Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Yankees weren't able to capture a rare sweep of the Rays Sunday in Tampa, so now they'll pack their bags an head back to the Empire State for an inter-league battle with the New York Mets.

With the new scheduling format this season the Subway Series will endure a new twist. The first two games of the series will take place in the Queens at Citi Field on Monday and Tuesday. Then the two team will move on to the Bronx for the final two games on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Yankees will send out Phil Hughes in the series opener on Monday as he hopes to continue to build off his last outing in Baltimore when he allowed only two runs over six innings.

Jon Niese will take the hill for the Mets, coming off a start on Tuesday in which he took the loss even after not allowing an earned run in the game. But that's just the way things have been going for the Mets starters this year.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Vernon Wells, as he prepares for his first Subway series. "Obviously, being in New York now, you're either a Yankees fan, a Mets fan or you just hate the Yankees, period. It'll be a fun atmosphere."

Mariano Rivera will be making his final appearance to Citi Field during this trip. Against the Mets Mariano has encountered many memorable moments from recording the final out of the 2000 world series, to notching his 500th save on June 28th, 2009.

"It's more for the fans," Rivera said of the Subway Series. "They've become like another team in our division because we play them every year. It becomes another division game for us. It's good, no traveling. Twenty minutes travel, and we have an escort. Fans love it. I think they get good joy out of it."

Even if the Mets claim a sweep this week they'll still have quite a ways to go before catching up to the Yankees, who lead the all-time series, 54-36.

Probable starters:

Mon: Hughes (2-3, 5.51 ERA) vs Niese (3-5, 4.80 ERA)
Tues: Kuroda (6-3, 2.67 ERA) vs Harvey (5-0, 1.93 ERA)
Wed: Phelps (3-2, 3.96 ERA) vs Hefner (0-5, 4.76 ERA)
Thur: TBD vs Gee (2-6, 6.34 ERA)

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