Yankees grinding away while Mets inch closer to the abyss

The mood was distinctly muted. The buzz was notably restrained. We knew it would be that way, and it was that way. We knew that this edition of the Subway Series was featuring a couple of hurting teams. And after the first game, we know something else.

We know the bad old days aren’t quite so bad for the team from The Bronx.

But they sure seem like they’re here to stay for the team from Queens.

The Yankees would win, 7-6, and it was an excellent win, a comeback win, a win that featured some fireworks early from Giancarlo Stanton and some heroics later on from Clay Holmes. And at the same time it was a deplorable loss for the Mets, after staking Max Scherzer to a 5-1 lead, after loading the bases in the eighth and teasing the Mets-leaning portion of the 43,707 before Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte fanned on full-count pitches.

“A little bit of everyone,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Little contributions up and down the lineup. It’s good to see. Everyone had a hand in it.”

“He didn’t have the command he’s shown throughout,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said of Scherzer, who walked off the mound to a heavy dose of boos on a par with the chorus that greeted him after getting shelled in Game 1 of last year’s playoff series with San Diego. “He got some pitches in places and counts he normally doesn’t get them and he paid a price for them.”

This is shaping up to be the quintessential kind of Yankees team that has thrived on Boone’s watch. Boone is never better than when he’s got a team that is bloodied up from injury, trying to figure things out day-to-day. The Yankees may frustrate occasionally but they’re still 10 games over .500. If that’s all somewhat obscured because the Rays haven’t cooled down yet, they are still in fine position.

The Mets? Man. The Mets. The Mets are in so many ways the working definition of a bad team. If the pitchers pitch well, the bats turn to dust. When the offense cranks it up, the pitchers start throwing BP. They’ve now blown four games in which they led by three or more runs in their last seven. That’s a hard way to live in this game.

The fundamental difference between these teams right now arrived in one seminal play. Tied at 6-6, Anthony Volpe hit a flare to center that should have wound up in Brandon Nimmo’s back pocket. But the ball glanced off Nimmo’s glove. Nimmo is the one Met who has reported for duty playing at a high level the whole year, but the moment that ball fell away (somehow it was scored a double, which was absurd) it was clear what would happen next. It was clear the Yankees would seize the moment.

And they seized. Josh Donaldson lofted a sac fly. The Yankee portion of Citi rejoiced. The Mets portion sagged. Just another miserable day of summer for the Mets, in a summer that hasn’t even started yet. And just another grind-it-out-win by the Yankees.

For the Mets there was a blown lead, there was a small town of runners who were left in scoring position, there was the ejection (and looming 10-day suspension) of reliever Drew Smith before he ever threw a pitch. And maybe most troubling there was a shell-shocked Scherzer, who surrendered six runs in 3 ¹/₃ innings.

“I can’t believe I was hanging so many sliders,” Scherzer said, looking as flummoxed as everyone else. “I was trying to bounce those pitches and they were hanging so you can see how off they were.”

He shook his head. The Mets are 1-9 in their last 10. They’re 31-36. Forget what the wild-card standings say. This is a team that is a few millimeters away from the abyss.

“We’ve got to play better,” Scherzer said. “I’ve got to be better.”

The Yankees were delighted to take full advantage of the Mets in full malaise, and will merrily do the same if Justin Verlander can’t figure out how to throw a road block in front of this slide Thursday.

“It was one of those fun ones,” Boone said.

It certainly was for his team.