NEW YORK — Eduardo Escobar soaked in the Citi Park sights and sounds during his first-inning trot around the bases Tuesday night. The Mets third baseman never had seen or heard anything like it since he debuted as a big leaguer in 2011.
Subway Series No. 1 game of the season, the first ever with both clubs leading their division this late in the season, began with the Yankees scoring twice in the top of the first on back-to-back, one-out homers off Taijuan Walker. Their fans whooped it up when Aaron Judge hit No. 38 and Anthony Rizzo followed with his 23rd on the very next pitch.
This was a punch in the mouth, but no knockdown early in this New York mano vs. New York mano prize fight. There are no glass jaws on Buck Showalter’s club.
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Right away, the Mets punched back hard. Starling Marte homered with one out in the home first off Jordan Montgomery, then Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso doubled and the game was tied. Mets fans were going bonkers, then took their rowdiness to higher levels when Escobar lined a two-run homer to left.
The Mets suddenly were up 4-2 and on their way to victory.
“It felt like a World Series environment,” Escobar said after the Mets prevailed 6-3.
Alonso suspects Escobar is right.
“I’ve never played in a Major League playoff game, but if I had to guess, that’s what it would be like,” Alonso said. “I’m looking to change that this year though.”
The Mets are on their way, and like the Yankees, they’re looking to do more than just punch a postseason ticket. This one win over the Yankees was another shot of confidence and reaffirmation of how good they are. It also gives them more familiarity of what it’s like to play and thrive in a pressure-packed rivalry game in front of a full house.
“This gives us some experience going into October,” Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo said. “Some of us who have been around the Mets, ‘15 was the last good run. ‘16, we got into that one game, but other than that we don’t have a lot of (postseason) experience from the guys who have been here. For those guys, this is really important.”
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Nimmo is right. Jacob deGrom is the only holdover from the Mets’ 2015 World Series team. Only deGrom and Nimmo were around in ‘16 for their Wild Card Game, a one-and-done that was the franchise’s last postseason game.
The Mets enjoying beating the Yankees, but they didn’t celebrate like it was anything special. There was no loud music playing in their clubhouse afterward. Actually, there was no music at all.
There were a few smiles and looks of satisfaction from the victors, but they treated this win over the Yankees like it was beating the Dodgers, Braves or any other league power.
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“We know what we have, and that’s the most important thing,” Nimmo said. “I know that I don’t like facing our pitchers, so I know they’re not going to like facing them. You can create the storylines on the outside for sure, but on the inside we were trying to treat this like another game. We understand that they’re a really good team, but we’ve been playing a lot of really good teams.”
The Mets are passing their tests. Their 60-37 record has them two games up on the Braves in the NL East, Only the Dodgers (64-32) have a better record in the NL. Only two AL clubs have better records, the Yankees (66-32) and Astros (64-34).
“Right now, (the Yankees are) the best team in the American League and this is a really good test for us, especially where we want to end up,” Alonso said. “Beating a team like that, if we can do that we’re going to end up where we want to be.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].