Category: Sports News

Yankees veteran DJ LeMahieu has returned to the fold with undefined expectations in an unspecified role, but his first start at Yankee Stadium in 2025 sparked some newfound optimism.

Batting eighth and playing second base, LeMahieu raised fans' eyebrows at the plate and in the field on Saturday afternoon against the crosstown rival Mets. He put the Yankees on the board first with a solo home run in the third inning -- snapping a nearly 10-month streak without a long ball -- and also flashed the leather with a slick back-handed diving grab up the middle that robbed Francisco Lindor of a single.

The all-around effort from LeMahieu wasn't enough, as the Mets outlasted the Yankees in a 3-2 thriller to even this weekend's Subway Series in the Bronx at a game apiece. But the 36-year-old showed the sold-out crowd that more turn-the-clock-back performances could be in store, just as long as he stays fully healthy.

"It felt good to play at Yankee Stadium again. Obviously a big series, so just excited to be out there," LeMahieu said after the game. "I don't think there was too much emotion, maybe for me. But it was good, it was fun. I feel like I'm finding my rhythm pretty quickly after coming off the IL. It's a couple of games, but I definitely feel like I'm in a pretty good spot."

LeMahieu's third-inning homer was a typical blast from the past. He drilled an 0-1 down-the-middle fastball from Mets starter Griffin Canning that flew over right fielder Juan Soto and landed just beyond the wall and into the seats. The short-porch shot traveled 333 feet.

In his second at-bat, LeMahieu ripped a 100 mph single to center, setting the Yankees up for a fifth-inning rally that was ultimately wasted. He then found himself in a position to play the role of hero in the eighth, with the bases loaded, two outs, and the score knotted at 2-2. But he wasn't rewarded for smacking a 106 mph liner to right -- the ball quickly found Soto's glove, ending the threat.

It's been quite some time since the Yankees last saw LeMahieu produce hard contact and connect with power. Hampered by foot and calf injuries, he hit a measly .204 with just seven extra-base knocks and 26 RBI across 67 games last season. The start to his 2025 campaign was delayed due to a calf injury.

LeMahieu's time away from the big league club this past March and April allowed Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Oswaldo Cabrera to fill the void at third base. Now, both of LeMahieu's replacements are on the injured list, and opportunity is conveniently knocking for a player who's been written off a few times and considered dead weight.

"Some big-time ABs today. Back-side homer, base hit up the middle, and probably his best at-bat ends up in an out with the bases loaded," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "Really encouraging to see him having those level of at-bats in his first few outings... Injuries have taken him off the field. He's never been not outstanding in the field whenever he's been out there. That's who he is. He's an elite defender."

Only time will tell what LeMahieu offers as a platoon piece -- he only logged two at-bats during spring training and has yet to reach a dozen this season -- but the early results suggest there just might be something left in the tank.

It's hard to follow up on being part of a combined perfect game, but Mets prospect Jonah Tong did his best on Saturday.

In his latest start for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Tong was dominant again, pitching six scoreless innings while allowing two hits and two walks. He struck out eight batters in Binghamton's 12-0 win over the Hartford Yard Goats. Tong's fastball sat between 93-95 mph and showed off his array of pitches. He lowered his season ERA to 2.12 and has allowed just two earned runs over his last 25 innings pitched. In that span, he's struck out 48 batters.

Tong would not get run support from his teammates, who were shut out until they broke the game open with a huge sixth inning.

Binghamton pushed across five runs, thanks in large part to home runs from Nick Morabito and Kevin Parada. Parada had himself a career day at the plate, finishing 2-for-5 with two home runs and a career-high four RBI.

It's been a struggle for the Mets' 2022 first-round pick in his second full season with Binghamton, but perhaps this is a sign of his bat awakening. He has five hits in his last two games and three home runs on the season in 27 games, after blasting 13 across 114 games a year ago.

The Mets' Double-A affiliate would push across four in the eighth inning, thanks to Ryan Clifford. Playing first base on Saturday, Clifford cleared the bases with a double. It was Clifford's second hit of the game, and he finished 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs. Saturday's performance raised Clifford's batting average to .238, and it was his second consecutive multi-hit game.

Jett Williams, the Mets' No. 2 prospect according to SNY's prospects writer Joe DeMayo, played center field and went 1-for-6. He also extended his hitting streak to five games.

Jonah Tong's last start? Perfect. This start? More dominance.

The @Mets' No. 6 prospect K's 8 over 6 scoreless frames and has 48 strikeouts in his past 25 innings for Double-A @RumblePoniesBB. pic.twitter.com/XnIzNCq6DD

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 18, 2025

Brett Baty has wasted no time proving his ability to hit for power at the big league level since the Mets promoted him as an injury replacement nearly two weeks ago. He's hit five home runs over his last nine games in the majors, complementing the bottom half of the lineup.

But the long-awaited growth from Baty hasn't only been visible at the plate. He's also shown improvements in the field, and a few slick plays at third base on Saturday afternoon helped the Mets outlast the crosstown rival Yankees in a 3-2 thriller in the Bronx.

Baty's first web gem came in the second inning, when he barehanded a weak chopper and threw across his body to first to rob the speedy Anthony Volpe of an infield single. Two innings later, Baty fleeced Volpe again, this time flashing the leather with a scoop on another in-between grounder.

The ball found Baty on five more occasions, and his final contribution was snatching a weak fly from Ben Rice that sliced toward shallow left field in the ninth. Baty also collected an infield single in that inning, finishing the day 1-for-4, but it was his work at the hot corner that caught the Mets' attention.

"We've seen the athleticism from him and his ability to play up the middle. Today was a helluva game defensively for him," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the win. "The fact he's getting reps in the middle of the infield allows him to be better with his footwork. His read off the bat, the quickness of it. It's good to see Baty contribute in a lot of different ways."

When the Mets sent Baty back down to Triple-A in late April, realizing that regular playing time just wasn't in the cards for him, Mendoza reminded the 25-year-old that he's a big-league talent. The message appeared to stick, as Baty's teammates have noticed him playing with newfound confidence.

"He looks different, looks more comfortable," Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said of Baty. "He’s in a good mental space right now and truly believes he belongs here. With that said, he still works hard day in and day out to get better. He understands his role right now and he’s trying to excel at it."

Baty's role with the Mets remains fluid, considering that competition for playing time still exists between him and, youngster
Mark Vientos, and an even veteran Jeff McNeil. But, in the meantime, Baty is making the most of his latest opportunity, determined to prove that he's not a flash in the pan.

It was another electric atmosphere at Yankee Stadium. A day after the Yankees faithful rained boos and expletives at Juan Soto, the crowd was treated to a hard-fought, nail-biter on Saturday.

Despite allowing two home runs, the Mets scraped together enough offense to beat the Yankees, 3-2, and even the Subway Series. There were mesmerizing defensive plays and clutch hits, but the cherry on top was the matchup between Edwin Diaz and Aaron Judge with two outs in the ninth and the game on the line.

Diaz would come out the victor, striking out Judge on a 3-2 heater up in the zone to preserve the one-run victory.

"Big league game, big league matchup. Every pitch was intense, every play," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the win. "One-run game and then you get the matchup of Diaz-Judgey. That’s what you pay for."

While Diaz's personal victory over Judge capped the win, it was the little things that helped the Mets take the middle game of this weekend's series. Saturday's starter Griffin Canning continued his stellar pitching, allowing two runs (both solo shots) in 5.1 innings.

"It was awesome. Fun to compete in," Canning said of the atmosphere. "Awesome, awesome energy in the stadium and a fun lineup to compete against."

Canning was followed by 3.2 scoreless innings from the Mets' bullpen trio of Huascar Brazoban, Reed Garrett and Diaz. That allowed the Mets offense, which finished the game 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base, to scratch across the go-ahead run in the ninth.

That run was driven in by de facto captain Francisco Lindor. Against tough Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz, Luis Torrens drew a one-out walk and was lifted for pinch-runner Luisangel Acuña. Bertt Baty's infield single and Tyrone Taylor's hit-by-pitch gave Lindor an opportunity to give the Mets the lead. After getting ahead 3-0 in the count, Lindor didn't try to do too much, and lifted a sacrifice fly to allow the speedy Acuñato score.

"No one is trying to be the hero," Lindor said of the team's offensive mindset. "Just play the game."

Lindor said his approach in that ninth-inning at-bat was to get a good pitch to hit and not put too much pressure on himself. As the shortstop said, "If I don’t get a good pitch to hit, then it’s Soto’s turn."

Once he got to 3-1, Lindor wanted something to get in the air, and that's what he did.

FRANCISCO LINDOR BRINGS HOME LUISANGEL ACUÑA WITH A SAC FLY!

METS LEAD IN THE 9TH! pic.twitter.com/bQxdWcB697

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 17, 2025

"Today was a good team win," he said. "Good defense, good pitching. To beat a team like that, you have to do a lot of things the right way… Brazoban coming in with people on base, Garrett executing, Canning and then you have Diaz coming in looking really good. Torrens starting the game, [Francisco Alvarez] closing the game. Baty had like five great plays. And then just passing the baton in the offense. They have a really good pitching staff and have to take it one at-bat at a time."

And what about the Subway Series so far?

"The atmosphere here has been fantastic. Whether it’s their fans or our fans, they’ve brought the energy," Lindor said. "It’s been good. It’s the loudest it’s been of any of the Subway Series that I’ve played."

Pete Alonso, who tied the game with an RBI single in the fourth, said the Citi Field crowd during last year's NLDS against the Phillies -- when Lindor hit the grand slam -- was the loudest atmosphere he's been a part of. But the 2025 Subway Series ranks "top three" for him.

The Mets' slugger was asked how the team -- especially Soto -- has been able to handle the hostile environment.

"To be honest, it’s persistence and sticking to the gameplan and trust," he said. "Trust in the guy in front of you and behind you. When it’s your turn in the box or whenever the ball is hit to you, you trust your preparedness. Every single guy trusts themselves and their teammates. That’s huge, especially in the later innings. There’s no second-guessing. Everyone has that connectedness and trust within each other.

"For us, the job at hand is to win the game….This team, this core, we’ve experienced a bunch of hostile environments. Especially with the playoffs and every time we play a couple of the in-division rivals, the Dodgers, it’s those super high-energy series. We are battle-tested in these types of environments. We’re excited for another exciting game tomorrow. It’s a great matchup and that’s a great team over there. That’s the beautiful part of the Subway Series, no matter what side you’re on, it’s that electric environment. It’s really fun baseball."

The Mets will look to take the rubber game of the first Subway Series this season on Sunday. They'll look to keep that "team" mentality as they go against arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now, Max Fried.

In the end, after nine innings of high-intensity baseball, Game 2 of this Subway Series weekend gave us a classic confrontation of power vs. power, Edwin Diaz vs. Aaron Judge, with the game very much on the line.

Or as Carlos Mendoza put it, “That’s the matchup you pay to see.”

And as it turned out, it was also a matchup that confirmed an important point for the Mets: That is, at his best, Diaz is still as dominant as anybody in the game in the ninth inning, as he proved by winning a seven-pitch battle with Judge as the final hitter of the game.        

Indeed, Diaz dialed up his fastball up to 100 mph on pitch five and finally 98 at the shoulders with the count full for the swinging strikeout to finish off a 3-2 win over the Yankees in the Bronx.

“That was fun,” Diaz said with a smile in the Mets’ clubhouse. “The way I’m feeling, I can make my pitches and still have fun.”

Edwin Díaz's full at-bat against Aaron Judge in the 9th 🔥 pic.twitter.com/zkSB2Hi071

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 17, 2025

It seemed all the more significant because Diaz has had some shaky moments this season. He is 10-for-10 now in save situations, but early in the season, especially, he struggled with his fastball command and his velocity was down at times as well.

On Saturday, Diaz admitted he was concerned enough by some of his outings in April to put in some work on his mechanics with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner that he believes is paying off now.

“At the end of April, I fixed a couple of things with my mechanics,” he said. “I was missing a lot with my fastball to the arm side, and we worked on getting me to throw straight to the batter.”

Soon enough, he started seeing results with the fastball, commanding it well enough to make his slider that much more effective. Diaz said it’s made him feel completely confident again.

“Now I’m doing whatever I want on the mound,” was the way he put it. 

It looked that way, especially against Judge. Diaz got ahead 0-2 with good sliders, then tried to get Judge to bite on two more sliders off the plate, as the count went to 2-2.

At that point, he cranked up the fastball to 100 and Judge couldn’t catch up, fouling it off. When Judge wouldn’t bite on a 2-2 slider down-and-away, Diaz decided he was going to challenge him once more with the fastball.

Just not recklessly.

Judge may have been having a rare rough day, finishing 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, but he’s still the best and most dangerous hitter in baseball, and Diaz was well aware.

“I was going to go up with the fastball,” he said. “In that whole at-bat, I wasn’t going to make a mistake in the zone. If I was going to miss location, I was going to make sure I missed out of the zone.”

“Better to walk him than give up a bomb?” I asked Diaz.

“I wasn’t going to give up a bomb,” he said with a smile. “I was making my pitches. If I didn’t get swings [out of the zone], I felt good about facing [Cody] Bellinger.”

Maybe on another day, Judge would have taken that 3-2 pitch and, indeed, Diaz would have had to get Bellinger for the final out. Judge didn’t look like himself, to be sure, but give credit to the Mets for pitching him tough and aggressively, especially starter Griffin Canning, who got Judge the first three times, with a routine fly out, a strikeout, and a weak ground ball to third.

This year, teams have often paid a heavy price for being too bold with Judge, who is still hitting .402 even after his 0-for-5. But on this day, the Mets lived to tell about not backing down from him.

“We know how good Judgie is,” said Mendoza, the former bench coach of the Yankees. “But our guys did a great job of attacking him and we got results.”

In a lot of ways, it was the difference in a well-pitched game that featured important plays at the plate for both sides, in what felt like the frenzied atmosphere of a postseason game.

“That was a big league game with big league intensity,” Mendoza said.

After two straight losses and a week of mostly futility at the plate, the Mets needed the win. More than anything, they needed somebody to deliver in the clutch after all of their struggles lately with runners in scoring position.

That turned out to be Francisco Lindor in the Mets’ rally in the ninth that broke a 2-2 tie. Facing reliever Fernando Cruz, they loaded the bases with one out on a walk to Luis Torrens, a single by Brett Baty, and a hit-by-pitch to Tyrone Taylor.

Up came Lindor in an RISP spot, the kind that Mendoza said before Saturday’s game he felt his players chased way too much on Friday night against the Yankees, and in general lately.

“We’ve got to change that,” Mendoza said.

Lindor must have been listening. He was patient, taking close pitches as the count went to 3-0, and then after taking a strike, delivering with a good situational approach to get a fly ball to left-center that scored pinch-runner Luisangel Acuña with the go-ahead run.

The rest was up to Diaz. Three outs later, finishing in grand style against Judge, he gave the Mets reason to believe they still have one of the best closers in baseball.

Giants' dominant bullpen sets stage for Flores' latest heroics originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — As he sat in the dugout on Saturday afternoon, Bob Melvin got different variations of the same question: What’s next for Jordan Hicks? 

Hicks has been moved back to the bullpen, where he spent the first five seasons of his MLB career. He throws as consistently hard as any player in MLB history, and he had 32 saves in his career before hitting free agency and deciding he wanted to become a starter. He seems an easy fit in the late innings for any team, and Melvin is excited to have him in the mix, but as he answered the questions, he trailed off while talking about the depth of the bullpen even before the move was made.

It would be tough for any reliever to crack the late innings for the Giants. 

“You look at our bullpen arms now … ” Melvin said. 

Right now, it’s as good as it gets in Major League Baseball, and it’s why the Giants are 27-19 despite flaws elsewhere on the roster. Four Giants relievers combined to throw four hitless innings Saturday on just 34 pitches, setting the stage for Wilmer Flores’ latest heroics. 

A night after hitting three homers, Flores drew the first walk-off walk in a 1-0 game in franchise history. He was eager to share the credit with a bullpen that leads the majors with a 2.59 collective ERA. 

“They kept us in the game, especially Camilo (Doval) with the guy at second and getting out of that,” Flores said. “It was great.”

Doval was the fourth Giants reliever to take the mound after Landen Roupp pitched six shutout innings in one of the best starts of his career. The first man up was Randy Rodriguez, who threw nine pitches — all strikes — to lower his ERA to 0.96. Tyler Rogers followed and was just about as efficient as it gets; he threw four pitches (all strikes) and got three groundball outs. Ryan Walker went 1-2-3 on seven pitches, six of them strikes.

From the seventh through the ninth, the bullpen needed just 20 pitches to record nine outs, and 19 of them were strikes. Doval inherited the automatic runner on second base and struck out a pair to give the Giants a chance to walk it off against Mason Miller in the bottom of the inning. 

As he recounted the sequence, catcher Patrick Bailey smiled and shook his head. “Sheesh,” he said quietly. 

“I think everyone knows our bullpen has been our biggest strength this year,” he continued. “I mean, goodness, I’d put Randy with anybody in baseball right now. His stuff is electric, the confidence is high. Rog, nothing changes with him. He goes out there and gives you clean innings and throws strikes. That’s been the biggest thing this year for the pen is filling up the zone. It was awesome to see Walker get in there and fill up the zone as well, and then Duvey looks like the guy he was in 2023, maybe even better.”

Doval had the toughest task because he was the only one of the four to inherit a runner. A groundout got the go-ahead run to third and Doval walked the third batter he faced in the top of the 10th, but he stranded a pair with a nasty slider that A’s slugger Brent Rooker waved at. When he’s right, Doval accentuates his strikeouts with a hop off the mound. The one Saturday was about as high as he has gotten in the last couple of seasons. 

“He’s been — not only on the mound, but in the clubhouse as a teammate — he’s been awesome. He’s been awesome,” Bailey said. “I think he was always there, but you struggle and it’s a humbling and frustrating game, but it’s been really cool to see him back to himself both on the mound and off the field.”

Doval is just two years removed from being an All-Star closer, and Rodriguez is pitching like someone who might have that in his future. Rogers has been so consistently good for so long now that he deserves a nod at some point, and Walker looks like he’s rounding back into form after some wobbles earlier this season. 

It’s as good a foursome as there is in baseball, and the A’s didn’t even see Erik Miller, who has a 1.88 ERA from the left side. The bullpen also includes Spencer Bivens (3.54 ERA) and Kyle Harrison, who is sitting 96-98 mph in his return to the big leagues. 

Hicks has sat at 100 mph with his sinker at times this season, and the Giants anticipate he’ll be a weapon in the bullpen right away. They believe the best bullpen in baseball got better on Saturday, and the 1-0 win was a reminder that a dominant pen can cover up for a lot of other issues this summer. 

“We’re not always going to hit every day. The pitching is always keeping us in the game,” Flores said. “It’s been the same way all year.”

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The Yankees left nine runners on base in their frustrating 3-2 loss to the rival Mets on Saturady afternoon at Yankee Stadium, and the number could've been lower with a sharper plate approach midway through the game.

With the Mets ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth, the Yankees quickly developed a rally against starter Griffin Canning. It began with a leadoff walk from J.C. Escarra, and four pitches later, DJ LeMahieu singled to center to set up No. 9 hitter Jorbit Vivas with two on and no outs.

While the sold-out crowd expected Vivas to bunt and advance the runners, the Yankees stunningly allowed the rookie infielder to swing away. The plan backfired, as Canning struck out Vivas and then escaped the jam by getting Ben Rice to line out to left and Aaron Judge to ground out to third.

After the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked why he didn't call for Vivas to bunt with the top of the order waiting and hoping to inflict some damage. The skipper said he pondered the move, but the Mets' infield alignment utlimately made him reluctant.

"They're just playing it aggressively," Boone explained. "Not a lot of speed on the bases for us, and I've got top of the order coming up. But yeah, definitely some consideration there... I'm in the middle of the game too, and I know they're going to play it aggresively."

The Yankees managed to knot the score at 2-2 in the sixth on a leadoff homer from Cody Bellinger, and after back-to-back one-out singles from Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe, the stage was set for Escarra to drive in the go-ahead run against Mets reliever Huascar Brazoban.

Escarra couldn't take advantage with the go-ahead run at third. He chopped a grounder to first baseman Pete Alonso, who then threw the ball home to catcher Luis Torrens to get Dominguez trying to score.

That wasn't the end of the Yankees' bad luck in the inning. After the fielder's choice out, LeMahieu nearly had two in scoring position on a double steal from Volpe and Escarra. But both players were sent back to their original bases due to interference by the home plate umpire, who made contact with Torrens behind the dish.

"I don't know if [the interference] was consequential or not. We had two outs and still didn't drive him in there," Boone said. "Obviously don't want that to happen. I feel like we had the bases stolen regardless... It doesn't happen very often. I can remember it being called before. So I have seen it, but it's pretty rare."

The Yankees had one more shot with the bases loaded in the eighth, but LeMahieu lined out sharply to right, keeping the score tied. The missed chance came back to haunt them, as the Mets produced a rally of their own in the ninth and scored the game-winning run. The Yankees finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.