The Mets (11-9) beat the Yankees (12-8) by a score of 6-0 on Sunday afternoon at Tradition Field.
Matt Harvey (!!!) got the start for the Mets and was awesome, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings of 2-hit ball, striking out 4 and walking none while throwing 60 pitches.
The Mets got it going early against CC Sabathia. Juan Lagares led off the bottom of the first with an inside-the-park home run, a deep drive to center which would have been easily caught by Lagares had he been in the field rather than at the plate, but instead sent Yankees center fielder Jose Pirela crashing into the wall, resulting in Juan hell of a start to the Mets’ day at the plate.
Lucas Duda, facing a lefty with a Cy Young award on his résumé for the second day in a row, cranked one over the wall in right for a more ordinary solo homer a few batters later to put the Mets up 2-0.
Lagares led off the top of the third with a bouncer up the middle. Didi Gregorius flagged it down on the run, giving an entire generation of Millennial Yankee fans a glimpse of what having a shortstop with actual range looks like, but couldn’t make the exchange, and Juan reached on an infield single.
After Sabathia got his former teammate Curtis Granderson to fly out in foul territory, David Wright connected for an opposite-field bomb, putting New Yo… oh darn the Mets up 4-0. When CC was pulled a couple hitters later, the red-hot Michael Cuddyer greeted reliever Chris Martin (terrific singer, really not much of a pitcher) with a double before being stranded when Wilmer Flores grounded out to Stephen Drew (with whom Flores shall be forever linked in Internet Mets Lore) to end the inning.
With Matt Harvey and the Yankees’ Scott Baker both cruising, the action in the game slowed down a bit. After getting the 2nd out in the top of the sixth, Harvey exited to a regular-season-sized ovation and LOOGY hopeful Sean Gilmartin came in to face the lefty Gregorius, who grounded out to Murphy-Replacement-hopeful Matt Reynolds at second base to end the inning.
Gilmartin got a chance to work a full inning in the top of the seventh. The Rule 5 pick struck out Stephen Drew before walking Chase Headley. Mark Teixeira hit one sharply to third base, but Wright made a terrific stop to start a 5-4-3 double-play and end the inning (who’s The Captain now, Yankee fans?).
Travis d’Arnaud led off the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle for the team’s first (and only) hit against Baker, but the Mets couldn’t find a way to bring their catcher back home, and the game moved to the eighth.
GIlmartin stayed in to get one more out in the top of the eighth before handing it over to Erik Goeddel, who finished the frame cleanly. The Mets got some insurance in the bottom of the inning, starting with Eric Campbell‘s solo shot, the Mets’ fourth dinger of the ballgame. After Kirk Nieuwenhuis singled, Ruben Tejada hit a double which just barely fell short of leaving the yard but gave Kirk more than enough time to cross the plate and put the Mets up 6-0. Johnny Monell grounded out to strand Ruben in scoring position and send the Yankees to the plate for their final opportunity.
Duane Below came on to pitch the top of the ninth and got into a bit of trouble. After the first Yankee hitter struck out, Jonathan Galvez reached on an error by Reynolds (now at shortstop) and Nick Noonan singled to put runners on first and second. But Reynolds redeemed himself, turning a double-play on a ball off the bat of Rob Refsnyder to end the game and give the Mets a quasi-Subway-Series win.
Matt Harvey looked great today (possibly related: Matt Harvey is great). His fastball didn’t really show up until he was a few innings deep, but it was still good enough to help him settle in with the help of his change, slider, and that beautiful new curveball which looks like it will torture lefties going forward and maybe even cause Ryan Howard to throw a tantrum at some point, if we’re lucky. Once The Dark Knight got his heater going, the Yankees had no chance. Terry pulled him when it looked like he was just getting started, and as Ron & Keith pointed out, Matt could have easily gone 9 (not that pulling him wasn’t the right call). I wouldn’t say that Harvey was completely dominant, but he was very good, and didn’t look like he was trying all that hard. This was a very encouraging performance.
The bats! Power! David Wright going the other way like it’s 2007! What a fun showing this was offensively, starting with Juan’s shenanigans and Duda’s shot off a lefty. Wright and Campbell’s blasts were both impressive, and when Tejada reaches the wall, that counts as a home run in my book.
I’m not really an expert on the LOOGY battle, but Gilmartin looked pretty good to me. As a Rule 5 pick, the Mets have to offer him back to the icy abyss from whence he came (Minnesota) if they don’t keep him on the MLB roster, so it might be smart to give him the first crack at it instead of, say, Scott Rice (sorry Terry).
Reynolds didn’t look that great in the field, as he made one error and nearly botched a double-play early in the game. Obviously, we all want Daniel Murphy ready for Opening Day, but there’s no sense in making Murph rush back from a pulled hamstring just so we can say, “Hey, look, we have our entire lineup intact on the first day of the season!” Reynolds, Daniel Muno, or whoever else starts the season at second base will hopefully only be needed for about a week, so I won’t worry too much about this stuff.
I hate the Yankees with a burning passion, and there is no month in which a 6-0 win over our crosstown rivals wouldn’t bring great joy to my heart. Add in a successful Harvey Day, and this one was about as good as a Spring Training game can get.
Up Next: The Mets will visit the Marlins on Monday. Jacob deGrom will face Mat Latos at 1:05 PM.
UPDATE: Wilmer Flores is in a boot and “in a lot of pain” after fouling a ball off his ankle. WE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN STEPHEN DREW!
