Mets vs. Yankees recap: All things must pass

The Mets were going to lose eventually. They entered their first of three games in The Bronx on Friday night with the chance to win their twelfth consecutive game, though, which would have set a new franchise record. But Jacob deGrom proved himself to be human, Michael Pineda pitched very well, and the winning streak came to an end at the hands of the Mets’ crosstown rivals.

deGrom hasn’t had many bad starts in his major league career, which put this one right down among his worst. He gave up six runs on eight hits, three of which were home runs, in five innings of work, and he struck out just two opposing hitters while walking two. The first of those home runs was a two-run no-doubter by Mark Teixeira in the first inning. In the third, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a solo home run that cleared the right field wall at Yankee Stadium by a few rows, and later in the inning Teixeira hit another two-run home run, which traveled considerably farther than Ellsbury’s home run had.

That pretty much did the Mets in. They looked mostly helpless against Pineda and did not record their first hit until Kirk Nieuwenhuis doubled with two outs in the third inning, and they only really threatened to come back once, as they got runners on the corners with one out in the fifth inning but failed to score. They did plate one run on a Lucas Duda sacrifice fly in the sixth, but that was it for their scoring.

It’s hard to find highlights in a lopsided loss, but Curtis Granderson had a couple of hits to bring his batting average up to .222 and his on-base percentage to a very respectable .382. And Wilmer Flores went 1-for-3, giving him a .275/.315/.471 line on the season. His 127 wRC+ thus far ranks sixth among qualified major league shortstops. It’s very early in the year, and these things can change drastically in the span of just a few games, but hey, better to start pretty well at the plate than start poorly.

Today, the Mets will try to start a new winning streak with Matt Harvey on the mound. That sounds like a pretty good deal.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Pinstripe Alley GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: none
Big losers: Jacob deGrom, -31.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Alex Rodriguez’s fly out to center in the first, +2.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Mark Teixeira’s two-run home run in the first, -20.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -30.9% WPA
Total batter WPA: -19.1% WPA
GWRBI!: Mark Teixeira