Daily Archives: May 20, 2005

Wait a second, Kevin Brown and Victor Zambrano faced off in a game that included five errors and thirteen walks and it was just 3-2 going into the ninth inning?

Yup. Both starters belied their shoddy reputations, despite exhibiting the same tendencies that typically get them in much bigger trouble. Zambrano walked six, but allowed just three runs, two earned. Kevin Brown, meanwhile, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first (single and two walks) by striking out Doug Mientkiewicz on three nasty pitches low in the zone. He then survived a lead-off single in the second and a lead-off walk in the third and a one-out walk in the fifth. The only run he allowed all evening came in the fourth and it was unearned.

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The pitching match-up tonight has all the makings of one hellacious game. We’ll see if Brown has anything at all against the boys from Queens. (Once again, I’m not holding my breath.) As it turns out I was interviewed for a puff-piece that will appear on the Channel 11 News tonight after the game. Perhaps I’ll have a dopey sound bite or two. The angle is Met fans v. Yankee fans: Who is winning the war on the web? Jeez, I didn’t know we were fighting. But hey, anything to keep the Subway Serious fresh, right?

Go Yanks.

I have to disagree with Alex. While I’m not exactly “geeked” for this weekend’s series against the Mets, I do think this is one of the most compelling subway series match-ups in the now nine year history of interleague play.

One reason is the similarity in the two team’s records. With the Yankees’ loss on Wednesday and the Mets’ simultaneous sweep of the Reds, the Mets are a mere 1.5 games better than the Yanks. That not only reveals the two teams to be very evenly matched, but also marks only the second time in what will now be the fifteen series played between the two teams that the Mets have entered an interleague series with the Yankees with a better record than the Bombers. The previous occasion was in July of 2000, when the Mets were 47-35 to the Yankees’ 42-37 entering the second intracity series of the year. That turned out to be a memorable one, both for the unusual home/away double header that saw the two teams play in both stadiums on a single day, and for Roger Clemens’ now infamous beaning of Mike Piazza. The Yankees won 3 of 4 games in that series and, despite finishing the season with a worse record than the Mets for what remains the only time since 1991, would eventually defeat them in five games in that year’s World Series.

To me, this year is even more compelling than that 2000 match-up, because for the first time the Yankees are not the obvious favorites.

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It looks like it’s going to be a soggy couple of days in New York, and yo, like Flava Flav once said, I ain’t got nothing for ya, man. I don’t know what to say about the Subway Serious other than I hope the Yanks win two-of-three and that the games are exciting. Otherwise, I’m numb to the canned hype at this point. I just can’t get geeked about this match up, dude. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But the Mets just are not the Red Sox.

In other news, Joel Sherman reports that the Yankees are interested in keeping GM Brian Cashman:

[Yankees general partner, Steve] Swindall revealed to The Post that he opened extension talks with Cashman during spring training, and that Cashman “acknowledged he wants to come back.” Cashman verified the exchange and that his “preference is to return.” Both men said negotiations have been tabled because Cashman wants to focus right now on remedying the team’s deficiencies.

Meanwhile, over at the Times, Tyler Kepner has a nice puff piece on Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ bench coach.