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Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 22, 2022 ) NY Mets 2, NY Yankees 4
For most of the past three weeks, the New York Yankees endured a significant rough patch, and in recent days, some of their reactions were highly emotional.
After their first winning streak in nearly a month, the Yankees are hoping the worst is behind them as they attempt to get a third straight victory Tuesday night when they host the New York Mets in the finale of a two-game Subway Series.
Before Sunday and Monday, the Yankees last won consecutive games July 28-30 when they took three straight against Kansas City. Starting with an 8-6 loss to the Royals on July 31 and running through a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday that prompted Gerrit Cole to punch the dugout roof and manager Aaron Boone to slam the table in the interview room with his hand, the Yankees dropped 15 of 19.
Following the emotions of Saturday, the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 4-2 on Sunday, then defeated the Mets 4-2 on Monday after general manager Brian Cashman said in a matter-of-fact tone that he believed in the roster.
"This is a good group. A good group of players that care," Cashman said. "They're really talented. So certainly, acknowledge that this has been a tough stretch and we're certainly taking it seriously. But the group's got my belief."
On Monday, the Yankees' Andrew Benintendi accounted for three runs, providing a pair of run-scoring hits and scoring a run. Aaron Judge hit his 47th homer for the Yankees, who produced seven hits and four runs against Max Scherzer in his 6 2/3 innings.
The Mets are hoping to conclude their 10-game road trip on a positive note. So far, the National League East leaders are 4-5 on the trip.
They are hoping for a better offensive performance than Monday's, when Daniel Vogelbach hit a two-run homer but the lineup mustered just four hits overall.
"You earn everything, and we knew that," Mets manager Buck Showalter said. "That's an example of why (the Yankees) are such a good club."
It originally was believed that Jacob deGrom would follow Scherzer in the Mets' rotation this week. Instead, Showalter decided to push the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner back until this weekend because deGrom experienced an issue warming up for his previous start.
Taijuan Walker (10-3, 3.36 ERA) will get the start after being pushed back two days due to back spasms that caused his exit after two innings on Aug. 16 in Atlanta. Walker is 3-1 with a 6.97 ERA in his past five starts, and he earned a win on July 26 when he allowed three runs in six innings against the Yankees.
Walker went 5 2/3 innings en route to a win the last time he pitched at Yankee Stadium on July 3, 2021, and he is 2-3 with a 4.14 ERA in seven career starts against the Yankees.
Frankie Montas (4-10, 3.87 ERA), who has a 9.00 ERA in three starts since being obtained from the Oakland A's, will oppose Walker. Montas allowed six runs in six innings on Thursday against Toronto in his home debut. Five of the runs came in the second inning.
Montas will start against the Mets for the first time, but he did allow two runs in one inning of relief against them back on July 21, 2017, when he was with the Athletics.
--Field Level Media