Mets, Yankees look destined for October baseball — even with their flaws
NY Post
ARLINGTON, Texas — For all the concerns and complaints throughout an anxiety-filled first half for our ball teams, both the Yankees and Mets wound up confounding critics, overcoming obvious weaknesses and ultimately fashioning mostly positive narratives.
Things looked dicey at times (and dire in the case of the Mets). Yet, the smart money says now our two teams are playing into October.
For all the talk about the Yankees’ being a two-man team, their rotation falling into sudden shambles and manager Aaron Boone having little clue how to get them out of a mess that saw them lose eight straight series, our streaky marquee team sits within a game of the top of baseball’s best division as they hit the break.
The Mets’ story is the real first-half shocker. Long assumed for also-ran status by most, somehow, some way the Mets moved into playoff position. While the Yankees are mostly fulfilling the expectations of the sport’s almost annual favorite, the upstart Mets — only the Mets could be considered an underdog with the sport’s highest payroll! — executed a stunningly speedy rally to relevancy.
Special thanks for that to two top-of-the-lineup stars who should be All-Stars (Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo) and inarguable, intangible assists from fun characters (the fuzzy, fast-food villain Grimace and singing second baseman Candelita). They’re all teaming up to energize Queens. OMG are they ever!
The resurgent Yankees are rallying around eager Ivy Leaguer Ben Rice, their improbable new cleanup man, but their main players remain more typical for the organization known for generational hitters. Future Hall of Famers Juan Soto and the incomparable Aaron Judge did everything possible to carry a lineup that was otherwise mostly underachieving. The Soto-Judge tandem fulfilled the hopes of the Yankees hierarchy as the most dangerous in the game, with the only negative the contract situation that allows Soto to leave at year’s end. (Soto is said to be enjoying his pinstriped time, but the Yankees are now aware there won’t be any in-season negotiations, as they’d hoped.)
With the Yankees on an impressive run of mostly correct decisions, there’s some reason to leave them alone and just let the best team in the American League continue to roll. But they did raise serious doubt and leave room for suggestions (and even ridicule) following maybe the most inexplicable decision of this season, or any season.
The Giants have never been 0-2 under Brian Daboll, until now. They were 2-0 and flying high in 2022 and 1-1 after a rousing comeback in Arizona in 2023. So, this represents a low point as far as early-season difficulties for Daboll and the Giants. They had no business beating the Vikings in the opener and no business losing to the Commanders in Week 2. But here they are.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Harrison Butker kept making a lonely walk to midfield after each quarter Sunday to check on the direction of the wind, which tends to swirl inside Arrowhead Stadium. He did it one last time during the 2-minute warning, when his Chiefs were trailing the Bengals by two and trying to give him a winning field-goal attempt.