NEW YORK _ Sometimes the Subway Series is filled with surprises. Other times it serves to confirm our initial beliefs. One could find a little of both Friday night as it reconvened at Yankee Stadium.
For Mets fans, the 7-5 victory before a sellout crowd of 47,175 only underscored what they suspected all along: that this might have been a very different season were it not for the injuries to Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes. For Yankees fans, the loss was an irritating reminder that the club could use at least one more starting pitcher.
The real surprises came later as the relentless Yankees assembled threats in the final four innings, but the Mets held them off. The Yanks scored four runs _ trimming it to 6-5 in the eighth _ but also stranded seven runners over that stretch.
Robert Gsellman and not closer Jeurys Familia _ who was reportedly close to being traded _ got Brett Gardner to hit into a game-ending forceout.
Mets manager Mickey Callaway said he was informed in the middle of the game "not to use (Familia) because there's a potential trade."
The Yankees had 14 hits, stranded 14 runners and were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
The slugging Cespedes returned from missing nearly 10 weeks with a strained hip flexor and went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored. Syndergaard allowed some traffic on the basepaths but yielded just one run in five innings. He gave up eight hits, didn't issue a walk and recorded four strikeouts, including the 500th of his career.
In the middle of the fifth, Mets manager Mickey Callaway visited Syndergaard to see if anything was bothering him _ perhaps a response to decreased fastball velocity _ but the right-hander struck out Giancarlo Stanton and got an Aaron Hicks fly ball to finish the inning.
Yanks starter Domingo German made a case for a starting pitching upgrade as he was tagged for four runs and wasn't able to complete four innings. The right-hander fell to 2-6, saw his ERA climb to 5.68 and may very well have endangered his spot in the rotation. German has had good moments, but the Yankees are chasing the Red Sox and probably need better starting pitching if they are to avoid playing in the AL wild-card game.
With the non-waiver trade deadline less than two weeks off, Yanks manager Aaron Boone was asked before first pitch about the state of trade talks and replied: "I know from (principal owner) Hal (Steinbrenner) to (general manager Brian Cashman), they are exhausting every option, having conversations with all the teams ... I have complete trust they'll do what's best for the organization and that no leaf is going to go unturned. They're addressing every option, I know that."
The Mets grabbed the upper hand with a three-run first off German and never let go. Asdrubal Cabrera, Michael Conforto (three RBIs) and Jose Bautista all had run-scoring doubles in the opening frame.
Cespedes, playing in his first game since May 13, made it 4-0 on the first at-bat of the Mets' third inning. He cut loose on a 3-and-0 pitch from German and hit the ball off the left-field foul pole for his ninth home run.
Cespedes scored after a four-pitch walk in the fifth and also had a single to right in the sixth.
Before he went on the DL, the Mets were averaging 4.17 runs per game; in the 57 games he missed, they averaged 3.68. The Mets (40-55) also are 20-16 with him in the starting lineup.
The Mets added a pair of runs off Adam Warren in the fifth on run-scoring singles by Conforto and Devin Mesoraco for a 5-1 lead before the Yankees' offense stirred and made it interesting.
Gary Sanchez, returning from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for 20 games, singled to start a two-run rally in the sixth with the runs coming on Neil Walker's two-run double with one out.
