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

Game #50: Mets 9, Yankees 4

Walk-offs are fun. You know what else is fun? Blowouts at the expense of your rival in their building. Oh my.

(NYDailyNews.com)

Ike Davis's two-run single capped a five-run 1st inning as the Mets never looked back, beating the Yankees 9-4 and clinching their first Subway Series win since 2008.

The Good Stuff:

• Ruben Tejada got things going in the top of the 1st with a single off David Phelps and came around on Daniel Murphy's RBI double. After David Wright walked and Lucas Duda struck out, a second run came home on John Buck's RBI single. Rick Ankiel walked to load the bases, and while Marlon Byrd grounded into what should have been a double play, it turned into a third run when Jayson Nix booted it. Ike Davis was up next and hammered the nail in Phelps's coffin with a two-run single. When the dust settled and Phelps was relieved, the NL New Yorkers had a 5-0 lead over their AL rivals.
• What a relief it must have been to Jeremy Hefner, who threw his first pitch with the game already in hand. Hefner earned his first W of the season (and the Mets' first win in one of his starts) with a three-run, nine-hit, six-inning outing, complete with no walks and five strikeouts.
• More offensive prowess was showed in later innings: Byrd took advantage of the Little League ballpark that is Yankee Stadium with a solo homer to right in the 3rd, while Duda drove in two more with an opposite-field double in the 4th. Ankiel drove in the final run on an RBI single in the 9th.
• Gary Cohen had a fine game in the broadcast booth, charming the SNY audience on two separate occasions:
• When Travis Hafner came up to face Jeremy Hefner in the bottom of the 1st, Cohen channeled David Letterman at the 1995 Oscars with an "Oprah, Uma" moment.
• In the bottom of the 7th, Gare introduced the Mets' oft-used reliever as Scott "Every Minute" Rice. Well done, sir. Well done.

The Bad Stuff:

• Already in the discussion for demotion, Ruben Tejada injured his quad late in tonight's game. For those who want to speculate on how bad the injury is, note that Omar Quintanilla was pulled from his game with the Las Vegas 51s. We may be seeing the return of Mr. Q in the next couple days.

Final Analysis:
All of a sudden, everything is firing on all cylinders: 12 hits, quality starting pitching, a bullpen that holds leads. The result is a four-game winning streak, including three over the big, bad New York Yankees. Who are these guys?

Great to see another quality outing from Jeremy Hefner, who is quietly establishing himself as the Mets' third-best starting pitcher. It's especially nice to see him doing so well in the face of the immense tragedy of seeing his Oklahoma hometown ripped apart by last week's tornado.

With some sudden momentum going in their direction for once, the New York Mets will go into tomorrow night's Yankee Stadium finale attempting to do something they have never done before: sweep the New York Yankees in the Subway Series. This could make the season right here. Whoa baby.

MM

Game #49: Mets 2, Yankees 1

Who would have guessed that whole "Mariano Rivera throws out the first pitch" thing turned out to be a scouting strategy?

(NYTimes.com)

The Mets got three hits off the Sandman in his final appearance in Flushing, as Lucas Duda's walk-off single led his team to another 2-1, come-from-behind victory over the Yankees.

The Good Stuff:

• Down 1-0 in the 9th, things looked bleak for the NL New Yorkers as they faced the greatest closer of all-time, who at age 43 still shows no sign of slowing down. But just for one night, Mariano Rivera looked like a man on the precipice of retirement, as he blew a save for the first time all season.
• Daniel Murphy led off with the Mets' only extra-base hit of the night, a double down the left field line. That brought up David Wright, who lined a shot just out of reach of the shortstop (and just inches behind the baserunning Murphy). Murph raced around and beat the throw from centerfielder Brett Gardner (who robbed him of another long hit tonight - a second last laugh), and Wright went to second when the throw ricocheted off Murphy and to the backstop. Up came Lucas Duda, who took a jamming 1-1 cutter and looped it into right field to score Wright and send the paid Citi Field crowd of 31,877 into a frenzy. It was the Big Dude's first walk-off hit since he did it off Heath Bell in August 2011, and it earned him not one but TWO whipped cream pies in the face (Ruben Tejada joined Justin Turner for the double take).
• "Attention, patrons: tonight, the part of jilted Mets ace will be played by Matt Harvey, who will allow just one run on six hits in eight sparkling innings, walking none and striking out 10 on 114 pitches. Unfortunately for the young Mr. Harvey, he will be stacked with yet another no-decision. Better than a loss, though. Carry on."
• Murphy, Wright, and Duda each had two hits, combining for six of the team's seven on the night.
• Scott Rice tossed a scoreless 9th for his third W of the season.

The Bad Stuff:

• If hitters #2-4 picked up six of seven hits, it means that hitters #1 and #5-9 combined to produce only one. That was Rick Ankiel, by the way.
• Ike Davis went 0-3 with two more strikeouts, restarting talk of an extended weekend in Las Vegas. At least he'll get to see Bradley Cooper.
• Ruben Tejada was picked off second base to end the 6th when umpire Reid Brignac changed his call mid-motion. Terry Collins went out to argue and was promptly rejected when he did his best "Lou Pinella bobblehead" impression.

Final Analysis:
Some of the finest Mets wins come at the expense of the New York Yankees, and the finest of the fine are when our scrappy bunch is able to chip off a bit of gold dust from the golden closer. You already know this is going to be one of our Top Ten Wins of the Year. That was fun. That was a fun game.

And this is turning out to be a very fun Subway Series! Tomorrow the Mets and their fans hop on the 4-Train and take this orange-and-blue-a-thon to the House That Sits Next To Where The House That Ruth Built Is Now A Parking Lot. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue.

MM

Game #48: Mets 2, Yankees 1

In the battle of the town so nice they named it twice, the home team thought of the same duplicity on late-game comebacks.

Daniel Murphy's line drive up the middle scored the game-winning run in the 8th inning and Bobby Parnell shut the door on the Yankees for a 2-1 Mets win in the opener of this year's Subway Series.

The Good Stuff:

• Down 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th, David Wright started the scoring by taking Phil Hughes deep (and I mean waaaaay deep). Wright's monstrous solo home run not only tied the game, it would have left the stadium had it not  clunked off the wing of an airplane destined for LaGuardia and settled in the first deck.

(NYDailyNews.com)

• With one out in the bottom of the 8th, Mike Baxter laced a ground-rule double to start a rally. Jordany Valdespin walked, then the both of them advanced a base when Yankee catcher Chris Stewart couldn't handle a rare strike from David Robertson. Baxter was thrown out at home on Ruben Tejada's ground ball, but that left one out for Daniel Murphy, who was looking for some revenge after his two-run homer in the 6th was stolen at the wall by Brett Gardner. Consider him avenged: Murph ripped a line drive up the middle to score Valdespin for what would be the deciding run.
• With the lead in his pocket, Bobby Parnell continued to establish himself as a legitimate major-league closer, striking out two Bronx Bombers on the way to a hitless 9th and his eighth save of the season, surpassing his total for all of last season.
• Like last night, the Mets' runs came late for their outstanding starter. This time it was Jonathon Niese who was stuck with a tough-luck no-decision. Niese's final line was one of his best of the season: 7 innings, 8 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts on 107 pitches. He also went 2-2 at the plate to bring his average up to .250 (more than that of half the Mets' regulars).
• The NL New Yorkers turned three more double plays to kill AL New Yorker rallies in the 2nd, 6th, and 8th frames.

The Bad Stuff:

• Ike Davis regressed against Hughes and Robertson, striking out in all three of his at-bats.
• Ruben Tejada also went hitless in his four at-bats in his first game back in the leadoff slot.

Final Analysis:
I've been happy to admit I was wrong before, and I'm happy to do it again: Bobby Parnell is a major-league closer. Maybe he picked up a different mindset over the offseason, maybe it's the new knuckle curve (thanks, R.A.); whatever it is, the New York Mets seem to have a legitimate stopper for the first time since Francisco Rodriguez in his first season with the club. The Mets may not be able to give him many leads (he's only had 10 save opportunities in the first two months), but the team can finally rest easy knowing any lead that goes into the 9th has a better chance of staying put than not.

Daniel Murphy continues to hit the cover off the ball, and David Wright may have busted his slump with a two-hit night (the other was a 1st-inning triple). All-in-all, a great way to start the season's only Subway Series. And tomorrow night Matt Harvey looks to keep the party going on national TV.

MM