Your Sunday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Zack Wheeler was dominant, but the Mets defeated the Phillies 6-2 to take Game 1 of the NLDS thanks to a five-run eighth inning against the Phillies bullpen. Other than an absolute monster of a home run by Kyle Schwarber, Kodai Senga delivered a strong performance in his return for the Mets, striking out three and walking one in two innings of work. David Peterson piggybacked off of Senga’s performance with a sparkling one of his own, delivering three one-hit innings for the Mets, striking out one batter and navigating around three walks to keep the game 1-0 into the late innings. Reed Garrett earned the win for his two scoreless innings of relief in the sixth and seventh. Once the Mets took the lead in the eighth, Phil Maton pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth. Ryne Stanek led up a run in the ninth, but the Mets had given him enough breathing room—including an insurance run in the top of the ninth—that it was not consequential and the Mets head into Game 2 in Philadelphia up 1-0 in the series.
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“The New York Mets exist for the moments that make those of lesser stock and constitution crumble,” writes Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Another factor in yesterday’s game were the afternoon shadows, which affected the Mets hitters’ ability see the ball out of Zack Wheeler’s hand and likely affected the home plate umpire as well.
Ahead of yesterday’s game, the Mets announced their NLDS roster, which added Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill and dropped Max Kranick and Huascar Brazobán, who were on the Wild Card Series roster.
At this point, the evidence is impossible to ignore: don’t sleep on the Mets, writes Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
Avengers assemble! First, the Mets got Kodai Senga back. Could Jeff McNeil be next? He is rejoining the Mets in Philadelphia today to ramp up baseball activities in an attempt to come back from a fractured wrist in time for a possible NLCS or World Series.
After his breakout season this year, Mark Vientos spoke with Nelson Cruz about being included on the Dominican Republic’s 2026 World Baseball Classic roster.
Around the National League East
“Obviously I feel like as an offense we wasted that start,” Bryce Harper said after yesterday’s game about Zack Wheeler’s performance.
Kyle Schwarber’s first inning home run broke a Phillies postseason franchise record.
There’s a good chance the Marlins’ next manager will have ties to Peter Bendix and have qualities that make Bendix believe he will be an effective leader, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Anibal Sanchez is among the former Marlins who have conveyed interest in the job.
Around Major League Baseball
The Guardians defeated the Tigers 7-0 in Game 1 of the ALDS yesterday afternoon, as opener Tyler Holton failed to record a single out and the Guardians dropped a five spot on Detroit in the first inning.
The Yankees won a ping-pong affair with the Royals 6-5 in Game 1 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. The game featured five lead changes and after a controversial replay review call, Alex Verdugo delivered the go-ahead RBI in the seventh that was the difference in the game.
Marcus Stroman did not make the Yankees’ ALDS roster.
In the West Coast division rivalry NLDS, the Dodgers came from behind on a couple of different occasions to beat the Padres 7-5 in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Yoshinobu Yamamoto didn’t have it and the Padres jumped on him for three early runs, including a home run by Manny Machado, but Shohei Ohtani hit a game-tying home run against Dylan Cease. Because of course he did. When the Padres went ahead a second time, Teoscar Hernández delivered a key RBI hit to put the Dodgers back in front.
Due to a bone spur on his big toe, Clayton Kershaw has been ruled out for the rest of the postseason, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said yesterday.
Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue
I wrote about how happy I am that Pete Alonso’s Mets career didn’t end on a sad note.
This Date in Mets History
On this date in 1969, the Mets made it to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.