MVN - Most Valuable Network

Series Recaps vs. Mets, Rockies

At Citizens Bank Park on Sunday night, a drunk guy to my right was jawing with Mets fans the entire game. What was he saying in response to practically anything a Mets fan would say? Some variation of “Who won the N.L. East last year?” or “Who choked in September?” Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even write about something as common as a verbal onslaught between fans of the two sides, but the constant reminder that the Phillies are the reigning N.L. East champs grew old. The Phils no longer have a huge winning streak against the Mets, and the Mets are no longer in the midst of a huge slide.

The last time the Phillies finished a season in first place, I was a sprout yet to understand the significance of it. Coming into this season, I didn’t know how I would react to things. It was the first time in my life that I was a fan of a playoff baseball team (no matter how brief the stay was,) which is such an odd feeling for someone not used to it. Those who haven’t been following a losing team for so long could never understand it. A Yankees fan my age, or even a Red Sox fan my age could not comprehend the strange euphoria that comes with finally seeing your team make it after all those years.

But that was last year.

And the Mets are 4-2 against the Phillies this year. So the “Who made the playoffs” crap doesn’t really work right now.

When the Phils beat the Mets in the first game in which the teams met this season, I mentioned how many mistakes the Mets have been making in this series’ recent history. They had been unable to score late in games off of the Phillies bullpen, and when they did, defensive or baserunning miscues were taking them out of games. Since that first Phillies-Mets game, however, it seems the teams have traded places.

Johan Santana had the game I envisioned him having against the Phillies when news of the trade first broke. He was completely dominant, and other than a Chase Utley solo homer, was practically untouchable. After Greg Dobbs‘ pinch hit three-run homer, momentum seemed to be on the Phillies’ side. But that was quickly shot down when a Ryan Howard error paved the way to an insurance run on a Carlos Delgado sac fly, putting the game away.

The next day, the “pretty good” Oliver Perez showed up and the Phillies couldn’t overcome an early deficit. The struggling Aaron Heilman punched out Geoff Jenkins and Jayson Werth in the eighth inning with the bases loaded to end a late Phillies threat.

In the Sunday night game, Chase Utley was “the man” yet again, homering twice en route to four RBI. Adam Eaton, as he did so often last year, failed to hold a lead after seeing his team have a big inning. However, a Pedro Feliz go-ahead homer gave the Phils a lead that Brad Lidge wouldn’t relinquish. Lidge did get into trouble, but an improbable David Wright out and a spectacular play on Carlos Beltran by Eric Bruntlett at short ended the game.

The Phils flew to Colorado after salvaging game three of the Mets series and completed a quick two-game sweep of the Rockies. Both game saw the Phillies make late comebacks, scoring five runs in the final two innings Monday night and four runs in the final two innings Tuesday night.

A few thoughts on the series’:

• Utley and Wright are a pleasure to watch. The feeling of dread watching David Wright come to the plate is equaled when Mets fan hear “Kashmir” play and Utley makes his way to the batter’s box. Both are early season candidates for N.L. MVP, as I am sure they will be for many years to come. When Utley or Wright get into one of these grooves, it’s hard to even imagine them making an out. In the three game series, Utley was 6-11 with 4 HR and 6 RBI, while Wright finished 8-11 with 4 doubles, a triple, and 4 RBI.
• Ryan Howard is in such a funk right now that the intentional walks need to stop. Hindsight is 20/20, but I firmly believe that had the Rockies pitched to Howard last night and either pitched to or intentionally walked Pat Burrell afterwards, they would have won the game.
• This brief two-game series starting tonight against Milwaukee will provide Howard with an opportunity to hit his way out of this slump, as Brewers manager Ned Yost has never been one to put Howard on base.
• Last night’s game was a perfect example of why Pat Burrell belongs in the lineup in the late innings of close games.
• Brad Lidge looked dominant in shutting the door on the Rockies last night. After opening the ninth inning with a fastball up and in to Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes, Lidge threw 10 consecutive strikes, whiffing Barmes and Todd Helton and inducing a weak groundout from the bat of Matt Holliday to end the game. Lidge and J.C. Romero both have ERA’s of 0.00.

Tonight’s game:

• Luckily for the Phils, Ben Sheets was scratched from his scheduled start tonight. Cole Hamels will take on Dave Bush instead. Bush is 0-3 with a 7.02 ERA this season
• Geoff Jenkins will likely be starting in right field tonight against the Brewers, his former team that he spent the entirety of his 10-year career with prior to signing with the Phillies.
• It will be interesting to see how Hamels fares tonight against the plethora of right-handed bats the Brew Crew send out. As a team, Milwaukee has an N.L. high .531 slugging percentage against lefties, whom they are hitting .293 off of. However, Hamels has limited righties to a .192 batting average, allowing only 6 extra base hits in 78 at-bats.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.