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Yankees-Mets Preview

Jun 26, 2009 - 5:01 AM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

New York (39-32) at New York (36-34), 7:10 p.m. EDT

As the New York Yankees begin their second and final Subway Series of the season, they'll have a more pressing concern than their rivalry with the New York Mets.

The left arm of CC Sabathia will be in the spotlight Friday night, when the Yankees' high-priced ace tries to rebound from an injury-shortened outing as his team makes its first appearance at Citi Field.

The Yankees (40-32) spent $161 million on Sabathia (6-4, 3.71 ERA) in the offseason, and the left-hander has been in a groove, going 5-1 with a 3.00 ERA in his last nine starts.

Sabathia, though, left Sunday's outing at Florida after 1 1-3 innings with a strained left biceps. While he said the ailment was "nothing major," there had been concerns about whether or not he'd be able to make Friday's start.

"I guess everybody else made me nervous the last couple days," Sabathia said. "I kind of felt like I'd be able to pitch."

The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner threw a bullpen session Wednesday and proclaimed himself ready to face the Mets for the first time since 2004, when he led Cleveland to a 9-1 win with eight strong innings.

"I'm good," Sabathia said. "I threw all of my pitches (Wednesday). I'm looking forward to pitching."

He'll face a Mets team looking for revenge after the Yankees beat up ace Johan Santana en route to a 15-0 win in the deciding game of their series at Yankee Stadium on June 14.

It was the biggest blowout in the history of the rivalry.

"It's the Subway Series. You're going to see some strange things," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

The Mets (37-34) are feeling better about themselves now after taking three of four from St. Louis this week. They cruised to an 11-0 win Wednesday, then rode Santana to a 3-2 victory in Thursday's matin?e.

They also got two RBIs from Nick Evans for the second straight day. The first baseman was called up from Triple-A Binghamton last Friday, with the banged-up Mets missing Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes.

"He keep hitting, he keep playing," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said of Evans.

Manuel will hand the ball to Mike Pelfrey (5-2, 4.74) after the right-hander allowed four runs in five innings Sunday against Tampa Bay. He had the same line in his lone previous start against the Yankees last June 27, but he got the win in the Mets' 15-6 victory.

The Yankees will also be looking for a third straight win after taking the final two games of their series at Atlanta. Their slumping offense awakened, scoring 19 runs with 26 hits in their last two contests.

On Thursday, Johnny Damon had three hits and four RBIs and Derek Jeter had four hits and four runs scored.

"Hopefully this is a sign of things to come," Damon said. "When we're both on our game, we're going to score tons of runs."

The Yankees may be more excited by Alex Rodriguez's resurgence. Coming off hip surgery and a steroid controversy, the slumping superstar had been hitting .207 after Tuesday's 4-0 loss.

Rodriguez, however, drove in two runs in an 8-4 win Wednesday and was 3 for 5 with a home run and four RBIs on Thursday.

"We needed that," Rodriguez said. "I needed it. I felt like my body was reacting pretty well."

He has nine home runs and 19 RBIs in his last 15 games against the Mets and is tied with Reggie Jackson for 11th on the all-time home run list with 563.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is also close to a milestone, needing one more save to join Trevor Hoffman as the only players with 500.