Kodai Senga quickly found himself on the ropes on Sunday night.
After Shohei Ohtani crushed the second pitch of the ballgame for a homer, Mookie Betts reached on a Mark Vientos error and Freddie Freeman lined an opposite-field double to put two in scoring position with no outs.
Will Smith then stepped to the plate looking to add on.
The sweet-swinging catcher floated a liner to shallow right-center which Tyrone Taylor broke in on at full speed and made the catch before unleashing a perfect throw home to catch the speedy Betts trying to score.
That ended up being a huge play for the Mets in what ended as a 3-1 victory.
“That’s not an easy play,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s coming from a different angle, but then he has to put himself in a different position quickly to align the hips, the shoulder to make that throw to home plate -- that’s what makes him a special defender.
“He’s really good out there because of the little things like that. When he’s going pretty much away from the play and he’s got to turn and put his body into position to execute a perfect throw to the plate.”
This is just the latest of numerous game-changing plays Taylor has made this year.
The 31-year-old has stepped up tremendously in the everyday centerfielder role since Jose Siri went down with an injury -- currently ranking in the 92nd percentile, according to Baseball Savant, with a stellar 3 Outs Above Average.
Mendoza and the Mets know this is who he is, they certainly aren’t surprised.
“With TT and you’re talking about defense, you’re not surprised,” the skipper said. “This guy that whether it’s the jumps, the routes, the range overall, and then the arm. That’s not an easy play but for him to just turn and execute the throw -- he’s an elite defender.”
And it’s not just defensively where Taylor has provided a spark -- prior to his 0-for-2 showing on Sunday night, the veteran was riding a seven-game hitting streak with two doubles and an .847 OPS over that span.
At some point in the months ahead, perhaps that six-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS last October will be remembered as a coming-of-age moment for the Mets.
That is, they clearly weren’t good enough at the time but off their impressive series win this weekend at Citi Field it appears these Mets have taken important strides in matching up with baseball’s glamour team.
For starters, don’t dismiss the grit they showed, bouncing back from that agonizing 13-inning defeat on Friday night to win the final two games at Citi Field, including Sunday night’s 3-1 win behind Kodai Senga.
“Why you gotta bring that back up?” Tyrone Taylor said, only half-kiddingly when a reporter asked what it said about his team. “But, yeah, we’re pumped about it.”
If you were looking for him to expound on that answer, well, he didn’t. It’s not Taylor’s style. When he was asked how he pulled off his spectacular throw, with all his momentum going to his left, that nailed Mookie Betts at the plate in the first inning, his reaction was basically, “I thought (Luis) Torrens made a nice tag.”
I point that out because Taylor’s modest description of the play was emblematic of the Mets’ reaction to winning the series from the big, bad Dodgers.
Nobody was beating their chest, put it that way. As manager Carlos Mendoza said more than once this weekend, “We know we’re good too.”
Fair enough. Still, what’s significant is the way the Mets bounced back, doing it mostly with pitching against one of the most imposing lineups in the game.
To that end Mendoza said his team did learn a valuable lesson from that NLCS that they apparently took to heart.“We attacked,” the manager said of the way the Mets pitched, holding the Dodgers to a total of three runs in the final two games. “We saw it in the playoffs last year. We gave them free passes and it cost us.
New York Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor (15) makes a catch for an out during the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
“We did a better job of attacking this time and we got results.”
On Saturday night David Peterson struck out Shohei Ohtani three times and pitched into the eighth inning in a game when the Mets’ bullpen was exhausted, but if there was a moment that best defined the attack mentality Mendoza referenced, it was the third inning on Sunday night.
Ohtani had ambushed Senga for a monster home run in the first inning, a moment that had to sting for the Mets’ ace against his fellow countryman. Yet, in the third Senga did indeed attack Ohtani, striking him out on three pitches, a 91-mph cutter, an 83-mph ghost fork, and then a 96-mph fastball above the strike zone that Ohtani chased for the K.
It was a statement of sorts by Senga that he was up to the task, despite the fact that Mendoza said of him, “he didn’t have his good forkball tonight but he found a way. That tells you how good he is.”
Senga didn’t seem to entirely agree about the ghost fork. He indicated that he believed the Dodgers were going to the plate looking for his forkball, and he had to adjust.
“That’s very Dodger-like,” he said. “They’re a clever team. They have a bunch of clever hitters.”
At least partly as a result, Senga had to work awfully hard and was constantly in deep counts, throwing 91 pitches to get through five innings, and 101 in 5 1/3 when Mendoza pulled him for Ryne Stanek.
Four walks and five hits made for a lot of traffic on the bases, but once again he was at his best when pitching out of jams.“He made some huge pitches,” said Mendoza. “That’s who he is.”
That and 3 2/3 near-perfect innings from the bullpen, on a night when Edwin Diaz wasn’t available after pitching Friday and Saturday, locked up the Dodgers’ big bats for the second straight night.
It’s significant because, once again, it was evidence that the Mets aren’t leading MLB in team ERA (2.81) with smoke and mirrors. Just as they did to the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, two other powerful offenses, their pitching proved to be for real.
And it was needed because the Mets still can’t seem to get the bats going in a big way. It was a good sign that Pete Alonso broke out of his career-long home run drought with a two-run shot in the first inning, but otherwise it was another quiet night offensively.
Instead, it came down to the little things, if you will. Taylor’s throw in the first inning may well have changed everything, preventing the Dodgers from taking a 2-0 lead after Ohtani’s home run, an error by Mark Vientos, and a double by Freddie Freeman.
There was also Juan Soto’s hustle, notable after what happened in Boston last week, as he beat out a hard ground ball after a bobble by Max Muncy with two outs in the bottom of the first, allowing Alonso to get a turn and hit his home run.
There was also a gorgeous double play in the sixth inning that featured Brett Baty, playing second base, handling a tough hop and backhanding a flip perfectly to Francisco Lindor coming full speed across the bag and making the throw.
Soto even chimed in with a nice running catch at the fence to rob Michael Conforto of an extra-base hit in the seventh inning.
All of it making a case that these Mets could be a more well-rounded team than the one that lost to the Dodgers last October, especially with a healthy Senga on the mound.
It’s a long way to another postseason matchup with LA, of course, but if this weekend proved anything, it was that Mendoza was right to keep making his point whenever anybody wanted to wax poetic about the Dodgers:
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Willie MacIver hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning of his major league debut. Minutes later, the 28-year-old catcher threw out a runner trying to steal second for the final out that ended the Athletics’ 11-game losing streak.
“I woke up hoping for a Gatorade bath at the end of the game and, man, I’ve never felt such a good feeling with such cold water,” he said after the A’s beat Philadelphia 5-4 on Sunday and stopped the Phillies’ nine-game win streak.
MacIver was among five players brought up from the minors on Friday. He started Sunday in place of Shea Langeliers in the day game after a night game.
“This is part of the talk that we had in spring training, it was going to take the whole army that was in the room,” said manager Mark Kotsay, who watched the end from the clubhouse following his first ejection this season.
MacIver, hitting .389 with two homers and 30 RBIs at Triple-A Las Vegas, grounded out in the second and fourth against Jesús Luzardo, then struck out in the sixth.
After Trea Turner homered in the eighth off Hogan Harris for a 4-3 lead, another Friday call-ups sparked the rally.
Logan Davidson walked and scored on Lawrence Butler’s triple against Matt Strahm. MacIver fouled off a fastball, then drove a cutter into center field to bring home the go-ahead run.
“I’m always upset about walks,” Strahm said. “I just feel like I’ve had too many too close together.”
A day after blowing a ninth-inning lead, Mason Miller allowed a two-out single in the ninth to Alec Bohm. Johan Rojas pinch ran and MacIver, who had been in the minors since 2018, threw to shortstop Jacob Wilson, who tagged the sliding Rojas on an elbow.
“I had family here, friends, teammates, ex-teammates,” MacIver said. “It’s a dream come true. I can’t even put it into words.”
Rojas at 29.9 feet per second has the fifth-highest sprint speed in the majors among players with 10 or more opportunities, according to Statcast.
MacIver was selected by Colorado in the ninth round of the 2018 amateur draft from the University of Washington. He played in the 2021 Futures Game with Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodríguez and Spencer Torkelson.
MacIver became a minor league free agent last November and signed a minor league contract with the Athletics a month later.
“I’m so grateful for my family and for my support system,” he said. “They’ve been everything to me and I obviously wouldn’t be here without them and like I can’t thank them enough. ... The fact that they could be here and see my first hit and how that game ended, man, it’s awesome.”
Davidson started at first a day after Nick Kurtz left the game because of a left hip issue. He had two hits and two RBIs a day after a forgettable debut.
Davidson entered as a pinch runner for Kurtz in the 10th inning. He was thrown out at the plate, called for obstruction and ended a 9-6 loss by striking out.
“There’s a lot of confidence that I have in this kid,” Kotsay said. “I’ve invested a lot of time, we’ve had a lot of conversations through the last two seasons about what it was going to take for him to be a big leaguer and he has not backed down from anything that I’ve given him and to see the reward come today and just his first start and contributing and having such an impact to the win, was awesome.”
Two pitches in to Sunday's rubber match between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani took Kodai Senga deep for a solo shot that gave the Dodgers an immediate 1-0 lead.
Los Angeles would quickly put runners on second and third with nobody out in what looked like could be Senga's first real bad outing of the season.
Instead, with some help from Tyrone Taylor's fantastic throw from center field, Senga escaped the inning without allowing another run. The leadoff home run ended up being the only run Senga allowed over 5.1 innings -- on a night he didn't quite have his patented ghost fork working, either.
"He made huge pitches because I didn’t think he had the forkball today," manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets' 3-1 win. "From the very beginning when you watch that Freddie Freeman at-bat in the first inning, he was fouling pitches off, he was laying off. Then Will Smith laid off one of them too and you could tell that he didn’t have it.
"And then a few 2-0 counts, but I just thought that he kept making pitches. We made some big plays – that play in the first inning that Tyrone Taylor threw to home plate was huge. He kept battling. He used the cutter even though I don’t think he had that pitch either, but he found a way and for him to go back out there for the sixth and get us one out there, it was important. That goes to show you how good he is on a night that he’s not at his best against a lineup like that, he’s able to keep us in the game, make pitches when he needed to and gave us a chance."
Aside from the first inning, Senga still had to deal with traffic on the bases for most of the night. The right-hander allowed five hits and walked four against what he described as a "clever" Dodgers lineup as his command continues to be a bit of problem.
But regardless of the situation, no matter how stressful, Senga was able to work his way out of it. It's something he's beginning to be known for now in his career -- getting out of sticky situations.
"I used my whole repertoire," Senga said through an interpreter. "Used every pitch in all sorts of situations and I was able to get through it."
It wasn't just Senga, though, as Ryne Stanek, Max Kranick and Reed Garrett combined for 3.2 scoreless innings against one of the top offenses in baseball. Kranick, in particular, shined as the right-hander pitched two innings and hasn't been scored upon in his last three appearances (5.1 innings).
Really all weekend New York's pitching dominated the Dodgers. And if the Mets' offense was able to produce just one hit in extra innings on Friday night, they would've swept Los Angeles.
"We attacked," Mendoza said about what his pitchers did well against the Dodgers. "We saw it in the playoffs last year and we gave them free passes and it ended up costing us. We saw it today with Max Kranick, perfect example. Coming in in that situation, attacking hitters, staying on the attack, make them swing the bat and let the defense take care of itself.
"I thought overall, the whole series, I thought we did a better job of attacking those guys and executing pitches when we needed to."
The series win against one of the top teams in the National League came at a great time for New York who was coming off back-to-back series losses against the Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
The Mets improved to 32-21 -- the same record as the Dodgers -- and are now 2.0 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies who lost earlier on Sunday against the Athletics.
"For us to bounce back the way we did and taking the last two, winning a series against a really good team, obviously, it shows a lot about that group -- our ability to bounce back, the grit, the resilience and it was on display the whole weekend there," Mendoza said.
"It was a good series win," Taylor said. "We’re out here trying to win every series and they have a really good team over there so to get this one is huge."
Pete Alonso reacts after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning for the Mets. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.
Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.
Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.
“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.
They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive game.
It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.
Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).
And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.
“Tonight was one of those nights that we just gave them extra outs, and they took advantage,” Roberts said.
“It's been pretty frustrating,” echoed third baseman Max Muncy. “Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
There was no bigger self-inflicted wound than the one Muncy suffered in the bottom of the first.
After two strikeouts from Landon Knack to start the inning, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Muncy bobbled on a high hop, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first.
It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.
“It's one of those things where I'm just really not good defensively right now,” Muncy said. “Not going to shy away from it, but all I can do is keep showing up every day, working on it, trying to figure things out, trying to get better. That's what I've been doing.”
On Sunday, however, there was nothing Muncy could do.
One pitch later, Pete Alonso whacked a hanging curveball from Knack for a two-run homer. The Mets (32-21) wouldn’t squander the lead the rest of the way.
“We were trying to get it down a little bit, and obviously left it up,” Knack said. “I would say he’s a little more aggressive with runners on, so was able to take advantage of it.”
As Alonso rounded the bases, Muncy stared stoicly into the distance.
“It makes you feel like the game is on your shoulders. That's how I feel, at least,” Muncy said. “It’s a play that needs to be made, and I should have made it. It's just a frustrating one.”
There were plenty of other moments, however, that left the Dodgers (32-21) shaking their head.
After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, their offense had the chance to add more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.
Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for Knack had disappeared. And despite repeated opportunities to claw back later, the Dodgers failed to scratch anything else across the plate.
In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Smith to promptly ground into a double-play.
Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.
In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Senga … only for the right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.
In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).
“I think that the tale is we've just got to play clean baseball, have a good offensive approach, because we're going to see some good pitching,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers in the midst of a 29-game stretch against nothing but playoff-contending teams.
“Case in point is Shohei didn't get a fifth at-bat [tonight], because they made plays and they got a couple double plays and things like that. All that stuff matters. So that stuff, that's really highlighted when you're playing against good ballclubs."
The Mets scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corners. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat scored a run.
The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount — ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss in Queens.
The Mets defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Citi Field Sunday night to take two of three in the weekend series.
They got strong starting pitching from Kodai Senga and an early two-run home run from Pete Alonso to spark the win.
Here are the top takeaways...
-Senga gave up a monster home run to the first batter he faced, fellow countryman Shohei Ohtani, but then shut the door on the Dodgers for 5 1/3 innings before a high pitch count forced him out of the game.
Senga had to pitch around four walks, in addition to five hits, but held the Dodgers without another run before being relieved in the sixth at 101 pitches.
Along the way, Senga exacted some revenge on Ohtani, striking him out on three pitches the second time up, getting him swinging at a high fastball for the K. He also got him on a shallow fly ball to CF with a good ghost fork in the fifth.
As usual, he was at his best with runners on base. Throughout the season, and going back to his 2023 season, he has been one of the best in the majors at stranding runners.
Senga’s ERA rose slightly to 1.46.
-Max Kranick gave the Mets two scoreless innings in relief, pitching the seventh and the eighth, buzz-sawing through the fearsome top of the Dodgers’ lineup without allowing a hit.
In all, the Mets got 11 outs from their bullpen, two from Ryne Stanek, six from Kranick, and the final three from Reed Garrett for the save as Edwin Diaz was unavailable after pitching on both Friday and Saturday night.
-Alonso broke the longest home run drought of his career with a two-run shot to left in the first inning off Dodgers’ starter Landon Knack.
Alonso had gone 65 at-bats and 71 plate appearances without a long ball, a span that stretched over 16 games, though he thought a strong wind cost him two home runs during that time, one at Yankee Stadium and one at Fenway Park.
It was his 10th home run of the season.
Juan Soto set the stage for it by hustling to beat out a hard ground ball that Max Muncy bobbled for an error.
-Tyrone Taylor, who is playing a Gold Glove-caliber center field this season, made a spectacular throw in the first inning to nail Mookie Betts at the plate in the first inning and limit the Dodgers to one run -- Ohtani’s leadoff HR.
With Betts at third and Freddie Freeman at second and no outs, Will Smith lofted a fly ball toward right-center. The ball was fairly shallow and Taylor had to run hard to make the catch, with his body angling toward right field. With great body control Taylor turned and threw in one motion, making a perfect throw to Luis Torrens to get Betts sliding at the plate.
-Soto made an impact with his hustle play but otherwise had a rough night at the plate, going 0-for-4 with two weak groundouts and a strikeout swinging.
He did make a good running catch near the right-field fence to rob Michael Conforto of a hit leading off the seventh inning.
Game MVP: Kodai Senga
It's tempting to give it to Alonso but the Dodgers’ lineup is so potent that Senga gets the nod, allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings, giving LA nothing after a leadoff home run by Ohtani.
Senga probably could have gone deeper into the game if not for his pitch count of 101.
The Yankees almost let another one slip away against the Colorado Rockies, but they did just enough to win 5-4 on Sunday and win the series.
Here are the takeaways...
- After a 3-for-4 day from the leadoff spot in Saturday's blowout win, Paul Goldschmidt kept his hot bat going with another multi-hit game in the series finale. Hitting leadoff once again, Goldschmidt got things started with a single and came around to score the game's first run in the first inning. The first baseman added another hit in the fifth and scored again on Aaron Judge's run-scoring double that broke a 2-2 tie.
In his first season in New York, Goldschmidt has been fantastic with a .347/.401/.492 slash line in 52 games. The 37-year-old has mostly split his time between leadoff and his more traditional cleanup spot in the batting order this season and while he's had success either way, he's really taken to leading off for the first time in his career, amassing 22 hits in 61 at-bats so far.
- Along with Goldschmidt, Judge also finished with multiple hits as he continues to love his first time hitting at Coors Field. The right-fielder went 2-for-4, including the aforementioned go-ahead double off Jake Bird.
- However, the player with the best day at the plate was No. 7 hitter J.C. Escarra. The backup catcher led all Yankees with three hits, including a double, and two RBI. Escarra's first hit came in the second which scored Anthony Volpe who tripled to lead off against Antonio Senzatela. He also singled in the fourth and drove in an insurance run in the eighth to make it 5-3 after the Rockies got a little closer. Making his MLB debut at 30 years old, Escarra is hitting .244.
- Will Warren got the start for New York and pitched four innings, allowing two earned runs on two hits and two walks while striking out seven. Both runs surrendered came in the first inning after he loaded the bases with nobody out, but the 25-year-old did well to escape the jam without further damage.
The right-hander was well on his way to go deeper into the game with his pitch count at only 57 pitches, but a lengthy rain delay in the top of the fifth inning -- right after the Yanks re-took the lead -- knocked him out of the game.
After a rough April where he pitched to a 5.63 ERA in six starts, Warren has enjoyed a much better May (2.38 ERA in five starts) and has 41 strikeouts in 26.2 innings.
- Following the rain delay, Jonathan Loáisiga entered the game and went 1.2 innings. Mark Leiter Jr. followed with 1.1 scoreless innings before Devin Williams also had a clean outing in the eighth, featuring three strikeouts, to set up Luke Weaver.
With a two-run lead, Weaver was ambushed by Mickey Moniak who homered to lead off the frame and made it a 5-4 game. Things got interesting after back-to-back one-out singles put the tying and winning runs on base, but the Yankee closer steadied himself and retired the next two hitters to give New York a series win over the hapless Rockies.
Game MVP: J.C. Escarra
In addition to leading the offense with his three-hit performance, his third and final hit to give the Yanks a two-run lead turned out to be the difference as Colorado attempted a ninth-inning comeback.
Highlights
J.C. Escarra brings home Anthony Volpe to tie the game!
The Yankees continue their West Coast road trip with a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels starting on Monday night. First pitch is scheduled for 9:38 p.m.
New York has yet to announce its starter, but the team will face RHP Jack Kochanowicz (3-5, 5.03 ERA).
The Angels' Tim Anderson, left, is tagged out by Miami Marlins second baseman Javier Sanoja while trying to steal second during the first inning Sunday at Angel Stadium. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
It wasn’t just handling the 40-man roster general manager Perry Minasian assembled. The 73-year-old skipper, in his second season leading the Halos, identified a characteristic missing from last year’s Angels. Washington said his goal was for the Angels to become a family.
Looking back on two weeks ago, when the Angels stumbled to a 17-25 record after a hot start to begin the season, Washington said he felt the buy-in to the family ideology already seeped into the walls of the clubhouse — featuring a roster makeup mixing veterans with postseason success along his young starters across his infield. The results, however, were yet to come.
“My clubhouse was already jelled,” Washington said. “We just had to start playing good baseball.”
The Angels didn’t just play good baseball. They were the best in baseball across the last two weeks. With seven of eight victories coming on the road — a three-game sweep of the Dodgers and a four-game sweep of the Athletics — the Angels riddled off an eight-game winning streak. The run was the franchise’s best since 2014 when the Angels won 10 straight and clinched a postseason berth (their most recent playoff appearance).
"We're not going to win them all,” said shortstop Zach Neto, referring to Saturday's loss to the Marlins that broke the Angels’ streak. “It was a matter of time. But we've been playing really good baseball. It's another day today. We get to come out, play, play the game we all love.”
After falling to the Marlins (21-30) in 6-2 fashion on Saturday, the Angels (25-27) couldn't respond Sunday, falling 3-0 to Miami to lose the weekend series. Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera sailed through 5 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 10 as the Angels' offense struggled to produce for back-to-back days and tallied just three hits.
Saturday and Sunday's offensive production featured the opposite of the Angels' winning streak.
Players such as veteran outfielder Taylor Ward were hitting the cover off the ball. The 31-year-old former first-round pick tallied a hit in each game of the eight-win run, hitting a home run in five of the contests amid a 10-game hitting streak and franchise-tying nine-game extra-base hit streak. On Sunday, both streaks came to a close.
The Angels, as a whole, socked 19 home runs across the eight games — the power appeared to help them surge to third place in a division more than up for grabs.
“Everyone’s whacking homers all the time,” said Jack Kochanowicz, the Angels' second-year starting pitcher who shut down the Dodgers for 6 ⅔ innings of one-run ball on May 16. “It’s just good vibes in here right now."
As Angels first base coach Eric Young Sr. put it, last year’s team featured young upstart talent — Neto, catcher Logan O’Hoppe and first baseman Nolan Schanuel — trying to make a name for themselves on a roster circling the drain of the American League West.
“They're playing better baseball than they did last year,” Washington said. “They are more consistent right now than they were last year. Are they a finished product? Not by a long shot, but we like the progress. And that's what the game of baseball is — progression."
O’Hoppe (.272 batting average, 14 home runs and 30 RBI) is slugging almost .100 points higher than a year ago to a .543 clip. Neto (.284 batting average, eight home runs and 19 RBI) is hitting close to .300 for the first time in his career, coming back from a right-shoulder surgery that kept him out of action to begin the season. Schanuel (.281 batting average, .382 on-base percentage and has walked just as much as he’s struck out with 26 apiece) has developed into the Angels' surefire everyday first baseman in his second full season at Angel Stadium.
The trio has year in, year out All-Star potential should the Angels play their cards right. O’Hoppe is under team control until 2029, while Neto and Schanuel are under team control until 2030.
“We realize, the veterans realize, that those guys are going to be the leaders of the Angels in the future, if not now,” Young said. “They probably have more leadership than they know, because we can't let them know too much right now because they are still young, but they are learning and processing.”
And despite the eight-game turnaround turning into a two-game skid to end the weekend against the Marlins, Young knows the Angels could turn it back around on a dime.
“I don't remember in my major league career going on an eight-game winning streak,” he said. “And you know, you always say, 'Hey, we're gonna start a new one today.' Well, you never know, it's got to start somewhere.
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz had the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking in 2015, a home run off Milwaukee’s Logan Henderson on Sunday that left the bat at 122.9 mph and splashed into the Allegheny River.
Cruz’s leadoff drive to right in the third inning on a 92.2 mph fastball traveled 432 feet and cut the Pirates’ deficit to 3-1.
Cruz had the previous hardest-hit ball, a 122.4 mph single on Aug. 24, 2022. Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton had the prior hardest-hit home run at 121.8 mph, a drive off Gio Gonzalez at Washington on Aug. 9, 2017.
Cruz has hit six of the 83 home runs hit into the river since PNC Park opened in 2001. He leads the Pirates with 11 homers this season, including three in his past three games.
NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani faced hitters Sunday for the first time since elbow surgery, throwing 22 pitches at Citi Field before the Los Angeles Dodgers played the New York Mets.
With dozens of reporters watching from the stands more than 4 1/2 hours ahead of gametime, the two-way superstar pitched to five batters in a simulated setting — including teammates Hyeseong Kim and Dalton Rushing.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior watched closely from the field. Prior said Ohtani’s fastball ranged from 94-97 mph, and the right-hander also threw off-speed pitches.
Working out of the windup, Ohtani fielded a comebacker, struck out two batters and walked his final one in a session that lasted about 10 minutes. Kim lined a ball into the right-field corner that likely would have gone for a double or triple.
A three-time MVP, Ohtani isn’t expected to make his pitching debut for the Dodgers until after the All-Star break in mid-July. He is recovering from surgery on Sept. 19, 2023, the second major operation on his right elbow since he arrived in the majors from Japan, and hasn’t pitched in a big league game since Aug. 23, 2023, for the Los Angeles Angels.
He returned as a hitter last year after signing a then-record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers as a free agent and won his third MVP award by batting .310 with 54 homers, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases.
Following left shoulder surgery on Nov. 4 to repair a labrum tear sustained during the World Series, Ohtani threw four bullpens at spring training from Feb. 15-25, then paused to prepare for opening day as a hitter. He resumed bullpen sessions on March 29.
The designated hitter went into Sunday night’s series finale against the Mets batting .302 with 17 homers, 31 RBIs and a 1.040 OPS. He has 11 stolen bases and leads the majors with 53 runs for the defending World Series champions.
Ohtani is 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts in 481 2/3 innings during five seasons as a big league pitcher. He had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow Oct. 1, 2018, and returned to a major league mound on July 26, 2020, though he was limited to just two starts during the pandemic-shortened season.
Ohtani is one of several high-profile Dodgers pitchers coming back from injuries. Clayton Kershaw made his season debut May 17 after recovering from foot and knee operations, but Blake Snell hasn’t pitched since April 2 and Tyler Glasnow since April 27, both due to shoulder inflammation.
"Not yet," Mendoza said whether he has an update on Nimmo. "I'm waiting. Hopefully -- because he didn't do any baseball activities (Saturday). So, hopefully, he does something (Sunday) and we'll see if he's available off the bench."
"This morning, my neck tightened up on me," Nimmo, who is slashing .212/.274/.397 with eight home runs and 27 RBI through 49 games, said after Friday's loss. "It's from 2019 when I ran into the wall and we've been really good with the training staff and myself about keeping it under control and at bay.
"Sometimes with the travel and just everything, it pops its ugly head and it takes a few days to deal with it."
The Mets start an outfield of Jeff McNeil (left), Tyrone Tracy (center) and Juan Soto (right) in Sunday's rubber match with Los Angeles.
DETROIT — Tarik Skubal gave up two hits and matched a career high with 13 strikeouts in his first professional complete game, Zach McKinstry had a two-run homer in a five-run fourth inning and the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-0 Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.
The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner was perfect through five innings and finished with a nearly flawless performance. He had a baserunner for the first time after Will Wilson doubled on the second pitch of the sixth.
Skubal (5-2) gave up only one more hit and hit one batter with a pitch in a masterful, 94-pitch outing that included just 22 balls. It was the eighth complete game in the major leagues this season and fifth individual shutout.
Logan Allen (2-3) allowed a season-high five runs — four earned — five hits and four walks over 3 2/3 innings.
Justyn-Henry Malloy hit a leadoff single and scored on McKinstry’s third homer. Javier Báez followed with a double and came home on Gleyber Torres’ double. Allen’s throwing error allowed Detroit to take a 5-0 lead.
Cleveland kept leadoff hitter Steven Kwan out of the lineup for the first time this season. First baseman Carlos Santana was scratched with tightness in his left leg.
Key moment
McKinstry provided a much-needed homer for a team that lost the first three games in the series against the defending AL Central champions who eliminated them in their AL Division Series.
Key stat
Skubal became the first in franchise history to have 10-plus strikeouts in four straight home games.
Up next
Detroit RHP Keider Montero (1-1, 5.28) and San Francisco RHP Hayden Birdsong (2-0, 1.91) are the probable pitchers in their series opener at Comerica Park on Monday afternoon before Cleveland starts a homestand with RHP Gavin Williams (4-2, 3.94) and RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-3, 1.86) scheduled to start.
ATLANTA — San Diego right-hander Michael King, who was scratched from Saturday’s scheduled start, was placed on the 15-day injured list on Sunday with right shoulder inflammation.
The Padres said Saturday that King had stiffness after sleeping on the shoulder. The team announced the inflammation on Sunday and said the right-hander would be sidelined for at least two weeks.
The Padres recalled right-hander David Morgan from Triple-A El Paso before Sunday’s game at Atlanta.
The Padres did not say how King’s spot in the rotation would be filled. Morgan has worked only in relief at El Paso, posting a 6.91 ERA in 14 games.
On Saturday, the Padres used a bullpen game and lost to the Braves 7-1. Sean Reynolds got the start and allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings. Wandy Peralta, Alek Jacobs and Yuki Matsui also pitched.
King is 4-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 10 starts. He was 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA in 2024 and finished seventh in the NL Cy Young Award voting.
The Padres have not announced their starters for a three-game series against the visiting Miami Marlins that begins on Monday night. Right-hander Dylan Cease was Sunday’s starter against the Braves.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani winds up to deliver the ball from the mound during a live batting practice session Sunday in New York. Ohtani threw 22 pitches and used his full repertoire of throws. (Adam Hunger / Associated Press)
It had been 641 days since Shohei Ohtani last threw a pitch to a live hitter from a big league mound.
At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, inside an empty Citi Field on a cool afternoon in Queens, he finally did so again — this time, for the first time, in a Dodger blue uniform.
Nineteen months removed from a second career Tommy John procedure that has limited the two-way star to hitting-only duties during his first season and a half with the Dodgers, Ohtani threw a live batting practice session on Sunday in what was the biggest step in his pitching progression yet.
In five at-bats against Hyeseong Kim, Dalton Rushing and game-planning coach J.T. Watkins, (who pitched in so that Ohtani didn’t risk hitting any of the team’s actual right-handed hitters), Ohtani threw 22 pitches. He was 94-97 mph with his fastball. He used a full repertoire of sinkers, cutters and sweepers. And — with two strikeouts, one walk, a comebacker he fielded on the mound, and only one hit allowed to Kim on a line drive to right — he further raised hopes about the potential in his arm, even coming off another major procedure.
“It was a big jump today, from what I understand, from the bullpens to here facing hitters,” said manager Dave Roberts, who has targeted some point after the All-Star break to have Ohtani potentially join the Dodgers’ rotation.
“If it kind of works out as it should, he's a top-end starter,” Roberts added, “and so that's kind of all of our expectations.”
The most striking part of Sunday’s session was how overjoyed the 30-year-old Ohtani looked back in a simulated pitching environment.
He joked with coaches and laughed with teammates throughout the session. He sarcastically pumped his fist after fanning Watkins (a former minor league catcher in the Boston Red Sox organization) with a wicked sinker. He yelled to Teoscar Hernández (who was one of several teammates watching from the dugout) after Kim’s line drive to right, asking if he would have caught the ball. And he was greeted by a round of fist bumps and high-fives from staff members after throwing his final pitch.
“I think today was great because he was able to keep the mood light, but be able to maintain real stuff,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “I think that’s always important. He didn’t look like he was having stress or [was] under stress to amp up, try to generate any of his power. He was loose and it was all free and easy. So that’s always a positive.”
Ohtani will probably keep building up through regular live batting practices and simulated games over the coming two months, rather than miss time with the big league team to go on a minor league rehab assignment.
It will be a delicate balance, trying to push Ohtani through the final stages of his pitching recovery without diminishing his potency as a hitter.
“When you start to ramp up, facing hitters and doing back-to-backs and upping the innings, that takes a lot more mindful bandwidth and also physical exertion,” Roberts said. “So that's going to be interesting to see how he handles all this.”
But, given the quality of stuff Ohtani flashed on Sunday, worth it for a Dodgers team that might need him to bolster their currently banged-up rotation for the stretch run of the season.
“It's power stuff, and he knows how to get guys off his best pitch,” said Rushing, who was Ohtani’s other strikeout victim. “That's what really good pitchers do to be successful."
Sunday had been a long time coming for Ohtani, the three-time MVP with a career 3.01 ERA in 86 career big league starts.
Last year, at the outset of his pitching rehab, Ohtani progressed from simple catch play to regular bullpens by the end of the regular season. He wasn’t far off from being able to face hitters by the time the playoffs started, but the Dodgers decided to dial back his pitching progression so he could focus on his first career MLB postseason.
An offseason surgery on Ohtani’s non-throwing left shoulder further delayed his pitching plan entering spring camp this year, limiting him only to a handful of bullpens before the club departed for its season-opening trip to Japan.
Ohtani resumed semiweekly bullpens once the regular season started — lighter sessions on Wednesdays followed by more intensive ones on the weekends — and had been increasing the number of pitches in his bullpens over recent weeks.
This past week, he also began reincorporating his sweeper for the first time since getting hurt, one of the last boxes he had to check before Sunday’s live BP.
While the Dodgers have been wary of laying out the specific checkpoints that remain before Ohtani can join the team’s rotation, Roberts said it’s unlikely he pitches any big league games until after the All-Star break.
“I just think that you’re talking about end of May, he's doing his first simulated game,” Roberts said Saturday night. “And in theory, you got to build a starter up to five, six innings. And so just the natural progression, I just don't see it being before that.”
Still, Sunday was the most tangible sign yet of Ohtani’s nearing return to pitching.
“He has taken a very methodical approach to this. We've tried to take a very methodical approach to this, understanding the uniqueness of the situation,” Prior said. “I will never, and I don't think anybody in that room would ever, doubt what he can do. But, you know, still got a long way to go. We'll see where it comes out at the end of this year.”
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Phillies climbed all the way back from a three-run hole on the final day of a week-long road trip and took a late lead after an uplifting start from Jesus Luzardo only for the A’s to score twice on Matt Strahm in the eighth inning to prevent a sweep.
The Phils were a mere five outs away from pulling off their first undefeated road trip of at least seven games since July 1968 but had to settle for a 6-1 week after losing, 5-4.
The game ended with pinch-runner Johan Rojas being caught stealing second with Brandon Marsh at the plate against A’s closer Mason Miller. Rojas was in the game for that purpose but didn’t appear to get his best jump.
Strahm recorded the first out in the bottom of the eighth, then walked rookie Logan Davidson and allowed a game-tying triple to left-handed-hitting Lawrence Butler, who went 2-for-2 with two extra-base hits vs. Strahm this weekend after going 5-for-42 with two extra-base hits against all other lefties this season. Rookie catcher Willie MacIver followed with the game-winning RBI single.
“The walks, way too many this year, I feel like they all score,” Strahm said. “That pitch to Butler, I wanted a slider down there, not necessarily in, but I feel like it was down and he got the head to it and found a corner.”
It’s not as if Strahm is walking many batters. Entering Sunday, he’d issued one free pass in his last 10 appearances. But they have been clustered together. His last three appearances that included a walk resulted in five earned runs in 2⅓ innings.
“I’m always upset about walks,” he said. “I feel like I’ve had too many too close together so it’s just kind of a building frustration, I guess.”
The Phillies had a terrific week, and despite the loss they’ll still come home with the best record in baseball at 34-19. The bullpen will continue to be a question, though, as Jose Alvarado serves the remainder of an 80-game suspension that will also include the playoffs. Strahm has not yet been as sharp as he was in 2023 and 2024. Jordan Romano’s run of nine straight scoreless appearances ended Friday with a three-run ninth inning. The Phillies have too much invested in an elite team to not bolster the bullpen in-season, but the trade deadline is still more than two months away with some sellers yet to present themselves.
“We have high expectations in this clubhouse and our expectation coming into today was to sweep and we didn’t do it,” Strahm said, placing some of the loss on himself.
The Phils were close to pulling it off and extending their winning streak to 10 games. Trea Turner put them ahead in the top of the eighth with a solo home run, his third in four days, after driving in a pair earlier with a single and sacrifice fly. He helped the offense chip away as Luzardo stacked up zeroes after a rocky bottom of the first.
Luzardo allowed a leadoff homer to AL Rookie of the Year-favorite Jacob Wilson and a two-run double later in the first inning to Davidson, then he completely settled in. He was still hitting 98 mph in the bottom of the sixth and ended up striking out 10 over seven innings. It’s the first time Luzardo’s struck out at least 10 in consecutive starts, and he’s already exceeded last year’s innings total.
Luzardo is 5-0 with a 2.15 ERA and has struck out 77 in 67 innings.
“Unbelievable,” Strahm said. “I think that just shows how much he’s grown as a pitcher and his game. I feel like seeing it from afar the last few years of him, that’s when things kind’ve unraveled for him and he never got back into it, but to watch him flush it and go pitch by pitch, I mean, that’s what we stress in the bullpen, one pitch at a time. Can’t change a thing, just get the next guy. It was good to see him do that.”
Luzardo is averaging more than 6.0 innings per start and has thrown at least 100 pitches five of his last six times out, matching the most times he’s done it in any single season.
“I feel like it’s just maturity, just progressively maturing,” he said. “I think everyone moves at a different pace throughout their career. Some guys figure it out really early. Unfortunately for me, I’ve taken my lumps and bumps, and I’ll continue to take my lumps and bumps. But I thought I’ve done a good job this year, especially just kind of maneuvering around contact and finding ways to get deeper in the games.”
The Phillies are cognizant of Luzardo’s workload and have gotten him an extra day of rest before eight of his 11 starts. He’ll have an extra day again this week before facing the Brewers at home. That helps. They could dial him back as the summer wears on, they could skip a start, they could go to a six-man rotation when Andrew Painter arrives. There are ways to preserve Luzardo’s arm without going too easy on him and that’s the balance the Phillies are hoping to find. They’ve found it so far, though two-thirds of the season remains.
“The strength coaches, just the whole staff in general, they do such a good job of managing workload,” Luzardo said. “I’m finding ways to really recover in between outings and I think that’s huge, something that in the past in my career, maybe I didn’t take it seriously, the recovery aspect of it. Almost taking a step back, not doing more, doing less. Letting your body really bounce back. All you need is to be ready for the fifth day. Thanks to them and hopefully we keep it going.”
