Game Summary

The Mets take a see-saw game as Juan Soto doubles and scores a run to tie the game and homers to bring in the winning run as the Mets with 5-4. Hunter Dobbins gave up 2 homerun and 3 runs in the first inning for a rough start. The Cardinals tagged 3 home runs in the first two to overcome the early damage, but the left-side of the Cardinal bullpen could not hold the slim one run lead and the offense left for Minnesota a couple innings too early.

Pre-game notes

• Day game today. The Cardinals will play 3 of those this week.
• Getaway day today. On to Minnesota.
• The Cardinals look to vault to ten games over .500 today. They are something like 0-12 in these games dating back to the end of the 2022 season.
• Dobbins to the mound for the Cardinals. Christian Scott for the Mets. He appears to be a high K, high BB kind of pitcher.
• The left leaning line-up today. Oli created a nice lefty-lane at the end Crooks, Gorman, Church, plus Wetherholt on the wrap around. We could see Fermin, Pages and Velazquez early today.

The first innings

Burleson hits a solo shot to get the Cardinals on top in the first. In the bottom of one, Benge singles and Bichette launches a ball into outer space. Later, Young hits a line drive solo shot. 3-1 Mets after one inning.

In the top of the second, Winn doubled and Nootbaar launched a long 2-run HR. Crooks followed with a second deck solo shot, regaining a 4-3 for the Cardinals.

The early innings made me double check to make sure the teams weren’t playing at Wrigley with the wind blowing out

According to Statcast Park Factors, Citi Field plays pretty neutral (99), but a bit positive on the HR side (102). In addition, it is quite warm and humid in Queens today, which combined with pitchers throwing batting practice type pitches, a Home Run Derby broke out early.

The middle innings

The game settled down after the top of the second, carrying the same 4-3 into the fifth. Both starting pitchers gave up the ghost and had to be replaced in their half. In the bottom of the fifth, Bruihl relieved Dobbins with one out, none on to face a lefty lane populated with a guy named Soto and was not up to the task, and a 4-4 tie game was the result. The run-scoring play was complicated by a bad hop on a strong throw to the plate that appears to precede Soto. Crooks was unable to handle it, allowing Soto to score.

Dobbins line wasn’t horrible, just a poor start. 4.1 IP 5 K 0 BB but 3 early runs doomed his start.

The strong side of the Mets bullpen is good. The Cardinals really didn’t mount any offense after the second inning.

The decisive and bitter end

JoJo Romero got the same lefty lane as Bruihl did a few innings earlier, with a similar result. He hung a pitch to Soto, who added to the half mile of home runs hit today. Graceffo finished the eighth, but the damage was done.

In the ninth, we saw Torres, a lefty, pinch hit for Gorman, another lefty, to face Williams. That spoke volumes. Devin Williams closed it out. Mets win 5-4.

Post-Game Notes

• Check out Today on the Farm – Thursday 6.11 for updates on MiLB action.

The Phillies made a deal with the Chicago White Sox today, grabbing a right handed bat for their outfield.

Acquiring Hill will help shore up some major league outfield depth that the team really doesn’t have much of at the moment. This season with the White Sox, he has played all three outfield positions at least 13 times. He’s very fast and has a very good arm from the spots, giving about average value with the glove.

With the bat? That’s a different story. His overall line is .213/.284/.375 is nothing that you really want to get worked up about until you dig a little deeper into that line. It’s the splits that are the thing that probably drew in the Phillies to want to trade for him.

RHP: 31 PA, .148/.258/.148, 0 HR, 2 RBI
LHP: 59 PA, .245/.298/.491, 4 HR, 6 RBI

Folks, this isn’t a trade for a bat to have any kind of impact. This is a trade that looks to be setting up a platoon for something. What that is is pure speculation at this point. Maybe Adolis Garcia is more injured than initially thought. Maybe the team is getting a little concerned with Justin Crawford’s performance at the plate. That kind of news is probably sure to follow.

In return, the Phillies moved on from Dylan Campbell, who currently has a 75 wRC+ in Reading at the moment, and Jose Colmenares, who is having a better season in Jersey Shore (124 wRC+), but is also 24 years old and still playing at that level.

We’ll update this as more information comes out.

The Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 5-4 on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.

Here are the takeaways…

--Juan Soto came into the game on a 1-for-23 skid, but he snapped out of it in a big way. After hitting a double earlier in the game, Soto came up with the game tied at 4-4 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lefty JoJo Romero hung a 1-2 breaking ball, and Soto crushed it for a solo homer to give the Mets the lead. 

Four of Soto's 14 home runs this season have come off of left-handers.

--It looked like the Home Run Derby was taking place at Citi Field early in this one. First, Alec Burleson, hunting for a first-pitch fastball, drilled a solo home run with two outs in the first inning. Burleson homered in all three games in the series. 

The Cardinals hit two more home runs in the second, including a long Lars Nootbaar solo shot and a Jimmy Crooks two-run shot that followed a Masyn Winn double down the third base line that appeared to be foul.

Not to be outdone, the Mets hit a pair of their own off Cardinals starter Hunter Dobbins in the first inning. Bo Bichette demolished a two-run homer to quickly give New York the lead, and Jared Young went back-to-back.

After that power display in the early innings, the Cardinals led 4-3. 

--Christian Scott gave up those early homers, but he battled to give the Mets 4.2 innings. The right-hander allowed four earned runs on seven hits, striking out six and walking one. He did not allow a run after the second inning.

-- The Mets answered back in the bottom of the fifth. Soto doubled to right-center, and he came around to score on a Young single, as the throw home got away from the catcher Crooks. 

Young had a pair of hits and two RBI, continuing to prove himself as a formidable bat in the middle of the Mets' lineup.

-- It was a good day for the Mets' bullpen. A.J. Minter (1.1 IP), Brooks Raley (1.0 IP), Luke Weaver (1.0), and Devin Williams combined to go 4.1 scoreless innings without allowing a hit.

Game MVP

Soto, who had a pair of hits and hit the game-winning home run. 

Highlights

Bo Bichette's 2-run homer puts the Mets ahead! 💣 pic.twitter.com/QFZf7aeFO4

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2026

BACK-TO-BACK!

Jared Young follows up Bo Bichette's home run with one if his own! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XGywkMHdsy

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2026

Jared Young's RBI single ties the game! 👏 pic.twitter.com/fXYJgWjikd

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2026

JUAN SOTO FOR THE LEAD! 💣 pic.twitter.com/qVSvfo422t

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 11, 2026

Upcoming schedule

The Mets stay home to start a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves.

Nolan McLean will pitch on Friday, while the Braves have not yet announced a starter.

Don’t call it a comeback, but the Tigers bounced back for an 11-0 victory over the Twins on Thursday afternoon.

After a rough loss on Wednesday, the Tigers were happy for two things: no immediate rain in the forecast, and a chance to redeem themselves on the Thursday afternoon rubber match. They still had a chance to come away with another series win. To get there, they had Keider Montero on the mound, up against the wildly named Zebby Matthews. Zebby. I really need to dig into the lore there.

Montero got things started well for the Tigers, getting the Twins out 1-2-3. In the bottom of the inning, Kevin McGonigle continued to perform well with a leadoff double. A flyout from Gleyber Torres pushed McGonigle to third, and then a sac fly from Riley Greene brought him home, putting the Tigers on the board in the first. Dillon Dingler got on with a single, but they weren’t able to bring the second run in.

Royce Lewis was the first baserunner for the Twins with a two-out single in the second, but he was quickly sent packing as the final out of the inning ended the threat. The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom half, and hopefully, they remember how important insurance runs are given their recent history, and try to score a few.

It was another two-out single for the Twins in the third as Trevor Larnach got on, but the next at-bat was an out to turn things over. The Tigers, unfortunately, went three-up, three-down in the bottom of the inning.

Josh Bell got a one-out single in the fourth, then with two outs, a wild pitch from Montero allowed Bell to advance to second. Even with a runner in scoring position, though, the Twins weren’t able to make anything happen. With one out in the home half, Dillon Dingler doubled, and with two outs, a Colt Keith single brought him home.

Keith then stole second, and obviously Spencer Torkelson got my memo about adding runs, because he knocked a home run into left. Zach McKinstry walked, but the Tigers didn’t have any more runs in them for the inning. They were up 4-0 at the end of four.

Victor Caratini walked to start the fifth, but Montero got the next three out in order. The Tigers weren’t done adding to their lead. In the home half with one out, Gleyber Torres homered to right.

Montero continued to have a dialled in game, going through the Twins in order in the top of the sixth. In the home half, Kerry Carpenter got a leadoff single, then Keith followed that up with a home run. He got the silent treatment in the dugout after breaking that season long dry spell. Seriously, it seems almost impossible to not homer until June 11. McKinstry got a one out single, but no additional runs scored. The Tigers were up 7-0.

Royce Lewis got a one-out single in the top of the seventh and that was the end of the day for Montero, who was replaced by Tyler Holton. Montero’s final line was 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K on 96 pitches. Once again he attacked the zone relentlessly and was very efficient, with the fourseam, knuckle curve, and changeup doing the heavy lifting.

Caratini then singled off of Holton, but two outs followed getting the Tigers out of the jam. Zebby’s day was done, being replaced by Cody Laweryson. With one out, Riley Greene joined the home run party as well.

Dingler singled. Carpenter singled. Unfortunately Keith then batted into a force out to get Carpenter out. And a final out ended the inning.

The Twins went 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth. In the home half, catcher Alex Jackson came in to pitch and he was no Jake Rogers, giving up a home run to McKinstry. I think almost everyone has one at this point except maybe Rogers, who walked.

With one out, Wenceel Perez came in to pinch hit for Torres, and the first thing he did was hit a two-run homer while hitting right-handed against the right-handed pitching catcher. Say that three times, fast. Why not! Homers for the bench, too!

With a fairly safe lead here, the Tiges probably could have turned things over to Jake Rogers, but they let Beau Brieske come in for the ninth to try and get some stress free work in on his command. Brieske got the side out in order to bring home the game and series win. Love to see it!

Final: Tigers 11, Twins 0

Due to the bullpen collapse it will be mostly forgotten, but Foster Griffin had yet another rock solid start yesterday. He has been such an outstanding addition to the rotation, and signing him out of Japan has proven to be an outstanding deal for Paul Toboni. On the season, Griffin now has a 3.46 ERA in 78 innings.

While Mark understandably got ahead of himself assuming Griffin had an 8-2 record when the Nats got up by 8 runs, he has had a stellar season at 7-2. The Nats could not have asked for anymore when they signed Griffin on a 1-year $5.5 million deal this offseason. 

Griffin was a first round pick by the Royals all the way back in 2014. However, the lefty struggled to meet first round expectations. He steadily climbed the ladder, but never truly stood out. In 2020 and 2022, Griffin had a couple cups of coffee in the big leagues, but was never able to stick. That is when he made the career changing decision to play in Japan.

He signed with the Yomiuri Giants, the most famous team in Japan. Griffin completely evolved as a pitcher while he was overseas. He had three outstanding seasons in Tokyo, posting a 2.57 ERA in 315.2 innings. Griffin also added a sinker, a sweeper and a splitter while he was in Japan. That gave him a 7 pitch mix that dominated in Japan, and after 2025, he wanted to see if it could dominate in the MLB.

Due to his lack of big velocity or flashy stuff, Griffin’s market was not overly lucrative. While teams lined up to give KBO star Cody Ponce multi-year deals, Griffin did not generate that kind of interest. Teams were willing to give him a flier though, and he ended up signing with the Nats, who gave him a spot in the rotation.

While analysts in the US did not give much thought to Griffin, those who follow the NPB closely felt the Nats got a steal. Yakyu Cosmo, who is a popular English language NPB outlet, said that Griffin’s deep mix and strong command made him bullish about MLB success. He also said that Griffin reminded him of Seth Lugo.

Griffin’s results and stuff have been very Seth Lugo like this season. He has a 3.46 ERA, and is slightly overperforming his underlying numbers. That is more or less what Lugo has done the past three seasons in Kansas City. Both use insanely deep arsenals to keep hitters off balance and deceive their way to success.

Having a deep pitch mix is en vogue these days, and Griffin is at the forefront of this revolution. Lance Brozdowski, an analyst I really enjoy, has been talking about starting pitchers increasing their mixes for years now. Griffin is one of those guys, and is able to have success despite none of his 7 pitches being elite.

Griffin’s craftiness makes him very fun to watch. He is able to mix and match at will and understands how his pitches play off of each other. Griffin does a great job tunneling all his pitches to give hitters as little time as possible to make a decision. Batters have to decide whether they are seeing a 4-seamer, a sinker, a cutter, a curve, a sweeper, a changeup or a splitter so quickly. A lot of those pitches look very similar out of the hand as well and then end up in completely different places.

This dilemma Griffin puts hitters into is a big reason why he has actually put up fairly strong strikeout totals. Griffin has 74 strikeouts in 78 innings, which is quite solid. You would not usually expect a guy who averaged 91.3 MPH on their fastball to have 8.54 K/9. However, that is exactly what Griffin is doing and it is because of how crafty he is.

There are some regression red flags here though. Griffin’s FIP sits at 4.75 and his xERA is 4.30. However, Griffin’s xFIP of 3.79 paints a more generous picture. A big reason as to why these numbers are high is because of how many home runs Griffin allows. He has given up 15 long balls on the season, and is allowing 1.73 HR/9. That has been the one Achilles heel in his game.

With Griffin’s mediocre stuff, he has to command the ball well. When he misses over the heart of the plate and the hitter guesses the right pitch, it tends to go far. I would expect Griffin to post an ERA around 4.00 from here on out, but even that would be overperforming pre-season expectations.

Paul Toboni only signed Griffin to a one-year deal, so he will have to make a decision on the lefty at the trade deadline. Griffin is likely to be a sought after rental in a market filled with pitching needy teams. However, if the Nats stay around .500 and in the Wild Card mix, it could create a bit of a dilemma.

If the Nats wanted to, they could offer Griffin a 3-year extension to try and keep him around. I tend to think that Griffin is likely to be moved at the deadline. If that is the case, it would be a bummer because I have really enjoyed watching him pitch. I would be very open to a Griffin reunion in the offseason as well. 

Not every move Paul Toboni has made has worked out, but this one has been a complete win. Griffin has been a steady presence at the top of the Nats rotation and should provide value moving forward whether that is with the Nationals or in a trade.

The Dbacks were swept on Thursday for the second straight series against the Marlins dating back to last season and are now back at .500 on the season. They were shut out for the second straight day for the first time since July of last season. Not great notes.

Merrill Kelly did his job today going 6 strong innings allowing only 2 ER’s as he rebounded nicely from his previous start. Kelly did a great job today moving the ball around, changing speeds, and making big pitches when he needed to. He had some nice quick innings, and was able to limit the traffic on the bases. A very Merrill Kelly-esque start.

The offense simply could not get anything going today against the Marlins pitching as they were held to just 3 hits. I had the sense the offense may be in trouble today when the pregame was talking about how good of a splitter Marlins starter Phillips has as that really seems to be a pitch that causes this offense trouble. The Dbacks had some chances today with runners on base, unfortunately they couldn’t come through with the big hit going 0-7 with RISP and 2-30 on the series with RISP. Honestly there is really nothing to report here on the offense that is positive so I’m not really going to try.

You have to be leaving this series feeling like this was really a missed opportunity for this team. Especially given how well things were rolling just a couple of weeks ago when they were 7 games over .500. The Dbacks had an opportunity in this series against a young team with 2 pretty under-the-radar starting pitchers going for the Marlins. Especially after they battled well in the first game aginast Meyer and that felt like a game they could’ve won. Unfortunately it was the other 2 starters that really stymied the Dbacks offense as they failed to score the final 2 games of the series allowing the Marlins to complete the sweep.

The Dbacks will head to Cincinnati this afternoon as they desperately need to get this offense back on track. At lease the ballpark there has been good for offensive production in the past, and the team will get a couple of guys with ERA’s in the 4’s and 5’s, but no matter where they are or who they are facing the at bats really need to improve. Especially with guys on base. Here’s to hoping things will get better tomorrow.

The Minnesota Twins were probably looking to end this stretch against American League Central opponents on a high note by taking the rubber match against the Detroit Tigers. However, the Tigers came out swinging early and often against Zebby Matthews, and… well… if you were planning to write home about this game, I wouldn’t.

Detroit started the scoring off right away in the first. Four pitches from Matthews to three batters and the score was 1-0 thanks to a Kevin McGonigle (no relation to Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter) almost-homer-but-ended-up-a-double, a Gleyber Torres fly-out to scoot McGonigle to third, and a sacrifice fly from Riley Green to bring him in. After sending the Tigers down in order the next two innings, the Kittens heated up again in the fourth: a Colt Keith (what an 1880s name) single brought in Dillon Dingler (surely he wasn’t teased about his name as a kid) and a Spencer Torkleson homer took the score to 4-0.

Thanks to the bullpen game last night, the Twins continued to ride Zebby for a couple more innings, whose velocity was down by a couple MPHs today. Torres hit a homer of his own to right field in the fifth while Keith hit his first bomb of the year – a two-run shot – in the sixth to knock the score up to 7-0.

The Twins offense notched a handful of hits here and there, but couldn’t piece anything together against Detroit starter Keider Montero, who made it into the seventh inning and was pulled in favor of Tyler Holton. Minnesota’s best chance to plate a run came here with runners on second and third with a couple outs and… well… they didn’t score, but Austin Martin struck out instead.

Cody Laweryson allowed a Greene homer in relief in the eighth while position-player-pitching Alex Jackson took the mound in the ninth to get knocked around and the final score was 11-0.

W: Keider Montero (3-4)
L: Zebby Matthews (2-4)

The Twins return home to take on the St Louis Cardinals (they’re good: 37-28) for a weekend interleague set, beginning with a 710p Central start tomorrow night. Joe Ryan gets the call for Minnesota while Kyle Leahy will go for the Louis of Saints. I like their alternate uniforms.

STUDS

• I guess Royce Lewis? 2-3, K
• Alex Jackson: Twinkie Town “Stud” Participation Ribbon for pitching

duds

• Zebby Matthews: 6 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, BB, 4 K, 3 HR
• the remainder of Twins that participated in today’s game, namely: Trevor Larnach, Byron Buxton, Orlando Arcia, Kody Clemens, Josh Bell, Brooks Lee, Victor Caratini, Tristan Gray, Ryan Kreidler, Austin Martin, Cody Laweryson

COTG

falcontimmy was the only other TTer in the game thread today and kept the Twims honest, which I always appreciate.

Thank you for your time!

SAN FRANCISCO — In some fairytale far, far away, the Giants’ miraculous comeback Wednesday was the demarcation point of a turnaround on a larger scale.

The walk-off grand slam didn’t merely complete a comeback from a 9-1 deficit in the eighth inning, these heroics could be the first of many from their heralded rookie on an equally daunting uphill climb back to the postseason from where they stood when the day began.

Hey, in the words of Matt Chapman, stranger things have happened.

“Whatever little reset button our position players hit when there was some frustration with what was going on on the mound was perfect,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I hope we can carry that over.”

In reality, fans should cherish Bryce Eldridge’s face-of-the-franchise moment — a raucous ending to one of the zaniest games at the corner of Third & King — because it is more likely to be an exclamation point in the middle of a paragraph than the beginning of a new chapter.

As the Eldridge era begins, the Giants sit 13 games below .500, eight out of a playoff spot. All-Star ballots are out; it’s not early anymore. Only one team in baseball history has risen from these ashes to make the playoffs: the 1914 Boston “Miracle” Braves.

Eldridge may be the franchise’s savior. But he’s not a miracle worker.

In many ways, the Giants have begun to show their true colors over the past month or so. Their lineup was never going to be as bad as its performance in April suggested. On the flip side, the relatively stress-free first month from their underinvested pitching staff was a predictable mirage.

Take, for example, their most recent win.

As Vitello said afterward, “It’s not easy to repeat as many runs as we put up in two innings,” and nobody should expect the Giants to pull off another caper like this one. (They had been 0-30 when trailing by any margin after just six innings.)

It would be easier to repeat when trailing by, say, only three runs, which is what the margin was when Robbie Ray left the game with two on and two outs in the sixth. The inherited runners became the 32nd and 33rd to score against the Giants’ bullpen this season, tied for sixth most in the majors, before the Nats proceeded to pile on five more.

As underwhelming as the Giants’ offense has been to begin the season, their fate was probably sealed this offseason when the front office failed to address the bullpen after trading Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval and losing Randy Rodriguez to elbow surgery.

Since ending April with the second-best bullpen ERA in the majors, Vitello’s any-role-goes relief corps has posted a 5.35 mark that ranks third from the bottom.

That isn’t a playoff-caliber bullpen when starting from scratch, let alone when needing to close the gap the Giants face.

Still, inside the clubhouse, Giants players are adamant they are a better team than their record indicates, despite their minus-51 run differential. And that may be the case.

“I don’t think our record reflects the energy in this clubhouse and how we feel about each other and we feel about our season,” Chapman said after their 2-1 win Sunday night against the Cubs in Chicago. “We feel like there’s a lot of baseball left, and there’s a lot of good that can happen.”

Chapman, Willy Adames and Rafael Devers all have long track records and have begun to show signs of life. The lowest OPS of the bunch now, at least, starts with a seven.

Eldridge, officially, has given Vitello every reason to keep him in the lineup every day — and maybe even move him up, a possibility the manager agreed there’s “potential for.”

They could have a homegrown All-Star represent them in Philadelphia if Casey Schmitt keeps up his breakout campaign. Barry Bonds was the last Giant to reach 15 home runs as quickly.

Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Arraez are battling it out among the National League batting leaders, giving the Giants two of the top five. They are the first pair of Giants teammates with active hitting streaks of 11 games or longer since Angel Pagan and Pablo Sandoval in 2012.

As a team, believe it or not, the Giants became the first to 1,000 total bases in their win Wednesday. (The Dodgers passed them later that night.)

They had a league-low 13 home runs through their first 23 games of the season. The walk-off blast by Eldridge was their seventh grand slam in their past 23 games — their 36th homer.

So they may be capable of providing more exclamation points.

But, still, it’s unlikely this story ends in the postseason.

Tarik Skubal is back on the mound. His agent, Scott Boras, already has a name for what got him there so fast.

"The Skubal scope," Boras called it after Skubal became the first known MLB player to undergo a procedure using the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0.  The minimally invasive device is the size of a toothpick and it helped remove a loose body from the two-time Cy Young Award winner’s left elbow.

Skubal, who is scheduled to start Saturday, June 13, needed just 12 days to get back on the mound for a full bullpen and just 32 days from surgery to his rehab start on June 7. The new technology knocked weeks off a surgery and rehab that normally takes more than two to three months.

It marked the beginning of a new way to treat one of baseball’s most stubborn and frustrating pitching injuries.

"Any time you can get in and out without leaving much of a trace at all, it’s a huge benefit," said Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the orthopedic surgeon behind some of the biggest procedures in professional sports.

ElAttrache, the team doctor for the Los Angeles Dodgers and NFL's Los Angeles Rams, had been waiting for the right case to try the NanoNeedle. Skubal, dealing with a single loose body and having the motivation of being in his final year of a contract, was it.