With short 'pen, Diekman wins gutsy battle vs. Judge

NEW YORK -- It was around the seventh inning Tuesday that Jeff McNeil glanced around the Yankee Stadium visiting dugout and noticed Edwin Díaz lounging in a hoodie and sneakers. McNeil was unaware that Díaz was unavailable after throwing 28 pitches the previous night. When he saw Jake Diekman begin to warm for the ninth, he put together the pieces.

It was, for the Mets, not an ideal situation. While the organization’s desire to tread carefully with Díaz has its merits, it has at times put the team in precarious spots. Tuesday played host to the latest example, when manager Carlos Mendoza called upon Diekman -- he of three losses, three blown saves and a 5.28 ERA -- to face the top of the Yankees’ order in a one-run game.

What followed was perhaps Diekman’s gutsiest outing of the year. After Trent Grisham hit a fly ball to the warning track and Juan Soto walked, Diekman froze Aaron Judge on a 96 mph fastball to dampen any thoughts of a rally. Moments later, he retired Ben Rice to close out a 3-2 win over the Yankees.

“He showed us a lot right there,” McNeil said. “He got three huge outs. That last pitch to Judge was awesome.”

Diekman’s ability to prey on Judge was no small feat, considering the Mets’ obvious desire to pitch around the perennial MVP candidate all evening. Earlier in the game, starting pitcher Jose Quintana walked Judge on three separate occasions, throwing 12 of his 14 pitches to him out of the strike zone. Although Quintana said he intended to attack Judge in certain situations, he feared the right-handed slugger burning him in hitters’ counts. Walking Judge seemed like a safer bet to Quintana, who parlayed that strategy into five innings of one-run ball.

By the later innings, the Mets had built a slim lead thanks largely to McNeil’s two-run homer off former teammate Michael Tonkin. But Judge and Soto -- the Yankees’ “two good hitters,” as Luis Severino jokingly called them last week -- still loomed. Well aware of the danger, Mendoza called for an intentional walk of Judge in the seventh even though he represented the go-ahead run.

“There’s going to be situations where we're going to go after him, and there's going to be situations where the game will dictate the way we're going to attack not only Judgy, but all of them,” said Mendoza, the longtime Yankees coach-turned-Mets-manager.

The ninth turned out to be an attack situation. After using four other relievers to navigate the sixth through eighth innings, Mendoza finally turned to Diekman in the absence of Díaz. The Mets did not want to use their regular closer for the third time in four days, especially after his heavy workload on Monday. But that left Diekman as the obvious option to face the lefty-laden top of New York’s lineup.

Judge, a right-handed hitter, represented the greatest threat to the Mets’ third consecutive Subway Series win. Yet Diekman went right after him, opening the at-bat with a 95.9 mph fastball down the middle and jumping ahead, 1-2, on a changeup that Judge fouled away.

On his next pitch, Diekman yanked an attempt to paint the inside corner with a heater. No worries; he followed that up with a perfectly executed version of the same pitch, dotting the inner edge of the zone with a 96 mph fastball.

“After four straight balls to Soto, [the mindset is to] see a pitch, see where he’s at with his command and then from there go to work,” Judge said. “He paints one on the corner there 2-2, it's a tough one, but I've got to be ready for it.”

For the Mets, the at-bat capped another stirring victory. For Diekman, it offered evidence that despite his season-long struggles, he has -- as Mendoza put it -- “been in this league for a long time for a reason.” Along with Díaz and Adam Ottavino, Diekman is one of only three members of the Mets’ Opening Day bullpen still standing.

Diekman is here to prove that even after some prophesied Trade Deadline additions, he can play an important role in the second half.

“It’s a win,” Diekman said of his contributions. “Make quality pitches, be on the offense even when you’re pitching, and good things can happen.”