Bronx, N.Y., April 24, 2015; Yankees 6, Mets 1 — Despite the 30-degree wind chill Friday night, New York had a rare occasion to smile at the schedule makers at major league baseball. There has been a lot of drama over the years in The Bronx and Flushing, and all surrounding communities, since Dave Mlicki of the Mets blanked the Yankees 6-0 in the first regular season interleague game between the teams in 1997. Despite a Mets sweep in 2013 and continued success last year, frustrated Mets fans — with their team off to a fantastic start — were itching for an early fight in 2015, and they got it.
Off a team record-tying 11-game win streak and the best record in baseball, the New York NL team arrived in the Bronx with 2014 rookie of the year Jacob deGrom on the mound, facing Michael Pineda who, granted, may be the Yankee co-ace. And after an embarrassing offseason filled with speculation over suspended Alex Rodriguez’s status and questioned signings, the Yanks stumbled out of the gate, leading the league in errors and at 3-6, even though they, not the Mets, had the advantage of starting at home. A 7-3 road trip righted the Yankee ship, but Mets fans nevertheless flocked to Yankee Stadium to see their team take the city by storm.
Yes, thanks to the schedulers we did not have to wait long to see battle joined. And thanks to Yankee lefty bats, we didn’t have to wait to see how the night would go. With one out in the first, Brett Gardner singled, and after an A-Rod deep fly to center, Mark Teixeira poled a deep drive to right for a 2-0 Yankee lead. Two frames later, Jacoby Ellsbury lined a homer to right that had some Mets fans muttering “short porch,” but not for long, because Tex’s second two-run bomb, following a shot that just went foul, would have been a home run in Yellowstone. Still not hitting to a high average, Tex finds himself second in MLB in RBIs with 17, and second in homers with seven, off this one. When the third-inning smoke cleared the Yanks held a 6-0 lead, and the Mets had their work cut out for them.
And very little chance. Because for every at bat deGrom battled through, Pineda was cruising. Not only did he hold the visitors to just Kirk Nieuwenhuis’s excuse-me, opposite-field double through three, he did so with 29 pitches, with — ready for this? — just four of them balls. Michael struck out six through five, an inning where the visitors would challenge with two hits, but rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki continued a horrible night at the plate with one of his two strike outs with a man on third and one down; he would foul to the catcher later. Pineda’s wild pitch following a Curtis Granderson infield single would get the Mets a run in the sixth, and their fifth hit, a two-out Granderson double in the eighth, ended his night.
Michael’s 78-22 strikes-balls mix was not only the rare better than 3-to-1 ratio, it was closer to 4-to-1. He threw 24 of 28 first pitches for strikes, and the full count before Granderson’s late double was his only three-ball count of the night. But he shares star of the game status with Teixeira, who capped his two-homer, four-RBI game with a diving stop of Daniel Murphy’s two-base-hit bid down the first base line in the fifth, the only inning the Mets got two runners on base.
It’s only April 24, so even though both teams have at least a share of first place in their respective divisions, there’s seemingly millions of games yet to play. And a win in the first 2015 interleague battle in New York decides nothing about who wins the battle of the city any more than Mlicki’s gem had any lingering effect 18 years ago, particularly with Mets ace Matt Harvey going Saturday afternoon. But there was a lot of speculation all over the city that the Mets had finally surpassed the Yanks until Friday night’s game began. Was the young upstart the better team, or the veteran but retooling Yankees?
Two fairly unimportant news stories broke 20 years apart on April 24. First, Beatle Paul McCartney came out and debunked the rumors that “Paul is dead” on this day in 1969. And exactly 20 years later, the Massachusetts state legislature declared April 24, 1989, “New Kids on the Block Day.” Despite a reunion tour of the latter boy group this year, Sir Paul has never really gone away.
If you needed to pick the more successful music influence, or better baseball team, based on April 24, on a day when Yankee hero Bernie Williams formally retired — and threw out the ceremonial first pitch — the veteran group wins this one, hands down.
BTW,TWY
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!