Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, Mets fans!

The Mets lost the first two games of the Dodgers series–both in 10-inning games–and they’ll look to salvage the series Sunday night ahead of flying to the West Coast.

After nearly escape his wrath for the year when it was rumored he would pitch for the Padres, Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Dodgers. (He’ll also face the Mets next weekend in Los Angeles, too.) Opposing him will be Carlos Carrasco, who looks to get back on track after his one-inning, four-run, rain-shortened start Tuesday against the Nationals.

Sunday’s game will be aired on ESPN. Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo will still be on WCBS 880 on the radio.

Now let’s get into the morning briefing.

Latest Mets News

As mentioned before, the Mets lost their second extra-inning game in a row Saturday night. This time, after Taijuan Walker carried them for 6.1 hitless innings, the team lost 2-1 after Yennsy Diaz gave up an RBI double to Cody Bellinger in the tenth inning. James McCann and Brandon Drury struck out in the bottom of the frame followed by a Brandon Nimmo ground out. Read the recap here.

The Mets put Drew Smith on the 10-day injured list with shoulder inflammation. He was on the IL to start the season with a shoulder injury, too. Other roster moves included demoting Albert Almora to Triple-A and recalling Geoff Hartlieb and Jake Reed to help the bullpen.

Noah Syndergaard, very reasonably, doesn’t enjoy the late Sunday start followed by a trip to the West Coast. He said on an Instagram story, “Hey @MLB@ESPN whose dumb f–king idea was it to change tomorrow’s game to a night game when we’re traveling to the west coast after,

Latest MLB News

Diamondbacks pitcher Tyler Gilbert threw a no-hitter against the Padres in his first start ever in the majors. (He threw 3.2 innings from the bullpen before this start.) He allowed three walks and struck out five, but he accomplished the feat in 102 pitches. Wild.

Chris Sale returned for the Red Sox for the first time in two years on Saturday. Sale had Tommy John surgery in March 2020–right around when Noah Syndergaard had his–after his 2019 was ended in August due to elbow inflammation.

Nearly two years to the day, Sale came back and threw five innings and allowed two runs–on back-to-back homers–along with eight strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches, the same number he did in his last rehab start, to the Orioles lineup.

The Astros put Kyle Tucker on the injured list due to health a safety protocols. Yuli Gurriel was reinstated to take his place, according to MLB.com‘s Brian McTaggart.

Shohei Ohtani, the future Al MVP, hit his 39th home run of the season Saturday night.

Latest on MMO

Brian Wright looked back at one of Steven Matz‘s best starts of his career in August 2016.

Dan Quiñones wrote about Tylor Megill‘s start against the Dodgers, and Thomas Hall wrote about J.D. Davis turning a corner at the right time.

And lastly, Dilip Sridhar took a look at how Khalil Lee has raked since being sent back down to Triple-A Syracuse.

On This Date in Mets History

Happy 40th birthday to Oliver Perez, 76th birthday to Duffy Dyer and 80th birthday to Tommie Reynolds, who played in a handful of games for the 1967 Mets.

Also on this day in 2002, the Mets traded Shawn Estes to the Reds in a deal that returned Pedro Feliciano, who helped team’s bullpens in primarily 2006 and 2007.

And this is more Mets-history-adjacent, but The Beatles played at Shea Stadium on this day in 1965! You can watch the beginning of their set, rife with screaming fans and one pouty child, below.