The front-running Phillies are one game away from a sweep in Miami.
The Phils jumped out to another early lead and won a 4-2 contest Saturday afternoon over the Marlins.
Jesus Luzardo tallied his 13th win for the 83-59 Phillies. He threw six innings and allowed five hits and two runs. Luzardo walked four and struck out eight, raising his season total to 190.
With Trea Turner sitting, Kyle Schwarber led off for the Phillies and reached on a hit by pitch. Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters in Miami that Turner’s rare day off was planned.
After Alec Bohm lined out, Bryce Harper cracked a 1-2 Sandy Alcantara fastball over the center-field wall.
The Phillies tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning. Brandon Marsh doubled and sprinted home on Harrison Bader’s RBI single up the middle. Max Kepler then blooped a hit into shallow left field and Edmundo Sosa beat out an infield single. Bryson Stott’s sacrifice fly extended the Phillies’ advantage to 4-0.
Luzardo struck out the side in the second inning and did it again in the third. He was a bit unfortunate to concede two runs in the fourth. Three of the Marlins’ four hits in the frame came on soft contact, but Miami halved the Phils’ lead.
The pitch has been a great go-to for Luzardo and it’s a major reason why he’s allowed zero home runs to left-handed batters this year. Among National League sweepers, Luzardo’s has the highest whiff rate (43.5 percent).
Luzardo walked Eric Wagaman with one out in the sixth inning and gave Javier Sanoja a free pass with two outs. Thomson stuck with Luzardo and he successfully finished off the inning after pitching coach Caleb Cotham’s mound visit. Troy Johnston flew out to center field on a sweeper.
David Robertson took the ball in the seventh inning and worked around Maximo Acosta’s leadoff double. Bizarrely, Acosta attempted to steal third base with one out. J.T. Realmuto rifled a strong throw to Bohm for his second caught stealing of the day and the 200th of his career.
The Phillies were unable to find any late-inning insurance runs. Schwarber was just short of his 50th homer in the ninth, flying out 389 feet to deep center.
The back end of the bullpen didn’t need a cushion. Matt Strahm pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Jhoan Duran did the same in the ninth.
Taijuan Walker (4-7, 3.92 ERA) will start the series finale Sunday at 1:40 p.m. ET as the Phils go for a sweep. Miami has yet to name its starter.
The front-running Phillies are one game away from a sweep in Miami.
The Phils jumped out to another early lead and won a 4-2 contest Saturday afternoon over the Marlins.
Jesus Luzardo tallied his 13th win for the 83-59 Phillies. He threw six innings and allowed five hits and two runs. Luzardo walked four and struck out eight, raising his season total to 190.
With Trea Turner sitting, Kyle Schwarber led off for the Phillies and reached on a hit by pitch. Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters in Miami that Turner’s rare day off was planned.
After Alec Bohm lined out, Bryce Harper cracked a 1-2 Sandy Alcantara fastball over the center-field wall.
The Phillies tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning. Brandon Marsh doubled and sprinted home on Harrison Bader’s RBI single up the middle. Max Kepler then blooped a hit into shallow left field and Edmundo Sosa beat out an infield single. Bryson Stott’s sacrifice fly extended the Phillies’ advantage to 4-0.
Luzardo struck out the side in the second inning and did it again in the third. He was a bit unfortunate to concede two runs in the fourth. Three of the Marlins’ four hits in the frame came on soft contact, but Miami halved the Phils’ lead.
The pitch has been a great go-to for Luzardo and it’s a major reason why he’s allowed zero home runs to left-handed batters this year. Among National League sweepers, Luzardo’s has the highest whiff rate (43.5 percent).
Luzardo walked Eric Wagaman with one out in the sixth inning and gave Javier Sanoja a free pass with two outs. Thomson stuck with Luzardo and he successfully finished off the inning after pitching coach Caleb Cotham’s mound visit. Troy Johnston flew out to center field on a sweeper.
David Robertson took the ball in the seventh inning and worked around Maximo Acosta’s leadoff double. Bizarrely, Acosta attempted to steal third base with one out. J.T. Realmuto rifled a strong throw to Bohm for his second caught stealing of the day and the 200th of his career.
The Phillies were unable to find any late-inning insurance runs. Schwarber was just short of his 50th homer in the ninth, flying out 389 feet to deep center.
The back end of the bullpen didn’t need a cushion. Matt Strahm pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Jhoan Duran did the same in the ninth.
Taijuan Walker (4-7, 3.92 ERA) will start the series finale Sunday at 1:40 p.m. ET. Miami has yet to name its starter.
Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...
Mets Notes
Jonah Tong gets the ball for his first start on the road after he allowed four runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out six over 5.0 innings in his MLB debut. The young righty has allowed just 19 earned runs in 118.2 innings across the majors and minors (1.43 ERA) this year
Mark Vientos added a homer and two RBI in Friday's win as he stays hot: .324 (22-for-68) with 14 extra-base hits (nine homers) and 24 RBI with a 1.192 OPS in his last 18 games
Juan Soto added two more hits in the series opener and is now slashing .309/.469/.711 for a 1.180 OPS with 12 home runs in his last 27 games
With five walks in his last two games, Francisco Lindor is continuing to get on base at a fantastic rate: .481 OBP in his last 22 games. During that span, the shortstop is batting .393 and has a 1.133 OPS with 13 extra-base hits, including five home runs
Brady Singer will get the ball for the Reds. He has a 4.08 ERA, 1.256 WHIP, and 140 strikeouts in 143.1 innings over 27 starts
METS
REDS
Francisco Lindor, SS
TJ Friedl, CF
Juan Soto, RF
Noelvi Marte, RF
Brandon Nimmo, LF
Elly De La Cruz, SS
Pete Alonso, 1B
Austin Hays, LF
Jeff McNeil, 2B
Gavin Lux, DH
Mark Vientos, DH
Spencer Steer, 1B
Brett Baty, 3B
Sal Stewart, 3B
Luis Torrens, C
Jose Trevino, C
Cedric Mullins, CF
Matt McLain, 2B
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Born with a bravado to match that of the team he led to a world championship, Davey Johnson was the perfect manager for the 1986 Mets, brash enough to predict his ballclub would “dominate” the competition that season and immodest enough to howl “I told you so” when all was said and done.
Johnson, 82, died Friday night, leaving a legacy as an accomplished major league player and manager for several teams. He was most successful as a manager with the Mets, racking up 595 wins over six-plus seasons, the most by any skipper in team history.
Above all, he’ll always be remembered most fondly in New York for winning the second and still the most recent championship in the history of the franchise.
It took something of a miracle in Game 6 of that World Series against the Boston Red Sox to bring home the title, of course, with Mookie Wilson’s ground ball trickling through Bill Buckner’s legs to complete a two-out rally in the 10th inning. Yet in some ways, that too was fitting for the team and its manager, both forever oozing with a confidence that bordered on arrogance and created a belief that they couldn’t lose.
Johnson’s self-assurance was at the heart of what made Queens the place to be in the mid-to-late 1980s, the rare period in New York baseball history when the Mets, not the Yankees, unquestionably owned the city.
It was Davey, after all, who was secure enough in his ability that he managed with a loose rein, giving a famously boisterous group of players the freedom to flaunt their talent, speak their mind, and even publicly disagree with the manager on occasion.
In his 2018 book, “My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond,” Johnson succinctly summed up his style during his time with the Mets: “I just let everybody do their thing.”
Yet there was never any mistaking who was in charge, thanks to Johnson’s brilliant baseball mind. Even as a player who helped the Baltimore Orioles win championships in 1966 and 1970 -- and lose to the upstart Mets in 1969 -- Davey was always considered a deep thinker who was destined to manage.
May 28, 2016; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets former manager Davey Johnson is introduced to the crowd during a pregame ceremony honoring the 1986 World Series Championship team prior to the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. / Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports
In fact, as a young player, he was nicknamed “Dum-Dum” by some veteran Orioles who thought he was a little too smart for his own good at times.
“He was a guy who was always thinking about things,” Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer once said about Johnson. “Very cerebral, even to the point of overanalyzing a situation, but I think that became one of his strengths as a manager.”
In fact, Johnson was ahead of the curve as one of the first managers to rely on a computer to give him an edge in creating lineups, bullpen matchups and the like. Analytics before there was such a thing, in a sense.
As a player, Johnson even tried to convince Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver on the benefits of statistical analysis, as he recalled when he was hired to manage the Orioles for the 1996 season.
“I used to work on this program I called ‘optimizing the Orioles lineup,’” Johnson told reporters. “I would run it through the computer and bring the data to Earl Weaver. I found out that if I hit second instead of seventh, we’d score 50 or 60 more runs, and that would translate into a few more wins. I gave it to him, and it went right into the garbage can.”
Johnson was never shy about voicing his opinion on all matters baseball. It was a trait that would create conflict with Mets GM Frank Cashen and may well have hastened his departure when Cashen decided to fire him during the 1990 season.
It also led to some tension during his playing days with the equally headstrong Weaver, but eventually Johnson came to regard his Orioles’ manager as one of his mentors.
“He handled the pitching staff the right way,” Johnson once said of Weaver. “He knew how to use his relievers. He was a genius that way. I took it in.”
As a player, Johnson was a fixture at second base on those Orioles teams that went to the World Series four times from 1966 to 1971, winning three Gold Gloves and putting up solid offensive numbers.
Sep 12, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson looks on before the game against the New York Mets at Citi Field. / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It wasn’t until Johnson was traded after the 1972 season, reportedly because Weaver felt his second baseman was becoming more interested in bulking up to hit for power than playing defense, that he had his most memorable season.
Playing for the Atlanta Braves in 1973 at age 30, Johnson hit 43 home runs, setting a record for second basemen that stood until 2021 when Marcus Semien hit 45 with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Johnson never hit more than 18 in a season before or after that year, and by the mid-1970s, his stock had fallen to the point that he went to Japan to be a starter for two years before returning to the U.S. to finish out his career as a part-time player for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs.
After his playing days, Johnson got into managing due in part to his connection with Cashen, who had overseen baseball operations for the Orioles in the 1960s and 1970s before taking the GM job with the Mets.
Cashen hired Johnson in 1981 to manage in the minors with the Mets and then decided the time was right to promote him to manage the big-league club in 1984. With a wave of young talent led by Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, Johnson experienced immediate success, winning 90 games in ’84 and 98 games in ’85, both times falling short of the postseason at a time when there were no wild-card berths.
“Davey had great knowledge, and I think his real strength was knowing how to develop the young pitchers we had then,” former GM Joe McIlvaine, who was Cashen’s assistant in ’84, once said. “I don’t think anybody could have done a better job with Doc, with Ron Darling, and Sid Fernandez that first year. That set the trend for the next five years.”
After finishing behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL East in ’85, despite their 98 wins, Johnson wasn’t shy about predicting greatness going into the ’86 season. He told his team in spring training, and anyone who would listen, “We’re not just going to win, we’re going to dominate.”
His team backed up his words, winning 108 games and running away with the division title, then surviving an epic NLCS against the Houston Astros and finally coming back after losing the first two games of the World Series to defeat the Red Sox, miracle Game 6 comeback and all.
“Like I told you guys all along, there was never a doubt,” Johnson crowed gleefully after Game 7.
Davey Johnson while managing the Mets / Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images
In total, for those five years that McIlvaine referenced, from ’84 through ’89, the Mets were the best team in the National League. However, their failure to win more than one championship left a sense that they didn’t fulfill their promise.
As such, Johnson eventually faced criticism from Cashen, who wanted his manager to be more of a disciplinarian. And then there was the 1988 NLCS, which the Mets lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers after having dominated them during the season, winning 10 of 11 games.
The turning point came in the ninth inning of Game 4 with the Mets poised to take a 3-1 lead in the series. Gooden, after walking light-hitting John Shelby, famously gave up a game-tying two-run home run to equally light-hitting catcher Mike Scioscia, and the Dodgers won the game in extra innings.
Though it was an era where pitchers routinely went much deeper into games than they do now, there was a case to be made that Gooden was running out of gas, especially after he walked Shelby. Yet over the years, Johnson remained defiant about his decision.
“That was Doc’s game,” Johnson said in 2013, when he was asked about it. “I’ve never had a second thought about leaving him in.”
True to his confident nature, Johnson rarely doubted himself, at least publicly, about any decision he made. But in 1990, with the Mets off to a 20-22 start, Cashen fired Johnson on May 29, replacing him with third-base coach Buddy Harrelson. The team went on to win 91 games but finished second in the division behind the Pittsburgh Pirates.
From there, Johnson went on to have success managing the Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, and the Washington Nationals, reaching the postseason with each of them, in addition to a stint with the Dodgers. A career managerial record of 1,372-1,071 (.562).
He won Manager of the Year awards in ’97 with the Orioles and then in 2012 with the Nationals in a distinguished career that, together with his playing accomplishments, has made his Hall of Fame candidacy on various veterans committees a subject of considerable debate.
Whether he ever gets into Cooperstown remains to be seen. However, Johnson is a member of the Mets Hall of Fame, with a legacy in New York that was forever secured with the ’86 championship that defined Johnson in so many ways.
The Philadelphia Phillies invited a young fan to meet Harrison Bader following their 9-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Friday night after an apparent dispute over a home run ball hit by the center fielder during the game.
Bader hit a solo home run into the left field stands in the fourth inning at loanDepot Park. Several fans scrambled for the ball before a man came up with it and walked over and gave it to the boy and hugged him. Both were wearing Phillies gear.
Moments later, a woman, also wearing Philadelphia apparel, approached and appeared to shout at the man, who then grabbed the ball from the boy and gave it to her.
It isn’t clear from videos circulating on social media who initially secured the ball when it landed.
Later in the game, a member of the Marlins’ staff was seen giving the boy a prize pack, and he ended up going home with a signed bat from Bader, who met with him outside of the Phillies’ clubhouse after the game.
The bizarre scene quickly went viral on social media and comes just days after another viral memorabilia-snatching moment in which a man took tennis player Kamil Majchrzak’s hat from a young fan at the U.S. Open and was widely criticized for the act.
He apologized on social media on Monday and said he has returned it.
Man in viral video speaks out
NBC10 caught up with the man in the viral video, Drew Feltwell, who was the Phillies fan who scrambled to grab the home run ball for his son, Lincoln.
Feltwell shares that he grew up in Burlington County, New Jersey, but now lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, with his family.
According to Feltwell, he was attending the game with his wife, daughter, and Lincoln for Lincoln’s approaching 10th birthday.
“We’re just trying to make this week about him,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell shared that he was hoping to give that home run ball to Lincoln and get them on TV.
“I felt like super dad putting that ball in his glove and giving him a hug,” Feltwell said.
As seen in the video, once Feltwell handed Lincoln the ball, an unknown woman came up and shouted at them. That’s when he could be seen giving the ball back.
Feltwell said that the woman was screaming six inches from his ear, “That’s my ball!” and it made him jump.
“Still in disbelief that she walked down there like that,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell added, “Just trying to set an example of how to de-escalate a situation in front of my son, I guess.”
Feltwell explained that he apologized to his son for giving the woman the ball. He shared that the woman was eventually booed out of the stadium, leaving five minutes after she took the ball.
After it happened, Feltwell said a representative of the Phillies sat with the family to invite them to meet with the players. He noted that the Marlins staff was also “super,” giving his son a goodie bag.
“I wish I had the ball for my son to put in his room next to the bat, but if I had the ball, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the bat, so it worked out fine,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell said Harrison Bader was a class act. Bader spoke with Lincoln, signed the bat and took pictures with everyone.
“We ended up having a good night because of good people, said Feltwell.
Feltwell expressed that he partially regrets giving the ball to the woman because of what it meant to his son, “Putting the ball in his glove and then taking it back out killed me.”
He adds that if the woman came forward and offered the ball, we would respect it: “I hope that ball means a lot to her.”
Feltwell said they’re going to get a bat display for Lincoln’s wall to put Bader’s bat on the wall.
The Philadelphia Phillies invited a young fan to meet Harrison Bader following their 9-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Friday night after an apparent dispute over a home run ball hit by the center fielder during the game.
Bader hit a solo home run into the left field stands in the fourth inning at loanDepot Park. Several fans scrambled for the ball before a man came up with it and walked over and gave it to the boy and hugged him. Both were wearing Phillies gear.
Moments later, a woman, also wearing Philadelphia apparel, approached and appeared to shout at the man, who then grabbed the ball from the boy and gave it to her.
It isn’t clear from videos circulating on social media who initially secured the ball when it landed.
Later in the game, a member of the Marlins’ staff was seen giving the boy a prize pack, and he ended up going home with a signed bat from Bader, who met with him outside of the Phillies’ clubhouse after the game.
The bizarre scene quickly went viral on social media and comes just days after another viral memorabilia-snatching moment in which a man took tennis player Kamil Majchrzak’s hat from a young fan at the U.S. Open and was widely criticized for the act.
He apologized on social media on Monday and said he has returned it.
Man in viral video speaks out
NBC10 caught up with the man in the viral video, Drew Feltwell, who was the Phillies fan who scrambled to grab the home run ball for his son, Lincoln.
Feltwell shares that he grew up in Burlington County, New Jersey, but now lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, with his family.
According to Feltwell, he was attending the game with his wife, daughter, and Lincoln for Lincoln’s approaching 10th birthday.
“We’re just trying to make this week about him,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell shared that he was hoping to give that home run ball to Lincoln and get them on TV.
“I felt like super dad putting that ball in his glove and giving him a hug,” Feltwell said.
As seen in the video, once Feltwell handed Lincoln the ball, an unknown woman came up and shouted at them. That’s when he could be seen giving the ball back.
Feltwell said that the woman was screaming six inches from his ear, “That’s my ball!” and it made him jump.
“Still in disbelief that she walked down there like that,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell added, “Just trying to set an example of how to de-escalate a situation in front of my son, I guess.”
Feltwell explained that he apologized to his son for giving the woman the ball. He shared that the woman was eventually booed out of the stadium, leaving five minutes after she took the ball.
After it happened, Feltwell said a representative of the Phillies sat with the family to invite them to meet with the players. He noted that the Marlins staff was also “super,” giving his son a goodie bag.
“I wish I had the ball for my son to put in his room next to the bat, but if I had the ball, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the bat, so it worked out fine,” said Feltwell.
Feltwell said Harrison Bader was a class act. Bader spoke with Lincoln, signed the bat and took pictures with everyone.
“We ended up having a good night because of good people, said Feltwell.
Feltwell expressed that he partially regrets giving the ball to the woman because of what it meant to his son, “Putting the ball in his glove and then taking it back out killed me.”
He adds that if the woman came forward and offered the ball, we would respect it: “I hope that ball means a lot to her.”
Feltwell said they’re going to get a bat display for Lincoln’s wall to put Bader’s bat on the wall.
The Yankees recorded just four hits, dropping the first game of their series against the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-1, on Friday night in the Bronx.
Here are the takeaways...
-- Cam Schlittler struck out the first two hitters of the game before allowing a single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who came around to score from first on Bo Bichette's double down the left field line. The 24-year-old soon found himself in a bases loaded situation and let up a two-run single to Nathan Lukes as Toronto took a 3-0 lead. He finally escaped the first inning on a pop out, throwing a career-high 40 pitches in the frame.
Schlittler got the first out in the second inning, but the Blue Jays loaded the bases again and Bichette drove in another run on a sac fly to make it a 4-0 game. That would be all for the rookie after 66 pitches as manager Aaron Boone came out to make a pitching change. Schlittler's final line: four runs on five hits with two walks, a HBP, and two strikeouts over 1.2 IP.
-- Giancarlo Stanton, back in the DH spot,cut into the Toronto lead in the bottom of the second inning with a solo blast to left field off Kevin Gausman as the Yanks trailed, 4-1. The home run had an exit velocity of 112.7 mph and traveled 418 feet. He finished with two of the team's four hits.
-- Playing right field for the first time since July 26, Aaron Judge fielded Lukes' bloop single in the first inning and made a short throw to Jazz Chisholm Jr. His next play defensively came in the fifth inning as some miscommunication with Chisholm allowed Bichette's hit to drop. He later caught a fly ball from Ernie Clement for the first out in the top of the sixth inning. At the plate, Judge went 1-for-3 with a walk.
-- LHP Ryan Yarbrough replaced Schlittler on the mound and got through the fourth inning without allowing a hit. He let up a solo homer to Guerrero to lead off the fifth inning as the Blue Jays took a 5-1 lead. The lefty retired the next three hitters and got some help from Ryan McMahon to end the fifth as the third baseman snagged Lukes' hard grounder. Yarbrough stayed in the game and tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning, followed by a four-batter seventh inning.
Overall, the lefty allowed one run on three hits over 5.1 IP (73 pitches) with three strikeouts.
-- After a leadoff walk and wild pitch, Mark Leiter Jr. let up a RBI-double to Clement in the eighth as the Blue Jays added to their lead. Camilo Doval allowed another run to cross in the ninth on Daulton Varsho's two-out double, making it a 7-1 game.
Game MVP: Kevin Gausman
The Blue Jays starter dominated the Yankees bats, holding them to just three hits over 7.0 IP. He struck out five and allowed one run on Stanton's HR.
Guerrero gets the honorable mention with a 4-for-5 performance, including a solo homer.
The Mets almost let one slip away but were able to squeak past the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, winning by a score of 5-4.
Here are the takeaways...
-New York got out to an early lead against Cincinnati starter Andrew Abbott, scoring three times in the first inning thanks to some soft hits and heads up baserunning. Francisco Lindor began the inning with a walk and Juan Soto stayed scorching hot with a single to put runners at the corners. After Pete Alonso struck out, Mark Vientos nubbed one down the third base line that stayed fair and scored the game's first run.
Following two pickoffs in Detroit, Soto was back on his horse and caught Abbott and the Reds napping by stealing third base to add to his career-high (28). That proved important on the next batter as Brandon Nimmo's 395-foot flyout that was robbed at the wall by TJ Friedl brought home Soto who tagged up.
Also tagging up and going to second on the home-run robbing catch was Vientos who is not known for his speed or baserunning. The heads up play paid off in the end as Starling Marte kept the line moving by dunking one into right field to score the third run of the inning -- already more runs than Abbott allowed in his first meeting with the Mets on July 20 at Citi Field when he limited New York to two runs over six innings.
-In the midst of a great season but scuffling lately, Abbott, who hasn't recorded a win since July 9, finished with another clunker. The left-hander allowed five earned runs on nine hits, a walk and a HBP and left after 4.2 innings.
-Of the nine hits allowed by Abbott was Vientos' mammoth solo blast to lead off the third inning. The home run, which traveled 427 feet to center field, was Vientos' seventh homer in his last 13 games to give him 16 big flies on the season. After a lengthy slump to begin the season following his breakout year in 2024, Vientos has broken out, looking more and more like the player the Mets relied upon so heavily last season, especially in the playoffs.
Getting an increasingly rare start at third base, Vientos also made some nice plays and showed off his strong arm at the hot corner with ground ball pitcher David Peterson on the mound.
-Speaking of Peterson, the left-hander was given a three-run lead before even stepping onto the mound and looked good in the first few innings by getting soft contact on the ground which is his bread and butter.
Hoping to get past his worst outing of the season in which he allowed eight earned runs in two innings against the Miami Marlins at home, Peterson looked on track to do so but he ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Having already allowed a run in the previous inning, Peterson gave up three consecutive hits (two singles and a double) that brought home two more. The third run of the inning came around to score on a sacrifice fly and just like that, New York's lead shriveled to one run.
Peterson bounced back in the fifth to retire the side in order, but a single and a walk bracketing a strikeout to begin the sixth was it for the left-hander. His final line: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K's on 91 pitches (62 strikes).
-In to clean up Peterson's traffic jam, Ryne Stanek was the first out of the bullpen and struck out his first batter, although a passed ball on strike three by Francisco Alvarez advanced the runners. A walk loaded the bases, but Stanek would end the inning by striking out Matt McLain on three pitches.
-Up to the bullpen in a 5-4 game, Brooks Raley pitched a scoreless seventh for the Mets which included two strikeouts before Tyler Rogers pitched around a leadoff hit in the eighth. With New York unable to add an insurance run against the Reds bullpen, Edwin Diaz entered the bottom of the ninth tasked to protect a one-run lead.
The closer put himself in instant danger by allowing a leadoff single and walking the next two batters to load the bases with nobody out. Diaz came back to strike out Noelvi Marte for the first out and then, after a cleat malfunction caused a strange delay, he froze Elly De La Cruz on a 99 mph fastball for the second out. For his final trick, Diaz got Gavin Lux to groundout to second base and with Alonso diving to try and make the play, Diaz covered the bag and beat Lux to first base for the final out of the game to secure his 26th save of the season.
-In his return to the lineup despite a torn ligament in his thumb and a broken pinky, Alvarez finished 1-for-4, singling in his first at-bat.
-Back-to-back two-out doubles by Lindor and Soto in the fourth inning produced New York's last run of the game and proved to be the difference. Lindor was on base in all five of his plate appearances and scored two runs while Soto went 2-for-4 with a walk, run and RBI.
-With the Reds one of the teams vying to take over the Mets for the third wild card spot, New York is now six games in front of Cincinnati who dropped to 70-71.
Game MVP: Edwin Diaz
Diaz pulled a Houdini act after loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning to notch the save and give the Mets a win in the series opener.
In one corner of the room, Tanner Scott stared blankly into his locker, trying to come to grips with yet another game he let get away.
Across from him, Dalton Rushing propped a pair of crutches under his arms, limping out of sight with the Dodgers’ latest injury.
On the opposite wall, Freddie Freeman got dressed at his stall; taking in the somber scene in the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards, while trying to think of exactly what to say about the team’s troubling, tumbling, torturous current play.
“Sometimes, you just don't have the right answers,” Freeman said, as reporters gathered around for a familiar line of questions. “Not going to sit here and give some cliches. We're just not playing very good. ... There's no sugarcoating this. We need to figure this out, and figure this out quick."
Indeed, just when the Dodgers’ second-half slump seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, Friday delivered a new set of headaches.
Scheduled starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow was scratched in the afternoon with back tightness, forcing Shohei Ohtani to pitch on just five hours’ notice.
Shohei Ohtani pitches during the first inning of a loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. (Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
Rushing exited early after fouling a ball painfully off his right shin, leaving the Dodgers without both their starting backstop (Will Smith remains sidelined with a bone bruise on his hand) or his backup (X-rays on Rushing’s leg were negative, but he will also need a CT scan) for at least the next few days.
And then, of course, there was the game: A 2-1 walk-off loss to the last-place Baltimore Orioles that sent the slumping Dodgers to a fourth-straight defeat.
“We can sit here after every game and talk about what we need to do,” Freeman said. “It's just, we got to do it.”
Friday went off the rails before the Dodgers (78-63) even arrived at the ballpark, starting with a flurry of phone calls to figure out their pitching.
After the team’s late arrival from Pittsburgh the night before, Glasnow reported some bad news to the team’s training staff: His back tightened up on the short flight to Baltimore. And a night of sleep hadn’t resolved the issue.
Suddenly, Dodgers coaches, staffers and front-office officials in Baltimore and back in Los Angeles began what pitching coach Mark Prior described as a “game of telephone” — trying to figure out what to do about Glasnow, and who could pitch if he was unable.
“There was a lot of moving parts,” Prior quipped.
Ultimately, the team decided to scratch Glasnow, opting for a cautious approach to what they hope is only a minor issue. According to manager Dave Roberts, the tentative plan is to slot Glasnow back into the rotation early next week. But given his injury history, questions will linger until he’s actually back on the hill.
In the meantime, the team had to decide who to send to the mound on Friday. At around 2 p.m., the request went to Ohtani — who had been scratched from his own scheduled pitching start Wednesday in Pittsburgh while battling an illness, but had improved enough to oblige the short-notice request.
“It’s gonna be OK,” Freeman joked as he followed Ohtani into the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards a few hours later. “The unicorn is here.”
Ohtani did his part in what was an abbreviated outing by design, delivering 3⅔ scoreless innings with five strikeouts and three hits allowed.
The Baltimore Orioles' Samuel Basallo flips his bat after hitting a walk-off home run against the Dodgers Friday in Baltimore. (Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)
But, in their latest dispiriting performance, the Dodgers couldn’t make it matter, going silent at the plate again before suffering yet another late-game meltdown.
“I know each day the guys come in fresh, prepared and expecting a different result,” Roberts said. “But we’re just not getting it done.”
Offensively, the Dodgers struggled to generate chances, or capitalize upon the few they did. Baltimore starter Dean Kremer retired his first eight batters, including first-inning fly balls from Mookie Betts and Freeman that died at the wall. When the Dodgers did create opportunities in the third (getting two aboard with two outs) and the fourth (loading the bases with two outs) they came up empty; continuing an inexplicable slide in which they’ve ranked 27th in the majors in scoring over their last 53 games.
“We individually are trying to find ways on our own to ... [be] hitting better than we are,” Ohtani, who managed only a walk in four trips to the plate, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “But I think the side effect of that is, we’re a little too eager, and putting too much pressure on ourselves. That’s really hurting us more than it’s helping.”
On the mound, meanwhile, Ohtani managed to post zeros, navigating the Orioles (65-76) with a fastball that touched 101.5 mph and a varied mix that helped induce 12 swing-and-misses.
But as soon as he exited — pulled after 70 pitches given the rushed leadup to his start — the Dodgers quickly fell behind on a glaring defensive lapse.
In the fifth, the Orioles drew a pair of walks. Then, with lead runner Jackson Holliday breaking for third, a sweeper in the dirt got past Rushing — the fifth wild pitch he allowed in the last two games filling in for Smith.
Holliday turned for home as Rushing scrambled to the backstop. By the time Rushing threw to the plate, Holliday was already sliding in safely for the first run of the game.
The Dodgers’ deficit didn’t last for long. On the first pitch of the sixth, Freeman whacked another fly ball that carried deep enough to get out this time, his 19th home run of the season tying the score 1-1.
But then, more frustration followed — with the Dodgers leaving two runners stranded later in that inning, when Rushing was forced to exit with his injury; then another in the seventh, when Freeman grounded out following a two-out double from Betts.
“Not scoring runs, it's just not who we are,” Freeman said. “We're not getting anything going. We're not getting the hits.”
“We haven't for a while,” he added. “I truly have no answers.”
Neither, it appears, does Scott, the already embattled closer who suffered his latest calamity in the ninth.
After getting the first two outs, the left-hander made the same kind of mistake that has haunted him all season, leaving a 1-and-2 fastball right down the middle to Samuel Basallo that the Orioles catcher clobbered for a no-doubt, winning blast deep to right-center field.
“I just keep making terrible pitch selections right when it matters, and it’s costing us every time,” said Scott, who has a 4.52 ERA and 11 combined blown saves and charged losses. “It sucks. It feels terrible. And I have to figure it out. Because baseball hates me right now.”
Lately, it hasn’t been more relenting on the Dodgers as a whole, either — dealing them painful losses and crippling injuries amid a continued search for any shred of improved play.
“We all are confident in who we are as baseball players. We're just not doing it right now in the field," Freeman said, as the gloomy postgame clubhouse surrounding him reflected the anguished state of the team. “The game of baseball's really hard, but the concept is easy. We're making the concept really hard right now."
With a lot of moving pieces lately, manager Carlos Mendoza had a lot to discuss with reporters on Friday about some of his players as the Mets gear up for the final stretch of their 2025 season in what they hope ends in a postseason berth for a second consecutive season.
Senga's struggles since his return from the IL have been well-documented. In fact, they reached a point to where New York had to make the decision to option the right-hander to the minors -- a move that Senga consented to after peaceful negotiations between him, his agent and the team.
Now that Senga will pitch for Syracuse, at least for the short-term, what exactly is the plan with him?
Reported by SNY's Andy Martino and confirmed by Mendoza, Senga will make at least two starts in Triple-A. However, before that he will throw a couple of bullpen sessions to work on the mechanics that have been alluding him lately.
"Obviously he’s going to be in a more controlled environment where he’s not in the spotlight," Mendoza said. "... The plan is for him to go and throw a couple of bullpens before we put him in a game. So we’re looking at, potentially, a game next weekend.
"We got to get him back in sync. His lower half, his upper body, just everything. So that’s why we’re giving him time to work on the mound, get a feel for the mechanics before we put him in the game and then we’ll go from there."
In 22 starts this season, Senga is 7-6 with a 3.02 ERA (1.31 WHIP) and 109 strikeouts in 113.1 innings pitched. Overall, those numbers look great and are consistent with his career numbers.
However, considering he had a 1.47 ERA before going down with a leg injury in June, his numbers have not been pretty lately. Over his last seven starts, Senga is 0-3 with a 6.06 ERA (1.65 WHIP) and has been unable to pitch deep into games.
Obviously, getting Senga back on track is crucial for the Mets who have had pitching woes for much of the season after a fantastic start to the season.
"He was really, really good for us before he went down," Mendoza said. "... We’ll get with him, we’ll get his take, we’re gonna ask for his feedback and see where he’s at and then we’ll make the next decision. But as of right now, we’re gonna give him time to get on the mound."
Despite all odds, Alvarez is back with the team in Cincinnati getting ready to face the Reds in a huge three-game series. The return of the catcher is not only a sight for sore eyes, but an inspiration considering all he's dealt with in the past month.
"It’s pretty unbelievable," Mendoza said. "We’re talking about when he first went down with a ligament and a few days later we’re talking about potentially his season being over and then a few days later he’s already taking swings at full-go.
"And then he goes down there, first game gets hit and he’s got a fracture and then two days [later] he’s already swinging the bat. Like, this is unbelievable. And for him to be back here playing games, you gotta give him a lot of credit."
Before his injury, Alvarez was red-hot at the plate and hopes to pick up where he left off and join an offense that has been raking as of late.
Still, the plan is to take things slow with the young catcher who has already missed a big chunk of the season and has only played in 56 games.
"I think it’ll be day-to-day," the skipper said of the plan with Alvarez. "We’ll see because this is all new for all of us -- for him, for me. It’s pretty intense at this level, every pitch, every at-bat, every swing so I will check with him after every game and then we’ll go from there, but again, I don’t think he knows.
"So nobody knows, we’re talking about the ligament and the pinky finger so there’s a lot going on, but he feels fine, he feels really good. The reports from the coaches in Triple-A, there’s no hesitation with him swinging the bat, throwing the ball so I’m just excited to have him back here."
After re-signing with the Mets in the offseason, Manaea has been a huge disappointment in his second season in New York. Injured to start the year, the left-hander made his season debut right before the All-Star break and looked exceptional.
Following a few more good, albeit short, starts to kick off the second half, Manaea has completely fallen off. In 10 games (nine starts), the 33-year-old is 1-2 with a 5.60 ERA and has been getting tagged left and right.
His latest start in Detroit didn't do much to instill the Mets with confidence as he allowed five earned runs on eight hits, including two home runs, in 3.2 innings. And similar to Senga, Manaea's biggest problem has been his inability to go beyond five innings which has completely taxed New York's already overworked bullpen.
Despite his struggles, the left-hander is scheduled to pitch against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday. When asked in what capacity, Mendoza confirmed Manaea will start the game.
However, if Manaea doesn't get things together, Tylor Megill is nearing a return from injury and could bounce him from the rotation.
"He threw a bullpen today and he’s scheduled to pitch again in Triple-A on Sunday," Mendoza said.
Megill has made five rehab starts between Double-A and Triple-A and has pitched to a 3.00 ERA over 18 innings with 26 strikeouts. Before a right elbow sprain landed him on the IL, the right-hander had gone 5-5 with a 3.95 ERA in 14 starts this season.
With Wild Card aspirations in mind, the Giants’ hot bats didn’t succumb to the fresher, early-September climate at Busch Stadium on Friday night.
The bats stayed scorching hot, with San Francisco tying a season-high 18 hits against the Cardinals in its series-opening 8-2 win.
After early back-to-back home runs from Rafael Devers and Willy Adames, the Giants extended their longest streak of games with a home run since the franchise moved to San Francisco to 18, assuring manager Bob Melvin that his team, which has won 11 of its last 12, is hard to contain.
“We go into the game feeling good about our offense, and there’s a reason for it over the last 18 games, whatever it’s been,” Melvin told reporters on Friday.
“It’s contagious, just like it goes the other way. Right now, offensively, we feel like we’re as good as we’ve been all year, with [Patrick Bailey] hitting well, [Drew Gilbert] at the bottom of the lineup and getting production from [Casey Schmitt] and everyone else. It just feels like we’re a tough team to handle right now.”
"We're a tough team to handle right now."
Melvin knows the Giants' offense is on a roll after tonight's season-high 18 hits pic.twitter.com/3QVjugA6JO
In his second career start, right-hander Carson Seymour delivered a solid outing, lasting a career-high five innings without allowing a hit in any of his first four.
The end result?
The 26-year-old pitcher, to Melvin’s surprise, earned his first victory in the big leagues.
“Coming in, we were kind of up in the air on what we were going to look at,” Melvin admitted to reporters.
“It was probably going to be something like three (innings), but not only did we score some runs, he pitched probably as well as we’ve seen him pitch this year.”
Additionally, on the offensive front, Jung Hoo Lee tied a career high with four hits, while Patrick Bailey contributed three.
Sitting four games back of the New York Mets for the National League’s third wild-card spot, the Giants, once again, demonstrated why they’re the hottest team in baseball.
The Phillies’ bats certainly made the weekend trip to Miami.
Behind four home runs and 16 hits, the Phils notched a 9-3 win Friday night to begin their three-game series with the Marlins. Every member of the Phillies’ lineup had at least one hit.
Cristopher Sanchez earned the win by tossing seven innings and conceding six hits and one run. The southpaw struck out five and walked one. Through 28 starts, he’s 12-5 with a 2.60 ERA.
Sanchez took the mound with a lead. Trea Turner singled, Kyle Schwarber singled, and Bryce Harper’s bloop to left field landed just inside the foul line for an RBI knock.
With a 4-for-5 game Friday, Turner’s batting average sits at a National League-best .305. Everyone else is under .300. He’s gone 43 for 100 in his last 22 games.
Marlins righty Valente Bellozo kept Miami’s deficit at 1-0 in the first. J.T. Realmuto ripped a 2-2 cutter to deep right-center, but Joey Wiemer made a leaping catch. Brandon Marsh then lined out to third base and Schwarber was miles away from avoiding a double play.
Nick Castellanos sat for the third time in the last four games and Max Kepler started again in right field against Bellozo. In the second inning, Kepler crushed a juicy changeup into the right-field second deck. He lined an RBI single in the seventh, too.
The Marlins got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third. Victor Mesa Jr. chopped an infield hit over the 6-foot-6 Sanchez’s head. Javier Sanoja followed with a ground ball down the left-field line that drove him in.
Sanchez was sharp overall. He threw plenty of elite changeups in and around the bottom of the zone, recorded 13 ground ball outs and never encountered any real trouble. Sanchez only needed 82 pitches over his seven innings.
The game wasn’t tight for long. The Phils teed off in the fourth against Miami reliever Lake Bachar.
Realmuto picked up a leadoff hit and Marsh deposited the ninth pitch of his at-bat to a nearly identical spot as Kepler’s blast. Harrison Bader clobbered a no-doubt back-to-back dinger, smashing a hanging slider to put the Phillies up 5-1. That shot meant all three of the Phils’ starting outfielders Friday had a homer through four innings.
Though the Phillies missed out on bases-loaded chances in both the fifth and sixth innings, they cruised into full blowout mode with a four-run seventh. Bryson Stott nailed a three-run homer to reach double digits for the fourth consecutive season.
The 82-59 Phillies will look for a third straight series win Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET. The Phils’ Jesus Luzardo (12-6, 4.05 ERA) will face the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara (8-11, 5.66 ERA).
Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong have already come up and contributed in the midst of a playoff push.
Next up? Brandon Sproat.
Sproat will join them this weekend to make his highly-anticipated debut during Sunday’s series finale against the Reds, the team trailing the Mets in the NL wild-card race.
Certainly a big challenge, but one the Mets are confident Sproat is up for.
“He earned it,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s another guy that had to work, had to fight to get to this point. It wasn’t easy for him early on this season, but his last few starts he’s been a completely different guy -- he was frustrated when he didn’t get the call, now here he is.
"You don’t want to put too much pressure on him -- just go out there and be yourself, but you have to give him a ton of credit and it’s another win for the scouting and development team, it’s going to be really fun to see.”
Sproat was widely-regarded as the organization’s top pitching prospect entering this season, but he quickly dropped behind both McLean and Tong on the depth chart as they soared through the system.
His early-season results also didn’t help, posting an ugly 6.69 ERA over his first nine outings.
After making some tweaks over the past few months, though, the 24-year-old has been able to rebound nicely and he’s pitched to a much-improved 3.19 ERA over his last 17 appearances.
His most recent outing was arguably his best during that stretch, as he struck out nine batters and walked just two over seven scoreless innings.
It's those signs of a front-line arm that president of baseball operations David Stearns says solidified the Mets’ decision to give him the call.
“We’ve seen it over the last two-two and a half months now,” Stearns said. “He’s carried his velocity consistently into games, his secondary offerings have picked up in consistency and crispiness, he’s throwing his changeup more which has helped.
“We’ve seen a number of really positive trends -- he is still a young pitcher, this is still his major-league debut, but we feel confident that he can come up and compete at the level, and we look forward to watching him take the mound on Sunday.”
There’s a wide divide in finances between Major League Baseball’s big-market and small-market teams.
As for the win column? Not so much.
The 2025 season has produced a surprising show of parity through the first five months of the regular season. While most of the league’s big spenders — teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and New York Mets — are in good position to make the playoffs and do damage in October, they haven’t been as dominant as many expected.
In fact, there’s a good chance that this will be the second season in a row no MLB franchise will top 100 wins. The only team with a realistic shot is the Milwaukee Brewers, who rank 23rd in the league with a $112 million payroll. They’ll have to go 14-7 over their final 21 games to hit 100.
The last time there were no 100-game winners in back-to-back seasons was a three-year stretch from 2012 to 2014.
With three weeks and roughly 20 games remaining for most teams, here are some things to watch as the regular season winds down:
Playoff races
Their might be no truly dominant teams this season, but there’s also a pretty clear picture of the 12 teams that could make the postseason bracket — six in the National League and six in the American League.
In the AL, the Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros have a more than 95% chance to make the playoffs, according to ESPN’s projections. A sixth team — the Seattle Mariners — sit at a roughly 75% chance.
There are still several teams with hope, including the Texas Rangers (12.8%), Kansas City Royals (10.0%), Tampa Bay Rays (9.6%) and Cleveland Guardians (2.8%).
The NL race has an even bigger gap between the top six teams and the rest of the league. The Brewers, Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres all have odds of at least 95% to play in October.
Among the longshots: The San Francisco Giants (4.7%), Cincinnati Reds (2.4%), Arizona Diamondbacks (1.2%) and St. Louis Cardinals (0.8%).
The top two teams in the NL and AL don’t have to play in the best-of-three wild card round, instead advancing directly to the best-of-five division series. Right now, those teams would be Tigers and Blue Jays in the AL, and the Brewers and Phillies in the NL.
The D-backs could be one of the league’s more intriguing teams in September, even if they don’t make the postseason. They were sellers at the July 30 trade deadline after a disappointing first four months, but are 19-12 since that point, staying on the fringe of contention.
Arizona could end up affecting the playoff race even if it probably won’t make it to October. The D-backs play games against the Red Sox, Phillies, Dodgers, Giants and Padres over the final three weeks.
“We’re in the hunt,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I keep saying that all I want to do is play meaningful games in September. That’s our intent. We just have to keep our head down and believe we can still do this.
“The guys are showing they feel the same exact way, so keep digging.”
Awards races
Here’s the status of some of the major MLB awards races. All odds according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
AL MVP: This is an epic two-horse race between Yankees slugger Aaron Judge (-235) and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (+155). Judge has had an excellent all-around season while Raleigh’s 51 homers are the most in MLB history for a player who is primarily a catcher.
NL MVP: Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani (-1200) is a fairly big favorite at this point, but Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber (+600) and Mets outfielder Juan Soto (+5000) are still in the mix.
AL Cy Young: Detroit lefty Tarik Skubal (-1600) is a big favorite to take home his second straight AL Cy Young award. Among the challengers: Boston lefty Garrett Crochet (+650).
NL Cy Young: Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes (-10000) is the overwhelming favorite to win his first NL Cy Young.
Manager shakeup?
There have already been four managers fired this season, with the Washington Nationals, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles all making moves. The Angels have had an interim manager for much of the year because of health issues for Ron Washington.
Depending on what happens the next three weeks, there could be a lot more job openings.
Skippers like Atlanta’s Brian Snitker and Texas’ Bruce Bochy, who is now 70, could retire after the season. Other like Arizona’s Lovullo and Minnesota’s Rocco Baldelli have had disappointing seasons.
Even playoff qualifiers might not be immune. The Yankees’ Aaron Boone is among a handful of managers not just expected to play in October, but to have a deep run. An early exit could spell trouble.
