Juan Soto

NEW YORK — Juan Soto hit a tying single in the seventh inning, Francisco Alvarez delivered a big double in his return from the minors and the New York Mets rallied past the Angels 7-5 on Monday night.

Brett Baty launched a two-run homer for the Mets, who erased an early four-run deficit to match their largest comeback victory this season. They scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on an error by catcher Logan O’Hoppe, and Brandon Nimmo added a sacrifice fly that made it 7-5.

Brooks Raley (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth in his second outing since coming back from Tommy John surgery, earning his first win since April 2024.

Edwin Díaz struck out the 2-3-4 hitters in the ninth for his 20th save in 22 opportunities.

Taylor Ward had three RBIs for the Angels, who tagged ineffective Mets ace Kodai Senga for four earned runs in three innings. O’Hoppe, who grew up on Long Island about 45 miles from Citi Field, hit a solo homer.

Baty’s homer off starter Tyler Anderson trimmed it to 4-2 in the fourth.

Trailing 5-2, the Mets loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh. Francisco Lindor beat out a potential double-play ball to drive in a run, then stole second. Soto tied it when he grounded a two-run single off reliever Reid Detmers.

Key moment: José Fermin (2-1) walked Baty with one out in the eighth, and he went to third when Alvarez doubled off the right-field fence over Chris Taylor’s head.

Third baseman Luis Rengifo went to his knees to snag a grounder by pinch-hitter Ronny Mauricio, then spun around and had difficulty getting the ball out of his glove. Rengifo’s low, wide throw to the plate went off O’Hoppe’s mitt, allowing Baty to score.

Key stats: Senga had permitted three earned runs or fewer in 31 straight starts dating to June 23, 2023, which was the longest active streak in the majors. … Lindor went 0 for 5 and is hitless in his last 26 at-bats. … Anderson is winless in 16 starts since beating San Francisco on April 18. He is 0-6 during that stretch.

Up next: Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (5-6, 4.88 ERA) faces RHP Frankie Montas (2-1, 5.03) Tuesday night.

SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. sat in front of his locker late Monday night, assessing his San Diego Padres in the wake of an extra-inning loss to the Dodgers. He did not have much to say, but he did not have to say much.

“We can still play better,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Tatis reached base three times Monday, but his OPS is 78 points below his career average. The Padres dropped the highly anticipated opener of the season series of baseball’s best rivalry by one run, but their most productive and healthy starting pitcher got hit hard, one of their relievers threw away a comebacker, one of their outfielders misread a line drive, and their shortstop lost a pop fly in the twilight.

Yet, after all that, the Padres (37-28) awoke Tuesday nine games over .500 and two games out of first place in the National League West. At this point last season, the Padres were one game under .500 and eight games out of first place.

The Padres rallied to clinch a postseason spot and came within one game of eliminating the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs. Then came winter, with the Padres going into hibernation as the Dodgers signed most of the free world.

The Padres did not win the winter, by choice. That did not endear them to their fans, particularly not after the Dodgers took home a championship trophy because no one could beat L.A. in October.

There was a preseason fan fest in San Diego. It was decidedly not festive.

“I don’t think we were ever bad,” Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove said. “People see the additions of big name players for a lot of money and think that directly correlates to the ability to win.”

That is true for fans, and truer still for major league owners operating in markets far smaller than San Diego, refusing to spend and then pointing fingers at the Dodgers. The Padres earned a playoff payoff last season, and they have sold out 27 of 31 home dates so far this season.

San Diego’s Jackson Merrill celebrates after hitting an run-scoring double against the Dodgers in the 10th inning Monday.

(Orlando Ramirez / Associated Press)

“I don’t think the fans are wrong for feeling how they felt,” Musgrove said. “That’s just a natural, knee-jerk reaction to seeing everyone move and you not move.”

The Padres lost Tanner Scott, Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim over the winter. They lost Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Josh Hader the previous winter.

That would frighten any fan base.

The Padres traded Soto and got two New York Yankees relievers — Michael King and Randy Vasquez — that now start in San Diego. The Padres replaced Soto in the outfield with a minor league shortstop, Jackson Merrill, who should have been the NL rookie of the year.

They didn’t use Scott as a closer when they traded for him; Robert Suarez closed then and closes now. Gavin Sheets, signed to a minor league contract, has 11 home runs, more than anyone on the team besides Tatis.

The top four batters in the San Diego lineup — Tatis, Luis Arraez, Manny Machado and Merrill — can hold their own against the Dodgers’ quartet of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández.

Utilityman Tyler Wade scoffed at the winter notion that the Padres might not fare as well this season.

“Look around our room, man,” Wade said. “We’ve got a super-talented bunch. We basically have the same team as last year — minus a couple of key pieces, obviously.”

The Padres’ catchers have a negative WAR. So do their left fielders, and their .248 on-base percentage is the lowest among any team’s left fielders.

The Angels’ Taylor Ward would be a nice fit here. A.J. Preller, the Padres’ president of baseball operations, is the rare executive who trades actual prospects. He’ll make the Padres better in the seven weeks between now and the trading deadline.

Said Musgrove: “The people in this room felt extremely confident in the staff, and in the belief that we have in A.J. to put a good product on the field and make adjustments as necessary throughout the year.”

What might distinguish the Padres from the Dodgers this season — and vice versa — is how many starting pitchers return from the injured list, and how effective they can be.

The Dodgers have Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Tony Gonsolin on the injured list. The Padres have King, Musgrove and Yu Darvish on the injured list.

Darvish has yet to pitch this season but has resumed throwing bullpen sessions. King is expected to miss several weeks because of a pinched nerve. Musgrove, who had Tommy John surgery last October, is not expected to rejoin the rotation this season but is hopeful he can pitch in relief in the postseason, if the Padres get there.

The Dodgers’ relievers have thrown the most innings in the league. Both the Dodgers and Padres’ starters rank among the bottom five in innings pitched. The relievers for both teams are pitching very well, but too often.

Ultimately, lest the bullpen arms become injured and/or ineffective, the manager said, “We’re going to need some depth out of some starters.” (The manager was the Padres’ Mike Shildt, but it could just as easily have been the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts.)

And, amid all the hype and analysis surrounding the Dodgers and Padres, there is one little wrinkle: The Dodgers lead the NL West, but the team in second place is not the Padres. It’s the San Francisco Giants. Did someone say rivalry?

NEW YORK — It had been more than two weeks since Juan Soto, the only man in baseball with a richer contract than Shohei Ohtani, had recorded an extra-base hit for the New York Mets.

In the bottom of the fourth inning Saturday night at Citi Field, however, Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin provided him the perfect opportunity to get back on track.

After a solid opening three innings for Gonsolin, who was making an all-important start for the Dodgers a night after their 13-inning marathon victory in the series opener, the right-hander had made a mess for himself in the fourth.

With two outs, he issued back-to-back four-pitch walks to load the bases. The Dodgers’ early one-run lead then disappeared when Starling Marte reached on a half-swing infield single.

That brought up Soto, who had underperformed through much of his first two months in Queens after signing a $765-million mega-contract with the Mets. Gonsolin got ahead 1-and-2 in the count, before narrowly missing with a slider. He tried to come back with his trademark splitter. But Soto was all over it, crushing a two-run double that proved to be the decisive blow in New York’s 5-2 victory over the Dodgers.

“At the outset, I was pretty optimistic, getting a 2-0 lead,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And then there was that [fourth inning] where he sort of lost command, had two outs and the back-to-back walks. … And obviously the big hit from Soto with two outs. He just couldn’t kind of limit damage right there.”

In what likely will be a preview of what’s to come for the Dodgers (32-20) over a grueling portion of their schedule in the next month, the team’s fate Saturday was almost entirely reliant upon the performance of their starter.

On Friday night, their already overworked bullpen had been gassed again by their extra-inning gantlet. And though they won that game, and freshened up their pitching staff by calling up Bobby Miller on Saturday for some extra length, Roberts had his hands tied as Gonsolin started to lose command.

Juan Soto runs to first base after hitting a two-run double in the fourth inning Saturday against the Dodgers.

(Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

Over his first three innings against the Mets (31-21), Gonsolin had been fine, giving up one run in a two-out rally in the second by skirting more danger in the third by dialing up an inning-ending double-play with runners on the corners.

The fourth was a different story.

Luis Torrens led with a single. Tyrone Taylor clobbered a fly ball that seemed like a no-doubter off the bat before dying in a stiff breeze at the left-field warning track. Then, Gonsolin became erratic, throwing eight consecutive balls to Brett Baty and Francisco Lindor to load the bases for the heart of the Mets’ order.

“Very upset with the walks,” Gonsolin said. “Don’t walk those guys, potentially that inning looks a lot different. Just need to attack guys.”

Maybe on a night the Dodgers’ bullpen was fresh, Roberts could have considered summoning a lefty to face Soto once Gonsolin began floundering. But after using seven of his eight relievers the previous night, he had no choice but to leave Gonsolin in as the four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger came to the plate.

Five pitches later, Soto changed the game — sending Citi Field into euphoria with his go-ahead double that banged high off the wall in right center, the inning only ending when Marte was thrown out at home trying to score from first as the trail runner.

“Thought I executed a slider really well there,” Gonsolin said of a two-strike offering that Soto didn’t bite on. “He’s got a really good eye. Barely missed.

“Then yeah, the splitter, thought it was a solid one, just elevated it. And he didn’t miss it.”

Gonsolin did return to the mound and completed the fifth, saving at least one inning that otherwise would have fallen upon the Dodgers’ bullpen. Miller also contributed two innings at the end, giving up one run in the eighth and getting out of a bases-loaded jam.

But on the other side, Mets starter David Peterson had no trouble going deep, using sharp command with his sinker, seven strikeouts and three double plays to get through 7 ⅔ innings of two-run ball.

“There wasn’t much offensive energy tonight, as far as how we were swinging, the at-bats we were taking,” Roberts said. “So to try to chase and use leverage guys in a down game, it just didn’t make any sense for me.”

So goes things for the Dodgers right now; ever mindful of their MLB-leading bullpen workload, and needing better production from their starters than what Gonsolin provided.

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.

Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.

Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.

“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.

They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive game.

It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.

Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).

And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.

“Tonight was one of those nights that we just gave them extra outs, and they took advantage,” Roberts said.

“It’s been pretty frustrating,” echoed third baseman Max Muncy. “Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”

There was no bigger self-inflicted wound than the one Muncy suffered in the bottom of the first.

After two strikeouts from Landon Knack to start the inning, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Muncy bobbled on a high hop, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first.

It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.

“It’s one of those things where I’m just really not good defensively right now,” Muncy said. “Not going to shy away from it, but all I can do is keep showing up every day, working on it, trying to figure things out, trying to get better. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

On Sunday, however, there was nothing Muncy could do.

One pitch later, Pete Alonso whacked a hanging curveball from Knack for a two-run homer. The Mets (32-21) wouldn’t squander the lead the rest of the way.

“We were trying to get it down a little bit, and obviously left it up,” Knack said. “I would say he’s a little more aggressive with runners on, so was able to take advantage of it.”

As Alonso rounded the bases, Muncy stared stoicly into the distance.

“It makes you feel like the game is on your shoulders. That’s how I feel, at least,” Muncy said. “It’s a play that needs to be made, and I should have made it. It’s just a frustrating one.”

There were plenty of other moments, however, that left the Dodgers (32-21) shaking their head.

After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, their offense had the chance to add on more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.

Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for Knack had disappeared. And despite repeated opportunities to claw back later, the Dodgers failed to scratch anything else across the plate.

In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Smith to promptly ground into a double-play.

Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.

In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Senga … only for the right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.

In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).

“I think that the tale is we’ve just got to play clean baseball, have a good offensive approach, because we’re going to see some good pitching,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers in the midst of a 29-game stretch against nothing but playoff-contending teams.

“Case in point is Shohei didn’t get a fifth at-bat [tonight], because they made plays and they got a couple double plays and things like that. All that stuff matters. So that stuff that’s really highlighted when you’re playing against good ballclubs.”

The Mets scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corner. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat led to a run.

The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount — ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss in Queens.