Yankees 3, Mets 4: Bullpen can’t hold lead, lose on extra innings walk-off

In a game featuring a starting pitching matchup of Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, we got a pretty impressive pitching battle. Through the first six innings, Cole and Verlander were very good, putting up similar lines. Cole allowed one run on four hits in six innings, as he struck out eight batters. Meanwhile, Verlander gave up one run on three hits, striking out six, also in six innings.

However, after they left, things started to get interesting. The last couple innings featured comebacks, errors, and a steal of home — among other things. When the dust finally settled, the Mets came away with a 10-inning, walk-off win, as they split the Subway Series with a 4-3 win over the Yankees.

Cole and Verlander kept exchanging zeroes to start things off. The Yankees had a bit of a chance in the third inning when Billy McKinney doubled, but that would be the lone plate runner they would get in the first five innings.

Meanwhile, Cole started off the game with four perfect innings before Francisco Lindor led off the fifth with a double. While a sacrifice fly moved Linor to third, Cole got on the verge of getting out of the inning with a strikeout. However, a two-out double by Tommy Pham got the Mets on the board.

The Yankees answered right back in the top of the sixth in a fairly similar manner. Jose Trevino recorded the Yankees’ second hit of the game when he led off the frame with a double. He was able to tag up and move to third on a fairly deep fly out to right by Anthony Volpe. After that, Jake Bauers popped through a single, evening things up.

In the bottom of the sixth, it seemed like the Mets were going to immediately answer themselves when Cole allowed two singles to start the inning. However, he bounced back with three straight outs against the Mets’ 2-3-4 spots to escape the jam.

While they didn’t put up a ton of offense against Verlander, the Yankees had done a decent job of working the count and fouling off pitches against him. That led to the Mets going to the bullpen for the seventh with Verlander at 107 pitches. They went to Jeff Brigham, and he quickly put two runners on with a walk to Josh Donaldson and a hit by pitch on Anthony Rizzo.

Brigham then struck out DJ LeMahieu, and seemed to get out of the inning when he induced a Isiah Kiner-Falefa ground ball. While the Mets got one out of the potential double play, IKF beat out the throw to first. To make things better for the Yankees, first baseman Mark Vientos couldn’t corral Jeff McNeil’s wide throw, allowing Donaldson to safely get home and give the Yankees a lead.

During the next at-bat, Kiner-Falefa stole second and was able to move to third thanks to another Mets throwing error. That perfectly set up what happened next — able to get a big lead with no one holding him on, IKF got a big jump and stole home off Mets reliever Brooks Raley.

After that, the Yankees also opted to go to the bullpen and brought in Jimmy Cordero. He got a pair of outs, but also gave up a couple hits. After a two-out walk to load the bases, Aaron Boone went back to the bullpen and called on Ron Marinaccio. That move didn’t work either, as Marinaccio hit a runner with a pitch, plating a run. Starling Marte then poked through a single, and things were even again. The Yankees got some luck when in the course of that play, they got Brandon Nimmo straying too far off second and tagged him out. The Mets reviewed it, and it seemed like their might’ve been enough to change the call to safe, but the out call on the field was upheld.

In the eighth, the Yankees failed to plate Volpe after a lead-off double. However, Tommy Kahnle matched the zero with an impressive bottom half of the inning. In the ninth, the offense missed out on another good opportunity, followed by a scoreless frame from Albert Abreu, which sent the game to extra innings.

The Yankees again couldn’t plate two runners in the top of the 10th, and Abreu came back out for the bottom half of the inning. He got a strikeout to start things off, and after that Boone went to Nick Ramirez. On the second pitch he threw, Nimmo hit one to deep right field. Jake Bauers didn’t take the most natural route to the ball, as it bounced off the wall. Eduardo Escobar raced around from second and made it home close to give the Mets the walk-off win after a wild game.

The Yankees will get a chance to rest up and lick their wounds after that affair as they’ll get tomorrow off. However, after that, they’ll be heading up to Boston for a series against the Red Sox starting on Friday night. Domingo Germán is expected to get the start in the opener.

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