Series Results:
Friday: Mets 11, Yankees 2. WP: Steve Trachsel LP: Mike Mussina
Saturday: Mets 10, Yankees 9. WP: John Franco LP: Tanyon
Sturtze
Sunday: Mets 6, Yankees 5. WP: Orber Moreno LP: Tom Gordon Sv: Braden Looper
Season Series Standings: Mets 4, Yankees 2, final.
What We Saw:
Friday: Come on Mussina, what's the deal going to be? The
only real weakness that the Yankees have had this season has been erratic
starting pitching - and that's putting it nicely. The staff was supposed
to be well-anchored between Mussina, Javy Vazquez and Kevin Brown. But
Brown has been hurt and Mussina's been switching back and forth between good and
awful. This was not one of his better nights. Believe me, if the
Yankees don't shore up their rotation problems, they're not going to succeed in
the postseason. Take a look at the last World Series winners, all were
teams built around pitching first and everything else second. It's a
winning formula. The Mets thoroughly trounced the Yankees in this
game. Every Met that batted got at least a hit, including Steve Trachsel.
Highlighted nicely by Kaz Matsui's two-homer, five-RBI performance and Richard Hidalgo's three-hit, three-RBI game, the Mets just went nuts at the plate.
On the hill, Trax was untouchable for most of the game, allowing just two
unearned runs. Were the Yankees drained from the previous night's
antics? Possibly. But Mussina didn't pitch in that game, so what's
his excuse?
Saturday: This game featured four lead changes, 23 hits, five
homers, a lot of Tony Clark and too much Jose Contreras. In a shootout,
the Mets got the better of the Yanks with a dribbler back to the pitcher.
Sturtze played the goat, bobbling Shane Spencer's weak groundball and throwing
it away with the bases loaded to let the winning run score. Sturtze, who
had saved the Yankees on several occasions this year, walked two batters and hit
another to load the bases for Spencer. Definitely not his finest
moment. Miguel Cairo hit leadoff in this game, a move I applaud.
He's a good candidate for the job for one good reason: he refuses to strike
out. He responded with a 2/3, two walk performance. Cairo strikes
out once every 9.3 plate appearances. For comparison, A-Rod whiffs every
5.3 times up and Gary Sheffield, one of the toughest guys to strike out in the
majors, fans every 10.8 plate appearances. Tony Clark had a big day for
the Yanks, going yard twice during a four-hit performance.
Sunday: Vazquez struggled with is control, walking a season-high five
batters and throwing just 62 of his 113 pitches for strikes. Throwing 113
pitches for just 15 outs is bad enough, but just over half of the pitches were
strikes, which is awful. Richard Hidalgo went deep for the fourth straight
game and has seven home runs with the Mets already. Ty Wigginton hit two
home runs in the game, the first time he's ever done that. The Yankees
managed to pound out 16 hits - including four from Bernie Williams and three
each from Cairo and Jeter - but could only manage five runs, a result of poor
situational hitting and too many double plays (three of them).
Next meeting between these two teams: Not until next year, unless
there's a World Subway Series again...
On deck for the Yankees: The Tigers. Game one is on Monday at
7:05 PM. Jon Lieber will face Nate Robertson.
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