Bronx, NY – Ike Davis showed signs of breaking out of his slump while helping the New York Mets extend the recent struggles of their city rivals.
The embattled first baseman went 2-for-5 and delivered a two-RBI single during a five-run first inning that propelled the surging Mets to a 9-4 drubbing of the New York Yankees as the Subway Series shifted venues to the Bronx on Wednesday.
Lucas Duda also knocked in a pair of runs with a double later on, while Marlon Byrd homered and recorded two RBI as well in the Mets' season-best fourth consecutive victory and third over the rival Yanks in as many days. The Mets posted back-to-back 2-1 decisions over the Bombers at Citi Field the previous two nights.
"Those guys are a good team over there," said Yankees first baseman Lyle Overbay. "They just haven't hit their stride. It seems like they've done that right now."
The Mets battered David Phelps (3-3) for five runs -- four earned -- on four hits and two walks before the Yankees starter was removed after only registering one out.
Counterpart Jeremy Hefner (1-5) fared considerably better, permitting three runs on nine hits and striking out five over six innings to notch his first win in 10 starts in 2013.
The Yankees have now dropped four in a row, their longest skid of the year.
Brennan Boesch finished 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI in the loss, with Robinson Cano and Jayson Nix each collecting two hits and driving in a run for the Yankees.
Each of the Mets' last six wins had come in their final at-bat heading into the contest, but there was no such drama after they sent 10 men to the plate while shellacking Phelps in the opening inning.
Phelps was behind after throwing just three pitches, as Ruben Tejada led off with a single and Daniel Murphy belted a double off the wall in right center to knock in the first run. Murphy later crossed the plate on a John Buck single, and Nix's error on Byrd's bases-loaded grounder to third made the score 3-0 before Davis -- mired in a 3-for-27 rut and a .152 season average -- laced a single to left to cap the five-run frame.
"I don't like playing bad, so the fire's been lit for a while," said Davis afterward. "I know I'm a better player. I get really frustrated when I don't play good."
Byrd furthered the margin with a homer off Adam Warren that bounced off the top of the right-field wall and over in the third, and Duda lengthened the lead to 8-0 with a two-run double in the fourth that brought home Mike Baxter and David Wright.
Hefner, meanwhile, held the Yankees to only one run -- Boesch's blast into the seats in right in the bottom of the fourth -- until encountering some difficulty in his final inning of work.
A single by Travis Hafner and Overbay's ground-rule double put two on with no out for Boesch, who legged out an infield hit to cut the deficit to 8-2. Nix later drove in Overbay with a single to complete the Yankees' two-run sixth.
Murphy singled to open the ninth and came around on Rick Ankiel's two-out hit to put the Mets up 9-3, with Cano singling in Brett Gardner in the Yankees' last turn to account for the final score.
Game Notes
The Mets improved to 6-1 in interleague play this season and ended a string of five straight losses at Yankee Stadium, during which they were outscored by a 34-13 margin ... Phelps had the shortest non-injury related outing by a Yankees starter since Alex Graman recorded just one out at Tampa Bay on July 19, 2004 ... The last time the Mets took three straight from the Yankees occurred during the 2010 season ... Yankees' hurler Ivan Nova yielded just one run while fanning six over five innings of relief in his second appearance since missing a month due to triceps inflammation.
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