Last Night In Baseball: The Mets And Braves Kept One-Upping Each Other

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Sure, the Mets aren’t exactly a threat to take the NL East from the Braves, but New York can still make life difficult for Atlanta as the Phillies continue to surge toward the top of the division. And that’s just what happened in a rare Monday series finale, when the Mets and Braves traded blows for 10 innings.

The scoring started early, when rookie right fielder Carson Benge hit his 11th homer of the year in the second inning to put the Mets up 1-0, and then Braves’ shortstop Jim Jarvis tied things up in the bottom of the frame before center fielder Michael Harris gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead with an RBI single. First baseman Matt Olson would blast his 23rd homer of the year in the next inning, but the Mets would cut this lead down in the sixth when catcher Francisco Alvarez drove in Benge with a single to right to make it 3-2. It might have already been a tie game at that point, too, if not for this catch by left fielder Mauricio Dubón with a runner already on first.

That missed opportunity was quickly forgotten about, however, when star left fielder Juan Soto came to the plate in the top of the ninth with two runners on and two outs. After fouling off the first pitch and then taking three-straight balls, closer Raisel Iglesias fired a 95 mph four-seam fastball on the inner-third of the plate to Soto. It was belt-high, and Soto was all over it: he smashed that pitch nearly 108 mph back in the other direction, 430 feet, and the Mets were now up 5-3.

That was the good news. The bad news? Matt Olson was coming to the plate again in the bottom of the ninth. Devin Williams came on in relief to close out a win, and instead, he allowed a double to second baseman Ozzie Albies, and then left a 94.7 mph fastball up in the zone to Olson, with a predictable result.

Thanks to dinger No. 24 for Olson, it was a tie game. Williams and Brooks Raley managed to get out of the rest of the inning, however, stranding the two runners the former allowed immediately after the homer, so the Mets got another chance to win in extras. And New York took it. While new Atlanta pitcher Owen Murphy retired the first two batters he faced, extra-innings-runner Bo Bichette was still on second, and then first baseman Jared Young was hit by a pitch. This brought up Luis Torrens, who had entered as a defensive replacement behind the plate earlier after Alvarez was lifted for a pinch-runner, and he delivered with a double.

It was 7-5, Mets, but the Braves still had a shot in the bottom of the 10th. They took almost immediate advantage of the runner on second, too, with Harris doubling him home to cut the lead to 7-6, but that was the only run that Luke Weaver would allow: he struck out Albies, intentionally walked Olson to avoid a repeat and then got Dubón to ground out to end the game.

With the dub, the Mets split the series with the Braves; there are now three teams within 6.5 games of Atlanta in the NL East, about six weeks after the Braves had a 10.5-game lead on second place in the division alone.

While the Braves have struggled to keep up their earlier pace, the Dodgers have become more of a problem for the rest of the league. After an extra-innings win against the Rockies on Monday, Los Angeles is the first team in the majors to 60 wins — and it had some room to spare there, too, as the Brewers are next in line with 56.

The Rockies struck first in the top of the second when shortstop Ezequiel Tovar hit a sac fly, but then two-way star Shohei Ohtani happened in the bottom of the third. The Dodgers’ DH drove in catcher Dalton Rushing on a two-run homer, the 299th of Ohtani’s career.

Well, more accurately, homer 299 of Ohtani’s MLB career, specifically: before coming to Major League Baseball, Ohtani played five seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he hit 48 homers. So at the same time he’s approaching 300 career homers, he’s also nearing 350 career dingers.

Anyway! Ohtani would later single in another run to make it 6-1 Dodgers and six unanswered from Los Angeles, but then the Rockies would begin the comeback. Once again it was Tovar, this time with a solo homer, and then Colorado scored another on a single by left fielder Jake McCarthy in the sixth.

The Rockies would stage a rally at the last possible moment, when third baseman Kyle Karros hit an RBI double in the top of the ninth to cut the Dodgers’ lead to two, and then center fielder Cole Carrigg followed with his own double: the rookie tied the game, and nearly put the Rockies ahead if not for dueling challenges, one of which the Dodgers won to end the inning.

In the 10th, McCarthy would drive in another run, and Dodgers’ shortstop Mookie Betts would answer with one in the bottom of the frame to make it 7-7. And it would stay tied there thanks to this double play, started by a nifty catch of a liner by reliever Jimmy Herget with two runners still on and just one out.

The Rockies couldn’t capitalize in the top of the 11th, however, stranding lead runner Tovar at second, and this despite infielder and leadoff hitter Willi Castro drawing a walk to start the inning. The Dodgers did not fail to score again, however. Herget intentionally walked third baseman Max Muncy, then second baseman Tommy Edman bunted Teoscar Hernández over to third, setting Rushing up to win it with a mere single. Which he did.

Los Angeles is on pace for 106 wins, which would be its first 100-win season since 2023. There’s a lot of season left, of course, but it’s kind of hard to deny that this is a great baseball team, too. 

The Diamondbacks signed Max Kepler while he was still serving an 80-game suspension for a failed PED test, and he was only recently activated by Arizona after that punishment ended. On Monday, the outfielder had himself a game. He singled in a run in the top of the first against the Padres to make it 2-0, D-backs, continuing an inning that began with a leadoff triple by second baseman Ketel Marte…

…and then in the top of the third blasted a three-run homer to put Arizona up, 6-0. Kepler got all of this one, too, driving it 417 feet to right with an exit velocity of 106.6 mph.

This, like the single, was also off of starter Walker Buehler, who has been a disaster of late for the Padres in 2026. His ERA is now 5.07 after allowing 16 runs in his last two starts and nine innings, and this after giving up just five total runs in all of June, one per start.

The D-backs would add a couple more runs, and three pitchers combined to toss a shutout against San Diego, which is spiraling: the Padres fell to third place in the NL West with the loss, with the Diamondbacks moving to sole possession of second, and are now 4.5 back of the third wild-card spot after losing nine of their last 10.

One of those additional Arizona runs came on a homer by shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, and it gets its own entry with good reason: Perdomo swung so hard that his helmet popped off.

What’s especially funny is that Perdomo didn’t crush this one! He hit it 377 feet and with an exit velocity of 97.8 mph. That’s good, obviously, and enough to clear the fence in right at Petco, but he didn’t hit a moonshot or an upper decker or a line drive rocket that no fan should want to try to catch. He just golfed this one, and the force from all that torque was enough to send his helmet flying just like the ball.

The Brewers were down 3-0 to the Cardinals after St. Louis tacked on a run in the bottom of the sixth, and things weren’t looking ideal for Milwaukee. Starter Dustin May lasted just 4 ⅔ innings against the Brewers, but all Milwaukee managed was four hits, no walks and no runs in that time. The top of the seventh began with center fielder Garrett Mitchell singling to reliever Justin Bruihl, though, and the attempted play by Bruihl ended up getting him removed by the game as he winced walking back to the mound. In came Ryan Fernandez to replace him, and it was the beginning of the end for St. Louis.

Right fielder Sal Frelick hit a ground-rule double to send Mitchell to third, then shortstop Cooper Pratt reached on a fielding error by Fernandez. The bases were loaded for third baseman David Hamilton, and he hit his sixth double of the year, a liner nearly to the warning track, to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 3-2.

Fernandez was removed from the game without recording an out, but Ryne Stanek wouldn’t have better luck. He walked DH Christian Yelich on five pitches — Stanek refused to throw anything but low-and-insider offerings to even a struggling version of Yelich. While Stanek managed to get left fielder Jackson Chourio to ground into a force out at home, second baseman Brice Turang picked up his one hit of the game in the next at-bat, making it 4-3, Brewers.

Catcher William Contreras would end the inning with a double play, but the Cardinals’ offense failed to score the rest of the way: new pitcher Chad Patrick retired the side in order in the seventh and eighth, then Trevor Megill got the save with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth, to consecutive pinch-hitters to end the game. Milwaukee remains 6.5 up on the Cubs in the NL Central, and picked up another game on the Cardinals, who also sit half-a-game out of a wild-card spot now as the Marlins were idle.

The Astros were up 6-0 on the Nationals after the top of the third inning, but then Washington responded with a five-run bottom of the frame. Things got worse for Houston in the fifth, when the Nats dropped six more runs on it, punctuated by a grand slam from DH James Wood.

The Astros walked Wood three other times he came to the plate, making this his one hit of the day — it’s easy to see why they pitched to him carefully otherwise, when Wood sent a 96.1 mph fastball at the top of the strike zone 446 feet to center. He absolutely crushed this one. It would also be all the Nats would score for the rest of the day, which was nearly an issue: Houston scored one in the sixth, then another four in the eighth to cut the lead to 12-11. Clayton Beeter, in his second inning of relief work after putting out the fire of the eighth, managed to retire the side in the ninth, however, and that was that for Houston’s comeback attempt.

The Astros are 1.5 back of an AL wild-card spot, while the Nats are 2.5 behind and narrowed the gap between themselves and the Cardinals with the W, as well.

Cristopher Sánchez allowed zero runs in the entire month of May. His ERA after his first start in June, in which his 50 ⅔ scoreless inning streak ended, sat at 1.46. And while his June overall was worse than his May — it was literally impossible to not be worse — he still posted a 3.11 ERA for the month and posted a 41/7 K/BB in 37 ⅔ innings. This is important context for what the Royals did to Sánchez on Monday, in his first start of July.

A six-run first! He allowed a leadoff walk to center fielder Lane Thomas, four singles and then a homer to Luke Maile — the first of the year for the catcher.

Things got better, but again, relatively speaking: Sánchez was pulled after just 3 ⅓ thanks to allowing nine runs on a dozen hits, three of them homers, and while striking out just one batter. The bullpen didn’t do much better, either: all but one of five relievers allowed at least one run, and Philly would lose to Kansas City, 15-1.

Just one player in the Royals’ starting lineup went hitless — that would be third baseman Josh Rojas, who went 0-for-5 — but shortstop Tyler Tolbert more than made up for that: he went 5-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs, with one of those knocks a double. What’s especially ridiculous about this showing is that the Royals went 11-for-20 with runners in scoring position and scored 15 runs while still managing to strand 11. They had 22 hits and five walks in the same game in which they limited their opponent to a single run. That’s a dominant showing right there.

This isn’t an actual home run, as far as the numbers go. But a Little League home run is still a home run in spirit, you know?

Plus, right fielder Heliot Ramos had some actual home runs against the Blue Jays, too. The first went 349 feet — 50 feet shorter than his triple did! — so it all evened out.

And then he added another for good measure, this one a tape measure shot. Ramos drilled a mid-80s slider that caught way too much of the middle of the zone and drilled it 444 feet at nearly 110 mph to left-center. That made it 10-1, Giants.

Which was also the final score. A two-homer day, or a three-homer day with an asterisk. Go with what feels right.

The Rays and Yankees met up for the first in a four-game series on Monday, with New York four games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East standings. Cut that deficit to three games now, though, as the Yankees were firing on all cylinders and won, 5-1.

The Yankees didn’t even get a hit until the fifth inning — scratch that, the Yankees didn’t have a baserunner until the fifth — but they finally got to starter Griffin Jax in that frame. He walked right fielder Jasson Domínguez with one out, then handed a free pass to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., as well. That brought up José Caballero, who picked a great time for New York’s first hit of the day, a three-run dinger.

Caballero would hit another later on, too, his 10th of the year, to make it 4-1, Yankees. First baseman Ben Rice would add the final run of the day to the tally when he bashed his 25th dinger of the season in the top of the ninth.

While Jax started hot and then fell apart in the fifth — he still allowed just the one hit and struck out 10 against two walks, though, so maybe "fell apart" is a little harsh — Cam Schlittler kept it going throughout the duration. Schlittler went eight innings with eight strikeouts, and allowed just four baserunners and one run. Considering he gave up 10 runs over 10 innings and two starts before this one, it was just the performance he and the Yankees both needed.