Something happened on the way to 2022. The Mets did whatever they could to make sure they were no longer the little team from Queens.
The goal was perfect, the execution exemplary.
Using Steve Cohen’s capital, the due diligence of a revamped front office and the tone set by a new manager we’ve known forever — the two baseball people both former Yankees — the Mets emerged from the shadow of the perennially winning juggernaut from The Bronx to become a force in Flushing.
If they aren’t quite the equal of the Bronx Bombers yet — and the standings will tell you they still have a way to go — the Mets stand as no less than a solid threat to supremacy in New York. The Yankees remain baseball’s most imposing team, with very likely its best player, a larger-than-life superstar who’s a fitting symbol for a team that carries the potential to intimidate.
The Mets, it turns out, don’t scare easy.
Like the heavyweight who lands a blow across the kisser right after the bell rings, Judge and his slugging cohort Anthony Rizzo smacked back-to-back homers within the first five minutes of the game. No matter. It wasn’t long before the Mets showed what they are made of — which is nothing resembling many past teams from Queens.
Ten minutes later, the Mets tied the score. A couple minutes after that, they had a two-run lead they would not relinquish in their stirring 6-3 victory at sold-out Citi Field.
Pete Alonso belts an RBI double in the first inning of the Mets’ 6-3 win over the Yankees. Corey Sipkin“Right now they are the best team in the American League, so this is a really good test for us,” Mets star Pete Alonso said afterward.
Homers by first-year Mets Eduardo Escobar and Starling Marte highlighted that four-run first inning. As hard as the Yankees hit, that’s how hard the Mets hit back. In many respects that initial inning was the best sign of the season.
The best signs of the winter are the five big contracts that rounded out an underachieving team. Most think of it as four — the four players who bolstered a roster. In ascending order of import (and dollars), those were Escobar, Mark Canha, Marte and Max Scherzer.
The fifth big signing, of course, was the former Yankees manager, Buck Showalter, who brought smarts, gravitas and, perhaps best of all, a new and improved personal demeanor built on years of experience in managing gigs across the country.
The result is: the Mets got the best of Buck.
He’s still the brilliant tactician, but he’s much more mellow now. He has been ejected zero times this season, which is exactly five fewer than his Yankees counterpart, Aaron Boone, who began his career as an easygoing guy but has learned to fight for every strike.
The competition across boroughs is real now. Believe it or not, this is the first Subway Series matchup when both teams are in first place. The Yankees are there by mile in baseball’s best division while the Mets are sweating it out against an archnemesis who’ve had their number — those Braves.
Regardless, the Mets aren’t going to give it away like they’ve done in the past though. They bounce back from deficits against excellent opponents, including on this night.
Edwin Diaz celebrates after striking out Gleyber Torres for the last out of the game in the Mets’ win over the Yankees. Jason Szenes“I feel like the guys brought the energy,” Alonso said.
The Mets matched the juggernaut. Judge continued his MVP campaign; he was on base three times. Alonso was actually on base all four times. “MVP” chants rang out for both guys. Judge is in the pole position in the American League. Alonso certainly is a threat to become the first ever Mets MVP.
They overcome mistakes occasionally now. Francisco Lindor was caught between second and third for no earthly reason, and it seemed like just a blip in a game full of ups and downs, and back and forth. The crowd was going nuts.
Eduardo Escobar belts a two-run homer in the first inning of the Mets’ victory. Corey Sipkin“It felt a little different at the ballpark [tonight],” said Adam Ottavino, who held the Yankees down late, before the incomparable closer Edwin Diaz entered to “Narco,” and the Citi celebration took full flight.
They made plays when they had to, which was something of a switch. Jeff McNeil scooped up DJ LeMahieu’s roller barehanded and Alonso scooped up McNeil’s throw for two good plays in one.
And, in the end, the key at-bats favored the Mets, and not by a little. In the eighth inning Showalter called upon his own version of Mariano Rivera in Diaz, baseball’s best closer. It was only the second time he summoned Diaz before the ninth, which showed the import of the game.
Diaz has an incomparable strikeout rate of 51 percent and was in to face the potential tying run in pinch-hitter Joey Gallo, who has a strikeout rate of 45 percent. Mathematically speaking, that didn’t really add up to a strikeout chance of 96 percent. But it sure felt like it.
Gallo whiffed. An inning later, with Diaz striking out three more Yankees, the Mets won Round 1. And better still, it didn’t feel like such an upset.
