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.

Leave it to the Yankees.

The season isn’t even a month old and already the New York Yankees have generated more drama than most divisions generate in an entire season.

The Yankees lost their home opener 10-2 in their new $1.5 billion stadium to the Cleveland Indians.  The game wasn’t even as close as the score indicates.

Most of their pitchers have ERA’s bigger than the national unemployment rate.  The pinstripes ended April with the league’s third worst team ERA, 5.79.

In their first meeting of the season, the Yankees were swept in a three games series by their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox.  

New Yankee Stadium is disparagingly called “Coors Field East” after an inordinate amount of home runs left the ballpark via right field.  Even though the dimensions are identical to the old Yankee Stadium, critics blame the excessive home runs on “jet streams.”

In what’s an embarrassment to not only the franchise but the entire league, the Yankees lowered high-end ticket prices by as much as fifty-percent.  There were just too many empty seats showing up on television.  

Seemingly every day, a new incriminating excerpt from Selena Roberts’ new book about Alex Rodriquez is released to the media.   The book entitled “A-Rod” alleges Rodriquez took steroids in high school and had a Texas Rangers clubhouse attendant load up his toothbrushes with toothpaste after every game.   

As bad as April appeared, the Yankees finished the month 12-10.  While New York fans, and media, were expecting a 22-0 start, a lot of teams would kill to be two games over .500.

Rodriquez is set to return in mid-May, and despite being shrouded in controversy, he will help his team win.  Right handed pitcher Brian Bruney should also return to the club in May.  Bruney, one of the few bright spots in the Yanks’ bullpen, went down in late April with a strained right elbow.
 
Pitcher Chien-Ming Wang also went on the disabled list in April, but that might be a good thing.  His ERA is 34.50.  Wang's rehab in Tampa is going well but still no word on when he'll return to the club.

So far the Yankees' season can be summed up by one event.  That event happened during the final game of their series against the Red Sox.  Pitcher Andy Pettitte fell asleep on the mound and catcher Jorge Posada did the same behind the plate.  Their mental "naps" allowed Madras, Oregon’s own Jacoby Ellsbury to steal home.  

The entire team has been playing like that, lethargic, lackadaisical, and lacking focus.  If this teams wants to win anything in 2009 they need to snap out of their daze and start playing with some urgency.

Something similar is happening to New York’s other baseball team.

Before starting their first series in May, New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya questioned whether or not his team has an “edge.”

Ouch!  Less than a month into the season and Minaya is already called his team soft?

The Mets finished April at 9-12, four and half games behind the Florida Marlins.  The stat that may have put Minaya over the top is the Mets are 1-9 when trailing after six innings.

Meanwhile their division foes, the Philadelphia Phillies, lead the major with nine comeback wins.

Yet, Minaya’s Mets are third in the National League in batting and middle of the pack in pitching.  Centerfielder Carlos Beltran is leading the league with a .391 batting average.  Ace Johan Santana is 3-1 with a league leading 1.10 ERA.  Closer Francisco Rodriguez is five for five in save opportunities.  

Those are good numbers and seem to contradict Minaya’s accusations.   So why are the Mets losing?  They’re 3-6 on the road and 4-5 in one run ball games.  Those numbers do support Minaya’s accusation.

Both New York teams have new stadiums and the same high expectations.  If these franchises want to sell a lot of Yankees-Mets tickets and win a lot of games, they each need to find a way to infuse their ballclubs with some vim and vigor.  

Sadly for these two franchises, urgency is not something they can buy.