NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets ended August with 177 runs and 53 homers, both franchise records for any month.
They also went 11-17, committed 16 errors and won just seven games not started by rookie pitchers who began the month in the minors.
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Miami Marlins' Otto Lopez (6) hits a sacrifice fly ball scoring Jakob Marsee during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets' Kodai Senga pauses before pitching during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga leaves a baseball game against the Miami Marlins during the fifth inning, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza (64) takes the ball from pitcher Kodai Senga (34) during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
“It’s not easy. Obviously, you don’t want to go through stretches like this, when you play well for a few games and then you don’t play well for a few games,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Sunday after his team's 5-1 loss to Miami.
The Mets dropped three of four to the Marlins, erasing any momentum they created with a rousing three-game sweep of the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the week.
New York is four games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the final National League wild card heading into its penultimate road trip of the season — a 10-game trek against a trio of contenders.
The Mets will conclude the trip with a three-game series in Cincinnati and a four-game set in Philadelphia after visiting the AL-leading Detroit Tigers. New York is 28-37 away from Citi Field this season and has just one road series win against a team that ended Sunday with a winning record.
“We push this one past us and look forward,” said Mark Vientos, who has eight homers in the last 14 games. “We take care of business on the road trip. We’ve got a couple good teams we’re playing and I’m confident that we’re going to do our thing.”
The Mets will hit the road seeking better starting pitching from the veterans in their rotation. Kodai Senga’s struggles continued Sunday, when he gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings. The right-hander said he is healthy, but Senga has a 5.90 ERA in nine starts since returning from a monthlong absence due to a strained right hamstring.
Mendoza would not commit to Senga taking his next turn in the Mets’ six-man rotation.
“I’m pretty sure we’re going to have some discussions about what’s next for him,” Mendoza said. “Our job is to get him right. But it’s been a struggle.”
While rookies Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong went 4-0 with a 1.07 ERA in their four starts, the rest of the rotation posted a 6.39 ERA in 112 2/3 innings in August. Senga and David Peterson gave up a combined 13 runs in 6 2/3 innings over the weekend following Tong’s debut Friday.
“I can’t speak for other guys,” Senga said through an interpreter. “I know they’re working their hardest to provide quality outings and so am I. It is frustrating.”
Peterson and McLean are the only Mets starters to complete seven innings since June 2 — a span in which New York has gone 35-42, the eighth-worst record in the majors.
“It’s a combination of a lot of different things, but starts on the mound — our starting rotation,” Mendoza said. “We’re going to continue to try and put the best guys out there, but understanding that we’ve got a few games ahead of us (where) we need to find that consistency.”
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Miami Marlins' Otto Lopez (6) hits a sacrifice fly ball scoring Jakob Marsee during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets' Kodai Senga pauses before pitching during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga leaves a baseball game against the Miami Marlins during the fifth inning, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza (64) takes the ball from pitcher Kodai Senga (34) during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.
Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.
The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.
In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.
Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.
Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.
“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.
Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.
Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."
Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.
The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.
“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.
The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.
The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.
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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.
Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
