Game #51: Mets 3, Yankees 1

Four words that have saved this lost season, words Mets fans thought they would never get to read: We. Swept. The. Yankees.

(NYDailyNews.com)

Marlon Byrd's two-run bomb in the 2nd was enough for Dillon Gee's best start of the year as the Mets swept the 2013 Subway Series for the first time, beating the Yankees 3-1.

The Good Stuff:

• Last night, Marlon Byrd took advantage of Yankee Stadium's launching pad with a cheap can-of-corn of a home run. Tonight's home run? A little more expensive. Byrd blasted a two-run upper deck shot in the top of the 2nd off Yankee starter Vidal Nuno to give the NL New Yorkers an early 2-0 cushion.
• An insurance run came on a John Buck single (and stolen base!) in the top of the 8th. Not that Dillon Gee needed it: Gee turned in one of the finest starts of his career, going 7.1 innings and allowing one run (a solo shot by Robinson Cano in the 3rd) on four hits, no walks, and a whopping 12 strikeouts.
• Scott Rice finished off the 8th inning, and Bobby Parnell diffused the Bronx Bombers for good with a 1-2-3 9th, prompting the Mets partisans of the 44,207 in attendance to break out their brooms.

The Bad Stuff:

• Jonathan Niese will have to miss his next start due to a mild case of tendinitis.

Final Analysis:
In the 16 previous editions of the Mets-Yankees Subway Series, only once has either team swept every game of the season: the last-place Mets lost every game to the pennant-winning Yankees in 2003. Now, ten years later, we were due for another sweep. Except this time it was the near-last place Mets winning every game against the then-first place Yankees.

How. Did. We. Do. That. ?.

How did it all get in sync so fast? How did these New York Mets suddenly put together quality starts, clutch hitting, and lockdown relief all at once? How did they manage it against their hated intercity rivals? Maybe it turns out these New York Yankees aren't very good; most of their starters are old stopgaps to replace their old stars, after all. Or maybe these New York Mets aren't as bad as they were made out to be. Now they've got history under their belts and a five-game winning streak to boot. A winning streak that should, by the way, extend by a game or two this weekend in Miami.

I've accepted that this is a lost season. None of that matters now because this week has defined the whole year. In 2011, it was Jose Reyes's batting title. In 2012, it was Johan Santana's no-hitter and R.A. Dickey's Cy Young. In 2013, it was the sweep in the Subway Series. I'm cool with that. Simply Amazin'.

MM