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| Citi Field on Tuesday afternoon. Photo by Jason Schott. |
The 2022 edition of the Subway Series begins on Tuesday night at Citi Field, with the Mets hosting the Yankees in a highly-anticipated two-game series between these first-place teams.
The teams will play four times this season, as they will reconvene at Yankee Stadium for another two-game set on August 22 and 23.
It is just the second time the clubs have been in first place while meeting in the Subway Series, which began with regular season play in 1997. The first instance came in April of 2015 when the Mets entered with a record of 13-3 amidst a very hot start, and the Yankees were 9-7. The Mets went on to the World Series that season, while the Yankees were also in the postseason, as they dropped the Wild Card game to Houston, their first postseason battle.
With how good the Mets and Yankees are, it's easy for the mind to think that they can also do something else for the second time: meet in the World Series. They have only met once in the World Series in 2000, when the Yankees beat the Mets in five games on their way to a third straight World Championship, and the hope is that the teams will see each other then.
The Yankees enter with a record of 66-31, with a 12 1/2 game lead in the American League East after they won two out of three over the weekend in Baltimore over the surprising Orioles.
The Mets enter at 59-37, and they hold a two-game edge in the National League East over the Atlanta Braves, and they enter this one off a big win Sunday night over the San Diego Padres, 8-5, led by Pete Alonso's home run and four RBI as they avoided a sweep.
Jordan Montgomery gets the start for the Yankees, and he enters with a record of 3-2 and a 3.24 ERA (earned run average), and Taijuan Walker takes the hill for the Mets with a record of 7-2 and a 2.55 ERA.
In Wednesday night's game, Domingo German will start for the Yankees, and it will be the right-hander's second start of the year after he lost in his debut last Thursday in Houston.
The Mets starter is listed as "TBA" but one would suspect it should be their ace Max Scherzer, who started the first game out of the All-Star break last Friday night against San Diego.
This will be the first time Mets Manager Buck Showalter faces his old team from the other dugout in the Subway Series. Showalter managed the Yankees from 1992 to 1995, and then went on to manage in Arizona, Texas, and Baltimore before coming back to New York this season to take the helm of the Mets.
Showalter is the fifth manager to lead both clubs, joining Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Dallas Green, and Joe Torre.
Current players who have been on both sides include Mets pitchers Adam Ottavino and Joely Rodriguez, and Yankees pitcher Miguel Castro. Ottavino, a Brooklyn native, pitched for the Yankees in 2019 and '20 before spending a year with the Boston Red Sox before joining the Mets. Rodriguez, a left-hander, and Castro, a righty, were traded for each other just days before this season began, on April 3, the 18th trade between the clubs. Overall, 149 players have played for both the Yankees and Mets, with likely the most notables being Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden, who both won rings with each side, and David Cone, who pitched for the Mets in the late 1980s before winning four rings with the Yankees in the late 1990s.
The Yankees have dominated the Subway Series, as they are 76-58 against the Mets. They have a winning record in the games played at the Mets (36-29) and, specifically at Citi Field, they're 19-13.
The Mets are 106-144-2 against the Yankees combined in the regular season, World Series, Spring Training, 2020 Summer Camp, Mayor's Trophy Games, Mayor's Challenge Games, and the Big Apple Series.
The Mets went 4-2 against the Yankees last season, as they scored a franchise-record 44 runs against the Bronx Bombers in the six games they played. It was the Mets' first season Subway Series victory since 2013, when they were 4-0. The Mets and Yankees are .500 against each other since 2018.
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