Mets defeat Yanks in 10th inning to earn split of Subway Series
New York Mets players celebrate with Brandon Nimmo after his walk-off double against the New York Yankees for a 4-3 win at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Subway Series’ marquee starting pitching matchup lived up to the hype as Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole each allowed one run in six innings at Citi Field on Wednesday night.
Then the wackiness began.
A straight steal of home by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. A baserunning blunder by Brandon Nimmo. A defensive shift violation by Jeff McNeil. Ghost runners.
In the end, the Mets earned the Subway Series split with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory on Brandon Nimmo’s one-out walk-off double off the bottom of the rightfield wall in the 10th before a sellout crowd of 44,121.
The Mets desperately needed the win as they had lost nine of 10 going in. The teams meet again in a two-game series in the Bronx on July 25-26.
“This was a crazy game,” Mets owner Steve Cohen posted on Twitter in his first tweet since May 17. “Too many mental mistakes but I will take it.”
Winning pitcher Dominic Leone (1-2) stranded the Yankees’ ghost runner at second in the top of the 10th as the Yankees finished 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
Nimmo’s game-winner came off lefthander Nick Ramirez. Yankees manager Aaron Boone used five relievers, but stayed away from his big three of Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Michael King because of recent workloads.
Nimmo had muffed a ball in the series opener on Tuesday that led to the Yankees’ 7-6 victory. He said he felt like he let his teammates down and was primed for some redemption.
“Baseball’s funny like that,” Nimmo said. “It’ll work like that sometimes. Everything’s better when we win.”
Once the two elite starters were out of the game, the Yankees took a 3-1 lead without a hit in the seventh on a run-scoring throwing error by McNeil on the back end of a failed attempt at an inning-ending double play, and Kiner-Falefa’s steal of home.
With lefty Brooks Raley pitching, Kiner-Falefa stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by Francisco Alvarez.
Only Kiner-Falefa wasn’t content on staying at third. Ignored by Raley, who was pitching out of the windup, Kiner-Falefa walked toward home and then took off. He scored easily as Raley’s pitch sailed to the backstop.
It was the Yankees’ first steal of home since Didi Gregorius on the back end of a double steal against Buck Showalter’s Orioles on Aug. 27, 2016.
“I got halfway and [Raley] didn’t acknowledge me,” Kiner-Falefa said of his first steal of home at any level. “The third baseman [Eduardo Escobar] didn’t acknowledge me. I just can’t believe I did that in the big leagues, especially in this game.”
The Mets tied it at 3 in the bottom half on a two-out bases-loaded hit by pitch off Nimmo’s elbow pad and an RBI single to left by Starling Marte.
But Nimmo was thrown out at second on the single because he started for third as he assumed Mark Vientos, the runner ahead of him, was going to try to score. Nimmo was tagged out trying to get back to second. The inning-ending out call was challenged, and it’s possible Nimmo got his left hand in before he was tagged, but the call stood.
In the top of the eighth, McNeil was called for a defensive shift violation for positioning himself on the third base side of second as he tried to hold on Anthony Volpe. A strike was taken away and a ball was added to Giancarlo Stanton’s at-bat. But Adam Ottavino got out of the inning anyway.
As for the marquee pitching matchup of former Houston Astros teammates: After a 37-miniute rain delay before the first pitch, Verlander (107 pitches) allowed three hits, walked none and struck out six. Cole (95 pitches) gave up four hits, walked none and struck out eight.
Cole retired the first 12 Mets with five strikeouts before Francisco Lindor led off the fifth with a double to center.
Two outs later, Cole nemesis Tommy Pham crushed an RBI double to right to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Pham was 10-for-27 with two home runs off Cole coming in.
The Yankees’ run off Verlander came in the sixth as Jose Trevino doubled and scored on Jake Bauers’ single.
“They have two Hall of Famers over there,” Cole said of Verlander and Max Scherzer. “It’s a pleasure to take the field with that caliber of player.”
Verlander said he and his pal Cole agreed to observe a few days of “radio silence” before they faced each other. While he said it was a blast to pitch against Cole, Verlander was just happy to have performed well after he was hit hard in Atlanta in his last outing.
The Mets got the much-needed victory, even if as Cohen pointed out it wasn’t perfect.
“At this point for our team, every win matters,” Verlander said. “We’ve got to win some baseball games.”
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.
