NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto homered twice and the New York Mets finally got some production from the bottom of the lineup, beating the Atlanta Braves 7-3 on Wednesday night for their first victory over their NL East rivals in six meetings this season.
No. 8 batter Ronny Mauricio also went deep and finished with three hits as New York won for only the second time in 12 games. Center fielder Jeff McNeil robbed Marcell Ozuna of a two-run homer in the first inning.
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New York Mets' Clay Holmes pitches during the second inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The New York Mets celebrate after a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Jeff McNeil (1) catches a ball hit by Atlanta Braves' Marcell Ozuna for an out during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Juan Soto follows through on a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Clay Holmes (8-4) pitched around four walks in five innings after issuing a career-high six free passes during a loss at Atlanta last week. The converted reliever allowed only a solo homer by rookie Drake Baldwin in the fourth.
One night after blowing a 3-0 lead, the Mets' bullpen followed Holmes with three scoreless innings. Jonathan Pintaro, making his major league debut, gave up a two-run single to Ronald Acuña Jr. in the ninth before Edwin Díaz retired Ozuna with two on for his 16th save in 17 opportunities.
With the score tied 1-all, Soto sparked a five-run fourth when he homered to right-center on the first pitch of the inning from Didier Fuentes (0-2), who was making his second big league start.
Brett Baty and Brandon Nimmo each singled home a run during the rally. Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor both had a sacrifice fly.
Pitching eight days after his 20th birthday, Fuentes was charged with six runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Soto connected again leading off the seventh against Austin Cox to make it 7-1. It was the 27th career multihomer game and fourth this season for Soto, who has 10 home runs in 23 games this month.
Braves center fielder Michael Harris II robbed Lindor of a two-run homer with a spectacular leaping catch in the eighth.
With two on in the fifth, Holmes retired Ozuna and Austin Riley to end the inning.
Soto broke a tie with Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx for the most multihomer games by a player 26 or younger. ... Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson extended his on-base streak to a career-best 26 games — the longest active run in the majors.
Braves RHP Grant Holmes (3-6, 3.97 ERA) starts Thursday night against RHP Griffin Canning (7-3, 3.91) in the finale of the four-game series.
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New York Mets' Clay Holmes pitches during the second inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The New York Mets celebrate after a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Jeff McNeil (1) catches a ball hit by Atlanta Braves' Marcell Ozuna for an out during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Mets' Juan Soto follows through on a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Iran eased some restrictions on its people and, for the first time in days, allowed them to make phone calls abroad via their mobile phones on Tuesday. It did not ease restrictions on the internet or permit texting services to be restored as the death toll from days of bloody protests against the state rose to at least 2,000 people, according to activists.
Although Iranians were able to call abroad, people outside the country could not call them, several people in the capital told The Associated Press.
The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said SMS text messaging still was down and internet users inside Iran could not access anything abroad, although there were local connections to government-approved websites.
It was unclear if restrictions would ease further after authorities cut off all communications inside the country and to the outside world late Thursday.
Here is the latest:
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years, gave the latest death toll on Tuesday.
It said 1,847 of the dead were protesters and 135 were government-affiliated.
This came a day after the European Parliament announced it would ban Iranian diplomats and representatives.
“Iran does not seek enmity with the EU, but will reciprocate any restriction,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Tuesday.
He also criticized the European Parliament for not taking any significant action against Israel for the more than two-year war in Gaza that has killed more than 71,400 Palestinians, while banning Iranian diplomats after just “a few days of violent riots.”
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said he summoned Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands “to formally protest the excessive violence against peaceful protesters, large-scale arbitrary arrests, and internet shutdowns, calling for immediate restoration of internet access inside the Islamic Republic.
In a post on X, Weel also said the Dutch government supports EU sanctions against “human rights violators in Iran.”
The United Nations human rights chief is calling on Iranian authorities to immediately halt violence and repression against peaceful protesters, citing reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested in a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks.
“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday.
Alluding to a wave of protests in Iran in 2022, Türk said demonstrators have sought “fundamental changes” to governance in the country, “and once again, the authorities’ reaction is to inflict brutal force to repress legitimate demands for change.”
“This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue,” he added.
It was also “extremely worrying” to hear some public statements from judicial officials mentioning the prospect of the use of the death penalty against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings, Türk said.
“Iranians have the right to demonstrate peacefully. Their grievances need to be heard and addressed, and not instrumentalized by anyone,” Türk said.
Finland’s foreign minister says she is summoning the Iranian ambassador after authorities in Tehran restricted internet access.
“Iran’s regime has shut down the internet to be able to kill and oppress in silence," Elina Valtonen wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding, “this will not be tolerated. We stand with the people of Iran — women and men alike.”
Finland is “exploring measures to help restore freedom to the Iranian people” together with the European Union, Valtonen said.
Separately, Finnish police said they believe at least two people entered the courtyard of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki without permission Monday afternoon and tore down the Iranian flag. The embassy’s outer wall was also daubed with paint.
Iranian security forces arrested what a state television report described as terrorist groups linked to Israel in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
The report, without providing additional details, said the group entered through Iran’s eastern borders and carried U.S.-made guns and explosives that the group had planned to use in assassinations and acts of sabotage.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the allegations.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate hailed people who have “long warned about this repression, at great personal risk.”
“The protests in Iran cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy, in all aspects of public life including education. Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity,” Yousafzai wrote on X.
“(Iran’s) future must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls — not external forces or oppressive regimes,” she added.
Yousafzai was awarded the peace prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan. She is the youngest Nobel laureate.
The French Foreign Ministry said it has “reconfigured” its embassy in Tehran after reports that the facility's nonessential staff left Iran earlier this week.
The embassy's nonessential staff left the country Sunday and Monday, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.
The ambassador remained on site and the embassy continued to function, the ministry said late Monday night.
Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed from Paris.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believes the Iranian government is in its “final days and weeks,” as he renewed a call for Iranian authorities to end violence against demonstrators immediately.
“If a regime can only keep itself in power by force, then it’s effectively at the end,” Merz said Tuesday during a visit to Bengaluru, India. “I believe we are now seeing the final days and weeks of this regime. In any case, it has no legitimacy through elections in the population. The population is now rising up against this regime.”
Merz said he hoped there is “a possibility to end this conflict peacefully," adding that Germany is in close contact with the U.S. and European governments.
The Israeli military said it continues to be “on alert for surprise scenarios” due to the ongoing protests in Iran, but has not made any changes to guidelines for civilians, as it does prior to a concrete threat.
“The protests in Iran are an internal matter,” Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin wrote on X.
Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear program over the summer, resulting in a 12-day war that killed nearly 1,200 Iranians and almost 30 Israelis. Over the past week, Iran has threatened to attack Israel if Israel or the U.S. attacks.
Mobile phones in Iran were able to call abroad Tuesday after a crackdown on nationwide protests in which the internet and international calls were cut. Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press.
The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.
Witnesses said the internet remained cut off from the outside world. Iran cut off the internet and calls on Thursday as protests intensified.
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdownon the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
Protesters hold up placards and flags as they demonstrate outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Shiite Muslims hold placards and chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
People attend a rally in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)
A picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set alight by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
