Mets sweep Yankees with walk-off win after Max Scherzer dominates

Eduardo Escobar touched home plate, tossed his helmet and began the sprint to second base to celebrate with teammates.

The player they were chasing was Starling Marte, who smacked a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning that gave the Mets a 3-2 victory over the Yankees at Citi Field on Wednesday night for a two-game Subway Series sweep.

Escobar’s leadoff double in the ninth against Wandy Peralta fueled the winning rally. Tomas Nido sacrificed Escobar to third and Brandon Nimmo reached on an infield single before Marte ended it.

The Mets won their third straight and extended their NL East lead on the Braves to three games.

Gleyber Torres resurrected the Yankees with a two-run homer against David Peterson in the eighth that tied it 2-2. It came after Max Scherzer, on his 38th birthday, had manhandled the Yankees over seven shutout innings.

The lefty Peterson walked Anthony Rizzo to begin the eighth before Torres homered over the right-field fence. The blast was the 16th of the season for Torres, who entered with an .846 OPS over his previous 18 games. Peterson was booed leaving the field, after striking out Matt Carpenter.

The Yankees went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, leaving them hitless in 15 at-bats in such situations for the series.

Scherzer most notably owned Aaron Judge, whom he struck out three times. The last of those showdowns came in the seventh, when Scherzer fed Judge a fourth slider in five pitches to strike him out with the tying runs on base. Scherzer stormed off the field to a jubilant Mets dugout, where his night’s work was celebrated.

Overall, Scherzer allowed five hits and walked two with six strikeouts and one hit batter in lowering his ERA to 2.09. In five starts since returning from the injured list — he missed nearly seven weeks with a strained oblique — Scherzer has pitched to a 1.39 ERA with 45 strikeouts and four walks.

Scherzer faced his first big test in the third, when Judge batted with two runners on base — Aaron Hicks and DJ LeMahieu had each singled — and two outs. Scherzer threw five pitches to Judge, striking out the slugger with a fourth slider in the at-bat.

The Yankees had another shot against Scherzer in the fifth, after Josh Donaldson doubled leading off and Kyle Higashioka drew a two-out walk. But Scherzer retired LeMahieu on a line drive to Francisco Lindor, preserving the Mets’ two-run lead.

Pete Alonso’s homer leading off the second got the Mets started. The homer was Alonso’s 26th of the season and extended his MLB lead in RBIs to 84, a night after he reached base four times in a Mets victory.

Lindor delivered a broken-bat RBI single against Domingo German in the third inning that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. Nido doubled leading off the inning.

The Mets wasted a chance against German in the fourth. Daniel Vogelbach and Mark Canha reached on consecutive singles to begin the inning before German retired Jeff McNeil, Escobar and Nido in succession.

German lasted 4 ²/₃ innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. The right-hander was removed at 82 pitches in the fifth inning. Lindor and Alonso both walked in the inning, but were left stranded when Lucas Luetge retired Vogelbach.