Am I the only one who watched the New York Mets drop two out of three games to the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend? I thought most people did, but apparently Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, and Orel Hershiser did not.
Normally, I would not care if three people did not watch the weekend series between National League East rivals, but when you are broadcasting a game Sunday night in the series you should pay attention to the previous games.
At the end of the game Sunday, the Phillies were about to wrap up an 11-5 victory which would give them the first series of the season against the Mets. Yet, the ESPN crew in the booth (the three above) said the Mets have a lot of positives to take from the series.
What I do not understand is what positives do the Mets have to take?
They took the first game on Friday night facing Kyle Kendrick and his over-seven ERA. The Mets were red hot and David Niese made sure it stayed that way, but positives and negatives of a whole series can not be taken into consideration on the first game against a pitcher with an ERA over seven.
The wind came out of the sails of the Mets on Saturday though, when the 2010 NL Cy Young Award winner, Roy Halladay, took the hill and had an easy day playing against the Mets for all nine, while only giving up three hits. Meanwhile, Mike Pelfrey woke up and came back down to earth giving up six runs over four innings, while the Phils cruised to a 10-0 victory.
After getting blown-out on Saturday, the rubber game on Sunday became the biggest game of the early season, not just for the Mets, but in all of baseball. You have the hottest team in baseball trying to prove they are going to challenge the big boys all season with their ace on the hill, if the Metropolitans wanted to prove something, they win Sunday night.
The game started out as planned for the team from Queens. They hit around 47-year-old Jamie Moyer for three runs in the first and then two more in the fourth, to have a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth.
The game should have been considered over with the remaining innings played out just to say they did. However, Santana and the Phillies had other ideas. The only problem: Santana is on the Mets.
That brings us to the bottom of the fourth inning. With two outs and Chase Utley standing on second base, Raul Ibanez drives him in with a base hit, Juan Castro single’s, Carlos Ruiz walks to load the bases for the never-dangerous pitcher Moyer, with a lifetime average of .133 and 13 career RBI (or just about one for every two years he has played).
Then the unthinkable happened, Moyer worked a seven-pitch walk forcing in a run, and bringing Shane Victorino to the plate. The Flyin’ Hawaiian then sent a 0-1 fastball to the seats in right field for a grand slam giving the Phillies the lead.
The defending NL champions then showed the Mets who was boss in the NL East, extending the lead to six runs, and not looking back from there as the Mets did after the fourth inning.
So, can someone please tell me what positives the Mets can take away from this series?
They beat up on the sixth-starter Kendrick for their lone win of the series. Then they only helped secure Roy Halladay’s NL Cy Young on Saturday. Finally, their ace could not make it out of the fourth inning and got out-pitched by a 47-year-old on national television.
Gee, I know if I were the Phillies I would be shaking scared of the Mets.
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