Yankees Editorial: Gearing up for the Matt Harvey v. C.C. Sabathia Heated Battle

Despite the Yankees snapping an impressive eleven game New York Mets winning streak and beating up on Jacob deGrom and his 0.93 ERA entering yesterday’s game, the atmosphere surrounding the 2015 SubwaySeries will only get better on Saturday.

At 4:05 pm, just about every baseball fan in New York City will tune-in to watch the savvy veteran C.C. Sabathia take on the face of the New York Mets, Matt Harvey.

Interestingly enough, today’s game will be Matt Harvey’s first game pitched in the Bronx, so let’s hope Yankee fans give him a ‘warm’ welcome.

Adding more fuel to the fire, who can forget about what Sabathia had to say about Matt Harvey back in Spring Training? Yes, it was only March, but it was a time when the insiders were writing the Yankees off, insisting that the New York Mets were ready to take the throne as the best team in New York City. When asked about his view on things:

"“I’m not going to sit here and start a war of words back and forth with the Mets, but I don’t see it,” the Yanks lefty said back in Spring Training. “That’s all I got to say. I don’t see it happening. They’ve got some good young players, but … yeah, they have some good young players.”"

It appears as if C.C. is ready to let his pitching do the talking, and according to Brendan Kuty of Nj.com, the big lefty will be motivated by two factors coming into Saturday.

First, is the opportunity to face the heavy-hitting Mets lineup, which has propelled the team to a major-league best 13-4 record.

"“I faced a couple of their guys in spring training,” Sabathia told Kuty. “I know Curtis [Granderson] is a good hitter. [Lucas] Duda has always given me trouble, especially from the left side. So [I will] just try to work ahead and keep the ball in and out and just go from there.”"

As for the second reason? Let’s call a spade a spade, it’s because it’s the Subway Series, Sabathia said.

"“It’s going to be fun this weekend. They’re the hottest team in baseball and we’ve been playing pretty good; So I think it will make for a fun weekend.”"

Both pitchers have pitched well as of late. Matt Harvey (3-0, 3.50 ERA) has given up seven runs over his first three starts of 2015 on 17 hits, but has struck out a grand total of 24 batters. Sabathia (0-3, 4.35 ERA) has pitched better than his record insists. He gave up just two runs over eight solid innings v. a potent Detroit Tigers lineup in his last outing, losing a tough 2-1 pitchers duel to Alfredo Simon. He’s given up a total of 22 hits, but managed to strikeout 20 batters in his first three starts.

Get ready folks. This should be a matchup for the ages!

More from Yanks Go Yard

Home/Yankees News