Pete Alonso, Justin Verlander help Mets dominate Yankees
The Mets' Pete Alonso is greeted at home plate after his three-run home run against the Yankees during the third inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was the type of performance reminiscent of the electric Subway Series of old: Pete Alonso, in the midst of what he’s called the most frustrating season of his career, proving that until Aaron Judge gets back on an active roster, he’s still the most dangerous hitter in New York.
In the process, Alonso was also able to inject some needed fireworks into the Mets' 9-3 win Tuesday night over the Yankees at the Stadium — a two-game series that lost much of its luster thanks to how both teams have underperformed, their superstars either absent or slumping.
Alonso went 3-for-4 with two homers and five RBIs, Jeff McNeil was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Justin Verlander spun his second gem in a row.
They also seemed to have survived a significant scare: Albert Abreu hit Francisco Alvarez in the hand in the ninth inning, forcing the rookie out of the game, but after, Alvarez said X-rays came back clean and that he wasn’t worried about a sustained injury.
It was the type of "good" that’s been so hard to find during this snake-bitten Mets season — never mind that it only further dimmed the Yankees' waning playoff hopes.
“I’m just really happy that today was an excellent day,” said Alonso, who’s emerging from a slump with vigor. “Every game is important. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing but obviously, the Subway Series is a big deal. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Yankees, the Red Sox or the Nationals or whoever else because right now, we’re at a point in the season where all wins matter.”
Brooks Raley and Grant Hartwig made it “interesting” in the seventh and eighth, allowing the Yankees to score three. But the Mets' inconsistent bullpen turned out to be no match for the Yankees' poor situational hitting — they were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
With the trade deadline on the horizon, the Yankees are still mostly in contention, though more losses like Tuesday’s will extinguish that, too. The Mets, meanwhile, are more and more looking like a team that will have to essentially concede the season on Aug. 1. All of which means that the teams with the two highest payrolls in the sport are grappling with the very real possibility that they won’t be in an expanded playoff picture that will see nearly half the league playing past Oct. 1.
Verlander allowed two hits and no runs over six innings, with four walks and six strikeouts. Domingo German had far less luck — allowing six runs on seven hits over six innings.
“I enjoy pitching here,” said Verlander, who very much enjoyed it when he was an Astro. “It’s fun. All eyes are on you. There are big moments and we’ve had some great rivalries in the past with the Astros and even going back to the Tigers…. A lot of fond memories.”
He got to add to the collection (though probably not the greatest hits).
The Mets kicked off the scoring in the first, when Alonso’s two-out bloop chased home Brandon Nimmo from second. Alonso then followed his bloop with a blast (eventually).
With two on and two out in the third, Alonso mashed German’s 0-and-2 changeup 372 feet to left to make it 4-0. He teed off again to lead off the sixth, cranking German’s belt-high fastball 431 feet to center for his 16th career multi-home run game. Daniel Vogelbach followed that up with a homer of his own, only his third extra-base hit since June 28.
Alonso, who had been mired in a horrific slump that saw him hit .104 from June 30 to July 19, now has 28 homers on the season. Tuesday made him 9 for his last 19 with five extra-base hits in that span. McNeil’s RBI single in the seventh made it 7-0.
The Yankees got two back in the bottom of the inning, though, when Anthony Volpe doubled home Isiah Kiner-Falefa. With the bases loaded and Dominic Leone in for Raley, Giancarlo Stanton hit a sacrifice fly to the warning track in right to plate Volpe and cut the deficit to 7-2.
Hartwig gave up back-to-back, one-out singles to Harrison Bader and Kiner-Falefa in the eighth, and then walked Volpe to load the bases for Ben Rortvedt, who hit into a forceout at second, scoring the lead runner.
McNeil added a two-run double in the ninth to account for the final score.
“The tack-on runs are big,” Buck Showalter said. “You know they’re going to make a run. They’ve just got too many good players. Little things mean a lot.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
