Mets 6, Yankees 4
Mets 10, Yankees 2

There's nothing quite like the defense of the 2005 New York Yankees to make a struggling offense look like it's back on the right track. They only comitted two errors in the first two games of this series, both in game one, but the inability of their outfield to do basic things like catch the ball and throw the ball certainly played a role in the Mets' two wins. Beating the Yankees is always fun, but watching them beat themselves is pretty amusing, too.

Of course, the Mets did get some pretty effective starting pitching in both of these games, and it started exactly where you'd expect, with Pedro Martinez making his return to Yankee Stadium. He gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, but after that things went quite a bit more smoothly. It wasn't exactly a dominating performance, as he only struck out three batters, but he lasted eight innings and gave up two runs, which I suppose is good enough. He allowed six hits and two walks and after the Yankees scored their second run in the third inning, he gave up just a pair of singles the rest of the way.

The Mets' offense gave him plenty of support on his way to his eighth win of the season. It started in the second inning, where they achieved the unusual feat of hitting three sacrifice flies in the same inning. The second was a fairly routine fly ball which bounced out of the glove of the statue of Bernie Williams the Yankees have erected in center field. The third was set up by a throwing error by Mike Mussina. But the Mets brought more than just productive outs to this game, as both Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran homered, their eighteenth and ninth on the year, respectively. Mike Cameron, Mike Piazza and Doug Mientkiewicz each had a double. And Marlon Anderson had a pair of hits, thus proving Willie Randolph right for batting him ahead of David Wright, who had one measly walk in the game and saw his slugging percentage dip below .500 for the first time in about six weeks. Jose Reyes drove in the Mets' sixth run with another sac fly.

Things got pretty interesting once Randolph called on Braden Looper to preserve a four-run lead after the Mets scored in the top of the ninth. With one out he allowed a walk to Jorge Posada and a home run by Tino Martinez to bring the Yankees within two. A great play by Wright was all that stood between Tony Womack and a bunt single. But after a single by Derek Jeter, Looper was able to retire Robinson Cano to end the game.

Things weren't quite so tight on Saturday, even as Tom Glavine seemed ready to give away the lead at any time. Glavine was ahead on the scoreboard from the moment he steped on the mound and though it's hard to figure exactly how he did it, he was able to limit the Yankees to jus two runs over six innings to earn his fifth win of the year. He gave up seven hits and walked two batters while striking out one. But he was able to avoid big innings as most of the hits came with two outs and no one in scoring position.

The man who gave Glavine the lead he would never relinquish was Floyd, whose two-run bomb in the first inning provided a relatively inexpensive souvenir for some fan sitting halfway up the upper deck. He went deep again with a man on in the fifth to give him twenty on the year, and while that ball also went a long way, any fan in the right field bleachers who caught it probably paid a significant sum of money for his ticket. Also participating in the Mets' charitable ball-distribution program was Wright, who launched his eleventh over the right field wall in the second inning. Wright also hit his twentieth double of the year batting sixth since Anderson's potent left-handed bat got the day off. Ramon Castro had a pair of doubles while Piazza, Beltran and Chris Woodward added one each. The only Met starters without two hits on the day were Cameron, who drew a walk, and Mientkiewicz, who left the game after two at bats with hamstring troubles and was replaced by Brian Daubach, who also went hitless. Jose Reyes drew his first walk of the month of June to go along with his two hits an stole his twenty-third base of the year to close within one of league leader Rafael Furcal.

Aaron Heilman pitched a perfect seventh inning for the Mets, striking out one batter. Danny Graves also gave a characteristic performance, giving up a run on four hits in two innings of work. He did strike out two batters and lower his ERA to 7.43 in the process, though.

So tonight the Mets go for their first ever series sweep at Yankee Stadium. Last year they swept the Shea portion and won the season series for the first time. Now they have a chance to go 4-2 against their cross-town rivals for the second straight year. In any other year, the pitching matchup wouldn't seem to favor the Mets. But Kris Benson (6-2, 3.90) has pitched well in three of his last four starts. And he's actually got a better ERA than Randy Johnson (7-5, 4.02), who got rocked last time out by the Tampa Bay Bay Devil Rays. And if these first two games are any indication, you don't have to strike the Yankees out to get them out, so Benson may be in a pretty good situation.  ¶ joe | 1:23 PM |