Does Anybody Want to Win This Game?

In true Mets fashion, the Mets went a long way towards giving last night's game to the Yankees.

In true Brian Cashman Team fashion, the Yankees ended up not letting them.

The starting pitchers were each team's putative aces: Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander. Each man allowed only 1 run over 6 innings: Cole, a double by Tommy Pham following one by Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the 5th; Verlander, a single by Jake Bauers following a double by Jose Trevino in the top of the 6th.

The Mets seemed determined to blow the game in the top of the 7th. Their manager, former Yankee manager Buck Showalter, brought Jeff Brigham in to pitch. He ignored my frequent warning about leadoff walks, and walked Josh Donaldson. It wouldn't be fair to say that nobody walks Josh Donaldson, but from the start of the 2021 season onward, he has 278 strikeouts to just 133 walks.

Then Brigham hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch. He struck DJ Lemahieu out, then got Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground to short. Lindor stepped on 2nd base to force Rizzo out, but threw the ball away, allowing Donaldson to score, giving the Yankees the lead.

Showalter replaced Brigham with Brooks Raley. (Sounds like the name of a law firm.) With 2 outs, IKF showed a lot of guts in trying to steal 2nd. Met catcher Francisco Alvarez threw the ball away getting IKF to 3rd. Now, I've seen steals of home plate as the back end of a double steal. But I had never seen a Yankee attempt a straight steal of home before. IKF tried it. A good throw by Raley would have gotten him. But Raley threw the ball away. It was 3-1 Yankees.

Aaron Boone could have left Cole in the game. He'd only thrown 95 pitches. The decision to take him out could have been justified by the length of the top of the 7th. But then, why bring in Jimmy Cordero? He allowed single, flyout, single, groundout, bases-loading walk. Boone brought Ron Marinaccio in, which is what he should have done to start the inning. Or... should he? Marinaccio hit Brandon Nimmo with a pitch, forcing a run home. Then he gave up a single to Starling Marte, scoring the tying run.

But Marte, having gotten to 2nd on the throw, showed the Mets' occasional willingness to throw a game away, getting hung up between 2nd and 3rd. He tried to dive back to 2nd, where LeMahieu tagged him out. The Mets challenged the call, and it looked on the replay like they had a point. But the umpires upheld the call, and the inning was over, with the game tied, and both teams looking like they wanted to throw it away.

The Yankees wasted a leadoff double by Anthony Volpe in the 8th. With 1 out in the 9th, against former Yankee reliever David Robertson, LeMahieu doubled, and was replaced with pinch-runner Oswaldo Cabrera. Gleyber Torres, the usual 2nd baseman, was sent up to pinch-hit for IKF, meaning that Cabrera would replace IKF in center field. And you thought, with the National League finally getting the designated hitter last year, these kinds of "chess matches" would be no more.

Torres drew a walk. The Yankees had 2 runners on, and only 1 out. Billy McKinney grounded to 1st, moving the runners over, but also providing the 2nd out. And Boone made his 3rd change of the inning, sending Willie Calhoun up to pinch-hit for Trevino. This made a little sense, since Calhoun is a lefty against the righty Robertson, and has been hitting well lately. But he grounded to 3rd, and the Yankees had disgracefully wasted a chance. Nor could they do anything with the "ghost runner" in the top of the 10th.

Albert Abreu had gotten the Mets out 1-2-3 in the 9th, so Boone left him in for the 10th. He made the right decision with the bullpen, which is a toss-up with him, but it didn't work: He got the 1st out, then gave up a double to Nimmo, allowing Eduardo Escobar to score the winning run.

Mets 4, Yankees 3. WP: Dominic Leone (1-2). No save. LP: Abreu (2-2).

The Yankees had the chance to win both games against The Other Team. They also had the chance to blow both games. They managed to win the 1st, and blow the 2nd. Typical Cashman Team behavior, until I see proof of otherwise. And that can only come in October.

The Yankees have today off, to prepare for a visit to Scumway Park to face The Scum, after losing 2 of 3 to them at home last weekend.

Yanks Get the Right Result Against The Other Team

When the Yankees aren't going well, an Interleague Citi Series with the Mets tends to not help.

Remember: It's not a "Subway Series" unless it's a World Series. Nobody ever called regular-season games between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers a "Subway Series." That was reserved for October contests between either of those teams and the Yankees.

At first, it looked pretty good for the Yankees: Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run off Max Scherzer. But then it fell apart: Luis Severino had nothing, giving up 6 runs in less than 5 innings.

And yet, he outlasted the future Hall-of-Famer Scherzer. Anthony Rizzo led off the top of the 4th with a single, and DJ LeMahieu hit a home run. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled. Billy McKinney grounded out. Kyle Higashioka singled. Anthony Volpe doubled IKF home. Jake Bauers singled Higgy and Volpe home. Scherzer had blown a 5-1 lead, and it was 6-5 Yankees. Buck Showalter, the former Yankee manager now messing up a 2nd New York team, took Scherzer out.

The Mets tied the game in the bottom of the 5th, and Aaron Boone took Severino out, and brought in Ron Marinaccio. He was followed by Jimmy Cordero, Tommy Kahnle, Wandy Peralta, Clay Holmes and Michael King. Between them, these 6 relievers pitched 4 1/3rd innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks, but no runs.

McKinney led off the top of the 6th by beating out an infield single, and advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch. Higashioka struck out. Volpe sent a drive to right field that looked like it would be caught, so McKinney had to hold up. But Met center fielder Brandon Nimmo, who had homered earlier, "pulled a Luis Castillo," and dropped the ball. That shut those orange-shirted "7 Line Army" dopes in center field up. So McKinney could only get to 3rd, while Volpe ended up on 2nd. Josh Donaldson hit a sacrifice fly to score McKinney.

The key moment came in the bottom of the 8th. Aaron Boone made the mistake of bringing Peralta in. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Peralta walked Mark Canha. Then he gave up a single to Nimmo. He got Francisco Alvarez to ground to short, forcing Nimmo out at 2nd. But he hit Jeff McNeil with a pitch, loading the bases with 1 out.

Boone brought Holmes on, to face the man who, at least in terms of pre-acquisition hype, should have been the Mets' best hitter: Francisco Lindor. And next up was Starling Marte. Holmes was a little wild, going to 3-and-2 on each of them. But he found enough guts and enough control to strike them both out, and leave the bases loaded. King finished the Mets off in the bottom of the 9th.

Yankees 7, Mets 6. The right result against The Other Team. WP: Marinaccio (3-3, and he deserved it, because 2 of his losses are due to the extra-inning "ghost runner" rule). SV: King (4). LP: Josh Walker (0-1).

The brief series concludes tonight, as we are once again doing the "two games in Flushing, two in The Bronx" thing, although, this time, not all four in a row. It's ace vs. ace, both former Houston Astro Pennant winners: Gerrit Cole vs. Justin Verlander.