Mets take 2 of 3 in Subway Series after walking off Yankees in finale
The Mets' Carson Benge celebrates with teammate Juan Soto after reaching on a fielde'rs choice and scoring Marcus Semien to defeat the Yankees in the 10th inning at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Tyrone Taylor delivered the kind of hit so often missing for the Mets this season.
The outfielder’s two-out, three-run homer off Yankees closer David Bednar in the ninth inning Sunday afternoon electrified what was left of the home portion of the Subway Series crowd of 40,232 at Citi Field, drawing the Mets even.
But for that kind of hit to hold any truly tangible meaning – i.e. it coming in a victory – another Met would have to come through.
That turned out to be Carson Benge who, while not coming through in the traditional sense of a sharply-struck baseball, nonetheless put his bat on the ball.
And that was enough.
Benge’s fielder’s choice grounder in the bottom of the 10th inning against a five-man infield gave the Mets a 7-6 victory in the rubber game of the first iteration of the 2026 Subway Series.
“We continue to come back in games,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of his club, which improved to 10-5 in the month of May and notched its first victory in which it trailed going into the ninth inning since Sept. 30, 2024 in the first game of a doubleheader at Atlanta. “We showed the whole homestand, we get down, we get punched in the face, we get back up. Today was a perfect example. We didn’t play our best game and we’re still able to shake hands at the end.”
The victory concluded a 5-1 homestand for the Mets (20-26), while the loss concluded a nightmarish 2-7 trip for the Yankees (28-20) that began with a three-game sweep at the hands of the Brewers.
The third of those losses in Milwaukee, a 4-3 loss last Sunday, came when Bednar allowed a walk-off homer to Brice Turang on a first-pitch curveball.
Taylor, hitting .182 with a .488 OPS this season coming into the day, including a 3-for-28 slide, jumped on a hanging first-pitch curveball Sunday for his third homer of the season.
“I’ve had a lot of success with that pitch, and I trust my stuff implicitly,” Bednar said. “It’s more the position I put myself in.”
Which was two runners on base, courtesy of back-to-back singles by Benge and Bo Bichette to open the inning.
Up until the ninth for Taylor, who pinch hit for MJ Melendez in the fifth inning, it had been the continuation of the frustration he’d felt much at the plate most of the year. He was robbed of a hit by Trent Grisham in the fifth on a liner and stung one to left in the seventh that Max Schuemann caught.
“Bummed out to happy,” Taylor said with a smile of his emotional swing from the two empty at-bats to what turned out to be the days’ biggest one.
Up until Taylor’s blast, the day’s offensive hero was not someone fans, certainly not those who root for the Yankees, would have had on their collective Bingo card.
Shortstop Anthony Volpe, whose was promoted to the big leagues late last week in the wake of Jose Caballero’s broken finger, went 2-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs.
His two-run single in the sixth snapped a 1-1 tie and sparked a four-run inning that gave the Yankees, at the moment anyway, command.
After the Mets pulled within 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Volpe, hitless in his first three games since getting called up – though with five walks – drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning to make it 6-3.
“That’s the guy we know,” Aaron Judge said of Volpe. “That’s why he’s been our shortstop for the past couple of seasons. When we need him in a big spot, he comes up big for us.”
Volpe was tangentially involved in the game’s deciding play.
With lefthander Tim Hill on the mound in the 10th and bonus runner Marcus Semien on third after A.J. Ewing’s sacrifice bunt, the Yankees, with Luis Torrens at the plate, employed a five-man infield by bringing in Schuemann from left. Hill hit Torrens to put runners at the corners. With the five-man infield still in, Benge chopped one off the plate. Schuemann fielded the ball instead of Volpe, who made contact with the former, and there was no play at the plate as Semien slid across.
“We have to be quick. It’s a tough play at the plate either way,” Schuemann said. “I talked to Volpe about it, and it’s just one of those things (where) we’re both going to be aggressive to that baseball no matter what. We both wanted to make a play.”
And it was Benge, the rookie who made the Mets big-league roster out of spring training, forcing them to.
“I was just putting the ball in play,” Benge said. “Once it went over the pitcher’s head, I kind of knew, ‘Yeah, he’s probably scoring on that.’”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
