Category: Baseball

This contest was a series of moments wrapped around a wild seventh inning that saw each team score at least three runs, albeit in different methods. Prior to a 7th inning that was off the rails in the home half, the Rays looked to be mostly in control with an early 2-1 lead through five innings thanks to an RBI single by Liam Hicks and a solo home run by Jonathan Aranda:

That prodigous was just Aranda’s second home run in the past 20 games and just his fourth extra base hit in his last 86 plate appearances: That held up until Ty France hit his 100th career home run sneaking an opposite field home run just over the right field cut out to give the Padres a 3-2 lead:

The Rays would come back to tie the game 3-3 on Junior Caminero’s first home run in 16 games and just his third extra base hit in his last 66 plate appearances to set the stage for an eventful 7th inning:

Garrett Cleavinger came in of relief of Nick Martinez in the 7th and committed the cardinal sin of walking the leadoff batter after being ahead 0-2 on Luis Rengifo. That walk was quickly followed by a single by Dustin Harris and a perfect bunt by Fernando Tatis Jr to load the bases with nobody out. Cleavinger would come back to strike out Jake Cronenworth, but was lifted for Kevin Kelly in hopes of getting an inning-ending double play. Manny Machado foiled those plans with a single through the abandoned part of the infield plating the first two runs of the inning, which was followed by a double-steal leading to the third run of the inning:

The Rays went into the bottom of the 7th down three runs against a team that had lost one game all season when leading after seven because their A-bullpen has an A+ grade and A+ stuff. The Rays simply followed the script the Padres used in the top of the inning with the 7-8-9 hitters each reaching base setting up the wildest play of the game. Yandy Diaz crushed a high fastball from Bradgley Rodriguez that looked and sounded lika grand slam off the bat. The baserunners were primed to run into the most TOOTBLANs of TOOTBLANs, but Rengifo’s knee gave out on him in a run-down and throw home allowing all three base runners to score and get Diaz to third base:

Diaz would eventually come in to score the go-ahead run on Chandler Simpson’s second hit of the game. That single gave Simpson a .384 batting average since the break, which leads all qualified hitters. Kelly would come back to work a clean 8th before handing the ball to Bryan Baker to save his 39th game of the season and his 27th consecutive save since his last blown save on May 13th.

The win by the Rays coupled with the Yankees losing the first game of the double-header gives the Rays a five-game lead over the Yankees. The Rays will go for a series sweep tomorrow with staff ace Drew Rasmussen on the mound opposing Robbie Ray.

Last night, the Athletics fell to 14-29 in series openers this season after falling to the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 in 10 innings. The A’s had a chance to win their third straight game, but they could not conjure enough late-inning magic. As a result, the team must win tonight to avoid falling into a 2-0 series hole and keep its hopes of winning the series alive.

A’s right-hander Jack Perkins will take the mound in this evening’s Sacramento Saturday clash. The 26-year-old enters his 32nd appearance and 12th start of the season with a 3-9 record, a 6.68 ERA, a 1.48 WHIP, three saves and 104 strikeouts over 90 1/3 innings.

Tonight, Perkins will get another chance to start. Following three straight poor starts, the right-hander’s last two outings have come in bulk relief of an opener, a role in which he has pitched better. In his last appearance, Perkins earned the win against the Houston Astros after allowing three runs, one earned, on three hits and five walks across five innings.

If Perkins wants to remain in the A’s rotation, he will have to string together some quality starts. The more games in which Perkins puts his team in an early deficit, the likelier he is to find himself back in the bullpen. When the A’s faced the Orioles earlier this season, Perkins pitched once in that series, allowing a run on a hit and a walk in 2/3 of an inning.

Last year, he recorded his first major-league win against Baltimore after allowing three runs on three hits over six innings. The Green and Gold would gladly take that kind of performance from Perkins tonight in the wake of yesterday’s extra-inning affair.

Here’s the lineup Athletics’ manager Mark Kotsay is going with today:

The injury-depleted A’s are rolling out nearly the same starting lineup as last night, with Donovan Walton the lone position player making his first start of the series. Throughout this homestand, the A’s have made a habit of scoring late in games, so some early offense and a lead would likely help Perkins settle down and put the team in a better position to win this evening.

The A’s offense will face Orioles right-hander Shane Baz, who has turned his season around after a rocky first few months with Baltimore. The 27-year-old enters his 27th start of the year with a 4-14 record, a 4.04 ERA, a 1.35 WHIP and 135 strikeouts over 151 1/3 innings. Over his last seven starts, Baz has posted a 3.63 ERA, yet is 0-5, largely because he has received the second-lowest amount of run support in the majors. The right-hander brings a 1-2 record, a 4.10 ERA and 27 strikeouts into his fifth career game against the A’s.

The Green and Gold will look to defeat Baz for a second time this season after tagging him for five runs on five hits in early May. Given how much better the Orioles pitcher has been lately, the Athletics will need to take advantage of any mistake pitches he leaves in the middle of the plate and use strategies like base stealing and bunting to create run-scoring opportunities.

And Baltimore’s starting nine for this matchup:

Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson and catcher Samuel Basallo are both back in the lineup after getting the day off yesterday. They are joined by elite power-hitter Pete Alonso and first baseman Coby Mayo, who recorded the game-winning RBI single in the tenth inning of the series opener.

It will be up to Perkins and the A’s bullpen to keep the Orioles’ offense in check and prevent Baz from receiving much run support. On the other hand, if the Orioles establish a sizable early lead, the A’s could have difficulty pulling off another comeback as they look to force a series rubber game tomorrow afternoon.

Time to even this series and get back in the win column. Let’s go A’s!

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The news of Juan Soto returning from the injured list to the Mets on Saturday was pretty sudden and came as a bit of a surprise seeing that it was ahead of schedule during a season where New York is out of contention.

However, Soto always maintained that he would return this season to finish the year strong and in his first game back he had an RBI single that broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning as the Mets beat the Houston Astros, 6-2.

“Feels good to be back,” Soto said after the game. “It’s just a great feeling to be a part of the team and part of the game. Trying to help the team as much as you can out there, it feels really cool.”

The win ended a three-game losing streak for New York, but before that the Mets had won seven of their last 10 games as part of a 14-10 record in August where they’ve looked much better.

Funny enough, the team’s recent success came with Soto, out since July 24, not in the lineup. In fact, New York’s upswing added more motivation to Soto to return so he could join in on the fun.

“I feel really good about it,” Soto said of the Mets’ improved play. “We [brought] a lot of young talent from the minor leagues and now seeing them playing the way they’re playing and seeing how everything is clicking for us is really cool to see. 

“It means a lot, not only for this year, but the next years coming and I’m just really happy about the way we’ve been playing. That’s another thing that motivated me more to come back and try to join this positive wave and try to carry on.”

With Soto back, New York adds one of “the absolute best hitters on the planet” as interim manager Andy Green called him, to a fun and energized team even with nothing left to play for. Still, Soto and the Mets have their pride and are using the final weeks of the season to see which players might be able to contribute next season while also giving plenty of young players extended looks.

Indeed, it’s those same young players that Soto’s return from a second calf injury in a lost season affects greatly.

“We all know how hard this game is. Definitely those guys are young and still working and still learning a lot of things, but I think, yeah, they get to see what I did and I hope they can take it in a positive way and look at it in the right way and take some advice from it,” Soto said. “I won’t be the guy to like carry them and show them how I did it, but whenever they need me I’m gonna be there.”

Even with a player like Nolan McLean, Saturday’s starter who went seven terrific innings, seeing Soto back with the team was inspiring.

“We know with Juan how much it means to him,” McLean said. “He’s in here every day before everybody making sure he can get back on the field and that means the world to us because guys like that in your lineup is important. He’s arguably one of the best hitters on the planet and I’m glad he’s on my team and I don’t have to face him. It’s good to have guys like that back.”

Of course, on top of being a good example for the rest of the team, Soto’s production is what New York missed the most so it wasn’t a shock to see him have a good day at the plate right away.

“I feel great. I feel like we worked a lot on my timing through those days that I was down. I definitely tried to stay as locked in as possible and I feel great right now,” Soto said.

As for how Soto, who skipped a rehab assignment entirely, will be used in the final month of the season, the slugger mentioned what the Mets are likely thinking in order to preserve him the best they can.

“I feel pretty comfortable with my calf and all that stuff, but at the end of the day we got to remember I came a little bit [quicker] than they expected and I didn’t do any rehab assignments, so my guess is I’m probably gonna be DHing a little bit more and we will see one day when they decide to let me play the outfield,” Soto said. “But I think for now the plan is to be more in the DH spot.”

The Yankees may have another injury to deal with. 

George Lombard Jr. left the second game of a doubleheader against the Red Sox Saturday night at the Stadium with a right knee injury. 

The Yankees later announced that Lombard is suffering right knee discomfort and will have an MRI exam tonight. 

In Lombard’s first at-bat in the second inning, he awkwardly checked his swing and didn’t seem right.

Manager Aaron Boone and a trainer came out to check on him.

Lombard, a top shortstop prospect, stayed in the game and singled to left field.

He batted in the third inning, and lined out to left, but was replaced in the top of the fourth. 

Jose Caballero moved over to shortstop and Amed Rosario was inserted at third base.

If Lombard needs a stint on the injured list, the Yankees could bring back Anthony Volpe from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

After a hot start to his MLB career on both sides of the ball, George Lombard Jr. has taken his lumps in the second half of August. He has a .563 OPS in his last 14 games and recently had a streak of errors in six consecutive games, though optimism of course remains high on his long-term outlook. Anyone can go through a tough stretch after all, especially as a rookie.

But Lombard might have hit a new hurdle during the nightcap of the Yankees’ Saturday doubleheader against the Red Sox. During an at-bat against Brayan Bello, he checked his swing but appeared to hurt his knee in the process. To be clear, this is just conjecture on my end, but that area certainly seemed to be causing serious discomfort. Lombard remained in the game to finish his at-bat — remarkably in hindsight, a single to left — and stayed in long enough to play the field and take another trip to the plate.

By the start of the fourth inning, however, the 21-year-old was forced from the game. José Caballero moved to the six and Amed Rosario entered at third base.

Any sort of lower-half injury is alarming, particularly at this point in the season. They can take a little while to recover from, and the postseason begins in exactly one month. The best-case scenario is that Lombard just had cramping of some kind or a different minor ailment.

The official diagnosis in the short term was “right knee discomfort.”

Unfortunately, it may be best to mentally prepare for the possibility that Lombard has to miss time. If he does, the most logical move is to bring Anthony Volpe back from the minors. Lombard’s predecessor as the Hot New Thing™ at shortstop has primarily been working at second since his demotion that coincided with Lombard’s promotion, though he also coincidentally got his first start at third tonight. But 2025 aside, Volpe remains a good defensive shortstop, so if that’s the goal, then he would step in for Lombard, at minimum in a timeshare with Caballero.

We’ll find out soon enough what the imaging says. Cross your fingers and knock on some wood.

Update

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Angels:

Let’s talk about it.

Yankees rookie George Lombard Jr. left the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against the Red Sox early due to right knee discomfort, but luckily appears to have avoided the worst.

After the team's 9-2 win, manager Aaron Boone said Lombard underwent imaging, and while they are still waiting on the results, he said "it looks like a day-to-day situation," per MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.

The shortstop appeared to tweak his right knee during his at-bat in the second inning, in which he later singled, but remained in the game and hit again in the bottom of the third (line out).

He was then replaced on defense in the top of the fourth inning, with Jose Caballero sliding over to short and Amed Rosario coming in to play 3B.

In 23 games since being called up, Lombard is hitting .253 with two home runs and six RBI. Defensively, he's had some issues with seven total errors.

This was a very disapponting loss. The score was 2-2, I went to take my dogs out real quick, came back and it was 2-6. Holderman was so great for us the first few months of the season, and has been an absolute mess as of late. I guess that’s just how most relievers go.

The lineup was mostly lifeless today outside of an early 2 run HR from Angel Martinez. It’s becoming harder and harder to justify leaving Ralphy Velazquez in AAA, he is clearly one of the 9 best hitters in the organization. This team needs a spark badly. They really could not afford to lose this series, hopefully they can salvage the sweep tomorrow.

The good news is the we have ace Parker Messick on the mound tomorrow against Seth Lugo, who has a 4.61 ERA this season. I don’t want to say this game on August 30th is must win, but it is pretty darn close to being a must win game.

The Colorado Rockies had a chance to steal a win in Atlanta this afternoon after, but ultimately it turned out to be Atlanta who came out on top. The Rockies pitching staff performed well for the first seven innings, but it came down to some late-inning weird outfield defense that allowed the Braves to snatch a 2-1 victory.

Agnos & Co.

Zach Agnos was called upon right before first pitch to start in place of Ryan Feltner, who was dealing with an illness overnight and was unable to play.

Agnos last started in June, but today was reminiscent of his first-career start in Arizona. He threw 42 pitches across 2.2 innings — likely because he threw two innings in relief just three days ago — but only allowed two hits with one walk and one strikeout.

He was relieved in the third inning by Nick Frasso, who threw 1.1 additional innings. Frasso did not allow a hit, and also walked one and struck out another. Brennan Bernardino pitched a 1-2-3 fifth on nine pitches, while Jimmy Herget allowed just one hit and a strikeout in 1.2 innings.

Herget was put into a unique situation, though, as his outing was interrupted by an injury to home plate umpire Ron Kulpa. Kupla was hit in the mask on a back swing by Ozzie Albies, and was ultimately lifted as a precaution for a possible concussion. 13 minutes later, Herget hit Albies with a pitch, putting men on first and second, but Mike Yastrzemski grounded out 1-6-3.

Michael Harris II — who hit a bunt single to lead off the inning — moved to third on the play, and Herget was relieved for Jaden Hill (more on Hill’s outing later).

“I thought that they were awesome,” manager Warren Schaeffer said after the game. “Having to do that today, I thought that they were exceptional. Every guy left it all out there.

Offensive breakthrough in the sixth

On the other side, Martín Pérez also had an excellent outing.

The veteran entered the game with a 22.1-inning scoreless streak at Truist Park, and nearly ended his outing with one. He lasted 5.2 innings, but eventually had that scoreless streak snapped at 27.2 innings by Will Castro.

Pérez got two quick outs with McCarthy bunt grounding out and Carrigg lining out to start the inning, but then Hunter Goodman walked, and TJ Rumfield singled. Connor Norby to load the bases, and then Castro singled to score Goodman. Unfortunately, due to his speed, Rumfield was held up at third.

“His changeup was really good, and our right-handed hitters had no response for it today,” Schaeffer said. “We couldn’t make an adjustment to that. But we grinded and pushed that run across. It’s just tough to win a 1-0 ballgame.”

Old friend Brent Suter came out to relieve Pérez and got Mickey Moniak to ground out to second and end the threat of more runs.

Late-inning heartbreak

The Rockies had a 1-0 lead heading into the eighth inning, but were unfortunately unable to hold onto it.

Jaden Hill, who came in to get the final out of the seventh, returned for the eighth. He got two quick outs from Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr., but then Matt Olson singled to right, and Mauricio Dubón singled to center to move Olson to third. Michael Harris II doubled to left, which scored Olson and Dubón.

The opposing team scoring two runs is never great. But it’s even less great when there are some weird mental blunders in the outfield that allow runners to take extra bases and/or score runs. The biggest one was the Harris double. If Beck had thrown the ball to Ezequiel Tovar to try to get Dubón at the plate instead of Connor Norby to try to get Harris, the Rockies might’ve had a shot of keeping the score tied.

“There was a bang-bang play there (at second base),” Schaeffer said. “The second baseman needs to be aware that there’s also a runner running, so he could’ve thrown it off the plate, for sure.”

Jordan Romano entered to get the final out in the eighth down 2-1 instead of up 1-0, and was able to get Yastrzemski to ground out to second.

The Rockies had a chance in the ninth, but weren’t able to break through again. Didier Fuentes came in to close, and immediately walked Castro. Moniak struck out, and then Troy Johnston entered as a pinch-hitter for Jordan Beck. He singled, and was replaced by pinch-runner Ryan Ritter. Tovar was pinch hit for by Zac Veen, who struck out on three pitches, and McCarthy battled through but ultimately lined out to right to end the game.

Up Next

The Rockies have one more game tomorrow morning against the Braves, hoping to avoid the sweep. Mason Adams will be making his second big-league start against Tyler Mahle. First pitch is at 11:35am MT.

See you then!

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This is how I’d like to remember Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson.

Toot-tootin’ off the mound after inducing an inning-ending double play to close out 6 scoreless, blaring that horn like he just navigated an oil tanker through the Strait of Messina. 

While the brief for tugboats is to guide larger ships in and out of harbors, our boy Tugboat didn’t find himself in many tight spaces in game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader against Arizona.

Stylistically the southpaw, with an “old-school” mix of low velocity and dense offerings, isn’t afraid of contact. He struck out just four but held D-Back bats to just three singles, keeping them hitless in just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. At one point, he retired 12 in a row from the 2nd through the 5th in just his third Major League appearance, and first in front of a San Francisco crowd.  

The problem for Tugboat was that he wasn’t the only tugboat putzing around the harbor.

If Wilkinson, at 23 years old, is Baby Tug, Merrill Kelly is Papa Tug. A 37 year old bucket of rust that has been pushing opposing line-ups around since before baby Tug could float. Kelly’s been doing this for a long time, he knows how to pitch — or, he knows how to pitch against the Giants. Based on Baseball Savant’s Run Value metric, Kelly is considered one of the worst pitchers in the Majors, but his -22 Run Value has nothing to do with the Giants. In back-to-back outings in May, Kelly held them to 5 runs over 13 IP while recording two wins. Going into Saturday’s start, he was 10-5 with a 3.26 ERA over 23 starts dating back to 2019. He’s thrown at least 6 complete over his  last 7 contests (including this afternoon). He hadn’t allowed more than 3 runs to the Giants, or been handed a loss by them, since June 2023. 

So no, game 1 against the Diamondbacks wasn’t a dance of jet-skis. This was a contest of adjustments, of light bumps and pushes and prods, of low-90s fastballs, of change-ups, of routine grounders and lugubrious lofts to the outfield. While Wilkinson kept pace through six scoreless, it was only a matter of time before his rival arm inched ahead. Ask a Giants fan, no one does manages batters better than Kelly. He scattered two singles over 7 innings. He walked four, but that’s by design. The veteran right-hander has taken up residency on the edge of the zone. A citizen of the corner. He wants the batter to get impatient, to second-guess, nudging them one way, his way, until they chase or try to do too much with a heavy offering. 

Bryce Eldridge’s at-bat in the 1st is a perfect example of this. Three change-ups wilting below the zone had the rookie looking for it before Kelly zipped in a 2-strike four-seam fastball, perfectly located at the knees. 

Any rumblings of trouble were promptly subdued by the ground ball. The worry of a lead-off walk to Turner Hill in the 2nd was erased by Drew Cavanaugh rolling into a double-play. Walks in the 5th and 6th were followed by a strikeout and another groundout. The most pressure the Giants offense put on Kelly was in the 4th when Jung Hoo Lee’s one-out single scooted Eldridge over to third. But again, a change-up falling out of the zone fetched a lunging swing from Hill, rolling a grounder to Ildemaro Vargas at second who cut down Eldridge at the plate. Another groundball ended the inning. 

As Papa Tug remained steady as the game progressed, Baby Tug started to fret. Maybe the high pitch-count got to him, or the pressure of 0-0 score in the 7th — a frame Wilkinson, who’s three games into his Major League career, had never pitched in before — but the rookie took the hill in that late frame looking like another pitcher than the previous six. Command and composure had evaporated while in the dugout. He threw 9 pitches and 8 of them arrived wide of the zone, generously handing out his first two walks of the game. At 90 pitches and 6+ IP, Wilkinson’s day was done, but his pitching line wasn’t. Ryan Walker came on in relief, and elicited poor contact from Nolan Arenado, but the groundball wasn’t hit hard enough or at anyone to turn a double play. Then, just as abruptly as Wilkinson’s feel for the zone, Walker lost sight of the plate. Another walk loaded the bases — that’s three in total for those counting at home, and each one came around to score when pinch hitter, Lars Nootbarred a 2-2 fastball 432 feet from the plate. 

A well-pitched game dunked into the pond. 

Wilkinson just ran out gas while Kelly proceeded to strike out two and retire the side in the 7th. 

Arizona would add three more against MLB debuter Seth Lonsway while Jung Hoo Lee celebrated his bobble-head day with an inconsequential (but nice!) RBI single in the 8th. 

7-1 final. And since this game was such a blast, let’s play another. See ya in a bit.

Nolan McLean might be pretty good.

The Mets rookie right-hander pitched another gem Saturday in a 6-2 win over the Astros, as New York snapped a three-game losing streak. McLean pitched seven innings without allowing an earned run, his second consecutive shutout appearance.

Beyond McLean, this game had a little bit of everything that could make a Mets fan smile, even towards the end of a lost season. The game featured an RBI from Juan Soto RBI in his return from the IL, Jared Young continuing to be a bright spot with a three-hit, three-RBI day, Francisco Alvarez breaking out of a slump, and AJ Ewing making the difficult look easy defensively.

McLean relied heavily on his fastball and cutter to great effect, drawing mostly soft contact. He cruised the first five innings on 65 pitches while only needing one strikeout to keep the Houston lineup in check. McLean walked Daulton Varsho in the opening of the seventh, but a fielder’s choice and two more strikeouts helped him escape unscathed.

While things ultimately went the Mets’ way, things started off bumpy. Brett Baty got the start in left field and instantly failed the first test. Jeremy Pena sent McLean’s very first pitch down the left-field line, where Baty misplayed the ball off the wall, allowing Pena to reach third base. Yordan Alvarez scored Pena on a sacrifice fly to put the Mets in an early hole.

The Mets answered back in the bottom of the first with Young’s RBI single that scored Francisco Lindor. Young’s hit came on an 0-2 count against the Astros’ lefty opener Bennett Sousa, who was promptly removed from the game in favor of Cristian Javier.

The game remained tied 1-1 with McLean humming along and Javier looking strong until the fifth inning. That’s when Lindor sent a double off the right-field wall, then Soto scored him with a line-drive single. Soto had fouled a pitch off his leg and took time with the trainer before stepping back in the box and making his presence felt. Carson Benge singled to advance Soto before Young scored them both with a triple.

Daniel Duarte relieved McLean in the eighth inning, giving up a solo home run to Yordan Alvarez, which cut the Mets’ lead to 4-2. But Francisco Alvarez had an answer when he sent a two-RBI double into the gap in the bottom of the eighth to give the Mets their final 6-2 advantage. Alvarez entered the game with just two hits in his last 27 at-bats.

Kodai Senga relieved Durarte for the ninth and immediately gave up some hard-hit balls. Not to fear, Ewing was all over center field, showing off the speed on a liner from Varsho, then making a crashing catch in the wall to retire Christian Walker. Taylor Trammell lined out to end the game.

The Mets are back Sunday at 3:10 PM EDT in the rubber match with Houston. Zac Thornton is scheduled to take the mound for New York as he looks to build on his three consecutive quality starts.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Nolan McLean, +26% WPA
Big Mets loser: Bo Bichette, -8% WPA
Mets pitchers: +28% WPA
Mets hitters: +22% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jared Young’s RBI triple in the fifth, +18% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jeremy Pena’s double in the first, -9.1% WPA

In terms of dazzling, Nolan McLean has done so more in other starts this season. He’s generated more strikeouts. He’s produced more swings and misses — the flashy numbers that can fill a boxscore. 

But in terms of dominance, in terms of looking like the Mets ace of the future — a label he has thrived with — and powering them to a win, this was vintage McLean on Saturday, pitching the Mets to a 6-2 win over the Astros at Citi Field. On an afternoon when the Mets welcomed Juan Soto back from a 31-game absence and watched him drive in the go-ahead run, McLean scattered two hits across seven innings and allowed only an unearned run.

He didn’t record his first strikeout until the fifth inning, but he only walked one batter and has allowed just one earned run across three starts since his Aug. 8 dud. 

And the Mets moved to 14-9 in their last 23 games, adding to a promising stretch that is likely far too late to impact the postseason picture but will give them something to build on for next year. 

Along the way, and really since his ERA peaked at 4.40 on May 25, McLean has clawed back into National League Rookie of the Year contention. It might not be enough to top the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt or the Reds’ Sal Stewart or even Mets teammate Carson Benge, but he has built a strong first full season in the majors. 

The Mets trailed 1-0 after just two batters, as Jeremy Peña doubled into the left field corner, the ball skipped between Brett Baty’s legs and the Astros designated hitter ended up at third — scoring when Yordan Alvarez collected a sacrifice fly.

McLean, who didn’t record his first strikeout until the fifth inning, settled down from there, though, and didn’t allow another runner to reach second base the rest of the game while retiring 20 of the next 24 batters. 

He only forced Houston hitters to whiff on six of his 40 swings, but McLean avoided the major swings — and the home runs — that have caused other starts to unravel. After Baty’s gaffe, the Mets responded in the bottom of the first when Francisco Lindor walked, advanced to second on a balk and scored on Jared Young’s single.

In the fifth, Soto delivered a vintage moment in his first game back, shifting the tenor in the Mets’ favor — something that hasn’t happened much this year — for good by driving in Lindor. 

After Bo Bichette flew out and Carson Benge singled, Young drove in his second and third runs of the game with a triple down the right field line, continuing to play his way into 2027 conversations. Alvarez pulled the Astros within a run in the eighth inning, hammering a Daniel Duarte cutter 436 feet over the right-center fence for his 37th home run, but Kodai Senga recorded the final three outs when called upon in the ninth after the Mets added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. 

And everything, really, connected back to McLean’s latest game. That has become a constant since he debuted in August 2025 and immediately became the centerpiece of the Mets’ pitching future. There have been obstacles — like earlier this season. There have been adjustments, too. 

All of that over the past month has cobbled together to turn this stretch into a return to normalcy for McLean. Saturday became the latest reminder.