Major League Baseball
NY Yankees 5, NY Mets 3
When: 7:10 PM ET, Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Where: Citi Field, New York City, New York
Temperature: 84°
Umpires: Home - Chad Whitson, 1B - Bill Miller, 2B - Todd Tichenor, 3B - Adam Hamari
Attendance: 42260

NEW YORK --The third of four games this season between the New York Yankees and New York Mets was time capsule-worthy, in that it provided a succinct summary of 2017 baseball in the Big Apple.

Yankees rookie slugger Aaron Judge hit a ball a really long way and struck out, the Mets absorbed multiple injuries and bad breaks, and the Yankees' bullpen proved to be the far superior one.

Didi Gregorius laced a tiebreaking, two-run double in the seventh inning Wednesday night for the Yankees, who received 3 2/3 innings of one-hit relief from a trio of pitchers in a 5-3 victory over the Mets at Citi Field.

"We've got probably, if not the best, one of the best bullpens in the game right now (after) the acquisitions we've made," Judge said after Tommy Kahnle, Adam Warren and David Robertson combined to quiet the Mets. "Have your starter go a strong five innings, six innings and just hand it over."

The formula looked pretty solid against the Mets, who are springing leaks everywhere at the end of a lost season. With infielders Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes scratched after batting practice because of rib cage injuries, Mets manager Terry Collins had to start catcher Travis d'Arnaud at third base.

It was the first professional appearance at the hot corner for d'Arnaud, who switched positions with second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera a whopping 22 times in order to minimize the possibility of the ball being hit to him. The shuffling worked as d'Arnaud had only one chance, a pop-up to second base that he caught in the ninth.

"I told him before the game, look, I've seen this done before," said Collins, who said he once had to employ a similar strategy as a minor league manager. "Not that it's always going to work, but it was the only opportunity we had."

But Collins could not hide his bullpen, which entered Wednesday with the fifth-worst ERA (4.64) in the majors.

Paul Sewald (0-5) relieved starter Robert Gsellman with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth and gave up a go-ahead sacrifice fly to Chase Headley. The Mets tied the score in the bottom of the inning when Yoenis Cespedes walked, went to third on a double by Michael Conforto and scored on d'Arnaud's sacrifice fly.

The Yankees benefited from a charitable call by home plate umpire Chad Whitson in the seventh, when Ronald Torreyes delivered a leadoff double and Jacoby Ellsbury drew a one-out walk.

Aaron Hicks worked the count full against Sewald and drew ball four on a pitch that appeared to land squarely in the strike zone, according to pitch charting technology. Sewald managed to retire Judge on a pop-up before Gregorius doubled down the right field line.

"I thought it was strike three," Collins said. "You get him out, Judge pops up, we're out of the inning. We don't have to go through Didi. Anytime you've got a chance to get out of an inning and you let a good team at this level have extra outs, you're going to have a tough time stopping them."

Kahnle (2-3), who was acquired from the Chicago White Sox with Robertson on July 18, earned the win by retiring both batters he faced in the sixth. Warren allowed one hit over two innings before Robertson earned his 14th save, and his first since the trade, with two strikeouts in a hitless ninth.

Garrett Cooper had an RBI groundout while Headley, Torreyes and Judge had two hits apiece for the Yankees (64-55), who have won the first three contests of the four-game, split-stadium series with the Mets.

Judge continued his two-pronged assault on the record book by striking out for the 33rd straight game, the longest single-season streak by a position player in history, and hitting a mammoth third-inning homer into the upper deck in left field that was measured at a seemingly too short 457 feet.

"If that ball only went 450, then no ball is ever going 500 feet," Headley said. "Because that was crushed."

Cespedes lofted a sacrifice fly and Rene Rivera hit a homer for the Mets (53-65), who are 12 games under .500 for the first time since September 2013. Juan Lagares had two hits.

Yankees left-hander Jaime Garcia allowed three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three over 5 1/3 innings. Gsellman surrendered three runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks while striking out two over 5 1/3 innings.

NOTES: A win in Thursday's finale will give the Yankees the third season sweep of the Subway Series. The Yankees swept the six-game set in 2003, while the Mets swept the four-game series in 2013. ... Mets RHP Matt Harvey (right shoulder) tossed three scoreless innings in a rehab start for Class-A Brooklyn. ... Yankees LHP CC Sabathia (right knee) threw a 25-pitch bullpen session and is expected to return to the rotation Saturday against the Boston Red Sox.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
NY Yankees   NY Mets
Jaime Garcia Player Robert Gsellman
No Decision W/L No Decision
5.1 IP 5.1
3 Strikeouts 2
5 Hits 4
5.06 ERA 3.38
Hitting
NY Yankees   NY Mets
Chase Headley Player Juan Lagares
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 0
0 HR 0
3 TB 3
1.000 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
NY Yankees 8 1 14 .242 16 5 5 5 1 0
NY Mets 6 1 11 .200 11 8 3 3 0 0