BRONX, NY — Following a base-running blunder that limited the Mets’ output in the fifth inning, Jeff McNeil redeemed himself with a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth off Michael Tonkin that proved to be the game-winner in a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
“I feel like my swing is right where it needs to be,” McNeil, who is enjoying his best stretch of the season, said. “I feel a lot better, I feel like myself.”
Nursing a one-run lead heading into the ninth and with closer Edwin Diaz unavailable, the Mets turned to lefty Jake Diekman, who possessed a swollen 5.28 ERA entering the evening, to face the top of the Yankees’ order.
He got Trent Grisham to fly out to the warning track and walked Juan Soto on four pitches. With the tying runner on base, Diekman was forced to go after vaunted Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who had walked in each of his previous four plate appearances. He struck him out looking with a 96-mph four-seam fastball before getting Ben Rice to ground out to end it.
“That was huge,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We all know the type of hitter Judge is and I thought [Diekman] executed some real good pitches. That strike three, that two-seamer, that was pretty impressive.
With the win, the Mets (52-48) have taken three of the first four games of the 2024 Subway Series and have won three of their last four overall to keep their hold on the final National League Wild Card spot. The Yankees’ (60-43) slide continues at least another night as they have dropped to 10-21 in their last 31 games.
Trailing 1-0, McNeil was initially on the hook for a base-running error that forced the Mets to settle for only a tying run in the top of the fifth. He led off the frame with an infield hit and moved to second on Luis Torrens’ single, Tyrone Taylor smacked a 388-foot fly ball off the left-center-field fence. McNeil, however, was rooted to second expecting the ball to be caught and to tag up as Torrens sped toward him at second.
Once the ball hit the wall, McNeil could only move up to third while ushering Torrens back to second and limiting Taylor to a very long single instead of a two-RBI double. McNeil would come into score when Yankees starter Luis Gil hit Francisco Lindor in the arm to force in a run, but that was all the Mets would get.
Gil would be done after that fifth inning, allowing that lone run on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts on 91 pitches.
McNeil made up for it in spades with a two-run home run off Tonkin, just sneaking a liner over the right-center-field wall into the bullpen on a full count to make it a 3-1 game. The veteran lefty has nearly doubled his season’s home-run total over the last five games, mashing four during that stretch to improve to nine on the season.
“I’ve been taking a lot of good at-bats,” McNeil said. “An at-abt like that, I was trying not to do too much… just get something I could elevate.”
Alex Verdugo cut the Yankees’ deficit to 3-2 in the seventh with an RBI double — a hole that stayed intact after the Mets failed to score with one out and the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
With slugging catcher Francisco Alvarez on the bench, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza opted to stick with Luis Torrens, who struck out for the second out. Tyrone Taylor went up 3-0, but Yankees reliever Luke Weaver battled back to strike him out and get out of the jam.
Harrison Bader led off the ninth with a double but was picked off at third to squander another chance for the visitors.
Judge was neutralized with free passes as he was walked four times on Tuesday night — just the fourth time in his career that he has had a four-walk game. He also made a bit of Subway Series history in the process, becoming the first player in a Mets/Yankees matchup to be walked four times in a single game.
“I know how hot he is right now so I take my chance facing [cleanup hitter JD Davis],” Mets starter Jose Quintana said. “After a 2-0 count, I try to face Davis, especially with the game so close… The big challenge was to get [Juan Soto] out before that and get more room to pitch to Judge.
Gleyber Torres got the Yankees on the board with one out in the second inning, depositing the first pitch he saw from Quintana — a 91-mph sinker that sat in the middle of the zone — into the first rows of the right-center-field bleachers for his ninth home run of the season.
It was Torres’ first home run since June 28, breaking a 15-game drought without one. As for Quintana, it was the fifth home run allowed in his last 7.1 innings, which featured four home runs hit by the Colorado Rockies off him on July 14 at Citi Field.
The Yankees put runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth inning to build a chance to tack on more off Quintana. But the No. 7 hitter, Verdugo, opted to drop a sacrifice bunt to move Torres and Anthony Volpe up 90 feet for the light-hitting catcher, Carlos Narvaez, making his first MLB start. He struck out before the struggling DJ LeMahieu flew out to right, allowing the Mets and Quintana to escape.
“It was kind of an aggressive take with Alonso back like that [at first base],” Boone said. “Kind of a two-for-one shot that turned into a sac bunt. It was him being aggressive.”
Quintana would get through five innings, allowing one run on three hits with five walks and three strikeouts.
