In 25 ¹/₃ innings against any other team this season, Gerrit Cole has allowed two home runs.
In 9 ²/₃ innings against the Mets, Cole has allowed seven home runs.
The Mets have owned the Yankees ace, which is fitting: They own the team he plays for and suddenly New York City, too.
For the first time since 2013, back when Anthony Volpe was 12 and Francisco Alvarez 11, the Mets have come face-to-face with their crosstown rivals and not blinked once.
For a second time in their franchise history, the Mets have swept the season series, finishing off their fourth matchup with the Yankees with a thorough and humiliating 12-3 destruction in front of 48,760 either exasperated or exultant fans in The Bronx.
What Carlos Mendoza’s group has done has been clinical:
- Knowing the Yankees offense’s weaknesses, the Mets started four southpaws (Sean Manaea twice, Jose Quintana and David Peterson), who combined to allow four runs.
- Knowing how thin the lineup is behind Aaron Judge, the Mets watched the Yankees captain come to bat nine times in the two-game set the past two days and walked or hit him five times, refusing to allow him to beat them. If Judge (or Juan Soto) was not going to beat the Mets, then the Yankees weren’t going to beat the Mets.
What Aaron Boone’s group has done has been embarrassing:
- A pitching staff that generally has been the lesser of the team’s problems could not keep the Mets in the yard, serving up five home runs Wednesday (including a pair to Francisco Lindor);
- The few opportunities that were manufactured in a mostly two-man lineup were wasted;
- The defense folded in a six-run eighth inning that included a misplayed fly ball from Judge that turned into a Jeff McNeil double, plus a combined head-scratcher from third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera (whose throw home on a grounder was off-line) and Austin Wells (who caught the throw with his foot on the plate as if a force play were on, allowing McNeil to slide home safely).
In the four showdowns this season, the Mets have hammered the Yankees, 36-13.
The past two days the Mets beat the Yankees’ first-half ace in Luis Gil and longtime ace in Cole, who allowed six runs in 5 ²/₃ innings in his second dud against the city rivals.
It only got worse — and much worse — once Cole left.
The rise continues for the Mets (53-48), who have won four of five and reached five games over .500 for the first time since April 23, 2023.
The plunge continues for the Yankees (60-44), who have dropped 22 of their past 32 and continue to search for a third offensive threat and any meaningful hit.
The past two games the Yankees have gone 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position, Soto and Judge often mounting threats that the middle of the order bungles.
Wednesday, three times the Yankees came up with significant threats that the Mets extinguished.
Once the black hole that is DJ LeMahieu meekly grounded out; once Adam Ottavino induced a bases-loaded ground out from Volpe; and after a leadoff Soto double in the seventh, new Met Alex Young retired Judge, Wells and Volpe in order.
Both teams might have been screaming “Oh My God,” but for different reasons. The Yankees’ frustration became Mets jubilation in a game in which they blasted five home runs and kept Luis Severino and his “OMG” sign busy.
Tyrone Taylor (3-for-5, plus a spectacular grab to rob Alex Verdugo of a hit) answered Gleyber Torres’ home run with a solo home run of his own to tie the game in the third.
The Yankees crept in front again in the bottom of the inning, when Soto launched a bomb into Monument Park, and the Mets proceeded to score the next 11 runs.
Pete Alonso’s two-run shot started the rally. Lindor’s first of the night, a two-run crack to right, gained separation.
Mark Vientos and Lindor again smacked dingers in an eighth inning in which the Mets sent 11 men to the plate, and the Yankees’ defense and pitching failed them.
On a lot of nights, the Yankees would have been booed off the field. On this night, sporadic chants and cheers from Mets fans were heard.
Most of the fans in pinstriped jerseys already had left.