More of the same: Yankees vs. Mets series recap
Same two teams, different part of the city. The Yankees and Mets switched stadiums for the last two games of the interleague matchup. The teams split the first two at Citi Field. The Mets find themselves asking if they are a playoff contender and the Yankees are on the road to getting younger as Gary Sanchez has made his way onto the big league roster. Two teams that make noise like they are worlds apart, but aren't that much different in reality. Everyone needs a good laugh occasionally
Chad Green got the start for the Yankees and had a pretty rough outing. The Mets got to him early and had plenty of opportunity for more damage, but Green managed to only allow three runs in 3.2 innings. Quite an escape for putting 12 runners on base in that span. Green is still a work in progress and this game showed that he still has work to do on an out pitch. He couldn't throw his offspeed stuff for strikes on Wednesday night and the Mets did like anyone else would do and sat on the fastball. Only thing was that they couldn't come up with the big blow. Green should and will get more opportunities to pitch at the big league level.
Luis Severino and the Yankee offense would combine to bail Green out in this one. After the Mets would put up two runs in the top half of the first inning, Chase Headley and Didi Gregorius would collect RBI hits in the bottom half to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. After the Mets knotted things up in the second, Mark Teixeira would send a Steven Matz fastball into the right-center field seats for a three-run homer and they would not trail again.
Severino would respond to the challenge and pitch 4.1 innings of one-hit baseball. After his defense let him down a bit, Severino would escape a bases loaded, nobody out jam in the seventh inning. Hopefully, coming back to the big league roster and pitching out of the bullpen has given Severino the confidence he may have been lacking earlier in the season. That seventh inning was something that probably would have blown up on him earlier in 2016. His presence is something that the rotation is certainly going to need moving forward. The offense would respond with three more runs to break the game open a bit with Rob Refsnyder, Starlin Castro, and Didi getting the RBI's. Teixeira would stay in the middle of things throughout the game. Both benches nearly cleared in the fifth inning after Tex took offense to being hit by a pitch from Matz. He then participated in what seemed like a bit of a comedy scene with Mets reliever Hansel Robles in the seventh. Robles and Teixeira jawed back and forth after Robles thought Teixeira was stealing signs from second base. Teixeira responded by acting like he was giving signs which apparently got inside Robles' head as he gave up three runs. Sometimes you just gotta have a little fun. One bad inning
Nathan Eovaldi got the start in the finale on Thursday and were it not for a couple of home runs in the fifth inning, might have walked out with a victory. Unfortunately, he has been good at giving up nearly two home runs per outing regularly, as he has an average of 1.67 HR/9 innings this season. A solo shot from Kelly Johnson and a 3-run shot from newly acquired Jay Bruce were all the runs the Mets would get and need tonight. 4 runs on 5 hits with a pair of walks in 7 innings for Eovaldi, with the 4 runs all coming in the fifth inning. Bartolo Colon was solid for 6.2 innings, giving up 1 run on 6 hits. The offense really only got something going in the seventh inning with an Aaron Hicks RBI single scoring Gary Sanchez, who had doubled. 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position with 7 left on base. Sounds like a broken record.
The Yankees finish the Subway Series with a 54-54 record, still 7.5 games back in the division and 5.5 back in the wildcard. Even after the trades from the previous week, things still look the same. The club looks pretty decent one day and can't get much going the next. It all adds up to average, no matter who gets trotted out on the field.