Teixeira, Pineda Help Yanks End Mets' 11-Game Win Streak

Mark Teixeira hit a pair of two-run homers and Michael Pineda used a biting slider while pitching impressively into the eighth inning to help the New York Yankees end the crosstown rival Mets' 11-game winning streak with a 6-1 victory Friday night in the Subway Series opener.

Jacoby Ellsbury also connected off Jacob deGrom (2-2) for a third home run to the short right field in the Bronx as the Yankees ended a four-game home skid to the Mets.

Pineda (3-0) allowed five hits and a run in 7 2-3 innings in his longest outing with the Yankees, who won for the seventh time in eight games. The NL East-leading Mets lost in their first game this season against a team outside the division.

For the first time since the start of interleague play in 1997, the teams entered a Subway Series game with each holding at least a share of first place in their divisions. Even with the Rangers playing an NHL playoff game at Madison Square Garden and the Islanders and Nets also in the postseason, baseball was abuzz in New York on a brisk 46-degree night reminiscent more of October than late April.

The banged-up Mets were on a roll, coming off a perfect 10-game homestand that gave them the best record in baseball at 13-3, matching the 1986 team for best start in franchise history.

While the Mets were playing in front of packed houses at Citi Field that started talk of a shift in the balance of New York baseball toward the club from Queens for the first time in more than 20 years, the Yankees were on a run of their own. They returned from a 7-3 road trip, including taking three of four in Detroit, tied with Boston atop the AL East after losing four of five to open the season.

And the Bronx Bombers quickly showed they're not ceding any bragging rights in the Big Apple.

Bernie Williams, who caught the final out of the 2000 Subway World Series, threw out the ceremonial first pitch and then Pineda shut down the Mets with pinpoint control of his nasty breaking pitch. He struck out seven and didn't walk a batter.

Teixeira homered in the first with Brett Gardner aboard, a soaring shot down the right field line that appeared to get some help from the gusting wind to keep it fair.

That homer ended an 18 1-3-inning scoreless stretch for deGrom that began after he gave up a first-inning homer in his first start of the season. Teixeira hit a similar drive in the third three batters after Ellsbury barely cleared the right-field wall, 314 feet from home plate. The three homers matched the most deGrom has yielded in his career.

Stephen Drew added a sacrifice fly in the third, when the Yankees sent nine men to the plate and opened a 6-0 lead against the NL Rookie of the Year.

DeGrom gave up eight hits and a career high-tying six runs that more than tripled his ERA to 2.96.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mets: GM Sandy Alderson said closer Bobby Parnell (Tommy John surgery) is being shut down for a week because of forearm soreness. Alderson said team medical director Dr. David Altchek found nothing wrong with the right-hander's surgically repaired pitching elbow.

Yankees: Carlos Beltran turned 38 Friday. He went 0 for 3 to lower his average to .173 with no homers and seven RBIs after having elbow surgery in the offseason.

UP NEXT

Mets: Harvey Day hits the road. Ace Matt Harvey tries to improve to 4-0 in his return from Tommy John surgery. In nine career April starts, the Dark Knight is 7-0 with a 2.12 ERA.

Yankees: Coming off his best start of the year — eight innings in a 2-1 loss at Detroit — CC Sabathia is looking for his first win since April 24, 2014. The big left-hander is coming off knee surgery that limited him to eight starts last year, and he is 0-3 with a 4.35 ERA.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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