Mets Slide Past Yankees In Subway Series Opener

So the big series that New York Baseball fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. The Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees has gotten underway and the Mets surprised a few people by taking the first game of the series in dramatic fashion with a 2-1 win at Citi Field last night. The game, as usual, didn't disappoint the fans. There were great plays and drama all over the park. Tension was in the air and it truly was a fun game to watch.

Yankees got on the board first in the 6th inning when Jason Nix singled to right, scoring Brett Gardner. The Mets would respond in the bottom of the 7th when David Wright crushed a 407 foot home run off the face of the 2nd deck in left field to tie the game. For Wright it was his 7th of the year and first home run hit at home this season.  Then Daniel Murphy got his shot at revenge in the 8th. Two innings earlier, Murphy hit a deep drive to left center field and he was robbed of a home run by Brett Gardner. 8th inning, Murphy hit a liner back up the middle that went through for a base hit to drive in Valdespin for the go-ahead run. Jonathan Neise pitched seven solid innings, and then had Brandon Lyon and Bobby Parnell shut the door in the final two innings to preserve the win. With the win the Mets improve their record to 19-27, while the Yankees drop to 30-20.

So now with the first game of the series in the books, the next three are shaping up to be a lot of fun to watch. Tonight is the final game to be played between the two at Citi Field and is set up for a great pitching matchup. The Yankees will send out Hiroki Kuroda (6-3 2.67 ERA 39 K's) while the Mets send their best pitcher to the mound in the form of Matt Harvey (5-0 1.93 ERA 74 K's). Next up the scene shifts to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Game three of the series will see the Mets send Jeremy Hefner (0-5 4.76 ERA 37K's), while the Yankees will send David Phelps (3-2 3.96 ERA 49 K's) to the hill. In the final game of the series on Thursday the Mets send Dillon Gee (2-6 6.34 ERA 37 K's) to the hill, and he'll be facing Vidal Nuno (1-1 1.93 ERA 7 K's).

Going forward, the Mets still sit 4th in the NL East while the Yankees sit in 2nd place in the AL East. Its obvious to most observers that these two ball clubs are really going in two different directions. The Mets holes are really obvious. They have the 2nd worst team batting average in baseball hitting just .228 as a team. The only real bright spot for the Mets this season has been the outstanding pitching of Matt Harvey, who gets the start tonight. AS for the Yankees it has been well documented this season that they have been hit with the injury bug. Because they have such a great pitching staff, which is in the top ten in the league in almost every pitching statistic, they have been able to stay atop the AL East.

Yes the Mets got the win last night, and yes its going to be a very entertaning series to watch but its not really that close to see which team is the better of the two.