
Mets’ gutsy Paul Blackburn decision is latest glimpse of David Stearns’ vision flourishing
NY Post
What stands out, Jeremy Hefner relates, is how natural the decision felt. The Mets needed an extra starter in the midst of playing 10 straight days to give all the mainstays an extra day’s rest, notably Kodai Senga. Paul Blackburn was ready.
So Blackburn was inserted to make his 2025 debut Monday night against the highest-scoring team in the majors at Dodger Stadium.
“[Facing the Dodgers] didn’t even come up in the conversation,” said Hefner, the Mets pitching coach.
There are many reasons that the Mets, with a 5-3 triumph Sunday over the Bad News Rockies, completed a 7-2 homestand and improved to an MLB-best 24-7 at home and at 37-22 were a season-high 15 games over .500 and were tied for the National League’s best record. But it begins at the start.

Cade Cunningham, almost inarguably the best player in the East this season, is likely out for the remainder of the regular season. That’s the word out of Detroit following the depressing news that Cunningham punctured a lung when he took a knee to his side Tuesday from Washington’s Tre Johnson while chasing a loose ball.

Wednesday was another positive day at Yankees camp. For the first time since March 6, 2025 — an outing in which he knew “something wasn’t right,” which began a weeks-long saga that ended on the operating table for Tommy John surgery — Gerrit Cole was back on a mound and facing hitters in game action.











