On a night the Mets and Yankees trotted out toddlers in a curious meeting of first-time starters at Citi Field, Dellin Betances sent a colossal buzz through both dugouts and into the seats.
Jacob deGrom and Chase Whitley were dropped into the Subway Series for their major league debuts and certainly pitched well enough to deserve a second date.
David Robertson was terrific in getting the final four outs to save a 1-0 Mets win in which Alfonso Soriano’s two-out double to left-center that scored the heavy-legged Brian McCann from first was the difference.
Still, without Betances’ scintillating relief outing in which he retired seven straight and fanned the final six, the Yankees may not have salvaged a split of the four-game Series.
“My impressions?’’ Terry Collins said of the 6-foot-8 Grand Street Campus (Brooklyn) High School alumnus. “I’m glad I don’t have to see him for a while.”
Never would be a good alternative for the Mets.
Betances tested the Yankees’ patience for eight years due to control problems in the minor leagues, but has morphed into a major piece of Joe Girardi’s bullpen thanks to a powerful right arm and lethal breaking pitch he calls a slurve.
Summoned in the fifth inning of scoreless game with runners on second and third, two outs and Eric Young Jr. at the plate, Betances got Young to ground out to third in a 1-1 pitch.
From there, he fanned six straight in the seventh and eighth and raised his season total of Ks to 39 in 22 1/3 innings.
“He’s very good. He’s 97 (mph) with a great curveball. You just hope that one of those pitches are off and when he’s throwing both of those for strikes you get that result,’’ said David Wright, who was caught looking for the second out of the sixth. “That’s pretty unhittable. It’s impressive. I had never faced him I don’t think. He had his way with us for sure.’’
When the Subway Series shifted from hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium to Citi Field, a pitcher’s paradise, the Mets’ bats went quiet. After outscoring the Yankees 21-14 in the first two games they won, the Mets were blanked in the final two tilts. It was the first time in Subway Series history a team has been shut out in consecutive games.
Of the two right-handed neophyte starters, deGrom posted the better statistics, but absorbed the loss. He allowed a run, four hits, walked two and fanned six in seven innings.
Whitley, who was a reliever for most of his minor league career, went 4 2/3 innings, gave up two hits, walked two and whiffed four.
Oddly enough, they each singled in their first big league game and deGrom’s hit in the third was the first by a Mets pitcher this season and stopped a 0-for-64 slide.
With his work done, Whitley was reduced to a spectator as Betances, Adam Warren and Robertson combined to get 10-of-13 outs by strikeout.
“Betances comes in and is unbelievable and Warren is as good as it gets,’’ said Whitley, who was a teammate of both last season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. “And D-Rob closed the door.’’
Working for more than one inning for the first time this year, Robertson’s margin for error was very slim. And the only reason the Yankees had a late lead was Wright’s one-hop throw trying to complete a double play in the seventh.
Playing on the right side of the infield while the Mets shifted against the left-handed hitting McCann, Wright took Daniel Murphy’s throw at second for the force out. A good throw would have ended the inning but Wright bounced it and Lucas Duda couldn’t scoop it. Soriano followed with the game-deciding double.
“I tried to rush it a little bit and I couldn’t come up with as good of a throw as I would have liked if I would have been able to come across the bag with some momentum,’’ Wright said.
Thanks to Betances, with help from Warren and Robertson, one run was enough.
— Additional reporting by Brian Costello