The self-confident, stay-as-they-are Dodgers did right by not panicking at the trade deadline and keeping the roster pretty much intact. This is still the same group of guys picked by most baseball experts to win a second straight championship.

The slumps will pass. The injuries will go away. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and the gang will be there at the end when it counts most.

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

Though I don’t agree with his breathless, sky-is-falling sense of urgency, I do think Bill Plaschke is right that the Dodgers should have been more aggressive at the trade deadline. It’s a reasonable gamble to believe that their pitchers will stay healthy enough, their hitters will get untracked and Max Muncy will return and pick up where he left off. But it’s a gamble nonetheless. And if you’ve already sunk $400 million into your payroll, what’s another $10 million to $20 million for a playoff insurance policy: a proven closer and a better outfielder?

John Merryman
Redondo Beach

On Wednesday against the Reds, James Outman attempted to do his best Denzel Clarke-Cedric Mullins imitation by attempting to rob a homer. Unfortunately this last great effort typified Outman’s career with the Dodgers, as it was another case of “so close, but yet so far,” as the ball landed off the heel of Outman’s glove for a two-run triple.

The NL rookie of the month in April 2023 is a great athlete, but it was understandable why the Dodgers traded him.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

A few hours before baseball's trade deadline Thursday, MLB Network dived into how well top minor league prospects across baseball have succeeded in the major leagues over the years, and it's a pretty dismal percentage. Very few go on to successful big league careers, most just pop back and forth between the minors and majors, move from team to team, while many just fizzle out. They concluded that given the opportunity to garner a quality major league player, let alone an All-Star by just using your draft capital is a no-brainer. The Padres are one team that firmly believes in this while the Dodgers always seem hesitant to do so.

They pointed to the Dodgers with an aging Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and a 31-year-old, currently healthy Shohei Ohtani that the time to win is now and that holding onto all their draft capital when it could be used to immediately bolster the roster doesn't historically or statistically make much sense.

Jerry Leibowitz
Culver City

Well the trade deadline passed without much movement from the Dodgers. With their deep pockets, I thought they might have become the first organization in MLB history to trade for an entire team.

Joe Kevany
Mount Washington

Halo hope

When Arte Moreno sells the Angels this offseason, please bring in A.J. Preller, the architect behind the Padres, as the GM.

Dean Connor
Fontana

Life of Riley

So Lincoln Riley gets $80 million if USC lets him go before his contract is up. For that amount of money, I presume he’s also curing cancer at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Marty Cooper
Encino

Redemption road

As a Trojan fan searching for imminent signs of a return to football glory, it's oddly encouraging to see a certain columnist declare USC nationally irrelevant because if history has taught us anything, it's this: when Bill Plaschke buries you, resurrection tends to follow.

Steve Ross
Carmel

Bruins longshot

I don't believe DeShaun Foster was "going full Joe Namath" when he guaranteed a packed Rose Bowl this coming football season. A critical college football playoff game will surely pack the place New Year's Day.

As for his certainty of a jam-packed venue during the regular season — I wouldn't bet the house.

David Griffin
Los Angeles

Role models

What a great article Eric Sondheimer wrote on City section coaches uniting in challenging times. Reading about these new coaches, as well as some new stadiums, it has me quite excited about the upcoming season. They appear ready to lead their young men the right way in developing as players and students first and put the cheating at one unnamed City high school in the rearview mirror. These coaches are to be admired as they take on this arduous task with a lot less resources and financial compensation than many of their brethren at other CIF schools.

Mark Kaiserman
Santa Monica

Clip job

What’s older — a California Giant Redwood or the Clippers’ starting lineup?

Barry Smith
Thousand Oaks

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

While Ryan Helsley was electric Friday night in his debut inning as a Met and David Peterson offered his usual terrific stuff in six good innings, the bitter aftertaste from Giants 4, Mets 3 at Citi Field was a pre-deadline woe that the Mets must work out.

Their offense.

Yes, the Mets made a nice comeback, scoring once in the seventh and twice in the eighth to erase a 3-0 deficit. The Fab Four did all of that work, too, driving in or scoring every run. And Pete Alonso moved closer to the franchise home run record by swatting his 249th career longball, three shy of Darryl Strawberry.

But the Mets, who entered the game with a below-average offense in terms of runs per game, were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They struggled against Giants lefty Robbie Ray, who allowed one run in seven innings. The Mets loaded the bases in the 10th inning, thanks in part to the automatic runner, but were 0-for-3 with RISP in that frame alone. The game ended when Ronny Mauricio struck out with the potential tying run on third and the potential winning run on second.

The result was their fourth straight loss, one that perhaps muted some of the warm feelings percolating after what appeared to be a terrific trade deadline. The Mets netted three big relief arms, including Helsley, and solidified their bullpen, which had loomed as a danger zone.

Now the big bats must fix the attack. The top of the order – the Fab Four – did the heavy lifting Friday, but Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Alonso still combined to go just 3-for-15. Alonso had been 0-for-19 before his homer and had been stuck in a 5-for-60 funk entering the night. Lindor’s numbers are plummeting and Soto was coming off a 3-for-19 road trip.

Perhaps new outfielder Cedric Mullins, who popped up as a pinch-hitter, can jolt things with his power and speed.

Maybe Friday is a sign Alonso is getting untracked. In addition to his 23rd homer, a 414-foot shot to right-center, he had a sacrifice fly and his 10th-inning walk against closer Randy Rodriguez seemed to impress Carlos Mendoza, who praised Alonso for laying off a tough 3-2 breaking pitch to work a walk in the 10th.

“There were some good signs from Pete,” the manager said.

And if you want to feel good about something else, Helsley, the newcomer who had the most impact on the game, was impressive. He came into the game to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” which the crowd loved, and threw a scoreless ninth inning, though he allowed two hits. He struck out the other three batters he faced, though, and coaxed several weak swings from Giants’ hitters with his slider. He also hit 101 miles per hour on the radar gun.

“That’s a really, really good fastball,” Mendoza said. “But then you look at the breaking ball, the slider. He keeps hitters guessing – you’ve got to get ready for 100 and then, before you know it, he’s dropping that breaking ball right there. For strikes. For chase.

“It’s a pretty tough at-bat.”

So is Peterson, the only Met starter who delivers innings in bushels. He’s now at his single-season high of 127 innings pitched and he’s the only Met pitcher who has completed six innings in a game since June 7, when Clay Holmes did it.

Peterson, as MLB managers love to put it, gave the Mets a chance to win Friday night.

Time for their offense to start doing the same with a little more regularity.

Move over Edwin Diaz! 

Ryan Helsley made his Mets debut on Friday night and premiered his signature walk-out from the bullpen to the Citi Field crowd.

Similar to Diaz's "Narcos" walk-out, the lights in the stadium go dark as the bell tolls throughout the stadium as AC/DC's "Hells Bells" begins to play as Helsley makes his way to the mound.

ALEXA, PLAY HELLS BELLS.

Ryan Helsley is on for his Mets debut in the 9th 🔥 pic.twitter.com/R1ApTt1gGv

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2025

Of course, this is the song made famous by Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman but Helsley has made it his own over the years and has now brought it to Flushing.

But a killer walk-out entrance is nothing without the performance to back it up, and Helsley did. Pitching in a tied game in the ninth, Helsley allowed two hits but struck out three batters to get out of trouble. He became just the sixth Mets pitcher ever to strike out three batters in his debut inning. That performance gave his new team a chance to walk off the Giants. Unfortunately for the Mets, San Francisco would push across the ghost-runner in the 10th to take the 4-3 win.

Despite the result, Helsley's new manager and teammates were impressed with the right-hander.

"He was pretty good. 100 first pitch," Carlos Mendoza said with a smirk after the game. "Around the strikezone, it’s a really, really good fastball then you look at the breaking ball, the slider and some of those pitches, you keep the hitters guessing…. He’s a pretty tough at-bat. He’s a pretty elite arm right there."

Helsley was one of three relievers the Mets acquired before the trade deadline, along with the Giants' Tyler Rogers and the Orioles' Gregory Soto, days prior. All three hope to give the Mets a boost in the bullpen and depth for a deep postseason run.

"Lights out. He was all over it," David Peterson said of Helsley after the game. "We’re all excited for all the guys we brought over. Now that we’re passed [the trade deadline], this is our group and we’re ready to continue all the way to the end of the year."

The Yankees' group of trade acquisitions made a dreadful first impression on Friday night, as multiple leads were blown in a stunning and inexplicable 13-12 loss to the Marlins at LoanDepot Park.

Here are the takeaways...

-- There couldn't have been any legitimate complaints about the early pace of play, as both starting pitchers worked efficiently and held everyone hitless through the first three innings. Janson Junk, the former Yankees farmhand, induced four groundouts and three flyouts in his three perfect frames, while Carlos Rodón struck out four and allowed a walk during the same stretch. But the blemish-free outing didn't last long enough for Junk.

-- The Yankees' bats woke up in the fourth, as back-to-back singles from Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez disrupted Junk's rhythm. A flyout to right from Cody Bellinger allowed Grisham to advance to third, and after a steal of second from Dominguez with one out, Giancarlo Stanton ripped a three-run homer to left that broke the ice. The veteran slugger's ninth blast of the season had a scorching 116 mph exit velocity, and it was his first homer at LoanDepot Park since Sept. 28, 2017. At that time, Stanton was playing his final games with the Marlins.

-- While the no-hit bid remained alive for Rodón through four innings, the veteran southpaw had to circumvent a jam due to free passes. He allowed a leadoff walk to Agustin Ramirez, who ultimately reached third with stolen bases that followed strikeouts. With two outs and Ramirez just 90 feet away from home, Rodón walked another to set up runners on the corners, but he craftily left the mound unscathed by fanning Kyle Stowers.

-- Junk's woes continued in the fifth, as the Yankees posted another three-spot to increase their lead to a comfortable 6-0. The rally began with a one-out single from Anthony Volpe, who then stole second with two outs and reached home on an RBI single from Dominguez. A walk from Grisham and another stolen bag from Dominguez set up two in scoring position for Bellinger, who wound up driving in the pair with a single to right. It marked the Yankees' second lead of six-plus runs in as many games.

-- Rodón experienced hiccups of his own after the Yankees padded their cushion. He lost the no-hit bid by allowing a leadoff single to Eric Wagaman, and in the ensuing at-bat, he served up a two-run homer to Javier Sanoja that cleared the wall in right. Rodón recovered with a sweat-drenched uniform, striking out two with another walk sandwiched in between. But he couldn't complete the inning, as his fifth walk of the outing prompted manager Aaron Boone to leave the dugout and take the ball. Rodón threw 107 total pitches (61 for strikes) and punched out nine.

-- Despite using Jonathan Loaisiga as the closer in Thursday's win, the Yankees turned to the right-hander as Rodón's replacement with two outs in the fifth. The strategy quickly backfired, as Loaisiga plunked Otto Lopez to load the bases and then allowed a two-run bloop single to Liam Hicks that cut the Yankees' lead to 6-4. But the inning could've been far worse, as Ryan McMahon stopped the bleeding with a slick snag at third that robbed Stowers of a knock and the Marlins of more runs. In the end, Rodón was charged with four earned runs -- his season ERA is now 3.34.

-- The Yankees didn't take kindly to the Marlins' round of punches. After a quiet sixth inning against reliever Valente Bellozo, they rapidly produced another three runs in the seventh, as singles from Volpe and Austin Wells preceded a towering three-run homer to right from Grisham. It was a milestone dinger off the foul pole for Grisham, who now has a career-high 19 homers on the year.

-- The seventh inning was a nightmare for the Yankees' newly acquired relievers. Jake Bird made his debut first, and after loading the bases via a single, double, and walk, he served up a one-out grand slam to Stowers that suddenly cut the Yankees' lead to 9-8. David Bednar then took the mound,  and after recording the second out, he allowed a game-tying blast to Sanoja that sent the crowd into a frenzy. In the blink of an eye, Bednar gave up three more hits, and the stunning six-run rally from the Marlins put them ahead, 10-9.

-- Somehow, the Yankees' seventh-inning stench wasn't as strong as the game's drunken breath. Just four pitches into the eighth, Volpe knotted the score at 10-10 with a mammoth solo homer to left off Lake Bachar. In spite of his incessant defensive blunders at shortstop, Volpe now has 17 homers this season, and he's hit .438 (7-for-16) over his last four games. Bednar returned for a second inning of work and kept the game tied by retiring the Marlins in order with two strikeouts. 

-- While the Yankees' newest relievers failed to impress, their newest third baseman and utilityman stepped up when it mattered most. After a two-out single from Ben Rice off reliever Anthony Bender, speedster Jose Caballero entered as a pinch-runner and managed to steal second. The hustle from Caballero paid off, as McMahon stepped up to the plate and delivered a go-ahead RBI single to center. Then, six pitches later, Volpe delivered an insurance run, crushing a double to deep center that increased the Yankees' lead to 12-10.

-- Camilo Doval was tasked with closing out the ninth, and his Yankees debut also brought misery. He blew the save in brutal fashion, as Sonoja and Jakob Marsee scored the game-tying runs with one out when a single to right from Xavier Edwards trickled past Caballero's glove. Then, moments later, Ramirez nubbed a ball in front of the plate that forced Wells chasing and allowed Edwards to slide in head-first for the winning run. A stunning collapse for the Yankees, and their worst loss in recent memory.

Game MVP: Javier Sanoja

The second-year infielder found himself in the middle of several Marlins rallies, and finished the night 3-for-5 with a home run and three runs scored.

Highlights

A 116-MPH 3-RUN BLAST FOR GIANCARLO STANTON 🚀 pic.twitter.com/c7nRf4Yg86

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

Jasson Domínguez makes it 4-0 Yankees! pic.twitter.com/8dnRvoCkZ3

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

Cody Bellinger plates two more 💪 pic.twitter.com/2MtLbpxBR0

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

ANTHONY VOLPE TIES THE GAME AT 10! pic.twitter.com/iZBJul9xEv

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

RYAN McMAHON COMES UP CLUTCH AGAIN.

THE YANKEES LEAD IN THE 9TH! pic.twitter.com/S9MyCYSwEa

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

ANTHONY VOLPE'S FOURTH HIT OF THE NIGHT MAKES IT 12-10! pic.twitter.com/awW6i7U0Qd

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

The ball gets past Jose Caballero in right field and the Marlins have tied it at 12 in the 9th pic.twitter.com/oYj72YYFyb

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 2, 2025

What's next

The Yankees (60-50) will continue their three-game weekend set in Miami on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m.

RHP Cam Schlittler (1-1, 4.91 ERA) is slated to take the mound, opposite RHP Eury Pérez (3-3, 3.07 ERA).

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.