"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

New York Mets, pt. II

On the morning of Friday May 18, before the first subway series of the season, the New York Post‘s back page headline was “Flying & Dying” and was accompanied by an illustration that made it clear that it was the Mets who were flying and the Yankees who were dying. Entering this weekend’s rematch, that headline still applies, but the the script has been flipped. The Yankees enter the weekend with an active nine-game winning streak while the Mets come to the Bronx riding a five-game losing streak and having lost nine of their last ten. Most recently, the Mets were swept by the Dodgers in L.A. by a combined score of 18-5. The Mets still hold a two-game lead in the NL East because the Braves have been nearly as bad, and the Yankees are still 7.5 games back in the AL East because of the huge deficit they have to overcome, but the Yankees enter this series with a record just three games worst than the Mets. That means that, if the Yankees can sweep the weekend series (a highly unlikley scenario given that it would extend their winning streak to an improbable 12 games), the two New York teams would have identical 36-31 records come Monday morning.

The Mets have been hit hard by injuries thus far this year, with their starting second baseman, three corner outfielders, two of their starting pitchers, and a key releiver spending time on the DL, but two of those injuries (to Pedro Martinez and Duaner Sanchez) were carried over from last year, and Shawn Green, Jose Valentin, and Orlando Hernandez have all returned to action in the past few weeks. Still, the Mets are down to plans C and D in left field while Moises Alou’s quad strain shows no sign of improvement. Meanwhile, Carlos Delgado has finally found his power stroke (seven homers in his last 16 games after hitting just three in his previous 44), but home runs are about the only way he’s getting on base (three walks and just nine other hits over the same span). Still, one has to assume the Mets are just slumping and the Yankees should be wary of the cross-town rivalry awakening this sleeping giant.

Tonight, Roger Clemens makes his second start of the year against Oliver Perez. Perez looks like he’s finding his lost 2004 form under pitching coach Rick “The Jacket” Peterson, though his last outing against the Tigers looked more like the pitcher the Pirates were eager to unload in last year’s Roberto Hernandez-Xavier Nady deal than the young ace that had baseball buzzing three years ago. Still, Perez is just 25 years old and has been murder on his fellow southpaws this year, allowing just one home run to a lefty batter. The good news is that the lefty in question was Hideki Matsui, who cracked a two-run job off Perez in the opener of the last series between these two teams at Shea. The bad news is that two-run dinger was the only score the Yanks were able to muster against Perez in that game as they handed Andy Pettitte another hard-luck 3-2 loss.

As for Clemens, he last faced the Mets in April of 2005. Clemens dominated in that game, allowing just a walk and two singles in seven innings while striking out nine. Then again, the Mets lineup that day featured Kaz Matsui, Eric Valent, Victor Diaz, Doug Mientkiewicz, very different versions of Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran (in his first year as a Met), and an over-the-hill Mike Piazza who was off to a very slow start.

Rooting incentive for tonight’s game: the Yankees are currently two games over .500 and have not been three games over .500 at any point this season. With a win, they’ll hit their high-water mark.

Fun fact for tonight’s game: Julio Franco will start at first base and bat eighth with Carlos Delgado as the DH. The first major league line-up Roger Clemens ever faced featured Julio Franco at shortstop and batting sixth. That was exactly 23 years and one month ago today. In that game, Franco singled, grounded out twice, and stole a base against Clemens. Fun fact footnote: The Indians stole six bases against Clemens in his major league debut.

New York Mets

2007 Record: 36-28 (.563)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 36-28 (.564)

Manager: Willie Randolph
General Manager: Omar Minaya

Home Ballpark (2007 Park Factors): Shea Stadium (95/96)

Who’s Replacing Whom?

Orlando Hernandez (DL) replaces Jason Vargas (minors)
Guillermo Mota (drug suspension) replaces Ambiorix Burgos (minors)
Ricky Ledee (minors) replaces Endy Chavez (DL)
Jose Valentin (DL) replaces David Newhan (minors)

25-man Roster:

1B – Carlos Delgado (L)
2B – Jose Valentin (S)
SS – Jose Reyes (S)
3B – David Wright (R)
C – Paul Lo Duca (R)
RF – Shawn Green (L)
CF – Carlos Beltran (S)
LF – Ricky Ledee (L)

Bench:

R – Julio Franco (1B)
R – Carlos Gomez (OF)
R – Damion Easley (IF)
S – Ruben Gotay (IF)
R – Ramon Castro (C)

Rotation:

L – Tom Glavine
R – Orlando Hernandez
R – John Maine
R – Jorge Sosa
L – Oliver Perez

Bullpen:

L – Billy Wagner
R – Aaron Heilman
R – Joe Smith
L – Scott Schoeneweis
L – Pedro Feliciano
R – Guillermo Mota
R – Aaron Sele

15-day DL: R – Moises Alou (OF), L – Endy Chavez (OF), R – Pedro Martinez, R – Duaner Sanchez, R – Juan Padilla, L – Dave Williams

Typical Lineup:

S – Jose Reyes (SS)
L – Shawn Green (RF)
S – Carlos Beltran (CF)
R – David Wright (3B)
L – Carlos Delgado (1B)
R – Paul Lo Duca (C)
S – Jose Valentin (2B)
L – Ricky Ledee (LF)*

*With Moises Alou and Endy Chavez on the DL, the Mets have used Ledee and righty-hitting Carlos Gomez in a strict platoon in left field. Also, in their three games with the DH this season, the Mets have twice used Lo Duca in the role with Ramon Castro getting the start behind the plate.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver