Mickey Togs

Starling Marte was back Sunday night, giving the Mets their first “regular” lineup in four games. 

The veteran outfielder departed Tuesday’s game in San Diego with left quadriceps discomfort. On the same night, Pete Alonso was hit in the right hand by a pitch and forced to leave the game. 

Marte failed in attempts to talk his way back into the lineup Friday and Saturday, but Buck Showalter finally relented for the Mets’ 4-1 win in the series finale against the Angels. Alonso returned to the lineup two days earlier. 

Marte went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. 

“Marte is happy and we’ll see,” Showalter said. “We could have pushed the envelope the last couple of days. We just would like to get a feel where he is before the off day, but he’s ready to go.” 

Jeff McNeil returned to second base, after playing the previous two games in right field. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning are playing in the Stanley Cup Final for the third season in a row. With a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, the Lightning will face the Colorado Avalanche for the NHL’s top prize.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos played hero with a pair of goals, including the game-winner late in the third that banked in off his body after a great save by Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin. Beyond that, Andrei Vasilevskiy did what he does in elimination games, which is build a forcefield around his own net. Vasilevskiy didn’t have a massive workload, but he stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced, and he answered the bell when called upon.

Shesterkin did everything he could to force a Game 7 in New York, but his offense let him down for the final time in this series. Even on Tampa’s game-winning goal, Shesterkin made the save but was the victim of an unlucky bounce. Everywhere outside of the crease, the Rangers got thoroughly outplayed, and their five-on-five offense was non-existent. In the final four games of the series, New York scored just one five-on-five goal.

Applebee’s offers guests even more options with the nationwide launch of the new Impossible Cheeseburger.

The Impossible Cheeseburger features an Impossible Burger patty made from plants and comes topped with two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles on a brioche bun.

Additionally, you can swap an Impossible Burger patty in any of the brand’s Handcrafted Burgers for an upcharge of $1.99 and add a side of five boneless wings for $1.

It had been more than two weeks since the Yankees had allowed as many as six runs in a game, and when Nestor Cortes retired the first nine Twins batters he faced on Wednesday, that streak seemed sure to grow.

But in a rare clunker, Cortes and the Yankees faltered, losing 8-1, to end their seven-game winning streak.

The day started with manager Aaron Boone talking about Cortes’ chances of starting the All-Star game, based on the stellar beginning to his season, but the left-hander gave up a season-high four runs in 4 ¹/₃ innings.

Cortes entered with an MLB-best 1.50 ERA, and Wednesday marked the first time he has allowed more than three runs in a start since last season — a stretch of 19 straight outings.

“There’s gonna be ups and downs in a season,’’ Cortes said. “It’s whether you come back the next time and weather the storm.”

The loss to the Twins was also a rarity, as the Yankees had beaten Minnesota five times in a row, and nine out of their last 10 meetings. Since 2015, the Yankees were 30-10 versus Minnesota — but Boone wasn’t interested in those stats.

WWE Hall of Famer ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan announced he’s now “officially cancer free” in a video shared with his fans.

“I just wanted to share with everybody the great news I just received that they checked my bones, and that came out clear. The surrounding tissue came out clear. The lymph nodes came out clear. So thank God I’m cancer free.”

The 67-year-old has experienced multiple health issues in recent years, which included undergoing a heart procedure in March 2019 and once again being hospitalized six months later.

Duggan said that he was making health improvements in January, revealing he’d lost 40 pounds in adherence with advice from his doctor, while also confirming he had retired from in-ring competition at the time.

Duggan’s legendary wrestling career included notable runs in the WWE, as well as World Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling and other promotions.

It wasn’t a perfect day — Jameson Taillon fell six outs short of that — but it was pretty satisfying.

The Yankees’ long Thursday included a beat-down, a brush with history, dominant starting pitching and some dramatics.

Most importantly, the end result was two wins, 6-1 and 2-1, over the Angels in a split-admission doubleheader in The Bronx as the Yankees (36-15), who have the best record in baseball, swept a three-game series in impressive fashion.

Pinch-hitter Anthony Rizzo’s two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning of Game 2, after the Yankees had gone 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, made a winner out of Taillon, who pitched seven perfect innings before finally allowing a hit, and then a run, in the eighth.

“I was fired up,” Taillon said. “It just felt like one of those nights where we were going to make it happen.”

Saquon Barkley likes being a New York Giant. 

Three years after former general manager Dave Gettleman delivered an infamous line about Odell Beckham Jr.’s trade market that turned out to be misleading, the Giants are back at the NFL Scouting Combine with another injury-plagued star caught up in trade rumors. 

That, however, is where the comparison ends. 

Barkley’s strong preference is to stay with the Giants even as they start another rebuilding process, according to a source. A handful of agents, coaches, scouts and executives surveyed in Indianapolis agreed the Giants would need to be blown away to trade away Barkley, who is still the face of the franchise. 

General manager Joe Schoen, who replaced Gettleman in January, said the Giants are “open to everything” in response to a question that singled out Barkley. That answer was misconstrued in some corners of the viral news vortex to make it sound as if Barkley was being shopped, which is not the case. 

The Mets are going to retire Keith Hernandez’s No. 17 during a ceremony on Saturday, July 9, prior to a game with the Marlins.

Hernandez, the lynchpin of the Mets’ 1986 world championship team, joins Casey Stengel (37), Gil Hodges (14), Tom Seaver (41), Mike Piazza (31) and Jerry Koosman (36) to be so honored.

Hernandez played for the Mets from 1983-89, acquired from the Cardinals in a trade on June 15, 1983. He hit .297 as a Met and won five Gold Gloves as a first baseman in New York. In 1984, he finished second to Ryne Sandberg in the NL MVP vote, hitting .311 with 97 RBIs.

He shared the 1979 MVP Award with Willie Stargell, hitting .344 with 105 RBIs for St. Louis, and was also a key member of the Cardinals’ 1982 World Series winner.

Hernandez was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame in 1997.

The Rangers survived one natural disaster, and they’ll get another as a reward.

New York completed its rally from a 3-1 deficit with a 6-2 win over the Hurricanes in Game 7 of their second-round series on Monday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.

Adam Fox and Chris Kreider scored first-period power play goals for the Blueshirts, who got 36 stops from Igor Shesterkin in the win — the team’s second Game 7 win of the 2022 NHL playoffs.

Ryan Strome added to the lead with a second-period tally with Kreider making it 4-0 early in the third.

The Hurricanes got a slim ray of hope with Tony DeAngelo’s third-period goal — but those hopes were quickly dashed when Filip Chytil picked up a loose puck in the offensive zone and quickly put it behind Pytor Kochetkov for a 5-1 lead. Max Domi’s late goal made it 5-2 before Andrew Copp’s empty-net goal made it 6-2.

Now, the Rangers will face the reigning Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.