Series Recap: Yankees at Mets
For now, at least, Big Brother still beats Little Brother. The recently middling Yankees came into this series against the hard- charging Mets with a lot of doubts, but they came out of it with 2 wins and a ton of confidence heading into another crucial series against the first-place Blue Jays. They demolished a very good pitching staff in the final two games, including an 11-run outburst in the finale, and got two quality outings from their starters.
The Mets took the first game, aided by the longball. They hit 3 homers, 2 off of Masahiro Tanaka, in a 5-1 win. Tanaka did not pitch poorly, other than those homers, giving up only 5 hits in 6 innings. Both homers came from lefties, as Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy each hit solo homers off of the Japanese righty to give their team a 2-1 lead. Juan Uribe added a 2-run shot in the 7th, and Eric Young scored on a wild pitch by James Pazos to make it 5-1 in the 8th. Murphy and Duda each led the way with 2 hits.
The Yankees got one early off of Steven Matz and certainly took their rips off of the rookie but could only scratch across that one run in 6 innings. Matt allowed a leadoff walk to Brett Gardner and a single to Carlos Beltran in the first, but the run came on a sac fly by former Met Chris Young. While no one had a multi-hit game, 7 of the 9 Yankees' starters had a hit. They were stymied by the suspect Mets bullpen, collecting three baserunners in the final three frames, all in the 9th off of Jeurys Familia.
The second game was similar to the first, just in the Yankees favor. The Yankees hit two homers to provide all of the offense in a 5-1 win. Carlos Beltran hit a 3-run homer in the 1st inning off of rookie Noah Syndergaard to get the party started. Brian McCann also homered off of Syndergaard, a 2-run blast in the 6th. He struck out 8 over 6 innings, but the 2 homers cost him dearly. Beltran had a game-high 2 hits and 3 RBI in the win.
Michael Pineda looked very good in his start. He pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowed just 4 hits and walked only 1. He kept his pitch count down, which was something that has plagued him all season long. The Mets had various rallies, including one in the 9th inning, but failed to keep that going once Andrew Miller came in with 2 outs. Joe Girardi used 6 relievers to close this ballgame out, but it worked.
There was no stopping the offense once it got going in the rubber game. After Matt Harvey was taken out after 5 innings of 1 hit ball due to his imposed innings limit, the team exploded for 11 runs in just 3 innings. They scored 5 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, and 5 in the 8th to take total control before the Mets even knew it. The big blows were 3-run homers by Dustin Ackley and Gregory Bird to really put it out of reach. The Mets bullpen was horrible, as Hansel Robles came in after Harvey and allowed 5 runs (1 earned). The Mets also hurt themselves with 4 errors, but the Yankees made them pay for their mistakes.
CC Sabathia stifled the Mets offense, allowing just 1 first-inning run in his 6 innings of work. David Wright had an RBI double in that inning, but then the bats went quiet for the orange and blue. Sabathia struck out 7 and allowed 5 hits and 3 walks. The Mets were able to get a run in the 8th on a Daniel Murphy RBI single, but by then it was way too late.
A series against the second-hottest team in baseball since the All-Star Break is a great primer for this coming series against the hottest team since that date, the Blue Jays. It;s possible that this confidence could carry them to an inspiring series this week.
Offensive MVP: Carlos Beltran- He exacted revenge against his former team with 5 RBI and a 4-12 series.
Cold Streak: Didi Gregorius- An unimportant 2-12.
Pitcher of the Series: Michael Pineda- Kept his pitch count down in 5.1 innings of shutout baseball.
Mound Misery: Masahiro Tanaka- bit by the longball again and tagged with the only loss of the series.