Yankees fans troll Mets, Jon Heyman after flipping script against aces
After a week that had meme-ified Yankees fans asking, “God, why do you give us your toughest battles?” God responded, “You’re literally going to win three straight games against ace-level pitching.”
As Saturday’s sleepy loss to the Toronto Blue Jays wrapped up, a game where Gerrit Cole imploded midway through and the Yankees failed to solve Mitch White, it was easy to foresee New York’s month-long struggles extending themselves by at least three games.
After all, the Bombers were set to face Jays ace Alek Manoah, who filled in a TBD slot at the last minute with the full weight of his 260 pounds, followed by Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom in a two-game set with the Mets.
A month after the Yankees entered the Subway Series at Citi Field starting Jordan Montgomery and Domingo German (vs Scherzer), the Mets had opted out of playing around. They were really going for it. Ready for some throat-stomping.
Until … well …
The Yankees somehow ended up defeating Manoah, knocking Scherzer off his block (opposed by German once again!), and chasing deGrom before his game even started, beating Taijuan Walker (and Joely Rodriguez/Adam Ottavino) instead after Buck Showalter did some maneuvering.
Time to recirculate some graphics that were supposed to portend doom!
Yankees actually beat Alek Manoah, Max Scherzer, get ducked by Jacob deGrom
Hey, whatever happened to that deGrom guy anyway? Wasn’t he supposed to start? But then Buck Showalter moved him into the Colorado series, because the Mets’ grand plan was more important than a two-game set against the Yankees? Huh.
Could’ve sworn Keith McPherson got crucified for that take a few weeks back, and then the Mets … did it. We are laughing!
Very unfortunate, indeed.
The Yankees’ season isn’t saved by any means. They’re still 7-14 in August, which is only marginally better than the 4-14 August record they’d posted prior to this three-game faceoff with aces.
Still, though, if you’d told any Yankee fan looking at the upcoming games on Saturday night that the dead-in-the-water Bombers were about to win three consecutive 4-2 games against elite competition (with Andrew Benintendi delivering the game-winning hit all three times), they would’ve scoffed.
And a special shoutout to Jon Heyman, too, who basically told the Mets to use their crosstown rivals for a lil’ break in their schedule before things got tough again. Little did he know!
Soft, indeed! Can guarantee the scuffling Yankees offense is only going to score four runs per game here. Surely, that’ll be enough for one, possibly two, Mets victories!
Look, gonna level with you here: these past few weeks have been rough. Smart Yankee fans know they’re not out of the woods (of their own making). The Rays are in flames and getting healthier. The Blue Jays are beating the Red Sox like a drum. West coast swings are never easy.
But a three-game set that looked bleaker than bleak actually ended with an undefeated record. So there’s going to be some laughing and joking without looking at the standings for a few days. Hope you understand.
If not, meet us past the Audi sign.