Yankees look to continue offensive surge against rival Mets

The New York Yankees are starting to get going on offense, and they hope to continue their productivity at the plate Saturday afternoon when they host the New York Mets.

The Yankees (85-62) are 17-7 in their past 24 games and enter Saturday three games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays (88-59) in the American League East and 5 1/2 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox (80-68) for the AL's top wild-card spot.

After totaling 13 hits on Friday in a 6-4 win over the Mets following a pregame ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Yankees are hitting .264 with 31 homers while scoring 126 runs in their past 24 games.

The Yankees have totaled 27 runs and 39 hits during a four-game winning streak that coincides with Aaron Judge's return from a fractured right rib that cost him 84 games. The Yankees went 45-39 in his absence.

"I'm encouraged," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "For much of the season offensively, from that kind of middle of the season until a few weeks ago, no hiding it, it was a grind for us. A couple of months of really struggling. We're winning games but on the strength of just doing winning things late.

"So I do feel like we're finding our stride a little bit offensively. Obviously we're a lot more whole now with not only getting Aaron but a couple of other guys back in the mix, and I feel like there's a lot of different places we can hurt you in the lineup now and we need to keep that going, but it does feel like we're building to a good place offensively."

Cody Bellinger hit a three-run homer for the Yankees on Friday and Ben Rice added a solo shot as both players continued their hot streaks.

Bellinger is hitting .377 (20-for-53) in his past 13 games while Rice is batting .338 (23-for-68) in his past 17.

The Mets (68-79) scored 35 runs during a four-game winning streak that included a 15-14 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. However, they were held to seven hits and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position in the opener at Yankee Stadium.

Juan Soto struck out twice and also hit into a game-ending double play. He finished 1-for-5, and he has six hits in his past 30 at-bats (.200). Francisco Lindor is in a 5-for-28 (.179) slump after lining out with the bases loaded in the seventh and going 1-for-5.

Mets rookie A.J. Ewing is hitting .545 (12-for-22) in his past six games after homering. He also has reached base safely in 10 straight games.

"I thought the ceremony was great and I thought it was super cool to see the fans get together for it," Ewing said.

Gerrit Cole (8-8, 3.41 ERA) starts for the Yankees on Saturday, hoping to avoid a repeat of his 4-3 loss at San Diego on Sunday. He allowed three straight homers to the Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado to start the first inning.

Cole later served up a solo shot to Luis Campusano. He permitted four runs on six hits while completing seven innings, tied for his longest outing of the season.

The right-hander is 2-4 with a 6.99 ERA in nine career starts against the Mets.

Mets left-hander Zac Thornton (3-5, 3.53 ERA) will make his 13th career start and first against the Yankees. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 starts but is coming off yielding six runs on seven hits, including four homers, in five innings during a 9-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sept. 5.