Category: Sports News

Mets RHP Kodai Senga's first start in the minors will be Friday or Saturday, New York manager Carlos Mendoza said before Monday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies on SNY.

"We're talking about either Friday, Saturday this weekend," Mendoza said of Senga, whom the Mets optioned to Triple-A Syracuse this past Friday. "We're going to give him time to throw a couple of bullpens before we put him in the game."

Senga, 32, is 7-6 with a 3.02 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 22 starts over 113.1 IP this season for the Mets.

He has struggled since July, going 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA and 5.76 FIP in nine starts over 39.2 IP.

"This is a guy that part of the reason we sent him down was to work on his mechanics," Mendoza said. "And in order for him to work on the mechanics, we've got to give him a chance to get on the mound without facing competition.

"So, that's what he's going through right now -- he throws a bullpen, then a couple days down, throws another one, watch film and getting the feedback from him and then, hopefully, he gets in a game here towards the end of this week."

After Tylor Megillstruggled Sunday in his latest rehab appearance, he has been shut down from throwing after he felt tightness on his secondary pitches, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters before the Mets and Phillies opened pivotal four-game series in Philadelphia.

The right-hander is now back in New York to get imaging done, and the Mets are awaiting the results.

Regardless of what the MRI shows, a return to the Mets is getting more and more unlikely with time running out, Mendoza said Monday.

"We’re running out of time, especially now with him complaining about the same thing that he went down with earlier in the year," Mendoza said. "So, again, I don’t want to speculate here, but the fact that he’s getting another MRI and where we’re at, like I said, it feels like we’re running out of time."

Megill has been on the shelf since June 15 with a right elbow sprain and had been rehabbing between Double-A and Triple-A for the last month or so. New York was hoping the 30-year-old could make a late-season return either as a starter or an option in the bullpen.

Entering Monday, the Mets have 19 games remaining in the regular season. Still with no answers surrounding Megill on a recurring injury complaint, things don't look promising for them.

In better news, Mendoza did add that Jose Siri is getting close to a return from his fractured tibia.

"We’re having a conversation here (to) see what’s next for him," the skipper said.

What we learned as Logan Webb hits new milestone, Giants homer five times in win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — With the exception of three games in Phoenix next week, the Giants will spend the rest of the regular season in California. That means that before most games, they’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not they can make up ground in the wild-card race. 

Minutes before Monday’s game, they watched as the New York Mets fell short in Philadelphia, losing for a third straight game. After a couple of missed opportunities Saturday and Sunday, the Giants took advantage. 

Christian Koss and Heliot Ramos sparked a five-run outburst in the sixth and the Giants cruised from there, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5 on the first night of a huge seven-game homestand. They’re now just three games behind the Mets with 18 to go, although New York holds the tiebreaker, so the Giants essentially are four back. They also picked up a game on the Diamondbacks, who are hoping to make a run of their own.

The offensive explosion came after Logan Webb departed, but it was still a big night for the staff ace. He reached 200 strikeouts for the first time and allowed just one earned run (along with three unearned) in six innings.

The Giants’ five-homer game behind Webb was their first at home since 2021, and their third with at least four this season. All have come since Aug. 27.

Join The Club

The changeup that Webb threw past Adrian Del Castillo in the fifth was huge for a couple of reasons. It stranded Corbin Carroll at third after the Diamondbacks star had stolen second and advanced on an error, and it also got Webb to 200 strikeouts for the season. 

Webb said this spring that reaching 200 was one of his goals, in part because it was the standard for the pitchers at the top of the rotation — Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija — when he was working his way through the minors. His previous career-high was 194, and that’s where he entered Monday’s game. The strikeout of Del Castillo was his sixth of seven.

Webb became the first pitcher in the NL to reach 200 strikeouts and joined Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet as the only ones in the big leagues. With six innings, he got to 184 2/3, which leads the majors. Unless Paul Skenes falls apart down the stretch, Webb won’t win the Cy Young, but he is putting together a very compelling case to finish second for the second time in three years. 

Five In The Sixth

The Giants have a bullpen that has been patched together in recent weeks, but the Diamondbacks have been dealing with that all season. That bit them in the bottom of the sixth. 

An error, walk and infield single loaded the bases for Koss, who went the other way with a two-run double that made up for his early error. Patrick Bailey immediately followed with a sacrifice fly, and before the Giants were done celebrating their three-run lead, Ramos blasted a two-run shot. 

The ballpark was rocking, but nobody was more excited than this guy:

Big Dom Moment

Dominic Smith started his season in Triple-A with the New York Yankees. He might finish it by giving a speech on the pitcher’s mound at Oracle Park. 

Smith is a compelling Willie Mac Award candidate, and also one of the main reasons the Giants are still alive. After the Diamondbacks took a 4-2 lead in the top of the third, he smoked a homer into the arcade section, tying the game.

The homer was Smith’s fifth in orange and black, and he finished the night with a .291 average and .768 OPS. Jung Hoo Lee homered early in the game, and after Lee, the Giants got dingers from Ramos, Matt Chapman and Bailey.

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Nola silences Mets as Phillies squeak out 1-0 nail biter originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Mets have had the Phillies’ number for nearly a year.

Since last October’s NLDS, Philadelphia had beaten New York just three times heading into Monday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park.

With Trea Turner and Alec Bohm sidelined and the lineup in flux, the Phils leaned on their veterans in a pitchers’ duel to notch a 1-0 victory over the Metropolitans.

Aaron Nola delivered his biggest start of 2025 — in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for the longest-tenured Phillie.

Nola’s gutsy outing featured six scoreless innings and seven strikeouts. It was his first scoreless start since May 3, before an ankle sprain sent him to the IL until mid-August.

He mixed all four of his primary pitches — four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup — at least 20% of the time across his 94 pitches.

Notably, he scrapped the cutter, instead leaning heavier on his sinker and changeup, which helped induce soft contact against New York’s lefty-heavy lineup.

Opposing him was rookie phenom Nolan McLean, who has stormed onto the scene with historic numbers.

The right-hander entered 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and joined Fernando Valenzuela (1981) as the only pitchers since ERA became official in 1913 to win their first four starts with a sub-1.50 ERA and 25-plus strikeouts.

One of those outings came Aug. 27, when McLean blanked the Phillies across eight innings.

This time, the Phils finally cracked him in the second. Max Kepler started with an opposite-field single. Harrison Bader lined a ball into left-center, and though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, Kepler advanced to third.

Nick Castellanos then wasted no time, slapping an RBI single past Pete Alonso on the first pitch for a 1-0 lead.

Castellanos has thrived in ambush mode — entering the night hitting .424 (39-for-92) when putting the first pitch in play.

The 33-year-old has been forced to embrace a rotational role in Rob Thomson’s outfield but continues to produce whenever called upon.

From there, both offenses fell silent. McLean yielded just the one run over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Nola matched him zero for zero.

The Phillies’ bullpen held the line. David Robertson struck out two in a clean seventh, his 11th scoreless outing in 13 appearances since re-joining the club.

In the eighth, Matt Strahm issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, bringing up Juan Soto. The slugger entered with 38 homers, 93 RBIs and a .924 OPS in his first Mets season.

Soto worked a 2-0 count, then cracked a grounder to the right side. Bryson Stott made a diving stop and fired to first to get Soto by a step, preserving the lead.

With the score still 1-0, the lights dimmed for the ninth and Jhoan Duran came on to shut the door.

The flame thrower got into a second-and-third, nobody-out jam, but struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez to end it. A much different ending than the last time he faced New York, but a much needed win against their division rival.

Nola silences Mets as Phillies squeak out 1-0 nail biter originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Mets have had the Phillies’ number for nearly a year.

Since last October’s NLDS, Philadelphia had beaten New York just three times heading into Monday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park.

With Trea Turner and Alec Bohm sidelined and the lineup in flux, the Phils leaned on their veterans in a pitchers’ duel to notch a 1-0 victory over the Metropolitans.

Aaron Nola delivered his biggest start of 2025 — in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for the longest-tenured Phillie.

Nola’s gutsy outing featured six scoreless innings, seven strikeouts and a roaring ovation from over 40,000. It was his first scoreless start since May 3, before an ankle sprain sent him to the IL until mid-August.

“He just threw so well tonight,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He kept the ball down. He was attacking the zone a lot more. A lot of changeups, a lot more changeups than he’s been throwing … the curveball was sharp, I thought he was really good.”

Nola credited his ability to command the fastball and changeup as key. “I just needed to win the count, stay ahead, attack the zone,” he said. “I kind of controlled the zone a lot better than that last one.”

He mixed all four of his primary pitches — four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup — each at least 20% of the time across his 94 pitches. Notably, he scrapped the cutter — except for once, when he fanned Juan Soto for a strikeout in the sixth.

“Sometimes you’ve got to think out of the box a little bit,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “I knew [Soto] hadn’t seen one yet, so he wasn’t going to be looking for it. I just trusted Aaron to execute it and he did.”

That pitch turned out to be the first out of Nola’s final inning. “It was good to get those hitters out, especially two really good ones,” Nola said of Soto and Pete Alonso. “Those guys are tough.”

Opposing him was rookie phenom Nolan McLean, who has stormed onto the scene with historic numbers.

The right-hander entered 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and joined Fernando Valenzuela (1981) as the only pitchers since ERA became official in 1913 to win their first four starts with a sub-1.50 ERA and 25-plus strikeouts.

One of those outings came Aug. 27, when McLean blanked the Phillies across eight innings.

This time, the Phils finally cracked him in the second. Max Kepler started with an opposite-field single. Harrison Bader lined a ball into left-center — his first of three hits tonight — and though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, Kepler advanced to third.

Nick Castellanos then wasted no time, slapping an RBI single past Pete Alonso on the first pitch for a 1-0 lead.

Castellanos has thrived in ambush mode — entering the night hitting .424 (39-for-92) when putting the first pitch in play.

The 33-year-old has been forced to embrace a rotational role in Rob Thomson’s outfield but continues to produce whenever called upon.

From there, both offenses fell silent. McLean yielded just the one run over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Nola matched him zero for zero.

Realmuto said the approach against McLean was simple: “He’s a good pitcher, so you really just try to get something in the heart of the plate, and he doesn’t throw it there too often. That’s why he’s a good pitcher. I did feel like we had good at-bats off of him.”

The Phillies’ bullpen held the line. David Robertson struck out two in a clean seventh, his 11th scoreless outing in 13 appearances since re-joining the club.

In the eighth, Matt Strahm issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, bringing up Soto. The slugger entered with 38 homers, 93 RBIs and a .924 OPS in his first Mets season.

Soto worked a 2-0 count, then cracked a grounder to the right side. Bryson Stott made a diving stop and fired to first to get Soto, preserving the lead.

With the score still 1-0, the lights dimmed for the ninth, the bell rang, and Jhoan Duran came on to shut the door.

The flame thrower got into a second-and-third, nobody-out jam, but struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez to end it.

“The plan was to just try to get him [the Mets] to be a little more aggressive early in the count and not just throw the ball down the middle,” Realmuto said. “Obviously it’s not an ideal situation to be in there [with second and third] … but if anybody can do it, it’d be him.”

A much different ending than the last time he faced New York, but a much needed win against their division rival.

The Phillies move to 84-60 and extend their league in the NL East to eight games over the Mets. For anyone who’s counting, the magic number to clinch a playoff berth is seven games and the division is 11.

Lots can change with three more games ahead with the Mets this series. Buckle up.