Bellinger’s three-run blast and Ben Rice’s big night lift Yankees past late-charging Mets

The second inning was the hinge

This game turned on a brief but powerful change in the second inning. The Yankees had already scratched out a 1-0 lead in the first when Spencer Jones singled to left to bring home Rice. The Mets answered immediately on Christopher Morel’s groundout, which scored Mark Vientos and reset the night at 1-1. Then came the swing that kept showing up on the scoreboard long after the inning ended: Bellinger drove a ball to right-center for a three-run homer, with Anthony Volpe and Rice scoring ahead of him.

That sequence gave the Yankees a cushion, but it also captured the shape of their offense. They did not rely on one hitter carrying the whole burden. Rice went 3-for-4 and scored three times. Bellinger supplied the biggest damage with three RBIs. Jones had two hits and the game’s first RBI. Luis Garcia Jr. added three hits of his own. New York finished with 13 hits and two home runs, enough production to survive some unfinished business later in the night.

The Yankees added on in the fifth when Rice homered to left-center, pushing the lead to 5-1, and they would need that extra run. Ryan McMahon’s RBI single in the eighth restored a three-run margin at 6-3 after the Mets had begun to chip away. In a game decided by two runs, that eighth-inning insurance felt less decorative than necessary.

Rodón gave the Yankees room, but the Mets kept making them work

Rodón’s line was the kind that gives a lineup time to breathe: 6.1 innings, three hits, two runs, one earned run, one walk and eight strikeouts on 93 pitches. He did not erase the Mets completely, but he limited clean damage and kept New York in front while the Yankees built their lead. For most of the evening, the Mets were working uphill against a starter who missed bats and did not allow much hard numerical progress on the scoreboard.

What kept the Mets from turning pressure into something larger was not opportunity, but conversion. They drew five walks and collected seven hits, yet left 12 runners on base. They had only one extra-base hit all game, A.J. Ewing’s ninth-inning homer, and they also hit into a double play. Those numbers help explain how a team can score in four different innings and still spend most of the night chasing. There were enough baserunners to make this uncomfortable; there was not enough impact contact to flip it.

Ewing was the clearest exception. He went 2-for-4, drove in two runs, singled home Carson Benge in the seventh and then homered to right in the ninth. Benge scored once and reached twice. Bo Bichette scored twice, and Marcus Semien added a sacrifice fly in the eighth. That stretch mattered, because the Mets never let the Yankees fully relax. They kept trimming, even if the game’s biggest deficit proved too much to erase.

Our take: a useful win for the Yankees, but not a spotless one

The Yankees earned this result with their top-end production, especially from Rice and Bellinger, but they also left a few reminders behind. Thirteen hits should have produced even more breathing room than six runs, and the total of 14 runners left on base is the clearest sign of that. With only one walk drawn, the Yankees leaned heavily on batting average and sequencing rather than constant traffic from every route. That worked on this night because the big swings arrived early; it is less comfortable when chances keep going unused.

The late innings also offer a note of caution. After Rodón exited, Yankees relievers covered the final 2.2 innings and issued four walks, while the Mets cut the margin from 5-1 to 6-4 by the finish. David Bednar still closed it out for the save, but this was not a silent landing. For the Mets, the path forward looks fairly plain in the numbers: they made the Yankees throw 159 pitches and drew five walks, so the patience was there, but turning that traffic into more than one extra-base hit would give those innings more force. For the Yankees, the lesson is almost the mirror image: keep the early punch, clean up the late traffic, and a good win starts looking much more convincing.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Jones singled to left, Rice scored, Judge to second, Bellinger to third.

2. 2nd Inning

   Morel grounded out to shortstop, Vientos scored.

3. 2nd Inning

   Bellinger homered to right center (377 feet), Volpe scored and Rice scored.

4. 5th Inning

   Rice homered to left center (371 feet).

5. 7th Inning

   Ewing singled to right, Benge scored, Young to second.

6. 8th Inning

   Semien hit sacrifice fly to center, Bichette scored, Pache to third.

7. 8th Inning

   McMahon singled to left, Caballero scored, Jones to third.

8. 9th Inning

   Ewing homered to right (388 feet).