Mets cut reliever Jake Diekman and promote fellow lefty Matt Gage from Triple-A Syracuse

Sport

Mets cut reliever Jake Diekman and promote fellow lefty Matt Gage from Triple-A Syracuse

2024-07-30 06:26 Last Updated At：06:30

NEW YORK (AP) — In a surprising move Monday, the New York Mets cut veteran reliever Jake Diekman and promoted fellow left-hander Matt Gage from Triple-A Syracuse.

Diekman was 2-3 with a 5.63 ERA and four saves in a team-high 43 appearances after signing a $4 million, one-year contract with the Mets in February. He earned a huge save at Yankee Stadium last Tuesday, striking out red-hot slugger Aaron Judge with a runner aboard in the ninth inning of a 3-2 victory.

But the 37-year-old Diekman allowed three runs and four hits over two innings in a pair of outings against Atlanta over the weekend and was designated for assignment before Monday night's series opener versus Minnesota.

“Not an easy one, especially when you're dealing with a guy like Diek who's been here since day one, spring training, here all the way to this point, been in this league for a long time — and he was such a professional," manager Carlos Mendoza said.

"He was always willing to take the baseball. And when it was hard for him, going through his struggles and things like that, he was always available. He always wanted to be there. But we got to the point where we needed to make a decision.”

Diekman has struck out 40 batters and walked 24 in 32 innings. He is 27-34 with a 3.91 ERA and 19 saves over 13 major league seasons with nine teams.

New York has seven days to trade, release or send him outright to the minors, an assignment he would have the right to refuse in favor of free agency.

Gage was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash on July 7 and will be looking to make his first big league appearance of the season. He is 0-1 with a 1.83 ERA in 16 games and 19 2/3 innings with Toronto (2022) and Houston (2023).

The 31-year-old Gage grew up about 200 miles from Citi Field in upstate New York and attended Siena College just outside Albany. He had three saves in five outings with Syracuse, striking out seven and walking two in 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

“Throws over the top. The two-seam, the cutter, can get righties, lefties," Mendoza said. "Been watching film obviously since we got him a couple of weeks ago. So yeah, he's here, ready to go, and he'll get opportunities.”

Depleted by a rash of injuries, New York's bullpen has been in constant flux all season as president of baseball operations David Stearns tries to improve a shaky unit. Veteran right-handers Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek were obtained in trades this month.

“We've been dealing with it the whole year. It always happens. It's always evolving, you're always looking for the next guy and how can you get better?" Mendoza said. "It's been a little bit of a challenge, to be honest with you. But, trust the guys that we've got in there and we'll continue to give them opportunities.”

Of the eight relievers on the Mets' opening day roster, Adam Ottavino and closer Edwin Díaz are the only ones who remain in their bullpen. New York has blown 16 of 44 save chances, and a major league-high nine pitchers have earned a save this season — tied for the second most in franchise history.

The Mets rank 19th in the majors with a 4.09 bullpen ERA, but that number is 3.08 in 38 innings since the All-Star break.

Still, the Mets began the day holding the final wild-card spot in a crowded National League playoff race.

“You've got to get familiar with a lot of these guys that, you don't know how comfortable they are either going back-to-back, going multiple innings, how quick they recover," Mendoza said. "Situations in the game — you would like to give them a clean inning, or bring them in with runners on. So there's a lot to learn here from a lot of these guys that you're not really familiar with, and that's kind of been the biggest thing.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Pope arrives in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea with a ton of humanitarian aid and toys

2024-09-08 15:48 Last Updated At：15:51

VANIMO, Papua New Guinea (AP) — Pope Francis traveled to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to celebrate the Catholic Church of the peripheries, bringing with him a ton of medicine, musical instruments and a message of love for the people who live there.

Francis flew aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo, on the northwest coast of the South Pacific nation. There, Francis met with the local Catholic community and the missionaries from his native Argentina who have been ministering to them.

A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral singing and dancing when Francis arrived, and he promptly put on a feathered headdress that had been presented to him.

In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he urged the faithful to work closer to home at being good to one another and putting an end to the tribal rivalries and violence that are a regular part of the culture in Papua New Guinea.

He urged them to be like an orchestra, so that all members of the community come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.

Doing so, he said, would help to end personal, family and tribal divisions “to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters, even in this country.”

It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other disputes that have long characterized the country’s culture but have grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based violence, and for a sense of civic responsibility and cooperation to prevail.

Francis had started the day with a Mass before an estimated 35,000 people at the stadium in the capital, Port Moresby. Dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performed to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.

In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.

“You who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”

Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.

Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill of being remote. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, where the jungle meets the sea, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.

Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan but was prevented from going because of his poor health.

Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places.

The Rev. Martin Prado, an Argentine missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word religious order, is credited with having invited the pope to come to Vanimo.

As he waited for Francis to arrive Sunday, he recounted for reporters the “crazy” story of how he accompanied a group of Vanimo parishioners to Rome in 2019, and ended up scoring an audience with the pope after his parishioners insisted that they wanted to give him some gifts.

Prado, who has spent the last 10 of his 36 years working as a missionary in Vanimo, said he wrote a note, left it for the pope at the Vatican hotel where he lives, and the next day received an email from Francis' secretary inviting his group in.

“I invited him, but he wanted to come,” Prado said. “He has a big heart for people. It’s not just words, he does what he says.”

Prado said some people deep in the interior of the diocese, in the jungle where cars have yet to arrive, need clothes and for them a plate of rice and tuna fish “is glorious.”

Francis was bringing medicine, musical instruments and toys, the Vatican said. Prado said he was also helping to build a new secondary school. Prado said half of the children of the diocese are unable to go to high school since there simply aren’t enough spots for them.

The event had a very Argentine flair to it: On the stage was a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, the beloved patron of Argentina who is particularly dear to Francis and whose name also graces the local girls' school. When Francis met privately after the event with the nuns and missionary priests, they served him mate, the Argentine tea.

There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animism and sorcery.

On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”

“I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.