Mets takeaways from Tuesday's 9-3 Subway Series win over Yankees, including Pete Alonso's power display

Pete Alonso smashed two home runs and Justin Verlander kept up his recent spate of strong pitching as the Mets beat the Yankees, 9-3, in the opener of the second installment of the Subway Series.

Was it enough to stave off talk of the Mets being sellers at MLB’s trade deadline next week? We’ll see. Maybe it just made their position more confusing.

Verlander (5-5), threw six shutout innings and allowed only two hits and was never really tested in front of 46,540 on a pleasant night at Yankee Stadium. The Mets improved to 30-6 this season when their starter goes at least six innings.

Daniel Vogelbach added his seventh home run of the season, going back-to-back with Alonso to start the sixth inning.

Mets rookie catcher Francisco Álvarez was hit on the hand during a swing while batting in the ninth inning and came out of the game after a trainer examined him.

The Mets, who started the day seven games back in the NL Wild Card race, improved to 47-53. The Yanks, who were coming off a sweep of the lowly Kansas City Royals and sit on the fringes of the AL Wild Card race, fell to 53-48.

The Mets have won two-of-three against the Yankees this season with the Subway finale set for Wednesday night at the Stadium. The Mets are 62-79 all-time against the Yankees in the regular season.

Here are the takeaways...

- Weird play in the first: With two out and Brandon Nimmo, who had doubled, on third, Alonso lofted what appeared to be an easy pop into left-center. But no Yankee fielder got there, or was particularly close, and the ball fell in for a bloop single that gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. Alonso’s bloop had an expected batting average of .050, which indicates that the ball perhaps should have been caught. The Yanks’ outfield had several shaky moments during the game.

- In the third, the Mets plated three more runs on a home run by Alonso, his 27th of the season. With two out and no one on, Francisco Lindor blooped a double into left – what was going on with the Yankee outfield Tuesday night – and Jeff McNeil walked. Alonso followed with a line drive over the left-field wall on a 0-2 delivery from Yankee starter Domingo Germán. In the sixth, Alonso smoked a deep shot over the center-field fence for a solo homer, No. 28. Both homers were clubbed – the first one had an exit velocity of 108.2 mph and the second was clocked at 109.8 mph.

Alonso had not homered in his previous 12 games, his longest homerless stretch of the season and the third-longest of his career. Tuesday was Alonso’s 16th career multi-homer game and he now has eight career home runs against the Yankees. When he and Vogelbach hit back-to-back homers, it was the fifth time this season two Mets have belted consecutive homers.

- Alonso had been hot, relatively speaking for his not-so-smooth season, entering Tuesday. He carried a four-game hitting streak over which he was 6-for-15.

- In the seventh, the Mets took advantage of another sloppy moment by the Yankee defense – Anthony Volpe made a throwing error, adding a base to Lindor’s infield single. McNeil followed with an RBI single for a 7-0 lead.

- Verlander was coming off a terrific start against the White Sox in which he allowed one run and three hits in eight efficient innings and looks more and more like the pitcher the Mets were expecting to get when they signed him to a big free-agent contract last winter. Including Tuesday’s outing, he has a 1.98 ERA over his last eight starts and in two starts against the Yankees this season, Verlander allowed only one run over 12 innings, a 0.75 ERA. Tuesday night, he had some control wobbles, walking four, but struck out six and threw 63 of his 98 pitches for strikes. His four-seam fastball was a particular weapon – he got eight misses out of 19 swings at the pitch during his outing.

- The Yankees scored against the Mets’ bullpen – if the Mets are buyers, there’s a spot that needs help – in the seventh inning. Brooks Raley came in for Verlander to start the inning and hit Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a pinch-hitter, with a pitch, gave up an RBI double to Volpe and walked Kyle Higashioka. One out later, Dominic Leone replaced Raley and walked Gleyber Torres, the first batter he faced, on four pitches. With the bases now loaded, Giancarlo Stanton ripped a liner to right that was caught, though a run scored on the play. But with two out and runners on first and third, Leone struck out Anthony Rizzo on three pitches to elude further trouble. In that frame, anyway.

- In the eighth, the Yankees threatened again against the Met pen. Grant Hartwig started the inning but only got one out before he allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases, prompting Buck Showalter to bring in David Robertson for the final five outs. Robertson got pinch-hitter Ben Rortvedt to hit a grounder to second, but the Mets could not turn a double play and a run scored, trimming the Yankee deficit to 7-3. Robertson then got Jake Bauers to ground out to first, ending the inning.

- The Mets tacked on runs in the ninth inning on a two-run double by McNeil. With one out, Nimmo walked and Lindor ended a 10-pitch at-bat with a single to center that was muffed by Harrison Bader, allowing Nimmo to scamper to third. McNeil then doubled to right to give the Mets a 9-3 lead.

-Germán (5-7) gave the Yankees six innings of work, but allowed seven hits and six runs. He struck out nine and walked one.

Highlights

What's next

The Subway Series rolls on with a Wednesday night game between the Mets and Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on SNY.

LHP Jose Quintana makes his second start for the Amazins' this season, opposed by fellow LHP Carlos Rodon.