For the Mets, the Subway Series has been pretty grand.
For the Yankees, it’s been a sloppy reminder that the fundamentals matter.
In the fifth game of the city’s annual home-and-home series, the visitors fell behind early and never recovered. Brandon Nimmo’s first-inning grand slam off Carlos Rodon and two home runs by Pete Alonso secured the win in the weekend series for the team from Queens, 12-6, on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
It’s been a challenging weekend for both teams with the pitching staffs having been ravaged by injuries. It made a series win all the more gratifying for the Mets.
“I feel like both of these teams are right now kind of like heavyweight fighters at the end of a 15-round match just trying to throw some haymakers,” Nimmo said. “Both teams are pretty beat up right now.”
The Mets (52-38) appear to be back on track after their fourth straight win. The offense was there, and they took advantage of several defensive miscues by the Yankees. The only “error” of sorts the Mets didn’t score on was when Anthony Volpe hit Aaron Judge in the head with a ball while coming off the field between innings.
“It’s fundamentals,” said Judge, who went 0-for-4 with a walk. “Making the routine plays routine. It’s just the little things, that’s what it kind of comes down to. Every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road, but we can’t let it falter what our ultimate goal is.”
It was clear right away that it was going to be a rough day for Rodon, but the defense behind did little to help him. Starling Marte led off the bottom of the first with a double that left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed. With two on, Juan Soto tried to surprise his former team by laying down a bunt. It stayed in front of the box and Wells threw him out at first, but he still managed to move the runners over and open up first base, which was given to Alonso with a walk.
With the bases loaded and one out, Rodon hung a 1-2 changeup to Nimmo for his second grand slam this week.
“Definitely, it’s a really good feeling,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It set the tone and kind of takes a little bit of the pressure off of everyone.”
Nimmo was eager to put the ball in play and give right-hander Frankie Montas a big lead early, but he didn’t want the Mets to take their foot off the gas.
“It’s a great feeling, and obviously great with the shape the pitching staff is in to be able to put some runs up and allow them some breathing room, and really attack guys,” Nimmo said. “But we also knew the game wasn’t over. At that point, we’ve got to put up more runs.”
They took advantage of an error by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the bottom of the second to take a 5-0 lead.
The Mets continued to frustrate the Yankees. They swiped two bags in the fifth and made Rodon throw a lot of pitches. Alonso’s first home run gave the Mets a 7-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth. By then, the Mets had seen everything Rodon had to offer. Having thrown 97 pitches by the time it was done, the Yankees had to go to the bullpen.
Rodon gave up seven runs (six earned) on five hits, walking three and striking out four in the loss (9-6).
“I thought we did a great job of being aggressive when when he came in the zone, and when he wasn’t in there, we were pretty selective,” Alonso said. “We were hunting our pitch today. I thought we did a really good job.”
After rallying to take two runs off Montas in the sixth, Volpe hit a home run off left-hander Richard Lovelady in the seventh to bring the Yankees to within two, 7-5. But yet another defensive misplay resulted in a run for the Mets. Up 8-5, left-hander Jayvien Sandridge, making his big league debut, gave up a three-run bomb to Alonso.
Montas, a former Yankees starter who didn’t get to start much in the Bronx due to a shoulder injury, pitched better than his line would indicate. Charged with four earned runs over 5 2/3 innings, he gave up two solo home runs and two runs that came off an infield single and a bloop single in the sixth. He retired eight in a row before the sixth, making excellent use of his splitter.
“I feel like it kind of got them [to hesitate],” Montas said. “They were pretty much hitting fastballs early. My split hasn’t been really, really consistent. I’ve been working on it, and I feel like when I have that pitch, it’s going to be tough to hit.”
From that point on, Mendoza deftly managed his depleted bullpen. His counterpart in the other dugout, Aaron Boone, had to do plenty of managing himself with limited pitching, but the Mets had the advantage.
The Yankees (48-41) dropped their sixth straight game, their second six-game losing streak in a month.
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