Dom Smith beat his former team Friday night, smacking an RBI single in the 10th inning off Edwin Díaz to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 4-3 victory over the Mets in front of a sellout crowd of 42,777 at Citi Field.

The Mets had a late chance with the Fab Four coming up in their half of the 10th inning. The top of the order had started a rally in the eighth inning, but couldn’t do it again. The Mets left the bases loaded in the 10th inning when Ronny Mauricio struck out for the final out against Giants closer Randy Rodriguez. 

It was the fourth straight loss for the Mets, who fell to 62-48.

Here are the takeaways...

-The Mets rallied for two runs in the eighth inning, thanks to the top of their lineup. With one out, Brandon Nimmo walked and Francisco Lindor lined a single to right. Juan Soto hit a ball off the foot of Giants reliever Joey Lucchesi, the former Met, and the ball bounded into left field for an RBI single. Pete Alonso followed with a sac fly to center off Jose Butto – his Mets teammate as recently as two days ago – to knot the score at 3-3. Lindor had been in a 0-for-13 slide before his hit and Soto had been 0-for-8.

-With the Mets trailing, 3-0, in the seventh, Pete Alonso led off with a rocket over the fence in right-center, his 23rd home run of the season. It was also the 249th of his career, bringing him within three home runs of tying Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record of 252. Before the homer, which traveled 414 feet and had an exit velocity of 110.1 miles per hour, according to Statcast, Alonso had been mired in a 0-for-19 skid. It was Alonso’s second homer since July 10. 

-In his first inning of work as a Met, Ryan Helsley, acquired from the Cardinals this week, allowed two singles but struck out three in a scoreless ninth with the score tied. His high-octane fastball, which got as high as 101.4 miles per hour, finished off one strikeout and his slider ended the other two. Fans seemed entertained.

-David Peterson, perhaps predictably, pitched well yet again and provided the Mets some length. He gave up two runs and four hits over six innings and has now thrown at least six innings 14 times this season. Except for a slight wobble in the second inning, Peterson did not give the Giants much. In that frame, he walked the leadoff man, Matt Chapman, and then gave up a single to Wilmer Flores and then an RBI double to Casey Schmitt. The second Giant run scored on Jung Hoo Lee’s RBI grounder and broke Peterson’s streak of four straight starts allowing one earned run or fewer. Friday’s start was Peterson’s 21st of the season, matching his career high set in each of the previous two seasons. He also achieved a new career-best for innings pitched in a single season with 127. He started the night with 121 innings, the exact number he set as a personal best last year. 

-Friday was the first time all season the Mets had lost a home start by Peterson. They had won the first 10. It is the second-longest such streak in club history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In 1989, the Mets won the first 11 games started by David Cone. 

-Mark Vientos extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single to center with one out in the fifth. It was the Mets’ first hit of the game off Ray. One out later, Luis Torrens singled up the middle to give the Mets two baserunners, by Tyrone Taylor grounded out to end the inning. 

-In the sixth inning, Alonso missed a foul pop-up by Flores and was charged with an error. It was harmless, though, as Flores flew to right shortly thereafter and the Mets escaped the inning unscathed. 

-Giants lefty Robbie Ray, who lost to the Mets last Saturday in San Francisco, threw seven sharp innings, allowing only one run and four hits. Ray struck out six and walked one and lowered his ERA to 2.85. 

Game MVP: Dom Smith

Smith played for the Mets from 2017-22. His clutch pinch-hit extended his hitting streak to six games and made him 11-for-his-last-33 (.333). 

Highlights

The Mets are on the board with Pete Alonso's 249th career home run! pic.twitter.com/eMYcFtI9Bw

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2025

Juan Soto brings home a run!

The tying run is at third! pic.twitter.com/2td8zlhJBn

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2025

Pete Alonso hits a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the 8th! pic.twitter.com/R5ThRQkb70

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2025

Ryan Helsley escapes trouble and strikes out three in the 9th! pic.twitter.com/iaMobnCVZr

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2025

What's next

The Mets continue their three-game set on Saturday. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m.

Kodai Senga (7-3, 2.00 ERA) will take the mound against Kai-Wei Teng, making his season debut.

First, the meme made Freddie Freeman laugh.

Then, in a serendipitous twist, it gave him a lightning-bulb epiphany about his recently ailing swing.

At the end of a long day during last week’s homestand — when Freeman was hit by a pitch on July 20, immediately removed from the game to get an X-ray, then informed he somehow hadn’t sustained serious injury — the first baseman received a comical video edit on Instagram from a friend. A light reprieve at the end of a stressful afternoon.

Read more:Plaschke: Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers' urgent need for a closer

In it, Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in last year’s World Series was superimposed over a spin-off of the Coldplay kiss cam video that recently went viral on social media (yes, that Coldplay kiss cam).

Freeman got a chuckle out of the clip in which the couple who were infamously shown at a recent Coldplay concert are edited to look like they are instead reacting to his iconic slam.

But, while rewatching his Fall Classic moment, Freeman also drew an observation from something in his batting stance.

“I’m more in my front ankle,” Freeman said of his stance during the at-bat.

It was a subtle, but profound, contrast to how he had been swinging amid his recent two-month cold spell — reminding him to reincorporate his legs more into his mechanics and not lean as far back in his setup at the plate.

So, for the rest of that evening, Freeman thought about the difference (which, he joked, kept him up for much of the night). The next afternoon, he went straight into the Dodgers’ batting cages, focused on driving into his front ankle in an attempt to get his swing realigned.

“It’s a different thought of being in your legs when you’re hitting,” said Freeman, who had started the season batting .371 over his first 38 games, before slumping to a .232 mark over his next 49 contests. “It’s just more [about leaning] into my front ankle. It’s helping me be on time and on top [of the ball].”

“We’ll see,” he added with a chuckle, “how it goes in the game.”

Ten games later, it seems to be going pretty well.

Since making the tweak on July 21, Freeman is 14 for 39 (.359 average) with two home runs, four extra base hits, 10 RBIs and (most importantly) a renewed confidence at the plate.

After collecting his first three-hit game in a month Tuesday in Cincinnati, then his first home run in all of July the next day against the Reds, he stayed hot in the Dodgers’ series-opening 5-0 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, whacking a two-run double in the first inning and a solo home run in the fifth in front of a crowd of 10,046 at Steinbrenner Field (the New York Yankees’ spring training park serving as the Rays’ temporary home).

“That visual helped him kind of tap into something,” manager Dave Roberts said recently of Freeman’s post-meme swing adjustment. “He is early, for a change. Versus being late, chasing.”

On Friday, Freeman said he is no longer thinking about the ankle cue.

“I’m just getting in the box and swinging now,” he said. “I've been taking some pitches, working a couple of walks, getting deeper in counts, hitting the pitches I need to hit. ... It's just been, [get] in the box and [be] on time.”

Still, he acknowledged, the meme-inspired swing thought might have served as a helpful reset.

“I feel like I've been grinding for six, seven weeks ... but obviously I'm trending in a great direction right now,” he said. “I just try and ride it. I know my work is usually going to end up working at some point.”

Indeed, Freeman’s turnaround is something the Dodgers — who also got six scoreless innings out of Clayton Kershaw on Friday, lowering his season earned-run average to 3.29 in 13 starts — are expecting out of several superstar sluggers over the final two months of the regular season.

During Thursday’s trade deadline, the team didn’t splurge on big-name acquisitions. The only addition they made to their recently slumping lineup (which ranked 28th in the majors in scoring during July) was versatile outfielder Alex Call from the Washington Nationals.

Instead, both Roberts and club executives have preached of late, the team is banking on players like Mookie Betts (who is batting .237), Teoscar Hernández (who has hit .217 since returning from an adductor strain in May), Tommy Edman (who has hit .211 since returning from an ankle injury in May) and even Shohei Ohtani (who leads the National League in home runs, but is batting only .221 since resuming pitching duties in June) to play up to their typical, potent standards.

“I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently,” Roberts said. “That’s something that we’re all counting on.”

Read more:Dodgers welcome deadline additions, hopeful arrival ‘raises the floor for our ballclub’

For much of the summer, Freeman had been squarely in that group of underperforming veteran stars.

But his recent rebound (regardless of what triggered it) is providing a template for the rest of the lineup to follow — the start, the Dodgers continue to hope, of more roster-wide improvements over the stretch run.

“Five or six months ago in spring training, we were talking about how great of a team we have,” Freeman said. “We still have that great of a team. Obviously, some of us haven't played as well, so it's on us to get going. And a few of us are getting going right now. I think we're going to be just fine going forward.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Jhoan Duran owns the night and feels the love in ‘electric' Phillies debut originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Jhoan Duran was light on sleep Friday night.

He’d had to wake up in the wee hours to catch a flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. And once he arrived, the Phillies’ new closer didn’t have much chance at a peaceful hotel snooze.

“I’m not sleeping because my little boy, he’s got a lot of energy,” Duran said.

At Citizens Bank Park, all was well on the energy front.

Duran made his elaborate entrance, locked down a 5-4 win over the Tigers in four pitches and enjoyed his first post-trade deadline taste of Phillies fans’ passion. 

“I can see they love baseball,” he said. “They do everything for baseball, so I love that.”

Duran spent his first four MLB seasons in Minnesota, where he saved 74 games and compiled a 2.47 ERA. By many metrics, he’s been elite this year. According to Baseball Savant, Duran ranks in the 99th percentile in off-speed run value, barrel percentage and ground ball percentage. Duran has allowed a single home run. His four-seam fastball’s averaged 100.2 mph. 

New Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader saw Duran’s Twins dominance firsthand.

“Plain and simple, he has close-the-door stuff,” Bader said pregame. ”That’s the best way to describe it. … Baseball happens, maybe he puts runners on, he’s got strikeout stuff to go and strike out three in a row.”

The Phillies did their best to make Duran feel at home in his debut.

The flashing lights and pulsating music and virtual flames were ready to roll as he jogged out for the ninth inning. Duran did so wearing No. 59 because Phillies manager Rob Thomson offered it up. 

“He was very respectful,” Thomson said. “I called him and we were chit-chatting. I just said, ‘Hey look, the number really doesn’t mean much to me, but if it makes you feel better, I’m all-in.’ He said, ‘Well, you know, yeah …’ And I said, ‘Then it’s yours.’ 

“The only one that’s upset at this point is my wife because all her merchandise has 59 on it. Now we’ve got to go find her new stuff.”

Thomson’s switched to No. 49, which he said is to honor Yankees great and friend Ron Guidry. 

Following the Phils’ three-run seventh inning and two-run eighth, the night culminated in Duran’s ninth.

“It looked good from my locker,” Bryce Harper quipped after his seventh-inning ejection. “We all know what it was like in Minnesota when he came into the game. Lights-out stuff.” 

Thomson described Duran as “electric.”

“Four pitches. The first pitch was a 98 mph split,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen that before. He threw strikes. He was calm, cool. It was great.” 

Duran’s first pitch was technically his splinker, a go-to splitter-sinker hybrid. In fact, so were his second, third and fourth pitches.

After he grabs some shut-eye, there’s a lot left to show. 

“I haven’t thrown my fastball yet,” Duran said. 

It didn't take long for the Mets to show their appreciation for reliever Jose Butto.

Days after trading Butto in the Tyler Rogers deal with the Giants, the organization played a video tribute at Citi Field before the series opener between the Mets and San Francisco.

Take a look at the tribute video, highlighting Butto's best moments as a Met, and the 27-year-old -- now in a Giants uniform -- giving the fans a salute.

Two days after being traded to the Giants, José Buttó gets a tribute video at Citi Field 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/beJ5446HeK

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 1, 2025

Butto, who posted a 2.55 ERA for the Mets last season, had struggled for New York this season. He entered Friday's game with a 3.64 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 47.0 innings over 34 games.

Over his four years in the big leagues, all with the Mets, Butto recorded an 11-9 record with a 3.45 ERA and a 1.126 WHIP to go along with 163 strikeouts in 167.0 innings pitched. Of his 74 appearances, he made 15 starts for the Mets.

The Dodgers didn’t go shopping at the top of the market ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.

But what they came away with — right-handed relievers Brock Stewart and Paul Gervase to bolster the bullpen, and versatile outfielder Alex Call to round out the lineup — are the kind of moves that “just raises the floor for our ballclub,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday.

“I feel we did get better,” Roberts said, before echoing the front office’s hope that the Dodgers’ biggest improvements over the final two months of the season come from the star-studded, but underperforming, core they already have in place.

“I think we’ve got a pretty dang good team. I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently. That’s something that we’re all counting on … I love our club. I really do. Now it’s up to all of us to go out there and do our jobs.”

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers look vulnerable, and Padres and rest of their competitors know it

The job for the Dodgers’ two biggest acquisitions, Stewart and Call, will be clear from the get-go.

Stewart, a former Dodgers swingman from 2016 to 2019, has reinvented himself in the second half of his career. Unlike his first stint in Los Angeles, when he threw in the low 90s and was a fringe long reliever on the roster, Stewart is now a higher-leverage relief option, with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball and swing-and-miss sweeper he has used to dominate right-handed hitters this season.

“At the end [of his first Dodgers stint], he lost the velocity and was trying to figure out if he could hang on and who he was at that point,” Roberts recalled. “Obviously, he’s put in a ton of work to sort of find himself again. He’s had nothing but success. I’m excited to see this version of him. He certainly shouldn’t lack for confidence.”

Stewart won’t fix the Dodgers’ ninth-inning problems — with their closer role up in the air ever since struggling offseason signing Tanner Scott went on the injured list with an elbow injury — but could get some save situations “in the right situation,” Roberts said — for instance, if a run of right-handed hitters (who are batting just .104 with a .327. OPS against him this year) are up at the end of the game.

“I trust the guy, I trust the player, what he’s become,” Roberts said. “So for me, if the situation calls for it tonight and he’s in the ninth inning, I’ve got all the confidence.”

Read more:Plaschke: Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers' urgent need for a closer

Gervase, a 6-foot-10 right-hander the Dodgers acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for catcher Hunter Feduccia as part of a three-team trade on Wednesday night, was also on the active roster Friday. He comes with just five previous career MLB appearances, but a deceptive delivery aided by his long-limbed extension on the mound.

“I don't know a whole lot about him,” Roberts said. “I know he's got a big arm. He's got some extension, some rise, but I haven't seen him."

The arrival of Stewart and Gervase did coincide with yet another loss in the bullpen. Veteran right-hander Kirby Yates, another offseason signing who has disappointed with a 4.31 ERA this season, was placed on the injured list because of lingering discomfort in his pelvic and lower-back area. He went back to Los Angeles to get further testing.

“In the last, call it, two weeks, he hasn't felt great,” Roberts said. “Hasn't been injured, in his words, which is why he kept pitching and competing. But we flew him home this morning to look at the doctor and kind of get some tests to see if there's something that's kind of been aggravating him. Something's just not right, exactly. So we're trying to suss that out."

In the lineup, Roberts said Call — a 30-year-old right-handed-hitting journeyman who found a niche with the Washington Nationals the last few seasons as an on-base threat capable of grinding out tough at-bats — would mix in at all three outfield spots.

“[He is] a tough, feisty hitter,” Roberts said. “I certainly see him playing versus left. But I think he’s pretty much a neutral guy. Slugs a little more against left, but gets on base against right. I’m going to try to keep him in there a couple times a week.”

Call said he wasn’t shocked to learn he had been traded on Thursday, and was excited by the “chance to compete in the playoffs and win a World Series” with a first-place Dodgers team.

Read more:Dodgers pass MLB trade deadline quietly, add Brock Stewart and Alex Call

“For me, I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher,” said Call, who has hit .297 with the Nationals in 102 games over the last two seasons. “Just really make the [pitchers] work so that hopefully they're tired when the top of the order comes back around or whatever.”

Roki Sasaki facing hitters

Internally, the Dodgers are hoping rookie Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki can also serve as a de facto late-season addition after missing the last several months with a shoulder injury.

And this week, the right-hander took a key step in his recovery process.

Sasaki faced hitters for the first time since getting hurt in a simulated inning this past week in Arizona, Roberts said, and is scheduled to throw two more simulated innings on Saturday.

The team has been targeting a late-August return for Sasaki, who had a 4.72 ERA in eight starts this season before going on the IL.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.