
A hot start, two humbling losses and a fistful of receipts: Inside Deion Sanders’ first month of games at Colorado
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2 years agoon
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Kyle Bonagura
CloseKyle Bonagura
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers the Pac-12.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Attended Washington State University.
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Adam Rittenberg
CloseAdam Rittenberg
ESPN Senior Writer
- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2008.
- Graduate of Northwestern University.
Oct 3, 2023, 07:00 AM ET
BOULDER, Colo. — About 90 minutes before Saturday’s kickoff, Colorado assistant coach Tim Brewster took a lap around Folsom Field, stopping near where USC quarterback Caleb Williams was going through his pregame routine.
Williams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and the projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, had the standard set of TV cameras and smartphones pointed toward him as he head-bobbed to music. But it hardly compared to the paparazzi-like throng parked in front of Colorado’s tunnel in the northeast corner of the stadium.
First came the visiting athletes: C.C. Sabathia, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, DeAndre Jordan and Desean Jackson, then others who are frequently hanging with coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes, such as Terrell Owens and Warren Sapp. Then came the rappers: DaBaby, who high-stepped when he and Sanders led the team on the field, along with Tobe Nwigwe and Lecrae. Jay-Z and LeBron James had been rumored to be attending but didn’t end up making it.
The last and most anticipated entrance came from Sanders, surrounded by security. He has grabbed attention unlike any first-year coach in FBS history. And like he did as a Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback, Sanders never let the spotlight get away during an incredible first month.
“It’s become way bigger than college football,” said Brewster, who joined Sanders’ staff at Jackson State before coming to Colorado. “Every game is an event.”
Sanders has been a magnet for attention from the moment Colorado hired him in December. The Buffaloes became the story of the offseason with their bold roster overhaul. But when the games began, Colorado and Sanders would be competing for attention with bigger brand names, future Hall of Fame coaches and more recognizable star players, like Williams. A challenging schedule and low win projections seemed likely to nudge Colorado to the side.
Instead, Sanders and the Buffaloes captured eyes and ears in the first month of the season. Colorado drew sellout crowds and set ratings records, while bringing national pregame shows and major celebrities to campus for all three home contests. They kept receipts and built believers. They popularized slogans — perhaps the most appropriate after such a visible month was, “Ain’t hard to find” — and even gestures like the watch flex.
A team that went 1-11 in 2022 won its first three games and finished September at 3-2, scoring more touchdowns on offense (22) than it did all of the previous season (21). Colorado put two stars on the national radar in cornerback-wide receiver Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, who elbowed his way into a crowded group of elite Pac-12 QBs.
“We’re excited, truly, with the attention that’s warranted to this wonderful, beautiful university,” Deion Sanders said after Saturday’s 48-41 loss to USC, a game in which Colorado trailed 34-7 before outplaying the Trojans down the stretch. “I’m excited and elated to be the coach here. I’m excited to really talk about the wonderful attributes that we possess.
“I am happy and thankful that we’re a voice of hope, of just desire and want. That’s the thing that’s touching souls around the country.”
He then pivoted to a refrain repeated often, that many are rooting against him and his team because they’ve been so unconventional and brash. Sanders and the Buffaloes might be polarizing, but everyone paid attention to them in September — and likely won’t be looking away any time soon.
BY HIRING SANDERS, Colorado athletic director Rick George ensured the Buffaloes would be relevant in college football.
“I don’t think there’s anybody that could have created the buzz that he’s created,” George told ESPN in February. “He’s got such a following on all the social media spots. He’s very visible, and he’s very authentic and he’s confident in where he can bring this program.”
But Colorado has done more than that and has infiltrated the consciousness of the greater American cultural landscape.
The September schedule was scripted for the spotlight. Colorado opened against TCU, the runner-up in last season’s College Football Playoff, before making its home debut under Sanders against longtime rival Nebraska. The month wrapped up with Pac-12 title contenders Oregon and USC. But notable opponents would only help the Buffaloes if they delivered the goods.
It would have been easy to look at the schedule and forecast a 1-4 start (with a win against Colorado State). Many people did, and the poor projections didn’t go unnoticed within the Colorado facility.
After upsetting TCU 45-42, Sanders asked a reporter, “Do you believe now?”
“I keep the receipts,” he added.
That became clear again the following week, after Colorado’s 36-14 win against Nebraska, as Shedeur Sanders referred to an offseason comment Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made about not having cameras follow him around — a purported swipe at Deion.
“The coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program, but now that he wants to act nice — I don’t respect that because you’re hating on another man, you shouldn’t do that,” Shedeur Sanders said. “It was just, all respect was gone for them and their program. I like playing against their DC, I like playing against them, but the respect level, it ain’t there ’cause you disrespected us first.”
The Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado State in Week 3 seemed to be the least exciting matchup for Colorado, but it would generate the most buzz and fallout. The fuse was lit in the oddest of places, during Colorado State coach Jay Norvell’s weekly radio show, in which he said he made sure to remove his hat and sunglasses before meeting with the ESPN broadcast crew. His mother had taught him that.
“I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder,” Norvell said.
It got back to Sanders within hours, and he responded, in part, by distributing Prime 21 sunglasses from Blenders to his entire team, then to the hosts from ESPN’s “First Take” and “The Pat McAfee Show,” who did shows from campus the day before the game. As Sanders said of Norvell’s comments, “My kids are now on a 10.”
On Saturday, both ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” were on hand, as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Lil Wayne and others descended on Boulder.
Although Colorado came in as a 23.5-point favorite, Colorado State controlled much of the game. Late in the first quarter, Rams safety Henry Blackburn delivered a late hit along the sideline to Hunter, drawing a 15-yard penalty. Hunter stayed in the game but would later be taken to a hospital and treated for a lacerated liver; he has since missed two games. Blackburn and his family immediately began receiving threats, including some death threats. (Deion Sanders condemned the threats days later.)
Colorado trailed 28-17 in the fourth quarter but rallied behind Shedeur Sanders to force overtime and won 43-35 in the second extra session. The game kicked off at 10:21 p.m. ET and ended at 2:25 a.m. ET Sunday, but it still drew 9.3 million viewers, becoming the most-watched late-night college football game ever on ESPN, the network’s fifth-most-watched regular-season game ever for any time slot and the most streamed game of all time.
Sanders read all the ratings at a news conference three days after the game, adding, “This is incredible. Our kids are getting eyeballs.”
That’s true across all demographics, but the Buffs have generated a much more diverse group of viewers than what is usually seen in college football. Black viewers constituted 23% of ABC’s audience for Colorado’s game against Oregon on Sept. 23, which is about 7 percentage points higher than college football games broadcast by ABC last season, according to ESPN Research.
The increased visibility has caught the attention of opposing teams and coaches.
With Oregon leading Colorado 35-0 at halftime, Ducks coach Dan Lanning told the ABC broadcast: “I hope all of those people that have been watching every week are watching this week.”
They were. The game peaked at 12.6 million viewers in what was the most-watched college football game of the season.
Lanning’s halftime comment came shortly after his pregame speech was shown to viewers, during which Lanning took aim at the Colorado hype machine: “The Cinderella story is over, man. They’re fighting for clicks; we’re fighting for wins. There’s a difference. This game ain’t gonna be played in Hollywood; it’s gonna be played on grass.”
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning didn’t hold back in his pregame speech against Colorado ?
“They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins.” pic.twitter.com/imo4OHA4fA
— ESPN (@espn) September 23, 2023
There was only so much Sanders could say after a 42-6 loss, but rest assured, Lanning’s name was added to Sander’s figurative list.
“I don’t say something just to say stuff for a click, despite what some people might say,” Sanders said. “Yeah, I keep receipts.”
Colorado exists in a different universe than it has in recent years.
When the Buffaloes played No. 8 USC last year — the same ranking USC held on Saturday — only 528,000 viewers tuned in, according to data from sportsmediawatch.com. The number compared to what Ball State and Toledo drew a few days earlier, despite the Trojans featuring the Heisman front-runner in Williams. This season’s game had 7.24 million viewers.
On Saturday, roughly 30,000 people watched the postgame news conference live on YouTube after Colorado lost to USC, and over 170,000 had watched by Monday morning. (The Fox TV ratings for the game have yet to be published.)
There are no signs interest is slowing down.
FIRST GAMES UNDER new coaching staffs are always difficult to forecast, but Colorado’s debut under Sanders at TCU truly felt like mystery theater.
How would Hunter and Shedeur Sanders adjust to the FBS level? Could Colorado overcome a lack of depth along the line of scrimmage? Would a team that largely came together after spring practice actually click right away?
Colorado provided immediate clues of its improvement, marching 73 yards on its first drive for a touchdown and leading 17-14 at halftime. Even more impressive, the Buffs rallied from three deficits against a TCU team that had made its living in second halves in 2022, scoring touchdowns on their final three drives before running out the clock. Sanders finished with 510 passing yards, a team record in his Colorado debut. Hunter had 11 receptions for 119 yards and recorded an interception near the goal line, logging a preposterous 129 snaps. Deion Sanders spent the postgame calling out Colorado’s critics — “For real? Shedeur Sanders? From an HBCU? The one that played at Jackson last year?” he mockingly asked while discussing his son — but both Shedeur and Hunter seemed utterly unsurprised by their immediate success.
“It’s the same recipe, the same preparation, same things we’re doing over and over,” Shedeur Sanders said. “It’s just magnified and y’all are able to see us, more cameras and stuff. The only difference is the media, and everybody is driving the headlines.”
At a certain point, it will no longer make sense to compare the 2023 Buffaloes with the version that won just one game a year ago because the carryover is so limited. Colorado is not an example of a team improving year over year but an exercise in how to reset a roster — 53 incoming transfers and 86 new players overall — in an era that essentially functions with free agency.
However, Colorado’s strategy has stood out from others, most easily illustrated by the 3-2 record. This team isn’t ready to compete for a conference title, but a bowl trip is well within reach.
“One thing I can say honestly and candidly: You better get me right now,” Sanders said after the loss to Oregon. “This is the worst we’re gonna be. You better get me right now.”
Even though, right now, the Buffs aren’t an easy out. They were never in a position to beat USC on Saturday, but their second-half comeback to make the final score respectable was an encouraging sign of resiliency. Statistically, the progress is remarkable. Dating back 20 seasons, Colorado has never averaged more points per game in a season than it has to this point (34.2).
Six players last year combined to throw for a total of 2,075 yards. Sanders, who has 1,781 passing yards, will likely cruise past that figure by the halfway point of the regular season this week at Arizona State. His three games with 350-plus passing yards already rank second most in a season by a Colorado quarterback, behind Koy Detmer’s five in 1996, per ESPN Stats & Information research. Even the defense, which ranks last in the Pac-12 in scoring at 36.2 points per game, is allowing roughly eight fewer points per game as compared to last year.
In every meaningful measure, the Buffaloes are significantly better, and all of this has come despite having Hunter, the team’s best all-around player, unavailable for the past two tilts.
Hunter’s ironman excellence in the first two games made him a must-watch for sports fans around the country, even those who had done similar feats. Former Ohio State wide receiver and cornerback Chris Gamble — one of the most impactful true two-way players in college football, who helped the Buckeyes to the 2002 national championship — said he has “never seen a guy that played both ways at a high level like that.”
“It’s tough, but he’s built for it,” said Gamble, who had 31 receptions, 35 punt returns, 11 kickoff returns, four interceptions and one pick-six, 24 tackles and six pass breakups for the Buckeyes in 2002. “Then he’s got Coach Prime too, so he knows what he’s doing. He’s got the right coaching staff. Every week, I’m going to follow them like it’s my team. “I’m going to root for [Hunter] and Coach Prime and Colorado, to see what he’s going to do with that program.”
WHAT COMES NEXT will truly show Sanders’ ability to hold the nation’s attention.
The Buffaloes are 0-2 in Pac-12 play and might not face a ranked opponent until No. 15 Oregon State visits Folsom Field on Nov. 4. Just as games against Oregon and USC promised to be measuring sticks, the next two — Arizona State (road) and Stanford (home) — will do the same on the opposite side of the spectrum. ASU and Stanford are, without question, the two worst teams in the Pac-12 to this point, so anything other than a pair of wins could do more damage to Colorado’s profile than even the humiliating loss at Oregon.
Colorado is a better-looking product under Deion Sanders, but some warts remain. Only Old Dominion has allowed more sacks than Colorado’s 26, and the importance of keeping Shedeur Sanders upright and healthy is paramount. The Buffaloes have been outscored 90-28 in the first halves of their past three games. Shedeur Sanders said the second half against USC was the first time the offense truly clicked since playing TCU. There have been breakdowns on defense, and special teams are often “not special,” Deion Sanders has noted.
“We’re yet to have an identity,” Deion Sanders said. “I challenged them all week on: ‘What’s our identity?’ I don’t know who we are. From week to week, I don’t know what we’re going to do. From practice to practice I do, but we’ve got to translate that into the games. So we’re still searching.”
Hunter’s forthcoming return, possibly as early as this week, will help Colorado’s October relevancy. At a time when athletic limitations are being stretched by baseball’s two-way player Shohei Ohtani, Hunter’s usage and effectiveness adds a layer of intrigue to the Colorado story, especially since he plays for Deion Sanders, the only man ever to play in both the Super Bowl and the World Series.
Other than his coach, Hunter might be Colorado’s biggest on-campus celebrity. Before the USC game, Hunter weaved through the celebrities wearing a hoodie with “I’M HIM” on each side and took pictures with fans gathered near the Buffaloes bench. Although Deion Sanders has tempered some praise for Shedeur — wanting to speak strictly as a coach, not a dad — he has gushed about Hunter, saying the sophomore has a future “brighter than mine ever will be and ever was.”
Colorado’s future overall has brightened under Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes likely won’t contend for a title in the Pac-12, the nation’s best and deepest league this season. But the team’s rapid improvement under a staff that will be going through its first full recruiting cycle and has already generated vast visibility suggests the climb will continue. Long after the USC game, recruits in Colorado uniforms gathered for a photo shoot at midfield as music blared throughout the stadium. The future at Colorado had arrived.
“If you can’t see what’s coming with CU football, you’ve lost your mind,” Sanders said. “You’re just a flat-out hater if you can’t see what’s going on and what’s going to transpire over the next several months.”
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Sports
Remembering Ruffian 50 years after her breakdown at Belmont
Published
5 hours agoon
July 6, 2025By
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Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.
Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.
“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”
Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.
Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.
On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.
Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.
Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.
Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.
Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.
The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.
“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”
Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.
The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.
Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”
“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.
As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”
Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”
The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.
Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.
However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.
“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”
It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.
“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.
Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.
“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.
Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.
New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.
“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”
Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”
“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”
The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.
“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”
Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.
But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.
“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.
Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”
Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.
“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”
Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”
Sports
Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again
Published
14 hours agoon
July 6, 2025By
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Jorge CastilloJul 5, 2025, 09:42 PM ET
Close- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.
The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.
Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.
“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”
Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.
“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.
Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.
“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.
The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.
“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”
This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”
Sports
Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies
Published
17 hours agoon
July 6, 2025By
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ESPN News Services
Jul 5, 2025, 05:48 PM ET
Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.
Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.
In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”
In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
Bobby will forever hold a special place in all our hearts 🤍 pic.twitter.com/CLNi7g0Tzh
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 5, 2025
In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.
Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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