Having clinched a winning road trip with a victory on Friday in New York, the Los Angeles Dodgers can win yet another series when they face the Mets on Saturday.

The two-time defending World Series champions own the best record in Major League Baseball at 66-38. The Dodgers, who lost five of seven heading into the All-Star break, have taken five of seven since play resumed after defeating the Mets 4-2 in the series opener.

As for the Mets, they may have more bad news from the Friday game than just their third loss in four games.

All-Star Juan Soto, who leads the National League in on-base percentage (.408) and on-base-plus slugging percentage (.947), could miss some time after leaving the game early due to left calf soreness. New York kept him out of the game on Wednesday in hopes that having two days off would alleviate that issue.

Soto was scheduled for an MRI and likely will be out of the lineup on Saturday in a contest that will pit Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-6, 2.78 ERA) against Mets rookie Nolan McLean (7-6, 3.34). It will be an encore of the teams’ April 14 game in Los Angeles, when the pitchers squared off.

Both right-handers dominated, but neither earned a decision as the Dodgers won 2-1 following an eighth-inning single by Kyle Tucker off reliever Brooks Raley.

That’s been one of the fewer-than-expected bright spots this season for Tucker, signed by the Dodgers to a four-year, $240 million deal in the offseason. He is batting .240, which would be the lowest full-season average of his big-league career.

Tucker had another big moment on Friday as he hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a couple of insurance runs. He finished 2-for-3 with a walk in the win, giving him eight homers and 50 RBIs in 97 games. He hit 22 home runs and drove in 73 last season in 136 games for the Chicago Cubs.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tucker’s performance on Friday could signal a breakthrough.

“It’s coming,” he said. “It hasn’t been as consistent or as fast as we’d like, but he’s still going through it. He’s still working hard and to see some success tonight was a good thing for him.”

Yamamoto will be looking for his first win against the Mets. In two starts, he’s allowed five runs (four earned) on 11 hits and two walks in 13 2/3 innings. He struck out 16.

In the April clash against McLean, Yamamoto allowed just four hits and a walk in 7 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and Yamamoto’s only blemish was a solo home run to Francisco Lindor.

McLean has four wins in his past six starts. In his April start against Los Angeles, he struck out eight in seven innings three months ago, allowing a run on two hits and two walks.

As for Soto, interim manager Andy Green said he needed to see the MRI results to determine whether he needs to make a short- or long-term decision about his lineuop.

“We’ll wait [until Saturday] and figure out what we’re dealing with,” Green told reporters after the game.

Should Soto miss multiple games, it could open up an opportunity for Luis Robert Jr. to become a bigger part of the offense. The center fielder returned to the team earlier this week after a herniated disc kept him off the field for nearly three months.

On Friday, Robert, who hit a career-high 38 home runs for the Chicago White Sox in 2023, hit his fourth home run of the season and second in three games.

–Field Level Media

The Cincinnati Reds know they face a tough road to potentially get into the playoffs. They sit six games behind Arizona in the National League wild-card race, as the Diamondbacks hold the final spot, with five other teams between them.

But with three straight wins and five in seven games since the All-Star break, the Reds want to keep the good times rolling Saturday night in the second game of three contests against the host St. Louis Cardinals.

Cincinnati won 4-2 in the series opener on Friday, with Eugenio Suarez delivering a two-run home run in the seventh inning to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 advantage.

The Reds added an insurance run in the ninth.

“We want to win as many games as possible and see what kind of situation we can put ourselves in by the deadline,” said closer Emilio Pagan, who tossed a perfect ninth to earn the save. “From there, go on a run. We’re behind the eight-ball, but we also know what we can do if we play the game the right way.”

It’s the Reds’ first three-game winning streak since May 23-26, part of a run that saw the club emerge victorious five times in a seven-game stretch.

The hill to climb into playoff contention will be tough, but the Reds will have a chance to help control their destiny thanks to their schedule. Series against the Diamondbacks and each of the five teams in between them in the playoff race, including a five-gamer against the Cardinals, are on tap over the final two months of the season.

St. Louis trails Arizona by 2 1/2 games in the wild-card chase.

“Anything can happen in baseball, so we’ve just got to continue to show up, keep doing what we’re doing, and who knows what can happen?” Reds left-fielder JJ Bleday said. “We put ourselves in a good spot. … We’re playing some good baseball.”

Right-hander Hunter Greene (2-1, 6.06 ERA) will start for Cincinnati on Saturday. He is 2-4 with a 3.23 ERA in nine career starts against St. Louis.

The Cardinals head into the middle contest of the series looking to get their bats going. On Friday, they didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning when, with Ivan Herrera (hit by pitch) and Nathan Church (walk) on, Blaze Jordan doubled to put his team ahead 2-1.

St. Louis would manage just one other hit the rest of the way — another double, from Jimmy Crooks in the eighth.

“We have to get back to just taking some really tough at-bats,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Regardless of the result, just the style of the at-bat. We haven’t done that as of late, and it’s led to the score being what it is at the end of nine. So we need to get back to that quicker.”

The Cardinals have lost seven of their past nine games.

They got a solid outing from starter Dustin May on Friday, with May striking out eight while giving up just one run on seven hits. St. Louis will hope for more of the same from right-hander Andre Pallante (10-6, 4.02 ERA) on Saturday.

Pallante has fared well against the Reds in his career, going 7-4 with a 2.41 ERA in 20 career appearances (10 starts), including 52 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

Restricted free-agent forward Cole Sillinger avoided arbitration by signing a three-year, $13.875 million contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The deal, announced Saturday, spans through the 2028-29 season.

The move comes one day after the Blue Jackets avoided arbitration by signing goaltender Jet Greaves to a three-year, $15 million contract.

“Cole is a hard-working, reliable two-way forward who plays the game the right way, has outstanding character and continues to grow and improve,” said Don Waddell, Blue Jackets’ president of hockey operations and general manager.

“He has played a lot of games in this league at a very young age, and we are excited about his future and his contributions to our organization.”

Sillinger, 23, recorded 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) and a plus-2 rating in 81 games last season with the Blue Jackets. He was playing in the last season of a two-year, $4.5 million contract.

Sillinger has totaled 140 points (51 goals, 89 assists) in 367 career games since being selected by Columbus with the 12th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft.

–Field Level Media