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Nolan McLean had a chance to continue his recent string of success on Saturday night, but his final line ended up being sunk by some shoddy Mets defense.

McLean started his night by setting down the first six Dodgers he faced in order.  

That stretch and his unearned run streak was quickly ended in the third, though, as he served up Kyle Tucker’s second homer in as many night’s leading off the inning.

“I wanted the fastball in that spot,” McLean said. “I got it pretty much where I wanted it to be, he just made a good swing on it and was able to hit it out.”

The right-hander gave up a one-out single two batters later, then the Mets failed to turn a pair of potential inning-ending double plays, which led to another LA run on the board. 

A Brett Baty throwing error off the runner’s helmet was crucial in that stretch. 

“That’s not an easy play for any first baseman,” interim manager Andy Green said postgame. “It’s one that looks easy, but it gets messed up with what the runners are doing.”

Then after a Freddie Freeman single pushed runners to the corners, Francisco Alvarez allowed his eighth passed ball of the season to force in the third run of the inning. 

“It was just a tough luck inning for him with the bad defense,” Green said.

McLean allowed another run in the fifth and was in danger while running on fumes in the sixth, but a Francisco Lindor unassisted double play helped him escape a bases loaded jam.

He took home the loss in the 4-3 defeat, but did log his fifth straight quality start -- finishing with four runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven batters across six innings.

“My stuff felt pretty good overall,” the 25-year-old said. “Obviously it’s a really good lineup, I thought I had some tough luck early in the game and late, wish I could’ve salvaged it a bit better and made some pitches.”

This game was one of the tougher watches I’ve had this season. The offense was beyond lifeless as they mustered just 5 hits with 8 strikeouts to 1 walk. This offense is not really capable of surviving Chase DeLauter rest days right now. The 1-2-3 of Kwan, Ramirez, Bazzana had 4 combined hits, the rest of the lineup went 1-19, that certainly is not a recipe for success.

Tanner Bibee had an OK outing, allowing 3 runs in 6 innings pitched. Will Dion looked awesome striking out 4 batters in 2 hitless innings of relief.

The Guardians offense is in a dark place right now. They desperately need not just one but multiple hitters to get hot soon or we could very well be talking about the Guardians selling off a few pieces at the trade deadline. The Guardians will look to avoid the sweep tomorrow. It will be Parker Messick vs Drew Rasmussen at 12:15 pm ET on Peacock.

A.J. Ewing took the league by storm, playing his game to open his rookie campaign.

After raking through the minors, the 21-year-old quickly settled in at the big leagues, establishing himself as a regular in the Mets’ outfield and atop their lineup. 

He did so by utilizing his speed and being his usual on-base machine.

Like every rookie, though, Ewing was bound to go through his fair share of tough stretches at the plate as the grind of the regular season stretches on. 

That’s been the case for the youngster of late. 

With an 0-for-5 showing in Saturday night’s loss to the Dodgers, he is now hitless across nine at-bats over the first two games against the defending champs. 

Ewing was also punched out two more times, giving him a whopping 26 this month. 

He’s currently tied with Francisco Alvarez for the second-worst K-rate on the team (26.7), trailing Brett Baty by percentage points for the highest (26.8). 

Despite the rough stretch, interim manager Andy Green isn’t concerned. 

“Every hitter goes through situations where things happen in bunches,” he said. 

“It’s just about getting back to his strength -- when he first showed up it was laying off pitches out of the zone -- but it’s easy when you get into a situation where you’ve struck out more than you’re comfortable you think you just have to swing, which typically makes it worse,” the skipper continued.

“But he’s going to be fine -- he has more punchouts than I know he is comfortable with right now, but he’s learning and that’s part of it -- I see him plenty capable that he’s going to respond, but at this moment it’s time to punch back.”

The Mets certain need Ewing to punch back soon after losing a massive piece in the middle of their lineup this weekend, with Juan Soto landing on the IL due to a Grade 2 left calf strain. 

For a moment, it looked as if Sean Burke was really going to be the star of the show again.

To an extent, he was. A six-inning performance yielding just two earned runs is nothing to sneeze at. But when you put up an offensive performance like the White Sox did in tonight’s 4-1 loss to the Astros — eight shutout innings followed by an ultimately meaningless scratch run in the ninth — it was never going to matter.

It’s an especially heartbreaking result considering how genuinely lights-out Burke was for most of the night. He induced 19 swinging strikes, which is tied for the second-most in any game this season for a Sox starter, and wound up with 10 punchouts, the second time this month he’s reached double digits. He threw almost 70% of his pitches for strikes. Of the 12 balls that the Astros put in play against Burke, just three broke the “hard hit” threshold of 95 mph.

Just like yesterday, the Sox starter was absolutely cruising through five innings. Just like last night, an impeccably timed series of walks and ground balls finding holes turned the sixth inning into a multi-run nightmare that proved to be the difference in the ballgame.

The elevated stuff that Burke has shown lately, and continued to show tonight, can’t be faked. But when I noted in today’s gamethread that Burke has also been the beneficiary lately of extraordinarily good BABIP and LOB% luck, I was thinking that it was only a matter of time before some things like this happened.

The luck turned first when Jeremy Peña helped get a rally going by hitting a weak ground ball on a great pitch that nonetheless resulted in a single:

That was followed by a walk to Yordan Alvarez, because of course you walk Yordan Alvarez: He has 34 homers before the last week of July. I wouldn’t want to mess around with him, either. But then things happen like this Isaac Paredes single, which was hit a little bit harder than Peña’s but also came on a pretty good pitch that probably results in an out eight or nine times out of 10, if you played it over and over again — much less the extra two runs scored on a brutal misplay from the typically-solid Braden Montgomery in right field:

Unfortunately, that’s all there really was to it. For one of the first times this season, Astros starter Hunter Brown showed the form that earned him a top-three finish in Cy Young balloting last year, completely blanking the Sox offense over a season-high seven innings of work. After allowing more than a walk per inning over his last three starts, Brown didn’t issue a single free pass tonight, aggressively staying ahead in the count and forcing hitters to swing at more pitches out of the zone than they’d ever be comfortable with.

Tristan Peters landed a single to lead off the third inning, and Munetaka Murakami did the same in the fourth. Nobody else was able to do anything at all, much less drive them in. Those were the only baserunners the Sox saw until the latest stages of the ballgame.

The Sox did actually manage to get on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t until the ninth inning, when Miguel Vargas singled, advanced on an error, and scored on a Colson Montgomery single to cut the Astros lead to 4-1, with the extra Houston tally coming courtesy of another RBI single from Paredes. Reliever Trevor Richards allowed that extra run but was otherwise solid in his two innings of work, while Tyler Schweitzer completed an uneventful ninth inning to close out the Sox pitching line for the evening.

It’s not yet prevalent enough to be a point of concern, but the growing volume of lackluster offensive showings since the All-Star Game is noteworthy. These are the kinds of games that, at their best, we know this team finds a way to win. Burke wasn’t perfect tonight, but he did more than enough to keep them in the game. The scratch-and-claw scrappiness that won these imperfect games and set the tone for this season is certainly still there, but it simply hasn’t made itself felt as much over the last week or two as it’ll probably need to be if they want to hold their first place lead deep into the season.

It’s the first time they’ve lost a Burke start since he began his red-hot run on June 18, and it’s officially their first series loss since their three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox a week before the All-Star break. Avoidance of another sweep will be in the hands of Erick Fedde on Sunday, which is not as confidence-inspiring as we might like. But Fedde has been serviceable enough, and Houston’s Ronel Blanco should prove a vanquishable opponent in just his second start of the year. It’s a matinee battle, with first pitch at 1:05 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

MVP
Sean Burke: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO

Runners-Up
Tristan Peters: 1-for-2, BB
Andrew Benintendi: 1-for-4, RBI

Cold Cat
Braden Montgomery: 1-for-4, 2 K, E that cleared the bases

Runners-Up
Andrew Benintendi: 0-for-3, 3 K
White Sox offense: five singles, one walk, 10 Ks

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

There’s no doubt that pitching has been the Achilles’ heel of the Diamondbacks for a number of years now. The last time Arizona posted an ERA+ of even 100 over a full season, was back in the BC era (that’s “Before COVID” of course), when the 2019 D-backs were at a modest 105 ERA+. Since them it has been six consecutive years of below average pitching. This season might end the streak: going into play today, the D-backs had an ERA+ of 103, and the raw ERA figure of 4.20 is the lowest for a year since 2018. If there’s one man responsible for this, it’s Eduardo Rodriguez. who finished the first half with a 2.29 ERA, one of the lowest all-time at the break by a D-back.

It’s therefore no great surprise that he dominated voting for our first half MVP award. Here’s how the numbers came out in the poll.

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It’s going to be interesting to see if Rodriguez can keep it up over the full season. The last D-back to win the end of year SnakePit award for MVP was Zac Gallen in 2022 – I think it’s fairly safe to say he will not be repeating that victory this year. For E-Rod, there is some cause for concern, due to his peripherals all being significantlyhigher. His first-half FIP (based on K, BB and HR rate) was 4.11, His xFIP (K and BB, with a “normal” HR rate) was 4.54. And his xERA (Statcast data like launch angle, exit velocity) was a whopping 5.09. While none of that changes what’s already in the books, you do have to wonder if it’s sustainable.

Certainly, E-Rod’s first start of the second half was a rough reality check. He couldn’t even get through three innings, being tagged for seven hits, two walks and five earned runs. His second outing was better, back to the quality start we expected, although a K:BB ratio of 4:3 won’t have helped his peripherals. The gap has closed a little bit though: Rodriguez’s ERA is up a decent chunk to 2.64, while the peripherals mentioned above are now sitting at 4.16, 4.58 and 4.99 respectively. But there’s still definitely the potential for further regression. If it happens in games the D-backs still win, like the comeback against St. Louis, that would likely be optimal!

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen famously claimed he wanted to turn the club into the East Coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers when he took over the team. Unfortunately for Cohen and the team’s fan base, that goal remains far away from reality.

The Mets couldn’t make it happen against the defending-champion Dodgers Saturday night in Queens, losing 4-3 despite another strong outing from starting pitcher Nolan McLean as the team inches closer to selling at MLB’s August 3 trade deadline.

Tyrone Taylor came through in the eighth inning with a pinch-hit two-run double to cut the deficit, but New York was once again unable to get over the hump. Taylor’s clutch hit made an ugly third inning from the Mets defense even harder to swallow.

McLean cruised through the first two innings with efficiency, but the relentless Dodgers lineup put pressure on the Mets in the game-deciding third inning. Kyle Tucker bashed a home run off the right-field foul pole, snapping a streak of 19 consecutive innings without an earned run by McLean. Dalton Rushing singled before Shohei Ohtani hit a double-play ball that the Mets couldn’t handle. Brett Baty’s throw to second bounced off Rushing’s helmet, allowing Rushing to advance to third, and Ohtani to reach first safely.

Lindor was charged with the error after failing to snag the ball after it bounced off Rushing. Andy Pages hit another double-play ball that the Mets once again couldn’t turn, allowing Rushing to score. A passed ball from Francisco Alvarez then scored Pages and put the Dodgers up 3-0. Max Muncy struck out to mercifully end the hideous frame.

Starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six innings with five strikeouts to boost the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s good start and Tucker’s dinger added insult to injury, as both players were high-profile free agent targets for the Mets in recent years before both picked the Dodgers. Tucker has had a disappointing first season in Los Angeles, but seems to be trending up this weekend, homering for the second straight game against the Orange and Blue.

The Dodgers added on in the fifth inning with some well-placed hits. Teoscar Hernandez put in a ball just out of the reach of the diving Carson Benge, with the ball bouncing away from the rookie, allowing Hernandez to advance to second. Pages singled down the right-field line to score Hernandez.

McLean was solid overall, registering his fifth quality start in a row with seven strikeouts. The infield defense and Alvarez’s passed ball made him work hard. However, an unassisted double play by Lindor in the sixth inning helped seal McLean’s line.

The Mets entered the game going 7-for-72 with RISP over their last 10 games, and that trend continued for most of Saturday night. New York briefly threatened in the first inning with two outs. Bo Bichette and Benge each singled off Yamamoto, but Luis Robert Jr. struck out swinging on a full count to end the inning.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Bichette poked a broken-bat single to score Baty from third, putting the Mets on the board. The team had been 0-for-5 with RISP in the game before Bichette’s hit.

New York had life in the eighth inning against Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez after he hit Benge with a pitch and walked Robert Jr. with no outs. Henriquez struck out Jorge Polanco and Marcus Semien before being replaced by Tanner Scott. Mets interim manager Andy Green pinch-hit Taylor for Baty, who smoked a ball down the left-field line off Scott to score Benge and Robert Jr. Scott settled down to strike out AJ Ewing and end the threat.

Lindor, Bichette, and Benge went down in order in the bottom of the ninth as the Mets fell to 43-62 on the season. The Mets are 7-12 in July as this bleak season trudges along through the dog days of summer.

New York will try again in Sunday’s series finale at 1:40 PM EDT.

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Box scores

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Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Tyrone Taylor, +18% WPA
Big Mets loser: AJ Ewing -23% WPA
Mets pitchers: -11% WPA
Mets hitters: -39% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Tyrone Taylor double, +17.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Kyle Tucker home run, +11.9% WPA

This game had all the makings of a prototypical 2026 Colorado Rockies outing. To their credit, they held their own against one of the league’s best teams in the Milwaukee Brewers. Colorado was in the mix early and found a way to rally late, but that middle portion is what did them in. The Rockies mustered some offense, but just in streaks. By the time they were fighting back, they were trying to make up too many runs thanks to their starting pitching trailing off and their bullpen letting things get away. After keeping things neck-and-neck through the first few innings, the Rockies fell behind 8-2 before tacking on a few more in an 8-5 loss.

Gasser hits the gas against the Rockies offense

The Colorado offense struggled early, unable to muster much the first time through the lineup. Robert Gasser kept the Rockies’ offense in check out of the gate, sitting down the side in the first and second innings. The Rockies notched their first hit with two outs in the third with an Ezequiel Tovar single, but Tovar was left stranded. Gasser struck out three of his first 10 batters faced, rendering the others ineffective with pop outs and ground outs.

The Rox finally got something going in the fourth. Kyle Karros hit a leadoff single, followed by a Cole Carrigg double. With runners on second and third, Hunter Goodman singled to left field to score both. Gasser worked through the rest of the inning to hold things at 2-2.

After that, Gasser didn’t have much trouble putting away the Rockies. He gave up a single to Tyler Freeman to start the fifth inning before working through Tovar, Jake McCarthy, and Karros with relative easy. He came back in for a 1-2-3 sixth inning before his day came to a close. He finished after 6.o IP, giving up two runs on five hits, lowering his ERA from 4.91 to 4.71.

Gasser relied primarily on his four-seam fastball, throwing that for 31% of his pitches. He hit an average velocity of 92.8 MPH with his fastball and got it past Rockies batters consistently with a 31% whiff rate on the pitch. Coming off his best outing of the season in his last start, he proved effective and efficient again today.

Feltner better early, but falters late

After a shaky performance in his last outing, Feltner was more settled to begin Sunday evening and limited the damage despite some early threats. Despite giving up some early hits and runs, he was able to keep things close into the deeper innings before things, unfortunately, started to snowball.

Milwaukee got after Feltner quickly with a pair of singles from Jackson Churio and Brice Turang on one out in the first. Feltner held steady with runners on first and second and got William Contreras to ground into a double play.

Things went more awry in the second inning. Jake Bauers walked to start things off before swiping second. Two batters later, Luis Lara hit a sacrifice fly that scored Bauers. Then, Bernie Brewer got to make an early trip from his chalet down his slide after Cooper Pratt took a high fastball deep for his second career home run.

In the fourth inning, Bauers and Lara each notched singles. With two outs, Pratt hit a ball that just got by Willi Castro. What would’ve been an inning-ending out gave the Brewers the lead again at 3-2.

Bauers would be a thorn in Feltner’s side again in the sixth. Following a Contreras single, Bauers logged another hit. Juan Mejia had been warming up, and with runners on first and second and with Feltner at 82 pitches, Warren Schaeffer would make the change. Feltner’s day ended after 5.0 IP with five runs given up on nine hits, plus four strikeouts and a walk.

After the game, Feltner noted that he was “happy with (his) stuff,” but pointed to areas where he can improve, including not being “sharp at the top of the zone at times” and “uncompetitive changeups.” He mixed in a decent arsenal of pitches, throwing four-seam fastballs (30%), sliders (26%), and changeups (23%), as well as sinkers, curveballs, and sliders to a lesser extent.

In addition to his feelings about his changeup control, he had a weird day with the fastball. Despite posting a 28% whiff rate, none came on fastballs (zero whiffs on 12 swings). He also gave up six of his hits (with all of those being hard-hit) on his fastball.

A sixth inning collapse

Mejia entered with Feltner’s two runners on and immediately added one of his own, walking Garrett Mitchell to load the bases with no outs. That’s not a recipe for success. Lara connected on a bloop double to short left that took enough of a hop to get past McCarthy and score two runs to put the game at 5-2. Pratt would add another run on a sac fly to left.

David Hamilton would single next to crowd the basepaths with runners on first and third. It went from bad to worse. Hamilton took off to steal second. Braxton Fulford pump faked towards the base before throwing towards third to pickoff Lara and sailing the ball high. The error allowed Lara to put the Brewers up 7-2.

Hamilton moved up to third but would stay there with a Chourio ground out. Unfortunately, the damage was already done, and the Brewers would ride that five run lead into the closing innings of the game.

A late rally, but from too deep of a hole

Colorado’s offense made a little noise in the eighth, but it was all for not. Lance McCullers Jr. took the mount to try and put things away. With two outs, Karros and Carrigg each drew walks. Goodman came to the plate with a chance to cut into the lead, but hit an infield pop out to end the inning.

Kicking the Rockies while they were down, the Brewers stole another base and added another run in the bottom of the eighth. Pratt, who took first on a fielder’s choice and stole second, was brought home on a Christian Yelich sacrifice fly to center field, bringing the game to 8-2.

The Rockies had one little spark left in them, giving McCullers Jr. some more trouble in the ninth inning. TJ Rumfield drew a walk to lead off the inning. Thanks to an error by Bauers, Brett Sullivan moved Rumfield to second and reached base himself. With two outs, Tovar logged a strong at bat and drew a walk on a 3-2 count to load the bases. Before you knew it, a McCarthy single scored two runs to make it 8-4. That would be enough to chase McCullers Jr.

Trevor Megill entered for Milwaukee with two on and two outs. A Karros line drive to center cut further into the lead, bringing the game to 8-5. Just when hope was building, Megill called game and bested Carrigg with a strikeout.

Final Thoughts

This was one of those weird games where the final score makes things feel better than they actually were throughout. At the same time, however, it was one where a few sloppy defensive plays allowed things to get out of control.

Schaeffer noted that the game could have flipped the other way and pointed to moments when the team “didn’t take care of our business throughout the game” and that “we were not up to par defensively, and we know that.” A big inning was enough to put the Rockies away – at least until they tried to claw back in it.

Against a division leader, nearly everything has to go right. Today, enough things went wrong, from defensive miscues to jittery pitching to a handful of batters going 0-fer.

Up Next

The Rockies and Brewers meet for the finale of the three-game series on Sunday before getting a day off on Monday. Things are getting started early out in Wisconsin with a 12:10 p.m. MDT first pitch.

The Rockies get another showdown with league-leader and All-Star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. The last time they faced off back in early June, The Miz got the best of the Rockies, going seven innings and piling up eight strikeouts while only giving up one run in a 7-1 win. He’s racked up three wins and two losses in six starts since then and sits at 10-4 in 19 starts with a 1.57 ERA on the year.

Kyle Freeland starts for the Rox, bringing a 2-9 record through 18 starts. Freeland’s ERA has been north of 7.00 for most of the season, sailing above 8.00 at the end of May, and is currently at 7.28. He started against the Brewers in that June series, giving up just three runs in a non-decision in a 12-4 loss for the Rockies. He took the loss in his previous start last week against the Washington Nationals, giving up four runs in a 7-3 game.

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The world is full of many good things, none of which were contained in today’s Mariners 7-1 loss to the Rangers, but many good things nonetheless. In praise, then, of goodness, of beauty, of things that are not watching the 2026 Mariners continue to fail and frustrate and fail again. (That’s right, readers, we have reached the part of the season where I’m in my Mary Oliver era. It’s a summer benchmark: Solstice parade, Fourth of July, the Mariners play such bad baseball Kate cries into her MFA degree.)

Realistically, this game was over in the first inning, which at least frees up a lot of time for thinking about nicer things, like the life cycle of cicadas or how the beauty of every flower is also a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. Right after Angie opined, very poetically herself, that part of healing is returning to the site of the wound—in this case, the place where Woo’s road troubles began, in big old, mean old Texas—in a flash of poetic injustice, Woo left a fastball right in Wyatt Langford’s kitchen for a one-out double. Ezequiel Duran followed, taking advantage of a sweeper in the same location for an RBI “triple” that was mostly some poor fielding by fill-in center fielder Luke Raley and poorer backup by Dominic Canzone.

Perhaps the game would have taken a different path had Woo been able to cap the damage there, but Woo instead made things harder for himself, losing Brandon Nimmo to a walk despite having him in an 0-2 count. He then gave up a bad-luck ground ball double down the left field line to Evan Carter that allowed Duran to score and pushed Nimmo to third; Nimmo would later score on an RBI groundout to put the Mariners in an early 0-3 hole.

But have you considered: the perfect orb of a bumblebee nosing along in beachside bull thistle? A clutch of tiny wild huckleberries, jewel deep and plump? Or the bright blue of a mussel shell, barnacled and broken but still shining in the summer sun? Or perhaps the inky emerald green of seaweed fluttering gently on the waves, sea-tossed and shimmering? Because these things also exist in the world with the 2026 Mariners, and are much nicer to contemplate.

The Rangers continued to pour it on in the second inning, despite a quick two outs. Joc Pederson singled, and then, humiliatingly, stole second, which allowed him to score on a Langford double, because once again Woo tried to pitch him inside and Langford just pulled it down the left-field line. Duran followed with his second hit of the day, an RBI single to put the Mariners in a 0-5 hole.

A poem should always have birds in it, says Mary Oliver. A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem. I do not have a happy place to stand in today’s recap for you, reader, because nothing good happened in this game. But I can offer you a bird from my walk in the park today: a great blue heron, with a fringe of slate blue feathers, elegant pinprick legs perched on driftwood; and better, I can offer you a child looking at the bird, pointing look looklook as the heron opened its wings and rose, sudden and impossible, and a child, at least, standing in a happy place.

I think this is the prettiest world—so long as you don’t mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life
That doesn’t have its splash of happiness?

The splash of happiness came in the fifth inning when the Mariners scored their only run of the game against Nathan Eovaldi, sitting pretty at under 70 pitches with six strikeouts. Luke Raley hit a solid single and J.P. Crawford – who recorded the Mariners’ first hit in the third – took advantage of a poorly located splitter, smashing it into the right-field corner for an RBI double. That would be the only hit the Mariners would record off the splitter. Eovaldi threw 38 splitters in the game. You can see where the math is going.

In the same poem (“Singapore”) where Mary Oliver talks about poems being full of trees and birds and happy places to stand, she also questions “If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?” Sometimes you have to be a little illogical about a baseball team. So I am choosing to focus on Colt Emerson coming up with another hit today, and Cole Wilcox pitching yet another solid inning of relief. These things are not clipped on MLB dot com as highlights because they are not highlight to anyone but me. I think Mary Oliver would approve.

To his credit, Bryan Woo did bounce back and manage to give the Mariners five innings when it looked like he might not clear three. Postgame Woo talked about how you have to look at the good things you’ve done and how there’s still a lot of baseball left, which is troubling, because while it is a relief Woo is no longer beating himself up after bad outings, it suggests a certain kind of resignation that this is where we stand now. Not in a happy place.

The additional runs were courtesy of Nick Davila (and Wilcox, since he technically walked one of the runners who scored before being lifted for Davila). The Mariners, for their part, did not do anything against Texas’s bullpen when they finally came on the scene in the eighth. They totaled five hits all game. The Rangers had six hits in the first two innings. With the loss, and the Astros winning, they have now fallen into third place in the division. There is a lot of baseball left, yes, but there is also less baseball left than there was yesterday, and tomorrow, there will be even less baseball left. This, any Mary Oliver devotee knows, is the way of the world.

It’s a pretty world. So long as you don’t mind a little dying.

The good news is the Mets are improving their MLB draft lottery odds with every loss.

Expect plenty of that the rest of the year, particularly with the news that Juan Soto is expected to be out for at least a month with a strained left calf in addition to the looming sell-off ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

For the second straight night, Dodgers fans made Citi Field sound like Chavez Ravine as the owners of the best record in baseball pulled out a 4-3 victory in Queens on Saturday night.

Nolan McLean wasn’t helped by his defense — a Brett Baty throwing error and a Francisco Alvarez passed ball contributed to a three-run Dodgers third inning.

The punchless Mets predictably couldn’t touch Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won for the 11th time this season.

The right-hander pitched around trouble in the first, third and fifth innings, and delivered six innings of one-run ball.

He held the Mets to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

The loss marked the second time this season McLean has come up short against Yamamoto despite allowing just a total of three earned runs in 13 innings against the powerhouse Dodgers.

“That guy is unbelievable. It’s fun to watch him at the same time,” McLean said. “Wish he wouldn’t pitch so good against us.”

McLean completed six innings for his seventh straight start, allowing just two earned runs.

He struck out seven, walked two and allowed seven hits.

“I thought Nolan was solid. Short of spectacular, but solid,” interim manager Andy Green said.

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A two-run pinch-hit double by Tyrone Taylor in the eighth got the Mets within a run, but A.J. Ewing struck out to end the inning, and the Mets went down in order in the ninth.

They have now lost four of their past five games, falling to a season-low 19 games under .500 at 43-62.

Only the Rockies have a worse record in the National League.

McLean allowed a leadoff homer in the third to Kyle Tucker, his second homer in as many days after entering the series with seven this season.

The Mets courted Tucker in the winter, but lost out to the Dodgers.

Then, the Mets let McLean down defensively.

With one on and one out, Baty’s throw hit the runner, setting the Dodgers up at first and third.

McLean didn’t help himself, failing to find the bag on a potential 3-6-1 double play that would’ve gotten him out of the inning.

Later in the frame, Alvarez boxed a breaking ball that popped in and out of his glove, enabling Andy Pages to score the third Dodgers run.

It is what Mets fans have come to expect from this team: sloppy play in the field and not enough of a response at the plate.

There were chants of “Let’s go Dodgers” throughout this one-sided contest, starting at first pitch.

Friday night, Mets fans booed down most of those chants.

But perhaps taking a cue from the home team, they didn’t show anywhere close to the same resistance a night later.

In tonight’s game between the Orioles and Braves, the Orioles starting pitcher was outstanding, but the offense wasn’t able to score many runs. With a one-run lead in the eighth inning, manager Craig Albernaz turned to relief pitcher Rico Garcia. Garcia, who has struggled lately, gave up a home run to tie the ballgame.

Are you feeling déjà vu? I certainly was watching it, because that is exactly what happened in yesterday’s game. Luckily for the Orioles, tonight’s game took a different turn after that home run. Last night, the Orioles squandered their chance in the bottom of the ninth and lost in extra innings. Tonight, Jackson Holliday and Dylan Beavers ensured there wasn’t a repeat.

After Tyler O’Neill opened the bottom of the ninth with a strikeout, Holliday smacked a ball to left field that looked like it would sink in for a hit. Braves left fielder Mauricio Dubón almost made a great play on it but couldn’t hold on to the ball. Holliday landed on second base with a double. Colton Cowser hit a ball to deep center field, but could only move Holliday over to third.

Enter Beavers. With two outs, he was the only thing standing between the Braves and extra innings. Didier Fuentes threw him a first-pitch fastball and Beavers hit it to the right side. Ozzie Albies made a diving attempt at second base but it got past him. Holliday raced in from third! Orioles win! And thank goodness. I could not take another extra-innings loss.

Why did Albernaz go with Garcia again, when Yennier Cano was also getting warmed up? I don’t know. (Cano ended up pitching a very good ninth) I didn’t like it before the home run yesterday, and I didn’t like it tonight. But for tonight, at least, we can enjoy a win and not stew on it too much. We can remember the Beavers walk off and another outstanding start from Brandon Young.

Because Young had a heck of a night as part of a starting rotation that has turned out to be pretty good. It just proves how little I actually know about the Orioles. Because if you had told me to guess which part of the team would be the weakest link in a bad season, I probably would have guessed the rotation.

Young pitched into the seventh inning tonight and allowed just six baserunners. It shook out to four singles, a double, and two walks. He didn’t allow a run until the sixth inning, and before then he felt in control even when he allowed runners on. It’s such a good feeling to have a pitcher like this on the mound.

Through six innings, Young allowed more than one baserunner in an inning just twice. In the second, he gave up a single and a walk, but came back to strike out the next two batters to end the inning.

He wasn’t as good in the sixth. He walked Matt Olson with one out, then Michael Harris II sneaked a ball inside the right field line for a double. That put runners on second and third with the Orioles up 2-0. One run came in on a groundout, but it could have been a lot worse. Young got the third out as well on a groundout, and the Orioles retained the lead for the moment.

At 89 pitches, Young came back out for the seventh inning and faced Austin Riley. He had already struck Riley out twice. He did it a third time for the first out of the inning, and his day was done at 94 pitches. It’s so hard to judge in a one-run game, but I probably would have left him in the game until a runner got on or he finished the inning.

Regardless, it was another success for Brandon Young. He keeps shrinking his ERA, lowering it from 3.25 to 3.13 tonight. That’s better than any of his rotation mates. His final line: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K.

Young was replaced by Grant Wolfram, who immediately gave up a hit to pinch hitter Eli White. It looked like a double, and ended up being a double. But White tripped and fell between first and second base. Dylan Beavers played the ball in right field and threw it to Henderson on a bounce. It was not a great throw, but it was playable. About the time the ball got to Henderson, White was lying on the ground out of reach of second base. But Henderson didn’t make the catch and it bounced away. White got up and made it to second.

That runner didn’t end up scoring, as Wolfram retired the next two batters. But it was still embarrassing as hell. I want to request that the Orioles stop doing things like that.

On offense, the Orioles got to Bryce Elder for four hits and four walks through five innings, but only managed two runs. They had multiple baserunners in each of the first two innings but couldn’t score. Finally, they got through in the third thanks to some help from Jim Jarvis. Pete Alonso hit a pop-up to the Braves shortstop, and Jarvis simply dropped the ball. Back-to-back singles by Taylor Ward and Christian Encarnacion-Strand brought Pete home and gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

That was the first of two Alonso pop-ups that Jarvis dropped. He didn’t score the second time, but I appreciate Jarvis’s attempts to help.

Gunnar Henderson hit his 18th home run of the year in the fifth inning, the final hit allowed by Elder. He closed out the inning and his night with a Ward strikeout.

That was it for the offense until Beavers stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and sent nearly 38,000 Hawaiian shirt-wearing fans home happy.

O’s win, 3-2! The rubber game between these teams is tomorrow at 1:35. Shane Baz will take the mound for the Orioles.

Who is your pick for Most Birdland Player tonight? Is it Young, for his 6.1 strong innings? Beavers for the game-winning hit? Maybe Cano for his nine-pitch ninth inning? Tell us in the comments below.

The ball jumped off Kyle Tucker’s bat for a high-flying home run into the right-field stands at Citi Field.

Tucker had been patient, watching the first four pitches of the at-bat against Nolan McLean, a pair of balls, and a pair of strikes low and in. Then, when McLean missed with a center-cut fastball, Tucker got all of it.

With his first swing in a game the Dodgers would win 4-3 on Saturday, Tucker gave his team the early lead. And for the first time as a Dodger, he homered in consecutive games.

“I feel a lot better,” Tucker said after the game, as fellow outfielder Teoscar Hernández shouted from the other side of the clubhouse, acknowledging his homers. “Need more of that. Seeing the ball decently, putting better swings on it. Just need to compound that into more swings, more at-bats. See how [Sunday] goes and just keep with it.”

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It’s too early to say if this is the Tucker breakout the Dodgers have been waiting for. Nearly two-thirds of the way through the season, he has yet to hit like he has for most of his career.

“It’s coming,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “It hasn’t been as consistent or as fast as we’d like, but he’s still going through it. He’s still working hard.”

Tucker’s home run kicked off a three-run third inning for the Dodgers (67-38). They scored the other two with the help of a throwing error and passed ball from the Mets (43-62), while the Dodgers kept the pressure on with a barrage of balls in play.

That was enough to all but decide the game, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. The right-hander held the Mets to just one run, coming off a single from Bo Bichette, over six innings.

Though Yamamoto gave up five hits (all singles) and issued three walks, he navigated the traffic with poise.

Tucker came close to hitting a second homer, sending a fastball to left field in the fourth inning. But Mets left fielder A.J. Ewing caught the ball just before the wall. The Dodgers’ final run instead came off a single from Andy Pages in the fifth.

The Mets struck back in the eighth. Edgardo Henriquez hit a batter and walked another to open the inning. And both runners scored when closer Tanner Scott replaced Henriquez with two outs and gave up a double to Mets pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor. But Scott got out of the inning without giving up the lead, and Brock Stewart recorded the save, his first of the year.

Tucker’s home run was his ninth of the season. Last year with the Cubs, he racked up that many by May 3.

“There’s some times where I like to see the ball coming in, put a swing on it, and I can visualize the ball coming off the bat and doing what I want with it, but it doesn’t really go that way,” Tucker said. “Which is a little frustrating. ... That happens at times, but it’s seemed to happen a lot more this year. I’ve just got to battle for the next pitch and just continue on with the at-bat.”

Tucker, who has traditionally hung his hat on his strike-zone control, ended a 12-game streak without a walk Friday.

“It was a little weird, because I hadn’t walked in a while,” Tucker said. “So I honestly didn’t know what to do for a sec.

“But I mean, anything to get on base, whether it’s a single, homer, walk, whatever it is, just try to keep going with it.”

He drew another walk Saturday in the sixth.

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“I’ve, at times, thought I found something, or trying to turn the page, and it just kind of goes away and it’s back to square one,” Tucker said. “That’s where you’ve just kind of got to keep working, keep grinding and keep moving forward.”

Against the Mets, Tucker has looked more like the player the Dodgers expected when they signed him to a four-year, $240-million contract, with the power and plate discipline that earned him four straight All-Star nods before this year.

If he can recapture that identity down the stretch and into the postseason, his slow start will fade in the memories of Dodgers fans.

“Everyone in here is supportive, from the players to the coaching staff, everyone,” Tucker said. “At the same point, you’ve got to be confident in yourself. So I just try to go up there every single at-bat and not think about previous ones. Just go up there and try to compete.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.