The New York Mets swept the two game “Subway Series” with The Yankees, outscoring them 21-9 in those games. The New York Mets have been trending up since the beginning of June going from the cellar of The National League, to a game and a half out of the Wild Card.
Meanwhile The New York Yankees have been horrific as of late, their outstanding rotation has been reduced to mediocrity.
The Mets made it clear in the offseason that this would be a retooling year, failing to extend All Star first baseman and 2019 National League Rookie of The Year Pete Alonso, signing veteran designated hitter JD Martinez to a one year deal, and many others are rentals or expiring.
The New York Mets Heading Into The Subway Series
This tactic is common for teams that are interested in unloading players at the trade deadline to gets assets back, before those players leave in free agency,
Despite this, The New York Mets have had a very positive season, it started off poorly but the team has since clicked.The Mets won nine of their last twelve games prior to this series, as their star players has played like star players.
After making his New York Mets debut on April 27th, 36 year old JD Martinez has hit for batting average of .287, slugged 9 home runs, has 34 RBIs, an OPS+ of 149 (higher than his career average),an OPS of .859, 56 hits, 13 doubles in 195 at bats across 52 at bats.
30 year old shortstop Francisco Lindor started the year off horribly, batting in the .100’s for the majority of the first 30 games of the 2024 season, over the last 48 games, he has gotten hot bumping his batting average up to .246, which still isn’t elite, but jumping a batting average .050 in such a time frame is astounding nonetheless.
Lindor should be this team’s best player given the body of work throughout his career thus far, and it is no coincidence that The Mets have done better, as their super star player has done better.
In the final year of his rookie contract, Pete Alonso has played to what has become his standard, flirting between a .220-.260 batting average player, with unbelievable power surges, and low valleys.
Through his 78 games played this season, Alonso has hit .241, with 16 homers, 43 RBIs, 33 walks, 68 strikeouts, 19 doubles, and 72 hits. These stats are all on pace for in or around his career averages, aside from home runs and RBIs which are trending below his expected rates.
As far as pitching is concerned, The Mets have looked competent despite being without their ace Kodai Senga, who finished second in Rookie of The Year voting last season.
The Mets signed Sean Manaea in the offseason who has been inconsistent but more good than bad, lefty David Peterson has looked good at times, and Luis Severino who is playing his first season away from The Yankees has been better than expected, pitching to a 3.29 ERA.
It is clear that The Mets are lacking that ace we have seen them have, no Tom Seaver, no Jerry Koosman, no Doc Gooden, no Sid Fernandez, no Jacob Degrom.
This Mets administration is still trying to find its cultural identity, but they may not need to look much further, as the youth movement they are implementing is starting to perform better than expected. Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos have been outstanding.
Alvarez has been the first string catcher for The Mets for a good chunk of this season, and has given tremendous offensive output from the position, hitting .313, with 4 homers, 19 RBIs, an OPS+ of 162, 11 walks, and 22 strikeouts across 30 games played, in his second full season with the club.
Vientos has predominantly played third base this season and has similarly elite statistics, hitting .298, with 9 home runs, 22 RBIs, an OPS+ of 167, an OPS of .928, while walking 12 times, and striking out 30 in 35 games played in his first full year with the team.
Alvarez is 22 years old, and Vientos is 24. The New York Mets very clearly have a bright future ahead of them.
The New York Mets During The Subway Series
As stated above this series was anything but close.
The Mets sent 28 year old southpaw, David Peterson out for game 1, who entered play with an ERA of 3.97.
Peterson pitched well enough, allowing just 3 hits across 4.1 innings of work, while striking out 8 Yankees, and giving up just 1 run, which was a solo shot by outfielder Juan Soto in the top of the fifth inning.
Two things that did concern me however, were the 5 walks he issued, and his pitch count of 103. The Mets bullpen has been wildly inconsistent this season and their closer, Edwin Diaz is currently serving a 10 game suspension for violating the league’s foreign substance policy, this was not the time to test that bullpen depth.
Mark Vientos was terrific in this game hitting two home runs, both solo shots, first in the bottom of the second inning, and then in the bottom of the fourth.
The game exploded in the sixth inning when The Mets scored 3 runs without any home runs, stinging together good at bats, and exploiting bad defensive plays from The Yankees. The Mets won game one 9-7, with relief pitcher Dedniel Nunez being credited with the win.
Game two was not exciting by any means, The Mets won a 12-2 route with about a 2 hour rain delay thrown in for extra lameness. The Mets scored 3 runs in the third inning and from that point the game was all them.
One thing I have to credit was Sean Manaea (who got his fifth win of the season) pitching himself out of a one out bases loaded jam in the top half of the first, who got a double play to end the inning unscathed.
Before the fifth inning rain delay, Manaea gave up 5 walks, 2 hits, and no earned runs, while striking out three batters. He did not return after the lengthy rain delay.
After the rain the game was more or less over. The New York Mets offense tallied 7 walks, 12 hits, 12 runs, and three home runs (Harrison Bader, Alvarez, and Tyonre Taylor).
The Mets continue to chase a National League Wild Card spot, and quite frankly I do think its obtainable, if they want one.
Given all their rentals I could see them focusing on the future and trying to offload assets for prospects or controllable depth pieces. Personally I think teams should always prioritize winning a championship as soon as possible, and would welcome a Mets postseason run.
The New York Yankees Series
Wow, that sucked.
There is really nothing redeemable to talk about this series from a New York Yankees perspective.
The pitching was laughably bad, the offense just wasn’t good enough, and the effort at times was horrific.
Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole was making his second start of the season after playing poorly against The Baltimore Orioles last week, going 4 innings, and allowing 2 runs on three walks, and 2 walks, while striking out 5 batsmen, not an awful start but certainly below his expected standard.
His start Tuesday against The New York Mets on the other hand, was objectively his worst outing as a Yankees and one of the worst of his big league career.
Cole is unequivocally the Yankees ace and their stopper, when all else fails, Gerrit Cole cannot, on the off chance he does, the game is more or less a formality.
The New York Yankees entered Tuesday’s game at Citi Field in Queens on a 3-7 skid over their last ten games, and Cole the life blood of the rotation, the tip of the spear, went 4 innings allowing 7 hits, 6 runs, 4 homers, and 4 walks while striking out a maximum career low of 0 batters, the fewest amount for him since 2016.
Right handed reliever Phil Bickford came in to relieve Cole, pitching 1.1 innings while allowing 2 more earned runs.
The Yankees offense was not much help either, second baseman Gleyber Torres put in a weak effort running out a ground ball that should have been a single, former two time batting champion DJ LeMahieu, went hitless in 4 at bats (although he did have a walk) continuing his offensive woes, JD Davis went 0-3 in his first game as a Yankee, as the bottom of the lineup continues to try and find scoring opportunities.
Unsurprisingly Aaron Judge played extremely well in the first game, hitting a grand slam in the eighth inning, to make it a 9-7 ball game. The 2022 AL MVP hit 5 RBIs in this game as he continues another MVP caliber campaign.
Newest Yankees superstar outfielder Juan Soto also had a tremendous game hitting a home run in the top of the fifth, and scoring on the Judge grand slam.
The final score was 9-7 in game one, they did have late life, and an uncharacteristic Cole game, I delt optimistic heading into game 2, which was foolish.
Game 2 was a bloodbath, as mentioned above at no point was it close aside from the first inning, even then both teams had bases loaded they just couldn’t score in the first inning.
Former wunderkind Luis Gil has fallen back to earth, having a slew of bad starts in a row, with game 2 being among the worst.
Gil went 4.1 innings giving up 4 hits, 5 runs, and 4 walks, while striking out 2.
The Yankees scored 2 runs in the sixth inning, after Judge hit a two run homer to left field scoring Soto.
Which brings me to another problem that has been having over this Yankees skid, aside from Judge, Soto, and second year shortstop Anthony Volpe, the offense has been wildly inconsistent, they either blowout or get blown out, no in between,
The pitching as a whole has been wild as well, hitting batters, and walking batters astronomically more than they have all season, and unfortunately just when they seem like they are about to turn the page, the problem just gets worse.
I thought their late game heroics Tuesday against The Mets would snap them back to their standard but instead it demoralized them.
I’m out of answers for this team as this recent avalanche of ineptitude continues.
