Mets Bomb Cole & Pen; Sweep 4-Game Season Series. Mets 12 Yankees 3

July 26, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

If George Steinbrenner were still alive, boy — there would be hell to pay.

Whether you only remember the good Steinbrenner times (the titles in the late 70’s), or the bad (the turbulent 80’s), or the in-between (the titles in the late 90’s when the baseball people won with Steinbrenner’s is money, as he seemed medicated) — there is one thing for sure: someone would get fired after this disaster. Probably manager Aaron Boone.

Someone would be sent to the minors — back when sending someone to the minors meant you wouldn’t see them again this season, if ever. Probably Yoendrys Gomez.

Someone would get DFA’d or traded. Probably Caleb Ferguson and a few of the regular fielders.

The Mets won 12-3 on a humid Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, beating Yankee ace Gerrit Cole, whom they got to with the homerun ball:

  • Tyrone Taylor hit a solo homer in the 3rd tieing the game 1-1,
  • Pete Alonso hit a 2-run homer in the 4th giving the Mets a 3-2 lead, and
  • Francisco Lindor hit a 2-run homer in the 5th giving the Mets a 5-2 lead.

The Mets knocked Cole out in the 6th on an RBI single by Taylor, making it a 6-2 game.

The Yankee bullpen brought in gasoline in the 8th — Tim Hill, Caleb Ferguson, and Yoendrys Gomez got lit up for 6 more runs, with 2 more homers given up (another by Lindor) and the Mets romped 12-3.

Worse yet, the Mets sweep the 4-game season series, winning the first 2 games at Citifield in late June — 9-7 and 12-2 — and winning this 2-game series at Yankee Stadium in late July — 3-2 and 12-3.

“I thought stuff-wise, and fastball profile — good,” said manager Aaron Boone about Cole. “They hit a couple of cutters out against him; that’s been such a good pitch for him. Taylor got a fastball up and out of the zone — pretty good swing on that pitch with 2 strikes. But got hurt with the cutter a few times; didn’t quite get to the secondary and getting that swing and miss in a couple of opportunities where he normally finishes a guy off, the hurt him a little bit. Obviously a tough night for us — we have to move on quickly and get ready to go on a tough road trip.”

The Yankees drop to 60-44, and remain 1.5 behind Baltimore which also lost. The Mets improve to 54-48, 10 games back of Philly but leading in the 2nd wild card spot.

1. Yanks Take Lead Twice Early on HR’s by Gleyber & Soto

Things were looking good early as Gleyber Torres, who has been hot — hitting a homer the night before — and was inserted into the leadoff role for the first time this season, led off with a homer off Mets starter Sean Manaea.

Gerrit Cole coughed up a homer to Mets centerfielder Tyrone Taylor on a 95-MPH, four-seam fastball in the 3rd to tie the game, but Juan Soto hit back — with a solo homer in the bottom of the 3rd off Manaea to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead.

2. Cole Coughs Up Homers

But in the top of the 4th, Cole allowed a leadoff single by JD Martinez and another homer — this one to Pete Alonso on a 92-MPH cutter — for a 3-2 Mets lead.

And then in the 5th, Taylor led off with a single, and Francisco Lindor rocked a 92-MPH Cole cutter for a homer to right and a 5-2 Mets lead.

Tyrone Taylor got to Cole again in the 6th, with a 2-out, RBI single to make it 6-2. Taylor went 3-5 on the game — all hits were against Cole. Taylor raises his season average to .233.

3. Hill Pitched Well, and then Didn’t

Tim Hill relieved Cole and got Lindor for the last out of the 6th with 2 runners on — and then pitched a shutout, 1-2-3 inning in the 7th.

But in the 8th, the lefty side-armer allowed a leadoff homer to right-handed bat Mark Vientos and it was 7-2. Hill then allowed a double to lefty Jeff McNeil and was relieved by Caleb Ferguson.

4. Yank Bullpen Blows It Up in 8th

Ferguson allowed a single to his first batter, then got a strikeout and a groundout to 3rd — but Oswaldo Cabrera threw badly to 2nd for an error as McNeil scored.

Francisco Lindor then hit a 432-foot, 3-run bomb to left center for an 11-2 Mets lead.

Caleb walked another batter and was yanked for Yoendrys Gomez, who immediately allowed a double to JD Martinez and a walk to Pete Alonzo to load the bases with 1 out.

Vientos hit a sac fly for a 12-3 game before Gomez got the final out.

Gomez did pitch a shutout 9th — working around a 1-out single — to keep his faint hopes of staying on the team alive, in this non-George-Steinbrenner era.

5. Wells with RBI in 9th

Some good news: Austin Wells continues to hit, hit, hit.

In the bottom of the 9th, he ripped a 2-out RBI single off Adrian Houser, plating Gleyber Torres who had hit a 1-out double — to make it a 12-3 game. But Anthony Volpe struck out for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

  • Wells was 1-2 with 2 walks in the game. He is now at .225 (.338 OBP).
  • Gleyber was 2-5 — he is now at .232 (.308 OBP).
  • Volpe was 0-5; he is now at .251 (.304 OBP).

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401570006

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*