The Best Things in Life are Free

Much like the first game of Part I of the Subway Series, the Mets gift wrapped last night's game with three errors in the second inning that lead to four Yankee runs and a seemingly insurmountable lead with CC Sabathia on the mound.

Speaking of the big guy, CC was great last night, dispelling any notion that his $160 million arm was in trouble. If Brett Gardner and A-Rod hadn't padded the Yankee lead with homers in the top of the eighth Sabathia was probably going to come out for an eighth time. CC was touching 98 on the gun and consistently threw strikes with all of his pitches. Ever since Sabathia lost to the Angels on May 2nd he has been every bit the pitcher the Yankees were expecting to get, going 6-1 with a 2.83 ERA while holding opponents to a .195 batting average.

With Yankee fans minds finally at ease we turned our full attention back to A-Rod where it belongs. He continued his rejuvenation and, after taking three walks in his first four plate appearances, smacked an opposite field blast out of cavernous Citi Field. As long as he keeps hitting balls hard to center/right center all will be well with A-Rod.

In the shadow of those big stars was little Brett Gardner. Gardner seemed to toy with the Mets, first flaring hits to left and center field before ripping a homer and a triple to right. Gardner elevated his OBP to a very respectable .374. If he can keep getting on at that rate he will be a very dangerous weapon for the Yankees. Gardner may never be more than a fourth outfielder, but he can be very dangerous in that regard. He can steal bases and play a solid center, which is more than can be said about Melky Cabrera. For the time being Gardner has won his job back from the Melk Man and with Xavier Nady out for the rest of the season he will be on the field for the foreseeable future.

Tonight matches A.J. Burnett against Tim Redding. Like the other pitching match ups, this one heavily favors the Yankees. Burnett shut the Mets down back on June 14 against Johan Santana and then had a solid start against the Marlins, allowing one earned run over 6.1 against Josh Johnson. I've only seen Tim Redding pitch once aand it was four years ago in a Yankee uniform. It was only one inning but it obviously left an impression. He gave up six runs to the Red Sox in just one inning of work.

I would expect nothing less out of Redding this time around.