Rieber: Yanks, Mets will try to sort things out - together

In the weird world that interleague play foists on baseball fans, last night you had Mets fans keeping one eye on the Yankees-Phillies game, happy the Yankees were going down but unhappy the Phillies may have righted themselves.

Then you had Yankees fans monitoring the Rays and Braves; an Atlanta win would have kept the Yankees at least tied for first place in the AL East. But an Atlanta win would have been bad for the Mets, who started the night a half-game behind the Braves in the NL East.

Confused? As they used to say on the raunchy late-1970s sitcom "Soap," you won't be after this week's episode. (The inside joke was that you would be just as confused at the end of the episode as you were at the start. It was the '70s. You had to be there.)

By this week's episode we mean this weekend's second installment of the Subway Series. It starts Friday night at Yankee Stadium with the Mets flying high after cutting a path through the dregs of the American League in Baltimore and Cleveland and the Yankees a little woozy after dropping two of three to the Phillies, including last night's 7-1 loss.

The Yankees' troubles can be summed up in three words: hip flexor tendinitis. That's the ailment that is keeping Alex Rodriguez in the designated hitter spot, which last night kept Jorge Posada out of the lineup.

Posada was the catcher on Wednesday, when the Yankees were humbled by 47-year-old Jamie Moyer, but he experienced pain in his right foot in the later innings. Catching him back-to-back nights is a no-no, and with the Yankees needing to DH A-Rod, Posada didn't play at all.

"I could catch," Posada said. "I'm just not catching."

And vuvuzelas could become the featured instrument at the New York Philharmonic, but that's not happening, either.

Manager Joe Girardi knows he has to protect Posada from himself; that means a heaping helping of DH duty, which Posada likes about as much as Domenik Hixon likes the FieldTurf at New Meadowlands Stadium.

Girardi also has to keep an eye on A-Rod, who seemed to be running better after raising some red flags by jogging during a ninth-inning double on Wednesday. Girardi expressed concern after Wednesday's game but was all smiles about it last night, even praising Rodriguez for not giving 110 percent, which could be a first in sports.

"He was just somewhat being cautious," Girardi said. "Today I take that as being pretty smart, actually."

Rodriguez did a not-smart thing that turned out to be smart last night. With the Yankees trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning, A-Rod was on first base when Robinson Cano lined an RBI single to right.

Ryan Howard cut off the relay throw and never looked at A-Rod, who was steaming toward third. Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco was crouched and ready to make an inning-ending tag, but Howard never threw.

It didn't cost the Phillies because Polanco made a superhuman catch on Nick Swisher's pop-up to the tarp down the third-base line to end the inning. The catch was balletic, but while heading to the dugout, Polanco nearly crashed into a Yankee Stadium groundskeeper who was on his way to the field to perform the "YMCA" routine.

Polanco escaped unharmed and so did the Yankees, who maintained their co-leader position in the division when the Braves beat the Rays, 3-1. That result kept the Mets, 6-4 winners in Cleveland, a half-game back in their division and heading to Yankee Stadium on an interleague play high.

This weekend's results won't settle anything other than bragging rights. But it should be fun. Nothing confusing about that.