Burnett Cruises By Mets Once Again

YANKEES 5

METS 0

A. J. Burnett must love the Mets. In two starts against the Metropolitans Burnett has pitched his best baseball of the season, proving to the Yankee brass and fans that he was worth the $83 million they paid him in the off-season.

Burnett is 2-0 against the Mets logging in 14 innings of shut out baseball. He surrendered only five hits to the Mets in those two starts and struck out 18. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good, if I don't say so myself.

Tonight, Burnett held the Mets to just one hit all night, and even carried a no hitter through the games first five innings. The win brings Burnett's totals to 6-4 with a respectable 3.98 ERA.

Offensively, the Yankees had no trouble blasting balls out of "pitcher-friendly" Citi Field. Nick Swisher hit an opposite field home run over the 16 foot wall in left to give the Bronx Bombers a 1-0 lead in the third inning.

In the sixth, things fell apart for Mets starter Tim Redding, who was keeping pace with Burnett through the first five. But, the sixth was a different story. Mark Teixeria lined a double off of the center field wall to get things started. Alex Rodriguez then drove Teixeria in with a single up the middle to make it 2-0. Robinson Cano followed with a double down the left field line, that just stayed fair.

Rodriguez should have scored on the play, but he never ran on the play; instead, he watched the ball land in fair territory. Consequently, Rodriguez had to stay on third base. Finally, Jorge Posada homered to left center to give the Yankees an insurmountable 5-0 lead.

The Yankees have now outscored the Mets 29-1 in their last three games together, two of which were dominated by Burnett. Box Score.

Tomorrow, the Mets get one more shot at the Yankees, as they try to salvage a game in this series. They will send Livan Hernandez (5-2, 4.05 ERA) to the hill. Hernandez has been the Mets best starter not named Johan Santana. The Yankees will counter with Chein-Ming Wang who is still looking for his first win of the season.

NOTE: Tonight's Yankees win, marks the first time since 2003 that the Bombers have won a season series from the Mets. In 2004 the Mets went 4-2 against the Yankees. From 2005-2007 the two teams went a combined 9-9 against each other, and last season, the Mets won again 4-2. In 2003, the Yankees not only won the season series from the Mets, they swept them in all six games.