The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.When you hit rock bottom, the manager is usually the first to go. That’s the case with the Mets this morning.Plus: The Phillies have made an art of leaving things to the last minute, the Rays near-no-hitter got kinda weird at the end and we have Tyler Kepner on Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien’s family legacy.I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!Firings: Mets part with manager MendozaThe Mets are in last place in the NL East (and only two games ahead of the Rockies for worst in the NL) at 34-47, and they were just swept by the Cubs in a series that included an embarrassing, six-error game. Both happened despite last winter’s roster overhaul and a full re-tooling of the coaching staff, leading to today: The Mets have fired manager Carlos Mendoza. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that it didn’t happen earlier. When the Phillies and Red Sox fired their skippers in late April, it seemed a bit premature for two managers with such good reputations. But despite an industry full of side-eyes wondering if Mendoza was next, the Mets held course.As the contrast between the Phillies (who turned their season around after the move) and Red Sox (who decidedly did not) shows, it’s no guarantee that an earlier move would have changed the fate of the 2026 Mets. But now exactly halfway through the season, the window for resuscitation is markedly slimmer, if it exists at all.Andy Green, who managed the Padres from 2016-2019 and had an executive role with the Mets, will take over as interim manager. The team starts a three-game series at home this afternoon against — who else — the Phillies.More New York messiness: Not to be out-slopped, the Yankees made four errors of their own last night, along with more PLUMs (again: plays left unmade), losing 6-3 to the Red Sox. All six of Boston’s runs were unearned.Comeback City: Procrastinating Phillies strike againWe’ve been keeping you abreast of the Phillies-Nationals series this week, because — well, how could we not?The Phillies were down to their final strike on Tuesday night before coming back to score eight runs in the ninth, ultimately winning 14-9. Then on Wednesday, they were down to their final strike again, and came back again, winning 5-4 on a Derek Hill pinch-hit go-ahead home run.Jayson Stark’s column today — featuring the 10 weirdest and wildest games of June — prominently features those two (and a third Phillies game, for good measure). You should read it, but I’ll spoil one answer for you: No, that has never happened before.But the Phillies weren’t done. As Stark was about to file that column last night, the score was Phillies 5, Nationals 5 (already a comeback, since the Nats led 5-0 going into the sixth inning).Then Philadelphia decided to pull off a mash-up encore, putting together elements of the previous two nights.One, they scored five runs in the ninth inning to turn a previously-close game into a 10-5 whomping. Second, while the ninth-inning scoring started with an emphatic home run (and ring-finger salute) by Bryce Harper, it was capped by another Derek Hill home run.