Mets Morning News: Who are you and what have you done with the 2013 Mets?

Meet the Mets

R.I.P. 2013 Mets, you guys. The Mets go for the four-game (second straight two-game?) sweep of the Yankees this evening. Dillon Gee toes the rubber against some sort of shampoo magnate I think.

Jason Fry unsurprisingly seems to be in a better mood this week and also manages to concisely sum up the underpinnings of the Mets/Yankees rivalry.

No doubt also in a better mood is Omar Quintanilla, who appears to be on his way from Vegas to replace the injured Ruben Tejada.

The Mets offense finally showed signs of life last night, conveniently right after Maggie Wiggin noted that they might be due for some positive BABIP performance.

Also at Metsblog, Smilin' Sammy Page wonders if Lucas Duda might be the Mets first baseman of the future.

Toby Hyde gives us an update on some injured Mets prospects.

And Carson Cistulli once again features Rafael Montero and Wilmer Flores among his Fringe Five prospects.

Yesterday at AA

Michael Donato looked at the unusual success opposing pitchers have had launching home runs against the New York Mets. Personally, I will never forget Felix Hernandez launching a grand slam off Johan Santana. Maybe because it's a microcosm of the last half-decade of Mets baseball.

And David Moseder reminisced about Buddy Harrelson's debut as Mets manager.

Around the NL East

The Fish lost their third straight to the mediocre Rays and are ahead (behind?) the pace set by the 1962 Mets for baseball futility. I hear the art museum in the stadium is really nice though.

Man, nothing is going right for the Nationals in 2013. Despite three home runs from Ryan Zimmerman, the Orioles stormed back for a 9-6 win in Baltimore.

The Phillies survived an adventurous ninth inning from Jonathan Papelbon and held on to take their second straight from the Red Sox.

Wrapping up the NL East action, the Barves were blanked by the Blue Jays, 3-0. Talking Chop thinks Evan Gattis might be able to help the struggling B.J. Upton. I can only assume the solution is hooking up the elder Upton with a sweet janitorial job far away from Turner Field.

Around MLB

Here's all of last night's action in one handy dandy scoreboard. Of particular note: Keyed by a Carlos Beltran home run, the Cardinals rode a four-run eighth to another win over the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are now 4-19 in their last 23 games.

Ryan Zimmerman wasn't the only major leaguer to bash three home runs yesterday. Dioner Navarro, come on down! Wait, Dioner Navarro?

Derek Jeter has been medically cleared to play catch. Does that count as resuming baseball activities?

And finally, Angel Pagan may have to go on the disabled list after his walk-off inside-the-park home run this past weekend.