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

In some ways, this weekend’s Subway Series could’ve been about the Mets taking over this baseball town. They came to the Yankees’ house toting their free-agent prize, Juan Soto, pried from the Bronx last winter, along with a terrific pitching staff, a star shortstop and a better record. Maybe even better buzz citywide.

But the series ended and the Mets certainly didn’t look like the better team, especially after Sunday’s thud of a performance, an 8-2 loss that went kablooey in the eighth inning after Pete Alonso made a horrendous throw at first that allowed the go-ahead run to score, tilting a tight game.

Same old Mets?

Hopefully not. A few months from now, the Mets might be the better team and they’re so talented, on the field and in the front office, that an October stage should be their ultimate proving ground, regardless of what turn the rivalry might take next. The 29-18 Mets lost two of three, but still have a better record than the Yankees (27-19).

But their defense, something David Stearns has said the team could improve, hurt them badly Sunday night. Another recent bugaboo -- hitting with runners in scoring position -- stood out as a fail point once again. The Mets, who are ranked 25th in MLB in average with RISP, were 4-for-25 (.160) in such situations in the three games against the Yanks, including 1-for-7 Sunday.

Overall Sunday, the Mets had just three hits, none after the fourth inning. Soto, who was booed loudly all weekend in a stadium that adored him just a year ago, was 1-for-10 in the series, including 0-for-4 Sunday, with two runs scored. He walked four times, struck out thrice and stole two bases. Yes, there were some hard-hit outs. But there sure were a lot of outs.

To make the rivalry optics worse, the Yankees’ winter Plan B looked A-OK in this head-to-head. Key members of the group of players the Yanks turned to after Soto picked the Mets in a seismic free-agent faceoff were big pinstriped stars on Sunday.

Max Fried threw six sharp innings, Cody Bellinger drove home six runs and blew open the game with an eighth-inning grand slam. Paul Goldschmidt added an insurance RBI single and scored twice. Devin Williams, the demoted closer, contributed a scoreless setup inning both Friday and Sunday and was the winning pitcher in the finale.

Soto moving to Queens for a 15-year, $765-million deal gave a forever jolt to borough rivalry. Never had a player anywhere close to his stature left the Yankees for the Mets. He instantly gave a good team an even bigger, better vibe.

But he’s got to do more. He’s batting .246 with eight home runs and 20 RBI. His .822 OPS over a slow -- for him -- shows how high his floor is. His first foray into the Subway Series as a Met was, to say the least, a disappointment. 

It’s a decent descriptor of the Mets for the whole series. They won the middle game, an entertaining affair that had pitching, power and some nifty defense. They lost the two bookends, managing a total of eight hits in the two losses.

Sunday, a first-inning error by Mark Vientos on a grounder hit by the first Yankee hitter, Goldschmidt, opened a path to two quick runs. In the eighth, with the infield in, Alonso fielded Jorbit Vivas’ grounder as Jasson Dominguez broke on contact for the plate.

On Saturday, Alonso threw Dominguez out at the plate on a similar plate. This time, Alonso’s toss sailed wide. Dominguez scored to break a 2-2 tie and the Yankees gorged afterward.

Alonso, to his credit, quickly came out to talk to reporters and gave himself every bit of blame for the loss.

“I just made an awful throw,” Alonso said. “I mean, that whole inning, this game, it’s on me. After that throw, the momentum got out of hand and they had really good at-bats. This one’s on me and it stinks because I had the same play (Saturday). I feel like, for me, that’s a play that I usually make and I can make pretty routinely.

“I had my feet set and I just didn’t get my fingers on top of the baseball and it sailed on me. … It’s really frustrating.”

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he feels like his team has played good defense for stretches this season. But, he acknowledged, there have been plays that should have been made that haven’t been.

“This is something that we got to get better at,” Mendoza said. “And we will.”

They’ll have a chance to show it starting Monday in Boston. Then comes a series with the Dodgers at Citi Field, an NLCS rematch sure to attract eyeballs, to say nothing of hype.

The next crack at the Yankees? That begins July 4 at Citi Field. It’ll be another charged atmosphere, another measuring stick. A chance for Soto to edit the story of his current place in the rivalry.

They’ll have to be better then.

The Yankees broke an eighth-inning tie with a six-run frame that made the difference in Sunday's rubber game against the Mets, taking the first of the 2025 season's two three-game Subway Series matchups and feeding off the energy.

"It's fun playing at Yankee Stadium when it feels like it matters a lot," said Aaron Boone.

After Friday's 6-2 win, the Yankees bounced back from Saturday's 3-2 loss with a late-game breakthrough.

"I thought all three games were really good," Boone said. "Obviously, we came up winning two of 'em and rode a big inning tonight late. It felt like, either way, the whole time, I think clearly two really good teams having a little fun in May."

With the NL East-leading Mets (29-18) as the latest opponent, the Yankees (27-19) have won four consecutive series and hold a five-game lead in the AL East.

"I think anytime you win a series it's important," said Max Fried, who held the Mets to two runs on three hits while striking out eight and walking two in six innings. "Obviously, rivals and same city -- that sort of thing -- there's a little extra to it. But the series that feel like a playoff series are always good, especially earlier in the year -- it gets the juices going and preps you for the baseball you want to play towards the end."

The Yankees and Mets meet again July 4-6 at Citi Field with all three games scheduled to be on SNY.

"It's always fun playing the Subway Series," said Aaron Judge. "It doesn't matter what year it is. It's always going to be exciting. The fans always get into it. It's always back and forth, different chants -- the cheering, the booing, everything -- but two good ballclubs going after it."

The Subway Series didn’t quite go as planned for the Mets. 

They dropped two out of the three games in the Bronx with the latest one coming in ugly fashion -- as a Pete Alonso error in the bottom of the eighth led to the Yankees scoring six times to close out the series victory. 

The Mets were sloppy defensively. They scored just seven runs over the three games. Simply put, they were outplayed in almost every facet of the game.

But they can’t sit back and sulk over it because the road ahead doesn’t get any easier. 

The Mets head out to Boston for three games with the Red Sox starting on Monday before returning home to host Shohei Ohtani and the high-powered Dodgers for a three-game weekend set. 

“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We knew that this is a good team -- we didn’t get the job done and we lost the series. Now we have to get ready for another good team before we start thinking about what’s next. 

“That’s our mentality here, we have to turn the page -- I think we do a pretty good job of doing that. I’m pretty sure the guys will be ready to go tomorrow for a new series against a very good team in Boston.”

How can they turn things around? Alonso simply says by playing “clean quality baseball.”

“That’s really what it boils down to,” he said. “I think we did a good job of battling and putting together quality at-bats tonight and throughout the weekend, it’s just a matter of making plays and driving in a couple of runs when guys are on base.”

Taking the mound against Yankees ace Max Friedin Sunday night’s Subway Series finale, David Peterson gave the Mets the exact type of effort they were looking for.

The southpaw was hurt by his defense early, as the slow-footed Paul Goldschmidt reached on a Mark Vientos error leading off the bottom of the first, and then Cody Bellinger drove in the first two runs of the game after an Aaron Judge double. 

Peterson did well to settle in after that -- working around a leadoff single in the second and then a two out walk in the bottom of the third before putting together his first 1-2-3 frame of the night. 

The Yanks threatened again in the fifth, as three walks (one intentional to Judge) loaded the bases for Anthony Volpe, but the southpaw was able to bare down and got him to groundout to short to end the inning. 

Peterson then closed his night with a perfect bottom of the sixth -- giving him another quality start with a final line of two runs (one earned) on three hits while walking four and striking out four. 

“For him to go six there, going toe to toe with Max, that was important,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He kept us in the game, he kept getting groundballs -- we weren’t able to make the play in the first, but he mixed his pitches well against a good lineup and was good overall.”

The Mets let this one slip away with a six-run, eighth-inning meltdown.

Still, seeing Peterson put together another strong effort against this high-powered offense is an encouraging sign for the Mets. The former first-round pick has now allowed less than two earned runs in four consecutive outings, helping him bring his ERA down to 2.86 on the season.

“It was a good battle,” Peterson said. “It’s always fun going into these pitcher battles. Our offense grinded as much as they could and they put up a really good fight -- but overall, I felt good. I was on the same page as (Francisco Alvarez), and we have a really good game plan.”

The Mets were knotted in another close one with the Yankees. 

After David Peterson worked his way through six efficient innings, Huascar Brazoban entered and somehow danced his way out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh to keep things evened at two a piece.

Ryne Stanek was handed the bottom of the eighth -- and things didn’t go as planned.  

The right-hander found himself in immediate danger as he issued a leadoff walk to Jasson Dominguez and then Austin Wells lined a one out double down the right-field line to put two in scoring position. 

Jorbit Vivas worked an 11-pitch at-bat before rolling one down to Pete Alonso. The big first baseman fielded the ball cleanly, but with the speedy Dominguez running on contact he uncorked a throw extremely wide of home, allowing the go-ahead run to score easily. 

After a pitching change, the Bombers were sure to make the Mets pay, as they tacked on five more runs with a Paul Goldschmidt single and Cody Bellingerthree-run homer to put this one away for good.

“I messed it up,” Alonso said. “I had the identical play (Saturday) where it was hit straight to me and it was a tag play at home, and I just made an awful throw. That whole inning, this game, it’s on me -- after that throw the momentum got out of hand. 

“It stinks because it’s the same play and I feel like that’s a play that I usually make and I can make pretty routinely, but I just had my feet set and didn’t get my fingers around the baseball and it sailed on me -- bad throw on me, this one is 100 percent on me.”

Alonso’s throw certainly was the biggest miscue of the game -- but he wasn’t alone in what was another poor defensive showing from the Mets.

Mark Vientos bobbled what should've been a routine groundball leading off the bottom of the first, allowing Goldschmidt to reach base safely -- and he scored just a few batters later on a Bellinger two-run single off of Alonso’s glove. 

And this is just the latest sloppy effort in what's quickly developing into an early season problem for New York -- Carlos Mendoza says it has to change. 

“We’ve been through some stretches where it’s been sharp,” the skipper said. “But also there’s been games where we’re not finishing plays or completing them, even some of the routine plays -- as we saw in the first inning tonight which led to a run.

“This is something that we have to get better at and we will because we have good defenders.”

Pete Alonso’s wild throw home allowed the Yankees to score the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of a ‘til-then taut game and the Yanks went on to win, 8-2, to take the first installment of this season’s Subway Series. 

With one out and runners on second and third and the score knotted at two, Jorbit Vivas smacked a hard grounder to Alonso at first and Jasson Dominguez broke from third base on contact. Alonso fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw was nowhere near the plate as Dominguez slid home.

It was the second error of the game for the Mets, who didn’t hit much, either. They had just three hits.

Alonso’s gaffe helped fuel a huge inning for the Yankees, who went on to score six times in the frame. Cody Bellingersmashed his ninth career grand slam and Paul Goldschmidt added an RBI single. 

The Yankees won two of three at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Sunday’s game drew 48,028 fans, the biggest crowd at the Stadium so far this season.

The teams next meet in a three-game series at Citi Field beginning on the Fourth of July.

Here are some takeaways...

- The loss dropped the Mets (29-18) to below .500 on the road this season -- they are 12-13. The Yankees (27-19) are 15-9 at home. 

- Max Fried did not factor into the decision, but he gave the Yankees six very fine innings, allowing three hits and two runs. He struck out eight, walked two and threw 102 pitches. One highlight pitch -- he threw a tantalizing, 77-mile-per-hour curveball that flummoxed Juan Soto on a called strike three for the second out of the third inning. An indication of how good a season Fried is having -- his stingy outing actually raised his ERA from 1.11 to a still-sparkling 1.29. 

- David Peterson didn’t factor into the decision, either and he was just as effective as Fried, allowing two runs (one earned) and three hits over six frames. He walked four (one intentionally) and struck out fourth. He lowered his ERA from 3.05 to 2.86. 

- Defense, a facet of the game that David Stearns said was something the Mets could improve, bit them at the very beginning of the night. The Yankees took advantage of a Mark Vientos error, in part, to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Goldschmidt, the leadoff hitter, hit a grounder to third and Vientos bobbled it, putting a runner on first. One out later, Aaron Judge doubled to right and Bellinger followed with a double up the first-base line that plated two runs. Peterson got two ground balls to escape further damage, holding the Yanks two only a pair of runs, one of them unearned. It was the sixth error of the season for Vientos. 

- The Mets tied the score at two in the fifth inning, thanks to McNeil’s eye and legs. He worked an eight-pitch walk leading off, was sacrificed to second by Luisangel Acuña and went to third on a groundout by Francisco Lindor. When Fried bounced a pitch to Soto and it skipped away from Austin Wells, Jeff McNeil, who drove in the Mets' first run with an RBI single in the second, broke for the plate and scored on the wild pitch.

- Soto, who was a flashpoint player all weekend, made a fine running catch to end the fourth inning, racing back to snag a deep drive toward right-center by Wells. Wells’ smash was clocked at 99.8 miles per hour off the bat and had an expected batting average of .380.

- Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s strategy impacted the Yankee fifth when he chose to intentionally walk Judge with a runner on second and two out and let Peterson pitch to Bellinger, a lefty-lefty matchup. Peterson walked Bellinger, but then got Anthony Volpe to ground out to short and the Yanks left the bases loaded. That was the first time Volpe made the final out of an inning with the bases loaded -- he struck out with the sacks full to end the seventh, too. 

- In the fateful eighth inning, relievers Ryne Stanek and Genesis Cabrera combined to allow six runs (three earned) and three hits. They threw a combined 50 pitches, 31 by Stanek.

Game MVP

Tough to choose anyone but Bellinger, who had six RBI total on the night and extended his hitting streak to 13 games by going 3-for-3 with two walks. He’s 20-for-53 (.377) during the streak with four homers and 12 RBI. His 13-game streak matched his career high.

Highlights

Jeff McNeil gets a run back for the Mets!

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/EgqFT9Js09

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 18, 2025

"She's just over six months and she. Is. AWESOME! I'm loving every day of watching her grow up"

Brandon Nimmo on his daughter 🥹

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

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 18, 2025

Juan Soto runs it down in the gap!

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/im6x1x0LS7

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2025

The ball gets away from Austin Wells, Jeff McNeil comes home and the game is tied!

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/x4SuG9KeEy

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2025

Francisco Lindor shared a laugh with Aaron Judge after Anthony Volpe grounded out 😅

(via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/At6b5AtfNy

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2025

What's next

The Mets head to Boston to start a three-game set with the Red Sox on Monday at 6:45 p.m.

The Yankees have an off day before hosting the Texas Rangers for a three-game set on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.

“Hey,” Starling Marte said to Juan Soto, grabbing him by both shoulders and forcing him to turn around. “This is what we do.”

It was the afternoon of May 1, and Soto had just hit his second home run of the game. He returned to the dugout, high-fived a few teammates, and appeared ready to move on with his day.

Marte, a smiling presence in a hoodie lurking behind Soto, saw the chance for a teaching moment. He nudged his younger teammate, then took hold of his upper body and spun him forward. Soto looked at the camera, flashing a pair of peace signs and a forced smile. Not good enough, not at Citi Field in the post-OMG era. Marte slapped Soto’s helmet; that induced a broad smile and ended the moment on high note.

“Whenever any of us hits a home run, we pose in front of the camera,” Marte said through an interpreter Sunday at Yankee Stadium. “When he hit that home run, he was about to just kind of go put his stuff back, and I pushed him. I said, ‘Hey, this is what we do.’ So now, if you ever see when he hits a home run, he's there posing.”

It was a small lesson, but indicative of the way that Marte has proven invaluable during Soto’s transition from the businesslike Yankees to the vibey Mets. Without fanfare, the veteran has devoted considerable time and energy into serving as an elder statesman to Soto and other young Mets.

“He’s a quiet leader,” says manager Carlos Mendoza. “He’s not going to go out of his way in front of people, but he will go out of his way when nobody sees it. That’s what makes him a special person. He’s very calm, and when he speaks -- man, people listen.”

Soto and Marte are both natives of the Dominican Republic and have known one another since Soto’s minor league days. When the Mets signed Soto, it meant pushing Marte, a two-time All-Star, into a job as a part-time designated hitter.

“I had to talk to him about his role,” Mendoza says. “We’re signing a player for the right field position, so you have to have that conversation right away. Right away, he understood. The first thing he said was, ‘I want to be a Met. I want to win with the Mets.’ That went a long way for me. After that it was, what can I do to help Juan?”

Says Marte: “Since we've known each other for a long time, I felt like it was my responsibility once he signed to try to make him feel more comfortable. Obviously, he's been on big-market teams and teams with a lot of guys before, but now he's new here, and a lot of us have been here together for quite a while.

“Maybe when he got here, he didn't feel as comfortable because he didn't have that same type of familiarity with all of us. So I took that responsibility to bring him into the group and try to make it feel more comfortable.”

Soto was not available for comment prior to Sunday’s game, but another of Marte’s acolytes, Mark Vientos, praised his leadership and ability to spot small advantages and tendencies within a game.

“He has helped me out a lot,” Vientos said. “He’s a team leader. It’s year fourteen for him, and he’s still at it with the same mentality. The game is super slow for him.”

Like Vientos, Soto is a young man who appreciates tough and honest mentorship. Unlike Vientos or anyone else in the game, he carries not only the largest contract in the history of American sports to his new job in Queens, but the weight of unfathomable expectations from a fan base whose very identity shifted after his arrival.

Folks in the organization believe that Soto has made significant progress settling in -- smiling more of late, and getting closer to the theatrical flow that has long made him the most exciting hitter in baseball.

“I see him talking to teammates all the time, sitting down with his teammates,” Marte said. “It's nice to see because that's what you want with a guy who's gonna be here for so long. I expect to see a lot more of that going on this year and for the next 15 years.”

On Friday night at Yankee Stadium, Soto even brought back a modified version of his famous shuffle, which has been missing for most of the season.

“I mean, it wasn't with too much swag,” Marte said with a smile. “I think once he starts to feel himself a little more, you're gonna start seeing it really coming out.”

Whenever it does, the team will know that Marte helped to bring it out -- and that Soto’s inevitable success as a Met will form part of Marte’s own legacy here, long after he is gone.

Andrew Friedman gave a longer answer Sunday morning when asked about the Dodgers’ recent — and, by the feel of it, familiar — pitching woes so far this year, the club’s president of baseball operations bemoaning another wave of injuries that has left the pitching staff shorthanded.

But the gist of his answer was in the two words he uttered at the start of his response.

“Not fun,” he said.

In the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Angels later in the day, it became even less so.

Read more:Dodgers release Chris Taylor, parting ways with another veteran

As things currently stand, Tony Gonsolin is effectively the No. 2 pitcher in the Dodgers’ rotation, thrust into such a prominent role with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki injured. But in a four-run, four-inning start, Gonsolin was derailed by his own physical issue, battling a bloody thumb in a three-run first inning that put the Dodgers behind the eight ball.

The Dodgers rallied, erasing what grew to a 4-0 deficit on Shohei Ohtani’s RBI single in the fifth and Will Smith’s tying three-run home run in the seventh. But then a banged-up bullpen gave the Angels the lead right back, with Travis d’Arnaud going deep in the eighth against Anthony Banda — himself forced into a high-leverage role lately, despite a disappointing start to the year, because of injuries to Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Kirby Yates (who became the latest pitcher to hit the injured list on Sunday with a hamstring strain he suffered the night before).

Friedman argued the Dodgers’ injury problems this year don’t compare to the dire straits they navigated en route to last year’s World Series title. Unlike then, the team hasn’t suffered any season-ending losses. In the big picture, they remain confident they’ll have enough depth to mount a title defense.

And yet, the team hasn’t discovered the secret to better health. Their rotation problems are giving the bullpen an unsustainably grueling workload. And figuring out how to better protect the club’s expensive stable of arms is “by far the No. 1 thing that keeps me up at night,” Friedman said.

“I mean, everything from my brain is about what we can do, like, how we can solve this,” Friedman added, the self-described “deep dive” the organization took into pitching injuries this offseason having yet to yield better results. “It's like a game of Whack-a-Mole, and things keep popping up. … The definition of enough depth, I think is a fool’s errand. I don't know what enough depth means. I think more is always better with pitching depth.”

But, with the team ranking 21st in the majors with a 4.18 team earned-run average, what they have currently certainly isn’t enough.

“It is what it is, I guess,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You just sort of have to deal with things as they come up.”

Gonsolin’s bloody thumb was the latest unexpected dilemma, arising when the pitcher picked at some dead skin on his thumb after his pregame warm-up and “took some good skin with it,” he said. “Just wouldn't stop bleeding."

After Gonsolin gave up a leadoff home run to Zach Neto on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium, trainers came to the mound to check on his right throwing hand. As they examined him, applying a skin adhesive to address the problem, the television broadcast zoomed in on streaks of blood covering the backside of his pants.

While Gonsolin said he didn’t want to use his bloody thumb as an excuse, his struggle to command the baseball quickly became obvious. With one out, he walked Yoán Moncada, looking visibly uncomfortable as he sprayed the ball wide of the zone. In a 2-and-0 count to his next batter, Taylor Ward, Gonsolin threw a fastball over the heart of the plate. Ward crushed it for a two-run homer.

Read more:Clayton Kershaw shaky in his season debut as Angels take series win over Dodgers

“I just couldn't execute pitches,” said Gonsolin, whose 4.05 ERA still ranks second among the Dodgers’ current five-man rotation. “I'm not going to blame my thumb or whatever. Just didn't pitch good today."

Gonsolin did settle down from there, giving up just one more run the rest of the way. But his pitch count never got back under control, requiring 97 throws to get through four innings.

It was already the 14th time in 47 games that a Dodgers starter failed to work into the fifth, and left them with just 13 combined innings from their starters in this weekend’s series sweep by the Angels.

“We were fortunate to get him through four, but still, you know, with what we went through this series with the starters, there's a lot of innings our ‘pen had covered, and that's unfortunate,” Roberts said.

Indeed, all those short starts have had a cascading effect on the team’s relievers. And pitchers like Banda have had to compensate as a result.

Sunday’s outing marked Banda’s 21st appearance this season, becoming the fifth Dodgers reliever to reach that mark. Entering the day, no other team had more than three.

After pitching a clean seventh, Banda returned for the eighth and was bitten again by a common problem. In a 3-and-1 count against d’Arnaud, he threw a center-cut sinker that d’Arnaud crushed to left. It was Banda’s fifth home run given up, tying the total he allowed in 48 appearances over last season. It raised his ERA to 4.37, more than a run above his mark last season. 

“I think that there's a lot of sinkers that are not sinking, they're not commanded. He's getting into some bad counts. There's times where he's not landing his slider,” Roberts said of Banda’s struggles. “So I think it's just a compilation of things.”

And this time, the Dodgers couldn’t answer, suffering their first three-game Freeway Series sweep to the Angels since 2010, and first three-game sweep at home to anybody since 2023.

“I think, to be honest, we just didn't pitch well this series,” Roberts said.

Until the pitching staff gets healthy, it’s a shortcoming that will continue to threaten the Dodgers.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Some of the Mets' top young talent was on display Sunday afternoon...

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Mauricio reaches three times

Ronny Mauricio was activated from the IL on Saturday and optioned to Triple-A. 

Mauricio found himself inserted into the Syracuse lineup right away -- batting second and playing second base during Sunday’s contest with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. 

He was called out on strikes during his first at-bat, but was able to reach base during his next turn up, lining a single for his first Syracuse knock in nearly two seasons. 

The speedy infielder got things started in the fifth, reaching on a single before scoring on a double, and then made things happen again an inning later. After beating out a fielder's choice to prolong the frame, he stole second and then scored on a Jared Young single. 

Mauricio was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth. 

After struggling to get back into a groove during his rehab assignment at High-A and Double-A, Sunday’s showing was certainly a positive sign for the 24-year-old. 

He’ll look to build off that before potentially working his way back to the big-league level. 

Williams, Clifford surging with the Rumble Ponies

Jett Williams and Ryan Clifford have been on a tear of late for Binghamton, and both played a huge role in Sunday afternoon’s win over the Hartford Yard Goats. 

The speedy Williams continued setting the table for the Rumble Ponies -- reaching three times out of the leadoff spot with two singles and a double while also driving in a pair of runs and scoring two of his own.

He’s now reached in all but one game in May and has recorded a strong .945 OPS. 

Clifford was on-base three times as well in the victory -- lining a pair of singles before going the other way to drive in what ended up being the winning run with a one out double in the top of the seventh.

He’s now hitting .309 with 16 RBI and a .969 OPS in 16 May games. 

It’s certainly encouraging to see two of the top young talents in the organization getting off to a surging start, and if they are able to keep this up it might not be long before we see them bumped up to Syracuse.

Carson Benge with a three-run blast to give Brooklyn their first lead of the game at 4-2 after five. pic.twitter.com/WmJKpFgwI0

— Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones) May 18, 2025

Benge continues stellar start 

Carson Benge has certainly looked the part of a top prospect. 

The first rounder has been tearing the cover off the ball early on this year in the pitcher-friendly confines of Maimonides Park and that continued in Sunday afternoon’s walk-off win. 

Benge walked and grounded out during each of his first two plate appearances, but then demolished a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to give Brooklyn their first lead of the game. 

He was intentionally walked with a man on third and one out in the sixth, but was able to do some more damage leading off the bottom of the tenth, driving in the game-tying run with a double to deep left. 

A few batters later, he scored the winning run on a fielder’s choice. 

Benge reached base in four of his five plate appearances -- helping him bring his average up to .309 with four homers, eight doubles, 25 RBI, and a .919 OPS during his first full season in the organization. 

It definitely won’t be long before Benge joins an already loaded Binghamton squad. 

Allan returns to Brooklyn

Matt Allan’s comeback tour continued on Sunday. 

The right-hander was among several Mets prospects who received promotions over the past couple of weeks and he took the mound for the Cyclones for the first time since 2019. 

Things didn’t quite go as planned, however, as he failed to escape the first inning. 

Allan walked the leadoff hitter and then was hurt by some shoddy infield defense, as a pair of errors brought in two runs, and then another walk ultimately ended his short afternoon at the ballpark. 

He retired just two of the six batters he faced, throwing a total of 33 pitches. 

Luckily for the 24-year-old, the Cyclones' offense was able to rally to pick up their sixth straight win.

It's been a bit of an up-and-down return to the mound for Allan, who has allowed eight runs while walking 13 and striking out 17 across 15.2 innings of work, but most importantly he's been able to stay healthy.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was asked about a number of different topics prior to Sunday night's Subway Series finale...

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Marte will continue seeing opportunities

Starling Marte hasn’t quite been able to find his groove yet this season. 

Adjusting to his new role as more of a part-time player, the 36-year-old slugger is hitting just .192 with two extra base-hits and a .604 OPS through 28 games. 

Despite the struggles, Marte continues to find himself in the middle of the Mets’ lineup when they face left-handed pitching -- as is the case for Sunday's Subway Series finale against Yanks ace Max Fried.

Even with Jeff McNeil back, Brett Baty swinging a hot bat, and Luisangel Acuña providing a spark on both sides of the ball Mendoza says that Marte will continue seeing chances moving forward. 

“He’s been an elite player in this game,” the skipper said. “It’s not an easy role to be in when you’re used to playing every day, it takes time to adjust. I just have to continue giving him at-bats, he’s a good player. The way the ball continues to jump off his bat, the bat speed, it’s there -- he’ll get going here pretty soon.”

Soto’s uptick in stolen bases

Juan Soto isn’t exactly known for his blazing speed.

The superstar outfielder swiped just seven bases all of last season for the Yankees -- but things have been different over his first 45 games with the Mets, as he's already halfway to that total.

Soto has stolen a base in each of the first two games of the Subway Series, pushing his streak to three straight and giving him a total of five on the year.

He’s currently on pace for 18, which would shatter his previous career-high of 12. 

“He’s just taking advantage of opportunities,” Mendoza said. “He’s using the information and trusting it. That’s something he talked about with Antoan [Richardson] from the beginning, not only the defense in right, but becoming a better baserunner overall.

“Yesterday, that play stealing third it kind of ended up being the difference. He scores on a sac fly and we won the game by one run. It’s something that from the beginning they’ve been working on and every time the opportunity presents, we’ll take advantage of it.”

Taylor cramped up, but good to go

Tyrone Taylor was dealing with some cramping in his calf after diving head-first into second late in Saturday afternoon's victory. 

After talking things over with the training staff, Mendoza said that Taylor is good to go for the series finale, but he still elected to give him a day off -- so Jeff McNeil will start in center in his place. 

McNeil is still relatively inexperienced at the position having logged just five big-league appearances out there this year, but Mendoza says the coaching staff likes what they've seen from thus far. 

“I think he's been fine in center," he said. "He hasn't really been tested too much, but he's doing a good job of making the routine plays -- so I'm comfortable with using him out there, that's why he continues to get reps."

The Mets released veteran outfielder Billy McKinney from the Triple-A Syracuse roster.

McKinney, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in March, joining the organization for a second time. The Mets traded for McKinney in May 2021, and he appeared in 39 games before being designated for assignment. McKinney hit .220 with five home runs and 14 RBI before being DFA’d.

In 33 games with Syracuse this season, McKinney slashed .184/.285/.307 with three home runs and nine RBI.

The Chris Taylor era in Los Angeles is over.

On Sunday, Taylor was released by the Dodgers, making him the second longtime team veteran, along with former backup catcher Austin Barnes, to be cut loose by the team in the last week.

In corresponding roster moves, the Dodgers activated Tommy Edman from the injured list and added pitcher Lou Trivino to the 40-man roster. Trivino was in Los Angeles on Sunday — occupying the same locker stall Taylor used to — after fellow reliever Kirby Yates was placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain he suffered Saturday night.

"This has been a very emotional week for all of us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “Barnsey and CT have been in the middle of some huge moments for this organization. Both guys have left an indelible mark on our culture and where we're at at this point. So the decisions were incredibly difficult. The conversations were tough. But with where we are, the division race, the composition of roster, everything. We felt like this was in the Dodgers' best interest in terms of how to win as many games and put us in a position to best win the World Series this year.”

Read more:Hernández: Hyeseong Kim has arrived, and the Dodgers need to make sure he's here to stay

Taylor was in the last season of a four-year, $60-million contract with the Dodgers. The former All-Star was the longest-tenured position player on the roster, after Barnes was designated for assignment last week. But, just like with Barnes, Taylor’s declining production, coupled with the emergence of a younger and more productive alternative in rookie utilityman Hyeseong Kim, left the 34-year-old expendable.

Thus, for the second time in the last week, the Dodgers parted ways with one of the most familiar faces of the team, triggering another shake-up in a suddenly-evolving clubhouse.

“We didn't feel like coming into the season this was something that we would necessarily be doing in May,” Friedman said. “But you learn things and things change and things evolve and play out. We just have a lot more information at this point in May than we do before the season. I wouldn't say it was something that we thought was fait accompli, and was necessarily going to happen. But with where we were, all things factored in, while not easy we felt like it was the right thing to do."

Taylor once was one of the biggest success stories in the Dodgers organization. Acquired in a low-profile trade with the Seattle Mariners for Zach Lee in 2016, Taylor became a defensively versatile slugger in Los Angeles, batting .265 from 2017-2021 with 78 home runs and 292 RBIs with a revamped swing and increasingly prominent role.

He became an All-Star for the first time in 2021, then punctuated the season by hitting a walk-off home run in the National League Wild Card Game against the St. Louis Cardinals and three home runs in an elimination game against the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series. The following offseason, the Dodgers signed him to his four-year extension just before Major League Baseball’s lockout of the players. The hope was that he would be a cornerstone of the franchise’s future.

Instead, he’s been a shell of his old self ever since.

After undergoing elbow surgery after the 2021 season, Taylor struggled to maintain the mechanics in his swing. In 2022 and 2023, he batted a combined .228 with a subpar .708 OPS.

Last year, the bottom fell completely out, with Taylor setting career lows in batting average (.202), OPS (.598) and home runs (four) while playing just 87 games.

This season, Taylor was the last man on the Dodgers’ bench, starting just six of the team’s first 46 games while batting .200 with two doubles and homers.

Friedman said he believed Taylor’s injury history — which also included a left foot fracture in 2022, a right knee injury in 2023 and a groin strain last season — were a main factor in his decline, but also acknowledged the difficulties that came with his increasing lack of playing time.

“With a lot of guys, but with CT as well, it’s hard to play once a week, it's a tough role, and in a vacuum isolated to him, probably not the best role for him to have success,” Friedman said. “But just with the way our roster has played out, that's how it's evolved. But I know he's looking forward to trying getting an opportunity to play more often, and he's got a chip on his shoulder, and I certainly would not bet against him.”

Read more:Dodgers call up catcher Dalton Rushing, designate Austin Barnes for assignment

For a while, Taylor’s presence on the Dodgers’ active roster was a tenable situation. The Dodgers had a player whom they trusted to play multiple positions, without having to worry about finding him regular at-bats.

In recent weeks, however, Kim’s emergence as a slick-fielding, left-handed bat with game-changing speed altered the equation.

With Edman back and Teoscar Hernández nearing his own return from the injured list, the Dodgers were facing a roster crunch. And rather than send Kim (who is batting .452 with three stolen bases in 14 games) back to the minors, they elected to move Taylor off the roster instead, turning the page on one of the five remaining position players from both their 2020 and 2024 World Series-winning teams.

“He was a huge part of so much success that we've enjoyed,” Friedman said. “Can't say enough about the human, the worker, the teammate, the player. He's one of the toughest guys I've ever been around. We'll always have a place for CT. And whenever he's done playing four, five, six years from now, I hope, he's always connected to the Dodgers."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.