Both New York baseball teams were cruising along and comfortably in first place when the Mets and the Yankees crossed paths six weeks ago.
The dominant storyline of that mid-May interleague series mostly was about one individual as the slumping Juan Soto returned for the first time to rounds and rounds of Bronx cheers after spurning the Bombers for a landmark $765 million deal from Steve Cohen and the Mets.
The local nines will hook up again beginning Friday afternoon at Citi Field, and while Soto posted a massive June to get his first season in Queens back on the 7-line track, both teams have given up their division leads.
The stakes suddenly are high for both managers and squads this weekend, but probably more so for the Mets, who placed two more pitchers — including Friday’s scheduled starter Paul Blackburn — on the injured list on Thursday.
