Justin Verlander hurled six scoreless innings while Pete Alonso hit two homers and drove in five runs, leading to a 9-3 Mets win over the Yankees in the Bronx Tuesday night.
Alonso gave the Mets a rare first inning run, as he followed up a Brandon Nimmo double with an RBI single to give the Mets the early lead. The Mets added to the lead with a two-out rally in the third inning. Francisco Lindor hit a bloop double and Jeff McNeil walked. Alonso drove both home with his first homer since July 6, giving Verlander a 4-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Verlander allowed just two hits in his outing, although he issued four walks. That brought his pitch count up to 98 and an exit after six shutout frames. While Verlander was terrific, the bullpen was another story.
Brooks Raley, who has been the club’s second-best reliever, gave up two runs in one-third of an inning. Grant Hartwig couldn’t get the job done in the eighth inning, either, as he allowed two hits and a walk to the four batters he faced, making Buck Showalter call for his closer before the ninth in a game they once led, 7-0.
David Robertson restored order in the eighth inning and after the Mets tacked on two more runs in the ninth, Showalter used Adam Ottavino to close out the win.
Alonso and Daniel Vogelbach hit back-to-back homers in the sixth inning. McNeil drove in a run in the seventh and two more in the ninth with a solid double to right field. The Mets banged out 12 hits in the game, including four with RiSP.
The three definite things in life: Death, Taxes and your game recap? Thanks as always. Nice win, the kind we thought we’d see a lot more of this season. Nice to see Pete getting back on track, Lindor with three hits, McNeil’s got some life and for god’s sake even Vogelbach hit one out. Verlander was almost as sharp as when I saw him last week when he made it through 8 with close to 100 pitches that included needing twenty plus pitches to get out of the last inning. It would be fun to win tomorrow for NYC bragging rights.
Gut Reaction: it is nice to beat the Yankees.
Verlander has been consistent in his last six games unlike the early part of the season when he was hot and cold. Him and Senga are a good 1-2 punch, Scherzer needs to join the party.
Alonso is heating up. We need a 6-week period of that.
7-0 lead and Raley is used? It made it look like a panic move.
Robertson was needed to restore on the eighth.
9-3 and Ottavino is used? Obviously Showalter has no confidence in Peterson, Smith and Gott and who could blame him?
It’s great to see Alonso, McNeil and Lindor come up big in the same game. Hope that’ll get the trio going. Alonso looks like he started finding his swing again in the Red Sox series. Last night, it seems like his power is back too.
Good point Metsense. Ever since Showalter claimed that he doesn’t want to use all three in the same game, that’s all he has done. Add to that that he loves yanking pitchers in the sixth inning no matter what is going on and then having only his B relievers left. He really is not impressing me this year. Why was Verlander pulled after 6 scoreless innings? Worried about overuse, injury and ruin his trade value or was he really out of gas after six scoreless innings?
Alonso was lucky when his fly ball to CF in the first inning landed for a two out single because the outfielders were positioned in the outer boroughs. It’s a nice break but he earned his RBIs later.