Mets fans probably aren't too happy with the way Saturday and Sunday nights wound up playing out, but they shouldn't be too down on their team.
We've already discussed the way Terry Collins screwed things up by refusing to go with his best relief options in big spots -- Miguel Batista, really? -- but he only had a chance to screw things up because his team's offense showed off its best side all weekend.
The Mets have made their bones by being a resilient team all year and that was in full effect as they scored 11 of their 14 runs with two outs in an inning.
Ultimately, though, scrappiness lost out to sheer ability. The Yankees still struggle with runners in scoring position and they haven't had much luck stringing together long rallies on a consistent basis, but they certainly know how to swing the bat with power.
The Yankees scored 12 runs on seven home runs during the three-game set, including game-winning blasts in both of their victories. All of those issues that have been problematic for the Yankees offense this season seem a lot smaller in the face of that kind of power.
Because both offenses were doing their thing, all three games turned into taut affairs worthy of the hype that always accompanies the start of Subway Series weekends. The games rarely live up to the advance billing, but they did this weekend and you can appreciate that whether or not your team wound up on top.
That doesn't mean it was all good, however. We'll run down the good, bad and ugly of the entire weekend, starting with the pitching matchup for the ages that turned out to be a giant dud.
UGLY: R.A. Dickey gave up a lot more than one hit and CC Sabathia's trademark stamina deserted him, turning Sunday night from a pitching duel into a bullpen battle. There have certainly been worse pitching performances, but there aren't many nights with such dual disappointments.
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GOOD: If you put Robinson Cano's two home runs from the weekend in a straight line, they might have traveled far enough to go from Citi Field to Yankee Stadium. This hasn't been Cano's best season thus far, but there's something awfully special about watching the man swing the bat when he's feeling comfortable.
BAD: Ike Davis' food poisoning meant Justin Turner had to play first on Sunday night and it seemed to throw Dickey off his game when Turner botched a flip to the pitcher covering first in the second inning. The third was when things went off the rails for the previously untouchable knuckleballer, but the Mets' defensive foibles keep catching up with them.
GOOD: Davis' absence was doubly painful because he continues to look like a player finding himself at the plate. Friday night's homer might have scraped Nick Swisher's glove on its way over the wall, but it was a key home run all the same for a player who needs more of them.
BAD: This is likely the last season with six games between the two teams. Fitting, somehow, that they waited until now to make the games interesting for the first time in years.
GOOD/UGLY: Swisher's home run on Sunday night was a big shot off the hottest pitcher in baseball in a rivalry game in prime time in front of a packed house. Swisher celebrated it like it was exactly that, making attempts to call him out as a showboat more than a little misplaced among fans who love to build up the Subway Series.
AMAZING: We end with Little Jerry Seinfeld, the chicken purchased for $8 in Chinatown by the Mets as a way of making light of Frank Francisco calling the Yankees fowl names before the series started. It was a clever way of defusing tabloid fodder and the genius of Sunday's press conference to announce Little Jerry's relocation to a farm cannot be overstated.
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Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
