Mets, Yankees Announce Subway Series Probable Starters

By Kenneth Teape | Sep 16, 2015

The New York Mets and New York Yankees will renew their rivalry in the Subway Series this weekend at Citi Field. The first series of the season, at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees won the two of the three games, snapping the Mets’ 11-game winning streak in the process. This is not the same Mets team that the Yankees will be taking on the second time around though, as the Mets have gone from one of the most anemic offenses in MLB to one of the strongest.

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This is a series that means a lot more to the Yankees currently than the Mets though. The Mets own an 8.5 game lead over the Washington Nationals, basically having the NL East wrapped up. But, the Yankees are in a race in the AL East, currently trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by three games and ahead in the Wild Card race by only four. This is certainly a series the Yankees cannot afford to lose, but the Mets will not be making it easy on them.

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The Mets will be giving the Yankees a glimpse into their future as well as their current dominance this weekend, as they will have Steven Matz going Friday, followed by Noah Syndergaard Saturday and Matt Harvey on Sunday. The Yankees will be countering with Masahiro Tanaka Friday, Michael Pineda Saturday and C.C. Sabathia Sunday.

It will not be an easy weekend for the Yankees, who catch the meat of the Mets’ rotation and miss the struggling Jacob deGrom and veteran Bartolo Colon. It would have been great to see Luis Severino go up against one of the Mets young guns, but he will take the mound tonight in the series finale against Chris Archer and the Tampa Bay Rays.

This will also be the first time that the Mets will try their new strategy with Harvey on the mound. Harvey had his last start, September 8th, skipped as they try and limit his innings. A compromise has been reached between Harvey, the Mets and his agent Scott Boras and it is an interesting strategy that will be worth keeping an eye on.

Instead of skipping Harvey’s starts, they will be going with a dual starter idea. Harvey will start the game so that he can stay on a consistent schedule, but his starts will not be as long. He will pitch in shorter durations, going only a handful of innings, then someone such as Logan Verrett will come in to make up the gap between Harvey and the bullpen.

It will be interesting to see how this works out for the Mets. A compromise like this sounds good in theory, but seeing it executed is a different story. That will be on of the storylines to watch this weekend, along with the Yankees’ success; if they cannot defeat and have success against the Mets this weekend, it would cause them to go into a huge series against the Blue Jays starting Monday with poor momentum.

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