Game Recap: Mets' Bats Quiet in Loss to Yankees, 5-1

Jason Vargas toed toed rubber against Domingo German on Wednesday night as the Mets looked to sweep a short two-game series against their cross-town rival, the Yankees. They dropped the game at Citi Field by a 5-1 score.

Pitching

Vargas was bombarded right out of the gate, giving up a leadoff double to DJ LeMahieu, and then Aaron Judge doubled to deep central, putting the Yankees up early. Then with two outs, Gleyber Torres would then single up the middle, scoring Judge and doubling the Yankee’s lead.

Vargas ran into a little bit of trouble in the third when he walked Gary Sanchez with two outs, and then gave up a single to Aaron Hicks. Vargas would get a routine infield pop-out to end the inning and work around self-inflicted wounds.

With two runners on and one out in the bottom of the fourth, Vargas induced an inning-ending double play from pitcher German, with the help of some phenomenal defense by Wilson Ramos, Todd Frazier, and Robinson Cano.

LeMahieu reached on an error to lead off the fifth inning, but was eventually stranded there by some nice work by Vargas.

Vargas’ night would end after Didi Gregorius took Jason Vargas deep when a misplaced changeup found its’ way over the wall for a solo home run in the sixth, extending the Yankee’s lead to 3-1. Wilmer Font would replace Vargas, and he promptly gave up a solo homer to Gio Urshela.

Font continued out for the seventh, and was greeted by a double off the bat of LeMahieu to right field. Font would then retire Judge and Sanchez walking Hicks. Following a visit from Phil Regan, Torres singled into left field to extend the lead to 5-1. Steven Matz would then enter to make his relief debut, and retire Gregorius to escape a jam and end the inning.

Robert Gsellman worked around a leadoff walk with a pair of strikeouts and a ground out in the eighth, working a scoreless inning.

Jeurys Familia returned to the mound for the first time since returning from the injured list. He pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.

Offense

The Mets got on the board very quick as Jeff McNeil ripped a leadoff home run into the bullpens in right-center field. German would then retire the next three hitters to calm some early ruffles and nerves.

The Mets went quietly in the third inning, much like they did in the second. Of note, Pete Alonso slugged his 20th career double into left field. They would also go quietly in the fourth, as they went down helplessly 1-2-3.

Amed Rosario was the Mets’ only base runner in the fifth inning following his one-out single, but was stranded on second.

The sixth, much life other Mets’ innings on Wednesday, saw a two-out single go unaccompanied by any other offense and left a runner, this time Michael Conforto, stranded on first.

Now stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Mets saw a one-out single, this time from Wilson Ramos, and do nothing with the runner on base. The Mets hitting with runners on base to this point was nothing short of futile.

McNeil was robbed by Urshela defensively in the eighth, as he continued on his quest to make sure every possible spot on ESPN’s Web-gems was occupied by him. Alonso then reached on an infield single, his second hit of the night. Cano and Conforto were then set down on strikes by Chad Green to end the inning.

The Mets went away lifelessly in the ninth, dropping this one to the Yankees 5-1.