Some games don’t explode with fireworks—they burn slow and end in smoke. Saturday night in the Bronx was one of those.
With the weight of city bragging rights hanging in the balance, the New York Yankees watched a 2-2 game slip through their fingers. Literally.
When Fernando Cruz took the mound at the top of the ninth, the details started to unravel like a frayed thread on a tightrope.
A walk. A hit-by-pitch. A softly hit, but well-placed infield single that DJ LeMahieu couldn’t quite handle. And finally, a sac fly from Francisco Lindor that scored the winning run for the Mets.
That’s all it took.
Sloppy ninth costs Yankees despite otherwise tight game
For eight innings, this was the kind of game where every pitch felt like a chess move. Calculated. Intentional.
The Mets only collected six hits, yet they worked six walks—like boxers jabbing until an opening appeared. And in the ninth, they didn’t need thunder; they needed timing.
Cruz wasn’t shelled, but he lost the zone when it mattered. Walking a bottom-of-the-order hitter, giving up an infield dribbler, and then plunking the ninth batter—suddenly the bases were loaded with just one out.
Lindor lofted a fly ball to center, and Cody Bellinger’s throw home was competitive but not perfect. Jasson Dominguez didn’t set him up with much room to fire—a tiny detail, but one that made all the difference.
After the game, Bellinger even said that Dominguez had a better lane to make the throw.
Francisco Lindor gets the job done with a sac fly and the @Mets have grabbed the lead! 🫡 #RivalryWeekend pic.twitter.com/D9y5cY4yoc
— MLB (@MLB) May 17, 2025
Power alone doesn’t always win: Yankees’ homers fall short
This Yankees lineup is a wrecking crew, plain and simple. No pitcher sleeps well before facing them.
DJ LeMahieu opened the scoring with a solo shot in the third—his first homer of the 2025 season—and the stadium roared like it had been waiting months for it.
Then Bellinger crushed one to dead center in the sixth, tying the game and sending a jolt of electricity through the crowd. Two majestic swings. Two solo homers. But that was all the Yankees could muster.
Like a Ferrari stuck in traffic, all that horsepower went nowhere fast.
Clarke Schmidt grinds through tough innings, delivers quality start
Clarke Schmidt didn’t have his best command on Saturday. He looked uncomfortable at times, like a tightrope walker who knew the net was too far below.
Aaron Boone says Clarke Schmidt “lost the zone a little bit” today:
“Overall it wasn’t perfect but it was pretty darn effective” pic.twitter.com/z6UNBRFa9z
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 17, 2025
Still, he battled. He walked five and gave up three hits in six innings, surrendering just two runs in the fourth inning after a leadoff walk to Lindor set the Mets in motion.
Back-to-back singles tied it, and a stolen base plus a sac fly flipped the scoreboard. It could’ve unraveled right there. But Schmidt held on, gave his team a chance, and walked off with just a one-run deficit at that point.
Sometimes a quality start is just survival—and on this night, Schmidt survived.
Rare off-night for Judge seals a quiet loss
Aaron Judge didn’t look like himself. It happens. But when it happens on a night like this, it stings more.
The Yankees’ heart and hammer went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, including the final out against Mets closer Edwin Diaz. The moment was there for Judge to own, to crush, to turn the tide—and he couldn’t.
He’s still the best hitter in baseball. He’s still carrying a .402 average and a 1.241 OPS. But Saturday was one of those nights where even legends strike out.
And when that happens, someone else has to step up. No one did.
It wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a slugfest. It was a slow leak—and the Yankees watched the win drip away.
Popular reading:
Yankees’ polarizing infielder went from cut candidate to must-roster in the blink of an eye