Long a star soprano, Fleming made her directing debut Monday night at the Aspen Music Festival and School by transporting Mozart’s masterpiece from 18th century Naples, Italy, to a gym in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, amid professional wrestling’s rise in 1980.

Posters on stage display Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, wrestler Randy Savage and Jane Fonda hawking her workout video. In Fleming’s concept, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are workout-obsessed high school sisters.

“It’s a coming of age for the protagonists and a loss of innocence,” Fleming said.

An outstanding student cast ages 25-32 mostly making role debuts, was accompanied by conductor Patrick Summers leading a 45-piece orchestra at the 375-capacity Wheeler Opera House, opened in 1889 during the Colorado Silver Boom. There are two additional performances through Saturday at a festival that includes about 200 public events from July 2 to Aug. 24.

Lauren Carroll, the 26-year-old soprano who sings Fiordiligi, did a split. Dorabella, 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, struggled to lift a heavy barbell. Michelle Harvey’s scenic design in the tight space of a 25-foot-wide proscenium included punching bags, bo staffs and ThighMasters.

Fleming sang her first Countess in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” as an Aspen student in 1984. Now 66, she has, since 2017, limited her singing to concerts, a few contemporary operas and Broadway.

Staging spark was at a hockey game

Fleming had a circuitous route to her concept.

“I can’t do the opera relating to hockey, but I did think of another sport that reminds me so much of opera and that’s professional wrestling. There’s a suspension of disbelief that is huge,” she said. “Fans believe these characters are real and that the moves are real, and of course it’s all completely choreographed.”

Fleming at first spoke with Francesca Zambello, the Washington National Opera’s artistic director.

“I said, `Convince me, sell me, tell me,’” Zambello related, “`you really have to work it through from the overture to the final curtain.”

WNO’s “Così” in 2021 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020, Fleming and Summers launched Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, with 15 singers annually attending an eight-week program that covers their $12,325 tuition, room and board plus pays a $1,500 stipend.

Wrestling family history

Ashlyn Brown, the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano who performs Dorabella, is a granddaughter of Don Stansauk, the wrestler known as Hard Boiled Haggerty.

“I grew up with wrestling culture,” she said. “I used to go to the Cauliflower Alley Club meetings when I was a kid. He brought all of his buddies, like Andre the Giant.”

Carroll was a cheerleader and her mother is an aerobics instructor.

“She really invests in young artists and it’s authentic,” she said of Fleming. “She really means it and backs it up with action.”

In creating the look, Fleming thought back to her time at Churchville-Chili Senior High School in New York.

“I have photographs of me with a really bad mullet and overalls,” she said.

Just before intermission ended, a Fonda dress-alike led the audience in calisthenics. Despina (soprano Laura Miah), a gym manager here instead of a maid, uses a blender to make protein shakes and heads stretching exercises.

“Renée of course demanded a lot of herself as a singer in that way and that’s extended itself to her demands on them in this,” Summers said.

Mozart’s opera has the two boyfriends adopt hidden identities and romance each other’s girlfriend to test their virtue. Both women fall for the other’s boyfriend, and while the two couples get back together in the original, Fleming has both relationships come apart. Fiordiligi ends up wearing an “ERA YES” shirt.

Don Alfonso is a gym owner. Guglielmo and Ferrando, the boyfriends (baritone Finn Sagal and tenor Jonghyun Park), wear Amanda Seymour’s colorful clothes, including powder blue and light gray tuxedos with ruffled shirts.

Peter Barber, a 31-year-old bass-baritone who sings Don Alfonso, boxes to keep in shape.

“When I was I think 8 or 9 years old after watching `Rocky,’ I had a custom boxing robe made for me,” he said.

Role a part of Fleming’s life for more than 30 years

Fleming sang Fiordiligi for the first time at Geneva in March 1992. She greeted the cast at the first rehearsal on June 30 by telling them: “Toi toi toi. Let’s have some fun,” using a performers’ expression for good luck.

“I’m astonished that someone who is such an extraordinary singer and performer, they are also an extraordinary stage director,” choreographer Sara Erde said. “She knows every note of the music, every word of the text.”

Fleming learned that unlike with singing, directing requires “million decisions that have to be made day to day.”

At WNO, Fleming had envisioned a set with a stadium-sized video screen. She hopes the staging has an extended life.

“If anybody wanted to do it, it would be really fun in a bigger theater with a budget,” she said. “Especially the time we’re in, it’s not a bad time to bring pro wrestling into opera because of the similarities, for the sheer novelty of it.”

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“I think it is a opportunity to market the game on a really global stage,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “Obviously the clubs are going to have to endorse this. I mean, it’s a big deal.”

MLB met with Los Angeles organizers Monday in Atlanta ahead of the All-Star Game and Manfred said the Olympic officials were meeting with the Major League Baseball Players Association.

“There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done,” Clark told the BBWAA in a separate session. “We do know players are interested in playing, whether it’s for the Team USA or any number of other teams around the world. … There’s just a lot of conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later to see how viable this is, but we’re hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game.”

The World Baseball Softball Confederation said Monday the baseball tournament will be played from July 15-20 at Dodger Stadium. MLB is considering whether it can interrupt its 2028 season to allow major leaguers to participate, which could necessitate changes to the sport’s national television contracts.

“They put out a schedule. They tell you it’s not going to move. We’ll see whether there’s any movement on that,” Manfred said. “It is possible to take it, to play the All-Star Game in its normal spot, have a single break that would be longer, obviously, but still play 162 games without bleeding into the middle of November. That is possible, OK? It would require significant accommodations, but it’s possible.”

World Baseball Softball Confederation spokesman Richard Baker declined comment.

MLB did not allow players on 40-man rosters to participate in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when Nippon Professional Baseball interrupted its season and Japan beat the U.S. 2-0 in the gold medal game.

“In the event that major league players are going to play, what does that mean and what does that look like?” Clark said. “And perhaps just as importantly, what does it mean for those players who aren’t participating? What type of scheduling adjustments need to be made? What type travel considerations and support need to considered? What does that means in regards to insurance?”

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The Mariners’ breakout slugger nicknamed Big Dumper advanced from the first round on a tiebreaker by less than an inch over the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, then won his semifinal 19-13 over Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, whose 513-foot first-round drive over Truist Park’s right-center field seats was the longest of the night.

Hitting second in the final round, the 22-year-old Caminero closed within three dingers, took three pitches and hit a liner to left field.

Becoming the first switch-hitter and first catcher to win the title, Raleigh had reached the All-Star break with a major league-leading 38 home runs. He became the second Mariners player to take the title after three-time winner Ken Griffey Jr.

“Usually the guy that’s leading the league in homers doesn’t win the whole thing,” Raleigh said. “That’s as surprising to me as anybody else.”

Raleigh was pitched to by his father, Todd, former coach of Tennessee and Western Carolina. His younger brother Todd Raleigh Jr. did the catching.

“Just to do it with my family was awesome,” Raleigh said.

Just the second Derby switch-hitter after Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman in 2023, Raleigh hit his first eight left-handed, took a timeout, then hit seven right-handed. Going back to lefty, he then hit two more in the bonus round and stayed lefty for the semifinals and the final.

Caminero beat Minnesota’s Byron Buxton 8-7 in the other semifinal.

Atlanta’s Matt Olson, Washington’s James Wood, the New York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Rooker were eliminated in the first round of the annual power show.

Cruz and Caminero each hit 21 long balls and Buxton had 20 in the opening round. Raleigh and Rooker had 17 apiece, but Raleigh advanced on the tiebreaker of their longest homer, 470.61 feet to 470.53.

“One little tweak in the system and I’m not even in the next round, so that’s crazy,” Raleigh said.

Cruz’s long drive was the hardest-hit at 118 mph.

The longest derby homer since Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field in 2021. Last year, the longest drive at Arlington, Texas, was 473 feet by Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna.

Wood hit 16 homers, including a 486-foot shot and one that landed on the roof of the Chop House behind the right-field wall. Olson, disappointing his hometown fans, did not go deep on his first nine swings and finished with 15, He also was eliminated in the first round in 2021.

Chisholm hit just three homers, the fewest since the timer format started in 2015.

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Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is an advocate of the Automated Ball-Strike System, which potentially as early as 2026 could be used to aid MLB home plate umpires, but not replace them.

Starting in 2024, MLB focused testing on a challenge system in which the human umpire makes each original call. Data from the spring training test could cause MLB to make alterations to the system for Triple-A games this season.

How does the Automated Ball-Strike System work?

Stadiums are outfitted with cameras that track each pitch and judge whether it crossed home plate within the strike zone. In early testing, umpires wore ear buds and would hear “ball” or “strike,” then relay that to players and fans with traditional hand signals.

The challenge system adds a wrinkle. During spring training, human umps will call every pitch, but each team will have the ability to challenge two calls per game, with no additions for extra innings. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews, which were first used for home run calls in August 2008 and widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season.

Only a batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge a call, signaling with the tap of a helmet or cap; and assistance from the dugout is not allowed. A challenge must be made within 2 seconds, and the graphic of the pitch and strike zone will be shown on the scoreboard and broadcast feed. The umpire then announces the updated count.

MLB estimates the process averages 17 seconds.

Where will ABS be tested?

MLB has installed the system in 13 spring training ballparks that are home to 19 teams. The Florida stadiums, all in the Florida State League, are the stadiums of Detroit, Minnesota, the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Toronto, plus the ballpark shared by Miami and St. Louis.

Five test sites in Arizona all are shared: the Diamondbacks/Colorado, Chicago White Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland/Cincinnati, Kansas City/Texas and Seattle/San Diego.

About 60% of spring training games are slated for trial, although teams could play vastly different numbers of games with ABS testing. The Diamondbacks are slated for 29 ABS games, while the Cubs have just seven.

What is the technology?

A Hawk-Eye pose-tracking system of cameras was installed and used to track pitches and whether they are within a strike zone based on the height of each batter, who is measured without shoes before a team’s first test game. MLB estimated the calibration process at less than one minute for each player.

There are eight cameras at most of the spring training ballparks in the test and 12 at the Diamondbacks/Rockies stadium.

While the strike zone actually called by big league umpires tends to be oval in shape, the ABS strike zone is a rectangle, as in the rule book.

Developing a consensus on what a computer strike zone should be has been an issue.

When did MLB first start using ABS?

MLB started experimenting with ball/strike technology at the independent Atlantic League in 2019.

A challenge system was tried in 2021 at eight of nine ballparks that make up the Florida State League. ABS was promoted to five Triple-A parks in 2022 and expanded to all Triple-A stadiums in 2023, the robot alone for the first three games of each series and a human with a challenge system in the final three. That system was in place at the start of 2024, but MLB switched to an all-challenge system last June 25.

How successful were teams with challenges last year?

Overall return rate over the full Triple-A season was 51%, with challenges by the defense winning 54% and by the offense winning 48%. Challenges with the two-challenge limit in place averaged 3.9 per game, including 2.2 by the offense.

The success percentage has been slightly better for video reviews in the major leagues. Teams increased their success rate on video reviews to 53.7% last season, led by the Boston Red Sox at 67.9%.

Just 1.6% of first pitches were challenges, but the figure increased to 3.9% for two-strike pitches, 5.2% for three-ball pitches and 8.2% for full counts.

Challenge percentages were more likely later in the game. While 1.9% of pitches were challenged in the first three innings, 2.5% were challenged from the fourth through the sixth, 2.8% in the seventh and eighth and 3.6% in the ninth.

How has the computer strike zone changed over time?

MLB has changed the shape of the ABS strike zone several times.

It started with a 19-inch width in 2022, then dropped it to 17 inches — matching the width of home plate. Narrowing the strike zone led to an increase in walks and only small changes in strikeout rates.

The top of the striker zone was 51% of a batter’s height in 2022 and 2023, then raised to 53.5% in 2024 after pitchers’ complaints the top had been too low. The bottom of the strike zone has been 27% since 2022 after initially being set at 28%.

A batter’s stance is not taken into account.

ABS makes the ball/strike decision at the midpoint of the plate, 8 1/2 inches from the front and 8 1/2 inches from the back. The contrasts with the rule book zone called by umpires, which says the zone is a cube, and a strike is a pitch that crosses any part.

Strikeout rates increased 0.5% and walk rates rose 1% in full ABS games and 0.8% in challenge games.

How will ABS impact broadcasts?

Concerned the strike zone box on broadcasts could tip whether to challenge and cause fans to yell at players to challenge, MLB plans to experiment with several broadcast alternatives, among them: show the box but not the ball; show the ball but not the box; and to show only corners of the box.

How can players give feedback?

Dugout iPads available to all teams will have an application called ProTABS that allows players to check pitches against their individual strike zone. Information will update after every plate appearance and players can give MLB comment on single pitches and the overall system.

MLB opened the investigation last February when it was brought to its attention by the sportsbook, and Hoberg did not umpire last season. While MLB said the investigation did not uncover evidence Hoberg personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday he upheld Hill’s decision. Among the highest-rated umpires at judging the strike zone, Hoberg can apply for reinstatement no earlier than 2026 spring training.

MLB said the friend made 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2023, totaling almost $214,000 with an overall win of nearly $35,000.

“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said in a statement. “An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way.

“However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball.”

Now 38, Hoberg made his big league debut in 2014. During Game 2 of the 2022 World Series, he had an unprecedented “umpire’s perfect game” by accurately calling balls and strikes on all 129 taken pitches, according to computer tracking.

“I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement,” Hoberg said in a statement. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard.

“That said, to be clear, I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me. I apologize to Major League Baseball and the entire baseball community for my mistakes. I vow to learn from them and to be a better version of myself moving forward.”

Hoberg was notified of his termination on May 31. Under the umpires’ collective bargaining agreement, Hoberg had the right to appeal Hill’s decision, triggering the hiring by MLB of a neutral fact finder who made a report to Manfred.

MLB said the sportsbook notified it that Hoberg opened an account in his name on Jan. 30 last year and an electronic device associated with the account had accessed an account in the name of another person, who had bet on baseball.

Hoberg’s devices placed 417 direct bets with Sportsbook A between Dec. 30, 2020, and Jan. 15, 2024, on the friend’s accounts totaling $487,475.83, which lost $53,189.65 in the aggregate. The devices placed at least 112 bets with Sportsbook B totaling $222,130 that resulted in a loss of $21,686.96 in the aggregate. Most of the direct bets were on football, basketball, hockey and golf.

Nineteen of the 141 baseball bets by the friend were made from Hoberg’s home and eight involved five games that Hoberg umpired or was a replay umpire. MLB detailed those games:

–On April 13, 2021, Hoberg had three close calls at third base that MLB said he ruled correctly on. There were money line bets of $2,000 and $1,000 on Cincinnati, which lost to San Francisco 7-6.

–On June 15, 2021, Hoberg was the lead replay umpire and there were no replay reviews in a Chicago Cubs’ 3-2 loss to the New York Mets. There was a $1,050 bet on a live runs line, a baseball equivalent of a points spread, and the bet won and paid $1,550.

–On Aug. 15, 2021, Hoberg was the plate umpire for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 14-4 win over the Mets and had 98.89% accuracy, missing two pitches that MLB said were in low-leverage situations and benefited Los Angeles. Six calls were in a “buffer zone” and four went against the Dodgers and two against the Mets. A $3,200 money line bet for the Dodgers paid $5,200.

–On Oct. 8, 2021, Hoberg was the third base umpire for the Dodgers’ 4-0 loss to San Francisco in an NL Division Series opener and did not have any close calls. A $2,000 money line bet and $3,000 run line bet on the Giants both won and paid a combined $9,300.

–On Oct. 30, 2021, Hoberg was lead replay official for World Series Game 4. Houston challenged on a possible overslide by Atlanta’s Austin Riley at second base in the sixth inning of the Braves’ 3-2 win and Hoberg upheld the call by Alfonso Márquez, a decision MLB said was supported by its replay operations center staff. Money line bets on Houston of $3,000 and $1,050 on the Astros both lost.

“Although the baseball bets were profitable, the data did not support a finding that baseball bets from Individual A’s accounts were connected to game-fixing or other efforts to manipulate any part of any baseball game or event,” MLB said in its findings. “The baseball betting activity did not focus on any particular club, pitcher or umpire, and there was no apparent correlation between bet success and bet size. The eight bets on games Hoberg worked similarly did not reveal any obvious pattern.”

After being contacted by MLB investigators, the friend deleted Telegram threads communicating the bets and tracking amounts owed and, after a phone conversation between Hoberg and the friend, the umpire deleted his Telegram account, according to MLB. MLB said Hoberg told it during the investigation and appeal that he had been unaware of his friend’s baseball bets.

“If our union believed that an umpire bet on baseball, we would never defend him,” the Major League Umpires Association said in a statement. “But as today’s statement from the league makes clear, the neutral fact finder did not find that Pat placed bets on baseball. Yet we respect Pat’s unequivocal acceptance of responsibility for the mistakes that led to his termination.”

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Suzuki received 393 of 394 votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Sabathia was on 342 ballots and Wagner on 325, which was 29 more than the 296 needed for the required 75%.

The trio will be inducted into the Hall at Cooperstown on July 27 along with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, voted in last month by the classic era committee.

Mariano Rivera remained the only player to get 100% of the vote from the BBWAA, appearing on all 425 ballots in 2019. Derek Jeter was picked on 395 of 396 in 2020.

Carlos Beltrán fell 19 votes short of election with 277 and was followed by Andruw Jones with 261.

Suzuki came to Major League Baseball from Japan as a 27-year-old in 2001 and joined Fred Lynn in 1975 as the only players to win AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP in the same season. He was a two-time AL batting champion and 10-time All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder, hitting .311 with 117 homers, 780 RBIs and 509 stolen bases with Seattle (2001-12, 2018-19), the New York Yankees (2012-14) and Miami (2015-17).

He’s perhaps the best contact hitter ever, with 1,278 hits in Nippon Professional Baseball and 3,089 in MLB, including a season-record 262 in 2004. His combined total of 4,367 exceeds Pete Rose’s MLB record of 4,256.

Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award and a World Series title in 2009. He went 251-161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts, third among left-handers behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton, during 19 seasons with Cleveland (2001-08), Milwaukee (2008) and the New York Yankees (2009-19).

Wagner received 284 votes and 73.8% in the 2024 balloting, five votes shy, when third baseman Adrian Beltré, catcher/first baseman Joe Mauer and first baseman Todd Helton were elected. On the ballot for the 10th and final time, Wagner received 10.5% support in his first appearance in 2016.

Wagner became the ninth pitcher in the Hall who was primarily a reliever after Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith and Rivera.

A seven-time All-Star, Wagner was 47-40 with a 2.31 ERA and 422 saves for Houston (1995-2003), Philadelphia (2004-05), the New York Mets (2006-09), Boston (2009) and Atlanta (2010). His 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings are the most among pitchers with at least 900 innings.

Beltrán received 46.5% in 2023 in his first ballot appearance and 57.1% last year. A nine-time All-Star, he had a .279 batting average, 435 home runs, 1,587 RBIs and 312 stolen bases for Kansas City (1998-2004), Houston (2004, ’17), the Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the Yankees (2014-16) and Texas (2016).

He was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then was fired the following Jan. 16 without having managed a game, three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in a report by MLB regarding the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series title.

Jones increased from 61.6% last year and 7.3% when he first appeared in 2018.

Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramírez have lagged in voting, hurt by suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez received 34.8% last year in his third appearance and Ramírez 32.5% in his ninth.

Players joining the ballot in 2026 include Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp.

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New York had moved closer to getting swept in the World Series when Freddie Freeman hit another first-inning home run.

Volpe, a New York native whose family idolizes the pinstripes going back generations, turned on a knee-high slider and perhaps reshaped the Series, too. His third-inning grand slam sparked the Yankees to an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night that forced a Game 5.

“The place was shaking. I felt the ground literally shaking,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said.

Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth.

New York, which had scored just seven runs in the first three games, had some of its swagger back. Wells spoke after the game wearing a “Fully Operational Death Star” Yankees T-shirt, referring to general manager Brian Cashman’s 2018 quip.

Fans in the sellout crowd of 49,354 chanted Volpe’s name during the ninth inning.

“It’s like you finally got to see the top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game,” Aaron Boone said after his first World Series win as New York’s manager. “When Anthony hits that ball, it was like fun to see Yankee Stadium erupt.”

Wells said the dire situation after Monday’s loss had relieved the pressure.

“Why not go out tomorrow and have fun?” he described as the mood.

Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game when he deposited a slider from rookie Luis Gil into the right-field short porch following Mookie Betts’ one-out double. He became the first player to homer in the first four games of a World Series and his streak of long balls in six straight games is one more than Houston’s George Springer 2017 and ’19.

“I’ll look back on it after hopefully we win and get this thing done tomorrow,” Freeman said. “Pretty cool. Obviously, hopefully I can keep it going tomorrow.”

Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.

Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson.

“All it takes is just one swing,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said.

Volpe sent Hudson’s first pitch into the left-field seats.

“I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence,” Volpe said.

A Gold Glove shortstop in his second big league season, the 23-year-old Volpe also doubled and became the first player in Series history with a grand slam and a pair of stolen bases in one game. He was 8 when the Yankees last won the Series.

Volpe scored New York’s first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the second inning. He made a baserunning blunder when he headed back to second to tag up and failed to score on Wells’ double off the center-field wall — pounding his own leg in anger. Verdugo followed with an RBI grounder.

“They’re going to fight,” Betts said. “If you made it this far, you have a resilient team that’s going to fight the whole time.”

Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith’s homer off Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out but was reversed in a video review.

Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth — capping an 11-pitch at-bat — ahead of Torres’ three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.

Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit scoreless relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing Series sweep since 1976.

“As far as outcomes, to have six guys in your ’pen that are feeling good, rested, I feel good about that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads went on to sweeps, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those Series ended in five games.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox, sparked by a stolen base by Roberts, are the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in any round, beating the Yankees in the AL Championship Series.

Judge drove in his first run of the Series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2.

New York stopped a seven-game Series losing streak against the Dodgers dating to 1981. The Yankees got their first seven RBIs from the bottom three hitters in their batting order, Volpe, Wells and Verdugo, who had entered 4 for 32 with three RBIs in the Series.

Volpe was interviewed after the game by former Yankees captain Derek Jeter, now a Fox broadcaster.

“It’s my dream, but it was all my friends’ dreams, all my cousins’ dreams, probably my sister’s dream, too. But winning the World Series was first and foremost. by far. Nothing else compares. So still got a lot of work to do,” Volpe said.

Former Boston star David Ortiz, also a Fox commentator, gave Volpe a shirt.

“I’ve got it in my locker,” Volpe said. “I can’t wear it. It’s got him and Red Sox stuff on it.”

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Cole allowed one run over six-plus innings in the opener — Kiké Hernández tripled in the fifth as right fielder Juan Soto took a poor route, then scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly. Flaherty gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings, a two-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton.

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A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino became the 10th U.S. coach in 14 years and its first foreign-born leader since Jurgen Klinsmann from 2011-16. Pochettino has coached Espanyol in Spain (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19) and Chelsea (2023-24) in England and Paris Saint-Germain in France (2021-22), leaving after winning a Ligue 1 title.

“It’s about the journey that this team and this country are on,” Pochettino said in a statement released by the USSF. “The energy, the passion, and the hunger to achieve something truly historic here — those are the things that inspired me.”

Pochettino had been in negotiations since mid-August. Matt Crocker, the USSF’s sporting director in charge of the search, was Southampton’s academy director when Pochettino started at that club. While the contract length wasn’t specified, the USSF said Pochettino will lead the team at the World Cup.

“Mauricio is a serial winner with a deep passion for player development and a proven ability to build cohesive and competitive teams,” Crocker said in a statement. “His track record speaks for itself, and I am confident that he is the right choice to harness the immense potential within our talented squad.”

Pochettino was to be introduced at a news conference in New York on Friday and take over for friendlies against Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and at Mexico three days later. The next competitive matches are a two-leg CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal in November.

“Mauricio is a world-class coach with a proven track record of developing players and achieving success at the highest levels,” USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “His passion for the game, his innovative approach to coaching, and his ability to inspire and connect with players make him the perfect fit for this role.”

He arrives with high expectations from a USSF management and fan base that both believe the player pool is capable of far more than its No. 16 world ranking.

Berhalter was fired on July 10, a week after the Americans were eliminated in the first round of the Copa America. He was hired in December 2018, was allowed to leave when his contract expired following a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the second round of the 2022 World Cup, then was rehired in June 2023 to return in September.

Pochettino’s salary was not announced. The USSF said his hiring was supported by a leadership gift from Kenneth C. Griffin, the CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, and his philanthropic entity Griffin Catalyst; with additional support from Scott Goodwin, managing partner of the asset management firm Diameter Capital Partners, and USSF commercial partners.

Mikey Varas, a Berhalter assistant, coached the team for Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Canada in an exhibition and headed the Americans for Tuesday night’s game against New Zealand.

At the World Cup, the U.S. will be a seeded team as a co-host, which means it likely won’t have any nations ranked among the top nine in its first-round group in a tournament expanded to 48 teams. If the Americans win the group, they probably would not face a top-level opponent in the new round of 32. The U.S. has not reached the quarterfinals since 2002.

Pochettino is likely to have his full player pool available for just eight one-week training periods before the team gathers in the weeks ahead of the Americans’ World Cup opener on June 12, 2026.

He inherits a group led by Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams, who have thrived with European clubs. But goalkeepers Matt Turner and Ethan Horvath and midfielder Gio Reyna have failed to gain playing time with first-tier teams, and Chris Richards — at England’s Crystal Palace — was the only central defender in his 20s playing regularly with a top-league European club before Mark McKenzie joined Toulouse last month.

Berhalter minimized Major League Soccer players, not using any during the Copa America.

On-field discipline has been a problem, with defender Sergiño Dest getting two red cards in the past 13 months, and McKennie and winger Tim Weah receiving one each.

“I see a group of players full of talent and potential, and together, we’re going to build something special that the whole nation can be proud of,” Pochettino said.

Pochettino was a central defender who played for Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina and Espanyol, PSG and Bordeaux in Europe from the late 1980s until 2006. He made 20 appearances for Argentina, playing at the 1999 Copa América and the 2002 World Cup, where his foul of Michael Owen led to David Beckham’s penalty kick in Argentina’s 1-0 group-stage loss.

After retiring as a player, he became a coach in Espanyol’s system, took over as first-team coach in January 2009 and helped the team avoid relegation. Pochettino was fired in November 2012 with the team in last place and was hired two months later by English club Southampton.

Pochettino moved in May 2014 to Tottenham, which reached the final of the 2015 League Cup, losing to Chelsea, and the 2019 Champions League, losing to Liverpool. He was fired in November 2019 with Spurs in 14th place and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

PSG hired Pochettino in January 2021. The team finished second in the league and lost to Manchester City in the Champions League semifinals but won the French Cup, beating Monaco 2-0 in the final. Led by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, PSG clinched the 2022 Ligue 1 title with four games to spare but lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16.

Pochettino left PSG at the end of the 2022-23 season, then was hired by Chelsea in June 2023 after the club finished 12th. Chelsea lost the League Cup final to Liverpool and finished sixth in the Premier League, missing out on the Champions League. Pochettino left two days after the final match.

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“A World Cup on home soil is the biggest thing that you know we’ll probably do in our career,” star attacker Christian Pulisic said. “It’s a special time for this sport in America.”

Eighteen players from the 2022 World Cup roster were in training camp ahead of the tournament. The U.S. opens against Bolivia on June 23 at Arlington, Texas, plays Panama four days later at Atlanta and closes the group stage vs. Uruguay on July 1 at Kansas City, Missouri.

The U.S. could meet Brazil in the quarterfinals. But players and staff view this as another step toward June 12, 2026, when the Americans play their World Cup opener at Inglewood, California.

“Copa America is essential to the growth of this group, and I believe this is a very important tournament for us as a team. This is the last major tournament before the World Cup. We’ll have Gold Cup, but the caliber of teams does not match Copa America,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “It is a building block in which to to go into the World Cup confident.”

Berhalter was let go when his contract expired at the end of 2022 in the messy fallout of a feud with the Reyna family, then brought back and returned behind the bench last September. His core is the same as during the 2022 World Cup, where the U.S. lost to the Netherlands 3-1 in the round of 16.

Pulisic, 25, comes into the tournament following his best season. He scored 12 Serie A goals in his first season with AC Milan plus one in the Champions League and two in the Europa League. His equalizer gave the Americans a 1-1 draw against Brazil Tuesday night in their last pre-tournament warmup, his 29th international goal in 68 appearances.

“He’s had some unfortunate injuries along his path and he’s been at some places where maybe he hasn’t gotten the best look and wasn’t really the number one option, but I think everyone in this country knows how talented he is,” said American forward Haji Wright, Pulisic’s teammate now and at the 2015 Under-17 World Cup. “He’s really finding his goal-scoring form. He’s able to affect the game by actually scoring and contributing in front of the goal. And that’s something he always used to do when we were children.”

Tyler Adams, the U.S. World Cup captain and another member of that 2015 team, is regaining fitness following a frustrating 15 months. A 25-year-old defensive midfielder, Adams played just one club match from March 2023 until this past March 13 because of a torn right hamstring that needed surgery. After returning to play two matches for Bournemouth in March, the midfielder was limited by back spasms to one game over the rest of the season, an 11-minute appearance on May 11. He entered the June 12 friendly against Brazil in the 76th minute.

Right back Sergiño Dest will miss the tournament because of a torn ACL, opening the spot for 21-year-old Joe Scally. Chris Richards appears to have gained a starting spot in central defense alongside Tim Ream on a back line that has Antonee Robinson on the left.

Goalkeeper Matt Turner is a cause for concern. He lost the starting job at Nottingham Forest this season after poor play and was at fault for some of the goals in the 5-1 loss to Colombia and this week’s game against Brazil.

“He’s getting his rhythm. He’s going to be fine come tournament time,” Berhalter said. “You can see that he didn’t have a regular slate of games and it’s going to take him a little bit to get into it.”

This will be the fifth Copa America appearance for the U.S., which was eliminated in the group stage in 1993 and 2007, and finished fourth in 1995 and 2016.

“What you’re seeing on the pitch is now we’re clicking even more than ever,” midfielder Brenden Aaronson said, “and I think it’s just going to continue to get better and better.”

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“I’ve put the gas to full throttle and we are going for it. Full speed — full speed ahead,” she said Monday after she was among 24 minor league umpires assigned full-time as fill-ins at big league spring training.

A 47-year-old from New Jersey, Pawol is set to work her first major league exhibition game on Feb. 24 when Houston plays Washington at West Palm Beach, Florida. She also was promoted to a minor league crew chief and is on the verge of a regular season big league debut.

“As a hitter, a longtime athlete, it was a big deal to hit over .300,” the former college softball player said. “But as an umpire, we have to hit 1.000 every night, and the challenge of that is absolutely riveting.”

Twenty-six umpires were assigned full spring training schedules last year, and 21 of those were assigned to the in-season call-up list. Pawol was informed of her bump up in a phone call on Feb. 5 from director of umpire development Rich Rieker and supervisor Cris Jones.

“I was like: Yessssss!” Pawol recalled.

MLB’s move comes 27 years after the gender barrier for game officials was broken in the NBA, nine years after it ended the NFL and two years after soccer’s World Cup employed a female referee.

Ted Barrett, a big league umpire from 1994-2022, first encountered Pawol at an umpire camp in Binghamton, New York, in early 2015 and encouraged her to pursue the career. Barrett doesn’t think Pawol will be made to feel uncomfortable by players or managers.

“Right now, it’s at the point in the major leagues, people don’t care race, creed, color, religion, belief,” he said. “If you can umpire, you can umpire, and if you can’t, you can’t. The concern of the guys coming up is, ‘Can she umpire?’ If she can, she’ll be accepted and bought in. If she can’t, you got to get her out of there and get somebody else who can.”

Pawol has been a minor league ump since 2016 and worked her way up to the highest minor level last year, when she was behind the plate for the Triple-A Championship game.

MLB has 76 full-time staff umpires and uses fill-ins on crews for openings created by injuries and vacations.

Pawol is among a small group of women who have umpired minor league games, among them Bernice Gera (1972), Christine Wren (1975-77), Pam Postema (1977-89) and Ria Cortesio (1999-2007). Nine women are scheduled to work in the minor leagues this season.

Cortesio was the last woman to work a big league spring training game, in 2007. Pawol has been texting with Postema and Cortesio.

“They are pretty fired up,” Pawol said.

Pawol became an all-state softball and soccer player in New Jersey for three seasons in each sport at West Milford High School, where she was a 1995 graduate and was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022. Pawol went to Hofstra on a softball scholarship and became a three-time all-conference pick, hitting .332 with 15 homers, 102 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 161 games from 1996-98. She was on the USA Baseball women’s national baseball team in 2001.

Pawol got a master’s degree and was living in the Binghamton area of New York and taking teacher certification classes at Elmira College while still playing on the side.

“I wasn’t really satisfied,” she said. “Coming off of a huge competitive career, just playing locally, I wasn’t getting my fix. And I remember looking at the umpire and being like, I think that’s it. I got to go for that.”

After umpiring NCAA softball from 2010-16, she was approached by Barrett and fellow big league umps Paul Nauert and Marvin Hudson at a clinic in Atlanta in early 2015 and went to an MLB tryout camp at Cincinnati that August. She was among 38 hopefuls invited to the Umpire Training Academy at Vero Beach, Florida, and was offered a job in the Gulf Coast League in 2016.

Pawol moved up to the New York/Penn League in 2017, then was promoted to the Midwest League after the first two weeks of the 2018 season. She worked the South Atlantic League in 2019, the High-A Midwest League in 2021, the Double-A Eastern League and the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues last year.

Violet Palmer became the NBA’s first woman referee when she worked Dallas’ opener at Vancouver on Oct. 31, 1997, and Sarah Thomas was the NFL’s first woman on-field official when she served as line judge for Kansas City’s game at Houston on Sept. 13, 2015. The NHL has not yet had women as on-ice officials but changed the job title from “lineman” to “linesperson” this season.

Stéphanie Frappart of France became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup game when she worked Germany’s 4-2 group stage win over Costa Rica on Dec. 1, 2022, and Rebecca Walsh became the first to referee in England’s Premier League when she officiated Burnley’s 2-0 win at Fulham this past Dec. 23.

Pawol hopes to make the next breakthrough. She’s been getting asked for autographs in the minors.

“The fans are very energetic, and they’ve been so supportive,” she said. “I hear a lot of ‘You’re going to do it. You’re going to be the first one. Keep going.’”

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