Subway Series #1 (Special Issue)

Subway Series #1

At

Yankee Stadium

June 8^th – 10^th

            Amazing things are happening in New York at what seems to be just the right time.  From the Bronx to Queens, all baseball fans are smiling from ear to ear with what has become from the past two weeks.  We all knew one team should have been competitive all year and as usual they struggled at the start and have somewhat seemed to have straighten out their pinstripes to get the ball in gear.  On the other side of the East River, in what seemed to be the most dismal season in recent years by all Met fans across the country when teams began spring training in March, has turned out to be quite a show.  With a rotation that has been absolutely reliable in keeping this homebred team in 90% of their games and gather a bunch of oddball players with huge heart you can end up having a winning record.

            Both the Mets and Yankees are in the midst of battling for the top spot in each of their divisions and New York couldn’t be more reverent in the baseball world right now. I understand the All-Star break has not passed by us yet, but we are getting to the middle of the season and the Mets especially are not slowing down.  Every week you think it might happen after a bad loss, but they jump right back in the win column most of the time due to the wonderful surprises coming from the starting pitchers every night.  From a Yankee fan prospective you had a team with some troubling pitching rotation woes and bats that were acting as quiet as Ann Frank stuck in an attic.  All has changed.  All appears bright.

            The Yankees bought, yes not brought, bought back Andy Pettitte from his wife and kids this offseason and what a move it was.  He looks as if he never walked away from the game and helps to prove what makes the game so powerful and fun to watch.  He is 3-2 with a 2.78 ERA so far this season and has helped wake the bats up on offense.  I think he exudes confidence in other teammates and rounded out this pitching staff with his strong left arm.  He has struck out 32 batters in 35 innings.  With CC and Kuroda (the “A”-day/”B”-day type pitcher) and a decent Ivan Nova, Andy adds everything they all have plus a canister of experience.  However, while all this is good and joyful and happy and whatever other “nice” positive adjective you want to hang on to and mad-lib it into this sentence the most amazing and the greatest news out of the Bronx is Phil Hughes out dueling last year’s AL MVP Justin Verlander last Sunday.  He pitched a CG shutout and slowed the erratic heartbeat of many Yankee fans that thought he was a lost cause and another all-hype Joba-esque type flop.  He could be here for the long hall.  In his last six starts he is 4-1 with really one bad start and funny enough his one loss wasn’t the bad start.  He pitched like the beginning of 2011 against LA, but then bounced back against the Tigers.  The next month will really be the tall tale on the pitcher the Yankees held on to instead on Ian Kennedy.

CLICK HERE FOR YANKEE 2012 Stats:

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          Now let’s get down to serious business.  By now the news has been heard around the country and put in the history books as of last Friday night.  The real Amazement that happen is that Johan Santana pitched the first ever New York Mets no-hitter.  51 years and 8,020 games since Roger Craig threw the first pitch for the new franchise Mets at Polo Grounds finally here in 2012, the “half-ass Jetson era”, it took Johan Santana 134 pitches to complete the first no hitter in team history.

Now the Padres stand-alone!

            It was a magical evening for the less then average Friday night 20,000 in attendance, but I would have paid a good sum of my hard earned cash to be in that ballpark on that particular night.  On television it was almost as good.  Watching it on SNY showed the mind pains pounding in Terry Collins’s head as he would grind his teeth and fold his arms tightly about his chest.  He wanted so bad to protect his Ace of the staff from throwing such a large number of pitches, but he knew and baseball fans everywhere knew there was nothing he could do about it.  It looked as if Santana’s arm was bound to fall off and fly into the catcher’s glove with Johan’s last pitch, but the workhorse did it.  He brought the most excitement to Citi Field to date by far and continued this tough young teams stride towards competitive season’s confusion.  I feel that Mets fans have no idea what to do.  I feel most are fearing to cheer because it’s still early in the season, but they’re only an arm’s length away from first.  A game and a half out of 1^st place and right there in the mix.  It’s exciting.  It’s nail biting, but it’s only the first week in June…but for now…bask in this below and recognize the zeros.

NY Mets	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Santana, J(W, 3-2)	9.0	0	0	0	5	8	0	2.38

            Mets fans probably thought the party would be over after the no hitter, but they have another guy pitching on the mound that is quietly cruising through game after game.  R.A. Dickey is fooling every opponent he faces with a stellar 9-1 record and an unfathomable 2.44 ERA.  He has struck out 78 batters in 82 innings and knuckled his way atop the early CY Young nominees.  Dominant isn’t good enough a word.  Dickey is the man behind the Johan right now, but above every other Met in performance since 2012 started.

            The Subway Series has officially lost steam in everyone’s mind in New York or wherever, but this year the series couldn’t come at a better time.  Both teams are hot and riding high on all cylinders.  The Yankees sit in 2^nd place only a half game being Tampa Bay and the surprising Baltimore Showalters.  The Mets are comfortably in 3^rd and only one and a half games behind the Washington Harper/Straus and only a game behind rival Atlanta.  Both teams are fighting.  Both teams are trying to bring New York home another post season Subway Series.  

CLICK HERE FOR METS 2012 Stats:

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All time regular season NYY are 49-35 since 1997.  I see the Yankees taking two of three this weekend at Yankee Stadium.

GAME ONE:    Johan Santana (3-2, 2.38 ERA) makes his first start in seven days (first since no hitter) facing the up and down Hiroki Kuroda (4-6, 3.82 ERA) at 7:05PM.

GAME TWO:   Dillon Gee (4-3, 4.48 ERA) who struck 8 in his last no decision against the resurging Phil Hughes (5-5, 4.96 ERA) at 7:15PM on FOX.

GAME THREE:     Jon Niese (4-2, 4.11 ERA) has the luck of the draw here and goes head to head with the old man Andy Pettitte (3-2, 2.78 ERA) at 1:10pm

Last Quip: Sad to see the horse racing world take another step backwards in excitement and step forward in the way the animals are pampered and taken care of.