The New York Yankees (30-19) and New York Mets (18-29) once met in the World Series, but are currently on opposite paths as they trek through the 2013 season. Tonight, at 7:05 p.m. the crosstown rivals will lock horns in a game that can be live streamed here for free. Yankees fans can listen to the game at 880 WCBS, while Mets fans can hear the action at 101.9 WFAN FM.
Tonight, both teams will trot out promising starters who have struggled badly this season. For Jonathon Niese (3-5, 4.80 ERA) of the Mets and Phil Hughes (2-3, 5.51 ERA) they are still young, but approaching points in their careers where upside turns into unrealized hopes and dreams. For Hughes, this could very well be his final season with the Yankees.
Hughes has not been able to figure out how to stop serving up home runs; his home run to fly ball ratio, which has never been a strong point, is at a career-high 13.5 percent. Perhaps his uncertain future is weighing on him, but Hughes has just not been a reliable enough option for a Yankees team that will eventually need its starting pitching to thrive due to the high number of injuries in the lineup.
In his last three starts, Hughes has given the Yankees three stinkers, including an outing in which he lasted just two thirds of an inning and allowed seven earned runs to cross the plate.
As for Niese, his major problem has been baserunners. His WHIP is at a career-high 1.620, and his walks per nine have doubled since last year. The Mets will also look to first baseman Ike Davis to help Niese along by providing some punch to the batting order.
Davis, mired in the worst start to any season of his career, busted out of a 2-for-44 skid yesterday picked up two hits, one of them a go-ahead single in the eighth inning of a morale-boosting victory over the Atlanta Braves.
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