NEW YORK (AP) — Cody Bellinger watched Juan Soto hit a sinking line drive, charged in a few steps from left field and stuck out his arm as the ball dropped into the webbing of his glove.
Then in one motion, Bellinger made a 89.9 mph throw on the fly throw to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt that doubled up Francisco Lindor, who didn’t slide.
“That was incredible,” Aaron Judge said Sunday after the Yankees stopped a six-game losing streak with a 6-4 win over the Mets. “I’ve never seen something like that on the field. To come in, especially a guy like Soto, I’ve seen him hit so many line drives over outfielders heads when they come in too hard.”
Soto’s 105 mph liner against Mark Leiter Jr. had an expected batting average of .730. Bellinger was making his 31st start this season in left field and 68th career start there after playing first base for the first time this season on Saturday.
“It was a hard-hit ball,” Bellinger said. “It’s just trying to get the best read possible and I saw it in the air and had a really good bead on it. So, I was just glad I was able to make the play. So when I looked up, I saw Goldie with his glove high, so I tried to make a good throw.”
Bellinger won a Gold Glove in 2019 as a right fielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“To make that play was a game changing play, potentially a game-winning play for us,” Goldschmidt said.
The Mets challenged the catch, hoping the ball was trapped.
“I felt I caught it,” Bellinger said. “I feel like you can tell if it hits the ground first. I feel like I caught it from the jump.”
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he was willing to challenge because he knew he would get another review in the final two innings.
“Pretty incredible play there,” Mendoza said. “Probably the play of the game.”
Bellinger’s pivotal catch was the second of three double plays in consecutive innings by a Yankees’ defense that had been shaky of late.
“Just what a play,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Considering the context of this week and everything, that’s probably the play of the year so far and to have the wherewithal and the quality of the throw to double them off, just a great play.”
Hayden Senger grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the sixth, and Judge followed with his catch. Goldschmidt turned an unassisted double play in the eighth, gloving Brett Baty’s hard grounder, tagging Ronny Mauricio and stepping on first base.
Judge hit his 33rd homer in the fifth and had a tumbling catch on Starling Marte flare to right that to end the sixth.
Bellinger started in left field after rookie Jasson Domínguez experienced some shaky moments in the first two games.
On Friday, Domínguez initially broke in on Brandon Nimmo’s liner and the ball went over him for a leadoff double before Soto hit a two-run homer. On Saturday, Marte hit an RBI single that went over Domínguez.
Domínguez has made 59 starts in first full season in left field after playing 13 games in left during the final month of last season.
Top prospect Spencer Jones, the Yankees' top pick in the 2022 amateur draft, made six starts in left field with Double-A Somerset and has made another start since his promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre.
Jones hit a go-ahead, 445-foot, three-run homer in Sunday's 9-6 win over Lehigh Valley and is hitting .375 with four homers and eight RBIs in eight games with the RailRiders.
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New York Yankees' Cody Bellinger, right, hits a foul ball during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, July 5, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.
Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.
The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.
The latest:
Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.
As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.
Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.
Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”
As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.
Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.
Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.
“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.
He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.
Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.
The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.
Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.
The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.
Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”
The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.
Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”
Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.
“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.
He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.
The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
