Mets Walk It Off Against Yankees to Sweep Series

 As I wrote for Fox Sports New Jersey 

Max Scherzer has been one of baseball’s best pitchers for a better part of his career. A man who has Cy Young Awards, no-hitters and a World Series title to his name, this was Scherzer’s first ever taste of the Subway Series, and gobbled it down.

The 38-year old, who just recently celebrated his birthday, dominated the Yankees over seven innings, as he found a way to cling onto a 2-0 lead, before a bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning. Perhaps the biggest headline from the game was the fact that Scherzer held Aaron Judge hitless in four at bats, striking him out three times. In fact Judge went 0-for-5 in the game.

Every time Scherzer was at a crossroads against baseball’s highest scoring offense, he found a way out of it. In the third inning, he found himself in a spot with two runners on and two out, and came back to strikeout Judge on a slider low and away.

In the fifth, Scherzer gave up a lead-off double t0 Josh Donaldson, and later walked Kyle Higashioka to put two runners aboard again with two out. This time he was able to jam D.J. LeMahieu on a hard liner to short which Francisco Lindor caught without having to move.

Finally in the seventh inning, Scherzer faced his stiffest challenge yet. With his pitch count rising, and the Yankees having put two more runners aboard, Scherzer had to get through Judge once more. He got ahead 0-2 on a couple of sliders, before mixing in a four-seam fastball upstairs, which Judge fouled off on 1-2. That proved to be a set-up pitch as Scherzer went back to the slider down and away, which Judge whiffed on for the final out.

Still the Mets bullpen couldn’t hold it. Buck Showalter’s decision to bring in David Peterson in the eighth instead of Seth Lugo backfired, as Peterson walked Anthony Rizzo on four pitches and served up a two-run bomb to Glyeber Torres, who deposited the ball in shallow right, tying the game at two.

Showalter would quickly make up for his gaff by bringing Lugo in, and the righty rewarded him by tossing 1-2/3 shutout innings to keep the game tied at two.

Finally in the bottom of the ninth the Mets put it away against reliver Wandy Peralta.

Eduardo Escobar led off with a double to left. He advanced to third on a bunt by Tomas Nido and finally scored on a base hit by Starling Marte to win it.

The victory propelled the Mets to a 3.5 game lead over Atlanta, who lost to the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the day 7-2. The Yankees have now lost 10 of its last 15 games.