New York Yankees and Mets court World Series glory and catastrophe

King Kong has wreaked havoc in New York, his old enemy Godzilla has also destroyed large sections of Manhattan, an alien invasion started in the five boroughs in Independence Day and natural disasters have threatened the Big Apple in Armageddon, Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow. The next catastrophe to strike NYC is likely to centre around the real-life tale of its two Major League Baseball teams.

Opening Day for the 2025 season in the United States is on Thursday and the New York Yankees and New York Mets are both expected to feature prominently in the postseason.

The Bronx Bombers reached the World Series last October only to flame out against the Los Angeles Dodgers and soon suffered another seismic blow when generational hitter Juan Soto jumped on the subway to Queens to sign an £619million deal to play for the Mets for the next 15 years. 

The Yankees wisely recruited elsewhere with the money they intended to splash out on him and were favourites to once again reach this year’s Fall Classic as the American League’s representatives but have suffered a brutal run-in to the new campaign, losing three of their top four starting pitchers to injuries with Gerrit Cole out for the season, AL rookie of the year Luis Gil sidelined for the first three months and Clarke Schmidt absent for at least a fortnight with concerns about his long-term availability.

Added to that, slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who was immense in last year’s postseason, is suffering from tennis elbow in both arms and is out indefinitely. 

So the Mets are set to finally take over from the Yanks as baseball Kings of New York, right? Well actually, such is the strength of their rivals in the National League East they are set to finish behind the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves and miss out on a playoff spot altogether. Their hitting is strong but their pitching staff is inferior.

The Yanks are worth an each-way flutter to win the World Series at bet365’s 9/1 as their American League rivals are mostly mediocre but if they are plagued by any more injuries they are in big trouble so have a saver on them failing to reach the postseason at 12/5 with BetMGM. 

The same firm go 2/1 the Mets blow it while Quinnbet offer 10/11 they win under 90.5 regular season games.

• Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo can continue his strong form this year by taking the scalp of world No.6 Casper Ruud at the Miami Open. The 26-year-old from Buenos Aires reached the quarter-finals at Indian Wells a fortnight ago and previously fought his way through to the final of the Argentina Open, the last eight in Rio and the semis in Chile.

Ruud, meanwhile, has not been at his best all year and looks vulnerable with Cerundolo the player to side with in their round-of-16 showdown at 11/10 with William Hill, Paddy Power, bet365, Betfred and Betfair.

• Luke Littler is a widespread 5/6 to defend his Premier League Darts title at the O2 in London after gaining his third win of this year’s tournament by throwing a nine-darter when registering a 6-4 victory over Michael van Gerwen on night seven in Cardiff.

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