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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mike Trout repeatedly said he doesn’t have a timetable for his return. However, the Los Angeles Angels slugger did admit he would be disappointed if he wasn’t playing by the end of July.

“Oh yeah, I’ll be back before that,” Trout said Saturday before the Angels hosted the Detroit Tigers. “I’m not putting like, an exact timetable on it, but once I do all the tests and I can run, hit and throw, I’ll be out there.

“I’m happy where I’m at right now. It makes me relieved not to feel [any consistent pain].”

Trout hasn’t played since April 29 after an MRI exam confirmed he had torn meniscus in his left knee. The three-time AL MVP then had surgery on May 3.

When Trout had surgery, the initial timeline was six to eight weeks. The recovery though has gone slower than initially expected.

Trout is jogging and working out on a treadmill as well as playing catch. He hasn’t started running or taking swings.

“I’m itching to hit. I feel like if I went into the cage and took some swings I would be pain-free,” Trout said. “I think the biggest thing for me is actually the running part, but we have to build up to that.”

It remains to be determined if Trout would need a rehab stint once he is ready to go.

This is the fourth straight season Trout has dealt with a major injury.

He played in only 36 games during the 2021 season due to a strained calf. In 2022, he was sidelined for five weeks with a back injury.

Last season, Trout broke a bone in a hand on a foul ball during a game in San Diego on July 3. He tried to return in August, but played in only one game.

Trout has played in only 266 games and missed 302 since the start of the 2021 season.

The Angels have won a season-high five straight games. Despite their two highest-paid players being out of the lineup for the past two months, the Halos have gone 14-10 in June after a tough start to the season.

One of the keys to the June surge has been Luis Rengifo, who leads the American League with a .315 batting average.

After going 7-21 at home the first two months, the Angels are 10-4 at The Big A in June.

“I’m pleased with the progress that we’ve made with these young kids, and I’m more than certain they’re pleased with it too,” manager Ron Washington said. “You can see that by the way they go about their business. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.”

Trout and Anthony Rendon have been in the same lineup in only 118 games out of 568 since 2021 (20.8%).

Rendon has missed 61 games with a hamstring injury that happened in late April. The $245 million third baseman is expected to face live pitching next week and could be back in the lineup when the Angels return home on July 8 after a trip to Oakland and Seattle. Rendon has played in only 167 games since the start of the 2021 season.

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Ohtani blasts 54th HR as Dodgers clinch NL West

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Ohtani blasts 54th HR as Dodgers clinch NL West

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani matched his career high with his 54th home run, Freddie Freeman went deep twice and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their 12th National League West title in 13 years by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 on Thursday.

Ohtani’s homer splashed into Chase Field’s swimming pool behind the right-center wall for a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. The two-run shot gave him 101 RBIs for the season and matched his career-best home run total with the World Series champion Dodgers last year. He has scored a big league-high 144 runs.

Los Angeles, which clinched a postseason berth last week, won its fourth straight division title.

Arizona (80-79) fell 1½ games behind the New York Mets (81-77) for the final NL wild-card spot and also is one game back of Cincinnati (81-78). The Diamondbacks close with three games at San Diego.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8) allowed four hits in six innings and struck out seven to finish with 201. His 2.49 ERA ranked second in the NL behind the 1.97 ERA of Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes.

Three relievers finished a five-hitter in the Dodgers’ 10th shutout.

Freeman and Andy Pages homered back to back starting the second inning, Freeman off opener Jalen Beeks (5-3) and Pages against Nabil Crismatt. Mookie Betts added a two-run single.

Freeman, who had three RBIs, has 23 homers while Pages has 27.

Arizona finished 43-38 at Chase Field. The crowd of 34,952 raised home attendance to 2,393,773, the Diamondbacks’ highest since 2008.

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Bochy’s Rangers future unclear as season ends

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Bochy's Rangers future unclear as season ends

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bruce Bochy is in the final games of his three-year contract with the Texas Rangers, a span that began with the franchise’s only World Series title, but baseball’s winningest active manager isn’t ready to discuss if he will be back next season.

“Season’s not over. It’s something we’ll talk about when the season’s over,” Bochy said before the Rangers lost 4-0 to Minnesota in their home finale Thursday. “So I’m going to stick with that right now and see if we can win a couple of games here.”

Both Bochy, who turned 70 this season, and Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, said they will talk about next season after this one is done. The Rangers, who will miss the playoffs for the second year in a row since that championship in 2023, finish with three games at Cleveland this weekend.

“The two of us will sit down and talk about where things are, what happened this year, where we’re going,” Young said. “There’s things that I’m sure he’s going to want to know about the future of the team and we’ll talk about it, like we did three years ago, and figure it out.”

Young, who pitched a season for Bochy in San Diego, was the Rangers general manager when he hired Bochy as manager after the 2022 season. They were coming off their sixth consecutive losing season, the longest streak in the half-century since the franchise moved to Texas in 1972.

At that time, Bochy had been out of managing for three seasons. He stepped away from the San Francisco Giants in 2019 after 13 seasons and three World Series titles, which followed 12 seasons and a National League pennant with the Padres.

“Just love him. He’s great. I love working with him. He’s been wonderful,” Young said. “He came here to win a World Series. He’s helped us accomplish that. And, you know, we’ll figure out what the future holds.”

Young didn’t have a timeline on how quickly a decision could be made after the season ends this weekend.

The Rangers (80-79) were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday night when they lost their eighth straight game, but ended that losing streak the next night. They can still finish with a winning record, but would have to win two out of three against the playoff-chasing Guardians.

Bochy has a career record of 2,251-2,264 over his 28 seasons, with those wins ranking sixth among all managers – the five ahead of him are all in the Hall of Fame. No managers in the past 60 years have more than Bochy’s four World Series titles, and the only ones all-time with more are Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Connie Mack.

“Oh, I’ve really had a great time, and it’s as much fun as I’ve had in the game,” Bochy said of his three seasons back in the dugout. “I said this when I came back, you have a deeper appreciation when you’re out, especially for three years and you realize what you have, how blessed you are to be doing what you’re doing. It’s been a lot of fun and I still love it, and enjoy it.”

The only current MLB manager older than Bochy is 73-year-old Ron Washington with the Angels, though he hasn’t managed a game for the Angels since June 19 before he had quadruple bypass heart surgery.

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Horton ‘adament’ he can pitch, but Cubs unsure

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Horton 'adament' he can pitch, but Cubs unsure

CHICAGO — The Cubs were still evaluating the extent of starter Cade Horton‘s back injury on Thursday, leaving the National League Rookie of the Year candidate’s status for the wild-card playoff series in question.

Manager Craig Counsell said “Cade is on track still,” though an MRI on Wednesday showed “some areas of concern” in the ribs.

“Right now, Cade is a go,” Counsell said, adding that Horton is “adament he can pitch.”

Counsell said another physician will look at the imaging. Horton is scheduled to resume throwing on Friday after being off the past two days.

“We want to make sure we use this time to let Cade tell us how he feels, let Cade show us how he feels, consult our doctors and let them make recommendations and get the best decision we can make,” Counsell said.

Chicago will play the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series on Tuesday. The Cubs’ magic number for clinching the top wild-card spot — and homefield advantage in the first round — was at two over Padres entering Thursday’s game against the playoff-contending New York Mets.

Horton is 11-4 in 22 starts and 23 appearances. The 24-year-old right-hander has a 2.67 ERA that ranks second among qualified rookies.

Horton left Tuesday’s start against New York after three innings due to back tightness. He was sick following his previous start and had been coughing, which led to the issues in the back and ribs.

Counsell said the Cubs won’t announce their postseason rotation until next week.

“We’re at this phase where we’re starting to put plans into place,” Counsell said. “We have multiple ones. We’ve got four baseball games left, which affects things.”

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