WHEN THE LOW point arrived last year, on Sept. 15 in Atlanta, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts broke character and challenged some of his players in a meeting many of them later identified as a fulcrum in their championship run.

This year, he attempted to strike a more positive tone.

It was Sept. 6. The Dodgers had just been walked off in Baltimore, immediately after being swept in Pittsburgh, and though they were still 15 games above .500, a sense of uneasiness lingered. Their division lead was slim, consistency remained elusive and spirits were noticeably down. Roberts saw an opportunity to take stock.

“He was talking to us about the importance of what was in front of us,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said in Spanish. “At that time, there were like seven, eight weeks left because we only had three weeks left in the regular season, and he wanted all of us, collectively, to think about what we were still capable of doing, and the opportunity we still had to win another championship.”

Later that night, Yoshinobu Yamamoto got within an out of no-hitting the Baltimore Orioles, then he surrendered a home run to Jackson Holliday and watched the bullpen implode after his exit, allowing three additional runs in what became the Dodgers’ most demoralizing loss of the season. The next morning, though, music blared inside Camden Yards’ visiting clubhouse. Players were upbeat, vibes were positive.

The Dodgers won behind an effective Clayton Kershaw later that afternoon, then reeled off 16 wins over their next 21 games — including back-to-back emphatic victories over the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the playoffs.

It took a day, but Roberts’ message had seemingly landed.

“We needed some positivity,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said, “to remove all of the negativity that we were feeling in that moment.”

As they approach a highly anticipated National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers once again look like one of the deepest, most fearsome teams in the sport.

But the journey there was arduous.

A Dodgers team many outsiders pegged as a candidate to break the regular-season-wins record of 116 ultimately won only 93, its fewest total in seven years. Defending a championship, a task no team has successfully pulled off in a quarter-century, has proven to be a lot more difficult than many Dodger players anticipated. But they’ve maintained a belief that their best selves would arrive when it mattered most. And whether it’s a product of health, focus, or because the right message hit them at the right time, they believe it’s here now.

“We’re coming together at the right time,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said amid a champagne-soaked celebration Wednesday night, “and that’s all that really matters.”

BUSTER POSEY’S San Francisco Giants became the most dominant team in the first half of the 2010s, during which they won three championships. They won every other year — on even years, famously — but could not pull off the repeat the Dodgers are chasing. To this day, Posey, now the Giants’ president of baseball operations, can’t pinpoint why.

“I wish I could,” Posey said, “because if I knew what that one thing was, I would’ve tried to correct it the second, third time through.”

Major League Baseball has not had a repeat champion since the New York Yankees won their third consecutive title in 2000, a 24-year drought that stands as the longest ever among the four major North American professional sports, according to ESPN Research. In that span, the NBA had a team win back-to-back championships on four different occasions. The NHL? Three. The NFL, whose playoff rounds all consist of one game? Two.

MLB’s drought has occurred in its wild-card era, which began in 1995 and has expanded since.

“The baseball playoffs are really difficult,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “You obviously have to be really good. You also have to have some really good fortune. The number of rounds and the fact that the very best team in the league wins around 60% of their games, the very worst team wins around 40% — now you take the upper-echelon in the playoffs, and the way baseball games can play out, good fortune is a real part of determining the outcomes.”

The Dodgers, now 11 wins shy of a second consecutive title, will hope for some of that good fortune this month. They’ve already encountered some of the pitfalls that come with winning a championship, including the one Posey experienced most vividly: the toll of playing deep into October.

“That month of postseason baseball — it’s more like two or three months of regular-season baseball, just because of the intensity of it,” Posey said.

The Dodgers played through Oct. 30 last year — and then they began this season March 18, nine days before almost everybody else, 5,500 miles away in Tokyo.

“At the time, you don’t see it,” Hernández said, “but when the next season starts, that’s when you start feeling your body not responding the way it should be. And it’s because you don’t get as much time to get ready, to prepare for next season. This one has been so hard, I got to be honest, because — we win last year, and we don’t even have the little extra time that everybody gets because we have to go to Japan. So, you have to push yourself to get ready a month early so you can be ready for those games. Those are games that count for the season. So, working hard when your body is not even close to 100%, I think that’s the reason. I think that’s why you see, after a team wins, next year you see a lot of players getting hurt.”

The Dodgers had the second-most amount of money from player salaries on the injured list this season, behind only the Yankees, the team they defeated in the World Series, according to Spotrac. The Dodgers sent an NL-leading 29 players to the IL, a list that included Freddie Freeman, who underwent offseason surgery on the injured ankle he played through last October, and several other members of their starting lineup — Will Smith, Max Muncy, Tommy Edman and Hernández.

The bullpen that carried the Dodgers through last fall might have paid the heaviest price. Several of those who played a prominent role last October — Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips — either struggled, were hurt or did not pitch. It might not have been the sole reason for the bullpen’s struggles — a combined 4.94 ERA from free agent signees Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates played just as big a role — but it certainly didn’t help.

“I don’t know if there’s any carryover thing,” Treinen said Sept. 16 after suffering his third consecutive loss. “I don’t believe in that. We just have a job, and it’s been weird.”

IN FEBRUARY, ROJAS made headlines by saying that the 2025 Dodgers could challenge the wins record and added they might win 120 games at full health. An 8-0 start — after an offseason in which the front office added Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim, Scott and Yates to what was arguably the sport’s best roster already — only ratcheted up the expectations.

The Dodgers managed a 53-32 record through the end of June — but then, they went 10-14 in July, dropped seven of their first 12 games in August and saw a seven-game lead in the National League West turn into a one-game deficit.

From July 1 to Aug. 14, the Dodgers’ offense ranked 20th in OPS and 24th in runs per game. The rotation began to round into form, but the bullpen sported the majors’ highest walk rate and put up a 1.43 WHIP in that stretch, fifth highest.

The Dodgers swept the San Diego Padres at home in mid-August, regaining some control of the division, but then Los Angeles split a series against the last-place Colorado Rockies and lost one in San Diego. The Dodgers swept the Reds, then lost two of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks, dropped three in a row to the Pirates and suffered those back-to-back walk-off losses to the Orioles.

Consistency eluded the Dodgers at a time when it felt as if every opponent was aiming for them.

Before rejoining the Dodgers ahead of the 2023 season, Rojas spent eight years with the Miami Marlins, who were continually out of the playoff race in September and found extra motivation when facing the best teams down the stretch. Those matchups functioned as their World Series.

“I think that’s the problem for those teams after winning a World Series — you’re going to have a target on your back,” Rojas said. “And it’s going to take a lot of effort for your main guys to step up every single day. And then, at the end of the regular season, you’re going to be kind of exhausted from the battle of every single day. And I think that’s why when teams get to the playoffs, they probably fall short.”

Travis d’Arnaud, now a catcher for the Los Angeles Angels, felt the same way while playing for the defending-champion Atlanta Braves in 2022. There was “a little bit more emotion” in games that otherwise didn’t mean much, he said. Teams seemed to bunt more frequently, play their infield in early and consistently line up their best relievers. Often, they’d face a starting pitcher who typically threw in the low-90s but suddenly started firing mid- to upper-90s fastballs.

“It’s just a different intensity,” said A.J. Pierzynski, the catcher for the Chicago White Sox teams that won it all in 2005 and failed to repeat in 2006. “It’s hard to quantify unless you’re playing in the games, but there’s a different intensity if you’re playing.”

BEFORE A SEASON-ENDING sweep of the Seattle Mariners, the 2025 Dodgers were dangerously close to finishing with the fewest full-season wins total of any team Friedman has overseen in these past 11 years. Friedman acknowledged that recently but added a caveat: “I’d also say that going into October, I think it’ll be the most talented team.”

It’s a belief that has fueled the Dodgers.

With Snell and Glasnow healthy, Yamamoto dialing up what was already an NL Cy Young-caliber season and Shohei Ohtani fully stretched out, the Dodgers went into the playoffs believing their rotation could carry them the way their bullpen did a year earlier. Their confidence was validated immediately. Snell allowed two baserunners through the first six innings of Game 1 of the wild-card round Tuesday night, and Yamamoto went 6⅔ innings without allowing an earned run 24 hours later.

“For us, it’s going to be our starting pitching,” Muncy said. “They’re going to set the tone.”

But an offense that has been without Smith, currently nursing a hairline fracture in his right hand, has also been clicking for a while. The Dodgers trailed only the Phillies in slugging percentage over the last three weeks of the regular season. In the Dodgers’ first two playoff games, 10 players combined to produce 28 hits. Six of them came from Mookie Betts, who began the season with an illness that caused him to lose close to 20 pounds and held a .670 OPS — 24 points below the league average — as recently as Aug. 6. Since then, he’s slashing .326/.384/.529.

His trajectory has resembled that of his team.

“We had a lot of struggles, really all year,” Betts said. “But I think we all view that as just a test to see how we would respond. And so now we’re starting to use those tests that we went through earlier to respond now and be ready now. And anything that comes our way, it can’t be worse than what we’ve already gone through.”

The Dodgers still don’t know if their bullpen will be good enough to take them through October — though Sasaki’s ninth inning Wednesday night, when he flummoxed the Reds with triple-digit fastballs and devastating splitters, certainly provided some hope — but they believe in their collective ability to navigate it.

They believe this roster is better and deeper than the championship-winning one from last fall. And, as Rojas said, they believe they “know how to flip the switch when it matters most.”

“It’s been a long year,” Muncy said. “At this point, seven months ago, we were on the other side of the world. We’ve been through a lot this year, and to end up in the spot we’re in right now — we’re in a great spot. We’re in the postseason. That’s all that matters. That’s what we’ve been saying all year. Anything can happen once you’re in October.”

Top-25 recruit Tajh Ariza has committed to Oregon, he announced Friday, as the son of former NBA veteran Trevor Ariza chose the Ducks over USC.

The momentum in Ariza’s recruitment had gone back-and-forth between Oregon and the Trojans over the last couple of weeks, particularly after he canceled a scheduled visit to Kansas and subsequently cut Kentucky from his list as well.

“They are going to prepare me for the next level,” Ariza told ESPN of Oregon. “Coach [Dana] Altman told me that they have minutes for me and need me to play as a freshman but told me I must earn those minutes. ‘We must see your work.’ I have to earn it.”

He took official visits to each of his finalists earlier this fall, but Altman and Oregon were able to beat out USC in recent days.

“The visit was great,” Ariza said. “Coach Altman is a basketball guy, but he really connected with me and my family. He sees me not only as a basketball player but as a person. He is a straightforward guy.”

“I was shooting in the gym with the Oregon uniform on and Coach Altman was there,” he continued. “He corrected my shot, and then I made almost 30 threes in a row. I got the chills making all those shots and that’s when I felt he was the coach for me.”

One of the best small forwards in the 2026 class, Ariza is ranked No. 24 overall in the SC Next 100. He’s the first top-25 recruit for Altman since Kwame Evans Jr. and Mookie Cook committed in the 2023 class. The long 6-foot-9 wing plays for St. John Bosco High School (California) and suited up for Team Why Not on the Nike EYBL circuit last spring before missing the summer period with an injury.

Ariza has a blend of skill, great positional size at 6-foot-10 while being a true triple-threat prospect with huge upside. His shooting and ball-handling is strong but it’s his passing which is vastly underrated. He’s a potential point-forward in the future because of his vision, accuracy and touch on his passes. There are moments in the game where he can influence the game on the glass and with paint points. Ariza has an effective face-up game and is a superb athlete with length and fluid movements, and is dangerous with the ball in his hands or as an off-ball scorer.

Ariza is Oregon’s second commitment in the 2026 class, following two-sport star Kendre Harrison picking the Ducks last November. Harrison committed to Oregon for both basketball, where he’s ranked No. 61 in the SC Next 100, and football, where he’s No. 12 overall in the 2026 class.

It will be interesting to see whether Ariza’s decision has an impact on the recruitment of No. 1 overall prospect Tyran Stokes. Stokes is considering Kentucky, Oregon, Kansas and USC, and he’s thought to be closing in on a potential announcement.

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders went viral for pantomiming during a recent interview, reportedly in response to comments made by former head coach Rex Ryan. 

Super Bowl-winning head coach Bruce Arians questioned why Sanders was being interviewed.

“Why is the third quarterback getting interviews?” Arians said during an appearance on “Up & Adams.”

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“You got nothing to do with the game, it’s all for media clicks. And he’s a heck of a personality, but the personality can’t come out until you do something on the field.”

The Browns announced Wednesday that Dillon Gabriel will be the starting quarterback, and Joe Flacco will be benched for their game against the Minnesota Vikings. 

Flacco struggled as the Browns went 1-3 in his four starts while he completed just over 58% of his passes for 815 yards with two touchdowns and six interceptions. 

Arians cited the team’s quarterback change as a reason not to have Sanders speak to the media. 

“It’s a big week for Dillon Gabriel, big week for the Browns making that transition. For him to even be available to the press, I don’t know why he’s doing it,” Arians said. 

CAM NEWTON MAKES BOLD CLAIM ABOUT BROWNS’ MOTIVES, HANDLING OF SHEDEUR SANDERS

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians against the Philadelphia Eagles during the first half of an NFC Wild Card playoff football game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 16, 2022. (Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

“To me, there’s no sense to have him available. Whoever is running their media relations should turn that down.”

Arians said he would try to get the best out of Sanders by making sure he practiced hard and stays prepared. 

“Keep growing, go to practice everyday, work hard, and when your time comes, be ready. Make sure that are you are preparing to be the starter every single week, and if he is the emergency quarterback, it’s going to be in a big situation. He looked good in that first (preseason game) and he looked really, really bad in the second one.”

In the viral interview, Sanders was mouthing words and making hand gestures, but no words were coming out of his mouth.

Sanders’ interview was seemingly in response to Ryan’s comments about Sanders playing games with the media. 

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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) before the game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Sept. 14, 2025. (Peter Casey/Imagn Images)

“This kid runs his mouth like, ‘I got could be a starting quarterback,’ with his arms crossed like this. Get your a– in the front row and study and do all that. If I know, the whole league knows,” Ryan said on ESPN’s “Get Up”. “Quit being an embarrassment that way. You got the talent to be a quarterback. You should be embarrassed that you’re not the quarterback now.”

Arians was a head coach in the NFL for eight seasons. He spent five seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and three with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He won the Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020. 

In 129 career games as head coach, Arians had a 80-48-1 record. 

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