Yankees and Mets stay hot, extend respective winning streaks to six

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.

What recently seemed like a lost season for both New York baseball teams is quickly setting up for a thrilling finish.

On Friday night, both the Yankees and Mets extended their respective winning streaks to six games. That makes each team the hottest in their league and has both back firmly in the postseason picture with just over 20 games left to be played.

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Beginning in the Bronx, the Yankees teetered between buyers and sellers throughout the entire month of July. They ultimately sold their two biggest bullpen pieces in Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. They also traded starter Ivan Nova and essentially showed Alex Rodriguez the door to open doors for younger players. The results have not led to a rebuild, but rather a resurgence. Since July 31, when they were 52-52, they’ve gone 23-13 to move within one game of the second the wild card spot.

Rookie Gary Sanchez has received many headlines since. Rightfully so too. He has 12 home runs since Aug. 10, including one in Friday’s 7-5 win against the Rays. But it’s not only him or other young guys like Tyler Austin or Aaron Judge contributing. It’s everyone. Even the retiring Mark Teixeira, whose 11th career grand slam was a key moment on Friday.

Now the Yankees control their own fate as they’ll match up with teams they’re chasing down the stretch.

As for the Mets, things didn’t look much better for them. On Aug. 19, they fell to two games below .500 at 60-62. Since then, they’ve gone 15-4, including Friday’s 6-4 win over the Braves.

The Mets have looked like a different team during their run. For awhile, they were compounding their injuries with mistakes and missed opportunities. Now they’re clicking on all cylinders like they did for the final three months last season leading up to the World Series.

For example, they were trailing 4-0 early on Friday. One month ago, it would have been game over. Here, they scored six unanswered runs, with Curtis Granderson contributing a home run and the game-tying single in the eighth inning. That allowed them to maintain a half-game lead over St. Louis for the second wild card spot and a half-game behind San Francisco for the first one.

TOP PERFORMERS

Trea Turner: Washington’s rookie sensation continued being a difference maker on Friday. With the game tied and two outs in the ninth inning, Turner secured a Nationals 5-4 win over the Phillies with his first career walk-off homer. The home run was Turner’s second of the game and his eighth of the season. It also gave him 25 multi-hit games in 49 games since coming up for good in July. During that time, Turner is hitting .336 with 11 doubles, six triple and 21 stolen bases. He’s on fire, folks.

Jose Fernandez: Clayton Kershaw got all of the attention leading up to his return start Friday night in Miami, but he wasn’t the only ace on the hill. The Marlins countered with Fernandez, who fanned 14 batters over seven scoreless innings in the Marlins 4-1 victory. On the season, Fernandez now has 238 strikeouts over 167 1/3 innings. That’s good for a league-high and absolutely ridiculous 12.8 K/9. Only Washington Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer has more total strikeouts (243), but he’s thrown 30 more innings.

Victor Martinez: A big wild-card battle came down to one big swing. After Baltimore rallied from a three-run deficit to tie the game in the eighth inning, Martinez clobbered a go-ahead solo homer that held up in Detroit’s 4-3 victory. The homer was Martinez’s 24th of the season, and it pulled Detroit into a deadlock tie with Baltimore in the second wild-card spot. Both teams are 76-64.

MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT

The Red Sox had plenty to celebrate after Friday’s 13-3 win against the Blue Jays. First, they now own a two-game lead over Toronto in the AL East. Second, Rick Porcello pitched yet another gem to become MLB’s first 20-game winner.

REST OF SCOREBOARD

Cubs 2, Astros 0: Veteran Jon Lester fired seven scoreless innings as the Cubs continued dominating baseball. They’re the first team to 90 wins and have a Magic Number of seven (combination of their wins and Cardinals losses) to clinch the NL Central.

Cardinals 4, Brewers 3: St. Louis got two-run homers from Matt Carpenter and Stephen Piscotty in the third inning to keep pace in the wild-card race. Carlos Martinez won his 14th by allowing three runs over seven innings.

Giants 7, Diamondbacks 6 (12 innings): It took five hours, 23 minutes to complete and required 20 different pitchers, but San Francisco finally emerged with a needed win. One of those pitchers was Joe Nathan, who earned his first Giants win since 2003.

Reds 4, Pirates 3: Pittsburgh slips back under .500 at 69-70.

Indians 5, Twins 4: Cleveland gets the win thanks to Mike Napoli’s 463-foot solo homer in the fifth inning. Now they await word on the latest injury to starting pitcher Danny Salazar.

White Sox 7, Royals 2: Another costly loss for the defending World Series champions as they fall to four games back in the wild-card race.

Rangers 2, Angels 1: The Rangers Magic Number in the AL West is down to 12, with Houston and Seattle still barely hanging in. Friday’s win was decided by Adrian Beltre’s eighth-inning homer.

Mariners 3, A’s 2: Don’t count the Mariners out just yet. They’re still only 3 1/2 back in the wild-card race, but would have to leap frog four teams.

Rockies 4, Padres 1: They’re just playing out the string in San Diego. Hat tip though to Charlie Blackmon, who connected on his 24th homer.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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