You just don't ever know with Yankees-Mets, do you?
What originally had been shaping up as a rather depressing Subway Series matchup of Joe Girardi's walking wounded versus Jerry Manuel, the dead manager walking, has instead transformed itself into an unexpected forum for redemption. I suspect neither Girardi nor Manuel particularly relishes these twice-annual interborough skirmishes, overhyped and distracting from the division business at hand as they are, but a few of their downtrodden combatants have found this series to be therapeutic for their woes.
Friday night, it was the much-maligned Javy Vazquez, following up his one-batter, one-strikeout victory over the Red Sox last Monday with a brilliant six innings of one-hit shutout ball over the Mets. And assuming his bruised right index finger is okay after that ill-fated sac bunt attempt in the seventh inning, there is renewed hope among Yankee legions that he may be a more-than-serviceable back-end-of-the-rotation pitcher after all.
Then Saturday night it was the Mets - specifically David Wright and Jason Bay - enjoying a welcome reprieve from their batting miseries as the principal Yankee antagonists in the 5-3 loss that dropped the Bombers back to five games behind the front-running Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
Although he is still sitting on one lonely home run, Bay rapped out four hits, including a two-out double in the first and a two-out single in the third that eventually resulted in runs when Wright delivered a pair of two-out RBI hits. For Wright, it had to be an especially satisfying night what with all the frustration he's encountered in recent weeks as a streak of at least one strikeout in 15 consecutive games was a major factor in his batting average dropping nearly 30 points. As it was, his 57 strikeouts in 149 at-bats coming into the game were second - by one - in the majors to Mark Reynolds, the human windmill from Arizona.
And then, of course, there was that one-day benching he received from Manuel Wednesday after he threw away a ball to cost the Mets a game against the Atlanta Braves the night before after striking out in the top of the ninth with the go-ahead run on base.
"You can't live or die with every at-bat," Wright said, even though his biggest supporters have suspected that he's been pressing and trying to carry too much of the Mets' load. "You can't ride that emotional roller coaster. I could care less about the strikeouts if I go up there and have good at-bats."
But as Manuel said, all the two-out hits by the Mets against Phil Hughes "were huge because we haven't been good in those situations of late."
Prior to his two RBI hits, Wright had been 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position since May 9.
Wright achieved his bit of redemption not just with his bat. In the seventh inning, with Yankees at first and second and two out, he was able to spear Alex Rodriguez's short-hop bouncer to third and make the inning-ending throw at first. Whether he cared to acknowledge it or not, that, too, was huge in the much needed Met victory.
"It was a do-or-die play," Wright said. "I was able to get up to it so it became only a small hop."
As for Bay, for now he's choosing to take the half full viewpoint about his Met power outage. It could be worse, he said. He could be struggling altogether. Instead, his 4-for-4 night lifted his average to .298. Of course, he knows the Mets are not paying him $60 million to hit singles. But last night they were very important base hits, just as instrumental in the victory.
"I just have to keep putting good swings on the ball, and at some point the homers will come," said Bay. "If you're not getting home runs and not getting hits as well you're fighting a mammoth uphill battle."
One could make the case that the Mets as a whole are doing that anyway. But for one night as the host team in the Subway Series, they were able to feel a little electricity in a season that is seemingly evaporating by the day. And Wright and Bay could feel the same sense of redemption Vazquez did the night before.