Bronx, N.Y., June 27, 2004 — Six years ago, minus one day, the Yankees and Mets played one of their most exciting contests in an ESPN Sunday night game. It had none of the long balls hit the last two days in the Bronx, games in which the Yanks went yard eight times and the Mets five. The 1998 contest had but five hits, and only 1.5 of nine innings were thrown by relief pitchers.

In the three games just concluded, the Mets posted 25 safeties, and the Yanks 26. But the 1-0 beaut to which I refer was decided by a Luis Lopez sac fly in the bottom of the ninth. It had one thing the three games this weekend did not have: The two teams were tied (at 0-0) for the entire contest until the Mets won it in the bottom of the ninth. Mets and Yankee fans certainly whooped it up the last two days, but they did not have close games to fan the flames.

None of the this weekend’s three interleague games in New York was much of a contest. The Mets took a lead in the second Saturday, and the Yanks tied it in the third. But from the moment the visitors pushed across their first of six fourth-inning tallies Saturday afternoon, there was no nail-biting baseball played.

There are several subplots to be found in the 10.5 hours that elapsed from the moment Jose Contreras made his first pitch Sunday afternoon until Tony Clark received Miguel Cairo’s throw of a grounder by Kaz Matsui that closed out the second of two. But none is more gripping than the one involving Contreras, as he showed himself to be both overpowering when good, and resilient when things got dicey. The Yankees and their fans hoped they would see a new confident “Cuban Missile” once Jose was reunited with his family in the past whirlwind week, and they got their wish.

He pitched into the seventh in the 8-1 Yankee afternoon victory, and left the contest having struck out 10 Mets, while allowing four walks, two hits, and no runs. After surrendering a leadoff single to right by Mets second baseman Jose Reyes to start the game, he mowed through the visitors with precision, starting with the strike out of Kaz Matsui once a well-called pitch out and strong John Flaherty peg had removed the pesky Reyes from the base paths. As you will see, the numbers next to Contreras’s line on the day are impressive. But until a Kenny Lofton fourth-inning miscue put him back on his heels, “dominant” does a shabby job of describing just how overpowering he was. In the overall tally of six-plus innings, he threw a superb 17 out of 24 first-pitch strikes, and his 56 strikes to 44 balls ratio, though not stellar, bordered on good. And better than that, he coaxed Mets batters to swing and miss 21 times, with seven of the 10 K’s of the swinging variety. Those are Javy Vazquez-type numbers!

But that overview is but half the story, because after three frames his breakdowns were ridiculous: Five strike outs with no walks and one hit. Seven out of nine first-pitch strikes, and a much better 24/13 strikes/balls ratio. And of those 24 strikes, he made Mets wood miss on swings a staggering 46 percent of the time. The Flushing hitters were flailing, and they were missing, badly.

Of course, the flip side is that Jose did become a different pitcher after his center fielder’s inexcusable fourth-inning miscue. Jose followed the error with a walk, and then survived the threat on two K’s. But he walked three more the next frame. With a Yankee lead of 4-0 on first-inning homers by Jeter and Sheffield, along with another Jeter jolt and a Wilson fielder’s choice, Kaz Matsui represented the tying run with Mike Piazza standing in the battter’s box after the three free passes in the fifth. But in both the manner of Contreras’s dominance early, and the command and determination he showed once things threatened to head south, the Yankees may very well have the front-line righty they thought they outbid the Red Sox for one year ago.

When Jose’s hand cramped with a 3-0 count on Mike Cameron to start the seventh, he handed the ball to Paul Quantril. (Well, OK, he handed it to Joe Torre, and he made the transfer.) Paul allowed one score, but Tom Gordon gave the uneventful frame he always does, Hideki Matsui hit an eighth-inning grand slam, and Game One was history.

The Yanks jumped quickly to early leads in both games. And the games probably had more buzz to them simply because the Mets had won Saturday, and they therefore threatened to take the three-gamer in the Bronx. But the Yankees swept these two games because they pitched, caught, and hit the ball better. Mike Mussina was no better than serviceable in Game Two. But perhaps Moose lost focus after the Yanks reached Mets starter Matt Ginter for six first-inning tallies on three singles, a hit-by-pitch, a Jorge Posada double to left and a Ruben Sierra tracer off the facade of the K counter beaming out from the right field loge.

The Mets used home runs by Mike Cameron and Richard Hidalgo (2) to crawl back within reach, and they closed to 7-5 on Matsui and Piazza rbi in the top of the seventh. Righty reliever Dan Wheeler held the Yanks at bay for three but he tired in the seventh, and the Yanks battered him, Jose Parra, and ex-Yank Mike Stanton (again) for four runs in response and the Yanks had themsleves an 11-6 win and a doubleheader sweep.

Worthy of note: In the first game, Steve Trachsel was two different pitchers. He was great during Contreras’s struggles, as the Mets righty retired nine Yanks in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth on a mere 23 pitches. But he had thrown 55 in the first three innings, allowing the four runs, and there you are.

Tom Gordon struck out four while mowing six Mets down in the last two innings of that first game. He is quick becoming almost as good a setup man as the guy who follows him is a closer.

Aside from Lofton’s error and one other ball Kenny probably should have caught, the Yankee defense was superb while that of the Mets was shoddy. Had Matt Ginter been given a deserved error on Bernie Williams’s nubber in the first inning of Game Two, that would have made four infield errors that game. In Game One, Flaherty’s two throws that caught Mets attempting to steal played a big part, Enrique Wilson showed both a great glove and impressive range on both a foul pop by Zeile in the fourth and a Wigginton hard hopper in the seventh, and Jeter and Matsui made fine plays as well. In the nightcap, no one beat Moose’s peg to first on Reyes’s nubber down third in the fifth. But honorable mention goes to Alex Rodriguez for spearing Wigginton’s liner toward the hole, Jeter’s recovery and peg of a ball off Mussina to nail the slow Piazza, and a Cairo stop on Shane Spencer, even though Miguel was charged with an error for letting a foul pop fall earlier.

At designated hitter, Ruben Sierra is contending with Boston’s David Ortiz for big, productive, and memorable base hits. He drove in five in the nightcap, and is an awesome presence at the plate.

On June 28, 1963, former Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics Hall of Famer Frank “Home Run” Baker passed away. Baker earned the sobriquet not by drilling balls over fences all over the American League throughout his career, but rather because he hit game-winning home runs off the legendary Giants hurlers Rube Marquard and Christy Mattewson in World Series games on consecutive days in 1911.

When you check the Monday paper and read that the Yanks hit six homers Sunday and the Mets hit four, with Jeter and Hidalgo both going yard twice, don’t get lost in the long balls and the runs scored. The story of this doubleheader is that the Mets started someone in Game Two who proved that he probably doesn’t belong, while the opening game starter for the Yanks proved exactly the opposite.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!