Subway Series Game 1: Mets' cakewalk September schedule continues

The Mets cut their magic number to eight with a 5-1 win over a team that had Met castoff Chris Young (.122 batting avg. in August) batting cleanup. Steven Matz, making his fifth career start, outpitched Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka. No wonder Squawker Lisa called her blog entry "We'll always have Luis Castillo." These days, what you have is Stephen Drew.

Lisa and I agree on one thing - it's better for the blog when both teams do well. But now it's the Yankees who are failing to hold up their end of the bargain. Lisa writes: "The Subway Squawkers talking about an October Subway Series will get much more screen time than if only the Yankees make the postseason." Face it, Lisa: The only way there will be an October Subway Series is if the MTA manages to build a subway line to Toronto in the next month, and considering that it took 25 years for one new station to open (the Hudson Yards 7 stop), I wouldn't hold my breath.

While Met bats have been on fire since Yoenis Cespedes came to town, Yankee bats have gone cold. Here are some Yankee batting averages over the last 30 days:

Jacoby Ellsbury - .190
Brett Gardner - .194
Brian McCann - .208
Chris Young - .216
Chase Headley - .228
Alex Rodriguez - .234

Here are some September ERAs:

Ivan Nova - 10.57  
Luis Severino - 5.02
Michael Pineda 4.67 
Adam Warren 4.15

The Yankees remain likely to make the wild card game, where they should have a good shot with Tanaka on the mound. But unlike Squawker Lisa, these Yankees are not ready for their closeup.