New York, New York

In one of the few times that both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets played on their home fields during the same home stand, both squads showed off some of their power. On Friday, the Yankees blew out the AL East league leading Baltimore Orioles 14-4 as the Mets took care of the Philadelphia Phillies 9-4.

There were many story lines in Friday’s games as the Yankees rookie sensation Gary Sanchez continued his amazing play by going 3 for 4, driving in four runs to go along with his 10th home run this month. Right hander Luis Cessa pitched his 2nd strong game as both rookies led the Yankees to an impressive win over the Baltimore Orioles. Rookies Aaron Judge and Ronald Torreyes also contributed key hits and Judge threw out a runner trying to stretch a single into a double.

As for the Mets they appear to be waking up from their mid-season slumber. Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the game with home runs, which was a team first and Wilmer Flores contributed with a grand slam to help the Mets pull away from a close game. Bartolo Colon contributed two hits and on the mound, he pitched 7+ innings giving up four earned runs, while providing some comedy on the bases after hitting a double in the 5th inning.  By just getting to 2nd base on the ball hit in the gap and also refusing to come home twice on grounders to infielders in which most players would have scored. I am one of the few people who feel the National League should also have a DH but that’s another post for another day.

On Saturday the hitting barrage continued as the Yankees rookie phenom Sanchez hit his 11th home run since being called up on August 3rd, It was also his third straight game with the dinger.

As for the rest of the offense, they pounded out 18 hits in their second straight double-digit game as they scored 13 runs in this contest.

In Queens, the Mets had their own hit parade as they also scored in double-digits putting 12 runs on the board, highlighted by a six run seventh en-route to the 12-1 pounding of the Phillies pitching staff.

A very impressive game by the Mets offense, led by Reyes and Cabrera’s three hit game and Noah Syndergaard‘s seven strong innings to earn his 12th win on the season.

On Sunday both teams were shut down as the Yankees were shut out by the Orioles 5-0, and the Mets dropped the game to the Phillies 5-1.

The one brought spot for the Yankees in their loss, was Sanchez’s two hits as he now has a six game hitting streak. But a not so bright spot saw the Mets shortstop Cabrera leave the game with a sore left knee, the same leg he injured the last month. Just when you think things are turning around for the Mets.

All in all this weekend the Mets played very well as did the Yankees. Both teams are still within striking distance of the 2nd Wild Card spot but both cannot afford any losing streaks and must continue to pitch and hit during the final five weeks of the season.