One sentence from Alex Rodriguez is all you need to know Yankees-Mets in the Subway Series doesn’t compare to Yankees-Red Sox or Yankees-Rays.
“They have a pretty good core over there,” Rodriguez said of the rudderless Mets, who host the Yankees in a three-game series that opens tonight at Citi Field. “I hope they turn it around. I know some of the guys well, Jose Reyes and David Wright.”
Rodriguez is tight with Boston’s David Ortiz, too, but would never publicly admit he hopes the Red Sox shed their pedestrian ways.
Red Sox-Yankees and Rays-Yankees dictate which team is going to win the AL East and which team is going to be the AL wild card.
Yankees-Mets? It’s for the fans and makes wonderful debate at the neighborhood tavern. Just as it was in 1997 when MLB foolishly introduced inter-league play and cheapened the product.
“It’s just another series,” said Mariano Rivera, who said he doesn’t follow the Mets.
In 1997, New York’s baseball fans buzzed over the Subway Series and when the clubs met in the 2000 World Series, Baseball Nirvana was reached.
Since the Yankees won that World Series and Roger Clemens stopped throwing objects at Mike Piazza, the sizzle has been deleted from the meetings.
Sure the drunk in the upper deck tonight will yell and scream at Derek Jeter and question Jeter’s manhood. His cousin will do the same at David Wright at Yankee Stadium from June 18-20.
If the teams didn’t play 7 miles apart, this would be just another mismatch on the Yankees’ schedule. Despite having lost three of four going into last night’s game against the Rays at the Stadium, the 25-15 Yankees were well ahead of the 19-22 Mets, who had dropped eight of 10 before last night’s road tilt against the Nationals and live in the basement of the NL East.
When it comes to the Subway Series, the Mets are a second-place finisher in a two-horse race. In the past 10 years, the Yankees hold a 35-25 edge in wins and have dropped just two series (2008 and 2004).
The Yankees dominate the match-ups in talent. For them to do any worse than win two games this weekend would be a shock. Even with the Mets pitching Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana tomorrow and Sunday against Phil Hughes and CC Sabathia, the Mets’ lineup lacks muscle.
Several years ago, Rodriguez gushed about Pelfrey’s stuff and that hasn’t changed. “He still has a great arm,” Rodriguez said of the right-hander against whom he is 2-for-4.
The apex of Subway Series intensity was Clemens hitting Piazza in the head in the second game of a double-header in 2000.
Now?
“I like playing the Mets,” said Sabathia, who gets to hit against Santana. “I know Johan and I played with Alex Cora.”
Since all 162 Yankee games are individual Game 7s, they are all must wins. Yet Joe Girardi hinted that his players, none of whom admitted it, like to win in order to keep from getting barked at by Mets supporters.
“I think it’s a big deal for our team,” Girardi said. “We want to be able to walk around the city and not hear about it.”
Brett Gardner understands it’s not the Red Sox or Rays. Yet he has been around long enough to know there aren’t many crossover fans.
“Obviously, it means a lot to the city because New York has a lot of baseball fans,” Gardner said. “The Mets and Yankees, not many people pull for both teams.”