Category: Baseball

Aaron Judge took another step towards history as he got the Yankees’ offense started in the top of the first on Friday night.  

The All-Star slugger crushed a solo shot deep over the Green Monster off of Boston right-hander Lucas Giolito to give him 362 home runs in his career. 

That pushes Judge past Joe DiMaggio for fourth on the Yankees’ all-time home run list. 

He now has 47 homers on the season and three over the last two games. 

Next up, Lou Gehrig. 

AARON JUDGE HOMERS TO OPEN THE SCORING!

With that home run, he passes Joe DiMaggio for the fourth-most home runs in Yankees history 👏 pic.twitter.com/nnAVhmnZq3

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 12, 2025

Prior to the start of Friday's game between the Mets and Texas Rangers, New York showed a tribute video of Jacob deGrom, Friday's starter, in his first start at Citi Field since leaving in free agency following the 2022 season.

The video, about one minute and five seconds long, featured highlights from the right-hander's incredible nine-year career in New York between 2014 and 2022 and ended with the message 'Welcome Back Jacob' before transitioning to deGrom's walk-out song "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd that became iconic in New York.

DeGrom, getting loose on the field, was then displayed on the screen which resulted in a round of applause and the 37-year-old tipping his cap to the crowd.

A four-time All-Star with the Mets, deGrom went 82-57 in New York and pitched to a 2.52 ERA (0.99 WHIP) with 1,835 strikeouts in 1,522.2 IP.

The Mets played a tribute video followed by "Simple Man" for Jacob deGrom's Citi Field return 🫡 pic.twitter.com/ZxuLzfGbpg

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) September 12, 2025

What we learned as Justin Verlander shines in Giants' walk-off win vs. Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — To get back to the postseason, the Giants are going to have to go through the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’re off to a strong and thrilling start. 

On a raucous Friday night at Oracle Park, the Giants won 5-1 when Patrick Bailey hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th. They will face the Dodgers seven times over 10 days, and on night one, at least, the rivals did nothing to stop their momentum. 

PATRICK BAILEY WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM 💥 pic.twitter.com/TztAGJsgzt

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 13, 2025

The end of a tense game was absolutely insane. After tagging on a shallow fly ball and getting thrown out to end the ninth, Grant McCray unleashed a rocket from right field to cut down the potential go-ahead run at third in the top of the 10th.

GRANT MCCRAY STRIKES BACK 🚫 pic.twitter.com/6mRb3inUqD

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 13, 2025

In the bottom of the inning, Bailey came up with the bases loaded and crushed a Tanner Scott pitch into the seats in left.

With the win, the Giants picked up a game on the entire NL Wild Card field. Counting the tiebreaker, they’re just 1 .5 games behind the New York Mets, who dropped a seventh straight game earlier Friday. 

The Giants jumped out to an early lead when Willy Adames smoked a double into the left-center gap, scoring Rafael Devers, who had reached with his 102nd walk of the season. The ball was bobbled at the track by center fielder Andy Pages, but Matt Williams was on it the whole way and aggressively waved Devers, who scored without a throw.

Adames finds a gap to get the scoring started🤩 pic.twitter.com/QIuzz5so2G

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 13, 2025

Justin Verlander entered as one of the game’s hottest starters and extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings before Michael Conforto opened the top of the seventh with a solo shot to dead center. It was the second homer at Oracle Park this season for Conforto, who hit three at home all of last season as a Giant. Here are three more things to know …

Ageless

Verlander gave up three balls at 100+ mph in the top of the seventh, but after Ben Rortvedt hit a double off the left field wall, manager Bob Melvin showed faith. The Giants intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani and Verlander was left in to face Mookie Betts, who flew out softly to right on Verlander’s 105th pitch. 

On a night when Verlander reached 20 years of MLB service time, a truly outrageous number, he looked like he was still in his prime. He allowed just one run on four hits and four walks while striking out four. Verlander’s slider was as good as it’s been all year; he threw it 25 times and got 20 strikes and eight whiffs. 

The latest dominant start lowered Verlander’s ERA to 3.94. This is just the second time it has been under 4.00 all year. It was 3.60 after his first start of the year but ballooned from there.

The Other Side

Before the game, Melvin said he couldn’t imagine a better weekend of pitching matchups. In Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, there are three pitchers who should get down-ballot Cy Young votes. Verlander and Clayton Kershaw — who faces Webb on Saturday — are locks to be first-ballot Hall-of-Famers. Tyler Glasnow, who will face Ray on Sunday, might win a Cy Young one year if he can stay healthy for 33 starts. 

The first game lived up to the hype, with Yamamoto matching Verlander through seven. Six days after losing a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth at Camden Yards, Yamamoto allowed just one hit and struck out 10 Giants. He has 20 strikeouts and just two hits allowed in his last two appearances. 

Costly Save

With two runners in scoring position in the top of the fourth, Andy Pages hit a grounder that looked headed for the hole at short. Matt Chapman cut it off with a dive and made a strong throw to first baseman Dominic Smith, who did the splits while receiving it. The play saved at least one run and ended the inning, but it proved costly. 

Smith went down right away and grabbed at his right leg. He tried to jog it off as the Dodgers challenged the call, but he eventually walked slowly off the field and went right back to the clubhouse with head trainer Dave Groeschner. Wilmer Flores hit for Smith in the bottom of the inning and the Giants later announced it was a right thigh injury. 

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Even though he never managed the right-hander in Queens, Carlos Mendoza understands the significance and impact that Jacob deGrom has in Mets lore.

So, before the former Met returns to the mound at Citi Field for the first time since leaving New York in free agency after the 2022 season, the skipper was asked what deGrom, who made 209 starts in the orange and blue, means to the Mets.

"He represented a lot and meant a lot to this organization," Mendoza said. "You’re talking about a homegrown player and what he was able to do while he was up here -- he was an ace. 

"You felt good about your chances every time he took the baseball. It was a show. This is a guy that people came to the ballpark to watch him pitch. Special."

For most of his nine-year stint in New York, deGrom was the best pitcher in the game. From the moment he made his debut in 2014, a season that ended with him winning Rookie of the Year, the Mets knew they had something special.

Despite his selection in the ninth round out of Stetson University where he played shortstop, it didn't take long for the right-hander to come into his own. After a few great seasons following his rookie campaign, deGrom turned otherworldly and dominated the league unlike any other pitcher of his time.

From 2018 to 2019, deGrom made 64 starts and won the Cy Young award in back-to-back seasons after pitching to a 1.70 ERA in '18 and a 2.43 ERA in '19 and totaling 524 strikeouts in 421 IP. 

Shockingly, his record was 21-17 during that stretch with the Mets consistently unable to give him any run support -- making his numbers even more impressive with how stressful the innings were.

Overall, deGrom went 82-57 in New York and pitched to a 2.52 ERA (0.99 WHIP) with 1,835 strikeouts in 1522.2 IP. He was also a four-time All-Star and  regularly finished in the top 10 for the Cy Young award as well as two top 10 finishes for MVP.

Injuries towards the end of his time with the Mets, including making just 11 regular season starts in 2022, his final season in New York, concerned and precluded the club from offering him the massive deal he was hoping for and eventually got with the Texas Rangers, signaling the end of his career as a Met.

New York was proven right in the short-term with deGrom only making nine starts for Texas in his first two seasons with the Rangers due to injury. 

However, in his age-37 season, deGrom has been healthy all year for the first time since 2019 and continues to dominate like he did for the Mets for so many years with "electric stuff" and his "ability to command the baseball."

"You’re still looking at 98, 99 (mph) with the fastball," Mendoza said.

And with New York struggling mightily and having lost six straight games, it now has to contend with its former ace to try and get back on track and stabilize what has been a worrisome free fall.

"He meant a lot to the fanbase and organization, but here we are today (hoping to) find a way to beat him," Mendoza said. "... It's a tough matchup."

Buehler joins Phillies' fun in winning debut vs. Royals  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Walker Buehler stepped right into the Phillies’ winning ways Friday night. 

The 31-year-old righty made a victorious debut at Citizens Bank Park as the Phils became the first MLB team to rack up 50 home wins this season with an 8-2 decision over the Royals. They’ve lost just 23 times in Philadelphia. 

With their fifth straight win, the 88-60 Phillies surged closer to clinching the NL East. The Mets’ loss to the Rangers dropped the Phils’ magic number to three.

Buehler pitched five good innings, allowing five hits and one run. He walked one Royal and struck out three.

Kansas City did grab a lead in Buehler’s first inning as a Phillie. Bobby Witt Jr. singled up the middle, stole second base with two outs and scored on Maikel Garcia’s RBI knock. 

The Phillies bounced back with a run against Michael Lorenzen in the second inning. Otto Kemp lined a leadoff double and eventually came home on Rafael Marchan’s sacrifice fly. 

Buehler worked around a solid four-seam fastball that averaged 93.8 mph and threw strikes on 26 of his first 35 pitches. Even with that zone-attacking approach, the Royals didn’t hit many balls on the nose vs. Buehler. They had one ball in play with an exit velocity over 100 mph through four innings, which was five fewer than the Phillies.

The Phils went on top by teeing off against Lorenzen to begin the bottom of third. 

Bryce Harper laced an opposite-field two-run homer. Brandon Marsh then drove a high sinker to the same region as Harper’s dinger, raced to third base, slid in safely and pumped his fist in exultant celebration. Kemp singled to left through the Royals’ drawn-in infield.  

The fourth inning was even worse for Lorenzen. Marchan, Harrison Bader and Kyle Schwarber all doubled, the Phils stretched their advantage to 6-1 and Lorenzen exited. The Phillies reached double-digit hits for the fourth game in a row. 

The bullpen comfortably got the job done.

Tanner Banks, Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering and Max Lazar combined to record the last 12 outs. Bryson Stott’s two-run long ball in the seventh inning made the Phils’ route to the finish line even a little less stressful.

Bohm moving through rehab process 

Phillies manager Rob Thomson said pregame that Alec Bohm will “hopefully” be able to return as soon as his 10-day injured list stint ends. The Phils placed Bohm on the IL on Monday with left shoulder inflammation. 

“He’s running,” Thomson said. “He’s going to do some glove work today. Hopefully, tomorrow he’ll start swinging the bat.”

Kemp started his fifth consecutive game at third base without Bohm and went 2 for 4. He’s had an excellent stretch since rejoining the Phillies, going 7 for 20 with two home runs and six RBIs. 

On deck 

The Phils’ Taijuan Walker (4-8, 4.03 ERA) and Kansas City’s Ryan Bergert (2-2, 3.48) will start Saturday night. Aaron Nola (4-8, 6.24 ERA) and Noah Cameron (3.00 ERA) are slated to pitch Sunday afternoon’s series finale.

Once the Royals leave town, the Phillies will embark on their final road trip of 2025, a six-gamer with series against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. 

Buehler joins Phillies' fun in winning debut vs. Royals  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Walker Buehler stepped right into the Phillies’ winning ways Friday night. 

The 31-year-old righty made a victorious debut at Citizens Bank Park as the Phils became the first MLB team to rack up 50 home wins this season with an 8-2 decision over the Royals. They’ve lost just 23 times in Philadelphia. 

With their fifth straight win, the 88-60 Phillies surged closer to clinching the NL East. The Mets’ loss to the Rangers dropped the Phils’ magic number to three.

Buehler pitched five good innings, allowing five hits and one run. He walked one Royal and struck out three.

“He fits right in,” Bryce Harper said. “He fits into that mold of a Philadelphia baseball player. It’s just a lot of fun to be around somebody that’s won in his career, has obviously pitched in big situations, big moments deep into the postseason. Getting a guy like that in our clubhouse is huge for us.”

Kansas City did grab a lead in Buehler’s first inning as a Phillie. Bobby Witt Jr. singled up the middle, stole second base with two outs and scored on Maikel Garcia’s RBI knock. 

The Phillies bounced back with a run against Michael Lorenzen in the second inning. Otto Kemp lined a leadoff double and eventually came home on Rafael Marchan’s sacrifice fly. 

Buehler worked around a solid four-seam fastball that averaged 93.8 mph and threw strikes on 26 of his first 35 pitches. Even with that zone-attacking approach, the Royals didn’t hit many balls on the nose vs. Buehler. They had one ball in play with an exit velocity over 100 mph through four innings, which was five fewer than the Phillies.

“Most of this year and even last year, I struggled a lot with the fastball command,” Buehler said. “I’ve thrown one way my whole life since I was 10 years old and I think the last two years, coming off of (Tommy John surgery) rehab, I just haven’t thrown that way. If I can get my arm to the slot, move the way I want and all this baseball mumbo-jumbo stuff, the feel of everything kind of comes back and makes sense to my hand and my brain.

“There’s room for an uptick, hopefully. To be able to execute and make some pitches is I think a great first step.”

The Phils went on top by teeing off against Lorenzen to begin the bottom of third. 

Harper laced an opposite-field two-run homer. Brandon Marsh then drove a high sinker to the same region as Harper’s dinger, raced to third base, slid in safely and pumped his fist in exultant celebration. Kemp singled to left through the Royals’ drawn-in infield.  

The fourth inning was even worse for Lorenzen. Marchan, Harrison Bader and Kyle Schwarber all doubled, the Phils stretched their advantage to 6-1 and Lorenzen exited. The Phillies reached double-digit hits for the fourth game in a row. 

The bullpen comfortably got the job done.

Tanner Banks, Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering and Max Lazar combined to record the last 12 outs. Bryson Stott’s two-run long ball in the seventh inning made the Phils’ route to the finish line even a little less stressful.

The one late-inning negative for the Phillies was Edmundo Sosa’s exit in the seventh with right groin tightness, which manager Rob Thomson said he’d been dealing with “a little bit” recently.

“He’ll be day-to-day,” Thomson said. “We’ll check him out tomorrow. I just saw him favor it a little bit while he was on defense, so I checked him out. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s a little sore.’ Precautionary for now. We got him out of there.”

Bohm moving through rehab process 

Thomson said pregame that Alec Bohm will “hopefully” be able to return as soon as his 10-day injured list stint ends. The Phils placed Bohm on the IL on Monday with left shoulder inflammation. 

“He’s running,” Thomson said. “He’s going to do some glove work today. Hopefully, tomorrow he’ll start swinging the bat.”

Kemp started his fifth consecutive game at third base without Bohm and went 2 for 4. He’s had an excellent stretch since rejoining the Phillies, going 7 for 20 with two home runs and six RBIs. 

On deck 

The Phils’ Taijuan Walker (4-8, 4.03 ERA) and Kansas City’s Ryan Bergert (2-2, 3.48) will start Saturday night. Aaron Nola (4-8, 6.24 ERA) and Noah Cameron (3.00 ERA) are slated to pitch Sunday afternoon’s series finale.

Once the Royals leave town, the Phillies will embark on their final road trip of 2025, a six-gamer with series against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. 

To Andrew Friedman, something like this was a virtual impossibility.

“If you had said that we would have a six-week stretch where our offense would rank 30th in baseball, I would have said there was a zero percent chance,” the Dodgers president of baseball operations said last month.

“I would have been wrong,” he quickly added.

Over a five-week stretch from July 4 to Aug. 4, the Dodgers inexplicably ranked 30th (out of 30 clubs) in scoring. And though they’ve been slightly better in the five weeks since, questions about their supposed juggernaut lineup still abound.

Read more:Dodgers sweep Rockies to keep growing NL West lead, but Will Smith is a late scratch

In the first half of the season, the Dodgers boasted the best offense in the majors, leading the majors in scoring (5.61 runs per game), batting average (.262), OPS (.796) and hitting with runners in scoring position (.300) and went 56-32 over their first 88 games.

Since then, however, everything has flipped.

It started with a July slump that was as stunning as it was unforeseen, with the Dodgers averaging just 3.36 runs in a 25-game stretch commencing with Independence Day. Since then, there have been only marginal improvements, with the Dodgers entering Friday ranked 24th in scoring (4.21 runs per game), 25th in batting average (.237), 18th in OPS (.718) and 22nd in hitting with runners in scoring position (.245) over their last 58 games — a stretch in which they've gone 26-32.

“Not scoring runs,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said last week, “it's just not who we are.”

On the surface, the root causes seemed rather obvious. Much of their lineup was either on the injured list or scuffling in the wake of previous, nagging injuries. Healthy superstars were grinding through flaws with their swings. What little depth they had failed to compensate.

To that end, the team is hopeful it has turned the page.

Shohei Ohtani, after a midseason lull, is back to his MVP-caliber norms. Mookie Betts is back to looking like himself at the end of an otherwise career-worst season. Max Muncy and Tommy Edman have returned from injuries, providing the batting order with much-needed length. Significant playing time is no longer going to the likes of Buddy Kennedy, Alex Freeland, Estuery Ruiz or any of the other anonymous faces that populated the clubhouse during the campaign’s darkest days.

“Our lineup, our team, looks more whole,” manager Dave Roberts said this week. "I think that we've all been waiting for our guys to come back to health, and see what we look like as the ballclub that we had all envisioned.”

Still, when asked whether the Dodgers’ second-half slump could just be pinned on personnel issues, Roberts and his players said it wasn’t that simple.

The Dodgers might not have been whole. But they weren’t doing fundamental things — like stressing opposing pitchers, driving up pitch counts, or executing in leverage situations — either.

“We'd lost sight of playing the game the way we're capable of playing,” Roberts acknowledged.

“For a little while,” Betts added, “we were having just some bad at-bats.”

This is the dynamic the Dodgers have honed in on fixing, hoping to turn their summer-long frustrations into a valuable learning experience as October nears.

Read more:Emmet Sheehan, Teoscar Hernández help Dodgers increase division lead by beating Rockies

In recent days, a renewed and deliberate emphasis has been placed on the importance of competitiveness at the plate. Daily hitters’ meetings have included film sessions reviewing situational at-bats from the previous night. In-game dugout conversations have centered on a more basic message.

“It’s more about your approach, your plan,” Freeman said. “That’s been the focus.”

This week, the team took what it hopes are important first steps, ambushing the Rockies with seven- and nine-run performances in which they advanced baserunners, capitalized on scoring opportunities and built the kind of big innings that been missing over the two months beforehand.

“We said a few games ago, ‘This needs to be like how we focus for the playoffs,’” Freeman said. “Focus on the little things that help win games.”

The Dodgers, of course, have seen what a broken offense looks like before.

And they know what happens when it doesn’t get rectified before the playoffs.

Late in 2022, as co-hitting coach Aaron Bates recalled this week, the team slipped into bad habits while nursing a massive National League West lead: “It felt like that whole month of September was swing camp, or spring training,” he said, “in the sense of guys working on their swings individually too much, as opposed to playing the game in front of them.”

The results then were costly: A four-game NL Division Series elimination to the San Diego Padres in which the Dodgers repeatedly failed with runners in scoring position.

The next year was more of the same: The team losing its identity while coasting down the stretch, before being swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in three listless games.

Last season, the Dodgers finally avoided such pitfalls. They batted .278 with runners in scoring position during their postseason run to the World Series. Their tying and go-ahead runs in the Fall Classic clincher came on a pair of productive at-bats in the form of sacrifice flies.

But this summer, after a first-half outburst that met every lofty expectation of their $400-million roster, more troubling patterns began to resurface again.

Betts’ slow start devolved into a career-worst slump, bottoming out with a .205 average during July. Freeman began to fade right alongside him, with his .374 season average at the end of May plummeting to .292 less than two months later. Edman and Teoscar Hernández struggled after returning from first-half injuries. Michael Conforto never found his footing while Andy Pages endured an extended sophomore slide.

When coupled with Muncy’s prolonged absence — he missed 48 of 56 games because of a knee injury and oblique strain — the Dodgers suddenly had a lineup of players either grinding to rediscover their swing, or struggling to make up for the firepower they were missing.

And as easy scoring dried up, their inability to work consistent “team at-bats” quickly became magnified.

“It happened incrementally, every day, little by little,” Bates said. “Where it’s like, you’re a little off, you want to see what’s wrong with your swing, and you don’t realize that it snowballs. Before you know it, you’re thinking so much about your swing, you’re off of the situations out there.”

It was a problem, Bates insisted, borne of good intentions. Most of the roster was battling swing flaws. Too much daily energy was spent on players trying to individually get their mechanics right.

It led to mindless swings that were wasted on bad pitches. It caused scoring opportunities to carelessly, and repeatedly, go frustratingly by the wayside.

“Guys just got so internal with their mechanics,” Bates said, “they weren’t able to shift their focus once the game starts to just competing in the box.”

Bates started sensing the trend while watching the team from afar, gaining a different perspective during a two-week medical absence in early August to address blood clots in his leg.

In the clubhouse, players began voicing similar observations after particularly puzzling offensive performances in recent weeks.

“I feel like a lot of swings that we took today weren't really good swings to get on base,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said after the Dodgers managed only one hit in six innings against Padres left-hander Nestor Cortes on Aug. 23. “We know we're more than capable of putting up better at-bats and more hits together to create some traffic.”

“We individually are trying to find ways on our own to make sure that we’re just hitting better than we are,” Ohtani echoed, through an interpreter, after the Dodgers’ one-run performance in a series opener in Baltimore last weekend. “But I think the side effect of that is, we’re a little too eager, and putting too much pressure on ourselves.”

Thus, this week, the team endeavored to make changes.

In their daily pregame hitters’ meetings, the club has started holding what fellow co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc described to SportsNet LA as “NFL-style” film sessions; in which players were asked to review situational at-bats from the night before, and analyze their ability to execute their plan of attack.

“The game rewards you for having those ‘team at-bats,’ ” Bates said. “So you just preach to them by holding each other accountable, talking about them after the fact, not shying away from it.”

Freeman added that, in the dugout, players have also made an effort to emphasize that message among themselves.

“Don’t get upset because your swing didn’t feel good,” he said. “Like, if you go 0-for-four but move a runner over four times, that’s a great game for us. It might not be for your stats. But you gotta throw that out the window. That’s what we’ve been trying to clean up.”

The hope is that this renewed focus will naturally help hitters sync up their swings.

On Monday night, for example, Betts moved a runner to third base with a fly ball in the sixth inning, before coming back to the plate and roping a tie-breaking two-run single with two outs in the eighth.

Read more:Hernández: Can starting pitching carry the Dodgers in October? Dave Roberts may not have a choice

“He said it in the hitter’s meeting [the next day],” Freeman relayed, “how that little positive thing of moving [a runner] over helped him build confidence going into his next at-bat.”

Little moments like that, the Dodgers hope, will help kick-start their offense as they come up on the playoffs. They might not have been able to envision the struggles of the last two months. But now, between better health and improving at-bat quality, they finally see a way to fix their ailing offense.

“Now, we're at least having good at-bats, getting a walk, extending innings, finding ways to manufacture runs,” Betts said.

“I do think that presently, the guys are engaged,” Roberts added. “Guys are playing as one right now."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Giants star Matt Chapman avoids one-game suspension after successful appeal originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Giants third baseman Matt Chapman, in fact, will play against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night at Oracle Park.

Chapman’s status was in doubt as he awaited a ruling on his appeal of a one-game suspension handed down by MLB for his involvement in a benches-clearing incident against the Colorado Rockies.

The 32-year-old’s appeal was successful, the team announced Friday.

“Matt Chapman’s one-game suspension was dropped as part of a settlement agreement with the Commissioner’s Office that will require him to pay a fine,” the team posted on X.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser first reported news of Chapman’s successful appeal on Friday.

If the appeal had been rejected, Chapman would have served the one-game suspension Friday night.

So, Chapman’s only punishment for shoving Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland during the Sept. 2 altercation is an undisclosed fine from the league.

Chapman, Freeland and Giants shortstop Willy Adames all were ejected from the Sept. 2 game after the Rockies’ starter took exception to San Francisco star Rafael Devers admiring a home run.

Chapman, this season, is slashing .243/.352/.458 with 19 doubles, 21 home runs and 56 RBI.

As the Giants fight for an NL Wild Card spot, they need Chapman in the lineup, especially with three important games against the Dodgers this weekend. A couple of losses against their arch-rival could be devastating to their playoff hopes.

The Giants (74-72) enter Friday’s series opener 1.5 games behind the New York Mets for the final wild-card spot. The Cincinnati Reds are tied with San Francisco.

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The Mets open a three-game series against the Rangers at Citi Field on Friday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.

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

Mets Notes

• Juan Soto is hitting .314/.455/.694 with 14 home runs, 32 RBI, 35 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases in 154 plate appearances over his last 33 games dating back to Aug. 6
• The Mets enter play with a 1.5 game lead over the Giants and Reds for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League
• Jonah Tong gave up just three hits in his last start, but they were all home runs, as he allowed four runs in 6.0 innings while walking four and striking out six

• Jacob deGrom, in 109 starts at Citi Field, held opponents to a .191 average and a .536 OPS with 899 strikeouts to 162 walks with a 2.12 ERA over 696.2 innings. Friday will be his first start in Queens since Game 2 of the 2022 NLDS, 1,070 days ago, and first as a visiting player

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Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Mets and Rangers play a three-game series at Citi Field starting on Friday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.

5 things to watch

Jacob deGrom's return

For the first time since leaving via free agency after the 2022 season, deGrom will face the Mets.

The 37-year-old, who had Tommy John surgery during the 2023 campaign, has been terrific this year -- but he's not quite at the same heights he was at in New York.

In 27 starts over 155.2 innings this season, deGrom has a 2.78 ERA (3.54 FIP) and 0.93 WHIP with 169 strikeouts (a rate of 9.8 per nine).

Before leaving via free agency, deGrom was coming off a pair of injury-riddled seasons, and the Mets seemingly didn't make much of an effort to bring him back. That decision felt prudent when deGrom threw just 41.0 innings combined during his first two years in Texas.

During his time in New York, deGrom wasn't just the best pitcher in baseball. He was an almost unbelievable force. From 2018 to 2021, he went on a run of excellence that was almost impossible to believe. In 91 starts over 581.0 innings, deGrom had a 1.94 ERA and 0.88 WHIP while striking out 774 batters. He won a pair of Cy Youngs (in 2018 and 2019) and was coasting toward a third in 2021 (1.08 ERA in his first 92.0 innings) before injuries derailed his year.

Where is the offense?

During their six-game losing streak, the Mets have scored just 15 runs -- an average of 2.5 per game.

As they were swept out of Philadelphia on Thursday, the Mets plated four runs in the first inning and then proceeded to do literally nothing for the rest of the game.

In the process, the Mets became the first team in the modern era to score four or more runs in the first inning, have no one reach base for the remainder of the game, and lose.

The only consistent presence in the lineup during this skid has been Juan Soto, who has remained hot. Otherwise, it's been lots of weak contact and strikeouts. 

It's all on the kids in the rotation

One of the main culprits of the Mets' swoon since June has been inconsistent starting pitching.

Specifically, their veteran starters have been largely ineffective in terms of both run prevention and the ability to provide length.

A breath of fresh air has been provided by rookies Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat, and it's those three youngsters who will be leaned on to help the Mets rise from the doldrums against Texas.

Tong gets the start on Friday, followed by Sproat on Saturday and McLean on Sunday.

McLean has been especially impressive since making his debut, with a 1.42 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 31.2 innings. 

The out of town scoreboard

When the Mets won the first game of their series against the Reds last weekend, it seemed that they were on their way to coasting to the playoffs.

But their six-game skid has made things murky.

Entering play on Friday, the Mets are just 1.5 games up on the Giants and Reds for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League.

The Mets hold the tiebreaker over the Giants, but it's the Reds who hold the tiebreaker over the Mets.

As New York battles Texas, Cincinnati faces the Athletics in Sacramento, while San Francisco hosts the Dodgers.

Rangers are hot amid late playoff push

While they're on the outside looking in when it comes to the AL West and the Wild Card race, the Rangers are making things interesting. 

By going 7-3 over their last 10 games and reeling off four straight wins, the Rangers are in position to pounce.

They trail both the Mariners and Astros by 2.0 games for the division lead.

In the Wild Card chase, the Rangers are 2.0 games back of the third and final spot.

The Rangers are undermanned offensively right now, though, without Corey Seager (appendectomy) and Marcus Semien (foot).

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Francisco Lindor

Lindor, like most of his teammates, has been in a cold snap. But he has a knack for stepping up in big spots. 

Which Mets pitcher will have the best start?

Nolan McLean

It's McLean until proven otherwise. His stuff and mettle have been a sight to see. 

Which Rangers player will be a thorn in the Mets' side?

Jake Burger

Burger is having a solid season and blasted two homers against the Brewers on Wednesday.

Why Red Sox should do whatever it takes to keep Alex Bregman in Boston originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

For the first time since 2021, the Boston Red Sox are playing meaningful baseball past Labor Day. And Alex Bregman’s role in that development can’t be overstated.

The on-field stats are impressive enough. At 31 years old, Bregman is enjoying his best season since 2019, with a .279 batting average, 16 home runs and 57 RBI through 101 games. He leads all Red Sox regulars (minimum 90 games played) in on-base percentage (.362) and OPS (.862) while playing a Gold Glove-caliber third base.

But Bregman might be making a bigger impact off the field, where he’s served as an instrumental veteran leader for a young team that traded away its best player (Rafael Devers) in June and has thrust several recently-promoted prospects into key roles.

Not only has the two-time World Series champion served as a de facto hitting coach for younger players in the clubhouse, he’s also been feeding a steady stream of intel to Red Sox pitchers, which The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey highlighted in an excellent story Thursday.

“Bregman has a habit, according to teammates, of reaching out at all hours with some idea or tidbit geared toward Sox excellence,” Healey wrote. “Whereas almost all hitters are content to remain in their realm, Bregman finds time to — and takes pride in — pitching in with the pitchers.

“He studies opposing teams’ lineups to offer game-planning tips, converses one-on-one with hurlers about their repertoire and a hitter’s perspective on to maximize it, and serves as a ringleader encouraging hitter/pitcher cross-communication that, around the sport, is not common.”

That’s all to say chief baseball officer Craig Breslow deserves his flowers for signing Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract this offseason. But Breslow’s work with Bregman isn’t done.

Bregman’s contract includes opt-outs after each season, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported last week that the veteran third baseman is likely to opt out this winter to seek a more lucrative deal in free agency. While the Red Sox could prevent that scenario by agreeing to an extension with Bregman before the season ends, his agent, Scott Boras, shot down that idea this week.

“We’re at the point now where you wait until the offseason and see what transpires,” Boras told Audacy’s Rob Bradford. “Obviously, I think he’s very open about it. He has enjoyed it there. The team has more defined promise than it did a year ago. With free agency, you have to see how things go.”

Boras and Bregman will have plenty of leverage. According to Passan, Bregman likely will seek “the five-year-plus deal at an average annual value of $35 million-plus that eluded him last winter.” And the league’s big spenders — the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies — could be willing to open up their checkbooks after Bregman’s strong 2025 campaign.

So, should the Red Sox, who haven’t acted like a big-market team since Dave Dombrowski’s departure six years ago, really enter a bidding war for a third baseman who will turn 32 next March?

The short answer is yes.

Boston does have some leverage in that Bregman seems to be enjoying his experience at Fenway. The 10-year veteran recently told USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale that the 2025 Red Sox remind him of his “earlier years in Houston” — when the Astros were building a multi-time World Series champion — and added, “It’s a lot of fun to be in this environment.”

Even if Boras is hell-bent on taking the highest bid, however, the Red Sox still should be willing to pony up.

From young superstar Roman Anthony to recently-promoted hurlers Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, the Sox have a serious collection of young talent. And if Trevor Story doesn’t opt out of his contract this offseason, they’ll return essentially every core member of this year’s roster in 2026.

In short, these Red Sox are worth investing in — even if that means “overpaying” for the veteran leader who eventually could put them over the top.