Semien hits tiebreaking HR against old team and Baty adds pinch-hit slam as Mets beat Rangers 7-2

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Marcus Semien hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning against his former team and Brett Baty added a pinch-hit grand slam in the ninth as the New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 7-2 on Wednesday night.

Rookie right-hander Nolan McLean (12-10) allowed two runs and three hits over seven innings for the last-place Mets (73-85), who have won both games in Texas since ex-interim manager Andy Green was given the full-time position Tuesday.

The Rangers (78-80) have lost three consecutive games and trail first-place Houston by a half-game in the AL West, with the Astros playing later in Seattle. They own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Texas if the teams finish with the same record.

Semien, traded by the Rangers to the Mets last November for Brandon Nimmo, launched his 15th homer this season off All-Star closer Jacob Latz (3-4) to give New York a 3-2 lead. Semien’s first homer since Aug. 7 snapped an 0-for-13 slump.

Latz entered with two on and one out in the seventh, the first time he’s appeared before the eighth inning since April 12.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the third when Juan Soto followed Francisco Lindor’s two-out single with his 27th home run off starter Cody Bradford. It was Soto’s sixth homer this year against left-handed pitching.

After that, Soto was intentionally walked three times — twice with runners on first and second and a left-hander on the mound.

Texas tied the score at 2 in the fifth after McLean retired the Rangers’ first 12 batters. Nimmo, who spent 10 seasons with the Mets, led off with a sharp single to right field. He advanced to second on Ezequiel Duran’s groundout and scored on Jake Burger’s single. Evan Carter drove in the tying run when he beat out a potential double-play grounder.

New York left the bases loaded in the fifth and seventh after Soto was intentionally walked. He was given another free pass with first base open and two outs in the ninth, but Bo Bichette then walked against Trevor Williams to load the bases before Baty went deep.

Rookie LHP Zac Thornton (5-5, 3.40 ERA) starts the series finale Thursday afternoon as the Mets look for a three-game sweep. RHP Kumar Rocker (5-11, 4.47) pitches for Texas.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Texas Rangers' Jake Burger, left, celebrates scoring on an Evan Carter force out grounder during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Texas Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford jumps to catch a fly out against New York Mets' Francisco Alvarez during the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

New York Mets' Juan Soto runs the bases after hitting an two homer during the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob Latz looks on after giving up a home run to New York Mets' Marcus Semien during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

New York Mets' Marcus Semien (10) is congratulated by third base coach Jacob Latz as Semien runs the bases on a solo home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday he was was extremely concerned about OpenAI 's breach of an Australian health department website that the artificial intelligence company took too long to reveal.

An OpenAI agent infiltrated the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal on July 18, he said. The portal hosted aggregate data about health spending and drug subsidies and is popular with researchers and academics. No personal information had been accessed, the government said.

Albanese made the breach public following a telephone conversation with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Both are in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.

Altman was among heads of major AI firms who in speeches Wednesday pleaded with the United Nations to save the world or at least its people by somehow regulating the fast-expanding technology that they have been designing.

“Today I spoke with … Altman to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident,” Albanese told reporters. “I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred and the nature of the way that notification occurred as well was unacceptable."

OpenAI said in a statement it had reviewed activity involving several Australian government departments and discovered “our models took actions we did not intend.”

OpenAI notified Australia of the breach in an email to a government department’s generic address on Sept. 10, Albanese said.

An inquiry looking into the security breach would examine whether OpenAI could be criminally charged, Albanese said. The inquiry would also investigate how Australian security agencies failed to detect the breach before OpenAI revealed it.

Albanese said he assumed there were commercial reasons for the AI investigation of how much was being spent on particular medicines and where expenditures were changing.

Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher said OpenAI had advised on Sept. 10 that an “AI agent had accessed infrastructure behind the public-facing” portal. OpenAI shared with the government the vulnerability the agent had found.

The Australian government had not been confident that it knew what the agent had been doing until officials held a technical briefing with OpenAI on Tuesday, Gallagher said.

She said the portal had been closed and the data moved to more secure systems.

OpenAI said last week it was introducing a new framework for tracking, investigating and disclosing instances of what it called “misalignment,” including cases where AI models acted without authorization, coordinated with other models or evaded oversight.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the incident was the first time that an AI agent was known to have gained unauthorized access to the Australian government’s information technology systems.

“This is a warning about the technology being developed without safeguards and without guardrails in place,” Marles said.

OpenAI was engaging with the government but the situation was “fundamentally unacceptable,” Marles said.

When the agent was denied information, it engaged is “misaligned behavior” to gain unauthorized access, he said.

Marles said the information accessed was “not particularly sensitive” and had since been made public.

Marles used an analogy of the information sitting behind a fence.

“It was not sitting behind a particularly high fence. This AI agent scaled the fence ... and the point is it was unintended. It wasn’t asked to. That’s our concern here,” Marles said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addresses the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on, April 30, 2025. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)