Statements do not necessarily get made after a team completes its first series of a season but tones and optics can start getting established with the possibility of extending into good and bad momentum.
And for the New York teams, those early optics and tones are starkly different and perhaps somewhat surprising.
The Yankees won four exciting games in Houston for their first 4-0 start since 2003 and the possibility of a 5-0 start for the first time since winning their first six games of 1992. In 1992 the Yankees went 76-86 for their most recent losing season and threatened to end the run of winning seasons until going 22-15 over their final 37 contests of last year’s 82-win nightmare.
The Yankees are playing with a determined sense to avoid a repeat of last season, though it helps when someone like Juan Soto is in the middle of things. Soto’s first impression as a Yankee saw him save tying run with his arm from right field while going 9-for-17 and getting the go-ahead hit on a full count against Josh Hader, whom the Astros hope is the late-inning difference again should they meet the Yankees in the postseason.
“I always want to be up in that situation,” Soto told reporters. “I mean, that’s what we play for. We all know there’s going to be times where you fail, sometimes you’re going to have success. But I always want to be up there. I don’t mind to be up there and get all the boos or all the claps. I’m always ready for it.”
At numerous points, the Yankees were not ready for many things last season. They rarely came back from early deficits but won their first three games by rallying from those situations before recovering from blowing an early lead.
“I mean, it’s early, but any time you can go on the road against a great opponent and pull off a four-game sweep, that’s nothing to sneeze at,’’ Aaron Boone told reporters. “So really excited.”
Meanwhile over 1,600 miles away, the Mets provided a theme about where their first season under new executive David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza may be headed by getting swept by the fun to watch Milwaukee Brewers and their dynamic rookie Jackson Chourio.
Chourio is the type of prospect the Mets are hoping Luisangel Acuna, Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford eventually become. Not because of the makeup of the current roster but also from a financial aspect since to get them owner Steve Cohen was willing to pay $35 million to get a better prospect from Texas for Scherzer and the similar amount to land the same return from Houston for Justin Verlander at last year’s trade deadline when former GM Billy Eppler said the Mets are not liquidating assets and rebuilding.
In the meantime, the Mets are hoping to pass the time by being at the high end of mediocrity such as the 84-win range the Arizona Diamondbacks landed in before an unexpected run to the World Series.
And perhaps they’ll laugh about the 0-3 start should the kind of run actually unfold but in the meantime the small sample size gives off a vibe to the fans that all may not be all right, even if the eighth inning karaoke song was Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”, a song with the chorus of “Don’t worry about a thing,” even as the Mets finished off a weekend when they could not make enough plays, gave up eight stolen bases without stealing a base of their own.
The beginnings from some of the stars also are a contrast. While Soto is off to a dynamic start featuring one intense at-bat after another, Francisco Lindor is 1-for-12, a stat he seemed somewhat aware of in his postgame comments.
“It’s one of those where you start seeing the way things are shaping (up) and you’re like, ‘Uh-oh.’, Lindor said. ”You have to find your ground, and we haven’t really done it.”
The track record suggests Lindor, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo will be productive at the plate and Edwin Diaz will be effective in the ninth. As for the rest, the jury is out for a team whom management at various points since Stearns took over Oct. 3 has described as being in transition.
Meanwhile shortly after Lindor’s comments, Schmidt offered this assessment of the Yankees’ exceedingly successful weekend in Houston.
“You don’t really play playoff games in March, but this was a big-time series and a big-time sweep.”
This weekend saw the Yankees play big time and the Mets offer the possibility of a slog to under .500 and the outcomes could not have been any more different as evidenced by the results and postgame vibes such as the sly grin on Boone’s face after Alex Verdugo secured the sweep with a sliding catch on Kyle Tucker.