Things didn’t go well for Tylor Megill in his potential final rehab start on Sunday afternoon. 

The right-hander was roughed up again as he took the mound for the Syracuse Mets.

Megill ended up being pulled after allowing a total of five runs on four hits, two walks and two HBPs, while striking out just three batters in 2+ innings of work. 

Buffalo Bisons outfielder Joey Loperfido jumped on him for a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the first but he responded by striking out a pair.   

He worked around a second and third jam with one out in the second allowing just one more run, but wasn’t able to finish off the third. 

Megill was removed after quickly loading the bases with a walk, HBP, and single. 

Richard Lovelady entered and allowed an RBI single and grand slam, capping an ugly line.

After starting his rehab with three consecutive scoreless outings, Megill has responded by allowing three or more runs in three straight to lift his ERA to 6.60 over just 20 innings of work.

President of baseball operations David Stearns said earlier this week that the Mets will make a decision on Megill's potential activation and next steps following Sunday’s outing. 

It’ll be interesting to see how the club plans on utilizing him down the stretch.

The 30-year-old began the year in the starting rotation, but with the trio of top prospects jumping into the mix there likely isn't a spot for him there. 

With a strong six innings on Sunday afternoon, Brandon Sproat became the third rookie pitcher to make an impressive major league debut for the Mets in the space of about three weeks. 

It makes for a bright future but what about the present?

Is it realistic to think the Mets can make a deep playoff run with three young starters as saviors of sort for their beleaguered starting rotation?

For the moment, in fact, after losing two of three games to the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend including Sunday’s 3-2 defeat, the more pressing task is holding off their pursuers for the third NL Wild Card spot, especially as they head to Philadelphia for a four-game series. 

The Mets were fortunate the surging San Francisco Giants lost in St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday, keeping them four games back in the Wild Card standings, along with the Reds.  

Now they turn to Nolan McLean to start in Philadelphia on Monday, the third straight game in which they’ll start a rookie -- can his brilliance continue?

The rarest of circumstances has forced the Mets to lean so heavily on a trio of pitchers with so little major league experience, but the poor performance of their starters, especially Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea, has forced their hand. 

How it plays out remains to be seen, but the truth is that so far the kid starters have done about all the Mets could have expected. 

There are bound to be growing pains, as was the case Saturday night, when Jonah Tong learned that it is a lot harder to blow his high fastball by major league hitters than it was in the minors, as he gave up three home runs in the first four innings. 

Same went for Sproat, to some extent, when a couple of mistake pitches -- a lazy-breaking curve ball to Elly De La Cruz and a hanging changeup to Austin Hays -- cost him a couple of runs in the sixth inning on Sunday that proved decisive. 

But let’s be real: those mistakes only loomed large because the Mets didn’t hit much on Saturday and Sunday. 

In truth, both Tong and Sproat showed why they are regarded so highly. 

After Tong -- in his second career start -- paid for trying to overpower Reds hitters in the early innings, he adjusted, mixed in his off-speed stuff nicely and showed some grit in getting through six innings, striking out his final hitter with a 98-mph fastball.

That those home runs were the only hits he allowed spoke to Tong’s potential to dominate, just as the 13 swings-and-misses he induced were proof of the quality of his stuff. 

And then there was Sproat, the third of the three top prospects to make his debut. 

He’s not McLean when it comes to spinning the baseball, but he showed an impressive array of breaking balls, throwing three variations of them at different speeds -- a slider at 90 mph, a sweeper at 84-85 mph, and a curveball at 79 mph.

Using those pitches in combination with his 95-97 mph fastball, Sproat did a nice job keeping the Reds’ hitters off-balance over six innings, as he allowed three hits while racking up seven strikeouts. 

That prompted praise from Carlos Mendoza:

“He pitched,” Mendoza told reporters in Cincinnati. “I was impressed with the way he used his secondary pitches. He was able to use his curveball to get back in counts at times, and he made pitches when he had to.”

For a while it looked like Sproat might even do something special, as he no-hit the Reds through 5.1 innings.

By then he’d given up a run, thanks to a walk, a stolen base, a ground out and a sac fly in the fourth inning. He walked four batters on the day, something he’ll need to clean up to succeed in the big leagues.

Yet there he was with a no-hitter in the sixth inning, and a bit unlucky to give up that first hit, as he jammed Noelvi Marte with a 95-mph sinker, only to see Marte muscle a broken-bat blooper to the opposite field for a single. 

Then, finally, mistakes cost him. He got ahead 1-2 on De La Cruz, and wanted to bury a curve ball in the dirt, hoping for a chase, but left it in the strike zone, at the knees but in De La Cruz’s nitro zone, and the result was an RBI double to the wall in right-center to put the Reds ahead 2-1. 

Against Hays he got ahead in the count again at 1-2, but then Francisco Alvarez called for a changeup, a strange decision as it’s arguably Sproat’s least effective pitch, especially against a right-handed hitter. 

And when it hung in the strike zone about thigh-high, Hays laced it hard on the ground past Brett Baty for a single to make it 3-1 Reds. 

At that point it felt like the inning was getting away from Sproat, but much like Tong on Saturday night he didn’t buckle, instead he came back to strikeout Gavin Lux swinging with a curveball and then Sal Stewart looking at a 95-mph fastball.

On another day, when Mets’ hitters weren’t being overmatched by Hunter Greene, who allowed one hit and struck out 12 over seven innings, Sproat may well have been in position to get a win. 

As it was, the Mets rallied in the ninth, putting the tying and go-ahead runners on base after a solo home run by Juan Soto, and threatened to win for the first time this season when trailing after eight innings. 

But it wasn’t to be, as Starling Marte hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play and the Mets lost the series, failing to close the door a little further on the Reds and the Giants as well. 

It wasn’t a lost weekend, at least in the big picture. 

Even in defeat Sproat and Tong looked like they belonged. 

But now, after McLean pitches Monday, it will be up to the veterans in the rotation -- not to mention the offense -- to win a couple of games in Philly or this Wild Card chase could get too close for comfort. 

The day started with a couple of Shohei Ohtani home runs. It continued with a strong 5 ⅔ inning start from Clayton Kershaw. And it ended with the Dodgers in a celebratory postgame line, trading victorious high-fives near the mound.

After five consecutive losses, several weeks of mounting frustration, and the most painful collapse imaginable the night before, the Dodgers took a crucial first step toward righting their sinking ship on Sunday.

They beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, finally finding a way to hold on to a late-game lead.

They ended an otherwise disastrous road trip on a sorely needed high note, avoiding what would have been a second-consecutive series sweep to a last-place opponent.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto falls one out short of a no-hitter, then Dodgers lose in Orioles walk-off

“It’s not a surprise how we responded,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There was no panic. There was just preparation. I like the way that our guys weren’t downtrodden. We were up, looking forward to playing a ball game, to win a game. And that’s a tell that we have confidence still in the room. It speaks to the character.”

Indeed, Sunday was the kind of day the Dodgers (79-64) were desperately searching for amid their recent struggles, which reached a new low when their no-hitter turned walk-off nightmare on Saturday trimmed their division lead down to just one game.

That game, in which Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth before the Orioles (66-77) rallied for a stunning walk-off win, was the kind of loss that threatened to throw the Dodgers into an all-out nose-dive; an unthinkable defeat that, on top of their previously mounting frustrations, turned Sunday into yet another gut-check for the long-slumping club (which entered Sunday 10 games under .500 since July 4).

“It was a tough loss yesterday,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “Especially what Yoshi did, everybody was so excited and happy for him. And to lose, that was tough. So it was pretty down.”

Sunday morning, however, Betts said the mood in the clubhouse had rebounded.

“There's a lot of vets in here and a lot of guys that know how to handle bad situations,” he said. “So this morning everything was great. The vibes were high.”

And then, two pitches into the game, Ohtani raised them even higher, belting his 12th leadoff home run of the season off fellow Japanese native Tomoyuki Sugano to tie Betts’ single-season franchise record.

“You could see the life in the dugout,” Roberts said.

“Shohei jump-starting, it lets us know we're fine,” Betts added.

On Ohtani’s next trip to the plate, the two-way star went deep again, blasting his 48th home run of the year on a 2-and-0 fastball Sugano left over the plate. Then, in the next at-bat, Betts left the yard himself with a drive to left.

Just like that, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead — and later it extended to 4-0 on a lucky break, when Miguel Rojas scored from third on an errant pickoff throw from Baltimore catcher Alex Jackson in the fourth.

“We haven’t gotten a break like that in a while,” Roberts quipped. “Miggy is playing his tail off. So for us to get a break like that, that was something that was very welcome and very needed.”

So too were the closing innings of the game, in which the Dodgers finally got across the finish line behind a stout (if not entirely stress-free) performance from the pitching staff.

As he has done repeatedly this year, Kershaw served as a stopper to another Dodgers slide, setting a new season high with eight strikeouts while giving up just two hits through his first five innings.

“Obviously a tough one last night, but everybody came in here with a good mindset. Everybody came in here ready to win a game today,” Kershaw said. “That’s the great thing about baseball, and the worst thing about baseball — that you play every day. It’s a new opportunity every day. And sometimes it’s hard. But that’s why not everybody plays it. You’ve got to put on your big boy pants and go play.”

Kershaw got knocked out of the game in the sixth, following a Gunnar Henderson single and RBI double from Emmanuel Rivera with two outs. Rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez flirted with disaster after that, giving up another RBI double to Jackson and a loud fly ball to Dylan Carlson that died at the warning track.

But from there, the Dodgers settled back down.

Another rookie, left-hander Justin Wrobleski, provided two critical innings of scoreless relief, striking out the final five batters he faced after putting two aboard in the seventh. 

“I felt the team needed a jolt or something,” Wrobleski said. “Thankfully, I was able to go out there and feel really good and do what I wanted to.”

The Dodgers tacked on an insurance run in the ninth, when Betts hit an RBI single off the wall (he was held to just the one base after not hustling out of the box) following a leadoff single from catcher Ben Rortvedt and a walk from Ohtani (his third of the day, reaching base in all five trips to the plate).

“Certainly, when you get Shohei and Mookie doing what they’re doing, that’s also helpful too,” Roberts said.

And after being walked off by the Orioles each of the first two nights at Camden Yards this weekend, the Dodgers avoided any further fireworks in the ninth, with rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer coming on for his third save of the season.

“It’s good for other guys, or certain guys, to get opportunities and see how they respond,” Roberts said, after staying away from more veteran, but recently struggling, relievers like Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott.

Granted, one win will put only the slightest dent in the damage the past week has already done.

Read more:Despite emergency help from Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers lose again: 'Truly have no answers'

Instead of extending their National League West lead and making a run for a top-two seed in the NL, the Dodgers let the San Diego Padres (who have also been slumping) hang around in the division and the Philadelphia Phillies (who currently hold the No. 2 seed, which comes with a first-round bye in the playoffs) pull away in the standings.

Instead of capitalizing upon a weak spot in the schedule, they will return home with a 1-5 record against two last-place teams, having again reverted back to their $400 million roster’s most frustrating form.

However, given the way Saturday ended, the season was starting to feel dangerously close to the brink. Sunday’s win, for at least one day, helped calm the waters. Now, they have to figure out a way to rise instead of sink.

“That’s really all you can do: Keep showing up, keep going on the field, keep playing,” Kershaw said. “We’re too good for it not to turn around.”

Muncy set to return; Smith, Glasnow progressing

When the Dodgers return home Monday to face another last-place team in the Colorado Rockies, they’ll do with a key reinforcement waiting. Roberts said third baseman Max Muncy, who has missed almost a month with an oblique injury, is expected to be activated for Monday’s series opener.

“I think that’s going to be helpful,” Roberts said.

Catcher Will Smith, who has missed the past four games with a bone bruise on his hand, is also getting closer to returning to the lineup, and was available off the bench Sunday. Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, meanwhile, is expected to make a start against the Rockies, as well, after doctors cleared him following a bout of back tightness that forced him to be scratched on Friday.

“We dodged a bullet,” Roberts said, “so we feel good about that.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, earning a series win in the process.

Here are the key takeaways…

-- The Yankees jumped on Max Scherzer early. After an Aaron Judge walk and a Cody Bellinger single, Ben Rice connected for a three-run shot to right, giving the Bombers a quick 3-0 lead. Bellinger added an RBI double off the wall in the bottom of the third, and Scherzer's day ended in the fifth inning.

Scherzer lasted 4.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on just three hits while striking out eight and walking four.

-- Max Fried had a strong afternoon on the mound, though his defense behind him wasn't always up to par. Fried allowed a pair of runs in the second, and an Anthony Volpe throwing error (his 19th of the season) would ultimately lead to a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RBI double in the third inning, which tied the game at 3-3. The run was ultimately earned, but Volpe's shotty defense continues to be an issue.

A throwing error by Austin Wells nearly led to another run in the fourth, but Judge bailed the catcher out by making a sliding grab on a George Springer liner to keep the Jays off the board and maintain the one-run New York lead.

Fried ended up giving the Yankees seven quality innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits, striking out four and walking one.

-- With the Yankees up by a run, Aaron Boone turned to Devin Williams for the eighth inning, putting the embattled reliever in a huge spot. After his first pitch of the inning sailed to the backstop, Williams allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Addison Barger,who immediately stole second to get into scoring position.

But Williams locked in and retried the next two hitters, including a Guerrero strikeout. Then, after a walk put two runners on base, Williams induced an easy grounder to third to end the inning.

-- The Yankees took that same one-run lead into the ninth, when David Bednar allowed a one-out single to Nathan Lukes to put the tying run on base. But Lukes tried to steal second, and Wells gunned him down with a perfect throw for the second out of the inning. Bednar then got Myles Straw to ground out to secure the win, brining the Yankees within two games of the division lead.

-- Paul Goldschmidt is dealing with a bone bruise in his knee, but all testing came back clean, Boone said. Goldschmidt entered the game as a defense replacement in the ninth inning.

Game MVP:

Rice, whose three-run bomb set the tone early.

Highlights

RICE RICE BABY! pic.twitter.com/RQBmzIPvHA

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 7, 2025

Cody Bellinger puts the Yankees back on top! pic.twitter.com/qYXxnlAKVg

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 7, 2025

Huge strikeout for Williams as he gets Vladdy swinging pic.twitter.com/rZgCSYUTUc

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 7, 2025

Upcoming schedule

The Yankees have Monday day off before starting a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers, starting on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m.

Will Warren is scheduled to face Casey Mize.