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INDIANAPOLIS — UCLA outside linebacker Laiatu Latu believes his unlikely comeback from college football “retirement” will extend into the NFL draft’s first round.

Latu said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine that “no teams have talked about any kind of concern” over the neck injury that kept him on the sideline at Washington for two years. Latu added, to this point in Indianapolis, that “being out here I haven’t had to do too many medicals [exams], just like everybody else.”

“I’ve been dreaming of the NFL since I was a kid, and I never gave up on it all,” Latu said. “… I just understood what I wanted to do and that I wanted to get back to playing football again. … [The neck] was never a concern for them.”

Latu is considered by many NFL evaluators to be the most technically advanced pass-rusher in the draft. But he also has one of the biggest medical questions of any prospect at the combine.

The Sacramento, California, native did not play in 2020 or 2021 after he was advised to “medically retire” from football by the Washington staff. Latu had suffered a neck injury in preseason workouts for the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and later had surgery — Latu said Wednesday he had neck fusion surgery — to try to repair lingering numbness.

Doctors at Washington would not clear him to return and advised him not to play football. His mother, Kerry, however, researched Latu’s injury and kept coming across Dr. Robert Watkins’ name before arranging for Latu to see the noted back and neck surgeon in late 2021.

Latu said Watkins cleared him to return to football after a battery of tests, but Washington would still not clear him to play for the Huskies. He transferred to UCLA in January 2022.

“[Watkins] just looked at my scans and cleared me,” Latu said. “Because he’s had guys with the same, similar stuff, like Danielle Hunter and Peyton Manning, and he really just told me I would be able to play football.”

Two seasons, 23.5 sacks and 36.5 tackles for loss later, Latu is poised to be one of the most sought-after pass-rushers on draft boards across the league.

Latu, who is the No. 14 player on analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s most recent Big Board, won both the Lombardi and Hendricks awards this past season — for the best lineman and best defensive end in college football, respectively — and was the Bruins’ first first-team All-America selection since Eric Kendricks in 2014.

Like all the defensive linemen and linebackers invited to the combine, Latu was scheduled to go through medical exams Tuesday and Wednesday with his on-field workout Thursday. He said Wednesday that he was prepared to work out at the combine and put up “low numbers.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi set for MRI after groin injury

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Rangers' Eovaldi set for MRI after groin injury

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas right-hander Nathan Eovaldi left Thursday’s 6-0 win over Washington with right groin tightness and will get an MRI on Friday.

Eovaldi threw a 94 mph fastball to Luis Garcia Jr. for strike one after issuing a one-out walk to Nick Senzel while holding a 3-0 lead. Eovaldi then turned and faced the outfield. He was visited by manager Bruce Bochy and head trainer Matt Lucero and left for the dugout.

“I went to throw it, and I kind of felt it,” Eovaldi said. “The initial thoughts that went through my head were I can call out the training staff, then maybe get the two warmup throws just to kind of check it out and stuff, but they wanted to play it safe and take me out of the game.”

“We’ll see how it feels (Friday). Just play it safe. Again just trying to be smart with this, not push it.”

“He may need some rest,” Bochy said. “That’s what we’re going to find out. We’ll take care of him and do what’s right.”

Eovaldi limited the Nationals to two hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings while throwing 92 pitches — 13 short of his season high. He struck out eight batters for the fourth time this year, his season high.

Eovaldi went 12-5 for Texas last season, tying for the team lead in wins as the Rangers went on to win the franchise’s first World Series title. Signing as a free agent in December 2022, he was Texas’ No. 1 starter for much of the season after 2023 acquisitions Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer were sidelined with injuries. DeGrom and Scherzer have yet to pitch this season.

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Yastrzemski hits HR in win after ‘Papa Yaz’ visit

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Yastrzemski hits HR in win after 'Papa Yaz' visit

BOSTON — A visit from “Papa Yaz” before the game and a home run during it made for a memorable afternoon for San Francisco Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski.

The grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski hit a solo homer to right field — not far from where the former Boston outfielder’s retired No. 8 is hanging from the facade — to help the Giants beat the Boston Red Sox 3-1 on Thursday.

“I’m looking around, and I have my greatest childhood memories here,” said Mike Yastrzemski, who also homered five years ago in his only other visit to Fenway Park, where his grandfather played 23 seasons.

“The first one was like, super crazy, where I actually couldn’t believe that happened,” he said. “It was a little bit more normal this week, and I actually got to enjoy it while I was here rather than reflecting on it and being like, ‘Man, that was really cool.'”

Yastrzemski, 33, has three home runs this season and 90 in his six-year career, all with the Giants. This one cleared the short wall in front of the Red Sox bullpen in the third inning of a scoreless, hitless game to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead.

Giants manager Bob Melvin thanked “the baseball gods.”

“Got a smile out of me,” said the former major league catcher, who spent one of his 10 big league seasons in Boston and was not quite 6 when Carl Yastrzemski won the AL Triple Crown and led the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox to the pennant in 1967. “I was just awestruck. So, I didn’t have a ton to say to him. … There are some cool days in baseball, and I’ve had a lot of them. This was one of them.”

Mike Yastrzemski said he sees his grandfather a couple of times a year. He will sometimes ask the three-time batting champion and ’67 AL MVP for hitting advice, but the man he calls “Papa Yaz” will more often talk about family.

“One of the things that he’s done incredibly well as a grandfather is letting me have my career,” Yastrzemski said. “He’ll pick up the phone when I call, and if I ask him questions, he’ll answer. But he’s never forcing anything on me. He’s never suggesting anything. He’s always told me, ‘When in doubt, talk to your hitting coaches.'”

On Thursday, Yastrzemski said, they didn’t talk about hitting at all. The elder Yaz asked how he was physically, and it was “just good to see him,” Mike said.

“It was fun to just have him around for a minute,” he said.

And then the 84-year-old Hall of Famer split without sticking around for the game.

“I think he left the car running when he was in here,” Yastrzemski said with a smile. “But that’s normal. He’s quick to the point.”

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Pitcher Urias pleads no contest to battery charge

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Pitcher Urias pleads no contest to battery charge

Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge tied to his September arrest on suspicion of domestic violence.

Urias was placed on 36 months of summary probation and ordered to complete 30 days of community labor as well as a 52-week domestic violence counseling course, a spokesperson for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office said. In addition, Urias, 27, must pay a domestic violence fund fee, not possess any weapons, not use any force or violence, pay restitution to the victim and abide by a protective order.

The four other misdemeanor charges against Urias — an additional count of domestic battery involving a dating relationship, as well as one count each of spousal battery, false imprisonment and assault — were dismissed.

Urias was originally arrested Sept. 3 on suspicion of felony domestic violence for an incident that occurred in the parking lot of BMO Stadium after an LAFC soccer match, during which an eyewitness saw Urias get into a physical altercation with his wife. Urias was booked on suspicion of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and released on $50,000 bail the following morning.

The California Highway Patrol’s major crimes division spent the ensuing three months investigating the incident before handing the case over to the L.A. District Attorney’s Office on Dec. 11. A little less than a month later, the district attorney’s office ruled that it would not file felony charges against Urias.

Prosecutors wrote in a charge evaluation worksheet that Urias pushed his wife against a fence and “pulled her by the hair or shoulders” but added that “neither the victim’s injuries nor the defendant’s criminal history justify a felony filing.”

Three months later, on April 9, the city attorney’s office filed five misdemeanor charges against Urias, four of which carried a maximum penalty of one year in L.A. County jail.

Major League Baseball launched a separate investigation that might be on the verge of completion now that the legal process has played out, though a timeline is unknown.

Urias, once one of the brightest young pitchers in the sport, could become the first player to be suspended twice under MLB’s domestic violence policy, which launched in September 2015. He was originally suspended 20 games by MLB in August 2019 in the wake of an arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery, though he was not criminally charged in that incident.

Urias’ attorney could not be reached for comment. An MLB spokesperson declined comment.

Signed out of Mexico shortly after his 16th birthday, Urias navigated through the Dodgers’ farm system as a prized prospect, eventually joining the team as a 19-year-old rookie in 2016. He then returned from major shoulder surgery to become an important contributor on championship-caliber teams, recording the final out of the 2020 World Series, accumulating 20 wins in 2021 and finishing third in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2022.

As a young free agent with relatively few innings under his belt, Urias was widely projected to sign a $200-plus million contract this past offseason before the arrest, but now his MLB future appears to be in jeopardy.

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