Bronx, N.Y., April 26, 2915; Yankees 6, Mets 4 — Well, the Yankees won the Battle of New York, part one, in 2015, the first home series in which they’ve beaten their crosstown rivals since 2012. But any Yankee fan hoping the team could derail the Mets fan brigade by doing so better rethink it. Down one run, then two, with four innings left, the Flushing-rooting visitors cheered lustily for a team whose offense through the game’s second half consisted of an infield single, a walk, two hit-by-pitches, and reaching on a swinging strike out/wild pitch.

The Mets jumped Nathan Eovaldi for two runs in the top of the first. Curtis Granderson, whom I’m convinced has more fans in the Bronx than Flushing, worked the hard thrower through eight pitches, then turned on the ninth for a homer to right. Four rockets followed, but ex-Met Chris Young, in center field for a mildly (?) hurt Jacoby Ellsbury, made what turned out to be the biggest play of the game, running under and spearing Lucas Duda’s 400-foot laser to dead center. A Daniel Murphy hot shot double got past slick-fielding first baseman Mark Teixeira for a run-scoring double, but the damage was somewhat contained.

Two ugly, error-aided Yankee rallies would decide this one, but it’s not clear any of that would have taken place if Alex Rodriguez didn’t almost immediately answer the visitors’ score with a homer to right. Eovaldi, able to throw his curve for strikes after the opening frame, seemed to turn it around, and the two swinging strike outs he closed the second with were the first two of four in a row. Meanwhile, the Yanks pounded Jonathan Niese to take the lead, plating four after two were out in the second, the last one with considerable help, which set the tone for the night. Five hits sparked the onslaught, with opposite-field safeties from Young and Rodriguez capping the rally, but Michael Cuddyer’s extremely poor throw in from left field scored the last run.

Although the visitors played as bad a game as I’ve seen in years, they are resilient, which, aside from young stud pitching, must be what carried them to 11 straight wins. Two-out, third-inning hits from Duda, Cuddyer, and Murphy, combined with a Chase Headley error on a close play throw to home, narrowed the score to 5-4 Yanks. But even though, essentially, that was their last offensive gasp, they frustrated Eovaldi enough to get him out of the game approaching 90 pitches with one down in the fifth.

Which brings us to the star-of-the-game discussion. The top three batters in the Yanks’ order had five of their nine hits, scored four of the six runs, and drove in three of the runs, a slightly more impressive number when you consider that the team had just four rbi’s; two runs scored on Mets errors. Or, tongue in cheek, the game star could be awarded to the visitors’ defense, as they made miscues in the first, second, and fifth (two in this frame) innings, and catcher John Ryan Murphy’s fourth-inning one-base hit was clearly an e-6 as well. That thought aside, we arrive at the real answer: the Yankee bullpen.

Chasen Shreve (two outs), Chris Martin (four), Justin Wilson (one), Dellin Betances (three, though more like four, as he needed a ground out after his third strike-out victim reached on his wild pitch), and Andrew Miller (three) totally took the bats out of the Mets’ hands, as Miller cashed in his seventh save. That Mets fans in the crowd continued to cheer for their team while this group put the finishing touches on the series winner is evidence of their heart, their hope, or lack of baseball savvy. Which is true matters not in the least. As a veteran who has witnessed 1,000-plus games in person, let me assure you: The team has to benefit if the base remains this positive, not a happy thought for me. On the other hand, that defense up the middle is literally an open sore, and Duda is not a good enough first baseman to cover for them.

A number of cultural references dot the April 26 calendar 23 years ago. On Broadway, Jelly’s Last Jam opened at the Virginia Theatre on this day in 1992, while Growing Pains became one of two sitcom staples that aired their last show. They fell victim to the seeming inevitable, that sooner or later, their time atop the ratings board would come to a close. It’s a similar place to that in which the Yanks find themselves in 2015. Having won 27 of 114 Championships since they arrived in New York, the need for yet another is like a drug to both the organization, and to their fans. This may have been just the rubber game of a three-game series in the season’s first month, this one vs. their crosstown rivals, but when you are able to accrue wins and continued positive outcomes, it sets the season tone.

But as we all shake off a late night in the Bronx, Monday morning we can give a momentary thought to that other sitcom that ended on April 26, 1992, as we look at baseball in New York, and how things stand right now.

Who’s the Boss?

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!