Tuesday night in Flushing, the first edition of the 2023 Subway Series begins at Citi Field. The New York Mets will host the crosstown rival New York Yankees for a quick two-game set. The two teams will play the Yankee Stadium portion of the Subway Series from July 25-26. Will there be a rematch in October? It's possible, sure, though it looks improbable at the moment.
Here are the details for this week's Yankees vs. Mets series in Queens. Select games can be streamed on fubo (try for free).
Those pitching matchups are about as good as it gets, though injuries (Severino) and age (Scherzer and Verlander) take the starch out of them a tad. The Verlander vs. Cole matchup certainly has some intrigue though. They finished first and second in the 2019 AL Cy Young voting, respectively, while teammates with the Houston Astros.
Here now are three things to know about this week's Subway Series matchup in Queens, with a prediction thrown in because why not?
1. Subway Series history
MLB introduced interleague play in 1997 and the Mets won the first ever Subway Series game thanks to a Dave Mlicki complete game shutout at the old Yankee Stadium on June 16, 1997. The Yankees have the overall edge in their head-to-head matchups, however. The Yankees are 78-60 with a plus-55 run differential all-time against the Mets. The Mets are 9-7 against the Yankees since 2020, however, so they've had the advantage in recent years.
Of course, the Yankees have the ultimate Subway Series bragging rights. They beat the Mets in five games in the 2000 World Series to capture their third straight championship, and fourth in five years. The 1998-2000 Yankees are MLB's last repeat World Series champions. Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera got Hall of Famer Mike Piazza to fly out for the final out that series.
Neither the Yankees nor the Mets are fully healthy or playing their best right now. I'm not sure that'll matter. The Subway Series is always intense with the electric crowds that are among the very best each team will see during the regular season.
2. Each team's biggest star won't be there
Alas and alack, this week's Subway Series installment is lacking a little juice because Aaron Judge (toe sprain) and Pete Alonso (bone bruise, wrist sprain) are on the injured list. Judge got hurt crashing into the Dodger Stadium fence two weeks ago. Alonso was hit by a pitch last week.
The game's two best power hitters will be spectators in the dugout rather than active participants on the field for this edition of the Subway Series. With any luck, they'll both be healthy when these teams meet next month. Here is the MLB home run leaderboard entering the week:
Pete Alonso, New York Mets: 22Aaron Judge, New York Yankees: 19Jorge Soler, Miami Marlins: 19Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers: 18Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels: 18Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves: 18With no Judge and no Alonso, the star power for this series comes from the guys on the mound and also familiar names like Giancarlo Stanton, Francisco Lindor, Anthony Rizzo and Brandon Nimmo, and touted rookies like Anthony Volpe and Francisco Álvarez. They're not Judge and Alonso, but they'll do.
3. Who's hot, who's not
Baseball is a game of peaks and valleys and, inevitably, some players come into this week's series feeling better at the plate than others. In a week or two, things could be totally different. Such is life in this sport. Here are three Yankees players who have been red hot at the plate the last 15 days:
Certainly not the names you expect, and McKinney was just called up last Wednesday. The names you do expect are the ones most struggling, like Rizzo (.033/.131/.033 the last 15 days) and DJ LeMahieu (.162/.184/.216 the last 15 days). Stanton and Josh Donaldson are a combined 7 for 47 (.149) with five home runs since returning from the injured list 11 days ago. The injury replacements have really carried the Yankees lately.
Here now are three Mets players who have swung a hot bat the last 15 days:
Those three are really the only Mets who have performed well the last 15 days. Lindor (.167/.271/.405 the last 15 days) has been in homer-or-nothing mode, and other stalwarts like Jeff McNeil (.200/.265/.311) and Nimmo (.167/.286/.238) have been quiet. So too have rookies Brett Baty (.161/.297/.194) and Álvarez (.167/.189/.500), though Álvarez has gone deep four times in the last 15 days.
The Yankees have scored 21 runs in seven games since Judge last played. The Mets have scored 23 runs in four games since Alonso got hurt, though 10 of the 23 came in one crushing loss. These two offenses are hardly firing on all cylinders right now. You know what that means, right? We're going to get 11-9 and 13-10 games Tuesday and Wednesday.
Prediction
With a two-game series, it would be easy enough to predict a split, though that's the coward's way out. I'm going to predict the Mets win both games. The Yankees offense is positively wretched without Judge, and Scherzer and Verlander are exactly the kind of power right-handers they've struggled against this season. The Mets will walk away with a Subway Sweep this week.
