Category: Baseball

WASHINGTON — The perfect storm conspired to deprive the Mets of what should have been a sure victory Tuesday night.

Nolan McLean was handed a five-run lead after the Mets had batted twice, but somehow that wasn’t enough.

The rookie got knocked around, with a freak play interspersed, and soon the Mets defense turned leaky. Then the bats that had crushed it early just disappeared.

Poof, the lead vanished. The Mets lost 9-6 to the Nationals, snapping a three-game winning streak.

James Wood’s inside-the-park grand slam in the second inning sent McLean spiraling and he never recovered. In his worst career start he surrendered nine runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits and two walks with a hit batter over 5 ²/₃ innings.

McLean’s ERA jumped from 2.92 to 3.57, but by working into the sixth he kept the Mets from further overextending a taxed bullpen.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but that is not an excuse for not going out there and competing better than I did,” McLean said. “They made some good swings on good pitches, I would like to execute a little better, though.”

Bo Bichette’s two homers in the first two innings had the Mets rolling with a 5-0 lead, but the good times soon ceased.

Foster Griffin recovered over the next three innings and the Nationals bullpen handled the rest.

Nick Morabito started in left field in his major league debut and finished 0-for-3.

Defensively he watched Wood’s shot hit his glove and then bound from the fence — as Tyrone Taylor converged with him — leading to the grand slam that shifted the game’s momentum.

“[Wood] hit it pretty hard and I went back and just missed it,” Morabito said. “It hit the palm of my hand, and I should have had it.”

A night earlier the Mets scored 10 runs in the 12th inning to rally for a 16-7 victory. There were plenty of noteworthy offensive performances.

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This night was quieter, with Bichette — who has underwhelmed during his nearly two months with the club — finally showing a spark before Juan Soto homered in the seventh.

Bichette’s first homer of the night gave the Mets a 2-0 lead in the first inning following Carson Benge’s leadoff single.

Marcus Semien brought in the inning’s third run with a sacrifice fly after Soto and Mark Vientos reached.

After Benge singled with two outs in the second, Bichette smashed his third homer in two games, extending the Mets lead to 5-0.

The blast was Bichette’s fifth this season and gave him the first multihomer game of his Mets career.

But most of the Mets lead disappeared with two outs in the second inning. McLean allowed a double to Jorbit Vivas and plunked Drew Millas on an 0-2 pitch.

After Nasim Nuñez singled to load the bases, Wood cleared them (the second inside-the-park grand slam in Nationals history).

“The 0-2 hit-by-pitch was kind of like the killer there,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It ended up costing a lot in that inning.”

McLean’s troubles were just starting. José Tena homered leading off the bottom of the third to tie it 5-5 before CJ Abrams walked and Daylen Lile singled.

Luis Torrens’ passed ball gave the Nationals the lead and Vivas’ sacrifice fly put the Mets in a 7-5 hole.

Sloppy defense by the Mets in the fourth widened the gulf.

Semien booted Tena’s grounder and then unleashed an errant throw to second, putting runners on second and third. Abrams followed with a grounder to Bichette, who fired home.

The ball hit off Torrens’ glove for an error on the catcher. Two runs scored on the play, extending the Nationals lead to 9-5.

“Not good,” Mendoza said of the team’s defensive play. “The past four days or so we are making errors on routine plays. We are a good team defensively, we have shown that, but we are going through a stretch right now where you have got to clean it up.”

This game got off to an inauspicious start with a leadoff home run by Taylor Ward, but this was otherwise yet another persistent team effort to lead to the club’s 32nd win of the season as well as their eighth consecutive series win. Ward’s homer was no cheapy as it was a no-doubter that would have been out of any park in baseball, but that would be the only offense Baltimore was able to put together on the evening thanks to stellar pitching by Griffin Jax early and the bullpen behind him.

Kyle Bradish was coming off easily his best start of the season where he one-hit the Yankees on May 13th, and came out of the gates hot striking out both Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero to start the game on just ten pitches. Jonathan Aranda put the brakes on that expedited inning with a tremendous 10-pitch at bat coming back from an early 1-2 count to draw a walk. Yandy Diaz, who came into this contest with a healthy .421/.476/.569 triple-slash against Bradish in 21 career plate appearances, drove in Aranda with a double to tie the game in the bottom of the first and helping push Bradish over 30 pitches in the first inning. We’ll come back to that history in a bit.

Bradish settled won nicely through the rest of the first time through the lineup allowing just a walk to Palacios and a seeing eye single to Cedric Mullins. The next trip through the lineup saw Junior Caminero nearly hit one out to center while settling for a double, but nobody else was able to do anything against Bradish. The efficiency by which Bradish worked through innings two through five gave manager Craig Albernaz the confidence to allow Bradish to face Diaz a third time. He chose poorly:

It was confusing to see Albernaz laugh in the face of both the times through the order penalty as well as the hot history Diaz has had against Bradish, but the move backfired in spectular fashion as Diaz hit the second-longest home run in Tropicana Field this season at 439 feet. Bradish struck out Richie Palacios before giving way to the Baltimore A bullpen to keep them in the game. Compare that moment to Kevin Cash pulling Griffin Jax after five innings and not allowing him to face Taylor Ward a third time. Cash instead went to old reliable Kevin Kelly who came in and retired the side with the minimum batters faced thanks to a pretty double-play started by Richie Palacios.

The Baltimore pen held the Rays at bay through the 7th inning, including this perfectly executed quasi-pitchout between Yennier Cano and Sameul Basallo with the best peg to second base this side of Cal Raleigh throwing out Cody Bellinger earlier this season:

Simpson has now been caught stealing in 6 of his 20 attempts, but this is at least the second time it has taken perfect execution in all aspects to get him. Cash is not going to put any brakes on Simpson running, as he showed just last year when Jose Caballero ran with less efficiency on his way to the AL stolen base crown.

The Rays cashed in on some insurance runs in the 8th, and it may have come at a cost. Diaz was hit on the hand by an errant Cano fastball with two outs and had to leave the game. Hopefully the x-ryas on his hand come back clean because this lineup absolutely cannot lose his bat on a long-term basis. Carson Williams came in to pinch run for Diaz and fortunately scored on a Palacios as Williams lost track of the outs and stopped on the bases before barely making it home safely with the third run of the game:

Last year, that batted ball is probably caught or the throw home to Basallo is on the money and Williams is dead to rights at home, but this is a magical season so far and both events broke the Rays’ way to bring home the third run and put Palacios in scoring position. Johnny DeLuca followed that up with a second consecutive hit off Rico Garcia, equaling the number of hits Garcia had surrendered in the 20 innings of work he has had this season coming into this contest. Bryan Baker came in and went 1-2-3 against his former teammates for his 12th save.

The big story was the continued transition of Jax into the starting role. He worked five complete innings and did so using just 62 pitches while regaining some of his seemingly lost whiffiness. Jax generated a season-high 11 swings and misses on the evening, 7 coming off his changeup. Jax had generated 22 swings and misses over his past four contests in his transition from the bullpen, so this was notable. He threw that changeup 16 times generating 14 swings along with the 7 whiffs. This changeup usage appears to be very matchup driven with six lefties in the starting lineup for Baltimore and he used the pitch exclusively against lefties in the contest. This was arguably the best Jax has looked since the Rays acquired him last season:

The Rays go for the sweep in the day game finale tomorrow and hopefully the news on Diaz’s finger is not bad. The Rays will be facing former teammate Shane Baz while someone will open the game for Jesse Scholtens to do some bulk work.

At this rate, drug stores around the tristate area may be sold out of Tums by Wednesday morning.

But for the second straight night Tuesday, the Yankees held on by the skin of their teeth.

On a night when David Bednar and Fernando Cruz were both unavailable because of recent workloads, the Yankees bullpen was asked to cover four innings with a two-run lead, and they did so — just barely.

Things got hairy for Camilo Doval in the ninth inning, letting in a run and putting the tying run 90 feet away before escaping as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 5-4 in The Bronx.

“That’s what makes baseball fun,” said Ben Rice, whose two-run home run in the fifth inning was the difference. “Of course we’d rather it be a nice 1-2-3 [inning], but the reality is it’s not always going to be that way. When they’re threatening with runners in scoring position and trying to tie the game up, it’s our job to lock it in and stop them. That’s what makes it fun.”

After Ryan McMahon tied the game in the fourth inning with a three-run homer — snapping an 0-for-24 skid — off Dylan Cease, Rice put the Yankees (30-19) ahead 5-3 in the fifth with a two-run shot against the Blue Jays ace, his 16th of the season.

The Yankees then held on from there after Will Warren gave them five innings, turning to their recently beleaguered bullpen to get the job done — a night after Bednar nearly blew it in the ninth — as they took the first two games of a four-game set against the Blue Jays (21-27).

They went from Tim Hill to Jake Bird to Brent Headrick for three shutout innings before Doval made things difficult by putting runners on the corners with no outs and the top of the order due up.

George Springer hit a comebacker to Doval that he got a glove on, allowing him to get the out at first, before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4.

Inexplicably, Ernie Clement did not tag up from second to third on the play, which loomed large.

Daulton Varsho came up next and hit a chopper to the right side between Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Rice dove, taking him out of the play, before Chisholm fielded it, but Doval was late covering first, allowing Varsho to reach safely.

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But Doval finally got the third out as Kazuma Okamoto grounded out to end it.

“That’s what I want to do, just show the team that I can do this,” Doval said through an interpreter after his first save of the season. “That when they give me a tough situation like that, they can give me the ball and trust in me.”

While Rice’s bat saved the day, he also provided some clutch defense to help out Bird in the seventh inning, when Tyler Heineman led off with a grounder down the first base line.

Needing his full extension as he dove to his left, Rice snagged the bouncer, then got up and flipped to Bird for the out.

That proved to be critical as Bird later hit a batter and Headrick gave up a single — putting runners on the corners but not scoring a run — before Headrick escaped the jam.

“Off the bat, I’m just like, ‘Oh, he’s rolling that down the line,’ and there’s Benny,” said manager Aaron Boone, who was ejected after the seventh inning for arguing a pair of calls with second base umpire Brennan Miller, the subject of Boone’s memorable “Savages in the box” rant.

“It’s going to be tougher to piece that thing together [if Rice doesn’t make the play.”

After Warren gave up three runs in the top of the fourth, the Yankees immediately picked him up in the bottom half. Aaron Judge led off with an automated ball-strike system challenge-assisted walk.

He drew a full count, then got rung up by home plate umpire John Tumpane for strike three — only to begin walking to first as he tapped his helmet for the challenge, which turned the strike into ball four.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a walk of his own before McMahon pounced on the first pitch he saw — a 99 mph fastball — and drilled it to left field for the game-tying three-run homer.

“It injected some life into us,” Rice said. “It’s super impressive to be able to go backside like that here as a left-handed hitter, let alone off a great pitcher like [Cease].”

Yesterday was such a nailbiter that even though tonight’s game was just about as close, the cadence of the evening felt very different — until it didn’t. Both teams reserved almost all their scoring for the middle innings, with an emphasis on a very stressful “almost.” The most charitable reading of the ninth inning would be “edge of your seat”, but it ended up thankfully breaking the Yankee way, and they won their second straight in this series, 5-4 your final.

Both teams had to be annoyed with missed opportunities in the first. The Jays ended up with men on the corners and just one out before Will Warren was able to get some weak contact and get out of danger. For their own troubles, the Yankees had multiple men reach in the bottom half, but Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s strikeout on what should have been ball four had us scoreless after one.

Despite both working out of jams, or perhaps fittingly so, neither pitcher looked great, and both were perfectly happy to take their time on the mound. This was a slowwwww first five innings to get through, with both Warren and Dylan Cease happy to let the pitch clock tick all the way down multiple times an at-bat. Both ended up going five, with Warren having a couple quick innings in the second and third before running into more problems in the fourth, and Cease cruising until he ran into the hulking Ryan McMahon.

For Warren, it felt like the Jays had a really good gameplan for him, rather than there being something obviously deficient in his performance. His two fastballs, the four-seam and sinker, were both down about a half-mile per hour from his baseline, but to me I wonder how much of that was a focus on getting the ball in the zone more, as a check on his oft-discussed habits of nibbling.

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays still do make a lot of contact, and that’s how they got their runs in that fourth inning. Five of the first six players to come to the plate in that frame reached base, one via walk and the rest all hitting singles. It wasn’t a bludgeoning the way that Cease would experience in a few moments, more the old “death by a thousand cuts” kind of inning. Either way, it was 3-0 Blue Jays.

I had said in the gamethread that Dylan Cease is very good but perhaps playing a bit over his skis. With only one home run allowed so far this year, the righthander was due for some regression. While he did strike out six Yankees in the first three innings, yea did the Regression Monster arrive quickly:

A pair of walks, one ABS-enabled after Aaron Judge finally asked for a review, set up McMahon’s big fly to left field and just like that we were back to square one. With the game tied up, Will Warren needed to have himself a shutdown inning, and he did just that: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. popped up, Daulton Varsho grounded out, and Kazuma Okamoto was called out on strikes as the last man Warren faced.

The Yankees — specifically Ben Rice — would thank their starter for getting the bats back up quickly, and the Regression Monster roared again:

The Yankees certainly weren’t going to string a bunch of singles together against the kind of stuff Cease was slinging tonight, best to jump on a pair of fastballs in the zone and score that way. The Toronto righty entered play with a 1.80 FIP, and left with a 2.32. That’s what reverting to a baseline looks like all at once.

Perhaps the most refreshing bit of the game came after Warren left. The much-maligned and unfortunately quite well-worked Yankee bullpen combined to throw three shutout innings, getting the Yankees to the ninth with the lead. With neither David Bednar nor Fernando Cruz available, Camilo Doval was called upon to get the save, and here our troubles began.

Doval walked the first batter he faced, and gave up a hit to pinch-hitter Ernie Clement — who was playing with an active strep throat infection, a possible bioweapon — to set the table. Baby Vlad drove Andrés Giménez in with a sac fly, and with two outs, Doval couldn’t get to first in time to beat out Varsho, who stole second base some pitches later. With tensions high, Camilo got a medium groundball from Okamoto, Anthony Volpe made a nice easy throw from short, and the Yankees once again held on.

It was a bad weekend in Queens, and nobody is going to deny that. This week has started as well as it could, though, and while you can never count on sweeping a four-game series, the Yankees have put themselves in a great position to take three in this set. Cam Schlittler, who right now is the best pitcher in the American League, will get the ball and the start tomorrow night, with a 7:05pm Eastern first pitch.

Box Score

The Mets were coming into the second game of the Nationals series on fire. Between a five game winning streak, back-to-back extra inning wins, and a ten run twelfth inning the night before, they were riding high. And their de facto ace and rookie sensation Nolan McLean was getting the start, which was a good omen to begin the game. They were facing former first rounder Foster Griffin, who parlayed three seasons of success in NPB to a contract with the Nationals this offseason.

The Mets got off to a hot start. After Carson Benge led off with a single, Bo Bichette hit his fourth home run of the season, putting the Mets ahead early. Juan Soto and Mark Vientos hit a single and double respectively to put two runners into scoring position with still no outs. Marcus Semien hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the Mets third and final run of the inning. 

After a scoreless bottom of the first and two outs to start the top of the second, the Mets decided to rerun the first inning. Carson Benge got a two-out single and Bo Bichette hit his second home run of the game and fifth of the season. The Mets didn’t score again that inning, but they had a five run lead to start the game.

In the bottom of the inning, the Mets began unraveling with impressive force. After two outs to start the inning, a double, hit-by-pitch, and single loaded the bases. Then James Wood hit a long fly ball to the wall in left-center field which was nearly caught by Nick Morabito.

Nearly.

Instead, the ball bounced off Morabito’s glove and away from him. Taylor couldn’t find it at first, and Wood turned the fly ball into an inside-the-park grand slam, the first grand slam of his career. Suddenly the Mets turned a comfortable five run lead into a narrow, insecure one run lead. The Mets got out of it after that.

That lead vanished immediately at the start of the bottom of the third. José turned the first pitch of the at-bat into a sole home run, tying the game. CJ Abrams walked and Daylen Lile singled to put runners on the corners with no outs, then a passed ball by Luis Torrens allowed Abrams to score as the go-ahead run. After a ground out moved Lile to third, Jorbit Vivas hit a sacrifice fly to drive him in to give the Nationals a two-run lead.

After another scoreless top of the inning for the Mets, they unraveled even further in the bottom of the fourth. James Wood reached on a single to lead off the inning, then a one-out grounder from Tena turned from a potential inning ending double play to pure chaos. Marcus Semien dropped the ball after he fielded it, and he threw it away attempting to get it to Bichette at second. Wood reached third and Tena reached second with one out. Abrams hit a ground ball to Bichette, who threw to home to try and get Wood. But Torrens couldn’t catch it, and both runners scored. While that was the last run scored in the inning, it wasn’t the last misplay, with Abrams almost getting caught in a rundown before McLean cut off a ball meant for Baty that allowed ABrams to return safely, though the inning ended not long after.

Nolan McLean didn’t allow any more runs in his appearance, but after hitting Abrams with a pitch in the bottom of the sixth, he was pulled. In his 5.2 innings, he gave up eight hits and nine runs (though only six of them earned). He struck out five while walking two, ballooning his ERA to 3.57.

The Mets got a little jolt in the top of the seventh, with Juan Soto hitting a two-out solo home run to bring the Mets within three runs of the Nationals. Daniel Duarte held the line for 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out one batter. But the damage was done, and the Mets only being able to muster four hits after the second inning didn’t help matters after their comedy of errors in the middle of the game. The Mets have had a good month, and this currently looks like just a small blip on the radar of course correction after their disastrous start to 2026. Tomorrow yet another Met prospect will make his debut in Zach Thornton. He’ll be facing off against his given name brethren Zack Littell, who had a disastrous start against the Mets a little under a month ago at Citi Field.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Bo Bichette, +21% WPA
Big Mets loser: Nolan McLean, -61% WPA
Mets pitchers: -59% WPA
Mets hitters: +9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Bo Bichette’s two-run home run in the first inning, +15.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: James Wood’s inside-the-park grand slam, -25.6% WPA

The Yankees scored five unanswered runs thanks to longballs from Ryan McMahon and Ben Rice to defeat the Blue Jays, 5-4, on Tuesday night in the Bronx. 

New York (30-19) has now won two games in a row and 2-0 on this current home trip.

Here are the takeaways...

-Will Warren got off to a tough start, allowing two hits in the first frame to put runners on the corners with one out. But he wriggled his way out of trouble and settled in, retiring eight straight Blue Jays. 

That changed in the fourth after Dalton Varsho led off with a single and Kazuma Okamoto worked a four-pitch walk. Yohendrick Pinango followed with a single to score the game's first run. Jesus Sanchez hit an opposite-field single, and Andres Gimenez followed with a one-out single to put Toronto up 3-0. 

Warren would get through the fifth, and that was it for the right-hander. Warren allowed three runs on six hits, one walk across five innings (86 pitches/54 strikes) while striking out three batters. His ERA rose to 3.61 on the season. 

-Dylan Cease had a similar outing. After allowing two baserunners in the first, Cease continued to mow down the Yankees. He had six strikeouts across the first three frames. Again, like Warren, Cease pitched into trouble in the fourth. He walked two batters before McMahon took Cease the other way to tie the game at 3-3. 

Rice would get in on the fun with a two-run shot in the fifth to give the Yankees their first lead of the game. The pitch came on a 98 mph fastball up and in on Rice, but the young first baseman put on a great swing. It's the most runs Cease has allowed since July of 2025. 

-The much-maligned Yankees bullpen was put to the test as they tried to get the final 12 outs of this one. Aaron Boone used three relievers to get to the ninth inning with the lead for Camilo Doval. 

Doval allowed a walk and a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. George Springer hit a liner right at Doval, but the right-hander had to settle for the out at first after not being able to catch the ball on a line. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. flew out as the Blue Jays cut the Yankees lead to 5-4, but after an infield single by Varsho, Doval got Okamoto to ground out to end the game. 

• Tim Hill: 1.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
• Jake Bird: 0.2 IP, HBP, 1 K
• Brent Headrick: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 K
• Camilo Doval: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB

-Anthony Volpe went 1-for-4 and has reached base in five consecutive games. Austin Wells returned to the lineup after not starting in two straight games and finished 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts. He's now 2-for-23 (0.87) over his last seven games. 

Game MVP: Ben Rice

Rice's two-run shot gave the Yankees a lead they wouldn't give back. His 16 homers are now tied with Aaron Judge for the team lead.

Highlights

RYAN MCMAHON GAME-TYING 3-RUN HOMER TO LEFT! pic.twitter.com/ARytFw6kFj

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 20, 2026

Ben Rice for the lead!

He ties Aaron Judge with his 16th homer of the season! pic.twitter.com/uRuI0bNPGo

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 20, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Blue Jays continue their four-game set on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Cam Schlittler (6-1, 1.35 ERA) looks to continue his hot start against rookie Trey Yesavage (1-1, 1.40 ERA). 

The Mets allowed nine unanswered runs after going up early and lost to the Washington Nationals, 9-6, on Tuesday night to even up the four-game series.

Here are the takeaways...

-- Picking up right where they left off in their 10-run 12th inning on Monday night, the Mets went in front 5-0 against the Nationals after the first two innings thanks to a pair of two-run home runs by the suddenly red-hot Bo Bichette.

Bichette entered the series in Washington with just two home runs on the season, but he had a home run in Monday’s slugfest and added two more, one to the opposite field and one to the pull side, on Tuesday. The recent power surge has him at five long balls on the year. He also leads the team in RBI (25) now, overtaking Mark Vientos.

-- With Nolan McLean on the hill, New York was hoping a five-run cushion would be plenty, but that lead evaporated quickly in the steamy D.C. air after the Nationals scored four in the bottom of the second on James Wood’s inside-the-park grand slam.

The inning happened in the blink of an eye after McLean retired the first two batters on six pitches. From there, it took just another six pitches for McLean to allow a double, hit a batter, an infield single and the grand slam. 

Nick Morabito, making his major league debut, nearly made a terrific play at the wall, but the ball bounced off the heel of his glove and rolled into center field. By the time the Mets were able to get it to the infield, Wood had slid across home.

-- In the third, McLean allowed his second home run of the night, this one a bit more conventional, after Jose Tena led off the frame with a solo shot to left center that tied the game. Morabito once again made a good effort, but he mistimed his jump at the wall and the ball just cleared the fence.

Washington took the lead soon after, as McLean seemed shaken as to what transpired the inning before. A walk, a single, a passed ball by Luis Torrens and a sacrifice fly put the Nats up, 7-5.

-- The wheels completely fell off for the Mets in the fourth following a disastrous defensive inning. The comedy of errors began with the normally sure-handed Marcus Semien, who botched a tailor-made double play and made things worse after recovering the ball and throwing wide to second base, which put runners at second and third.

-- CJ Abrams followed immediately after with a groundball to Bichette at shortstop and the infield drawn in. Bichette came up firing to home plate, but Torrens couldn’t catch the ball, which resulted in two runs scoring and doubling Washington’s lead. The Mets also bungled a play at third base when Abrams veered too far from the bag, but it didn’t end up costing them.

-- McLean, still in the game because New York needed length out of their starter with a taxed bullpen, finally had a clean inning in the fifth and nearly got through six innings, but the right-hander hit Abrams with the last pitch he threw and was pulled after 5.2 innings.

His final line: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 5 K on 100 pitches (61 strikes). It was the most earned runs McLean has allowed in his career and brought his ERA to 3.57.

-- Daniel Duarte, recalled from Triple-A on Monday, finished things off for the Mets with 2.1 scoreless innings and saved the rest of the bullpen.

-- Juan Soto got New York closer in the seventh with a solo shot to center field that went 434 feet, but that was it for the Mets’ offense. Soto finished 2-for-4.

-- The top five hitters in the Mets lineup combined for all 10 of New York’s hits. Carson Benge went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, Bichette had the two blasts, Soto had two hits, Vientos went 2-for-4 with a double and Semien had a hit and a sacrifice fly in three at-bats.

-- Morabito went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his debut, but he reached base after a hit-by-pitch. He also made a couple of nice plays in the field, on top of the effort he showed on the two Nationals home runs, including a catch on a foul ball over the railing.

Game MVP: James Wood

He went 3-for-5 and was in the middle of everything for the Nationals.

Highlights

BO KNOWS HOMERS.

Second straight night with a home run for Bo Bichette! pic.twitter.com/3n1xdwSEwN

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2026

Mark Vientos rips a double! pic.twitter.com/7xSZyasrFw

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2026

Nick Morabito can fly!

He makes the running grab in left! pic.twitter.com/BK5db2dIbJ

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 19, 2026

TWO INNINGS, TWO TWO-RUN HOME RUNS FOR BO BICHETTE pic.twitter.com/vdewZarUAY

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 20, 2026

Nick Morabito almost makes the catch, but James Wood ends up with an inside-the-park grand slam pic.twitter.com/SeAUhZY5ND

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 20, 2026

Nick Morabito makes an incredible catch in foul territory! pic.twitter.com/LlqkjqFLCN

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 20, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Nationals continue their four-game series on Wednesday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:45 p.m. on SNY.

New York promoted Zach Thornton earlier in the week and the left-hander will either start the game or come in behind an opener. As for Washington, RHP Zack Littell (2-4, 6.10 ERA) will be on the mound.

Zebby Matthews got off to a shaky start tonight, with a Jeremy Pena single and Isaac Paredes 2-run homer. However, after that, he settled into things and was able to go 6 innings, scattering 5 hits and striking out 6 along the way. All he needed was the Twins lineup to give him a modicum of run support.

The Twins lineup was not capable of this. In the 3rd, they stranded Byron Buxton at 2nd after his 1-out double. In the bottom of the 4th, Brooks Lee tripled, but with 2-outs, and was left there after Victor Caratini lined out. All of this against Jason Alexander, who was making his first start of the year after Lance McCullers Jr. was scratched with a shoulder issue.

In the 8th, Buxton hit another 1-out double, then Josh Bell hit a grounder to 2nd that Brayden Shewmake couldn’t handle, allowing Buxton to score the first Twins run of the game. Kody Clemens followed with a single to right, but Austin Martin grounded out to end the threat.

Down to their last out in the 9th, the newly called up Orlando Arcia hit a single to extend the game, then Brayan Abreu hit Luke Keaschall, bringing Byron Buxton to the plate with the winning run at 1st. After a 2-2 wild pitch moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, Buxton popped out to end the game.

Studs:

Byron Buxton: 2-5, 2 2B

Josh Bell: 3-4, RBI

Zebby Matthews: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

Duds:

Trevor Larnach, Austin Martin: 0-4

Team w/ RISP: 1-7

There has been ample to lament about the Cincinnati Reds of late.

They endured that brutal 8-game losing streak, one that featured record walk rates, bullpen meltdowns, and even a trio of consecutive walk-off defeats. They came back up for air briefly, but rode into Tuesday evening’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies once again on a 3-game skid, one that would put them officially under the .500 mark for the season if it continued.

The bullpen is a disaster. The starting rotation is in tatters. Leadoff man TJ Friedl has been effectively benched during his struggles, and 3B of the present (and future, per his contract) Ke’Bryan Hayes has basically been peak Homer Bailey in the batter’s box all season.

What the Cincinnati Reds do have, though, is Chase Burns, and nobody else does. And when Burns gets the ball, it’s an automatic that something brilliant is going to happen for the Reds regardless of the rest of their struggles.

Burns took the ball in Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday and breezed through the Phillies, firing 6.0 IP of 3 H, ER, 0 BB ball on 86 pitches. He struck out 9, never once looked the least bit fazed, and exited seemingly just fine despite the final out he recorded being a comebacker off the bat of Bryce Harper that hit him somewhere in between the waist and knees.

And for the first time in seemingly forever, handing the ball over to the Reds bullpen didn’t appear to be a problem.

The Reds posted a 4-1 victory that moved them to 25-24 on the season, with a couple timely hits, a series of sacrifice flies, some unequivocally poor defense from the Phils, and quality pitching all around in windy and rainy conditions contributing to their victory. Elly De La Cruz tripled, scored, and walked with the bases loaded to drive in a run, while Tyler Stephenson got a mighty OPS boost by singling and walking 3 times on the night.

It wasn’t a pretty game offensively, with precious few hard-hit lasers. It did feature Ke’Bryan Hayes twice hitting into double plays in big spots and grounding into a force play at home with the bases loaded on a ball that, if the Phillies weren’t playing in to prevent a run, would’ve been a third double-play. Still, the collective parts were good enough to bring home a much needed W for the good guys, and they’ll have a chance to take the series tomorrow afternoon with Andrew Abbott on the bump.

Thank heck for Chase Burns. The Reds would be woefully lost without him, and he’s only 18 starts into his big league career.

One night after the Orioles lost to the Rays because their pitching staff imploded, they lost again to the Rays because their offense failed to show up. Gotta hand it to the O’s — they might always lose, but they’re always keeping it fresh!

The O’s suffered a 4-1 defeat at Tropicana Field in game two of the series, wasting a solid Kyle Bradish effort because they failed to score any runs after the second pitch of the game. An Orioles defensive meltdown in the eighth inning turned a one-run game into a comfortable Rays win and left the Birds seven games under .500.

It’s not great. But at least the Orioles didn’t lose by 10 runs again. So…progress?

Things actually started out OK for the Orioles, who wasted no time taking their first lead of the series. On the second pitch of the game, leadoff man Taylor Ward jumped on a fastball and launched it into the left-field seats for his second home run of the year and first in exactly one month. I must say I didn’t expect Ward, who hit 36 homers last year, to have just two dingers by May 19. But I also didn’t expect him to lead the league in doubles and walks, so I suppose we’ll take what we can get. The O’s were up, 1-0.

The lead didn’t even last an inning. Orioles starter Kyle Bradish came storming out of the gates with two quick strikeouts in the bottom of the first, but an extended Jonathan Aranda at-bat seemed to break his concentration. Aranda battled Bradish for 10 pitches, eventually working a walk, and a rattled Bradish promptly coughed up an RBI double to Yandy Díaz and another walk before Samuel Basallo bailed him out of the inning, alertly challenging a 2-2 pitch to Jonny DeLuca and getting it reversed to an inning-ending strikeout. Bradish had to throw 36 pitches in that opening inning, and it seemed we might be on track for an early Albert Suárez appearance.

But Bradish settled in. He worked past a leadoff baserunner in both the second and third innings to keep the Rays off the board, and followed with a perfect fourth. By the time he got to the fifth, he had retired eight batters in a row, and another scoreless frame left his pitch count at 94. That’s a perfectly reasonable total considering how laborious his first inning was.

Manager Craig Albernaz tried to push Bradish for one more inning, which proved to be a mistake. The first batter of the sixth, Díaz, walloped a go-ahead home run to straightaway center field. Welp. Bradish lasted one more batter before exiting. It was a gutsy effort by the right-hander, who threw 102 pitches in 5.1 innings and held the Rays to two runs. On most nights — or on a better team — Bradish’s performance would’ve been more than enough to earn the win.

Sadly, the team Bradish plays for is the Orioles, who are not good at that whole “winning” thing. His laudable effort was rendered moot by a hapless O’s offense that did nothing against Griffin Jax, a 31-year-old righty who has just recently been converted back to a starter after four seasons in the bullpen. I’d say the starter experiment is going pretty well for Jax, or maybe the Orioles just have a habit of making pitchers look better than they really are.

Jax worked five full innings for just the second time this year, and the Ward home run on his second pitch was the only damage he allowed. The O’s couldn’t do anything with the few scoring opportunities they had. Pete Alonso grounded into a double play after an Adley Rutschman single in the first. In both the third and fourth innings, the O’s put a runner at second with one out but failed to cash in their runners in scoring position. Jax escaped the third-inning jam on strikeouts of Ward and Gunnar Henderson, then wriggled out of the fourth by fanning Samuel Basallo and inducing a Leody Taveras groundout.

The good news for the Orioles was that the still-getting-stretched-out Jax left the game after five innings and 62 pitches. The bad news is that the O’s were equally inept against the Rays’ bullpen. Right-hander Kevin Kelly worked a scoreless sixth, erasing a Henderson single on a Rutschman double play, and lefty Ian Seymour retired all four batters he faced.

Casey Legumina, which I’m not convinced is the real name of a real person, issued a walk to Coby Mayo in the eighth. Pinch-runner Blaze Alexander stole second (overturned on replay after initially being called out) by making a nifty swim move to beat the tag, putting the tying run in scoring position. It didn’t matter. Ward flied out harmlessly just two pitches later, ending the inning. The O’s were 0-for-5 with RISP in this game.

A horrific bottom of the eighth inning truly put the game out of reach. After Yennier Cano retired the first two batters, he drilled Díaz on the hand to keep the inning alive. Albernaz, wanting to keep it a one-run game, turned to his best reliever, Rico Garcia. Unfortunately Garcia’s magic didn’t show up on this night, but mainly the Orioles’ defense is to blame.

Richie Palacios lined a sharp shot to deep right field. Colton Cowser got turned around and tried to make the catch at the wall, but the ball nicked off his glove as he banged into the fence. It wasn’t an easy play, but one that he probably should have made. Still, the O’s had plenty of time to throw out pinch-runner Carson Williams trying to score. The throw home beat the runner by approximately 10 minutes, but Basallo inexplicably muffed the catch, and Williams scored safely. Just a brutal play by both Cowser and Basallo. Palacios then scored on a DeLuca RBI single, tagging Garcia with just his second earned run of the season. Again, the inning should’ve been over before that ever happened. What a mess.

The demoralized Orioles went down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth against Rays closer and former Oriole Bryan Baker, sealing another woeful, uncompetitive loss. Can this season be over yet?

The Guardians continue their 13 game stretch with Game 2 of the 4 game series versus the Detroit Tigers in Detroit. The Guards really haven’t had a long look at any of their AL Central opponents, with this being the first time they’ve faced the Tigers this season.

The Guardians got on the board first in the top of the second. Kyle Manzardo hit a lead off single to right. Travis Bazzana reached on a walk and both runners advanced on Angel Martínez’ sacrifice bunt. His bunt did put runners into scoring position, but Angel might be the last person on this team that I want bunting with two on and no outs. According to Stephen Vogt in the post game presser, that was Angel’s decision to bunt in that moment. Steven Kwan hit a sac fly to score Manzardo and put the Guardians in the lead.

Parker Messick got the start for Cleveland, going five innings of work. The Tigers got to Messick to immediately respond to the Guardian’s run. With one out, Riley Greene drew a walk. He scored on Spencer Torkelson’s two-run homer.

In the top of the fourth, Kyle Manzardo lead off on base again, this time with a walk. Travis Bazzana delivered a two-run home run to right field.

The Tigers came back, again, to tie it up on a defensive error. Austin Hedges tried to pickoff the runner at first, but the ball got past Manzardo, allowing the runner to score from second. Messick allowed 3R/2ER on 4H, 3BB, and struck out 6 batters.

Cleveland regained the lead in the top of the seventh. Steven Kwan lead off the inning with a long double to right field that was inches shy of a home run. Austin Hedges hit a sac bunt to move Kwan to third (Austin Hedges is a player that should be sac bunting). Brayan Rocchio recorded his 27th RBI of the season with a ground out that scored Kwan from 3rd.

The bullpen, after a few days of minimal use, got a lot of work tonight. Colin Holderman pitched the sixth, allowing 1 hit and striking out one batter. Eric Sabrowski worked his magic in the seventh inning. The only baserunner was a walk and he struck out two. The eighth inning was not as lights out for the bullpen. Tim Herrin came on in relief, walking one, striking out one, and hitting one. Stephen Vogt went to Hunter Gaddis to finish the inning. Gaddis also walked a batter, but a force out and ground out got him out of the inning without allowing a runner to score.

With it being a close game, the team had no choice but to rely on closer Cade Smith. Cade struck out the first batter, but walked the next two. Kevin McGonigle’s single to right put the tying run in scoring position and the go ahead run on first. Cade struck out the fourth batter of the inning for the second out and faced Dillon Dingler for his final batter of the game. Cade secured his fifteenth save of the season with a strikeout on Dingler.

The Guardians won 4-3 with 4 hits and 1 error. Manzardo went 1-for-3 with 2 runs and a walk. Bazzana went 2-for-3 with a run, a walk, a home run, and 2 RBI. Kwan went 1-for-2 with a run, RBI, 2B, and a walk.

Dodgers objectives in the second game in San Diego: (a) score at least once; (b) make sure the Padres don’t score as many.

Tuesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Padres
• Ballpark: Petco Park, San Diego
• Time: 6:40 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Postgame update: After the game, Warren Schaeffer provided an update.

“Left side contusion on that diving play out there,” Schaeffer said. “We’ll know more tomorrow, but that was painful.”

Colorado Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle left today’s game against the Texas Rangers after making a spectacular diving attempt on a ball in the first inning, but he landed awkwardly on his left arm.

He got up slowly and remained in the game to finish the inning but did not return in the bottom half.

Jake McCarthy shifted from right field to center, and new dad Tyler Freeman — freshly activated off the paternity list — entered in right.

The reasons for Doyle leaving the game are not known at this time, but Purple Row will continue to follow this developing story.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

WASHINGTON — Zach Thornton’s relatively slender frame for a pitcher might benefit him.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds, the left-hander — who will start for the Mets on Wednesday in his major league debut — credits that build for his approach on the mound.

“I’m not the biggest guy in the world,” Thornton said Tuesday at Nationals Park.

“Everything you do is for the people who said, ‘He couldn’t do it.’ And the people who said, ‘He could.’ ”

Thornton, who has endeared himself to Mets officials in part because of his ability to throw strikes, is receiving the first shot at filling the vacancy created by Clay Holmes’ fractured right fibula. Holmes was injured Friday when the Yankees’ Spencer Jones hit a line drive off his leg.

In seven minor league starts this season he has pitched to a 3.16 ERA. Thornton appeared twice for the team in the Grapefruit League and left a positive impression on manager Carlos Mendoza.

“I treat every game the same: I want to go out and compete,” Thornton said. “I am the ultimate competitor, a strike thrower.”

Thornton was selected over Jack Wenninger and Jonah Tong at Syracuse. The Mets also have potential starting options in the bullpen in Tobias Myers and Sean Manaea.

Mendoza was asked if Nick Morabito’s promotion to the major leagues (joining fellow rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing in the outfield) means Juan Soto will be relegated mostly to DH.

“[Soto] is our left fielder, but hopefully we get some of the other guys from the injury list and those guys are going to need some DH appearances and Juan is going to be playing a lot of left field,” Mendoza said. “So right now while we can we will just use those [DH for Soto] days as much as possible.”

Entering play the Mets had participated in 10 extra-inning games this season, the most in the major leagues.

They had won six of those games, also the most in MLB. The most recent was their 16-7 victory over the Nationals in 12 innings Monday.

The Mets set a franchise record with 10 runs in an extra-inning frame. It was tied for fourth highest in major league history.

Well, here's something you don't see every day.

The Washington Nationals hit an inside-the-park grand slam on Tuesday, May 19.

You read that right. Not just an inside-the-park home run. A GRAND SLAM.

The phenomenon happened in the bottom of the second inning during a home game against the New York Mets. The bases were loaded and James Wood stepped up to the plate against pitcher Nolan McLean. On the first pitch, the right fielder swung and sent the ball flying to left-center field.

Two Mets outfielders, Tyrone Taylor and Nick Morabito, ran toward the ball in an attempt to catch it and nab the easy out. Morabito, who was making his MLB debut, leaped against the fence and the ball bounced off his glove. The defenders looked at each other as the ball bounced away and Jorbit Vivas trotted home from third base, Drew Millas ran in from second and Nasim Nuñez rounded all the way from first.

Morabito scrambled, picked the ball up and tossed it to a teammate in the infield, who overthrew catcher Luis Torren as Wood slid across home plate head-first to complete the grand slam.

This Mets-Nationals game is BONKERS, and it's only the second inning. James Wood just hit an inside-the-park grand slam off Nick Morabito's glove. Can't say I've ever seen that one before. pic.twitter.com/sh5h1IyOtU

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 20, 2026

The play, which was Wood's 13th home run of the season, trimmed the Mets' lead to 5-4.

According to MLB reporter Sarah Langs, this is the third inside-the-park grand slam in the past decade. The Nationals have two of those, both at home. Besides Wood's massive hit, Michael A. Taylor had his own play in 2017. The third one occurred when Raimel Tapia of the Toronto Blue Jayshit a grand slam in 2022 at Fenway Park.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: James Wood hits inside-the-park grand slam against Mets