Three takeaways from Yankees' 12-3 loss to Mets in Subway Series finale
Yankees centerfielder Aaron Judge returns to the dugout after striking out looking against the Mets during the seventh inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Here are three takeaways from the Yankees’ 12-3 loss to the Mets:
1. It’s officially time to worry
The Yankees’ toothless drubbing to the Mets has put them at 10-22 since their win over the Red Sox on June 14 - a winning percentage second-worst only to the White Sox. And though they’re still only 1 ½ games out of the AL East and have a wild card slot well in hand, the team, led by Aaron Boone, is openly frustrated with the lack of results. They left 11 men on base against a shaky Sean Manaea and a usually porous Mets bullpen, and once again fell victim to the long ball - this time giving up five homers, including two to Francisco Lindor.
Ask Boone and the answer just seems to be that they have to play better. How they plan on doing that is a bigger issue. Frustration, though, is certainly pleasant.
"We're [ticked] off," Boone said. "We've got to play better. This has gone long enough . ..We’re a really good team that have played [expletive] of late and we need to be better."
2. Confidence issues?
In addition to poor hitting and pitching, the Yankees seem to lack the confidence they had early in the season, and it’s having an impact.
This became especially true when contrasted with the high-flying Mets, who spent the night feasting on pitches in and out of the strike zone alike. Other than Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, the lineup is fully slumping (they were hitting .230 from the start of the slump going into Wednesday’s game), and Boone talked about how they needed to find their edge.
While Judge wouldn’t go so far as to say the team lacked confidence right now, he didn’t completely rule it out, either.
“We’ve got to go out there and be confident every single night and not worry about what happened the night before,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of outside noise going on … I wouldn’t say (we lack confidence). It’s tough to say. You can read body language sometimes and there are certain times where we’re hanging our head a little bit and you just need a little kick in the butt to get it going again.
3. Gerrit Cole struggled again against the Mets — but it wasn’t completely his fault
The Mets have been a nightmare for Cole this year, and Wednesday, he gave up six runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts with three homers in 5 ⅔ innings. That means that over two games this year against the crosstown rivals, he’s given up 12 earned runs and seven homers. But while Cole self-admittedly made some mistakes, the Mets also routinely had hard-hit balls out of the zone - including Tyrone Taylor’s third-inning homer, which came on an elbow-high fastball. He also said he needed better pitch selection on Lindor’s fifth-inning homer - a cutter that nicked the inside of the plate - but that the pitch itself was good.
“There’s some credit to be given there,” Cole said, while also not deflecting blame. “Unfortunately, I just let it get out of hand too much and didn’t give us a good chance tonight … I wouldn’t say a lot of the pitches were at the heart of the plate, to be honest.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
