NEW YORK _ The blows kept on coming.
The Yankees had to put slugger Aaron Judge back on the injured list before the first game Friday's doubleheader against the Mets. The Yankees also had to play without slick-fielding third baseman Gio Urshela, who was dealing with a bone spur in his right elbow. Their hottest hitter, Luke Voit, was playing through "some foot stuff."
And then one of their most reliable relievers faltered ... again.
For the second straight appearance, Chad Green gave up the gut-punch home run. In fact Friday, he gave up three. The right-hander blew a three-run lead as the Mets rallied for five runs in the sixth inning to beat the Yankees, 6-4, in the first seven-inning game of the doubleheader at Yankee Stadium Friday night.
The Yankees have lost six straight and have not won a game since Aug. 17 _ they lost a weekend because of the Mets' coronavirus outbreak. The Mets (14-16) won their second straight.
Clint Frazier and Voit provided all the offense for the Yankees beleaguered lineup. Frazier doubled in Voit for the first run the first inning and scored on a wild pitch. In the second inning, Frazier, hitting in Judge's usual No. 2 spot, hit his third homer of the season. The two-run shot also allowed Voit to score.
Jordan Montgomery dominated for five innings, before giving up leadoff singles to J.D. Davis and Michael Conforto. Aaron Boone went to Green to face reigning National League Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso. Green was handed a 4-1 lead, but for the second straight game and he could not hold it.
"I like Greenie and just about any situation," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of his decision to remove Montgomery after just 68 pitches. "Obviously he's had a couple bumps here but, once we're there, just a lot of confidence in Greenie at that point and, Alonso put a great swing on him ... So it wasn't a great day, but felt like he got a couple of pitches to where they want. They just put better swings on him."
Alonso crushed a 96-mile per hour fastball into Monument Park for his sixth homer of the season to tie the game at 4-4. After getting Robinson Cano and Wilson Ramos out, Green gave up the go-ahead homer to Dom Smith. Jake Marisnick followed with another.
Green had not allowed a home run in his first nine appearances, over 12 2/3 innings work. On Wednesday, he gave up the game-winner to Freddie Freeman.
"I thought he made a mistake to Freeman the other day but I didn't find a problem with him," Boone said. "It wasn't like he went in and got hit around. I thought he actually threw the ball well and Freeman got him on a little bit of a mistake on the plate.
"Alonso I thought, within the bat, made a pretty good adjustment," Boone continued. "I thought a couple of heaters got by him and then when he didn't land a couple of breaking balls, I think he just really cheated and sold out on that heater. The same with Smith too ... and then not a very good breaking ball to Marisnick there that he ran into. I look at it more as this outing was a little bit of a struggle for him. But you know, that's gonna happen over the course of the season, even with the best of relievers like Green."
While the Yankees bullpen is also down two key pitchers _ Tommy Kahnle out for the season after Tommy John surgery and Zack Britton on the injured list with a strained hamstring _ it is their lineup where the injuries are really taking the toll.
Judge, who played one game on Wednesday after having just come off the IL with the same injury to his right calf, joined former All-Stars Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres on the IL.
Judge was slashing .292/.343/.748 with nine home runs in 71 plate appearances when the Yankees put him on the IL.
The Yankees bats went down quietly the rest of the way. They were 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position, including having the bases loaded with two outs in the fourth only to have Gary Sanchez strike out swinging.
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