Ryan Helsley's time in Flushing has been anything but successful for the All-Star closer.
Since the Mets acquired him from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, Helsley has pitched to a 0-3 record and a 10.38 ERA -- thanks to 14 runs (10 earned) in 8.2 innings pitched. In four save opportunities, Helsley has blown each one, including Tuesday's eventual 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
With a 5-3 lead, manager Carlos Mendoza called on Helsley to hold the lead for closer Edwin Diaz. It's the first save opportunity Helsley has had since Aug. 15 against the Mariners. In three appearances (3 IP) between outings, Helsley has allowed three runs -- all coming from one appearance. The veteran right-hander had pitched in a low-leverage situation in Monday's series opener against the Phillies, striking out one in a 1-2-3 frame.
Helsley would have the opposite outing, giving up a two-run shot with one out to Harrison Bader to give up the lead. After a walk, Mendoza had no choice but to remove Helsley for Diaz, who got five outs to pick up the win thanks to Brandon Nimmo's walk-off single in the ninth.
Diaz was asked about his cohort in the bullpen and if he could relate to his struggles. The Mets closer knows struggles all too well, as he had a rollercoaster season in 2024 before rounding into his 2022 dominant form by the end of the year. And because of that, he trusts Helsley to figure it out.
"I've been through that. My advice to him is just, stay with your head up. We trust him," Diaz said after Tuesday's game. "We know what pitcher he is. He's one of the best closers in the game. He's going through some bad moments right now but we trust in him and we support him. Just stay with your head up and we keep going."
Just last year, Helsley led MLB with 49 saves in 53 opportunities with a 2.04 ERA. So that dominance is in there and the Mets know it, they are still trying to navigate these struggles.
Helsley intimated in the past that he's still adjusting to his new role with the Mets, but Mendoza hinted that it could be something else. Is Helsley tipping his pitches? Some games, it feels like it and the Mets are trying to get to the bottom of it.
"Too good of a stuff for them to be taking some really good swings on fastballs, get really good takes on sliders. We got to look back and see what we’re missing," Mendoza said of Helsley. "For teams to have comfortable at-bats like that, something is going on here. We have to figure it out."
After appearing in back-to-back games, Helsley is likely unavailable in Wednesday's series finale with the Phillies, so the right-hander will have to wait until the Marlins series to show that he can be the bridge to Diaz that the Mets traded for.
Clayton Kershaw pitches in the first inning Tuesday. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The Dodgers might be sprinting toward the finish line this year, trying to edge out the San Diego Padres in a tight National League West race.
But on Tuesday night, in a win that kept them one game up in the standings with 29 to play, they made a 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds feel more like a nice, leisurely stroll.
Clayton Kershaw continued his renaissance season, pitching five innings of one-run ball to earn a fifth-consecutive victory (his longest such streak since the end of the 2022 season). The offense steadily wore the Reds' pitching staff down, answering a first-inning Cincinnati run with one of their own before taking the lead for good in the fourth.
It all added up to a third-straight win for the Dodgers (76-57), and helped them hold serve on a night the Padres beat the Mariners in Seattle (despite blowing an early five-run lead).
“It's been really fun to watch our guys play at the level that they're capable of,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I like how we're playing. I like where we're at right now."
Kershaw provided the bedrock for Tuesday’s victory.
The left-hander was pitching on four days’ rest for the third time this season (more than anyone else on the team), so that Shohei Ohtani could be lined up to start ahead of an off day on Wednesday. His already diminished fastball was playing down, averaging only 88 mph. And early on, the Reds (68-65) tagged him with a quick run, after Spencer Steer led off with a double and later scored on Miguel Andújar’s groundout.
“It wasn't a great night, stuff-wise,” Kershaw said. “Didn't have a lot of life on the fastball, or really anything.”
And yet, starting with that Andújar grounder, Kershaw proceeded to retire the last 14 batters he faced. Six came via strikeout, marking his second-highest strikeout total this season. And of balls put in play, only four were “hard hit” (with an exit velocity greater than 95 mph). Not one left the bat at more than 100 mph.
It was the latest example of the 37-year-old left-hander’s newfound recipe for success: Hitting both sides of the plate with his fastball, leaning heavily on a slider that generated five whiffs and four outs, and mixing in his trademark curveball and newfangled splitter to keep an entirely right-handed Reds lineup off-balance in a 72-pitch outing.
“We kind of flipped the script and just started throwing kind of a lot of different stuff, trying to be creative, keep them off balance,” Kershaw said, while giving credit to catcher Will Smith’s pitch-calling behind the plate.
“I've seen growth in that sense,” Roberts added. “Just in the last couple years, he's been more open to doing different things. And I commend him for that. I think in that fourth inning [when Kershaw retired the side with two strikeouts], you could see — it didn't matter what Will was putting down, he felt like he could throw anything. And that's something that was really rare and really cool to see."
Given the low pitch count, Kershaw might have been able to go past the fifth. He and Roberts appeared to have a brief conversation in the dugout before shaking hands, a sign his night was over. But between his quick (by modern-day standards, at least) four-day turnaround, and the team’s careful management of his workload overall this season, Kershaw’s five innings were plenty.
“I think that he's smart enough to understand how many bullets he has,” Roberts said.
On the season, Kershaw is 9-2 with a 3.06 ERA, third-best among Dodgers starters this year. He also finishes August with a 1.88 ERA in five starts, third-best among National League starters for the month.
"It was a good August,” Kershaw said. “Fun to be a part of it this time of year."
While Kershaw cruised, the Dodgers’ offense also found a groove.
They erased the early 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the first, when Mookie Betts walked, Freddie Freeman doubled and Betts scored on a throwing error by Reds left fielder Austin Hays.
They took a 2-1 lead in the fourth, after a leadoff double from Teoscar Hernández, an infield single from Michael Conforto on a scorching comebacker that ripped the glove right off the hand of Reds pitcher Nick Martinez, and a sacrifice fly from Kiké Hernández (who returned to the lineup for the first time since early July after being out with an elbow injury).
Then, in the sixth, they broke the game open with a four-run rally.
Smith turned around a center-cut fastball for an opposite-field, leadoff home run, a positive sign for the slumping catcher who entered the night with a .150 batting average in August and only one long ball in his previous 25 games.
Miguel Rojas came off the bench for a two-run double later in the inning, smoking a flyball to deep center that got Noelvi Marte (who was making his first career MLB start in the middle of the outfield) turned around at the warning track.
Ohtani followed that with an RBI single to right, helping him break a one-for-16 skid.
The only bad news for the Dodgers on Tuesday came pregame, when left-handed reliever Alex Vesia was placed on the injured list with a right oblique strain. Vesia described the injury as mild and was hopeful of returning once his 15-day IL stint was complete.
But even without him, the Dodgers’ bullpen largely coasted in relief of Kershaw. Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott, both having recently returned from the IL, pitched scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth (giving Scott his first save since returning). And though Hays hit a two-run home run in the seventh off Ben Casparius, it did little to make Tuesday feel like anything more than a late-season cakewalk — even amid a mad dash down the season’s closing stretch.
Sasaki’s latest rehab start
In triple-A Oklahoma City, rookie pitcher Roki Sasaki made the third start of his minor-league rehab stint, giving up three runs in 3 ⅔ innings on five hits, two walks and four strikeouts. The most encouraging takeaway from the outing was Sasaki’s fastball velocity, which averaged 96 mph for a second-straight outing and topped out at 98.8 mph — the hardest he has thrown in his recovery from a shoulder injury. Sasaki is expected to make at least one more rehab start before being ready to be activated.
If March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb, what will they say to describe the August the Mets have just experienced?
After starting the month with 11 defeats in 13 games (compounded by losing the final three of July), the Mets fell from 18 games over .500 to just a half dozen games. In the fortnight since, the offense that was once scuffling has produced 68 runs and seven wins out of their last 10, including a 6-5 walk-off win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night at Citi Field
They once were lost, but now they’re found?
“This team knows what it’s capable of,” Brandon Nimmo, who collected the fourth straight hit in the ninth inning to end the game, said. “We’ve got a lot of veteran guys on here that know. For me, personally, this is the most talented team I've ever played on… It's just going out there and executing it every night.”
For Nimmo, that means “keeping it small” and not trying to look too far past the series finale against Philadelphia on Wednesday.
“Let’s take it one game at a time,” he said after his second RBI pulled the Mets to 5.0 games behind the Phillies in the NL East race. “[Wednesday] we have another game against a team that is in front of us. If we can win that game and just control what we can control, then we like our chances.”
The turn of fortune has been on the back of an offense finding its form. Entering Tuesday night's games, the Mets were the best hitting team in all of baseball over the past 15 days with a .319 average and a .951 OPS (both highest in MLB), pounding out 29 home runs (second most) and 99 RBI (most).
“Baseball’s a funny game. Sometimes things start to click together, and we’ve been having that happen lately,” Nimmo said about the turnaround. “We’ve been doing great on the road, and then we come home and continue it.
“I think it’s just a testament to the guys paying attention to the little things and making each at-bat and where we are at the present moment the most important thing, and not trying to look back to the past or the future. Just, ‘What can I do to help the team win right now?’ And I think that attitude has been able to lead to some success for us recently.”
Ahead of the game, David Stearns said they’ve always seen themselves as a “good offensive team” that dealt with pressing and some bad luck.
“We’ve talked a lot about the challenges earlier in the season in leverage spots and runners in scoring position, men on base. And some of that was maybe at times we were pressing a little bit, getting a little bit too aggressive,” Stearns said earlier Tuesday. “But a lot of that was misfortune. And some really unfortunate batted ball luck, and that’s tough to stomach for all of us.
“That’s not a satisfactory answer for any of us. But we did try to focus on what we can actually control: Are we swinging at the pitches we should swing at? When we do, are we putting them in play in ways that we want to put them in play?
What’s changed? “Continue to have good approaches, but we’re having good results, too,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the win. “Now, we’re getting those balls to find holes, we’re using the whole field, we see it time after time going the other way, with two outs, not trying to do too much, just staying short, and trying to hit line drives as opposed to hit the ball out of the ballpark.
“There’s times where the game will dictate what to do in situations and I feel like we’ve been able to do that.”
The situation dictated that in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning, after Starling Marte and Pete Alonso ripped bullet singles, Brett Baty battled to flare a single to left before Nimmo took a 2-0 fastball on the outer half and smacked it the other way to score the winning run.
“If I had to point to one thing, I would say… they just made my job a whole lot easier,” Nimmo said of his teammates' at-bats to load the bases. “A lotta things get the job done, I just need to find the barrel, so just keeping things real simple from my end.”
What Nimmo would really like next is to keep things going now and continue that in the playoffs.
“I’ve always said ‘hottest team wins in playoffs,’” Nimmo said. “It doesn’t matter who's the best team; it’s the hottest team. This would be a good time to keep things going, and we’re very happy with the way the offense is playing right now.”
The Mets have two straight punch-back victories over the team they’re chasing, so they should have some license to dream right now. Why not? The tenacity they’ve shown in beating the Phillies offers compelling evidence that they can make some October noise, should they continue to exhibit this kind of grit.
Of course, they’ve got some things to clean up before fall foliage goes orange, too, and their 6-5, walk-off victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday at Citi Field offered reminders of that, along with the on-field celebration after Brandon Nimmo’s clutch winning hit.
First, the good.
The Mets’ offense is cooking. After all the hand-wringing over their failures with runners in scoring position throughout much of the season, they are getting big hits with runners on thanks to patient approaches and the in-game adjustments that Carlos Mendoza recently branded necessary. The Mets were 5-for-10 in those situations Tuesday in downing the Phils and are batting .358 with RISP in August, tops in the majors.
That helped them overcome a 2-0 deficit and also to fight through blowing a 5-2 lead. They scored the winner off Philly closer Jhoan Duran because, as Nimmo said, Starling Marte, Pete Alonso and Brett Baty, who hit consecutive singles to load the bases, had had such remarkable at-bats.
“We won the game because of their at-bats,” Nimmo stressed.
And thanks to Edwin Diaz, who got five outs. He came in when Ryan Helsley blew the lead in the eighth inning and struck out two to end the inning. He fanned two more in a perfect ninth, setting up the Mets’ ninth. “He was pretty nasty again,” Mendoza said.
The end result meant the good vibes kept percolating. There was a sense of sweet anticipation early in the day when the club announced that touted pitching prospect Jonah Tong was coming up to start on Friday and that slugging catcher Francisco Alvarez was headed for a rehab assignment.
Now the bad.
The Mets got another short start from Sean Manaea, who was charged with two runs in 4.2 innings. He left after 90 pitches, one shy of his season high, when the game was scoreless, though the Phillies had two runners on. Gregory Soto allowed both inherited runners to score.
Maybe there was an argument to be made to leave Manaea in to face lefties Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper – Manaea and Soto are both lefties, after all. But Mendoza seemed concerned about the pitch count and David Stearns had said before the game that he wondered if Manaea’s recent struggles are tied to him still building up stamina.
Whatever the cause, Manaea has a 7.12 ERA in his five August starts; he had a 2.08 ERA in his first four starts back from the IL in July. The Mets must fix Manaea, a key cog in last year’s run to the NLCS.
“I feel like I’m getting in good counts, just not putting guys away,” Manaea said. “I don’t know if it’s a mixing issue..Just taking a very long time to put guys away. So, yeah, I don’t really know what the fix is, but hopefully, figure it out.”
Mendoza, though, doesn’t think Manaea is that far off. He did get 19 swings and misses on the night and struck out eight, which at least demonstrates some effectiveness. “I really like what I saw, especially with the way he was using all three pitches – the fastball, the sweeper and the change,” Mendoza said.
“I thought, overall, it’s probably one of the best outings we’ve seen from him.”
Still, he’s got to deliver more innings. And Manaea knows it.
The Mets must fix Helsley, too. He gave up a two-run homer to ex-Met/current Met-killer Harrison Bader in the eighth inning, which tied the score at five. That meant Helsley’s ERA as a Met has ballooned to 10.38 ERA in 8.2 innings.
Mendoza was not specific, but he certainly seemed to be getting at something when talking about Helsley after the game. Could the Mets believe he’s tipping his pitches?
“We’ve got to get Hels right,” Mendoza said. “He’s got too good of stuff for them to be taking some really good swings on fastballs, really good takes on the slider. So we got to look back and see what we’re missing. For teams to have comfortable at-bats like that, something’s going on there that we have to figure out.”
Overall, though, the night ended well. The Mets trail the Phillies by only five games in the NL East race. It’s definitely not over, and these wins the last two nights reinforced that, especially since they are trying for a sweep Wednesday and have four games in Philadelphia in September.
Hard things like stealing the division could be doable for a team with this kind of moxie. We’ll see.
“For me, personally, it’s the most talented team I’ve ever played on,” Nimmo said.
ST. LOUIS (AP) Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras has been suspended for six games and fined an undisclosed amount for his tirade in St. Louis' 7-6 win over Pittsburgh on Monday night.
Contreras has informed Major League Baseball he plans to appeal the suspension, which means it will not take effect immediately. He was in the lineup for Tuesday night's 8-3 loss to the Pirates and went 0 for 3, driving in a run with a groundout in the sixth inning.
After the game, Contreras declined to comment about the suspension with his hearing pending.
On Monday, Contreras threw a bat that mistakenly hit Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown and tossed bubble gum on the field after he was ejected. Manager Oliver Marmol also was tossed during an animated argument with the umpires after a called third strike in the seventh inning.
Contreras said he didn’t understand why he was thrown out of the game. He said he argued balls and strikes with plate umpire Derek Thomas but didn't address a specific pitch and didn't say anything disrespectful.
“Apparently, he heard something (he thought) I said. I did not say that,” Contreras said.
Crew chief Jordan Baker told a pool reporter that Contreras and Marmol were ejected for “saying vulgar stuff” to Thomas. Baker also said Contreras made contact with the plate umpire.
The Mets needed a big-time outing from Edwin Diaz, and boy, did he deliver.
The All-Star closer entered Tuesday’s game against the Phillies with things knotted at five in the eighth.
Ryan Helsley endured another rough appearance, retiring just one batter and allowing a game-tying two-run home run to former Mets outfielder Harrison Bader.
Helsley then walked the pinch-hitting Bryson Stott, and was booed off the mound by the hometown crowd.
Diaz entered knowing that the speedy Stott was going to be aggressive on the bases.
He immediately stole second, but that proved to be no bother, as Diaz struck out the pinch-hitting Brandon Marsh with a slider in the dirt for the second out of the inning.
Stott then swiped third, but that was no issue for Diaz either, as he retired All-Star shortstop Trea Turner on just four pitches to escape the inning with things still evened up.
“I just tried to stay calm in that situation,” he said. “I know they would run the bases against me with me being slow to that plate, but I was just trying to make pitches and try to make them chase out of the zone.”
After the Mets failed to scratch a run across against Jose Alvarado in the eighth, the righty came back on for the ninth, still in a tie ballgame.
He easily retired the meat of the lineup in order, striking out Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper in the process.
Overall, Diaz struck out four of the five batters he faced in 1.2 gutsy innings of work. The closer got seven whiffs on 13 swings with another four called strikes, for a 50 percent called strike-whiff rate.
And he ended up being rewarded for the efforts, as he took home the win after the Mets rallied to walk things off on All-Star closer Jhoan Duran thanks to Brandon Nimmo’s single.
“He was pretty nasty again today, going through their best hitters,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Runner at third with two outs against Turner, he gets him, then he’s going back out against their best guy and makes it look easy. Gives our offense a chance to win the baseball game -- it was a huge outing for him.”
It was a huge outing for the Mets as well, as they now have a chance to continue closing the gap and sweep the NL East leading Phillies on Wednesday night.
The Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 on Tuesday night on Brandon Nimmo's walk-off single.
New York has now won nine straight games against the Phillies at Citi Field, dating back to last September.
Here are some takeaways...
- Sean Manaea has been up and down since returning from the IL in mid-July, but he fared a bit better in this one. The lefty allowed just one baserunner and struck out four over the first two innings. He worked around an Edmundo Sosa leadoff double in the third, thanks to another strikeout and a pair of groundouts.
Manaea danced past two singles in the fourth with some help from two more punchouts and a caught stealing, but as has been the case in his recent outings, he was unable to get through the fifth. He was pulled after allowing a two-out single by Trea Turner put runners on the corners.
Gregory Soto entered, and after issuing a walk to Kyle Schwarber to load the bases, he allowed Bryce Harper to put the Phillies in front with a two-run single the other way. Manaea's book closed with two runs allowed on six hits while tying his season-high with eight strikeouts in just 4.2 innings of work.
The 33-year-old's ERA is now up to 5.01, and he is yet to complete six innings over nine outings.
- The Mets wasted a couple of early opportunities against Jesus Luzardo, but they were finally able to break through and answered right back in the fifth. They chased the southpaw after the first four batters of the inning reached base safely, including a Juan Soto RBI single.
Luzardo was ejected by home plate umpire Willie Traynor as he left the mound.
Orion Kerkering entered and was greeted rudely as Pete Alonso laced a go-ahead two-run double into the left-center gap, the scorching hot Mark Vientos lined an RBI single the other way, and Brandon Nimmo lifted a sacrifice fly to cap off a five-run inning.
Kerkering entered the night with a 5.59 ERA in 10 career appearances against the Mets.
- Huascar Brazoban allowed Philly to creep back in but stranded a pair in the sixth. Tyler Rogers followed that with a perfect seventh, but Ryan Helsley's struggles continued in the eighth as he allowed a long game-tying two-run blast to former Met Harrison Bader.
Helsley has now allowed 10 earned runs in his 11 appearances since joining the Mets.
- Edwin Diaz cleaned up Helsley's mess in the eighth and then worked through a scoreless ninth before the Mets pieced together a rally against Phillies trade deadline addition Jhoan Duran with three-straight singles – bullets from Starling Marte and Alonso and a flare to shallow left by Brett Baty – before Nimmo lined a single the other way to walk it off.
Game MVP: Brandon Nimmo
Nimmo provided the late-inning heroics in the victory, picking up his fifth career walk-off RBI. Honorable mention to Alonso, who went 4-for-5 with two RBI
Nolan McLean (2-0, 1.46 ERA) makes his third career start against former Met Taijuan Walker (4-6, 3.44 ERA) in the final match of this three-game set on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.
Giancarlo Stanton was all the offense the Yankees needed as he drove in all five runs of New York's 5-1 win over the Nationals.
The Yankees were outhit by the Nationals, 8-6, but delivered when it mattered. The Yanks were just 1-for-6 with RISP, with eight runners left on base, while the Nats were 3-for-12 with nine left on base.
Here are the takeaways...
-Luis Gil was up and down in this one, getting through the first two innings, stranding runners and not allowing a run. However, the Nationals' overaggressiveness benefited them when Robert Hassell III ran through the stop sign at third base and scored on a one-out single that took Cody Bellinger and the Yankees by surprise. There was no urgency to throw the ball in, and Hassell got in ahead of the cutoff throw from a double-clutching Amed Rosario.
Gil escaped the third but walked two in the fourth. The right-hander's velocity seemed a tick low on his fastball (93 mph) and Aaron Boone and the training staff came out to see if Gil was ok. Gil convinced them he was fine and struck out Jacob Young on a 95 mph fastball to end the frame.
After James Wood led off the fifth with a double, Gil bounced back, getting the next two batters, and then Bellinger gunned down Woods at home after a Josh Bell single to keep the Nationals at one run.
Gil's night was done after five innings and 92 pitches (59 strikes), allowing one run on five hits and four walks while striking out five batters.
-Fernando Cruz, activated Tuesday from the IL, was the first arm out of the bullpen and immediately got into trouble. He gave up a leadoff single and hit a batter to put two runners on with no outs. After a strikeout, Hassell bunted for an infield single to load the bases before striking out Young. Boone brought in Tim Hill, who got Wood to ground out to end the threat.
The rest of the bullpen kept the Nationals at bay to lock down the win. Here's how the relievers broke down:
Cruz: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 K
Hill: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Camilo Doval: 1.0 IP, 2 K
David Bednar: 1.0 IP, 2 K
-The Yankees offense had a tough time with Mackenzie Gore until the third, when Paul Goldschmidt led off the inning with a double before Aaron Judge and Bellinger walked the bases loaded with two outs. Giancarlo Stanton was up with the RBI chance and the slugger delivered, clearing the bases with a double off the left-center field wall.
Stanton wasn't done. With a man on in the sixth, Stanton launched a 451-foot blast to give the Yanks a 5-1 lead. It's his longest home run of the season. The Yankees slugger was replaced in the field by Jose Caballero in the seventh, ending his night after going 2-for-3 with five RBI.
-Anthony Volpe was back in the lineup after two games on the bench. Hitting eighth, Volpe went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Judge went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.
Game MVP: Giancarlo Stanton
The slugger is arguably on the hottest offensive streak of his career.
NEW YORK – Oh, it’s real. Whether it’s the play of the New York Mets, the frenzied fans, something about Citi Field, or just the Phillies themselves. There might be a curse the Mets have over the Phillies that isn’t as easily explainable as the team and the manager want us all to believe.
How else do you explain Jesús Luzardo’s lack of composure when things get choppy? Or center fielder Harrison Bader, a Gold Glove winner, needlessly attempting a throw out at home instead of hitting a cutoff? How do you explain Mets starter Sean Manaea – who allowed 17 earned runs over his past 19 1/3 innings – striking out eight of the 14 batters he retired? Or how Jhoan Duran blew his second save in less than a week?
Don’t try to make sense of it because it’ll have you praying to the baseball gods for answers, and it doesn’t seem like there are logical ones. The Mets belted four consecutive singles off Duran in the ninth inning to take a 6-5, walk-off win – their second in this three-game series. The Phillies’ lead in the National League East is still at five games, but the momentum factor between these two teams leans heavily in New York’s favor.
It was the Mets’ ninth consecutive win over the Phillies at Citi Field and their 23rd in the last 29. Are the Phillies more frustrated than they would be after a routine loss?
Starter Cristopher Sánchez beat up a trash can when he left the game in the sixth inning on Monday. Jesús Luzardo shouted at home plate umpire Willie Traynor during his exit in the fifth and was ejected.
If you need a bit of a silver lining, Harrison Bader briefly provided it. In the eighth inning, he crushed a Ryan Helsley pitch deep into the seats score him and Nick Castellanos for a 5-5 tie. But that only delayed what has been inevitable of late … and that’s the Mets finding a way to win again on their home field.
“I don’t ever think that way,” said Rob Thomson of everything seemingly going wrong lately against the Mets in New York. “I’m always looking from a positive aspect.
“I’ve been asked that numerous times since we’ve been here. It’s not the building. They’ve been playing good and we played well today, too. We battled back. They get the five-spot in the fifth and I was proud of our guys the way they battled. We come out here tomorrow and do it again.”
As they did Monday, the Phillies jumped out to a lead when Bryce Harper – who was three hits on the nigh – drove in a pair with a single in the fifth inning. All that did was seem to awaken the Mets, who hadn’t done much of anything against Luzardo up to that point.
But Luzardo began the fifth by hitting Luis Torrens and then gave up a single to Francisco Lindor and an RBI single to Juan Soto. Luzardo and catcher J.T. Realmuto both questioned a ball call on Marte, who eventually walked to load the bases, and that was it for Luzardo, before for the arguing. He was also miffed in the first inning when he was called for stopping his windup against Juan Soto, allowing Soto to call time. After throwing the pitch, Luzardo walked towards home to have a word or two with Traynor.
Pete Alonso crushed Orion Kerkering’s second pitch to the left-center field wall for a pair of RBIs and a five-run, game changing inning was in full gear. And it didn’t look good, again, for the Phillies until Bader’s bomb in the eighth.
“Just a good baseball game, good teams on both sides, pretty familiar opponents on both sides,” said Bader, who played for the Mets last season.
“Every playing surface just has a different feel to it. Different batter’s box, different batter’s eye. Sometimes it’s just as simple as that, and you try to put your best swing forward. Whatever the numbers say you just going out there and competing and trying to win a baseball game. I can’t really speak to the history of the rivalry or the history of how the Phillies have played here. I’ve always learned growing up from my dad was to just kind of be emotionless because the ball doesn’t really have emotions. Try to just breathe through it.”
With the lead in the East trending down, is breathing a little bit harder now?
“I don’t think anybody got into this room by doing math,” said Bader. “Every game you just try to gather information from it. It is what it is. You just go out there and try to attack the pitcher, swing at strikes, take care of the baseball and just try to go from there.”
Attack Duran is exactly what the Mets did in the ninth in picking up those four consecutive hits to start the celebration near first base.
“I feel good. I threw the pitch where I want to throw it,” said Duran. “The got the ball past the defense. They had good luck today.”
It seems to be a theme. And becoming a very unnerving one at that.
“I think a little bit of both, really,” said Luzardo on his frustration with himself and others. “Obviously take accountability for three walks, two hit batsmen. Frustrated with myself after the hit by pitches.
“I felt amazing today. I’m not really an emotional guy, pretty calm out there, for the most part. When I think something is not fair, I’ll make sure to stick up for it. I didn’t think it was right.”
If the Phillies are going to break this skid while visiting the Mets, the star players are probably going to have to pull them through. Tuesday wasn’t the night for that, however. J.T. Realmuto struck out four times and left a couple runners on base, Trea Turner struck out twice and left two runners in scoring position and Nick Castellanos struck out twice and left a runner on.
“It was really tough for these guys to back the ball up on the lefty (Manaea),” said Thomson, explaining his team’s 15 strikeouts.
“There was some chase but just out front. The slider he’s got is a really good pitch and very deceptive when he mixes off that fastball. You have to really, really stay opposite-field oriented against him.”
As they all said, tomorrow is another day. They can only hope it isn’t like many before it at Citi Field.
HOUSTON (AP) Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez was reinstated from the 60-day injured list Tuesday after sitting out since May 3 while he recovered from a fractured right hand.
Alvarez returns after playing four rehabilitation games for Double-A Corpus Christi, where he went 7 for 15 with four doubles, four RBIs and a stolen base.
He has been out more than 3 ½ months with the small fracture in his right hand that was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain.
His return should be a big boost to the Astros as the postseason approaches after he led the team in batting average (.308), home runs (35) and RBIs (86) last season. Houston entered Tuesday leading the AL West with a 1.5-game lead over Seattle.
The 28-year-old Alvarez hit .210 with three homers and 18 RBIs in 29 games this season before his injury.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi is likely done for the season because of a rotator cuff strain.
Chris Young, the team's president of baseball operations, made the announcement Tuesday, a day before Eovaldi's scheduled start against the Los Angeles Angels when he had another opportunity to take over as MLB's qualified ERA leader. He is 11-3 with a career-best 1.73 ERA in 22 starts.
Eovaldi has been one of baseball's best pitchers all season, but was left off the American League All-Star team and hasn't been among the qualified leaders after missing most of June because of elbow inflammation.
He was MLB's official ERA leader for one night, after he allowed one run in seven innings against Cleveland on Friday. That put him at 130 innings in 130 Rangers games, and put him ahead of All-Star starters Paul Skenes (2.07) and Tarik Skubal (2.28) until the Texas played the following day - pitchers need one inning per team game to qualify.
This is Eovaldi's third consecutive season with at least 11 wins since joining his home state team, and last December he signed a new $75 million, three-year contract through 2027. The 35-year-old Eovaldi and Hall of Fame strikeout king Nolan Ryan are the only big league players from Alvin, Texas.
Eovaldi has a 102-84 career record and 3.84 ERA over 14 big league seasons with six teams, and was of World Series championships with Boston in 2018 and Texas in 2023. He made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2011-12), and later pitched for Miami (2012-14), the New York Yankees (2015-16), Tampa Bay (2018), Boston (2018-22).
NEW YORK — St. Louis pitcher Zeke Wood was suspended for 80 games and Houston catcher Emilio Gonzalez for 56 on Tuesday by Major League Baseball following positive tests for performance-enhancing substances under minor league drug programs.
Wood tested positive for GW1516 and was disciplined under the minor league drug program. Gonzalez tested positive for Boldenone and was penalized under the drug program for minor league players assigned outside of the United States and Canada.
A 25-year-old right-hander, Wood signed a minor league contract with St. Louis in June and had an 8.49 ERA in 12 relief appearances for Class A Palm Beach and High-A Peoria.
Gonzalez, 17, agreed to a minor league deal with the Astros in January for a $67,500 signing bonus and hit .209 with no homers and seven RBIs for the Dominican Summer League Astros. He has served two games and will finish the penalty during the 2026 DSL season.
Thirteen players have been suspended this year for positive tests, including 11 under minor league programs. Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar was suspended for 80 games on March 31 and Philadelphia Phillies closer José Alvarado for 80 games on May 25 under the major league program.
SAN FRANCISCO — For Justin Verlander, the next month will be about big numbers.
He picked up win No. 264 on Tuesday, and while this disappointing Giants season has put a big dent in his hopes for 300, it’s still a number to chase. He also got to 3,520 career strikeouts, passing Walter Johnson and moving into ninth on the all-time list.
But Tuesday night was also about a first.
When Matt Chapman provided a cushion with a two-run homer and the bullpen cruised through the final three innings of a 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, Verlander had his first career win at Oracle Park.
“No offense,” he said, smiling, “But I wish I had one in 2012.”
The Giants are glad he doesn’t, although they have a lot of regrets about the way they’ve handled Verlander’s 14 starts at home this year. They haven’t provided him with run support while also failing to hold his leads, but in recent days, the baseball has been cleaner. All of a sudden, everything is crisp.
On Tuesday, that led to a third win in four games over an NL Central club headed for the MLB playoffs. The Giants remain seven games back of the third wild-card spot with just 30 to play, but they at least feel like they’re on solid footing again.
“Look, I haven’t been here for that long, but the Giant way is good pitching and good defense and timely hitting,” Verlander said. “If that’s your motto, you’ve got to play clean. Do the little things the right way and good things happen. We’ve shown that we’re capable. We just need to kind of continue to do that and start to expect that from each other.
“There are smart fans here. They watch the game and you guys [in the media] watch the game and you see what the difference is when we play smart baseball and do things the right way.”
There hasn’t been much of that in the second half, especially at Oracle Park. But the Giants got an early homer from Wilmer Flores and Verlander contributed six strong innings. Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos sparked a game-swinging rally and the bullpen — now without closer Randy Rodriguez, too — had a good night.
Verlander had left six previous starts with the lead and watched it disappear, but those bad vibes didn’t seep into the dugout Tuesday. Manager Bob Melvin said he just had a feeling “we were going to finish it off for him.” He’s hopeful that this is the start of a strong final push.
“We went through a really bad stretch,” Melvin said. “Hopefully we’re getting on the other side of it.”
The Giants would need a miracle to return to the thick of the postseason race, but Verlander should get five or six more starts regardless. He’ll keep trying to tick wins off, and he’s just 14 strikeouts away from reaching eighth all-time.
Verlander said he has tried to be more present since having Tommy John surgery, and that includes having a greater awareness of what every night on the mound means. He’s well aware that the next guy after Johnson is a Hall of Famer who has a statue outside Oracle Park. Well, at least he is now.
Verlander smiled when asked if he knew who was eighth in strikeouts.
“Gaylord Perry,” he said. “Somebody just told me in the food room.”
Ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns addressed several topics, including the starting rotation and the bats' return to form.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the consistent quality of stuff in the zone,” Stearns said. “And when you don’t have the consistent quality of stuff in the zone, you tend to nibble a little bit more, and I think that’s what we’ve seen.
“We’ve had some count control challenges. I think he’s done a really nice job of minimizing damage. We’ve had a lot of traffic in his starts, but he’s generally kept us in the game and competitive.”
In seven starts since the All-Star break, Senga has gone just 31 innings while pitching to a 6.10 ERA, allowing 24 runs (21 earned) on 32 hits (seven home runs) and 20 walks with 29 strikeouts.
“He’s frustrated and he doesn’t think he’s pitching at his best right now,” Stearns continued. “And so we’re gonna continue to work with him and continue to do our best to get him back to a good spot.”
The second time through the order has been a bugaboo for Manaea this year. In the first three innings this year (21 total frames), he’s allowed just six runs. In innings four through six (13.1 total), he’s allowed 11 runs.
“I still think we’re building up stamina,” Stearns said of the left-hander whose second season with the Mets was delayed until the final game of the season’s first half in July. “We’ve seen periods of dominance with Sean early in games and then it seems like whether it’s one walk or one hit by pitch and things can spiral a little bit.
“The good news is we are still seeing the pitcher that we saw last year. We are seeing the pitcher who is getting very uncomfortable swings on his fastball, lot of swing and miss on the fastball. His sweeper has still showed really well. He’d certainly like to get deeper into games. We’d like him to get deeper into games. And my expectation is as we go forward, we’ll see that.”
Overall, in seven starts, he has pitched to a 5.40 ERA (4.44 FIP), but he has 38 strikeouts to just eight walks in 33.1 innings.
Ryan Helsley’s adjustment period
Stearns felt that the closer turned set-up man who arrived in a deadline deal with St. Louis threw the ball better in Monday’s scoreless outing, but said that the club is trying to keep the veteran from pressing to find the results
“There’s an adjustment period coming to a new team, we’re asking him to take on a new role, that’s certainly been well documented,” he said. “When you don’t have results immediately, it's natural to press a little bit, and what we’re trying to do is help him exhale a little bit, take a deep breath.
“The stuff is still there. He’s been good in this league for a long time, and he’s gonna be good again.”
Aug 23, 2025; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; New York Mets left fielder Starling Marte (6) reacts after hitting a home run against the Atlanta Braves during the seventh inning at Truist Park. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
On Mets’ bats bringing the lumber
The results of late have been better with 71 runs scored in their last 10 games. The club's .316 average, .386 OPS, and .573 slugging percentage (.959 OPS) in the last 15 days are all tops in MLB during that span. And that is more in line with what Stearns and the organization expected.
“Throughout the entire season, we thought we had a good offensive team,” he said with a smile. “We’ve talked a lot about the challenges earlier in the season in leverage spots and runners in scoring position, men on base. And some of that was maybe at times we were pressing a little bit, getting a little bit too aggressive.
“But a lot of that was misfortune. And some really unfortunate batted ball luck and that’s tough to stomach for all of us. That’s not a satisfactory answer for any of us. But we did try to focus on what we can actually control: Are we swinging at the pitches we should swing at? When we do, are we putting them in play in ways that we want to put them in play?”
Stearns added that for most, but not all, of the stretches when they were having trouble scoring runs, the club was sticking to that plan, but there were times “when we expand [the zone] too much, we were pressing.”
“But, especially early in the season when we were having offensive challenges, our approach was pretty good,” he said. “We weren’t getting the results, and sometimes that can steamroll on you. But it can also steamroll on you the other way now, and hopefully we get on that run.”
Why Mets went with Tong over Brandon Sproat
When Stearns spoke about potentially calling up some of the Mets’ top pitching prospects for their big league debuts down the stretch, Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat were the two most likely candidates. After Jonah Tong was handed a surprise call-up to join McLean in Flushing, the question of why not Sproat was asked.
Despite Sproat doing a “tremendous job” at Triple-A and “probably had as good a second-half a season as any pitcher in minor league baseball,” Stearns said it was more to do with Tong’s domination and timing.
“We talked about Brandon a lot, and this was really just what Jonah has accomplished, plus the timing of this, lining up, keeping [Tong] on turn, on his normal rest progression, and taking the start on Friday,” he said. “But we think Brandon’s got a really bright future and we’re excited about it.”
SAN FRANCISCO — MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made waves earlier this month when he mentioned the possibility of expansion teams leading to realignment. If it happens, the Giants might want to petition the league to join the NL Central.
After taking two of three from the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, they returned home and beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2. Both Central teams are headed for the MLB playoffs, but the Giants have had their number this season. Tuesday’s win moved them to 8-3 against the Brewers and Cubs.
Verlander didn’t hide his displeasure after last week’s loss at Petco Park. The defense let him down, but he also failed to limit the damage, allowing seven earned runs.
On Tuesday, Verlander completed six innings for just the second time in the second half. He scattered seven hits and gave up two earned on two walks and five strikeouts. The first strikeout moved him past Walter Johnson on the all-time MLB list, and he’s now just 14 away from catching Giants Hall-of-Famer Gaylord Perry and moving into eighth all-time. Verlander would need 40 after that to catch Don Sutton, and it looks like he’ll take a shot at it this season.
Justin Verlander passes Walter Johnson for No. 9 on the MLB all-time strikeouts leaderboard 👏 pic.twitter.com/W56NCMzCXY
The 42-year-old threw 101 pitches on Tuesday night, reaching triple-digits for the third time in five August starts. He was still touching 95 mph in the fifth inning.
Matos Mania
Verlander was in line for a win thanks to Luis Matos, who has taken off since getting an everyday role. He returned from Triple-A last Thursday and went 8-for-15 on the rest of the road trip with two homers, two doubles and a triple, and his hot streak continued back home.
Matos thought he homered again in his first at-bat Tuesday, but his 381-foot drive was caught on the track in left-center. With the Giants trailing in the bottom of the fifth, he went the other way for a double off the bricks. Heliot Ramos brought him home with a two-out double and then scored the go-ahead run on Rafael Devers’ single.
The final 31 games are an open audition of sorts for 2026 bullpen spots. Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval are gone and Randy Rodriguez and Erik Miller both seem unlikely to pitch again this season because of elbow injuries. Rodriguez went on the IL on Tuesday with a right elbow sprain and likely will seek a second opinion as he figures out next steps.
Joey Lucchesi took the seventh and then retired lefty Pete Crow-Armstrong in the top of the eighth. He handed the baton to trade deadline acquisition Jose Butto, who breezed through the rest of the inning.
Ryan Walker opened the season as the closer and returned to that role when Rodriguez’s elbow started barking. He worked around a one-out single in the ninth and picked up his 12th save.
