Mets hit 4 home runs off Gerrit Cole, then hold off Yankees in opener of Subway Series
Mets’ Mark Vientos runs on his solo home run off New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In the lead-up to the Subway Series, you probably heard or read the clever puns. That, lately, the Mets are on the right track. That, lately, the Yankees have gone off the rails.
All aboard! Both of those trends continued on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The Mets hit four home runs off Gerrit Cole – two by Mark Vientos – and held off a furious Yankees rally in a 9-7 victory before a sellout crowd of 42,824.
The Mets built a 9-1 lead, but the Yankees scored one in the seventh on an RBI double by Aaron Judge and five in the eighth, the last four on a Judge grand slam off Reed Garrett, to close to within 9-7.
After allowing Judge’s MLB-best 29th home run on an 0-and-2 pitch, Garrett recovered to pitch the final 1 1/3 innings to close out the exciting slugfest.
“Obviously, (Judge) got him there,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’m just glad that we got the last (four) outs of the game.”
Cole, in his second start off the injured list, also gave up home runs to Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo. It’s the second time Cole has allowed four homers in a game; the last time was June 9, 2022, at Minnesota.
“I didn’t really give us a good chance to win tonight,” Cole said. “Didn’t execute enough good pitches.”
Cole (0-1, 9.00 ERA) gave up seven hits and walked four in four innings. He did not strike out a batter in a 72-pitch outing. Twenty-eight of those pitches came in the first inning, and it seemed to sap Cole’s strength for the rest of the outing as his fastball velocity went from high-90s in the first to low-90s in the innings to follow.
“I thought he came out hot in the first inning,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Velo was there. Taxed him, obviously. A lot of close pitches where he was working to the edges, maybe just off . . . He was dialed up. He was cutting it loose a little bit.”
Former Met J.D. Davis, in his first game since June 16, failed to provide any punch. Davis, whom the Yankees acquired from Oakland on Monday, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a double play grounder.
In his first Yankees at-bat, Davis struck out with the bases loaded to end the first; the opening half-inning started with the first three Yankees reaching base against David Peterson and ended with the last three striking out.
“For him to go out there and get out of that bases-loaded jam with nobody out and three strikeouts,” Mendoza said, “that was huge right there.”
In Davis’ third at-bat, he grounded into an inning-ending double play with two men on in the fifth and the Yankees trailing 6-0.
“Not much to show for, obviously,” Boone said of Davis. “Couple of punchouts and he bounced into the double play. He’s kind of been inactive for a few days now, just getting here . . . Not much to show for tonight.”
It was the first Subway Series game – at least in the Mets dugout – for Mendoza, Boone’s former bench coach.
“It's a special day,” Mendoza said. “It's not a secret. You got two really good teams playing in the best city in the world, in front of two passionate fan bases. They are very electric, and they're going to be into it. So it's a special day for me to come in here as a manager of the Mets . . . It's an exciting day for baseball, for the city of New York, and obviously two teams playing well.”
Actually, only the Mets are playing well. The Mets, who moved to within a game of .500 at 38-39, have won 11 of 14 and have won or split their last eight series, including this one.
The Yankees (52-29) have lost seven of nine and dropped each of their previous three series. They get a chance to square this two-game series on Wednesday.
After Peterson’s great escape in the top of the first, Francisco Lindor touched Cole for a leadoff double and Nimmo walked. J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play, but Cole walked Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez, both on 3-and-2 pitches, to load the bases.
Tyrone Taylor then lined an RBI single to left. Alonso tried to score from second, but he was thrown out by Alex Verdugo.
Vientos led off the second with his eighth home run. Bader, the former Yankee, added his fifth one batter later to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
Vientos went deep again on the first pitch of the fourth to make it 4-0. It was the third straight plate appearance that ended in a homer for Vientos, who said “it’s cooler” to hit home runs in the Subway Series.
“It’s the same game,” he said. “It’s just a cooler environment. Doing it in the Subway Series is sick.”
Four batters later, Nimmo smacked a two-run shot to right to put the Mets up 6-0.
Soto hit his 19th homer leading off the fifth for the Yankees’ first run. Peterson walked the final two batters he faced, and at 103 pitches, was done after 4 1/3 innings.
Mendoza called on Dedniel Nunez, who threw one pitch and got Davis to ground into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.
Peterson allowed just three hits, but he walked five and hit two batters. He did strike out eight.
Gleyber Torres’ run-allowing error, Martinez’s RBI double and Alonso’s sacrifice fly highlighted the Mets’ three-run sixth off former Mets relievers Phil Bickford and Michael Tonkin to make it 9-1.
Nunez went 2 2/3 innings and allowed one unearned run (unearned because of his own error) on an RBI double by Judge in the seventh.
The first game of this year’s Subway Series drew its fair share of sports celebrities, from Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (who took batting practice with the Mets) to former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte (who threw batting practice to the Yankees) to former Mets Mike Piazza and Matt Harvey (on hand for fan meet-and-greets) to former NBA player and current announcer Kenny Smith (who sat in Mets owner Steve Cohen’s box after throwing out the first pitch) to Knicks forward Precious Achiuwa (who greeted the crowd from the giant scoreboard).
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.