Mets’ power barrage secures sweep of Nats
Teixeira, Drew lead Yankees' rout White Sox Tempers flare as Jays take three of four from Royals
It took five pitches for the New York Mets to change the tenor of their season, for anxious excitement to turn into dizzy bedlam, and for this team to say loudly and emphatically that this is for real.
Five pitches for a one-run deficit to turn into an eventual 5-2 win over the Washington Nationals that created a virtual tie for first place in the NL East between the two teams.
The first pitch went to Curtis Granderson with two outs in the third inning. With Kevin Plawecki on second base and the Mets trailing by a run, he blasted a 2-and-2 curveball to right, a skyhigh fly ball that landed somewhere below the Pepsi sign.
The crowd, a tense gathering that had mostly filed into Citi Field well before first pitch, exhaled. They screamed. They danced. And they didn’t much sit down after that.
The next pitch, Jordan Zimmermann’s 96-mph fastball to Daniel Murphy, took the same trajectory. But after his drive high into the Pepsi Porch, the home run apple stayed down, unable to recuperate from Granderson’s home run in the short time it took Murphy to go yard.
Yoenis Cespedes took a ball before stroking a single to left, his first hit as a Met. Then came Lucas Duda, who had hit eight home runs in seven games and promptly added to that streak on Zimmermann’s first pitch.
It was the first time the Mets hit three homers in an inning since 2007 and the first time at Citi Field.
Duda’s towering homer to rightfield gave the Mets a 5-1 lead and brought the type of raucous celebration usually reserved for postseason baseball.
The Mets still are a bit behind the Nationals in winning percentage, .52427 to .52381. Still, by sweeping the Nationals in a three-game series for the first time since 2009, they are in a virtual tie for first place.
Despite giving up multiple home runs for the first time in his career, Noah Syndergaard (6-5, 2.66) proved reliable and was able to contain early jitters. Though he was not as dominant as he had been in his last outing, in which he pitched eight scoreless innings, he was able to work around home runs by Anthony Rendon and Yunel Escobar, giving up seven hits, walking none and striking out nine in eight innings (109 pitches).
Former National reliever Tyler Clippard replaced Syndergaard and pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the save and secure the series sweep.
Yankees 12, White Sox 3
For one day, Ivan Nova shoved the questions about New York’s rotation to the back burner.
Another big performance by the offense didn’t hurt, either.
Behind an 11-hit attack that featured homers by Jacoby Ellsbury and Mark Teixeira and four RBIs by Stephen Drew, the Yankees hammered host Chicago.
The victory allowed the AL East-leading Yankees to complete a three-city, 10-game trip at 6-4 and return home with a six-game lead over Baltimore and Toronto. The Yankees scored at least 12 runs in three of the games and averaged 8.6 runs in the final nine games.
“This was a challenging road trip, but we stepped up,” said Teixeira, whose 29th homer began a three-run fifth that made it 9-0.
Nova (4-3, 3.10), who took a foul ball off his pitching hand between innings in the dugout but was OK, allowed five hits and two walks. He struck out seven, matching a season high.
“It was a good day for the team and I felt great out there,” he said. “I finally made pitches that I really like. Everything was working the way it was supposed to. The sinker was really doing a good job.”
Drew had a two-run triple in the seventh, a two-out, two-run double in the fifth, a single and two runs scored. Ellsbury had three RBIs and Didi Gregorius added two RBIs. (Newsday/TNS)
Blue Jays 5, Royals 2
A rivalry burst into full bloom on Sunday afternoon, a newfound clash pitting the team that snapped North America’s longest playoff drought last October with the new owners of that dubious streak. For three games, Kansas City and Toronto traded rallies before rabid crowds at the Rogers Centre, building excitement for a potential rematch in October.
On Sunday, in a Toronto victory, the adrenalin overflowed into a collection of in-game shouting matches and postgame invective. The tension spiraled into a pair of Blue Jays ejections and a benches-clearing dust-up after Toronto reliever Aaron Sanchez hit Alcides Escobar in the eighth inning.
In the aftermath, Royals veteran Edinson Volquez sneered at the behavior of All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson. After Volquez hit Donaldson in the first inning, Donaldson twice reacted with demonstrative anger when Kansas City pitchers continued to pitch inside.
“He’s a little baby,” Volquez said. “He was crying like a baby.”
The Blue Jays nabbed three of four from their guests, hammering Kansas City pitching for much of the weekend. On Sunday, the Royals could not touch the knuckleball of former National League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey for seven scoreless innings.
Volquez gave up a two-run homer to first baseman Chris Colabello, Madson gave up an RBI double to Jose Bautista and two runs scored against Kelvin Herrera in the eighth.