NEW YORK _ Jeff McNeil thrust his right arm into the air before his third-inning, three-run home run had even disappeared over the short wall in right-center field at Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the Subway Series doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon.
McNeil's blast off Masahiro Tanaka gave the Mets a three-run lead and energized the visiting fans in the surprisingly large crowd for the game, which was a makeup of Monday night's rainout.
Problem for the Mets was there was still a lot of game left. The Yankees brushed off McNeil's home run to score the next eight runs in a three-inning span and stormed to a 12-5 victory in a game pock-marked by errors by both squads.
Tanaka (4-5) overcame three Yankees errors to win in his first start since returning from the paternity list. Tanaka went 6 2/3 innings and was charged with five runs (four earned).
"Other than the McNeil home run, I thought he was pretty good today," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Zack Wheeler (5-4) could not overcome a pair of Mets errors that led to four unearned runs. Also, the Yankees hit three home runs and banged out 15 hits against Wheeler and two other pitchers to win going away.
"It's crazy, man," said Luke Voit, who hit a go-ahead three-run homer off Wheeler in the Yankees' five-run fourth in his first Subway Series game. "It was fun. There was a lot of Mets fans here, so you could hear the guys in the stands giving us trouble. It was entertaining."
Trailing 4-1 after McNeil's homer, the Yankees got back a run in the third with the help of an error by shortstop Amed Rosario, who missed second base on a potential forceout on a comebacker to Wheeler. Brett Gardner initially was ruled out, but the call was overturned in a 31-second replay review. Gardner scored on a two-out bloop double to right by Gary Sanchez.
After the bloop came a pair of blasts. Gio Urshela, who went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, hit a two-run home run with one out in the fourth to tie it at 4.
Wheeler got the next man out and appeared to be on his way to the dugout when DJ LeMahieu grounded a ball to third base. But Todd Frazier threw it away for a two-base error. Aaron Hicks walked to bring up Voit, who struck out in his first two at-bats.
This time, Voit deposited a tie-breaking three-run homer into the left-field bleachers for a 7-4 Yankees lead.
"Fool me once, fool me twice," Voit said. "The third time, I'll get you."
It was Voit's 16th home run and also the 13th allowed by Wheeler, who gave up 14 all of last season. Three of the runs were unearned.
"It was a combination of giving the other team some extra outs, a couple of bloop hits that scored runs, and then a couple homers," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. "It's just kind of plan and simple. He did have great stuff. His fastball was electric. He hung a couple sliders. Made a couple good pitches and got jam shots that got over the infield. Made some big pitches to get some ground balls that we didn't capitalize on."
The Mets weren't the only ones to botch some plays. Didi Gregorius, in his first game in the Bronx since he underwent Tommy John surgery, had a throwing error in the third that led to an unearned run.
First baseman Kendrys Morales failed to catch a high and wide throw from Gregorius on Frazier's grounder leading off the fourth. The two-base error was charged to Morales, who never came off the bag and saw the ball bang off his glove.
But Tanaka pitched around that miscue, as he did in the sixth when Sanchez dropped a foul pop-up for the Yankees' third error.
The Yankees made it 9-4 in the fifth on double by Morales (3-for-5, RBI), an RBI double by Urshela and run-scoring triple by Gardner. Callaway mercifully removed Wheeler at that point. The right-hander was charged with nine runs (five earned) in 4 2/3 innings. Wheeler gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out six.
Rosario made it 9-5 with an RBI single in the sixth, but the Yankees got the run back on an RBI double by Urshela off Wilmer Font in the seventh, and Sanchez smacked a two-run homer off Tim Peterson in the eighth. It was Sanchez's 20th home run, which tied him for the AL lead with Seattle's Edwin Encarnacion.
"We've gotten contributions from everyone," Boone said. "That's allowed us to win games, and it played a big part today."
