BBC's chief sportswriter Tom English on BBC Sportsound: Rangers are in a desperate, desperate state. We keep saying Russell Martin can't survive this but we don't know what's in the minds of the Rangers owners. On the face of it, this team is going nowhere under Russell Martin.
Former Rangers forward Rory Loy on BBC Sportsound: Big changes need to happen, I'm not alluding to the manager necessarily but they need clear the air talks with Nico Raskin and to get him back in the team and get it put to bed.
They maybe don't win this game with him in the side but they're certainly much better.
The two weeks Russell Martin has had on the training pitch, they look like they've got worse. That loss is on the manager, there's been excuses before but I don't think there's any today [Saturday].
Derek McInnes described under-pressure Rangers counterpart Russell Martin as "a fine man, a fine manager" as his Hearts side ended an 11-year wait for a win at Ibrox amid chants from the stands for the home head coach to be sacked.
Martin insisted afterwards that he had no intention of quitting despite becoming the first Rangers team boss since 1978 to fail to win any of his first five league matches in charge.
Asked by BBC Scotland whether he had any sympathy for the former Rangers defender, McInnes said: "More than a bit, a huge lot. I didn't like that today. It's so unfair on a manager, I don't like it at all.
"He is a fine man, he's a fine manager and, when results don't always come at clubs, especially clubs this size, it's more than just the manager for me. That is tough on him.
"It's early on in the season. He's a new manager and, likewise with myself, I am just in at Hearts and, if we were still sitting towards the bottom end of the table and integrating loads of players and trying to kind of implement what we want to do, you'd be asking for that understanding. And, as managers, that's all we ask for."
While Rangers sit third bottom of the Scottish Premiership after the 2-0 defeat, Hearts are three points clear at the top before reigning champions Celtic face Kilmarnock on Sunday after taking 13 points from a possible 15.
"I enjoyed my team, but it was hard to ignore that and it was hard not to have empathy of course," former Rangers midfielder McInnes, who has been previously linked with a return to Ibrox as manager, added after a chorus of boos greeted Martin's exit up the Ibrox tunnel.
MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers have grown accustomed to outperforming forecasts every year, but this season might represent their most remarkable accomplishment yet.
During a season in which they have built the best record in the majors, the Brewers reached their latest milestone by becoming the first team to clinch a playoff berth.
According to MLB, the New York Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Texas Rangers on Saturday sealed at least a National League wild card for Milwaukee. The Brewers responded by displaying the tenacity that helped get them to this point, as they rallied from a five-run deficit to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-8 in 10 innings Saturday night.
This marks the seventh time in the last eight seasons that the Brewers have qualified for the playoffs, though they haven’t won a postseason series since reaching Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in 2018. They had made a total of two postseason appearances from 1983-2017.
“It’s kind of the culture that we’ve developed here,” slugger Christian Yelich said Friday after the Brewers' 8-2 victory over the Cardinals. “It’s taken a lot of people to do that, a lot of consistency kind of at the top, guys that care about winning and winning players that have come up. A lot of young guys have done a really good job over the years. There’s been pieces that have come in and come out, but each year we kind of find our identity as a team and find ways to win.”
Milwaukee now will chase its third straight NL Central title as well as the top overall playoff seed.
The Brewers lead the division by 6 1/2 games over the Chicago Cubs, who lost 5-4 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. The Cubs own the tiebreaker.
Milwaukee has a two-game lead over NL East-leading Philadelphia in the race for baseball's best record, and the Brewers hold that tiebreaker.
This was supposed to be the season in which the Brewers took a step back.
They traded two-time NL reliever of the year Devin Williams to the New York Yankees and lost one of their top position players when shortstop Willy Adames signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the Giants. They were 25-28 and 6 1/2 games behind the Cubs on May 24, but they’ve gone 65-30 since.
The Brewers entered Saturday ranked second in the majors in runs and ERA. That combination has Milwaukee poised to challenge for the best record in franchise history. The Brewers already set a club mark with a 14-game win streak this summer.
Milwaukee’s top regular-season finish was 96-66 in 2011. The Brewers have made only one World Series apeparance, back when they were in the American League and lost to St. Louis in seven games in 1982.
A couple of early-season trades paid huge dividends.
Quinn Priester was pitching for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate at the start of the season when the Brewers acquired him. Priester, who had a 6-9 career major league record before the trade, has gone 13-2 with a 3.25 ERA for Milwaukee.
Priester won his 12th straight decision Friday, and the Brewers have won each of the last 18 games in which he’s appeared. According to Sportradar, the last pitcher to win at least 12 consecutive decisions within a single season was Gerrit Cole, who won 16 straight with the Houston Astros in 2019.
In mid-June, the Brewers traded pitcher Aaron Civale to the White Sox for first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who had been sent to the minors after hitting .189 in 48 games with Chicago. Vaughn entered Saturday with an .860 OPS in 54 games with Milwaukee.
Plenty of others also have contributed.
Brice Turang was the NL player of the month in August. Isaac Collins entered Saturday with a .372 on-base percentage as a 28-year-old rookie. William Contreras has surged since the All-Star Game and remains one of the game’s top-hitting catchers. Rookie Caleb Durbin, one of the players acquired in the Williams trade, has solidified Milwaukee’s third-base situation.
Freddy Peralta had a string of 30 straight scoreless innings. Yelich is on pace for a 30-homer, 100-RBI season. Brandon Woodruff made a successful return from the shoulder injury that sidelined the two-time All-Star pitcher for the entire 2024 season. Jacob Misiorowski, one of the game’s hardest throwers, made enough of an impression to earn an All-Star Game appearance after getting called up in mid-June. All-Star closer Trevor Megill and setup man Abner Uribe form one of the majors’ best bullpen duos.
They’ve all come together by living up to manager Pat Murphy’s season-long message: Win tonight. The idea is that it makes no sense to worry about what happened in the past or to look too far ahead. Just worry about taking care of business right now.
The plan has worked better than just about anyone outside of Milwaukee’s locker room could have expected.
“We’re not built like some of these championship teams are built,” Murphy said. “I can mention budgets if you want to. That oftentimes indicates superstar players. We’re not built like the Phillies. We’re not built like the Mets. We’re not built like even the Cubs. We’re not built like that. We’re built with a bunch of guys who want to go out and play with that ‘win tonight’ attitude.”
ATLANTA — The Houston Astros received an injury scare in Saturday night's 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves when nine-time All-Star Jose Altuve was pulled after complaining of right foot discomfort.
Altuve singled to right field in the third inning and then was forced out at second on a grounder hit by Jesús Sánchez.
“He came in and he said ‘My foot is bothering me,’” said Astros manager Joe Espada. “So I took him out, just being cautious.”
Altuve remained in the dugout during the game but was being checked by a team doctor after the game and was not available for comment.
“We want to keep an eye on it and see how it is tomorrow,” Espada said.
Altuve is a key for the Astros, who began Saturday night's schedule tied with Seattle for first place in the AL West.
Altuve is hitting .264 and leads Houston with 25 homers. Altuve, 35, has been durable, ranking first with 144 games played and 552 at-bats. He has driven in 70 runs to rank second on the team.
Altuve, in his 15th season with Houston, has 2,378 career hits, ranking behind only Hall of Famer Craig Biggio's 3,060 on the franchise records. Earlier this season, Altuve passed another Hall of Famer, Jeff Bagwell, for second place on the team's career hit list.
Teoscar Hernández celebrates after hitting a two-run double in the fifth inning of the Dodgers' 13-7 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night at Oracle Park. (Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
After struggling for so long in high-leverage situations, the team’s offense finally had reason to celebrate.
For weeks now, the Dodgers have technically been in a tight division race.
The real battle, however, has often been with themselves.
At a time of the year typically dedicated to scoreboard watching and monitoring the standings, the team had instead been preoccupied by its own inconsistent play. Chief among their recent problems: Capitalizing on scoring opportunities.
In a 13-7 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, they finally vanquished those demons.
After trailing by three runs early, and reaching rock bottom again after coming up empty with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, the Dodgers mounted the kind of rally that had so often been missing during their lackluster second half of the season, scoring six runs in the top of the fifth inning to key what felt like a statement win.
“A lot of guys put together really good at-bats,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We found a way to keep the ball moving forward, keep moving to the next guy. It was really impressive.”
Early in Saturday’s game, the Dodgers (83-65) had honed a sound approach. They stressed Giants ace Logan Webb. They stayed alive in two-strike counts. They worked long at-bats and put runners on base.
The missing ingredient, as usual, had been the big hits needed to build a big inning. Then, in the top of the fifth, it all so suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped.
That’s what happened in the second, when Webb wiggled out of trouble by getting Miguel Rojas to hit an infield pop-up and Rortvedt to roll into a double-play, preserving the 4-1 lead the Giants had taken against Clayton Kershaw in a 36-pitch first inning.
“It’s real easy, if you don’t get any runs in that inning, to sit there and start pouting and start letting the emotion take over,” Muncy said. “It’s tough to dig out of that hole."
This time, however, the Dodgers came back from the dead.
Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run in the third inning Saturday against the Giants. (Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
The turnaround started in the third, when Shohei Ohtani bat-flipped a leadoff home run that traveled 454 feet (the longest of his 49 long balls this season) and Hernández belted an RBI double off the wall with two outs.
That momentum carried into the fifth, when the Dodgers’ recently unproductive offense suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped the bases-loaded script.
After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman and a walk from Muncy chased Webb from the game, Hernández came to the plate against Giants reliever José Buttó.
Hernández quickly fell behind to newly inserted Giants reliever José Buttó, taking a first-pitch fastball before fanning on a slider out of the zone. But after laying off another slider in the dirt, Hernández got a mistake, with Buttó leaving a fastball up and over the plate. Hernández lined it to the gap, where center fielder Luis Matos struggled to get a bead. It dropped in under Matos’ diving attempt, rolling past him for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.
“Getting closer to October, everybody is trying to do the little things, not trying to do too much and just getting on base for the next guy,” said Hernández, who was one of three Dodgers hitters to record three hits and lead the way with three RBIs.
"That was a big difference today. Everybody was into the game. It didn't happen in the second inning, but we came back and started fighting again, every at-bat and scored some runs."
Indeed, from that point on, the floodgates burst open. Michael Conforto lifted a sacrifice fly to right. Rortvedt lined another two-run double to left-center. Betts bounced a run-scoring single up the middle.
By the time the side was retired, 11 Dodgers had come to the plate. Eight had reached safely. Six had come around to score.
An exorcism, exhale and sigh of relief for the Dodgers’ long-scuffling offense.
“That was awesome,” said Kershaw, who exited after the third. “For them to grind out at-bats — especially after me putting them in a hole after the first inning — getting guys on base, not trying to do too much, taking what they’re giving you, walks, hits, all the things, it was really impressive.”
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw reacts after giving up an RBI single in the first inning Saturday. (Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
Over their 26-33 stretch since July 4, the Dodgers had lost so many games like this one, letting bad outings from starters or wasted opportunities early in games send them into spirals that lingered for days (and sometimes weeks) after.
But on this night, every moment of adversity was met with an answer.
After Kirby Yates gave back three runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers responded with another three-spot in the sixth punctuated by an RBI double from Rojas. When the bullpen needed someone to calm the waters, rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski produced 2⅓ scoreless innings.
Even on a day that Will Smith was placed on the injured list (finally being shelved after battling a bone bruise on his hand for the last 10 days) and Muncy left the game after taking a pitch to the head (he passed postgame concussion protocols, and will have a scheduled day off Sunday), the Dodgers didn’t wilt.
Instead, their lineup finally produced as expected, going seven for 15 with runners in scoring position, producing 11 of their 23 combined hits and walks with two strikes, and fueling a win that keeps the team 2½ games up in the National League West standings — all while helping ease concerns about their recently inconsistent offense.
“I just don't see why we can't do that, as far as approach, on a nightly basis,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With two strikes, you got to give something up. And I think for me tonight, I saw us give up the pull side. And then you're starting to get hits to the big part of the field, hits the other way to the other gap, winning pitches. We did that all night long. Good stuff."
If ever there were a day that told you it’s just not happening for the Mets this season, it was Saturday at Citi Field.
It wasn’t only that they blew a 2-0 lead after seven innings to lose 3-2 to the Texas Rangers. There have been plenty of bad losses lately, and indeed their losing streak is now eight and counting, leaving them three games over .500 with the third wild-card spot slipping away from them.
No, this was more about the way they lost, making so many dumb or inexplicable mistakes that manager Carlos Mendoza couldn’t deny the obvious.
“Fundamentally, we’re not playing good baseball,” he said at his postgame news conference.
They’re back to failing badly in the clutch as well, going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Maybe that was inevitable after their hot August with the bats, but it’s crunch time now and nobody’s getting it done.
Worse, in some ways, were the glaring mistakes.
There was Brett Baty getting picked off second base with no outs in the sixth inning, the second time this week he’s been picked off a base in a close game. It just can’t happen.
There was Francisco Alvarez getting called for catcher’s interference to allow Josh Smith to reach base leading off the eighth inning -- a crucial blunder that led to the Rangers’ first run.
Mendoza seemed especially upset about that one, noting that with Tyler Rogers pitching, hitters are going to let the ball get deep, not fearing the velocity.
“We don’t have the awareness there,” he said, speaking of Alvarez, “and it cost us.”
Then, with the game tied 2-2, there was Francisco Lindor’s failure to catch Cody Freeman's relatively routine line drive that started the Rangers’ winning rally. Lindor had to jump, which was why the play was ruled a hit, but even Lindor afterward said, “I should have caught it, 100 percent.”
Finally, there was Edwin Diaz making costly mistake pitches, a hanging slider to Rowdy Tellez in the eighth that was roped for a game-tying double, and a fastball in the middle of the plate that Wyatt Langford lined to right-center for what turned out to be the game-winning hit.
Add it all up and this was one of the most deflating losses of all, even in this sea of deflating losses.
It had been such a feel-good day at Citi Field, too, with a big crowd seeming to thoroughly enjoy the Alumni Classic, and then young Brandon Sproat adding to the festivities by throwing a gem in his second major league start, going six shutout innings on only 70 pitches.
It’s a great sign for the future, but it only made Saturday’s loss feel like another lost opportunity.
Sproat surely could have gone another inning, but Mendoza took him out, saying that his velocity dropped significantly in the sixth inning, as he gave up a few hard-hit balls. However, Sproat only threw two fastballs in the inning, a four-seamer and a sinker, both at 93 mph, and otherwise relied on his off-speed stuff.
By comparison, Sproat had thrown a 93 mph sinker as early as the fourth inning, though his four-seamer was as high as 97 mph earlier in the game.
In any case, Sproat said he had no issues with his arm, and didn’t really have an answer for any drop in velocity, saying “I just go out there and compete.”
Sep 13, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Brandon Sproat (40) pitches in the third inning against the Texas Rangers at Citi Field. / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Bottom line, you can’t blame Mendoza for being cautious with a 24-year-old who seems to have a big future with the Mets, and as it turned out, the bullpen was okay on this day. Brooks Raley worked a clean inning and Rogers’ inning was compromised by the catcher’s interference.
In the end, the Mets got the ball to Diaz with a lead, but his was the rare day when he didn’t have it.
The timing couldn’t have been worse, obviously, and still another head-shaking loss left the Mets’ players continuing to say they believe they’ll turn this thing around, even as their words sound more hollow by the day.
On this day, Juan Soto, whose eighth-inning home run gave the Mets a 2-0 lead and made him the first 40/30 man in team history, was particularly emphatic in saying the ball simply isn’t bouncing the Mets’ way at the moment.
“It’s crazy how the games have been going,’’ he said. “But we’ve gotta keep grinding. I still 100 percent believe this is a playoff team. We’re going to turn this thing around. Just look around at the talent. We have everything we need to go all the way.”
Soto even downplayed his personal achievement and said, “We’ve got bigger things in front of us. We’ve gotta go out and get it.”
Soto certainly sounded like he believed his words; it’s just tough for anyone who has been watching this team, especially on Saturday, to believe them.
It’s not as if this is merely some flukey stretch of losing at this point. These Mets are 18 games under .500 since June 13, so even when you factor in the occasional sparks, the seven-game winning streak in late July, or the three-game sweep of the Phillies in late August, the body of work offers little evidence that this team can suddenly go on a tear to lock down the wild card berth, never mind fulfill Soto’s promise of sorts that they can still go “all the way.”
As it is, this late-season collapse is becoming more defining of their season by the day. That reality never felt quite as inevitable as it did on Saturday.
With 13 games left in the regular season, the Mets are playing their worst baseball.
Stuck in an eight-game losing streak after Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Texas Rangers, New York finds itself on the outside looking in of the postseason, 0.5 GB of the San Francisco Giants who are just getting underway against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with no answers to fix it.
Following some duds on the mound lately, the Mets wasted an excellent performance out of Brandon Sproat in his Citi Field debut. The rookie right-hander pitched six scoreless innings and left (after only 70 pitches thrown) with a lead.
But even after Juan Soto doubled his team's lead with a mammoth solo homer in the seventh, it still wasn't enough as the bullpen, this time Tyler Rogers and Edwin Diaz, allowed the game-tying and game-winning runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
New York had its chances to extend (and in the later innings tie or retake) the lead, but failed to do so as its ugly numbers with runners in scoring position showed up once again.
The recurring losing seems to be getting to the Mets who were out of answers on why they continue to play so poorly, especially during such an important stretch of the season.
"I don't know. We’re definitely trying to figure out what’s going on," Soto said. "We’re playing our ass off every night it’s just not going in our way. It’s just crazy how the games have been going, but like I said we just gotta keep grinding and keep moving forward. There’s no excuses, we just gotta go out there and keep trying to beat them."
No matter what New York tries to do to get out of this funk, nothing is working.
And although the players say they believe they will win every time they step foot onto the field, it's getting to the point where the nightly expectation is something will go wrong for this team.
"We have the energy, we have the guys, we have everything we need to go all the way," Soto said. "The only thing is we keep losing games. I don’t know what else to do right now."
"It’s not easy right now, especially when you’re not able to finish the job in a game where you felt like you had it and then before you know it you’re behind," said manager Carlos Mendoza.
"Everybody has a sense of urgency but for some reason we haven’t been able to close out games," added Francisco Lindor.
Of course, the Mets are not out of the playoff picture and depending on what happens later tonight they could still be holding the final wild card spot. However, things need to drastically change, and quickly, for New York to have any shot of the playoffs.
Right now, losers of eight straight and a 31-49 record since being a season-high 21 games above .500, the Mets look finished.
"We gotta get going here, fast. That’s the bottom line. We gotta get the job done. Period. It’s been too long," Mendoza said.
While that's the message, it's hard to execute when the team continues to hurt itself on the field. On Saturday, it was Francisco Alvarez's catcher's interference that began the eighth-inning rally and Lindor's missed catch on a line drive that ended up coming around to score the go-ahead run. Brett Baty was also picked off in the sixth inning for the second time this week, deflating a potential rally.
"It’s just about the results now and when you’re going through stretches like this everybody has to do their part. We gotta find a way to get the job done here. Feels like fundamentally we’re not playing good baseball right now."
If New York wants to save its season from complete and utter disaster, it will need to come from everyone looking within, digging deep and simply playing better. The roster is talented enough to go on a run, but it's time the players start acting like it.
"We believe in every single guy here," Soto said. "We’re trying to do our best and trying to come through."
"We have to put it together. We haven’t put it together. Tomorrow is a new day," Diaz said.
"Everyone here is fighting for each other," Lindor said. "Everyone feels like we’re preparing the right way. Hopefully baseball turns on our side and once we grab the momentum hopefully we can maintain it."
"We still got an opportunity. You still gotta believe, right? But you got to get going," added Mendoza.
The Mets blew a 2-0 lead in the final two innings and lost 3-2 to the Texas Rangers on Saturday at Citi Field, extending their losing streak to eight straight games.
Here are the takeaways...
-- The Mets let a 2-0 lead after seven innings get away, as the Rangers rallied for two runs in the eighth, started by a catcher’s interference call, and then scored the go-ahead run in the ninth.
Edwin Diaz, called upon with two outs in the eighth, gave up a game-tying double and then came back in the ninth to give up the lead.
The Rangers’ ninth-inning rally started with a line drive off Francisco Lindor’s glove. It was ruled a hit but looked like a ball Lindor should have caught. After a sacrifice bunt, Diaz gave up a two-out line drive single into right-center by Wyatt Langford to put Texas ahead.
-- Brandon Sproat was outstanding in his second major league start, throwing six shutout innings, attacking with such efficiency that he threw only 70 pitches.
He surely could have gone another inning but Carlos Mendoza was likely influenced by some hard contact Sproat gave up in the sixth inning, and went to his bullpen for Brooks Raley in the seventh.
Sproat pitched with great command, staying mostly on the corners with all of his pitches. He consistently got in on the hands of Rangers’ right-handed hitters with his running two-seamer, and kept hitters off balance with his sweeper and changeup as well.
He allowed no walks while striking out three against this team of mostly contact hitters. In two starts Sproat has a 2.25 ERA.
-- Lindor almost single-handedly manufactured a run to get the Mets on the board in the fifth inning. A good throw from Patrick Corbin might have nailed Lindor, but the throw was wild, allowing the run to score.
The shortstop led off by dropping a perfect bunt single down the third base line, then made a great read on Pete Alonso’s bloop single — daring as it was — that fell just out of 2B Cody Freeeman’s reach, going to third base on the play. And when the throw caromed off 3B Josh Jung, Lindor gambled again and took off, even though Corbin was backing up the play.
-- Soto’s solo home run in the seventh inning was a bomb into the upper deck in right field, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. In addition, he became only the third hitter in major league history, along with Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell, to hit 40 or more HRs, have 30 or more SBs and 100 or more walks.
With the long ball Soto became the first Met to ever record a 40/30 season, with 40 HRs and 30 stolen bases.
-- The Rangers rallied for two runs in the eighth inning to tie the game. With Tyler Rogers pitching, the rally started when Francisco Alvarez was called for catcher’s interference on a Josh Smith swing, and Langford followed with a double into the left-field corner, putting runners at second and third.
After a sacrifice fly made it 2-1, and then a strikeout, Mendoza went to Diaz for a potential four-out save. But Diaz walkedJung and gave up a double to the right field corner by Rowdy Tellez on a hanging slider, scoring Langford to tie the game 2-2.
-- The Mets knocked Corbin out in the fifth inning, but in scoring just one run against him they really missed an opportunity against a journeyman starter who has been especially vulnerable on the road this season. The Mets had him on the ropes early, but after loading the bases with two outs, Starling Marte took strike three on the inside corner to end the inning.
The left-hander has been mediocre for years: He hasn’t posted an ERA-plus number anywhere near league average since 2019. This season he’s been a serviceable back-end starter for Texas overall, going 7-9 with a 4.36 ERA, but in 14 road starts coming into Saturday he had a 5.63 ERA with a 1.472 WHIP.
-- Brett Baty made his second baserunning blunder this week, getting picked off second base with no outs in the sixth inning, short-circuiting a potential rally when the Mets were leading 1-0.
Baty was picked off first base in the late innings earlier this week in a close game in Philadelphia, with Soto at the plate.
For some reason, Baty didn’t slide going back into second on Saturday. It looked like he may have been safe with a slide.
Game MVP: Brandon Sproat
Even in a losing cause, Sproat’s six shutout innings in his second major league start was a huge lift for the Mets, coming off Jonah Tong’s disastrous start on Friday night.
If nothing else, it offered hope for the future for the Mets.
Highlights
Jeff McNeil steps on the bag and makes the throw for two!
The Yankees beat the Red Sox on Saturday night, 5-3, at Fenway Park.
Here are the takeaways...
-Saturday belonged to Jazz Chisholm Jr. who finished with three hits, including a home run, three RBI and a run scored.
Chisholm's first RBI came in the opening inning after Cody Bellinger drove in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly following a HBP to Trent Grisham to lead off the game, a ground-rule double by Ben Rice, and a walk to Aaron Judge. Chisholm made it 2-0 with a soft single up the third base line fielded by Brayan Bello who had no shot at throwing out the speedster.
Despite loading the bases again with another walk, the Yankees did not score again in the inning.
Chisholm came through again in the third inning. After another walk to Judge and a single by Bellinger, Chisholm grounded one through the gaping hole on the left side of the infield to drive in his second run of the day.
He waited until the fifth for his hardest and farthest hit ball of the game, smacking a no doubter to right center field for his 29th home run of the year. Chisholm is now one homer away from joining the prestigious 30/30 club.
-On the mound, Max Fried took the ball and pitched well enough to record the win, although the lefty labored through 5.1 innings. He allowed two runs on nine hits and two walks, regularly dealing with traffic on the basepaths. Fried's only 1-2-3 inning came in the third.
The first run Fried allowed came in the fifth by way of Alex Bregman's solo shot. Three straight one-out singles produced a run in the sixth to cut New York's lead to 4-2 and knocked Fried out of the game. He struck out six and threw 105 pitches (73 strikes).
-The Yankees' bullpen following Fried pitched well with Luke Weaver ending the threat in the sixth before Devin Williams pitched a scoreless seventh. The struggling Fernando Cruz let Boston get closer in the eighth after surrendering a solo bomb to Jarren Duran that cut the Yanks' lead to one. Cruz struck out the next two batters he faced.
-New York added an insurance run in the ninth against former Yankee Aroldis Chapman, manufactured with two outs. Judge hit his second single of the night and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Bellinger doubled him home. Judge, Bellinger and Chisholm, 3-4-5 in the lineup, combined for seven hits, five RBI and three runs scored.
-David Bednar got the save with an easy, seven-pitch ninth inning.
Game MVP: Jazz Chisholm Jr.
It was Jazz Chisholm Day at Fenway Park with the second baseman going 3-for-5 with a home run, double, three RBI and run scored.
SAN FRANCISCO — After an incredible double play to end the top of the second inning and escape a no-out bases-loaded jam, a hyped up Logan Webb belted three words that could be heard loud and clear even just reading his lips through a TV screen.
The Giants ace couldn’t answer any of the media’s questions without blaming himself for the loss and acknowledging he must be better.
Webb gave up 10 hits and six runs (six earned) while striking out five and walking two through 4.0 innings before being pulled after facing his second bases-loaded jam. He also gave up one solo home run to Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Webb called his performance “unacceptable.”
“Not great,” Webb said of his outing. “I really let the team down today, but yeah. Just bad overall.”
But “great” is exactly how the Giants were feeling early in the game, when the offense got off to a strong start and scored four runs on Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw.
While San Francisco’s offense has let Webb down on multiple occasions this season, it did its part early to lay out the red carpet for a vintage Webb gem.
This time, however, Webb was the one unable to hold up his end of the bargain.
“The feeling was good,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said postgame of the team’s start. “We kind of had our way with us and got him on the run early. Scored four after giving up a run in the first. You feel pretty good about our chances, especially with Webby on the mound.
“But he just didn’t have his great stuff today. Some ground balls found some holes and then they hit some balls harder in the gaps, and next thing you know, he’s out of there after four innings. It went from a pretty good feeling to, I mean, they had 17 hits tonight, so it was tough holding them down.”
Webb had his moments, though, that seemed to have the making of a momentum push. He struck out Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy in back-to-back at-bats, and was just one out away from limiting the damage after previously giving up the homer to Ohtani to begin the inning. But Teoscar Hernandez’s RBI double brought Los Angeles within one.
By that time, Webb already had given up three runs and eight hits.
He returned in the fourth inning and escaped with no damage done, but then got himself back in a bases-loaded jam to begin the fifth before his day was done.
“Once he struck out Muncy and Freeman, we felt pretty good about where he was going from there,” Melvin said. “And then gave up the double in right center field and it just got away from him a little bit. You want to be patient with him because you want him to be able to figure it out and keep us in the game. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen today.”
Webb admitted he was overthinking a little and “trying to be cute” with his stuff, again confessing he has to be better the next time he takes the mound. And he, nor Melvin, denied the elephant in the room.
The Giants had an opportunity to move into a playoff spot with a win on Saturday after the New York Mets’ collapse continued with an eighth straight loss earlier Saturday afternoon. The Mets’ game was wrapping up just as the Giants took the field to warm up about three hours before their matchup with the Dodgers. But they were keeping tabs, and once the Mets lost, they knew what was at stake.
“Everybody knew what was going on today,” Melvin said. “We had our hitters meeting today. The game was just finishing up. Everyone knows. But we’re trying to stay pretty simple and just keep riding this momentum that we have and let’s go out and play our best game today and move on to the next day.”
Webb, too, acknowledged San Francisco’s missed opportunity.
“Obviously, it’s hard to hide from it,” Webb said. “Everyone knows what’s going on. I know about it, but I got to be better. … With that team losing, it was kind of in our hands, and I did a bad job today.
“We just got to try and go out tomorrow and, for me personally, just cheering on guys as much as I can to try and help us win a series.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants had an opportunity to move into a playoff spot with a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. For nearly the first half of the game, it looked like their postseason hopes were becoming a reality.
But things change fast in the game of baseball, and despite a commendable comeback effort, the Giants couldn’t overcome their fifth-inning collapse as they fell to Los Angeles 13-7 in the second matchup of a three-game set at Oracle Park.
While Kershaw struggled, Giants ace Logan Webb’s outing wasn’t much better. Just one day after witnessing a 1-of-1 pitching duel between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Justin Verlander on Friday night, the series was met with quite the opposite less than 24 hours later.
Webb’s final line: 4.0 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
Kershaw’s final line: 3.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
The Dodgers scored six runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a commanding 9-4 lead. The energy at Oracle Park had completely shifted. The deafening “Beat LA” chants turned into “Let’s go Dodgers!” roars.
But not for long.
Jerar Encarnacion’s RBI double scored Matt Chapman in the bottom of the fifth. Then Dodgers pitcher Kirby Yates walked Luis Matos. Next to bat was the man who hasn’t seemed to face a moment too big for him, Patrick Bailey, who had the walk-off grand slam in Friday’s exhilarating win.
Bailey extended his hit streak to five games and drove in two more runs to shrink the Dodgers’ lead from five to two runs.
But Los Angeles’ offense stayed aggressive, while San Francisco’s gave out.
Here are the takeaways from the loss.
Webb Struggles
No one wants to win as badly as Logan Webb. No one wants to beat the Dodgers as badly as Logan Webb.
The Giants ace, however, didn’t necessarily live up to his expectations on Saturday.
Through 4.0 innings, Webb gave up 10 hits and six runs (six earned) while striking out five and walking two. He also gave up one solo homer to Shohei Ohtani.
While his outing likely didn’t go as he had hoped, he salvaged what could have been a disaster for San Francisco in the top of the second inning. With bases loaded and no outs, Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas popped out to second for Los Angeles’ first out.
Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt was next to hit with Ohtani on deck.
The Giants did literally exactly what they needed to do in that moment, as Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt grounded into a double play as Webb and the Giants managed to escape a no-outs, bases-loaded jam.
Webb returned to the mound in the third inning, giving up two runs as the Dodgers crept within one. Webb escaped the fourth inning with no damage done, but after he walked two Dodgers batters to load the bases for the second time Saturday, Giants manager Bob Melvin pulled him.
While San Francisco hoped that was the remedy, the Giants’ bullpen couldn’t pick up Webb’s slack, either, as Los Angeles scored [NINE] more runs after Webb’s exit.
Kershaw Crumbles
One of the greatest pitchers of this era and a future Baseball Hall of Famer, Kershaw has given the Giants (and many other teams) plenty of issues for nearly two decades.
But Fathertime appeared to have gotten the best of the 37-year-old on Saturday, and the Giants took advantage.
San Francisco scored four runs in the first inning.
In 61 appearances against the Giants in his career, Kershaw has a 27-16 record with a 2.00 ERA and 413 strikeouts.
But he gave up five hits and four runs (four earned) while walking four and striking out two.
While he’s not signaled at retirement, it’s looking more and more like the writing is on the wall for Kershaw after this season. And that’s music to Giants fans’ ears.
The Giants had an opportunity to move into a playoff spot with a win over the Dodgers on Saturday. The New York Mets’ epic collapse continued with an eighth consecutive loss earlier Saturday afternoon against the Texas Rangers.
The Mets now are 76-73 on the season and again a half-game ahead of the Giants (75-73) for the final NL wild-card berth.
The Cincinnati Reds were a game behind the Mets entering their game against the Athletics on Saturday night in West Sacramento. That game had yet to finish at the time of this writing.
The scorching Phillies are on the verge of cementing the 2025 NL East crown.
The Phils won their sixth straight game in comeback fashion Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, earning an 8-6 victory over the Royals.
Their NL East magic number sits at one ahead of Sunday afternoon’s series finale. The Mets remained in a dramatic free fall Saturday, blowing a 2-0 eighth-inning lead to the Rangers and losing an eighth consecutive game.
Taijuan Walker tallied the win for the Phillies. He threw five innings, allowed seven hits and four runs, struck out three and walked one.
Vinnie Pasquantino doubled with two outs. A Maikel Garcia liner zoomed past Bryson Stott’s dive and into left-center field. Salvador Perez lifted a high full-count cutter 398 feet. All told, Walker wound up conceding three runs and five hits in the first.
The Phillies took no time to trim their deficit against Royals righty Ryan Bergert. Brandon Marsh delivered a two-out, two-RBI double to left in the bottom of the first. Over his past seven games, Marsh has eight extra-base hits and eight RBIs.
Perez did it again in the third inning. He ripped an 0-2 Walker splitter for his 300th career homer.
The Phils pulled to within 4-3 in their half of the third. Harrison Bader led off with a single to post a sixth consecutive game with multiple hits. He’s 15 for 29 over that stretch. After Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto walked, Bader sprinted home on J.T. Realmuto’s sacrifice fly.
The Royals brought in lefty reliever Angel Zerpa to begin the fifth inning and Schwarber clubbed his third pitch over the right-field fence. He’s at 51 home runs with 13 games to go.
Bryce Harper then walked, Realmuto reached on an infield single, and Marsh chopped a grounder to second that advanced both runners into scoring position. Nick Castellanos pinch-hit for Max Kepler and came through, hitting a fly ball to center that was easily deep enough to score Harper and put the Phils on top. Otto Kemp — yet another Phillie on a hot streak — followed by nailing an RBI double off of the left-field wall.
Walker gave the Phillies scoreless fourth and fifth innings. Tanner Banks was flawless in the sixth and Schwarber provided an insurance run in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single.
Kansas City got a run back against Matt Strahm in the seventh … and Marsh replied by clobbering a leadoff homer. As a team, the Phils have 42 runs and 64 hits across the last five games.
The Royals stayed in the contest and scored on David Robertson in the eighth, but Jhoan Duran locked down his 14th save in 15 opportunities as a Phillie.
While there’s bigger games on the horizon, the 89-60 Phillies’ performances of late haven’t lacked focus whatsoever.
“We’ve got goals beyond just getting in or winning the division,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said pregame. “So we’ve just got to keep going, keep winning series. Including this one, we’ve got five series left. And that’s the goal, to win every series.”
The scorching Phillies are on the verge of cementing the 2025 NL East crown.
The Phils won their sixth straight game in comeback fashion Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, earning an 8-6 victory over the Royals.
Their NL East magic number sits at one ahead of Sunday afternoon’s series finale. The Mets remained in a dramatic free fall Saturday, blowing a 2-0 eighth-inning lead to the Rangers and losing an eighth consecutive game.
The Phillies would love to clinch at home.
“It’d be fantastic,” Kyle Schwarber said. “Our fans have been great all year, filling up for us. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Wednesday getaway or a Sunday night game, I feel like they’ve just been showing up for us. We feel the energy every single night and we latch onto those things.
“If we can do it at home in front of them, let them celebrate with us, that would be a really cool thing for us.”
Taijuan Walker tallied the win for the Phillies. He threw five innings, allowed seven hits and four runs, struck out three and walked one.
Vinnie Pasquantino doubled with two outs. A Maikel Garcia liner zoomed past Bryson Stott’s dive and into left-center field. Salvador Perez lifted a high full-count cutter 398 feet. All told, Walker wound up conceding three runs and five hits in the first.
“Honestly, I thought I made better pitches today in the first inning,” Walker said. “The cutter up and away, I thought it was a good pitch to Salvy. He just put a good swing on it. I look back at it and some of the pitches were on the black. … I’ve just really got to figure out that first inning because after that, I feel like I get in a good groove and kind of coast the rest of the way.”
The Phillies took no time to trim their deficit against Royals righty Ryan Bergert. Brandon Marsh delivered a two-out, two-RBI double to left in the bottom of the first. Over his past seven games, Marsh has eight extra-base hits and eight RBIs.
Perez did it again in the third inning. He ripped an 0-2 Walker splitter for his 300th career homer.
The Phils pulled to within 4-3 in their half of the third. Harrison Bader led off with a single to post a sixth consecutive game with multiple hits. He’s 15 for 29 over that stretch. After Schwarber and Bryce Harper walked, Bader sprinted home on J.T. Realmuto’s sacrifice fly.
The Royals brought in lefty reliever Angel Zerpa to begin the fifth inning and Schwarber clubbed his third pitch over the right-field fence. He’s at 51 home runs with 13 games to go.
Harper then walked, Realmuto reached on an infield single, and Marsh chopped a grounder to second that advanced both runners into scoring position. Nick Castellanos pinch-hit for Max Kepler and came through, hitting a fly ball to center that was easily deep enough to score Harper and put the Phils on top. Otto Kemp — yet another Phillie on a hot streak — followed by nailing an RBI double off of the left-field wall.
Walker gave the Phillies scoreless fourth and fifth innings. Tanner Banks was flawless in the sixth and Schwarber provided an insurance run in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single.
Kansas City got a run back against Matt Strahm in the seventh … and Marsh replied by clobbering a leadoff homer. As a team, the Phils have 42 runs and 64 hits across the last five games.
The Royals stayed in the contest and scored on David Robertson in the eighth, but Jhoan Duran locked down his 14th save in 15 opportunities as a Phillie.
While there’s bigger games on the horizon, the 89-60 Phillies’ performances of late haven’t lacked focus whatsoever.
“We’ve got goals beyond just getting in or winning the division,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said pregame. “So we’ve just got to keep going, keep winning series. Including this one, we’ve got five series left. And that’s the goal, to win every series.”
What Willie Randolph remembers most were the sleepless nights. Out of nowhere, it seemed, the division lead was slipping away from his 2007 Mets over the final few weeks of the season, somewhat like the Wild Card lead is for Carlos Mendoza and the current ballclub.
“There were nights when I just couldn’t get to sleep,” Randolph told SNY Saturday at the Mets’ Alumni Classic. “You toss and turn, and you go over so many scenarios, trying to think of anything you can do to get everything going in the right direction.
“I think this year’s team still has time to get it going again, but I feel for Mendy, because I remember it can get to the point where you feel almost helpless. You put guys in the best possible position to succeed every day, and then guys have to go out and perform. Whatever you’re going through, I remember always being sure today was the day we were going to turn it around. Right until the last day.”
For those '07 Mets, of course, it came down to the last day, when a loss to the then-Florida Marlins knocked them out of the postseason, famously blowing a seven-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies over the last 17 games of the season.
It remains to be seen how it ends for the ’25 Mets, but their current plight became something of an impromptu theme of Saturday’s alumni proceedings, with Randolph on hand and several players from that ’07 team as well.
“It’s hard to forget about what happened the day before when you’re going through it,” Jose Reyes said. “You can get caught up in feeling everything is going against you, and you really have to work at clearing your mind every day and giving yourself the best chance to win. It all happened so fast that it was almost a blur.”
Carlos Beltran said Saturday that he still can't "pinpoint what exactly happened" that fall 18 years ago.
"We were scuffling. We were not getting the job done offensively, defensively," he said. "There were days where we felt like we had opportunities, but the mentality as a team, even though we all wanted to come out of that situation, it was hard for us."
That team, remember, was sailing along until mid-September, looking as if it would repeat its 2006 NL East title, when it went 5-12 over its final 17 games to lose the lead.
This year, it has been more of a long spiral, as these Mets have played 17 games under .500 since June 13, when they entered the day with the best record in the majors (45-24), and are only four games over .500 and 0.5 game up for the final postseason spot entering Saturday.
Yet their seven-game losing streak going into Saturday’s game has created a similar feel to that fateful September ’07. Players who went through it were asked if they could give any advice to the current team.
“Going back to that time, I would say, ‘just go for it,’” Beltran said. “Be aggressive, be who you are. Don’t be timid. You’re still where a lot of teams want to be, fighting for a playoff spot. So just go out there and play hard baseball.
“If it’s meant to be, great. If it’s not meant to be, at least you go down giving it your best.”
Beltran added, "You wish you could have it back, but now thinking about this team and what they're going through, I hope that they just forget about the past and focus on these games left."
Added Carlos Delgado: “Don’t look back at what happened yesterday. Every day is a new day.”
Randolph said he still believes the ’25 Mets will start winning again and hang onto a Wild Card spot.
“They’ve got some great players, and that’s what you want in a situation like this: Great players will rise to the occasion for you," he said. “On the other hand, some things are out of your control. I remember we had some key injuries in ’07, especially to our pitching, and that made things tough. But I never really doubted that we’d pull out of it and win the division.
“That’s just the way you’re wired, as a player or a manager. In baseball, you play every day and you know how fast it can turn in either direction. I’m sure Mendy feels the same way. I’m sure he’s thinking today’s the day, today’s the day.
“When it finally ended for us that last day, it was almost like nobody could believe it. I know I couldn’t.”
