The Yankees earned bragging rights over the Mets during the Subway Series this past weekend at Citi Field, but their pair of victories in the three-game set also held much more importance within the standings.
The Battle of the Boroughs took place in September for the first time ever, with the Mets using the long ball to win 5-1 on Friday night and the Yankees countering with a 5-0 shutout victory Saturday before hammering the home club's bullpen for an 11-2 blowout victory Sunday in front of a national audience.
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On the back of two straight wins, the Yankees have plenty of momentum heading into their huge three-game series with the Blue Jays. The Bronx Bombers are 2 1/2 games behind Toronto for first place in the AL East and own a four-game cushion for the top wild card spot in the AL. The Mets, meanwhile, have a six-game lead on the Nationals atop the NL East with 13 games remaining and a magic number of eight.
The Yankees won four of the six meetings between the clubs this season after winning two of three in the Bronx in April and then playing to the same result in Queens. The Bronx Bombers own a 60-44 edge over their Queens counterparts in regular season play, and took the World Series from them in five games in 2000.
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Here are three takeaways from the 2015 Subway Series:
1) Meet The Mess
While it wasn't a must-win game given the team's cushion atop the standings, the Matt Harvey innings limit turmoil took yet another ugly turn on "Sunday Night Baseball." The Mets ace was embroiled in controversy earlier this month when his agent Scott Boras had a public disagreement with Mets brass about an innings limit for Harvey, who is in his first season since undergoing Tommy John surgery. Things got even worse Sunday night.
Harvey was dealing and cruising through the Yankees lineup with ease. The right-hander allowed one hit (an infield single) in five innings while striking out seven Yankee hitters. That's when protecting the team's ace came at the peril of a pennant race.
Harvey was at 77 pitches through five frames, but with the Mets implementing a plan to limit his innings, he was yanked from the game. A sloppy defensive inning in the top of the sixth led to a five-run inning for the Yankees, all at the expense of Hansel Robles, who allowed a three-run shot to Dustin Ackley to cap it off.
Once again, the Harvey innings limit is a debate and a distraction in an otherwise memorable season for the Mets.
2) Oh Brother
There was a lot of controversy following the game and as usual this day and age, it revolved around social media. The person behind the Yankees Twitter handle felt pretty confident after the club put up a five-spot in the top of the sixth and CC Sabathia responded with a strong frame in the bottom half. The official Twitter account for the club fired off a tweet calling the Mets the Yankees' little brothers, leading to a lot of debating on social media.
CC, still dealing! After 6: Big brother 5, little brother 1. #PinstripePride
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 21, 2015
3) Kings Of Queens & The Empire State
The Yankees out-scored the Mets 17-7 in the series and hammered four homers in the final two games en route to winning the series. Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Ackley and rookie Greg Bird all went deep for the Bombers. The Empire State Building took notice of the Bronx ballclub winning the battle between the two boroughs, and was lit up in Yankee colors Sunday.
The @EmpireStateBldg is dressed in pinstripes following @Yankees’ #SubwaySeries victory. https://t.co/a8o8Y4Ohrp pic.twitter.com/0lJ7z1PqFz — MLB (@MLB) September 21, 2015
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