Weekly Scorecard: Jun. 13 - 19, 2026

Happy Juneteenth! The Mets are on national broadcasts this weekend, so you know what that means: using the radio as the audio feed whenever possible. At least for tonight, because John Smoltz is completely fucking unbearable; Sunday's game on NBC will be covered by Jason Benetti, John Kruk, and John Franco, which sounds like it'll actually be good. I wish we could've gotten some more guys named John involved, though.

The Scoreboard

In the interests of ignoring the game that's on right now, I'll start with a recap of the Mets action this past week:

• We took a series at home from the Braves, which is always good. Probably the best part was Mike of Yastrzemski fame making the worst throw ever, giving us an extra run.
• The less said about the Reds series, the better, but at least A.J. Ewing got to be close to home. The main highlight came in the form of an excellent (and sorely needed) outing from Nolan McLean on Wednesday, helping prevent a sweep.
• Our first game against the Phillies on Thursday went in our favor, thanks to two home runs from Juan Soto plus some nice work from Marcus Semien and Miami Marlins legend Eric Wagaman. Sean Manaea had some shockingly good stuff and made Justin Crawford look exceptionally silly.

Elsewhere around the league:

• The Rockies took advantage of the A's minor league park in Vegas on Sunday to set a new single-game scoring record of 23 runs for the franchise. The game also marked only the sixth time in franchise history that the Athletics have allowed 23 or more runs, all of which previously occurred before the team ever made it to Oakland. Hunter Goodman continues to live up to his name at the plate.
• On Monday, Pete Crow-Armstrong hit for his first cycle, doing so in perfect reverse order. My friend attending the game texted me as soon as it happened to let me know that he'd witnessed the historical event, but more importantly, that PCA got picked off immediately following the climactic single.
• Jacob deGrom spent Friday getting his first career birthday win, as well as giving up his first-ever grand slam to friend of the show Ty France. France's 10 bases were a career high for both him and deGrom, but the rest of the Padres offense unfortunately failed to follow suit.
• Mike Vasil's sorcerous arsenal has expanded to include a wizard hat for home runs. More updates to follow.

On Deck

Getting the biggest news out of the way first: Max Scherzer hit the IL again a couple hours before I was due to see him start at Fenway and maybe break some more records. Bad event, worse timing, but hey, at least the Jays still won.

Francisco Lindor and Tyrone Taylor have started playing rehab games with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, which appears to be going well both on and off the field. To keep things fresh in the meantime, the Mets picked up Zack Short. On the pitching side of things, Kodai Senga's return went less than favorably, while Christian Scott is on the IL with what fortunately seems to be just a minor hip issue.

The Mariners finally got J.P. Crawford and Cal Raleigh back from the IL, but not without Randy Arozarena hitting it himself (though his hamstring strain is mild). Along the way, they DFA'd Miles Mastrobuoni and called up Curtis Washington Jr. all the way from High-A, which was a real "How can you not be romantic about baseball?" moment. This profile of him with the Modesto Nuts last year—he recorded a song that they played after wins!—was very moving. Unfortunately, he was outrighted back to Everett before he could make an appearance, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Let's check in briefly on guys I covered in prior weeks:

• Remember when I said Corey Seager was back "for now"? Yeah, he got concussed, so he's already out again;
• After going on the 15-day IL last week, Spencer Strider has regrettably been moved to the 60-day IL;
• And Tyler Heineman was traded for cash to the Angels, which is generally a fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but he's from L.A., so at least it's something of a homecoming.

The big-name injury roster this week rounds out with Mike Trout (right hamstring strain, 10-day IL) and twin hamate fractures for Vinnie Pasquantino and José Ramírez.

The Dugout

• Though he hasn't had a ton of outings over the past week, Luke Weaver has been fantastic since the beginning of May, allowing no runs or extra-base hits. Louis Varland's past week is likewise a little misleading about his true quality, since he continues to be far and away one of baseball's best closers; his near-immaculate inning that I saw in Boston was absolutely brilliant.
• Bo Bichette has stayed pretty hot, with Thursday's game sadly snapping a streak of six consecutive multi-hit games. His batting average is up 18 points and his OPS up 32 points since I mentioned him last week.
• According to Sarah Langs, Colson Montgomery has reached the 40-HR career mark faster than anyone else in White Sox history, and is second in homers across MLB since the day he hit his first. Hitting four over the last week suggests he has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

Home Plate

My BSB column from this past week was, of course, all about the Knicks:

The desire of nine million people is a feral, ravenous thing, but when at last it’s fed—when every note comes together in perfect harmony—my God, it’s a sweeter sound than anything you’ll ever hear in Carnegie.

You could spend your whole life waiting to catch even one beat of such a melody. It takes its time being composed; I wish I could say it’s always a nice, round number, like 20 years, but it’s messy and late more often than not. Take fifty-three, for example. 53. Roll it around in your head and on your tongue, letters or numbers, doesn’t matter—it’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, what were you doing 53 years ago? Your parents? Do you even remember? Can you?

It's flowery, melodramatic, and a little pretentious, which is just the way I like it.

The Backstop

I could talk a bit about the Blue Jays-Red Sox game and the Scottish takeover of Boston, or the Topps 2026 Series 2 cards I opened (with my usual bad luck), but I only got three hours of sleep last night, so I'll save some of that for another time. Instead, here's how I found out that Mark Canha is currently competing on a Food Network show I've never heard of:

Let's hope the next Mets game is better than the last.