Hours removed from another rough outing in San Francisco’s 9-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Monday night, the team announced Tuesday morning that Hayden Birdsong was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Birdsong threw just six strikes in his first 25 pitches in the opening inning, and he now has 17 walks in his last 13 innings. It was the first time in 37 career appearances that the young righty didn’t record an out.
Over his last seven starts, he has a whopping 8.13 ERA.
Hayden Birdsong and Tristan Beck were optioned to Triple-A, Carson Seymour and Sean Hjelle are back. The bullpen needs fresh arms right away and they now have a hole in the rotation (for Seymour, Carson Whisenhunt or bullpen games) as Birdsong tries to figure things out.
In corresponding moves, the Giants recalled Carson Seymour and Sean Hjelle from Triple-A Sacramento.
The Giants dropped their sixth consecutive game Monday night as they continue to seek their first win of the second half of the season.
Change was needed for San Francisco, and it hopes its latest roster moves can provide a spark for at least the second and third games of the series against Atlanta.
After that, Buster Posey and Co. might have to think longer term.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott left the game in the ninth inning Monday night after feeling pain in his left pitching arm.
It occurred when Scott was pitching to Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers with one out.
“He said it felt like a sting,” manager Dave Roberts said, adding that an X-ray and manual testing didn't reveal any issues. Scott will have an MRI on Tuesday.
However, Roberts said it's likely Scott will need to go on the injured list.
“Hopefully it’s something that’s more of a scare and then we can kind of put him on ice for a little bit and get him back,” he said.
Scott is 1-2 with a 4.14 ERA and a team-leading 19 saves this season. He gave up a run and walked two on 22 pitches in two-thirds of an inning before leaving the game.
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani delivers against the Minnesota Twins during the third inning of the Dodgers' 5-2 win on Monday night. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
It was quality over quantity for the Dodgers on Monday night. A bunch of empty at-bats, salvaged by a few emphatic drives that left the ballpark.
In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers’ slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.
Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.
A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers’ supposed powerhouse offense.
Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, “we've had more than half of our lineup really scuffle” for the last six weeks running.
“The offense scuffling the way it has,” Friedman added, “was something that I didn’t expect over this kind of protracted period of time.”
On Monday, though, the Dodgers did rectify at least one issue plaguing their recent offensive struggles. After hitting only 19 total home runs in their first 15 games in July, they went deep four times against the Twins (48-52), with Andy Pages adding an insurance shot in the seventh inning against reliever Cole Sands. It marked only the fifth time this season they hit at least four homers in a single contest.
Ohtani provided the night’s first big swing, immediately erasing the leadoff blast he gave up to Byron Buxton in the top of the first while making his sixth pitching start of the season.
In his second game occupying the second spot in the batting order, the two-way star wasn’t forced to rush between the mound and the plate (something manager Dave Roberts hoped would be a side benefit of replacing him with Mookie Betts as the team’s leadoff hitter). He was able to go through his normal routine of on-deck swings while watching Betts draw a five-pitch walk.
Then, for the first time in his six games as a pitcher this season, Ohtani not only got a hit, but clobbered a hanging changeup in a 2-and-1 count, launching his 35th home run of the season 441 feet to straightaway center.
From there, the Dodgers (59-42) kept playing long ball.
Festa, a second-year right-hander who entered the night with a 5.25 earned-run average, retired the next nine batters he faced before Smith came up to lead off the fourth.
Festa got ahead 1-and-2 in the count, before throwing a changeup that Smith fought off and missing wide with a slider. Festa’s next pitch was a fastball left over middle. Smith, the one Dodgers hitter who has been swinging a hot bat of late, didn’t miss it, going the other way to make the score 3-1.
Festa was still in the game when Smith came back up in the sixth. Once again, the pitcher made a mistake, hanging a slider over the heart of the plate. Once again, Smith was all over it, sending a souvenir into the left-field pavilion for his 14th home run, and first multi-homer game since last July.
Will Smith hits his second solo home run of the game in the sixth inning for the Dodgers against the Twins on Monday night. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
With the two blasts, Smith raised his National League-leading batting average to .327. Since the start of July, he is 15 for 40 with a 1.163 OPS.
By the time Pages added to the lead in the seventh, whacking his 18th of the season deep to left, the game was already in hand.
Despite giving up plenty of hard contact and lacking the pinpoint command he’d flashed in his previous starts, Ohtani kept the Twins off the board over the rest of his three-inning outing, collecting three strikeouts over a season-high 46 pitches to finish the night with a 1.50 ERA.
After that, converted starter Dustin May followed with a productive bulk outing from the bullpen, scattering five hits over 4 ⅔ scoreless innings.
The Dodgers did not get out of Monday unscathed. In the top of the ninth, closer Tanner Scott left the game alongside a trainer after walking one batter, hitting another and then spiking a slider that left him grimacing.
As he left the field, he appeared to be flexing his left throwing arm — a potentially troubling sign for a Dodgers team that was already in need of bullpen reinforcements ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
But on Monday, at least, the team survived, with James Outman denying Carlos Correa a potential tying three-run homer off Scott’s replacement, Kirby Yates, with a leaping catch at the center-field wall for the night’s final out.
SEATTLE (AP) — Brandon Woodruff tossed six innings of two-hit ball and the Milwaukee Brewers won their 11th straight, 6-0 over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
Woodruff (2-0) needed just 62 pitches to make it through his third start of the season, giving up two singles and walking none. The right-hander missed all of the 2024 season because of surgery on his pitching shoulder, and has been brought along slowly by the Brewers since his debut on July 6.
The Brewers scored twice in the eighth off Mariners left-hander Brandyn Garcia, who made his major league debut after being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma earlier in the day. Milwaukee (60-40) joined Detroit as the only teams to reach 60 wins so far this season.
Key moment
Joey Ortiz’s one-out single in the sixth broke up Kirby’s no-hit bid and started a huge rally for the Brewers. William Contreras drove home the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly, which was followed by RBI singles from Christian Yelich and Isaac Collins, and an RBI double by Jackson Chourio.
Key stat
The Brewers are two victories away from tying Minnesota for the longest win streak in the majors this season. The Twins won 13 straight from May 3-19.
Up next
Brewers All-Star rookie Jacob Misiorowski (4-1, 2.81) will start the second game of the series against the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (2-3, 3.39).
On Monday night, Mets right-hander Kodai Senga looked like a pitcher on the mound for the first time in 10 days and making just his second start in over a month.
The sharpness from routine and the swings and misses from hitters looking to protect the strike zone as forkballs dive below the strike zone was nowhere to be found.
“It all comes down to mechanics,” Senga said after lasting just three laborious innings in what would end up being a 7-5 comeback win after the starter put them in an early hole.
Senga, who allowed the game's first batter to reach for the ninth time in 15 starts this year, surrendered four runs on four hits with three walks, including three two-out runs in a third inning that saw him throw 37 of 73 pitches. Monday's outing ended a streak of 31 starts of allowing three runs or fewer.
The diagnosis was pretty simple from manager Carlos Mendoza.
“I feel like he had a hard time with all of his pitches,” he said. “At times, he threw a couple of good splits. But then there were some of them that were non-competitive.
“He got away from his fastball a little bit, the cutter wasn’t a pitch. And then with two outs [in the third]... they got pitches to hit and then they didn’t miss ‘em.”
Senga’s diagnosis was not too dissimilar.
“I was thinking about a lot of things, and it didn’t come to fruition,” the right-hander said, speaking through an interpreter, before adding, “I used my brain quite a bit today.”
For Senga, who began the year with a 1.47 ERA over his first 73.2 innings before a stint on the IL cost him a month before returning for one outing before the All-Star break, the absence of thought was a good thing.
“I think, ideally, you’re so dominant that you don’t have to think about anything. But, obviously, it’s not easy,” Senga said. “Not thinking too much about myself, thinking about the opposing hitters is the most important thing.”
Perhaps the busy mind was the result of trying to figure out why the Angels hitters – who are some of the most likely strikeout candidates in the majors – seemed to show no interest in swinging at Senga’s forkball, which entered Monday’s start with a 42 percent whiff rate.
“I think towards the beginning of the game they were swinging when it was landing, but throughout the game maybe [I was] too heavy on the offspeed and not enough fastballs,” Senga said. “That’s a conversation we’ll have with the catchers and the pitching coaches.”
In all, Senga did manage five strikeouts and the forkball did garner six whiffs on seven swings, but it was taken for a ball 12 times. And overall, half of the 10 whiffs came on pitches thrown inside the strike zone. Notably, Senga looked displeased when he got Mike Trout swinging in the first inning when the future Hall of Fame slugger whiffed at a forkball that hovered into a dangerous spot.
Before his next start, Senga said he will reflect on what went wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Mets will hope the thinking between starts will do the trick as they will look to continue to build him back up after he was capped at 80 pitches in his first start of the season’s second half.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Kansas City Royals plan to call up 45-year-old pitcher Rich Hill from the minors for a start against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, marking the left-hander’s 21st season in the majors.
Hill has been at Triple-A Omaha after joining the Royals as part of an offseason trade. He is 4-4 with a 5.36 ERA in nine starts at Omaha.
Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro confirmed the club’s plans after Monday night’s 12-4 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Hill appeared in four games last season for Boston. A start on Tuesday will make him the oldest active player in baseball.
Hill made 11 postseason starts during his four years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, including two World Series starts in 2017 and another in 2018. He went 11-5 during the latter regular season.
Hill is 90-74 with a 4.01 ERA in 368 career MLB games. He has pitched 1,409 innings and has struck out 1,428.
Monday wasn't just a return to the majors for Francisco Alvarez; it was a culmination of hard work and a good attitude by the Mets catcher that the organization and fans have grown accustomed to seeing during his young career.
So, before his first at-bat with New York after he spent a month in Triple-A diligently working on all the things that the team asked him to do, the fans showed their continued appreciation and support of the 23-year-old by giving him a standing ovation.
Francisco Alvarez gets a big hand from the Citi Field crowd before his first at-bat pic.twitter.com/XkZHeztMJx
Not only was it deserved after the work he put in down in the minors (with the results to match), the love from the crowd served as a reminder to Alvarez that they've got his back no matter what.
"It felt really good just because of all the struggles that I’ve had earlier in the season and the way that they’ve kept supporting me and the way they received me today, through all the hard work that I’ve been putting in, it felt really special to me to be able to get that reception from the fans," Alvarez said through a translator. "I’m super appreciative of all the fans here."
Even manager Carlos Mendoza could feel the love from the dugout and thanked Mets fans for the gesture.
"From the very beginning, it was really special for us to see the reception from the fan base," the skipper said after the game. "I didn’t even think anything until he’s walking towards the plate and everybody’s on their feet. Like, shoutout to the fans today because that was special. I feel like he felt it, it meant something for him, it meant something for all of us in the dugout, so that was just the very beginning there."
It started with his defense, which had become a problem this season, especially in blocking. Put right to the test with Kodai Senga and his dastardly ghost fork on the mound, Alvarez picked a few balls in the dirt on a night that Senga also didn't have his usual control on some of his other pitches.
With Senga done after just three innings, it was obvious New York would need to use a few relievers to finish out the game. The first of those relievers was Kevin Herget, who was making just his third appearance this season.
Herget, with the help of Alvarez, pitched 2.1 scoreless innings to keep the Mets in the game. In fact, the five relievers out of New York's bullpen pitched six innings and allowed just one run, allowing the Mets to stage their comeback. At the heart of it all was Alvarez, who added a caught stealing and had a nice tag on an out at home plate.
Meanwhile, after hitting 11 home runs for Syracuse, Alvarez showed off a much calmer approach at the plate. He walked twice and then had a huge double in the eighth inning that led to the winning run.
Mendoza noticed it all, offensively and defensively, and was proud of how the catcher handled it, particularly after such a long absence from the team.
"Just watching him the whole game, the takes, couple of walks, and then for him to drive the ball like that against a righty, that’s a really good sign," Mendoza said. "Kind of like what we’ve been seeing the past two weeks or so. But it’s just the confidence that you can see it in the box… and it’s just knowing that he’s in control of the at-bat so it was really good to see."
"It feels good and it’s super important, especially because we got the win," Alvarez said about his overall game. "Had we lost this game, and I would’ve hit that double and I would’ve thrown out the runner, it wouldn’t have felt the same. We’re here for the reason of winning, that’s the most important thing for all of us and I think that’s why it was so special to have success on both sides."
The goal of every big league ball player is to make the impact plays that help the team win. If that comes at the plate or in the field, everyone wants to be the guy who makes things happen when it matters.
“Just trying to have quality at-bats, hit the ball hard, and play good defense,” Baty said of his performance on both sides of the ball. “I feel like I’m in a good spot.”
His first big moment of the game came with two down in the home half of the fourth with Jeff McNeil on first and the Mets in a 4-0 hole. Facing lefty Tyler Anderson, Baty got ahead 2-0 with a good eye laying off a tough low-and-away slider. He then got a sinker that slid right into the happy zone and put the barrel on the ball to drive it 404 feet to right-center for a two-run home run, his 11th on the season and second of the current homestand.
Despite it being Baty’s first home run off a left-handed pitcher on the season, the lefty swinger said taking the southpaw deep didn’t mean anything extra. “Just trying to have quality at-bats,” he said after a quick shake of the head.
With one out in the top of the seventh and runners on the corners, after the Angels pushed their lead back to three runs, Baty leaped to field a Jo Adell chopper, collected himself, and threw home to easily nab Mike Trout at the plate. It wasn't that difficult of a play, but one his opposite number, Yoán Moncada, failed to make later in the game that saw Baty score the game-winning run.
“I thought they were both good,” Baty said of his homer and throw to the plate.
Was one more pivotal than the other? “No, I think without either one of those, then I don’t know if we win the game, so I think both of them were crucial for sure.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza feels like the young infielder is “getting to a point now where like every little thing that he does, he knows that it’s meaningful.”
“Good player that is having good results, offensively, defensively – not only at third, [but] at second base,” Mendoza said. “Just good to see him continue to develop here.”
In the last 13 games, Baty has been seeing the ball much better, with 11 hits in 35 at-bats (.314), including three home runs and five RBI. Asked if anything has changed, he just shook his head once more, "No, I'm just trying to be the best player I can be. Just trying to have quality at-bats, I feel like I did when I started the year, feel like I did when I was in spring training, so, just trying to be me.”
Mendoza called Baty a “confident player” who is getting results thanks in part to knowing that he’s going to be in the lineup each day.
“He continues to help us win baseball games,” Mendoza said, adding that at the big league level, “It’s all about winning here. And, a lot of times, when you come from the minor leagues, it takes some time” to adjust to making the winning play every time.
"Like, ‘hey, man, it’s a team effort here,’” the skipper continued. “If you get a guy over, if you make a play, you [might be] 0-for-4, but you’re still contributing."
The one spot Baty may have just been a tick slow came on the basepaths in the eighth inning when Francisco Alvarez lined a double off the wall in right field with one out and the score tied. “I just wish I could have scored for him on that double,” Baty said of the catcher playing in his first game back in the big leagues after a stint at Triple-A.
Of course, Baty is being a bit harsh on himself. The ball only found the wall because Angels right fielder Chris Taylor misplayed the drive and likely should have come up with the catch. Baty got near second base before he started backtracking toward first as Taylor looked settled under the ball, but he still managed to speed around to third when the ball fell in.
When Baty crossed the plate after Moncada’s throw got past Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe one batter later, his baserunning ‘mistake’ was totally forgotten.
The Mets came back from four runs down by taking advantage of some shoddy defense by the Los Angeles Angels to grab a 7-5 win on Monday night at Citi Field.
Kodai Senga, lacking sharpness and striking no fear in the Angels -- who showed no fear in laying off the Ghost Fork below the strike zone -- managed to go just three frames as his streak of 31 starts of allowing three runs or fewer ended. But New York's bullpen bought enough time for the bats to respond with a three-run seventh and two-run eighth to improve to 57-44 on the season and 35-16 at home.
Here are the takeaways...
- Down three in the seventh, the Mets came alive when Francisco Alvarez, in his first game back after his demotion, led off with a walk and Luisangel Acuña singled up the middle to knock out Angels starter Tyler Anderson who had been terrific. Reliever Reid Detmers came on and plunked Brandon Nimmo to load the bases. Francisco Lindor grounded into a run-scoring 6-4 fielder’s choice, beating the relay to first and then swiping second without a throw. That proved big as Juan Soto, in a 3-for-30 skid, knocked a base hit up the middle to score a pair and tie the game.
- Down 1-0 with one out in the second, Jeff McNeil looped a single over the second baseman's head and Mark Vientos followed with a lined smash to left, but the Mets failed to do anything with the opportunity against Anderson, as Brett Baty and Alvarez grounded out.
Baty, with two down and McNeil on first after he walked, redeemed himself in the fourth, clubbing a 2-0 Anderson sinker in the lefty happy zone 404 feet to right for a two-run shot to halve the deficit. The 106.3 mph rocket was Baty's 11th on the year and first against a southpaw. McNeil finished 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Baty finished 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Vientos went 1-for-4.
- Alvarez got another chance with the go-ahead runner on first and one down in the eighth, and came up big, taking a low-and-away 97 mph fastball and driving it off the wall in right for a double, aided by Angels right fielder Chris Taylor misplaying the 375-foot smash.
With runners on second and third, Ronny Mauricio (pinch-hitting for Acuña) grounded it to third, but Yoán Moncada’s throw home was off target and got past the catcher to allow Baty to score the go-ahead run on a play he should have been out on by 10 feet. Nimmo added a sac fly to right to give the Mets a 7-5 lead.
At the plate, Alvarez looked much quieter and worked a pair of walks, to finish 1-for-2 with two walks.
- Edwin Diaz, looking to shake off a blown save in Sunday’s win, struck out the side on 14 pitches to nail down the win.
- Other than Soto’s two-RBI hit, the struggles for the Mets’ heart of the order continued. Lindor, who entered the game in an 0-for-21 slump, popped out twice on the infield as he went 0-for-5 with an RBI. Soto made three straight first-pitch outs, making solid contact on a flyout to center as he went 1-for-4. And Pete Alonso, with just eight hits in his last 48 at-bats (.167) over his last 14 games, went 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout.
- Senga opened the game by allowing the first batter to reach for the ninth time in 15 starts with a walk, but a strikeout and two good defensive plays on balls in the infield saw him settle into the game.
With two down in the second, Logan O'Hoppe got a center-cut cutter and drove it into the visitor's bullpen for a 401-foot solo home run, 107 mph off the bat.
Senga’s lack of sharpness was apparent with two down in the third. He surrendered a leadoff infield hit to third before getting the next two, but then walked Mike Trout as the Angels continued to have little interest in chasing the splitter. Then Taylor Ward took a 2-1 cutter that got too much of the middle of the plate for a two-run double to left. The Mets probably should have got Trout at the plate, but Nimmo's throw to Lindor was a bit high and the shortstop’s throw to the plate went over everybody’s heads. Jo Adell took a first-pitch fastball to right for a single to make it a three-run inning. Senga issued one more walk before ending the inning with a strikeout on his 37th pitch of the frame.
His final line: 3.0 innings, four runs on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts on 73 pitches (39 strikes). Senga's average velocity was down at least a mph on all of his pitches, with the average forkball velocity down 2.2 mph and the average sinker velocity down 1.9 mph. He managed 10 whiffs on 26 swings, but half of those came on pitches inside the strike zone.
- Called on early, the bullpen responded well at first. Righty Kevin Herget worked 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing just two singles. Chris Devenski entered with a man on first and one out in the sixth, and got a strikeout and groundout.
But Devenski had nothing in the seventh, after a single and caught stealing, a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and a single to right scored the Angels’ fifth run and put runners on the corners.
Huascar Brazobán got a 5-2 putout with Baty and Alvarez combining well before a strikeout stranded two runners in the seventh. Brooks Raley allowed a two-out single in a scoreless eighth.
- Part of the reason Alvarez was sent down was to work on his receiving, blocking, and all things defense. In the first, he had plenty of opportunities to block and pick balls as Senga struggled to find the zone or get chases. He did well to pounce on a little dribbler in front of the plate and snap a throw to first to get the final out. Alvarez later gunned down Zach Neto trying to steal second for the first out in the seventh, aided by a fine tag by Lindor.
Game MVP: Bullpen
The work from Herget, Devenski, Brazobán, Raley, and Diaz kept the Mets in the game and shut the door after Senga failed to get to double-digit outs.
The two sides are right back at it Tuesday night for a 7:10 p.m. first pitch in Flushing.
Right-hander Frankie Montas (5.03 ERA, 1.169 WHIP in 19.2 innings) climbs the hill for New York in his fifth start of the season. Righty Kyle Hendricks (4.88 ERA, 1.292 WHIP in 96.0 innings) toes the rubber for Los Angeles for his 19th start of the campaign.
The Yankees lost the series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night by a score of 4-1.
Here are the takeaways...
-Things were going okay for Carlos Rodón until a four-run fifth inning put an abrupt end to his night. Holding on to a 1-0 lead, Rodón began the inning with a walk to George Springer. It was his fifth walk of the night as the lefty had trouble with his command. Up until then, the walks didn't come back to bite Rodón, who maneuvered through traffic on the basepaths, including twice with the bases loaded.
-Things started to cave in, though, during the fifth following the leadoff walk. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled and Bo Bichette drove in two with a double, which gave Toronto the lead. After retiring the next two batters, Rodón's defense let him down.
-Throwing errors by third baseman Oswald Peraza and shortstop Anthony Volpe on routine ground balls scored two more runs, both unearned. Rodón was finally able to put the inning to bed by striking out Joey Loperfido, but not before throwing 40 pitches in the inning (which included a 14-pitch at-bat against Davis Schneider that resulted in a pop out).
-Rodon's final line: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 K on 107 pitches (66 strikes).
-Offensively, the Yankees were outmatched by Kevin Gausman, who handled them over seven innings. He allowed a run on four hits and two walks while striking out eight.
-The only run New York scored came in the fourth inning on Giancarlo Stanton's leadoff home run. The blast, Stanton's fifth of the season, gave the Yanks a 1-0 advantage as the designated hitter stayed red-hot. Stanton is now slashing .421/.522/.947 with three home runs over his last seven games.
-Trent Grisham had a two-out double in the third inning, but after Gausman intentionally walked Aaron Judge, the right-hander struck out Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was batting third in the lineup. Despite phenomenal numbers against Gausman, Judge finished 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
Game MVP: Kevin Gausman
In command all night, Gausman was able to silence the Yankees' hot bats.
The Yankees continue their series against their division-leading rivals on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m.
RHP Cam Schlittler (1-0, 5.06 ERA) will make his second career start and will be opposed by veteran RHP Max Scherzer (1-0, 4.70 ERA), who is making his sixth start of the season and 463rd of his career.
When you’ve been around the game of baseball for forty years the way Phillies manager Rob Thomson has, there aren’t many things that are going to surprise or shock you. Check that box not once, but twice. And all in the span of a couple of weeks.
The Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox Monday at Citizens Bank Park on a – get this – walk-off catcher’s interference in the 10th inning for a 3-2 series-opening victory.
Edmundo Sosa, who pinch-hit earlier in the game for Bryson Stott, was the beneficiary of the unimaginable, game-ending play when he reached for a 1-2 slider from reliever Jordan Hicks and made contact with Red Sox catcher Carlos Nervaez’ glove. This forced home the winning run in one of the oddest endings in Thomson’s career. The other came on July 8 in San Francisco when the Phillies lost on an inside-the-park, three-run home run.
“There’s two things this year that I’ve never seen before in 40 years and one is a walk-off inside-the-park home run and one is a walk off catcher’s interference,” Thomson shrugged.
The end came after a night of oddities in the game. Pitcher Zack Wheeler, who had a 0.79 ERA in his last five games at Citizens Bank Park, gave up a leadoff home run to Jarren Duran to start the game and put the Phillies in a 1-0 hole. As expected, he battled all night though his stuff wasn’t his best. The Phillies gave him a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Bryce Harper doubled and scored on a Nick Castellanos single.
Castellanos then took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by J.T. Realmuto. The Red Sox scored a run to tie it on three consecutive hits in the sixth off Wheeler, before he struck out the last two batters of the inning. That was his night after six, as he gave up just the two runs and struck out 10.
After Realmuto’s single in the fourth, the Phillies sent 22 hitters to the plate. They got just one hit but were able to push through the winning run to improve to 57-43 on the year. They still hold a half-game lead over the Mets atop the East.
“It was a little rough for me, I was a little bit out of sync,” said WheeIer. “I felt great, but just a little out of sync. Aggressive team and you have to get back in there but not too much in the zone. It wasn’t as crisp as I’d like, but we got out of it. Every game’s a big one, from the first game of the year to the last one. The wins, they add up. If you don’t think every game’s a big game, at the end of the season you might be going home early. Got to win that game, got to win the series.” No matter how oddly you do it.
Phillies reliever Max Lazar came in for the tenth inning with Rob Refsnyder placed at second base. Lazar paid no attention as he got a strikeout, groundout and another strikeout to end the top of the tenth. Then things got really strange.
With Brandon Marsh place at second, Otto Kemp got a four-pitch walk from Hicks. A wild pitch put runners and second and third and the Red Sox intentionally walked Max Kepler to load the bases. Up stepped Sosa, who had the lone hit during the Phillies dry spell from the fourth inning on. After looking at two strikes, he laid off a 101 mile-an-hour sinker and fouled off another before becoming part of one of the strangest endings any of us will ever see. Including a man that has been in the game for 40-years.
“I just thought of defending the zone, staying short to the ball.” said Sosa. “Then he goes out with that slider away and I go after it. I feel my barrel is a little late on the pitch and as I go with my swing path I feel like I hit the catcher’s glove and I told the ump that I thought I felt something. We all saw that afterwards.
It’s the first time it happened in my career like this. This feels like a home run because the most important thing about it is we end up winning the game and that’s what we go out to do.”
Asked if it was his first walk-off of his career, Sosa couldn’t remember. “In Philly it’s the first one for sure.”
And certainly one he’ll never forget.
None of it would have been possible if it was for the gutsy performance by Lazar, who picked up his first win of his major league career.
“Being in the minor leagues for the past few years we’re kind of the test dummies for what MLB is implementing so I’ve had experience with the pitch clock and the ghost runner on second,” said Lazar. “I think that definitely helped. I’ve pitched in a lot of situations this year. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re a young guy. So just being ready every day. Whenever that inning comes or that phone rings I can go out there and give it my all.”
And it may just lead to you winning your first major league game in absolutely unforgettable fashion.
When you’ve been around the game of baseball for forty years the way Phillies manager Rob Thomson has, there aren’t many things that are going to surprise or shock you. Check that box not once, but twice. And all in the span of a couple of weeks.
The Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox Monday at Citizens Bank Park on a – get this – walk-off catcher’s interference in the 10th inning for a 3-2 series-opening victory.
Edmundo Sosa, who pinch-hit earlier in the game for Bryson Stott, was the beneficiary of the unimaginable, game-ending play when he reached for a 1-2 slider from reliever Jordan Hicks and made contact with Red Sox catcher Carlos Nervaez’ glove. This forced home the winning run in one of the oddest endings in Thomson’s career. The other came on July 8 in San Francisco when the Phillies lost on an inside-the-park, three-run home run.
“There’s two things this year that I’ve never seen before in 40 years and one is a walk-off inside-the-park home run and one is a walk off catcher’s interference,” Thomson shrugged.
The end came after a night of oddities in the game. Pitcher Zack Wheeler, who had a 0.79 ERA in his last five games at Citizens Bank Park, gave up a leadoff home run to Jarren Duran to start the game and put the Phillies in a 1-0 hole. As expected, he battled all night though his stuff wasn’t his best. The Phillies gave him a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Bryce Harper doubled and scored on a Nick Castellanos single.
Castellanos then took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by J.T. Realmuto. The Red Sox scored a run to tie it on three consecutive hits in the sixth off Wheeler, before he struck out the last two batters of the inning. That was his night after six, as he gave up just the two runs and struck out 10.
After Realmuto’s single in the fourth, the Phillies sent 22 hitters to the plate. They got just one hit but were able to push through the winning run to improve to 57-43 on the year. They still hold a half-game lead over the Mets atop the East.
“It was a little rough for me, I was a little bit out of sync,” said WheeIer. “I felt great, but just a little out of sync. Aggressive team and you have to get back in there but not too much in the zone. It wasn’t as crisp as I’d like, but we got out of it. Every game’s a big one, from the first game of the year to the last one. The wins, they add up. If you don’t think every game’s a big game, at the end of the season you might be going home early. Got to win that game, got to win the series.” No matter how oddly you do it.
Phillies reliever Max Lazar came in for the tenth inning with Rob Refsnyder placed at second base. Lazar paid no attention as he got a strikeout, groundout and another strikeout to end the top of the tenth. Then things got really strange.
With Brandon Marsh place at second, Otto Kemp got a four-pitch walk from Hicks. A wild pitch put runners and second and third and the Red Sox intentionally walked Max Kepler to load the bases. Up stepped Sosa, who had the lone hit during the Phillies dry spell from the fourth inning on. After looking at two strikes, he laid off a 101 mile-an-hour sinker and fouled off another before becoming part of one of the strangest endings any of us will ever see. Including a man that has been in the game for 40-years.
“I just thought of defending the zone, staying short to the ball.” said Sosa. “Then he goes out with that slider away and I go after it. I feel my barrel is a little late on the pitch and as I go with my swing path I feel like I hit the catcher’s glove and I told the ump that I thought I felt something. We all saw that afterwards.
It’s the first time it happened in my career like this. This feels like a home run because the most important thing about it is we end up winning the game and that’s what we go out to do.”
Asked if it was his first walk-off of his career, Sosa couldn’t remember. “In Philly it’s the first one for sure.”
And certainly one he’ll never forget.
None of it would have been possible if it was for the gutsy performance by Lazar, who picked up his first win of his major league career.
“Being in the minor leagues for the past few years we’re kind of the test dummies for what MLB is implementing so I’ve had experience with the pitch clock and the ghost runner on second,” said Lazar. “I think that definitely helped. I’ve pitched in a lot of situations this year. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re a young guy. So just being ready every day. Whenever that inning comes or that phone rings I can go out there and give it my all.”
And it may just lead to you winning your first major league game in absolutely unforgettable fashion.
When you’ve been around the game of baseball for forty years the way Phillies manager Rob Thomson has, there aren’t many things that are going to surprise or shock you. Check that box not once, but twice. And all in the span of a couple of weeks.
The Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox Monday at Citizens Bank Park on a – get this – walk-off catcher’s interference in the 10th inning for a 3-2 series-opening victory.
Edmundo Sosa, who pinch-hit earlier in the game for Bryson Stott, was the beneficiary of the unimaginable, game-ending play when he reached for a 1-2 slider from reliever Jordan Hicks and made contact with Red Sox catcher Carlos Nervaez’ glove. This forced home the winning run in one of the oddest endings in Thomson’s career. The other came on July 8 in San Francisco when the Phillies lost on an inside-the-park, three-run home run.
“There’s two things this year that I’ve never seen before in 40 years and one is a walk-off inside-the-park home run and one is a walk off catcher’s interference,” Thomson shrugged.
The end came after a night of oddities in the game. Pitcher Zack Wheeler, who had a 0.79 ERA in his last five games at Citizens Bank Park, gave up a leadoff home run to Jarren Duran to start the game and put the Phillies in a 1-0 hole. As expected, he battled all night though his stuff wasn’t his best. The Phillies gave him a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Bryce Harper doubled and scored on a Nick Castellanos single.
Castellanos then took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by J.T. Realmuto. The Red Sox scored a run to tie it on three consecutive hits in the sixth off Wheeler, before he struck out the last two batters of the inning. That was his night after six, as he gave up just the two runs and struck out 10.
After Realmuto’s single in the fourth, the Phillies sent 22 hitters to the plate. They got just one hit but were able to push through the winning run to improve to 57-43 on the year. They still hold a half-game lead over the Mets atop the East.
“It was a little rough for me, I was a little bit out of sync,” said WheeIer. “I felt great, but just a little out of sync. Aggressive team and you have to get back in there but not too much in the zone. It wasn’t as crisp as I’d like, but we got out of it. Every game’s a big one, from the first game of the year to the last one. The wins, they add up. If you don’t think every game’s a big game, at the end of the season you might be going home early. Got to win that game, got to win the series.” No matter how oddly you do it.
Phillies reliever Max Lazar came in for the tenth inning with Rob Refsnyder placed at second base. Lazar paid no attention as he got a strikeout, groundout and another strikeout to end the top of the tenth. Then things got really strange.
With Brandon Marsh place at second, Otto Kemp got a four-pitch walk from Hicks. A wild pitch put runners and second and third and the Red Sox intentionally walked Max Kepler to load the bases. Up stepped Sosa, who had the lone hit during the Phillies dry spell from the fourth inning on. After looking at two strikes, he laid off a 101 mile-an-hour sinker and fouled off another before becoming part of one of the strangest endings any of us will ever see. Including a man that has been in the game for 40-years.
“I just thought of defending the zone, staying short to the ball.” said Sosa. “Then he goes out with that slider away and I go after it. I feel my barrel is a little late on the pitch and as I go with my swing path I feel like I hit the catcher’s glove and I told the ump that I thought I felt something. We all saw that afterwards.
It’s the first time it happened in my career like this. This feels like a home run because the most important thing about it is we end up winning the game and that’s what we go out to do.”
Asked if it was his first walk-off of his career, Sosa couldn’t remember. “In Philly it’s the first one for sure.”
And certainly one he’ll never forget.
None of it would have been possible if it was for the gutsy performance by Lazar, who picked up his first win of his major league career.
“Being in the minor leagues for the past few years we’re kind of the test dummies for what MLB is implementing so I’ve had experience with the pitch clock and the ghost runner on second,” said Lazar. “I think that definitely helped. I’ve pitched in a lot of situations this year. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re a young guy. So just being ready every day. Whenever that inning comes or that phone rings I can go out there and give it my all.”
And it may just lead to you winning your first major league game in absolutely unforgettable fashion.
With 10 days before the MLB Trade Deadline, it's not a matter of if the Mets will be buyers, it's a matter of who they'll bring in.
At 56-44 entering Monday's series opener against the Los Angeles Angels, New York is firmly in the market to acquire players it thinks can help the team. Speaking to reporters pregame, president of baseball operations David Stearns added a little more clarity as to who those players might be.
Like most contending teams, the Mets are not without their faults.
After starting the season as one of MLB's best teams, they've had ups and downs since then. Recently, injuries to their pitching staff have become their biggest hurdle to climb and its effects have been felt from the starting rotation to the bullpen.
It's been difficult for New York and manager Carlos Mendoza to navigate on a nightly basis, and while the starters are finally beginning to get healthier, a few of them are still on pitch counts or getting close to innings limits which puts a ton of pressure on the relievers to get a bulk of the outs on any given day.
Not only is that hard to execute consistently, but it's taken its toll on some of them with a myriad of Mets relievers either recovering on the injured list or shut down for the season.
"We’ve been hit with injuries to the pitching staff, I think specifically the bullpen, and so we will be active there," Stearns said. "I think providing our group some reinforcements in the bullpen would be great. There generally are relievers traded at the deadline and so I’m sure there will be some this (year) as well. So we’ll be involved in that. Ideally, we find deals that make sense, bring guys in that we think can help us."
While making it clear that New York will target bullpen help at the deadline, Stearns did not completely shut the door on potentially bringing up some of the team's talented pitchers in the farm system to give them a chance to pitch in relief -- players like Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean, who have pitched well in Syracuse.
Of course, Stearns is apprehensive of doing that and it seems like that would only happen if all else failed.
New York Mets starter Brandon Sproat (91) pitches against the Houston Astros at Clover Park. / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
"If (trading for relievers) doesn’t happen for some reason, then we’ll probably have to think about some of the arms in Triple-A and whether those guys at some point can impact us in the bullpen." Stearns said.
Another glaring weakness for the Mets has been the offensive production coming out of center field.
After beginning the season with the plan of platooning Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor at the position -- already sacrificing offense for elite defense -- that plan went out the window when Siri fractured his tibia in April, which currently has him on the 60-day IL.
Siri's injury has resulted in Taylor being the everyday center fielder and while his defensive prowess has been impressive, his offensive output, which he's not exactly known for to begin with, has taken a huge hit.
In 88 games, Taylor is slashing .211/.264/.309 with two home runs and 17 RBI in 256 at-bats. His .573 OPS so far this season is more than 100 points lower than his career .706 OPS.
"Positionally, the one position where we haven’t gotten the level of production that we probably anticipated coming into the year is center field, and I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s gonna surprise anyone," Stearns said.
What's helped New York in this area has been the defensive flexibility of Jeff McNeil and his willingness to play center field on a somewhat-consistent basis for the first time in his career during his age-33 season.
McNeil has played 24 games in center this year, the second-most at a position behind his natural second base and for the most part, he's handled it well. He's out there once again on Monday night while batting fifth as his offense has been more than adequate.
The emergence of McNeil as an option in center field (and Taylor's exceptional defense despite his offensive shortcomings) has made Stearns think twice about upgrading at that position.
"I really like the defense that Tyrone Taylor brings and how he contributes to this team, and I also think Jeff is growing more comfortable out there," Stearns said. "So, I think, for me at least, the bar to improve center field has probably risen over the past let’s say two weeks because of maybe Jeff’s comfort level a little bit more out there and also continuing to recognize the secondary skills that Tyrone can provide."
He continued: "I’m certain we’re gonna be engaged, but we got to clear a bar that we actually think makes us better given the price that I think these things are gonna cost."
As for third base, a position that has been a bit of a revolving door this year after Mark Vientos hasn't been able to replicate his 2024 season in which he usurped Brett Baty and other Mets prospects for the starting job, Stearns has been pleased with the production that New York is getting from those same young players that Vientos leapfrogged last year.
For example, Baty, who has gotten the lion's share of reps at the hot corner (50 games), has been better at the plate and has shown great resiliency with his career-high 10 home runs after being sent down earlier in the season.
"I think our younger players have taken a step forward when we’re talking about Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio, both those guys have contributed," Stearns said.
Not only have Baty and Mauricio shown glimpses of what they can provide offensively, but both players can also play multiple positions around the infield.
So, while fans may be craving a big acquisition at the deadline, Stearns will likely do something similar to what he did in his first year with the Mets and what he's generally done during his entire career: make smart deals that perhaps aren't flashy, but that help the team improve.
"I try not to look at it as the size of the splash, I think that can get a little dangerous this time of year," he said. "I think we try to look at how good is the player coming back and how does that particular player fit the team needs. I also don’t know how many big splash players are actually getting traded this deadline. I think that remains to be seen a little bit.
"So, we’ll see. We got 10 days to go, there’s still a number of teams that are trying to figure out where they are and my guess is we’ll have a little bit more clarity on some of this six, seven days from now with then three days leading into the deadline."
The Boston Red Sox found a new way to lose in devastating fashion in Monday’s series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It was a 2-2 game when Red Sox reliever Jordan Hicks, acquired as part of the Rafael Devers deal, took the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning at Citizens Bank Park. The hard-throwing right-hander was all over the place, walking Otto Kemp on four pitches before his wild pitch to Max Kepler allowed runners to advance to second and third base. He intentionally walked Kepler to load the bases with no outs.
Edmundo Sosa was next to step up to the plate for Philadelphia. He checked his swing on a 1-2 count but made contact with Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez’s glove.
It was ruled a catcher’s interference, allowing the runner from third to score for a walk-off Phillies victory.
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) July 22, 2025
It was only the second walk-off catcher’s interference in MLB history, according to Stathead. The Los Angeles Dodgers won on a walk-off catcher’s interference in 1971.
The bizarre ending spoiled a hard-fought matchup against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Red Sox starter Walker Buehler outlasted the National League Cy Young candidate, allowing only one earned run over seven solid innings of work. Jarren Duran led off the game with a solo homer, and Trevor Story tied the game up at 2-2 with an RBI single in the sixth.
Boston is now 1-3 since the All-Star break. Alex Cora’s club will look to bounce back Tuesday against the Phillies, with Richard Fitts expected to take the hill against Christopher Sanchez.
