Owner Cohen rips the Mets
Mets owner Steven Cohen criticized his team following its season-worst fifth consecutive loss.
“It’s hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive,” Cohen tweeted Wednesday, a day after a 3-2 loss at San Francisco. “The best teams have a more disciplined approach. The slugging and OPS numbers don’t lie.”
The Mets, bought by Cohen last offseason, had sole possession of the National League East lead from May 9 until Aug. 6.
The Mets did beat the Giants 6-2 in 12 innings Wednesday but have lost 12 of their last 17 games and 14 of their last 20, falling to 60-60.
“He’s a passionate guy and he cares very much about us individually,” Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar said. “He cares about this team, and he wants to see us be successful.’’
Rockies 7, Padres 5
Jake Arrieta made his Padres debut and allowed five runs in 3„ innings before departing with an injured left hamstring. Arrieta (5-12), signed Monday after being waived by the Cubs, allowed seven hits and let his ERA rise to 7.13 on Dom Núnez’s solo homer before grabbing his hamstring and exiting.
The Padres have lost seven of eight but still lead the Reds by 1½ games for the second NL wild card.
Arrieta thinks the injury is minor and he shouldn’t miss much time. “I’ve had two of these in the past that were significantly worse than this one,” he said. “Testing the strength with the trainers postgame, all the tests were good.”
In other games
Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle in an 11-9 victory against the host Marlins. The reigning NL MVP doubled in the first, tripled in the fourth, singled in the fifth and hit his 27th homer, a two-run blast, in the sixth. It is Freeman’s second career cycle.
♦ Shohei Ohtani hit his 40th homer and pitched eight sharp innings to improve to 8-1 to lead the Angels to a 3-1 victory against the host Tigers.
♦ Anthony Rizzo had a two-run infield single in his return from the COVID-19 list in the Yankees’ 5-2 victory against the visiting Red Sox.
Tigers broadcaster Morris suspended
Tigers broadcaster Jack Morris has been suspended indefinitely for racist comments he made about Angels star Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday.
When asked by play-by-play announcer Matt Shepard how the Tigers should pitch to Ohtani in the sixth inning, Morris adopted an exaggerated East Asian accent while saying “be very, very careful.” When Ohtani came back up in the ninth, Morris issued a lengthy apology.