Game Preview: New York Yankees @ New York Mets 9/18

The Subway Series has probably never meant as much to both teams at the same time as it does this weekend as the New York Yankees and the New York Mets face off head-to-head inside Citi Field. The Mets are basically a virtual lock to win the National League East Division while the Yankees seems confident and content with winning a Wild Card if their run at the American League East falls short to Toronto. This will be a playoff atmosphere and the closest you’re going to get to playoff baseball on September 18^th tonight in Queens. The Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to face off against Steven Matz for the Mets. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network, WPIX Channel 11 for your Mets fans that may be reading this and MLB TV.

• Tanaka has been used on five days of rest for much of this season as the team looked to limit his innings in hopes of keeping him healthy but this is the stretch run and the caution is going out the window. Tanaka is pitching on four days of rest tonight and likely will for the remainder of the season. Tanaka will be making his second start of his Subway Series career inside Citi Field tonight after pitching a shutout in his Subway Series debut in May of 2014. Tanaka heads into the start fresh off throwing seven scoreless innings in a win over the Toronto Blue Jays as he continues to look stronger and stronger as the season goes along.

• Matz has made two starts since coming off the disabled list with a torn lat muscle and has picked up right where he left off before the injury. Matz had posted a 2.61 ERA in those two starts and will look to improve that tonight as the Subway Series shifts to Queens.

The New York Mets and their fans are quick to tell you how good their team is doing this season and how much better their record and their place in the standings is compared to the Yankees. These same Mets fans conveniently forget that three of the worst teams in Major League Baseball are in their division, the Phillies, Braves and Marlins, and the other team they are beating up on, the Nationals, are one of the teams that have been hit the hardest by injury this season (not that this should or could be used as an excuse). What Mets fans don’t understand is a lion knows that he’s a lion, he doesn’t have to beat his chest and roar to tell everyone he is a lion. The lion’s prey knows that he’s a lion and they don’t stick around to find out the consequences of messing with a lion. The New York Yankees are the lion in this metaphor and hopefully this weekend the Mets will be the prey. Go Yankees!