mets

SAN DIEGO — The good people of New York like to consider themselves tough. If you can make it there, as Frank Sinatra crooned, you’ll make it anywhere.

Do not confuse hot takes with sounding tough. Two New York sports talk hosts this week took daft shots at Joe Davis and came off — in the last adjective with which any true New Yorker would want to be described — as soft.

Let’s rewind: Davis is the lead voice of the Dodgers on SportsNet LA. He is also the lead voice of the national baseball broadcasts on Fox. In the latter role, he called last Saturday’s game between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

At one point, Mets outfielder Carson Benge dropped an easy fly ball. Without missing a beat, Davis said: “Oh, no! Oh, no, the Mets!”

It was the perfect call. The foibles of the Mets are so many and so weird that Mets fans themselves have embraced a term for them: LOLMets. You can learn all about it in a 23-minute YouTube video narrated by a former Mets pitcher.

Commentator Stephen Nelson, Dodger Shohei Ohtani, interpreter Will Ireton, Dodger Roki Sasaki and broadcaster Joe Davis address fans during Dodger Fest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Firing one manager (Willie Randolph) at midnight in Anaheim? Dumping another manager (Carlos Beltran) before he could manage a game because he was the only player cited in the commissioner’s report on the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal? Opening this season with baseball’s highest payroll and spending some time with baseball’s worst record?

“This year, and in recent years, there have been so many moments where it looks like the Mets are right there, ready to make a run or win the division or win a championship, and then something just tends to go wrong,” Davis said in San Diego Tuesday.

“They were in a stretch right there where every single day, they were getting a stud hurt. They put together a winning streak against the Tigers, then Clay Holmes has the comebacker break his ankle.”

The next day, Benge totally clanked it, and Davis totally nailed it — in the moment, not with some scripted phrase waiting in his pocket.

“You hope that your reactions in those moments — in any moment in this job — are authentic,” Davis said. “You don’t have much time for it to be anything else.”

On Monday, Evan Roberts — a host on WFAN, New York’s top-rated sports station — unloaded on Davis for “mocking” the Mets.

“Joe Davis has become a clown for the Los Angeles Dodgers and we all hear it,” Roberts said, in remarks posted by the Awful Announcing website.

Got anything else?

“I think he’s a Dodger fanboy,” Roberts said. “I think he wants to just make love to Shohei Ohtani every time he talks about him … He’s a great broadcaster, and I’ll admit it. But, for now, I think Joe Davis is a Dodgers shill and it’s obnoxious.

“And I’d give him this advice, not that he cares, he doesn’t care: Don’t go to the Dodger parade and be the emcee. It’s a bad look. It just is. You’re sitting there as the national voice and now you’re pom-pom waving at the Dodger parade. Come on, man.”

Davis works for the Dodgers. When the boss wants you to emcee the World Series championship rally, you do. Would the Mets’ broadcasters do the same? When the Mets win their first World Series championship since 1986, we’ll find out.

Let’s hear from Sal Licata, formerly at WFAN and now working independently: “What’s up with Joe Davis, by the way? You Dodger homer. ‘Oh no, the Mets,’ that’s a national unbiased broadcast? You biased Dodger blue fool.”

There always will be people who claim Davis is biased toward the Dodgers, just as people claimed his predecessor, Joe Buck, was biased toward the St. Louis Cardinals. Buck worked for Fox on weekends and called Cardinals games during the week.

And, for the people who see only what they want to see, Davis is the voice of baseball’s evil empire. Maybe that aggravates New Yorkers, but consider how aggravated we are that we have to fight through hellish traffic to get to Dodger Stadium or a television set by 5 p.m. so we can see our team play in the World Series because the East Coast needs to see the game in prime time.

Or how annoyed we are that we get televised Yankees-Red Sox games shoved down our throats when Red Sox management has opted for irrelevance and the best rivalry in baseball is here, between the Dodgers and Padres.

Better yet, how about we all chill? It’s just a game. We could break bread with New York’s famous bagels, except the New York Times told us we have the better bagels.

Mark Vientos hit two homers and drove in four runs and right-hander Clay Holmes allowed one run in 6⅔ innings as the New York Mets beat the Angels 5-1 on Sunday.

Holmes (4-2) allowed four hits with three walks and six strikeouts as the Mets took two of three games from the Angels and won a series for just the second time since April 7. New York also won two of three against Minnesota (April 21-23).

The Mets used Bo Bichette at shortstop Sunday, one day after Ronny Mauricio fractured his left thumb and was placed on the injured list. Shortstop Francisco Lindor also is on the injured list with a calf strain.

Jorge Soler had an RBI single for the Angels and right-hander Jack Kochanowicz (2-1) gave up two runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings with three walks and six strikeouts. Los Angeles had ended a season-high seven-game losing streak Saturday. The Angels are 2-12 since April 18.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Zach Neto and Mike Trout worked walks to open the game against Holmes and Soler hit a one-out run-scoring single to center.

As Holmes settled in, the Mets grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Vientos hit a towering two-run homer 427 feet, halfway up the rock pile beyond the center field fence.

The Angels were in the game until the eighth inning when Tayler Saucedo hit Brett Baty with his first pitch of the inning and was replaced by Nick Sandlin. Carson Benge had an RBI double to right for a 3-1 lead and Vientos followed with another two-run home run, this time to left.

The Mets’ outfield made a pair of spectacular plays, with left fielder MJ Melendez making a diving catch in the sixth inning and Benge making a diving catch in right for the second out of the ninth.

Up next for the Angels: RHP Jose Soriano (5-1, 0.84 ERA) will pitch in Monday’s series opener against White Sox RHP Davis Martin (4-1, 1.95 ERA).

Oswald Peraza hit a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning and the Angels snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday night.

Jorge Soler drew a leadoff walk from Austin Warren (0-1) to open the 10th and Jo Adell singled to load the bases with no outs.

Warren got Josh Lowe and Vaughn Grissom on flyouts and was one strike away from escaping the jam when Peraza dunked an 0-2 curve into left-center for the win.

The Angels got 3 2/3 scoreless innings from their beleaguered bullpen. Sam Bachman struck out three in 1 2/3 innings and Ryan Zeferjahn (2-1) threw a scoreless ninth and 10th for the win.

Brett Baty reached on catcher’s interference to open the Mets’ 10th. But Zeferjahn got Bo Bichette to ground into a double play and, after an intentional walk to Juan Soto, Francisco Alvarez to pop out to second.

Reid Detmers limited the Mets to one run and four hits through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh, when Mark Vientos doubled and Marcus Semien singled. Andy Ibáñez’s sacrifice fly pulled the Mets within 3-2 and Tyrone Taylor’s RBI single tied it.

Austin Slater and Ronny Mauricio then reached on infield singles to load the bases. But Bachman replaced Detmers and got Bichette to ground to third baseman Peraza, who threw home for a forceout, and struck out Soto with an 89-mph slider to end the inning.

Mets ace Nolan McLean was one strike away from escaping a second-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth when he struck out Lowe. But Grissom hit a two-run single to make it 3-1.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first on consecutive two-out singles by Nolan Schanuel, Soler and Adell. Schanuel crossed the plate as Soler was thrown out at third by Slater from right field.

Plate umpire John Tumpane ruled Schanuel touched the plate before Soler was tagged, allowing the run to score. New York didn’t challenge, but replays showed Soler was tagged before Schanuel reached the plate.

The Mets tied it at 1 in the third on Bichette’s RBI single.

Ronny Mauricio hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and the New York Mets rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Angels on Friday night in the opener of a nine-game trip.

The win — just the Mets’ fourth in their last 21 games — came a few hours after president of baseball operations David Stearns gave manager Carlos Mendoza a vote of confidence. New York has the majors’ worst record at 11-21.

Marcus Semien hit a tying two-run single in the Mets’ three-run sixth inning, which also included an RBI single by Francisco Alvarez. New York retired the final 21 Angels hitters.

Mets starter Christian Scott gave up three runs — two earned — and three hits in five innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. Huascar Brazobán (2-0) pitched a perfect sixth for the win, and Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams — who got his third save — finished up as Mets relievers combined for four hitless innings.

Jorge Soler hit a two-run homer for the Angels, who lost starter Walbert Ureña in the sixth inning when he was hit in the right leg by Bo Bichette’s comebacker. It was just the second hit for the Mets off Ureña, who hadn’t given up a run through five innings before the bullpen took over.

Alvarez singled against Brent Suter to score Bichette in the sixth. Two batters later, Semien tied it 3-3 with his two-run single off Chase Silseth.

Mauricio’s one-out homer in the seventh, with an exit velocity of 111.3 mph, came off José Fermin (0-1) and was his first of the season.

The Angels’ bullpen entered with a 5.66 ERA, second worst in the American League.

Up next: Mets RHP Nolan McLean (1-2, 2.55 ERA) enters Saturday’s middle game of the three-game series after allowing one unearned run in a loss to Colorado last Sunday. Angels LHP Reid Detmers (1-2, 4.28) is making the seventh start of his return to the rotation.

Dodgers right-hander Shohei Ohtani had navigated the Mets lineup without much trouble until the fifth inning. But he’d also been holding back a little something.

“I can’t go full throttle the whole time,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after the Dodgers’ 8-2 victory Wednesday. “But considering where the game was at that point, I felt like I just really had to go full throttle and make sure I’m considering the game situation.”

The Mets had just scored their first run of the game — ending Ohtani’s streak of innings without an earned run at 32 ⅔, the longest of his career — and cut the Dodgers’ lead to one.

So he unleashed a 100.2 mph fastball past Tommy Pham, and then 100.3 mph. Pham foul-tipped both and had some choice words with himself on the way back to the dugout.

“He has a little extra gear when he needs it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m sure he was frustrated about giving up a run, and then came back and really went after Pham.”

That strikeout was one of 10 Ohtani had in a performance that was dominant, regardless of the first mark on his previously spotless ERA.

Holding the Mets to one run through six innings, Ohtani logged double-digit strikeouts in a regular-season start as a Dodger for the first time, matching his effort in Game 4 of the 2025 National League Championship Series against the Brewers.

Shohei Ohtani pitches against the New York Mets.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Roberts said he’d been considering pulling Ohtani after the fifth inning started going sideways.

Ohtani had faced just one over the minimum through the first four innings he pitched. Then in the fifth he issued two walks before giving up a run-scoring ground-rule double to Mets designated hitter MJ Melendez on a line drive into the right-field corner.

Roberts changed his mind after Ohtani steamrolled Pham and got Francisco Lindor to line out to escape the inning without further damage.

“Just added a little more intensity after they scored a run,” Ohtani said. “But overall it felt really nice and easy and loose throughout the whole outing. So I think that’s the reason why I threw a little harder.”

Good thing Roberts sent Ohtani back out, too. He struck out the No. 2 through 4 hitters in the Mets’ batting order, all on different pitches.

The two-way phenom only had one job to worry about Wednesday.

For the first time since 2021, he was not also in the lineup as a hitter while pitching.

“If it weren’t for the hit by pitch [Monday], he would’ve been DHing and pitching tonight,” Roberts said before the game.

Ohtani was hit in the back of his right shoulder by a 94-mph sinker on Monday. Though that didn’t prevent him from serving as the designated hitter the first two games of the series, the Dodgers wanted to lighten the load Wednesday.

“Just feeling what gives him the best chance to stay loose during the outing, feel good,” Roberts said. “There’s still some soreness in there. When he’s hitting, there’s a component that he’s in the cage getting ready to hit, and if we can take that off his plate and just focus on one thing tonight, we felt — training staff, pitching coaches, myself — we just felt it was the best thing for him. So, once I told him, he completely understood.”

Dalton Rushing rounds the bases after an eighth inning grand slam.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

When asked what Ohtani’s initial reaction had been, Roberts widened his eyes in an impressively accurate impression of one of Ohtani’s patented facial expressions.

“I was a little bit surprised,” Ohtani said after the game. “But it made sense hearing what he had to say.”

The next time Ohtani takes the mound, he is expected to also hit. But Roberts didn’t rule out again having Ohtani just pitch if a similar situation arises again.

“It’s something I’m going to keep an eye on if it makes sense, but not just kind of do it proactively,” Roberts said. “It’s something that’s … got to make sense to not have your best hitter not in the lineup.”

To account for Ohtani’s absence in the batting order Wednesday, Kyle Tucker moved up from No. 2 to leadoff, and Dalton Rushing served as the DH.

The Dodgers scored all eight runs via the long ball: a two-run shot from Hyeseong Kim, his first home run of the season, a solo blast from Teoscar Hernández, Rushing’s first career grand slam, and a solo homer from Tucker.

“We had a really good DH hit today,” Ohtani said of Rushing, who also hit a double.

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz was available Wednesday, for the first time since Friday. But the Dodgers’ five-run eighth inning eliminated the save situation. Instead, right-hander Kyle Hurt made his first major-league appearance since 2024. He gave up a run and had three strikeouts.

Jackie Robinson Day

The Dodgers’ celebration of Jackie Robinson Day began with the annual reflection at the Jackie Robinson statue, with both teams in attendance. Speakers included Robinson’s granddaughters Sonya Pankey Robinson and Ayo Robinson, Roberts, and Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

“We make the rather bold assertion that Jackie’s breaking of the color barrier wasn’t just a part of the Civil Rights movement,” Kendrick said in his speech, “it was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.”

He broke down the timeline: Robinson debuted with the Dodgers in 1947, years before the Supreme Court ruled on Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954) or Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. (1955). The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was still a student at Morehouse College.

“If you don’t believe that one individual can indeed invoke change, you have to look no further than right here,” Kendrick said, pointing to the statue of Robinson. “Because what he did was incredibly difficult, under some of the most harsh circumstances you could ever imagine.”

As left-hander Alex Vesia emerged from the Dodgers bullpen, heard the electric guitar riff of Seether’s “Gasoline,” and felt his adrenaline spike with the roar of the crowd, he knew 27 of those cheering fans had helped him and wife Kayla through a devastating loss just months prior.

He and Kayla had chosen the Dodgers’ game against the Mets on Tuesday, Healthcare appreciation night at Dodger Stadium, to celebrate the hands-on staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center who had cared for them last October, through the death of their newborn daughter Sterling Sol.

He’d spotted their suite by shirts Kayla had customized for the group, bearing the initials SV with a heart, and signed by Alex.

“Today was the first time I’ve seen pretty much all of them since everything,” Alex Vesia said after earning the save in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Tuesday. “So it was very special, very emotional. … I couldn’t have written it any better.”

Vesia authored the ending to what manager Dave Roberts called an “old school” pitcher’s duel. Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mets starter each yielded only one run apiece, both in the first inning.

Yamamoto retired 20 straight after surrendering a leadoff home run to Francisco Lindor. And he came back out in the eighth, with right-hander Blake Treinen and Vesia preparing for the call.

When Yamamoto allowed back-to-back two-out singles, just his third and fourth hits allowed, Roberts brought in Treinen to face Luis Robert Jr. Treinen struck out Robert on a sweeper that caught the bottom of the strike zone and withstood an ABS challenge.

“Not having [closer Edwin Díaz] available, I felt very confident to use Blake to get out of that inning, to get Robert,” Roberts said, “and to have Vesia take on some righties in a close situation.”

Díaz hadn’t pitched since last Friday, when he didn’t feel quite right and his velocity dropped during a blown save. Though he insisted over the weekend that he felt good physically, the Dodgers proceeded with caution.

Because of the time off, Roberts said, the training and coaching staff wanted Díaz to throw a bullpen Tuesday before returning to game action. As long as he responds well, Roberts said, Díaz will be “ready to go” Wednesday in the series finale.

Kyle Tucker singles in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Tuesday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

On Tuesday, a clutch swing from Kyle Tucker in the bottom of the eighth created a save situation with Díaz down.

With runners on first and second, Tucker fell behind in the count against Mets left-handed reliever Brooks Raley. Then, shaking off his slow offensive start to the season, Tucker sent a 1-and-2 cutter into shallow left field.

“He’s going through it right now,” Roberts said. “But for him to stick his nose in there against Raley and find a way … to just flare a ball to get a game-winning hit, he helped us win a baseball game.”

Then it was Vesia’s time.

The heart of the order was coming up for the Mets: Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette and Francisco Alvarez.

“Doc trusting me to get those three hitters out, those are no-joke hitters right there,” Vesia said. “So I definitely knew I needed to be on my game.”

A top-rail fastball got him a called first strike against Polanco. Then Vesia, who mostly throws fastballs and sliders, got Polanco to whiff on an outside changeup.

“I think even Will [Smith] and I surprised each other with the changeup that I threw,” Vesia said.

He went above the zone with a fastball, and Polanco chased it to complete a three-pitch strikeout.

Vesia then only needed four pitches to strike out Bichette on a slider in the dirt. Three straight sliders to Alvarez finished the job.

Vesia hopped and fist-pumped as the Dodgers (13-4) formed their handshake line. He met SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson outside of the dugout for the on-field interview and choked back tears after waving to the Cedars-Sinai suite.

“That’s what I do it for, man,” he said later in the clubhouse. “I wear my heart on my sleeve when I’m out there. So I was pretty fired up to be put in that spot.”