With talk earlier this year about this might be Best baseball season in New York everIt seemed clear that there was at least a small gap between the major league teams in the city.
The Yankees were still the big dogs, and while the Mets had had a great season, they looked less of a threat.
After the July 23 games, just over two weeks ago, the Yankees were aged 65-31 and the Los Angeles Dodgers were battling for the best baseball record. The Mets were trustworthy 58-37, putting them behind their crosstown rivals by six and a half games and just half a game ahead. Atlanta competitor in the Eastern National League.
Things changed quickly. Since then, the Mets 15-2 and the Yankees 6-10. This would have put the Mets ahead, at least for now. with Wednesday 10-2 win On the Cincinnati at Citi Field, the Mets improved to 73-39, two games better than the Yankees, who lost, 3-4, to Seattle on Wednesday and dropped to 71-41. The Mets also held the record number two in the majors, behind the Dodgers, who are still flying high, with a 76-33 record before Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins.
Perhaps most importantly, the Mets opened up a major lead over Atlanta.
The current hot streak began with a win over the San Diego Padres on July 24, but crystallized over the next two games, when the Mets hosted the Yankees in their first Subway series of the season and came away with a game. sweep two games.
“It was honestly like racing the world championships at home,” Eduardo Escobar Reporters After helping Homer in the first half lead the Mets to A 6-3 win In the first match. “I’ve never played in an environment like this before.”
A Starling Marte single at the bottom of the ninth inning of the second half Complete the sweep after a day.
The victories seemed to launch the Mets, and the momentum continued from there: a Miami sweep, two out of three from Washington, then four out of five from Atlanta cemented their division lead. Wednesday’s win gave them a three-game win over the Reds. After a day off on Thursday, the Mets will host the Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game series at Citi Field.
The Mets showed an edge on the hill and on the board: They are in the top four in the main courses in every game and run allowed in every game. (Not surprisingly, the Yankees and Dodgers do as well.)
Mets have been boosted by The return of Jacob Degrom from injury. He didn’t get to decide to lose in his first game, though he only gave up one in five runs, then hit 12 in a. 5-2 win Sunday over Atlanta, achieving its first win in more than a year. Max Scherzer, the team’s other ace, is 3-0 during the hot round, surrendering only two kicks earned in three starts. Closest Edwin Diaz, who was tearing up the league with a strike rate of 52.9 percent, saved six wins out of 15.
On the offensive, the Mets did so deeply. Only one base player, first base captain Pete Alonso, has a base cooldown as well as a base cooldown of over 0.900, but almost everyone else is swinging. And five of Alonso’s squad, which is at the top of the 29-man squad, have come during the current round.
Despite the hotline, there are some troubling signs. The Mets weren’t quite blowing teams away: Thirteen of their 15 career wins were in four runs or less. Although the Yankees have won only six games in that period, three have won by six and two in five.
This follows the pattern of the season. Yankees run differential for plus-204 tracks only Dodgers, who are at plus-233. Mets plus 127. That’s a good total, and a win is a win, but the Dodgers and Yankees’ huge scoring margins could be an indication that they can hit a higher speed.
Anyway, the Mets led the NL East by seven and a half games before the Atlanta game on Wednesday, and the Yankees were 10 games ahead of Toronto after losing to the Mariners and heading into their scheduled nightly Blue Jays game with Baltimore. FanGraphs presents both teams in New York 100% chance of making the playoffs. So besides bragging rights, there’s not much at stake which team ends up with the best record.
However … the best record in the regular season determines the advantage of the local stadiums in the World Championship. There’s a long way to go, and we’ll have to break a lot right, but if there has to be the first Subway series since 2000, every regular season game could really matter.
