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Giants' energy-filled dugout enjoys latest blowout win at home amid playoff push originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — The out-of-town scoreboard at Oracle Park is directly in front of the home dugout. If you’re leaning on the rail, as just about all of the Giants do at some point during a game, you literally cannot miss it. When they looked out at Logan Webb on Monday night, the New York Mets-Philadelphia Phillies score was directly behind him. 

The Giants are well aware of what’s going on around the rest of Major League Baseball every night, but if they have started to think big, they’re doing a pretty good job of hiding it. 

On the first night back home, they hit a season-high five homers and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5. Across the country, the Mets got shut out in Philadelphia. With 18 to go, the Giants are just three games back, although the deficit in the wild-card race essentially is four since the Mets hold the tiebreaker. 

But they’re not talking about any of that. 

“I think you guys talk about it more than we do,” catcher Patrick Bailey said, smiling.

Webb gave a version of the same answer. Like Matt Chapman on the last homestand, he insisted that the focus is on winning every day and not thinking about anything other than that. And that actually is pretty believable. 

You don’t go on a run like this without having the proper mindset, and right now, there isn’t a group that is having more fun or playing more relaxed than the Giants. It was a party in the dugout for most of Monday’s game, particularly in the sixth, when a five-run rally gave Webb his 14th win and pushed the Giants back to two games above .500. In the middle of it all, rookie outfielder Drew Gilbert started biting left-hander Robbie Ray.

“We’re just enjoying it,” Webb said. “That’s obviously easy to say when we’re scoring a lot of runs, but the whole energy — every game is a blast. We’ve got to keep positive energy.”

That’s easy to do when you’re hitting multiple homers, and the Giants right now are taking advantage of the warmest stretch at Oracle Park this season. Balls are flying, and for the second time in the last two weeks, they hit at least four homers at home. For the fourth time in the last six home games, they scored double-digit runs. What exactly is going on here?

“If we knew,” Bailey said, “we’d do it all year.”

Sometimes it’s better not to ask questions and simply enjoy the ride, and the Giants are playing like a group that might be pushing longer than anyone expected. They didn’t just pick up a game on the Mets on Monday, they also did the same with the Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. 

The decks are clearing for them to spend the final two-plus weeks trying to chase down the Mets and guarantee a first-round MLB playoff series either in Los Angeles or San Diego, although that’s not what they’re thinking about right now. 

“The main goal every single day is to win the day,” Webb said. “I think that’s the way to do it. I wish we did that two months ago but that’s what we’re doing right now, and it’s fun to be a part of. We’ve got 18 games left, so we’ll just finish out strong. It’s going to be fun.”

Webb reached 200 strikeouts in the middle of the latest win, becoming the first NL pitcher to get there this season. Early on, he received supportive blasts from Jung Hoo Lee and Dominic Smith. Heliot Ramos went deep during the five-run sixth. Matt Chapman and Bailey tacked on solo shots as the Giants hit five homers at Oracle Park for the first time since 2021. 

That was a magical season that was filled with winning from start to finish. This year’s group won early, and then had a historic collapse in July and early August. They’re trying to counteract it with this late-season push, and their momentum continues to build. 

The Giants were disappointed to drop the final two in St. Louis, and they fell behind early Monday. But it ended up being another blowout win. 

As Webb thought about all that has happened lately, he admitted that there wouldn’t have been as much energy in the dugout if he gave up four early runs a month ago. But the vibes have changed, so much so that a rookie can bite a veteran to celebrate a rally and nobody blinks. Webb laughed and said he figures he’ll probably be on the receiving end from Gilbert on Tuesday since it’ll be Ray on the mound. 

“I think energy is a huge thing. That goes with just trying to win each day,” he said. “I think Gilbert brings 99 percent of that energy, but it’s great to have.”

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Mets RHP Kodai Senga's first start in the minors will be Friday or Saturday, New York manager Carlos Mendoza said before Monday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies on SNY.

"We're talking about either Friday, Saturday this weekend," Mendoza said of Senga, whom the Mets optioned to Triple-A Syracuse this past Friday. "We're going to give him time to throw a couple of bullpens before we put him in the game."

Senga, 32, is 7-6 with a 3.02 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 22 starts over 113.1 IP this season for the Mets.

He has struggled since July, going 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA and 5.76 FIP in nine starts over 39.2 IP.

"This is a guy that part of the reason we sent him down was to work on his mechanics," Mendoza said. "And in order for him to work on the mechanics, we've got to give him a chance to get on the mound without facing competition.

"So, that's what he's going through right now -- he throws a bullpen, then a couple days down, throws another one, watch film and getting the feedback from him and then, hopefully, he gets in a game here towards the end of this week."

After Tylor Megillstruggled Sunday in his latest rehab appearance, he has been shut down from throwing after he felt tightness on his secondary pitches, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters before the Mets and Phillies opened pivotal four-game series in Philadelphia.

The right-hander is now back in New York to get imaging done, and the Mets are awaiting the results.

Regardless of what the MRI shows, a return to the Mets is getting more and more unlikely with time running out, Mendoza said Monday.

"We’re running out of time, especially now with him complaining about the same thing that he went down with earlier in the year," Mendoza said. "So, again, I don’t want to speculate here, but the fact that he’s getting another MRI and where we’re at, like I said, it feels like we’re running out of time."

Megill has been on the shelf since June 15 with a right elbow sprain and had been rehabbing between Double-A and Triple-A for the last month or so. New York was hoping the 30-year-old could make a late-season return either as a starter or an option in the bullpen.

Entering Monday, the Mets have 19 games remaining in the regular season. Still with no answers surrounding Megill on a recurring injury complaint, things don't look promising for them.

In better news, Mendoza did add that Jose Siri is getting close to a return from his fractured tibia.

"We’re having a conversation here (to) see what’s next for him," the skipper said.

What we learned as Logan Webb hits new milestone, Giants homer five times in win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — With the exception of three games in Phoenix next week, the Giants will spend the rest of the regular season in California. That means that before most games, they’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not they can make up ground in the wild-card race. 

Minutes before Monday’s game, they watched as the New York Mets fell short in Philadelphia, losing for a third straight game. After a couple of missed opportunities Saturday and Sunday, the Giants took advantage. 

Christian Koss and Heliot Ramos sparked a five-run outburst in the sixth and the Giants cruised from there, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5 on the first night of a huge seven-game homestand. They’re now just three games behind the Mets with 18 to go, although New York holds the tiebreaker, so the Giants essentially are four back. They also picked up a game on the Diamondbacks, who are hoping to make a run of their own.

The offensive explosion came after Logan Webb departed, but it was still a big night for the staff ace. He reached 200 strikeouts for the first time and allowed just one earned run (along with three unearned) in six innings.

The Giants’ five-homer game behind Webb was their first at home since 2021, and their third with at least four this season. All have come since Aug. 27.

Join The Club

The changeup that Webb threw past Adrian Del Castillo in the fifth was huge for a couple of reasons. It stranded Corbin Carroll at third after the Diamondbacks star had stolen second and advanced on an error, and it also got Webb to 200 strikeouts for the season. 

Webb said this spring that reaching 200 was one of his goals, in part because it was the standard for the pitchers at the top of the rotation — Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija — when he was working his way through the minors. His previous career-high was 194, and that’s where he entered Monday’s game. The strikeout of Del Castillo was his sixth of seven.

Webb became the first pitcher in the NL to reach 200 strikeouts and joined Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet as the only ones in the big leagues. With six innings, he got to 184 2/3, which leads the majors. Unless Paul Skenes falls apart down the stretch, Webb won’t win the Cy Young, but he is putting together a very compelling case to finish second for the second time in three years. 

Five In The Sixth

The Giants have a bullpen that has been patched together in recent weeks, but the Diamondbacks have been dealing with that all season. That bit them in the bottom of the sixth. 

An error, walk and infield single loaded the bases for Koss, who went the other way with a two-run double that made up for his early error. Patrick Bailey immediately followed with a sacrifice fly, and before the Giants were done celebrating their three-run lead, Ramos blasted a two-run shot. 

The ballpark was rocking, but nobody was more excited than this guy:

Big Dom Moment

Dominic Smith started his season in Triple-A with the New York Yankees. He might finish it by giving a speech on the pitcher’s mound at Oracle Park. 

Smith is a compelling Willie Mac Award candidate, and also one of the main reasons the Giants are still alive. After the Diamondbacks took a 4-2 lead in the top of the third, he smoked a homer into the arcade section, tying the game.

The homer was Smith’s fifth in orange and black, and he finished the night with a .291 average and .768 OPS. Jung Hoo Lee homered early in the game, and after Lee, the Giants got dingers from Ramos, Matt Chapman and Bailey.

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Nola silences Mets as Phillies squeak out 1-0 nail biter originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Mets have had the Phillies’ number for nearly a year.

Since last October’s NLDS, Philadelphia had beaten New York just three times heading into Monday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park.

With Trea Turner and Alec Bohm sidelined and the lineup in flux, the Phils leaned on their veterans in a pitchers’ duel to notch a 1-0 victory over the Metropolitans.

Aaron Nola delivered his biggest start of 2025 — in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for the longest-tenured Phillie.

Nola’s gutsy outing featured six scoreless innings, seven strikeouts and a roaring ovation from over 40,000. It was his first scoreless start since May 3, before an ankle sprain sent him to the IL until mid-August.

“He just threw so well tonight,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He kept the ball down. He was attacking the zone a lot more. A lot of changeups, a lot more changeups than he’s been throwing … the curveball was sharp, I thought he was really good.”

Nola credited his ability to command the fastball and changeup as key. “I just needed to win the count, stay ahead, attack the zone,” he said. “I kind of controlled the zone a lot better than that last one.”

He mixed all four of his primary pitches — four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup — each at least 20% of the time across his 94 pitches. Notably, he scrapped the cutter — except for once, when he fanned Juan Soto for a strikeout in the sixth.

“Sometimes you’ve got to think out of the box a little bit,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “I knew [Soto] hadn’t seen one yet, so he wasn’t going to be looking for it. I just trusted Aaron to execute it and he did.”

That pitch turned out to be the first out of Nola’s final inning. “It was good to get those hitters out, especially two really good ones,” Nola said of Soto and Pete Alonso. “Those guys are tough.”

Opposing him was rookie phenom Nolan McLean, who has stormed onto the scene with historic numbers.

The right-hander entered 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and joined Fernando Valenzuela (1981) as the only pitchers since ERA became official in 1913 to win their first four starts with a sub-1.50 ERA and 25-plus strikeouts.

One of those outings came Aug. 27, when McLean blanked the Phillies across eight innings.

This time, the Phils finally cracked him in the second. Max Kepler started with an opposite-field single. Harrison Bader lined a ball into left-center — his first of three hits tonight — and though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, Kepler advanced to third.

Nick Castellanos then wasted no time, slapping an RBI single past Pete Alonso on the first pitch for a 1-0 lead.

Castellanos has thrived in ambush mode — entering the night hitting .424 (39-for-92) when putting the first pitch in play.

The 33-year-old has been forced to embrace a rotational role in Rob Thomson’s outfield but continues to produce whenever called upon.

From there, both offenses fell silent. McLean yielded just the one run over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Nola matched him zero for zero.

Realmuto said the approach against McLean was simple: “He’s a good pitcher, so you really just try to get something in the heart of the plate, and he doesn’t throw it there too often. That’s why he’s a good pitcher. I did feel like we had good at-bats off of him.”

The Phillies’ bullpen held the line. David Robertson struck out two in a clean seventh, his 11th scoreless outing in 13 appearances since re-joining the club.

In the eighth, Matt Strahm issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, bringing up Soto. The slugger entered with 38 homers, 93 RBIs and a .924 OPS in his first Mets season.

Soto worked a 2-0 count, then cracked a grounder to the right side. Bryson Stott made a diving stop and fired to first to get Soto, preserving the lead.

With the score still 1-0, the lights dimmed for the ninth, the bell rang, and Jhoan Duran came on to shut the door.

The flame thrower got into a second-and-third, nobody-out jam, but struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez to end it.

“The plan was to just try to get him [the Mets] to be a little more aggressive early in the count and not just throw the ball down the middle,” Realmuto said. “Obviously it’s not an ideal situation to be in there [with second and third] … but if anybody can do it, it’d be him.”

A much different ending than the last time he faced New York, but a much needed win against their division rival.

The Phillies move to 84-60 and extend their league in the NL East to eight games over the Mets. For anyone who’s counting, the magic number to clinch a playoff berth is seven games and the division is 11.

Lots can change with three more games ahead with the Mets this series. Buckle up.

Nola silences Mets as Phillies squeak out 1-0 nail biter originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Mets have had the Phillies’ number for nearly a year.

Since last October’s NLDS, Philadelphia had beaten New York just three times heading into Monday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park.

With Trea Turner and Alec Bohm sidelined and the lineup in flux, the Phils leaned on their veterans in a pitchers’ duel to notch a 1-0 victory over the Metropolitans.

Aaron Nola delivered his biggest start of 2025 — in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for the longest-tenured Phillie.

Nola’s gutsy outing featured six scoreless innings and seven strikeouts. It was his first scoreless start since May 3, before an ankle sprain sent him to the IL until mid-August.

He mixed all four of his primary pitches — four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup — at least 20% of the time across his 94 pitches.

Notably, he scrapped the cutter, instead leaning heavier on his sinker and changeup, which helped induce soft contact against New York’s lefty-heavy lineup.

Opposing him was rookie phenom Nolan McLean, who has stormed onto the scene with historic numbers.

The right-hander entered 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and joined Fernando Valenzuela (1981) as the only pitchers since ERA became official in 1913 to win their first four starts with a sub-1.50 ERA and 25-plus strikeouts.

One of those outings came Aug. 27, when McLean blanked the Phillies across eight innings.

This time, the Phils finally cracked him in the second. Max Kepler started with an opposite-field single. Harrison Bader lined a ball into left-center, and though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, Kepler advanced to third.

Nick Castellanos then wasted no time, slapping an RBI single past Pete Alonso on the first pitch for a 1-0 lead.

Castellanos has thrived in ambush mode — entering the night hitting .424 (39-for-92) when putting the first pitch in play.

The 33-year-old has been forced to embrace a rotational role in Rob Thomson’s outfield but continues to produce whenever called upon.

From there, both offenses fell silent. McLean yielded just the one run over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Nola matched him zero for zero.

The Phillies’ bullpen held the line. David Robertson struck out two in a clean seventh, his 11th scoreless outing in 13 appearances since re-joining the club.

In the eighth, Matt Strahm issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, bringing up Juan Soto. The slugger entered with 38 homers, 93 RBIs and a .924 OPS in his first Mets season.

Soto worked a 2-0 count, then cracked a grounder to the right side. Bryson Stott made a diving stop and fired to first to get Soto by a step, preserving the lead.

With the score still 1-0, the lights dimmed for the ninth and Jhoan Duran came on to shut the door.

The flame thrower got into a second-and-third, nobody-out jam, but struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez to end it. A much different ending than the last time he faced New York, but a much needed win against their division rival.