Yankees takeaways in 10-5 Subway Series loss to Mets

Here are the takeaways...

1. A struggling Aroldis Chapman entered the game in the seventh for the save, and he continued to do more of the same he's been doing for the last several weeks. He allowed a game-tying, leadoff home run to Pete Alonso. He hit the next batter, Michael Conforto, and walked Jeff McNeil, and that prompted Aaron Boone to go with Lucas Luetge with men on first and second and none out. Pinch-hitter Kevin Pillar blooped a single to load the bases. Two batters later, Jose Peraza roped a two-run double to give the Mets a 7-5 lead. Nimmo followed with a two-run single, and the Mets led 9-5. Lindor put some more icing on the cake with an RBI single of his own. On Wednesday night, Chapman and Leutge allowed seven earned runs in the ninth. On Sunday, they allowed six in the seventh. Since Wednesday night, they have a combined ERA of 58.50.


2. The Yankees jumped on Marcus Stroman early, and took advantage of some Mets’ misfortune. Giancarlo Stanton opened up the second inning with a single. Gio Urshela hit a double-play ball that was booted by Francisco Lindor, and the Yankees wound up loading the bases for Kyle Higashioka and one out. He drove in two runs with a double and gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead. The next batter, newest Yankee Tim Locastro, drove in the Yanks’ third run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. That gave Gerrit Cole some cushion.

3. But he couldn’t hold onto it. He allowed back-to-back singles and walk to lead off the fourth to load the bases for Tomas Nido. Nido singled to cut the deficit to 4-2, and Brandon Nimmo singled to make it a 4-3 game. That knocked Cole out of the game, as the bases were still loaded. Jonathan Loaisiga entered the game to face Lindor, and he allowed a game-tying single, but he retired Smith and Alonso to keep the game tied. However, Cole’s final line was not pretty, as he allowed four earned in 3.1 innings, his shortest outing as a Yankee. He now has a 5.24 ERA (20 earned runs/34.1 innings) in his last six starts. Cole had allowed a Yankee Stadium special to Smith in the first inning -- a short-porch solo shot to give the Mets an early 1-0 lead (it had an xBA of .180). He also benefitted from the crummy replay system in the third, and escaped out of a men-on-the-corners, one-out jam by striking out Smith and Alonso to end the threat. It was far from a sharp afternoon from the ace, despite six strikeouts.

[www.yahoo.com]