Learning From a Misplay, Brett Gardner Makes a Highlight-Reel Catch For almost five innings, Brett Gardner stewed over what he thought was his misplay on a ball hit by David Wright in the first inning of the Mets" 2-1 win over the Yankees on Monday. Wright had hit a towering fly ball to right-center field. Gardner gave chase and then crashed into the wall. The ball bounced around, allowing Wright to reach third base. "I thought I had a bead on it," Gardner said, adding, "I thought I was going to get to it, but I ran out of space." In the sixth, Daniel Murphy, with a man on first base, hit a high fly ball to center field. Almost immediately, Gardner recalled his misplay. "The wind was pushing out a little bit," Gardner said. I was thinking it was a 1-0 ballgame, and I better catch this. I thought that I should have caught the ball he hit in the first inning to right-center. I was able to make a good play on the other one. On the mound, Phil Hughes saw Murphy stand at home plate watching the ball. Because of Murphy's reaction, Hughes's first thought was, "Oh gosh." Gardner kept running until he ran out of room. But as he neared the wall, he leapt and robbed Murphy of a home run. "It wouldn't be as difficult if I was a little bit taller," Gardner joked. Regardless, Gardner earned adulation from Hughes. "It's the best catch I've ever been on the mound for," Hughes said. The Yankees" defense was at its best and also at its worst Monday. As good as Gardner's catch had been, catcher Chris Stewart's passed ball in the eighth was a crucial mistake. With runners on first and second and one out in a 1-1 game with Ruben Tejada at the plate, Stewart said he simply lost track of the ball as it slipped by him, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. The mistake took away the double-play option for the Yankees and forced reliever Dave Robertson to change his approach, with the possible winning run on third base. "It completely changed the way we had to go about things," Stewart said. Robertson induced a grounder to the next batter, and Stewart made an excellent tag at home to keep the score tied, but Murphy followed with a sharp single to center that scored Jordany Valdespin with the winning run.