COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

  METS 5 – MARLINS 4 – 10 INNINGS The New York Mets got a little help from the Washington Nationals, then went ahead and helped themselves to a much needed victory. The Mets defeated the Miami Marlins last night 5-4 in an extra inning thriller, just moments after the Nationals finished off the Atlanta Braves 3-2 down in D.C. That means the Mets are back in first place in the NL East by one whole game. Now the attention turns to a critical three-game series down in Atlanta between the Mets and Braves that will all but determine who wins the NL East. The Mets trailed 4-0 in the seventh inning when Eduardo Escobar played the role of hero. Escobar crushed a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to get the Mets back into it at 4-2. Later, in the eighth inning, Escobar reached on an soft single to left as the Marlins throw into home was wide, allowing both Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo to score, tying it at four. After Adam Ottavino, Edwin Diaz and Drew Smith combine...

  Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris with home run number 61 last night in Toronto. Six games after tying Babe Ruth with 60 home runs, Judge finally got around on a pitch in the top of the seventh inning — in a game that was tied at three — and crushed it into the bullpen in left. Not only was it the home run that tied Judge with Roger Maris for the most home runs by an American League hitter and a Yankee in a single season, it gave New York a 5-3 lead.   The Yankees would win 8-3. But this was all about Judge and his pursuit of history. “When I hit it, I thought I got enough, but it’s been a couple of games since I did that,” Judge said. Judge’s mother was seated next to Roger Maris Jr. The two of them embraced. Later Judge and Maris Jr. met after the game to talk about it.    “As soon as he hit it I was like ‘OK, that’s gone,'” Maris Jr. said. “Then it was just a matter of enjoying him run the bases and giving his mom a big old hug and just enjoying the...

 METS 13 - ATHLETICS 4  The New York Mets maintained their lead of 1.5 games over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East by putting away the Oakland A's 13-4 on Sunday in a series that was defined by the Mets ability to score early and often in two of the three games.  Moreover Pete Alonso drove in five runs to give the slugging first baseman 125 RBI on the year setting a new club record for RBI in a season. The previous mark of 124 belonged to Mike Piazza (1999) and David Wright (2008).  With nine games left in the regular season, Alonso is going to obliterate that record; he has enough time to challenge 135 or 140 RBI when its all said and done in a couple weeks.  Alonso cracked a two-run homer to straight away center field that highlighted a four-run fourth inning for the Amazin's as New York took a 7-0 lead. Later, he cleared the bases on a three-run double to put the Mets up 11-1 in the eighth inning.    Alonso hit safely in every game of this series,...

 BENGALS 27 - JETS 12  So much for all that momentum from last week's historically bizarre victory at Cleveland. The Jets fell back to their script from Week 1 as they struggled on both sides of the ball as the Cincinnati Bengals blew them away 27-12 in a game that wasn't even that close.  The Jets struggled to establish anything up front. Defensively they struggled to get enough pressure on Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow who picked them apart for 275 yards and three touchdowns.  On the flip side, Joe Flacco was under siege all day.  The Jets couldn't run the football, and couldn't pass protect for Flacco, who was sacked four times and tossed two interceptions. New York turned the ball over four times against the Bengals.  Cincinnati sent a huge message on the opening drive when Burrow tore up the Jets on an 11-play, 75 yard drive that included three third down conversions. In fact the final play of the drive was on third down and goal when Burrow rolled ou...

 It was night full of "smiles" as the Mets beat up on the hapless Oakland A's 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday night.   For starters, the Mets thoroughly dominated the A's in a game that wasn't even close. New York jumped out to a 3-0 second inning lead on RBI base hits by Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo.    Later Eduardo Escobar put the game away in the fifth inning when he lined a pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam homer to put the Mets up 7-0. Escobar has been killing it with the bat of late. He is hitting .329 with seven homers and 17 RBI at a time when the Mets are without Starling Marte (hand injury). Escobar's September surge is a huge need for a ballclub that is trying to hold off the Atlanta Braves.  Speaking of the Braves, they fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 9-1 on Friday, meaning New York holds a 2.5 game lead in the NL East. But the Mets weren't the only ones smiling in Oakland last night. During the early stages of the game...

 Aaron Judge remains at 60 home runs on the season, but the Yankees keep winning ball games, taking care of the Red Sox, for the second straight night, 5-4 at the Stadium. The Bronx Bombers have now won five in a row.  Judge went 1-for-4 with a couple of strikeouts in a game that was exclusively broadcast on Apple TV+ drawing the expected hand-wringing from fans who don't have access to the $4.99 a month streamer.  Albert Pujols however, gave Apple it's money's worth blasting home runs 699 and 700 last night in Los Angeles.  Instead of Judge, it was Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres in the starring role for the Bombers on Friday night.  Hicks homered in the third and drove in a run in the fifth to help New York build a 2-1 lead. Later a double by Torres, assisted by a two-base error by Boston brought home Marwin Gonzalez and Hicks to make it a 4-1 game.  Things would get interesting when Alex Verdugo cracked a three-run homer to tie the game at four in the top...

  It wasn’t pretty, but the Giants will surely settle for it. 2-0 is 2-0, and the Giants haven’t been there since 2016. On Sunday, the Giants pervaded 19-16 over the Carolina Panthers, who lost their ninth straight game dating back to last season. It was ugly, but head coach Brian Daboll will take it. “Whether you score a lot or not, it’s important to figure out ways to win games,” Daboll said. “You can win a game a variety of ways, and also lose it a lot of ways. Again, the object of the game is to have one more point and to give yourself a chance in the fourth quarter.” Even though his completion percentage was solid (22-of-34) Daniel Jones had a rough day at the office; sacked three times and hit nearly a dozen times. He didn’t have much time in the pocket. Saquon Barkley also had a slow day. At one point Barkley had only three yards on five carries in the first half. He would finish with 72 yards on 21 carries. However when it mattered, the Giants got the job done....

 GIANTS 21 – TITANS 20 Maybe the New York Giants aren’t all the way back. They still got a long way to go. But the facts are on Sunday, the Giants showed their fans and the entire NFL what a rebuild is supposed to look like. They found themselves down 13-0, never gave up, hung tough and found a way, multiple ways to come away with a thrilling 21-20 victory. It was the first time the Giants won on Opening Day since 2016, the last year they made the playoffs. In recent years the Giants would have gladly folded the tents. But not this team. Not under new Head Coach Brian Daboll, who was part of a restored winning culture in Buffalo. And it also helped that the Giants appear to have the Saquon Barkley from 2018 back. Barkley owned the moment rushing for 164 yards, a touchdown and the game-winning two point conversion. In fact it was Barkley’s 68-yard run with 12:45 to go in the third quarter that really turned the game around. Two plays after that gallop, Barkley hit pay...

 RAVENS 24 - JETS 9  In short the opener to the 2022 season for the New York Jets was a complete and utter disaster.  A team that came into the season with the promise of better days ahead, a team that had taken on so many kudos in the off-season for what so many in the media had claimed was an impeccable off-season and draft, came out flat as a pancake when it mattered the most.  If this was a debut of what is to come for the Jets in 2022, you better start preparing your 2023 draft boards.  Sunday's 24-9 loss wasn't just a defeat at the hands of a better team, it was a total indictment of the Jets current predicament.  The Jets offensive line, which has been battered and beaten this summer with the losses of Meckhi Becton and Duane Brown looked like a sieve on Sunday. Joe Flacco, who is not exactly fleet of foot, was under siege all afternoon. The fact he came out of Sunday's game having been sacked only three times was a miracle in itself.  George Fa...

 The 2022 season has already begun and we cannot wait. If Thursday's Bills smackdown of the LA Rams on the night they celebrated their Super Bowl Championship is any indication, it's going to be a wild one.  The Jets and Giants of course enter the year with plenty of questions. Check out my story on FoxSports New Jersey for more! 

 While the Yankees are struggling on the field right now, i.e. their latest 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, which has turned the AL East into a dog fight; the Bombers honored Hall of Famer Derek Jeter at the Stadium last night.  It was steering ceremony as the Captain made his return to the stadium he built to address the generation of fans who saw him help lead the Yankees to five World Series titles from 1996 to 2009.  Jeter defined the Yankees at the turn of the century.  His success in October and ability to come up big in the big spot served as the linchpin to the Yankees glorious past to the modern day Yankees fan, many of whom are in their late 30s/early 40s at this point.  During his speech, Jeter offered a thanks to Brian Cashman, Hal Steinbernner and the Yankees front office, to which the fans booed. Jeter joked, "Guess you guys are ready for the postseason run."  If anyone knows how passionate the Yankee fan is, it's Jeter. He knows they want to ...

  It was fun while it lasted. ( As seen on Fox Sports NJ ).  After 155 days in first place, the Mets are now looking up in the standings after suffering an hideous 6-3 loss to the Miami Marlins on Friday night. Coupled with Atlanta’s 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners, and the Mets are now in second place, a half game out.  Can the Mets change things? Sure they can, but the feeling that this would be a season destined for postseason success, now feels like an opportunity quickly slipping away. The Mets never led. Miami jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back. The closest the Mets came to storming back came in the sixth inning when Pete Alonso crushed a two-run homer to bring the Mets to within a run, 4-3. In the seventh inning the Mets had the bases loaded with one out, but Francisco Lindor grounded into an inning end, and game killing, double-play. The look of dejection in the dugout was real. Coupled and made worse when Joely Rodriguez served up a two-run homer to...

 So much for the speculation that Zach Wilson was close to returning to the field for the New York Jets.  Joe Flacco will instead start on Sunday when Gang Green takes on Flacco's old team, the Baltimore Ravens at MetLife Stadium.  The decision was announced by Head Coach Robert Saleh on Wednesday. Oddly enough it comes just two days after Saleh indicated that Wilson, who is coming off of arthroscopic surgery to his knee to repair a torn meniscus, would be ready for the opener if he showed positive signs this week.  Instead Saleh confirmed that Wilson is still not 100 percent, and would be out three more weeks until at least Week 4 when the Jets visit Pittsburgh.  So it will be up to Flacco to lead this team to open the season. Ironically it all comes against teams Flacco is familiar with, the AFC North.  It will be Flacco's first opening day start since 2019 with Denver and his first start for the Jets since 2020 when he started in a loss at the LA Charger...

  As I wrote for Fox Sports New Jersey .  As if things couldn’t get more difficult for the New York Mets, it was announced before Wednesday’s double-header in Pittsburgh that starting pitcher Max Scherzer is heading back to the Injury List with left side irritation. Both Scherzer and manager Buck Schowalter downplayed the injury as not that serious — or not as serious as the left oblique strain that kept the former Cy Young Award winner sidelined for seven weeks earlier this year. “I don’t have one specific spot that you can point to where that hurts,” Scherzer said. “It’s just general fatigue on the whole left side.” The Mets expect Scherzer to miss Friday’s scheduled start in Miami. He could miss a second next week when the Mets play host to the Cubs and Pirates at Citi Field.  The 38-year old Scherzer is 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA in 20 starts this season. The Mets (85-51) have lost three straight and find themselves in a dog fight for the NL East as the Atlan...

 According to Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh there is a chance that quarterback Zach Wilson could be in line to start on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.  Saleh made the surprising revelation to reporters during his Monday Zoom press conference, in which he stated that the team put Wilson through some strenuous workouts, and all went well.  If Wilson's knee responds well come Tuesday the Jets will at least consider the possibility that last year's second overall pick could open the season under center.  That is a stark contrast from where the Jets thought Wilson would be just three weeks ago when he initially suffered a bone bruise and slight tear of his meniscus which needed surgery.   The timetable was four weeks, and many believe that if there is doubt that veteran Joe Flacco would get the call to start against the Ravens.  Obviously the Jets have a lot invested in Wilson, and rushing him into the opening game against the Ravens would be considere...

  Aaron Judge continues to be a one-man wrecking crew. And considering how hard it has been for the Yankees to score runs lately, they need Judge to be at the top of his game. With Monday's Labor Day Matinee knotted up at two a piece, it was Judge who provided the ruling when he crushed a 3-1 slider from Tevor Megill, and planted it in the second deck down the left field line. Yankees 3, Twins 2. The Yanks would never look back.   The blast was Judge's 54 of the season and his third consecutive game with a homer. He is still well on pace to shatter the Yankees single season home run record of 61 by Roger Maris. And in some eyes, he's got an outside chance to chasing down steroid users like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. “Just trying to do what I can every single day,” Judge said. “I show up to work, prepared ready to go and do whatever it takes to help our team what it takes to get a win today. Whether it’s moving a guy over, driving a guy in, making a play on ...