Weren’t the Mets supposed to be the team with the broken bullpen?
On the opening night of the Subway Series, it was the Yankees relievers who blew up, as they coughed up a three-run lead in the final three innings of an ugly 9-7 loss to their crosstown rivals at the Stadium on Monday.
Starter Hiroki Kuroda left after six uneven innings, on the right side of a 7-4 score. Soon, it would be a no-decision after Alfredo Aceves, Matt Thornton and Preston Claiborne combined to blow what looked like a sure victory.
The trio went three innings, allowed seven hits and five runs, all earned, while the Mets’ beleaguered bullpen was spotless over 2 ¹/₃ shutout frames.
Go figure.
“Obviously, we put up the [offensive] numbers to win this game easily,” said Claiborne, who was responsible for the biggest hit, Chris Young’s game-winning two-run homer in the eighth. “We — myself included — didn’t execute and it cost us.”
The Yankees bullpen, one of their strengths, has struggled recently, blowing a three-run lead against the Brewers on Sunday. Shawn Kelley’s balky back —- he was unavailable Monday night and hasn’t pitched since May 6 — hasn’t helped. Manager Joe Girardi said Kelly doesn’t have the flexibility yet to finish his pitches.
“He’s still not right,” Girardi said.
He added: “We really struggled today. We didn’t make pitches. We didn’t have some guys we usually use in those times and we asked some other guys to do some of it, and they weren’t able to get it done.”
Aceves, brilliant in his first two outings since being called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 3, only got two outs in the seventh. Before he departed, however, he was touched up for a two-run laser beam of a home run by Eric Young Jr., the speedster’s first of the season. Aceves got himself into trouble right away, walking catcher Travis d’Arnaud, before Young’s blast.
Thornton, meanwhile, wasn’t helped by his defense. Pinch-hitter Eric Campbell reached with one out in the eighth when Yangervis Solarte was unable to handle a hot shot right at him. Campbell then scored on Lucas Duda’s broken-bat single.
Claiborne entered at that point, and added kerosene to the fire. The right-hander gave up the two-run homer to Chris Young, serving up a fat 1-0 breaking ball that sat over the middle of the plate.
“I threw it in the middle [of the plate] and he hit it like he knew it was coming,” Claiborne said. “It’s very disappointing. I come in, tight ballgame. My job is to get the next two guys out, keep the score the same, and I didn’t do my job.”