The Warm-Up: Mets' Cy Young candidate(s) — Pete, Pillar, Lugo return — Young vs. Randle

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 · Get Today’s New York Sports Here The Tweet of the Day --------------------------------------------------------------- Good morning. 🌅 "I know that being in the house for a year and a half with the pandemic got a lot of people on edge. Got a lot of people stressed out. But when you come to these games, you got to realize these men are human. We’re not animals. We’re not in the circus." -- [Kevin Durant]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 📅 Today's sports schedule - Nets vs Celtics Game 5, 7:30 p.m. 🏀 - Yankees vs. Rays, 7:05 p.m. ⚾ - Mets at Diamondbacks, 9:40 p.m. on SNY ⚾ --------------------------------------------------------------- 📺 SNY originals - [The Putback with Ian Begley]( How it's all gone wrong for the Knicks so far in the playoffs Today's word count: 741 Which Mets Cy Young candidate is your favorite? @SNYtv/Twitter After last night's 6-2 win over Arizona, the Mets are 26-20 and hold a 3.5-game lead for first place in the NL East. - The success amid the injuries isn't because of the offense, which entered last night 29th in the league in runs per game (3.58). - It's due in large part to the starting pitching, which after last night's six-inning, no run start by Jacob deGrom, has the lowest ERA in baseball (2.79) and the third-lowest WHIP (1.01). To be more specific, it's due to the Mets' three excellent starters, all of whom can lay early claim to a Cy Young candidacy. Their stats through two months of baseball: - DeGrom: 8 starts, 0.71 ERA, 51 IP, 0.57 WHIP - Taijuan Walker: 9 starts, 1.84 ERA, 49 IP, 0.94 WHIP - Marcus Stroman: 10 starts, 2.47 ERA, 58.1 IP, 1.04 WHIP Yesterday's [takeaways]( | Tonight's probable starter: Marcus Stroman Also: Here's your Mets returning/debuting roundup from last night ... - Pete Alonso played his first game since May 18. He had two hits, four RBI, and [a 442-foot home run](. - Kevin Pillar came in for the seventh inning, [mask and all]( then got [a hit](. - Mason Williams, freshly called up, got [his first hit]( as a Met. On SNY.tv: - McCarron: [Remembering the longest day in Mets history]( Trivia time When is the last time the Knicks and Nets both advanced past the first round of the playoffs in the same season? Answer at the bottom The May Yankees started to look like April Yankees Raj Mehta/USA TODAY Sports Aaron Boone is back to giving [angry]( news conferences, which might give Yankees fans a shuddering reminder of April 2021, when the team was at one point 6-11, and Boone was at one point very angry. - The Yankees, after being swept by lowly Detroit over the weekend, lost again to Tampa Bay on Monday, 3-1. - They're now 29-25, 1-6 in their last seven, and trail the Rays by 5.5 games for first place in the AL East, and the Red Sox by 3.5 games. Up next? Three more against the Rays followed by three against Boston. Two more things: - The Yankees are now 3-7 in 2021 against the Rays. - This expensive offense has scored only 13 runs over this recent seven-game slump. Overall, New York has scored 202 runs -- tied for 24th in the league with the cellar-dwelling Orioles. Yesterday's [takeaways]( | Tonight's probable starter: Domingo German On SNY.tv: - [The Rays continue their mastery over the Yankees]( Knicks vs. Hawks has come down to best player vs. best player USA TODAY Sports Spike Lee, Tracy Morgan and all the Trae Young hijinks in the world can't mask the fact that the Knicks are in trouble. Following two lopsided weekend losses in Atlanta, New York is trailing the Hawks in the series, 3-1. Why is this happening? One reason more glaring than the rest is that the Knicks have no answer for Young while Julius Randle has no answer for his owns struggles. The raw stats through four games: - Young: 27.5 PPG, 10 APG, 2.8 TOPG, 47.0/36.7/95.5 shooting splits. - Randle: 16.8 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 4.3 APG, 3.8 TOPG, 27.4/33.3/82.6 shooting splits. And, truthfully ... those stats don't illustrate how bad Randle has been. He's a -7 on average and a -28 for the series -- as in, in his 143 minutes played, the Knicks have been outscored by 28. His [offensive rating]( (101.4) is 131st among postseason players who have logged more than 20 minutes. In the bigger picture, this unbecoming performance might give the Knicks second thought on a big extension for Randle this offseason. On SNY.tv: - BEGLEY: [The Knicks still need more from Julius Randle]( - [Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin reflect on the playoffs as rookies]( By the numbers Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports 85.9 points Heading into Game 5 tonight against the Celtics, the Nets' trio of James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant is averaging 85.9 PPG for the series. That's not too much worse than the Knicks' team PPG in four games against Atlanta (99). .395, .336 The Bucks, who swept the Heat over the weekend, are waiting for the Nets in the second round. Milwaukee held Miami to .395 percent shooting overall and .336 from deep in their four-game series. 14:48 It took 60 minutes + 14 minutes, 48 seconds of overtime, but Casey Cizikas' [breakaway goal]( last night gave the Islanders [a 4-3 win]( and a split of Games 1 and 2 in Boston. The Isles had blown a 3-1 lead to the Bruins in the third period. 671 pitches Yesterday, Jacob deGrom threw a curve ball. It was the first time he'd thrown one in 671 pitches in 2021. The New York Minute - [READ]( Jets 2021 Position Breakdown: Marcus Maye headlines a versatile safety group. - [READ]( ICYMI, Corey Davis suffered a minor shoulder strain during OTAs on Friday. - [READ]( Luis Severino is on the verge of the next big step in his Tommy John surgery rehab. - [READ]( Francisco Lindor on booing Mets fans: "It’s a lonely feeling, especially when it’s your home crowd." TRIVIA ANSWER: 1983-84 That's the buzzer. Enjoy your Tuesday. (Have feedback for The Warm-Up? Click [here](. 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