The Mets (84-64) fell to the Yankees (81-66) by a score of 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
Noah Syndergaard pitched for the Mets and was shaky, allowing five runs on seven hits in six innings, striking out eight and walking none.
Carlos Beltran got the Yankees on the board early against his former team. After leadoff singles from Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner to start the game, Beltran crushed an 0-2 fastball out to right field to put the Yanks up 3-0. Syndergaard settled in and cruised for a few innings, but after working around a leadoff triple in the fifth, Thor allowed a two-run shot to Brian McCann that put the “visitors” ahead 5-0.
The Mets managed nothing against Michael Piñeda and the Yankees bullpen. Their only major threat came in the sixth, when they got the first two men on and, after a Yoenis Cespedes strikeout, loaded the bases with one away. But David Wright and Juan Uribe (pinch-hitting for Lucas Duda in what was a questionable move) whiffed as well, and the Mets went quietly from then on.
Sean Gillmartin threw two scoreless innings in relief and Bobby Parnell added a scoreless frame as well, but the Yankees bullpen was overpowering, striking out eight Mets (including seven in a row) after Pine Tar Boy departed with one out in the sixth, and the Bronx Bombers coasted to a 5-0 victory, evening up the series at one apiece.
Well, that wasn’t very entertaining. The Mets were down 3-0 before many of the fans had found their seats, and they didn’t really get back in it after that.
Syndergaard pitched well for the most part after the early mistakes, but all in all it wasn’t a great start. Still, he showed off some filthy stuff, including a nice hard slider. Noah got some help from Michael Conforto, who made a terrific diving catch in the third inning.
Cespedes hasn’t gotten a hit since GETTING hit on Tuesday. Lucas Duda had an HBP-induced slump earlier this year as well. I wonder if Alex Torres‘ “hat guy” does uniforms as well.
Nice work today from Gilmartin and Parnell. We can’t use our big guns every day.
At least it was Beltran who beat us, not A-Rod.
Seeing the Yankees bring in their closer up 5-0 in the ninth is a pleasant reminder that, for the first time in human history, the Yankees need these games infinitely more than we do. But it’d be nice to take the series.
Up next: The Mets will host the Yankees in the rubber game of their series on Sunday night at Citi Field. Matt Harvey (12-7, 2.88 ERA) will face CC Sabathia (4-9, 4.93 ERA) at 8:10 PM on ESPN.
