Category: Sports News

Zac Thornton was terrific in a bounce-back start Saturday afternoon and the Mets slugged six home runs, including three off Gerrit Cole, in a 12-2 Subway Series victory over the Yankees in front of 46,864 at Yankee Stadium.

Francisco Lindor had two home runs for the Mets, including his eighth career grand slam. He now has 24 career multi-home run games.

The win means the Mets clinched at least a split of the season series between the teams. Entering Sunday’s Subway Series finale, the Mets hold a 3-2 advantage over their Bronx neighbors.

The Mets’ victory also delayed the Yankees' hopes of clinching an inevitable playoff berth, at least for one day. The Yanks held a magic number of two to clinch a postseason slot going into Saturday’s game.

Here are the takeaways...

-The Mets pounded Cole (8-9) for five runs and nine hits in 4.1 innings, including home runs by Lindor, Luis Torrens and Carson Benge. The Yankees had a reliever warming up as early as the third inning as Cole struggled and Cole heard some boos as he walked toward the dugout after being removed. Cole’s been one of baseball’s best pitchers over the length of his career, but he’s had trouble with the longball against the Mets. He has allowed 17 homers against them in 50.2 innings over 10 starts. That’s more than three homers per nine innings, more than three times worse than Cole’s lifetime rate. In five career Subway Series starts, Cole has an 8.49 ERA.

-Cole has been burned by the longball lately, too. He was coming off a start in which he gave up four home runs in a loss to the Padres, including one to each of the first three batters of the game. Saturday’s start began the same way, at least pertaining to the first hitter. Lindor cracked a 359-foot drive to right for a leadoff homer and a 1-0 Met advantage. It was Lindor’s 19th homer of the season, his fifth leadoff homer of the year and his 36th career leadoff homer. In the second inning, Torrens smoked a 2-1 pitch from Cole over the wall in left field, a two-run shot that gave the Mets a 3-0 lead. 

-Benge’s home run came with one out in the third inning and it was a high, arcing drive to right-center that traveled 368 feet, according to Statcast. Also according to Statcast, it would have been a home run in just one of the 30 MLB ballparks – the one it was hit in. Whatever the case, it counts as Benge’s 17th home run of the season and it gave the Mets a 4-0 lead. 

-The Mets got their fifth run in the fifth. Juan Soto, who heard boos again from the Yankee Stadium crowd, doubled into the right-field corner leading off and, one batter later, Benge swatted an RBI single into center. 

-Soto hit his 25th home run with two outs in the seventh inning, a drive to right. It came against lefty Tim Hill, who had mostly had success against Soto in his career. Entering the at-bat, Soto was 1-for-6 lifetime against Hill with three strikeouts. Soto’s home run gave the Mets a 6-2 lead.

-In the eighth, Torrens added an RBI double off reliever Bradley Hanner, expanding the Mets lead to 7-2. Torrens finished 2-for-4 with a homer, double and three RBI.

-Cody Bellinger had both RBI for the Yankees. He hit an RBI single in the fourth inning to drive in Paul Goldschmidt, who had led off with a double for the Yanks’ first hit of the game. In the sixth, he smoked his 15th home run of the season over the right-field wall. It was the second straight game with a homer for Bellinger. Interestingly, the blast came just two pitches after Thornton, who normally works at a brisk pace, was cited for a pitch-clock violation. 

-Lindor had his huge day on the five-year anniversary of his three-homer game against the Yanks in 2021, if you recall that emotionally-charged affair at Citi Field. Lindor’s slam on Saturday came in the eighth inning off Hanner and pushed the Mets lead to 11-2. Lindor now has 14 career home runs against the Yankees. 

-With two outs in the ninth, Jared Young homered off Hanner, too. It was Young’s ninth of the season.

-The Mets, who had 14 hits, including eight for extra-bases, scored in every inning except for the fourth and the sixth.

-When the game was still relatively close, the Yankees had a strong threat in the seventh inning, putting runners on first and second with one out after a Spencer Jones single and a walk to George Lombard Jr. After a visit to the mound by interim manager Andy Green to give Thornton a moment, the lefty got Anthony Volpe to bounce into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. 

-Entering the day, the Yankees had been 33-18 in games against left-handed starters. Two of their best hitters, Ben Rice and Luis Garcia Jr., who both bat lefty, did not start the game. 

-When Cole struck out A.J. Ewing in the second inning, it gave him 1,029 career whiffs as a Yankee, moving him past Al Downing and into 11th place on the club’s all-time list. Overall, Cole struck out four and did not walk a batter. 

Game MVP: Zac Thornton

Thornton, who was coming off his worst start of the season in which he got dinged for four homers by the Giants. Saturday, the rookie lefty retired the first nine batters he faced and gave up just two runs and five hits over seven innings, working economically. Thornton (4-5) threw just 81 pitches (61 strikes) and perhaps would’ve come out for the eighth inning if the Mets hadn’t had a long top half of the frame, scoring five times. Thornton struck out four and walked one.

Highlights

LEADOFF LINDOR 🔥

Francisco Lindor homers in the Subway Series! pic.twitter.com/xvjSIEx8Zi

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

Zac Thornton strikes out Aaron Judge as part of a 1-2-3 first inning 💪 pic.twitter.com/ATHwDbffvA

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

Luis Torrens with a two-run blast! 👏 pic.twitter.com/C9JZxOb8NJ

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

CARSON BENGE'S TURN TO GO YARD!

The Mets have three home runs in three innings against Gerrit Cole! pic.twitter.com/PotWnnd2WB

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

Cody Bellinger gets the Yankees on the board pic.twitter.com/clua9DsFNk

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 12, 2026

Carson Benge makes it 5-1 Mets! pic.twitter.com/gE1RUTlVoa

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

Cody Bellinger homers for a second straight day! pic.twitter.com/LOJMKWZVag

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 12, 2026

JUAN SOTO HOMERS IN THE SUBWAY SERIES! pic.twitter.com/Up9Apm6l9z

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

ZAC THORNTON IS HYPE!

A double play to get him through 7 innings! https://t.co/IoDsaGd2RVpic.twitter.com/cSZstcAIxu

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Yankees complete this year's edition of the Subway Series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m.

Christian Scott (4-4, 3.81 ERA) will toe the slab against Cam Schlittler (13-6, 2.01 ERA). 

The Braves are rotating their lineup a bit to mitigate the Phillies’ ability to play the matchup game. Instead of Harris batting cleanup behind Olson, Albies bats cleanup between the two as a deterrent against lefty relievers. Additionally, Mauricio Dubon replaces Mike Yastrzemski in left field.

Meanwhile, the Phillies shuffle their outfielders, facing the righty Mahle instead of the lefty Sale.

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, September 12, 7:15 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

There are currently 14 games left in the season, and once again, the D-backs will be playing meaningful baseball in the second half of September. Really, I tend to think that’s all you can ask for. We are almost in a post-season situation already: it took 12 games for Arizona to reach the World Series in 2023, and that was with two of the three series being sweeps. And as we all know, almost anything can happen over that number of contests. The bulk of the teams in the major leagues would happily swap places with the D-backs right now: per Fangraphs, 17 of them have lower playoff odds than Arizona.

But expectations are clearly that it’s going to come down to the last three games, against the Padres in San Diego, the weekend after next. Here’s how you voted.

Brought to you by FanDuel

Nobody thinks it will be a meaningless series. Everyone thinks that we will go into the series with San Diego and Arizona still locked in a battle for a wild-card spot. The great majority think the Diamondbacks will need to win the set to make it through, with relatively small but equal numbers thinking one and three wins will be required. Of course, anything can happen between now and then, and as Snake_Bitten pointed out this morning, “They have some games to win before the season finale series.” There are tough contests remaining, most obviously the trio against the New York Yankees next weekend.

However, if you go over and lurk on Gaslamp Ball, you’ll see a fanbase who are perhaps more like us than we want to admit. Read the comments, and a lot of them might well seem familiar in tone. Padres fans are both excited about a potential post-season, and concerned about the team’s obvious deficiencies bringing it all crashing down. The recency bias both there and here is almost impressive. Confidence surges up and collapses back down, with each victory or defeat. It’s increasingly true as the number of games remaining is reduced, making each win or loss that much more significant.

Part of me, naturally, wishes that the Padres collapse, and the D-backs cruise into the playoffs, able to rest their best players over three meaningless games in San Diego. Because, on the one hand, it doesn’t matter in the slightest how you reach the post-season. 2023, and all the snarky “backing into the playoffs” comments, laid that myth to rest. But everything coming down to a win or go home series – perhaps even a win or go home game – is the stuff of legend. It’s the kind of thing which is great if your team wins. But defeat, and it’s a long, dark winter of quiet recriminations and pondering all of the “what ifs?”. It wouldn’t be something to forget in a hurry, either way.

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Here’s the Twins lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

Can the Dodgers make it nine in a row, facing the Marlins?

Saturday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Marlins
• Ballpark: loanDepot Park, Miami
• Start time: 1:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The Royals pulled off their first win against Boston in over a year last night. If they win tonight, it would be their first series victory over the AL East team since they took three of four in August 2022 and their first series victory in Boston since July of 2017. The first win of that series was the last of a nine-game winning streak ahead of the 26-35 stretch that finished their season and guaranteed they would miss the playoffs for the final time with the last core group that had won them a World Series.

Many of the players from the final game of the series have retired. Only Salvador Perez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Christian Vázquez, and Drew Pomeranz are still playing major league ball. Ramon Torres started at third for the Royals in that game. Do you remember him? Because I sure as heck don’t. It was Devers’ fifth game as a big leaguer and he hit his second career home run off of Jason Hammel. The Royals had a four-run eighth inning to pull off the comeback win. It was capped off by a two-run Alex Gordon triple to center.

Anyway, enough nostalgia.

Today’s game will see Randy Dobnak take the mound for KC. Dobnak had his roughest outing of the season two starts ago against Miami, and some among us wondered if Dobnak Time might finally be coming to an end. But he was strong in picking up the Royals’ only victory against Toronto last week. So perhaps it can keep going for a bit longer.

Ranger Suarez will go for Boston. He has faced KC once already this year and allowed a single run in 4.1 innings while striking out 3 and walking 3. It wasn’t his best outing, but he didn’t do enough to prevent Boston from winning, either. He’s a lefty, so this will be a tough game for KC’s offense.

Lineups

Still no Jac Caglianone, despite him taking batting practice and shagging fly balls ahead of last night’s game. I guess his first 30-home run season will have to be next season.

The Nats snapped a 7 game losing streak with a tight 4-3 win last night. Now they will look to build off that and claim a series win. They have actually been playing fairly well at home and will seek to continue that. The offense will have a tough task against an underrated young pitcher.

With a righty on the mound, the Nats will make a couple changes. Abimelec Ortiz will be playing first base in this contest. James Wood will actually move to DH. That means the outfield will be Daylen Lile, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews. Keibert Ruiz will be behind the plate. Andrew Alvarez is on the mound.

The Angels actually have an all righty lineup. Jose Siri, Oswald Peraza and Kyren Paris come in the lineup. Tyler Heineman also comes in behind the plate. This righty heavy lineup plans to counter Alvarez. Walbert Urena is a 22 year old flame thrower who is one of the most underrated pitchers in the league.

Game Info:

Stadium: Nationals Park

Time: 4:05 PM EST

TV: Nationals.TV

Radio: 106.7 The Fan

After last night, the Nats have a weight off their shoulders. Hopefully this can lead to some better play down the stretch. It will be tough against a pitcher like Urena though. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats!

The San Francisco Giants lost their series opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday. Today, they’ll try to even the series up.

On the mound for San Francisco is left-hander César Perdomo, a 24-year old rookie who will making his third professional appearance. Perdomo has been excellent so far, posting a 0.90 ERA and a 3.40 FIP, with eight strikeouts and just two walks in 10 innings. In his last game, he threw six shutout innings against the Mets in his first career start.

For the Padres, it’s veteran right-hander Michael King, who makes his 30th start of the season. The 31-year old King is 10-9 on the year, with a 3.00 ERA, a 4.17 FIP, and 144 strikeouts to 66 walks in 168 innings. King has been on an absolute heater lately, with three straight starts with at least six innings thrown and no runs allowed.

Enjoy the baseball, everyone!

Game #149

Who: San Francisco Giants (62-86) vs. San Diego Padres (79-68)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 1:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

It’s September and the Red Sox are heading to the playoffs. And yet a certain listlessness seems to have overtaken Fenway Park in recent days. With several players resting up with minor injuries while others work their way back into playing shape, it almost feels like a second spring training. The Sox aren’t charging into October so much as moseying in its general direction.

How much should this worry us? Maybe not all that much (see, e.g. tomorrow’s starting pitcher, Peyton “Momentum” Tolle). But it’s not a ton of fun.

They’ll get back to it this afternoon behind Ranger Suárez. With Ceddanne Rafaela still on the IL, Jarren Duran makes yet another start in centerfield, while Anthony Seigler gets his first start since being recalled to replace the injured Eli White.

First Pitch: 4:10 PM

TV: NESN

Reason for optimism: Jesús Luzardo gets positive MRI results after scratch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ATLANTA — After the Phillies scratched Jesús Luzardo on Friday night from his scheduled Saturday start because of shoulder stiffness, their left-hander did not sound too concerned.

Luzardo underwent an MRI Friday night after the discomfort that had been bothering him worsened in the days following his complete game against the Braves.

“I don’t know exactly the medical terms, but it was a positive outcome,” Luzardo said before Saturday’s contest. “No structural damage, really. Nothing new.”

Instead, Luzardo said the issue is inflammation, which the Phillies believe is behind the stiffness and discomfort.

Don Mattingly came away encouraged, too.

“It was kind of what we thought,” Mattingly said. “We didn’t feel like there was anything truly going on.”

Luzardo had been scheduled to make his 30th start of the season Saturday, five days after throwing the first complete game of his career.

He held Atlanta scoreless on two hits with 12 strikeouts over nine innings Monday at Citizens Bank Park, needing 109 pitches in a 1-0 win.

The shoulder did not bother him during that start.

“During the game, I felt great,” Luzardo said. “Even at the end of the night, even the next day, I felt pretty good. And then it was just kind of the days after that that didn’t feel too good.”

Luzardo said he had been dealing with some soreness beforehand, but it became more noticeable as the week went on.

“It definitely got worse after this last start, just progressively throughout the five days,” he said.

Whether the nine-inning workload contributed is difficult to know.

“If you ask me, I think it’s a coincidence,” Luzardo said. “Especially because I felt good in the moment. I honestly don’t know. Maybe it didn’t help. But again, it’s September.”

Luzardo said he feels better than he did two days ago, although the shoulder has fluctuated from day to day. He has not received an injection and is taking anti-inflammatory medication.

For now, he plans to take a couple days off from throwing. With the Phillies also off Monday, there is no urgency to establish exactly when he’ll take the ball again.

“I think the next thing for us is just listen to his body,” Mattingly said. “It’s gonna tell us what to do.”

Mattingly said trying to determine now whether Luzardo will make his next turn or need additional time would be premature.

A return sometime next week remains possible.

Luzardo certainly wants it to be.

“If it was up to me, I would have pitched today,” he said. “[That] probably wouldn’t have been the smartest decision. So it’s always nice to have someone to kind of pull me back.”

That was essentially the conversation between Luzardo and the Phillies before they scratched him. He believed he could take the ball. The team preferred not to risk turning the issue into something that could linger into October.

Asked how differently he would approach it if the stakes were higher, Luzardo didn’t hesitate.

“If today was Game 7 of the World Series, I’m throwing no matter what,” he said. “But I think to get to that point, I’d probably better be smart now than it is to throw today and then see my body get worse throughout the next couple weeks.”

That’s where both sides seem to be.

There is optimism that this won’t become a long-term issue, but no reason to force Luzardo back onto the mound before his shoulder tells them he’s ready.

“I’m more frustrated that it’s happening at the time that it’s happening,” Luzardo said. “I know that it’s something that I’m not worried about, like, my future and my long term.”

For a Phillies team closing in on the postseason, that’s the important distinction.

The timing frustrates Luzardo.

The MRI results don’t scare him.

Juan Soto didn’t hustle out of the box for the second straight at-bat, and Ron Darling didn’t let it pass.

A night after not sprinting to first while hitting a game-ending double-play ball, the Mets’ $765 million man followed Francisco Lindor’s leadoff home run with a grounder to second base on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Anthony Volpe, the converted shortstop still getting used to the position, bobbled the ball, causing Soto to speed up down the line. The Mets designated hitter was still narrowly thrown out at first after Volpe recovered to make the play. 

Darling fell short of ripping Soto, but didn’t let him off the hook for not running hard right away. 

“If you’re not going to run, things like that are going to happen,” Darling said on SNY. “Bobbled. If you don’t run out of the box, then you end up being embarrassed. DHing today because last night, I don’t know what his physical ailments are; he can’t play left field in this ballpark right now.”

Soto appeared to not make a full effort to snare a single to left by Ryan McMahon in the eighth inning Friday night, allowing a run to score and the Yankees to push their lead to 6-3 in a game that ended 6-4.

“He had two balls drop in front of him last night. If you do the math, it might have cost the Mets the game,” play-by-play man Gary Cohen added. 

He went on to note Soto’s injuries to “both calves” this season.

They could be either hampering him or making him less reluctant to run. 

Soto was on the injured list for two and a half weeks in April with a right calf strain as the Mets went on a season-defining 12-game losing streak in his absence.

He then missed 31 more games over July and August with a Grade 2 left calf strain. Soto returned to the lineup on Aug. 29.

He seemed to put any questions about his calf to rest when he hustled out a double in the top of the fourth inning, tagged up to third and then scored on a Carson Benge single. 

 “He showed no issues with his calf,” Keith Henrndez said. “He ran like the devil on that double.” 

Soto then mashed a mammoth solo home run in the seventh to extend the Mets’ lead to 6-2.