Category: Sports News

Following the Mets' 7-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, manager Carlos Mendoza and the players spoke about the game...

Sean Manaea was once again tasked with saving the Mets bullpen after David Peterson struggled to get past five innings.

While it wasn't Manaea's finest outing, he was still effective and helped the get the final 12 outs of the game to save the relievers for Thursday's rubber game against Arizona.

"Each day is trending in the right direction," Manaea said after the game. "Changeup and sweeper were really good. Sinker, I kinda lost it there [in the eighth inning], but overall I thought things are trending in the right direction."

Thursday marked Manaea's 10th career relief appearance of at least four innings and his third overall this season. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks against the Diamondbacks. 

Manaea said that he's doing a lot of different drills to potentially make him feel better. He said that every day, there's a plan for him and he just executes it. 

Prior to first pitch, Mendoza said he doesn't plan to go to a six-man rotation. He reiterated that after the game, and was asked whether Manaea could replace a struggling Peterson in the rotation. The Mets skipper said that's not in his plan and they will continue to go with the same rotation they started the season with.

Manaea has learned to be comfortable in his new role.

"I’m here to help this team win any way I can," Manaea said. "My job is to do what I’ve been doing. I’m very happy doing that. Like I said before, we have five really good starting pitchers. I can help any way I can."

"[Manaea was] Good, able to keep us there," Mendoza said of his reliever. "Couple of plays we couldn’t make, gave up a couple of runs there. He was aggressive... I thought he was good."

Luis Robert Jr. unable to make the play

Those "couple play" Mendoza mentioned came in the eighth inning. 

First, Robert Jr. nearly made a sliding catch in center but trapped it, allowing Ildemaro Vargas to get on with one out. Three batters later, and with the bases loaded, Jorge Barrosa lined a pitch to centerfield. The ball continued to travel toward the wall and Robert Jr. seemed to have a bead on it, but when he put his glove up to catch it, the ball bounced off it and fell for a double. 

"He got there. Maybe that ball just kept on going and it went further than he anticipated," Mendoza said of the double. "He got there, he just missed it." 

The two plays cost Manaea and the Mets two runs.

Hip, hip, Jorge 🎉 pic.twitter.com/WWDQejO5OZ

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 8, 2026

Benge gets off the schneid

Carson Benge has struggled since Opening Day. He was 0-for-24 heading into the ninth inning of Wednesday's game. Benge got back on the hits board with a single through the right side.

"Yesterday, there were better at-bats. His work today was a lot better," Mendoza said of Benge. "Shorter, barrel going through the heart of the zone. The path was better. Good to see him get that hit right there. He’s going to be fine."

Benge has had a tough start to the season. He's slashing .108/.214/.403 with one home run and three RBI. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The only thing harder to come by than a winning streak for Tony Vitello’s squad has been days where they send the home fans happy.

How about two birds with one stone?

With back-to-back shutouts by their pitching staff and a lineup that suddenly showed some thump, the Giants secured consecutive wins at Oracle Park for the first time this year, beating the Phillies 5-0 in front of a sunny Wednesday afternoon crowd of 36,106.

Maybe, just maybe, the Giants’ fortunes are starting to turn.

“It’d be awesome to be in a better situation, but I think we found some things out about ourselves that can be valuable in the long run,” the first-year manager said after securing the series. “And we’re also playing pretty good ball right now.”

Tyler Mahle led the Giants’ second shutout effort in a row but left the game with the score still knotted at zero. The vibes shifted as soon as Rafael Devers squared up the first pitch he saw from Aaron Nola with two outs and two on in the bottom of the sixth.

Devers’ second home run of the season — and just his third extra-base hit — gave the Giants their first lead, and a group of four relievers protected it to earn Matt Gage his first career win.

The past two wins improved their record to 3-7 at home and earned their series win was their second of the season. Now, to do something they weren’t able to after taking two of three from the Padres in San Diego: Build on it.

“I could see the change in vibes when we got the lead,” Devers said through a team Spanish-language interpreter. “But that’s just in the moment. We realize as a team that things can change really quickly.”

And that’s the beauty of baseball.

Devers entered Wednesday batting below the Mendoza line and 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position. He grounded into a double play with two on and no outs in the fifth as San Francisco squandered a second prime scoring opportunity to keep the game scoreless.

“I know the type of hitter I am,” Devers said. “I don’t really dwell on how things are going. I just know that eventually, things will start clicking for me, especially, because I know the type of player I am.”

The Giants’ fortunes will likely hinge on Devers’ ability to anchor the middle of the order. Since acquiring him from the Red Sox last June, they have played 13 games below .500.

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If Devers can get going, in theory, so could the rest of the Giants’ lineup. They scored more than three runs in all three games against the Phillies, something they had done just twice in the 10 games entering the series.

“Only occasionally have I been in dugouts or heard players talk about a guy where they see him, they put him on a pedestal that’s different than others,” Vitello said of Devers.

Before Devers’ home run, there were some signs the Giants had luck on their side: Willy Adames started the inning with a double that fell between three defenders in shallow right field. Luis Arraez won an ABS challenge to draw his first walk of the year. And when Matt Chapman had back-to-back challenges go against him, Devers made sure those losses were quickly forgotten.

Other things that will help the Giants recover from an awful start that left them with the worst record in the National League: A bullpen that didn’t allow a run over 5 ⅔ innings to end the series, Mahle pitching into the sixth for the first time, a tough schedule starting to lighten up.

“Everyone’s kind of s—ing on us because we started out 3-7, or whatever,” said Mahle, who used an elite splitter to finish off four of his five strikeouts. “But it could have easily been a different story. I think we’re feeling good and ready to go have a good road trip.”

So far this season, the Giants have played four opponents with playoff hopes. Vitello said the other day that his club ran into a “buzzsaw” in their second game — Yankees starter Cam Schlittler — and had been trying to play catch up ever since. 

“The first (series) was disappointing. There’s no shaking it,” Vitello said. “We got over emotional, our emotions were too high, we built it up too much and then got too low. And we also just didn’t play well. And we got beat.”

The Giants’ minus-27 run differential through 10 games was by far the worst in the majors and the franchise’s worst start to a season in more than a century. But after back-to-back wins, that margin is beginning to come back to earth: minus-16, no longer the worst in baseball.

“You start out 0-3, and it feels like you’re running in sand a little bit,” Vitello said. “But if you had a magic power and were able to remove that, we just played a road series against a tough divisional opponent, we played two teams that I assume … are predicted to be in the hunt as playoff teams, and we won two of those series and played .500 ball if I’m not mistaken.”

Now, as they head east for the first time this year, they have a chance to make up some ground. A road trip against the Orioles, Reds and Nationals should present a better chance to rack up wins than their first 13 games against the Yankees, Padres, Mets and Phillies.

“Especially after being in a little rut there, (we played) the kind of baseball we know we can play,” Mahle said. “Putting up zeros, guys playing defense and all over the base paths. That’s what we can do on a normal basis, and it showed the last two nights.”

The news on Zach Eflin’s injury came back on Wednesday evening and it was as bad as you could have guessed from the get-go. The Orioles announced that Eflin had Tommy John surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow on Wednesday.

The only surprising thing about the announcement is that we skipped the step where we find out that Eflin has a torn UCL and soon will be getting Tommy John surgery. He was known to be flying to Dallas yesterday to have a second opinion consult with one of the current commonly-used surgeons for TJ. Although they didn’t announce it yesterday, it’s clear that second opinion resulted in, “Let’s just get you scheduled tomorrow.”

This outcome was telegraphed when the Orioles placed Eflin on the 60-day injured list earlier this week, meaning it was clear to them he wouldn’t be back for a while. It was also telegraphed more or less from when he walked off the mound in his first start of the year. When a player throws a pitch, leaves with the trainer without doing any warm-up tosses, and the injury announcement is about his throwing elbow, that tends to end up here almost every time.

It’s a bummer of a development for Eflin and for the team. Eflin looked like he was back to a better version of himself with how he was pitching in spring training. It seemed like he might have been behind the back issues that caused him to miss a lot of time last season and pitch badly when he was not on the injured list. The Orioles re-signed Eflin for a $10 million contract for this season with a mutual option for 2027 because they were willing to bet on that comeback. It was working, at least until something entirely unrelated went wrong.

The mutual option for 2027 was set for $25 million. There’s no chance now that the Orioles exercise that option. Perhaps there’s a chance of renegotiating the contract, with Eflin getting a smaller guarantee for 2027 – let’s say in the $6-8 million range – and the Orioles getting a team option for 2028.

That depends on what Eflin wants and what the team wants also. There can be some benefit to the player to having continuity with one team for his rehab work. The Orioles may still want post-surgery Eflin to be around starting next June or July and if that’s the case, they may be willing to guarantee him a little money to get the first look after he’s back in action. On the other hand, maybe they don’t want to carry an injured guy on the 40-man roster through next offseason. There is no 60-day injured list outside of the season.

Another thing that’s not clear at this moment is how the Orioles intend to replace Eflin in the rotation over the long haul. Although many people, including me, long assumed that Dean Kremer would appear the first time there was an injury in the Orioles rotation, the O’s went out of their way to not call him back to the majors after Eflin went down.

A spot start went to Brandon Young on Monday and the next one will go to Cade Povich on Sunday. Young’s spot start went fine, as did Povich’s emergency long relief back on Sunday. We’ll see how he fares against a team that’s not the White Sox.

The White Sox are paying homage to their most famous fan during an August giveaway. 

Chicago’s American League team will give fans who purchase special tickets to their Aug. 11 game against the Reds a White Sox-themed pope hat in honor of Chicago native and White Sox fan, Pope Leo XIV. 

Fans looking to land one of the black and green hats with a White Sox logo in the middle will need to purchase a ticket in one of five designated sections at Rate Field, otherwise they’ll need to say a prayer to get their hands on one. 

Born Robert Prevost, Leo was elected head of the Catholic Church last year to become the first American-born pope. 

The White Sox just announced a bunch of theme nights and giveaways, including: pic.twitter.com/CMSdWFVdDT

— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) April 8, 2026

He is an avid sports fan, and his White Sox support even became a mini-controversy as both Chicago baseball teams attempted to claim his support after his election. 

“He was never, ever a Cubs fan, so I don’t know where that came from. He was always a Sox fan. Our mother was a Cubs fan,” his brother John told WGN-TV in May 2025. 

Leo attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series (which featured the White Sox) and has been open about his support for the team during his papacy. 

He wore a White Sox cap at the Vatican last summer and playfully ribbed a Cubs fan by yelling “they lost” when a Cubs fan yelled “Go Cubs” at him. 

And just last month, a fan who yelled “God bless the White Sox” while he drove by received a thumbs-up from Leo. 

While the pope has kept the faith in his White Sox, they’ve struggled out of the gate this season. 

The White Sox opened the season with three straight losses and lost five of their first six games. 

The club fell Wednesday, getting swept in three games by the Orioles.

Over the course of a 162 game season, the team you root for will have days where they definitionally and categorically do not have it, whether you root for the best team in the league or the worst.

Today was one of those days for the 2026 Mets, who dropped game two of their mid-week series to the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 7-2, snapping their four game win streak.

David Peterson got the ball to start and picked up right where he left off after his first start of the season, much to the chagrin of Peterson, the Mets, and likely everyone reading this. He surrendered a run in the first inning, but the wheels truly came off in the second.

Back to back singles to lead off the frame put the Mets in immediate danger. A sacrifice bunt put them in scoring position, and a walk loaded the bases with one away for Ketel Marte. Marte made Peterson pay with an RBI single, Corbin Carroll behind him doubled home a pair, and a well-struck Geraldo Perdomo sacrifice fly made it 5-0 in a flash. The game was basically over from there.

Peterson managed to settle down after his second inning debacle, throwing scoreless frames in the third, fourth and fifth to keep the score respectable and the Mets theoretically in the game. It was nice to see, even though the ship had long sailed away by the time he was throwing up zeroes.

The Mets offense had an equally frustrating day. Ryne Nelson was on the hill opposite Peterson was was excellent, surrendering a single run over five and two thirds innings. He struck out five.

As you can see above, his four-seamer was dominating, which is very typical for a Ryne Nelson start. He was very good.

The Mets threatened a few times over the course of the game, getting two on in the fourth to no avail. They scratched a run across in the sixth, with Bo Bichette leading off with a single, Luis Robert Jr. singling after, and Brett Baty driving Bichette home with a single of his own, but the rally could not extend beyond the one run.

Sean Manaea came into the game in the sixth inning, and did a thankless job; saving the bullpen for tomorrow. He threw the final four frames of the day, surrendering two runs on an eighth inning bases loaded double that clanked off of Robert’s glove in deep center (in any event, it should have been a 6-2 loss instead of a 7-2 loss). Manaea overall was just okay, though his velocity in the ninth inning was all the way down to the mid-80s per Statcast, which is not exactly what you want to see.

The Mets second and final run of the game came in the bottom of the eighth, when Mark Vientos hit a sacrifice fly that scored Robert.

Overall, it was just not the Mets day. The Mets will look to get back into the win column tomorrow, as a World Baseball Classic Final rematch will take place at Citi Field, with Nolan McLean facing off against Eduardo Rodriguez.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Brett Baty, +9.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: David Peterson, -3.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: -3.1% WPA
Mets hitters: -1.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty’s RBI single. +5.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Corbin Carroll’s two run double, -11.1% WPA

Dodgers 3 at Blue Jays 4

158 days later, the Jays got the job done. With Shohei Ohtani starting the last game of the series, the Jays took a 4-3 lead to the 9th and finished out the job. Granted, the stakes were slightly smaller this time, but snapping a six game losing streak is no small feat either.

It almost went sideways from the very start. 13 pitches in, Dylan Cease had walked Ohtani and Kyle Tucker with the hear of the Dodger order up. He rebounded with a strikeout, and then a stroke of good fortune as Freeman ripped a low line drive right at Ernie Clement. Tucker was caught breaking and easily doubled off. That same drive on a slightly different vector, and this is potentially a very different game.

Cease was immaculate over the next couple innings, until a Will Smith tapped a soft ground ball on which Okamoto had little shot, but a rushed throw went down the line and put him in scoring position to score on an ensuing Freeman single. Dylan ceased to be as effective from that point, allowing a couple more runners in the 5th, before the 6th went off the rails with a pair of walks sandwiched around yet another Freeman single to load the bases with none out.

So it was Varland time, and he largely limited the damage allowing a sacrifice fly to Teoscar before a timely strikeout and ground out to limit the damage to one run. Alas, Mason Fluharty almost repeated the feat in the 7th with a pair of walk sandwiched around an Ohtani ground out. The Jays turned to Tyler Rogers, who did allow a single for another run, but set down the next five batters to hold the line.

It wasn’t clear at the point it would matter, as the bats were once again pretty quiet. They had some traffic early against Ohtani, but only managed a single run in the 3rd when Jesus Sanchez doubled with two out to drive in Daulton Varsho. Ohtani settled in with a couple clean innings.

Vladdy led off the 7th with a double, but but caught up indecisively ona ground ball to short and was TOOTBLAN’d. Ohtani navigated easily out of the inning, but it was the end of the line. Luckily, for the Dodger bullpen finally sprung a leak.

Davis Schneider worked a nice walk against Jack Dreyer, with Heineman singling to put two on for George Springer. He drove a ball off the wall in right centre to make it 3-2, and Varsho followed with a solid single to knot it. Springer had to hold on third, but with one out it was still a golden opportunity to take the lead. Alas, it was Blake Treinan time and after essentially pitching around Vladdy to load the bases, he too got out of the inning.

The go ahead run was again catalyzed by the Davis Schneider, who again walked with one out in the 8th. Andres Gimenez singled him to third, and finally it the turn of an opposing catcher to mess up a throw in a critical spot as Gimenez took second and the ball got away. Schneider scored, and now it was just a matter of closing out a one run lead in the 9th. And when has that ever been an issue?

And let’s be honest, we are were all worried about some deja vu (in a few ways) with Hoffman coming in. And it was neither easy nor clean with a one single and walk, but he too bore down and got a strikeout and comeabcker to the mound to end it.

Jays of the Day: Schneider (+0.25 WPA), Springer (+0.22), Varsho (+0.18), Hoffman (+0.16), Varland (+0.12), Vlad (+0.11). Rogers (+0.05) falls short of the number, but was critical in holding the line until the bats broke through.

Boo Jays: Okamoto (-0.24) and Clement (-0.14)

It’s a good time for the third offday of the season (technically; the season formally started March 25th with two offdays fore the opener). Hopefully a much healthier team takes the field Friday in Minnesota.

Wednesday was a historic day in Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh sports history.

It’s a day that will be remembered for what could be the jumpstart of the new era of Pirates baseball. 

The Pirates officially signed shortstop Konnor Griffin to a nine-year extension that will keep Griffin under contract through 2034.

ESPN’s Buster Olney initially reported the deal, worth $140 million, on Thursday, hours after it was announced that Griffin was being promoted. Speculation ran rampant when nothing was announced days later, until now.

The deal has escalators that could reach $150 million and doesn’t include any options or opt outs.

Griffin’s deal is the highest contract ever signed by the Pirates in franchise history, shattering Bryan Reynolds’ eight-year, $106.75 million deal signed in April of 2023.

“Signing Konnor is a meaningful commitment to this team, this city, and our fans,” owner Bob Nutting said in a statement released by the Pirates. “It reflects our belief in Konnor, in this season’s club and in the future of our organization.”

Only 19-years-old, Griffin signed the deal after only playing five full games in the Major Leagues. 

“Konnor represents everything we value in a player — exceptional talent, strong character, a team-first mentality, and a maturity that stood out to all of us from the beginning,” Nutting said. “He is the right person, from the right family.”

Griffin’s mother Kim, father Kevin, younger brother Kaden, and other family members were in attendance as Griffin sat in between Nutting and GM Ben Cherington at the press conference room inside PNC Park to announce the deal. 

“This is another important step in the work we have been doing to build a winning team for this year and going forward,” Nutting closed in the statement.

The Pirates are 7-5 and the energy around the team is different. The vibe is different. There is a sense of belief inside and out of the clubhouse that the 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates are bound for something special. 

Nutting and the Pirates believed less than a week in Triple-A was enough for Griffin to make his debut and the pieces are in place to contend this season.

“I think there’s a real sense and a belief in what we’ve seen in a small sample size,” Nutting said, sitting next to Griffin. “Konnor, having you with the team now makes a real difference in a year where we not only need to be better, are being better, and have full commitment to a team that’s taken a long time to put the foundation in place.”

Baseball’s top prospect, the Pirates drafted Griffin 9th overall in 2024. He only played 127 games in the minor leagues before receiving the call and becoming the first teen since Aramis Ramirez in 1998 to play for the Bucs. 

The Pirates added 69 home runs in Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, and Marcell Ozuna this offseason. Griffin hit 21 homers between three levels of the minor leagues. 

Nutting made it that he is focused on building a sustainable winner in Pittsburgh.

“The commitment from this organization not only to the team, but to the city of Pittsburgh, to the fans, to reflect how serious I am, and we are, about building and sustaining a winning team here in Pittsburgh,” Nutting said. “The fans deserve it, the fans want it, and we saw on Opening Day and in the ballpark already the level of energy, excitement, passion, and commitment that our fans have to this team.”

The Pirates will pay their shortstop, at minimum, $33 million more than Reynolds over the course of the deal.  

Nutting said the contract is, “reflecting the absolute sense of urgency for 2026 to make this team better, now.” 

Griffin doubled in his first-career at-bat, driving in the Pirates first run of the season at PNC Park. He displayed his speed one batter later as the Pirates increased the lead on a base hit by Jared Triolo.

In 18 at-bats over six games, Griffin is hitting .167 with four RBIs, two walks, five strikeouts, a .273 on-base percentage. 

It’s going to take time for the undisputed No. 1 prospect in the sport to get adjusted to the majors, but Griffin has shown signs of his immense ability and potential in a short sample. 

“Since joining the organization, Konnor has consistently demonstrated the traits we want in a Pirate: a daily commitment to improvement, a team-first mindset, and a strong desire to win,” Cherington said in a statement.

Now that the emotions of making his debut have had time to simmer and the deal is done, Griffin can go and play. 

He will be depended on as the cornerstone face of the Pirates franchise for the next decade, and has what it takes to be an all-time great player in Pittsburgh.

“He has met every challenge in front of him, and we are excited to watch him continue that growth alongside his teammates in Pittsburgh,” Cherington said. “We are thrilled he will be a Pirate for a long time.”