USA Today
One thing is clear about the New York Yankees; they have the power to match up with any team in baseball. After New York Mets star, Pete Alonso, took the spotlight on Saturday, Aaron Judge rose to the occasion in Sunday’s matchup. His two home runs were part of five that helped power the Yanks to a 6-0 victory to sweep the exhibition series from their crosstown rivals.
Corey Oswalt worked around trouble during his three-inning start. He allowed two runs, five hits, and three strikeouts with both of the runs coming on home runs. On the Yankees side, Jordan Montgomery completely shut down the Mets with five shutout innings, allowing two hits, a walk, and striking out six batters.
Like Saturday’s game, the Mets relievers who should make the roster pitched well, and the ones who are on the outside struggled. Hunter Strickland came into a no-out, second and third jam to get out of it without allowing a run. He recorded two strikeouts and a pop-up of Judge to retire the side. Seth Lugo pitched a perfect eighth inning with a strikeout and looked in midseason form.
The combination of Drew Smith and Chasen Shreve allowed the other four Yankee runs. Smith pitched a scoreless fifth inning but faltered, allowing three runs when the Mets extended him for a second inning. The only blemish on Shreve’s line was a solo home run allowed to Judge on a hanging slider.
The Mets only mustered three hits on the day and looked completely dominated at the plate. Amed Rosario supplied two of the three hits while the Mets top three hitters of Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Robinson Cano combined to go 1-for-10 with five strikeouts. Cano’s hit off a lefty is at least an encouraging sign coming from him.
Yoenis Cespedes played three innings in left field and went 0-for-2 on the day. He did not get a chance in the outfield and had no opportunity to test out his legs in the second game of a back to back. Questions remain on Cespedes ability to play every day since he could not go full speed down the line in Saturday’s game. Cespedes is an unpredictable character, so that he could be saving his best for the games that matter.
Despite the two losses, the Mets come out of Sunday with good news. Jacob deGrom struck out nine out of 14 batters on just 60 pitches during an intrasquad game. He did not allow a hit and hit triple digits as the back-to-back Cy Young winner wanted to prove he is more than ready to go.
The Mets are done with exhibition games as their next game is one that counts. On Friday, they will face the defending NL East champion, Atlanta Braves, and expect to have deGrom work around 85 pitches for his first start.
This post was published on 2020-07-20 08:00
