3 toughest series for the Mets during the month of June

2. The New York Yankees squad that will come to Citi Field on June 13-14 may be better than the one the New York Mets saw in Flushing last year.

When the Mets and Yankees squared off last July at Citi Field, it was clear the Yankees were starting to get a bit vulnerable after a history-making start to their season. They had lost star Michael King for the season, their offense started to slow down, and their aces in Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes did not pitch as their turns did not come up for that brief series, while Max Scherzer overwhelmed the Yankees in one of those starts.

Yet, the two teams played two games that went down to the wire, both of which the Mets won.

This year, even though the Yankees got off to a slow start, they have been playing excellent baseball since Aaron Judge came off the injured list. Speaking of Judge, his averages are nearly the same as they were last year, and he has 18 home runs already on the season.

And their pitching situation is better right now than what it was for the Subway Series games at Citi Field last year, with their whole rotation pitching pretty well right now.

And with King back in the mix for the Yankees, they have the No. 1 bullpen ERA in baseball, getting contributions from King, Clay Holmes, and Wandy Peralt among others.

However, the Yankees will likely be without instrumental center fielder Harrison Bader, who pulled his hamstring this week during their team's series in Seattle this week.

3. The Mets must travel to Houston and play the defending World Series champion Astros from June 19-21.

There is a strong case that the 2022 Houston Astros should be considered as one of the greatest teams of the century so far, and a lot of that had to do with the amazing pitching depth they had with their rotation and their bullpen. After all, they threw two combined no-hitters on the road in 2022. One was against their archrival Yankees in June that felt like the turning point of the whole season, and another in Game 4 of the World Series in Philadelphia against a vaunted Phillies offense.

Aside from Justin Verlander, who was the Cy Young Award winner in the American League, the Astros brought back the same team from last year, except they had a couple of prospects ready to replace Verlander in the rotation, led by Hunter Brown. And they still have Framber Valdez and Christian Javier, two of the top 25 starting pitchers, arguably, in all of baseball atop their rotation.

In terms of their lineup, they still have big names on there, with Yordan Alvarez, maybe the scariest left-handed hitter in baseball, and household names like Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Kyle Tucker. Also, their rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena was the ALCS and World Series MVP last year, and became the first rookie shortstop to win a Gold Glove.

If there was a list of top 100 players in MLB right now, there is a good bet that eight of them would make it there. The roster is that loaded.