Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

If the Dodgers are going to win 13 games in October, they will likely have to master the playbook they ran Wednesday night.

Starting pitchers came out of the bullpen. Another late-inning collapse didn’t cripple their psyche. The offense delivered timely hits when it needed to. And the team grinded out a 5-4 extra-innings win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The story of the night, in an unexpected but entirely warranted late-season plot twist, was Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw throwing scoreless innings of relief for a beleaguered Dodgers bullpen.

The theme, however, was improvisation with the roster and resiliency in the dugout, moving the team within a win of another National League West division championship.

“I know the word resilience gets thrown out a lot, but it was a resilient win and a resilient group,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We fought our tails off until the end. It didn’t look good at different points of the game. But Arizona fought as well. So it was a heck of a ball game … Really good stuff.”

Read more:Dodgers bullpen remains a mess. Can Roki Sasaki’s return provide trustworthy relief?

The game wasn’t settled until the 11th inning, when Tommy Edman gave the Dodgers a lead with an RBI single and Justin Wrobleski closed out a rare stress-free save.

It never would’ve gotten there, however, without the contributions Sasaki and Kershaw provided out of the bullpen earlier in the evening.

After all the struggles from the Dodgers’ traditional relievers lately, it was the two starting pitchers who helped save the day.

Activated from the injured list shortly before the game, and making his first appearance in the majors since suffering a shoulder injury in early May, Sasaki flashed hugely promising signs with a scoreless frame in the bottom of the seventh — protecting a 3-1 lead the team had been staked to by Blake Snell’s six-inning, one-run start, and an early offensive outburst that included a two-run homer from Andy Pages.

Sasaki’s fastball averaged 98-99 mph, was located with precision on the corners of the strike zone, and even induced a couple key swing-and-misses, things he never did consistently while posting a 4.72 ERA in eight starts at the beginning of his highly anticipated rookie big-league season.

He paired it with a splitter that was also commanded much better than at any point in his initial MLB stint, when a lack of velocity and inability to attack the strike zone made his trademark pitch an ineffective weapon.

Sasaki needed only 13 pitches to retire the side in order, punctuating his outing with a pair of strikeouts on 99-mph four-seamers. As he walked back to the dugout, he glanced toward his teammates with a stoic glare. Just about all of them, including Shohei Ohtani, applauded in approval.

“One hundred, with a nasty split, OK Roki,” Snell joked afterward. “I think everyone’s going to be so excited for him. And if he can do that, that’s a big help for us. Big boost.”

As usual, disaster did eventually strike in the eighth, even after the Dodgers (89-69) extended their lead to 4-1 on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI double in the top half of the inning.

The bullpen’s lone season-long stalwart, Alex Vesia, ran into trouble by giving up a single to Ketel Marte, a walk to Geraldo Perdomo, and an RBI double to Corbin Carroll, all with one out.

Read more:How Bill Russell stayed connected to baseball, and reconnected with the Dodgers

Hard-throwing rookie righty Edgardo Henriquez couldn’t put out the fire from there, giving up one run on a swinging bunt from Gabriel Moreno in front of the plate that spun away from catcher Ben Rortvedt, then another when pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo stayed alive on a generous two-strike call (which was no doubt impacted by Rortvedt dropping the pitch behind the plate) before lifting a sacrifice fly to center.

It was the second three-run lead the Dodgers' bullpen had squandered in as many nights.

It was the latest example of their unreliable relief corps imploding even with ample late-game cushion.

So, to calm the waters, Roberts made another out-of-the-box pitching move with the score still tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth.

In what was his first relief appearance since the infamous fifth game of the 2019 NL Division Series, Kershaw came trotting in from the bullpen and got the game to extras.

"It's an adrenaline rush, for sure,” said Kershaw, who retired all three batters he faced with the help of a diving catch from Edman in center. “I think relieving is just a different animal altogether. You kind of have to figure out how to maintain your heartbeat and get going. But it is a lot of fun, and it's fun to have success out there. So fortunate to get through that inning.”

Kershaw had volunteered to pitch in relief Tuesday night, effectively replacing his between-starts bullpen session ahead of what will be his final career regular-season start Sunday in Seattle.

Come October, however, his best fit on the roster might come in a full-time (and perhaps high-leverage) relief role, thanks to the Dodgers’ abundance of starting pitching options and lack of trustworthy late-game depth.

“I think that right now, you’re betting on people,” Roberts said. “For me, I trust Clayton.”

In extras, the rest of the bullpen finally held up. Blake Treinen inherited a bases-loaded jam with two out in the 10th, but got James McCann to fly out to shallow right field. Wrobleski (another pitcher who began this season as a starter) was handed a save situation in the 11th, after Edman singled home a run with his third hit of the night, and retired the side in order.

“That was like a playoff game,” Roberts said.

And once the actual postseason begins, it’s the kind of performance the Dodgers will have to replicate again and again.

Read more:Dodgers Dugout: Is this the worst bullpen in L.A. Dodgers history?

Their traditional bullpen, after all, remains a mess. The need for alternatives like Sasaki, Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan (another starting pitcher likely to pitch in relief in the playoffs) has become immense.

It made Wednesday something of a trial run for how this year’s team will need to win games in October. It provided a sense of belief that, despite all of the recent relief problems, they can still piece together ways to mount a World Series defense.

"We're kind of at the point of at the point of the season where we're just doing whatever it takes to win ballgames,” Edman said. “I think that's what's great about our squad, is that we have a lot of guys who are no egos and just going to do whatever it takes."

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

After the Mets' 10-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, manager Carlos Mendoza and players spoke about the team's defense and the wild-card race...

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Mets' defense needs to be cleaned up

The Mets have played sloppy baseball over the last few games, and it has cost them in some respects. In Tuesday's eventual win, miscues and errors put the Mets behind the eight-ball before the offense caught fire to make their comeback. But the sloppy defense of Mark Vientos and others put the game out of reach.

After Francisco Alvarez's two-run bomb in the fifth put the Mets on the board and cut the Cubs' lead to 6-2, the bottom half of the inning saw Vientos, starting at third base, back off on a two-out grounder by Pete Crow-Armstrong and then launch the ball into the ground that Pete Alonso could not come up with. The throwing error allowed Moises Ballesteros to score from third base and PCA to go to second. The play took away momentum from the Mets.

The inning got worse, as Clay Holmes threw a wild pitch that let PCA get to third, but the young outfielder hustled home, noticing Holmes was late covering the plate and slid in safely to put the Cubs up 8-2.

Before the game, Mendoza said the Mets players knew they had to be better than that and maintained that stance afterward.

"They are routine plays, at this level you expect them to be made," Mendoza said of Vientos' error. "We just have to be better."

The Mets skipper was asked if he felt if the error was a result of Vientos trying too hard, and Mendoza didn't see it that way.

"Those are routine plays. This is the big leagues, routine plays, we expect those plays to be made. And they know that."

"We have to clean it up," Francisco Lindor said after the game about the team's defense. "It’s not for a lack of effort. Everyone’s putting their time. Everyone was out there taking groundballs, doing their thing. It’s just stuff that happens. Part of the game. We have to be better. I take full responsibility for my mistakes, and I’m sure everyone here takes full responsibility for their mistakes, as well. We know how to play the game, we know what to do, we just got to get it done."

Mendoza had Vientos start at third base against the left-handed Matthew Boyd on Wednesday. He sacrificed defense for offense and admitted as such after the game, but said there were other factors to his decision.

"There’s a balance there when you’re facing a lefty," Mendoza explained. "Jonah [Tong] is a flyball pitcher. You’re trying to create some offense too, and Mark is one of those guys, especially when we’re facing lefties. He will continue to get opportunities." 

Vientos went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on Wednesday and is hitting .180 (9-for-50) with a home run and four RBI over his last 15 games.

Mets scoreboard watching

The Mets are one of three teams vying for the final NL wild card spot. Entering Wednesday's games, the Mets controlled their own destiny as they sat one game ahead of both the Diamondbacks and Reds.

The Reds' game against the Pirates finished before the Mets-Cubs tilt and Mendoza said he noticed the score when Wednesday's eventual loss got out of hand. Despite the favor the Pirates gave the Mets, the team is only worried about how they are playing and they know they need to figure it out fast.

"You can’t worry about [the Reds], you gotta play better," Mendoza said. "It doesn’t matter what other teams are doing, it starts with us. We’re better than that."

"We control our own destiny. It’s all about winning," Lindor said. "It’s only natural that we peek. Everyone is on it as well. We want to win because we control our destiny."

With the Reds' loss, the Mets remain one game ahead of Cincinnati for the final spot.  Both teams have four games remaining on their schedule. New York finishes their series with the Cubs on Thursday before heading to Miami to take on the Marlins for three. The Reds finish their series against the Pirates before going to Milwaukee for three.

One night after David Peterson's poor outing saw him fail to get out of the second inning, the Mets needed some length from Wednesday night's starterJonah Tong. Unfortunately, the young right-hander failed to record an out in the third as he surrendered five runs in that frame in a 10-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

“We’ll piece it together. We’ll continue to find ways to get 27 outs, and get the wins that we need here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said when asked about his side’s plans for the season’s final four games as they cling to the final NL Wild Card spot. “It’s not easy, especially what’s happened the last couple of days, even after an off day [Monday].”

With Huascar Brazobán, Tyler Rogers, and Edwin Diaz unavailable out of the beleaguered bullpen, part of that piece work from the skipper came in the form of using Clay Holmes and Sean Manaea for an inning each, as they worked on two days' rest after throwing 57 and 50 pitches respectively on Sunday. 

“It was their bullpen day, pretty much, and they volunteered yesterday,” Mendoza said. “Like, ‘Hey, if you guys need us.’ You appreciate that; it says a lot about them. And here we were today needing them. And instead of throwing that bullpen, they ended up throwing in the game.

“But this is something that’s gonna be day-to-day. Whether they’re starting, whether we need them out of the bullpen. We’re gonna try and put our best guys there to get 27 outs.” 

Their short outings – Holmes throwing 14 pitches and Manaea 16 – still have the duo in line to be available on Saturday, “at the earliest,” Mendoza said.

The trouble began for Tong immediately as he put the first two runners on base with a double and a walk in the first inning, before a strikeout and a fine defensive play by Tyrone Taylor kept the Cubs off the board. After a bounce-back second, it looked like Tong could be set for another bounce-back start.

“Tough first, huge play by Tyrone,” Tong said. “And thought I figured it out in the second, and then, they just got to me.”  

In that third, the Cubs went: single, walk, single, double, single, and double to score four runs in and ended his night without an out recorded in the frame.

“They got him. They were aggressive on the fastball,” Mendoza said. “I feel like, other than the second inning, he had a hard time elevating the fastball, and that’s what makes him who he is. They took some really good changeups.”

“I made my effort, just didn’t execute it,” the righty said about struggling to elevate the heater. “Just gotta do a better job limiting damage there.”

The 22-year-old was just a two-pitch pitcher on the night, throwing the fastball and changeup 51 times out of 56 offerings. “I don’t think he used the breaking ball enough,” Mendoza said. “He could have done a better job of mixing there. Especially once they were all over the fastball.”

Four of his breaking pitches went for balls, and the other was smashed up the middle for a first-inning single.

Tong agreed with the manager’s assessment: “Definitely have to establish that more in the zone and keep just being unpredictable. Just gotta do a better job on my part.”

And, amid pitching staff-wide struggles, it is a tough task for Tong and fellow rookies Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean to do the heavy lifting in high-pressure games at the business end of the season while they’re still figuring out how to pitch in the majors. 

“You got some of these guys going through it at the big league level, especially where we’re at,” Mendoza said. “It’s hard to put it on them or to blame them. This is where we are. We continue to go through it.” 

After a fast rise from the Double-A ranks to the big leagues and a Wild Card race, the pressure of it all getting to the youngster could be understandable. But he said he entered the start with the mentality that “it’s just another baseball game.”

“Pressure is a privilege,” he said. “And I’m just out there just trying to do the best that I can.”

Mendoza doesn’t believe that the rough time for Tong (a 7.71 ERA through his first 18.2 innings) will impact his development. “Not at all,” he said. 

Tong, who could still be used again either as a starter or out of the bullpen before the regular season ends on Sunday, said that he can “execute his pitches a little bit better, slow the game down, and go from there.”

He added, “Going to continue to be myself.”

Mariners' Cal Raleigh becomes 7th MLB player to ever hit 60 home runs in a season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Cal Raleigh became the seventh player in Major League Baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season Wednesday night, launching two solo shots for the Seattle Mariners against the Colorado Rockies.

“It’s crazy. Sixty is — I don’t know what to say,” said Raleigh, who leads the majors in homers. “I didn’t know if I was going to hit 60 in my life. Just tonight, what a way to do it.”

Batting left-handed in the first inning, the switch-hitting catcher connected off Tanner Gordon and sent a drive to right field that reached the top deck at T-Mobile Park for his 59th longball of the year.

“It was like a movie,” teammate Julio Rodríguez said of Raleigh’s moonshot. “I’m just so grateful that he’s on our team, that he’s able to do what he does. He’s so special, and I can’t say enough.”

Then in the eighth, batting left-handed again, Raleigh hit No. 60 off Angel Chivilli. Raleigh also had a two-run double in the second and finished with four RBIs to give him 125 this season, most in the American League.

With a 9-2 victory, Seattle clinched its fourth AL West title and first since 2001.

The only other players to reach 60 home runs in a season are Babe Ruth (1927), Roger Maris (1961), Mark McGwire (1998 and ‘99), Sammy Sosa (1998, ’99, 2001), Barry Bonds (2001) and Aaron Judge (2022).

It was the 11th multi-homer game for Raleigh this year, tied with Judge (2022), Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sosa (1998) for the MLB record.

With four games remaining in the regular season, Raleigh has a chance to pass Judge for the American League record. Judge hit 62 homers in 2022 to break the previous AL mark of 61 set by Maris in 1961.

Raleigh’s latest homers came four days after he surpassed Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise record with his 57th homer of the season. Griffey hit 56 in both 1997 and 1998.

Raleigh also broke Mickey Mantle’s previous MLB record of 54 home runs by a switch-hitter that had stood since 1961. And the Seattle slugger has set a new standard for homers by a catcher, eclipsing the 48 hit by Salvador Perez in 2021.

Raleigh is four home runs ahead of Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and six in front of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

“When you look at how he has done it and the position that he plays — I was telling somebody earlier today that when you come off the field, you’re mentally and physically exhausted,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson, a former major league catcher.

“And for him to do what he’s done offensively and to do what he does behind the plate, I honestly don’t think we’ve seen this before. It’s been incredible. I think he deserves the MVP, no question.”

The Mets fell behind early and couldn’t dig themselves out of a hole, falling to the Chicago Cubs 10-3 on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.

Jonah Tong surrendered five runs in the third inning, and it wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Mets got their first hit of the game. They finished the game with just four hits, one walk, and one hit batter.

The loss didn’t cost them too dearly, as the Pirates hung on to beat the Reds 4-3 in 11 innings and the Dodgers hung on to beat the Diamondbacks 5-4 in 11 innings, meaning New York is still 1.0 game ahead of Cincinnati and Arizona for the final NL Wild Card spot with four games to play.

Here are the takeaways...

- Tong surrendered a leadoff double to the right-center gap to start the bottom of the first and, after getting squeezed by home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn on a 2-2 changeup on the corner, issued a walk to put two men on base with nobody out. But Tong kept the Cubs off the board: First getting Ian Happ swinging at a changeup below the zone, then, on a Moisés Ballesteros single up the middle, Tyrone Taylor – in his first start off the IL - gunned down Michael Busch at the plate with a perfect throw and a sweeping tag from Francisco Alvarez, and closed the door with Seiya Suzuki grounding out to third. 

An eventful, but not overly taxing first inning (22 pitches) was followed by an easy-breezy 1-2-3 second on just 12 pitches with three outs to center. But Tong was in a big jam in the third after a bloop single, a walk, and a single to left loaded the bases with nobody down.

The young righty paid the price: Happ yanked a changeup down the line at first that just stayed fair over the bag for a two-run double, Ballesteros bounced an RBI single past a diving Mark Vientos, on a ball he probably should have snagged as he was playing in and on the line, and Suzuki pulled an RBI double down the third base line. 

That ended Tong’s night with Richard Lovelady entering with two in scoring position and nobody out. The lefty put out the fire with a strikeout, sac fly, and strikeout to limit it to a 5-0 Chicago lead. Tong’s final line: five runs on seven hits and two walks with one strikeout in 2.0 innings on 56 pitches (38 strikes). His ERA is now at 7.71 through 18.2 big league innings as Chicago jumped all over his two-pitch mix as he threw his fastball or changeup on all but five of his offerings. 

- Lovelady, needing to put up zeroes and outs, was stung for a solo home run off Matt Shaw’s bat to start the fourth, but thanks to diving plays from Brandon Nimmo and Vientos, he got three more outs for the beleaguered bullpen.

- Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd retired the first six Mets he faced before issuing a leadoff walk to Alvarez to start the third, but was left stranded there. Boyd got through the first four innings without allowing a hit on 56 pitches before Vientos smoked a single past the third baseman to lead off the fifth. And with one down in the inning, Alvarez smashed a changeup up right down the middle for a two-run home run to left (417 feet, 106.6 mph off the bat). That cut the deficit to 6-2, but the Mets never got any closer. 

Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both started the night 0-for-3 off the Cubs’ left-hander before he departed with one out in the sixth. Daniel Palencia entered to get Alonso to fly out and Starling Marte swinging, meaning the top of the Mets’ order started the night 0-for-12 with two strikeouts.

Soto got that gang's first hit of the night, cranking an up-and-away cutter 397 feet to left center for his 43rd home run of the season. The solo homer was just smoked: 105.1 mph off the bat. He finished 1-for-4. But Lindor was 0-for-4, Alonso 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and Marte 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

- Clay Holmes, who threw 57 pitches Sunday, entered after Lovelady issued a leadoff walk in the fifth. After getting the first two outs on groundouts, Alonso couldn’t scoop Vientos’ throw in the dirt to plate another run on the throwing error, the speedy Pete Crow-Armstrong on second. And after a wild pitch, Holmes was late to cover the plate, allowing PCA to score all the way from second to make it 8-2. 

After Holmes' 14-pitch inning of work, Sean Manaea, who threw 50 pitches Sunday, entered and allowed a leadoff single to Shaw, who promptly swiped second base. Busch then turned on a sweeper right down the middle for a 376-foot homer to right that just carried through the wind into the first row of seats to make it 10-2. The lefty got a strikeout in a 16-pitch inning of work. That could still have those two in line to pitch on Saturday in Miami.

- Ryan Helsley needed nine pitches for a 1-2-3 seventh, with a strikeout. He allowed a single in the eighth, but added another strikeout. He's now put up five-straight scoreless outings, allowing just two hits and two walks in that six-inning span.

- Taylor’s throw home in the first was clocked at 95.2 mph, the Mets’ fastest outfield assist of the season and the fastest of Taylor’s career, per Sarah Langs. He finished the night 0-for-3 at the plate.

Highlights

WELCOME BACK TYRONE TAYLOR!

He throws out Michael Busch at the plate to prevent the game's first run!

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/g8Zw4XHHas

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 25, 2025

Francisco Alvarez goes deep with a 2-run shot for the second straight night at Wrigley and gets the Mets on the board

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/qIXsLV7ynf

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 25, 2025

Juan Soto's 43rd home run of the season

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/erERhfOqsK

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 25, 2025

What's next

The Mets and Cubs conclude their series Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:40 p.m. on SNY.

Right-hander Nolan McLean (1.27 ERA and 1.008 WHIP in 42.2 innings) gets his eighth start of the season with the home side sending out left-hander Shota Imanaga (3.37 ERA and 0.957 WHIP in 139 innings) for his 25th start.

Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run of the season, and Max Fried pitched seven one-run innings as the Yankees to an 8-1 win over the White Sox on Wednesday night in The Bronx.

The win, coupled with the Blue Jays' earlier loss to the Red Sox, has put the Yankees and Toronto in a tie for first place in the AL East. The Blue Jays do hold the tiebreaker as both teams have four games remaining.

Here are the takeaways...

-With the White Sox going with a bullpen game, the Yankees' lineup got the bases loaded with no outs in the first inning thanks to three walks from Fraser Ellard. However, Giancarlo Stanton popped out to shallow right field. Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt followed up by striking out swinging.

Anthony Volpe hit a one-out double in the second, and the Yankees again were in trouble of not capitalizing. Ryan McMahon struck out swinging and, after a Trent Grisham walk, set up Judge. The Yankees captain made the White Sox pay, launching a first-pitch sinker 392 feet into right-center field for a three-run shot.

It's Judge's 50th home run of the season and is the first Yankee since Babe Ruth to have back-to-back 50-homer seasons. It is also his fourth career 50 home run season, tying Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Ruth for the most all-time.

-The Yankees continued to tack on in the third, with Goldschmidt tapping an opposite-field single that scored Rice -- who reached on a triple -- from third. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a double that Goldschmidt scored all the way from first. 

Grisham continued his amazing 2025 with his 34th homer of the season, but was immediately followed by Judge's 51st of the season, that put this game way out of reach.

-After a 1-2-3 first inning, Max Fried pitched into trouble in the second, allowing back-to-back singles and a sac fly to allow his first run. After a throwing error by McMahon, Fried bounced back with a flyout and strikeout to limit the damage. And that was all the southpaw would give up through seven innings. 

In his final regular-season start, Fried pitched like the team's ace, allowing just one run on four hits and two walks across seven innings while striking out seven. His first season in pinstripes ends with 19 wins and a 2.86 ERA.

-In relief of Fried, Devin Williams pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Paul Blackburn got the final three outs to complete the win.

Game MVP: Aaron Judge

Although Fried was masterful, there was an air of unease at Yankee Stadium with the team down 1-0, but the three-run blast allowed the team to exhale.

Highlights

Aaron Judge with his 50th home run of the season! pic.twitter.com/na9WFQad83

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 25, 2025

A triple for Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt follows it up with an RBI knock! pic.twitter.com/1v3dBWtDYI

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 25, 2025

Jazz Chisholm Jr. drives in Paul Goldschmidt all the way from first to make it 5-1 pic.twitter.com/Xc49QcypOD

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 25, 2025

Trent Grisham’s 34th homer of the season! pic.twitter.com/uYp7vRu2EN

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 25, 2025

MAKE THAT 51!

Aaron Judge with his second of the night and he goes back-to-back with Trent Grisham! pic.twitter.com/EAz8NlkHn9

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 25, 2025

What's next

The Yankees complete their three-game set with the White Sox on Thursday night. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Carlos Rodon (17-9, 3.04 ERA) will take the mound for the final time this regular season against Davis Martin (7-10, 4.03 ERA).

Dave Roberts often refers to his bullpen hierarchy as something of a “trust tree,” with branches of relievers he can trust in leverage spots.

Right now, however, it’s been more like a shriveled-up houseplant. Barren, depleted and long-shunned from the sun.

On the season, the Dodgers' 4.33 bullpen ERA ranks 21st in the majors. Since the start of September, that number has climbed to a stunning 5.69 mark. Closer Tanner Scott has converted less than one-third of his save opportunities, his ERA rising to 4.91 after his latest meltdown on Tuesday. Top right-hander Blake Treinen had been the losing pitcher in each of the Dodgers’ five defeats before that, sending his ERA to a career-worst 5.55.

Plenty of others have been responsible for the Dodgers’ late-game incompetence. Kirby Yates has flopped as a veteran offseason signing. Michael Kopech has struggled through injuries and a lack of reliable command. Rookies like Jack Dreyer, Edgardo Henriquez and the since-demoted Ben Casparius have regressed after promising flashes earlier this summer. And the lone reinforcement the front office acquired at what now feels like a regrettably quiet trade deadline, Brock Stewart, is uncertain to return from a bothersome shoulder problem.

It leaves the Dodgers with only one full-time relief arm sporting an ERA under 3.00 this season — Alex Vesia, who has a 2.62 mark in 66 appearances.

It has turned the final days of the regular season into an all-out manhunt for even the slightest of trustworthy playoff options.

Read more:How Bill Russell stayed connected to baseball, and reconnected with the Dodgers

“What does that mean?” manager Dave Roberts said, when asked what qualifies as “trust” right now. “It means guys that are gonna take the mound with conviction. That are gonna be on the attack. That are gonna throw strikes, quality strikes, and compete. And be willing to live with whatever result.”

On Wednesday, that’s the backdrop against which Roki Sasaki rejoined the Dodgers' active roster — the raw and developing 23-year-old rookie pitcher, coming off a five-month absence because of a shoulder injury, returning in hopes of supplying Roberts’ crippling trust tree with an unexpected limb.

Sasaki’s return was not supposed to be this important. Up until a couple weeks ago, his disappointing debut season seemed likely to end with a stint in the minors.

Yet over the last 15 days, circumstances have changed. Sasaki rediscovered 100-mph life on his fastball. He excelled in two relief appearances with triple-A Oklahoma City. And suddenly, he seemed like a potentially better alternative to the slumping names that have repeatedly failed on the Dodgers’ big-league roster.

Thus, the Japanese phenom is back again, activated from the IL before Wednesday’s game as Yates, who has a 5.23 ERA this year and was slipping out of the Dodgers’ postseason plans, was placed on the IL with a hamstring strain.

“I just think [he needs to focus on] giving everything he has for an inning or two at a time, and let the performance play out,” Roberts said of Sasaki. “Just go after guys, and be on the attack.”

Sasaki’s revival began earlier this month, when he went to Arizona after four poor starts in a minor-league rehab assignment to work with the organization’s pitching development coaches.

At that point, Sasaki had lost his tantalizing velocity, hardly even threatening 100 mph since his adrenaline-fueled debut in Tokyo back in March. His command was just as shaky, averaging more than 5 ½ walks per nine innings in his first season stateside. Even his pitch mix required an examination, after his predominantly fastball/splitter arsenal was hammered in both the majors (where he had a 4.72 ERA in eight starts to begin the season) and the minors (where he had a 7.07 ERA in his first four rehab starts) by hitters who could too easily differentiate his stuff.

“Me, him and his translators went in the lab and sat down and watched video for a few hours, and just talked,” said Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of pitching who worked with Sasaki at the club’s Arizona facility. “It wasn’t as much solving this like, master plan or whatever. It was moreso helping him actualize the things that he was seeing.”

In Hill’s view, Sasaki’s mechanics had suffered from a shoulder injury that, even before this year, had plagued him since his final season in Japan.

While the two watched film, Hill said they found discrepancies between things Sasaki “still almost thought he was doing” in his delivery, but weren’t translating in how he actually threw the ball.

“I think a lot of it just came from his body changing, the way he was throwing due to throwing hurt for probably a couple years,” Hill said. “He knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn’t quite tap into the way to do it.”

What followed was a series of mechanical tweaks that got Sasaki’s fastball back around 100 and his trademark splitter to more closely mirror his four-seamer when it left his hand. Sasaki also added a cutter-like slider, giving him another weapon with which to confuse hitters and induce more soft contact.

When the right-hander returned to the minors, he struck out eight batters over a solid 4 ⅔-inning, three-run start on Sept. 9. He then impressed with two scoreless appearances in relief last week, after club executives asked Sasaki to experiment in the bullpen.

Now, he is rejoining the Dodgers for the final five games of the season. The team is hopeful that his small sample size of recent success has made him a legitimate postseason relief option.

“I guess it's fair to say I'm just going to throw him in on the deep end,” Roberts said of how he will use Sasaki going forward, noting there aren’t many “low-leverage” opportunities in an end-of-season division race.

“If we're expecting him to potentially pitch for us in the postseason, they're all leverage innings. So I don't think we're going to run from putting him in any spot."

Odds are that Sasaki won’t be a cure-all for the Dodgers’ late-game woes. A pitcher of such little experience and developmental uncertainties is anything but a lock to post zeroes in the playoffs.

Still, the team will take whatever bullpen help it can get. Already, Clayton Kershaw has made himself available for relief appearances and could pitch in late-inning leverage spots in October. Emmet Sheehan also will join the bullpen mix come the playoffs, likely as a multi-inning option to piggyback with starters.

In the meantime, the club is searching for even a couple more reliable arms — just one or two branches on the bullpen’s hierarchy tree for Roberts to trust.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Dodgers’ sudden need for someone like Sasaki is a reflection of the roster’s underlying flaws. But he will try taking on a potentially critical role in a rookie season that once seemed lost.

“He's been in the 'pen for the triple-A team, and he's been really good,” Roberts said. “So I'm looking forward to seeing it with our club."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The chances that Kodai Senga pitches for the Mets again before the end of the regular season on Sunday appear slim after manager Carlos Mendoza gave a less-than-enthusiastic report about the right-hander's progress.

Speaking from Chicago ahead of New York’s game against the Cubs on Wednesday, the skipper said that the report from Senga’s live batting practice session on Tuesday was "just OK."

"It's just live BP," Mendoza said. "But he didn't feel like the velo was there, and that's what we saw. So he's going to continue to throw, he's staying down there, he's gonna continue to keep throwing there."

The manager said it was a "tough question" when asked if the downtick in velocity was related to the starter's mechanics or something else, such as injury.

"Physically, he feels fine, he feels he's healthy," Mendoza said. "But it's just not clicking, especially with the way the ball is coming out."

Senga's velocity on his fastball was 93 mph during the live BP, the manager said, which would be down from his 94.7 average velocity from this season. (That number was already one mph slower than his 2023 average of 95.7 mph.)

"It was hot and he felt the weather there, too," Mendoza said about the conditions of the live BP that might have influenced the velocity dip. "That was part of the report that we got from the pitching coaches, that the weather there kinda got to him a little bit, and he got tired. Maybe you credit some of that, too."

Mendoza said he was "not sure" when asked if Senga could be available in some capacity – either starting or out of the bullpen – for the season finale on Sunday in Miami, adding, "We still gotta wait and see, he's still gonna wait in Florida after the live BP yesterday, and then we'll see what we got."

Senga, who accepted a demotion to Triple-A Syracuse on Sept. 5 after several ineffectual starts, made two outings there before the end of the minor league season. He struck out eight in six innings of one-run ball in his first start, but struggled in his next outing, surrendering four runs on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 3.2 innings.

If he doesn't appear again, the 32-year-old will close his third season with the Mets with a 3.02 ERA and 1.315 WHIP in 113.1 innings over 22 starts with 109 strikeouts to 55 walks. Those numbers are boosted by a spectacular start to the year when he posted a 1.47 ERA through his first 13 starts, before he landed on the IL with a hamstring injury in mid-June. 

Senga made one short start before the All-Star break, pitching four scoreless innings in Kansas City, but the wheels fell off in the season's second half as he posted a 6.56 ERA and 1.710 WHIP in his last 35.2 innings over eight starts with 35 strikeouts to 22 walks before being optioned.

Red Sox take big step toward postseason with series-clinching win in Toronto originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

With a magic number of three entering play on Wednesday night, the Red Sox seemed like a sure bet to reach the postseason. Yet once the first pitch was thrown by Max Scherzer in Toronto, they didn’t look like a group intent on waiting around to see what happens.

Instead, the Red Sox pounced, aggressively putting together a three-run first inning against the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer. That offensive burst, paired with an ace-level outing from Garrett Crochet, propelled the Red Sox to a 7-1, series-clinching victory in Toronto.

After losing two of three at home to the A’s last week and going 2-4 on the homestand, Alex Cora’s team hit the road and won back-to-back series in Tampa Bay and Toronto, with the chance to go for the sweep over the Blue Jays on Thursday night.

In this one, there was no waiting around. With one out in the first, Trevor Story singled on an 0-2 pitch. Alex Bregman then fell behind 1-2, worked the count full, then singled to put two men on base for Boston’s unlikely hottest hitter, Masataka Yoshida.

Yoshida, who entered the game hitting .407 with an .881 OPS over his last seven games, wasted no time, pouncing on a hanging curveball on the first pitch of his at-bat and ripping a double deep down the right-field line.

Masa gets the party started! pic.twitter.com/71eI2hv95L

— Red Sox (@RedSox) September 24, 2025

Story scored on the extra-base hit, and three pitches later, Romy Gonzalez sent a bloop into left field that brought home Bregman and Yoshida.

Just like that, the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead before their ace had even thrown a pitch.

It proved to be more than enough support for Crochet, who buzzed through the Blue Jays’ bats with ease. Crochet went over 200 innings for the season and recorded his 250th strikeout of the season while allowing just three hits over eight scoreless innings to finish the season at 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA.

Garrett Crochet reaches 250 strikeouts in his first season with the @RedSox! pic.twitter.com/pSjNmKfEUw

— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2025

Crochet ended his outing by retiring 10 straight Blue Jays, and he recorded his final out by way of the K — his sixth punch-out of the night.

Only one Blue Jays hitter — Ernie Clement in the first inning — even reached second base against Crochet.

Red Sox pitchers with at least 250 strikeouts in a single season:

Garrett Crochet (2025)
Chris Sale (2017)
Pedro Martinez (1998-2000)
Roger Clemens (1987-1988, 1996)
Smoky Joe Wood (1912)

Crochet truly has had an all-time Red Sox season.

— Joe Weil (@Joe_Weil) September 25, 2025

Crochet had such command over the Blue Jays that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and hitting coach David Popkins got ejected over a picture-perfect called strike three on the inside edge.

The offense was boosted with a solo homer from Yoshida in the fifth and a three-run shot by Carlos Narvaez in the seventh, and the defense showed up with a spectacular play from Romy Gonzalez:

Tremendous. pic.twitter.com/cSX0xkOJds

— Red Sox (@RedSox) September 25, 2025

Payton Tolle came on to record the final three outs, allowing a leadoff homer to Isiah Kiner-Filefa. The damage, though, was merely cosmetic, as the Red Sox had done more than enough by that point to have won the game. Seemingly for good measure, Wilyer Abreu ended the game with a rare 9-3 putout by retiring Alejandro Kirk at first base on what looked to have been a clean single to right field.

The #BlueJays loss ends on Alejandro Kirk getting thrown out on a ground ball to… the right-fielder.

Shades of the Billy Butler and José Bautista play. pic.twitter.com/UdNxumiWik

— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) September 25, 2025

With that win, the Red Sox took a massive stride toward reaching the postseason for the first time since 2021. The victory lowered that magic number to two. It’s possible for the Red Sox to reach the postseason without having to win any of their remaining four games.

Yet if Wednesday night’s performance was any indication, the Red Sox don’t look like they’ll be comfortable letting anybody else take care of their business for them.

What we learned as Andrew Knizner helps Giants avoid being swept by Cardinals originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — A day after they were officially eliminated from the MLB playoff race, the Giants at least made sure that they didn’t get swept. 

Against his former teammates, Andrew Knizner drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth with his first triple in 322 career games, leading the Giants to a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Giants won’t finish this season with a winning record, but they can still finish at .500 by winning out, and Knizner helped get them back on the right track.

KNIZNER OFF TO THE RACES pic.twitter.com/0F3Frn2OUL

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 25, 2025

After each team scored a couple of early runs, the Giants took advantage of a big mistake in the fourth. Right fielder Jordan Walker dropped Christian Koss’ fly ball and the Giants played good situational baseball from there. Drew Gilbert moved Koss over and Knizner drove him in with a deep fly ball. 

For a second straight night, the Cardinals rallied late. But Koss led off the bottom of the eighth with a single and Knizner hit a sharp line drive to center that got past a diving Victor Scott II. As it rolled to the wall, Koss jogged home. 

A night after Ryan Walker blew the save, Tristan Beck got the ninth. The leadoff runner reached, but Koss turned a slick double play, helping Beck pick up his fourth career save.  

Filling In

The Giants scratched Robbie Ray from his final start of the year after they were eliminated on Tuesday night, which wasn’t a surprise. Ray pitched just 34 innings the previous two seasons because of Tommy John surgery but already was at 182 1/3 this season. 

It was a good first full year in San Francisco for Ray, who made the All-Star team and posted a 3.65 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 32 appearances. He appeared to run out of gas a bit in September, but he still was a strong co-ace for Logan Webb. 

Without Ray, manager Bob Melvin turned to veteran JT Brubaker, who had 61 previous big league starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates but none since 2022. The right-hander gave up two earned in four innings, striking out four. 

Splash No. 1

Rafael Devers figures to hit plenty into McCovey Cove over the next decade, and he got his first Splash Hit in the third, hitting a moonshot that landed a few feet into the water. At 43 degrees, the ball left the bat at the second-highest launch angle for any Giants homer this year. Devers also had one at 43 degrees at Coors Field, a homer that set off a brawl with Kyle Freeland; the high this year is a 46-degree homer from Wilmer Flores.

Rafael Devers crushes his first Splash Hit 💦 pic.twitter.com/7XgJIbO2wS

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 25, 2025

There have been 108 Splash Hits now in 26 seasons, and it shouldn’t be too hard for Devers to end up high on the all-time list. Only two players — Barry Bonds (35) and Brandon Belt (10) — have hit double-digit balls into the Cove, and Devers has the kind of swing that should give him multiple Splash Hits a year. Wednesday’s blast was his 34th homer of the season overall and 19th with the Giants. 

A First For The First Baseman

Bryce Eldridge has generally shown a good approach, but coming into Wednesday’s game, he didn’t have much to show for it. Hitting cleanup because Matt Chapman got the day off, Eldridge came away with his first multi-hit game in the big leagues. 

As Oracle was still buzzing from the Devers homer, Eldridge smashed a double to the track in center. The ball was hit 109.7 mph and was Eldridge’s second extra-base hit in the big leagues. He later went the other way, bouncing a single to left. 

The overall numbers don’t stand out, but Eldridge has a .300 on-base percentage thanks to five walks in eight games. His OPS is .508 and he has 10 strikeouts, but he should get a few chances this weekend to work on his numbers and try to get that first homer before he hits the offseason. 

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Phillies break multiple home run records to secure first-round bye originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Manager Rob Thomson has talked a lot this season about how rest can sometimes do a hitter good.

No doubt Edmundo Sosa agrees. He is now the first Phillies shortstop to hit three home runs in a game.

And Kyle Schwarber? Well, he’s just a monster. He’s two home runs closer to breaking Ryan Howard’s franchise record for most home runs in a season (58).

The rest of the team certainly looked playoff ready on Wednesday as the Phillies clinched the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye with an 11-1 thrashing of the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. On what started as a somber, damp night finished with all the electricity of a summer lightning storm.

Reinstated from the Injured List prior to Wednesday’s game, Sosa was inserted into the lineup at shortstop and hit sixth. In his first action since September 12, all Sosa did was slug three home runs and drive in five.

Not to be outdone, Schwarber also hit a pair of bombs, his first off lefty Ryan Weathers. That home run gave him a major league record of 23 home runs in a season off a left-handed pitcher. In all, the Phillies belted a team-record eight home runs.

“Never. Never had a three-homer game before, not in little league, not in the minors,” said Sosa. “Some two-home run games. It’s an amazing feeling, an incredible feeling.”

His third took a little more time coming than the first two, as the umpires reviewed if there was fan interference or not. Sosa stood on second base waiting for the call.

“I was just happy that I hit a double at the moment,” he said. “I was waiting for the umpires to make their decision. The guys in the dugout kept telling me to keep going but at that point I was just waiting for the final decision to come. When they called it, I got even happier, more excited. I thought it was a little low spin so I didn’t think it was going out. I didn’t think it had that much on it.”

It did, and Sosa now finds himself in the team’s record books.

Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Otto Kemp also left the yard for the Phillies, who got a phenomenal starting performance from Jesus Luzardo to improve to 92-65 on the season while handing the Marlins just their second loss in the past 13 games.

After Schwarber tied the score at 1-1 in the third with his 55th home run of the season to dead center field, Sosa one-handed a homer to center that just seemed to keep carrying over centerfielder Jakob Marsee’s head.

Two batters later, Stott upped the lead to 3-1 when he hit a no-doubt-about-it shot to right, his 13th of the season. After that, it was literally bombs away as they scored five in the seventh on homers by Schwarber, Bohm, Kemp and Sosa. Schwarber now needs just two homers to tie Ryan Howard’s single-season record of 58 (2006).

“I think it’s a pretty cool stat,” said Schwarber of the 23 homers of lefties. “Everything that we got to do is in front of us and it’s about finishing healthy. But you also have to fill the lineup, too. I’m also at the bottom of the totem pole there because I don’t play the field much. But I’m always going to be ready to play a game. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, great. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about getting all our guys to the end of 162 and then everyone be healthy and push towards what we need to go to.”

In the past two nights against the Miami Marlins, starting pitchers Cristopher Sanchez and Luzardo combined to pitch 14 innings without giving up a run. Tuesday, the bullpen couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead. Gifted with an 11-1 lead on Wednesday, Luzardo’s win was safe after he allowed just three hits, no earned runs and struck out 10 in his seven innings.

It was the seventh time this season Luzardo has struck out 10 or more batters and he has now set career highs with 216 strikeouts and 186 2/3 innings pitched.

Schwarber picked up four hits on the night, a triple shy of a cycle. He also upped his RBI total on the season to a National League leading 132. Bohm continued his hot hitting since coming off the IL on Friday by collecting two more hits.

And just like that, the bye is a reality and playoff baseball at CBP begins on Saturday, October 4th.

“I’m truly excited,” said Luzardo. “Even in the regular season you can see the home field advantage here but especially in the postseason it’s pretty well-known teams don’t want to play here. There’s a pretty good reason for that.”

The Mets announced a pair of roster moves on Wednesday, with Tyrone Taylor returning from the IL and Jose Siri designated for assignment.

The writing was unfortunately on the wall for Siri. With Taylor activated off the IL, the Mets had a surplus of center field options, making Siri or Cedric Mullins the most logical choice. Ultimately, though, it was Siri who was removed from the roster.

“Not an easy [decision]," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said before Wednesday's game. "We know how toolsy he is and what he brings to the table, but a difficult year for him. Dealing with the fracture pretty much the whole year. Got to a point where you’re activating a right-handed hitter, that plays pretty good defense and adds versatility and speed. Not an easy one, but we decided to go with Siri there."

Siri, who missed the majority of the season with a fractured tibia, played in just 16 games for the Mets, slashing .063/.167/.125 with 17 strikeouts in 32 at-bats.

Taylor has also had a down year at the plate, slashing .218/.277/.315 with two homers and 25 RBI in 109 games, though he’s provided strong defense in center field.

When asked what the plan for center field is now that Siri is out and Taylor is back, Mendoza said he will continue to play the matchups, even use Jeff McNeil andBrandon Nimmo if need be.

“That’s still in play, with Nim, with the right matchups and who's available and things like that," Mendoza explained. "We still have to watch TT here a little bit, too. [Cedric] Mullins will continue to get some playing time. Will continue to play the matchups. We have five more [games]. We’ll try our best to mix and match with the guys that we feel will give us the best chance to win, day in and day out. That’s how we’ll treat it.”