After weeks of slumping and scuffling and not doing anything especially productive, the Mets, perhaps buoyed by their midnight lightning last night, came out guns blazing tonight and attacked Yankee starter David Phelps with a barrage of well-placed hits in the 1st inning, which resulted in 5 early runs that set the tone for the night and allowed the Mets to mostly cruise to a 9-4 victory.
I don't think I remember the last time the Mets scored 5 runs in a game period, let alone 5 in an inning. It could conceivably have been that Friday Night against Washington for all I remember. But they certainly picked a nice time to break out like this; their resounding win tonight gave them their first season series win over the Yankees since 2008 and placed them in position to actually sweep the season series with a win tomorrow night.
The Yankees certainly aren't the superteam they once were, but even with several of their mainstays either sidelined or retired, their replacements had done the job and had them in first place. Certainly, for as bad as the Mets looked to this point, you had to figure the situation ripe for the Mets to get beaten into oblivion, particularly when you consider how the Mets have this annoying tendency to stick their heads up their asses when the Yankees come around. But through 3 games, the exact opposite has happened. The Mets haven't hit much, but they've made their hits count, and their pitching was great on Monday and Tuesday and even Jeremy Hefner acquitted himself well tonight. On the flip side, this has to be alarming for the Yankees, because they've sort of been relying on a tape and bubble gum lineup this season, and the Mets have shown them what's what in 3 games.
The Mets won Tuesday night by attacking Rivera and stringing hits together, and this strategy served them well in the 1st inning, which was bookended by Ruben Tejada and Ike Davis. Fittingly, it was these two who were central in this inning, because these two were officially put on notice by Terry Collins yesterday after weeks of stinking up the joint. As much as I or any other Mets fan hates to admit it, they both deserve it. After an awful game last night, Tejada kicked things off by singling to lead off, and then scoring on a gapper from Daniel Murphy. Then, there were some hits, some walks, an error from Jayson Nix and finally, it was Ike Davis putting the finishing touches on the inning, as well as finishing off David Phelps for the night with a 2-run single. 5-0 before Jeremy Hefner ever set foot on the mound. I'm sure he was shitting himself just as much as we were.
So, staked to a 5-run lead, that would eventually become an 8-run lead by the 4th inning, Jeremy Hefner went out and performed adequately well, or at least well enough to finally pick up his elusive 1st win of the season. He didn't really keep the Yankees down, since he allowed 2 hits in every inning, but he kept them off the scoreboard for the most part, and when he departed after 6 innings, he'd allowed 9 hits, but only 3 runs.
So, now the Mets have a chance to kick the Yankees in the nuts tomorrow night and pick up a rather unlikely sweep of the Subway Series. That would really be something after all the crap that's gone on up to this point this year.
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