New York @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 3, 2016 ) NY Mets 5, NY Yankees 9

The New York Mets are the team that declared itself still in the playoff race with its trade deadline moves while the crosstown rival New York Yankees threw up the white flag. So far it’s the Yankees that look playoff bound, and they will try to complete a sweep of their home portion of the home-and-home, four-game interleague series when they host the Mets in the finale on Thursday.

Mark Teixeira is one of the veterans that remained on the Yankees roster after Monday’s trade deadline, and he showed some flashes of his former All-Star form with a three-run home that put his team ahead in the second inning on Wednesday. Teixeira was hit by a pitch in his next at-bat, sparking a benches-clearing brawl and adding some excitement to a Subway Series that lost its luster when the Yankees decided to give up on chasing the playoffs in 2016. The Mets picked up Jay Bruce at the deadline in one of the bigger moves across the league but has yet to get anything positive from the veteran at the plate. Bruce is 0-for-8 with three strikeouts in his first two games with his new team.

TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, MLB Network, SNY (Mets), WPIX (Yankees)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets RH Bartolo Colon (9-6, 3.58 ERA) vs. Yankees RH Nathan Eovaldi (9-7, 4.78)

Colon sandwiched a pair of sub-par efforts around a dominating performance against the St. Louis Cardinals in a win on July 26. The Mets asked the 43-year-old to go on short rest against Colorado on Saturday and he struggled, surrendering five runs in as many innings in a loss. Colon is making his fourth appearance – third start - against an American League club this season and allowed a total of two runs in seven innings against the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals.

Eovaldi has been strong in three starts since returning to the rotation, allowing a total of six runs in 18 innings while going 2-1. The lone loss in that span came at Tampa Bay on Saturday, when he surrendered two home runs among three hits in six innings. Eovaldi began his career in the National League and has made eight career starts against the Mets, building a 1-3 record with a 4.98 ERA.

WALK-OFFS

1. Yankees C prospect Gary Sanchez recorded his first major-league hit on Wednesday.

2. Mets OF Yoenis Cespedes (quad) served as the DH on Wednesday and went 1-for-5 with a single but tweaked the injury in his final at-bat and will be placed on the disabled list.

3. Mets 1B Lucas Duda (back) experienced a setback in his rehab and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

PREDICTION: Mets 3, Yankees 2