The New York Mets (84-63) defeated the New York Yankees (80-66) by a score of 5-1 on Friday night at Citi Field, taking the opener of the Subway Series and reducing their magic number to clinch the NL East to eight.
Pitching:
Steven Matz started the game just a bit amped up to say the least, but settled down to put together a great effort and improve to 4-0, in what was the biggest game of his short career. Matz pitching six innings while giving up 7 hits, but only allowed one run, which came in the first inning. Matz struck out 4 while allowing 1 walk. A great effort from the Long Island born pitcher.
The Mets bullpen came in to close out the final three innings of the game and provided three scoreless innings. Hansel Robles and Addison Reed came in to pitch a scoreless seventh and eighth inning, both with two strikeouts each.
Jeurys Familia came into the game in a non-save situation and struggled a bit in the ninth. The Yankees loaded the bases with one out, but Familia was able to get Brett Gardner to pop out to Yoenis Cespedes, and put Chase Headley down on strikes to end the ballgame.
Offense:
It was home runs that powered the Mets offense tonight. Big blasts off the bats of Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy off of Yankees starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka gave the Mets a 2-1 lead. In the seventh Juan Uribe hit a pinch hit two-run bomb of his own off of Yankee reliever Chasen Shreve.
Lucas Duda had a great night at the plate and hopefully it’s something to build on for the first baseman. With two extra-base hits on the night, The homer broke a 66 at-bat homerless streak for Duda dating to August 2, which matched his longest of the season.
David Wright finished the game 2-for-3 and recorded his 10th multi-hit game since coming off the Disabled List (19 total games). He Is hitting .313 (61-195) in his career versus the Yankees and is batting .304 (24-79) since coming off the DL.
Notes:
A lot of adrenaline in this series for both teams and rightfully so as both clubs are playing to punch their ticket into October. A fun game to watch, and its great to see the energy at Citi Field from the fans and in the dugout for serious September baseball. The announced attendance was the second largest in Citi Field history and the place was electric.
The Mets have hit 29 home runs in their last 17 games with their three home runs tonight. It is the 21st three-homer game by the Mets this season, which is tied for third-most in a single season in team history…The Mets are 19-2 this season when they hit three or more home runs in a game.
The Mets shed another game off their magic number, as now any combination of wins or Nationals losses that add up to 8 will clinch the NL East. The Nationals were tied 4-4 as of this writing.
Terry Collins said Tyler Clippard‘s back tightened up on him while throwing ball during batting practice. He is having is back examined by team doctors tonight.
On Deck:
The Mets look to go for the series win tomorrow as the god of thunder, Noah Syndergaard (8-6, 3.20 ERA) is opposed by Yankees pitcher, Michael Pineda (10-8, 4.25 ERA). Let’s Go Mets!
