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With a breeze blowing in The Bronx and the worst of the summer heat just a memory, Sunday felt like an appetizer for the fall to come.

And in a game and in a series that mattered, the Yankees played like a team that is hungry and ready for October baseball.

They finally uncovered several offensive answers — most notably newcomer Heliot Ramos — for lefty Boston pitching. They entrusted one of the larger games of the season to a struggling Will Warren, who authored his best start of the year. And by the time it was winding down, the embarrassed Red Sox asked a position player to serve as their mercy-rule pitcher.

If on Friday and Saturday night the Yankees did enough to steal two of the first three games of the series, on Sunday they did everything in a statement 16-1 demolition of the Red Sox in front of 45,256 who left the park with a better chance of seeing playoff baseball in The Bronx than when they had entered.

Because with the victory, the Yankees (78-59) clinched the tiebreaker over the Red Sox (74-63) by winning the season series 7-6. Officially up four games for the top wild-card seed, the Yankees are effectively ahead by five because if the two finish tied atop the wild-card standings with the same record, the Yankees would host the best-of-three, first-round series.

“We saw it last year how we lost the division for a tiebreaker,” said José Caballero, who was part of the 2025 club that had to play a first-round series (and then ceded home-field advantage to Toronto in the division series) because of that tiebreaker.

Of course, Aaron Boone’s group also took steps toward ensuring the tiebreaker won’t come into play, preferring to look ahead toward the Rays (4.5 games away), anyway.

The result — taking three of four and outscoring Boston 26-9 — is encouraging. But so is the manner in which the Yankees took control, punctuated by a spotless finale that might be most remembered for one Ramos swing.

In a scoreless duel between Warren and Ranger Suárez — the fourth lefty starter Boston threw at the Yankees, including an opener — the southpaw blinked against Ramos and a Yankees offense that hit as it would like to in October.

In the breakthrough, five-run fifth, there were crushed knocks: Caballero smacked a one-hopper to Trevor Story, who could not make the play, before Jazz Chisholm Jr. smoked a ball to right-center that was nearly robbed by Ceddanne Rafaela. Whether the center fielder caught it or not with his superman dive is still up for debate.

And then there were massaged baseballs: Ali Sánchez, clinging to a roster spot, laid down a bunt that moved the runners over before Paul Goldschmidt surveyed the drawn-in infield and softly grounded up the middle for a two-run single.

And there were gone baseballs: Two batters later, Ramos, who has been a target of impatient Yankees fans in his short time in pinstripes, turned on a Suárez curveball and watched it land in the left field stands, his first home run as a Yankee, a monster three-run blast.

“Oh my God,” went through Ramos’ mind, “I needed that.”

Added at the deadline to pound lefty pitchers, Ramos had barely seen any lefties and opened his Yankees tenure 6-for-54 (.111) without a homer in his first 17 games, having heard some boos along the way.

And then this series arrived, the Red Sox willing to dress anyone capable of reaching home plate with a left hand against a Yankees club that has struggled against southpaws. Ramos responded by reaching base in eight of 12 plate appearances and stroking a homer he will remember.

“I thought he was going to do a cartwheel around third,” Boone said of Ramos, who pounded his chest a few times and added a couple of speed bursts around the bases.

“I’m an emotional guy,” said Ramos, a 26-year-old whose first five seasons came with the Giants. “I’m going to show everyone what I got in the heart. … I know I can do it on the big stage. I can help this team. That’s what I want to show them.”

Though Ramos provided the knockout blow, the Yankees did not stop swinging. Back-to-back shots from Austin Wells and Goldschmidt in the eighth prompted Red Sox manager Chad Tracy to ask infielder Andruw Monasterio to pitch, which went predictably with homers from Caballero and Wells (his second of the inning).

A game that ended feeling like a March exhibition provided the Yankees plenty of hope for October.

The Royals were looking to sweep the Guardians this afternoon, and finish the road trip 5-1, staying lava hot, unfortunately, Seth Lugo got crushed and the Royals lost 11-1.

After a pair of groundouts to first to start the game, Jac Caglianone doubled down the right field line, Salvador Perez followed up with a bloop single and the Royals were up 1-0. Vinnie Pasquantino followed that with a single that made it 1st and 3rd, but Nick Loftin struck out to end the inning.

That was about the only positive thing that happened for the Royals today. In the bottom of the first, Seth Lugo gave up a one out double, which was played into a triple after a Cags fielding error. Jose Ramirez smacked a sac fly to tie the game. Lugo gave up a two out walk, and then a two-out, two-run homer to Nathaniel Lowe. 3-1 Cleveland after the first.

In the third inning, two singles and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out for the Guardians. Jo Adell doubled down the left field line scoring two, Lowe hit a sac fly, making it 6-1 after 3 innings.

In the fourth, after getting two outs, Lugo gave up back-to-back doubles, and then a 2-run homer to Ramirez, 9-1 Guardians. Lugo’s final line was 3.2 innings, 9 hits, 9 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts. Yikes.

Connor Thomas looked good through his first 5 hitters and then ran out of gas it seemed, giving up a pair of runs. The first runs Thomas has allowed as a Royal. Jose Cuas and Luke Maile threw a scoreless inning apiece as well.

The Royals fall to 62-76 on the season. They are 7.5 games behind the Guardians for the final wild card spot. They are 5-5 against Cleveland this season and finished 3-3 against them inside Progressive Field. It was a 4-2 road trip. They are off tomorrow and open a 9-game homestand against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. CT. Randy Dobnak is the expected starter. The Royals finish the month of August 16-11.

Major League Baseball has a replay review center. It is located in New York City. The Yankees, the league’s biggest brand, are also located in New York City. Those same Yankees played a game against the Boston Red Sox today, with serious playoff implications. The winner of today’s game would own the head-to-head tiebreaker in the standings. With the Red Sox trailing in the standings, that tiebreaker is very important to potentially host a playoff series.

Let’s fast forward to the 5th inning. With a runner on first base, Jazz Chisholm hit a soft fly ball to center field. Ceddanne Rafaela made a diving catch and threw to first to double off the runner at first. Unfortunately, the umpire saw things differently and ruled that the ball hit the ground. Fortunately, for situations like this, where the umpire gets the call incorrect on the field, a team has the ability to challenge that call. The Red Sox did that, and the people in the replay review center in New York City, the same city as the New York Yankees, the team that is propped up by the league time and time again, were asked to review the play and make the correct call.

For some reason, despite video of the ball landing in his glove before touching the ground, the replay review people determined that the call on the field was acceptable, and the inning continued. Paul Goldschmidt singled up the middle, and Heliot Ramos hit a three-run home run a few batters later. That was (more or less) the game.

I’m not suggesting that the league has a bias towards the Yankees. If I were to do that, I would point out a recent replay review decision where Pete Alonso’s home run was ruled foul. I’d also point out this other replay decision, where Spencer Jones’ home run call stood. I’d also call out that the Yankees almost always rank highly in catcher framing runs, a statistic that measures how often the umpire is wrong about a call. You could say that coaching is a factor, but a person who was suspicious of the umpires would wonder why someone like Austin Romine or Kyle Higashioka immediately became a worse framer after leaving the organization. Again, I don’t believe there’s a Yankee bias. Yeah, they’re so popular that Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay had their own alternate broadcast on ESPN, and they would cut into college football games to watch Aaron Judge chase a fake home run record, but that’s no reason to believe they’d get preferential treatment.

That felt good.

The Red Sox didn’t play well enough to win on Sunday. Yes, the controversial call in the fifth inning had a major impact on the game, but despite that, the offense never put anything together. They struck out seven times and only drew one walk. They had runners on first and second with one out in the first inning, but failed to advance them. After that, they only reached second base two other times.

Ranger Suarez was okay up until the fifth, but wasn’t his best self. He only induced eight chases and five whiffs. He couldn’t find a way to put Heliot Ramos away on multiple occasions, most notably before allowing a three-run home run to blow the game open.

The Red Sox clawed one run back in the top of the eighth, but Jovani Moran couldn’t keep the score where it was, and then Andruw Monasterio was called on to save some arms. He couldn’t throw strikes, and the strikes he did throw were hammered. The Yankees won the game 16-1, and the season series 7-6. If things are all square at the end of the season, the Red Sox will travel to Yankee Stadium for the Wild Card series once again.

Three Studs

Roman Anthony (2-4, 2B)

Trevor Story (2-3, 2B)

Wilyer Abreu (2-3, BB)

Three Duds

Ranger Suarez (5.1 IP, 6 ER)

Jovani Moran (1.1 IP, 5 ER)

The Home Plate Umpire

For some reason, the guy insisted on calling things tight with Monasterio on the mound. Really bizarre umpiring.

Taking very different paths, the Yankees’ two primary right-handed specialists on paper fulfilled their job description, leading the way against Ranger Suárez and the Red Sox as the Yankees took this four-game series with a blowout 16-1 win at home. Paul Goldschmidt and Helliot Ramos combined for the Yankees’ first five RBI, more than enough to accommodate what could easily be described as Will Warren’s best performance in the big leagues. All of this before a nine-run eighth inning of relentless punishment to the Red Sox mop-up pitchers.

Traditionally, the narrative of getting to a pitcher early is more emphasized when you’re facing an outstanding starter. Today, Warren, who has had an up-and-down season, proved that point can apply to pitchers of different levels — frankly, he was on another level.

When the Red Sox had him on the ropes in the first inning, it would’ve been easy to become pessimistic about the outing to come, even after he found a way to get out of it. Instead, what we got from the second inning onward was Warren about as sharp as we’ve seen him all year long, slicing right through the Red Sox lineup with outstanding strikeout stuff — the right-hander pitched into the eighth inning, allowing just one run and striking out seven, leaving to the cheers of a standing ovation.

Early on, a similar tale could have been told when it came to Ranger Suárez’s outing. The veteran lefty got out of a first-inning jam as Luis Garcia Jr. crushed a ball 110 mph into the ground for a double play and kept zeroes on the board to match Warren until the fifth inning rolled around.

A sliding-doors moment came with one on and one out when Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sinking liner to center that the umpires ruled Ceddane Rafaela trapped — video replay showed that he might’ve actually caught the ball, but there wasn’t pinpoint evidence to be 100 percent sure of it so the call on the field stood. That gave the Yankees a big opportunity, but they’ve made a living out of squandering those as of late, and here they relied on execution and a bit of luck to make things happen. Simply trying to move the runners over, catcher Ali Sánchez laid down a solid bunt, setting up Paul Goldschmidt for a little squibbler of a hit that probably only left the infield because the Sox were playing in. And just like that, the Yankees led 2-0, with the best in that inning yet to come. By the way, shout out to Jazz Chisholm Jr. for the silky smooth slide to score the second run.

Acquired for the primary purpose of hitting lefties, Heliot Ramos waited until the second-to-last day of his opening month with the club to properly show what he can do. With two on in the fifth, Ramos got a curve down and in right at the edge of the zone and destroyed it out to left field for his first homer in pinstripes.

One of the trends of this series has been a kind of symmetry both teams have shared: right after one side underwhelms in a great opportunity, the other does the same. For a moment it looked like the Red Sox were going to follow the Yankees’ rally with one of their own. Two of Boston’s first three hitters in the sixth reached against Warren, and after a horrendous challenge from catcher Ali Sánchez, Willson Contreras had a 3-0 count—taking all the way, Contreras let a heater go by, and then Warren fed him the first sinker of the at-bat, inducing the pitcher’s best friend in a double play to end the threat.

After adding what initially felt like relatively important insurance runs in the sixth and seventh, the Yankees really stuck it to Boston in the eighth, with not one, not two, not three, but four home runs in one inning. Initially, Wells and Goldschmidt went back-to-back to take the Yankees into double-digit territory and bring in a position player to the mound.

The Yankees then took no pity on Andruw Monasterio, adding five more runs with birthday boy José Caballero smashing a three-run homer before Wells came back to hit a second time in the frame and crushed one more long ball.

The game ended up being a laugher, but taking the finale was no laughing matter for the playoff race. The Yankees secured the season series against Boston with the win, 7-6, and thus earned a key tiebreaker should the two teams finish with the same record that could hand the Wild Card Round location to New York. Having taken three of four in the Bronx, they’ve also opened up a four-game lead on Boston for the top Wild Card spot heading into the final month of the regular season.

The Yankees quickly head off to the other side of the country for a West Coast road trip, first stopping in Anaheim to play the last-place Angels with the first game on Monday at 9:38 p.m. ET. Recently called up, Elmer Rodríguez will try to emulate the success he showed last time out against the Houston Astros — Mitch Ferris is expected to start for the Angels, although they still haven’t announced it officially.

Box score.

The Atlanta Braves once again left it late but they still got the job done and were able to break out the brooms one more time. Thanks to a Matt Olson RBI single in extra innings, the Braves are now winners of seven-straight games following a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.

This time, we didn’t have to wait until the eighth inning to see the Braves put a number on the scoreboard. The wait only lasted three innings this time, as Sean Murphy continued to get his season going in the right direction by leading off the third inning with a solo homer to put Atlanta on the board first.

Austin Riley very nearly made it back-to-back dingers after he hit one to deep left. Somehow, the ball hit the yellow part on top of the fence but bounced back into the field of play so that it became a double instead of a dinger. Fortunately, a wild pitch from starter Mason Adams and an RBI single from Ronald Acuña Jr. (who made up for getting picked off lackadaisically at first to end the first inning) ended up bringing Riley home anyways so the Braves came out of the third with a 2-0 lead.

Things settled into a bit of a lull for the next two innings, though it has to be mentioned that Sean Murphy got another challenge correct during the fourth inning, which gave Tyler Mahle a strikeout. Even before this current upturn in form at the plate, Murphy had been providing value with with his ABS challenges behind the plate and his overall command of games with the pitchers that he’s been working with. There’s more than one way to be productive as a catcher and Sean Murphy has started to get it done in all facets of the game.

Meanwhile, business picked up again in the sixth, which is when Tyler Mahle finally gave up his first (and only) run of his outing on a no-doubter of a dinger from Jake McCarthy. The solo shot cut it to a 2-1 lead for the Braves and fortunately, Mahle was able to keep it at 2-1 on his way out. For Mahle, he’s now made five starts in a Braves uniform and this is the fourth time that he’s gone six innings and also the fourth time that he’s given up one run or fewer. Perhaps this is why Alex Anthopoulos was so adamant about the team getting better when their sole starting pitching acquisition back at the Trade Deadline was Tyler Mahle — the results have been very impressive so far.

Once Mahle left the game, we got another example of the baseball gods punishing a team for leaving the bases loaded. Unfortunately for us, it was the Atlanta Braves who felt the wrath, as they loaded up the bases with two outs in the bottom half of the seventh inning only to leave them loaded when Matt Olson struck out to end the inning. Sure enough, Dylan Lee entered the game in the top of the eighth and gave up leadoff single to Brett Sullivan. Following two productive outs moving Sullivan to third base, Connor Norby completed the A-B-C baseball move by poking one out to left for a game-tying RBI single. The Braves squandered their opportunity and the Rockies capitalized on theirs. That’s baseball!

Both the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings for the Braves were quiet and Raisel Iglesias pitched a clean ninth inning of his own, which meant that this one ended up heading to extras. Victor Mederos pitched a clean inning and left ghost runner Mickey Moniak stranded at second. The Braves got their chance to walk it off and made no mistake with it — Ronald Acuña Jr. looped one into left for a single and wisely, Braves third base coach Tommy Watkins put up the stop sign for ghost runner Brewer Hicklen. Any thoughts of Hicklen being stranded at third were quickly dispelled once Matt Olson shot one up the right field line for a walk-off single that allowed the Braves to break out the brooms for a second time in the span of a week.

Well, the Braves had to really fight for it for all three games but they came out on top in this one just like they did in the previous two and just like in the Dodgers series as well. This seven-game winning streak is exactly what the doctor ordered and the Braves have well-and-truly taken advantage of this return back to Atlanta.

They still have one game left to go on this homestand, as they’ll be making up their rained-out game from June against the San Francisco Giants. That game starts at 6:05 p.m. ET and we’ll see if Bryce Elder can help push Atlanta to their eighth-straight win.

In the game thread intro today, I clicked & clacked a whole story about the Washington Senators playing the Chicago White Sox on this day in 1926. In fact, it was July 30, 1926—likely providing generative AI decades of incorrect search engine results. Fortunately, there was no such confusion in today’s decisive Minnesota Twins victory over the Tighty-Whities!

The Sox sent reliever Jordan Hicks to the bump first as an opener—and the Twins’ bats were ready (for once)! Walks drawn from Luke Keaschall & Ryan Jeffers resulted in a Josh Bell RBI 10-hopper up the middle. 1-0 MIN.

Next-Sock-up Tyler Gilbert fared worse—immediately greeted by a Trevor Larnach-laced double down the RF line. 3-0 MIN!

Bell struck again (heh, heh) in B3, this time driving in a doubling Jeffers with another RBI single. 4-0 MIN.

In T5, Twin-killer Jim ThomeJose BautistaSalvador Perez Andrew Benintendi threatened to break up SP Zebby Matthews’ perfecto—but Walker Jenkins fought the wall and Walk won!

ChiSox C Parker Romo busted Matthews’ pursuit of perfection in T6, but the Zebster worked out of further trouble to keep the shutout bid intact.

Proving that it is indeed allowable in the sport of baseball to add on runs as the game goes along, Keaschall bopped one into the bullpens beyond LCF in B7. 5-0 MIN.

At this point, Zebby’s pursuit of the complete game shutout was the only drama left in the contest—and despite coming thisclose he was lifted after 8.1 sterling innings when CWS put two on with one out in T9.

Jeff Hoffman would enter and—though charging a run to Zebby’s tab—slam the washing machine door closed.

Your Final: Minnesota Twins 5, Chicago White Sox 1.

A fun Sunday afternoon victory, if part of a disappointing lost series overall.

Zach’s Zealot(s)

• Matthews: Zebby oh so nearly joining Bailey Ober in the Twins CG SHO club this year (argh!). Still—easily the best outing in the young man’s MLB career thus far!
• Bell: 83 RBI so far in 2026! I remember the derisive chuckles—many from myself—when Josh was the “big offseason acquisition” this past year. No one is laughing now—instead cheering when he comes up clutch again and again! Bell has been everything this team could have possibly wanted out of the DH spot.

Zach’s Zombie

• N/A when the Twins pummel the Pale Hose!

Egg-cellent Elocution

• JustAnotherMinnesotan2 with an elite emoji to describe Zebby’s performance today!

Who’s Got Next

• The Twins stay home and welcome in another AL Central opponent: three games with the Detroit Tigers (Mon. night, Tues. night, Wed. night)

Heliot Ramos’ first Yankee home run came in one of the most crucial games of the season, and Will Warren threw seven strong innings Sunday afternoon as the Yanks clobbered the Red Sox, 16-1.

The victory, which became a runaway late, meant the Yankees won three-of-four over their rivals this weekend and took the season series, 7-6, which gives them a tie-breaker edge over Boston. 

The second-place Yankees (78-59), who are now four games ahead of third-place Boston in the AL East standings, finished their 10-game homestand at 6-4. The Yanks have won 10 of their last 14 games. 

Here are the key takeaways...

-The Yankees acquired Ramos on Aug. 3 from the Giants to be a righty-hitting weapon to give their lefty-heavy roster some protection against pitchers such as Boston’s Ranger Suarez, Sunday’s starter. But Ramos had mostly been a bust, batting just .119 with one RBI in 20 games entering Sunday. Still, they kept giving him opportunities and he batted third Sunday against Suarez. After a walk and a single in his first two at-bats, Ramos came up in the fifth with two on and one out and smashed a 106.7-mph drive over the left-field wall, turning the Yankees’ 2-0 lead into a five-run advantage. 

-The Yankees scored five times in all in the fifth inning with the first two runs coming home on a Paul Goldschmidt single. José Caballero led off the frame with a single and then Jazz Chisholm Jr. lofted a ball into short center field. Ceddanne Rafaela dove for the ball but umpires ruled he did not catch it. The Red Sox challenged the call, but it was upheld via replay review, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. No. 9 hitter Ali Sánchez sacrificed the runners over and then the Red Sox moved their infield in for Goldschmidt. He hit a 68.7-mph grounder up the middle that just got past Suarez’s reach and both runners scored. 

-Warren might find himself in the bullpen come playoff time, but he sure looked good as a starter against Boston. He got into the eighth inning for the first time all season, completed seven innings for the second time and was mostly superb. He gave up a double and a single to start the eighth inning and was replaced by Tim Hill. Warren, who got a nice hand from the 45,256 on hand as he walked off the mound, allowed one run and six hits in seven frames, striking out seven and walking one. Warren matched his season high, throwing 98 pitches. 

-With Warren’s sharp outing, Yankee starters have given up two earned runs or fewer in 15-of-17 starts and 26-of-their-last-31. No wonder they led MLB in overall ERA entering the game.

-The Yanks added insurance in the sixth. With one out, Caballero and Chisholm hit consecutive singles. Caballero went to third on Chisholm’s hit and Chisholm was able to move up to second on the throw to try to stop Caballero. Austin Wells pinch-hit for Sánchez and hit a sac fly for a 6-0 lead. In the seventh, they plated more cushion on an RBI single by Amed Rosario. 

-In the eighth, the Yankees poured it on, scoring nine runs, and the game got ridiculous. After Chisholm walked and stole second and third when the Red Sox stopped paying attention to him, Wells smacked his ninth home run of the season, the first of a back-to-back pair with Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt’s homer, his 18th of the season, upped the Yankee lead to 10-1. Both homers came off Jovani Morán and, two batters later, the Red Sox brought in infielder Andruw Monasterio to pitch. Monasterio gave up a sac fly to Trent Grisham, a three-run homer to Caballero and Wells’ second home run of the inning. Wells is the sixth Yankee to hit two home runs in a single inning. Alex Rodriguez did it twice in his career.

-Pretty good 30th birthday for Caballero – he was 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBI. 

-The Red Sox got reinforcements before the game when they activated both Roman Anthony and Trevor Story. The duo, who both had been out with injuries since May, had two hits each. 

-Cody Bellinger was 2-for-4, which means he has hit safely in 12-of-his-last-14 games and 17-of-20.

Game MVP

Ramos, whose home run was the biggest hit of the game until the rout was on. It was his 10th of the season, including his 74 games in San Francisco. He finished the day 2-for-2 with two walks. 

Highlights

Paul Goldschmidt brings home two! pic.twitter.com/lht4UWhaTj

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 30, 2026

HELIOT RAMOS' FIRST YANKEES HOME RUN! pic.twitter.com/DmjmJhBM2p

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 30, 2026

Amed Rosario makes it 7-0 Yankees! pic.twitter.com/yWxSho2Sqp

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 30, 2026

The Yankees go back-to-back!

First Austin Wells, now Paul Goldschmidt 💪 pic.twitter.com/Y5Nmrlj3v2

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 30, 2026

Two home runs in the inning for Austin Wells 💣💣 pic.twitter.com/eNoG4pOxWi

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 30, 2026

Up next

The Yankees start a six-game road trip on Monday night when they face the Los Angeles Angels at 9:38 p.m.

Mariners 0 Blue Jays 7

I was worried about Max Scherzer getting the start today, but he was terrific. Seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk with ten strikeouts. He passes Gaylord Perry for ninth all-time in strikeouts. He now has 3535 strikeouts. He needs 20 more to pass Justin Verlander for the eighth spot. And he has five or so starts to go this year.

Spencer Miles and Braydon Fisher each pitched a scoreless inning.

And the offense did their job today. We scored:

• Two in the first: Brett Bateman (what a great trade that was) walked and Alejandro Kirk hit his eighth homer of the season. We are so lucky to have Kirk on the team.
• One in the fifth: Myles Straw singled to start the inning, Bateman bunted (why?) and Vlad doubled, just under the glove of the Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford, driving him Straw home.
• One in the sixth: Kazuma Okamoto homered. Number #28 on the season.
• Three in the eighth: George Springer started it off with a double. Nathan Lukes was hit by pitch. Okamoto walked. Andrés Giménez singled in two. After Ernie Clement hit into a double play, Straw walked and Bateman (him again?) doubled in our seventh run.

We had ten hits and four walks on the day. Kirk and Springer had two walks each. Bateman had a hit and two walks. The only starter not to reach base was Charles McAdoo.

Jays of the Day: Scherzer (0.34 WPA) and Kirk (0.15). I’m giving Bateman an honourable mention.

No one gets the Other Award. The low mark was a -0.03 from Nathan Lukes and Charles McAdoo.

Tomorrow is an off-day. And then a huge series against the Guardians. Three games in Cleveland which has the possibility of telling us whether we have meaningful baseball for the rest of the season or not.

If nearly throwing a seven-inning no-hitter Saturday shifted everything in Jonah Tong’s favor for returning to the Mets in September, interim manager Andy Green didn’t provide many concrete hints one day later.

But, Green said, “it definitely becomes a discussion point” for himself, for president of baseball operations David Stearns and for others. Tong, while starting the first game of a doubleheader for Triple-A Syracuse, came within one out of an abbreviated no-hitter, allowing a single with two outs in the seventh while otherwise issuing only two walks. He struck out eight batters, continued to make earlier struggles seem like afterthoughts and lowered his ERA in the minors to 4.54.

“I think we’re glad to see those results from Jonah,” Green said before the Mets fell to the Astros 6-3 at Citi Field. “He’s doing some really nice things, so that is definitely not unseen. … Encouraging outing for him for sure.”

While Green admitted he only finished watching three innings before getting sidetracked, he thought Tong’s fastball had “real life,” that the ball was “really jumping out of his hands” and that the 23-year-old was winning at the top of the strike zone. Their No. 2 pitching prospect — and No. 5 prospect overall, according to MLB Pipeline — recorded a 3.60 ERA across three appearances as either a starter or bulk-inning reliever in the majors this season, but he struggled after getting sent back to Triple-A in early June.

The turnaround has been promising as Tong continues to build his bid for a return to the majors before the season ends — especially with postseason hopes for the Mets virtually nonexistent. Rosters expand from 26 to 28 players Tuesday. Journeyman Robert Stock has made five starts and is set for a sixth Monday, but he allowed seven runs on 10 hits during a dismal outing last week.

Closer Devin Williams threw for a second consecutive day — this time at 75 feet — since starting his throwing program. He hasn’t pitched since Aug. 7 due to a right shoulder strain and has been adamant about wanting to return this season.

“Yesterday felt like I was throwing with somebody else’s arm,” Williams told The Post, “but today, it actually felt pretty good.”

Luis Robert Jr., who was placed on outright waivers Saturday in a move that gave potential contenders 48 hours to add his bat — and an approximate $5 million in money owed — for the stretch run, started in left field and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. … Francisco Lindor moved into sixth place in Mets history with his 155th career home run, passing Dave Kingman. … In a game Sunday when Syracuse turned a bullpen game into a combined no-hitter, Mark Vientos launched three homers as his rehab assignment for a fractured right hand continued to take a promising turn. He started 0-for-8 but has since crushed five homers across the last four games. 

Mark Vientos' power surge continues. 

Facing the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on Sunday, Vientos homered not once, not twice, but three times.

Vientos' three blasts on Sunday give him five for the week.

Syracuse defeated the Iron Pigs 8-0, with six Mets pitchers combining to throw a no-hitter.

The corner infielder has been on the IL since July 10 due to a fractured hand, and when he does eventually get activated by the Mets, his path to playing time may not be straight forward. 

"I don't know," interim manager Andy Green said about Vientos' role earlier this week. "I was very forthright with him when he started the rehab assignment that a lot of that will be dictated by how others perform and also by how he performs. Still think there’s a very bright future for him out there if he wants to grab a hold of it. That’s on him."

It's been a down season for Vientos, who is hitting just .211 with 11 home runs and 35 RBI in 73 big league games. 

As Sunday's power display proves, the talent is there for Vientos, but he hasn't been able to put it all together since his 27-homer campaign in 2024.

Here are all three of his home runs:

Mark Vientos hits another home run on his rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse pic.twitter.com/Lo8hQ3TV08

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 30, 2026

MARK VIENTOS AGAIN! 💣💣💣 pic.twitter.com/Bx1PwEPm8v

— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 30, 2026

Mark Vientos has three home runs today for Triple-A Syracuse pic.twitter.com/b3WfNLXbqa

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 30, 2026

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

Yeah, it’s a story which is not going to go away. Since last time, we’ve had a major Athletic story on the topic, and to be honest, the information in it did make me more sympathetic to Ketel Marte. Some of the quotes ascribed to him do appear to me – though I am not a trained professional – to indicate significant mental health issues. It always strikes me as weird that, if an athlete has a physical issue, treatment for it is taken as a given. But if the affected part of the player happens to be the brain, then showing empathy for them and wanting them to get help, is labeled by certain parties as “soft”.

Anyway, here’s how you voted.

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Here’s a sampling of comments on the topic, in no particular order. A “well done” to the community, incidentally, for perspectives which were generally thoughtful and considered. This was definitely not the case on certain other sites I could mention…

• Veeloh: “This is a fluid situation and I am so far removed from knowing the real details that I will spare you all the hubris of thinking I can weigh in with any meaningful opinion. In other words, I have no idea and will leave it to those actually in the room at the correct time to determine the best course of action.”
• gzimmerm – “If you can get out from under his contract, I vote for taking anything you can get. The cancer needs to be cut out.”
• BTbaseball – “I voted to keep his value. Torey has done as good a job as anyone maybe could to manage Ketel and I think they find a way to keep going. The bigger question, I think, is whether Ketel even wants to be a baseball player anymore.”
• JustRonM – “Once you can excuse. Twice you still excuse with caution. Three or more times, you have a pattern and that’s where we are. I just don’t know if the headache is worth it for an extremely talented but aging, me-first player.”
• Chicharron – “I do know he’s a great ball player. I also know that when he behaves like an entitled prima donna (e.g. Barry Bonds), it’s potentially toxic to the team. Given Ketel’s erratic history and his lack of a viable explanation, it’s pretty easy to make a case for trading him – if the deal makes sense. I wouldn’t trade Ketel at a huge loss to make a point though.”
• AzDesertLovr – “Torey may have received direction from the front office to do whatever necessary with this asset to get production, and perhaps that coddling had results in the past. That has to stop ASAP, or there is little chance that Torey will be effective with the rest of the roster”

With the return of Marte imminent, it does appear the team will be bringing him back on board for the remainder of the season. With replacement Ildemaro Vargas now batting .154/.167/.212 for a .378 OPS over thirteen games in Marte’s absence, that makes absolute sense to me. Hopefully, everyone can put it behind them and concentrate on winning a wild-card spot over the remaining month. But as for what might happen over the winter, we can only wait and see.

You can make a whole list of the most humiliating 9th inning meltdowns of the Nats season. The bar is very high, so this one may not be number one, but it is easily in the top 5. It may not have been the worst, but it was the sloppiest and most self destructive.

The Nats are in the middle of a 16 day run of playing every day, so the bullpen is on fumes. However, Blake Butera’s decision to use the two worst arms in the bullpen to close out the game is still head scratching. When a fan sent out a picture of Kranick and Cosgrove warming in the bullpen, you had a feeling something awful was coming.

After the Nats squeezed across an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th, they only needed three more outs to secure a series win and get a 4th straight win. However, we ran into problems instantly, as Esteury Ruiz dropped down a beautiful bunt. It was a nice play, but you have to shake it off.

Instead of shaking it off, it seems to throw off Max Kranick, who lost the strike zone. As soon as he walked Griffin Conine, Nats fans started getting deja vu. He got an out, but he allowed a double steal by not keeping track of the runners.

If you thought that would be the last mental mistake by the Nats, boy would you be mistaken. Kranick exited the game after another walk and the bases were loaded. Blake Butera turned to Tom Cosgrove, who had given up runs in 5 of his last six outings. The soft tossing lefty came in and plunked the first guy he faced.

Butera’s logic for putting in Cosgrove was likely that he was saving Will Dion for tomorrow. That is not a line of thinking I agree with. Go and win the game instead of sitting back and waiting for tomorrow. The Nats waited for tomorrow while the Marlins won today.

Cosgrove’s meltdown was only beginning though. His failure to back up third base allowed the go-ahead run to score on a two-run sac fly. Jorbit Vivas also needed to keep the ball in front of him instead of trying to deke the runner. However, as a pitcher your job is to be the last line of defense. Cosgrove did not do that and it cost the Nats a run.

The lefty cost his team yet another run when he fell for a very obvious double steal attempt. He stepped off and turned his back to the plate. That allowed the Marlins runner to steal home just putting even more salt on the wound. The cherry on top, or in this case, the nail in the coffin was a homer by Otto Lopez.

That is the type of outing that costs players their jobs. I do not expect Cosgrove to be on this team tomorrow, and if he would, I would have questions. The production has not been there lately and his mental mistakes cost the team multiple runs.

You also have to question Blake Butera for putting him in that spot though. I get he does not have much to work with, but he has made a number of head scratching bullpen moves this season. It seems like he always has a lefty he trusts far too much. Mitchell Parker, Matt Krook and Cosgrove all fall in that category.

In what could have been a really fun afternoon win, the Nats bullpen and lack of fundamentals struck again. The team just melted down both physically and mentally in the 9th inning. Some of the mistakes they were making were stuff you would not see in high school ball. 

The fans were not happy. I have not heard the Nationals Park crowd boo the home team like that in a very long time. It was pent up energy that was just launched onto the field by a fanbase that has seen this movie too many times.

Heading into the offseason, building a competent bullpen needs to be a top priority. If the bullpen does not take massive strides next year, this regime will begin to lose the trust of the fanbase. Having 35 blown saves before September is just comical. The manager, POBO and owner all have to do some soul searching after building and managing this kind of bullpen.

There have been a lot of positives this year, but the bullpen hangs over this organization like a massive dark cloud. Outside of yesterday, the late innings have been doom and despair all year for the Nats. If this franchise wants to actually compete again, that has to change and change fast. For now, Nats fans are just getting punched in the gut over and over in the late innings.