Yankees hold on to beat Mets, end six-game skid in Subway Series finale
Aaron Judge of the Yankees celebrates his fifth-inning two-run home run against the Mets with teammate Giancarlo Stanton at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The final game of the 2025 Subway Series was another thrill ride, and this one provided a long-awaited reversal of fortune for the Yankees.
Never mind that it came against a Mets team that has been using duct tape and twine to hold together a pitching staff to get 27 outs every game. A win is a win is a win, and the 6-4 triumph before 41,117 at Citi Field was the Yankees’ first in a week.
The Yankees built an early 5-0 lead, helped by a two-run homer by Aaron Judge (No. 33) and a homer and two RBIs by Austin Wells. Then they turned back the Mets’ comeback bids with a series of big pitches and big plays.
None was more impressive than leftfielder Cody Bellinger snagging Juan Soto’s sinking liner just above the grass and firing a bullet to first base to double off Francisco Lindor for the first two outs of the seventh. It kept the Yankees ahead by two runs, and Aaron Boone called it “probably our play of the year.”
“That was incredible — I’ve never seen something like that on the field,” Judge said. “Perfect read on the ball, came in, shoestring catch and then to throw out Lindor. It’s just all-around the perfect play.”
There were other biggies that stood out. Starter Max Fried struck out Soto and got Pete Alonso to fly out to strand two runners and keep it a 5-2 game in the fifth. Judge made a diving catch on Starling Marte’s sinking flare to strand a runner on third and keep the score 5-4 in the sixth. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt turned an unassisted double play.
The Mets never stopped coming until the Yankees were able to exhale when Devin Williams struck out Lindor to end it for his 12th save. And that was after Carlos Mendoza was ejected for vehemently protesting when Luis Torrens was called out on strikes for the first out in the ninth (the final two pitches of the three-pitch at-bat were out of the strike zone).
The Yankees halted their losing streak at six games as they close the “first half” by playing four series against teams that appear playoff-bound.
“A handful of guys did some really good things in that game,” Boone said. “Those ‘meet-the-moment’ kind of things that happen throughout the course of the year. You’re going to be tested . . . You’re going to face moments of adversity and where you’ve got to [deliver], and I think it’s all good prep . . . for hopefully when we’re playing even more important games later in the year.”
The Mets saw their winning streak snapped at four games and ended up splitting the six-game season series, which surely leaves New Yorkers hoping for another in the postseason. The Mets appear to have righted what ailed them for three weeks as they close their first half with series against a pair of sub-.500 clubs, the Orioles and Royals.
The Mets have gotten creative with their injury-decimated pitching staff. They won Wednesday with an opener before a bulk reliever. They won Friday with a career minor-leaguer getting his first major-league start. On Sunday, they tried to pull off a straight bullpen game and get an inning or two from several non-starters, some of whom have joined the active roster in the last couple of days. Chris Devenski started and pitched two scoreless innings, but Zach Pop and Brandon Waddell put them in the 5-0 hole.
The Yankees had their first choice starting in Fried (11-2, 2.27 ERA). The lefthander had pitched especially well in 11 previous turns when he’d followed a club loss. The Yankees had won nine of them, and he was 8-1 with a 1.34 ERA.
But the Mets did a fairly good job of driving Fried’s pitch count up and were able to begin their series of comeback bids against him in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Jeff McNeil, Hayden Senger and Marte had consecutive singles to load the bases and Lindor followed by driving a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-2.
Fried hit Brandon Nimmo with a pitch to start the sixth before coming out and ended up charged with three runs, six hits and a walk with five strikeouts in five innings-plus.
Jonathan Loaisiga came on and gave up three straight singles to Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty and McNeil to make it 5-3. Another run scored when Senger hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but Judge made his diving catch to keep the score 5-4.
Judge’s sacrifice fly made it 6-4 in the seventh, and Mauricio led off the eighth with a single. Baty then hit a hot shot toward Goldschmidt, who tagged an indecisive Mauricio near the bag and stepped on first for the double play.
“Today, it came down to [we] didn’t execute on the basepaths,” Lindor said of he and Mauricio getting doubled up. “I felt like [those] changed the momentum big-time there, but we all fought to the end . . . A couple of mistakes led to losing [and] mine definitely hurt.”
Notes & quotes: With a runner on third and one out in the fifth, Mendoza chose to pitch to Judge, who hit lefthander Waddell’s first pitch over the left-centerfield wall. Judge was intentionally walked five times in the four-game series against Toronto and hit a tying two-run homer when manager John Schneider did choose to pitch to him.
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.
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