Category: Baseball

The Mets continue a three-game series with the Nationals at Citi Field on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.

Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...

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Mets Notes

• Juan Soto is hitting .378/.549/.784 with four homers, three doubles, eight RBI, and 14 runs scored over his last 11 games
• Pete Alonso is hitting .338/.403/.769 with eight homers, four doubles, 12 runs scored, and 24 RBI over his last 16 games
• Francisco Lindor is hitting .316/.355/.561 with four home runs, two doubles, 11 runs scored, and nine RBI over his last 14 games

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Here's what happened in Mets Land on Tuesday, in case you missed it...

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• Juan Soto homered and doubled, Pete Alonso delivered a game-tying hit in the eighth inning, and the Mets topped the Nationals in extras on Jeff McNeil's walk-off single
• Soto is hunting mistakes, coming through in big moments
• McNeil is continuing to adapt his game
• Sean Manaea struck out four batters in 2.2 innings during what was his second rehab start for High-A Brooklyn
• Mark Vientos has resumed baseball activities as he works toward a return from a hamstring injury
• Jonah Tongwas dominant again for Double-A Binghamton, while Ryan Clifford smashed another homer
• The Mets placed Francisco Alvarez on the paternity list and signed Travis Jankowski to a minor league deal
• Carlos Mendoza is navigating a good playing time problem with Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña
• David Peterson shows why MLB's newest edge can't yet be quantified
• Soto is hitting like Soto again -- and he looks happy to be a Met, too
• WATCH: Soto and McNeil discuss their clutch hits
• WATCH: On The Mets Pod, Connor and Joe discussed Pete Alonso's monster season

Why Krukow told Posey that Harrison is Giants' best young starter originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The future is bright for the Giants’ starting rotation, as a handful of young, exciting arms are ready to break through at the major-league level.

However, there only are so many spots up for grabs.

One of the young pitchers who currently is starting every fifth day, but soon might lose his rotation spot, is 23-year-old lefty Kyle Harrison, who started in the Giants’ 6-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday at Coors Field and pitched five innings, surrendering three earned runs and two walks with six strikeouts.

The outing was a mixed-bag for Harrison, who struggled in his previous start against the San Diego Padres on June 4, but it didn’t change Mike Krukow’s belief in the young southpaw, as the Giants broadcaster shared Wednesday on KNBR 680’s “Murph & Markus” that he offered San Francisco’s president of baseball operations Buster Posey a glowing review of Harrison.

“Buster Posey recently asked me, ‘Between Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and Harrison, who do you think is the best one?’ And I think it’s Harrison,” Kurkow told Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher. “I think Harrison because he has so many different ways to get better. Right now, he’s a 100 percent four-seam fastball guy.”

Krukow recalled a conversation he had with Harrison, where he suggested to the young lefty pitches he should consider adding to his arsenal.

“I asked him one time ‘Do you throw a two-seam?” and he goes ‘No’ and I go ‘Why not?’ He says, ‘I don’t need it.’ Well, OK, that’s a great attitude to have about a pitch, but as he goes forth, he’s going to learn there’s a difference between a four-seam and a two-seam fastball,” Krukow said.

“The two-seam fastball is better when you’re trying to get ground balls. Basically he’s a fastball/strikeout guy with a lazy breaking ball. So the change-up he’s come up with is a good one, but he’s not throwing it enough. I think as he goes forth, you’re going to see him develop more of a change up and go to it in more situations, he’s going to have another fastball to complement that four-seam fastball and I think his body is completely, with his arm release and his arm slot, is perfect for a cutter.”

While Krukow ultimately believes the sky is the limit for Harrison, he wouldn’t be surprised if the young lefty returned to a bullpen role once veteran starter Justin Verlander (right pectoral injury) returns from the injured list.

“I do think that his ceiling is off the charts,” Krukow added. “As to what happens when [Justin] Verlander comes back up, I think you’re going to see Harrison go back into the pen.”

Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Happy Jeff was Walk-off Jeff on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

Jeff McNeil wore a huge smile on his face as he lined a single in the 10th inning of Tuesday's game against the Nationals to drive in the winning run. It was the culmination of a great day -- and week -- at the plate for McNeil, who has had his ups and downs with the Mets since winning the batting title in 2022.

His walk-off single capped off his 2-for-4, two RBI day as the Mets defeated the Nationals, 5-4, to extend their winning streak to four games and start their homestand on a happy note.

"I was just looking for anything I could hit to the right side. Wasn't trying to do too much," McNeil said of his final at-bat. "Feel like they were trying to go hard away, so I was cheating for something out there, hooked a ball to the right side and got down."

McNeil said he's been trying to swing the bat harder instead of "guiding" his bat to the ball like he's done when he is struggling at the plate. And to him, it's really just as simple as that.

“It’s pretty hard to hit for average in this league. Pitchers are so good and so tough," McNeil said. "When you do get a good pitch to hit, you gotta do some damage on it. That’s what I’ve been trying to do lately and it’s been paying off."

Over his last seven games, McNeil is hitting .333 with a .741 slugging percentage thanks to three home runs. Going back to his last 15 games, McNeil is still hitting .286 with four home runs and 11 RBI. That sort of hitting and "damage" has allowed manager Carlos Mendoza to start McNeil just about every day to lengthen his lineup.

But Mendoza remembers how tough it was for McNeil a season ago, but also remembers the turnaround and knows he can get that out of his player this season.

"I’m going to go back to the second half last year when he turned it around. When he started driving the ball using the whole field, just dictating at-bats and putting swings with conviction," Mendoza said of McNeil's contributions. "The past week, I feel like he’s done that, where he’s putting himself in a really good position to hit and not only hit, but do damage.

"We know the bat-to-ball skills are off the charts. I feel like he gets in trouble at times when he just tries to put a ball in play on pitcher’s pitches. As opposed to getting a pitch to drive. We’ve seen that. And when he’s going that way, he’s a really good hitter."

A year ago, in his first season managing, Mendoza saw McNeil struggle mightily at the plate. In the first half, McNeil was slashing .216/.276/.314 with a .591 OPS. But adjustments, like swinging harder, paid off for the veteran infielder/outfielder. In the second half, McNeil slashed .289/.376/.547 with a .923 OPS.

"The first half of last year is not who I am. It was tough. It was frustrating. It was not very fun," McNeil said. "This game is about adjustments and I feel I'm the kind of player that can adjust on the fly, do what I need to do and get the job done."

With Tuesday's win, the Mets sit atop the National League at 43-24 and five games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East.

Major League Baseball does not have a mercy rule for ending games early.

On Tuesday night at Petco Park, the Dodgers could have used one.

In recent years, the club has punted on plenty of games in the interest of protecting their often injury-riddled and shorthanded pitching staffs. But in an 11-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, they took the act of de facto forfeiture to levels even they hadn’t previously pioneered.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani (and Glasnow and Snell) could be back on Dodgers' mound sooner than expected

First, they let minor league call-up Matt Sauer wear it — in every sense of the phrase — over a nine-run, 13-hit, 111-pitch outing.

Then, in the face of a nine-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth, they sent position player Kiké Hernández to the mound to pitch the rest of the game, the earliest a true position player had ever taken the mound in a contest in Dodgers franchise history.

"Very awkward,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It doesn't feel good.”

The Dodgers' decision to pack, even before the seventh-inning stretch, it in was rooted in logic.

They are currently operating with only four healthy starting pitchers. Their equally banged-up bullpen is leading the majors in innings, and was coming off five frames of work in an extra-inning win the night before. And by the time Hernández took the mound in the sixth, the game had long been lost, the Padres (38-28) teeing off on Sauer with three runs two-out runs in the third inning, single scores in the fourth and fifth, and a four-spot in the sixth.

“I know that my job is just eat as many as I can,” said Sauer, who entered the game as a bulk man in the second inning after opener Lou Trivino tossed a scoreless first. “Obviously, today, didn't have as good of stuff, but I felt like I was just out there pitching my ass off, trying to compete and trying to eat as many innings as I could for the bullpen."

On the other side, Padres ace Dylan Cease mowed down the Dodgers, giving up three hits while striking out 11 batters over seven scoreless innings.

“We had a couple chances early,” Roberts said. “But I think when the game got away, you could just see things flip.”

Thus, the Dodgers (40-28) quickly turned their attention to Wednesday’s series rubber-match, one they will have to win to maintain sole possession of first place in the National League West.

Read more:Shaikin: Despite a quiet offseason, Padres are still making noise in competitive NL West

Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández were removed from the game after the top of the sixth.

And knowing Wednesday’s starter will be left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who has a 7.20 ERA in three big-league outings this year and has spent much of the campaign in triple-A, Roberts decided not to waste any of his other available relievers on the latter innings either, inserting Hernández as pitcher the moment the Padres pushed their lead past eight runs with two out in the bottom of the frame (MLB rules prevent losing teams from using position players on the mound until they face an eight-run deficit).

“You just got to look at where our ‘pen is at, and appreciating what we have the next couple days, it wasn't smart to chase and redline guys,” Roberts said. “A guy that was available tonight, [Michael] Kopech, I'm not going to pitch him down six or 7-0 in the sixth inning, to then not have him available tomorrow. As the rules are, we abided. That's kind of what you do to essentially move forward and win the ensuing games."

Still, a position player taking the mound in the sixth inning to finish off a blowout loss represented an almost unprecedented use of the tactic; one that has become so popular among MLB clubs in recent years that the league had to put in the eight-run restriction for when teams can do it.

Two years ago, the Cleveland Guardians had David Fry pitch four innings at the end of a rout against the Minnesota Twins, the first time a true position player had pitched at least three innings in a game since 1988, according to USA Today. 

In 2018, the Arizona Diamondbacks used two position players for the final 4 ⅔ innings of a lopsided defeat at Coors Field to the Colorado Rockies.

Hernández’s 2 ⅓ innings (in which he gave up two runs, three hits and two walks) marked the longest pitching outing by a true position player in Dodgers history.

“Again, it’s about do you want to chase? And is it worth it versus [trying] to win tomorrow?” Roberts said. “I think those are things are part of the math … The goal was to come in here to win a series, and we got a really good chance to do that tomorrow.”

Given how Tuesday went, they better hope so. Because if not, their 10-run loss will be an embarrassment without much of a reward.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Carlos Mendoza doesn't have many problems as the manager of a team that moved to 19 games above .500, the Mets' best mark of the season after scoring a come-from-behind walk-off win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

And to make the other 29 big-league managers green with envy, some of the problems he has are what he calls "good problems."

One such conundrum is figuring out how to balance the playing time for a pair of young, versatile infielders in Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña.

In Tuesday’s win, Mauricio got the start at third base and Acuña had to wait til the final play of the game to leave his mark on the win. In the end, the Mets are managing to have their cake and eat it too.

Here’s what the manager had to say about the situation before the series opener…

On Mauricio’s play so far

Despite missing significant time of development, and going 20 months and two days between his last big league appearances after sustaining an ACL tear and his first game last week against the Dodgers, Mendoza said the 24-year-old has performed “definitely better” than expected since his call-up from Triple-A.

“He’s very consistent, he doesn’t get too high or too low, especially after a tough start in LA, where they pitch him tough,” the manager said before Tuesday's game. “Going to Colorado and having a really good series. Just overall the way he goes about his business.”

“I think I've finally gotten into the rhythm of things,” Mauricio said before the game, speaking through an interpreter. “I'm not all the way there yet, but, but as the games have been going on, I feel like I'm starting to get it a little more.”

It was a difficult night for the youngster, striking out twice as he went hitless in three times up, and he is now 5-for-22 (.227) in six games since his call-up with two walks to seven strikeouts.

Mendoza added he liked how Mauricio is moving defensively and giving the Mets versatility with his ability to play shortstop, his natural position, and third base.

“Good hands, angles to the ball, very good arm,” he said about Mauricio at short. “Third base is kinda a newer position for him, and he’s looked fine there, as well, coming in on slow rollers.

“Overall, I think for a guy that missed so much time and [had a] pretty significant injury, he’s handled it very good here.”

Mauricio credited all the work he did to get to this point has given him the confidence to perform and deal with adjusting to the majors.

“And now that I am at this point, it's because I belong here,” he said. “So obviously there's an adjustment period, and, there's a moment where we have to adapt. But, at the moment, I feel good and I feel like we put in a lot of good work to be here.”

On keeping Acuña involved

Acuña, who was not in the starting lineup on Tuesday night, has started just eight of the last 25 games. However, he entered for the bottom half of the 10th as a pinch-runner and scored the winning run, and has now appeared in 22 of those games because of his ability to impact in the later innings off the bench.

Mendoza said this is all part of the balance that the Mets are dealing with and he’d rather have the youngster here than playing each day at Triple-A.

“He’s got a role right now, he’s helping us win a baseball game here,” the skipper said. “We’re always trying to put that on the table and say, ‘What’s best for the kid?’ ‘What’s best for the team?’ and right now, we feel like he continues to contribute.”

But in this situation, chances at the plate are hard to come by as he has just 15 in his last 15 games (three starts) and he has two hits in those games. Of course, New York is 12-2 over that span.

Not only that, but with Francisco Lindor dealing with a broken pinky toe that is still causing him discomfort, having an extra guy to play shortstop – even had Lindor been healthy – is something Mendoza sees value in having around.

“He’s a plus defender, the speed off the bench. He allows me to make some in-game moves,” he said. “We’ll continue to watch this situation, but in the meantime, he’s helping us at the big-league level.”

While the opportunities to play and start may not be that often, when Acuña is not in the lineup, the Mets are keeping him very active.

“In Acuña’s case, when he’s not in the lineup, hitting extra off the velo machine, hitting off the iPitch where it’s random BP, continue to improve his bunting game, with Antoan [Richardson] working on base stealing, base running, defensively in the outfield, with [Mike Sarbaugh] in the infield,” Mendoza said. “By being here at the big-league level, just learning from the other guys how they go about their business and watching the game.

“And after a game, we’ll sit down and talk through some situations. So there’s a lot of different ways we are attacking this and we will continue to help him.”

Mendoza praised the Mets’ coaching staff for continuing to coach and teach, not only the younger guys but the entire squad. “There’s always teaching moments and then there’s situations where you could go over and continue to coach,” he said.

In the end, a decision will have to be made as Mark Vientos nears a rehab assignment, as he is set to come off the IL.

“It’ll play itself out whether the playing time comes here or not, but, as he’s a big league player,” Mendoza said of Acuña. “Our job is to continue to help him, educate him, teach him, and then we’ll go from there.”

As it has happened many times before, the big moment found Juan Sotoon Tuesday night at Citi Field. 

With the Mets down two in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Soto came to the plate to face Jose A. Ferrer, Washington's hard-throwing left-hander out of the bullpen.

After taking a strike on a 99.4 mph sinker and fouling off a second one that came in at 100.1 mph, Soto, like the Mets had been all night, was behind. But his approach didn’t change; he was trying to “hunt the mistakes.”

“I know that guy, and he has nasty stuff. I’m just trying to stay locked into my zone,” he said. “He missed in my zone and I made the adjustment.”.

And when Ferrer's 0-2 slider hung in the middle of the zone, and Soto smacked it (107.3 mph off the bat). In fact, he nearly hit the ball too well as right fielder Rober Hassell III looked to have a decent shot at making the catch, but the ball just dipped below his glove, allowing Starling Marte to score all the way from first.

“How things are going, I definitely was hoping [it] got down,” Soto said. “I thought the ball was a little farther than it went, but got it done.”

Of course, Soto had the hit, but praised the man who set the table for him and the man after, Pete Alonso, who pulverised a game-tying hit to score Soto en route to the Mets’ extra-inning win.

“That was a 12-year veteran taking an at-bat right there,” Soto said of Marte's ability to work a walk after falling behind 0-2. “He did a really good job, he stayed on his plan. Everybody wants to come through in that situation, but he stayed patient and give myself and Pete another chance to come through.”

The late double was Soto's second big hit of the night. In the bottom of the third, Soto battled MacKenzieGore, who Washington got from the Padres in the trade that sent the slugger to San Diego in 2022, and drove a 2-2 slider that got a lot of the middle of the plate for a 373-foot opposite-field home run.

“Just a great swing,” Soto said. “Another mistake, I’m waiting for mistakes and he made a mistake and I put the ball in play.”

While the homer landed just over the left field wall, Soto spent time admiring the drive and appeared to exchange words with Gore. The slugger was coy about the interaction, “We were just saying 'hi' at each other. That’s it.”

With the two-hit day, Soto is now batting .341 (14-for-41) with 14 runs, three doubles, four homers, eight RBI, and 14 walks in his last 12 games. Does he feel this is about his luck starting to change after a slow (by his high standards) start?

“Little by little, we just gotta be patient,” he said. “Keep doing my thing, definitely really happy to see the ball landing in some spots and coming through in big moments. I’m really happy, I’m just gonna try and keep it the same way.”

While his bat will always get the headlines, Soto also contributed in the field, taking a run off the board when he nailed Jose Tena at the plate as he tried to score from first with two outs in the top half of the second inning.

The right fielder, who had been working with the Mets’ pitching coaches to sort out some mechanical issues with his arm, said he feels great with how he is progressing in the outfield.

“I feel like we going in the right path with the coaches,” he said. “We’ve been doing great things so far and I’m happy for that.”

Ron Darling joined @SteveGelbs to break down Juan Soto's outfield assist and a pitcher's perspective on what Soto is working on with the help of the pitching lab for his throws pic.twitter.com/EQQ8hNIhhx

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 10, 2025

The Yankees put up 10 runs, with Austin Wells providing half of them, on 16 hits as New York defeated the Royals, 10-2, in Kansas City on Tuesday night.

Here are the takeaways...

-Aaron Judge has done plenty of things not seen by baseball fans and he did so again. Ahead in the count 2-0 in the first inning, Judge took a Noah Cameron fastball over the middle of the plate and launched it 469 feet (117.9 mph exit velocity) for his 24th home run of the season. The ball landing was not caught on camera and seemingly reached the Royals Hall of Fame in deep left field.

Judge's smash wasn't the only one on Tuesday, as Austin Wells took Cameron deep in the fourth after fighting back from a 2-2 count. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Wells launched a changeup 381 feet over the right field wall to put the Yanks up 5-1.

-The Yankees would pour it on with a five-run sixth inning. Wells got the scoring started with a two-run double. Trent Grisham, Judge and Cody Bellinger followed with RBI singles.

-Max Fried pitched into an early jam in this one. In the second inning, he had runners at the corners with one out -- thanks to a botched double play attempt by DJ LeMahieu -- when rookie Jac Caglianone came to the plate as the Kauffman Stadium crowd rose to their feet for the top prospect. However, the slugging rookie grounded out, but it did drive in the Royals' first run.

After that, Fried would settle in, retiring 11 straight Royals before a two-out single in the fifth. The long wait in the dugout in the sixth inning probably got Fried off his game, as Jonathan India led off with a solo shot and the southpaw allowed two more singles before he got the final out of the frame.

Fried threw 91 pitches (61 strikes) in seven innings while allowing two runs on six hits, no walks and striking out four. Although his outing was strong, Fried's season ERA actually increased to 1.84.

-Yerry De los Santos got the next five outs but allowed the Royals to load the bases with two outs in the ninth. Aaron Boone made a pitching change, and Tim Hill got Tyler Tolbert to fly out to end the game.

-The Yankees picked up 16 hits on Tuesday, with every starter picking up at least one knock. Judge went 2-for-5 and his average is at .396, while Wells and Grisham went 2-for-4. LeMahieu went 2-for-3 with two walks and made a nice sliding catch in shallow right field.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. went 1-for-4 with a run scored and was replaced in the later innings by Oswald Peraza. The Yankees announced that Chisholm left the game with "neck tightness." He was hit in the helmet by a throw when he stole third base earlier, but remained in the game.

Game MVP: Austin Wells

Wells, his first game batting in the nine-hole, drove in five of the team's 10 runs

Highilights

AARON JUDGE DEMOLISHES ONE TO LEFT FIELD IN KANSAS CITY

469 FEET! pic.twitter.com/803b2lwJ5z

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 10, 2025

Austin Wells works a 9-pitch at-bat and blasts a 3-run homer! pic.twitter.com/RBKZjI8I9s

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 11, 2025

Austin Wells drives in two more! pic.twitter.com/jNh7aAApBw

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 11, 2025

Trent Grisham makes it 8-1! pic.twitter.com/jq0cbpWa2w

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 11, 2025

Aaron Judge with his 58th RBI of the season! pic.twitter.com/tT1VGy0IjQ

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 11, 2025

Cody Bellinger’s 1000th career hit makes it a 10-1 game! pic.twitter.com/Bo3TfS9nei

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 11, 2025

What's next

The Yankees and Royals continue their three-game set on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 7:40 p.m.

Clarke Schmidt (2-3, 4.04 ERA) takes the mound while young LHP Kris Bubic (5-3, 1.43 ERA) will be on the bump for Kansas City.

The most important pitches for the Dodgers on Tuesday came long before the start of their game that night.

In the second of a key three-game series against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers found themselves in an uncomfortably familiar position: Lacking an available starting pitcher amid a wave of early-season injuries, and turning instead to a collection of minor league arms thrust into big league duty; set to open the game with Lou Trivino, and then have Matt Sauer pitch bulk innings.

It’s not what the Dodgers envisioned entering the year, when they expected to have a rotation of potential All-Stars on the mound every day.

It was eerily similar to the circumstances they faced last October –– their Game 4, elimination-staving win against the Padres in last year’s National League Division Series, specifically.

Earlier Tuesday, however, the Dodgers had reasons for optimism: These current circumstances might not last much longer.

Hours before the game, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell took notable steps in their recovery from injuries.

For the first time in a while, they could start to see light at the end of the pitching tunnel.

On the Petco Park mound, Ohtani threw the third live batting practice in his continued recovery from a 2023 Tommy John surgery, hurling 44 pitches over three simulated innings while racking up six strikeouts against a pair of rookie league hitters from the organization.

Read more:Shaikin: Despite a quiet offseason, Padres are still making noise in competitive NL West

Back in Los Angeles, Glasnow threw the third bullpen session of his recovery from a shoulder inflammation injury, and could be getting close to facing live hitters himself in the near future.

And after Ohtani finished his session in San Diego, Snell threw 15 pitches in the bullpen, his first full bullpen session since suffering a setback in his recovery from shoulder inflammation back in April.

“Really encouraging,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You can start to see us get to the other side. It’s stuff to look forward to.”

Ohtani’s live session was the day’s biggest development. He made a significant jump in workload, going from the 29 pitches he threw two weekends ago at Dodger Stadium to a 44-pitch outing Tuesday that concluded with 23 throws in his third and final inning. But, after battling poor command in his previous live BP, he showed increased consistency and sharpness with all of his pitches, giving up just a ground-ball single and a lone walk while including 15 swings-and-misses with a variety of offerings.

“It wasn't just pure power and velocity,” pitching coach Mark Prior said of Ohtani, whose fastball averaged around 94-96 mph. “He got some swing-and-misses on his off-speed pitches. He's being able to keep guys off balance and mess up their timing. There's different types of misses. I think from that standpoint, those are good things.”

Roberts came away so encouraged, he even hinted at a more optimistic timeline for when Ohtani –– who hasn’t pitched in a big league game since August 2023 –– might be able to join the team’s active rotation, saying the chances are “north of zero” that the right-hander could return before the All-Star break.

In recent weeks, Roberts had said Ohtani wouldn’t be back until after the Midsummer Classic.

“It’s tempting,” Roberts said. “I’m sure Shohei feels tempted to just kind of rip the Band-Aid off and get into a big league game. But I think we’re doing a good job of being patient. And truth be told, I don’t think anyone knows the right time to get him in a big league game. We’re still being very careful, I guess.”

Read more:Andy Pages is used to beating the odds, and he's doing it again with the Dodgers

Another notable development from Roberts on Tuesday: Ohtani might not have to complete “a full build-up” before pitching in big league games.

“Anything he can give us is certainly additive,” Roberts said, an idea underscored by Ohtani’s two-way player status, which would effectively make him an extra arm on the Dodgers’ staff without counting against their 13-pitcher roster max.

“I still stand by him, and [head team physician] Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache and the training staff are going to drive this,” said Roberts, who wasn’t sure when Ohtani would throw his next live session. “I’m just anxious for the next one.”

Glasnow and Snell have more steps to complete in their comebacks, from their own live sessions to likely minor league rehab stints.

Prior also noted that those two will have to be more fully built up before they are activated, given the already overworked state of the Dodgers’ bullpen.

Still, Snell said after two months of lingering shoulder pain earlier this year, the breakthrough he has experienced in the last two weeks has renewed his confidence about how he’ll perform when he returns.

“I’m very excited,” he said after throwing at about 70% intensity level in his 15-pitch bullpen. “After this ‘pen, the ramp up is gonna start, and I can start pitching, and I know I’m gonna be a factor on the team again.”

Read more:Hernández: It's tempting to rush Shohei Ohtani back on the mound, but the Dodgers shouldn't do it

Prior offered similar encouragement with Glasnow’s recent work, noting his fastball is up to 95-96 mph.

“Everything looks good,” Prior said of Glasnow. “He really has been feeling good and the ball has been coming out really good.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers will have to continue to tread water. They currently have only four healthy starters in the rotation between Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May and Justin Wrobleski. And though Emmet Sheehan could be an option to return from his own Tommy John surgery after one more start in his minor league rehab next week, the recent loss of Tony Gonsolin –– and continued absence of Roki Sasaki, who has yet to progress past light catch play –– has only further limited the club’s pitching options.

That’s why, even on a day the Dodgers were patching together a pitching plan once again, they were finally feeling hopeful about the long-term state of their staff.

Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow are finally making strides toward returning.

The star-studded pitching staff the club had been planning for this season might soon become a reality once again.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Jeff McNeil needed just one pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning to drive in the winning run as the Mets came from behind to beat the Washington Nationals, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

McNeil jumped on a 94 mph fastball from Washington rookie reliever Cole Henry and hit it off the end of his bat (just 68.7 mph exit velocity), but the ball found the grass in right field and Luisangel Acuña, in as a pinch-runner, easily scampered home to end the game, which New York once trailed 3-0.

The Mets are now 25-7 at home this season, the best home start in franchise history and have MLB’s best home winning percentage as they have won four straight in Flushing and eight of their last nine. New York improved to 43-24 on the year.

Here are the takeaways...

- With the Mets down two with two outs in the eighth, Jose A. Ferrer looked to be cruising to a clean inning and had Starling Marte down in the count 0-2. But Marte worked a seven-pitch walk. Juan Soto, down 0-2 to the Nats' lefty, hit a sharp liner to right that Robert Hassell III missed with a dive and had the ball bounce past him, to score Marte and put Soto at second.

Washington then went to closer Kyle Finnegan to face Pete Alonso, who was 0-for-3 to that point. But the Mets' slugger got an 0-1 splitter that hung just enough, and he smashed it off the wall in the left field corner to tie the game. Alonso beat the throw to second, but came off the bag and was tagged out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

- The Mets were only in a position to erase the two-run deficit late because the bullpen got out of some tight spots. Jose Butto was the first man out of the Mets’ bullpen and stranded an inherited runner with a strikeout and groundout to short before getting the first out of the seventh. Lefty José Castillo entered and promptly walked and hit the first two batters he faced. Against James Wood, a third straight lefty, Castillo induced an inning-ending 6-3 twin killing.

Castillo stayed on for the eighth and got a strikeout but allowed a double to the right-center gap to pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro, in his first at-bat of the season, and walked Luis Garcia Jr. The lefty allowed three of the five lefties he faced to reach. But Justin Garza entered with runners on first and second for his Mets’ debut and got Alex Call looking at some 98 mph heat and Hassell III swinging at a cutter.

Edwin Diaz got the top half of the ninth in the tie game and struck out two on some nasty offerings, needing just 12 pitches to get the job done. Reed Garrett, pitching on four days' rest, got a grounder to first to push the ghost runner to third to start the tenth. But ge stuck out Nathaniel Lowe swinging at a splitter in the dirt and got Chaparro on a soft fly to left to strand the runner.

- Griffin Canning got in trouble with hangers in the first inning: CJ Abrams rocketed a knee-high changeup off the wall in right for a double before Lowe uncorked a hanging slider for a 415-foot home run to right to put the Mets behind early.

Canning allowed the leadoff man to reach in the second with a single to center off his hands and a two-out, 0-2 single to center off the end of the bat to give Washington another scoring chance. Abrams stung the Mets’ starter again this time with an RBI double on a bouncer just over the first-base bag, but the Nationals ran themselves out of the inning. After the ball bounced off the half wall, Soto reached the ball with José Tena still two steps short of third base. Third base coach Ricky Gutierrez waved Tena home, but Soto’s one-bounce throw from shallow right got him at the plate by 10 feet.

The Mets' starter allowed another leadoff single to start the third, but he retired the next seven batters he faced, including an eight-pitch 1-2-3 fourth. But Abrams ended that streak when he snuck an opposite-field homer over the left-field wall on a down-and-away fastball.

Canning ended the fifth with his 12th career pickoff and first with the Mets, nailing Wood at first. But his night came to an end with a one-out walk in the sixth. His final line: 5.1 innings, four runs on seven hits, two walks, and four strikeouts, throwing 87 pitches (53 strikes). Canning did keep a streak alive: Mets starters have now allowed four or fewer runs in 66 of 67 starts.

- Brandon Nimmo singled through the right side of the infield to start the bottom of the second and, with two outs, stole second base to give McNeil a RBI chance off MacKenzie Gore, a pitcher he likes hitting against. McNeil made it eight hits in 11 at-bats (all singles) with a bloop to right that just found the outfield grass to score Nimmo from second.

The rest of the Mets weren’t so successful against Gore, who entered the game leading the NL with 108 strikeouts, as Soto, Luis Torrens, Tyrone Taylor, Ronny Mauricio, and Marte were all strikeout victims early. 

But Soto got revenge on Gore and his former team, driving a 2-2 slider up in the zone 373 feet the opposite way for a solo homer, his 12th on the season. Taylor also got some revenge, lacing a high fastball down the left-field line for a two-out double in the fourth, but this time McNeil flied out to left to strand the runner.

After six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts, the Nats lifted Gore, who had thrown just 89 pitches, and the Mets were glad to see the back of him.

- In Aug. 2022, the Nationals traded Soto to the Padres. In Tuesday’s game, six of the eight players in the deal appeared in the game as Washington started four of the five players they received (Abrams, Wood, Gore, and Hassell III) and had Josh Bell, who went to San Diego in the deal, but is back with Washington. The only players not to appear were one-time Met Luke Voit and Jarlin Susana, the No. 2 prospect in the Nats’ organization.

Game MVP: Jeff McNeil

McNeil has now reached base safely in each of the last 13 games and is batting .319 (15-for-47) with six runs, four doubles, four home runs, nine RBI, four walks, and a steal.

Highlights

Jeff McNeil gets one to drop in and drives in Brandon Nimmo for the first run of the game pic.twitter.com/18WdLpe0se

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 10, 2025

Juan Soto drives one the other way!

The Mets cut it to 3-2! pic.twitter.com/Ces3MkLcwU

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

Griffin Canning picks off James Wood to end the top of the 5th pic.twitter.com/jo99sRheee

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

Justin Garza strikes out the first two batters he faces as a Met pic.twitter.com/5U8FyS1KcR

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

Juan Soto with an RBI double! pic.twitter.com/wPwN1ZnU2Y

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

Pete Alonso ties it up with his 62nd RBI of the season! pic.twitter.com/1qyFlsQP11

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

The Citi Field crowd gets up and roars as Edwin Díaz sends this to the bottom of the 9th pic.twitter.com/hqubPEa2j4

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

Reed Garrett sends us to the bottom of the 10th still tied! pic.twitter.com/alIhqSyahI

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

JEFF MCNEIL WINS IT FOR THE METS! pic.twitter.com/kqhUV1KGeY

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2025

What's next

The Mets and Nats renew their hostilities on Wednesday night with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. on SNY.

Left-hander David Peterson (2.80 ERA, 1.259 WHIP in 70.2 innings) makes his 13th start of the season. He will look to outduel Washington right-hander Jake Irvin (4.02 ERA, 1.226 WHIP in 78.1 innings), making his 14th start of the campaign.