Rookie fireball reliever Joel Peguero keeps Giants' wild-card flame flickering originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

In a scenario tricky enough to stump the best, rookie right-handed pitcher Joel Peguero let his best work do the talking with everything on the line for the Giants.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks two runs behind and with runners in scoring position, Peguero unleashed his velocity, striking out Tim Tawa and pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo to end the sixth inning and, in many ways, assuring the Giants a crucial 5-3 win on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

Giants manager Bob Melvin recognized the importance of Peguero’s impact out of the bullpen. 

“There are certain points of the game that are bigger than others. There was nothing bigger than that today,” Melvin told reporters.  

“Obviously, [Willy Adames’] homer and [Dominic Smith’s] play in the ninth inning. But coming in, one out, rookie and with guys on base and getting two punchouts like that threw a lot of momentum back into our dugout.” 

Peguero’s big MLB moment was a decade in the making. 

Earlier this year, the Giants brought Peguero in this spring as a minor-league free agent. Months later, on Aug. 21 after 10 years in the minors, the 28-year-old made his big-league debut against the Baltimore Orioles.

Now, in the thick of what once was a pipe dream MLB playoff push, Peguero’s heroics trimmed the New York Mets’ wild-card lead over San Francisco to two games. 

“What it is is that I have more trust in myself,” Peguero told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Bonta Hill, George Kontos and Sergio Romo on “Giants Postgame Live.”

“I have faith. I have been able to work on that. I trust myself when I go out there. All the years in the minor leagues taught me to be able to trust myself, trust my stuff and attack the zone now that I’m up here.” 

In the act of ending the rally, Peguero, who has yet to give up a run since being called up, threw 11 pitches over 100 mph.

The top-5 velocities in baseball today all belong to Joel Peguero. Peguero came into a jam and struck out 2 batters to end a potential rally #sfgiantspic.twitter.com/2qHNOGbBRQ

— Jeff Young (@BaseballJeff1) September 10, 2025

On a night in which Adames hit his 28th home run of the 2025 MLB season and Patrick Bailey went yard for a second straight game, Peguero’s hard-throwing ways didn’t go unnoticed.

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Mets manager Carlos Mendoza provided some updates prior to Tuesday night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies…

CF plan with Siri's return

The Mets will receive a nice boost on Tuesday, as Jose Siri was activated from the IL.

Siri's been sidelined since mid-April, but he immediately slides into the lineup, batting ninth and playing center. 

The speedster is expected to take on the bulk of the playing time against left-handed pitching, but Jeff McNeil and the struggling Cedric Mullins will still be in the mix. 

“We’re going to play matchups,” Mendoza said. “Cedric has had some good numbers against lefties, but we’re going through a a rough stretch, and getting Siri back there’s a good chance he’ll hit lefties and Cedric will face some righties when we need.

“Jeff is in the conversation too, especially if I want to get an extra lefty in the lineup, we’ll do it. So it’s really just playing the matchup, or playing the hot hand if you want to call it that, and we’ll go from there.”

Another strong defender could be jumping back into the mix soon, too, as Mendoza said Tyrone Taylor is doing well in his recovery from a hamstring strain and could begin a rehab assignment as early as next week. 

A positive from Hells Bells

Things haven’t gone well for Ryan Helsley since joining the Mets, but the right-hander finally pieced together a strong outing on Monday. 

It was arguably his best appearance while donning the orange and blue. 

Helsley struck out two of the three batters he faced as he pieced together a perfect bottom of the eighth to keep it a 1-0 ballgame. 

The biggest change? Just one of the 15 pitches he threw was a fastball.

“It was a really good step in the right direction,” Mendoza said. “He needed that for his confidence, especially for the situation we put him in. We kept talking about putting him in low-leverage spots, and here we were in a one-run game in the eighth.

“I know he’s working really hard. For him to get the three outs and give the team a chance to get back in the game yesterday, I really liked what I saw.”

The team feels Helsley has cleaned up his tipping issues, now it comes down to execution.

Jose Siri’s recovery took longer than even he expected. 

The outfielder landed on the injured list back in mid-April after fouling a ball off his left leg during an at-bat against the Athletics.  

After undergoing X-rays and taking a few days, he was diagnosed with a fractured tibia. 

Siri’s initial timeline called for a six-to-eight week recovery, and he took some positive steps forward as he began closing in on that mark. 

However, imaging showed that the bone hadn’t healed to the Mets’ liking, so trainers decided to shut him down from baseball activities for a few more weeks. 

Finally in late-August he was able to resume a rehab assignment, and after putting together a string of successful minor league games, he was activated ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Phillies. 

Siri immediately jumps into the lineup batting ninth and playing center. 

“I feel good, thank God,” he said through a translator. “I put in a lot of work and spent a lot of time during my rehab assignment making sure that I feel 100 percent, so up to this point I feel really good and ready to go.”

Prior to the injury, he had just one hit in 20 at-bats but provided a boost with his speed and high-energy play. 

The Mets are hoping Siri will be able to do the same down the stretch, as he takes over the bulk of the playing time against left-handed pitching with Tyrone Taylor still hurt and Cedric Mullins struggling mightily.

“My job is to go out there, give it 100 percent and make sure the vibes are high,” Siri said.

“We know we’re getting an elite defender and a plus baserunner,” Carlos Mendoza added. “Even on days when he isn’t in the lineup to have a guy who can go out and steal a base or score from first when you need it is important, especially with where we are in the schedule.”

Schwarber's 50th, Suárez's brilliance help Phillies top Mets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Creativity can stem from uncertainty.

When Trea Turner and Alec Bohm both landed on the IL on Monday, it forced Rob Thomson’s hand.

First, the Phillies recalled Otto Kemp from Triple-A.

Then, Thomson tinkered with the leadoff spot. Bryce Harper got the nod against a righty Monday. Tuesday, with Mets’ lefty Sean Manaea on the mound, it was Harrison Bader’s turn.

It’s safe to say, it worked in the Phillies’ 9-3 win over New York.

After Nick Castellanos struck first — for the second straight night — with a two-out, two-strike, two-run double, Kemp and Bader followed with back-to-back homers to make it 4-0.

For Kemp, the homer made his 25th birthday unforgettable. “Definitely one of the top baseball moments I’ve had,” he said. “It’s been cool to get back up here and just try and contribute any way I can.”

The Phillies hardly looked like a team that has been haunted by the Mets since last October.

There’s nothing creative about running Ranger Suárez out there every fifth day. But when Zack Wheeler went down for the season, the question became whether the Phils’ top lefties could carry an ace’s load.

Suárez has answered. He came in with a 1.09 ERA over his last three starts. And Tuesday night, he only strengthened that case.

The lefty delivered six innings of one-hit, scoreless ball, baffling Mets hitters by getting ahead in counts and mixing his full repertoire.

“I think he was in the strike zone when he needed to be, and he was out of the strike zone when he needed to be,” Thomson said. “Masterful, really… all his pitches were good, his command was good.”

New York often looked off balance, as if the on-deck circle’s eight pound sledgehammer had thrown their timing out of sync.

And Suárez keeps raising the bar. Over his last five starts, he’s tied his career high in strikeouts (10), broke it with 11, and topped it again with 12 on Tuesday night.

Suárez himself admitted the strikeout total was a pleasant surprise. “It feels great,” he said. “I don’t usually strike out a lot of guys — I’m more of a pitch-to-contact guy — but every time we got into two-strike counts, we tried to put them away, and we could do that today.”

The Phils starter said the difference from last year’s injury-plagued finish is health. “Obviously, when you’re healthy, you give your 100% every time you’re out there. Last year, that wasn’t the case … I feel way better now,” he said.

And his manager didn’t hesitate to back the “big-game pitcher” label. “The heartbeat never changes,” Thomson said. “He’s just his own man, and he goes out there and pitches.”

The bats backed his strong performance. Following Mark Vientos’ solo homer off David Robertson in the top of the seventh, Bryson Stott legged out an infield single in the bottom half. Harrison Bader added a two-out knock, setting the stage for a memorable moment in Phillies history.

On a 3-1 count, Kyle Schwarber unloaded on an outside cutter, sending it 437 feet into left-center for his 50th homer of the season.

He became just the second Phillie ever to reach the milestone, joining Ryan Howard (2006).

The three-run blast — scorched at 110.4 mph — pushed the lead to 7-1.

The Mets and Phils traded runs in the eighth. Juan Soto lined an RBI single off Tanner Banks, but Bryson Stott answered right back with one of his own.

In the ninth, Bader’s scorching stretch continued. His RBI single gave him three hits on the night and a second straight three-hit game.

“[Bader’s] been swinging the bat great and playing great defense,” Thomson said. “[Brandon] Nimmo hits that ball in the ninth inning and he gets a great jump on it — it looked like it was in the gap — and he just covers it.”

With the Phils up seven, Max Lazar handled the final inning. The Mets scratched one across, but that was it.

The Phillies moved to 85-60 with the win, nine games clear of New York. For a team that had struggled mightily against its rival all year, the beat-up Phils have buckled down to take some massive games.

What we learned as Giants gain wild-card ground with another win vs. D-backs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – From hobbling to homering, Willy Adames powered the Giants to a 5-3 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night at Oracle Park. 

The win secured a series win and put San Francisco only two games back of the final NL wild-card spot after the New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the day. 

Heliot Ramos and Rafael Devers each worked seven-pitch at-bats that ended in walks to begin the game for the Giants before Adames stepped to the plate. On the first pitch he saw, Adames fouled a sinker off his left leg and had to be looked at by manager Bob Melvin and senior director of athletic training Dave Groeschner. On the next pitch, Adames launched a sinker into the left-field bleachers. 

While the Giants scored five runs on five hits, three fewer than the Diamondbacks, Robbie Ray had his best start in three weeks. Ray made it through five innings after failing to do so his past two starts and gave up only three hits and two earned runs. He also finished with five strikeouts and now has struck out five or more in 22 of his 30 starts this season.

Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ win, improving to 74-71 on the season.

Ray Finds His Mojo 

The night after Logan Webb eclipsed 200 strikeouts and 200 innings pitched, Ray showed what kind of dynamic duo on the bump the two can be when he’s right. This was the exact kind of bounce-back outing the MLB All-Star needed. 

Ray in his previous three starts had allowed a total of 19 hits and 13 earned runs over 14 innings, all ending with a Giants win but a no-decision for the lefty. He went from having a 2.85 ERA to a 3.31 ERA after those three starts. But Ray found his groove Tuesday night, just at the right time. 

He began the night by striking out Ketel Marte on four pitches for his first of five strikeouts. Ray forced 10 swing and misses, three groundouts and four flyouts. He battled through weird weather of humidity and a heavy mist that turned into light rain for stretches. 

The D-backs finally got to Ray in the fifth inning, scoring both of the two earned runs he allowed. Between battling tough elements and a recent rough stretch of outings, Ray and Melvin have to be happy with his five innings of work.

Powered By Willy 

In his first season as a Giant, Adames officially has entered Barry Bonds territory. Adames became the first Giants player to homer in eight consecutive series since Bonds did so in 2003. The Giants shortstop homered at least once against the Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals and now the Diamondbacks.

He’s closing in on a more well-known Bonds stat, too. Adames now has 28 homers this season. With two more over the next near three weeks, Adames would become the first Giant to have a 30-homer season since Bonds in 2004. 

That’s pretty good for someone who was batting .220 and had hit 12 homers at the All-Star break.

Orange and Black Insurance 

For how huge Adames’ deep fly in the first inning was, the Giants’ next two runs proved to be equally important. 

Matt Chapman continued his strong play since returning from the IL, and it was his heads-up play that proved to be the difference for the Giants’ fourth run of the night. Tagging up on a shallow fly ball to right field, Chapman turned the jets on and just barely beat Corbin Carroll’s throw home, making it a 4-0 game in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

The Giants improved to 13-3 since Chapman returned from the IL on Aug. 23.

One inning later, it was time for Giants fans to again cheer on one of their own trotting around the bases. Patrick Bailey knew it the moment he made contact.

On the first pitch he saw, Bailey hammered a knuckle curve over the right-field wall, easing the pain of the two runs Ray had just given up. The solo shot was Bailey’s second straight game going deep, and his fifth of the season.

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