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

Here's what happened in Mets Land on Thursday, in case you missed it...

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• Griffin Canning was sharp and the Mets pounced on Cardinals starter Andre Pallante early during a 4-1 win at Citi Field
• Mark Vientosbroke his home run drought
• Canning sees a blueprint for success following Thursday's start
• Francisco Alvarezcould return from the IL as early as Sunday
• Jeff McNeilplayed center field as his rehab assignment continued
• Paul Blackburnis set to start a rehab assignment with High-A Brooklyn
• Carlos Mendozadiscussed the potential pressure on Juan Soto
• Drew Gilbertplayed center field and singled during his season debut with Triple-A Syracuse
• Jett Williams smacked an opposite-field homer for Double-A Binghamton
• The Mets placed Jose Siri on the IL and recalled Max Kranick
• WATCH: Francisco Lindor, Canning, and Vientos weigh in on Thursday's victory
• WATCH: Prospect highlights from Thursday

Four days after the Dodgers won the World Series, and two days before he won the presidential election, Donald Trump was the guest on a sports podcast.

America’s major sports leagues, he said, were pricing out their most loyal customers.

“The leagues are not taking care of their fans,” Trump said on the “Let’s Go!” podcast. “They really aren’t. They’re making it impossible.”

The Dodgers are the greatest show in baseball, with an international tourist attraction atop their lineup. They pack the largest stadium in the major leagues every night.

Read more:'A Shohei economy': How Shohei Ohtani's first year transformed the Dodgers financially

If tickets to sporting events have gotten too expensive for the average fan — and 86% of sports fans say they have, according to an Ipsos poll released last month — then Dodger Stadium is a flash point in the debate over whether teams should pursue every dollar they can or sacrifice a few bucks so they can better nurture a new generation of fans.

Baseball, after all, is touted as America’s last great affordable sport.

Fans are more likely to develop a lifelong baseball habit if they attend a game as a kid, according to research cited by the commissioner's office. Can a family of four afford hundreds of dollars to enjoy a day at the ballpark?

“That inability to have that family experience is an incredible negative if you’re just going for the green,” said Andy Dolich, who has run marketing operations for teams in all the major North American sports leagues. “That’s where you are building your fan bases of the future.”

In an interview with The Times, Commissioner Rob Manfred challenged the notion that baseball tickets have become too expensive. The 30 major league teams sold a combined 71 million tickets last year, the most in seven years, and attendance has increased every year since the pandemic.

“If we had an affordability problem, I think you would see it in terms of those numbers,” Manfred said. “Those numbers tell you the opposite.”

According to the league, tickets for $20 or less were available for 70% of MLB games last season. No Dodgers game this season is currently on sale at that price.

“If you want to sit next to Mary Hart, it’s expensive,” Manfred said. “I think it’s really important to think about that from an access perspective.”

Many studies about fan costs use the average price of a resale ticket, but a study released this month used the cheapest ticket price on official sale sites, as sampled on a variety of dates this season.

The estimated price for a family of four to see a game at Dodger Stadium this season — four of those cheap tickets, parking, four hot dogs, two beers and two sodas — was a league-high $399.68. The league average, according to that study: $208.

Ticket prices can rise and fall daily, based on supply and demand. On the day before the Dodgers’ home opener, The Times checked the prices for every game on the Dodgers’ website.

The cheapest ticket all season, available only for a Wednesday afternoon game against the Miami Marlins, before school lets out: $38. For four seats that day, parking, four hot dogs, and four sodas, the price would be $249.96.

In Los Angeles County, the median family income is $101,800, according to Elly Schoen, assistant director of the Neighborhood Data for Social Change program at the USC Lusk Center. If both parents work, and if they subtract costs for housing, food, child care, health care and transportation, the amount left over each month would be $530.

“I don’t know if you can spend half your discretionary income on a baseball game,” Schoen said.

Dodgers president Stan Kasten said the team and its corporate sponsors work to provide free and discount tickets. The Dodgers’ foundation said it distributed 64,000 tickets last year through the Commissioner’s Community Initiative, described by the league as a program that “provides $2.5 million in ticket distributions to deserving communities league-wide.”

Said Kasten: “We’ve had a lot of success maintaining and even starting to grow our youth fan base. We’re very proud of that, and we work hard at it.”

In 2015, the Dodgers’ average ticket price was $29, according to Team Marketing Report. A decade later — after winning the World Series twice and signing Shohei Ohtani as the crown jewel of a superstar-studded roster — the range of cheapest available prices per game ranged from $38 to $156.

“You can’t have it all ways, right?” Manfred said. “The Dodgers have made a massive financial commitment in terms of players, and they have to run a business that supports that massive financial commitment.”

Read more:The Dodgers sell hot dogs for $7.99. The Diamondbacks sell them for $2.99. Why?

Notwithstanding Manfred’s belief that MLB does not have an affordability problem, a popup survey on the league website last week asked fans whether they strongly agreed, somewhat agreed, somewhat disagreed, or strongly disagreed with this statement: “Attending a Major League Baseball game is affordable.”

If local fans consider the Dodgers’ prices too high, Manfred suggested where they could find a cost-effective alternative.

“One of the leaders in terms of thinking about affordability has been the other Los Angeles team,” Manfred said.

Soon after Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 — and with the team coming off a World Series championship — the team introduced $3 tickets for kids and teenagers one night per week. The Angels now offer a $44 family pack — four tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks — at more than half their home games. They also feature a "Junior Angels" kids' club, with a $20 membership that includes four game tickets.

Parking is $20 at Angel Stadium and $40 at Dodger Stadium.

“I just really believe there should be affordability,” Moreno said. “We want everybody to have access to the stadium. We’ve worked really hard to keep tickets low and have families come in.”

The Angels last appeared in the playoffs 11 years ago, the longest postseason drought in the majors. Moreno did not discount the notion that prices might rise if the team returns to contention, but he did not guarantee it either.

“If the demand exceeds the supply, prices go up,” he said. “But, for us, you have 45,000 seats.”

The New York Yankees sold more tickets than any team besides the Dodgers in each of the past three seasons. The Yankees sell $10 tickets for every game: sometimes a few dozen, sometimes a few hundred, sometimes a couple thousand, based on overall demand for each game. As part of a corporate promotion, they also sell tickets under $10 or at 50% off for a handful of games.

The league maintains a fan value page, where the vast majority of teams display a variety of ticket discounts, concession deals and family packs. The Dodgers’ entry on that page features its promotional schedule, highlighted by bobblehead dolls so coveted that they drive ticket prices ever higher.

On that November podcast, Trump said he knew how to address high ticket prices.

“I think there are things that have to be done,” Trump said.

Read more:Got your ticket for bobblehead night? Check. Get the bobblehead? Not so fast

Manfred declined to comment about whether he had heard from Trump or whether he would work with him on the issue.

The Times asked the White House press office what ideas Trump had to lower ticket prices and what timeline he might have for pursuing any such actions. White House spokeswoman Liz Huston packed six sports phrases into a 48-word statement — “stepping up to the plate” and “home run economy” included — that did not provide a response to the questions.

Trump did not say he would make the Dodgers affordable again. In Los Angeles, some fans have stuck with their team through the lean years — the Fox and McCourt years, as we call them — only to be priced out when the team returned to glory.

On the podcast, without reference to any particular team, Trump said middle-class fans are “your biggest sports fans.”

Said Trump: “They’re being shut out of seeing a team they grew up with and that they love.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

In the seventh inning, fans rise and sing about buying peanuts and Cracker Jack at the ballgame.

But what if the concession prices have risen so much that fans have to think twice about buying? At Dodger Stadium, a Dodger Dog costs $7.99.

As ticket prices have soared, a small but growing number of teams in all sports are offering a limited menu of basic concession items at fan-friendly prices. At Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a hot dog costs $2.99.

Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall said team executives discussed whether discounting a handful of concession items would cost the team some revenue. It turns out, he said, they make more money that way.

“People feel like they’re getting a bargain,” Hall said, “and they buy more.”

Read more:Championship blues: Dodgers games used to be affordable family entertainment. No more.

The Chase Field $2.99 menu includes hot dogs, sodas, peanuts and popcorn. The Baltimore Orioles offer seven food items at $4 or less, including hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, pretzel bites and desserts. Nine other teams have value menus or $1 hot dogs for selected games, based on the fan value page on the league website.

At the Delta Center, home of the NBA's Utah Jazz and the Utah Hockey Club, the $3 menu includes hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and ice cream.

The Atlanta Falcons, the NFL team credited with starting the trend, offer hot dogs, sodas, popcorn and pretzels at $2 each, with $3 items including sweet tea, peach shakes, nachos and vegan dogs.

The Dodgers have studied whether to introduce a value menu at Dodger Stadium, team president Stan Kasten said.

“We will increase the number of transactions if we have lower prices,” he said. “They say they make more money that way.”

That would be great, Kasten said, except for what he said was an insurmountable obstacle.

Read more:Bobby Miller struggles, but Dodgers complete sweep of Rockies

“I hate to say this,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing to say. I wish it wasn’t true.

“We can’t physically handle more transactions.”

The fan experience would be worsened that way, Kasten said. The notoriously long Dodger Stadium concessions lines would get even longer, and the notoriously crowded concourses would get even more crowded.

Dodger Stadium is built into the side of a hill, which cramps space for existing concession stands and kitchens and complicates any plans to widen the concourses. In 2013, the Dodgers needed to remove seats in order to expand concourses.

The Dodgers allow fans to bring in their own food and drink, provided the food is in a small clear bag and the drink is in a factory-sealed bottle, no larger than one liter, and non-alcoholic.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

What to make of rough series for Giants rotation vs. Phillies originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

PHILADELPHIA — The Giants came away from Citizens Bank Park with a split, a positive for any team given that the Philadelphia Phillies have had the best home record in baseball over the past year and haven’t lost any of their last 10 series in their own park. But it would be hard to blame Giants manager Bob Melvin if he never wanted to think about those 36 innings again.

Melvin’s starting pitchers gave up 10 runs in the first inning across four games, and twice he had to call down to the bullpen to get a reliever loose before the third out. The only reason he didn’t do it a third time was because the bullpen was so taxed coming into Thursday’s series finale that Melvin had no choice but to let Jordan Hicks try and get out of his own jam, even if that ended up leading to an uncomfortable pitch count. 

Hicks found a way to recover, and on a day when he watched the first five Phillies reach base, he ended up going seven and saving the bullpen in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days. After the loss, several pitchers stopped by his locker to tell him how meaningful that was.

But it was also a third close call in four games, and on the last homestand, Melvin had to pull Justin Verlander in the third inning of the home opener and nearly did it again in his next start. There’s been an early theme for a rotation that isn’t living up to preseason expectations.

Through 19 games, Giants starters have a 4.80 ERA, which ranks 27th in the majors, and they’re 15th in innings pitched. They’re 29th in walk rate, and eight of those free passes came in the first innings against the Phillies. 

There have been some early red flags, but for now, Melvin is focused on silver linings.

“On this trip, it’s been difficult to pitch. The conditions have been tough,” he said Thursday. “I’m not saying it’s that much easier for hitters, but we’re winning games without maybe some of the outings that we would expect out of our starters and I look at that as a good sign. We can win in different ways.”

The odd thing about the rotation is that all five starters can find their own silver linings through three weeks. 

Verlander has a 6.75 ERA, but his fastball has averaged 94.5 mph, a full tick up from last season, and he has said this is the best he has felt physically in three years. Ray gave up five runs and walked nine on the East Coast swing, throwing just eight innings across two starts, but he had a 2.93 ERA through his first three starts, all wins, and has 21 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings.

Hicks was absolutely dominant in his season debut in Houston, and after the five-run first on Thursday he threw six shutout innings against one of the league’s best lineups, averaging 99 mph with his fastball and throwing one sinker 101.7 mph, the fastest pitch by a Giants starter in the pitch tracking era. Landen Roupp has a 4.80 ERA but also a 2.60 FIP and 12 strikeouts per nine innings.

Overall, Giants starters are 13th in FIP and they’re 29th in BABIP, indicating some bad luck early on. But that didn’t make the Phillies series any easier to take for a team that has yet to need a roster move.  

Roupp was the first to take the ball in Philadelphia and Melvin immediately got the bullpen going. Two nights later it was Robbie Ray, and then Hicks, and combined, Giants starters allowed 18 baserunners in those four first innings. What happened?

“I think they just have a good gameplan coming out in the first inning and it’s more about me just finding a way to get through it when the bad stuff starts happening and they start getting on base,” Hicks said of the Phillies. “It’s, ‘How can I limit the runs and limit the damage for us to stay in that ballgame?’ Hats off, they gameplanned well for that first inning and I felt good after that.”

Hicks was a reliever until coming to San Francisco last year and wore down last summer after his first few months of starting. But he bulked up in the offseason and the Giants made it clear from the start of the winter that their plan was to again lets Hicks start. He has a 6.04 ERA, but also continually shows flashes of his tantalizing potential as a starter. 

That extra weight has helped him maintain his velocity, and on Thursday, he became just the third Giants pitcher in the pitch-tracking era to hit triple-digits at least 16 times in one outing. The other two were relievers Brian Wilson and Erik Cordier.

At the end of a rough series for the rotation, Hicks chose to view it as a learning experience. He said he pitched “angry” after the first inning fireworks. 

“I saw a different side of myself today,” he said. “And we’ll build on that.”

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Ask anyone on the Mets about Mark Vientos and his sluggish performance to start the 2025 season, and they'll tell you it's only a matter of time until what we saw last year shows up again.

“His job is to try to go out there and control the strike zone and hit the ball hard," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said before Thursday's game against the Cardinals. "And he’s done that, he’s just not getting the results.”

"He’s been having good at-bats the entire year, it just hasn’t gone his way," Francisco Lindor said Thursday. "If he stays through the process, continues to have good at-bats, he’s going to have a successful year. He’s a really good hitter. He’s taking the right pitches, He’s swinging at the right pitches. It’s just a matter of time for him."

That time may be now, after Vientos ended a home run drought that lasted 77 consecutive at-bats in the Mets' 4-1 win over the Cardinals on Thursday.

In the second inning, Vientos launched a 90.4 mph fastball from Andre Pallante the opposite way over the right field wall. The ball was 100.1 mph off the bat but only went 338 feet -- the third-shortest traditional home run at CitiField since 2016 -- but it was enough to not only give the Mets an early 1-0 lead but also allow the 25-year-old to exhale. He pumped his fist rounding first base and let out a yell, and then another as he crossed home plate.

"It’s a good feeling for sure," Vientos said after the game. "Trying to stay positive, have good at-bats. It’s easy to stay positive when your team is winning. That’s always a good thing."

Yes, the Mets (12-7) are winning despite the lack of offensive contributions from Vientos but they were winning a lot last season because of the young infielder. His 27 homers -- in just 111 games -- helped the Mets overcome their slow start and make the playoffs, while his five homers in the postseason were integral to the team's run to the NLCS.

He entered Thursday with just a .210 slugging after slugging .516 a year ago. But as Mendoza said, the hard contact was there -- Vientos' xSLG is .336 -- the third baseman was just a bit unlucky in the early going. That fact has helped Vientos overcome this slow start, and he and the team hope it leads to a breakout.

"I’ve been liking the hard-hit contact that I’ve been having, and walking," Vientos said. "If you stick to the process and just do that over and over again every single day you’re playing, and have good at-bats, they are eventually going to go your way."

"With Vientos, we’ve seen that the whole year, we’ve just haven’t seen the results," Mendoza said of Vientos' home run. "He keeps hitting the ball hard."

The home run was Vientos' lone hit on Thursday, but it should go a long way for the slugger to reach his goals. Lindor, the Mets' de facto captain and mentor to Vientos, is confident the youngster will get to where he needs to get to.

"He has to stay the course," Lindor said. "By the end of the year, hopefully, he’s going to hit 30, 40 home runs. Whatever his goals are, I’m sure he’s going to achieve them."

The New York Rangers completed their season on Thursday night with a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the emotions of the game spoke louder than the score or win. 

It’s been a season from the start that has been riddled with drama, tension, and underwhelming play. It feels that the energy around the Rangers has only gotten worse as time has gone on. 

The mood best to describe this night was sadness. Walking into the legendary Madison Square Garden for the last time this season, there was a sense of gloom. 

It was business as usual, yet there was a strange feeling of emptiness like the Rangers were just playing this game for nothing, which was exactly the case. 

To close out the season, the Rangers actually played really well. The win didn’t matter though, the only thing this victory did was reignite the question: What could have been and where has this team been all season? 

All season long the Rangers showed no sense of heart, no sense of urgency, and no sense of purpose. 

There were fans and surprisingly a lot of them in attendance cheering on the Blueshirts, but it feels like everyone gave up on the Rangers a while ago. 

Throughout the contest, the sadness continued to pour on. The sadness for Sam Rosen who was calling his final game as the Rangers play-by-play announcer, the sadness of a team’s utter collapse from the top of the league to the pits of despair, and the sadness of another season ending with nothing to show for it. 

There was also a feeling of uncertainty. The Rangers have had the same nucleus of players for many years and that might be changing after what can only be described as a dreadful season. 

Throughout the year, the wheels were falling off this team’s core. They were barely holding it together as they continued to lose piece by piece from Jacob Trouba, to Kaapo Kakko, to Ryan Lindgren, to Jimmy Vesey. 

Thursday night felt like this core’s last dance. Sure, there will be quite a few players who return to New York next season. However, major roster turnover and a drastic culture shift are inevitable. 

After the game, Peter Laviolette and a few players rattled on the same old cliches, something that you knew they weren’t actually thinking deep down. 

In a night full of emotions and uncertainty, one thing remained crystal clear: The fans and people of New York deserve better.

Before the Mets' 4-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night at Citi Field, manager Carlos Mendoza spoke about Brandon Nimmo's tough luck, if Juan Soto is under pressure, and a plan for center field.

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Pressure on Juan Soto?

With one ninth of the season gone, Mendoza was asked about Soto not “being off to a start that he may like” and if the pressure – both from the outside work and from himself – meant that the skipper had taken some time to speak to the slugger about his first 18 games in Queens and to see where he is at mentally.

“Not really,” Mendoza said with a chuckle and a bemused smile. 

“It’s funny because here we are talking about not having the start he would like or we would like or people would like,” the manager continued.  “He’s still got like an .830 OPS and he’s still getting on base and giving you great at-bats.”

While the manager slightly inflated the slugger's number, which fell to .773 after Soto went 0-for-3 with a walk in Thursday's win, the point still stood. Especially when you consider the right fielder scorched two grounders – 106.7 mph off the bat up the middle in the first and 97.7 mph in the fifth – but came up empty.

In fact, the two balls in play carried a .530 and .500 expected batting average, per Statcast, but accounted for no hits and three outs via a double play.

“And yes, here we are,” Mendoza said, adding a shrug. “No, I just want him to be himself, go out there, have fun, and play the game.”

When asked about the pressure of the new contract, the new team, and a new borough, Mendoza said Soto was “under a lot of pressure last year when he was playing for the Yankees, going into his free agent year, and he handled it pretty well.”

“I think it’s just, he’s human,” the manager said. “And this is home for him now. He’s Juan Soto, he’s fine.”

Mendoza didn’t mention it, but over his career, games in March/April have been his worst ‘month.” He has a career .258/.395/.468 slash for an .863 OPS in 143 early-season games entering Thursday. 

Those four numbers are his lowest in those categories for any period of the season.

Nimmo’s fortune favors the bold? 

Through 19 games, Nimmo has 14 hits in 72 at-bats (.194) with three doubles, four home runs, and nine RBI with a .656 OPS.

What has the manager made of the 32-year-old’s at-bats to start the year? “They’re on, they’re off, there’s times where he’s hitting the ball hard and he’s not getting results,” Mendoza said before the game, in which Nimmo went 0-for-3. 

“Feel like he’s been a little aggressive at times, swinging at the first pitch,” he continued. “I think his approach, game plan that we’re going out there and we’re gonna be aggressive, he just hasn’t got results.”

Nimmo is swinging at the first pitch more than he ever has in his career at 46.1 percent entering Thursday’s game, up from 32.6 percent last year, which was up from a near career-low 25.5 percent in 2023.

But almost across the board, the Statcast metrics for Nimmo are up from last year: barrel percentage is up 5.2 percent, hard-hit percentage up 6.2 percent, expected batting average up .028 (to .272), and expected slugging up .121 (to .529, a small sample size career high).

In Thursday’s game, Nimmo swung at just one first-pitch and hit the ball hard (over 95 mph) twice, but had nothing to show for it.

“But we know, the professional hitter that he is, he’s gonna control the strike zone better than anybody else,” Mendoza said. “He’s got power, he’s got the ability to use the whole field, and he’s an important player for us. 

“So, early on, maybe a little bit of not getting results, hitting the ball hard, being a little too aggressive. But overall, I like where he’s at.”

With Nimmo batting in the heart of the order this year as opposed to in the two hole, where he spent a significant portion of last year, Mendoza was asked if that means the veteran is having trouble striking the right balance in his approach from working counts and taking walks to being more on the front foot and driving in runs.

“I think the game will dictate at times when he’s going to be aggressive, when he needs to work an at-bat,” the manager said. “And also, when there’s traffic out there and they’re giving you a pitch to hit, we want to be aggressive. 

“And more times than not, the results are gonna be there. Yes, right now, we’re not getting those results and we’re not gonna overreact to it. As long as the process, our approach, the reasons behind it are good reasons.”

Mendoza still sees Nimmo as “one of the better decision makers” at the plate. “He’s gonna be fine.”

Center of mind

With Jose Siri on the IL for some time with the broken left tibia, Mendoza isn’t short of options to platoon in center field with Tyrone Taylor. And the manager said Thursday that he is comfortable with Nimmo playing there “anytime we need him to.”

“Perfectly fine with [Nimmo] not only playing [center] late in games but even starts and things like that,” he said, adding that they will check on his fitness each day to maintain his freshness as the club views the long-time Met as an “everyday player.”

“Also comfortable playing the other guys,” Mendoza said. “I think it’s gonna be match-up based, if I feel like I need to get another lefty in the lineup and we put [Jesse] Winker in left and we put Brandon in center, we’ll be fine.”

Could that mean LuisangelAcuña ends up in center? “We’ll see,” the skipper said, adding that José Azócar, added to the roster on Thursday, can play there, too. “But we are preparing Acuña for a potential start if we need him to. He’s playing well, so he’s earning opportunities here.”

Nimmo was asked about the potential shift on Wednesday and said he is open to playing “wherever they want me to.”

“It doesn’t take any skin off my nose. I don’t have the pride like that. I just want to help the team win,” he said.

Another option down the road is Jeff McNeil, who played in center field Thursday in a rehab start at Port St. Lucie. (McNeil will return to playing at second base over the weekend.)

Two days after an illness meant he would miss his normal day in the rotation and sent the Mets’ front office scrambling through a series of roster moves, Griffin Canning made St. Louis Cardinals batters sick for six innings in New York’s 4-1 win Thursday night at Citi Field.

“I feel like tonight is kind of the blueprint,” Canning said after allowing one run on three hits over six innings while striking out eight. “Tonight is how I want to pitch.”

Canning finished his outing retiring nine-straight Cardinals, including five going down swinging.

“I thought the slider was good again today, the way he uses both slider-changeup, but the fastball at the top of the zone to finish off hitters,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, adding it was “hundred percent” the best he’s seen Canning’s four-seamer.

“He executed well,” the skipper said of the heater. “It was high enough to get by the hitters. Good carry, good velo, and used it effectively.”

Canning threw his fastball 45 times out of 102 pitches, and got seven whiffs and eight called strikes. The right-hander said he noticed the Cardinals’ lefties were “a hundred percent selling out for the changeup” early in the game and adjusted to get on the same page with Luis Torrens behind the plate.

“Just kinda felt like they were sitting off-speed,” he said. “Felt like the fastball had pretty good life, rolling what was working and on the same page as Luis back there.”

Mendoza remembered facing Canning last year and that the right-hander really liked his fastball. The plan against him was to “take away his fastball, knowing that the secondary pitches were really, really good.”

The biggest difference this season?

“The biggest adjustment is how he’s using his arsenal,” the manager said. “He’s getting ahead with a lot of different pitches, whether it’s the slider, the changeup. Using the fastball effectively. On hitters’ counts, he’s not just throwing four-seam fastballs there. He’s using all of his pitches. 

“... and when he’s ahead, he’s sneaking fastballs by hitters. I think it’s an adjustment, and I think he’s got the ability to read the situation and read the lineups and hitters are trying to do to him.”

Of course, the slider was quite good as he got six whiffs, five called strikes, and six foul balls from his 27 offerings. 

Canning, while leaning heavily on his big three pitches, noted he threw a few cutters to left-handed batters late in the game and five curveballs, after only throwing two in previous outings.

“The hitters are good, they’re gonna go into a game watching video and having an approach against me,” he said. “Being able to throw something in that’s a little different speed, little different look kinda helps me in the long run.”

The long run was something the Mets were hoping to get from Canning in Thursday’s start, with the bullpen thin after Huascar Brazobán was used as an opener and Justin Hagenman was called up for his MLB debut in Wednesday’s extra-inning loss at Minnesota. 

“We needed at least five from him,” Mendoza said, adding that while they “felt good about him taking the ball,” they would be watching him closely because “he was weak a couple of days ago.”

Canning spared everyone the details of the illness, just saying with a broad smile, “I just didn’t feel very good.” And after a pair of walks in the fourth and a run in the third, he settled into things, retiring six straight batters to get him to 84 pitches through those five innings.

“Watching him go out there and continue to execute pitches, hold the velo. He wasn’t missing his spots. Good outing by him,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza had Reed Garrett ready in the sixth if Canning got into any trouble, but after a nine-pitch strikeout started the frame, a pair of groundouts got him to a quality start and bridged the gap to the back-end of the Mets bullpen, who slammed the door shut.