NEW YORK _ As if the Mets didn't have enough chaos behind the scenes Saturday morning, they got plenty more on the field in the penultimate game of this season's six-contest Subway Series in the afternoon.
There were ejections. There was a miserable inning in center field for Matt den Dekker. There was a substandard pitching effort from starter Steven Matz. And in the end, there was the 7-6 loss before a sellout crowd of 47,102 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees got some chaos for themselves in the ninth inning when closer Aroldis Chapman entered with a four-run lead and couldn't get out any of the five batters he faced. It let the Mets get the tying run into scoring position and the go-ahead run on base. Chasen Shreve put out the fire by getting Devin Mesoraco to hit into a double play and Wilmer Flores to ground out.
The Yankees prevailed because of a four-run fourth that had den Dekker racing after several batted balls, a reasonable start from right-hander Sonny Gray and insurance runs in the sixth on Greg Bird's second RBI hit and the seventh on Aaron Judge's 26th homer.
The Yankees hold a 3-2 lead in this Subway Series heading into Sunday night's nationally-televised finale, when the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka faces the Mets' Jacob deGrom in the pitching matchup.
The Mets' pregame chaos actually started after their Friday night win. It was then that star slugger Yoenis Cespedes declared _ following his first game back after missing nearly 10 weeks to a hip flexor injury _ that he has calcifications in both heels that have been causing his many leg maladies and that he may require surgery that comes with at least an eight-month recovery period.
Cespedes reported in sore on Saturday morning and did not play. Manager Mickey Callaway said that Cespedes will need to be checked out by team medical staff and that there is a chance he will be a day-to-day proposition for the remainder of this season. The Mets did not make a member of the front office available to clarify whether the team is considering surgery for the outfielder.
Then there was the matter of Jeurys Familia, who was finally traded to the Oakland A's on Saturday after being held out of Friday's win. At least that bit of chaos appears to be settled.
Matz had been pitching well for a month but ended up allowing five runs in five-plus innings, among his worst starts this season. He gave up nine hits and a walk while striking out three.
The news was better, but not great for the Yankees. Sonny Gray allowed two earned runs over 5 1/3 innings on three hits and three walks with six strikeouts. He did little to dispel the notion that the Yanks are going to need to acquire a starting pitcher _ probably before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline _ if they are to avoid landing in the AL wild card game.
"Stability in our rotation," is what Aaron Boone said the Yankees were looking for from Gray before first pitch. "We've seen flashes of it, especially the last couple of months ... . We feel like he's throwing the ball really well, but he's got to go out and find that consistency that will allow him to give us that quality outing we certainly think he is capable of each and every time out."
The Mets had the upper hand in the game on a second-inning solo homer by Michael Conforto. In the fourth, things went bad for Matz and den Dekker. Giancarlo Stanton opened the inning with an infield hit and scored when den Dekker took a bad route on a one-out drive by Didi Gregorius; he dove for the ball, missed and it went for a triple.
Miguel Andujar brought in Gregorius with a double to right where a fan reached over the wall and interfered. He scored when Bird's hit a hard drive over den Dekker's head; he tracked it to the warning track and it went off his glove for a double. Austin Romine's flare fell in front of a diving den Dekker to bring in Bird for a 4-1 lead.
Den Dekker could have done better on the Gregorius drive, but the other two were difficult plays.
The Mets didn't feel like they got much help from the umpires either. After Jose Reyes was called out on strikes in the third, hitting coach Pat Roessler was thrown out by plate ump Larry Vanover. After third-base umpire Hunter Wendelstat ruled that Asdrubal Cabrera had swung through for an inning-ending strikeout with two on in the fifth, the DH was ejected after throwing his bat.
