Friday, August 18, 2017

Bend the Knee, Mets Fans

Mets fans, as Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) would say on Game of Thrones, "Bend the knee." You peasants.

As Donald Trump was making himself look like a fool for siding with Confederates and Nazis, the Yankees were making any Met fan who said their team was going to "take back New York" look like fools.

Funny thing: As soon as I decided to stop doing recaps following every game, both blog and vlog, conceding that "the season is over," the Yankees swept The Other Team 4 straight.

On Monday night, at Yankee Stadium, the Mets got home runs from former Yankee Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes, but the Yankees got them from Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez, to turn a 2-0 Met lead into a 4-2 Yankee victory. Luis Cessa started, Chad Green relieved, David Robertson got the win, and Dellin Betances the save.

On Tuesday night, still in The Bronx, Sonny Gray held the Mets at bay (Flushing Bay? Jason Bay?) for 6 innings, while Sanchez and Jacoby Ellsbury took Jacob deGrom deep. Once again, Aroldis Chapman put what should have been a comfortable win in danger, turning 5-2 Yankees into 5-4 Yankees, but he held on for the win.

On Wednesday night, over at Citi Field, Judge jacked one 457 feet, into the upper deck in left-center. I had to look it up to see if it was the new Met ballpark's longest home run. It wasn't: Giancarlo Stanton hit one 468 feet there in 2015. The Yankees won, 5-3. Jaime Garcia started, Tommy Kahnle got the win in relief, and again Joe Girardi trusted someone other than Chapman to nail down the save, this time Robertson.

And then last night, Sanchez took Steven Matz over the wall. After the game, Matz put it succinctly: "It sucks to suck." Hey, sometimes, you don't suck, you just get beat by a better team. Luis Severino was fantastic, but Bryan Mitchell almost blew it in the 9th, turning 7-1 Yankees into 7-5 Yankees, before Girardi again called on Betances instead of Chapman to close it out.

Sweep. "Take back New York," my Pinstriped ass.

So now the Yankees go from Pity Field to the Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy itself, Fenway Park, to try to redeem themselves after last weekend's disgusting capitulation against the Boston Red Sox. Here are the projected starters:

* Tonight, 1st pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM: Jordan Montgomery vs. Drew Pomeranz.

* Tomorrow, 7:10: CC Sabathia vs. Chris Sale.

* Sunday, 1:30 -- an afternoon game on TBS, not a night game on ESPN: Sonny Gray vs. Doug Fister.

Long having games in hand on the Sox, at one point as many as 4, the teams have now played the same number of games. The Yankees trail them for the lead in the American League Eastern Division by 4 games, both regularly and in the all-important loss column. There are 42 games to play. Come on you Bombers! Beat The Scum!

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