Mets Show Power, Hold Off Yankees

The Mets drew first blood in round-two of the 2015 subway series, muscling through Masahiro Tanaka and the Yankees with three home runs in a 5-1 decision at Citi Field on Friday night. The outcome pushed the Mets a step closer to a division title and Yankees one further.

As is often the case, though, closer Jeurys Familia made it interesting as Steven Matz had to sit through some nervous moments before celebrating a win.

Familia allowed the Yankees to load the bases in the ninth - including a sharp liner through the box from Jacoby Ellsbury that ricocheted off Familia and into foul territory. He stayed in the game and went on to induce a fly out from Brett Gardner and a game ending strikeout of Chase Headley.

Daniel Murphy clubbed a long solo-homer off Masahiro Tanaka in the sixth-inning that broke a 1-1 tie and landed not far from Shea Bridge in the right-center bleachers. Then, Juan Uribe went opposite field as a pinch-hitter with a two-run blast in the seventh off reliever Chasen Shreve to make it 4-1.

The Yankees lone run came in the first - Gardner walked, advanced to third on a single and scored on Chris Young's sacrifice fly. It was the only walk Steven Matz yielded as the Mets rookie went six, giving up seven hits, and the one run and he improved to 4-0, while lowering his ERA to 1.80.

Lucas Duda hit his 22nd dinger in the second, tying the game at 1-1. It was one of five hits Tanaka allowed over six innings. The loss drops him to 12-7 and the Yankees to 4.5 games behind Toronto in the AL East.

The win keeps the Mets 8-up in the NL East. Saturday's 1:10 start features another Mets rookie, Noah Syndergaard (8-6), against (10-8) Michael Pineda.