NEW YORK – Everywhere the Yankees looked, the weight of Sept. 11 could be felt, from the first responder caps on their locker shelves to the memorial wreath that Aaron Boone, Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole carried into Monument Park during the early afternoon hours.
Then came a stirring ceremony in which several of their 2001 predecessors shared memories of a time when baseball helped to heal. In a Subway Series contest that belonged to the city, Cody Bellinger helped claim it for the Yankees, belting a three-run homer in a 6-4 victory over the Mets on Friday evening.
Bellinger – whose father, Clay, played for those 2001 Yankees and became a firefighter in Gilbert, Ariz., after his final at-bat – lifted his 14th homer of the season facing Nolan McLean in the second inning, the first homer that the rookie right-hander has allowed on a curveball in the Majors.
Ben Rice later added his team-leading 37th homer and Spencer Jones also drove in a run for the Yankees. Carlos Rodón allowed two runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 innings, the left-hander’s longest outing of the season.
Rodón allowed Christopher Morel’s run-scoring groundout in the second inning, and A.J. Ewing’s RBI single off Paul Blackburn in the seventh brought in an inherited runner. Rodón allowed three hits while walking one and striking out eight.
The Mets chipped away against Blackburn in the seventh, but Brent Headrick snared Francisco Lindor’s two-out liner that appeared destined for center field to strand the bases loaded.
David Bednar picked up a five-out save, wriggling free of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth by surrendering just a sacrifice fly.