The Yankees surprised SU by taking 2 of 3 from the Mets and all of a sudden, there is real nervousness in Flushing. SU can understand it as there is a recent history of blowing late season leads but come on, 6 game lead with 16 to go? SU says in the bag and get ready for October.
Finally, Stephen Drew is out of the line up. How is that possible? Thank goodness for Dustin Ackley. It’s about time that Drew has to earn his at bats. His comments all year about just putting his work in and doing his thing as if on-field performance is irrelevant. Well, now you can be a 9th inning replacement and we will see if he even makes the post-season roster. CC is all of a sudden the go-to ace on the staff. Apparently, the new knee brace lets him pitch inside to righties on the follow through. Hey, whatever it takes. On the other hand, SU has been down this road before only to see the Yankees revert to their non-offensive ways. But with Bird and Ackley, at least there is some new blood in the line up. Now if they can just find a way to replace Chase Headley…
The NY Giants are just too painful to watch right now. At best, they are a mediocre team in a terrible division. What makes it worse is that 9-7 will probably win the division and they have blown 2 winnable games. No lead will feel safe now for the rest of the season.
Long-time SU subscriber A. Grossman posted this comment today in response to a blog posting from several weeks ago but we were able to track it down for your enjoyment:
“Distractions can lead to disaster.
Let the Met’s have a good portion of the back page. It’s always fresh for the public to see something fresh… not the same ole news. The manager’s job right now is to keep the team focused on the task at hand. This is new for all of them. The Yanks, however have enough veterans and a very conscious manager to keep things just moving along. The Yanks have already matched what Las Vegas gave them back in April in the win column. It appears they will most likely exceed that number by at least 5 which means they need to play 500 ball the rest of the way. Besides the Toronto series I expect the other opposing teams which are out of the race will experiment now with pitchers coming up from Triple A. Unfortunately we will need to keep our pedal to the metal. This coming series against the Bluejays will determine how far down on the pedal we will need to go.
PS I do not want to stain this reply so no talk about how the NY Giants set an NFL record by opening up a season with two 10 point leads going into the 4th quarter and losing both games. Congrats “Pale” Blue”
Met fans: care to weigh in? Are you feeling the pressure or can you acknowledge that it’s just the ways of baseball and that even the hottest teams cool for a few games?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
I’m concerned about the young Mets’s aces. deGrom has pitched poorly his last 7 starts with a 5.09 ERA (injury? fatigue? mechanics? a combo?). Syndergaard has a 4.35 over the last 7 starts. Harvey is pitching against doctor’s orders and is one pitch away from having to sell insurance for the rest of his life – it can’t be good having that hanging over your head in the playoffs, although he was great last night. Niece a 6.98 ERA the last 7 starts, and Colon inconsistent. All this was swept under the rug when the Mets were scoring 9 runs a game and Cespedes was playing MVP+ ball. Matz is the only bright spot in the rotation. Maybe the extended rest the pitchers are getting and the cool weather will turn things around, but too much work for these rookie arms may mean that going deep in the playoffs may have to wait until next year.
Any major league team can take 2 out of 3 from any other so it’s hard to call this a surprise. There are two takeways from the series: CC coming back after looking like he was going to give up 5 runs in the first and the whole Matt Harvey innings limit looking even uglier on the field than it does in the papers. We saw yesterday exactly why these types of limits can’t exist. It’s likely that in a couple years Harvey will become a very rich man but this is another example of a Boras move hurting a client. Harvey was known, nut just as a great pitcher, but as a bulldog and fierce competitor. Now he is known as an injury risk, perpetual distraction and unwilling to take risks for the good of the team. Are these quantifiable? Probably not. Some team will still overpay for him. But there’s no doubt that these negatives will shave a couple $million/year off his next contract.
I don’t watch the Mets every day. This was my chance to watch them over a series for the first time since the last time they played the Yankees. Clearly they are an improved team but I couldn’t help but think that they don’t look as dominant as the recent headlines would have you believe. I wondered if they’ve been padding their record against some of the worst teams baseball has to offer. This is the case. They are 45-22 in their division and sub .500 against everyone else.
Seth, I agree but all they can do is play whose on the schedule. There was talk that the Yankee series was a good test as the Yankees were an upgrade on the competition. Evan makes some good points about the pitching. I would think the pitching starts to straighten out now down the stretch.
Mets are definitely limping into the playoffs but I also agree with resting their young arms. Washington is not giving them a lot to worry about and there are still plenty of opportunities to clinch before the season ending series in Washington.
I think it is time to ramp up some Jets chatter. They are looking solid right now, though their offense is still pretty pedestrian. The Giants on the other hand can get get out coached by Taylor Swift. Especially with Eli making on the fly decisions to make a bad situation consistently worse.