Mets Flex Muscle In Wild Subway Series

While Mets Win Series, Cody Bellinger Saves Yankees' Bacon with Great Catch

The New York Mets flexed their muscle against their cross-town rivals over the 4th of July Holiday Weekend, but the Yankees, more specifically Cody Bellinger, had perhaps to Play of the Year in a wild Subway Series at Citi Field.

METS OFFENSIVE MUSCLE

Working without a true quality starting pitcher for all three games against a powerful Yankees lineup was not a bingo card the Mets wanted to play with, but they made the most of their opportunities, especially offensively.

The Mets out-slugged the Yankees in two of the three games, and were it not for some nifty defensive plays by the Bronx Bombers on Sunday, the Mets could have swept.

As a team, the Mets hit exactly .300 (30-for-100) with 22 runs scored and six homers in the three games. Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo dominated the series. Alonso was 3-for-10 with four runs scored, six RBI, and a mammoth three-run bomb in Saturday's 12-6 Mets victory.

Nimmo was also 3-for-10 with three runs scored and a grand slam.

Overall five different Mets went deep against the Yankees. All the homers proved to be huge moments. Juan Soto's two-run shot off Marcus Stroman on Friday tied that game at two in the first inning. Brett Baty's solo shot got the Mets closer in Friday's comeback, and Jeff McNeil's two-run shot off Luke Weaver put the Mets in front on Friday 6-5.

YANKEES PITCHING WOES CONTINUE

The Yankees have some serious problems, and it all relates to pitching. Nobody wearing a Yankees road jersey pitched well this weekend, save for Devin Williams in the ninth inning on Sunday.

Stroman struggled with his control on Friday; Carlos Rodon was shelled for seven runs, six earned, over five innings on Saturday, and Max Fried just didn't have his best stuff as the Mets chased him after five-plus innings on Sunday.

The Yankee bullpen was even worse. It didn't matter who manager Aaron Boone trotted out of the bullpen, the Mets were finding ways to score runs. Overall, the Yankees had a 7.00 ERA in 27 innings pitched in this leg of the Subway Series.

CODY BELLINGER SAVES THE DAY

If the Yankees can point to one play that saved them in this series it was a spectacular play by Cody Bellinger in left field on Sunday. When Soto lined a pitch to left field, Bellinger had to quickly adjust as the ball was dying in front of him. He stuck his glove out and somehow snow-coned the ball, without it touching the grass.

Bellinger came up firing a bullet back to first base to double-up Francisco Lindor. Had the ball touched the grass, it would have been 1st and 2nd with no one out, and Pete Alonso coming up. One could argue the Yankees could have been starring down at a 7-game skid had Bellinger not made that play.

Hey, Umpire John Bacon What's a Strike?

The umpiring? Woof. The Yankees had issues with them over the pitch clock, but the truly awful calls by home-plate umpire John Bacon on Sunday took the cake. With the Mets batting in the bottom half of the ninth inning, Luis Torrens was rung up on three pitches, but two of those pitches appeared low and outside the strike zone.

Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza was seen screaming from the dugout after the 0-2 that the ball was low. When Bacon rang up Torrens on the next pitch, Mendoza exploded out of the dugout and got tossed. Good for Mendy, the calls were beyond bad.

Oh, and as the dust settled from this Subway Series both teams are still behind in their respective divisions. The Yankees trail the Blue Jays by three games; the Mets trail the Phillies by 1.5 games.