Mets at Yankees
Less than 24 hours after having their 11-game winning streak halted, the New York Mets returned the favor by denying the New York Yankees a fifth straight victory with an 8-2 romp behind ace Matt Harvey. The Mets, who own the best record in baseball at 14-4, look to capture the Subway Series in Sunday night's nationally-televised finale at Yankee Stadium.
Rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki clubbed his first major league homer - one of three hit by the Mets - and drove in three runs Saturday. Juan Lagares, who had his 10-game hitting streak end in the series opener, tied a career high with four hits and scored three runs for the Mets. Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira collected three hits and homered for the third time in the series to boost his season total to eight. Alex Rodriguez has cooled after his hot start to the season and is 2-for-18 over his last five games.
TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, ESPN
PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets LH Jonathon Niese (2-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Yankees RH Nathan Eovaldi (1-0, 3.12)
Niese is coming off his best outing of the young season on Tuesday, surrendering a solo homer among four hits over 6 2/3 innings in a 7-1 victory over Atlanta. The 28-year-old Niese has permitted one earned run in each of his three starts, but he was reached for nine hits over 6 1/3 innings by Philadelphia in his previous turn. Niese is 1-1 with a 2.05 ERA in four career starts versus the Yankees, who are batting .311 against him.
Eovaldi halted an 11-start winless drought dating to last year with Miami by limiting Detroit to one run on eight hits over a season-high seven innings Tuesday. The 25-year-old failed to go past 5 1/3 innings and yielded eight hits in each of his first two starts, both no-decisions. Eovaldi struck out a career-high 10 against the Mets early last season but was pounded for six runs in 4 1/3 innings at the Mets in mid-September.
WALK-OFFS
1. Teixeira belted his 371st career homer, moving into 75th place on baseball's all-time list.
2. Mets 2B Daniel Murphy is 6-for-17 and RF Curtis Granderson is 3-for-5 with a homer against Eovaldi.
3. Eovaldi is looking to win back-to-back starts for the first time since May 21-26, 2014.