The eighth inning of Thursday’s loss to the Washington Nationals summed up the stunning, collective disintegration of the 2026 New York Mets.

On a day when enough had gone right that the Mets had a one-run lead and their three back-end relievers available to hold it, one of them faltered yet again.

This time, it was Luke Weaver, who surrendered a two-run, go-ahead homer to Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams that put the Mets down a run.

Still, trailing by a run in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets received a gift: The Nationals once again decided to pitch to Juan Soto. He rewarded their generosity with a ringing double high off the center field wall that put the tying run in scoring position with no one out and the No. 3, 4, and 5 hitters in their lineup coming up. The tide was turning.

Then it went back out: Austin Slater grounded out. Mark Vientos lined out. Tyrone Taylor lined out. The chance slid away and so did another game. The Mets lost another series. They will have the worst record in baseball on the first of May.

“Not good enough, obviously. Not a secret,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That’s not gonna do it. We’ve gotta start winning series. That’s not good enough.”

As the Mets suffered through a 12-game losing streak, then continued to sputter after it ended, two other struggling teams in major markets fired their managers. Mendoza’s future has been a topic of whispered conversations around the industry and on-screen conversations beamed around the country.

But neither Steve Cohen nor David Stearns nor any players have pointed to Mendoza’s leadership as a problem in recent weeks. If anything, Cohen and Stearns have indicated a desire to be patient, and an understanding that if change is needed, Mendoza is not the only place to make it.

As of late Thursday afternoon, as reporters filed into the Mets clubhouse where players solemnly packed bags for Anaheim, no indications surfaced that a change was coming. Indeed, that eighth inning – set up in part by the run that scored after Mendoza asked MJ Melendez to bunt against a lefty in the sixth despite Melendez homering earlier against a righty – made another argument that the Mets' problems are more structural than managerial.

For example: The man who stepped to bat after Soto doubled was Slater, the second-latest right-handed hitter added to the Mets dilapidated roster this week, pinch-hitting for the lefty Melendez. The Mets added Slater to their roster earlier this week after he struggled in early-season duty with the Marlins. In his second at-bat in the last week, and second ever as a Met, Slater grounded out to shortstop.

Then came Vientos, hitting cleanup because someone had to do it. Luis Robert Jr. hit the injured list, where fellow candidates Francisco Lindor and Jorge Polanco are also currently at. The day game after the night game was Francisco Alvarez’s day off. In fairness to Vientos, he had come through with a go-ahead hit two innings earlier. But this time, he lined out to second. Vientos is hitting .236 with a .638 OPS this season. League average is .242 and .714.

The Mets’ last chance was Taylor, also picked for platoon advantage, but by no means a part of this team’s initial vision for the heart of its order. Taylor hit the ball well but lined out to left field. Soto never moved. The Mets are similarly stuck.

So far, Stearns has been as patient with his lineup as he has been with his manager. In giving Tommy Pham a shot, then trying Slater instead, and cycling recently acquired infielder Eric Wagaman onto the roster to replace Robert on Thursday, Stearns has only made moves when forced to do so around the margins. Depending on how the Mets play over the next few weeks, his relative patience will look either admirable or unconscionable.

He and the Mets did make another move for a hitter Thursday, claiming veteran infielder Andy Ibáñez off waivers from the Athletics. He can play second, third, and first and has also played some major league games in the outfield in parts of six big league seasons. He has 28 career homers and a .688 career OPS.

Exactly how they will use him remains to be seen, and he is hardly the only player on the roster whose path to contributing is not clear. David Peterson and Sean Manaea, both of whom struggled in the Mets’ 14-2 loss to the Nationals Wednesday night, are also in sustained limbo.

The Mets’ willingness to give both repeated chances to rediscover their old form made sense in the first few weeks of the season, just as it did with Kodai Senga. The sample was small and the urgency less great.

But Peterson has not missed enough bats and Manaea’s stuff has not been explosive enough to give him any margin for error. And as the sample has grown, the urgency has, too.

The Mets placed Senga on the injured list with lumbar spine inflammation this week, the most comfortable answer to the question of how to remove the struggling veteran from the rotation without giving him away.

Manaea is being paid $25 million this year. Even for Cohen, that is a lot of money to pay someone cut in May. Plus, Manaea at his best was a crucial part of the Mets rotation that somehow carried them to the National League Championship Series in 2024.

But the Mets are also through churning through middle relief options these days: Reserving a spot for a struggling starter-turned-long-man in Manaea means losing one that could be used for the kind of helpful short reliever the Mets need. Peterson appeared to be a reliable long reliever during his seven innings of relief work over two outings last week. But the Mets already have a reliable long reliever in Tobias Myers. Traditionally constructed teams do not usually carry two.

And yet, even with all those shortcomings, the Mets still found themselves six outs away from a series win Thursday afternoon before these 2026 symptoms surfaced again.

“It just feels like there’s a little bit of a culture that’s just adapted to it unintentionally. It’s just how winning and losing goes,” Weaver said. “… Sleep is lost. Your mind wanders. You just kind of get into a fixation you don’t really need to be in. I think the answers are kind of in those words: It’s simplifying the process and maybe doing less. Maybe it’s less reps. Maybe it’s more about just enjoying why you do this for a living, trying to find your inner kid and the joy of why you play the game.”

Some things are improving. 23-year-old Carson Benge, for example, seems to be learning how to contribute in the majors the way he did in the minors early in his career. Mets hitting coaches advised Benge to close his stance a bit and the change seems to be working. The rookie is 8 for his last 24 in his last seven games.

“I feel like I can get in [swing] positions that would take me longer if I was more open," Benge said. “So it just kind of cuts down time.”

And Thursday’s starter Freddy Peralta, who had only finished the sixth inning once in his first six Mets starts, found a way to push through the mental block he admitted had been forming around that frame.

“One thing I know for sure is we are all preparing the right way here,” Peralta said after allowing one earned run in six innings Thursday. “… Unfortunately, things are not going our way. But I want to say that we are preparing to win some games and we are trying hard.”

Maybe that cloud of pressure Weaver admitted has settled in over the Mets can only be vanquished with drastic action. Maybe, and maybe soon, Cohen and/or Stearns will decide that firing Mendoza is their best chance to jettison it. Maybe a roster shakeup of some kind, perhaps via trade, will feel more likely to help. For now, they are not changing anything and will begin May in a state of prolonged crisis. Nothing has changed for their Mets, either.

The Mets have claimed Andy Ibáñez, a 33-year-old infielder who was recently designated for assignment, off waivers from the A’s. In very limited major league playing time this season, Ibáñez hit .118/.167/.118 with a -24 wRC+ to start this season.

Before this season, Ibáñez had spent parts of the previous five seasons in the big leagues with the Rangers and Tigers. In total, he hit .254/.305/.389 with 28 home runs, 10 stolen bases, and a 92 wRC+ in 1,220 plate appearances over that span.

A right-handed hitter, Ibáñez is out of options, and whether the Mets add him to their active roster or attempt to send him to Syracuse remains to be seen. The vast majority of his major league innings have come at second and third base, positions that are occupied by everyday players Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette, respectively. At the moment, the Mets’ lone backup infielder on the big league roster is Eric Wagaman, who was called up earlier today. He has options remaining and could be sent to Triple-A Syracuse.

Albert Pujols sees only one clear way for Trevor Bauer to pitch in the majors again.

As Bauer pitches on Long Island with the Ducks of the Atlantic League, future Hall of Famer Pujols believes the outspoken Bauer must stop bashing Major League Baseball and make amends with the league if he has any hope of returning.

“I think he needs to clear up the issues with MLB first before he gets to this level. I think one thing with Trevor Bauer was that he went against MLB, and you can’t go against the hands that really feeds you,” Pujols said to Fox News Digital.

“If he could do that, though, teams should jump at the opportunity.”

Bauer, 35, has not appeared in the majors since June 28, 2021, when he was placed on administrative leave after sexual assault allegations emerged against the 2020 National League Cy Young winner.

The allegations led MLB to impose a historic 324-game suspension against Bauer, which was later reduced to 194 contests after an appeal.

No criminal charges were filed against Bauer, and he maintains his innocence, claiming the encounters with multiple accusers were consensual.

After he signed with the Ducks, marking his first opportunity to pitch on American soil since the emergence of the sexual assault allegations, Bauer reiterated a belief that he has been blackballed by MLB.

“I could put up a 0.00 ERA and strike out more people than Mason Miller and it wouldn’t change anything,” Bauer said. “I’ve known what this is the entire time. I’m blackballed. I’m not allowed to play Major League Baseball. … I’ve literally offered to pay my entire salary back and play for zero dollars.

“When I say there’s nothing I can do, that everything is completely out of my control, I have offered everything. It just doesn’t matter.”

Pujols, who was briefly teammates with Bauer with the Dodgers in 2021, added that the right-hander’s ability is not the reason for his lack of MLB opportunities.

“Who doesn’t want to have Trevor Bauer on their team? Of course,” Pujols added. “But I think at the end of the day, you know, he’s still trying, but he needs to clear out what his issue is with MLB.”

Over the past few seasons, Bauer continued his career internationally, pitching in Japan and Mexico, to mixed results.

He spent 2023 with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars before earning Pitcher of the Year in the Mexican Baseball League in 2024.

Last season, he returned to NPB with the BayStars, putting up a 4.51 ERA, the worst of any starter in the league.

In two outings with the Ducks, Bauer has shown flashes of his dominance, recording eight strikeouts across four innings and then tossing a seven-inning no-hitter in his most recent outing.

After the win, he took to social media to needle critics who claim he’s past his physical prime.

“I just want to be around American fans and enjoy playing baseball in my home country because I’ve not been allowed to play baseball in my home country for years for no good reason,” Bauer said. “So instead of getting bitter about it, I want to come and enjoy the fans that are here and feel like I am accepted in American baseball.

“I have a huge, passionate fan base. Logically I know that I’m loved by the American baseball community, but once you get to the MLB level and the large brands in baseball and the media, they just hate me. So it’s easy to feel like I’m an outcast here and I don’t want to feel like that.”

It feels like anything that can go wrong will go wrong for the Mets these days.

Even for one of the select few in their lineup who are producing.

Exhibit A: Juan Soto smashed a high, soaring fly ball in the first inning of the Amazin’s game against the Nationals on Thursday afternoon that looked like it would clear the right field wall at Citi Field.

But there was the 6-foot-6 James Wood in right field for the Nationals, who made a terrific leaping catch that saw him extend over the fence to take away a would-be solo home run.

Soto smashed a 1-1 fastball from Nats starter Miles Mikolas 378 feet at 108.1 mph.

But the ball was high enough that Wood was able to ease back to the 370-foot marker on the fence before jumping high to snag the ball to deny Soto his third homer in as many games.

Soto, as he walked back to the dugout, smiled at Wood, almost as if in disbelief.

And in a 5-4 loss, that home run would have been helpful for a Mets team that is now 10-21 and firmly in last place in the National League East by 1 ½ games.

Fittingly, Wood was one of the key pieces the Nationals acquired at the 2022 trade deadline when they sent Soto to the Padres.

Wood’s defensive mastery wasn’t done, however, as he took away a potential hit from third baseman Bo Bichette in the fifth inning with a diving snag on a sinking line drive.

The play had a .777 expected batting average and had a 10 percent catch probability, according to MLB.com.

James Wood gets UP to rob a homer from Juan Soto! pic.twitter.com/CDFjKXtZQ3

— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2026

Soto finished the day 2-for-3 with two runs scored, coming inches away from a homer in the eighth when he banged a double high off the center field wall.

It wasn’t enough, as reliever Luke Weaver surrendered a go-ahead two-run homer to CJ Abrams and the Mets dropped their second straight series.

After winning three of five games in March, the Mets went 7-19 — with a 12-game losing streak — in April.

The Chicago Cubs are 19-12 and sitting just a game back of the division-leading Reds despite running what has essentially been a rotating cast of relievers in the late innings for the better part of three weeks. Caleb Thielbar was Craig Counsell’s de facto closer in Daniel Palencia’s absence before landing on the injured list himself. At peak injury chaos, the Cubs found Palencia, Thielbar, Phil Maton, Porter Hodge, Riley Martin, Shelby Miller, Ethan Roberts and Hunter Harvey all on the injured list simultaneously. That’s not an injury list, it’s a catastrophe.

The fact that Ben Brown has been quietly excellent through all of this has been clutch. Brown’s thrown 22.2 innings with five earned runs and 22 strikeouts on the young season. In San Diego he threw some of the highest leverage work of his career, including a bases-loaded, no-out, game saving escape act before also getting two outs in the ninth [VIDEO].

There are rumors that Palencia might return as soon as this weekend according to The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney:

Honestly, that can’t happen fast enough. Craig Counsell clearly does not trust Brown to get the last out of a game, which is why he opted for the platoon advantage that (checks notes) Hoby Milner provides to secure the series victory against the Padres. Don’t get me wrong, it worked and I’m grateful for every out the 35-year-old lefty has recorded so far in 15 innings this season. I’m just also extremely skeptical it will keep working with just five strikeouts, four walks and 10 hits during those innings. I’m also not sure any of our nervous systems can take the type of stress a 2.40 ERA built on a 5.39 FIP induces for more than a few weeks.

A note of caution: while Palencia’s return is welcome, the injury he was dealing with is concerning. What was originally called a left oblique strain was later clarified as a lat strain. Neither diagnosis is particularly comforting for a pitcher whose entire value proposition is built on explosive arm action throwing 102 MPH gasolina.

Maton could be a candidate for saves as Palencia works his way back. Once Harvey and Thielbar rejoin the team, which could happen later in May, Counsell will once again have a deep roster of genuine late-inning arms to deploy. And who knows, maybe an added bonus of this bullpen injury disaster is that Ben Brown gets the experience and confidence to be added to that high-leverage crew.

At the risk of handing it to Jed Hoyer and company, the fact that the organization had the depth to weather a storm like this for any amount of time is impressive. The fact that they’ve done it with a .613 win percentage is almost miraculous. The collection of cost-effective veterans with injury histories, alongside a trusted development pipeline, has been stress-tested hard this April and has largely passed with flying colors.

Two walk-offs? A familiar feeling? What we learned as Phillies sweep Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

It’s early, but does this feel similar to 2022?

When the Phillies, at 22-29, fired Joe Girardi on June 3 that season, Dave Dombrowski and the front office turned to Rob Thomson.

The Phils won Thomson’s debut, 10-0 over the Angels at home. They won the next day, too. Then, a day later, they walked off the Angels in a 9-7 win. Rookie Bryson Stott delivered the ninth-inning magic.

A sweep.

About 1,425 days later, it has opened similarly. On Tuesday, interim manager Don Mattingly took over for Thomson. The Phillies responded with a 7-0 shutout over San Francisco. Two days later, rookie Justin Crawford walked off the Giants in comeback fashion. Kyle Schwarber hit his 350th homer in the game. 

The Phillies finished the second game — a 6-5 victory — the same way, it would make the day even more unusual: two walk-off wins in one day for the first time since July 24, 1998, against the Florida Marlins.

Reliever Chase Shugart, who delivered a clutch, scoreless top of the tenth, became the first Phillie to win both games of a doubleheader since Terry Adams on Sept. 21, 2002, in Cincinnati.

Alec Bohm, the walk-off hero. Another sweep.

History does not always repeat itself, but baseball has a way of circling back on itself. Three games into Mattingly’s run, there are at least signs of something worth watching. A number of them showed up across Thursday’s doubleheader.

Let’s dive in:

SÁNCHEZ TURNS THE PAGE — GAME 1

Entering the start, Cristopher Sánchez carried a 2.94 ERA despite allowing 44 hits in 33 2/3 innings. He was tied for second in the league in hits allowed per game. More than anything, that has spoken to his poise, especially as he has pitched to contact more often in 2026.

In his previous start, the Cubs scattered 12 hits against him. Three starts earlier, the Giants got to him for 11. There had been a lot of weak contact in those outings, which helped explain why the underlying numbers still looked healthier than the hit totals.

Thursday did not begin well either. Sánchez allowed back-to-back doubles to Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman to open the game. Then came an RBI groundout and a Casey Schmitt run-scoring single.

The Phillies were in a hole right away.

Without Sánchez’s ability to settle in, though, they would not have come back later. He allowed just one hit the rest of the outing and struck out six, five of them on the changeup. He threw the pitch 34 percent of the time and got a 38 percent whiff rate with it.

“I think he just kept fighting and kept making pitches,” Mattingly said. “That’s a pretty good outing when a guy gives up two in the first and is able to come back like that and keep us in the game.”

Mattingly pulled Sánchez at 85 pitches with two outs in the sixth. Sánchez walked off shaking his head.

“Of course I wanted to stay out,” Sánchez said. “I just wanted to finish that one off.”

Still, the move held, and the comeback stayed alive.

HARD-HITTIN’ ADOLIS — GAME 1

His numbers entering the day did not jump out. García came in with a .699 OPS.

But he keeps scorching the ball.

In his four at-bats in Game 1, three were hard-hit balls. That has been a trend all season. García has posted a 49.4 percent hard-hit rate, which would be his best since his 2023 career year.

And when he has put the ball in play, good things have happened. He is hitting .316 on balls in play, his best BABIP since 2022.

When the Phillies signed García in the offseason, they were betting on a bounce-back year. So far, the metrics say the quality of contact has improved. He changed his batting stance to look more like the one he used in 2023, and it has helped.

The defense has been a major part of the value, too.

He finished Game 1 with two hits, then had a two-run hit in Game 2 and nearly ended the night with a walkoff in the ninth, but Ramos tracked it down.

TREA KEEPS GOING OPPO — GAME 2

Turner wasted no time getting Game 2 started.

On the first pitch he saw after the walk-off win in Game 1, he jumped an Adrian Houser sinker left in the middle of the zone and sent it out the other way. It looked a lot like the opposite-field swing he showed against Braves righty Grant Holmes on the road trip.

Turner won the batting title in 2025 at .304, but he went to the opposite field only 28.1 percent of the time. This season, he has hit the ball to the right side 34.7 percent of the time.

It is not a bat-speed issue. His 2026 bat speed is actually a tick above last season’s. He has hit the ball softer overall, as the hard-hit rate is down. Even so, after a multi-hit day, he looks like he may be finding something again.

It gave the Phillies a jolt right away in the second game of the doubleheader. Clubs can drag a little in those spots. The Phillies did not.

HOW ABOUT THAT SHOT? — GAME 2

It was a milestone day for Schwarber.

No. 350, then a tape-measure blast.

The Phillies slugger demolished a hanging slider from Houser and drove it to right-center. It hit the red sign on the facing of the second deck. Without that sign, it may have reached the concourse in front of Chickie’s & Pete’s.

It left the bat at 112.4 mph. His earlier homer came off at 113 mph. Together, the two traveled 852 feet — nearly three football fields.

Schwarber would later come through with a game-tying double with two strikes and two outs in the ninth. A day to remember.

His power has been there all season. He is barreling the ball at a 20 percent clip. As for the 350th homer in Game 1, it came in his 1,321st game, the seventh-fewest contests to reach the mark, according to the Phillies.

WHEN DO REALMUTO, DURAN RETURN?

Mattingly said this week that J.T. Realmuto is progressing. He went on the 10-day injured list on April 22 with back spasms, his second injury issue after getting hit on the foot earlier in San Francisco.

The Phillies’ interim manager made clear they are not rushing it.

“We need a strong J.T. to be the best J.T. we can,” Mattingly said. “We want him back being J.T. And not for a week.”

That caution makes sense. Rafael Marchán and Garrett Stubbs entered Thursday with a combined .113 average and .328 OPS. Everyone benefits when Realmuto is back in the lineup and fully healthy.

Closer Jhoan Duran is moving forward, too. He threw a bullpen Thursday for the first time since going on the IL with a left oblique injury.

In the 16 days since that stint began, the Phillies have not had a save opportunity. The way things are trending after the first three games under Mattingly, that may change soon enough.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers completed their stretch of 13 games in 13 days and were just 6-7. But they bucked a trend in recent years of constantly churning through pitchers on the roster to get through long stretches.

They only called up one pitcher during the last two weeks — left-hander Jake Eder on April 20, and that move was only because closer Edwin Díaz felt something in his elbow and needed arthroscopic surgery. So much for my prediction two weeks back that many pitching additions were coming, but that’s what we were used to. Last year, for instance, in four stretches of at least 10 days in row through the end of August (with roster limits of 26 players and 13 pitchers) the Dodgers added three, nine, three, and four pitchers.

This time just one rode the fresh arm express. Eder, who was acquired from the Washington Nationals on April 1, was pitching in bulk relief for Triple-A Oklahoma City before getting prepped for joining Los Angeles.

“I had thrown two innings, three innings, then I think I was going to go four the next time out, but then they said, ‘Are you good going one, so you could be available to come pitch here?,” Eder explained about pitching one inning for the Comets on April 16, then got called up four days later. “When I’m here, I’m just whatever they want, whenever they call, just be ready.”

Eder has pitched in three of the 10 games for which he was active, going one inning in each appearance, and earned his first major league win on Monday when Kyle Tucker’s walk-off single completed a Dodgers comeback win over the Miami Marlins.

But the Dodgers haven’t needed Eder nor really any of the relievers all too often during the 13 days, as their starting pitchers averaged 6.05 innings during the stretch, with nine starts lasting at least six innings, including three seven-inning starts and even an eight-inning start, all with a 2.40 ERA with 82 strikeouts against 28 walks in 78 2/3 innings.

Not having to go to the bullpen early helped keep the relievers fresh, as did the distribution of some of the losses. They lost four road games in this 13-day stretch, and did not have to pitch the ninth inning in any of those games, preventing a few unnecessary miles on the odometer.

No two ways about it

Having Shohei Ohtani as one of the highly-functioning members of the rotation is a boost not only due to his performance, but due to the fact that as a two-way player Ohtani does not count against the active roster limit of 13 pitchers.

Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell said early last week, “there’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and that he gets special consideration. Which is probably the most bizarre rule. … For one team.”

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman last week with David Vassegh of KLAC 570 AM talked about the two-way player rule:

“When Shohei was on the Angels and MLB was considering this [rule], they reached out to a bunch of teams, us included. I said, from a competitive standpoint as the Dodgers, I don’t love it, but wearing my industry hat and what’s best for Major League Baseball, it is to do everything we can for Shohei Ohtani to be in and stay in games.

“As far as the 13-pitcher rule, again, it is more that we have 13 pitchers. I had to clarify this with Jim Bowden, who said that we have nine relievers. We don’t have nine relievers, we have eight relievers just like everyone else, we have five starters like everyone else. It’s just that when Shohei is able, and the rest makes sense, Shohei pitches also. It’s not the we’re carrying an extra reliever relative to others. It’s certainly an advantage, but it should be an advantage. What Shohei does and what he’s capable of is so unique, it should be rewarded, it should be celebrated. Everyone knew the Shohei rules, and had an equal opportunity to sign him two years ago.”

While the Dodgers aren’t carrying extra reliever, simply having Ohtani start games removes innings that relievers need to cover, not to mention it allows the team to start the rest of the rotation on at least five days rest whenever possible (to date, no Dodger has started a game on four days rest this season). For instance, Ohtani during this 13-game stretch pitched 12 of the 113 innings, which means the rest of the 13-man staff only had to pitch 101 innings.

No matter how you slice it, that’s less of a burden on the rest of the staff. During the last 13 games, the Dodgers only pitched a reliever on back-to-back days seven times, and only three times had someone pitch three times over four days. That’s light work relative to most similar stretches.

When Ohtani first rejoined the Dodgers rotation last June, the team was comfortable with him gradually building up, and he only pitched one or two innings his first four starts, and didn’t go past three innings until his ninth start. General manager Brandon Gomes called anything Ohtani gave them on the mound were “free innings” that the rest of the staff did not have to cover.

Now the pitching staff is benefitting from those free innings in much larger quantity — Ohtani has pitched six innings in all five of his starts so far in 2026 — which has led to one of the Dodgers’ most stable roster stretches in recent years.

Here are the lineups for game 2 of today’s doubleheader. Let’s discuss.

For the Phillies:

For the Giants: