MIAMI — Edwin Diaz is open to a change to help ignite the slumping New York Mets — even if that means losing his role as closer.

Amid a terrible start to the 2024 season in which he has blown two consecutive save chances and three of his past four, the star reliever with a $102 million contract said he would be willing to change his role if the team thinks that’s best.

“I’m open to everything,” Diaz said Saturday after squandering a four-run lead in the ninth inning against one of the league’s worst-hitting teams in the Miami Marlins.

Diaz has a 10.80 ERA over his past eight appearances after serving up four homers in 8⅓ innings.

“I want to help my team to win,” he said. “That’s my main thing. If they want to talk to me about that and I feel good about it, I agree on it. I just want to win games in any position they put me.”

The struggling Mets (20-25) led the Marlins 9-5 when Díaz entered in the ninth.

He allowed an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr. that drove in Vidal Brujan, who had led off with a double. Bryan De La Cruz reached on an infield single with one out, and Josh Bell hammered Diaz’s first-pitch slider 428 feet to straightaway center field for a three-run shot that tied the score.

That was it for Diaz, who wasn’t charged with a blown save because he came in with a four-run lead. But in his past three outings he has given up seven earned runs, seven hits, three walks and two homers over 2⅓ innings.

New York lost 10-9 when Otto Lopez singled home the winning run off Jorge Lopez in the 10th.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he’s concerned about Diaz’s confidence. The 30-year-old Diaz, a two-time All-Star, indicated his struggles this season are mostly mental.

“I won’t lie, my confidence I feel is down right now,” he said. “I’m making pitches. I’m throwing strikes. I’m trying to do my best to help the team to win. Right now I’m not in that capacity.

“Physically, I feel 100 percent right now. My body is not an issue. I think right now I’ve got to think about what I’m doing, trust myself a little bit more when I’m on the mound. I think I’m thinking too much.”

Mendoza indicated the team would consider moving Diaz out of the closer role to help him rebuild his confidence.

“It’s one of those things I have to talk to the coaching staff and to Edwin,” Mendoza said, “whether we want to find him some softer spots to get him going. He’s still our closer and he will get through it.”

Saturday was Diaz’s first outing at Miami’s home ballpark since he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating a win for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic there in March 2023.

The injury required surgery and cost him the entire 2023 season. He was baseball’s most dominant closer in 2022, striking out 118 batters in 62 innings while saving 32 games and compiling a 1.31 ERA.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs rookie starter Shota Imanaga lowered his ERA on the season to 0.84 on Saturday after throwing seven shutout innings in his club’s 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s the lowest mark through a pitcher’s first nine career games since ERA became an official stat in 1913, besting Fernando Valenzuela, who compiled a 0.91 ERA after nine starts in 1981.

“If I’m being honest, I’m not really too interested in my own stats or any historic value,” Imanaga said after the game through the team interpreter. “But just knowing that there are so many good pitchers that came before me is a good learning experience.”

Imanaga, 30, gave up four hits while striking out seven including his final batter with two on and two out in the seventh inning. He used a combination of nearly all fastballs and splitters to stymie the Pirates, making him the very early front-runner for NL Cy Young. Pirates manager Derek Shelton was asked why he’s so tough to square up.

“That’s a great question,” he answered. “This guy is going to give hitting coaches nightmares. The fastball is not 94-95 mph but it’s effective. The split is real. It’s strike to ball.”

Imanaga averaged just 90.9 mph on his fastball, which he threw 46 times. The rest of his pitches were splitters — save four curveballs. All of it was extremely effective, moving from the top of the zone with the fastball and coming down with his split.

“You feel the hitter a little in-between,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It makes both pitches better.”

The Cubs won the game on a walk-off RBI single by Christopher Morel that plated Cody Bellinger, though the play at the plate was reviewed before the celebration at Wrigley Field could begin. It’s the team’s first 1-0, walk-off win since September 2015.

“We’ve won two 1-0 games that he’s started,” Counsell said. “It’s hard to win 1-0, and the fact that he’s been the starter nine games into his career in two of them is incredible.”

In addition to being the lowest to start a career through nine outings, Imanaga’s 0.84 ERA is also the third lowest through the first nine games of a season for any pitcher, trailing only Jacob deGrom (0.62) in 2021 and Zack Greinke (0.82) in 2009. The win came a day after Pirates rookie Paul Skenes struck out the first seven batters he faced en route to a six-inning, no-hit performance. Imanaga did him one inning better, making the Pirates the ninth different team unable to solve the lefty.

“We’re fortunate to watch it,” Counsell stated. “His aptitude, pitch-making ability, his stuff, his competitiveness. They’ve all been a joy to watch.”

NEW YORK — The Yankees waxed the White Sox 6-1 on Saturday to earn their sixth straight win behind two players.

One, Juan Soto, was expected to lead the club to victories after he was acquired in December. He smashed two home runs, both long beyond Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right field, to emphatically snap out of a mini personal skid with his first multi-home run game as a Yankee.

The other, Luis Gil, was expected to begin the season in the minors, honing his craft, waiting for an opportunity. Instead, Gil continued his unforeseen breakout campaign Saturday, delivering the best start of his young career with 14 strikeouts — a Yankees rookie record — on 98 pitches over six innings as New York improved to an AL-best 32-15.

The 25-year-old right-hander recovered from a 29-pitch first inning to produce 27 swing-and-misses behind a fastball that touched 100 mph and a changeup he has developed into a devastating offering. At one point, he struck out nine of 10 hitters. He held the White Sox to five hits and one walk. In the end, he lowered his team-best ERA to 2.39 across nine starts.

“Today felt like, maybe, his best one,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Gil is in the rotation only because Gerrit Cole isn’t. Cole began the season on the 60-day injured list after being shut down in mid-March with an elbow injury. On Saturday, the team’s ace took a significant step forward in his rehab — logging a 40-pitch bullpen session, divided in two to better simulate a game experience. He remains encouraged in his return to the mound.

For now, Cole is playing the part of assistant pitching coach — and making an impact on his replacement. Gil credited an increased focus and Cole’s tutelage — during games and in between starts — for his success after his performance Saturday.

“I have a teacher, Gerrit Cole, who’s teaching me how to pitch, how to handle situations and how to execute,” Gil said in Spanish. “And that’s what we’re doing, what he teaches me, and we’re applying it in the game.”

Gil has been dominant in May after posting a 4.01 ERA in five April starts. Since then, he has allowed just two earned runs with 27 strikeouts in 24⅓ innings across five outings. He made history Saturday by breaking Orlando Hernández’s Yankees rookie record for strikeouts in a game. Hernández, who set the mark in 1998 with 13 strikeouts, happened to be in attendance Saturday to throw out the first pitch.

“It was a pleasure to meet him,” Gil said. “He was a great pitcher. I loved getting to meet him.”

Chicago’s only run off Gil came on Andrew Benintendi’s two-out, check-swing RBI double to open the scoring in the first inning. The lead was fleeting. Soto responded in the bottom of the frame, smashing a pitch from Brad Keller 112.5 mph for a solo home run. He did it again in the fifth inning, this time launching a pitch from Keller 437 feet to right field for his 11th home run of the season. He finished the day 4-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs.

Soto’s explosion came after he went 4-for-31 (.129) without a home run over his previous eight games. The relative struggles were enough for him to take additional batting practice several hours before the Yankees and White Sox opened their series Friday. Soto took swings with hitting coach James Rowson and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler. He then went 1-for-4 with a double, hitting the ball hard in play three times, in a Yankees win.

“Last night,” Boone said, “was the prelude to today.”

Soto declined to share what he worked on specifically during Friday’s extra hitting session, but he noted he was searching for the “feeling” he had over the first five weeks of the season when he was dominating pitchers on a daily basis.

Did he get it back?

“I think so,” Soto said with a smile.