It’s June again in the Majors League and that can only mean one thing, interleague play. More specifically, time for the Sunway Series and Yankees-Mets tickets.
On Friday, June 12th the Mets travel across town to play their very first game in the Yankees’ new stadium. Two weeks later, the Yankees return the favor by travelling to the Mets’ new ballpark, Citi Field.
Despite the opportunity to play in brand new stadiums, don’t be surprised if this highly touted interleague matchup is no where to be found on either of these teams’ radar.
Prior to their intercity duel, each club has a big series against their respective division foes. For the Yankees, they play a three-game set on the road against their arch enemy, the Boston Red Sox. Meanwhile, the Mets host the NL East leading and defending World Series championships, the Philadelphia Phillies.
After a shaky start and falling behind 5 ½ games, the New York Yankees found their stride and sprinted to the top of the division standings. Their turnaround coincides with the return of Alex Rodriquez.
In the first 25 games of his return, the Bronx Bombers went 18-7. That stretch includes 18 straight games without an error. During that errorless streak, the Yanks went 14-4.
While A-Rod paid immediate dividends at the plate—he knocked the very first pitch he saw of the 2009 season out of the ballpark—he can’t pitch. Fortunately, CC Sabathia can.
The Yanks huge offseason signing has finally found his groove and is back to his usual great pitching-self. In April, Sabathia was 1-2 in five starts with a 4.73 ERA. In May, the former Milwaukee Brewer rebounded to go 4-1 in five starts with a 2.56 ERA while walking only 10 batters.
The New York Mets, on the other hand, have just been plain shaky. They won 12 of 15 to start the month of May, but after that stretch they’ve struggled to string three wins together (that’s excluding games against the lowly Washington Nationals). The Mets lost some games they should have won and despite some early success, their bullpen has begun to struggle, namely offseason acquisition J.J. Putz.
While the bullpen isn’t doing the team any favors, what’s really slowing down the Mets is injuries. It seems like every day, a different Met gets banged up or comes down with some sort of illness (there was even discussion of a couple of Mets contracting the swine flu).
Shortstop Jose Reyes, right fielder Ryan Church, pitcher Oliver Perez have all missed considerable time on the disabled list and slugging first basemen, Carlos Delgado, isn’t due back until late July. Needless to say, when you’re a walking M*A*S*H unit, it’s hard to gain and then maintain momentum.
Still, the Mets have perennial Cy Young candidate Johan Santana. He leads the National League in ERA and is second in strikeouts. Offensively, the Mets rely on centerfielder Carlos Beltran, one of the National League leaders in batting average.
It will be interesting to see how the Mets do playing in their home town but still being the road team. In their first 50 games they compiled an 11-13 road record. That’s the second worst road record in the N.L. East, only the Nationals have done worse away from the friendly confines.
The Yankees will try to out slug their Big Apple brethren, they’re among the league leaders in runs scored, batting average and home runs. They will also try to win via their steady defense. The Yanks are among the league’s best in fielding percentage and fewest errors committed.
Meanwhile, the Mets will try to win it on the mound, their team ERA is near the top of the NL and it’s better than any team in American League. They’ll also try to keep the game close. As of June 3rd, the Mets are 10-9 in one-run games, they are tied for playing in the most one-run games in the National League.
Regardless of the numbers, or where they are in the standings, Yankees versus the Mets is annually baseball’s premiere interleague matchup. This year is certainly no different.
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