A large portion of the self-imposes interleague rivalries feel unnatural and forced- as if they only exist for MLB to market them. A slim few stand out amongst the rest, where the two teams have a legitimate reason for a rivalry. In this case, the two clubs share a city and unlike most other cases, they have a history.
Teams are always paired off when interleague matchups cross the schedule, yet no other of these pairs makes as much sense as the Mets and Yankees. The Dodgers are given the Angels because they share a “city”, yet the Angels are only Los Angeles in name as they are truly Orange County. A once logical rivalry- Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros- has become a division series when the Astros moved over to the American League.
Other clubs are just randomly thrown together because they have no logical link or the nearest teams are taken. A few examples include the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners, the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays, and the Colorado Rockies and the Houston Astros. The Mets and Yankees share a city and each team’s fanbase actually has vitriolic feelings towards one another.
They also share a long history. The Mets suffered a World Series defeat to the Yankees in 2000, in the midst of all of that Yankees success. This repeated success and the resultant gloating of the Yankees fans has created a lively and interesting relationship for the yearly Subway Series.
This year features a Mets club that continues to teeter between three games below .500 and three games above .500. The Yankees have run into some trouble on the most recent road trip, however, they have been incredibly successful, despite an amassing of injuries.
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The Pitching Matchup
Monday: Jason Vargas vs Masahiro Tanaka
Tuesday: Zack Wheeler vs James Paxton
Vargas has a 2-3 record with a 3.57 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP over 45.1 innings. A horrid start in Atlanta on April 13, lasting only a third of an inning, saw his ERA swell up to 14.21. However, since he has made the proper adjustments and lower that mark to 3.57. Most recently throwing a shutout on June 5 against the Giants at Citi Field.
He does not have much velocity- averaging in the low eighties and high nighties at most- yet he can be very successful. His most effective pitch is his changeup, which catches batters off guard constantly and has them overswinging. He demonstrates just how velocity is not a prerequisite for success.
Tanaka throws a variety of pitches as well, the most potent of which is his splitter from which he records the majority of his strikeouts. He will be coming off of paternity leave, having pushed his weekend start to Monday. He has remained consistent all season, as a 3.99 ERA in April shrunk to 2.80 in May- both being adequate marks for the veteran right-hander.
On more than the standard days of rest- five or more- Tanaka typically delivers an above average performance. On May 18, he held the Rays to only three hits through six innings after five full days of rest. Similarly, on April 20, he fired seven four-hit innings in a 9-2 win over the Royals after five days of rest.
Tuesday displays the more interesting of the matchups. Wheeler has surrendered 19 earned runs through 22.2 innings against the Washington Nationals this season- for a 7.57 ERA total. In his other 61.1 innings, he has posted 24 earned runs, for a 3.52 ERA. Therefore, despite a slow start, Wheeler has produced when not facing the Nationals. Also, his excellence is shown when he routinely has gone deep into games.
James Paxton has excelled after a rocky start in the Bronx. In 46.1 innings he has posted a K: BB ratio of 63:18 and an ERA of 3.11. The matchup between him and Wheeler will feature many strikeouts. It is a matter of which of the two will last long enough for the Mets bullpen might struggle.
Both matchups are rather even and whichever club can generate enough offense will be the one to claim victory.