Mets refuse to let Judge beat them, improve to 3-0 vs Yankees

Jeff McNeil's home run barrage continues as the Mets beat the Yankees, 3-2. Plus, the club's pitching approach against Aaron Judge on Tuesday night.

Rich MacLeod

Jul 24, 2024

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets won a thriller of a game in the Bronx on Tuesday night, defeating the Yankees by a 3-2 score (box)
2B Jeff McNeil continued his red-hot hitting, clubbing the game-winning two-run home run (9) while going 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored
After walking Yankees CF Aaron Judge in all four of his plate appearances earlier in the game, the Mets chose to pitch to him in the 9th inning with the tying run on first base and struck him out looking
New York’s bullpen bent but did not break over four innings of work, including 3.2 scoreless from Alex Young, Dedniel Núñez, Phil Maton and Jake Diekman
With Edwin Díaz unavailable after a long outing on Monday, Diekman was called upon and successfully converted his fourth save of the season
Former Mets reliever Michael Tonkin was the losing pitcher for the Yankees
LHP José Quintana pitched effectively through a lot of traffic in the win, allowing one run on three hits and five walks over five innings
Quintana has now allowed 18 home runs this season after allowing 13 total homers during the 2022 and 2023 seasons
1B Pete Alonso went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored in the victory
The Mets offense continues to struggle in clutch situations as they went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position
New York is now 5-for-their-last-52 (.096) with runners in scoring position over their last six games, and is 0-for-their-last-25 with runners in scoring position and two outs
The Mets are now 3-0 against the Yankees this season and will go for the season sweep on Wednesday night

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Mets are in sole possession of the third Wild Card spot and a half a game ahead of the Padres, and 1.5 games ahead of the Diamondbacks and Pirates. They remain a half-game behind the Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot and are just 2.5 games behind the Braves for the top Wild Card spot with 62 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 47.7% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the 12th easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

vs. ATL: 3-3
vs. ARI: 2-2
vs. STL: 3-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

Injury Updates 🏥

RHP Christian Scott was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right UCL sprain – the club is waiting on additional doctors to review the results of his MRI
No. 2 ranked prospect Drew Gilbert returned to the lineup in Triple-A Syracuse for the first time since April 6th due to a hamstring strain

Roster Moves 📰

RHP Christian Scott placed on 15-day injured list
LHP Alex Young recalled from Triple-A Syracuse

Who’s Hot 🔥

In five games since the All-Star break, Jeff McNeil has four home runs, eight RBIs and five runs scored

Down on the Farm 🌾

3B Brett Baty (Triple-A): 4-for-5, 2 HR (11), 2 2B, 3 RBI, 3 runs scored
OF Drew Gilbert (No. 2 prospect, Triple-A): 1-for-5
RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 10 prospect, Triple-A): 4 IP, 3 H, 4 R (3 ER), 2 BB, 7 K

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (52-48) at Yankees (60-43)

Where: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY

Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (6-4, 3.73 ERA) vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (3-1, 4.60 ERA)

When: 7:05 PM EDT

Where to Watch: ESPN

The Mets refused to let Aaron Judge beat them – and then they rolled the dice… ✍️

If you’ve paid attention to what’s been going on with the Yankees over the last two months, you’ve probably asked yourself at one point or another “why are teams still pitching to Aaron Judge?”

After hitting an American League record 62 home runs just two seasons ago, Judge has been putting together another outrageous offensive season with the help of fellow superstar bat Juan Soto hitting around him in the lineup.

Prior to Tuesday night’s game, Judge was hitting .310/.435/.676 with 35 home runs, 89 RBI, a 1.111 OPS and a 206 OPS+ this season. Over his last 57 games the Bronx slugger has been even more ridiculous, hitting .368/.486/.821 with 25 home runs, 14 doubles, 62 RBI, 54 runs scored and a 1.307 OPS.

And while Soto has been a welcome high-profile addition to that Yankees lineup… there isn’t really much else around the two stars these days.

Giancarlo Stanton has been on the injured list for a month, Anthony Rizzo is on the 60-day injured list, DJ LeMahieu has fallen off of a cliff, and despite a ton of hype and a hot start, Anthony Volpe has not proven to be an above-average hitter over his first two major league seasons (he has a .674 OPS and an 86 OPS+ since making his debut in 2023). On top of that, the crosstown rivals are starting former Mets third baseman JD Davis most nights and were batting Jahmai Jones leadoff last night for crying out loud.

Which once again begs the question: why the hell are teams still pitching to this guy?

The tide has started to turn in that regard a bit more lately, as Judge has now walked 15 times over his last nine games. But if you ask me, an Independent Observer, teams should have been doing this a lot sooner. Including the Mets, who had given up home runs to Judge in three consecutive match-ups dating back to last season.

And that brings us to last night.

With a Yankees lineup that was starting Jahmai Jones, JD Davis, Anthony Volpe, Alex Verdugo, Carlos Narvaez and DJ LeMahieu, there was no way that Carlos Mendoza and the Mets should have ever been pitching to Judge (or Soto) if they didn’t absolutely have to.

And I’ve gotta hand it to ‘em, while some of the moves in the game in other areas felt a bit curious at times, this wound up being a nearly perfectly executed way of approaching Judge and this Yankees lineup in their current state of affairs.

With Soto hitting ahead of Judge, the Mets picked their poison and pitched to Soto all night long, forcing him to go 0-for-4 at the plate and walking him just once. This allowed José Quintana and Dedniel Núñez to pitch around and walk Judge in each of his first four plate appearances of the night. As the SNY booth commented on at one point in the game, you could see Judge getting visibly frustrated at times with the lack of strikes he was seeing all night.

Yankees fans were on the same page as their star, as the boo birds rained down during each of his first four plate appearances as free pass after free pass was handed out. You can’t blame Yankees fans for being displeased about it, but you also can’t blame the Mets (or any other team for that matter) for shutting down one of the only true offensive threats the team has right now.

The ninth inning brought some unique drama to the table, however, as Jake Diekman (with Edwin Díaz unavailable for the save opportunity) walked Juan Soto on four pitches – unintentionally – ahead of Judge with one out in a one-run game.

Despite the fact that walking him would have pushed the tying run into scoring position and put the winning run at first base, there was a legitimate discussion to be had whether or not to give Judge the Bonds treatment and not mess around.

It would appear as if Judge himself expected a pitch-around as well, as Diekman was able to dot a fastball down the heart of the plate on the first pitch for a strike, which appeared to take Judge by surprise. After getting ahead of the count and putting Judge into his first competitive at-bat of the entire night, Diekman kept the slugger off balance with a change of speeds, throwing multiple change-ups in the at-bat – a pitch that Diekman has rarely thrown this season.

With the game on the line, Diekman uncorked one of the best pitches he’s thrown all season long, freezing Judge on a 96 miles per hour fastball on the inside corner for strike three. Just as we all expected…

Diekman was able to retire the next hitter Ben Rice to finish off the game.

It was an interesting approach for Mendoza and the Mets on Tuesday night in the Bronx, refusing to let Judge beat them all night long before having their shakiest relief pitcher face him with everything on the line in the 9th inning. It was unique, risky and fascinating, but it certainly worked out for them.

As they prepare to face the Yankees for the final time in 2024 later tonight, I would recommend the club have the exact same approach with Judge tonight. Until someone else on the Yankees can prove they can beat you, there’s no use in messing around.

That approach most definitely helped the Mets eek out a thrilling win last night.

Around the League 🚩

Angels OF Mike Trout exited his first rehab game in the minor leagues with soreness in his surgically repaired knee that has kept him out since early May
Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes pitched into the 9th inning for the first time in his career but allowed a game-winning RBI single to Cardinals DH Alec Burleson
After missing his last start due to a back injury, Phillies RHP Zack Wheeler pitched seven scoreless innings in the club’s 3-0 win over the Twins
The Red Sox ended their four-game losing streak with a blowout victory in Colorado against the Rockies
The White Sox lost their ninth straight game, falling to the Rangers 3-2, and are now 27-76 this season with a -193 run differential