Jeff McNeil homers, Mets bullp...

In a dramatic finish, the Mets hung on for a 3-2 win over the Yankees in The Bronx on Tuesday night, winning for the third time in three games in the 2024 Subway Series.

Here are the takeaways...

1)With Edwin Diaz unavailable, the Mets turned to left-hander Jake Diekman to protect a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning. It was a gutsy choice by manager Carlos Mendoza, considering Diekman’s control problems this season.

He had walked 23 batters in 29 innings, to go with a 5.28 ERA, but Diekman proved tough when it counted. After walking Juan Soto with one out, Diekman struck out Aaron Judge looking at a 96 mph inside fastball on a 2-2 pitch.

Diekman then got Ben Rice to ground out to second to end the game.

2)Jeff McNeil continued his unexpected power surge, hitting a two-run home run in the sixth inning off Michael Tonkin to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. After slumping badly for most of the season, McNeil has hit four home runs in his last five games, and just in time for an offense that has mostly cooled off around him.

McNeil has gotten hot since ditching the strategy that made him the NL batting champ in 2022 –  just looking to put the bat on the ball and hit to all fields. It hasn’t worked for him this season so he decided to stop trying to guide the ball and just make hard contact, and it’s paying off in a big way.

In his last eight games, McNeil is hitting .346 with 12 RBI, two doubles and those four HRs.

3)It was already obvious how much the Yankees miss Giancarlo Stanton hitting behind Soto and Judge, but the Mets drove home the point with a huge exclamation mark, walking Judge the first four times he came to bat.

First, Jose Quintana walked him the three times he faced him, on a total of 14 pitches. Then, with the tying run on second and one out in the seventh inning, Mendoza intentionally walked the Yankee slugger rather than have Dedniel Nunez face him.

The strategy paid off each time.

J.D. Davis was hitting behind Judge, and he struck out, grounded into a double play, and struck out in the three at-bats following the walks from Quintana. Then Rice pinch-hit for Davis in the seventh and, though he hit the ball hard, flew out to deep left-center.

4)The Mets let Luis Gil off the hook in a big way in the fifth inning, leaving the bases loaded after scoring one run to tie the game 1-1 with one out. Brandon Nimmo struck out swinging at a Gil fastball, after just missing a home run down the right-field line on a slider, and J.D. Martinez flew out to right on a slider to end the inning.

The great unknown is whether the inning would have been different had McNeil not made a bad read on Tyrod Taylor’s gap shot to left-center. With McNeil on second and Luis Torrens on first, the second baseman went back to tag up, thinking Alex Verdugo might catch the ball at the wall.

As a result, he only reached third on what should have been an RBI double. Did that kill momentum and allow Gil to escape, even though the Yankee right-hander hit Francisco Lindor with a pitch, allowing McNeil to score?

In any case, the difficult inning raised Gil’s pitch count and ended his night at five innings, 91 pitches.

5)Quintana gave the Mets a solid five innings, allowing one run on three hits, but he threw 94 pitches to do so, and that finished him for the night.

Quintana lowered his ERA to 4.08 but with their thin bullpen the Mets really need more length from their starters.

6)Gleyber Torres got the Yankees on the board with a home run to right field in the second inning. It was his ninth of the season and first since June 28 at Toronto.

The Yankees desperately need their second baseman to come alive offensively. He came into the game hitting .229 with a .647 OPS.

Who was the MVP? JEFF MCNEIL

Only a couple of weeks ago every Mets fan in creation wanted McNeil released from the team, bad as he looked at the plate over a half-season. But suddenly he’s their hottest hitter, hitting four home runs in his last five games, including the game-winner on Tuesday night.

Upcoming schedule

The Subway Series concludes on Wednesday night in The Bronx, first pitch at 7:05 p.m.

Left-hander Sean Manaea (3.73 ERA and 1.243 WHIP in 101.1 innings) takes the mound for his 20th start of the year. The Yanks send out Gerrit Cole (4.60 ERA and 1.398 WHIP in 29.1 innings) in his seventh start of 2024.