With the baseball world fixated on New York, the Bronx’s half of the Subway Series concluded with an 8-2 victory for the home team on Sunday Night Baseball.
The Bombers secured a series win in the eighth inning, as a leadoff walk from Jasson Domínguez and a double from Austin Wells preceded a 10-pitch at-bat between 24-year-old rookie Jorbit Vivas and veteran reliever Ryne Stanek. That battle ended with a run-of-the-mill grounder to Pete Alonso, but the Mets’ first baseman airmailed a wide throw home.
With a season-high paid attendance of 48,028 at Yankee Stadium, the divided crowd broke into cheers as Domínguez slid headfirst across the plate to break a 2-2 tie. But the Yankees didn’t stop there, as an RBI single from Paul Goldschmidt made it a 4-2 game before the red-hot Cody Bellinger cracked the game open with a grand slam off Genesis Cabrera.
Bellinger, hitting.312/.393/.545 over his last 20 games prior to Sunday, bookended the scoring, as he drove in two in the bottom of the first after a Mark Vientos error and an Aaron Judge ground-rule double off David Peterson. Bellinger’s double down the line deflected off the glove of a diving Alonso.
However, the Mets cut the 2-0 deficit in half in the third inning, as Vientos singled and Brandon Nimmo walked before Jeff McNeil picked up a two-run, RBI single.
A leadoff walk to McNeil then came back to bite Max Fried in the fifth, as he eventually scored on a wild pitch that Austin Wells could have blocked.
Sunday marked Fried’s second off night in a row, by his standards anyway.
The lefty, who knows the Mets well from his time with the Braves, totaled two earned runs, three hits, two walks, eight strikeouts and 102 pitches as his ERA “inflated” from 1.11 to 1.29.
Two of those strikeouts came against Juan Soto, resulting in eruptions from the Bronx faithful. Soto went 0-for-4 in his last guaranteed game at Yankee Stadium this season, though he did take a hit away from Wells with a running catch near the warning track in the fourth inning.
Judge, who embraced Soto on the field pregame, also made a pretty play, laying out for a looping Francisco Lindor liner in the third.
The Yankees had a chance to break the 2-2 tie in the fifth inning, as an intentional walk to Judge gave them runners on first and second with two outs. Bellinger then worked a walk on four pitches to load bases, but Anthony Volpe swung at the first pitch he saw from Peterson and ended the inning with a weak groundout.
Peterson tallied six innings, two runs (one earned), three hits, four walks and four strikeouts over 101 pitches.
Volpe, meanwhile, failed to cash in with the bases loaded again in the seventh, as Huascar Brazobán struck him out with two away. Brazobán fell behind 3-0 in the count, but Volpe fouled off a couple would-be balls before whiffing on a low, inside sinker.
Now matter, though, as an outburst awaited the Yankees in the eighth.
With the regular season’s first Subway Series over — the crosstown rivals will meet at Citi Field in early July — the Yankees have the day off on Monday. They’ll begin a three-game series with the Rangers, who recently hired Aaron Boone’s brother, Bret, to be their hitting coach, on Tuesday.
Will Warren, coming off two impressive outings, will start the opener for the Yankees, followed by Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Rodón. Patrick Corbin, a New York native and childhood Yankees fan, will pitch Tuesday for Texas. He’ll be followed by Jacob deGrom, who will make his first start in New York since leaving the Mets after the 2022 season.
Former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi will take the ball for the Rangers in the finale.
