The annual battle of New York baseball supremacy begins tonight as the Mets and Yankees kick off part one of the 2012 Subway Series. What makes the series more intriguing is that unlike last year, the two teams each have competitive and comparable overall records in 2012.
Each team has made the early season surge from the bottom of the division to relevance.
Johan Santana is on the mound, in the middle of an all-time high. He has to gravitate at some point, but coming off throwing the first no-hitter in Mets history, he is looking as sharp as ever.
Get ready for the most even Subway Series in a long time though. The Mets enter the series 5-5 in their last 10; the Yankees are 6-4 in that stretch. The Mets may slam Santana on them in the opener of the series, but the Yankees are likely to miss other All-Star hopeful R.A. Dickey this time around.
The Yankees pestered the Mets in 2011, resulting in them winning the season series 4-2. This is a totally different Mets team this year, so they’ll look to spark a turnaround in this crosstown classic.
Lineups
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New York Mets
1) Kirk Nieuwenhuis CF
2) Josh Thole C 3) David Wright 3B 4) Lucas Duda DH 5) Daniel Murphy 2B 6) Scott Hairston RF 7) Ike Davis 1B 8 ) Jason Bay LF 9) Omar Quintanilla SS –Johan Santana LHP
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New York Yankees
1) Derek Jeter SS
2) Curtis Granderson CF 3) Mark Teixeira 1B 4) Alex Rodriguez 3B 5) Robinson Cano 2B 6) Nick Swisher RF 7) Andruw Jones DH 8 ) Raul Ibanez LF 9) Russell Martin C –Hiroki Kuroda RHP
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Matchup
NYM: Johan Santana (3-2, 2.38 ERA) I’m not sure what else to say about Santana. He had an outstanding 2008 in orange and blue, but I’ve certainly never seen him throw like this before. He final ends the Mets no-no drought and no he leads the league in complete games and shutouts. His output is back where it needs to be, as that strikeout rate is rising back up, average one per inning this year. He’s terrorized left-handed hitters this year, and he’ll look to continue that tonight against the several reliable lefty bats sprinkled throughout the Yankee lineup. He hasn’t faced the Yankees since 2010 in which he split a pair of starts against them, so you can expect No-Nohan Santana to be firing on all cylinders this evening.
NYY- Hiroki Kuroda (4-6, 3.82 ERA) Last time Kuroda squared off against the Mets, he was wearing Dodger blue. He’s turning in a solid 2012 campaign, transitioning from NL to AL much more smoothly than expected. He’s probably not to thrilled about dealing with the Mets tonight. Will see if his days with the Bronx Bombers brings him better fortune against the Mets than his days in Los Angeles. He’s got a career 1-5 record against the Mets, and they’ve hit .314 off him in seven starts.
Stache Keys to the Game
- Welcome back, Jason Bay. Maybe. With a name like Bay batting eighth, you can hope the Mets will dole out production from every part of the lineup.
- You saw the Mets’ numbers against Kuroda. Mets hitters need to blitz him and hope that they can unravel the Yanks solid bullpen.
- Johan Santana. There’s no backing down after a no-hitter.
Slated for a 7:05 PM ET start, catch the game live on SNY and WFAN 660.
