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The Yankees’ inevitable march to the playoffs hit an unexpected roadblock Saturday, as they were knocked around by the too-little, too-late surging Mets 12-2 in The Bronx.
With hopes of clinching their third straight playoff appearance and keeping up their chase of the Rays in the AL East, the Yankees instead saw Gerrit Cole have perhaps his worst start since coming back from Tommy John surgery, and a lineup that had been energized by Aaron Judge’s return was stunningly stymied by rookie lefty Zac Thornton.
The Mets, meanwhile, continued their surprising — if belated — turnaround.
Needing to beat the Mets and then hope for a loss by the Blue Jays to Baltimore later in the afternoon, the Yankees will have to wait at least another day, as their four-game winning streak came to an end.
A ninth postseason appearance by the Yankees in the last decade is not in doubt, but they do have to deal with the reality that Cole has been shaky in four consecutive starts.
He came into the game having given up 10 runs — as well as five homers — in 18 ⅓ innings in that span.
And things only got worse against the Mets, who improved to 22-13 since selling at the trade deadline and have won five of their last six games.
As Cole looked to bounce back from his previous start, when he gave up three consecutive homers to lead off the game — and four overall — in San Diego, he watched as Francisco Lindor jumped on his third pitch of the game and sent it into the right field seats.
Luis Torrens followed with a two-run shot with two outs in the second.
The rally continued at the bottom of the order with a single by Nick Morabito and another by Lindor.
Following a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Juan Soto struck out looking to end the inning.
But Cole allowed another homer in the third, as Carson Benge hit his 17th of the season with one out to make it 4-0.
Thornton, knocked around by the Giants in his previous start, mostly pitched well in his first dozen starts and was excellent against the Yankees.
The lefty gave up two runs in seven innings.
He needed just 28 pitches to retire the first nine batters he faced, striking out three.
George Lombard Jr. made a bid to be the Yankees’ first baserunner to lead off the bottom of the third, but Lindor ranged far to his right to field the grounder and made a strong throw to get his fellow shortstop.
Paul Goldschmidt snapped the drought with a leadoff double down the left field line in the fourth.
Aaron Judge followed by flying out to center, moving Goldschmidt to third and Cody Bellinger drove him in with a single to right to cut the deficit to 4-1.
But Cole gave the run right back, as Soto doubled to open the fifth and scored on Benge’s single to center to end Cole’s day.
Bellinger’s two-out solo shot off Thornton in the sixth got the Yankees back to within three runs, but Soto hit his 25th homer of the year, this one off Tim Hill, who replaced Ryan Yarbrough with two outs in the seventh.
And when the Yankees had a chance to cut into the lead again with runners on first and second and one out with Thornton tiring in the seventh, Anthony Volpe grounded into an inning-ending double play.
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