Max Fried, the Yankees' first-year ace, struck out a career-high-tying 13 batters in what was arguably his best start of the 2025 season -- Thursday's 7-0 win at the Baltimore Orioles.
Takeaways
Wherever the Yankees (86-67) end up in the playoffs, they should feel good about their chances with an ace like Fried (18-5, 2.92 ERA) on the mound. The southpaw found a way in this past Saturday's 5-3 win at the Boston Red Sox, and he made a statement against Baltimore (72-81) for his MLB-leading 18th victory.
Fried, who surpassed his season-high 11 strikeouts from April 9 at the Detroit Tigers, allowed only three hits and walked just one batter in Thursday's seven-inning start. He threw 59 strikes on 87 pitches, retiring 12 straight at one point.
With October coming, the Yankees need Fried at his best. He gave a glimpse of what to expect Thursday.
While the Yankees only led 3-0 into the seventh inning, where a three-run frame nearly doubled the lead, the bats certainly stayed alive after back-to-back games of 10 runs in the previous days' series-closing wins at the Minnesota Twins. Among them, leadoff batter Paul Goldschmidt's 2-for-5 night -- including an RBI single to start the seventh-inning spurt -- was a welcome sight for the Yankees as he increased his slash line to .280/.331/.415 through 137 games.
Aaron Judge followed Goldschmidt's Jose Caballero-scoring knock with a sacrifice fly to bring Austin Wells home and pad the Yankees' 5-0 lead. Judge was hitless but worked two walks and, as mentioned, added his 104th RBI.
He is slashing .328/.453/.676 with 48 home runs and making a strong case for the AL MVP while battling Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
The Yankees are three games behind the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays with nine contests left to stack wins and see what happens. Six more games against the Orioles -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Baltimore before next weekend at Yankee Stadium -- are among them.
Between those, the Yankees have a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox (which begins the six-game homestand, leading into the Orioles set). The Yankees, who hold the first wild card, have won six of their past eight games and have a golden opportunity to gain ground.
Who's the MVP?
Fried, who is up to a single-season career-high 182 strikeouts this year. He is proving to be worth every cent of his offseason deal, especially for a Gerrit Cole-less starting rotation.
The Yankees seek their fourth straight win Thursday at 7:05 p.m. when they continue the four-game series in Baltimore with New York RHP Will Warren (8-7, 4.44 ERA) and Orioles LHP Trevor Rogers (8-2, 1.43 ERA) set to start.
There are few better problems for an NHL team to have than the presence of two starting-calibre goaltenders on the roster.
For the Detroit Red Wings, that's their situation. At 38 years old, Cam Talbot remains sharp and often turned back the clock to his days as a workhorse with the Edmonton Oilers during his first campaign with the Red Wings.
General manager Steve Yzerman then went out and acquired John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks in a trade that sent Petr Mrazek the other way; Gibson has the chance in front of him to grab firm hold of the starter's reigns.
Both goaltenders took the ice in Traverse City on Thursday for the opening day of Red Wings Training Camp. Talbot stuck with the classic, clean mask design he wore last season but debuted a brand-new Bauer setup, the equipment brand he has used for several years.
Meanwhile, Gibson arrived with a simple TRUE gear setup and a fresh mask paint job, the first artwork of his NHL career not featuring Ducks imagery.
Don't expect head coach Todd McLellan, who coached Talbot as head coach of the Oilers and faced Gibson many times as the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, to settle on a starter just yet.
"I don't know who our starter is," McLellan responded when asked if he believes either goaltender has an edge. "Obviously, Gibson is really important, but teams are proving year after year now that you need two guys to get the job done, and it's hard to stay at the top of your game over and over and over again if you're just a single entity. We've got Talbs, we've got Gibby, we plan on playing them both and we expect a lot from both of them."
The crease for the Red Wings has largely been a rotating carousel over the last several years, with names like Alex Nedeljkovic, Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, James Reimer, and Petr Mrazek all seeing action.
The 2024-25 campaign was the first in the career of Talbot in the Winged Wheel after he agreed to a two-year contract last offseason. He won 21 games and posted a .901 save percentage.
Conversely, Gibson arrives in Detroit having spent the last 12 seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, who selected him in the second round (39th overall) in 2011. He's won 204 regular season games, while adding another 11 wins in 26 playoff appearances.
Talbot proved that he's capable of shouldering a considerable load of playing time last season with 47 total games, but Yzerman is likely hoping that Gibson can become the first true starter in the Detroit crease since the days of Jimmy Howard.
The NHL’s 2025-26 regular season is almost upon us, and here on THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’re close to the end of our player-by-player series in which we break down the expectations for every Sabres player during this coming season.
We’ve worked our way through Buffalo’s goalies, blueliners, and most of the Sabres’ top-four lines of forwards. And in this file, we’re looking at the expectations for right winger Josh Doan, who was picked up from the Utah Mammoth in the trade that sent winger J.J. Peterka out of Buffalo.
But let’s focus on Doan, who at age 23 has barely scratched the surface of his potential as an NHLer:
Player Name: Josh Doan
Position: Right Winger
Age: 23
2024-25 Key Statistics: 51 games, seven goals, 19 points, 13:31 average time on ice
2025-26 Expectations: As the son of longtime NHL star Shane Doan, Josh Doan knows what it means to have high expectations hanging over his head. But to be honest, Josh Doan’s early individual numbers don’t make you think he’s as effective as Shane Doan was in his stellar NHL prime.
Still, Josh Doan’s size at 6-foot-2 makes him out to be a big-framed individual, and he’s going to work his tail off in training camp and come out of the chute to force the hand of Sabre coach Lindy Ruff. Doan has to ensure one part of him stands out for the Sabres. And if he can do that, Buffalo management will get a standing ovation for bringing Doan aboard.
Doan’s career-highs as a Utah Mammoth organization member were very modest, but in Buffalo, he could quickly make himself a highly-valued member. Doan is still in a “show me don’t tell me” mode, but he’s going to have every opportunity to succeed.
Doan is still finding his legs at the NHL level. He’s also got a chip on his shoulder given that he’s quick been traded early in his career. And given his genetics, Doan has the innate skills teams are looking for in a young player.
If he can harness the snub from Utah and help Buffalo get into a playoff berth this year, Doan will be a fixture for years to come in Buffalo. And the Petterka trade will look much better than it may look early on him Doan’s career.
On Thursday, the Dodgers' new minor league affiliate in Ontario revealed its name: the Tower Buzzers, a nod to the film "Top Gun" and with the mascot named for Tom Cruise's character, Maverick. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
You can say you are building a ballpark, but the anticipation accelerates when the community sees what the ballpark might look like. For the city of Ontario and its architects, the rendering of its minor league ballpark included a team name.
A placeholder, that is. The new team owners did not yet own the team. The name would come later. The Dodgers' California League team would not move in until 2026.
On that drawing last year: the Ontario Sky Mules, with a whimsical logo of a grinning donkey wearing sunglasses and flying a prop plane. It was, frankly, awesome.
It was the essence of the minor leagues. Don’t know what a sky mule is? Hardly anyone knew what a trash panda was, either, and the Trash Pandas are one of the hottest brands in the minors.
This year, the newly hired team staff dropped hints about the actual name, about the buzz in town. On the walls of the team offices: “Cleared for Takeoff.” The city referenced ballpark fan zones nicknamed “The Airfield” and “The Tarmac.”
And, just last week, the biggest hint of all: the announcement of a naming rights deal with Ontario International Airport, close enough to the ballpark that you’ll be able to see flights take off. The ballpark name: ONT Field (spell it out: O-N-T, like LAX).
On Thursday, eight months in advance of its first game, the team finally revealed its name: the Ontario Tower Buzzers.
It’s an homage to the movie “Top Gun,” and to the defiant line uttered by the pilot played by Tom Cruise: “It’s time to buzz the tower.” The Tower Buzzers’ mascot, a bee called Maverick, is named after Cruise’s character.
The team name balances heritage and whimsy. The city is paying for the ballpark and wants to promote its airport, which was used as a World War II air base before reverting to civilian use and expanding into an Inland Empire transportation hub.
“We want to honor that legacy and have fun with it,” Tower Buzzers general manager Allan Benavides said. “We found something we think is a fun minor league name, rather than just, say, Pilots or Aviators.”
"We want to honor that legacy and have fun with it," Tower Buzzers general manager Allan Benavides, standing in front of a rendering of the team's new stadium, said of the name. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Aviators? Already in use in Las Vegas. The Pilots? The name of a failed California League team in Riverside (the college landlord wouldn’t allow beer sales, which is akin to a death sentence in the minor leagues).
The Tower Buzzers should fare better, in a ballpark that figures to be the second-best place to see a ballgame in Southern California, behind Petco Park and ahead of Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium.
The city’s latest cost estimate is $120 million, for a Class A ballpark. The stadium that opened this year for the Angels’ triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City cost $140 million and holds 8,000.
ONT Field is expected to hold 6,500 — but with 3,200 seats between the foul poles, and the rest wherever you prefer: in the outfield, on the grass, in picnic areas, on a playground, or in bars, clubs and suites, including a couple where you can converse with the players.
There’s an ice cream parlor, a food hall, and a bar shaped like a luggage carousel. After a home run, the splash pad will erupt, and propellers will whirl in a bar. A runway will light up, and so will the antennas on the mascot.
The scoreboard is a hexagon, just like the one at Dodger Stadium. Soon to appear: a mural of Fernando Valenzuela. All fans, not just the ones in the fancy seats, can watch players in the batting cage.
On the afternoon I visited, the temperature was 108 degrees. The seating area will not have mist machines, as the Angels' old California League stadium in Palm Springs did.
“It won’t be 108 at 7 o’clock,” Benavides said.
His target audience: the “30-year-old moms” that he said control the calendar and the spending for the family.
“Not everybody is a baseball fan, but they want to have time,” he said. “They want to be away from their cellphones and the TV and be outside, not spend a ton of money, and not have to drive to L.A. or San Diego.”
Crews work on the construction of ONT Field in Ontario last month. The team last week announced a naming rights deal with Ontario International Airport.
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
The Angels’ California League affiliate will play in Rancho Cucamonga, eight miles away. Another California League team plays in San Bernardino, 25 miles away. The Angels themselves are 35 miles away.
“We’re going to fight for dollars, certainly, but I think our affiliation with the Dodgers is huge,” Benavides said. “They’re the hottest brand in baseball, depending on who you ask. I’m a Dodger fan, so I think they are.
“And I think this will be the nicest minor league stadium in the country, regardless of classification.”
If the Tower Buzzers do not win that fight for dollars, Ontario’s investment in the ballpark could turn out to be a poor one.
The ballpark is the anchor of what the city is modestly calling the Ontario Sports Empire, a 200-acre facility for training and competition billed by the city as the “largest sports complex of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains.”
There absolutely is a market for sports tourism, for all those kids and all their parents shuttling to weekend tournaments in baseball, softball, football, soccer, tennis and more. But that market can be tapped without a nine-figure investment in a minor league ballpark. (The naming rights payments come from airport revenues, not city taxpayers; the airport is administered jointly by the city and San Bernardino County.)
That ballpark investment is more about a local entertainment option for residents, with so many homes in the pipeline that the population could double from close to 200,000 to about 400,000 within two decades. The NHL’s Kings already have a minor league affiliate playing in the city’s arena, and city officials plan for restaurants, hotels and shops to surround the ballpark and sports complex.
Dan Bell, a city spokesman, said Ontario is adding about 1,200 new homes every year.
“And they’re reasonable,” Bell said. “You can’t afford the L.A. market anymore.”
On Thursday, at the moment the team announced the Tower Buzzers name, the team merchandise went on sale. The home jerseys say Buzzers.
So is it Buzzers or Tower Buzzers? It’s like Blazers or Trail Blazers.
I still wondered about the homage. When the Tower Buzzers take the field next year, “Top Gun” will turn 40. To a fan of a certain age, the reference is obvious. It would be like opening a pizza delivery service and calling it Spicoli’s.
To a younger generation, “Top Gun” might mean a blank stare. No worries, Benavides said. You’ll be able to enjoy a night at the ballpark all the same.
“We’re not going to 100% lean into that film,” he said. “This isn’t going to be a ‘Top Gun’ museum.”
Well, then, Tower Buzzers: You are cleared for takeoff.
Kodai Senga made his second start with Triple-A Syracuse since being demoted and was effective until he wasn't.
The Mets' right-hander, pitching against LeHigh Valley,
In the first inning, Senga allowed a leadoff single to Johan Rojas before getting back-to-back pop outs. Rojas stole second, but Senga did not let it deter him, as he got Christian Arroyo to fly out to end the inning.
Senga's second inning of work was the opposite, as he got the first two batters out (strikeout, lineout) before Rodolfo Castro hit a two-out single. Senga would get through the frame by striking out Payton Henry swinging on five pitches, the last being a forkball in the dirt. The third was an uneven inning for Senga, who hit the first batter he faced but got a doubleplay to erase the runner before allowing his third single of the game. Senga would get an inning-ending lineout to get him through three.
The fourth inning is where Senga really struggled. After the first two runners got on base (single, walk), Senga struck out the next batter, but Castro hit a ground-rule double that knotted the game at 1-1. He bounced back, getting Henry swinging at a curveball, but a wild pitch allowed LeHigh Valley's second run to score and Erick Brito singled to put the IronPigs ahead, 3-1.
A five-pitch walk later and Senga was pulled after 81 pitches (46 strikes). Douglas Orellana, the pitcher in relief of Senga, walked the next two batters to push across the fourth run charged to the Mets hurler.
It was an up-and-down start for Senga, who could not get out of the fourth inning. His final line saw him pitch 3.2 innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks while striking out four batters.
It's a far cry from his first start with Syracuse on Sept. 12, when Senga allowed one run on three hits over 6.0 innings (74 pitches) with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza praised Senga's lack of walks in his first start before the big league club's series finale against the Padres on Thursday. But he didn't say he was a lock to be a part of the playoff roster.
"I wouldn't say definitely," Mendoza said. "I think we'll have the conversations and we'll take the best 13 guys that we feel are going to give us the best chance to win baseball games in October. In the meantime, we got ten more and we'll continue to treat it that way.
"I like the fact that there was no walks last time when he pitched in Triple-A," Mendoza said. "Getting ahead, using all of his pitches. He got swing and misses with the split. I think it starts with him throwing strike one and then staying on the attack."
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates after striking out Tommy Pham during a game against the New York Mets in April 2023. Kershaw announced he will retire at the end of the season. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
He came to town as a quiet Texas kid charged with carrying Hollywood’s team.
For 18 years, in greatness and in grief, through sweet dreams and bitter despair, he did exactly that.
He was splendid. He was awful. He set records. He ruined seasons. He was passionately embraced. He was loudly booed.
For 18 years, Clayton Kershaw pitched through the gamut of emotions as both a hero and a villain, moments of euphoria addled with spells of despair, picturesque summers disappearing into the wicked wilds of October.
But carry the Dodgers he did, with courage and dignity and grace, and in the end, he will be surrounded only by love, a deep and abiding roar of affection from a city to a simple man who willed himself into legend.
Clayton Kershaw announced Thursday he is retiring at the end of this season.
He is more enduring than Sandy Koufax, more accomplished than Fernando Valenzuela, more impactful than any hitter in the team’s 67-year history in Los Angeles.
He is not only the greatest Dodger, but also resides at the top of a list of the greatest athletes in Los Angeles history, joining Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant as Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one Los Angeles team and left behind a legacy that indelibly altered their franchise’s culture.
The golden era of Dodger baseball, 11 West Division titles in 12 years, two World Series championships? It is a glory that carries the shade of one man, his teammates following Kershaw’s daily leadership into a place that looks and feels like his unrelenting glare.
The Dodgers are unselfish? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers are accountable? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers have the strength to rise out of what seems like constant adversity? That’s Kershaw.
That he is retiring now is not a surprise. He’s been talking about it for several years. He’s 37, his beard has turned gray, he’s battled all sorts of injuries, and he’s no longer a cornerstone of the rotation.
But that he is ending his career while pitching so well is a huge surprise. His fastball crosses the plate in slow motion, but he is still able to junk it up enough to go 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA including going 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August.
He can still battle. He can still compete. And while there will be much emotion surrounding his final home start Friday against the San Francisco Giants, he could pitch again during the postseason, making an emergency start or even pitching out of the bullpen.
How great would it be to see him finish strong in October? It is his resilience in October that has defined his career here. Although he has one MVP award, three Cy Young awards, 222 wins and 3,039 strikeouts, those aren’t the numbers that many people will remember.
A 4.49 ERA in 39 postseason appearances, those are the numbers.
That’s the failure that Kershaw endured, that’s the stain that he once felt, those are the results that actually certify his greatness.
Clayton Kershaw receives a standing ovation from fans during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 20. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The St. Louis Cardinals shelled him. The Houston Astros cheated him. The Washington Nationals rocked him. And two years ago, in his most recent postseason start, gritting through a severely injured shoulder that should have kept him off the mound, the Arizona Diamondbacks shelled him for six runs before he could get two outs.
Yet he never complained about the injury. He never made excuses for anything. He never griped that he was pitching on short rest, or pitching with a bum arm, or pitching with a terrible offense and an untrustworthy bullpen.
He kept imploding in the postseason, yet he kept coming back, year after year after year. He never let his failures own him, he never let them even slow him, until he finally overcame his curses by going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in a 2020 World Series run that ended with a championship win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
When the Dodgers clinched that title, Kershaw was seen staring up into the heavens, thankful that redemption was finally his. He was injured last year and didn’t pitch in the postseason, but he was part of that team nonetheless, giving him two titles that all but fulfilled his career.
He had one more personal goal, though, and he reached it this summer by becoming only the 20th player to record 3,000 strikeouts.
After that game, a win over the Chicago White Sox in early July, the stoic Kershaw finally acknowledged the chills of spending his entire career with one team, and the impact of his journey.
“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” Kershaw said that night. “It’s just kind of something that happened. Over time, I think as you get older, and you appreciate one organization a little bit more — the Dodgers have stuck with me too. It hasn’t been all roses. I know that. There’s just a lot of mutual respect, I think. I’m super grateful now, looking back. To say that I’ve spent my whole career here and I will spend my whole career here — I have a lot more appreciation for it now.”
The appreciation is mutual, and Kershaw will surely hear it in these final days.
The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building amid a farewell roar that will live here forever.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had their first training camp practice on Thursday after the team announced their 69-player training camp roster on Wednesday.
The players were split into three groups, with Group A practicing from 8:45 to 10:15 a.m. ET, Group B practicing from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, and Group C practicing from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET.
It was only the first day of camp, but there were still some positive developments from practice. Here are some notes and observations from day one.
Group A
Ville Koivunen shines
Koivunen stood out the most during his practice session in the morning. He was knifing through players left and right, and showed a ton of improvement in his skating. His skating had gotten better towards the end of the 2024-25 season and during the Prospects Challenge, but has been taken up a notch to start camp.
He had an eight-game sample with the Penguins to end the 2024-25 season and finished with seven points. He got 5v5 ice-time with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and never looked out of place.
As long as he keeps it up at camp, he'll likely be a lock for the opening-night roster.
Erik Karlsson starts fast
Karlsson missed all of training camp last year due to an injury and didn't look like himself for the first several weeks of the season. He eventually settled in a bit, and ended up playing in all 82 regular-season games.
The Penguins' No. 1 defenseman is fully healthy at this year's camp and looked the part on Thursday. His skating and playmaking were very noticeable throughout the session, and he even got to up against Penguins top prospect Harrison Brunicke in some 1v1 situations.
Karlsson has a lot to play for this year since he's trying to make Sweden's Olympic team after playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off. There's a chance that he really improves this year since he'll be under a new system.
Group B
Evgeni Malkin and Anthony Mantha skate together
Malkin and Mantha were in a lot of drills together and were feeding off one another during 2v2 drills.
It looked like head coach Dan Muse was trying to test them on the same line since there's a good chance he's looking at giving them top-six minutes together to start the regular season, and he was probably happy with the results.
Malkin was scoring some nice goals off the rush during drills and Mantha's skating looked to be fully back after suffering a torn ACL last November.
Jack St. Ivany is back healthy
St. Ivany is a dark-horse for the right side of the Penguins' defense, and he got off to a solid start on Thursday. He was showcasing his release and scored a few goals during some drills, and also skated really well.
St. Ivany was banged up for a good chunk of last season, but is back healthy and pushing for a spot on an already-crowded right side. Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang are locks for top-four minutes, but after that, it's anyone's game for the bottom-pairing spot. St. Ivany is going against Matt Dumba, Connor Clifton, and Harrison Brunicke, who had a five-star camp last year.
This is going to be a fun battle to watch over the next two weeks.
Group C
Kevin Hayes
Hayes was the best player during Group C's session before going down with an injury. Defenseman Ryan Graves hit him along the boards, and Hayes stayed down for a few moments before some trainers helped him skate off the ice.
Muse told reporters after practice that Hayes is being evaluated for an upper-body injury, so we'll see if he's on the ice for Friday's practice.
Before the injury, Hayes was playing like someone who knows there's a lot of competition for a roster spot. He was protecting the puck beautifully and being a pest defensively during 2v2 drills.
He's heading into his second season with the Penguins after finishing the 2024-25 season with 13 goals and 23 points in 64 games.
Murashov had a great Prospects Challenge for the Penguins and is riding that momentum into training camp. He was paired with fellow goaltender Joel Blomqvist in Group C, and was the better goalie.
He was showcasing his agility in the crease and didn't give up a lot of goals during drills. He was challenging shooters throughout the session and looked calm and composed.
He's still probably at least a year away from becoming a full-time NHL goaltender, but the talent is very much there. The next step in his development is being the starting goaltender in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this year.
LAS VEGAS - The Golden Knights opened training camp on Thursday with star center Jack Eichel participating in only the first half of the first of three practice sessions.
Coach Bruce Cassidy said Eichel didn’t skate in the second session because he had "a little tweak," and because it was the first day of camp, they didn’t want to risk it.
Earlier in the day, Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon reiterated his stance that Eichel's contract extension is a top priority.
McCrimmon added that nothing regarding Eichel's deal is contingent on Edmonton's Connor McDavid or Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, both also in extension talks with their respective teams.
"I think from our standpoint, our situation is independent," McCrimmon said. "And I would say what I said in July - Jack is a priority. I think he feels the organization's been very good for him ... and we'll continue to have dialogue.
"We have tremendous regard for the player, what he's meant to our organization."
What he means is a Stanley Cup in his first full season with Vegas, in 2023, and the team feeling it's a legitimate contender to win another title as long as he's on the roster.
In his three-plus seasons with the Knights, Eichel has 253 points, including a career high 94 last season, to go along with a career-best 66 assists.
Eichel, who finished fifth in voting for both the Hart and Selke trophies, said recently his focus is only what he can control and isn't necessarily concerned with his contract.
"That's sort of been my mindset," Eichel said. "And what are the things that I focus on? Preparing for the season. Getting my mind and body in the best place to be successful and help our hockey team, and that's more so my focus. I think anything else sort of just takes care of itself when you do your job well.
"If contracts happen organically, then it happens. Right now, you're just focused on trying to get yourself in as good of a place as you can be to start the season and help the hockey team."
Sproat, who gets the start on Friday night, has been impressive over his first two big league starts, allowing just three runs in 12.0 innings while walking four and striking out 10.
And he was unscored upon in his last outing, when he fired 6.0 innings of shutout ball against the Rangers at Citi Field.
If the Mets reach the postseason, the expectation is that Nolan McLean will be a lock to start one of the games in the Wild Card Series. The other start or two? That's up in the air.
Kodai Senga could possibly make a start, but he could also be left off a potential postseason roster. Meanwhile, David Peterson -- who was touched up for six runs on Wednesday -- has a 5.23 ERA in 65.1 innings spanning 12 starts in the second half of the season.
That potentially leaves a possible piggyback outing from Clay Holmes and Sean Manaea, and a start for Sproat as the other most sensible options in the Wild Card Series.
McLean has been phenomenal since debuting, with a 1.19 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in 37.2 innings over six starts. He has allowed just 25 hits while walking 12 and striking out 40.
And what's been just as impressive as McLean's filthy arsenal has been his poise on the mound, his ability to pitch deep into games, and how he has quickly righted the ship and battled through outings where he doesn't have his best stuff.
He enters Saturday's start with a groundball rate of 62.9 percent and having allowed just one home run.
If things stay on track, McLean would possibly be lined up to pitch again next Thursday against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, which could theoretically set him up to pitch Game 1 of the Wild Card Series the following Tuesday -- should the Mets be there.
The Mets' offense should feast
The Nationals are a very bad baseball team.
They have the third-most losses in baseball (ahead of just the Rockies and White Sox), and have allowed the second-most runs in the majors (ahead of only the Rockies). The Nats also have the second-worst run differential in the sport, ahead of just the Rockies.
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the second inning against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Put it all together and this should be a field day for a Mets offense that has been hit and miss this season -- but has looked better lately.
Cade Cavalli and Mitchell Parker are expected to get starts in this series, while MacKenzie Gore is not.
What's the plan for Sunday?
Manaea was placed on paternity leave before Thursday's game, meaning it's possible he won't be able to pitch on Sunday.
The expectation had been that he and Holmes would again piggyback.
Asked before Wednesday's game if Manaea could still pitch on Sunday, Carlos Mendoza was unsure, noting that if Manaea is able to throw while he's on leave that he could potentially be ready.
In a world where Manaea can't go on Sunday, the Mets might have to lean heavily on the bullpen behind Holmes.
The out-of-town scoreboard
The Mets will enter play on Friday still leading the Diamondbacks, Giants, and Reds in the race for the third and final wild card spot in the National League.
As the Mets battle the Nats, here's what their closest competitors will be doing:
Diamondbacks: vs. Phillies for three games Reds: vs. Cubs for four games Giants: at Dodgers for four games
Predictions
Who will the MVP of the series be?
Pete Alonso
Alonso has been heating up power-wise
Which Mets pitcher will have the best start?
Nolan McLean
It's McLean until proven otherwise
Which Nats player will be a thorn in the Mets' side?
The goal is to one day have more balance, to feature a lineup that includes free-swinging sluggers but also ancillary pieces that can keep a rally moving with a well-placed ball in play. The problem for the Giants is it might be years before the changes behind the scenes are seen on the field, and right now they still have a group that can seem stuck in the mud far too often.
That’s never been more apparent than in the seventh inning Thursday.
After failing to score any of the six runners who drew a walk from Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Giants went walk, walk, strikeout, walk, walk, strikeout, strikeout in the seventh against right-handers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen. With the game, and possibly their slim playoff hopes, on the line, nobody could put one in the gap, or find grass in front of an outfielder, or even hit a sacrifice fly.
Nobody could do that all night, really. The lineup managed just one hit and wasted 10 walks and a stellar performance from Logan Webb, losing 2-1 and falling three games (plus the tiebreaker) behind the New York Mets with nine to go.
“We put pressure on them. We just couldn’t get a hit,” manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s happened for us some this year. We certainly made their guys work, made their starter throw a lot of pitches, got him out after 5 1/3 and usually we do a little damage off the bullpen. We couldn’t do it other than drawing some walks and we couldn’t get a big hit.”
The lineup struck out 14 times, including six times in the last three innings. The two biggest ones came from two guys in the heart of the lineup.
With the bases loaded in a 2-1 game, Willy Adames took a 2-2 sinker at the top of the zone that the Dodgers wanted. It was close, and the 3-2 pitch was just as close at the bottom of the zone. That one was called a strike as Adames protested. Matt Chapman then struck out swinging, stranding the three runners.
“That’s why guys hit in the middle of the lineup. It just didn’t happen tonight,” Melvin said. “It’s frustrating. We had traffic all night long and you’d think we’d get one or two (home). Especially with Webby doing what he’s doing on the mound, we saw a lot of pitches and had a lot of traffic, but couldn’t get a hit, couldn’t get a big hit.”
Melvin called it a “Jekyll and Hyde” situation, and that’s really been the case the entire second half. The Giants were historically bad for several weeks and then turned into the best offense in baseball once everyone wrote them off. With a chance to catch the sliding Mets over the last week, they once again have gone silent.
Incredibly, the Giants still might have found a way to win this one, but they gave a run away in the bottom of the sixth. With two in scoring position and one out, Mookie Betts hit a grounder to Adames, who threw a perfect strike to the plate. Patrick Bailey — who had the night’s only hit — dropped the ball as he tried to put down the tag. A Freddie Freeman single made it a two-run inning.
Bailey said there was no excuse. Webb made a good pitch and Adames made a great throw, he said.
“I dropped the ball,” Bailey said, “Which is unacceptable.”
That whole sequence from the bottom of the sixth through the top of the seventh wasted a bounceback performance from Webb, who allowed two runs — one earned — in seven innings and threw 103 pitches on a muggy night at Dodger Stadium. After throwing just eight sinkers last Saturday, he went back to his roots Thursday, firing sinkers and changeups at the Dodgers, who had just five hits of their own.
“He was fantastic,” Melvin said. “He deserved to win that game.”
MARYLAND
HEIGHTS, Mo. -- To no one’s surprise, Jim Montgomery saw some good,
and some not-so-good to open St. Louis Blues training camp for the
2025-26 season.
The
Blues coach, opening his first full camp after he was hired Nov. 25,
2024, and his coaching staff put two groups on the ice for the first
time Thursday, will do so again Friday before opening preseason play
Saturday against the Dallas Stars.
“Pretty
good overall,” Montgomery said.
“Intensity was good. Pace was slow in a couple of drills, but
really good in other drills when we had to really battle each other.
I liked the way our second and third effort is naturally being there
on the first day. Execution was not where we would like it, but you
kind of expect that on Day 1.”
Montgomery
and the Blues went on an unprecedented run last year that saw the
team reach the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in three
seasons, highlighted by a franchise-record 12-game winning streak to
get in as the second wild card before falling to the Winnipeg Jets in
seven games of the first round.
“It’s
great that ‘Monty’ is going to have a full training camp to get
us ready,” Blues
general manager Doug Armstrong said as he enters his final season as
GM.
“I think one of the things you want to be careful against is when
you finish as strong as you did, you think that that is going to be a
natural carryover. One of the things you understand over time is like
[Logan]
Mailloux
doesn’t care how we played, [Pius]
Suter
doesn’t care how we played, [Nick]
Bjugstad
doesn’t care how well we played at the end. We have to build our
own team again. We have to start that foundation. There’s a lot of
things that the players can remember and learn from from last year,
but to think that they can replicate it by just showing up, hockey
doesn’t work that way. The NHL doesn’t work that way. Just the
understanding of when I look at the Central Division (and) how strong
that is right now, we have to be ready to go at the start of the
season. It’s going to be a battle every night. When you’re coming
from behind, you can sneak up on teams. This year, hopefully we
proved to some teams that we’re a capable opponent and we’ll get
their best game and they’ll get ours and we’ll see how we fit.”
For
Montgomery, he was able to adjust and implement on the fly in the
middle of the season. How he gets to begin fresh, anew in putting in
place what needs to transpire.
“Competing
is going to be No. 1,” he said.
“Playing with pace, being selfless, things that gave us a lot of
success, but we need to ramp it up a couple levels. You’ve got to
get off to a great start, so camp, if you don’t have a camp, you
don’t get off to a good start. Today was a good Day 1. I expect
them to be better tomorrow.”
Suter
(two years, $8.25 million) and Bjugstad (two years, $3.75 million)
were the top two free agent signings this past summer.
“Just
the overall depth it gives us, right,” Montgomery said. “Both of
them real smart, veteran players. You can tell already they
understood how we want to play. They were making good, defensive
plays and real good offensive support plays.”
Mailloux,
a defenseman acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for Zack Bolduc,
will get his first big chance to earn his way onto an NHL roster.
“He
was known as an offensive defenseman; that’s what he’s been his
whole career, and I can see the shot, I can see the instincts,”
Montgomery said. “But what was really impressive was the defensive
stick. He got his stick on a lot of pucks, ended a lot of plays,
killed plays. That was nice to see.
#stlblues will be working quite a bit with Logan Mailloux (No. 23) in the D-zone. They know what he can do with a puck on his stick ... pic.twitter.com/yQsBZ47e46
“I
think that’s what his role was last year was to work on that
(defense) and you can tell. He’s a conscientious, good teammate
because he got better. His stick, we watched clips of him and it was
very evident in the American (Hockey) League that he was doing a real
good job with his stick.”
And
veteran Milan Lucic, invited in to camp on a PTO, comes with
familiarity and a chance.
“He's
got to win a job,” Montgomery said. “I know that sounds simple,
but he's got to be good 200 feet, he's got to know what we're doing
defensively. There was one rush drill where he took it wide and like
that was NHL speed. He took it hard to the net. Those are things that
we think, as a team, we need to be better at than last year and maybe
he's someone that can help us.”
Added
Blues captain Brayden Schenn on Lucic: “He’s a guy that you want
on your team. He can control the bench, control the room. He’s a
guy when you have on your team, guys know he’s out there. That’s
an important guy you need in your locker room and on your team. I’m
looking forward – I think we all are – to have him. Everyone
speaks very highly of him. He’s a heck of a teammate.”
As
the Blues begin their journey to the Oct. 9 season-opener against the
Minnesota Wild at home, does Game 7 against the Jets still sting and
should it serve as a motivator?
“I
think it’s motivation because we don’t like the way we finished
that game,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t advance, we should have
advanced, but we’re not laboring it, we’re going to learn from it
and we’re going to get better. That’s our mindset and starting
off camp right now, we’re not thinking Game 7, we’re thinking
about getting off to a great start this year.”
Robertson looks a better bet for Merseyside derby, a fresh test for Bournemouth, protests at West Ham and more
It would be a surprise to see Arne Slot start Milos Kerkez against Everton, given the left-back’s struggles against Burnley last weekend. Kerkez was booked for diving and was lucky to avoid a second yellow after fouling Jaidon Anthony before being substituted for Andy Robertson after 38 minutes at Turf Moor. Surely Slot will not risk a similar performance in the cauldron of the Merseyside derby, especially with such a dependable option in Robertson and the tricky Iliman Ndiaye on the right wing for Everton? “It’s a massive jump [playing for Liverpool],” said the Scot as he came to the defence of Kerkez this week. “I came from Hull City, he’s come from Bournemouth, and it’s probably quite similar. He will be the starting left-back for Liverpool in the future and it’s up to me to push him this season and help him improve.” Kerkez is lucky to have such an experienced mentor, but may face a wait to get back into Slot’s starting XI after Robertson started against Atlético Madrid in midweek. Michael Butler
Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar announced the 2025-26 season will be the last of his NHL career.
“I’ve decided that this year is going to be my last year playing in the NHL,” Kopitar said in a press conference on Thursday.
The Kings captain made the announcement with his wife and two kids sitting next to him at the table. He said it’s time to be available for the family.
“These guys sitting here with me have been with me for the past 20-plus years,” he said. “Now, they deserve a husband and a dad to be home and present.”
The timing for Kopitar to hang up his skates fits with the remaining duration of his contract. This is the final year of a two-year contract he signed in July 2023, earning $7 million per season.
Since the Kings drafted Kopitar 11th overall in the 2005 draft, the Slovenian center has played 19 NHL seasons, soon to be 20. He's feeatured in more than 1,500 regular-season and playoff games, all for Los Angeles.
Kopitar will go down as one of the best Kings in franchise history, if not the best. He already leads the organization in games played (1,454) and assists (838). Furthermore, considering his consistency over the last few years, he’ll likely become the franchise’s point leader as he’s just 29 points behind Marcel Dionne’s 1,307.
Speaking of Kopitar’s consistency, in campaigns where the 38-year-old played at least 50 games, he has never scored fewer than 50 points. His career high came in the 2017-18 campaign when he scored 35 goals and 92 points. He finished seventh in the NHL for scoring that year, alongside Pittsburgh Penguins right winger Phil Kessel.
In addition to his scoring consistency, L.A.’s captain could be counted on to suit up for nearly every contest. In the last eight seasons, Kopitar has only missed four games across the regular season and post-season.
Kopitar has accomplished many great things in his long career. The highlight of it all would be his two Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014. To add to that hardware, he has two Selke Trophies, three Lady Byng Trophies and a Mark Messier Leadership Award.
