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Citi field freezes over: Mets beat the yankees

NEW YORK — Until about 9:30 Sunday night, it appeared to be business as usual at Citi Field.

And only got worse in the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees when second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, one of the best hitters in their punchless lineup, slipped on his way out of the batter’s box.

Three innings later, Cabrera was out of the game with a tight left hamstring and the Mets were forced to put Jose Reyes — who was batting all of .139 this season entering Sunday — into the lineup to replace him.

To make things worse, the Mets were being predictably handcuffed by the Yankees’ star right-hander, Luis Severino, who cruised through the first four innings.

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For a Mets team that had lost eight straight games, all at home, and had scored a total of six runs in the last six games, the third game of this weekend’s Subway Series seemed headed for a predictable ending: another Mets defeat in which they would be lucky to even put one run on the scoreboard. Instead, with some luck, it ended in a surprising 2-0 Mets victory, although not without a bizarre, and nearly costly, moment provided by Reyes as the game moved toward its conclusion.

“That was a big win,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said afterward. “Beating their best pitcher and having a day off tomorrow to let that sink in. We needed to get things going.”

As for the luck, of which the Mets would surely need some, it first showed up in the bottom of the fifth, when Reyes led off with a hard single to right. Todd Frazier then got a helpful call from home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro on a check swing that, on another night, might have been strike three. Then Severino hung a slider and watched Frazier send it over the left-center-field fence to give the Mets what would turn out to be the only two runs of the game. The blast also made Citi Field actually sound like the Mets’ home ballpark for the first time all weekend.

“When you get a pitch like that you have to drive it,” said Frazier, who was a Yankee last season. “This was big, not to get swept at home against the Yankees.”

While Severino made a costly mistake, Mets starter Seth Lugo didn’t make any. Called upon to make a second start in place of Noah Syndergaard, who remains out with an index finger injury, Lugo allowed just two hits while striking out eight. In his two emergency starts, he has yet to allow a run over 10 innings, adding to the fine work he has compiled in the bullpen this season.

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“We knew he would be tough,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Lugo.

He was relieved by Robert Gsellman, who retired the Yankees in the seventh and then, with one out and a runner on first in the top of eighth, induced pinch-hitter Aaron Judge, who was supposed to have the night off, to hit a grounder to short.

Amed Rosario flipped the ball to Reyes for the force at second, with Judge then safe at first when Reyes threw wide of the bag. A replay appeal by the Yankees, however, revealed that Reyes had never touched second base. So instead of an inning-ending double play, there were now Yankees on first and second, and the go-ahead run was in the batter’s box with just one out. In a season of many miscues by the Mets, including a lineup that batted out of order, Reyes’ double blunder seemed destined to be the latest to doom the Mets. Instead, Gsellman, bearing down, got Gleyber Torres to foul out and Brett Gardner to fly out to left.

Then came the top of ninth, and the Mets got some more luck. With one out and Greg Bird on first and Anthony Swarzak on the mound, Gary Sanchez lined a bullet right at Frazier, who caught it and then doubled off Bird.

Game over, Mets win, as unlikely as it all seemed. And even with the victory, the Mets improved to just 28-34, in fourth place in the National League East, 7 1/2 games behind the first-place Washington Nationals and still carrying concerns about their struggling lineup.

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And in a reflection of those concerns, the Mets, after the game, released Adrian Gonzalez, the 36-year-old former All-Star first baseman who was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Atlanta Braves in the offseason before the Braves ultimately released him. That, in turn, allowed the Mets to sign Gonzalez for the major league minimum. But Gonzalez hit only .237 in New York, and to fill his spot the Mets will recall 22-year-old Dominic Smith, their No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft. Smith was stuck back in Class AAA Las Vegas this season after making a limited major league debut in 2017 that included nine home runs but a meager batting average of .198.

Now he could get another chance to impress.

As for Cabrera, he seemed to slip after grounding back to Severino while leading off the Mets’ half of the first inning. He was slow returning to the dugout and was the last Met to join his teammates on the field for the top of the second. But he remained in the game for two more innings, and grounded out in the bottom of the third, before leaving the game in the top of the fourth. There was no immediate word on whether he, too, was headed to the disabled list, which is already bloated with Mets.

In addition to Cespedes and Syndergaard, center fielder Juan Lagares, utility man Wilmer Flores and closer Jeurys Familia are all on the DL.

The woes are many for the Mets, but on Sunday night, they at least found a way to beat their imposing Bronx rivals.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

WALLACE MATTHEWS © 2018 The New York Times

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