No Aaron Judge and no Pete Alonso did not mean no drama in the Subway Series opener Tuesday night.
The Mets, no stranger to blown leads recently, lost an early four-run advantage and later re-tied the score before ultimately falling to the Yankees, 7-6, in front of a sellout crowd of 43,707 at Citi Field.
It was the Mets’ ninth loss in their last 10 games. They are 31-36.
Josh Donaldson snapped a 6-6 tie with a sac fly in the sixth inning and DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton both homered for the Yankees, who improved to 39-29. Reliever Clay Holmes pitched out of a big jam in the eighth inning.
Both big-name starters, Max Scherzer for the Mets and Luis Severino for the Yanks, fizzled in their marquee matchup. Drew Smith, the Met reliever, was ejected by umpires before the seventh inning after his hand was checked for sticky substances.
The Yankees now hold a 79-60 advantage all-time in Subway Series games.
Here are the main takeaways...
- The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when a familiar foe clubbed a homer against the Mets. Stanton smacked a long drive over the left-field wall on an 0-2 pitch from Scherzer, his 38th career home run against the Mets. He has 24 career home runs at Citi Field, the most by far by any opposing player at the ballpark. He’s 10 ahead of Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon and Chase Utley. In his career, Stanton has hit four homers off Scherzer. Stanton’s homer was clocked at 110.2 miles per hour off the bat. For the Mets, it was the 50th run they've given up in the first inning this season.
- The Mets quickly tied the score in their half of the first inning, thriving against a struggling Severino. Brandon Nimmo smacked his eighth career leadoff home run, a 429-foot shot to right-center, to start the scoring. Severino alternated walks and outs to bring up Brett Baty with two on and two out and the youngster singled in a run to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.
- In the second, the Mets got two more runs, helped by bizarre lapses by Severino, who balked twice in the inning. With one out, Severino gave up a double to Mark Canha and then hit Nimmo with a pitch, then he balked, moving each runner up a base.
One out later, Jeff McNeil, who entered the game with a .351 average against the Yankees in his career, hit a ground ball inside the third-base line for a single that drove in both runs. After Severino balked again, he managed to avoid further damage by retiring Francisco Lindor on a fly out.
Entering Tuesday, Severino, who allowed six runs (five earned) in 4.2 innings, had balked just once in his career, back in 2015, his first season in the Major Leagues. He is one of 12 pitchers in club history to balk twice in a single game and the first since Hideki Irabu in 1997.
- The Mets padded their lead in the third inning, helped by an error by Gleyber Torres, a stolen base by Starling Marte and a walk to Baty. Canha delivered an RBI fielder’s choice and the Mets were ahead, 5-1, though it was brief.
- In the top of the fourth, the Yankees came roaring back and knocked Scherzer out of the game. After Anthony Rizzo singled to snap an 0-for-24 slump, LeMahieu smacked a two-run homer over the left-field fence. Entering the game, LeMahieu had been 6-for-his-last-41 (.146) over his last 11 games with just one extra-base hit.
After singles from Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled and Kyle Higashioka, Anthony Volpe snug a double inside the third-base bag. The huge hit for the struggling rookie trimmed the Met lead to 5-4. Jake Bauers, inserted into the leadoff spot by Aaron Boone, followed with a bloop single to center that scored two runs, putting the Yanks ahead, 6-5.
- Scherzer, who was booed as he left the mound, has had two clunkers in a row after a stretch of four straight strong starts. Tuesday, he allowed six runs and seven hits in just 3.1 innings, meaning he’s given up 11 runs and 18 hits over his last nine innings.
- Boone probably invited some controversy, or at least hot takes, when he visited Severino with two out and a man on second in the fifth inning. He was not taking out the pitcher, however, as he spoke a few words to Severino and then left him in to pitch to Luis Guillorme, who promptly hit an RBI single to tie the score at six.
- The Yankees then re-took the lead in the sixth. With a man on and one out, Volpe hit a liner to center that Nimmo raced to try for, but he whiffed on the catch and Volpe sped into second with what was scored a double. Billy McKinney, who had been on second, had held up and could only advance to third. Donaldson, pinch-hitting for Bauers, hit a sac fly to put the Yankees up, 7-6.
- The Mets had a huge chance in the eighth inning, loading the bases against reliever Wandy Peralta with one out, but Holmes stepped in for Peralta and struck out both Lindor and Marte on 3-2 pitches, preserving the lead.
- Before the seventh inning, Smith was ejected by umpires after his hand was checked for sticky stuff, putting the Mets bullpen in a hole. Smith was set to start the inning, but he was thrown out before the frame began and will, by rule, be suspended 10 games. Smith clearly did not agree with the umps – he offered his hand to several teammates and coaches to feel.
John Curtiss came in for Smith and things didn’t begin well for him, either, though with far less drastic results – he was charged an automatic ball after his Pitch Comm apparently didn’t work.