Mets add McNeil to NLCS roster while Dodgers drop Vesia and Rojas, add Kiermaier and Honeywell

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeff McNeil was added to the New York Mets' roster for the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers after recovering from a broken right wrist.

Pitcher Alex Vesia and infielder Miguel Rojas were left off the Dodgers’ roster for the series that started Sunday while outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and pitcher Brent Honeywell were inserted after they sat out the NLDS.

McNeil's wrist was broken Sept. 6 when hit by a pitch from Cincinnati’s Brandon Williamson. McNeil returned to action this weekend for Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League. He went 1 for 4 with a walk while playing second base on Friday and 1 for 5 with an RBI single while playing right field on Saturday.

“Just wanted to get through it healthy. Just didn’t want any pain. The wrist felt good,” McNeil said. “I took a really good at-bat, too, my first AB. I think it was six, seven-pitch at-bat and got a base hit. Felt really good. Kind of felt like myself. So as long as I felt good swinging the bat with no pain, I wanted to be here.”

McNeil, the 2022 major league batting champion, was born and raised in Santa Barbara, about two hours from Dodger Stadium where he attended games growing up as a Dodgers fan.

“I remember when I got called up in 2018, this is one of the first places I got to play,” he said. “It was pretty cool and special for me to play in this ballpark.”

Right-handed reliever Adam Ottavino was dropped from the Mets' roster.

Vesia felt cramping in his rib cage while warming up for the eighth inning during Friday’s 2-0 win over San Diego in Game 5 of the Division Series. The 28-year-old had an MRI and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said it was an intercostal injury.

“I think he’s still in play if we are fortunate enough to get to the World Series,” Roberts said.

Vesia's absence left Anthony Banda as the only left-handed pitcher on the Dodgers roster.

Rojas has been dealing with a left-thigh strain that caused him to miss the final two games against the Padres. He was replaced by Kiké Hernández, who had three hits in those two games, including a solo homer in Game 5.

“He's obviously a huge part of our ballclub,” Roberts said. “He’s playable, but I think we just, as an organization, felt that what he brings to the table as far as elite shortstop defense, we just feel right now physically he’s a little bit more compromised.”

Tommy Edman will start at shortstop throughout the NLCS, Roberts said. He was acquired from St. Louis at the July 30 trade deadline.

Kiermaier was acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline and Honeywell was claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh on July 13.

All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman was in the Dodgers' lineup for Game 1, set to bat third. He has been hobbling with a sprained right ankle that limited him in the NLDS.

“It’s better than yesterday,” Roberts said. “I’m expecting him to start and finish the game. But if we have to defensive replace, we will.”

The Dodgers are carrying 13 pitchers and 13 position players.

New York kept rookie infielder Luisangel Acuña, a brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr. The Mets have 12 pitchers.

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

New York Mets' Jeff McNeil speaks during a news conference prior to Game 1 of a baseball NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The New York Mets celebrate after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate off the mound after defeating the San Diego Padres in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Mookie Betts, left, and manager Dave Roberts greet each other during practice in preparation for Game 1 of a baseball NL Championship Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that did not deter a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing as dawn broke.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday — but after that, the days get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture. Its full purpose is still debated: Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or some combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archaeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University said the site on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, may have had political as well as spiritual significance.

That follows from the recent discovery that one of Stonehenge’s stones — the unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument, dubbed the “altar stone” — originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west,

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”

People take part in the winter solstice celebrations during sunrise at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (James Manning/PA via AP)

People take part in the winter solstice celebrations during sunrise at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (James Manning/PA via AP)