Maybe the Mets and Yankees should trade ballparks. After whipping Yankee pitching but good on Monday and Tuesday the Mets were shutout for the past two nights in Queens. Last night, the Yanks won an improbable 1-0 game in which both starting pitchers made their big league debut. Chase Whitley didn’t get through the 5th inning but when he left with 2 outs in the 4th–with 2 men on base–he hadn’t allowed a run. Guy threw strikes, nothing overpowering, but he had a good changeup. Oh, and he got a base hit his first time at bat.
He was relieved by Dellin Betances who retired Eric Young on a ground out to Solarte at third base. In the dugout, Whitley was all smiles, as was his pal, David Phelps (which reminded me that I don’t recall ever having seen Phelps smile before).
Betances pitched 2 more innings and struck out 6 batters.
The Yanks scored their run when the Mets failed to complete a double play in the top of the 7th which left Brian McCann on first base with 2 out. Alfonso Soriano doubled to the gap in left-center and McCann scored. That was it. The Yanks had runners on second and third in the 8th with just one out but couldn’t get a run in. Adam Warren struck out 2 hitters in the 8th but also walked a batter and allowed a base hit. David Robertson relieved him, struck out David Wright, and then pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning to give the Yanks a series split.
Final Score: Yanks 1, Mets 0.
It should be noted that the Mets starter, Jacob deGrom, was mighty impressive. He has the easy cheese of a young AJ Burnett and is tall with longish hair sort of like Jered Wever. Anyhow, the Mets have an enviable stable of young pitching, man, and before long it could well be the Mets as the Kings of New York.
[Picture by Bags]
The Mets do have pitchers in the pipeline, but Wheeler has been underwhelming so far this year.
I was watching this on MLB TV and Costas brought up a good point about the Yanks off-season plans were for a team built around pitching, and adding offense, but not the type of power hitters that they are known for. Maybe they should have pushed the fences back a bit too?
David Wright had a fairly awful game. A couple of strikeouts and not being able to turn the double play on the play before the Yanks scored their only run. (Maybe the shift through him off?)
You wonder if the 2 rookies getting hits off one another was that they looked at the other as easy outs?
They kept showing Whitley's mom praying like a nut job in the first inning. I can imagine how many times she told everyone in the section near her, "That is my son!" Still it would be hard not to be excited at your son's big league debut.
Those first games can often go so poorly for a pitcher I was happy for both of them--and their families--last night.