Will Warren allowed five straight hits to begin the game in a six-run first inning, putting the Yankees in a hole they couldn’t climb out of in a 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night at Fenway Park.

New York smacked three home runs and had a chance with the tying run at the plate with nobody out in the eighth, but couldn't complete the three-game sweep. The Yanks leave Beantown with an 83-66 record. Boston improved to 82-68, to move to 1.5 games behind for the top AL Wild Card spot. With Toronto completing a three-game sweep of Baltimore on Sunday, the Yankees are now 4.0 games behind the Jays for first in the AL East.

Here are the takeaways...

- Giancarlo Stanton made his second start of the series in left field and made a hash of things immediately, overrunning a flyball as it fell short of the Green Monster, resulting in a leadoff triple for Jarren Duran in the home half of the first. 

Boston made Warren pay for Stanton’s blunder: Alex Bregman took a fastball on the inside corner up the middle for an RBI single, Trevor Story sharply slapped single through the right side of the infield, Nathaniel Lowe got jammed but muscled a soft liner through the right side to plate another run, and Romy Gonzalez drove an RBI double to right to put two in scoring position and pitching coach Matt Blake was out for a visit after five straight hits on the first 14 pitches of the night.  

Masataka Yoshida notched a sacrifice fly to center (one pitch after the Yanks failed to come up with a pop fly in foul territory down the right field line) and a Rob Refsnyder grounder to second, trading two more runs for the first two outs. But Warren fell behind 2-1 to Carlos Narvaez, who demolished a high, 95 mph fastball to centerfield for a 403-foot home run to round out the six-run first.

The Yankee righty settled in the second before a swinging bunt and walk put two on with two outs. It took Austin Slater making a diving catch after a long run on a ball to shallow right to keep Boston off the board in the second. He got six of the next seven Sox batters, allowing only a leadoff single in the third.

Warren was in a spot of bother with one out in the fifth after back-to-back singles, but he froze Refsnyder with a sweeper and got Narvaez to ground out to short. After the first, Warren stranded five runners and held Boston to 0-for-3 with RISP. His final line: 5.0 innings, six runs on 10 hits and a walk with two strikeouts on 89 pitches (59 strikes).

- Aaron Judge swung through a pair of fastballs before chasing a breaking pitch low and away to go down swinging in his first at-bat against Boston ace Garrett Crochet. Judge swung through a two fastball his second time up to again fall behind 1-2 with two outs and a runner on second base in the third, this time he worked the count full, but again went down swinging on a breaking pitch in the dirt. 

With two outs in the fifth, the reigning AL MVP won the third matchup, smacking a first-pitch fastball up and away 400 feet into Boston’s bullpen in right for a solo home run. It was Judge’s 48th long ball of the year (112.7 mph off the bat) for his 102nd RBI to cut the deficit to three runs.

He rocketed a single in the eighth (113.5 mph) to finish the day 2-for-4. 

- The Yanks first got to Crochet in the fourth as Stanton smashed a 110.9 mph single with one out and Amed Rosario got a sweeper down and clocked it just over the Monster for a two-run shot. Paul Goldschmidt, who walked his first time up, singled, but the three straight hits were all the Bombers could muster. Goldschmidt finished the day 1-for-3 with a walk. 

- The Yanks were glad to see Crochet exit in the sixth and Jose Caballero, who struck out twice off the starter, got a 1-0 sinker right over the plate from reliver Steven Matz and hit it out of the stadium over the Monster in left, 423 feet (108.1 mph). The one-out homer made it four unanswered for the visitors after they fell behind by a half dozen in the first.

- Out of the bullpen, Camilo Doval picked up two strikeouts in a clean sixth, Mark Leiter Jr. worked around a one-out single with a double play in a scoreless seventh, and Paul Blackburn got around a one-out single in eighth, thanks to a really fine play by Caballero up the middle for the final out.

- After Judge’s leadoff single in the eighth off reliever Garrett Whitlock, the Yanks had the tying run at the plate, but Cody Bellinger went down looking, Stanton looking, and pinch-hitter Trent Grisham swinging.

Bellinger finished hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts. Stanton finished the day 1-for-4 with three strikeouts.

Arroldis Chapman made no mistakes in the ninth, throwing 10 strikes on 11 pitches with a couple of groundouts and a strikeout swinging on a 101.5 mph fastball past Caballero to end it.

Game MVP: Garrett Crochet

Crochet, who is tough against everybody, was tough on the Yanks. Aside from the two dingers, the left-hander racked up 12 strikeouts, getting Slater three times, Judge, Stanton, and Caballero twice each, as well as Rosario, Bellinger, and Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The Sox southpaw got 23 whiffs on 52 swings (44 percent) and another 14 called strikes, en route to needing 99 pitches to get 18 outs.

Highlights

Amed Rosario's first home run as a Yankee puts the Yanks on the board pic.twitter.com/g6b7HeKopz

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 15, 2025

Aaron Judge takes Garrett Crochet deep for home run No. 48 and it's a 6-3 game! pic.twitter.com/OTrIR7q12m

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 15, 2025

Jose Caballero hits a ball OUT of Fenway Park and makes it 6-4 pic.twitter.com/viNy4EFTqV

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 15, 2025

What's next

The Yankees head to Minnesota for a three-game series against the Twins, starting on Monday night with a 7:40 p.m. first pitch as MLB celebrates Roberto Clemente Day. 

The pitching matchups for the series: Carlos Rodon vs. Simeon Woods Richardson, Cam Schlittler vs. Zebby Matthews, and Luis Gil vs. Taj Bradley.

This is the time to bring on the rivals. The Dodgers are used to taking on challengers down the pennant stretch: the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres — and, in a previous version of the National League West, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds.

The final two weeks of the regular season are upon us. The Dodgers have one remaining head-to-head matchup that really matters — and that series starts Monday at Dodger Stadium, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies?

The Phillies have not been realigned into the NL West. However, although the three division champions automatically qualify for the playoffs, the two with the best records earn a bye into the division series. The division champion with the third-best record — right now, that would be the Dodgers — must play in the first round.

Read more:Another offensive outburst carries Dodgers to series win over Giants

The Milwaukee Brewers, the presumed champions of the NL Central, boast the best record in baseball. The Phillies, the presumed champions of the NL East, lead the Dodgers by 4 ½ games. The Dodgers have 13 games to play.

The Dodgers got a bye and lost in the division series in 2022. They got a bye and lost in the division series in 2023. They got a bye and came within one game of elimination in the division series in 2024. Would they be better off not getting a bye and playing in the first round?

“There is not a question in my mind that that does not make sense,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, told me last week. “It is better for your World Series odds to not play those three games.”

The five days off that come with a bye can disrupt the timing of hitters. They also can allow time for injured and weary players to recover — that could be critical for Dodgers catcher Will Smith, in particular — and for the Dodgers to arrange their starting rotation just the way they might like it. And, of course, you can’t be eliminated in the first round if you don’t play in it.

“We have made our life more difficult to this point,” Friedman said, “but I still think we have a really good run in us, and we’ll make it competitive. So obviously these three games against Philly are really important in that.”

What if the three games against the Phillies go poorly?

Even if they don’t, the Dodgers might not win the division. The Padres are closer to the Dodgers than the Dodgers are to the Phillies.

San Diego trails the Dodgers by 2½ games in the NL West.

If the Padres win the NL West, how much would that hurt the Dodgers’ chances of a lengthy postseason run?

Not much, if at all. Both teams almost certainly would end up in the wild-card round.

The NL West champion would play the last team into the NL field, most likely the Giants or New York Mets and maybe even the Reds or Arizona Diamondbacks, with the chance the opponent exhausted its pitching just to get into the playoffs. The other team would play the Chicago Cubs, and would avoid the possibility of facing the surging Phillies until the NLCS.

If the NL West comes down to the last day or two, the Dodgers would have to determine whether to use their best starters on that final weekend or line them up for the wild-card series.

In that scenario, what might be the decisive factor in the Dodgers’ calculus?

The NL West champion would play all three games of the wild-card round at home; the runner-up likely would play all three games on the road. The Dodgers are 48-26 at home, 36-39 on the road. (The Padres are 47-28 at home, 35-40 on the road.)

Would there be any precedent for the Dodgers not minding if the Padres won the NL West?

In 1996, the Dodgers and Padres were tied for the NL West lead heading into the final day of the regular season, with the two teams facing one another. Both teams were guaranteed a playoff spot.

In Game 162, the Dodgers started Ramon Martinez — undefeated in his previous nine starts — then removed him after one inning.

The Padres won the game, and with it the division. The Dodgers started Martinez in their playoff opener three days later. They lost that game, and they were swept in the series by the Braves. The winning pitchers in that series, in order: John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

How many games are the Dodgers on pace to win?

Read more:Shaikin: Why Andrew Friedman's October test is looming with Dodgers

Ninety-one.

In Friedman’s previous 10 seasons running the Dodgers, what is the fewest number of games they have won?

Ninety-one, in 2016.

How did the Dodgers do that October?

They earned a bye into the division series, in which they beat the Washington Nationals. They lost to the Chicago Cubs in the league championship series.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers have gotten back to the basics this week, preaching the importance of the little things in daily hitters’ meetings, in-game dugout conversations and even simulated drills in early batting practice sessions.

After a 2 ½ month slump over the second half of the season, they were searching for a more dependable style of offense. Like simplifying their approach at the plate. Shortening up swings and using the big part of the field with two strikes. Capitalizing on situational opportunities with runners on base. And making sure that, amid a resurgence from their rotation, they were finding ways to more consistently manufacture runs.

This weekend in San Francisco, they finally enjoyed the fruits of those labors, blowing out the Giants 10-2 on Sunday to win a three-game series and remain 2 ½ games up in the National League West standings.

“Quality of at-bat, winning pitches, using the whole field, not punching [out] — I think all those things, you know it’s in there,” manager Dave Roberts said, after the Dodgers racked up 18 hits, worked six walks and scored in six of their nine trips to the plate. 

“We’ve seen it. Maybe not with the consistency we would’ve liked. But when you’re facing really good arms, to see us do what we did... it’s certainly encouraging.”

Read more:After Clayton Kershaw's shaky start, Dodgers go on scoring spree to beat Giants

Indeed, coming off a 13-run outburst Saturday night, the Dodgers picked up right where they left off at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon, slowly sucking the life out of a recently resurgent Giants team trying to sneak into the playoffs.

Teoscar Hernández continued a recent surge with a team-high four hits, making him 11 for his last 24. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Michael Conforto each had three knocks, with Conforto’s day getting his batting average back to .200. As a team, the Dodgers combined for a whopping 16 singles while forcing 207 pitches from the Giants’ staff of arms. And most amazing, they did it with Shohei Ohtani reaching base only once, and that didn’t even happen until his sixth at-bat in the top of the ninth.

“It's quality at-bats, quality outs, moving guys over, getting sac flies, bringing defenses in if you move them over,” Freeman said. “It creates more traffic, more things that are able to happen on the baseball field. Just think the quality of at-bats have been really good over the last week."

The onslaught started in the second inning, when two walks and a Freeman single loaded the bases, setting up Kiké Hernández for a sacrifice fly. It continued in the third, when a pair of productive outs (plus a bobbled ground ball from San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman) turned singles from Betts and Teoscar Hernández into another hard-earned run.

Then, in the fifth, it all culminated in a four-run rally, one that knocked Giants starter Robbie Ray out of the game, and turned a low-scoring affair into a series rubber-match rout.

Freeman lined a double to right field, after Betts walked and Teoscar Hernández again singled. Conforto came off the bench for a two-run, pinch-hit, bases-loaded single that he managed to slap past a drawn-in infield. A run-scoring balk from reliever Joel Peguero added to the deluge, which included a pair of walks from Tommy Edman and Ben Rortvedt.

In the sixth, what was already a 6-1 lead was stretched a little further, with Miguel Rojas’ two-run single — with the bases loaded once more — putting the Dodgers’ sixth win in seven on ice. The Dodgers nonetheless added more runs in both the eighth and ninth, giving them their first back-to-back double-digit run totals since all the way back at the end of April.

“It's definitely the kind of baseball we want to be playing down the stretch and for the rest of the season,” Conforto said. “I think we're doing a lot of the little things right. That's kind of been the theme as we finish up here.”

It all represented a new look from the Dodgers’ star-studded offense, with only one of their 23 runs the last two days requiring a ball to go over the fence.

For much of the year, the team has been overly reliant on home runs, scoring via the long ball at the fifth-highest percentage in the majors (45%) at the end of play Friday. During their second-half slide, that dynamic had prevented them from working around injuries and mechanical flaws from much of the lineup, or finding alternative ways to build big innings and hang crooked numbers.

Hence, their recent re-emphasis on more dependable fundamentals — allowing them to paper-cut an opposing pitching staff to death in a way that is typically for success in October.

“When you can be able to do it, and know you can do it, as we're leading up to that point [of the playoffs], it definitely is a big confidence booster,” Freeman said. “We don't have to rely on the two-run, three-run home run all the time. I think that was just big. The last week, [this is] what we've been trying to do. And we've been able to actually do it in the games."

Read more:Shaikin: Here’s what’s at stake for the Dodgers over the final two weeks

The offense wasn’t the only positive sign Sunday.

On the mound, Tyler Glasnow was able to settle down after looking frustrated with his command early, when he walked four batters (and hit another) in his first three innings. At a point he has so often spiraled in his up-and-down Dodgers tenure, the right-hander instead found a rhythm by retiring 10 in a row, managing to pitch into the seventh in a 6 ⅔ inning, one-run outing.

“It’s encouraging,” said Glasnow, who has a 3.06 ERA on the season and a 2.66 mark since returning from a shoulder injury in July “Since I got back from the IL, it’s been easier to kind of put [those kind of struggles] out of my head and go compete. If my stuff sucks, it’s kind of whatever. Just compete, try to get in the zone, get some weak contact. It’s helpful."

It led to the kind of performance the Dodgers are banking on from their rotation in the playoffs. This is still a team that, at its core, will have to be carried by its pitching.

The only way that strength will matter, however, is if the lineup can find some long-awaited consistency. This weekend, signs of it finally arrived. Everything the Dodgers had been preaching at last came to fruition.

“As we come down to the end [of the season, we’re] just kind of recognizing what it is that really puts us in the right spot to win games,” Conforto said. “It's go time now, and we got to do all those things if we want to get to where we want to get to."

Read more:Dodgers are looking good, but is it a mirage? | Dodgers Debate

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Big game? No problem. 

Nolan McLean just continues delivering quality innings for the Mets down the stretch in the playoff push.  

With the team looking to end their dreadful eight-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon, the rookie stepped up and put together six shutout innings in what ended as a walk-off victory over the Texas Rangers. 

McLean did endure some early command issues, falling behind in the count to each of the game’s first five hitters, but that proved to be no issue as he struck out four and limited Texas to one baserunner over the first three innings. 

He then allowed singles to Joc Pederson and Rowdy Tellez in the top of the fourth, but used a double play ball and his fourth punchout of the afternoon to escape the threat. 

The Rangers were able to put two more runners on with two outs in the fifth thanks to a double and walk, but the youngster set down Wyatt Langford for his third strikeout of the afternoon to again dance out of danger. 

McLean faced another threat in the sixth after a hit by pitch and a bloop single, but he used his second clutch double play of the afternoon to end his outing on a huge note. 

Overall, he allowed just five hits and two walks while striking out seven across six frames. 

“Nolan was impressive again,” Carlos Mendoza said. “It looks like they had a good game plan against his sweeper where they took some pitches early in counts, and they were aggressive on that pitch, and he recognized that and he started using the sinker and changeup to lefties.

“That's what makes this guy who he is -- not only does he have the stuff, but his ability to recognize what hitters are trying to do against him, he has a lot of weapons that he can go to at different times and in different counts, man it’s just super impressive.”

McLean is now the first Mets pitcher to not allow a run in their first three Citi Field starts. 

His 1.19 ERA is the lowest mark in franchise history through ones first six big-league outings. 

He's also tied with Dwight Gooden for the third-most strikeouts through six career starts (40).

Certainly, some prestigious company and impressive addition to the resume, though, McLean isn't focused on that.

“I’m not a huge stat guy,” he admitted. “I just try to go out and give my team the best chance to win every time.”