Yankees take Subway Series behind Cody Bellinger's grand slam, Pete Alonso's error in eighth inning

The Yankees got the last word in the highly competitive Bronx edition of this season’s Subway Series. And it came in their last turn at the plate.

The Yankees and Mets again were locked in a tight one as they battled for the rubber game in the series. A six-run eighth inning ignited by first baseman Pete Alonso’s throwing error and capped by Cody Bellinger’s two-out grand slam wound up carrying the Yankees to an 8-2 win before 48,028 at the Stadium.

With the score tied at 2-2, Austin Wells’ double put runners on second and third with one out in the eighth. The Mets had the infield in for Jorbit Vivas, who fell behind 0-and-2 against Ryne Stanek, subsequently fouled off five pitches in what turned into an 11-pitch at-bat and wound up grounding a 3-and-2 pitch to Alonso. With Jasson Dominguez running on contact, Alonso airmailed the throw home off the backstop, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

“I just made an awful throw,” Alonso said. “That whole inning, this game — it’s on me.”

Paul Goldschmidt followed by lining a 99-mph fastball well above the strike zone for an RBI single to center. Lefthander Genesis Cabrera replaced Stanek and walked Trent Grisham to load the bases but struck out Aaron Judge for the second out.

Bellinger then hit a 97-mph first-pitch fastball just over the rightfield wall for his seventh home run of the season and ninth career grand slam. He was 3-for-3 with two walks and six RBIs.

“Vivas, what an AB, man,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He had some great takes and great battles. We get a break with the throw . . . Then [Goldschmidt] with a huge at-bat. [Bellinger] capping it off — what a great eighth inning.”

Bellinger, who gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the first with a two-run double, has a 13-game hitting streak. In the last 10 games of the streak, he is 17-for-41 with six walks, three homers, four doubles and 10 RBIs to move from .202 with a .634 OPS to .258, .789.

This series seemed so much to be about Juan Soto and his return to the Stadium after eschewing a generous offer from the Yankees for a record $765 million contract from the crosstown Mets. It proved to be about the players the Yankees got to replace his presence in the batting order, Bellinger and Goldschmidt. Bellinger was 7-for-11 with seven RBIs in the series. Goldschmidt had three hits and three RBIs.

The AL East-leading Yankees arrived the hotter club and stayed that way in taking two of three games. They have won eight of their last 11 and four straight series to move to 27-19. The NL East-leading Mets are 29-18.

As for Soto, he got an earful from displeased Yankees fans every night on every at-bat. In the end, he wasn’t the pivotal player in any of the three games, going 1-for-10 with three strikeouts, four walks and two stolen bases.

“Overall, there’s some positives: We were in it the whole way,” Alonso said of his take on the series. “They’ve got a great team over there. We have a great team as well. It’s crosstown rivalry . . . and a lot of fun and excitement. Hopefully the next go-round . . . we’ll come out with the upper hand.”

The starting pitching matchup between the Yankees’ Max Fried and the Mets’ David Peterson essentially was a draw as both lineups grinded them down through long innings and let neither go deep into the game. Both pitchers went six innings and left with the score tied 2-2.

Fried had only one inning that didn’t require at least 15 pitches and wound up throwing 102. He allowed two runs and three hits, striking out eight and walking two.

Peterson had a pair of innings in which he needed 22 and 25 pitches and finished with 101. He allowed two runs (one earned) and three hits, striking out four and walking four.

The Yankees jumped on Peterson for two runs in the first inning with an assist from Mark Vientos, who muffed Goldschmidt’s leadoff ground ball. Judge’s ground-rule double to rightfield gave the Yankees two runners in scoring position and both scored when Bellinger doubled to right.

The Mets made it 2-1 in the second on Jeff McNeil’s two-out RBI single. They tied it in the fifth when McNeil walked, reached third on Luisangel Acuna’s sacrifice and Francisco Lindor’s grounder, and scored when Fried’s 2-and-2 sweeper to Soto was in the dirt and got away from Wells for a wild pitch.

Notes & quotes: Yankees reliever Scott Effross, coming back from a hamstring injury, was reinstated from the 15-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre . . . Righthander JT Brubaker, out since suffering broken ribs from a batted ball in a spring training game, began a minor league rehab assignment Sunday with Class A Hudson Valley and threw 37 pitches in three scoreless innings . . . Breanna Stewart of the 2024 WNBA champion Liberty threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.