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.