Given 1-in-500 chance to win, Yanks walk off

NEW YORK -- One of Reggie Jackson's favorite sayings, dispensed annually to prospects during the Yankees' spring camps, is that "as long as you have a bat in your hands, you can rewrite the story." File this one away as Mr. October's Exhibit A for why players must keep swinging.

Down to their final strike, Aaron Hicks capped a five-run seventh inning with a game-tying home run and Gio Urshela delivered a walk-off single in the eighth, lifting the Yankees to a remarkable 8-7 victory over the Mets in the first game of Sunday's Subway Series seven-inning doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.

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"It was awesome, from my perspective, being able to hit that home run right there," Hicks said. "It's definitely big. We've been kind of struggling trying to get wins and completing games. This is very important for us."

The Yankees' win expectancy dropped to 0.2 percent after Urshela's flyout facing Jared Hughes in the seventh, giving the Bombers a 1-in-500 chance of victory, according to FanGraphs. This time, the long shot came in.

"You usually don't win many of those, but they just continued to battle and put up good at bats there in the end," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

After a walk and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Luke Voit checked his swing at a Hughes sinker, producing a slow two-run single through the right side of the infield. After a run-scoring wild pitch, Hicks greeted Mets closer Edwin Díaz by lining his third home run of the year into the right-field seats.

The rally forced the Yanks' first extra-inning game of the season. Urshela laced a run-scoring single to right field off Díaz, as Mike Tauchman -- dashing from second base after becoming the first automatic runner in franchise history -- slipped past a tag attempt from catcher Wilson Ramos.

"It's unbelievable," said the Yankees' Michael King. "I'm going to be honest, I thought we had no chance. I thought it was, 'All right, Game 2, we've got to bounce back.' When it all started to unfold, I was like, 'All right, here we go!' And then Hicksie pimps one that's a foot over the wall. It was fun to watch."

Though Chad Green bounced back with a solid eighth inning, striking out the side, a comeback was necessary after the Yanks' bullpen woes continued. Rookie right-hander Brooks Kriske absorbed the brunt of the damage, charged with five runs in relief of King.

The big blow was a two-run homer by former Yankee Robinson Canó, who rounded the bases for his 2,600th career hit and his 82nd home run at the current Yankee Stadium. It was Canó's third homer in the Bronx since he left as a free agent after the 2013 season.

Making his second Major League start, King allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings, peppered for five singles in the fourth -- all but one registering exit velocities of less than 90 mph. The only hard-hit ball of the bunch was a run-scoring hit by Ramos, trailing an earlier RBI flare off Pete Alonso's bat.

"I've had a couple of those outings in the past where I get hurt or burned on low exit-velocity hits," King said. "I know that it's really me not executing what I what I should be doing, because if I'm executing, I should be getting outs or swings and misses."

Canó reached the right-field seats in the fifth inning off Kriske, who loaded the bases with three consecutive walks before being removed in the sixth. Michael Conforto greeted Ben Heller with a two-run double and Alonso was hit by a pitch that forced home the Mets' seventh run.

Tauchman and Mike Ford drove in runs for the Yankees, who have won two consecutive games following a season-high seven-game losing streak.

"We're going through a tough time, but we're continuing to grind away," Boone said.