Mets Route Yankees, 12-2, With Extended Long Ball Explosion

The New York Mets were playing from behind in the opening game their three-game series against the New York Yankees, but today they flipped the script behind a home run barrage and a strong start from Zac Thornton. 

The Mets got all over Cole early as they used to long ball to get to him. Francisco Lindor started the game with a solo homer, and Luis Torrens followed up with another homer in the second after a Jared Young single to make it 3-0. 

Carson Benge got in on the power act in the third as he hit a moonshot solo homer into the short porch in right in the third as the Mets continued to pile on. 

Zac Thornton cruised through the first three innings, but the Yankees got on the board in the fourth on a double by Paul Goldschmidt and an RBI single from Cody Bellinger made it 4-1. 

The Mets countered in the fifth on a double by Juan Soto, with Carson Benge singling him home to make it 6-1. That ended Cole’s day as the Yankees brought on reliever Ryan Yarbrough, and he finished with an unsightly line of five runs in 4-1/3 innings to go with nine hits and four strikeouts. 

The Yankees got Thornton again with a solo homer from Bellinger to make it 5-2 as the back-and-forth sequence became more intense. But Juan Soto returned the favor with a solo homer for the Mets, and it was 6-2 after seven innings. 

The Mets stopped the back-and-forth nonsense with a five-run explosion to put the game away. Lindor did the honors with a grand slam off reliever Bradley Hanner, and the Mets added another token run in the ninth on a solo homer by Jared Young. 

Give Thornton credit for a strong bounc-back start after getting smacked around by the San Francisco in his last outing, as he went seven innings and gave up just two runs on five hits and a walk to go with four strikeouts. He threw his changeup effectively throughout the game, and Tobias Myers did a nice job of wrapping up with a pair of scoreless innings. 

The rubber game happens tomorrow with Christian Scott facing a challenging matchup as he goes against Cy Young candidate Cam Schlittler for the Yankees in the rubber game. This series may look like a mismatch in the standings, but the Mets have made it anything but so far.