NEW YORK – The ball fell to the outfield grass after smacking the side of Carson Benge’s glove, and for a moment it felt like a Subway Series flashback – one ballpark across town, a night when Alex Rodriguez teamed with Luis Castillo as the co-authors of an improbable Yankees comeback.
Aaron Judge played the part of Mark Teixeira this time, alertly chugging around the bases. But this wasn’t 2009. The similarities ended there as the Yankees were unable to capitalize, silenced the rest of the way in their 6-3 loss to the Mets on Saturday evening at Citi Field.
Even though they’re now sleeping in their own beds, it continued a rough road trip for the Yankees, who have lost six of eight on a trip through Milwaukee, Baltimore and Flushing.
“We’re not panicking,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “We’re out here, just working and grinding and pushing through it. We all know we have some dry spots here and there, but we’ll just work through it and keep pushing to get back in that groove.”
The defeats have come in differing fashions. This one turned after the Yankees were set up for damage following Benge’s miscue.
Brooks Raley plunked Paul Goldschmidt before Chisholm popped up a bunt that cleared the mound, plopping on the infield turf for an unlikely hit.
In sprinted Luke Weaver, who became a quirky fan favorite as a standout reliever for the pennant-winning 2024 Yankees but struggled at times last season before switching boroughs this past offseason.
Weaver was in 2024 form: buzzing through Amed Rosario on six pitches, striking out Trent Grisham on three then inducing an Anthony Volpe groundout to escape. Volpe said it was “a spot that we wanted to be in,” acknowledging, “Yeah, he executed.”
Weaver called it a “cool moment,” adding, “That’s why you play the game.”
“The moment gets big. You try to find a way to channel it, not panic, not get stressed out,” Weaver said. “It's pretty stressful. But just sticking with the routine, just trusting that each pitch is going to work – sometimes, it does."
Devin Williams, another member of the 2025 Yanks bullpen, notched the final three outs for his sixth save.
The Yanks played from behind for most of the night. Carlos Rodón missed the first month-plus of the season while recovering from offseason surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow.
Still rounding into form, he bluntly characterized his first two starts: “They didn’t go well at all.” Rodón exited in the fourth inning as the Yankees leaned on their bullpen for 13 outs.
Supported early by Grisham’s run-scoring single, Rodón gave the advantage back in the third inning, firing a wild pitch that struck the brick backstop and reacted like a pop-up toward the first-base line.
“I was trying to give a good fastball in the zone,” Rodón said, “and, I mean, I threw it above the umpire. I hit the bull back there.”
As Benge raced home, Rodón barehanded the ball and fired errantly toward the plate. His toss went wide, allowing Bo Bichette to also come home.
“Stupid play,” Rodón said. “I tried to make a superhero play. That’s one I’ve got to eat. I got a little ambitious with that throw.”
Brett Baty added a run-scoring double in the fourth that chased Rodón, as all of the damage came with two outs.
“Both of the innings where he gets dinged there, it’s two outs and nobody on, and then some long at-bats,” manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s some really encouraging signs. We’ve got to dial in the command now.”
The Mets were in control from there, even with Paul Goldschmidt stroking a fifth-inning RBI single that trimmed the deficit to a run at the time. Vientos added a fifth-inning RBI facing Brent Headrick, then another in the seventh off Camilo Doval.
As the Yankees boarded their buses back to the Bronx late Saturday, Boone kept circling back to the biggest missed opportunity of the night: bases loaded, nobody out. No further damage.
“We had a chance to take it right there,” Boone said, “and we just couldn’t break through.”