ByBrendan Kuty,Chris Kirschner and Will Sammon
NEW YORK — Going into the Subway Series, the Yankees and the Mets were teams still searching for identities.
Leaving it, they didn’t seem any closer to figuring themselves out — and, despite the Yankees’ better record, the title of Best Team In New York may still be far from decided.
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The Mets grabbed a walk-off, 4-3 win in 10 innings in Game 2 at Citi Field on Wednesday. It came after the Yankees came from behind to edge the Mets 7-6 on Tuesday night.
Here were the nine most eye-opening things to happen in the first installment of the Subway Series:
Nimmo’s redemption
Brandon Nimmo had never faced Nick Ramirez before so he didn’t look for anything in particular aside from something over the middle of the plate. He didn’t realize how shallow the Yankees’ outfield positioned themselves against him, either. When he came to the plate with one out in the 10th inning, Nimmo had other things on his mind.
Inside the Mets clubhouse, Nimmo told his teammates that as he walked to the plate he thought to himself, “All right. This is a great opportunity to pick us up after what I did last night.”
In the Mets’ loss Tuesday night, Nimmo failed to catch a fly ball. Afterward, he felt terrible. He believed he let the team down.
Thus, it’s easy to see why Nimmo approached his at-bat in the 10th inning as a chance for redemption. On the second pitch, he hit a double off the right-field wall to score Eduardo Escobar from second base and capture a win the Mets seriously needed.
The Mets entered Wednesday losers of nine of their last 10 games. Their 32-36 record reflects their poor play. Until Nimmo’s hit, things again trended poorly with mental mistakes, errors and unfortunate plays.
In the seventh inning, Nimmo tried to go from first to third on Starling Marte’s hit. It didn’t work out. Mark Vientos, the runner in front of Nimmo, didn’t run home. Third base coach Joey Cora didn’t tell him to do so. After touching third base, Vientos turned the corner but retreated. Before the play, Nimmo planned to take multiple bases on a hit. As an outfielder, he figured it would take a perfect throw in a pressure situation. He wanted to at least draw the throw to see if the infielder would take an out and give up a run. Vientos holding up surprised Nimmo, who got caught going too far toward third base. Nimmo tried to return to second base but was tagged out. — Sammon
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Mets hit with more sticky stuff, but bullpen holds it together
Another Mets pitcher got ejected for sticky stuff. After Max Scherzer’s suspension earlier this season, reliever Drew Smith got ejected Tuesday after umpires deemed his hands too sticky. They are the only team with two players who have been hit with the suspension — plus they had two more occurrences in Triple A. Mets manager Buck Showalter said Wednesday, “I look in the mirror and go, ‘OK, are we doing something wrong that we need to fix?’” He added that he did not discover anything wrong with the Mets’ processes.
The Mets will operate with just 12 pitchers for the next nine games after Smith began his 10-game sticky-stuff suspension Wednesday. Tylor Megill lingered as an option for the Mets’ bullpen Wednesday, but they never needed him. Megill will start Friday as originally planned.Jeff Brigham, Brooks Raley,Adam Ottavino,David Robertson and Dominic Leonesolidly covered four innings. The Mets bullpen already lacked depth and had been taxed from early and often usage so far this season as a result of starters failing to pitch beyond the fifth inning. Now, they’re going to be further tested. On the first day, they passed.— Sammon
McNeil’s shift violation
As soon as Jeff McNeil reached his locker after the game, he pulled out his phone and looked up the language for the rule on shift violations.
In an effort to contain the speedy Anthony Volpe at second base in the eighth inning, McNeil straddled the bag with one of his feet on the shortstop’s side of the bag. He said he moved in time. But the umpire called him for a shift violation. A strike became a ball to Giancarlo Stanton, but Ottavino retired him anyway and pitched a scoreless frame. Part of the rule reads, “The four infielders must be within the boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.”
“From what I just read in the rule, it was not a violation,” McNeil said.
McNeil said the enforcement of the rule was “ticky-tack” because his intent had nothing to do with the hitter and fielding a batted ball; he was focused on keeping the runner close.
The Mets became just the second team in MLB to get called for a shift violation. — Sammon
Kiner-Falefa steals home
With Aaron Judge out indefinitely, the Yankees must do a better job of manufacturing runs. Isiah Kiner-Falefa did just that in the seventh inning Wednesday night to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
After reaching first base on a fielder’s choice, Kiner-Falefa stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Francisco Alvarez. Kiner-Falefa then took a massive lead off third with Escobar playing well off the bag and reliever Brooks Raley in the windup rather than in the stretch. Before Raley threw the ball home, Kiner-Falefa was already halfway down the line. It was the Yankees’ first steal of home since Didi Gregorius in 2016.
“What a cool play to witness,” Gerrit Cole said. “My gosh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”
Kiner-Falefa said it was the first time he’s successfully stolen home in his life. He tried in high school and in the minors but could never time it right. — Kirschner
Hal Steinbrenner speaks
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner rarely speaks with the media, but he took questions Tuesday at the MLB owners’ meetings.
The biggest takeaway from Steinbrenner was that he’s open to adding payroll at the trade deadline if it means helping the Yankees toward their goal of winning a World Series. That’s important because the Yankees are up against the fourth luxury-tax threshold and operated all offseason as a team that appears unwilling to exceed it and incur the harsh penalties. There are several holes the Yankees can improve through trades, like adding an impact left-handed outfield bat, another reliever and potentially a starting pitcher. — Kirschner
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The Mets’ mistakes
In addition to the baserunning issue with Nimmo and the violation on McNeil, the Mets committed two errors and allowed the steal of home. It’s the kind of stuff that good teams avoid. It can’t happen. And it’s not the first time issues like these had plagued the Mets, either.
In the seventh inning, McNeil made an error on a throw to first base. First baseman Vientos should have blocked the ball to keep it in front of him, but McNeil probably shouldn’t have thrown the ball in the first place; there wasn’t a good chance of completing the play. A run scored as Kiner-Falefa reached first base. He then attempted to steal second base. In an effort to throw him out, Alvarez made a throwing error that allowed Kiner-Falefa to advance to third base. With Brooks Raley on the mound, he then stole home. Raley said he saw Kiner-Falefa take off out of his peripheral vision, but the lefty never heard anyone alert him that the runner was on the move.
“You like to see them not happen,” Showalter said. “I think sometimes guys are trying so hard to find a way to contribute. At the same time, through that, some mistakes were made. I don’t take a blind eye to those things. I know how much they care. They’re things we will talk about before the next game like we always do.” — Sammon
That was a crazy game . Too many mental mistakes but I will take it.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) June 15, 2023
Verlander rebounds
In a bounce-back start from a nightmarish outing against the Braves, Justin Verlander stymied the Yankees over six innings. Last week, he vowed to fix things. He did just that — he had his fastball and slider working effectively. Verlander allowed just one earned run and three hits with six strikeouts. Especially after Max Scherzer’s poor start Tuesday, the Mets needed their other co-ace to step up. — Sammon
Volpe shows life
Calls for the Yankees to demote Volpe to Triple A may have been premature. The rookie shortstop went 3-for-8 (.375) with all of his hits doubles and one RBI during the series. On Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone fielded several questions about the seemingly safe job status of Volpe, their 22-year-old former top prospect. Boone’s defense of Volpe was simple.
“He’s learning his way at the big-league level, so there are going to be lumps along the way,” he said.
But Volpe didn’t treat his situation as if the status quo was enough. During a trip back to his family’s home in New Jersey, on Monday’s off day, he gathered with some of his former minor-league teammates. They realized that Volpe could benefit from closing his stance, and he deployed it Tuesday.
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The overall numbers might still be ugly for Volpe: a .192 batting average, a team-high 78 strikeouts and a .264 on-base percentage among them. But he’s making progress. — Kuty
RISP woes
The Yankees went just 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position in Game 2.
“The more we can put ourselves in that position,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said, “the better off we’ll be in the long run. We just have to keep getting guys up there in that position and keep firing away.”
Didn’t help that the Yankees got nearly zilch from the big names at the top of their lineup. Giancarlo Stanton homered Tuesday but went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Wednesday. DJ LeMahieu homered Tuesday but went just 1-for-4 Wednesday. Josh Donaldson was hitless in four at-bats with a walk Wednesday. And Rizzo? He snapped an 0-for-24 streak with a single Tuesday but went 0-for-3 Wednesday. — Kuty
(Photo of the Mets congratulating teammate Brandon Nimmo after his game-winning RBI double in the 10th inning Wednesday to beat the Yankees: Gregory Fisher / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)
