead 6-1 in the sixth

Anthony Banda (fifth) and Jack Dreyer (sixth) put up zeroes relieving Yoshinobu Yamamoto, managing to keep the Phillies from adding insurance runs despite Philadelphia loading the bases in the fifth.

Phillies ambush Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the fourth

Kyle Schwarber’s mammoth home run led off the top of the fourth and tied the game. The next batter, Bryce Harper, singled and then scored as a result of Andy Pages’ throwing error on Alec Bohm’s single. The ball went out of play and moved Bohm to third and Brandon Marsh brought him home with a sacrifice fly for the first out of the inning. J.T. Realmuto hit a ground-rule double but Yamamoto got Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos to end the frame with the Phillies up 3-1.

Kyle Schwarber home run ties it up

Leading off the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber hit a 455-foot homer off Yoshinobu Yamamoto to tie the game.

The Phillies slugger had been stuck in an 0-for-23 slump having led the Natioinaln League with 56 home runs in the regular season.

Tommy Edman home run welcomes Ranger Suarez

Phillies manager Rob Thomson stuck with his plan to limit Aaron Nola’s exposure and pulled the right-hander after two innings to put in southpaw Ranger Suarez.

On Suarez’s first pitch of the night, switch-hitter Tommy Edman hit a solo home run to left field, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the third.

Meanwhile, Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the Phillies hitless through three innings.

Aaron Nola escapes first-inning jam

Dodgers-Phillies Game 3 underway in Los Angeles

Yoshinobu Yamamoto worked around Bryce Harper’s two-out walk to toss a scoreless first at Dodger Stadium.

In his second year after signing a $325 million contract before throwing an MLB pitch, the Japanese right-hander was the Dodgers’ ace this season with an All-Star nod and a 2.49 ERA.

Phillies lineup today

1. Trea Turner (R) SS
2. Kyle Schwarber (L) DH
3. Bryce Harper (L) 1B
4. Alec Bohm (R) 3B
5. Brandon Marsh (L) CF
6. J.T. Realmuto (R) C
7. Max Kepler (L) LF
8. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
9. Bryson Stott (L) 2B

Dodgers lineup today

1. Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
2. Mookie Betts (R) SS
3. Teoscar Hernández (R) RF
4. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
5. Will Smith (R) C
6. Enrique Hernández (R) LF
7. Max Muncy (L) 3B
8. Andy Pages (R) CF
9. Tommy Edman (S) 2B

Will Smith returns to Dodgers lineup

The Dodgers’ All-Star catcher is in the starting lineup for the first time this postseason in Game 3, coming off the bench in each of the first two games in the series. Smith had missed nearly a month with a hand fracture.

‘The at-bats have been fantastic especially considering the arms that he’s had to face coming into both those games and the lay-off,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Game 3.

‘If I didn’t feel he could finish a game I wouldn’t have started him. I feel good. He’s in a good spot. I think the at-bat quality has been great.’

Now that the season is nearly a third of the way through, there are only two ways to improve your rosters — waiver wire and trades.

Evaluating a fantasy trade can be a daunting task. Most managers value their players more than they’re actually worth. That’s where the Week 6 fantasy football trade value charts come in.

The charts can be used as your very own fantasy football trade analyzer in standard, half-PPR (point per reception) and full PPR leagues. Someone sends you an offer? Simply pull out a calculator (on your phone, you don’t need an actual calculator) and plug in the values for each player. Don’t worry, six-points-per-passing-touchdown and superflex leagues are covered as well.

Important note: If you’re offered an uneven trade (i.e., a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1), include the values for the players you’d be moving to the bench or dropping within your calculation. Example: If someone in your league offers you Cam Skattebo, Romeo Doubs, and David Njoku (combined value of 79) for Jonathan Taylor (72), it might look like you’re getting the better end of it. However, if you’re bumping down, say, AJ Barner and Kimani Vidal (combined value of 26) in the process, it’s a net negative deal for you.

The rankings are based on how players should be valued in 12-team leagues. Players are sorted in order of their half-PPR values.

Quarterback trade value chart

(Note: ‘6/TD’ is for leagues that award six points for passing touchdowns and ‘SFLEX’ stands for superflex.)

Running back trade value chart

Wide receiver trade value chart

Tight end trade value chart

Overall Week 6 fantasy football rest-of-season rankings

Note: These values are for 12-team, one-QB leagues with half-PPR scoring.

Arturo Gatti Jr. has died at the age of 17 in Mexico, where he lived with his mother on Wednesday, according to the World Boxing Association.

The son of the late Canadian boxer and Hall of Famer Arturo Gatti has recently been confirmed deceased by several close family members, including Gatti Sr.’s former bodyguard. However, the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear, and details have yet to be released.

Gatti Jr. lost his father at a young age after what was initially considered a mysterious death in a hotel in Brazil in 2009. Later, Brazilian authorities ruled the death a suicide. From an early age, Gatti Jr. aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps, first aiming to compete in the Olympics as an amateur before shifting his focus to a professional boxing career.

‘The WBC sends its heartfelt condolences to the Gatti family, friends, and the entire boxing community mourning this so heartbreaking loss,’ the World Boxing Council wrote.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

AI-assisted summary
• The College Sports Commission has created a new ‘snitch line’ for reporting rules violations.
• This reporting system is open to everyone, including coaches, players, and the general public.
• Reports can be submitted anonymously via text, email, or a web portal.

Seriously, look at these geniuses. You’re not getting anything by these trendsetters.

The College Sports Commission has rolled out a new tool for rules enforcement, and nothing says weren’t you once the NCAA quite like a snitch line. 

I promise you, I’m not making this up.

Not only did the CSC come up with this incredibly flawed idea, they’ve opened the snitch line to everyone. Everyone, you say?

Everyone. 

Coaches and players, athletic directors and boosters, and, wait for it … the rest of God’s green earth.

What could go wrong? 

Clearly, the good folks at the CSC don’t understand their constituency. So before we go further, let me throw out some examples. 

Trust me when I say, it takes all kinds. 

Like Harvey Updyke, bless his tortured soul, who killed the trees at Toomer’s Corner.

Or former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, whose wife, Casey, carried cash in a Chick-Fil-A bag and dolled it out to recruits. Before the House case, of course. 

Or the yet to be named “source” — and by source, I mean someone with a string of Bucknuts tied to their rearview mirror — who exposed Michigan’s advanced scouting scheme.

Or the Alabama (notice the trend?) attorney, representing two former Tide assistant coaches, who sued former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer (notice the trend?) for conspiring with the NCAA to damage the Alabama program — and tried to have him served at SEC media days. 

Or many of the millions of the beautifully unhinged that make this sport breathe on a daily, fanatical basis. 

They’ll flood the snitch line with every hint of every possible instance of their bitter rival cheating to get a leg up on their school. Because, after all, it was on BigRedHuskersFans.com, so it must be true.

My god. MY GOD.

I gotta tell you, maybe Brian Seeley — the new CSC/college football czar hired after the House case settlement completely changed the sport forever — should’ve stayed with Major League Baseball. He has no idea what he’s getting into.

Maybe someone, anyone, at the CSC can introduce Seeley to the entire 16-team SEC. For starters, anyway.

If he thought the Houston Astros’ fun little scheme of stealing signs was a heavy lift from his perch as MLB executive vice president of legal and operations, he better strap in. 

It’s about to get real.

No one cheats like college football. Those coaching and those playing, those born and forced to choose between USC and UCLA, or Alabama and Auburn, or Indiana and Purdue, or Kansas and Kansas State, or any other sick, twisted and wonderfully wild rivalry that brings out the uniquely unknown from all involved.

Everybody cheats, including – and I know this is going to shock Seeley, so hang onto your 162-game schedule, Bri – the universities themselves. 

For the love of pigskin, North Carolina used fake classes for a decade to keep athletes academically eligible (that was once a thing, kids). And when caught, the most amazing thing in the history of legal defense unfolded. 

North Carolina, the bastion of academia and the Harvard of the south, declared the classes weren’t fake because – wait’ll you get a load of this – every student had access to the fake classes. 

And the NCAA bought it. 

So yeah, roll out that snitch line. Good times are on the horizon, baby.

The CSC says they’ll protect your identity. And they promise to get back to you with “continued engagement.” 

You can snitch or send your conspiracy via text, email or submit on the web, and you don’t have to identify yourself. Again, I’m not making that up. 

“The CSC encourages anyone with knowledge of or concerns about potential violations of third-party NIL or revenue sharing rules to use the new system to report them immediately,” some public relations wonk penned in the release. 

These guys have no idea what they’re getting into. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

The proverbial “lights-out bullpen” is the desire of every Major League Baseball playoff team. Yet it doesn’t take much for the indicator lights on the dashboard to start blinking.

The Seattle Mariners found this out in Game 4 of their American League Division Series when they bumped up against the two f-words of postseason relief.

Familiarity. And fatigue.

They were up three runs and just 15 outs from dispatching the Detroit Tigers and claiming the first spot in the AL Championship Series when the diminishing returns of relief pitching reared its head.

Detroit struck for seven runs over two innings against Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo, who’d been near-perfect in the first three games of the series, to salvage its season and send both teams winging it back to Seattle for a decisive Game 5.

Where presumed Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal will await the Mariners.

That’s how quickly these things can turn: From comfortable lead and bullpen security blankets to lightning striking, the Tigers evening the series with a 9-3 victory that squares this ALDS 2-2.

And to think the Mariners nearly rocked these Tigers to sleep.

Comerica Park was a funeral parlor into the bottom of the fifth, with Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller outkicking his 2025 statistics to allow just two hits through four innings. Then things got loud – and unsuspecting fans were about to see nine unanswered runs on the board.

Dillon Dingler’s double scored Spencer Torkelson, who’d singled. It was 3-1. Dan Wilson, in his first full season as manager, prudently hooked Miller for the lefty Speier – only to get outflanked by his counterpart.

Sure, Speier had seen eight Tigers hitters in this series – and retired all eight of them, striking out four. But increased exposure brings adversity for even the more immortal pitchers.

‘There are no secrets,’ says Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, ‘when you get this deep into a series.’

And Speier suddenly looked like a mere mortal.

Hinch threw up righty-swinging Jahmai Jones to pinch-hit in Parker Meadows’ place, and he hooked an RBI double down the left field line. A 3-2 game.

No. 9 hitter Javy Baez reawakened the echoes of 2016 with a solid single to plate Jones. A 3-3 game.

Speier worked around a Baez stolen base, got a groundout, issued an intentional walk to Gleyber Torres and escaped the jam with the score tied.

That should have been it.

But Wilson opted to bring back Speier, despite having to sit down and run back out there, despite the familiarity that Greene might enjoy, having seen Speier twice already this series.

“Just trying to get it to the next guy. Just trying to get on base for the guys behind me,” the ever-humble Greene, 2 for 14 with no extra-base hits in the series before that at-bat, said after the game.

He did much more – clouting a Speier slider 454 feet into the right field seats. Suddenly, the Tigers had a lead for the first time since the 11^th inning of Game 1.

Hey, no worries. Wilson simply turned to Eduard Bazardo, who’d pitched in Games 1, 2 and 3, who’d recorded seven outs and gave up just one hit.

Wilson was asked after the game if he was concerned that the Tigers had seen Speier twice and Bazardo three times before Game 4.

‘These guys have thrown the ball so well, and I don’t think that’s a risk,’ says Wilson. ‘These guys have done the job and thrown the ball extremely well, and today they just – they were able to get to us.’

The Tigers rocked Bazardo for four hits, including a Baez home run, fattening the lead and ensuring they’d only need closer Will Vest for one, not two innings.

Game 5?

Well, they’ll all have a day off as they hop from the D to the Pacific Northwest. The arms should ostensibly be rested. Skubal will be breathing fire, still stinging from his Game 2 loss.

The Mariners? They can only hope one more game of familiarity doesn’t set off the fireworks in Detroit’s lineup.