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NEW YORK — Before the second installment of the Subway Series, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza admitted it had been tough to keep tabs on his former team across town.
Mendoza is in regular communication with his former colleague, Yankees manager Aaron Boone, but both skippers have been busy trying to work through their own rough stretches.
“A lot of respect for him, but he’s got his issues, we’ve got our issues here,” Mendoza said.
The first of those for Mendoza was finding a way to navigate Friday’s series opener with the Yankees after Paul Blackburn was sidelined with a right shoulder impingement. A Wednesday doubleheader, followed by a narrow win over the Brewers on Thursday, taxed the bullpen duo of Ryne Stanek and Edwin Diaz.
With a patchwork pitching staff, the Mets offense bore the bulk of the responsibility to try and take down the Yankees on their home field.
Jeff McNeil belted a go-ahead two-run home run off the Yankees’ Luke Weaver in the seventh inning to deliver the Mets to a 6-5 victory over their crosstown rivals in front of 41,216 fans on Friday afternoon at Citi Field.
McNeil added a sensational diving play on a looping one-hopper in the first base gap to keep the Yankees offense at bay against Reed Garrett in the top of the ninth inning.
“The homer was sick. I love hitting homers, I don’t hit that many, but at the same time, because I hit the home run, I think that play was a little bit bigger,” McNeil said when asked which play he preferred. “I always take pride in my defense, but I have to say, the home run was sick.”
The Mets trailed by two runs in the sixth inning before Brett Baty moved them a little closer with his ninth home run of the season — a solo shot — to make it 5-4. Then, after Pete Alonso drew a two-out walk, McNeil tagged a knee-high changeup into the second deck in right field.
It led the Mets to their third straight win. Even with the stakes already seemingly heightened in a Subway Series, the win felt all the more momentous given the stress brought on by the recent roster pinch, with Blackburn, Jose Butto and Dedniel Nuñez all landing on the IL in a 72-hour span.
“You got to give credit to the players, they were the ones that executed,” Mendoza said. “It makes you feel a lot better obviously after the game when you get the results, but you put them in positions where you feel that they’re going to have success there and they went out there and did it today.”
Reed Garrett’s massive bounce back
After surrendering a go-ahead grand slam during Wednesday’s loss, Garrett promised he would continue “going after guys and get the results.”
With the Mets’ bullpen shorthanded and needing big outs after the eighth inning, Garrett badly wanted to come through for a six-out save. He tried to avoid Mendoza in between the eighth and ninth but was buoyed by a level of trust.
When the final out was made on a ground ball to McNeil, there was a little extra emotion in it for Garrett.
“The month of June was a grind, so I think a little bit of that, a little bit of this is a huge series,” Garrett said. “This is what everybody in New York looks forward to. So to get the last six was big for me and just kind of a little subtle reminder just to keep going, keep fighting.”
In the eighth inning, Garrett struck out Giancarlo Stanton and picked up a pair of fly balls to work around a one-out single.
In the ninth, he got Trent Grisham to line out to left field before McNeil made back-to-back outs to keep Aaron Judge stranded in the on-deck circle. It was Garrett’s second six-out save of his career.
“Once he said that he was good to go, I just said, ‘Hey man, go one batter at a time here. Let me make the other decisions but go out there and give me everything you got,'” Mendoza said. “The whole time he was like, ‘I got you,’ so it was good to see, especially after what he went through the past couple of outings or the past couple of weeks.”
Juan Soto’s initial boost
After a hostile trip to Yankee Stadium as a member of the Mets back in May, Juan Soto was able to feel a little bit more comfortable this time around.
Soto received a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate for the first time and repaid the support by blasting a two-run home run to answer back-to-back home runs from the Yankees’ Jasson Dominguez and Aaron Judge in the first inning.
“Any time you come through for the team, it’s always great,” Soto said. “When you put the team back into the game after giving up two runs right there and give a little break to the starter to start over, to start from that point on to start throwing the ball better and he did it today.”
The Mets superstar outfielder added a double and scored a run on Alonso’s RBI single off the glove of Anthony Volpe in the bottom of the third inning to give the Mets a brief 3-2 lead.
Soto finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. Since the calendar turned to June, Soto has raised his average from .231 to .266 and OPS from .770 to .915.
“It’s pretty special because any time he’s at the plate, you feel good about your chances,” Mendoza said.
Justin Hagenman hurt by the home run ball
Justin Hagenman did not have much time to prepare for his first start.
With Blackburn’s injury, Hagenman vacated his initially-planned start for Triple-A Syracuse to head down south.
Hagenman stumbled out of the gate, surrendering the back-to-back home runs, but settled in, finishing with four earned runs allowed in 4⅓ innings and striking out five.
“I like to think that’s one of the things I do pretty well is kind of keep it level-headed out there and keep everything under control,” Hagenman said. “Obviously that’s not the start you’re looking to get off to, but just know the best pitches are ahead of you.”
The long ball hurt the Mets throughout the afternoon, as Cody Bellinger tagged a game-tying solo home run off Hagenman to lead off the fourth inning. Hagenman was pulled after surrendering a one-out single to DJ LeMahieu as the Yankees’ lineup turned over.
Five pitches later, Austin Warren, who had also been called up on Thursday, surrendered a go-ahead two-run home run to Dominguez. But the Mets’ latest pitching duo worked deep enough to pass the ball to Huascar Brazoban and Garrett, who tied down the Yankees in the closing innings.