Some Yankees-Mets Game 1 Thoughts

I didn't see the game. The late start and a Friday night dinner kept me from seeing any of the action. So I'm watching Yankees Encore and catching up.

My thoughts:

-First, some awesome info from Jayson Stark:

Loyal reader Tom Mariam noticed something really bizarre about the Yankees and Mets, who will play "Subway Series" No. 2 this weekend: In between their two Subway Series, the Yankees and Mets matched wins and losses every day in which they both played. Take a look:

Tuesday June 16: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) win
Wednesday June 17: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) lose
Thursday June 19: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) lose
Friday June 20: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) win
Saturday June 21: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) lose
Sunday June 22: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) lose
Tuesday June 24: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) lose
Wednesday June 25: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) win
Thursday June 26: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) win

Not sure what that means, exactly. But here's one thing I can safely predict: That streak will not last another day, unless they play to three straight ties this weekend.

-Maybe the most important sequence of the game was when CC Sabathia struck out Omir Santos and Mini Reyes with two men on. This came the same inning that Gary Sheffield hit his homerun. Although the Yankees would pile on later, it was a close game at that point.

-Brett Gardner should be starting every day. He was 5-6 today with a 3B, a HR, 2 RBI and a SB (he's only the 8th player in Major League history to have a night like that according to Play Index). He's hitting .303 with a .374 OBP, .441 SLG and 17 SBs. The only players who have those numbers are David Wright and Derek Jeter. If you take away the stolen base number from the equation, there's only 19 other players with at least the .303/.374/.441 line inlcuding Ichiro, Carlos Beltran, Kevin Youkilis, Hanley Ramirez, Justin Upton, Albert Pujols, Evan Longoria, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Morneau. This guy is a good hitter and can fly. He's also the best CF on the team (minus the arm). He's on pace for 41 SB and only 5 CS. Let the guy play.

-If my count is correct, the Yankees have 56 SB and 9 CS. Their SB% is the best in the majors at over 86%. That's really, really good. Only one team since 2000 has had a better mark (The Phillies in 2007 with 88%). Stolen bases are only good when you're successful a large majority of the time. Otherwise they're just outs. Then you do literally run yourself out of innings. David Wright (19 SB, 8 CS), Chone Figgins (23 SB, 7 CS), and Nyjer Morgan (18 SB, 7 CS) need to be more selective. Derek Jeter is 17 for 18.

-Why is Robinson Cano still hitting 5th? He was 0-3 again tonight with RISP. I'm going to keep asking this until there is a change.

-I got a message that A-Rod had crushed a homerun to right-center, deep into the bullpen. I was excited knowing that it takes a lot to get it out there at Citi Field and A-Rod going out to right-center is a huge sign for the Yanks. Then I saw that he hit it off of a meatball from Elmer Dessens. It lessened my excitement somewhat. Still nice to see A-Rod hitting the ball well.

-This park can't be that hard to hit homeruns in if Brett Gardner hit one. (just kidding...I know it was also off the same guy named Elmer)

-For all the ruffled feathers about the lack of tickets the Yankees have been selling near the plate, I want people to know I could have easily gone on Mets.com and gotten seats for any game of this series. Now the New York Times is reporting that some season ticket holders are thinking of not renewing for next season. Ouch.

-Great quote from Jerry Manuel via Ken Davidoff: "We're looking literally at trying to survive this until the break," Jerry Manuel said before the game. "The break is a big blow for us to get there safe.'' With John Maine now also out until the All-Star Break, this is looking like the "tread water until" point. Hopefully for the Mets, they can get healthy at that point and start playing with a full(er) deck. Plus, they signed one of the biggest free agent busts this past summer, accoridng to Tim Marchman.

-The Mets errors early in the game did them in. Not only did it lead to runs that inning, but it led to Mike Pelfrey coming out of the game early, the bullpen being exposed, and the Yankees putting the game out of reach. I know the Mets aren't playing with the full deck, but you need to play fundementally sound baseball to win games. In the top of the 8th, Parnell dropped the ball to balk Cano to second and Santos was slow to pick up a ball in the dirt so Cano went to third. The potential run ended up probably being meaningless because of the lack of offense the Mets had been able to produce, but you can't just give teams the extra inch.

-Lastly, here's a stat you probably won't see anyplace else. The Mets had one of all the extra pitching lines: one IBB, one HBP, one WP, one BK. The Mets have only had 5 other games in their entire history where they've recorded one in each of those columns, according to Play Index.

-Goodnight. Yanks up to 3 in a row. Let's hope they can make it 4 tomorrow.