D’ARN, THAT LOSS HURT!
Former Met catcher cracks 3 homers to beat Bombers
The Yankees may be more upset at the Mets for releasing Travis d’Arnaud than Mets fans these days. The former Mets catcher, who has had a resurgence with the Rays, delivered the game-winning dagger against the Bombers for the second time in three games.
Monday night, d’Arnaud hammered three home runs, his third the game-winner with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, off Yankees’ All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman. D’Arnaud’s third, a three-run shot to right field, rallied the Rays for a big 5-4 victory over the Bombers at Yankee Stadium.
“I’m really excited,” d’Arnaud said. “We’ve beat them in three in a row now and before that, they were beating us quite a few times in a row. So it’s nice to win game one here and have the momentum going into tomorrow.”
D’Arnaud, who finished 3-for-3 with five RBI, battled Chapman in an eight-pitch at-bat, taking two strikes against him, before hitting his fourth homer against the Yankees in 11 games.
“All night, the slider had been working for me. I was trying to surprise him with the slider, down and away,” Chapman said. “That one was a little higher than I wanted, and he took advantage of it.”
D’Arnaud’s fly ball slipped beyond the long reach of Yankees’ 6-foot-8 right fielder Aaron Judge and into the stands.
The Rays (56-40) cut Yankees’ (59-33) lead to five games in their last series against the Bombers until the final week of the season. The Rays have won three straight against the Yankees, starting with d’Arnaud’s game-ending homer on July 6 at Tropicana Field.
It was fourth blown save for Chapman this season and the second loss he has taken. It was just the 10th home run Chapman has allowed with runners on base and the fourth three-run homer he’s allowed in his career.
“Thought he threw the ball all right. I mean, a great at-bat by d’Arnaud there to finish it off,” Aaron Boone said. "(Kevin) Kiermaier battled on the squibbed one to get things started, and then (Guillermo) Heredia jumped on a ball. I thought he threw the ball fine. d’Arnaud did a good job of laying off tough pitches when Chappy was ahead in the count and finally got a mistake and finished off what was a pretty great night, obviously.”
The Mets, who tendered d’Arnaud a $3.52 million contract in December after he missed most of the 2018 season because of Tommy John surgery, released the catcher after just 25 at-bats and are now responsible for the remaining $2.9 million on his contract. He was signed by the Dodgers and then traded to the Rays, where he has emerged as a thorn in the Yankees’ side.
Monday night, he jumped on James Paxton early, hitting his first career lead-off home run. He then got Paxton again in the third with another solo homer.
“D’Arnaud was really hot, swinging the bat really well. I left some balls in the middle, but even his other at-bats he was taking some really good pitches, especially that last at-bat against Chappy,” Paxton said. “He was taking some sliders in the dirt, just really good takes and then good swings on the ball.”
Those were the only runs Paxton gave up Monday in six innings. He struck out seven and scattered five other hits.
D’Arnaud became the first catcher to ever hit three home runs against the Yankees in one game, and the first catcher in Rays history to hit three homers in a game.
The 30-year-old bested a twohome run night by Edwin Encarnación and spoiled the narrative of Gio Urshela’s second-half resurgence.
“All of his at-bats were really good. I mean, kind of what we’ve seen from him, he hurt us obviously down in Tampa as well,” Boone said. “I just thought he had obviously really good at-bats, you know, got a couple fastballs that looked like in the heart of the plate that he took advantage of against Paxton. His next at-bat, I think it was against (Chad Green) where, I think he had a walk. All night long, laying off tough pitches, spoiling pitches. Really good at-bats, and obviously he was the difference.”