Category: Baseball

Eighteen pitchers in Mets history have concluded their first 10 major league starts with a sub-3.00 ERA.

There have been rocket ships such as Tom Seaver (2.64), Nolan Ryan (2.80) and Matt Harvey (2.73).

There is at least the making of a promising arm in Nolan McLean (2.16).

There have been footnotes such as Masato Yoshii (2.25) and Charlie Puleo (2.94).

And now there is a curiosity who might be turning into something more because through his first 10 major league starts, Zac Thornton’s ERA is 2.88.

With the 2026 season unofficially over, the 2027 rotation is looking a bit more promising every time the lefty is given the ball.

Tuesday that meant Thornton holding down the Brewers — who entered as the fourth-highest-scoring offense in the sport — for six innings in which he allowed just one run during a 3-2 victory at Citi Field.

“I thought I did a fine job just kind of changing speeds on them, basically one through nine, kind of used all the pitches,” said the left-hander, who mixed in seven distinct pitches, six of which induced a swing-and-miss.

He did not issue a walk and threw 62 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

A pitcher known for guile had a bit more gas, maxing out at 95.4 mph and later acknowledging with a smile, “I’m definitely seeing those 95s up there.”

He would love to maintain that velocity, but it’s possible he was a bit fresher pitching on six days’ rest.

Whether he has the extra tick or not, he continues to impress for a club that might be beginning to pencil him in to the 2027 rotation.

“I think he is who we thought he was: a fearless competitor who doesn’t care who gets in the batter’s box,” said interim manager Andy Green, “who might give up a home run on the first pitch of the game, and the rest of the game, he’s going to do what he does.”

Thornton only allowed one fourth-inning run — which probably deserves an asterisk, William Contreras awarded a double when a soft ground ball took a strange turn away from Bo Bichette — and otherwise, the Brewers did not have an answer for Thornton’s kitchen sink.

Virtually no one has since Thornton debuted with a four-run, 4 ¹/₃ inning clunker in Washington, which is the last time he has allowed four earned runs in a game.

Luis Robert Jr. drilled his sixth home run in his past 14 games, red-hot during a span in which his OPS has risen from .606 to .737.

Carson Benge tallied three more hits and an intentional walk, slashing .303/.363/.466 since May 1.

How Green will handle the playing time of his catchers the rest of the season will bear watching.

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For a second straight game, Francisco Alvarez sat in favor of Luis Torrens, this time against Brewers lefty Kyle Harrison.

Sometimes against opposing righties Green has played both, but against the southpaw it was Eric Wagaman who served as designated hitter rather than Alvarez.

Alvarez has been the typically unquestioned starter when healthy since 2023, while Torrens has been among the game’s best backups since arriving in the 2024 trade.

Before going 1-for-4, Torrens — who is the superior defender — entered hitting .393 with six home runs and 13 RBIs over his past 10 games. Alvarez is in a 2-for-33 slide.

“I think we’re still going to see Alvy out there very consistently,” Green said. “I think both of those guys are continuing to see the field quite a bit as we wrap up this season.

“Alvy obviously has gone through a stretch where he hasn’t swung the bat the way he has traditionally, but he’s really received well.”

Green defended Alvarez’s “under the hood” defense, in which Statcast has believed him to be a roughly average framer, slightly above average at throwing out runners and poor at blocking.

The usually lighter-hitting Torrens excels at each defensive category.

“I still believe immensely in Alvy’s upside,” Green said of the 24-year-old, who has had nice seasons but not yet the breakthrough that reminds of his former No. 1-prospect-in-baseball pedigree. “He’s still going to get a lot of at-bats.”

Green said he had no real update on Juan Soto, who has been sidelined for over a month (since July 24) with a left calf strain, or Devin Williams, out since Aug. 7 with a right shoulder strain.

Green said the club still believes both will return this season.

Mark Vientos is “not particularly close” to being an option for the Mets, Green said.

Vientos has gone 0-for-8 with a walk in three games with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse so far in his first action since fracturing his hand on July 9.

“We’ll let kind of his play, how he feels and kind of the progression in general be determined by what happens on the field a little bit,” Green said. “When you hurt your hand, you need to get some at-bats and get going.”

PHOENIX — Their star second baseman hasn’t shown his face in the Arizona Diamondbacks' clubhouse since he went AWOL a week ago, and has yet to publicly apologize to a single teammate.

Their manager has been privately mocked and scorned inside and outside the organization for his public response to Ketel Marte's disappearing act.

Their starting rotation is a patchwork job with only one current starter who has been on their opening-day roster this entire season.

Their closer was released.

And yet, here are the Diamondbacks, staying alive in the National League wild-card race, showing uncanny resiliency with their MLB-leading 40^th comeback victory of the season, winning 5-4 over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, Aug. 25, capped by rookie Ryan Waldschmidt’s pinch-hit, walk-off homer with two outs in the ninth inning.

The Mariners brought a dumper to a duel.

George Kirby outpitched Aaron Nola on Tuesday in the Mariners electric 4-1 win over the Phillies. Kirby struck out nine over 7 2/3 innings and turned in his best outing of the year. Cal Raleigh smacked another homer, giving him four on the series. And the rest of the lineup scratched and clawed a few more runs late to give the Mariners an impressive, all around, and fun win. That’s back-to-back series victories over the top two Wild Card teams in the National League.

It’s been a weird season for Kirby, something I feel I’ve written a dozen times in the last five months. He’s walked a lot of batters (relative to himself) and struck out very few (relative to everyone). He survived the early part of the season by keeping the ball on the ground, but that’s no longer the case and he’s since been getting crushed. He’s often seemed to nibble at the edges of the zone, unable to get chase out of it, and unable to get whiffs in it. He gave up 11 runs in his last two starts, making early exits in both.

But Kirby on Tuesday looked like the near-ace level pitcher of the past. He attacked the zone relentlessly with his four-seamer, ripping upper-90s fastballs with his best velocity of the season (97.9 mph). When he did expand the zone with the slow and bendy stuff, he got chase 49% of the time. Kirby generated 21 whiffs on Tuesday — the second most in a game for his career. He was aggressive, sharp, and borderline unhittable.

It was obvious right from the jump that something was special for Kirby. He led off the game throwing three pretty much middle-middle fastballs to Kyle Schwarber, each greater than 98 mph, and Schwarber swung through them all. “I knew I had it today,” Kirby said of the four-seamer after the game. He then got ahead of Trea Turner with a few more fastballs registering 99 mph, before finishing him off with devastating sweeper away.

One of my favorite Kirby’s nine strikeouts came in the third. He painted a fastball low and away to Bryson Stott for a called strike, then threw a sweeper that made Stott swing at his shoes. Kirby ramped up and blew 99 mph past him on a pitch way up and out of the zone. It’s the sort of pinpoint power pitching that Kirby was once known for.

The Phillies did get to Kirby once in the second. A ground ball single, a bloop single, and a line drive single made it 1-0. It was a pretty weak run. Kirby followed it up by retiring 15 consecutive batters from the fourth inning until the eighth inning, when Bryce Harper picked up a two-out single that knocked Kirby out of the game. José Ferrer made quick work of Luis Arraez to escape the inning unscathed and preserve the Mariners 4-1 lead.

Four runs didn’t seem likely for the Mariners early. They couldn’t touch Aaron Nola for most of this one. I gotta admit: I love watching Nola pitch. I’m a huge fan of the Phillies Ace Factory of the last 15 years, from Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels, to Nola and Zack Wheeler, to the more contemporary choices of Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez (one might even give Ranger Suarez a nod for his performance last year).

Nola is a fun variation on the ace formula, an early adopter of “pitching backwards” approach — he throws his curveball as a primary pitch, and then has a trio of fastballs (plus a changeup) to attack each quadrant with precision. He’s the rare righty who’s never averaged better than 93 mph on his four-seamer but posts tip-top strikeout numbers regardless. There’s no such thing as a Hall of Fame pitcher these days, but Nola is right there as an inner-circle, Hall of Very Good pitcher, and I’ll be sad when he hangs it up.

Now, it’s fair to say Nola is a bit past his prime. He entered the day with a 5.12 ERA and 4.92 FIP over 26 starts. He’s still proven capable of missing bats, but he’s had a pesky walk issue and a peskier home run issue that seems to be getting worse with age. He’d given up 31 homers this year when he took the mound Tuesday, the most in the majors.

And he gave up homer number 32 in the second inning when Cal Raleigh stepped to the plate for the time. It was Cal’s fourth home run of the series after he clobbered three — yes, three —in Monday’s series opener. It seems, after five months of misery, Cal is finally breaking out. His teammates greeted him the dugout with borderline disbelief. 

But Nola was otherwise dominant. He got some nice chase and whiff on that biting curveball. He dotted up the Mariners for 20 called strikes, including 15 on the fastball and sinker. It’s not often a team watches that many fastballs for strikes, but snarky “Mariners” grumblings aside, he was getting tons of arm-side run Tuesday that froze batters on the black. He even broke out the cutter, which he uses like a slider, on the third time through the order. I mean, look at this at bat against J.P. Crawford, who was playing in first game after a month-long trip on the IL. (If you want to see what that called strike three look like, it’s the third clip in this pretty filthy highlight package wrapping up Nola’s day).

The Mariners did finally scratch another run across in Nola’s sixth and final inning. Julio hit one of his classic slow choppers to the left of second base and beat the throw to first. He got himself into scoring position with a steal of second. And then he came around to score when Josh Naylor hit a rope back up the middle. Julio has been in a bit of a slump the last few weeks, but his speed hasn’t, and sometimes that’s all he needs to create a run.

It was the pressure the Mariners put on Nola in the sixth that finally chased him from the game. Orion Kerkering got the ball for the Phillies in the seventh. He got a quick groundout, then loaded the bases by plunking Taylor Ward, giving up a seeing-eye single to Crawford, and walking Brock Rodden The moment felt right for a Randy Arozarena grand slam, but he swung way out of the zone and popped out.

That compelled Don Mattingly to bring in Brooks Raley , apparently unaware of the Mariners longstanding history of winning games against Brooks Raley. He tried catch Dom Canzone on the low-and-away quadrant with a sweeper, and Canzone stayed right on it, slapping a hard liner the other way for a clutch two RBI single to extend the Mariners lead to 4-1.

Canzone said he was going over the game plan as the inning unfolded, knowing Raley was warming up in the bullpen to face him.

“When he’s warming up, probably about four or five batters deep, just trying to develop a plan with Seitzer, especially with runners on,” Canzone said. “I had an idea he was probably going to try to spin me to death, as they’ve been trying to do all series. So just trusting in that process and just trying to stay behind it. Just trying to stay through the middle of the field, keep it simple as possible.”

The hit gave Andrés Muñoz a bit of cushion for the ninth. It wasn’t the coziest inning, with a pair of walks to put the tying run at the plate. But after pumping a pair of triple-digit heaters, Muñoz spun a brilliant slider low and away that Bryan De La Cruz couldn’t touch for strike three. The Mariners won 4-1, taking the series from the Phillies.

The Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Angels faced off in game two of a three game series. Cleveland had the Big Rig Gavin Williams on the mound and were expecting a typical, incredible performance from the ace.

Things did not turn out as expected. Every starting pitcher, especially this late in the season, are liable for a stinker. Gavin Williams chose to cash in his one free stinker coupon for tonight’s game. He didn’t even make it out of the second inning. Gavin gave up five runs on six hits and a walk and threw 62 pitches in the process. It made for a bullpen game, and the bullpen showed up.

Matt Festa finished the second and pitched the third, only walking a batter. Craig Yoho gave up a hit but kept the fourth scoreless. Logan Allen threw three innings, gave up a solo home run, and struck out two. Colin Holderman came on in the eighth. He kept it scoreless in his inning of work, with Angel Martínez robbing Mike Trout of a two-run home run to retire the side.

I’m sure plenty of fans turned off the game, expecting the worst, when it was 5-0 going into the fourth. At that point in the game, the Guardians had already left four runners in scoring position and blew two bases loaded situations. It was looking like what many fans have come to view as the norm for this team’s offense.

In the fourth inning, catcher Patrick Bailey drew a lead off walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. With two outs, Steven Kwan singled to third to put runners on the corners. Travis Bazzana slapped the first pitch, a four-seamer, to center for an RBI double.

José Ramírez followed up with a double of his own to score two and bring the Guardians within two.

The fourth inning marked the start of the Guards mounting a comeback and a back and forth battle with the Angels. In the bottom of the fifth, three singles gave the Guards one more run with two outs thanks to a Brayan Rocchio RBI single. Steven Kwan singled on a ground to right scoring Petey Halpin to tie the game.

The Angles came back, but Cleveland had an answer in the top of the eighth. Steven Kwan lead off the inning with a single to center. José hit a one-out RBI double to left to tie the game at six runs each. Erik Sabrowski came on in the ninth to try and push the game into extras. He looked about as sharp as he has this season, with three strikeouts to retire the side and give the offense a chance to take the lead.

In the top of the tenth, Steven Kwan singled to right, moving the ghost runner (Brayan Rocchio) to third. With one out, José hit his third double of the night, scoring both Rocchio and Kwan to give the Guardians the lead for the first time this game.

Cade Smith came on in the tenth, looking for this 35th save of the year. Smith hit the first batter and a sac bunt put the tying run in scoring position. That didn’t matter for Cade. He struck out the next two batters, extending the win streak to six games.

This game felt like a pivotal moment for this team. At any other point in the season, this would have been a wash and a loss. The offense rallied together to pick up their starting pitcher and still pull off a win. Steven Kwan went 5-for-5 with a walk, three runs, and an RBI. José Ramírez went 3-for-6 with three doubles and five RBIs. He also stole his 30th base on the season in tonight’s game.

Cleveland will finish off this series tomorrow with a 4:07 PM EDT start with Joey Cantillo on the mound. With tonight’s win, the Guardians are sitting back above .500 and in second place in the AL Central.

Mark Grace perhaps said it best in the postgame show when he said, “Im not sure we have seen a more unlikely Dbacks win the season”

The almost Dback Clay Holmes shut this Dbacks offense down for 7 innings. The Dbacks had a deal in place for Holmes per multiple reports but the deal fell through at the last minute due to medicals. The fact that he was almost a Dback made the first 7 innings of this game sting all that much more, especially given the current status of this rotation.

Brandon Pfaadt was pretty good today pitching into the 7^th inning tonight and allowing 4 runs while keeping his team within striking distance. The Cubs have the 2^nd best offense in the league and Pfaadt did a decent enough job of keeping them in check. His first 3 innings were pretty easy getting lots of soft contact, however he gave up a 3 run HR in the 4^th inning on a hanging curveball to Ian Happ. Most importantly however, like I mentioned earlier, he was able to settle back in after the home run and give his team 6.2 innings against a red hot offense.

The Dbacks offense finally woke up in the 8^th inning as they were able to finally get on the board with 3 runs due to some linked up at bats with a couple of walks and a huge double from the red hot Gabi Moreno and a single from Geraldo Perdomo. When this offense has been clicking this season, it seems as though it is starting with the bottom of the order getting on base for the top of the order.

The story of the game however was Ryan Waldsschmidt who for the second time this season hit a walkoff home run off of a contending team’s closer. This time it came as a pinch hitter with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9^th with Jose Fernandez pinch running at first base for Tim Tawa. The Dbacks were inches away from losing this game as Jose Fernandez was narrowly able to steal 2^nd base and get into scoring position down 4-3. Then Waldschmidt got a hanging slider and did not miss it! What an electric moment and perhaps the biggest swing of the season thus far considering that the Dbacks were able to gain a game on both the Padres and the Phillies tonight on 1 single swing. What a great moment for this team!

The Dbacks will look to win the series tomorrow night and in the postgame interview Torey Lovullo insisted that Jordan Lawlar will be in the lineup tomorrow which is tremendous news for this team and for a guy that has had such unfortunate injury luck in his early career. So all is right in the desert tonight and what a tremendous boost for this team as the Dbacks will go into tomorrow 1 game out of a wild card spot!

As the race for the National League Rookie of the Year heats up, Carson Benge continues to make his case, and he did so again on Tuesday.

Going up against the MLB-best Brewers, the Mets outfielder went 3-for-4 with a walk in the team's 3-2 win. But it's that walk that's particularly interesting.

With the ghost runner on second with one out in a tied game in the 10th, the Brewers elected to intentionally walk Benge. Of course, the outfielder had three hits already in the game, but the Brewers felt it was necessary to walk the rookie in this key situation. As interim manager Andy Green sees it, the move was a sign of respect.

"I wish they pitched to Carson," Green said after the win. "When you’re sitting on the top step of the dugout wishing they’d pitch to your guy, it’s pretty shrewd they don’t pitch to your guy. Fairly straightforward there, just a really good contact hitter with a runner on second and a base open in the 10th. I get what they were thinking on that side.

"It’s a little bit of a declaration to the league that this guy is a really good hitter."

And Benge has shown that, especially of late. 

Tuesday was Benge's 11th game this season with at least three hits, which is the most by a rookie in Mets history and tied for the ninth-most in the majors this season, per Elias. 

He's hit safely in each of his last five games and has recorded multiple hits in four of them. His 134 hits this season are tied for the seventh-most in franchise history with Lee Mazzilli. 

And while the Reds' Sal Stewart may have an edge in the offensive department and the Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt on defense, Green sees Benge as having the best of both worlds.

Before the game, the Mets skipper was asked whether Benge has a legit case to be named NL Rookie of the Year, and he said he does for that reason.

"Well-rounded players that impact the game are what every manager wants, and you want that every single time and Carson has been that," Green explained. "When you look at where he’s come from the start of the year to where he is now, it’s fun to see him take steps forward."

In August, Benge is batting .359, the fifth-best in the majors this month, with a 1.015 OPS.

Since May 1, he is slashing .303/.363/.466 with an .829 OPS. In the majors over that span, he ranks fifth in hits and seventh in average among qualifiers.

The offense continued to sputter to begin the road trip and wasted another encouraging effort from Aaron Nola as the Philadelphia Phillies (73-60) dropped their second straight against the Seattle Mariners (64-69) on Tuesday night.

Mariners’ starter, George Kirby, kept the offense in check most of the night but allowed the first run of the game in the second inning as Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford strung together a trio of one-out singles.

After registering his first three-homer game last night, Cal Raleigh tied the game with a solo shot to begin the bottom of the second for his fourth home run in as many at bats.

Nola conceded the tie in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Josh Naylor following a one-out single and a steal by Julio Rodriguez.

Aside from the two runs on three hits and three walks, Nola looked to still be in command of his stuff entering the seventh inning with 92 pitches. Don Mattingly opted to give way to Orion Kerkering who, after getting a ground out to start the inning, loaded the bases on a hit by pitch, single and a walk. Kerkering induced a pop out by Randy Arozarena for the second out and Mattingly went to Brooks Raley to face the lefty, Dominic Canzone. Raley left a 1-1 sweeper over the plate that Canzone laced to left for a two-RBI single to effectively put the game away.

In Kerkering and Raley’s defense, the offense had no answers for Kirby & Co. Kirby begrudging left the game two outs into the eighth after allowing a hit to Bryce Harper but the minor threat was quickly erased by Jose Ferrer on a Luis Arraez ground out.

Jonathan Bowlan pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth and Alec Bohm and Crawford worked a pair of walks against Mariners’ closer, Andres Munoz, to create a two-out threat in the ninth, but a pinch-hitting-for-Garrett-Stubbs Bryan De La Cruz struck out on four pitches to close it out.

The Phillies will try to stave off the sweep tomorrow afternoon as Jesus Luzardo faces off against Bryan Woo.

Both teams came out swinging tonight, combining for 25 hits and 18 runs, but the White Sox (69-63) beat up on Jacob deGrom and outlasted the Rangers (66-67), 11-7. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous getting through this one, but this was a huge win for the South Siders coming off a blowout loss, and at the very least they will still hold a 2 1/2-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians.

The South Side offense snapped back to life Tuesday and absolutely dominated deGrom, plating six in the bottom of the first after batting around, sending Anthony Kay into the second with plenty of run support. It’s clear that deGrom wasn’t on his A game, but the Good Guys were much more selective and patient at the plate, striking out just twice against the righthander while walking five times. It marked the second time in just a few weeks that the veteran walked five batters in an outing.

Things got out of control fairly quickly for the former Cy Young Award winner. Sam Antonacci led off the game with a double, and deGrom subsequently walked Munetaka Murakami to put two aboard for the hot-hitting Miguel Vargas. The Rangers didn’t record an out until Chase Meidroth popped out to first baseman Jake Burger in foul territory with the bases loaded, but the White Sox had already pushed across two runs. Vargas hit a single to left, while a throwing error by Wyatt Langford allowed Antonacci to score and moved Mune to third. Braden Montgomery followed with a line-drive base hit to left that brought home Murakami and made it 2-0.

Speaking of staying hot, Tristan Peters came through in the clutch yet again, mashing a broken-bat double that put two more runs on the scoreboard and stretched the lead to 4-0. With Peters and Colson Montgomery on second and third, Brenton Doyle kept the hit train rolling, singling up the middle to drive in both runners and make it 6-0.

deGrom walked his final two batters to put two aboard in the bottom of the fourth. Although he induced a ground ball, the Rangers couldn’t complete the double play, prompting Skip Schumaker to turn to the bullpen to stop the bleeding. Immediately after Cole Winn replaced him, Colson and Meidroth mashed back-to-back RBI singles to tack on two more insurance runs, both of which were charged to deGrom. The veteran righthander ended his 3 2/3-inning outing with eight runs allowed on six hits, raising his ERA to 4.21.

Lefthander Anthony Kay looked sharp for most of his outing, allowing only one run through the first four frames: a solo homer by Jake Burger to center. But a switch flipped in the top of the fifth, and Kay surrendered three more runs before Jordan Hicks replaced him with two outs. It was a wild sequence after four innings of solid work: Cody Freeman singled, a wild pitch moved him to second, Danny Jansen blasted a two-run homer, and Kay hit Justin Foscue with a pitch. It was the 25th batter Kay has hit this season, the most among major league pitchers.

Kay recorded two big outs by striking out Corey Seager and Brandon Nimmo, though he walked Langford between the two strikeouts, moving Foscue into scoring position. Ezequiel Duran then ripped an RBI single to left, and that was the last straw for Will Venable, who turned to Hicks to shut Texas down. Kay ultimately allowed four runs on six hits — including two home runs — with two walks and four strikeouts, raising his ERA slightly to 4.09. The move to Hicks worked perfectly, as he struck out Burger to end the inning and prevent any additional runs from being charged to Kay.

The good news for the White Sox was that the offense kept rolling, getting two of those three runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Drew Romo walked to lead off the frame, and Antonacci smashed a triple into the right-field corner as the next batter, scoring Romo all the way from first. Although he still should not be part of the White Sox’s future catching plans, Romo has stepped it up offensively over his last seven games, posting a much more respectable .222/.364/.389 slash line with a .753 OPS. Vargas mashed his second hit of the night to drive in Antonacci for the South Siders’ 10th run, restoring their six-run lead at 10-4.

In the blink of an eye, the Rangers offense made things uncomfortable again. After scoring three runs in consecutive innings, Texas had trimmed the lead to 10-7 and put the game within striking distance. Hicks fell apart in the sixth, allowing a pinch-hit single to Joc Pederson before Jansen doubled him home. Justin Foscue then blasted a two-run homer to turn the game into a full-fledged slugfest.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Good Guys answered back. They didn’t get all three runs back, but Peters provided one with a solo bomb — his fourth home run in as many games. Peters has been on a tear lately, slugging .909 over his last seven games with a double and four homers, good for a 1.309 OPS. The homer was Peters’ third hit of the night, leaving him a triple shy of the cycle.

Peters came up once more in the bottom of the eighth with Meidroth on first after his third hit of the night, but former White Sox pitcher Tyler Alexander didn’t want to give him anything to hit. Alexander issued him a four-pitch walk, allowing Peters to reach base for the fifth time in the game.

Both bullpens surrendered three runs after the starters departed, but lefthanders Bryan Hudson and Hagen Smith were able to pick up Hicks over the next three innings. Hudson came in to put out the fire in the sixth, then worked a 1-2-3 seventh to halt the momentum Texas had built. Smith was set to handle the final two innings, and the lefty was excellent in the eighth despite allowing a double to Justin Foscue for his second hit of the night. The Rangers couldn’t build on it, and Smith struck out Seager to end the inning. Foscue’s double was just the second hit Smith had allowed since being called up to the big leagues, showing how nasty he can be when he commands his pitches.

Unfortunately, Smith couldn’t maintain that command and made things a little too interesting in the top of the ninth. He walked three batters to load the bases with two outs, putting the Rangers one swing away from tying the game at 11-11 — and one swing away from potentially giving me a heart attack. Venable wasn’t taking any chances with Smith’s inconsistency, so he called on Grant Taylor to shut things down and record the final out. Taylor did just that. With two pitches, the righty secured his eighth save of the season and a much-needed win for the South Siders.

As of publication, both the Twins and Guardians are losing, so it would be lovely for the White Sox to gain a full game on both teams. The Sox need to keep their heads down, take it one at-bat at a time and play their game. When they play loose like they did tonight, they can do plenty of damage at the plate. It’s time to take care of business, focus on what they can control and show up tomorrow ready to close out the series with a win.

MVP
Tristan Peters: 3-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2B, HR in fourth-straight game

Runners-Up
Sam Antonacci: 2-for-4, 3 R, RBI, BB, K, 2B, 3B
Chase Meidroth: 3-dor-5, RBI, K
Miguel Vargas: 2-for-4, R, RBI, BB, K
Brenton Doyle: 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 K, SB

Cold Cat
Jordan Hicks: 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 K, HR

Runners-Up
Anthony Kay: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR, WP, HB
Munetaka Murakami: 0-for-4, R, BB, K
Drew Romo: 0-for-4, R, BB, 2 K

Mariners 4, Phillies 1

Good: George Kirby, +.32 WPA
Bad: Randy Arozarena, -.12 WPA

Game Thread Comment(s) of the Day

The Rays had their chance to take control of this one in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and just one out. Jackson Jobe, the Tigers’ starter, was floundering having allowed three hits, a walk and a run in the first five batters. Nonetheless, the Rays were able to muster just the one run as Richie Palacios was unable to put the ball in play, instead striking out looking, and Taylor Walls grounded to first to officially end the threat. Jobe escaped allowing just the one run; the first and only run the Rays would score the entire game.

And that is pretty much the storyline for this one. The pitching was fine. Not great, but certainly serviceable. If nothing else, Legumina and Seymour combining for all eight innings gives Kevin Cash a lot of options for the series finale on Wednesday. The bats were quiet. Four of their five hits came in the first four innings and their last hit came in the eighth. They tallied four singles and a double.

Legumina opened this one and tossed 2.1 solid innings of work allowing just one hit while punching out a pair. Seymour followed and threw the final 5.2 innings. He allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits. He punched out five and walked none.

After the Rays failed to break this one open in the fourth, the Tigers jumped out to a three-run lead in the fifth and never looked back. Torkelson singled to start the inning and later scored on a two-run shot off the bat of rookie Max Clark. The final run scored on a 2-out error.

Then, in the seventh inning the Tigers tacked on another run to make it a 4-1 lead. After allowing a leadoff triple to Javier Baez, Seymour was a pitch away from escaping the threat, but allowed a 2-out RBI-single to Hao-Yu Lee.

Opposite the Rays duo on the mount, the Tigers pieced this one together with five arms after Jobe couldn’t escape the fifth. Jansen earned the save, his 17th of the year.

For those of you scoreboard watching, the Yankees lost a back-and-forth affair with Houston. With the loss, the Rays maintained their 3.5 game advantage in the East. Freddy Peralta will take the mound tomorrow afternoon opposite Troy Melton.

Though his start might be lost in what ultimately was a thrilling 3-2 win against the Brewers on Tuesday night, Zac Thornton continued to show his maturation and ability to pitch in the big leagues, going against the team with the best record in baseball.

The Mets' young left-hander allowed just one run on seven hits while striking out four batters, and was in line for the win before the Brewers scratched across the tying run in the ninth.

But interim manager Andy Green was proud of Thornton's outing that allowed the Mets to match up against the Brewers.

"I know he wants one curveball back…that’s a really good lineup," Green said. "They were set up with a bunch of righties to attack him well. He handled it beautifully. You really can’t look for more than six strong innings from him."

That one curveball was to Luis Lara in the fourth. In a scoreless tie and a runner on second, Thornton dropped an 0-2 curveball to the Brewers youngster, but Lara stayed back and hit a single to left field, scoring the first run of the game. 

Milwaukee is sixth in MLB in hits, so Thornton had his work cut out for him, but the southpaw worked around any troubles.

"Thought I did a fine job of limiting them and changing speeds on them," Thornton said of his outing. "One through nine, used all my pitches."

Thornton said the key to going up against a team like the Brewers is to throw strikes, something he says he excels at -- 69 of his 89 pitches were strikes -- but he also enjoyed seeing his velocity tick up in this one. He credited the extra rest and his weekly routine.

"I'm definitely seeing those 95s up there," Thornton said with a smile. "Felt good today, probably helped that I was on a seven-day this entire week. Just doing my best to get in the weight room between starts and keep my body moving through the year."

Tuesday marked Thornton's 10th start of his career. After allowing just one run in six innings, Thornton's ERA is 2.88. That's the 17th-best mark in franchise history for a pitcher in their first 10 career starts, and the fourth-most by a left-hander. 

He's allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last nine starts.

After his 10th start, Thornton was asked what he's learned in that time and the 24-year-old honed in on one aspect. 

"Every pitch matters," he answered. "Last week, [Fernando Tatis Jr.] took me deep first pitch of the game. Every pitch matters, from pitch one to pitch 90." 

Green was glowing when asked to assess what he's seen from his young left-hander.

"He is who we thought he was. A fearless competitor who doesn’t care who gets in the batter’s box," Green said. "Who might give up a home run on the first pitch of the game and the rest of the game, he’s going to do what he does. You want guys who are unfazed, guys who are unaffected by tough circumstances, and that’s who he’s been."

The Mets’ night looked ruined. 

The one-run lead they entered the ninth with was already gone. And the 13th pitch from the frame’s second reliever, Jefry Yan, looked to be one that was the most unlucky from Tuesday’s game, as the Milwaukee Brewers’ light-hitting infielder David Hamilton appeared to come through with a back-breaking two-out, two-run tie-breaking single. 

"I already saw that ball down,” Mets’ interim manager Andy Green said of the liner that carried a .510 expected batting average, per Statcast. “It's that deflating feeling when you know the ball's about to land.”

But Francisco Lindor, who homered earlier in the game to level the score in the fifth, broke hard to his right and made a diving, backhanded grab just onto the outfield grass to keep the game tied.

“Came out of nowhere. Really, really special," Green added. “That absolutely saved the game for us."

And then in the 10th, it was Lindor scoring the game-winning run as Hamilton’s throwing error from third gave the Mets a 3-2 walk-off win.

While the interim skipper was deflated, of course, Lindor knew he had a chance to make the play as soon as the ball came off the bat.

“Felt like I got a good read on it, and I just felt like it was going to tail away from me, and make a play,” the shortstop said. "I'd much rather do that than hit, to be quite honest. I loved it.”

Lindor called making that play “the best feeling in the world."

“I love playing defense,” he told SNY’s Steve Gelbs on the field after the win. “I love taking hits away and helping my pitchers out."

The reaction from Lindor was emphatic, nearly matching that from the ever-excited Yan, who dropped to his knees and pounded the turf before standing and pounding his chest.

“Everything he has is put on the field to win a baseball game today,” Green said of Lindor. “And if everything you have is on the field and you do something like that it, [the emotion] is just natural to come out of you.

“... You just enjoy those moments. It’s one of the reasons you play the game.”

For some of the great defenders, the cliché is that the first step is in their head and they’re already into the right spot even before they have to make a move. The two-time Gold Glove winner credited bench coach Kai Correa, infield coach Tim Leiper, and the team’s analytics department for positioning him against Hamilton.

“And then after that, it’s just a matter of run as fast as you can, and hopefully my legs get me there,” Lindor said.

And while the shortstop is the first to admit this year hasn’t been one of his best in the field – entering Tuesday’s game with a minus-4 defensive runs saved, minus-3 outs above average and nine errors – he came up with the goods when they needed it most.

"The team has picked me up more times than I've picked them up this year," Lindor said. "To be there for the guys, it meant a lot. I've been wanting to do that."

Green acknowledged the tough season Lindor has gone through, with multiple injuries costing him game time and any hope of establishing rhythm in the field and at the plate, but he's again showing his skill with seven home runs and 16 RBI, while batting .267 with an .887 OPS in his last 26 games.

“It was a really tough season to get on-track for him and get the ball rolling in the right direction,” he said. “Just had so many stops and starts with different injuries, starting in spring training, kinda all the way through the season for a bit.

“But once he got to playing baseball consistently, he’s been great. One of the best players in the game.”