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Coming into this afternoon's game, the Yankees were one of the hottest teams in baseball, winning four in a row and seven of their past eight. This series pitted them against another streaking teams in the majors, and while the Yankees might have ridden their momentum to a series-opening win Friday night, it was the Mets' turn today to break someone's winning streak.
Today also marked Harvey Day, as Mets fans have begun calling days upon which Matt Harvey starts, and unfortunately for the Yankees, he looked like his old self. Harvey threw into the ninth inning today, striking out seven while walking just two and giving up only two runs. While he might've looked like the ace he was a couple of seasons ago, CC Sabathia in no way resembled the dominant hurler he once was. Sabathia didn't look too bad early on (a first inning homer to Lucas Duda notwithstanding), as he kept his pitches down and varied his speeds through the first three innings.
The Yankees managed to tie the game in the bottom of the third, as Stephen Drew - who'd doubled earlier in the inning - came in to score on a Jacoby Ellsbury double play ball. However, the Yankees would not be tied for long. Sabathia looked to be cruising in the fourth, as he quickly got two outs, but just after a tremendous catch from Ellsbury, Juan Lagares sent a slicing liner all the way to the wall for a triple, scoring Daniel Murphy and giving the Mets a one-run lead. Lagares then came in to score when Wilmer Flores hit a bloop single to center. The Mets weren't done quite yet - rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki (with just 11 plate appearances to his name) then drilled a line drive homer into the left field seats, and suddenly Sabathia's good day had devolved into a 5-1 Mets lead.
Sabathia wouldn't last much longer, as Eric Campbell's homer in the sixth finished him off and gave the Mets a five run advantage. All in all, Sabathia looked pretty poor after the third inning, eventually giving up seven runs on nine hits while striking out just two and surrendering three home runs. Sabathia has struggled with the long ball over the past couple seasons, posting a 12.5% HR/FB rate in 2012 and an even 13.0% in 2013. Through three starts this year, Sabathia had given up just one homer. Unfortunately for him, he left quite a few off-speed pitches up in the zone today, and the Mets hitters jumped all over them.
Esmil Rogers turned out to be somewhat of a bright spot through much of his work today, even striking out the side in the seventh and giving up just one run on three hits over three innings. Mark Teixeira continued his hot hitting, notching another homer to up his season total to eight.
Tomorrow in the series finale, Nathan Eovaldi will take on Jonathan Niese.