Jul 27, 2022; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets right fielder Starling Marte (6) is greeted by his teammates after hitting a walk off RBI single to beat the New York Yankees 3-2 at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets looked to sweep the two-game series from the Yankees on Wednesday night at Citi Field with Max Scherzer on the mound. Max made the start for the Mets on his 38th birthday against Domingo German. Scherzer threw seven shutout innings, and Starling Marte hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mets a 3-2 win and a Subway Series sweep.

Tuesday night’s matchup started with four first inning home runs, but we had to wait all the way until the second inning for the scoring to get started on Wednesday. Pete Alonso led off the second inning with his 26th home run of the season just over the left field fence to put the Mets ahead 1-0.

The Yankees put themselves in a position to even the score in the top of the third when Aaron Hicks blooped a single to lead off the innings and DJ LeMahieu lined a single up the middle to bring Aaron Judge up with two on and two outs. Scherzer struck out the American League MVP frontrunner, throwing his slider on four of the five pitches, to strand the two runners and hold the lead.

The Mets made the Yankees pay for the missed opportunity right away. Tomás Nido doubled to start the bottom of the third, and after Brandon Nimmo and Marte failed to move Nido, Francisco Lindor singled to right field with two outs to extend the lead to 2-0.

Scherzer continued to make quick work of the Yankees lineup in the top of the fourth. Facing the 3-4-5 in the Yankees’ order, he retired the side on just nine pitches.

It was the Mets’ turn to waste a scoring chance in the bottom of the fourth. Daniel Vogelbach walked to start the inning, and Mark Canha followed with an infield single. The Mets were not able to capitalize as Jeff McNeil lined out to Judge in centerfield before Eduardo Escobar and Nido struck out.

In the fifth, the Yankees had another opportunity to cut into the Mets’ lead. Josh Donaldson led off the inning with a double off the wall in center field. In typical Scherzer-like fashion, Max made his best pitches with a runner in scoring position. He struck out Hicks and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, but a walk to Kyle Higashioka brought LeMahieu up with two runners on and two outs. LeMahieu hit a 108 MPH line drive, but Lindor made the catch moving to his right to get out of the jam.

The Yankees’ struggles with runners in scoring position continued in the sixth. Scherzer hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch and allowed a two-out single to Carpenter to bring Donaldson up with runners on the corners. Donaldson hit a soft ground ball back to Scherzer to end the inning, moving Yankee hitters to 0-13 with runners in scoring position in the two-game series.

In the seventh, Judge came up again in a big at-bat against Scherzer. A Kiner-Falefa double and a LeMahieu walk brought the Yankees’ superstar slugger up in another RBI chance. Just like he did in Judge’s last two at-bats, Scherzer struck him out by throwing his slider on nearly every pitch.

Buck Showalter went to David Peterson in the eighth inning with two left-handed hitters due up for the Yankees, but the move backfired on him quickly. Rizzo walked on four pitches to lead off the inning, and Gleyber Torres hit Peterson’s fifth pitch over the right field wall to tie the game.

The Mets’ bats went quiet after Lindor’s RBI single in the third, and with the game suddenly tied, the Mets needed to get something going against the Yankee bullpen. Vogelbach drew a one-out walk in the eighth, but Canha and McNeil both followed with hard-hit balls directly at Torres at second base to end the inning with the game still tied.

After cleaning up the eighth inning after Peterson was pulled, Seth Lugo stayed in the game in the ninth for his second inning of work. He retired the first two batters, but another LeMahieu hit brought Judge up again with a runner on base. Despite not facing Scherzer anymore, Judge was retired again on a groundout to Lindor.

With a chance to win the game, Escobar led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to the wall in left field. Nido moved him to third on a sacrifice bunt, and Nimmo reached first on an infield single to bring Marte up. Marte singled to left field to drive in Escobar and finish the series sweep.

Player of the Game: Max Scherzer

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY

In his first career Subway Series start, Mad Max was brilliant once again. He went seven shutout innings, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out six Yankee batters. Despite the Yankees hitting plenty of balls hard and putting runners on in nearly every inning, Scherzer was able to do his best work when the Mets needed it most to keep the Yankees from scoring. The seven shutout innings improved his ERA to 0.82 in five career birthday starts for Scherzer.

On Deck

After an off day on Thursday, the Mets will begin a three-game series with the Marlins in Miami on Friday night at 6:40 p.m. ET. Chris Bassitt (7-7, 3.72 ERA) will make his fourth start against the Marlins this year. He faced Miami in three straight starts from June 19 – July 8. In those three starts, Bassitt threw 19 2/3 innings and allowed 8 runs on 17 hits along with 17 strikeouts. Sandy Alcantara (9-4, 1.81 ERA) will start for the Marlins. The Mets tagged him for five runs over seven innings on June 24 in Miami, but the Cy Young favorite dominated the Mets in his two starts at Citi Field this season.

The game will be broadcast on SNY, and the radio call will be on WCBS 880.