They played in total silence. The sounds of a bat hitting a ball, or a glove making a catch thundered through Citi Field in a scene that was best fit for a post-apocalyptic world. And in many ways that is the situation baseball -- and all sports for that matter -- find themselves in.
A little less than a week before Major League Baseball dips its big toe into COVID infested waters to start a 60-game season that anyone with any form of reason and integrity believes shouldn't happen, the Mets and Yankees played the first of two meaningless exhibition games on Saturday night, before a crowd of ... wait for it ... zero. (Unless you want to count the cardboard cutouts).
They are playing these games, not because they want to, but because after two weeks of playing themselves, the Mets and Yanks needed a little competition before the games get real -- at least on paper.
The only highlight of the night of course came in the fourth inning with Yankees right fielder Clint Frazier -- fully masked in a Yankees neck gaiter -- homered to deep left off Rick Porcello. See folks, if Clint Frazier can wear a mask and homer, you can wear one to the office, or to the grocery store.
Want baseball to be back to normal again? Wear a mask. Just ask Clint Frazier.
It wasn't all bad for the Mets on Saturday. They did pull to within two runs on RBI base hits by JD Davis and Pete Alonso, but the Yankees pulled away in the ninth thanks in big part to a combined implosion by Mets relievers Edwin Diaz and Daniel Zamora.
The Yankees plated five runs in the ninth. Two of those runs came on a two-run by Erik Kratz. Mike Tauchman drove in Tyler Wade with a single, one of three hits on the day for Tauchman against the Metropolitans. Thairo Estrada and Mike Ford rounded out the scoring with RBIs respectively, as the Bronx Bombers jumped all over the Mets 9-2.
So baseball is back -- sort of -- even though it doesn't feel like it should be back amid all the problems we are encountering as a nation.
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