MVN - Most Valuable Network

Victorino’s Walk-Off Hit Gives Mets Unhappy Holiday

The Phillies certainly got off to a good start in a very important four-game series against the Mets, winning 3-2 on a Shane Victorino walk-off RBI single in the ninth. Pedro Feliz easily scored the winning run after doubling with two outs.

It’s safe to say this pitching matchup benefited the Mets, as we saw Johan Santana take the hill against J.A. Happ, a 6′6 lefty whose only other major league start was a loss to the Mets last season. Both pitchers looked very good early, but Happ ran into control problems in the fifth, walking three men in the inning. After walking David Wright with the bases loaded, Happ was pulled for Chad Durbin, who struck out Carlos Beltran to end the inning. Durbin went on to strike out five more batters for a perfect 2 1/3 innings pitched.

The Phils tied the game in the sixth inning, when Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell came through with consecutive two-out RBI singles. The Mets had a chance to take the lead in the eighth, but a Beltran popup and Carlos Delgado groundout stranded Endy Chavez at second. Brad Lidge got three outs on five pitches in the ninth, and would have come out for another inning if the Phillies didn’t win it in the ninth.

Three stars of the game:

1) Shane Victorino, for obvious reasons. The Mets could have walked Victorino and pitched to Chris Coste with a base open in the ninth, but chose to pitch to the Flyin’ Hawaiian instead. Victorino has struggled with runners in scoring position this season, hitting a meager .222, but came through with a very important hit that will hopefully serve as the catalyst for some more mid-season Mets domination.

2) Chad Durbin, for ending a potential big inning for the Mets in the fifth and keeping them off base in the following two innings. As I told MVN-Mets writer Jessica Bader last night, Durbin has been the biggest surprise for the Phillies this season, and one of their most valuable players during the first half of the season. He has pitched 14 1/3 innings of scoreless relief against N.L. East opponents, including 6.2 against the Mets alone.

3) Ryan Howard, for putting the first run on the board for the Phillies against Santana. Howard’s struggles this season have been well documented, but he has been very good lately, driving in 29 runs in his last 27 games. Despite his low batting average, Howard is hitting .330 with RISP and .327 with 2 outs and RISP, two very impressive averages. His hit was key, because the Phillies weren’t doing much of anything off of Santana to that point in the game. In each game Santana has pitched against the Phils, they have gotten to him late. If Howard didn’t pick up that clutch two-out single in the sixth, we could have been looking at a shutout from Santana, who only threw 95 pitches in his eight innings of work.

The Phils move to 48-39 with the win, and currently hold leads of 3, 5.5, and 7 over the Marlins, Mets, and Braves. As I write this, the Marlins are clinging on to a 17-16 lead over the Rockies in the eighth in a truly wild game. The Rockies have overcome deficits of 5, 6, and 9 runs, as well as scored in the first seven innings of the game, and are still losing! Wow.

Jamie Moyer takes on John Maine tomorrow night. Moyer’s major league debut took place when Maine was five years old.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 10:45 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.