Mets & Yanks stay in the race

It was not to long ago that the hottest team in New York were the New York Mets who at the time were riding a 7 game winning streak that had propell the Amazing's to the top of their division. That was about 12 days ago when the Mets were rolling and everything was fine & dandy at CitiField. On the Other side of town the Yankees had just lost 5 straight and were being swept by the surging Boston Red Sox, they were so bad during that horrible strech that playing games at the new Yankees Stadium was something of a burden, they could not win at home. I said at the time that the Bronx Bombers were the ones who were getting bombed. All this was happening while the boys from Queens kept finding new ways to win games.

That was then, as things done change. That is the beauty of this game of baseball, it teaches you not to get too high, and not to get to low, becasue 12 days ago the Mets were flying high and the Yanks were simply struggling, and now things are so much diffrent. After a nice start to their series vs. the Giants were they took the 1st 3 games, the Mets then took a few steps back when injuries to Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado would catch up to the Metsies. Now with Delgado out of action for the next 9 weeks, and with Reyes who is uncertain, the Mets must now scrap to win games.

Things would only get worst for the Mets as the backup shortstop Alex Cora would join the disable list with his own injury. With no backup shortstop the Mets are now relying on 36 year old journeyman Ramon Martinez to fill in until Reyes can come back. On top of that, the Mets defense has been awful at times playing like the Bad News Bears. With no real 1B, no backup shortstop, and a outfield that at times features the erratic David Murphy and 41 year old Gary Sheffield, the Mets defense is shaky at best. Now there is some concern to Carlos Beltran who has missed the last 3 games on defense, If Beltran goes down then it is time to worry.

Their has also been some questionable calls made by the manager Jerry Manuel who I for one endorsed bringing back to run the team. But from a Mets fan point of view who watches 90% of the Met games, I have to question Manuel's managing up to date.
I question when last week Jerry Manuel had Angel Pagan pitch hit for the slumping Daniel Murphy in a base loaded 1 out situation, it was Pagan 2nd day with the team and here you have Manuel taking out one of his best young hitters out of a situation where he can grow. Pagan would go on to ground into a double play as the Mets would go on to lose the game 2-1, losing out on an opportunity to sweep the Giants on the road, it would be the beginning where the Mets would start to fall apart and lose 4 straight and the Division lead.

The following night the Mets would opened up a series with the Dodgers as they would commite 5 errors in a 3-2 lost where down the stretch it was blunders galore. After the Mets had tied at 2 in the 8th, the Mets had Ryan Church on 2nd with 2 outs, as Angel Pagan would come through this time with a gapper that would give the Mets a 3-2lead for about 5 seconds. The problem was that Church had missed the 3rd base bag and was called out as the game would stay tied at 2 and head into extra innings.
It would all fall apart in the 11th when Pagan and Beltran would lose a routine flyball in the outfield to start the Mets demise., then it was Jemery Reed turn who was playing at 1B for the 1st time, with the bases loaded and 1 out Reed went home to try can cut down the winning run at the plate, his throw would sail as the Mets 5th and final error would cost the Mets the game 3-2 in the 11th.

On the contrary, the Yankees have turned things around big time, a 9 game winning streak has made the Yanks the hottest team in all of baseball. Led by the hot bat of Johnny Damon who has made the new Yankee Stadium the house that Johnny Built, and the all of the sudden very hot Mark Texiera who just 12 days ago was only hitting 189thanks to the arival of A-ROD, Texiera has now raised his average to an amazingly 270clip, and is now leading the team with 13 dingers & 34 RBI's, incredible!
The Dominican connection of Robinson Cano & Melky Cabrerra has also been key to the Yankees recent success as Cano has continued to hit the ball, and Melky has won back his CF job to form a happy due that is continually in the middle of the pie in the face festivities which have become a ritual during this hot streak. The Yanks have been winning games with the long ball, and have even won some 2 to 1 games as the pitching has come around of late. Everything looking good at the new Yankee stadium as the Yankees have now begun to win some exciting games at home.

The weekend would be a very important for both the Mets and the Yankees as inter-league play would get started with a Memorial day weekend bash as the Mets would head out to Boston riding a 4 game losing streak, and the Yankees got ready to host the defending champions the Fighting Phillies. In each of the 1st games of these two series, we saw the Yankees 9 game winning streak be snapped as AJ Burnett was not on his game as the Yanks would go on to lose 7-3, streak over!
We then saw the Mets Johan Santana show his worth once again by beating the Sox's in the opener 5-3. During the game Santana and Kevin Youkilis would face off in a face to face confrontation when Santana would bean Youkilis with 2 outs and nobody on, Youkilis would then stare off Santana on his way to 1st, Santana would then order Youkilis to go on and take his base, from there on it was all she wrote the rest of the way as that just lifted Santana and the Mets as K-ROD would come in to save it and snap the 4 game losing streak. The very next day the Yankees would get back in the win colum in dramactic fashion, A-ROD would tie the game in the 9th with a 2 run bomb that was followed by a Melky Cabrrera game winner that would bring home Robinson Cano as the Yanks would shock Brad Lidge with another walkoff party at the stadium.

Moments later it was the Mets turn as they would shock the Sox's in the 9th, down by a run with a runner on and 2 outs Omir Santos was already down to his last strike when he would take Jonathan Papelbon deep over the Green Monster as the instant reply would eventually give the Mets the game winner, as the Mets would take the 1st 2 games to get themselves back on track. It was a great Saturday as both New York teams would end their games on 9th inning comebacks that had the City talking afterward. On Sunday it was Coles Hamels vs CC Sabathia in the finally at the stadium as Mets fans were probably rooting for the Yanks to beat up on Hamels and the Phils. The same could be said by Yankees fans who were also probably rooting for the Mets on this day to take out the brooms on the Sox's. It was the matchup of the Tim's as Tim Wakefield was to face Tim Redding on this Sunday afternoon.
Redding would give up a 3-run shot to Mike Lowell in the 2nd as the Sox would lead early 3-1, and the Mets would comeback to take the lead in the 3rd, but it was too much Sox's on this day as they would break the game wide open in the 8th, clobbering the Mets and avoiding the sweep 12-5. No brooms for the Mets.
In the Bronx with both Sabathia and Hamels long out of the game, the Phils entered the 9th with a 3-2 lead as Brad Lidge was out there once again facing Melky Cabrrera with a runner on 2nd and no outs. Cabrerra who had beat Lidge when he struck him for the game winner not even 24 hours ago, would strike again as Melky would single in the tying run as he now stood at 1st with the winning run and no outs! Lidge who was perfect all of last season was nothing but for the 2nd straight day as once again the Yankees had him on the ropes looking for another pie in the face party on his expense. But Lidge would figure his way out as now the game was heading into extra innings. It was in the 11th when the Phillies Carlos Ruiz delivered the go ahead run as the Phillies would take 2 out 3 on Yanks. Still the Yanks finished off an impressive week of 5-2 baseball, and must be feeling alot better then they were 12 days ago.

For now everything seems to be going good in New York, both teams look to be in the hunt. The Mets will have to overcome the injuries until they can get Reyes, Delgado & Church back and healthy with the team. So far the Key for the Mets has been the bullpen, as K-ROD has been stellar perfect leading the way . As for the Yankees, their seems to be no worries at the moment, everyone is contributing and they are winning games in comeback fashion. The only problem may be at the catching position where both Jorge Posada & Miguel Olivo look injury prone, so far they havent been missed. Earlier in the season the new Yankee Stadium was a problem where the balls continue to fly out at an alarming rate, but now the Yankees know what they have here, and as long as they can out slug the other team, they will be ok. As for the Mets, they must ride the wave.