Jake Rogers' walk-off home run lifts White Sox over Mets, 6-4

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Aug 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Sean Manaea didn’t have a very happy homecoming Friday night. A Chicago White Sox fan growing up in nearby Indiana, the lefty was cruising along in the series opener until the bottom of the sixth when he gave up three consecutive homers to blow a four-run lead.

The Mets were walked off in the bottom of the ninth when Jake Rogers hit a two-run home run over off left-hander Jefry Yan — a low line drive to left-center field that center fielder A.J. Ewing barely missed when he leapt up on the wall. They lost, 6-4, and Yan took his first career loss in the major leagues (1-1).

The middle of the order produced for the Mets, with their Nos. 3-8 hitters each logging hits, and Brett Baty and Marcus Semien getting two each, and driving in runs. Semien drove in a run in the second to put the Mets up early, and Baty had a two-run double in the top of the fourth. Bo Bichette homered off right-hander Sean Burke in the fifth inning, with his 13th of the season putting the Mets up 4-0.

Manaea continued to add more velocity to his fastball in his 13th start of the season, averaging more than 93 mph, and the White Sox lineup struggled to figure out his sweeper. They swung and missed five times on the sweeper, and he got five called strikes on the pitch. There was some hard contact early in the game, but no signs of trouble heading into the sixth, especially since he had such an easy fifth inning, throwing only 10 pitches.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Munetaka Murakami drew a walk, with Manaea missing with two sliders on a 1-2 count. He then fell behind on Miguel Vargas and missed with the sweeper again, this time on 3-1. Vargas drove it 405 feet to left field for a two-run shot, cutting the Mets’ lead in half.

Things continued to unravel from there. Randal Grichuk teed off on a fastball to make it 4-3, and the Mets got lefty Nate Lavender up in the bullpen. Colson Montgomery pulled a sinker to right field, a rocket of a liner that went 113 mph off the bat and barely stayed fair.

The NL Central leaders going back-to-back-to-back ultimately doomed the Mets, who were 11-4 in their last 15 games coming into this series on the South Side.

Lavender, who has quickly become a high-leverage reliever in his short time in the big leagues, kept the game tied with a 1-2-3 seventh, and retired Murakami in the eighth. Right-hander Daniel Duarte took over and finished the inning with the score still 4-4. But the White Sox bullpen limited the Mets to just two baserunners after the sixth, a leadoff single by Semien in the seventh, and a leadoff walk by Luis Robert Jr. in the top of the ninth. Right-hander Grant Taylor earned the win in relief (5-2).

Manaea gave up four earned runs over six innings, walking two and striking out four. Burke had a similar line, allowing four runs on seven hits over six innings, striking out four.