The Knicks continue to search for their next head coach, but the candidates they were initially interested in are becoming unavailable one by one.
SNY NBA Insider Ian Begley reports that the Knicks formally reached out to the Houston Rockets for permission to talk to head coach Ime Udoka. However, the Rockets denied the Knicks, per people familiar with the Rockets' stance.
It seems Houston is not ready to part with the coach who has turned the franchise around. In just his second year with the Rockets, the 47-year-old Udoka led the team to a first place finish in the Southwest Division and the organization's first playoff appearance since 2020. This year, Houston was eliminated by the Warriors in seven games of the opening round of the NBA Playoffs. After finishing 41-41 in his first season, the Rockets improved to 52-30 and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference under Udoka.
Udoka was one of three coaches currently under contract the Knicks were interested in. In addition to Udoka, Minnesota's Chris Finch and Dallas' Jason Kidd were the names the Knicks had interest in, per Begley.
While it seems the Mavericks are confident Kidd won't leave Dallas, the Knicks were denied permission by the Timberwolves to speak with Finch, according to multiple reports.
Like Houston, the Timberwolves are not interested in allowing their coach to potentially go elsewhere after so much recent success. Minnesota had made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, including back-to-back Western Conference Finals appearances.
Finch has amassed a 209-160 record in the regular season since being hired midseason to replace Ryan Saunders in 2021. He also has a 21-21 mark in the postseason.
With Udoka and Finch formally off the table, and Kidd hypothetically unavailable, it's unclear where the Knicks go for a head coach.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels placed Chris Taylor on the 10-day injured list because of a broken left hand on Tuesday, an injury the utility man sustained when he was hit by a pitch a night earlier.
Taylor was hit by Tyler Ferguson's 95-mph fastball in the eighth inning of the Angels' 7-4 victory over the Athletics on Monday. He finished the game in right field, but X-rays afterward revealed a fracture that manager Ron Washington said will sideline the 34-year-old veteran indefinitely.
A similar injury forced Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts to miss almost two months last season.
“He’s just been having some bad luck, and it just keeps happening,” Washington said of Taylor, who battled a neck injury for much of 2024. “So now all he can do is just get well. But in the game of baseball, things like that happen, and the next guy’s got to step up.”
Taylor, who was released by the Dodgers on May 18, hit .200 (6 for 30) with one homer, three doubles and three RBIs in 10 games with the Angels, but he seemed to be heating up at the plate. He had four hits, including a homer and two doubles, and three RBIs in a pair of weekend games against the Seattle Mariners.
Taylor was replaced on the active roster by utility man LaMonte Wade Jr., a veteran utility man who was acquired from the San Francisco Giants on Sunday for a player to be named or cash.
Wade, 31, batted .167 (24 for 144) with one homer, eight doubles and 15 RBIs in 50 games for the Giants this season. Though he has extensive big league experience at first base, Washington said Wade will play mostly corner outfield for the Angels.
PHILADELPHIA — Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola suffered another setback in his return to pitch when an MRI showed he has an injury in his right ribcage and will be shut down for two weeks.
Nola had already been out since early May with a sprained right ankle that was progressing more slowly than expected. He experienced stiffness in his right side last week in Toronto and that wiped out a planned session against live batters.
Nola underwent testing this week and had what the Phillies called a stress reaction in his right ribcage. Phillies manager Rob Thomson said ahead of Tuesday's game against the Chicago Cubs that Nola was unsure how the injury may have happened.
Nola is 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA in nine starts. Nola, who signed a $172 million, seven-year contract ahead of the 2024 season, injured his ankle on May 8 during pregame agility drills when the Phillies played the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.
Nola is 105-86 with a 3.78 ERA in 11 seasons with the Phillies.
Thomson said slugger Bryce Harper was starting to feel better as he recovers from right wrist inflammation that last Friday landed him on the 10-day injured list.
The two-time National League MVP and eight-time All-Star is hitting .258 with nine home runs, 34 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 57 games. He missed five games, from May 26 to June 2, with a bruised right elbow after being hit by a pitch from Atlanta’s Spencer Strider.
Carlos Mendoza doesn't have many problems as the manager of a team that moved to 19 games above .500, the Mets' best mark of the season after scoring a come-from-behind walk-off win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
And to make the other 29 big-league managers green with envy, some of the problems he has are what he calls "good problems."
One such conundrum is figuring out how to balance the playing time for a pair of young, versatile infielders in Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña.
In Tuesday’s win, Mauricio got the start at third base and Acuña had to wait til the final play of the game to leave his mark on the win. In the end, the Mets are managing to have their cake and eat it too.
Here’s what the manager had to say about the situation before the series opener…
On Mauricio’s play so far
Despite missing significant time of development, and going 20 months and two days between his last big league appearances after sustaining an ACL tear and his first game last week against the Dodgers, Mendoza said the 24-year-old has performed “definitely better” than expected since his call-up from Triple-A.
“He’s very consistent, he doesn’t get too high or too low, especially after a tough start in LA, where they pitch him tough,” the manager said before Tuesday's game. “Going to Colorado and having a really good series. Just overall the way he goes about his business.”
“I think I've finally gotten into the rhythm of things,” Mauricio said before the game, speaking through an interpreter. “I'm not all the way there yet, but, but as the games have been going on, I feel like I'm starting to get it a little more.”
It was a difficult night for the youngster, striking out twice as he went hitless in three times up, and he is now 5-for-22 (.227) in six games since his call-up with two walks to seven strikeouts.
Mendoza added he liked how Mauricio is moving defensively and giving the Mets versatility with his ability to play shortstop, his natural position, and third base.
“Good hands, angles to the ball, very good arm,” he said about Mauricio at short. “Third base is kinda a newer position for him, and he’s looked fine there, as well, coming in on slow rollers.
“Overall, I think for a guy that missed so much time and [had a] pretty significant injury, he’s handled it very good here.”
Mauricio credited all the work he did to get to this point has given him the confidence to perform and deal with adjusting to the majors.
“And now that I am at this point, it's because I belong here,” he said. “So obviously there's an adjustment period, and, there's a moment where we have to adapt. But, at the moment, I feel good and I feel like we put in a lot of good work to be here.”
On keeping Acuña involved
Acuña, who was not in the starting lineup on Tuesday night, has started just eight of the last 25 games. However, he entered for the bottom half of the 10th as a pinch-runner and scored the winning run, and has now appeared in 22 of those games because of his ability to impact in the later innings off the bench.
Members of the New York Mets celebrate defeating the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Mendoza said this is all part of the balance that the Mets are dealing with and he’d rather have the youngster here than playing each day at Triple-A.
“He’s got a role right now, he’s helping us win a baseball game here,” the skipper said. “We’re always trying to put that on the table and say, ‘What’s best for the kid?’ ‘What’s best for the team?’ and right now, we feel like he continues to contribute.”
But in this situation, chances at the plate are hard to come by as he has just 15 in his last 15 games (three starts) and he has two hits in those games. Of course, New York is 12-2 over that span.
Not only that, but with Francisco Lindor dealing with a broken pinky toe that is still causing him discomfort, having an extra guy to play shortstop – even had Lindor been healthy – is something Mendoza sees value in having around.
“He’s a plus defender, the speed off the bench. He allows me to make some in-game moves,” he said. “We’ll continue to watch this situation, but in the meantime, he’s helping us at the big-league level.”
While the opportunities to play and start may not be that often, when Acuña is not in the lineup, the Mets are keeping him very active.
“In Acuña’s case, when he’s not in the lineup, hitting extra off the velo machine, hitting off the iPitch where it’s random BP, continue to improve his bunting game, with Antoan [Richardson] working on base stealing, base running, defensively in the outfield, with [Mike Sarbaugh] in the infield,” Mendoza said. “By being here at the big-league level, just learning from the other guys how they go about their business and watching the game.
“And after a game, we’ll sit down and talk through some situations. So there’s a lot of different ways we are attacking this and we will continue to help him.”
Mendoza praised the Mets’ coaching staff for continuing to coach and teach, not only the younger guys but the entire squad. “There’s always teaching moments and then there’s situations where you could go over and continue to coach,” he said.
“It’ll play itself out whether the playing time comes here or not, but, as he’s a big league player,” Mendoza said of Acuña. “Our job is to continue to help him, educate him, teach him, and then we’ll go from there.”
As it has happened many times before, the big moment found Juan Sotoon Tuesday night at Citi Field.
With the Mets down two in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Soto came to the plate to face Jose A. Ferrer, Washington's hard-throwing left-hander out of the bullpen.
After taking a strike on a 99.4 mph sinker and fouling off a second one that came in at 100.1 mph, Soto, like the Mets had been all night, was behind. But his approach didn’t change; he was trying to “hunt the mistakes.”
“I know that guy, and he has nasty stuff. I’m just trying to stay locked into my zone,” he said. “He missed in my zone and I made the adjustment.”.
And when Ferrer's 0-2 slider hung in the middle of the zone, and Soto smacked it (107.3 mph off the bat). In fact, he nearly hit the ball too well as right fielder Rober Hassell III looked to have a decent shot at making the catch, but the ball just dipped below his glove, allowing Starling Marte to score all the way from first.
“How things are going, I definitely was hoping [it] got down,” Soto said. “I thought the ball was a little farther than it went, but got it done.”
Of course, Soto had the hit, but praised the man who set the table for him and the man after, Pete Alonso, who pulverised a game-tying hit to score Soto en route to the Mets’ extra-inning win.
“That was a 12-year veteran taking an at-bat right there,” Soto said of Marte's ability to work a walk after falling behind 0-2. “He did a really good job, he stayed on his plan. Everybody wants to come through in that situation, but he stayed patient and give myself and Pete another chance to come through.”
The late double was Soto's second big hit of the night. In the bottom of the third, Soto battled MacKenzieGore, who Washington got from the Padres in the trade that sent the slugger to San Diego in 2022, and drove a 2-2 slider that got a lot of the middle of the plate for a 373-foot opposite-field home run.
“Just a great swing,” Soto said. “Another mistake, I’m waiting for mistakes and he made a mistake and I put the ball in play.”
While the homer landed just over the left field wall, Soto spent time admiring the drive and appeared to exchange words with Gore. The slugger was coy about the interaction, “We were just saying 'hi' at each other. That’s it.”
With the two-hit day, Soto is now batting .341 (14-for-41) with 14 runs, three doubles, four homers, eight RBI, and 14 walks in his last 12 games. Does he feel this is about his luck starting to change after a slow (by his high standards) start?
“Little by little, we just gotta be patient,” he said. “Keep doing my thing, definitely really happy to see the ball landing in some spots and coming through in big moments. I’m really happy, I’m just gonna try and keep it the same way.”
While his bat will always get the headlines, Soto also contributed in the field, taking a run off the board when he nailed Jose Tena at the plate as he tried to score from first with two outs in the top half of the second inning.
The right fielder, who had been working with the Mets’ pitching coaches to sort out some mechanical issues with his arm, said he feels great with how he is progressing in the outfield.
“I feel like we going in the right path with the coaches,” he said. “We’ve been doing great things so far and I’m happy for that.”
Ron Darling joined @SteveGelbs to break down Juan Soto's outfield assist and a pitcher's perspective on what Soto is working on with the help of the pitching lab for his throws pic.twitter.com/EQQ8hNIhhx
On the eve of the World Test Championship final between Australia and South Africa, both teams trained under overcast skies at Lord’s on Tuesday before the weather started to clear.
The Yankees put up 10 runs, with Austin Wells providing half of them, on 16 hits as New York defeated the Royals, 10-2, in Kansas City on Tuesday night.
Here are the takeaways...
-Aaron Judge has done plenty of things not seen by baseball fans and he did so again. Ahead in the count 2-0 in the first inning, Judge took a Noah Cameron fastball over the middle of the plate and launched it 469 feet (117.9 mph exit velocity) for his 24th home run of the season. The ball landing was not caught on camera and seemingly reached the Royals Hall of Fame in deep left field.
Judge's smash wasn't the only one on Tuesday, as Austin Wells took Cameron deep in the fourth after fighting back from a 2-2 count. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Wells launched a changeup 381 feet over the right field wall to put the Yanks up 5-1.
-The Yankees would pour it on with a five-run sixth inning. Wells got the scoring started with a two-run double. Trent Grisham, Judge and Cody Bellinger followed with RBI singles.
-Max Fried pitched into an early jam in this one. In the second inning, he had runners at the corners with one out -- thanks to a botched double play attempt by DJ LeMahieu -- when rookie Jac Caglianone came to the plate as the Kauffman Stadium crowd rose to their feet for the top prospect. However, the slugging rookie grounded out, but it did drive in the Royals' first run.
After that, Fried would settle in, retiring 11 straight Royals before a two-out single in the fifth. The long wait in the dugout in the sixth inning probably got Fried off his game, as Jonathan India led off with a solo shot and the southpaw allowed two more singles before he got the final out of the frame.
Fried threw 91 pitches (61 strikes) in seven innings while allowing two runs on six hits, no walks and striking out four. Although his outing was strong, Fried's season ERA actually increased to 1.84.
-Yerry De los Santos got the next five outs but allowed the Royals to load the bases with two outs in the ninth. Aaron Boone made a pitching change, and Tim Hill got Tyler Tolbert to fly out to end the game.
-The Yankees picked up 16 hits on Tuesday, with every starter picking up at least one knock. Judge went 2-for-5 and his average is at .396, while Wells and Grisham went 2-for-4. LeMahieu went 2-for-3 with two walks and made a nice sliding catch in shallow right field.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. went 1-for-4 with a run scored and was replaced in the later innings by Oswald Peraza. The Yankees announced that Chisholm left the game with "neck tightness." He was hit in the helmet by a throw when he stole third base earlier, but remained in the game.
Game MVP: Austin Wells
Wells, his first game batting in the nine-hole, drove in five of the team's 10 runs
Highilights
AARON JUDGE DEMOLISHES ONE TO LEFT FIELD IN KANSAS CITY
The Ottawa Senators held their second annual Season Seat Member Spring Summit at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night. It was an opportunity for season ticket holders to rub elbows and get an insider's view on what's happening with the club.
One of the biggest pieces of news on the evening was a glimpse at what the Senators and Fanatics (the NHL's outfitter of on-ice uniforms) appear to have settled on for their new third jersey. It appeared in a video the team showed to fans on the CTC big screen. Naturally, it had some fans and media members grabbing their cell phone cameras to share on the new look on social media.
The video provided close ups of the new third jerseys, which are all-red with black and metallic gold trim (think Vegas Golden Knights). At the end of the video, a blurry image of a player wearing the jersey walks toward the camera, came into reasonably clear view for one single frame before the video ends.
This image falls completely in line with a social media post that surfaced earlier this season from a Reddit user. It had photos of a player wearing a similar uniform, standing on the CTC ice surface on a non-game day, perhaps as part of the production of the very video that was shown to fans on Tuesday, or simply testing how it looked to the TV cameras.
For example, for TV viewers, going with black numbers directly on red is rarely a good choice. They look fine and they're legible up close but the lack of colour contrast makes it a struggle on the standard wide shot from a distance. Perhaps the gold trim in this case will make them stand out enough. Regardless, this is the kind of thing they test for.
The only visible difference in the two images might be the added detail in the centurion's red plume and possibly the removal of the S logo on the shoulders, but it's hard to tell for certain.
It's probably not fair to fully judge a jersey until you see it in person, or at least in higher resolution. But barring any last minute changes, this gives you a good sense of what appears to be the Sens' new thirds that will launch in September.
We'll have more on Tuesday's Season Seat Member Spring Summit coming up shortly.
Shohei Ohtani throws live batting practice before a game against the New York Mets on May 25. (Adam Hunger / Associated Press)
The most important pitches for the Dodgers on Tuesday came long before the start of their game that night.
In the second of a key three-game series against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers found themselves in an uncomfortably familiar position: Lacking an available starting pitcher amid a wave of early-season injuries, and turning instead to a collection of minor league arms thrust into big league duty; set to open the game with Lou Trivino, and then have Matt Sauer pitch bulk innings.
It’s not what the Dodgers envisioned entering the year, when they expected to have a rotation of potential All-Stars on the mound every day.
It was eerily similar to the circumstances they faced last October –– their Game 4, elimination-staving win against the Padres in last year’s National League Division Series, specifically.
Earlier Tuesday, however, the Dodgers had reasons for optimism: These current circumstances might not last much longer.
For the first time in a while, they could start to see light at the end of the pitching tunnel.
On the Petco Park mound, Ohtani threw the third live batting practice in his continued recovery from a 2023 Tommy John surgery, hurling 44 pitches over three simulated innings while racking up six strikeouts against a pair of rookie league hitters from the organization.
Back in Los Angeles, Glasnow threw the third bullpen session of his recovery from a shoulder inflammation injury, and could be getting close to facing live hitters himself in the near future.
And after Ohtani finished his session in San Diego, Snell threw 15 pitches in the bullpen, his first full bullpen session since suffering a setback in his recovery from shoulder inflammation back in April.
“Really encouraging,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You can start to see us get to the other side. It’s stuff to look forward to.”
Ohtani’s live session was the day’s biggest development. He made a significant jump in workload, going from the 29 pitches he threw two weekends ago at Dodger Stadium to a 44-pitch outing Tuesday that concluded with 23 throws in his third and final inning. But, after battling poor command in his previous live BP, he showed increased consistency and sharpness with all of his pitches, giving up just a ground-ball single and a lone walk while including 15 swings-and-misses with a variety of offerings.
“It wasn't just pure power and velocity,” pitching coach Mark Prior said of Ohtani, whose fastball averaged around 94-96 mph. “He got some swing-and-misses on his off-speed pitches. He's being able to keep guys off balance and mess up their timing. There's different types of misses. I think from that standpoint, those are good things.”
Roberts came away so encouraged, he even hinted at a more optimistic timeline for when Ohtani –– who hasn’t pitched in a big league game since August 2023 –– might be able to join the team’s active rotation, saying the chances are “north of zero” that the right-hander could return before the All-Star break.
In recent weeks, Roberts had said Ohtani wouldn’t be back until after the Midsummer Classic.
“It’s tempting,” Roberts said. “I’m sure Shohei feels tempted to just kind of rip the Band-Aid off and get into a big league game. But I think we’re doing a good job of being patient. And truth be told, I don’t think anyone knows the right time to get him in a big league game. We’re still being very careful, I guess.”
Another notable development from Roberts on Tuesday: Ohtani might not have to complete “a full build-up” before pitching in big league games.
“Anything he can give us is certainly additive,” Roberts said, an idea underscored by Ohtani’s two-way player status, which would effectively make him an extra arm on the Dodgers’ staff without counting against their 13-pitcher roster max.
“I still stand by him, and [head team physician] Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache and the training staff are going to drive this,” said Roberts, who wasn’t sure when Ohtani would throw his next live session. “I’m just anxious for the next one.”
Glasnow and Snell have more steps to complete in their comebacks, from their own live sessions to likely minor league rehab stints.
Prior also noted that those two will have to be more fully built up before they are activated, given the already overworked state of the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Still, Snell said after two months of lingering shoulder pain earlier this year, the breakthrough he has experienced in the last two weeks has renewed his confidence about how he’ll perform when he returns.
“I’m very excited,” he said after throwing at about 70% intensity level in his 15-pitch bullpen. “After this ‘pen, the ramp up is gonna start, and I can start pitching, and I know I’m gonna be a factor on the team again.”
Prior offered similar encouragement with Glasnow’s recent work, noting his fastball is up to 95-96 mph.
“Everything looks good,” Prior said of Glasnow. “He really has been feeling good and the ball has been coming out really good.”
In the meantime, the Dodgers will have to continue to tread water. They currently have only four healthy starters in the rotation between Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May and Justin Wrobleski. And though Emmet Sheehan could be an option to return from his own Tommy John surgery after one more start in his minor league rehab next week, the recent loss of Tony Gonsolin –– and continued absence of Roki Sasaki, who has yet to progress past light catch play –– has only further limited the club’s pitching options.
That’s why, even on a day the Dodgers were patching together a pitching plan once again, they were finally feeling hopeful about the long-term state of their staff.
Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow are finally making strides toward returning.
The star-studded pitching staff the club had been planning for this season might soon become a reality once again.
Jeff McNeil needed just one pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning to drive in the winning run as the Mets came from behind to beat the Washington Nationals, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
McNeil jumped on a 94 mph fastball from Washington rookie reliever Cole Henry and hit it off the end of his bat (just 68.7 mph exit velocity), but the ball found the grass in right field and Luisangel Acuña, in as a pinch-runner, easily scampered home to end the game, which New York once trailed 3-0.
The Mets are now 25-7 at home this season, the best home start in franchise history and have MLB’s best home winning percentage as they have won four straight in Flushing and eight of their last nine. New York improved to 43-24 on the year.
Here are the takeaways...
- With the Mets down two with two outs in the eighth, Jose A. Ferrer looked to be cruising to a clean inning and had Starling Marte down in the count 0-2. But Marte worked a seven-pitch walk. Juan Soto, down 0-2 to the Nats' lefty, hit a sharp liner to right that Robert Hassell III missed with a dive and had the ball bounce past him, to score Marte and put Soto at second.
Washington then went to closer Kyle Finnegan to face Pete Alonso, who was 0-for-3 to that point. But the Mets' slugger got an 0-1 splitter that hung just enough, and he smashed it off the wall in the left field corner to tie the game. Alonso beat the throw to second, but came off the bag and was tagged out to end the inning, but the damage was done.
- The Mets were only in a position to erase the two-run deficit late because the bullpen got out of some tight spots. Jose Butto was the first man out of the Mets’ bullpen and stranded an inherited runner with a strikeout and groundout to short before getting the first out of the seventh. Lefty José Castillo entered and promptly walked and hit the first two batters he faced. Against James Wood, a third straight lefty, Castillo induced an inning-ending 6-3 twin killing.
Castillo stayed on for the eighth and got a strikeout but allowed a double to the right-center gap to pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro, in his first at-bat of the season, and walked Luis Garcia Jr. The lefty allowed three of the five lefties he faced to reach. But Justin Garza entered with runners on first and second for his Mets’ debut and got Alex Call looking at some 98 mph heat and Hassell III swinging at a cutter.
Edwin Diaz got the top half of the ninth in the tie game and struck out two on some nasty offerings, needing just 12 pitches to get the job done. Reed Garrett, pitching on four days' rest, got a grounder to first to push the ghost runner to third to start the tenth. But ge stuck out Nathaniel Lowe swinging at a splitter in the dirt and got Chaparro on a soft fly to left to strand the runner.
- Griffin Canning got in trouble with hangers in the first inning: CJ Abrams rocketed a knee-high changeup off the wall in right for a double before Lowe uncorked a hanging slider for a 415-foot home run to right to put the Mets behind early.
Canning allowed the leadoff man to reach in the second with a single to center off his hands and a two-out, 0-2 single to center off the end of the bat to give Washington another scoring chance. Abrams stung the Mets’ starter again this time with an RBI double on a bouncer just over the first-base bag, but the Nationals ran themselves out of the inning. After the ball bounced off the half wall, Soto reached the ball with José Tena still two steps short of third base. Third base coach Ricky Gutierrez waved Tena home, but Soto’s one-bounce throw from shallow right got him at the plate by 10 feet.
The Mets' starter allowed another leadoff single to start the third, but he retired the next seven batters he faced, including an eight-pitch 1-2-3 fourth. But Abrams ended that streak when he snuck an opposite-field homer over the left-field wall on a down-and-away fastball.
Canning ended the fifth with his 12th career pickoff and first with the Mets, nailing Wood at first. But his night came to an end with a one-out walk in the sixth. His final line: 5.1 innings, four runs on seven hits, two walks, and four strikeouts, throwing 87 pitches (53 strikes). Canning did keep a streak alive: Mets starters have now allowed four or fewer runs in 66 of 67 starts.
- Brandon Nimmo singled through the right side of the infield to start the bottom of the second and, with two outs, stole second base to give McNeil a RBI chance off MacKenzie Gore, a pitcher he likes hitting against. McNeil made it eight hits in 11 at-bats (all singles) with a bloop to right that just found the outfield grass to score Nimmo from second.
The rest of the Mets weren’t so successful against Gore, who entered the game leading the NL with 108 strikeouts, as Soto, Luis Torrens, Tyrone Taylor, Ronny Mauricio, and Marte were all strikeout victims early.
But Soto got revenge on Gore and his former team, driving a 2-2 slider up in the zone 373 feet the opposite way for a solo homer, his 12th on the season. Taylor also got some revenge, lacing a high fastball down the left-field line for a two-out double in the fourth, but this time McNeil flied out to left to strand the runner.
After six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts, the Nats lifted Gore, who had thrown just 89 pitches, and the Mets were glad to see the back of him.
- In Aug. 2022, the Nationals traded Soto to the Padres. In Tuesday’s game, six of the eight players in the deal appeared in the game as Washington started four of the five players they received (Abrams, Wood, Gore, and Hassell III) and had Josh Bell, who went to San Diego in the deal, but is back with Washington. The only players not to appear were one-time Met Luke Voit and Jarlin Susana, the No. 2 prospect in the Nats’ organization.
Game MVP: Jeff McNeil
McNeil has now reached base safely in each of the last 13 games and is batting .319 (15-for-47) with six runs, four doubles, four home runs, nine RBI, four walks, and a steal.
Highlights
Jeff McNeil gets one to drop in and drives in Brandon Nimmo for the first run of the game pic.twitter.com/18WdLpe0se
The Mets and Nats renew their hostilities on Wednesday night with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. on SNY.
Left-hander David Peterson (2.80 ERA, 1.259 WHIP in 70.2 innings) makes his 13th start of the season. He will look to outduel Washington right-hander Jake Irvin (4.02 ERA, 1.226 WHIP in 78.1 innings), making his 14th start of the campaign.
Mets pitching prospect Jonah Tong continues his domination of Double-A ball on Tuesday, striking out eight batters to pick up his fifth win of the season.
Tong made his 11th start with Binghamton and went through 5.1 innings relatively unscathed. His one blemish came in the fourth inning when he gave up a leadoff triple to Turner Hill and a one-out single to Adrian Sugastey to allow his one and only run of the game. Tong finished throwing 92 pitches (62 strikes) of one-run ball on four hits and two walks. He lowered his ERA to 1.99 on the season.
Along with his sub-2.00 ERA, Tong improved his record to 5-3 and now has 91 strikeouts in 54.1 innings pitched this season. His eight-strikeout performance followed his 11-K outing last week and now has seven starts with at least eight strikeouts in a game.
In support of Tong, Ryan Clifford got the Binghamton offense going. With two outs in the first, Clifford launched a solo shot to give Binghamton a lead they wouldn't relinquish. The left-handed slugger finished 2-for-3 and has now homered in three of his last four games.
Clifford bumped his average to .234 and now has 11 home runs to go with his 34 RBI.
Victor Wembanyama is in China, and it's not all about vacation.
The San Antonio Spurs star is in the midst of what's expected to be a 10-day stay at a Shaolin temple in Zhengzhou, China. The temple is a place that welcomes visitors who wish to study Chan meditation, Shaolin Kung Fu, traditional Chinese medicine and more.
The NBA China office confirmed that Wembanyama is at the temple, and some Chinese media also confirmed his presence there with the temple itself. “Concentrate on training!” read part of a social media post on the NBA's Weibo account, which also revealed the plans for a 10-day stay.
Then again, the secret was getting out through other social media means anyway.
Some photos of Wembanyama with a shaved head - it wasn't shaved when he arrived in China - and wearing a robe similar to the other monks began widely circulating this week. One of the photos showed the 7-foot-4 center sitting on a Chinese style chair in front of multiple Buddha sculptures.
Perhaps the 'tallest monk' in history, both ancient and modern. During a private visit to China, San Antonio Spurs basketball player Victor Wembanyama had his head shaved at the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, donned monastic robes, and shared a vegetarian meal, preparing for… pic.twitter.com/AFn6BYm3dG
“Victor Wembanyama, live from China, on the Great Wall itself, having an amazing time. It's crazy," he said on a video posted to Instagram by the Spurs' account and others.
Wembanyama is expected back in the U.S. in the coming weeks and likely will be with the Spurs' delegation that goes to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas next month. The Spurs, like many teams, often have many players on their NBA roster with the summer league team for various events.
The 21-year-old Frenchman led the NBA in blocked shots during the regular season, despite his season ending in February - just after his first All-Star Game appearance - because of deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. The Spurs are hopeful that he will be able to play when next season begins, and the French national team also has expressed hope that Wembanyama will be able to play for his country at this summer's European championships.
Wembanyama was the league’s rookie of the year last season and was widely expected to be a front-runner in this season's defensive player of the year race. He attempted 403 3-pointers and blocked 176 shots this season - no player in NBA history has ever finished a season with those numbers - and he was averaging 24.3 points, 11 rebounds, 3.8 blocks and 3.7 assists when the DVT was detected.
The only other player in NBA history to finish a season averaging all those numbers was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975-76.
Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins watches the final minutes of the game against the San Antonio Spurs from the bench after fouling out of during the second half of an NBA basketball game a in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, April 18, 2012. The Spurs won 127-102.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
AP
It's 2025, DeMarcus Cousins has been out of the NBA for three years, yet we're still talking about him beefing with fans.
Cousins was playing for Mets de Guaynabo in the Puerto Rican Professional Basketball League — "was" because he has been suspended from the league for the remainder of the season and fined $4,250 for a "disqualifying foul, a technical foul, and acts that incite violence or provocation," fines that could jump up to $10,000 if Cousins cannot "show cause" as to why he should not be fined more, reports, Baloncesto Superior Nacional.
Videos of the confrontations went viral. First, there was an incident with a fan courtside.
#BSNPR | [VÍDEO]: Así fue que comenzó la situación de Demarcus Cousins cuando un fanático comenzó a tener una discusión con el jugador desde las gradas.
When Cousins was ejected, he went back to the locker room, and on the way, fans threw their drinks on him, which led him to try an go after those fans.
While the behavior of those fans was more aggressive than anything Cousins would have seen in his 11 NBA seasons, no league is going to let physically attacking fans go unpunished.
Cousins played in 11 NBA seasons, averaging 19.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, being a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player.
