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New York Mets owner Steve Cohen said he is “not going to blow up” over his team’s poor start to the season and insisted that neither manager Buck Showalter nor general manager Billy Eppler are in danger of being fired.

Cohen, in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Post, admitted he is frustrated with the Mets’ struggles and said he thinks the team’s biggest problem is its inconsistent pitching staff.

But when asked whether Showalter’s or Eppler’s jobs were in jeopardy, Cohen said he will remain patient.

“When things get really bad, I’m not going to blow up,” Cohen told the Post, which published the interview before the Mets’ victory Saturday over the Pittsburgh Pirates. “I don’t think that’s the proper response. I don’t think it solves anything, other than it gives people a one-day story. But it doesn’t really solve anything.

“There’s plenty of blame to go around from a performance point of view. So blowing up, I’m not sure it solves anything. It would demonstrate, ‘Oh, he really cares. He’s one of us.’ But the reality is it’s not going to solve our problems, and I think in some ways it can be demotivating.”

The Mets enter Sunday fourth in the National League East with a 31-34 record, 9½ games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves. Saturday’s victory in Pittsburgh snapped the Mets’ seven-game losing streak, which included a three-game sweep in Atlanta to the rival Braves.

Despite a record payroll estimated at over $340 million, the Mets will be hard-pressed to match their record from 2022, when they went 101-61 in their first season under Showalter and Eppler.

Eppler told the Post on Saturday that he is confident in Showalter, a four-time Manager of the Year who is in his 22nd season as a major league manager. Cohen echoed those sentiments, saying the Mets’ problems are “organizational” and that he wants to avoid being “reactionary.”

“I think that’s the worst thing you can do is to be overly reactionary,” Cohen told the Post. “General fan reaction — it’s usually, ‘I can’t believe Steve’s not going nuts, fire somebody.’ My answer to that is, ‘OK, let’s say I went nuts. Let’s say I fired somebody. Then what?’ What does that accomplish? Who are you gonna replace them with? This is the middle of the season. And then if you actually ask people [who are the replacements], they have no answers, other than they’re just angry, and I get that.

“I’m frustrated, too. The players are frustrated. The front office is frustrated. We are frustrated. No one expected this. This is really surprising. It doesn’t mean that things won’t get better. If we can find ways to fix our weaknesses, we’ll try.”

The Mets’ most glaring weakness arguably is their pitching staff, which entered Sunday with a 4.73 ERA — the fifth worst in the majors. Cohen specifically cited the struggles of veteran aces Justin Verlander (4.85 ERA) and Max Scherzer (3.71), who both have battled injuries and inconsistency this season.

“I believe we have veteran pitchers who have performed in the past,” Cohen said. “I think they’re gonna do better. I think we’re seeing signs of it. Verlander went out the other night [Thursday against the Braves] and pitched three innings. The start before he threw 120 pitches. Is one related to the other? Might be, I don’t know, it’s way above my paygrade.

“Generally he’s the type of pitcher and Max is the type of pitcher — I think they are going to be fine. … What is the odds this group of pitchers will pitch this way the entire season? Probably unlikely. That is why there is reason for optimism in a moment where it looks like the wheels have just come off.”

Cohen, a New York-based hedge fund manager, purchased the franchise in November 2020 for a record $2.4 billion and has elevated the Mets into one of Major League Baseball’s highest-spending franchises over the past three years.

Although he repeatedly stated that he loves and appreciates Mets fans’ passion, Cohen also reiterated that he will not shake up the organization to appease “recency bias.”

“That’s not how I’m going to run this team,” he said. “That’s not how I’m dealing with my people. And if people don’t like it, what can I tell you? I’m gonna do it the way I do it. I don’t know who they thought they were getting.

“Just because I spent money doesn’t mean a change — I’m gonna run it in my style: thoughtful, involved. And sometimes there are no easy answers. And you have to accept that.”

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Wisconsin QB O’Neil carted off with leg injury

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Wisconsin QB O'Neil carted off with leg injury

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ game against No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with what was officially ruled a lower-body injury.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin throughout the season. Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

Ohio State standout receiver Carnell Tate sat out Saturday’s game against Purdue after suffering a minor undisclosed injury during pregame warmups.

Coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes held Tate out just as a precaution.

“[Tate] wanted to play,” Day said, “but we’ve got a lot of football ahead us.”

The top-ranked Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) still defeated Purdue 34-10 to remain unbeaten. Jeremiah Smith led Ohio State with a career-high 10 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This season, Tate has 39 receptions for 711 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes play UCLA next weekend.

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

LUBBOCK, Texas — Stone Harrington kicked a school-record five field goals and standout Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had two takeaways as the No. 9 Red Raiders defeated No. 8 BYU 29-7 on Saturday, holding the previously undefeated Cougars to a season-low 255 total yards in a game with Big 12 and playoff implications.

Behren Morton passed for 216 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown to Caleb Douglas while Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a 1-yard score for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12, No. 8 CFP), which played in its first top-10 matchup since 2008.

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better [defensive] team than we were last year,” Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23-of-38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, an interception and a backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Their previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

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