Subway Series
By lefty
After a 10 game winning streak that brought the Yankees back to respectability, the Bronx Bombers reverted to their early season form in their streak breaking 7-6 loss to Seattle. Bad pitching, poor defense, and untimely hitting led them to squander a 6-2 lead.
Mike Mussina gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, the Yankees committed 3 errors leading to 2 unearned runs, and Jason Giambi struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth to end the game. Ah… back to reality.
The Yankees now return to New York in the unaccustomed role of the visiting team, starting a three game series against the Mets tonight. Because the game is at Shea where the DH is not allowed, they'll be forced to decide, “Who’s on first?”
The Yankees, 5.5 games behind the Orioles, bring a 21-20 record into their weekend series against the Mets, who at 22-19 are 1.5 games behind Atlanta. Although the teams’ records appear similar, the perception of each teams performance so far in this 2005 season is completely different.
The Mets are fun again. Good young players, like the performance of Victor Diaz earlier in the year, David Wright and Jose Reyes, added to a slew of tough veterans like Carlos Beltran, Cliff Floyd, Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza, leave a Met fan believing every game is winnable. The Yankees too have a talented team, however, that group of aging veterans seems more desperate to win than enjoying the season.
The Mets have their problems as well, and I’m not talking about their grounds keeping crew no longer in the betting business. But even though; the bullpen is far from great, there area new concerns about Pedro’s hip; and the debated continues about weather Kazuo Matsui deserves to be the daily second baseman, it’s fun to be a Mets fan again.
After the Yankees humiliating loss in the ALCS last year, and their start of the 2005 season, a 10 game winning streak doesn’t seem to be enough. For a team that has taken winning their division for granted, they appear shell shocked that they are not already in first place. Meanwhile the Mets seem energized to finally be in the hunt. So this “Subway Series,” may shed some light on which New York team is on the train heading North.
