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Good morning, Mets fans!

The Houston Astros survived what possibly could be a series-changing win Thursday. Off the backs of Jeremy Pena, who drove in two runs that included a go-ahead home run off Phillies pitcher Noah Syndergaard, and Justin Verlander, who only gave up one run in five innings pitched,  the Astros won Game 5 by a score of 3-2 and need just one more win to take the World Series. Kyle Schwarber and Jean Segura drove in both Philly runs to keep it a one run ball game, but was not enough as Houston was able to hold off the Philadelphia bats and set up a possible Game 6 clincher on Saturday night.

Now onto the morning briefing.

Latest Mets News

The New York Mets announced Thursday that outfielder Starling Marte will undergo surgery for a core muscle injury he sustained during the second half of last season. For more on this story and Marte’s injury and timetable to return, check out our story as reported by Michael Mayer.

Latest MLB News

Sportico tweets out that the 2022 World Series on Fox is averaging about 11.2 million viewers, which is up 4% versus the ratings from last year’s contest.

Kyle Glaser of Baseball America details the meteoric rise of Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier, who helped lead the team to a combined no-hitter versus Philadelphia during the World Series.

The Chicago White Sox announce that they have hired Pedro Grifol as the 42nd manager in their franchise’s history. Grifol has been a coach with the Kansas City Royals since 2013, winning two American League pennants and a World Series title in 2015.

Orix Buffaloes star Masataka Yoshida has stated that he wants to be posted. Since debuting in 2016, Yoshida gets on base frequently and is coming off his first 1.000 OPS season, along with putting up a 201 wRC+. Sung Min Kim, in a tweet, notes that Yoshida, while small in stature, can take big swings at the plate and has a low strikeout rate in the NPB.

Craig Mish of Sportsgrid notes that the Miami Marlins spent over $16 million on the new facility located in the Dominican Republic and an announcement will come in the near future on renovations to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, FL, where the Marlins share a facility with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic notes that the Texas Rangers are linked to former Royals GM Dayton Moore. Rangers GM Chris Young played under Moore with Kansas City during the final two years of his career.

Josh Norris of Baseball America has compiled a video database of all the prospects participating in the 2022 Arizona Fall League. The videos are compiled by major league club rather than AFL team and includes videos of pitchers, batting practice and open-side swings.

Latest on MMO

Steve Sica highlights another big night for Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio during the Dominican Winter League.

On This Date in Mets History

1976: Major League Baseball’s first offseason with widespread free agency began. Representatives from every franchise met at New York’s Plaza Hotel for the first free agent re-entry draft which meant a system that ranked teams from worst to first according to the prior year’s record, had to bid for the rights of players with at least six years of major league service and no contract for the upcoming season. The Mets entered bids on eight of the 24 available players. Gary Matthews, Don Baylor, Bobby Grich, and Reggie Jackson were all made offers by the Mets but none signed a contract.

Birthdays: Carlos Mendoza (48), Carlos Baerga (54), Ryan Thompson (55)