By ZACH SCHONBRUN
Published: June 23, 2012
Eric Chavez knew only that something good had happened for his team Saturday when he heard a roar from the Yankees fans at Citi Field. Chavez was pacing in the tunnel between the dugout and the visiting clubhouse, keeping his surgically repaired back loose, when Raul Ibanez hit a three-run homer in the seventh, tying the game, 3-3.
Moments later, Chavez was pinch-hitting, and he was down in the count, 0-2.
“The first two pitches, I didn’t see him too well,” Chavez said, referring to Mets reliever Jon Rauch. “The third pitch, I was just trying to protect the plate, really.”
On an outside fastball, Chavez thought the line drive he had hooked toward left field was foul. It wasn’t. It barely cleared the eight-foot wall, just right of the pole, for a solo homer to give the Yankees the lead in their 4-3 win over the Mets.
“It felt good,” Chavez said of the hit, his first career pinch-hit home run. “I honestly felt I had no shot the first two pitches.”
Chavez’s homer capped a four-run inning that flipped the game’s momentum in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
In front of the largest announced crowd in Citi Field’s four seasons (42,122), the Mets built a 3-0 lead, but against the Yankees’ power, it was hardly safe.
“We have guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. “And they’re experienced guys. They’re not going to get too caught up in the moment.”
The Mets’ Daniel Murphy flied out to deep right with a runner on first to end the game. Off the bat, the ball looked well struck. But Murphy is still looking for his first home run of the season.
“You could tell by the sound,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “That didn’t sound good.”
In Chris Young’s fourth start of the season — and because of shoulder surgery, only his eighth since he signed with the Mets in 2010 — he was all but unhittable for the first six innings. He retired 11 in a row from the first inning to the fourth.
Young has long been one of the more intriguing figures in the game, a 6-foot-10 former basketball star at Princeton whose average fastball velocity in miles per hour (84) is not much greater than his height in inches (82).
Young’s stride, though, is unusually long; the mark on the mound where he planted his lead leg was nearly a foot below where Yankees starter Ivan Nova normally landed. And with that stride, Young creates the impression that the pitch is right on a hitter.
“It’s a sneaky fastball,” Ibanez said. “You look up, and you think it says 84 or 85, but it seems a lot harder than that. And he was using his slider and breaking ball, too.”
In the seventh, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira led off by drawing a walk, and the next batter, Nick Swisher, blooped a ball into right field. The fielder, Lucas Duda, took a step back at first but then had to scramble in, only to see ball the drop in front of him.
One pitch later, Ibanez tied the game with a flat line drive that cleared the wall in right by what looked like millimeters.
“I was just trying to get a guy in,” Ibanez said. “When I hit it, I thought I’d have to run hard to get two.”
That hit drove Young from the game after 97 pitches, four hits, three walks and four strikeouts.
Ibanez’s homer also took the Yankees’ starter off the hook for the loss, after Nova allowed three runs (two earned) in five and two-thirds innings.
The Mets got on the board first with a solo homer to left field by Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the third, and then got an unearned run in the fourth after Alex Rodriguez booted a leadoff grounder by Scott Hairston. Hairston eventually scored on a groundout.
Young built the Mets’ lead to 3-0 with a run-scoring single in the sixth, chasing Nova.
The Yankees’ bullpen did its job, though. The Mets put runners on first and second with one out in the eighth. But reliever David Robertson struck out Justin Turner and Nieuwenhuis to squeeze out of the threat.
The Mets came into the game in high spirits, having won four in a row, including Friday night’s 6-4 victory. They have reason to stay optimistic — their sensation, R. A. Dickey, the hottest pitcher in baseball, takes the mound on Sunday night.
But the swiftness of the collapse on Saturday night, a game the Mets seemed to have in their grasp, resulted in some shell shock.
“They can get to you in a minute,” Collins said. “There’s not a guy in the lineup that can’t hit the ball out of the ballpark. You can’t make mistakes.”
INSIDE PITCH
Mets outfielder Jason Bay made his first appearance in the clubhouse Saturday since sustaining a concussion on June 15. “I feel astronomically better,” he said. “Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I can start up activity.”... The Mets’ Ike Davis was scratched with an illness. ... Mets closer Frank Francisco (oblique) was unavailable to pitch. ... Yankees catcher Russell Martin left the game with stiffness in his back.
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