Subway Series Preview

Courtesy of Yankees; Courtesy of Mets

By Kenneth Teape (@teapester725)

New York Yankees (30-19) vs. New York Mets (18-29) Series Preview

The Yankees and Mets will be taking part in the 17^th regular season Subway Series starting tonight in a four-game series with each team getting two home games.  The first two will be at Citi Field in Queens, with the last two being in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium.  No matter how well or poorly each team is playing, this series always generates a lot of buzz throughout the baseball world and especially in New York, when the state is split in two for a couple days as everyone picks their allegiances to either squad.

This has been a matchup mostly dominated by the Yankees, as the first seven series were owned by the Yankees much like most of the last four have been.  The Yankees have gone 17-7 in the series against the Mets since 2009, when both teams opened up new stadiums.  This series has the potential for the Mets to turn things around though, as the pitching matchups are in their favor for the two games at Citi Field, while the last two the edge goes to the Yankees for being home.  Here are the pitching matchups in the series:

Monday, May 27^th:  Phil Hughes (2-3, 5.51 ERA) vs. Jon Niese (4.80 ERA)

Tuesday, May 28^th: Hiroki Kuroda (6-3, 2.67 ERA) vs. Matt Harvey (5-0, 1.93 ERA)

Wednesday, May 29^th: David Phelps (3-2, 3.96 ERA) vs. Jeremy Hefner (0-5, 4.76 ERA)

Thursday, May 30^th: Vidal Nuno (1-1, 1.93 ERA) vs. Dillon Gee (2-6, 6.34 ERA)

The second game of the series is the best pitching matchup, as the best pitchers for each team on the season are probable to face off against each other.  Kuroda is expected to make the start after getting hit with a comebacker in his last start in Tampa Bay.  The two games in Yankee Stadium on Wednesday and Thursday look to have high scoring potential, as the Mets are yet to win a game that Hefner has started this year and the struggles of Gee are well noted just by looking at his stats. The smaller dimensions of Yankee Stadium are tougher to navigate as well compared to spacious Citi Field.

This will also be the last regular season visit that Mariano Rivera makes to Queens, as he looks to continue is outstanding start to the season.  Rivera has converted 18 straight save opportunities to start the season, the second longest streak of his illustrious career.  Rivera also matched Dennis Eckersley for fourth most appearances with his 11^th inning save against the Tampa Bay Rays Saturday with 1,071. Joba Chamberlain is expected to return during this series as well from his oblique injury.

For the Mets, Ike Davis will look to continue building off his strong performance Sunday night in which he went 2-3 and knocked in the go-ahead runs in the eighth inning.  Davis has struggled mightily throughout the season and was close to being sent down to Triple-A Las Vegas before Sunday’s performance.  He will look to continue building on that performance against the Yankees, where he may benefit from playing in a stadium with a short porch in right field.

Lucas Duda is also carrying a 10-game hitting streak and will look to continue that against the Yankees and is one of the better hitters in the Mets lineup right now that is struggling as a whole to get some runs.