The Bronx, NY – Yesterday was a crazy day around these parts with the Pope coming to town, and the Giants and Yankees playing home games. It all equals a traffic nightmare around these parts. The city was already in a bad mood after learning of the passing of New York legend Yogi Berra. Berra was a class act and a true legend of baseball.Grinding Ax Walter paid tribute to the Yankee great yesterday. Check it out if you haven’t already.
The added traffic stress of the Pope’s visit and the UN General Assembly is sure to sour the mood even more. But at the end of the night, the Yankees and Mets both notched another in the win column and inched closer to clinching playoff berths. The Bombers held on to beat the ChiSox 3-2 on the strength of a Carlos Beltran 3-run homerun. Michael Pineda hid his pine tar well and pitched six innings of one run baseball. From there the shaky Yankee bullpen held on for dear life to close out a one-run victory.
The Yanks pulled to within three games of the Toronto Blue Jays, but they’re really playing to solidify the wild card and hopefully rest some players, especially the aforementioned bullpen, for the last few games of the season. A week ago it looked like the Yankees would face the Astros in the Wild Card round. But Houston has faltered of late. The Twins and Angels are hot on their heels now. It should be a great last week of the season.
In Cincinnati, the Mets took care of business against the cellar-dwelling Reds to bring their magic number down to three. The only thing left to decide is whether the Amazin’s will have home field advantage when they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles in the Division Series.
The Mets should clinch this weekend since the Nationals can’t win a game. We’ll see if manager Terry Collins rests his starters next week or if he marches his guys out there to try to secure home field advantage. My guess is he’ll rest his starters and set up his rotation, which would be the smart thing to do. Cespedes can use a rest. Lately he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. The indignant Matt Harvey can be spared having to show us his angry face at being pulled from a game because of his self-imposed innings limit. Rest up Mets. There’s a long way to go.
Over in the swamps of East Rutherford last night, the Giants finally won a game. They didn’t look very good but they were helped by a handful of Redskins Indigenous People turnovers. Giants receivers are still prone to the dropped pass. But at least there are signs of life from Big Blue after the two terrible losses that started the season.
Finally, preseason hockey is under way. It’s good to be back. The Rangers will try to make another deep run this season, but they will face stiff competition from the Brooklyn Islanders and an improved Washington Capitals team. Should be fun. Two weeks until the regular season starts.
