Yanks Show No Sympathy For Mutts

From the weekend series between the Yankees and the Mets, certain things should have been learned:

* The Yankees are the best team in baseball.

* The Yankees are, at the very least, far and away the best baseball team in the New York Tri-State Area.

* The Mets are a joke. Not 3 years removed from a World Series appearance, and not 2 years removed from a Playoff game, they are a shadow of their late-Obama era selves.

* It is not hard to hit in Citi Field. The Yankees have hit well there many times. It's only the Mets who seem to have trouble hitting there. Which is odd, since they have 81 games to try it every season.

* If Brian Cashman was not going to trade any of his precious prospects for Justin Verlander in 2017, then he sure as hell is not going to trade any of them for Jacob deGrom in 2018. Especially given that Verlander has already excelled in pitching in the American League. We've seen many "great pitchers" in the National League discover that pitching is harder in the AL, including some Yankees, and also including former Met R.A. Dickey.

*

The Friday night game was typical of deGrom's season thus far. He didn't allow a hit until the 4th inning. Through 5 innings, he had allowed only a single and a walk. And he led 1-0, because, as he so often does, Masahiro Tanaka allowed a home run in the 1st inning, to Brandon Nimmo. The Mets had scored only 1 run for him thus far, but it looked like it would be enough.

Then came the top of the 6th. deGrom got Miguel Andujar to ground out. Then Tanaka's spot in the order came up. Yankee manager Aaron Boone spent the majority of his playing career in the National League, and knew Tanaka had reached base exactly twice -- a single in 2014 and a walk in 2015 -- in 25 major league plate appearances. But he took a chance anyway.

It paid off, as Tanaka hit a ground ball to 2nd base. Asdrubal Cabrera handled it properly, and threw it to 1st base, where Adrian Gonzalez did not handle it properly. From 2006 to 2016, for the San Diego Padres, the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, "A-Gon" was one of the best power hitters in baseball. But he's been beset by injuries, he's stopped hitting, he was never a good fielder, and he just turned 36.

Adrian Gonzalez may wear Number 23 and play 1st base in New York, but he's no Don Mattingly. And, because he'd blown this play, Tanaka was on 1st.

Gleyber Torres, Cashman's prize prospect, singled. Brett Gardner drew a walk to load the bases. And here come Da Judge. Aaron Judge has reached the point where he knows that you don't have to hit the ball 400 feet every time up. Sometimes, a sacrifice fly will do. This time, a sac fly did, and the game was tied.

But Tanaka got hurt running home. He's been placed on the Disabled List. It's not as bad as Chien-Ming Wang, 10 years to the month before, but, once again, the National League looks like assholes for not adopting the designated hitter. (In Interleague Play, the home team's League makes the rules.)

Jonathan Holder got the Mets out 1-2-3 in the 6th. Boone should have left him in, but, apparently, he brought Joe Girardi's binder with him, and brought Chad Green in for the 7th. Green a pair of 2-out singles, but worked out of the jam.

With 2 out in the 8th, Torres singled, and Gardner hit a home run. Dellin Betances got the Mets out 1-2-3 in the 8th. Giancarlo Stanton added a home run in the 9th. Understandable, since no opposing player has hit more home runs at Citi Field than he has. He also hit the stadium's longest home run so far, a 468-footer with the Miami Marlins on May 30, 2015.

As he so often does, Aroldis Chapman made the 9th inning more interesting than it needed to be, but got the job done: He hit Nimmo with a pitch, allowed a single to Cabrera to bring the tying run up with nobody out, then got Michael Conforto to fly out to deep center, got former Yankee Todd Frazier to ground into a force play, and got Jay Bruce to fly to right.

Yankees 4, Mets 1. WP: Green (4-0), because the game was still tied when Tanaka left. SV: Chapman (16). LP: deGrom (4-1).

*

On Saturday night, once again, the Mets scored in the 1st inning. And, once again, they blew the lead. This time, it was 3-0, off Domingo German, including home runs by Frazier and Cabrera.

German settled down after that, and Torres hit a home run in the 3rd inning. Andujar hit one in the 6th, tying the game, and that would be it for Steven Matz.

New Met manager Mickey Callaway brought in Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak is, in baseball parlance, a bum. The Yankees figured this out in 2016, releasing him at age 31. The Mets picked him up at 32. And the 1st batter he faced was Judge, who crushed his delivery to left field.

Yankees 4, Mets 3. WP: David Robertson (5-2). SV: Chapman (17). LP: Swarzak (0-1).

*

The Sunday night game was what Met fans were hoping to get for deGrom's start. The Yankees got only 3 hits all game long, a single by Greg Bird and 2 singles by Andujar. Funny how Luis Severino has only lost 2 games all year, but they're to the 2 teams that Yankee Fans hate the most: The Boston Red Scum and the Mutts. He gave up a home run to Frazier, and that was that.

Mets 2, Yankees 0. WP: Seth Lugo (2-1). SV: Swarzak?!? Yes, Swarzak (1). LP: Severino (9-2).

So the Mets salvaged a game at home, when they had a chance at a sweep.

But, as we've established, the Yankees are the best team in New York (at least), while the Mets are a joke.

And are the Yankees, or their fans, supposed to show sympathy for the Mutts and their hard-luck hurler deGrom? We just lost a pitcher at least as good as he is, Tanaka, because their stupid League won't get with the modern world and allow the DH. To Hell with sympathy for the Mets!