Category: Sports News

They missed high, wide and, in one of the most confounding plays you’ll see on a major league diamond, even on a relatively routine throw to first base.

The Dodgers know this isn’t the bullpen they expected to have at the moment. They have been resigned to playing the long game, trying to weather key injuries and extended absences with a revolving door of minor-league call-ups.

But in a 10-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night, even they couldn’t have foreseen the shockingly sloppy pitching that doomed them late.

In the sixth and seventh innings at Dodger Stadium, the Twins scored six runs without hardly even needing to swing. Over the two innings, Minnesota managed only two hits. But on a night that one Dodger reliever after the next struggled to find the strike zone, a parade of walks kept them circling around the bases, turning what had been a tie score into one of the Dodgers’ most dismal defeats of the season.

The nightmare started with Ben Casparius, who replaced Yoshinobu Yamamoto after a laborious five-inning, three-run (one earned) start.

Right away, Casparius’ command looked off. He walked one batter on five pitches, then another after a Ty France double to load the bases. Up next came Royce Lewis, who took a first-pitch cutter inside before watching each of Casparius’ next three throws sail well above the zone. It was a four-pitch walk that forced in a go-ahead run. And as Lewis trotted to first, Casparius grabbed at his right leg and called for a trainer.

That would be the end of his outing — the team later said he had a calf cramp — but only the start of the Dodgers’ bullpen meltdown.

Read more:Dodgers put Tanner Scott on IL, but hopeful he returns this season

Alexis Diaz, the former All-Star Cincinnati Reds closer who was making his first appearance for the Dodgers since being acquired in a minor-league trade earlier this season, couldn’t escape the jam he inherited unscathed. Harrison Bader drove in a run on a swinging bunt up the third base line. Christian Vázquez added another with an RBI single to left.

And though the Dodgers answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, trimming the deficit to 6-5 on a two-run Hyeseong Kim single, the pitching staff made sure the momentum didn’t last.

In the seventh, hard-throwing right-hander Will Klein took over, but succumbed to the same fate as Casparius. After striking out Willi Castro, he walked each of his next three batters on pitches that drifted progressively farther from the plate.

The final indignity belonged to Edgardo Henriquez, who marked his return to the majors with a comical bit of pitchers' fielding practice.

After starting Lewis, his first batter, with a wild cutter that sent catcher Will Smith sprawling behind the plate, Henriquez executed a better one on the outside corner to induce an excuse-me swing.

The only problem: The ball went trickling back toward Henriquez in front of the mound, where he first bobbled it, then made an ill-advised decision to try and compensate with a rocket of a throw to first base.

It missed — horrendously — zipping past Freddie Freeman and rolling all the way to the wall in right field while all three baserunners came around to score.

Most of the crowd groaned. Others, surely, couldn’t help but quietly laugh in pitiful misery.

Read more:Hernández: 'Still a threat.' Why Shohei Ohtani needs to remain a two-player for Dodgers

In what is shaping up to be one of the Dodgers’ worst single-month performances in years (they are now 6-11 in July, and have dropped four of five since the All-Star break), this was a new nadir.

Granted, the Dodgers (59-43) disappointed in myriad other ways Tuesday.

There was the three-run rally they gifted the Twins (49-52) in the second inning, when Miguel Rojas misplayed a grounder at third base and Yamamoto hung a two-strike splitter that Vázquez belted for a two-run double.

There were squandered opportunities from what remains an out-of-sync offense, which got an early three-run home run from Andy Pages and a garbage-time two-run home run from Shohei Ohtani (his fourth-straight game going deep), but also hit into three rally-killing double plays.

Still, nothing stood out more than the woeful relief pitching, where a unit currently without half a dozen important pieces (including, most recently, Tanner Scott, who went on the injured list pregame with what the Dodgers hope isn’t a season-ending elbow injury) came unraveled trying to lean on unreliable replacements.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Francisco Lindor continues to fight through it offensively. 

After taking another 0-for during Tuesday's comeback win over the Angels, the Mets' shortstop is now hitless over his last 30 at-bats, which is a career-worst slump.

Mets fans even tried to will him to a big knock as they did when he struggled during the early part of last season, but it was to no avail this time around. 

Despite the rough stretch, Carlos Mendoza isn’t sensing another frustration from his superstar talent. 

“The one thing with him is he’s always so steady,” the second-year manager said. “It doesn’t matter whether he’s going 4-for-4 and hitting walk-off homers, he’s going to be the same guy no matter what -- it’s all about winning for him. 

“It’s how he engages on defense with teammates, the conversations in the dugout and helping the younger guys too -- whether it’s approach, what he’s seeing from the pitchers. He’s pretty steady and we haven’t seen any signs of frustration or anything like that.”

The Mets have now won three straight despite receiving nothing from their everyday No. 2 hitter.

Mendoza indicated pregame that he feels Lindor has been chasing at times and he’s been a little long with his swing from the left-side of the plate, but he’s also hit into some tough luck over the past few games.

“That’s just part of it,” he added. “But the one thing with him it he’s too smart -- this is a guy who is watching film all the time, he’s talking with the hitting coaches constantly, he was out there hitting early yesterday and again today. It’s not the first time, it’s not going to be the last time, he’ll get through it.”

But how exactly does the skipper think he’ll get through it? 

“He’s aggressive, he’s going to go out there and he’s going to swing,” he said. “The 0-for-3 with a walk is an 0-for-4 because he’s going to go out there and he’s going hack -- that’s just the type of player he is and the player he’s always been.

“We’re talking about a future Hall of Famer, his way to get out of slumps is by swinging, that’s just who he is.”

Francisco Alvarez just might be back. 

The youngster delivered for the second straight game since returning to the Mets.

Alvarez missed his first Citi Field home run of the season by a matter of inches on Monday night against the Angels, instead settling for a rally-starting double high and deep off the right-center fence in the bottom of the seventh. 

But right back in the lineup on Tuesday, Alvarez made sure to leave the park. 

After Brett Baty lined a two-out double into the right-center gap, the slugger dug in and demolished a seventh-pitch 87 mph fastball from veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks 374 feet for a no-doubt, game-tying blast. 

Hendricks held the Mets to just one single over 4.2 innings before the roof caved in. 

“I was patient,” Alvarez said through a translator after the win. “I went to go look for my pitch that I could hit, I didn’t want to go and swing-and-miss, that was my approach and I was able to execute my swing on that specific pitch.”

The 23-year-old former No. 1 prospect has now gone deep 12 times over his last 20 games between Triple-A and the majors after struggling to find his power stroke during a disappointing first half of the season.

He did strike out with a man on third and two outs in the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday, but has still reached base a total of five times over his first two games back.

Alvarez is now hitting an impressive .333 with 10 of those blasts, 21 RBI, and a 1.335 OPS this month.

“I’m so happy for him,” Brandon Nimmo said. “I see how hard he works, he puts everything into this. For good people you want to see good things happen, and for him to take going down to Triple-A and go work and to be able to have the results right away is amazing.

“I know he has all the makings of an All-Star catcher, it’s just putting it all together. I know it’s easier said than done, but for him to have this impact right away is amazing.”

While the sample size is still extremely small, getting Alvarez back to his run producing ways would be a ginormous boost to the bottom of this lineup moving forward in the second half of the season.

“You have to give this kid a ton of credit,” Carlos Mendoza said. “From the moment he got back down there he just kept working. He could’ve pouted and felt sorry for himself but that wasn’t the case -- and here he is now, looking like the Alvy we know he’s capable of.”

Frankie Montas fell just short of becoming the second Mets starter to complete an outing of six-plus innings over the last month, but that's neither here nor there. His job was to keep the game close, and that task was accomplished.

While the veteran right-hander's performance didn't include style points, it was still a winning effort, as his 5.2 frames of two-run ball with a season-best six strikeouts helped the Mets rally to a 3-2 win over the Angels on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

"I threw some good splitters, good sweepers, good sliders. I thought I had a nice amount of pitches working tonight," Montas said after the game. "I feel pretty good. I would've loved to finish the sixth inning, though. But step by step, I definitely feel better and better every time I step on the mound. I feel like my pitches are moving better.

"I'm getting more movement, more strikes. I keep making progress every start... The first two innings, I thought I was missing my location. I tried to throw my pitches in a better spot after that. Things were working better after that."

Montas flirted with trouble from the jump, allowing a first-inning double and then a single to Mike Trout that fortunately resulted in Nolan Schanuel being tagged out on a bang-bang play at the plate.

In the second, he surrendered a two-out, no-doubt solo homer to Jorge Soler that broke the ice, and Schanuel managed to get some revenge with an RBI double in the fifth that bumped the Angels' lead to 2-0.

But Montas retired eight straight batters at one point, and although he left the mound trailing with eight hits allowed, he ultimately earned his third win of the campaign with a boost from the Mets' bats.

"I thought he was good. I thought the secondary pitches were good," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Montas. "He used all of them in the strike zone, expanded when he needed to. He's got to be able to compete in the strike zone with the secondaries -- whether it's the split, the slider, the sweeper. The cutter elevated against a couple of lefties.

"The other good sign for me was, he was able to reach 97 [mph] in that sixth inning to get Soler for strike three in the top of the zone. That's a good sign. For him to reach there at 90 pitches, it was really good to see. So, a very good outing and very good step for him."

Montas, who threw 58 of a season-high 91 pitches for strikes, now owns a 4.62 ERA and 1.30 WHIP (five starts) since coming off the injured list in late June. He also has a strikeout-walk ratio of 23-to-6 across 25.1 innings, and his reliability will be put to the test next week in a scheduled road matchup with the Padres.

"Definitely feel better every time I step on the mound"

Frankie Montas talks about how he's feeling with five starts under his belt this season: pic.twitter.com/XcW9T9mLcw

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2025

Despite bullpen woes and a costly fielding error, a ninth-inning home run from Ben Rice helped the Yankees avoid a late collapse and outlast the Blue Jays, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.

Here are the takeaways...

-- While it took the Yankees four innings to score against Max Scherzer in their June 30 meeting, they only needed four batters to tack on runs in Tuesday's rematch. After a leadoff single from Trent Grisham and a double from Cody Bellinger, the veteran right-hander grooved a full-count, one-out fastball to Jazz Chisholm Jr. that he clobbered into the right-center field seats for a three-run homer. It was the 18th blast of the season for Chisholm, who also happened to break the ice with a dinger off Scherzer three weeks ago.

-- Cam Schlittler took the mound for his second-career start -- it was delayed a few days due to reported arm soreness -- and the Blue Jays put him to work almost immediately. While the rookie's first inning included a pair of strikeouts, he allowed a walk and two singles that brought a run home and cut the Yankees' lead to 3-1. Schlittler then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second that pushed his pitch total to a whopping 49.

-- Scherzer settled in after the first-inning homer, retiring six straight at one point and 13 of 15 with two outs in the fifth. But he just couldn't get the best of Bellinger, who crushed a solo shot to right-center to bump the Yankees' lead to 4-1. Scherzer completed the frame, finishing at a season-high 90 pitches. There was no way to predict a homer and pair of doubles from Bellinger against Scherzer -- he entered with a career .118 average across 16 at-bats.

-- Schlittler regained control of his pitch count after the second inning, needing only 21 pitches to complete the third and fourth frames. But he fell into trouble in the fifth, allowing three singles that resulted in another Blue Jays run. The rally could've been far worse if not for a slick 6-4-3 double play turned by Anthony Volpe and Chisholm up the middle. It was simply a grind for Schlittler, who gave up two runs on seven hits and three walks with three punchouts (90 pitches).

-- Tim Hill took over for Schlittler in the sixth, and the left-hander's rhythm was quickly disrupted by poor support behind him. A throwing error from Volpe on a routine grounder allowed leadoff man Miles Straw to reach base, and from there, a one-out RBI double from pinch-hitter Davis Schneider cut the Blue Jays' deficit back to two. The Yankees then turned to Jonathan Loáisiga to clean up the mess, but he gave up a first-pitch RBI single to George Springer that knotted the score at 4-4. Volpe now has 13 errors this season, tied for the most at any position in MLB.

-- Loáisiga surprisingly came back out for the seventh, and the attempt to steal outs with him backfired. He was pulled after one pitch, which Bo Bichette ripped down the left-field line for a double. By necessity, Luke Weaver was tasked with completing the frame, and he did just that by inducing a flyout and two lineouts. One of the outs wasn't pain-free, however -- TV cameras caught Aaron Judge flexing his right hand and grimacing after catching a ball and throwing it back in.

-- The ninth inning began with the game still tied at 4-4, but it only took five pitches for the Yankees to regain the lead. With one out, Ben Rice played the role of hero, smacking a first-pitch fastball from Jeff Hoffman into the right-center bullpen for a solo homer. Devin Williams handled the bottom half of the frame, and while he flirted with trouble by allowing a leadoff single and a deep flyout, he then struck out a pair to register his 15th save of the season.

Game MVP: Ben Rice

While it was Bellinger who had the best night at the plate, finishing 3-for-4 and boosting his season average to .285, the game wouldn't have been won without Rice's huge solo shot in the ninth. He didn't waste any time in swinging against Hoffman with a chance to do damage.

Highlights

JAZZ CHISHOLM JR. LAUNCHES A LONG HOME RUN OFF MAX SCHERZER! pic.twitter.com/4Wm2bYfkpy

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) July 22, 2025

A BELLI BOMB TO RIGHT pic.twitter.com/QdCRnZhStc

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) July 23, 2025

BEN RICE HOMERS TO GIVE THE YANKEES THE LEAD IN THE 9TH! pic.twitter.com/UQ5xHhYEC0

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) July 23, 2025

What's next

The Yankees (56-45) will play the rubber game of their series north of the border on Wednesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 7:07 p.m.

LHP Max Fried (11-3, 2.43) is slated to take the mound, opposite RHP Chris Bassitt (10-4, 3.89 ERA).

The Mets were down early, but a three-run fifth inning -- powered by Francisco Alvarez's two-run homer -- was the difference in their 3-2 win over the Angels at Citi Field on Tuesday night.

Alvarez hit 11 homers in Triple-A when he was demoted, but he went deep for his fourth homer of the season, his first since June and his first at home this year.

The Mets (58-44) have won three straight games and remain 0.5 games behind the Phillies, who won earlier in the evening.

Here are the takeaways...

- The Mets' defense helped out Frankie Montas early in this one. Mike Trout hit a one-out single with Nolan Schanuel on second. Juan Soto fielded the ball and threw a one-hopper to Alvarez, who tagged Schanuel to keep the Angels off the board.

Soto has six outfield assists after having nine all of last season.

Montas benefited from some great defense behind him as he scattered baserunners throughout his outing, only allowing one run on a Jorge Soler bomb in the second inning. However, things started to unravel for the right-hander in the fifth. Montas allowed two doubles with a walk sandwiched between, as the Angels took a 2-0 lead. But Montas would escape a bases-loaded jam and get through five innings.

Montas pitched into the sixth but could not complete the inning after allowing a two-out single to Logan O'Hoppe.

Rico Garcia picked up the final out of the sixth and ended Montas' night. The veteran right-hander tossed 91 pitches (58 strikes) across 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out six.

- The Mets' offense was kept in check by veteran Kyle Hendricks through four innings. The only hit came on a Mark Vientos bloop single that centerfielder Jo Adell let drop in front of him. But that all changed in the fifth. With two outs, Brett Baty hit a double and Alvarez plated him with a monstrous two-run shot that got the Citi Field crowd on their feet. It's just Alvarez's fourth longball this season and the first at home.

Ronny Mauricio singled and stole second before Brandon Nimmo singled him home to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.

- New York could not take advantage of shoddy Angels infield defense, as Alvarez and Mauricio reached on two errors to lead off the seventh. Nimmo and Lindor struck out before Soto was walked intentionally to load the bases. Alonso struck out to end the threat.

The top four of the Mets lineup (Nimmo, Lindor, Soto, Alonso) went a combined 1-for-13 with three walks and four strikeouts. Soto did pick up his 13th stolen base this season, setting a new career-high.

- The Mets were without Huascar Brazoban and Edwin Diaz after they worked two games in a row, but the bullpen pieced it together. Garcia allowed a hit in one inning of work before Reed Garrett picked up four outs without allowing a baserunner. Ryne Stanek came on to close it out and allowed a leadoff single.

Stanek bounced back, striking out Luis Rengifo and getting Zach Neto to fly out. Schanuel hit a single to set up Trout with two outs. The former MVP popped out to Alonso to end the game.

Game MVP: Francisco Alvarez

The Mets were being dominated by the Angels before Alvarez's two-run blast in the fifth.

Highlights

Juan Soto guns down Nolan Schanuel at the plate 💪 pic.twitter.com/D15oE22nl8

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2025

HE'S BACK.

FRANCISCO ALVAREZ TIES THE GAME WITH A TWO-RUN HOMER! pic.twitter.com/PXJpcljahW

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2025

Brandon Nimmo brings home Ronny Mauricio with the go-ahead run! pic.twitter.com/p5gyDFWZZe

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2025

Brett Baty makes the sliding catch to end the inning! pic.twitter.com/hq1tzDroQH

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2025

Ryne Stanek gets Mike Trout to pop out to end the game!

METS WIN! pic.twitter.com/4c3X3vGRpq

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2025

What's next

The Mets wrap up their three-game set with the Angels on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.

Sean Manaea (0-1, 2.45 ERA) will make his second start of the season while the Angels have yet to announce their starter.