Yankees lose Subway Series to Mets in ugly 12-2 defeat

Wednesday night’s Subway Series game against the Mets was nothing but utterly boring for the Yankees. They were trounced 12-2, endured another rough performance from Luis Gil, had to stop play for rain and suffered their sixth loss in the last seven games before falling to their cross-town rivals for two games. They have now lost four series in a row.

The game began with missed opportunities for both teams. For the second day in a row, the Yankees loaded all bases in the first inning, this time thanks to one-out walks by Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and JD Davis. And for the second day in a row, they came away empty-handed. This time, it was a double play by Alex Verdugo that helped Mets starter Sean Manaea out of trouble.

The Mets loaded the bases themselves in the second half of the inning after Luis Gil allowed a leadoff double, a hit-by-pitch and a walk. The rookie right-hander also managed to get out of the danger zone and provoked a foul to end the danger.

Any hopes of getting Gil some help after escaping that jam were dashed. A leadoff single by DJ LeMahieu was quickly squashed when Jose Trevino gave the Yanks their second double kill in as many frames.

The Mets opened the scoring in the third inning, however, when Gil really began to struggle. Lindor hit another leadoff double and Brandon Nimmo worked his way forward with an eight-pitch walk before JD Martinez hit a bloop single to right, scoring his shortstop. With two on base and no outs, the Yankees finally found themselves on the right side of a well-timed double play when Pete Alonso rolled over a slider and set up a tailor-made 6-4-3.

Despite Alonso’s gift, Gil was unable to get out of the inning. Francisco Alvarez hit a two-run shot into the outfield that gave the Mets a three-run lead.

The Yanks struck back in the fourth inning when a leadoff single by Judge and a walk to Davis set up a two-on, no-out opportunity for Verdugo. The Yankees left fielder hit his second double play of the night (that’s 80 this year for the Yankees, if you count) to thwart another possible rally. Manaea put seven runners on the field during his five-inning outing, allowing two hits and five walks, but the Bombers never managed to get a hit at home against the left-hander.

One of the game’s biggest stories centered around a Yankee who was out of the starting lineup. Gleyber Torres’ disappointing season reached its lowest point on Tuesday when he went 0-for-4, including a key defensive error and a lack of effort on a groundout that Torres and Aaron Boone attributed (at least in part) to a groin issue. Torres was out of the starting lineup for just the fourth time this season tonight, which led to the following image that compared the Yankees’ team to a Norman Rockwell painting.

The Mets started to pull away in the fifth inning. Walks to Nimmo and Alonso knocked Gil out of the game. The rookie obviously wasn’t as bad as his nightmare outing against the Orioles, but he struggled to even last until the fifth inning, needing 87 pitches to get 13 outs. He managed just six swings and misses, with just two strikeouts to his credit, and he allowed five runs on four hits, four walks and two hit-by-pitches. With an off day on Monday, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the Yankees to consider skipping Gil’s next start to give him a breather in his first full, healthy season after Tommy John surgery.

New pitcher Caleb Ferguson was also no help for Gil and immediately allowed an RBI double from Alvarez.

Before the Mets could take further advantage, the skies opened in Flushing, causing the game to be suspended for an extended period due to rain.

When play resumed at 10:10 p.m. ET, Yoendrys Gómez took over the mound for the Yanks. Although the right-hander relieved Carlos Rodón well on Friday against Atlanta, he lacked the magic this time around.

Gómez walked the first batter he faced, loading the bases for the red-hot Mark Vientos. The Mets’ third baseman also walked, extending the lead to five. Jeff McNeil followed with a sacrifice fly before Harrison Bader hit an RBI double off the right outfield wall to make it 7-0. Gómez finally ended the inning by taking Lindor out of the game, ending the nightmarish fifth inning an hour and a half after it began.

The Yankees captain quickly responded to the Mets’ attack by following a walk by Juan Soto with a 400-foot home run, putting his team on the scoreboard.

Remarkably, Judge has now hit 30 bombs in 82 games this year – the same number of home runs as he hit during his legendary 2022 season of 62 home runs. As a bonus, he tied a Yankees icon on the franchise’s all-time list, tying Bernie Williams for seventh place with 287 career home runs.

Back in that miserable game, the Mets scored three more runs against Gómez in the sixth inning, as Tyrone Taylor Alonso and Alvarez scored. Bader struck out another in the next inning, and Vientos extended the score to 12-2 with an RBI single against Tim Hill in the eighth. The score remained the same, and it was one of the Yankees’ most disheartening losses of the season. Aside from Judge, the offense only managed four hits. The Orioles’ opponents also ran out of favor, as Baltimore ended its five-game losing streak, beat Cleveland, and moved to within one game of the Yanks in the AL East.

They’ll head north of the border tomorrow to begin a four-game series against a struggling Blue Jays team. Carlos Rodón will take the pill in the first game for the Yankees, looking to rebound from his worst outing of the season, an 11-hit, 8-run loss to the Braves. José Berríos will start for Toronto. The right-hander is also coming off a subpar performance, having allowed five runs in five innings against the Guardians last Saturday, despite having a strong season with a 3.43 ERA in 97 innings. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. ET.

Result