New York Mets left fielder Michael Cuddyer is out at second base as New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius (18) leaps out of the way during the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
By Anthony Rieber/New York / MCT
The last time he was at Yankee Stadium, Matt Harvey was sitting in the stands wearing a Knicks cap attending Derek Jeter’s final home game. The date was Sept. 25, 2014.
The Mets were playing that night in Washington. Harvey, still on the mend from Tommy John surgery, said he just wanted to show a little “re2pect” to the Yankees captain.
Exactly seven months later, Harvey was back in the Bronx, and he didn’t show the Yankees anything other than how dominant he can be.
Harvey allowed two runs in 82/3 innings and the Mets homered three times off CC Sabathia to even the Subway Series at a game apiece with an 8-2 victory over the Yankees before a sellout crowd of 47,909.
Harvey, who grew up as a Yankees fan in New London, Conn., was making his first start at Yankee Stadium. He improved to 4-0 with a 3.04 ERA in his comeback campaign by giving up five hits, walking two and striking out seven. He threw 107 pitches. With an extra day off planned before his next start, Terry Collins tried to get Harvey his second career complete game. But after striking out Alex Rodriguez for the second out of the ninth inning, Harvey allowed a single to Mark Teixeira and walked Brian McCann.
Collins called on Carlos Torres, who got Chris Young to hit into a forcecourt to end the game. Before the game, Collins _ who is not against a little myth-making when it comes to Harvey _ was asked if he saw the need to have a pregame conversation with his ace. “He really doesn’t have much to say,” Collins said. “Except growl.”
The Mets improved to 14-4 after having an 11-game winning streak snapped Friday. Lucas Duda smacked a solo shot in the first inning, rookie Kevin Plawecki hit a two-run blast for his first major-league home run in the fourth, Eric Campbell launched a solo shot in the sixth and Juan Lagares went 4-for-4 with a triple, three runs and an RBI.
Sabathia, who allowed seven runs and nine hits in five-plus innings, fell to 0-4 and saw his ERA climb to 5.96. The Yankees (10-8) had won four in a row.
Nathan Eovaldi will face Jon Niese in tonight’s series finale. The teams will meet against Sept. 18-20 at Citi Field.
The Mets are working to manage Harvey’s innings to make sure he will be available in late September and (they hope) deep into October. The Yankees obliged in one way as they went after Harvey’s first pitch in seven of their first 12 at-bats.
That strategy didn’t lead to many hits, but it did help keep Harvey’s pitch count down. Harvey showed no ill effects of a sprained left ankle that sent him to the doctor on Wednesday.
In one the more anticipated matchups of the early season, Harvey handled Rodriguez with ease. A-Rod struck out on a 2-and-2, 89-mile per hour changeup in the first inning after swinging through two fastballs, one at 96 and the other at 97.
Rodriguez also grounded back to Harvey in the third and bounced to short in the sixth. Duda gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first with a line-drive homer to the short porch in right. It was his second home run of the season. The Yankees tied it when Stephen Drew hit the first pitch of the bottom of the third for a double off the right-centerfield wall and later scored on Jacoby Ellsbury’s double-play grounder.
The Mets scored four runs in the fourth against Sabathia and could have had more if not for sliding catches by Ellsbury in center and Brett Gardner in left.
Still, the Mets used an RBI triple by Lagares, a run-scoring single by Wilmer Flores and Plawecki’s line-drive, two-run homer to left to build a 5-1 advantage.
Campbell hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to make it 6-1. Sabathia exited after allowing a single to Lagares, who later scored on the second of two wild pitches by Esmil Rogers.
Teixeira hit his third home run in two games and eighth of the season in the seventh to make it 7-2.
Plawecki, in his fourth big-league game, added an RBI single in the eighth to cap his career day.
