Subway Series Over: Yankees and Mets Both in First Place

New York City could enjoy the fact that baseball is still king in the city, that it remains a dominant presence in our lives and in our culture, even on a rich, full weekend, even on a night when the Rangers lit up Manhattan, on a weekend when we may say good-bye to the Nassau Coliseum, when the Nets try to generate a little life in Brooklyn.

Image Credit: esbnyc.com

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said: “Its good for the city, good for baseball. I’m sure the atmosphere will be really good the next few days, because of the way we’re [both] playing. Hockey is big in this city, basketball is big in this city. But we have two teams in first place and so we have a lot of people who are very excited about that.”

And here, the people care, they REALLY care. All you had to do was walk around the Stadium yesterday, listen to the buzz, listen to the passion, feel the energy. Baseball. In April. After 17 games.

Image Credit: Uli Seit for The New York Times

“You could sense the energy and the excitement from the beginning,” Mark Teixeira said. “And then to play the kind of game we played, that made it even better.”

Image Credit: DARREN MEENAN/SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

Curtis Granderson opened the game with a leadoff home run off Nathan Eovaldi, taking advantage of the short right field porch at Yankee Stadium as he has so many times before.  Following a single by Juan Lagares, Eovaldi got some help from New York Yankees centerfielder Chris Young, who took extra bases away from Lucas Duda.

Chase Headley also helped limit the damage taking a hit away from Michael Cuddyer.  With two outs and Lagares on second, Eovaldi, who struggled with his command early, allowed a line drive double to Daniel Murphy, scoring Lagares and extending the Mets lead to 2-0.  Following a visit from pitching coach Larry Rothschild, Eovaldi rebounded to get Eric Campbell to ground out to Headley, ending the inning.

After quickly retiring Brett Gardner and Young, New York Mets starter Jonathon Niese allowed a home run to Alex Rodriguez, the 659th of his career, cutting the lead to 2-1, and leaving him one shy of Willie Mays.  Mark Teixeira reached on an error by Mets third baseman Campbell, but was left stranded as Niese struck out Carlos Beltran looking.

Eovaldi recovered in the top of the second inning, retiring Wilmer Flores on a fly out to right field, and striking out Danny Muno and Kevin Plawecki.  After a lead off ground out by Headley, John Ryan Murphy ripped a double down the third base line, past a diving Campbell.

After Stephen Drew struck out looking, Gregorio Petit drove Murphy home with an RBI double over a leaping Campbell, tying the score at 2-2.  Gardner picked up the Yankees third double of the inning, past a diving Duda, giving the Yankees their first lead at 3-2.

Gardner was driven home on a slow shift beating single by Young to where the second baseman should have been, extending the lead to 4-2.  In his first chance to catch Mays, Rodriguez doubled to left field, and Young scored on a horrible throw by Cuddyer, giving the Yankees a 5-2 lead, but Rodriguez was thrown out at third base ending the Yankees threat.

Eovaldi struck out Granderson and Lagares to start the third, and looked to have settled down, but Duda singled and was driven home on an RBI double by Cuddyer, who advanced to third on a throwing error by Drew.  Murphy picked up his second RBI double of the game, cutting the lead to 5-4.  After another visit from Rothschild, Eovaldi got Campbell to ground out, limiting the damage to two runs. Following a 1-2-3 bottom half of the third, which saw Niese make a great play on a liner from Teixeira, Eovaldi recovered to once again set Flores, Muno, and Plawecki down in order, picking up his fifth strikeout.  Leading off the fourth, John Ryan Murphy looked to once again start a Yankees rally, picking up an infield single.  Drew put an end to those thoughts by grounding into a double play, and after a Petit fly out the inning was over.

Eovaldi struck out Granderson, picking up his sixth strikeout of the night.  Lagares hit a slow chopper to Headley, which the Yankees third baseman barehanded and almost made a great play on, but instead threw it short of Teixeira picking up an error, which allowed Lagares to reach second base.

With left-handed hitting Duda coming up, Yankees manager Joe Girardi went to southpaw Chasen Shreve, and Eovaldi’s night was over after 4 1/3 innings.  He allowed four runs, all earned, on seven hits, finishing with six strikeouts and no walks.

Shreve hit Duda in the back with a slider on his first pitch, putting the go-ahead run on base.  He recovered to get Cuddyer to hit into an inning ending double play.

Gardner led off the bottom of the fifth with a chopper to shortstop Flores, in which he was called out.  Girardi challenged the play, and the call was overturned, giving Gardner an infield single.  Young reached on a fielder choice’ but Mets second baseman Murphy committed an error, allowing Gardner to go to third, giving the Yankees runners on the corners.

Rodriguez hit into an RBI fielder choice’ which should have been a double play, but shortstop Flores threw the ball into the stands, allowing Rodriguez to go to second base, and giving the Yankees a 6-4 lead.  After a walk to Teixeira, Beltran hit into an inning ending double play, continuing his season long struggles.

Following a leadoff walk to Daniel Murphy, Shreve was replaced by Chris Martin.  Campbell grounded to Drew, who flipped the ball with his glove, and was saved of an error on a heads up play from Petit, who tagged Murphy causing a force out.  On a one out fly ball to Beltran, Campbell made a mental blunder, rounding the bases thinking there were two outs, and was thrown out at first base, ending the inning.

Erik Goeddel replaced Niese to start the sixth.  Niese went five innings, allowing six runs (four earned), on eight hits.  He struck out three (Beltran twice), and walked one.  Headley greeted Goeddel with a leadoff double, and John Ryan Murphy grounded out to third, failing to advance Headley.  Goeddel struck out Drew and Petit to end the inning, stranding Headley at second.

Martin returned for the seventh, retiring Muno and Plawecki.  Girardi then brought on southpaw Justin Wilson to face Granderson, and the move worked as Granderson popped out to third to end the inning.  Following a fly out by Gardner to start the bottom half of the inning, Goeddel struck out Young for the second out.  Rodriguez then lined out to right field for the third out of the inning.

As has been the case all season, Dellin Betances was brought in for the eighth inning and looked sharp, striking out Lagares, Duda, and Cuddyer, though Cuddyer reached on a wild pitch.  Betances recovered to get Murphy to ground out to second base.  He continued his dominance of the Mets, who are now a combined 0-9 with 8 K’s against Betances in his short career.

Alex Torres came on for the Mets in the bottom of the eighth, quickly retiring Teixeira, Beltran, and Headley in order, sending the game to the ninth inning with the Yankees ahead 6-4.  Unofficial closer Andrew Miller entered for the Yankees and after retiring Campbell, hit Flores in the ankle with a fastball.

John Mayberry Jr. came on to pinch hit for Muno with Flores on first with one out.  Miller struck out Mayberry, leaving the Mets down to their final out.  Plawecki then grounded out to shortstop, giving the Yankees the 6-4 victory.

Shreve picked up the victory, the first of his career, while Niese took the loss.  Miller picked up his seventh save in as many chances, and Martin, Wilson, and Betances all received holds.

The Mets and Yankees took their battle from the field to Twitter.

It all started when the Mets mentioned the Yankees in a play-by-play tweet, referring to them as "NY (AL)." Makes sense. The Yankees are in New York and the American League, but they weren't having it. To the pinstripe crew it was a sly way of talking about them without using the team name.

The crosstown rivals meet again at Citi Field in September.

Image Credit: twitter.com/Yankees

While October is forever away, what is at hand is the Yankees (11-8) are tied for first place in the AL East with the Rays, who are in The Bronx for three games starting Monday night. Also in the present is Alex Rodriguez being one homer away from tying Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time list after homering off the top of the right-center field fence in the first inning Sunday.

Image Credit: deadspin.com

Christine O'Connor