Let’s get this thing started already.
The Yankees and Mets will have the Subway Series start and end with a four-game, two-borough series that will be wrapped up with just a quarter of the season having been played. With the Nets and Rangers in the playoffs and the NFL Draft in full swing, there hasn’t been much hype for the 18th installment of the annual New York showdown.
But it’s early enough that the Mets are still relevant, and right now it’s unclear how long that will last.
“You’d like to see both teams go on to the postseason or at least have a shot at the postseason,” former Mets general manager and SiriusXM host Jim Duquette said.
“The Mets just not being competitive has taken a little bit of the luster off the Subway Series. But now that the Mets are off to a decent start — we’ll have to see if they can stay close to .500 — it adds a little more excitement when they’re right there with the Yankees than maybe the last couple of years.”
The Mets were one of the pleasant surprises in baseball with a 15-11 start, mainly because of a formidable rotation. But the staff — led by Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, who will be scheduled to pitch the Subway Series finale at Citi Field — has been undermined by an anemic offense and woeful bullpen that has led to six losses in their past seven games to drop the team back under .500. With the struggles of veterans Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Valverde at the back of the patchwork bullpen, the calls to bring up stud prospects Rafael Montero and Jacob deGrom from Triple-A have become louder.
“I like the idea and I suspect it’s something that they are looking at internally to do soon,” Duquette said. “You don’t have to protect these pitchers as much as you did 10 years ago. I feel like young guys can handle it a lot better now, they are used to pressure situations.”
It could keep the Mets from the fast track to nowhere they were on last year, when they entered the Subway Series at 18-29. Despite stumbling into the series, the Mets swept four straight from a Yankees team that was overachieving in the early season.
If the Yankees want to avoid the same fate this season, they need their starting pitching to regain the form it flashed in April. While Masahiro Tanaka has lived up to the extreme hype that preceded his arrival from Japan, the rest of the rotation has stumbled. Ivan Nova is out for the season and Michael Pineda is on the disabled list with a back strain following his suspension for using pine tar.
CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda — the two veterans the Yankees hoped would take the pressure off Tanaka — are a combined 5-7 with a 5.08 ERA.
“I am more concerned about Sabathia,” Duquette said. “First off, we have to lower our expectations. He’s not going to be their No. 1 starter, Tanaka is that in my opinion. But with Sabathia I have seen many Aprils and Mays where he hasn’t had his best stuff because there is a lot to his delivery. I still think there’s plenty left there. He’s going to get better, he’s too good.”