Gut Reaction: Yankees 6 Mets 5 (10 innings) (8/1/16)

The Yankees traded everybody the last two days. The Mets were playing with a short bullpen and a short bench. These two outmanned teams played a terrific ballgame, which resulted in another painful loss for the Mets. For the third time in a week, the Mets blew a lead in the eighth inning or later. For the second time, a measure of blame can be laid at the feet of manager Terry Collins.

The game started with a bang as Brett Gardner hit the second pitch of the game into right field for a triple, but was gunned down trying to stretch it to an inside-the-park home run. Wilmer Flores made the Yankees pay for that in the second with an over-the-fence home run into left field off starter C.C. Sabbathia — directly over the head of my cousin and his wife; I’ve got pictures to prove it.

In the fourth the Yankees knotted the game on a Jacoby Ellsbury double, a long fly by Brian McCann and a wild pitch from Logan Verrett. They then took the lead in the fifth on a walk to Rob Refsnyder, a sacrifice bunt by Sabbathia, a double by Gardner and a single by Ellsbury. The Mets crept closer in the bottom half, with a single by Brandon “Yes, I’m Still Here” Nimmo — pinch-hitting for Verrett: this will be important later — and a clutch two-out double by Michael Conforto. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, the Mets took the lead on singles by Flores and Travis d’Arnaud and a shock of a home run by newly arrived shortstop Matt Reynolds. Erik Goeddel had come on and pitched a spotless top of the sixth, Hansel Robles did the same in the seventh. In the eighth, the Collins follies took center stage. With lefties Gardner and Ellsbury leading off the inning, the manager elected to start off with Jerry Blevins, rather than the lately lights-out Addison Reed. Blevins walked Gardner, then struck out Ellsbury. Now Collins brought in Reed, who doesn’t often appear with runners already on. In any case, Reed wasn’t up to the task. After striking out Mark Teixeira, he surrendered a base hit to Brian McCann, who was pinch-run for by Ronald Torreyes. Facing Didi Gregorius, Reed then uncorked a wild pitch to move Torreyes to second. Gregorius then proceeded to foul off what seemed like about 30 pitches before delivering a two-run single to left center. Tie game.

Remember what I said before about a short bench and a short bullpen? To pinch hit for Goeddel back in the sixth, Collins used starting pitcher Steven Matz, who actually worked out a walk with two outs. The ‘pen was even shorter. Jeurys Familia entered the ninth inning and got some tremendous defensive help from Curtis Granderson, who ran down a long fly by Aaron Hicks which could have spelled some real trouble. Seth Lugo — the very last man in the bullpen, because Collins used Blevins in the eighth for no real reason, remember? — came in for the tenth. A leadoff walk to Ellsbury, an opposite field single by Teixeira and wrong-headed throw to third on a bunt by Ben Gamel loaded the bases with nobody out. Lugo bore down, though. He struck out Gregorius, but then Starlin Castro hit a sacrifice fly to right center.

The Mets had a real shot against new Yankee closer Dellin Betances in the bottom half. James Loney led off with long double to right center, which didn’t miss being a game-tying homer by much. He then snuck to third on a sacrificed bunt by Reynolds, even though Betances had him dead-to-rights but got the yips and took the out at first. Alejandro De Aza was then hit by a pitch. Catcher Rene Rivera — the next to last man on the bench, if you count the hobbled Yoenis Cespedes — had spelled d’Arnaud in the top of the inning and hit a weak dribbler to Betances, who froze Loney at third as De Aza crossed to second. With the winning runs on the pond, Granderson undramatically struck out on three pitches.

I get that they were short a couple of guys, but Terry Collins had to figure out a way to utilize his reserves to get past the tenth inning if he had to. He almost had to. He would have been out of luck if he had.