Aaron Judge hits 48th HR as Yankees sweep Mets in Subway Series
The Yankees' Aaron Judge gestures to the dugout as he runs on his solo home run against the Mets during the fourth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Subway Series is over for 2022. Unless the Yankees and Mets give us a real Subway Series in October.
The Yankees swept the two-game series at Yankee Stadium with an Aaron Judge-fueled 4-2 victory on Tuesday night before a season-high crowd of 49,217 that was into every action-packed pitch.
Judge hit his 48th home run and added an RBI single during the Yankees’ tie-breaking two-run seventh inning. The go-ahead run was driven in on a single by Andrew Benintendi.
The Mets beat the Yankees twice last month at Citi Field. The teams will not meet again this year unless they both reach the World Series.
Anyone who saw these four games probably hopes that will happen.
“Every win feels great, especially against a great ballclub like that,” Judge said. “Battling down to the last inning, out, strike. That’s fun baseball . . . You think about a [Subway World Series] because that’s as close to a playoff atmosphere and you can get the past two nights and before at Citi Field. These are fun matchups and you like to think ahead a little bit. The pace they’re on and where we’re at, too. But we’ve got to get there first.”
Tuesday’s contest was filled with clutch defensive plays, baserunning mishaps, a player snapping his bat like a toothpick and a key defensive mistake by that same player: Pete Alonso.
It was Alonso who – three innings after breaking his bat in two over his thigh after a strikeout – missed a pop-up down the rightfield line hit by Jose Trevino. The ball, which started out in the air over foul territory, came back fair and fell onto the grass for a single to set up the Yankees’ go-ahead rally.
“I did the best I could to try to get there,” Alonso said, “but it’s tough. I just couldn’t make a play. That’s a tough, long run and then also just couldn’t get there. Just couldn’t make a play.”
On snapping his bat, Alonso said: “I don’t know why I swung . . . I was just really upset that I chased for strike three.”
Oswaldo Cabrera had led off the inning in a 2-2 game with a single off Joely Rodriguez (0-3). Cabrera was sacrificed to second by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and moved to third on Trevino’s gift single. Benintendi followed with a ground single to left to give the Yankees the lead. One out later, Judge singled to left-center off Adam Ottavino to make it 4-2.
The Mets had the tying runs on base in the eighth and loaded the bases in the ninth.
In the eighth, Clarke Schmidt (5-2) got Daniel Vogelbach to ground into the second balletic 6-4-3 double play turned by Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres, who were both shifted over to the right against the lefty slugger and had to pivot to their left on the ball hit to the shortstop hole. Jeff McNeil lined to right to end the inning.
The Mets loaded the bases against Schmidt with two outs in the ninth. Wandy Peralta got Francisco Lindor to fly out to center for his second save in seven opportunities - but not before Lindor just missed a game-tying double with a foul liner down the leftfield line.
“Wandy came in and saved my [butt],” Schmidt said.
It was all intracity, interleague fun and games for the fans, but these two defeats had NL East repercussions for the Mets, who lost two games in the standings to Atlanta and now lead the defending World Series champions by two games. The Mets have lost three of four.
“We scored, what, four runs in two games?” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “You’ve got to tip your hat to their pitching and that’s probably the story of tonight and last night. But loved the way our guys battled. We just couldn’t catch a break with a lot of balls that some of our guys hit on the button . . . We’ll go home and try to get things going again.”
The once-reeling Yankees won their third in a row. Their AL East lead is eight over Tampa Bay.
“A lot of really good things these last couple days,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Defensively, on the bases, different guys stepping up, whether it be in the bullpen or the rotation. We’ve got some clutch hits and clutch at-bats from guys. This was a really good baseball game out there in a great environment and we were able to hang on tonight. A good way to finish what’s been a tough stretch for us.”
Frankie Montas, who had a 9.00 ERA in his first three Yankees starts, worked through a 27-pitch first inning by striking out Vogelbach with two on to end the inning.
The first two Mets got on in the second, and Montas worked out of that by getting Tomas Nido to ground into a spectacular 6-4-3 double play. Kiner-Falefa fielded the slow bouncer and flipped it with his glove to Torres, who caught the ball barehanded and then whipped it to first.
Taijuan Walker was perfect for the first three. Judge made it 1-0 with two outs in the fourth by crushing a 95-mile per hour sinker on 3-and-2 an estimated 453 feet into the leftfield bleachers. Judge’s second homer in two nights came off the bat at 115.9 mph.
Two singles and a walk loaded the bases before Cabrera walked on 3-and-2 to make it 2-0.
The Mets got on the board in the fifth when Starling Marte grounded a two-out RBI single to right. But the Mets wanted more.
Cabrera, in his second career start in right, fired a strike home (neatly picked on the short hop by Kyle Higashioka) to nail Brett Baty for the final out of the inning to keep it a 2-1 game.
But McNeil crushed a two-out, game-tying double to right-center off Montas in the sixth.
Alonso, who scored from first, actually stumbled, put on the brakes and headed back to third base before continuing home and scoring without a throw.
The Yankees were distracted by McNeil, who stopped halfway between second and third before running back to an uncovered second base. Torres had the ball and he raced McNeil back to second as Alonso scampered home unnoticed. McNeil and Torres both dove for the bag and McNeil was safe because he got there first.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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