Three takeaways from Mets' 12-3 win over Yankees in Subway Series finale
The Mets’ Francisco Lindor reacts as he scores on his three-run home run against the Yankees during the eighth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Here are three takeaways from the Mets’ 12-3 win over the Yankees on Wednesday, which moved them to five games above .500 for the first time since April 2023.
1. The Mets own Gerrit Cole
They beat up the Yankees’ ace again, racking up six runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Tyrone Taylor, Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor hit home runs. Taylor added an RBI single in the sixth to end Cole’s outing.
Their domination of Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, is not new. Consider his career numbers…
- Cole against the Mets: 6.99 ERA.
- Cole against everybody else: 3.11 ERA.
“I thought he was on today,” said manager Carlos Mendoza, who previously watched the Mets own Cole as the Yankees’ bench coach. “But he just left a couple of cutters — one to Alonso, one to Lindor first pitch. But he’s a really good pitcher. We were just ready to go and stayed ready for some of the mistakes . . . we were aggressive. Even when we got behind in counts, we were still looking for pitches that we could do damage with.”
Lindor said: “It’s just baseball. Cole is a great pitcher. He executes most of the time, and the times that he doesn’t execute we have made him pay. It’s baseball.”
Something to keep in mind for the World Series rematch.
2. Lindor, not an All-Star, is on pace for another 30-homer/30-steal season
That is remarkable considering where he was at, say, on Memorial Day.
After his big game — 3-for-6, two home runs, five RBIs — Lindor is up to 21 home runs and 20 steals.
That puts him on track for 34 homers and 32 steals. (Last year, he had 31 and 31.)
“He’s a great player. I feel like I sit here every day and talk about how good of a player he is,” Mendoza said. “This is a guy who wants to be there, he wants to play. We saw it in the ninth inning: We were up big and he hits a ground ball and he runs like the game is on the line. Great player who is having a really good year. I’m not surprised.”
3. Harrison Bader is sort of hurt, testing the Mets’ outfield depth
Bader was out of the lineup Wednesday after rolling his right ankle late Tuesday on an awkward attempted steal of third base.
Mendoza described him as day-to-day after an MRI showed no structural damage. But Bader walked with a clear limp and left Yankee Stadium in a walking boot.
“That’s news for me,” Mendoza said of the boot. “I talked to him before the game, after the game. Obviously, we got that MRI and everything was fine. He’s day-to-day.”
With Bader’s status uncertain, Taylor’s importance grows. He has struggled offensively in recent months but provided a reminder Wednesday that he can be a useful outfielder, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs.
Taylor also laid out for a diving catch in left-centerfield to rob Alex Verdugo of a hit in the sixth inning. His defensive abilities, though, have never been in doubt.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
