Bronx, NY – Taijuan Walker took his Mets no-hit bid into the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Mets scored a combined eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings and Brandon Nimmo returned to the lineup with three hits in his customary leadoff spot.
The Yankees continued their inconsistent hitting and inability to score runs in the Bronx Saturday afternoon.
And once again the Mets-and Yankees played baseball before the largest crowd since the pandemic as 40,007 watched at Yankee Stadium. Once again, as has been so often the situation, and since the inception in 1997 of this interleague Subway Series, gloomy weather and rain got in the way.
But the Mets rained on the Yankees with their 8-3 win. And it further divided the direction of two baseball teams in New York. The Yankees need the wins to make an impact for their season in early July.
The Mets before the All-Star break are clinging to a first place lead over the Nationals. Phillies, and Braves.
“It’s frustrating,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “We’re all pissed off about it. Obviously we’ve set a much higher bar in there and we haven’t to this point lived up to that. We’ve got to turn it around in a big time way.”
The Yankees since 1997 have commanded this interleague borough rivalry and the Mets have always played second fiddle to their counterparts in the Bronx which makes this series more interesting.
And at the midpoint of their schedule, the Yankees are looking at the Mets as one of those teams that could further put them into hibernation if they don’t rebound Sunday with a scheduled split double-header of seven inning games.
Aaron Judge broke up the no-hit bid and the shutout with his team leading 19th homer and the Yankees went down again for the sixth time in their last seven games.
The Yankees know where they stand. They need to win and do it with urgency. The first place Red Sox continue to widen the gap against them with a 10-game lead in the Al East and the Yankees need to bypass Tampa Bay and Toronto.
But these underachieving Yankees heard from their GM and owner and know the difficult task.
“Talk is cheap,” said Boone. Yes, this is urgent and winning ball games is more important than who is the dominant New York team that always is the theme when these teams get together six times during the season.
This is not about fans once again packing the house.
“We’ve got two really big games tomorrow, and we’ve got to get after it,” said Luke Voit who scored one of the Yankees three runs in the sixth inning. “We’re not playing good at all. We’re playing pretty bad right now.”
Voit said he should not be excluded as one of the many Yankees that are not playing well.
And the other part of this is how the Yankees starting rotation has not provided length. Jordan Montgomery took his second consecutive loss and allowed three runs in the fifth inning, including an RBI single from the Mets’ Dominic Smith with one of his three RBI.
A career high nine strikeouts and four scoreless innings from Michael King was the difference from this being a laughter in the Bronx.
“We can talk about it until we’re blue in the face,” Boone said. “We’ve got to put together complete games especially when we’re going up against good opponents.”
And the Mets are certainly one of those teams that Boone pointed out, though they are also struggling to score runs. But the Yankees made it look easy for their cross town rivals.
Manager Luis Rojas said the crowd was electric and could be felt. But it was Walker and his team that made a presence in the Bronx. We know baseball is played everyday but the Yankees are the team looking to rapidly turn this thing around.
But it appears the Yankees will need that winning and very often tune in the second half if they want to play baseball again in October.
Said Voit, “We’re just going to do everything we can to get into the playoffs”
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