If there was any doubt

             As much as the Yankees organization dreads it, they had to pack the equipment and head over to Queens for the next installment of the 'no-win' situation against the Mets in their updated CitiField. If the Yanks win, well, they're supposed to beat the Mets, they're the Yankees. If they ever lose, how could you lose to your weaker hometown rival? With CitiField an absolute failure of a designed ballpark, during the off-season the fences were brought in to pull more homeruns from the weak-hitting Mets' teeth. These shorter dimensions could also serve to benefit visiting ball clubs who like to whack them out, and that's exactly happened with the Yankees.



             Things got interesting before a pitch was even thrown when Mets (unreliable) closer Frank Francisco stated that the Yankee hitters were a bunch of chickens and he couldn't wait to strike them out. Then when asked to clarify his statements, he changed his tune to say the Yankees are a bunch of crybabies, as if going from chickens to crybabies softens the blow.



             The Yankees played it down, of course, and focused to getting to business with Andy Pettitte on the mound against Jonathan Niese. If there was any anger to make Francisco eat his words, the Yanks didn't show it in the first inning. After failing to get a hit with two runners on in the top of the 1st, the Mets pounced on Pettitte and gave him perhaps one of the worst starts in his career. A clutch two-out hit by Justin Turner with bases loaded followed by a 3-run homer by Ike Davis which barely went over the right-field wall and dodged Swisher's glove, put the Mets up 5-0. Pettitte was able to settle down and give the team 6 innings as a way to not tax the bullpen. The Yanks chipped away with solo shots from Alex Rodriguez and Andrew Jones, and when the Mets added a run to make it 6-2, Robinson Cano added a 2-run homer in the 8th to put the score at 6-4. With the save situation for the Mets and the drama too good to be true, Francisco went out in the 9th to shut the door on the team he earlier referred to as chickens.



             Russell Martin lead off the inning with a booming shot to center that would've easily been a double, had not for a great running catch by Andres Torres. Pinch hitter Jayson Nix drew a walk, Derek Jeter then hit a single, and the Yankees were set up to make Francisco eat his words with two on, one out, and the heart of the order coming up. As rain started to drip from the skies, Francisco collected himself and punched-out Curtis Granderson looking at a called strike three fastball right down the plate, and then then got Teixeira to hit an infield pop-up. Frank Francisco had escaped the danger of putting his foot in his mouth and lowered his commanding ERA to 4.97.



             Maybe things weren't that great for Francisco because the next day he had to take himself out of being available when he complained on a pulled muscle on his side. Perhaps over extending himself the night before in order to backup his 'chicken' comment had cost him and the Mets in the long run. The Yanks sent Ivan Nova to even the series and up against him was Mets starter Chris Young. Kirk Nieuwenhuis got things started off for the Mets in the 3rd with an opposite field homerun which dunked over the wall in left. An error by Alex Rodriguez and Nova serving up an RBI single to the opposing pitcher of all people increased the Mets lead to 3-0. Although solid enough, Nova was only able to go 5.2 innings and needed Rapada to finish the 6th. The Yankees finally got to work in the 7th with a borderline called walk to Mark Teixeira, then a hit by Swisher which rightfielder Lucas Duda misplayed which put two Yankees on. Raul Ibanez, who has been very quiet lately, came up roses and slapped a Chris Young pitch into a line drive homerun that scooted over the right field wall and just like that the game was tied 3-3. In the same inning, with Jon Rauch in to pitch and pinch-hitter Eric Chavez up at the plate, Chavez hit a solo homer to the opposite field as well, nearly where Nieuwenhuis hit his previously in the game, and the Yanks took the 4-3 advantage. The Yankees bullpen held down the fort and Rafael Soriano closed it out to even the series and put and end to the Yankees 3-game skid.



             The Mets had some news about their mouthy closer Frank Francisco before the rubber game, apparently the injury he had was serious enough to put him on the 15-day DL. The game itself was to be a pitcher's duel between Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia and R.A. Dickey, who is off to a Cy Young caliber type of season with a 11-1 record and had just come off of throwing back-to-back complete game 1-hitters. Unfortunately for Dickey, that streak would end as the knuckleballer was erratic with his control and served up a massive 3-run homer to Nick Swisher towards right-center which gave the Yanks a 4-0 lead by the 3rd inning. A credit to the Mets, they battled back against Sabathia, who wasn't sharp and didn't have good velocity on his fastball. With the help of some sloppy Yanks defense and the Mets propensity to hit singles, the Mets knocked Sabathia out before the 6th ended and tied the game against reliever Cory Wade. R.A. Dickey was taken off the loss hanger and it was now a new game.



              A managerial decision by Mets skipper Terry Collins helped give the Yankees the lead when Robinson Cano lead off the 8th inning. Miguel Batista was on his second inning of relief and had given up a homerun to Cano just two nights before, but Collins left him in to pitch instead of going to his left-handed reliever Tim Byrdak, and Cano launched a bomb deep over the centerfield wall, nearly missing the Mets Apple, which gave the Yankees a lead again at 6-5. Rain started to come down in the 9th inning with Rafael Soriano on the mound to try to close it out for the Yankees. Soriano gave up a single and Ike Davis came to pinch-hit with two outs in which one big swing could win it for the Mets, but Davis flied out to Swisher to preserve the win and Soriano's 15th save of the season. The win had given the Yankees a 5-1 series against the Mets in 2012 in a true display of chickendom.



              With interleague play in the rearview mirror for the Yankees at 43-28, the Yankees make the long journey back from Queens to the Bronx to host old friend Johnny Damon and the Cleveland Indians....

Sweeping up the subway

             It was Round 1 of 2 where Yankee fans hold off the knot in their stomach from the embarrassing prospect of losing to the Mets and Mets fan fantasize that they can erase five decades of being in the shadow of the Yanks by having one good weekend. Luckily for Yankee fans, the Mets were pushed back into the corner yet again, until they pop their heads out next month, as the team from Queens was homered into submission and swept clean.



             Both Yankees and Mets fans converged to the Bronx and the sold-out Yankee Stadium became the sight of the Yankee homerfest. With the surprising Mets sporting a season record nearly identical to the Yankees, there was more juice to the games than in recent years as the Mets have been plagued by injuries, poor play, and Bernie Madoff. Fresh off his no-hitter last week, Johan Santana, with an extra day of rest, took to the hill and looked for another no-hitter against the Yankees. By the 2nd inning, Robinson Cano put an end to the streak by smacking a 2-run homer deep to rightfield. In that wasn't enough, Cano decided to do it again in the 3rd inning, another 2-run shot.



            Then immediately after Cano, Nick Swisher got the homer bug and he hit one out. Seeing the genius of the idea, Andrew Jones followed Swisher with a homer of his own; a back-to-back-to-back job and the (once) great Santana had tied a career-high with giving up 4 homers in a game.



             After the 5th inning Mets manager Terry Collins pulled Santana from the game and took total blame for the poor start by giving him the extra rest after his no-hitter, neglecting to mention in Santana's previous two visit to the new Yankee Stadium he also got trashed. Speaking of no-hitters, Hiroki Kuroda threw his best game as a Yankee to date and brought a no-hitter of his own into the 6th inning. Kuroda had to exit the game after the 7th when he was struck by a line drive from Mets singles-specialist Daniel Murphy, which actually popped up in the air and was caught by Alex Rodriguez to end the inning. Kuroda went 7 innings and only gave up 1 hit and struckout 7 Mets. The Yanks piled on the score to 9-0, but unfortunately new-comer Ryota Igarashi (filling a roster spot for Freddy Garcia on bereavement leave; in which the Yanks might just turn into a permanent leave) actually let the Mets have a run before the game ended at 9-1.



             The Saturday night affair was actually more of a game and was probably going to be the Mets best chance to steal one over the weekend as Dillon Gee went up against the unpredictable Phil Hughes. The Mets erased a 1-0 Yankee lead and took a lead of their own thanks to solo homeruns by Omar Quintanilla in the 3rd and then David Wright in the 6th, who smashed an absolute bomb into his own team's bullpen. Quintanilla was a thorn into the Yankees side all weekend and almost did more damage in the 7th if not for a great running catch by Granderson in center.



              Joe Girardi had another case of the over-managerials after Hughes got an out in the 7th with Josh Thole at first base; Boone Logan came out to comfortably get the second out of the inning, and instead of just leaving Logan in there to finish off the inning, he brought in Cory Wade to face pinch-hitter Scott Hairston. The righty-on-righty didn't work out as Hairston worked a single which put Thole at third base and threatened to increase the Met lead to 3-1. Wade was able to collect himself and got the next hitter, Andres Torres, to fly out to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees went to work to take the lead back. Granderson walked in front of Mark Teixeira, who hit a Yankee Stadium special homer to right, which barely got over the wall to make it 3-2 Yanks. Dillon Gee's win was gone and an inning later, Granderson smacked another homer off of reliever Bobby Parnell to pad the lead 4-2. Rafael Soriano came on to get the save, and the Mets didn't make it easy for him. With two outs and a runner on third, Soriano got pinch-hitter Jordany Valdespin to fly to left for his 9th save of the season and guaranteed a Yankee Subway Series win.



             With the Yankees now looking for the sweep, veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte look on a Mets lefty of their own in Jonathan Niese. The Mets took an early 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning thanks to some wildness from Pettitte, a booted ground ball by Cano which could've ended the inning, and a bases loaded double by Jordany Valdespin which barely chopped by the glove of Mark Teixeira. Pettitte dug his heels in to load the bases again, and then got Jason Bay and David Wright to both strikeout to end the torture. The Yankees had a chance to answer back and put the first two runners on in the bottom of the inning, but in a dumb decision on his own, Nick Swisher decided to bunt for a hit and the poor execution cause A-Rod to get thrown out at 3rd base. The next two hitters were sat down and the potential Yankee threat was gone. Both starters settled in and it wasn't until the bottom of the 7th when the Yanks finally started to make noise.



              Thanks to a two-out error by David Wright which put Andruw Jones safely on first, the next hitter Russell Martin squeaked a Yankee Stadium homer of his own which kissed the top of the right field wall and fell into the crowd for a 2-run homer. An inning later, another Mets error, this time by new Yankee nemesis Omar Quintanilla, but Jeter at second base with no outs. A hit by Granderson and then another by Teixeira plated Jeter to tie the score at 3-3, and then a lucky bloop pop-up by A-Rod just fell into shallow right field to give the Yanks the 4-3 lead. Like the previous night, Rafael Soriano came on to get the save and wound up having his first blown save since getting the 9th inning gig. There would be no shirts pulled out today for Sory.


         
              Back-to-back doubles by Lucas Duda and Ike Davis tied the game at 4-4 and with the winning run at third with only one out, Girardi went into manager mode and brought in Boone Logan to relieve the flat Soriano. Facing two left hitters; Logan got Josh Thole to strikeout and Kirk Nieuwenhuis to ground out to Cano at second that preserved the tie. Jon Rauch, part of the terrible Mets bullpen, stayed in the bottom of the 9th after entering the 8th and served up the game-winning homerun to Russell Martin, his second of the day, but this time it was a more convincing shot to left which went a couple of rows back.



              Hitting their stride at 34-25, a whole nine games above .500, their high-point of the season, and the joy of sweeping the Mets, the team continues the interleague trail down to Dixie to face the Altanta Braves. Not all the news is great as it was revealed that Brett Gardner's elbow/shoulder/whatever is acting up again and he won't likely be back until after the All-Star break. In the meantime, the Mets can do the Yankees a favor and try to sweep the Tampa Bay Rays....