Yankees 4, Mets 3: Chris Young Good, Then Quickly Bad

There were two key stories of this game:

1. The first 22 batters Chris Young faced.
2. The last three batters Chris Young faced.

For #1, Young pitched six innings, allowed just two hits, two walks, and no runs, striking out four and keeping the Yankees off-balance and in check. He rarely touched 85 MPH with his fastball, but it didn't much matter because nobody could do anything with it.

For #2, things fell apart in the bottom of the seventh. Mark Teixeira led off by drawing a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Lucas Duda then misplayed a Nick Swisher fly ball into a "double," or as Keith Law said, "They gave Swisher a hit? That's a joke. Just take the error off the scoreboard entirely."

Young was at 94 pitches by that point, and with Tim Byrdak ready in the bullpen and Raul Ibanez heading to the plate, the easy decision was to bring in the lefty to face Ibanez, who sheds a hundred points of OPS when he faces southpaws as opposed to righties. Terry Collins stayed with Young, whose next pitch was deposited by Ibanez just inside the fair pole and just beyond the right field wall, tying the game at 3-3.

Two batters later, Jon Rauch served up an opposite-field home run to pinch-hitter Eric Chavez, which gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead they'd hold until the end.

We knew it was over when...

Daniel Murphy's weak fly ball settled into Swisher's glove for the final out of the game, stranding David Wright on first.

What else?

• Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit his seventh home run of the season off Ivan Nova in the third inning.
• Josh Thole went 0-for-1 with three walks, knocking in a run with a ground out.
• Ike Davis was a late scratch with apparent food poisoning.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by cstroh8; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.