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Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jun 19, 2010 ) NY Mets 3, NY Yankees 5
A pair of former Cy Young Award winners will square off Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium to determine whether the New York Mets reign over the Big Apple's baseball rivalry or whether the Subway Series is a wash for this season.
When the teams met last month at Citi Field, the New York Yankees won the series opener only to lose the next two games. They can return the favor with a win today and split the season series at three games apiece.
In hopes of doing exactly that, the Yankees will turn to 2007 Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia (7-3, 4.00 ERA), who looks to win his fourth consecutive start.
To keep his streak going, Sabathia will have to be better than 2004 and 2006 Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, who won the first head-to-head matchup between the ace left-handers this season.
On May 23 at Citi Field, Santana (5-3, 3.13 ERA) held the Yankees to one run on six hits over 7 2/3 innings, earning the win in a 6-4 Mets victory. In that game, Sabathia lasted only five innings and gave up six runs - five earned - on 10 hits.
Sabathia followed that poor outing with another rough one against Cleveland, but he has posted three quality starts and three wins since. He is 3-0 with a 3.43 ERA in three starts this month, striking out 22 and walking seven during that span.
The loss last month was the first for Sabathia in three career starts against the Mets. In the previous two outings against them, he was 2-0 and had allowed two runs and nine hits in 15 innings.
Mets catcher Rod Barajas has an impressive track record against Sabathia - he is 9-for-22 with three homers against him. Outfielder Jason Bay is 3-for-11 with two homers against Sabathia.
Mets shortstop Jose Reyes has two hits in three career at-bats against Sabathia, and Reyes is red-hot. Reyes takes an 11-game hitting streak into today's game and he's 21-for-48 (.438) with four homers during the streak.
The Yankees' offense snapped out of a brief slump to hit a pair of homers in Saturday's 5-3 win. Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson each hit two-run homers Saturday, helping the Yankees bounce back from a stretch in which they scored a total of four runs during a three-game losing streak.
They'll try to keep it going against Santana, who is 5-2 with a 4.02 ERA in nine starts and three relief appearances against the Yankees.
Second baseman Robinson Cano, who had two hits Saturday to raise his major league-best batting average to .371, is 8-for-20 lifetime against Santana. Shortstop Derek Jeter also has hit Santana well - he's 13-for-30 with a homer against him - but Jeter sat out Saturday's game with a bruised right heel and is considered day-to-day
The Yankees remain tied for the American League East lead and the best record in baseball with Tampa Bay, which beat Florida 9-8 in 11 innings Saturday.
The Mets had their eight-game winning streak snapped Saturday and lost ground to Atlanta in the National League East standings for the first time since June 2. They're 1 1/2 games behind the Braves in division.