There’s no title on the line and no Mayor’s Trophy for the victor, but Tuesday’s Subway Series meeting between the Yankees and Mets has baseball fans across the city dreaming of an October meeting between New York’s two baseball clubs.
While the past few weeks haven’t been all roses and rainbows, the Yankees and Mets enter Tuesday’s first of two games this week against one another as two of the best team in the majors. The Bombers knocked off the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend and the Mets defeated the San Diego Padres 8-5 on Sunday night on national television.
An even more notable fact is that both teams will go into the matchup at least 20 games over .500 for the first time ever, which is sure to add extra juice to the heated baseball rivalry in the Big Apple.
“It’s always good for the city when both New York teams are doing their thing,” Aaron Judge said after Sunday’s win. “It’s going to be a fun one. They’ve got a great team over there. Looking forward to battling it out the next few days.”
Aaron Judge looks ahead to the Subway Series: "It's going to be a fun one." pic.twitter.com/ZeXyn0WaJ3
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) July 24, 2022
The Mets will be one of the best teams that the Yankees have faced out of the All-Star break, which took place last week. The Yankees faced the Houston Astros right out of the three-day break and dropped both games of the doubleheader.
New York’s NL ballclub will provide the Bombers a chance to get a sense of where the club is against another strong opponent.
“Obviously, both teams are playing really well, are having really good seasons,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Newsday. “There’s games, there’s series, there’s things that come up in the course of the year, especially in the long grind of it, I think that are little shot-in-the-arm series, and I think any time you have that crosstown rivalry, those games, they add a little extra.”
Mets and Yankees talk has continued to dominate the airwaves in New York leading up to the game and tickets for the first Subway Series meeting of the year have been in high demand. A “Fan Forecast” put together by ticket marketplace Vivid Seats indicated that Citi field would be a 65-35 split of Mets fans to Yankees fans or the two games.
The two games in Queens are the hottest Mets tickets since 2017, according to Vivid Seats.
“Just the fans getting into it. It’s always a packed, playoff atmosphere,” Judge said about the expected atmosphere. “Always back-and-forth, you never know what’s going to happen and just the competition. (The Mets) have a great pitching staff, a great offense over there and so do we. Looking forward to seeing what happens.”
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The game will also mark the return of Luis Rojas to Citi Field for the first time since he was fired as Mets manager last fall. Rojas is now the third base coach with the Yankees.
The game has been one that Rojas has been looking forward to since the schedule came out.
“Obviously, it’s a place that I love. I love Queens. The fan base is unbelievable,” he said. “They’re so passionate, they love their team. I’m grateful. I worked there for 15 years and I was the manager for two. And like I said, the talent the team has this year and how they’ve been playing, for us I think it’s going be really interesting to face them. So I’m really looking forward to that series.”
