When Terry Collins, with a hint of a smile on Wednesday night, looked ahead to Round??2 of the Subway Series by saying, “Our ballpark plays a little different than theirs,” it sounded a lot more like a rallying cry for the Mets than a mere statement of fact.
He might as well have said: “No cheapies this time.”
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Of course, Collins was quick to note that the Yankees can hit home runs at Citi Field just as well as they hit them at Yankee Stadium, and he made it clear that he believes the Yankees are a great ballclub playing at a high level these days.
Nevertheless, by implying that home runs won’t come so easily in Queens, Collins was practically summing up the storyline for the weekend: the Mets, always the little brother in these intra-city affairs, go in looking for revenge, feeling as if the friendly confines of the Stadium played a significant role in the Yankees sweeping them two weeks ago in the Bronx.
Still, the Mets enter this weekend as the hotter team, not only coming in on a three-game streak, but having R.A. Dickey — the hottest pitcher in baseball — on the hill in Sunday’s finale.
The Yanks, after winning 10 straight, have dropped two in a row, losing Wednesday despite hitting four round-trippers at homer-friendly Yankee Stadium.
But going deep may not be so easy this weekend, despite the new dimensions at Citi Field.
Naturally, no one in the Mets organization is saying such a thing publicly.
“It’s the Yankees: They have enough power to make their ballpark look small and enough power to make our ballpark look small,” David Wright said. “It’s less about where they play the games than the lineup they run out. They can make a one-run lead a four-run lead real fast. It’s hard to ask a pitching staff — ours or anyone — to hold a one-run lead for a whole game against them.”
Met radio voice Howie Rose, however, took some abuse from Yankee fans for showing his exasperation on the air at the time and dismissing at least a few of the eight home runs the Yankees hit in that series as cheapies.
To which Rose responded: “If you don’t like it, why are you listening to the Mets’ broadcast? Go listen to your own broadcast.”
Ah, yes, the Yankee Stadium home run has become something on which battle lines have been drawn on both sides. Somewhat like Braves hitters reportedly were saying this week, one Mets person said on Thursday that he thinks the short right-field porch is “joke,” and believes two specific “Yankee Stadium specials” changed two of the games in the first series.
Yankee fans, meanwhile, have been quick to point out that the dimensions at the Stadium played the same for the Mets that weekend, didn’t they?
In any case, the Yankees outhomered the Mets 8-2, and six of the Yankees’ eight long balls would have been gone in just about any ballpark, according to hittracker.com, which tracks the distances of home runs and applies them to the dimensions of each major league park.
On the other hand, it was quite a different story for two home runs that proved pivotal in the final two games of the series. According to the website, both Mark Teixeira’s two-run home run against Dillon Gee, which gave the Yankees the lead, and Russell Martin’s two-run shot that ended Jon Niese’s shutout and made it a one-run game, would have been home runs nowhere but Yankee Stadium.
To be fair, Omar Quintanilla hit one of those for the Mets, a solo shot in the Saturday game, but it didn’t have the impact of either Teixeira’s or Martin’s.
Yankee Stadium specials or not, it was fitting that home runs proved to be the difference between the two teams the first time around.
The Yankees, after all, mostly live or die by the home run. They have hit 105 longballs, the most of any team in the majors, and even though they finally won a game against the Nationals last weekend without launching one, they are still only 1-12 in such games, as their inability to hit in the clutch continues to be an issue.
The Mets, meanwhile, despite flexing more muscle lately, have hit only 55 home runs, tied for 23rd in the majors. Quite the opposite of the Yankees, they have won by being clutch, scoring more two-out runs than any team in the majors.
All of this sets the stage for the rematch. Will Citi Field change the dynamic of the series? Even with the fences moved in, the Mets ballpark remains pitcher-friendly. Where Yankee Stadium is tied for first in the majors with Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark, allowing 2.88 home runs per game, Citi Field ranks 25th in the majors and 11th in the NL, allowing 1.57 per.
All of this puts the onus on Mets pitching, culminating with Dickey’s Sunday night matchup with CC Sabathia. Can the Mets keep the Yankees in the ballpark this time?
In fact, once the Yankees went on their recent 10-game winning streak, reestablishing themselves as the clear favorite in the AL East, this weekend became much more about the Mets, as they try to prove they should be considered serious contenders.
They’ve played all season with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, determined to prove wrong preseason predictions of doom. Now they are determined to prove things will be different against the Yankees in a ballpark that doesn’t yield cheapies.
Let the swinging for the fences begin.
— With Roger Rubin
