The Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 in Abbotsford, BC in NHL preseason action.
This group of players did not consist of the veterans or star players that played the night before and it showed.
The first period started off poorly as the Canucks scored two goals by the first 7:12. Calgary couldn't get shots on target, looked messy and by the end of the first period, Vancouver outshot Calgary 9-4.
The Flames did come back in the second period strongly. However, a foolish roughing penalty by Joel Hanley at the 12:42 mark put the Canucks on the power play for the third time in the game. Filip Chytil would proceed to score a mere 25 seconds later, putting Vancouver up 3-0. At the 14:02 mark, the Flames would get some relief as the home team was called for a penalty for too many men. Connor Zary scored on the ensuing power play, reducing Calgary's deficit by two.
Vancouver kept pressing hard on gas pedal in the third and there was no coming back for Calgary.
The Canucks outshot the Flames in every period. The overall was 30-19.
The defensive pairings looked disoriented and not in quality shape. I will add Etienne Morin stood out amongst the blueliners.
Vancouver skaters pressured Calgary into producing giveaways and the home side capitalized on the opportunities. The Canucks were more aggressive and played more physical.
It didn't help that Vancouver fill-in goalie Nikita Tolopilo absolutely robbed Calgary of a goal with a terrific save in the middle of the third period that drew audible "Ooohs" from the crowd.
Coming into this game, the Flames were 7-for-7 on the penalty-kill and that became their undoing. They conceded two power play goals, ultimately going 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
As mentioned earlier, Zary scored Calgary's only goal, going 1-for-5 in the Flames power play.
Calgary goalie Ivan Prosvetov made 27 saves, registering a save percentage of exactly 0.900.
Chytil was designated player of the game for his two points.
The Flames next preseason game will be on Saturday against the Jets in Winnipeg.
The Anaheim Ducks hosted the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night in their second of four preseason matchups between the Southern California rivals.
The Kings took the exhibition opener on Sunday in Ontario, CA, by a score of 3-1, but lineups in this game featured far more projected NHL roster players.
Both the Ducks and Kings iced a full top-six forward group and potential top-four defensemen.
Lukas Dostal got his first action of the preseason, as he started this one and stopped 17 of 18 shots before he was pulled halfway through the second period, as was reportedly planned.
Dostal was replaced by Calle Clang, who stopped 10 of the 12 shots he faced in the second half of the game.
In the Kings’ net stood Darcey Kuemper, who earned the shutout by saving all 14 shots he faced in this one.
“Whether it was a power play, whether it was five on five, the puck wasn’t our friend tonight,” Joel Quenneville said after the game. “That’s got to be a strength going forward. There’s some things that we’re trying to work on. Just like the penalty kill and establishing certain things, it all starts with having the puck, and starting with the puck, and that didn’t occur too much.”
Here are my notes on this game (once again, it’s preseason, so everything is to be taken with a grain of salt):
Defensive Zone Coverage-While the Ducks didn’t get the early kills they are striving for in their new systems, they didn’t allow much penetration to the middle of the zone or second chance opportunities. When they were hemmed, and they were hemmed often, it remained nondisastrous.
Lukas Dostal-Dostal was in mid-season form early in this game. As stated, the truly dangerous chances were limited, but he was able to track pucks through traffic, as is becoming his trademark, and his rebound control was spectacular, deflecting those distance shots to the corners of the ice.
“Sometimes you have games where the puck sticks to your chest better than other games, but that’s been something that I’ve worked on this summer,” Dostal said after the game. “The last two seasons in the NHL showed me the guys are crashing the net quite a lot, so it’s something that I worked on this offseason to eliminate the rebounds and something I really focused on.”
Jacob Trouba-Trouba had a tough start in his first action of the exhibition season. He was directly involved in all three Los Angeles goals against; his gaps were too sizable, his closing speed wasn’t there, and he uncharacteristically struggled to properly box out Fiala on LA’s third goal.
The Ducks have a few days off, after which, they will next head to Bakersfield to take on the Kings again on Saturday for their fourth of seven preseason games.
Roki Sasaki pitches a scoreless seventh inning for the Dodgers on Wednesday. (Norm Hall / Getty Images)
If the Dodgers are going to win 13 games in October, they will likely have to master the playbook they ran Wednesday night.
Starting pitchers came out of the bullpen. Another late-inning collapse didn’t cripple their psyche. The offense delivered timely hits when it needed to. And the team grinded out a 5-4 extra-innings win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The story of the night, in an unexpected but entirely warranted late-season plot twist, was Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw throwing scoreless innings of relief for a beleaguered Dodgers bullpen.
The theme, however, was improvisation with the roster and resiliency in the dugout, moving the team within a win of another National League West division championship.
“I know the word resilience gets thrown out a lot, but it was a resilient win and a resilient group,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We fought our tails off until the end. It didn’t look good at different points of the game. But Arizona fought as well. So it was a heck of a ball game … Really good stuff.”
The game wasn’t settled until the 11th inning, when Tommy Edman gave the Dodgers a lead with an RBI single and Justin Wrobleski closed out a rare stress-free save.
It never would’ve gotten there, however, without the contributions Sasaki and Kershaw provided out of the bullpen earlier in the evening.
After all the struggles from the Dodgers’ traditional relievers lately, it was the two starting pitchers who helped save the day.
Activated from the injured list shortly before the game, and making his first appearance in the majors since suffering a shoulder injury in early May, Sasaki flashed hugely promising signs with a scoreless frame in the bottom of the seventh — protecting a 3-1 lead the team had been staked to by Blake Snell’s six-inning, one-run start, and an early offensive outburst that included a two-run homer from Andy Pages.
Sasaki’s fastball averaged 98-99 mph, was located with precision on the corners of the strike zone, and even induced a couple key swing-and-misses, things he never did consistently while posting a 4.72 ERA in eight starts at the beginning of his highly anticipated rookie big-league season.
He paired it with a splitter that was also commanded much better than at any point in his initial MLB stint, when a lack of velocity and inability to attack the strike zone made his trademark pitch an ineffective weapon.
Sasaki needed only 13 pitches to retire the side in order, punctuating his outing with a pair of strikeouts on 99-mph four-seamers. As he walked back to the dugout, he glanced toward his teammates with a stoic glare. Just about all of them, including Shohei Ohtani, applauded in approval.
“One hundred, with a nasty split, OK Roki,” Snell joked afterward. “I think everyone’s going to be so excited for him. And if he can do that, that’s a big help for us. Big boost.”
As usual, disaster did eventually strike in the eighth, even after the Dodgers (89-69) extended their lead to 4-1 on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI double in the top half of the inning.
The bullpen’s lone season-long stalwart, Alex Vesia, ran into trouble by giving up a single to Ketel Marte, a walk to Geraldo Perdomo, and an RBI double to Corbin Carroll, all with one out.
Hard-throwing rookie righty Edgardo Henriquez couldn’t put out the fire from there, giving up one run on a swinging bunt from Gabriel Moreno in front of the plate that spun away from catcher Ben Rortvedt, then another when pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo stayed alive on a generous two-strike call (which was no doubt impacted by Rortvedt dropping the pitch behind the plate) before lifting a sacrifice fly to center.
It was the second three-run lead the Dodgers' bullpen had squandered in as many nights.
It was the latest example of their unreliable relief corps imploding even with ample late-game cushion.
So, to calm the waters, Roberts made another out-of-the-box pitching move with the score still tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth.
In what was his first relief appearance since the infamous fifth game of the 2019 NL Division Series, Kershaw came trotting in from the bullpen and got the game to extras.
"It's an adrenaline rush, for sure,” said Kershaw, who retired all three batters he faced with the help of a diving catch from Edman in center. “I think relieving is just a different animal altogether. You kind of have to figure out how to maintain your heartbeat and get going. But it is a lot of fun, and it's fun to have success out there. So fortunate to get through that inning.”
Kershaw had volunteered to pitch in relief Tuesday night, effectively replacing his between-starts bullpen session ahead of what will be his final career regular-season start Sunday in Seattle.
Come October, however, his best fit on the roster might come in a full-time (and perhaps high-leverage) relief role, thanks to the Dodgers’ abundance of starting pitching options and lack of trustworthy late-game depth.
“I think that right now, you’re betting on people,” Roberts said. “For me, I trust Clayton.”
In extras, the rest of the bullpen finally held up. Blake Treinen inherited a bases-loaded jam with two out in the 10th, but got James McCann to fly out to shallow right field. Wrobleski (another pitcher who began this season as a starter) was handed a save situation in the 11th, after Edman singled home a run with his third hit of the night, and retired the side in order.
“That was like a playoff game,” Roberts said.
And once the actual postseason begins, it’s the kind of performance the Dodgers will have to replicate again and again.
Their traditional bullpen, after all, remains a mess. The need for alternatives like Sasaki, Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan (another starting pitcher likely to pitch in relief in the playoffs) has become immense.
It made Wednesday something of a trial run for how this year’s team will need to win games in October. It provided a sense of belief that, despite all of the recent relief problems, they can still piece together ways to mount a World Series defense.
"We're kind of at the point of at the point of the season where we're just doing whatever it takes to win ballgames,” Edman said. “I think that's what's great about our squad, is that we have a lot of guys who are no egos and just going to do whatever it takes."
After the Mets' 10-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, manager Carlos Mendoza and players spoke about the team's defense and the wild-card race...
Mets' defense needs to be cleaned up
The Mets have played sloppy baseball over the last few games, and it has cost them in some respects. In Tuesday's eventual win, miscues and errors put the Mets behind the eight-ball before the offense caught fire to make their comeback. But the sloppy defense of Mark Vientos and others put the game out of reach.
After Francisco Alvarez's two-run bomb in the fifth put the Mets on the board and cut the Cubs' lead to 6-2, the bottom half of the inning saw Vientos, starting at third base, back off on a two-out grounder by Pete Crow-Armstrong and then launch the ball into the ground that Pete Alonso could not come up with. The throwing error allowed Moises Ballesteros to score from third base and PCA to go to second. The play took away momentum from the Mets.
The inning got worse, as Clay Holmes threw a wild pitch that let PCA get to third, but the young outfielder hustled home, noticing Holmes was late covering the plate and slid in safely to put the Cubs up 8-2.
Before the game, Mendoza said the Mets players knew they had to be better than that and maintained that stance afterward.
"They are routine plays, at this level you expect them to be made," Mendoza said of Vientos' error. "We just have to be better."
The Mets skipper was asked if he felt if the error was a result of Vientos trying too hard, and Mendoza didn't see it that way.
"Those are routine plays. This is the big leagues, routine plays, we expect those plays to be made. And they know that."
"We have to clean it up," Francisco Lindor said after the game about the team's defense. "It’s not for a lack of effort. Everyone’s putting their time. Everyone was out there taking groundballs, doing their thing. It’s just stuff that happens. Part of the game. We have to be better. I take full responsibility for my mistakes, and I’m sure everyone here takes full responsibility for their mistakes, as well. We know how to play the game, we know what to do, we just got to get it done."
Mendoza had Vientos start at third base against the left-handed Matthew Boyd on Wednesday. He sacrificed defense for offense and admitted as such after the game, but said there were other factors to his decision.
"There’s a balance there when you’re facing a lefty," Mendoza explained. "Jonah [Tong] is a flyball pitcher. You’re trying to create some offense too, and Mark is one of those guys, especially when we’re facing lefties. He will continue to get opportunities."
Vientos went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on Wednesday and is hitting .180 (9-for-50) with a home run and four RBI over his last 15 games.
Mets scoreboard watching
The Mets are one of three teams vying for the final NL wild card spot. Entering Wednesday's games, the Mets controlled their own destiny as they sat one game ahead of both the Diamondbacks and Reds.
The Reds' game against the Pirates finished before the Mets-Cubs tilt and Mendoza said he noticed the score when Wednesday's eventual loss got out of hand. Despite the favor the Pirates gave the Mets, the team is only worried about how they are playing and they know they need to figure it out fast.
"You can’t worry about [the Reds], you gotta play better," Mendoza said. "It doesn’t matter what other teams are doing, it starts with us. We’re better than that."
"We control our own destiny. It’s all about winning," Lindor said. "It’s only natural that we peek. Everyone is on it as well. We want to win because we control our destiny."
With the Reds' loss, the Mets remain one game ahead of Cincinnati for the final spot. Both teams have four games remaining on their schedule. New York finishes their series with the Cubs on Thursday before heading to Miami to take on the Marlins for three. The Reds finish their series against the Pirates before going to Milwaukee for three.
“We’ll piece it together. We’ll continue to find ways to get 27 outs, and get the wins that we need here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said when asked about his side’s plans for the season’s final four games as they cling to the final NL Wild Card spot. “It’s not easy, especially what’s happened the last couple of days, even after an off day [Monday].”
“It was their bullpen day, pretty much, and they volunteered yesterday,” Mendoza said. “Like, ‘Hey, if you guys need us.’ You appreciate that; it says a lot about them. And here we were today needing them. And instead of throwing that bullpen, they ended up throwing in the game.
“But this is something that’s gonna be day-to-day. Whether they’re starting, whether we need them out of the bullpen. We’re gonna try and put our best guys there to get 27 outs.”
Their short outings – Holmes throwing 14 pitches and Manaea 16 – still have the duo in line to be available on Saturday, “at the earliest,” Mendoza said.
The trouble began for Tong immediately as he put the first two runners on base with a double and a walk in the first inning, before a strikeout and a fine defensive play by Tyrone Taylor kept the Cubs off the board. After a bounce-back second, it looked like Tong could be set for another bounce-back start.
“Tough first, huge play by Tyrone,” Tong said. “And thought I figured it out in the second, and then, they just got to me.”
In that third, the Cubs went: single, walk, single, double, single, and double to score four runs in and ended his night without an out recorded in the frame.
“They got him. They were aggressive on the fastball,” Mendoza said. “I feel like, other than the second inning, he had a hard time elevating the fastball, and that’s what makes him who he is. They took some really good changeups.”
“I made my effort, just didn’t execute it,” the righty said about struggling to elevate the heater. “Just gotta do a better job limiting damage there.”
The 22-year-old was just a two-pitch pitcher on the night, throwing the fastball and changeup 51 times out of 56 offerings. “I don’t think he used the breaking ball enough,” Mendoza said. “He could have done a better job of mixing there. Especially once they were all over the fastball.”
Four of his breaking pitches went for balls, and the other was smashed up the middle for a first-inning single.
Tong agreed with the manager’s assessment: “Definitely have to establish that more in the zone and keep just being unpredictable. Just gotta do a better job on my part.”
And, amid pitching staff-wide struggles, it is a tough task for Tong and fellow rookies Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean to do the heavy lifting in high-pressure games at the business end of the season while they’re still figuring out how to pitch in the majors.
“You got some of these guys going through it at the big league level, especially where we’re at,” Mendoza said. “It’s hard to put it on them or to blame them. This is where we are. We continue to go through it.”
After a fast rise from the Double-A ranks to the big leagues and a Wild Card race, the pressure of it all getting to the youngster could be understandable. But he said he entered the start with the mentality that “it’s just another baseball game.”
“Pressure is a privilege,” he said. “And I’m just out there just trying to do the best that I can.”
Mendoza doesn’t believe that the rough time for Tong (a 7.71 ERA through his first 18.2 innings) will impact his development. “Not at all,” he said.
Tong, who could still be used again either as a starter or out of the bullpen before the regular season ends on Sunday, said that he can “execute his pitches a little bit better, slow the game down, and go from there.”
Australia’s No 1o named in starting XV after globetrotting week
James Slipper to become first Wallabies player to reach 150 Tests
Australia flyhalf James O’Connor has been rewarded with the No 10 jersey following his globe-trotting journey while prop James Slipper will become the first Wallaby to play 150 Tests in the Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand on Saturday.
O’Connor flew to England last week to join his new club Leicester Tigers only to head back to the Antipodes days later after being named in Joe Schmidt’s Australia squad for the final two Tests against the All Blacks at Eden Park and Perth.
Unfortunately, they couldn't get much going for them.
Zach Gallant scored in the first period, but the Penguins allowed four unanswered goals in the aftermath and fell to the Blue Jackets, 4-1. Yegor Chinakhov, Jake Christiansen (PPG), and Kent Johnson filled the net for Columbus, and Dante Fabbro scored into the empty net to seal the deal with three minutes left in regulation.
Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs surrendered two goals on 14 Columbus shots during the first half of the game, while Filip Larsson allowed one goal on eight shots to close it out for Pittsburgh. Blue Jackets' goaltender Jet Greaves was outstanding, surrendering just one goal on 25 shots.
The game was a tough one, as there were a lot of special teams, and the Penguins spent a lot of time in the box. But they very easily could have gotten a different result if they were able to capitalize on some of the momentum swings that landed in their favor.
"I thought there were some momentum swings both ways," head coach Dan Muse said. "There were some times there where I didn't feel like, you know, we were in our zone a little bit longer than we'd like to be, maybe didn't get the change that we wanted, tired bodies on the ice... but then, I also feel like it was a little bit back-and-forth, and obviously, in the third period, it was a lot of special teams."
He also added that the lack of flow to the game made it hard to create scoring chances.
"It was a game where it did feel like it was a little bit hard to generate," Muse said. "It came a little bit in waves. There would be some shifts where, maybe, you get one or two, and some of those looks, too, they're not connecting. We're trying to do the right thing, we're trying to make the right play, and maybe it just doesn't connect the way that we want to, and maybe it doesn't lead to an actual scoring chance. But, some of the things we were looking for, we saw. And I think this is still a game where we're going to take some positives from."
Here are a few thoughts and observations from this one.
- I want to cut right to the chase and talk about the Penguins' best player tonight. And that was Ben Kindel.
No, he wasn't the goal-scorer, and he didn't factor in on the lone goal. But Kindel was everywhere on Wednesday. He got some good looks on the power play, he was helping create offense when the opportunity arose, he had a breakaway opportunity that he failed to capitalize on, and he blew right by opponents on several occasions when skating with the puck and driving the net.
"Just kind of trying to play my game," Kindel said. "Just have confidence in my game, and just leave it all out there. You might not get many opportunities, so whatever opportunity I get, just go out there and do whatever I can."
I do not think Kindel has much of a shot at the opening night NHL roster, especially with some more NHL-ready, seasoned talent ahead of him. But what I will say is that he has exceeded my expectations during this camp. He's one of those guys who you don't notice as much in practice but stands out in a game setting. And I'm particularly impressed by his skating, which is something that a few scouts and analysts knocked him for pre-draft.
Yeah, his skating isn't an issue. Not even a little bit. He's an above-average skater in terms of speed, and his edgework is phenomenal.
I think he's earned himself another pre-season game. We'll see what happens, as some roster cuts may come as early as tomorrow. But he's been impressive through two games.
- Both goaltenders were fine tonight. Neither Silovs or Larsson were forced to make ridiculous saves akin to what Sergei Murashov did on Monday, but they got the job done when they were called upon, and none of the three goals against were really on them.
"I thought there were some big saves in there.," Muse said. "Some plays into the slot there that we'd like to prevent from happening, but he was there when they did."
With Joel Blomqvist out day-to-day, it will be interesting to see how the goaltending battle shakes out. I suspect Silovs has the inside track right now, but don't count out Larsson, either.
All I know is that it's nice to be talking about the Penguins having excess goaltending depth in their system. It's a refreshing change of pace.
- I thought a few members of the Penguins' defensive corps played a solid game, namely Jack St. Ivany, Alexander Alexeyev, and Caleb Jones. St. Ivany and Alexeyev worked on a pairing together, while Jones - who blocked four shots - was on the left side of Connor Clifton.
St. Ivany and Alexeyev were routinely able to shut down and stymie Columbus's transition game and their breakouts, and they also notched a few in the shot block department. Alexeyev's physicality was also apparent throughout the game.
The defensive battle - once again - is one to watch at camp, and I wouldn't count any of these guys out of the mix, especially on the left side. It will also be interesting to see whether or not Muse is willing to let any of these guys play their off-side.
Cal Raleigh became the seventh player in Major League Baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season Wednesday night, launching two solo shots for the Seattle Mariners against the Colorado Rockies.
“It’s crazy. Sixty is — I don’t know what to say,” said Raleigh, who leads the majors in homers. “I didn’t know if I was going to hit 60 in my life. Just tonight, what a way to do it.”
Batting left-handed in the first inning, the switch-hitting catcher connected off Tanner Gordon and sent a drive to right field that reached the top deck at T-Mobile Park for his 59th longball of the year.
“It was like a movie,” teammate Julio Rodríguez said of Raleigh’s moonshot. “I’m just so grateful that he’s on our team, that he’s able to do what he does. He’s so special, and I can’t say enough.”
Then in the eighth, batting left-handed again, Raleigh hit No. 60 off Angel Chivilli. Raleigh also had a two-run double in the second and finished with four RBIs to give him 125 this season, most in the American League.
The only other players to reach 60 home runs in a season are Babe Ruth (1927), Roger Maris (1961), Mark McGwire (1998 and ‘99), Sammy Sosa (1998, ’99, 2001), Barry Bonds (2001) and Aaron Judge (2022).
It was the 11th multi-homer game for Raleigh this year, tied with Judge (2022), Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sosa (1998) for the MLB record.
With four games remaining in the regular season, Raleigh has a chance to pass Judge for the American League record. Judge hit 62 homers in 2022 to break the previous AL mark of 61 set by Maris in 1961.
Raleigh’s latest homers came four days after he surpassed Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise record with his 57th homer of the season. Griffey hit 56 in both 1997 and 1998.
“When you look at how he has done it and the position that he plays — I was telling somebody earlier today that when you come off the field, you’re mentally and physically exhausted,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson, a former major league catcher.
“And for him to do what he’s done offensively and to do what he does behind the plate, I honestly don’t think we’ve seen this before. It’s been incredible. I think he deserves the MVP, no question.”
The goaltending battle for the Pittsburgh Penguins will be one of the big stories to watch this season.
And, unfortunately, one of their young netminders is facing an injury setback early on in the pre-season.
On Wednesday, the Penguins announced that goaltender Joel Blomqvist is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Blomqvist started the Penguins' pre-season opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, and he exited halfway through to make way for Sergei Murashov to finish the game, which was the plan beforehand.
Blomqvist, 23, had two NHL stints last season, seeing success in the first one and struggling with inconsistency in the second. He finished the NHL portion of his 2024-25 season with a 4-9-1 record and an .885 save percentage, and he put up an 8-7-3 record with a .914 save percentage at the AHL level.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound netminder is one of several goaltenders fighting not only for a spot on the NHL roster, but also a spot on the AHL roster. Tristan Jarry, Sergei Murashov, Filip Larsson, and Arturs Silovs are also competing for the net in camp, and GM and POHO Kyle Dubas has reiterated that camp performance - and developmental needs, to a smaller extent - will dictate the two goaltenders who are on the NHL roster out of camp.
- Forward Noel Acciari - who has been out since the beginning of camp with a core muscle injury - took part in Wednesday's morning skate wearing a white non-contact jersey. There is no official update to his status, and head coach Dan Muse said it's part of his recovery process.
- Forward Tanner Howe - out since April after getting surgery to repair a torn ACL - skated on the injured ice this morning with Acciari.
- Forwards Joona Koppanen (lower-body) and Mathieu De St. Phalle (upper-body) as well as defenseman Scooter Brickey (lower-body) are all day-to-day and did not practice Wednesday.
According to Chris Johnston of The Athletic, Carter Hart is still considering signing with the Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes and one or two more unnamed teams.
The NHL announced earlier this month that it was reinstating the five players including Hart who were acquitted of sexual assault charges stemming from an incident in 2018 when they were members of Canada’s world junior team, and that they will be eligible to sign a contract Oct. 15 and take part in games Dec. 1.
“It’s getting down to decision time for Carter Hart, obviously a free agent ever since the NHL earlier this month cleared him and his teammates from the Hockey Canada trial for reinstatement into the league,” Johnston said.
“And where Hart has been since then is working through the available options. He’s down to about three to four potential teams at this point in time, two of those teams I can tell you are the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes. And the expectation here is in the coming day or two or maybe three, he will start to rule out some of those remaining teams, obviously pick where he is going.”
The Hurricanes are going into the season with Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov as their main goalies.
The Mets fell behind early and couldn’t dig themselves out of a hole, falling to the Chicago Cubs 10-3 on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.
Jonah Tong surrendered five runs in the third inning, and it wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Mets got their first hit of the game. They finished the game with just four hits, one walk, and one hit batter.
The loss didn’t cost them too dearly, as the Pirates hung on to beat the Reds 4-3 in 11 innings and the Dodgers hung on to beat the Diamondbacks 5-4 in 11 innings, meaning New York is still 1.0 game ahead of Cincinnati and Arizona for the final NL Wild Card spot with four games to play.
Here are the takeaways...
- Tong surrendered a leadoff double to the right-center gap to start the bottom of the first and, after getting squeezed by home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn on a 2-2 changeup on the corner, issued a walk to put two men on base with nobody out. But Tong kept the Cubs off the board: First getting Ian Happ swinging at a changeup below the zone, then, on a Moisés Ballesteros single up the middle, Tyrone Taylor – in his first start off the IL - gunned down Michael Busch at the plate with a perfect throw and a sweeping tag from Francisco Alvarez, and closed the door with Seiya Suzuki grounding out to third.
An eventful, but not overly taxing first inning (22 pitches) was followed by an easy-breezy 1-2-3 second on just 12 pitches with three outs to center. But Tong was in a big jam in the third after a bloop single, a walk, and a single to left loaded the bases with nobody down.
The young righty paid the price: Happ yanked a changeup down the line at first that just stayed fair over the bag for a two-run double, Ballesteros bounced an RBI single past a diving Mark Vientos, on a ball he probably should have snagged as he was playing in and on the line, and Suzuki pulled an RBI double down the third base line.
That ended Tong’s night with Richard Lovelady entering with two in scoring position and nobody out. The lefty put out the fire with a strikeout, sac fly, and strikeout to limit it to a 5-0 Chicago lead. Tong’s final line: five runs on seven hits and two walks with one strikeout in 2.0 innings on 56 pitches (38 strikes). His ERA is now at 7.71 through 18.2 big league innings as Chicago jumped all over his two-pitch mix as he threw his fastball or changeup on all but five of his offerings.
- Lovelady, needing to put up zeroes and outs, was stung for a solo home run off Matt Shaw’s bat to start the fourth, but thanks to diving plays from Brandon Nimmo and Vientos, he got three more outs for the beleaguered bullpen.
- Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd retired the first six Mets he faced before issuing a leadoff walk to Alvarez to start the third, but was left stranded there. Boyd got through the first four innings without allowing a hit on 56 pitches before Vientos smoked a single past the third baseman to lead off the fifth. And with one down in the inning, Alvarez smashed a changeup up right down the middle for a two-run home run to left (417 feet, 106.6 mph off the bat). That cut the deficit to 6-2, but the Mets never got any closer.
Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both started the night 0-for-3 off the Cubs’ left-hander before he departed with one out in the sixth. Daniel Palencia entered to get Alonso to fly out and Starling Marte swinging, meaning the top of the Mets’ order started the night 0-for-12 with two strikeouts.
Soto got that gang's first hit of the night, cranking an up-and-away cutter 397 feet to left center for his 43rd home run of the season. The solo homer was just smoked: 105.1 mph off the bat. He finished 1-for-4. But Lindor was 0-for-4, Alonso 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and Marte 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Clay Holmes, who threw 57 pitches Sunday, entered after Lovelady issued a leadoff walk in the fifth. After getting the first two outs on groundouts, Alonso couldn’t scoop Vientos’ throw in the dirt to plate another run on the throwing error, the speedy Pete Crow-Armstrong on second. And after a wild pitch, Holmes was late to cover the plate, allowing PCA to score all the way from second to make it 8-2.
After Holmes' 14-pitch inning of work, Sean Manaea, who threw 50 pitches Sunday, entered and allowed a leadoff single to Shaw, who promptly swiped second base. Busch then turned on a sweeper right down the middle for a 376-foot homer to right that just carried through the wind into the first row of seats to make it 10-2. The lefty got a strikeout in a 16-pitch inning of work. That could still have those two in line to pitch on Saturday in Miami.
- Ryan Helsley needed nine pitches for a 1-2-3 seventh, with a strikeout. He allowed a single in the eighth, but added another strikeout. He's now put up five-straight scoreless outings, allowing just two hits and two walks in that six-inning span.
- Taylor’s throw home in the first was clocked at 95.2 mph, the Mets’ fastest outfield assist of the season and the fastest of Taylor’s career, per Sarah Langs. He finished the night 0-for-3 at the plate.
Highlights
WELCOME BACK TYRONE TAYLOR!
He throws out Michael Busch at the plate to prevent the game's first run!
The Mets and Cubs conclude their series Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:40 p.m. on SNY.
Right-hander Nolan McLean (1.27 ERA and 1.008 WHIP in 42.2 innings) gets his eighth start of the season with the home side sending out left-hander Shota Imanaga (3.37 ERA and 0.957 WHIP in 139 innings) for his 25th start.
Together, the two old-school backfield mates have produced one of the top ground games in the Football Bowl Subdivision as No. 22 Notre Dame tries to right its season.
PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers activated Japanese rookie Roki Sasaki from the 60-day injured list on Wednesday, and the right-hander is expected to throw out of the bullpen over the final five games of the regular season to see if he can earn a postseason role.
Manager Dave Roberts confirmed the move, saying right-hander Kirby Yates will head to the injured list because of a lingering hamstring issue. The move is retroactive to Sept. 21.
Roberts said he doesn't have a specific role for Sasaki, but wanted him to take advantage of his opportunities.
“Giving everything he has for an inning or two at a time,” Roberts said. “That's kind of what I see. Let the performance play out. Just go after guys and be on the attack.”
The 23-year-old Sasaki is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings over eight big league appearances this season, all starts. He's also spent time at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he was 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA over seven appearances, including five starts.
The defending World Series champion Dodgers are searching for bullpen help as the postseason approaches. Tanner Scott blew a save in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Sasaki agreed in January to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus as an international amateur free agent under Major League Baseball’s rules, leaving the Pacific League’s Chiba Lotte Marines under the posting system.
His debut season in the big leagues has been mostly disappointing, but the Dodgers hope he can still have a role in October.
Sasaki is one of three Japanese players on the Dodgers' roster along with two-way star Shohei Ohtani and right hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
