LOS ANGELES — Your team could have done this.

Is baseball headed for a lockout this winter? Yes.

Because the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal? No.

The Dodgers play a video before each home game, which includes these words from a sinister-sounding voice: “You need teams like us to point your finger and say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ ”

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LOS ANGELES — Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.

The five words every baseball soul outside of Los Angeles dreaded hearing.

The Dodgers are going to three-peat.

The six words that every baseball soul everywhere must now acknowledge.

It's over. The chase for baseball's best pitcher, the hunt by baseball's best team, the pennant race, the World ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tarik Skubal’s reign in Detroit is over.

The Tigers traded the two-time Cy Young winner to the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday night in exchange for right-handed pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfield prospect Zyhir Hope.

Multiple sources confirmed the trade to the Detroit News.

Skubal and Casey Mize, also a ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Angels are slogging toward the trade deadline, trying to compete while certainly aware that some of their best players could be gone any day.

The Angels’ 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night was their eighth loss in the last nine games.

Left-hander reliever Samy Natera Jr. gave up the tie-breaking run ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are acquiring the biggest name of the trade deadline season, adding Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal in a blockbuster deal that bolsters their starting rotation and sent shock waves across Major League Baseball on Saturday night.

The deal, according to people with knowledge of the trade not authorized to speak...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Tigers continue to just put their collective heads down and plow ahead as the trade winds continued to howl.

Homers by Kevin McGonigle (11), Gleyber Torres (6) and Max Clark, his first in the big leagues, sent the Tigers to an 8-6 win Saturday night, their second straight against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.

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LOS ANGELES — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start Saturday would have been dominant if it weren’t for Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela.

Rafaela’s pair of home runs accounted for most of Boston’s damage against Yamamoto in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss. Yamamoto held the Red Sox to three runs and four hits through eight ...Read more

BALTIMORE — J.T. Realmuto slid to his left and blocked a sinker in the dirt in the sixth inning Saturday night.

It might have been the play of the game.

The record will reflect a low-stress 5-0 Phillies victory over the Orioles behind Cristopher Sánchez to halt a four-game skid and square a three-game series. But if Realmuto doesn’t knock...Read more

CINCINNATI — The Pirates have ended their losing streak. It took a lot of rain and a long reliever to do so.

In a game largely played in a rainstorm, the Pirates capitalized on wet conditions for a 4-1 victory against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night at Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati starter Andrew Abbott walked four batters in a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t be sad to see Ceddanne Rafaela go when this weekend’s series is over.

A day after hitting the go-ahead home run in Friday’s win, Rafaela went deep again in each of his first two at bats on Saturday, powering the Boston Red Sox to a 3-2 win over the two-time defending World Series champions.

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DENVER — The Kansas City Royals are limping towards the end of their 10-game road trip.

On Saturday, the Royals dropped their third consecutive game with a 12-6 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

The loss compounds a rough stretch for the club. The Royals were walked off twice against the Minnesota Twins in the previous series and ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres continued to find ways to win at a point in the season when they almost have to do so.

Jake Cronenworth drove in the winning run with a walk-off single in the ninth inning after the Padres had lost the lead in the eighth.

Saturday’s 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants kept the Padres a game behind the...Read more

SEATTLE — The Mariners have made their first meaningful move of the summer trade season, and it’s the one move they had hoped to make all along.

Veteran right-hander Luis Castillo has been traded to the Chicago White Sox for three players, an industry source with knowledge of the deal confirmed Saturday afternoon.

The White Sox will absorb...Read more

CHICAGO — As the wind swirled and the flags flapped at Wrigley Field, Spencer Jones drilled a ball that could not be swayed by the breeze on Friday.

With a 108.7 mph, 418 foot rocket to right center, the left-handed hitter cleared the ivy with ease for the fourth home run of his young career. The solo shot, hit off Chicago Cubs southpaw ...Read more

NEW YORK — This is a sobering stretch in a lost season for the New York Mets, whose status as trade-deadline sellers underscores how much went wrong for a team once with World Series aspirations.

But if there is one positive takeaway, it’s that young players including Carson Benge and Christian Scott are showing they belong in the big ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Giants hoped third baseman Matt Chapman would return this weekend from the abdominal strain that’s sidelined him for a month, but Chapman told reporters on Saturday that he will be re-evaluated due to lingering soreness while running.

“The plan was for me to try to be able to be ready to play this weekend. Unfortunately, ...Read more

SEATTLE — In their pursuit of upgrades elsewhere for what has been an underachieving roster, the Mariners front office has told teams that they are open to dealing from their surplus of starting pitchers, with veteran Luis Castillo and breakout right-hander Emerson Hancock the two most often discussed with other teams in the past week.

Over ...Read more

BALTIMORE — For six weeks, there was a defined order to how Don Mattingly ran the Phillies’ bullpen.

Then, Brad Keller blew out his elbow.

“I think it’s just a man down, right?” Mattingly said Saturday, a night after Orion Kerkering set a two-run lead ablaze in the seventh inning of a 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. “It’s one ...Read more