NEW YORK – Two stops away from a Subway Series.
When the New York Yankees advanced to the American League Championship Series on Thursday night, that put both Big Apple teams in baseball's final four for the first time in 24 years. Francisco Lindor and the New York Mets had already punched their NLCS ticket by beating Philadelphia on Wednesday.
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Four more wins for each club and they'd meet in the World Series for the second time, following the 2000 Subway Series won by Derek Jeter and the Yankees.
“I don't even know what the city would do, man. It would just almost explode,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said with a laugh Friday.
“It would be a blast, there's no question about it. Like, it would be a dream kind of scenario. So, I would enjoy the heck out of it and it would be a story that you would tell for the rest of your life.”
Nimmo and the Mets worked out Friday at Citi Field. They begin the best-of-seven NL Championship Series on Sunday in Los Angeles against the NL West champion Dodgers.
Aaron Judge and the Yankees will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium. The Guardians and Tigers were tied 2-all going into Game 5 of their ALDS on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Judge said after Thursday night’s Division Series clincher in Kansas City. “It’s going to be a fun time in New York, man."
If the NLCS goes five games, there will be a playoff matchup scheduled in New York City every day next week from Monday through Friday — the first two days at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and the next three at Citi Field in Queens.
“I think it’s amazing that we have two New York teams left,” Nimmo said. “New York has always seemed like a baseball town to me, and so the vibe that’s going around here right now is unbelievable, and definitely feeling the high that the city is on.”
Both teams have players who grew up in the area, including Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, Mets reliever Adam Ottavino and Mets center fielder Harrison Bader, who played for the Yankees from 2022-23.
“Hopefully we see each other,” Mets rookie manager Carlos Mendoza said on a Zoom call from Citi Field. “It would be an unbelievable experience.”
Mendoza spent the previous 15 years in the Yankees organization — the past four as manager Aaron Boone’s bench coach across town.
He said he watched the Bronx Bombers beat the Royals 3-1 on Thursday night behind ace Gerrit Cole to win the best-of-five Division Series in four games and reach their fourth ALCS in eight years.
“I texted a lot of people. There’s a lot of people that I have a lot of respect for,” Mendoza said. “And it’s just great. It’s great for baseball, it’s great for the city of New York that the two teams are in this position and with a really good opportunity to continue to move forward.”
The Yankees are in the ALCS for the 19th time, but they haven't captured a pennant since winning their 27th World Series title in 2009.
“They are a really good team. They have a really good manager and they have really good players. That’s a deep roster there,” Mendoza said. “They deserve this.”
The Mets are in the NLCS for the ninth time and first since reaching the 2015 World Series, which they lost to Kansas City. They are chasing the franchise's third World Series championship and first since 1986.
During the regular season, the Mets swept all four Subway Series meetings from their crosstown rivals, winning twice in each ballpark and outscoring them 36-14 overall.
“The Mets have had an incredible season,” Judge said. “It’s going to be fun to look forward to down the road getting a chance to face them again.”
When the Yankees beat the Mets in the 2000 World Series, clinching in Game 5 at old Shea Stadium as Jeter took MVP honors, it was the 14th Subway Series in New York City but the first since 1956, when Don Larsen pitched a perfect game to help the Yankees knock off the Brooklyn Dodgers.
This year, the wild-card Mets and AL East champion Yankees have baseball’s two biggest payrolls at more than $300 million apiece.
Both clubs missed the playoffs in 2023, the first time that happened in nine years.
“For the city of New York and for the two fan bases, it would be like a dream come true," Mendoza said. "So again, don’t want to get too far ahead, but the fact that the two teams are in it, in a position to do something special, is a great feeling for a lot of people, especially for us with the Mets and then for the Yankees as well.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB