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HOUSTON — Shaking off a foul ball he took to the mask earlier in the game, Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto hit a tiebreaking home run in the 10th inning, leading to a stunning 6-5 victory against the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.

“Just ecstatic to put a good swing on that pitch, be able to give our team the lead,” Realmuto said after the dramatic win. “We did such a good job fighting back there.”

The Phillies scored six runs after trailing 5-0 early in the game, becoming the sixth team all time to overcome a five-run deficit to win a World Series game. Astros manager Dusty Baker has been on the losing end on the past two, with the other coming with the 2002 San Francisco Giants in a loss to the Angels.

The Phillies’ second time through the order Friday night against Astros ace Justin Verlander proved to be fruitful as Philadelphia scored three runs off him in the fourth and two more in the fifth to tie the score at 5. Verlander was perfect through the first three innings.

“I think the second time [through] you’ve seen it once,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of Verlander’s pitches. “So there’s some familiarity there. So I think that’s why we had some success off him the second time.”

The Astros jumped to a lead thanks to two home runs in back-to-back innings by right fielder Kyle Tucker. After the Phillies tied the score at 5-5 on a two-run double by Realmuto in the fifth, Thomson managed the rest of the night with urgency, beginning with his decision to bring in reliever Jose Alvarado in the fifth inning.

“I think once we scored the three you were kind of feeling it,” Thomson said. “Like, we got back in this thing, now the momentum has changed. And that’s really why I went to Alvarado in the fifth inning, which I haven’t done all year, because I thought that the momentum changed there. [It] was so important to keep that momentum, get through those guys, and we’ll figure out the rest later.”

The Phillies’ bullpen was spectacular, throwing 5⅔ shutout innings as Thomson used all of his high-leverage arms, including scheduled Game 3 starter Ranger Suarez.

“So what went into it was, today’s a side [bullpen] day for Game 3, so we thought, OK, we’ve got that one pocket, Alvarez to Tucker, that’s a pretty big pocket, and thought, we’ll put him in if that situation comes up,” Thomson said. “If not, that’s fine. And it came up.”

Thomson didn’t rule out Suarez for Game 3 after he threw just 11 pitches on Friday. His performance helped bridge the gap to the late innings, with Seranthony Dominguez getting two outs in the eighth and three in the ninth to pitch the Phillies into extras.

But a single and stolen base by Jose Altuve put the winning run on second in the bottom of the ninth. That’s when shortstop Jeremy Pena blooped a ball into right field, where Nick Castellanos made a magnificent, inning-ending sliding catch to preserve the tie.

“I felt like I read the swing pretty well, and as soon as I saw the direction of the ball I felt like I got a good jump on it,” Castellanos said.

Castellanos took a few steps in after Altuve reached second. Those extra yards proved to be helpful as he closed the gap on the ball.

“I just thought he had a better chance of trying to bloop something in there than torching something over my head,” Castellanos said. “So that was kind of my thought process there, just thought of it on the fly.”

The catch kept the game alive for Realmuto’s heroics in the 10th. He deposited a 3-2 fastball by Astros reliever Luis Garcia into the right-field stands, sending his dugout into a frenzy.

It’s a moment Realmuto said he has imagined since he was a kid.

“I mean whiffle ball games in the backyard, the whole 3-2, bases-loaded, two-out situation,” he said. “I probably had 7,000 at-bats in that situation growing up.”

It almost never came Friday after Realmuto took a foul ball to the mask, leading to a delay as the Phillies’ training staff attended to him. He stayed in the game.

“Honestly, my head wasn’t the problem,” Realmuto said. “It just smoked my jaw pretty good. It’s probably not going to be very easy for me to eat dinner tonight, but as long as my head’s OK, I’ll be good to go.”

The Astros left the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the 10th as Tucker struck out and pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz grounded out.

Realmuto is the first catcher with an extra-inning home run in the World Series since Carlton Fisk’s walk-off homer in Game 6 of the 1975 series.

Castellanos was asked what the vibe in the dugout was after his team went down 5-0.

“Let’s go to work,” he said. “We’ve been there before. I think that’s what this team does so well. We know there’s no quit, really. We really respect all 27 outs and we take that seriously, and we take it personal.”

The loss was the first for the Astros this postseason.

Game 2 is Saturday night. The Astros will start lefty Framber Valdez, and the Phillies will counter with right-hander Zack Wheeler.

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O’s Henderson off IL; will make ’25 debut vs. KC

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O's Henderson off IL; will make '25 debut vs. KC

Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson was activated from the 10-day injured list and will make his season debut Friday night against the Kansas City Royals.

Henderson has been sidelined with a right intercostal strain and missed the first seven games of the big league campaign.

The 23-year-old Henderson will lead off and play shortstop against the host Royals.

Henderson was injured during a spring training game Feb. 27. He was fourth in American League MVP voting last season when he batted .281 and racked up career bests of 37 homers and 92 RBIs.

Henderson completed a five-game rehab stint at Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday. He batted .263 (5-for-19) with two homers and four RBIs and played four games at shortstop and one as the designated hitter. He did commit three errors.

“I think everybody’s looking forward to having Gunnar back on the team,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said Thursday. “The rehab went really, really well. I talked to him a couple days ago, he feels great swinging the bat. The timing came, especially the last few days. He just had to get out there and get some reps defensively and get some games in, and it all went well.”

Baltimore optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson to Triple-A Norfolk to open up a roster spot. The 26-year-old was 0-for-4 with a run and RBI in two games this season.

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Life after OMG: Can 2025 Mets replicate their 2024 vibes?

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Life after OMG: Can 2025 Mets replicate their 2024 vibes?

When New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns attempted to assemble the best possible roster for the 2025 season this winter, the top priority was signing outfielder Juan Soto. Next was the need to replenish the starting rotation and bolster the bullpen. Then, days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, the lineup received one final significant reinforcement when first baseman Pete Alonso re-signed.

Acquiring a player with a singing career on the side didn’t make the cut.

“No, that is not on the list,” Stearns said with a smile.

Stearns’ decision not to re-sign Jose Iglesias, the infielder behind the mic for the viral 2024 Mets anthem “OMG,” was attributed to creating more roster flexibility. But it also hammered home a reality: The scrappy 2024 Mets, authors of a magical summer in Queens, are a thing of the past. The 2025 Mets, who will report to Citi Field for their home opener Friday, have much of the same core but also some prominent new faces — and the new, outsized expectations that come with falling two wins short of the World Series, then signing Soto to the richest contract in professional sports history.

But there’s a question surrounding this year’s team that you can’t put a price tag on: Can these Mets rekindle the magic — the vibes, the memes, the feel-good underdog story — that seemed to come out of nowhere to help carry them to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series last season?

“Last year the culture was created,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “It’s a matter of continuing it.”

For all the success Stearns has engineered — his small-market Milwaukee Brewers teams reached the postseason five times in eight seasons after he became the youngest general manager in history in 2015 — the 40-year-old Harvard grad, like the rest of his front office peers knows there’s no precise recipe for clubhouse chemistry. There is no culture projection system. No Vibes Above Replacement.

“Culture is very important,” Stearns said last weekend in the visiting dugout at Daikin Park before his club completed an opening-weekend series against the Houston Astros. “Culture is also very difficult to predict.”

Still, it seems the Mets’ 2024 season will be all but impossible to recreate.

There was Grimace, the purple McDonald’s blob who spontaneously became the franchise’s unofficial mascot after throwing out a first pitch in June. “OMG,” performed under Iglesias’ stage name, Candelita, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin Digital Songs chart, before a remix featuring Pitbull was released in October. Citi Field became a karaoke bar whenever Lindor stepped into the batter’s box with The Temptations’ “My Girl” as his walk-up song. Alonso unveiled a lucky pumpkin in October. They were gimmicks that might have felt forced if they hadn’t felt so right.

“I don’t know if what we did last year could be replicated because it was such a chaos-filled group,” Mets reliever Ryne Stanek said. “I don’t know if that’s replicable because there’s just too many things going on. I don’t know if that’s a sustainable model. But I think the expectation of winning is really important. I think establishing what we did last year and coming into this year where people are like, ‘Oh, no, that’s what we’re expecting to do,’ makes it different. It’s always a different vibe whenever you feel like you’re the hunter versus being the hunted.”

For the first two months last season, the Mets were terrible hunters. Lindor was relentlessly booed at Citi Field during another slow start. The bullpen got crushed. The losses piled up. The Mets began the season 0-5 and sunk to rock bottom on May 29 when reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands during a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that dropped the team to 22-33.

That night, the Mets held a players-only meeting. From there, perhaps coincidentally, everything changed. The Mets won the next day, and 67 of their final 107 games.

This year, to avoid an early malaise and to better incorporate new faces like Soto and Opening Day starter Clay Holmes, players made it a point to hold meetings during spring training to lay a strong foundation.

“At the end of the day, we know who we are and that’s the beauty of our club,” Alonso said. “Not just who we are talent-wise, but who each individual is as a man and a personality. For us, our major, major strength is our collective identity as a unit.”

Organizationally, the Mets are attempting a dual-track makeover: Becoming perennial World Series contenders while not taking themselves too seriously.

The commemorative purple Grimace seat installed at Citi Field in September — Section 302, Row 6, Seat 12 in right field — remains there as part of a two-year contract. Last week, the franchise announced it will feature a New York-city themed “Five Borough” race at every home game — with a different mascot competing to represent each borough. For a third straight season, USA Today readers voted Citi Field — home of the rainbow cookie egg roll, among many other innovative treats — as having the best ballpark food in baseball.

In the clubhouse, their identity is evolving.

“I’m very much in the camp that you can’t force things,” Mets starter Sean Manaea said. “I mean, you can, but you don’t really end up with good results. And if you wait for things to happen organically, then sometimes it can take too long. So, there’s like a nudging of sorts. It’s like, ‘Let’s kind of come up with something, but not force it.’ So there’s a fine balance there and you just got to wait and see what happens.”

Stearns believes it starts with what the Mets can control: bringing positive energy every day and fostering a family atmosphere. It’s hard to quantify, but vibes undoubtedly helped fuel the Mets’ 2024 success. It’ll be a tough act to follow.

“It’s fluid,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I like where guys are at as far as the team chemistry goes and things like that and the connections and the relationships. But it’ll continue to take some time. And winning helps, clearly.”

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Hunter marks quiet day at Colorado Showcase

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Hunter marks quiet day at Colorado Showcase

BOULDER, Colo. — A horde of NFL talent evaluators headed for the mountains Friday for the Colorado Showcase, where Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter was one of the big draws.

However, it was going to be a limited look at best as Hunter was not seen when players’ heights and weights were taken or for the jumps and 40-yard dash.

Hunter, who is expected to be a top-five selection in this year’s draft and is the No. 1 player on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, was initially not expected to participate in any on-field work, but Friday morning some scouts in attendance said they expected the two-way star to run routes as a receiver for quarterback Shedeur Sanders‘ throwing session.

Hunter did not work out at the scouting combine or Big 12 pro day but did meet with teams in Indianapolis. Sanders, one of the top quarterbacks on the board and Kiper’s No. 5 player overall, also did not work out at the combine.

Sanders’ brother, Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, measured in at 5-foot-11⅞, 196 pounds, but he did not participate in the jumps or bench press that opened the workout, citing a right shoulder injury.

The highly attended event — by scouts, coaches and personnel executives as well as fans packing small bleachers — had a festive atmosphere. Colorado coach Deion Sanders named it the “We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase,” completed with a large lighted “showcase” sign next to the drills.

Hunter, who has said he wants to play offense and defense in the NFL, won the Chuck Bednarik (top defensive player) and Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards, in addition to the Heisman. He said whether he would primarily be a wide receiver or cornerback in the NFL “depended on the team that picks me.”

He had 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a receiver last season to go with 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups and four interceptions at cornerback. In the Buffaloes’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State, he became the only FBS player in the past 25 years with three scrimmage touchdowns on offense and an interception in the same game, according to ESPN Research.

Hunter played 1,380 total snaps in Colorado’s 12 regular-season games: 670 on offense, 686 on defense and 24 on special teams. He played 1,007 total snaps in 2023.

With all NFL eyes on the Colorado campus to see Sanders throw, one player who made the most of it was wide receiver Will Sheppard, who was not invited to the combine. Sheppard, who measured in at 6-2¼, 196 pounds, ran his 40s in 4.56 and 4.54 to go with a 40½-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-11 in the broad jump.

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