New York Mets’ Juan Soto walks to the dugout after being struck out by Atlanta Braves pitcher Dylan … More
Through May 31, the Yankees and Mets roared out to a combined 71-44 record. The Yankees held a 5 1/2-game lead in the AL East and the Mets were eight up while sharing the NL East lead with the Philadelphia Phillies.
It also was the last night of the Knicks’ longest season since 2000, the same year the Mets and Yankees engaged in the capitvating “Subway Series” for five games in October the kind of things some people write books about.
With the Knicks engaging in a massively long playoff run, the good starts in the New York baseball scene seemed to be put on the backburner, a fact possibly magnified as the Mets visiting the Yankees on May 16 — the same night the Knicks eliminated the Boston Celtics from the second round.
Once the Knicks’ season ended, a lot of the focus turned towards the two baseball teams. Since getting the New York sports spotlight to themselves, the Yankees and Mets are a combined 20-22.
It is not quite the “June swoon” like the Mets endured in 2018 by going 5-21 or the 10-15 slide the Yankees did in June 2000 when they eventually acquired David Justice after rumors of Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa swirled.
Still the drop off is fairly noticeable at the plate and in other areas, including slumps by star players. Aaron Judge still leads the majors in average but recently went through a 2-for-25 skid while Francisco Lindor went hitless in 19 straight at-bats in a stretch coinciding with Juan Soto starting the heat up.
For the Yankees their mediocre run of games can reflected at the plate. Through May 31, they were hitting .259 with an OPS of .812 and it was with the month ending in an 18-2 loss at Dodger Stadium.
This month they are hitting .246 with an .719, lowering those season numbers to .255 and .787. It is not as drastic as the White Sox hitting .220 but the drop is somewhat noticeable, especially last week when it caused a six-game losing streak and a 30-inning scoreless streak – the most since getting blanked in 33 straight innings late in 2016.
The notable issue is the runners in scoring position thing. By going 0-for-12 in that area in Monday’s 6-1 loss at Cincinnati, the Yankees are hitting .249 in those situation and .167 (17-for-102). The stretch includes a 1-for-18 showing in an 11-inning loss to the Angels and 3-for-13 showing in a 5-3 loss to the Orioles.
On Saturday, manager Aaron Boone described at-bats as being heavy and they were in a 9-0 rout of the Orioles. The at-bats are also ending with decent exit velocity and bad luck at times like Paul Goldschmidt being denied by a leaping catch by Jake Fraley.
As for the Mets, pitching helped overcome hitting difficulties. The Mets held a .248 average and a .742 OPS through May 31 while pitching to a 2.84 ERA and averaging 147.7 pitches per game.
Now the Mets are hitting .244 and the ERA is up to 3.20. While the ERA is still the best in the majors, this month the Mets are pitching to a 4.19 ERA and this includes a month that has seen David Peterson throw a complete game against the Nationals.
It also is a month when they lost Kodai Senga to a hamstring injury on a play at first base, the night after Peterson’s gem. Immediately after Senga’s injury, the Mets lost seven straight, with three of those games being decided by combined margins of 26-3.
Suddenly, the Mets are experiencing the “too much pitching” thing to possibly not enough though they are hopeful Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea making their season debuts can help matters.
Both teams generated enough of a cushion in the first two months to soften the angst of a few meh weeks. It just might be more noticeable when the spotlight is fully shining on them until football starts in September.
Of course, things could be worse. For all the consternation and jittery moments, at least neither team asked their franchise player to change positions in an awkward matter, alienate the player and eventually trade the player for a return many view as underwhelming.
Neither New York team will have to deal with what unfolded between the Red Sox and Rafael Devers, a saga that ended with his trade to the Giants.
So both teams have that going for them. Now they can spend the rest of the first half cleaning up their warts, devising a strategy for the trade deadline and more importantly start winning games on a consistent basis again.
