Juan Soto, Brett Baty, and Jeff McNeil all went deep and Reed Garrett came up huge with a two-inning save in the Mets’ victory in this Subway Series opener.
The Mets defeated the Yankees 6-5 in a thrilling back-and-forth 4th of July classic at Citi Field that featured six home runs between the two crosstown rivals.
Both teams came out swinging in the first inning. Jasson Domínguez and Aaron Judge went back-to-back for the Yankees off Justin Hagenman to lead off the game. In the bottom of the first, the Mets quickly tied the game off Marcus Stroman on a leadoff double by Brandon Nimmo that went sailing over the head of Domínguez, who misjudged the fly ball, and a two-run homer by none other than Juan Soto, who struggled in the Bronx, but went on to fall a triple short of the cycle in this afternoon’s game at Citi Field.
The Mets then took the lead in the third on a Soto double and a sharp grounder by Pete Alonso that ate up Anthony Volpe. Alonso was credited with the hit and the RBI and the Mets edged out in front 3-2. The Yankees punched back when Cody Bellinger led off the fourth inning with a towering solo homer to tie the game at three runs apiece. Hagenman bounced back to record the final two outs of the fourth via the strikeout to bring his strikeout total for the game up to five, demonstrating his ability to induce whiffs, but also the vulnerability to the home run that he’s dealt with in the minors.
The Mets had an odd mishap on the base paths in the bottom of the inning—the first of multiple base running blunders they would make in the game. Brett Baty singled to left to lead things off and then Ronny Mauricio grounded into a double play, but instead of running toward second, Baty was running back to first base for some reason.
Hagenman got the first out in the fifth, but then DJ LeMahieu singled and Hagenman was removed in favor of Austin Warren. Warren has done a good job in his brief stints with the Mets thus far, but today was not his afternoon. He gave up a go-ahead two-run homer to Jasson Domínguez—the Yankees left fielder’s second home run of the game. That closed the book on Hagenman, who was ultimately charged with four runs in 4 1⁄3 innings of work. Despite a rough go of it, Warren did manage to record the final two outs of the fifth inning without further incident and come back out and pitch a scoreless sixth inning as well.
Marcus Stroman’s afternoon was done after five innings of work and the Mets got to work against the Yankee bullpen. Brett Baty launched a solo homer with one out in the sixth to bring the Mets back within a run. The Mets potentially could have had a bigger inning, but they made their second costly base running mistake of the afternoon to end the inning. Ronny Mauricio followed Baty’s homer with a single off the right field wall. Tyrone Taylor then flew out and Aaron Boone turned to his lefty specialist side-armer Tim Hill to face Brandon Nimmo. Nimmo hit a bouncer to third, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. sailed a lollipop throw to DJ LeMahieu and in leaping to grab it, LeMahieu was pulled off the base. If Mauricio had stopped at second, he would have been safe there, but because his back was to the play as he ran, he did not see that LeMahieu had in fact corralled the throw and thought the ball had gone into center field, ran past the bag, and was tagged out by LeMahieu to end the inning.
Huascar Brazobán delivered a hitless seventh for the Mets, working around a one-out walk to Domínguez by striking out every other batter he faced. Tim Hill successfully recorded the first two outs in the seventh and then the Yankees brought in Luke Weaver to face Pete Alonso. Alonso worked out a walk and then Jeff McNeil dealt the decisive blow: a go-ahead two-run homer into the second deck in right field. McNeil knew he got it as soon as he hit the ball, flipping his bat and yelling in triumph toward the Mets dugout.
With the Mets’ bullpen utterly depleted with the loss of yet another arm today when José Butto was placed on the injured list and Edwin Díaz and Ryne Stanek both unavailable, Carlos Mendoza had to ask a lot of Reed Garrett, who has struggled so mightily of late. And Reed Garrett delivered, pitching two scoreless innings to earn his third save of the season. Garrett was assisted by a highlight reel worthy play from Jeff McNeil, who got it done on both sides of the ball this afternoon, diving to snag a bouncer off the bat of DJ LeMahieu and making a quick throw to first to get him in time. Facing down a 3-1 count to Jasson Domínguez, who had already gone deep twice in the game, knowing he had to throw him a strike with Aaron Judge looming on deck, Garrett made his pitch, getting Domíngez to ground out weakly to second to end the game and secure a huge victory for the Mets at Citi Field.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fangraphs
Big Mets winner: Jeff McNeil, +44.9% WPA
Big Mets loser: Austin Warren, -19.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: -2.7% WPA
Mets hitters: +52.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jeff McNeil’s go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh, +48.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jasson Domínguez’s go-ahead two-run homer off Austin Warren in the fifth, -25.0% WPA