Role reversal: Yankees, not Mets, in damage control mode after dire Subway Series
Yankees' Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, from left, watch during the ninth inning of the team's baseball game against the Mets, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
Damage control is usually the Mets’ specialty, a pastime native to Flushing. But during this Subway Series, the roles were reversed, and it was the Yankees who found themselves constantly trying to dig out from the rubble of their disastrous two-day visit to Citi Field.
Make no mistake. While the Yankees miraculously got to leave Flushing with their AL East lead intact, the Mets took virtually everything else from their crosstown rival -- including any remaining shreds of pride -- with a two-game sweep that was mostly non-competitive, especially Wednesday night’s 12-2 rain-interrupted smackdown.
On a day that began with manager Aaron Boone essentially benching Gleyber Torres for his apathetic performance the previous night, most of the other Yankees didn’t bother to show up either. The one notable exception was Aaron Judge, as the captain followed Tuesday’s grand slam with a two-run homer, his 30th this season in just 80 games (the same exact HR pace as 2022, when Judge smacked 62 to beat Roger Maris’ AL record).
The Yankees scored a total of nine runs in these two games -- Judge drove in seven. His reward? Getting pinch-hit for by Trent Grisham in the eighth inning, a move that the former MVP didn’t look thrilled about when the SNY broadcast showed him stewing on the bench. Who wouldn’t want a crack at the Mets’ long-reliever Adrian Houser? And Judge (.309 BA, 1.145 OPS) was 2-for-2 with a walk before the bat was taken out of his hands.
“I’m not the manager,” Judge said when asked if he was miffed about Boone’s decision. “I want every at-bat. The game’s never over, you know? So I want every at-bat, but I’m not the manager. He makes the call. I wasn’t upset at all.”
Judge had a right to be. He’s carried the Yankees since his April cold snap, and deserves every swing he can get in chasing history again this season -- along with working to get these Yankees to October. Recently, that task is looking harder by the day. Getting rolled by the Mets was their fourth straight series loss, and fifth out of their last six in falling to 4-10 over that stretch.
These two Flushing losses only count as two Ls in the standings, same as any others. But being humiliated at Citi Field, in front of a sellout crowd of 43,004, was not like stumbling somewhere like Toronto or Pittsburgh. The fact the Yankees also had to wait out a one-hour, 27-minute rain delay just to take the field again and get whacked for eight more runs couldn’t have felt great, either.
“It sucks,” Boone said. “You don’t like getting your teeth kicked in. It’s been a crappy two weeks for us. But it’s part of it. We know it’s coming -- adversity is going to hit you. We got hit with a little bit right now, but we got all the right pieces in there. We had a light shined on some things, and we need to get better at things. We need to get it going. But I have full confidence that we will.”
We’re not sure why. The Mets exposed Boone’s squad in nearly every way imaginable. They hammered Gerritt Cole for four homers and six runs in only four innings Tuesday night, then harassed the suddenly-human Luis Gil for five runs over 4 1/3 innings, driving his ERA up to 3.15 (it was 2.03 before the Orioles clobbered him last week).
“That’s how it goes,” said Gil, who denied that innings-fatigue was the cause of his recent stumbles. “There’s good moments and bad moments. I feel very healthy, thank God. I feel very strong.”
If that’s true, and Gil is still getting knocked around, maybe that’s an even greater concern. Or, like Cole, he just ran into a buzzsaw facing these relentless Mets. The Yankees’ pitching staff could barely slow them down. Harrison Bader, the No. 9 hitter and former Yankee, homered in both games. Francisco Alvarez, the 22-year-old catching prodigy, smacked a two-run blast in the third inning Wednesday and also doubled in the sixth to set up Tyrone Taylor’s three-run homer.
Alvarez extended his hitting streak to nine games, batting .566 with a 1.037 OPS during that span. He also became only the fourth catcher in MLB history to hit 30 career homers before turning 23, joining Johnny Bench, Ivan Rodriguez and Darrell Porter. Perhaps most remarkable is the Mets being 21-3 in the last 24 games Alvarez has started behind the plate.
“It’s contagious, you know?” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When you’ve got a lot of hitters clicking at the same time, you’re going to see games like that. Producing, having fun.”
Watching that, it shouldn’t be a surprise the Mets finally made it back to .500 (39-39) for the first time since May 7. And they look far from finished.
“That’s not the mission,” Francisco Lindor said, “but it does feel good that we’re on the right track.”
The Yankees? They were just happy to make it to their charter flight to Toronto late Wednesday night.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.