Category: MLB

Mookie Betts offered a new perspective Tuesday afternoon on his season-long slump, which is that it wasn’t a season-long slump.

In his view, it actually extended back to last season.

“I really haven’t been right since I came back from my hand last year,” Betts said.

Betts fractured his left hand in mid-June last season when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball. He was sidelined for almost two months.

“Think about it,” Betts said. “Go and look at it. I haven’t been right since.”

Betts was a MVP candidate when he went down, hitting .304 at the time. He batted .263 after his return, including .185 over the final 17 games of the regular season.

The troubles from last year have carried into this year, in which he’s batting a career-worst .236.

Betts wanted to clarify the point he was trying to make.

Read more:Max Muncy is back with four RBIs in Dodgers' rout of Cardinals

“I wasn’t blaming it on my hand or anything,” he said. “I was just saying since coming back, I haven’t done anything. It’s not just this season.”

Betts even went out of his way to downplay the severity of the injury or how it has affected him since.

"It wasn’t like I obliterated my hand,” he said. “It was a fracture.”

Betts pointed to how his grip strength was measured in spring training. The readings showed his grip was stronger than he was the previous year.

“There’s no correlation to anything,” he said. “I wish I could blame it on something, but nah.”

My visit to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday was prompted by what Betts told reporters after a weekend series in Tampa. The remarks in question were made when Betts was hitless in his last four games; the streak extended to a career-high five after another hitless game on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I’ve done everything I can possibly do,” Betts told reporters. “It’s up to God at this point.”

In print, at least, he sounded defeated. His quotes, I told him, were depressing.

“I don’t know if you’re watching what’s going on, but it is depressing,” Betts said with a smile.

So he still had a sense of humor.

Which isn’t to say he’s not baffled or frustrated by his lack of production.

Read more:From a day off to the leadoff spot, Dodgers try unraveling mystery of Mookie Betts' slump

“It’s unexplainable,” Betts said. “I don’t know. It sucks. You know how in Space Jam, they take your superpowers away? Kind of what it feels like. I’ve never been there, never done that, so to have that happen, I don’t know how to get out of it.”

Without any specific answers, he’s doubled down on the general philosophy that made him one of baseball’s greatest players.

He’s worked.

“That’s the only thing I can do,” he said. “The only thing I can control is my effort and my attitude.”

When Betts says he’s done everything he could do to recapture his old magic, what he’s really saying is that he’s doing everything he can.

“I hit for three or four hours a day,” he said. “At some point, your body breaks down, but I’d rather break down than not give the effort.”

Read more:'A major league shortstop, on a championship club.' Why Dodgers don't plan to move Mookie Betts

Betts showed up at Dodger Stadium before 1:30 p.m. on Monday for the series opener against the Cardinals, which started at 7:10. He hit in the batting cages, worked on his defense on the field, and participated in batting practice. He returned to the batting cages at around 4:30 and stayed there until 6:15.

“Just trying to relearn, going to the basics, relearning myself,” he said. “I had to go back and think about what I used to do in the minor leagues, [those] types of things.”

Betts might not have yet figured out the adjustments required from him to break out of his slump, but he’s also not out of ideas. He acknowledged he’s purposely sounded more clueless than he actually is in order to avoid discussing changes he’s trying to implement.

“There’s a bunch of stuff that I’m working on,” he said. “That’s stuff that, no offense to you guys, but you guys wouldn’t understand.”

The former right fielder didn’t think the workload at shortstop was the source of his problems, and he didn’t think his batspeed had declined in the last couple of years, as data from baseball’s tracking system had indicated.

“I haven’t hit the ball solid,” Betts said. “Naturally, you slow down because you try to hit the ball solid.”

Read more:Dave Roberts gives Mookie Betts a day off as season-long slump continues

While the experiment of deploying Betts as a leadoff hitter ended after only two weeks, manager Dave Roberts said he was committed to batting him near the top of the lineup.

“If that’s not confidence from a manager to a player,” Roberts said, “I don’t know what is.”

Betts rewarded Roberts’ faith on Tuesday in a 12-6 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday, as he was three for four with a double, a walk and three runs. The three-hit game was his first in almost two months.

Betts refused to read too much into the performance.

“It’s good to get the results, but it’s one game,” he said. “Every time we talk about [a good game], I go 0 for 20 after. So we’ll see about tomorrow.”

He departed the stadium uncertain of what the results would be the next day, but he knew what the process would be. He would continue to work and continue to search for answers.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Yankees fans may have been confused when they saw Devin Williams warming up to come in to pitch the eighth inning of a 0-0 game on Tuesday night.

It was less than 24 hours prior that manager Aaron Boone called on Williams to close out Monday's series opener against the Rangers. The closer allowed a game-tying homer to Joc Pederson in the Yankees' eventual loss in extra innings. So, in a high-leverage situation and riding a four-game losing streak, why did Boone call on Williams again?

"We got to piece it together there once Will [Warren] goes five, we’re set up there," Boone explained after the game. "Liked him in that middle with a handful of those righties. Obviously, just couldn’t finish it off."

Warren pitched in and out of trouble through five scoreless innings for the Yankees. Boone then used Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver to keep the Rangers off the board in the sixth and seventh innings. Unfortunately, Williams couldn't keep Texas off the board. After getting Marcus Semien to ground out to start the eighth, Adolis Garcia lined a double off the top of Jasson Dominguez's glove for a double. Williams then walked Pederson and Wyatt Langford to load the bases.

Boone had Mark Leiter Jr. -- activated Tuesday from the IL -- and David Bednar warming up, but the longtime skipper stuck with Williams. Unfortunately, Rowdy Tellez battled through a 10-pitch at-bat to line a two-run single, the difference in the game. 

"I was going to maybe go with Bednar in a four-out situation," Boone said, giving his rationale for keeping Williams on the mound. "Just shorten the game a little bit. Not a lot left down there. Leiter being in a situation where he hasn’t pitched in a while. If I could get it to a four-out scenario, I was going to do it. Felt Devin could get some swing-and-miss there, but obviously didn’t." 

"I don’t know what to say at this point," Williams said of his performance after the game. "Just continue to work, keep trying to execute and help the team any way I can."

Williams has now allowed 26 runs this season, which equals the runs allowed the three seasons prior combined. 

It's been an up-and-down season for the first-year Yankee. Williams allowed 15 earned runs from March to May, losing the closer's role to Weaver. But once Weaver went down to injury, Williams regained his spot and to his credit, he excelled. In 10 appearances in June, Williams allowed just one run. He would stay solid until the end of July. Across his last four appearances, Williams has allowed six runs over 3.2 innings, blowing two saves in the process.

"Not sure [why Williams has struggled this year]. Obviously, in the middle here, he’s been really good," Boone said. "Lately, he’s had some struggles. We got to hopefully help him turn the corner and get part of a group that can still be very good down there.

"I don’t know stuff-wise is off. A little bit command, walks have hurt him here and there. Times when he gets behind in the count have hurt him a little bit. We have to get him turned around."

Tuesday's loss was more than just Williams allowing the go-ahead runs. The Yankees offense mustered just two hits against the Rangers and have now dropped five games in a row. What's worse, the Rangers have gained two games on New York in the Wild Card standings. After the loss, and the Mariners' victory, the Yankees fell to third in the Wild Card race and remain just 0.5 games ahead of the Rangers for that final spot.

A loss to the Rangers on Wednesday will see the Yankees out of the playoffs.

With that in mind, Boone was asked where he felt things are with his team.

"Not good," he said. "We got to put it on record. If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter. We play like this and don’t string wins together, it doesn’t matter. I remain confident in this group, but we continue to say that and we have to make it happen."

It might be a cliché this time of year, how injured players who return after the trade deadline can serve as de facto deadline acquisitions themselves.

But in the case of Max Muncy and the Dodgers, the team needed it to be true. Badly.

Immediately after Muncy went down with a knee injury in early July, the club’s lineup entered a deep midseason slump. Its actual deadline acquisitions, which included only one hitter in outfielder Alex Call, had underwhelmed the fan base.

Thus, when Muncy returned to action Monday night, the Dodgers were desperately hoping the veteran slugger could provide a spark.

Twenty-four hours later, he did it with two thunderous swings.

In the Dodgers’ 12-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Muncy officially christened his comeback with a four-for-five, four-RBI performance that included a pair of no-doubt home runs off Miles Mikolas — picking up almost exactly where he left off before suffering a July 2 knee injury that he feared would end his season.

“As I was laying there on the ground that night, I thought for sure this is it,” Muncy recalled this week, after not only recovering from what proved to be just a bone bruise, but doing it two weeks faster than the initial six-week timeline the team had expected.

Read more:‘As lucky as we could be.’ Dodgers’ Max Muncy already recovering better than expected

“It’s hard to stay positive in a moment like that,” Muncy added, while reliving Michael A. Taylor’s slide into his left knee a month earlier. “But extremely thankful and blessed to be back on a baseball field this year.”

Muncy did have some rust to knock off, going hitless in three at-bats with a walk and strikeout in his first game back Monday night against crafty Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray.

On Tuesday, however, Mikolas gave him the chance to do some long-awaited damage.

In the first inning, after Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly, Muncy clobbered a center-cut, first-pitch sinker 416 feet into the right-field pavilion, giving the Dodgers a quick 2-0 lead.

In the third, after the Cardinals leveled the score on Nolan Gorman’s two-run homer off Emmet Sheehan an inning earlier, Muncy went deep again, whacking an elevated fastball 404 feet for a two-run blast.

The Dodgers (66-48) wouldn’t relinquish the lead again, going on to their first double-digit scoring effort since June 22 thanks to a five-run rally in the seventh, when Muncy also added an RBI single, and two more runs in the eighth, when Muncy tacked on his fourth hit.

Read more:Things are finally turning around for Dodgers' Roki Sasaki

There were other positive signs for the Dodgers’ recently scuffling lineup on Tuesday.

Mookie Betts, who was mired in a career-long five-game, 22 at-bat hitless streak, recorded three knocks: A double right before Muncy’s second homer in the third, a line-drive single in the fifth, and a seeing-eye grounder in the eighth.

Andy Pages, who was batting just .211 since the All-Star break, made hard contact on doubles in the sixth and the seventh.

And Teoscar Hernández, who was hitting just .213 since returning from a groin strain in May, came roaring to life with a two-homer game, going back-to-back with Muncy on a solo home run in the third before smashing a game-sealing three-run drive after Muncy's RBI single in the seventh.

Leading up to the deadline, manager Dave Roberts cited that subset of slumping hitters as potential quasi-deadline additions in their own right. Part of the reason for the team’s relative inaction at the deadline was its trust that the healthy, but scuffling, members of its lineup would get back on track down the stretch.

Still, Muncy’s eventual return had long been seen as the Dodgers’ biggest potential boon, especially after they went from leading the majors in scoring before he got hurt to ranking last in runs over the 25 games he missed.

“We’ve certainly missed him,” Roberts said ahead of Muncy’s return Monday. “The night he came off the field, you’re starting to think of it potentially being season-ending. So to get him back in a month, we’re all excited. He’s put in a lot of work to get back with this timeline. And yeah, we’ve needed him.”

Two games in, the importance of his return is already being felt.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

With Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the Guardians, the Mets have lost seven of their last eight games dating back to July 28. The team's starting pitchers, with the exception of David Peterson, have all failed to make it through the sixth inning during that stretch.

Overall, the last Mets pitcher not named Peterson to complete six innings was Clay Holmes on June 7. 

That streak continued Tuesday as manager Carlos Mendoza pulled Holmes after just 75 pitches through five innings in a 2-2 game. Holmes retired the first nine Guardians he faced, but let up three hits and two runs in the fourth inning, before bouncing back for another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth. RHP Tyler Rogers eventually let up the go-ahead run in the seventh as New York would lose its third straight contest. 

After the game, Mendoza defended the decision to go to the bullpen when he did.

"Yeah, I mean we're set up bullpen-wise there third time through," Mendoza said. "He was really good the first time through the lineup and then we saw the second time, that fourth inning, they gave him a hard time. I knew I was going to be aggressive there. The game's tied and we were set up with our bullpen guys, and we got the matchups we wanted. He did his part, he did his job."

When asked if he would have been able to pitch the sixth inning, as it appeared he had enough in the tank to do so, Holmes said he felt good but understood Mendoza's decision.

"Yeah, I mean I was feeling good, obviously it's not really my call," Holmes said. "All things considered, he felt like it was best to go to the pen there. Yeah, I was feeling good, felt like I was still able to throw the sinker down and getting outs with it.

"Just one of those things when you're in a pennant race and you have a bullpen like we do, and games are really close, there's going to be some of those decisions where everything's not really in your control. He made the decision what he thought was best, best for the team, best for the win. I said, 'Everything's not really in your control.' It's really what's best for the team there."

The right-hander said he didn't plead his case to go back out for the sixth inning, trusting the manager's move.

"No, I mean he seemed pretty confident in what he wanted to do. It was his decision," Holmes added.

Holmes is now up to a career-high 122.1 IP on the season, his first as a full-time starting pitcher. His previous career high for innings pitched came in 2021 when he threw 70.0 IP between the Pirates and Yankees. He's thrown 63.2, 63.0, and 63.0 innings in each of the past three seasons with the Yanks. The righty knows he's reaching a point where the team needs to be careful and think about the long-term implications.

"I'm feeling good," Holmes said. "Up to this point in the season, this amount of innings, I'm really kind of encouraged where I'm at. But at the same time, you can't totally be shortsighted and just totally go off how I may be feeling now. It's a really hard thing to do, just go out and triple your innings.

"Especially, like I said, we're in a pennant race and we plan to be playing in October. We all need to be our best down the stretch. Just to run full speed right now when we need to be our best down the stretch, there's more things to take into consideration. The reality of it is, yeah, my innings are getting up there. We just want to keep me feeling good. Right now, I feel like I'm in a good spot, bouncing back well. There's still more to take into account than right now."

Mendoza went with Gregory Soto first out of the bullpen, before turning to Rogers in the seventh. The trade deadline acquisition had been solid in his two previous outings with the team, but he gave up his first run as a Met and it proved to be the deciding factor.

"Yeah, I mean he's a ground ball guy and a couple of ground balls found holes," Mendoza said. "Gets two outs and then before you know it, ground ball gets through the other way, bloop single, and then the ball up the middle. That's exactly what Rogers is, gonna get ground balls from lefties and righties, and today they found holes."

New York will turn back to Peterson in the series finale against the Guardians on Wednesday, needing a strong outing from a starting pitcher and some help from the offense to end their slump.

Even with a returning Aaron Judge, the Yankees' offense was dominated by Nathan Eovaldi and Devin Williams allowed the winning run as New York fell 2-0 to the Rangers on Tuesday night.

The Yankees mustered just two hits and did not have a walk as they have now lost five games in a row.

Here are the takeaways....

-Judge returned after spending 10 days on the IL with a forearm strain but he didn't look like himself at the plate, and that was in large part due to. Eovaldi got the slugger to strike out on four pitches with the splitter down in the zone, getting Judge swinging. Eovaldi got Judge swinging on a low splitter again in the fourth. 

Judge's other at-bats include a groundout on a fastball running in on the hands and finished 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

-Will Warren had to grind on Tuesday.  He allowed a runner to get into scoring position in his first four innings with walks attributed to his inefficiency. He worked in and out of trouble, especially in the second when he walked the first two batters. He also escaped the third after he allowed a leadoff double. A Joc Pederson leadoff double in the fourth was also squandered by the Rangers as Texas was a futile 0-for-10 with RISP through four innings.

Warren would gut through five scoreless innings, tossing 98 pitches (52 strikes), allowing three hits, walking three batters and striking out five batters.

-The Yankees bullpen also kept the Rangers in check. Camilo Doval was first out of the pen and after allowing back-to-back singles to start the sixth, he worked out of trouble. Luke Weaver allowed a two-out double in the seventh but struck out Corey Seager to end the threat. 

Devin Williams, less than 24 hours after giving up the game-tying homer, came out for the eighth. Adolis Garcia hit a one-out double off the top of Jasson Dominguez's glove to set the Rangers up. Pederson and Wyatt Langford walked to load the bases for Rowdy Tellez. The left-handed slugger dumped a two-run single into center field after a 10-pitch at-bat to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. A returning Mark Leiter Jr. got the final out of the eighth.

The Tellez hit was the only one Texas had with RISP and they finished 1-for-16 with 10 left on base.

Williams has allowed 26 runs this season. He allowed just 26 runs from 2022-24. 

-In the ninth, Ryan McMahon picked up the team's second hit -- the first Yankee hit since an Anthony Volpe double in the third inning. He was erased by a Giancarlo Stanton double-play. The slugger pinch-hit for Volpe before Trent Grisham struck out to end the game.

Game MVP: Nathan Eovaldi

Eovaldi continued his dominance of his former team, and gave his team a chance to win despite Texas' poor hitting.

What's next

The Yankees and Rangers complete their three-game series on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2:35 p.m.

Carlos Rodon (11-7, 3.34 ERA) is on the mound with the Rangers sending Jack Leiter (7-6, 4.10 ERA) to the bump.

Between now and October, the Dodgers will be evaluating their increasingly healthy pitching staff, trying to identify the best 13 arms for their World Series push.

And for now, they remain hopeful that rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki could be part of that mix; writing an unexpected end to what once seemed like a lost 2025 campaign.

After being one of the biggest stories of the Dodgers’ offseason this winter, Sasaki has become more of an afterthought in the eight months since.

Back in January, the Dodgers’ acquisition of the Japanese phenom felt like a coup. The 23-year-old right-hander was billed as a future star in the making. He came advertised with a 100-mph fastball, devastating splitter and seemingly limitless potential as an ace-caliber pitcher. Most of all, he was a bargain addition financially, requiring only a $6.5-million signing bonus (for six years of team control) after making a rare early career jump from Japan.

The reality, to this point, has been nowhere near the expectation.

At the start of the season, Sasaki made eight underwhelming starts — with wild command and declining fastball velocity contributing to a 4.72 ERA — before being sidelined by a shoulder impingement.

Since then, he has sat on the injured list and largely faded into the background. An important piece of the Dodgers’ long-term plans, sure. But a wild card, at best, to contribute to their World Series defense this fall.

Lately, however, the narrative has started to shift again.

Read more:Dodgers welcome deadline additions, hopeful arrival ‘raises the floor for our ballclub’

Over the last month, Sasaki has finally started progressing in a throwing program, twice facing hitters in recent live batting practice sessions. He has another three-inning simulated game scheduled for Friday, after which he could go out on a minor-league rehab assignment.

And after his early-season struggles to locate pitches or reach triple-digit velocities, the Dodgers have been encouraged with the changes he has made to his delivery and pitch mix. In a bullpen session Tuesday, Sasaki hit 96 mph with his four-seam fastball while also showcasing a two-seamer he has added during his time injured.

“I'm expecting to see pounding of the strike zone, conviction behind the throws, and just a better performer,” manager Dave Roberts said of Sasaki, who could rejoin the active roster near the end of August.

“At the end of the day, I just think that Roki has got to believe that his stuff plays here, which we all believe it does.”

The team’s title chances, of course, don’t exactly hinge on Sasaki. If their current rotation stays healthy, they should have more than enough starting pitching depth to navigate another deep October run.

But getting Sasaki back would provide some welcome pitching insurance.

Read more:Hernández: By joining Dodgers, Roki Sasaki prioritizes development over being a team's top star

He could also be a candidate to eventually shift to the bullpen, with Roberts leaving open the possibility of using him as a hard-throwing reliever come the end of the season (even though they intend to stretch him out to six innings as starter for now).

“We’re gonna take the 13 best pitchers [into the playoffs],” Roberts said. “If Roki is a part of that in some capacity, then that would be great. And if he’s not, then he won’t be.”

For much of the summer, it seemed like a long shot the Dodgers would be having such conversations about Sasaki at this point.

For all the hype that accompanied his arrival, the results made him look like more a long-term project.

In his eight early-season starts, his fastball averaged only 96 mph, and was punished by opposing hitters for its flat, relatively easy-to-hit shape. His slider was a work-in-progress, leaving him without a reliable third pitch.

His go-to splitter did induce the occasional awkward swing from opponents, and garnered much praise from teammates. But Sasaki failed to consistently use it to generate chase out of the strike zone.

As a result, he pitched from behind in the count too often (evidenced by his 24-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio). He seemingly lacked confidence to attack opposing hitters over the plate (and gave up six home runs in just 34 ⅓ innings when he did). And once he went down with his shoulder injury (which was similar to one that had bothered him during his Japanese career), the early stages of his rehab did not go smoothly, with Sasaki requiring a pain-relieving injection in June almost two months after initially going on the IL.

Since then, though, Sasaki has finally turned a corner.

He told reporters Tuesday that he now has “no pain” and is feeling “better about being able to throw harder” upon his return.

Read more:Four major questions the Dodgers face in the second half of the season

He has used his recent ramp-up as an opportunity to reset his mechanics, and clean up an arm path that Dodgers personnel believed was affected by his shoulder problems at the start of the season.

“What we saw early on is probably not indicative of what everybody expects and has seen from him in the past when he's been 100%,” pitching coach Mark Prior said.

While out injured, Sasaki has also had an opportunity to sit back and watch big-league games up close, something Roberts and Prior insisted would be beneficial for a young pitcher who came to the majors with only 394 career innings over four seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.

“He's down there in that [dugout] stairwell when we're at home pretty much all nine innings,” Prior said. “You can't not learn by just watching and at least having some experience … I think he understands now the importance of, ‘I've got to be ahead. I've got to attack the strike zone.’ He doesn't necessarily need it to be executed precisely, but it's got to be in the strike zone. You can't be living behind in counts."

There may be no bigger sign of growth than Sasaki’s embrace of the two-seam fastball.

Before he got hurt, it was a pitch that people within the organization thought could help keep hitters off his diminished four-seam heater. Prior said that, before Sasaki was shut down, the coaching staff had initiated a conversation about adding it to his repotoire.

“Clearly, everybody would love a fast, high-riding four-seam,” Prior said. “But even that being said, these [hitters] have gotten a lot better and know how to attack those things. So just giving them different looks and stuff to lean into and keeping the righties honest, just gives him some flexibilities and some options.”

The hope is that it will help Sasaki be more competitive when he returns, and complement the rest of his highly-touted arsenal.

That, when coupled with improved health and refined mechanics, will trigger a late-season resurgence capable of making him an option for the postseason roster.

“My every intention is to get back on the major league mound and pitch again,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “With that being said, I do need to fight for the opportunity too. I don't think that I'll just be given the opportunity right away.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Mets took an early two-run lead but their bats went cold and failed to generate anything, falling to the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night, 3-2.

New York finished with just four hits.

Here are the takeaways...

-- Pete Alonso, searching for his record-tying HR, got the Mets on the board against LHP Logan Allen in the bottom of the first inning with a sacrifice fly, driving in Francisco Lindor from third base to make it a 1-0 game. It's RBI No. 91 on the season for the first baseman -- already three more than he had all of 2024.

-- After his 11-game hitting streak ended Monday, Mark Vientos picked it back up at the plate with a double to the right field corner in the second inning. He advanced to third base on Jeff McNeil's sac-bunt and scored on Tyrone Taylor's single to put New York up 2-0. The RBI-single snapped Taylor's 0-for-19 streak. Starling Marte reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases, but the Guardians turned a smooth double play on Lindor's grounder to limit the damage.

-- Clay Holmes struck out four of the first six Cleveland batters he faced with two identical innings of groundout-strikeout-strikeout. He tossed another 1-2-3 inning in the third, capping it off with his fifth strikeout of the night.

The right-hander gave up his first three hits of the night in the fourth inning, including two RBI-singles as the Guardians tied things up at 2-2. The longer inning pushed his pitch total to 68 through 4.0 IP. Holmes bounced back for another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, needing just seven pitches for two groundouts and his sixth K.

That would be all for Holmes, though, as he finished after 5.0 IP and 75 pitches. He allowed two runs on three hits with six strikeouts and a walk. David Peterson remains the only Mets starter to complete the sixth inning since Holmes did on June 7 (h/t Laura Albanese).

-- Gregory Soto replaced Holmes in the sixth and avoided trouble after hitting the leadoff man by retiring the next three Guardians. Tyler Rogers entered in the seventh and got the first two Guardians out before allowing three-straight singles, including an RBI-single up the middle to Steven Kwan as Cleveland took a 3-2 lead. Rogers then hit Daniel Schneemann in the hand to load the bases, but luckily got star José Ramírez to ground out to first to end the inning.

-- New York's hitting woes continued for the rest of the game, failing to get a hit after McNeil's leadoff single in the fourth inning. 14 straight Mets went down to end the game following Juan Soto's one-out walk in the fifth inning. Marte, Lindor, Soto, Nimmo, and Francisco Alvarez all went hitless.

-- Brooks Raley and Ryan Helsley both tossed 1-2-3 frames in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.

Game MVP: Steven Kwan 

Kwan went 2-for-4 with the go-ahead RBI in the seventh inning.

Highlights

A 1-2-3 first inning with two strikeouts for Clay Holmes pic.twitter.com/mp0Vmzbcpz

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 5, 2025

Pete Alonso hits a sac fly for his 91st RBI of the season! pic.twitter.com/9PHas8a7SW

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 5, 2025

Clay Holmes has struck out four of the first six batters of the game 💪 pic.twitter.com/5rijk96Hgp

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 5, 2025

Tyrone Taylor brings home Mark Vientos with an RBI single! pic.twitter.com/wKL720q38R

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 5, 2025

Five strikeouts in three innings for Clay Holmes 🔥 pic.twitter.com/o4y3UUfJoC

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 5, 2025

Brooks Raley throws a 1-2-3 8th inning pic.twitter.com/H1BlR9aPtx

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 6, 2025

Two strikeouts for Ryan Helsley in the 9th pic.twitter.com/r1ccjouPiQ

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 6, 2025

What's next

The Mets' three-game series with the Guardians concludes Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.

LHP DavidPeterson (7-4, 2.83 ERA) goes up against RHP Gavin Williams (6-4, 3.33 ERA).

Mets pitching prospect Nolan McLean continues to impress with another quality outing on Tuesday night.

Pitching for Triple-A Syracuse, McLean allowed just one hit on three walks (and one HBP) across 5.2 scoreless innings while striking out seven batters against the Charlotte Knights. He generated 15 swing and misses while topping out at 97.3 mph.

McLean kept the Knights off balance and cruised with the fourth inning being his only high-leverage situation. In that inning, McLean allowed a two-out walk to Andre Lipcius and Bryan Ramos followed with a single. But the right-hander bounced back with a strikeout on seven pitches. McLean would be one batter shy of getting through six innings, but a two-out walk to Will Robertson forced Syracuse to pull McLean after 96 pitches (58 strikes) thrown.

Mets reliever Huascar Brazoban was called to relieve McLean and struck out Lipcius to get through the sixth and end McLean's night.

Entering Tuesday's start, McLean has been terrific, tossing 104.0 innings split between Double-A Binghamton and Syracuse while posting a 2.60 ERA and 1.14 WHIP while striking out 113 batters.

With the Mets in potential need of some arms down the stretch, McLean -- and fellow prospect Brandon Sproat -- could be in play for a call-up. If McLean continues to pitch like this, he may leave the Mets with little choice but to call him up, especially the way the current major league starters are unable to give the team length.

Nolan McLean threw 5.2 scoreless innings for Triple-A Syracuse tonight 🔥

He allowed just one hit on the night pic.twitter.com/f0mp5AEheG

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 6, 2025

Thomson stays true to his word and Kepler pays off for Phils in win over Orioles originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Playing the role of Nostradamus isn’t in the job description for Phillies manager Rob Thomson, but being true to his word is. Because of that, he may have helped unlock a season-long slump.

Thomson had struggling outfielder Max Kepler in left against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park, instead of newly acquired Harrison Bader, who smashed a huge home run the previous night.

His reasoning?

“I promised these guys (outfielders) for the first six days (after trade deadline) we were going to platoon them,” Thomson said. “I know Bader has good numbers against (Dean Kremer) but Kepler is 1 for 4 with a homer, too. But I’m going to stay to my word.”

Bader was 3 for 6 in his career with an RBI against the Orioles’ right-hander. Well, Kepler is now 3 for 7 with a double, two home runs and three RBI. That’s because he homered and doubled against Kremer Tuesday, lifting the Phillies to a quick and efficient 5-0 win over Baltimore in front of a sellout crowd.

It was the fourth win in five games for the Phillies, who improved to 65-48, their biggest margin over the .500 mark since 36-19 back in late May.

To put it mildly, it’s been a tough season for Kepler, who entered Tuesday with just a .200 average and has found himself being platooned a little more than he anticipated when he signed during the offseason with the thought that he was the everyday left fielder. Whether his performance Tuesday was the start of something or not, he’s trying not to think too much about it.

“To be honest, it does get to me,” Kepler said after hitting his 12th home run of the season. “I’m an overthinker, even before I started playing this game. I try and analyze what I did right and wrong in the past and what’s to come in the future and it takes away from the present. I have to remind myself what my support team reminds me, is that I’m in a beautiful place in a beautiful opportunity and to enjoy the moment regardless of rough patches.

“I’ve had plenty of these rough patches in my career. I think being in a new place, a new setting, you want to make a good impression. I still do. That’s not going to fade until the season’s over and the job is done. It’s baseball and I just have to put my head down and keep going and try to stay as present as I can.”

The once smattering of boos have grown, but Kepler knows and has the experience in the game to not let that get to him more than it should.

“It’s an amazing crowd whether it’s boos or cheers,” he said. “I think it’s their love language when they boo. I’ve separated myself from that even when they cheer. You’re kind of just in your zone as a player. The fact that they come out and support, rain or shine, boos or cheers, is phenomenal on their end.”

Phenomenal is one of the many adjectives that could be used to describe the outing by starter Taijuan Walker against the Orioles, as he allowed just four hits, no walks and struck out four in his six innings of work. Thomson said it was the best he’s seen of his starter/reliever/starter/reliever/starter in about two years.

“Had a really good splitter today, good cutter,” Walker explained. “I feel like I’m getting stronger, getting better. My stuff is feeling really good right now. I’m just making them put the ball in play, trusting my defense. I know I’m not going to strike out 10 guys, so just try to get quick outs and see if I can go deep into games.

“The velo held really well today. Just mixing the pitches and just pound the zone. I think it was one of my better games in a long time. With everything thrown at me this year, really just whatever I can do for the team and just go out there and give the team the best chance to win.”

Another part of that outfield platoon gang was heard from again as Brandon Marsh went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run and two runs scored. Since the end of April, Marsh has hit at a .302 clip. In his last 11 games, he is slashing .433/469/.867 with four doubles, three home runs and five RBI while scoring seven runs.

“I treat it day by day, and I come in ready to play and if my name’s not called, my name’s not called and I’ll be the best supporter I can be out there,” Marsh said. “I just take it day by day and show up and be as prepared as I can be.

“I’ve just simplified it a lot. I had a lot of moving parts to start of the year. The competition out there is pretty dang good, so I had to simplify to be where I wanted to be. That’s kind of the word I’ve been riding the last couple of months, to just simplify.”

As for who the everyday outfielders may become or if Walker is implemented as a sixth starter down the stretch, those are not going to be simple answers for Thomson. And right now that seems to be a good problem.

The only part of the game in which Phillies fans were a bit disgruntled was in the ninth inning with a five-run lead, when Thomson didn’t bring in electric closer Jhoan Duran for the final outs of the game. But even the semi-boos were in jest as there really hasn’t been much to be upset about when it comes to this team lately.

You can take anybody’s word on that.

Garrett Crochet continues to reach rarefied air in Red Sox strikeout history originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Red Sox opted to skip Garrett Crochet for his turn in the rotation last week. The extra rest certainly looked like it helped when the ace took the mound on Tuesday night against the Royals.

Despite allowing a run in the fourth inning and one more in the seventh, Crochet powered up to record his final two outs of the night via strikeout. That left him with eight strikeouts in the outing — a modest total by his standards, but impressive when considering that the Royals have the second-fewest strikeouts in Major League Baseball.

Those strikeouts also lifted Crochet into the MLB lead for strikeouts this season with 183, one more than Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler and two more than Detroit’s Tarik Skubal.

BEAST. pic.twitter.com/zNfFVt4B4D

— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 6, 2025

The Red Sox, perhaps drawing some inspiration from Crochet’s emotional exit from the mound following that inning-ending strikeout, plated three runs in the bottom of the seventh en route to a 6-2 victory, ensuring their fourth consecutive series win. Crochet improved to 13-4, though the two earned runs over seven innings ticked up his ERA ever so slightly from 2.23 to 2.24.

Beyond that, though, the 6-foot-6 lefty continued to make his mark in Red Sox history.

As noted by StatsCentre, Crochet currently has the sixth-best strikeouts-per-nine rate in Red Sox franchise history with a minimum of 145 innings pitched, trailing only Chris Sale (2018, 2019, 2017) and Pedro Martinez (1999, 2000, 2002).

On the mound tonight for his streaking @RedSox in their clash against the Royals, Garret Crochet has had a 2025 worthy of AL Cy Young consideration. If he pitches at least 4 innings tonight, his current strikeouts per 9 IP mark would put him 6th on this franchise list of seasons pic.twitter.com/Es0Fto93gw

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) August 5, 2025

Crochet joined a list with two other Red Sox legends, too. WEEI pregame and postgame host Joe Weil pointed out on X that Crochet has gone 9-0 with a 2.45 ERA and 94 strikeouts over his past 11 starts. Only two other pitchers in Red Sox history have delivered the same results in 11 starts: Martinez and Roger Clemens.

(Last month, after pitching a complete-game shutout with zero walks, Crochet joined another short list of Red Sox pitchers who had done the same since 1990: Curt Schilling, Martinez and Clemens.)

Obviously, Crochet still has plenty of time to continue this Cy Young-caliber season, and manager Alex Cora said postgame that he doesn’t anticipate any more planned skipped starts for the ace of his staff.

And for as much as Crochet’s season has placed the pitcher in rarefied air with some of the true pitching greats in franchise history, Cora shared that he is viewing Crochet’s season in comparison with last year, when the lefty was toiling for a White Sox team that was arguably the worst team in the modern era. Now, Crochet is pitching in front of a sold-out crowd at Fenway Park, with the Red Sox making a real run to the postseason.

“I think the fans kind of understood where we were. They stood up, and the two-strike clap, and they got very loud,” Cora said of Crochet’s final strikeout on Tuesday. “I mean, shoot, think about his season last year. As a team and for him, right, it was kind of like up and down. [He had an] innings limit and all that stuff. And now, this is what he wanted to do, just pitch. And we’re gonna let him do that.”

Of that final punchout, Crochet said he “just wanted that strikeout pretty bad” and also spoke about how much he’s enjoyed pitching inside a raucous Fenway atmosphere.

“Yeah, it’s a fun atmosphere right now,” Crochet said. “I can only imagine what it’s going to be in a couple months, but, you know, that’s why we’ve got to keep working. We’ve still got, I don’t even know how many games left — 45 or 50 or something like that. But yeah, it feels really good playing here in Boston.