Good evening fans, Marcus Henry here. Welcome to another night on the blog. Tonight marks the 100th game of the Mets season. Obviously, being in a tie with the Phillies for the top spot in the NL East makes this an important matchup.
Mets (53-46) at Philadelphia Phillies (53-46), 7:05 p.m.
Starters: Johan Santana (8-7, 3.10) for the Mets and Joe Blanton (5-12, 4.96) for the Phillies
Last starts: Santana was not himself in his previous start against the Reds on July 17th as he got ripped for six hits and five runs in four innings. He also gave up two homers. The Mets prevailed 10-8, but you'd expect far fewer runs from Santana. Blanton's last start -with the Oakland A's- wasn't anything to write home about either. The burly righthander gave up six runs and nine hits over six innings in a loss to the Mariners. But it's worth noting that Blanton hasn't given up an earned run in two career starts against the Mets.
Good times, bad times: Good times: The Mets 10-game winning streak is still fresh in everyone's minds. The Mets came back to earth a bit after splitting a four-game set with the Reds. Carlos Delgado is hitting .419 in July and Jose Reyes continues to play his all-around game. Bad times: Johan Santana. He has to come out strong tonight. Although he's pitched well enough to be 12-3 or 11-4, getting more than 6-plus innings out him is a must.
Top 1st Jimmy Rollins flied out to centerfield for the first out. Chase Utley flied out to center for out number two. Pat Burrell singled to leftfield. Ryan Howard singled to short rightfield. Burrell moved to second. Jayson Werth singled up the middle, scoring Utley to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Howard moved to second. Pedro Feliz struck out swinging to end the inning.
Phillies 1, Mets 0
Bottom 1st Jose Reyes flied out to leftfield for the first out. Endy Chavez blooped a single to short rightfield. David Wright flied out to centerfield for the second out. Carlos Beltran grounded out to first for the final out.
Phillies 1, Mets 0
Top 2nd Victorino popped out to shortstop for the first out. Carlos Ruiz singled to centerfield. Blanton (sacrifice) bunted to the pitcher. Ruiz moved to second. Rollins grounded out to second base for the final out.
Phillies 1, Mets 0
Bottom 2nd Carlos Delgado flied out to deep centerfield. Easley was hit by a pitch. Marlon Anderson flied out to rightfield for the second out. Ramon Castro legged out an infield single. Easley moved to second. Johan Santana struck out swinging to end the inning.
Phillies 1, Mets 0
Top 3rd Utley grounded out to first. Burrell struck out swinging. Howard grounded out to first for the final out.
Phillies 1, Mets 0
Bottom 3rd Reyes walked to lead off the inning. Chavez reached on an infield single. Reyes moved to second. Wright doubled down the leftfield line, scoring Reyes. Chavez was thrown out at the plate for the first out. The score is tied, 1-1. Beltran grounded out for the second out. Wright moved to third. Delgado hit a two-run homer to rightfield, scoring Wright to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. Easley grounded out to shortstop. It was Delgado's 450th homer of his career.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Top 4th Phillies' manager Charlie Manuel was ejected by the third base umpire Marty Foster for apparently arguing about Carlos Delgado's check swing. Werth grounded out to shortstop. Feliz struck out looking for the second out. It was Santana's 1,500 career strikeout. Victorino grounded out to third for the final out.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Bottom 4th Anderson reached on an infield single to lead off the inning. Castro grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Santana singled to centerfield. Reyes popped out to shortstop to end the inning.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Top 5th Ruiz grounded out to third. Blanton singled to rightfield. Rollins grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Bottom 5th Chavez grounded out to second. Wright flied out to right. Beltran grounded out to second for the final out.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Top 6th Utley flied out to left. Burrell grounded out to second. Howard grounded out to second for the final out.
Mets 3, Phillies 1
Bottom 6th Delgado flied out to deep centerfield. Easley flied out to right. Anderson walked. Castro hit a two-run homer to leftfield, scoring Anderson to give the Mets a 5-1 lead. Santana walked. Reyes lined out to rightfield for the third out.
Mets 5, Phillies 1
Top 7th Werth popped out to the catcher. Feliz grounded out to shortstop for the second out. Victorino homered to left. The Phillies trail 5-2. Ruiz singled up the middle. Chris Coste, pinch hitting for Blanton, struck out looking for the final out.
Mets 5, Phillies 2
Bottom 7th Rudy Seanez is in for Blanton. Blanton's line - 6IP, 8H, 5R, 3BB, 1K. Chavez doubled off the right centerfield wall. Wright singled to right, Chavez was thrown out at home for the first out. Wright moved to second on the throw. Beltran was walked intentionally. J.C. Romero is coming into the game for Seanez to face Delgado. Delgado flied out to centerfield. Easley got hit by a pitch for the second time to load the bases. Fernando Tatis is pinch hitting for Anderson. Tatis lined out to the second baseman Utley, who made a diving stop to end the inning.
Mets 5, Phillies 2
Top 8th Rollins grounded out to third. Utley lined out to shortstop for the second out. Burrell doubled down the leftfield line. Howard flied out to deep center for the third out.
Mets 5, Phillies 2
Bottom 8th Chad Durbin is pitching for the Phillies. Castro flied out to left. Argenis Reyes is pinch hitting for Santana. Santana's line - 8IP, 8H, 2R, 0BB, 4K. Reyes grounded out to first. Jose Reyes grounded out to second. for the final out.
Mets 5, Phillies 2
Top 9th Duaner Sanchez is pitching for the Mets. Werth singled to centerfield. Greg Dobbs is pinch hitting for the Phillies. Dobbs singled to center. Werth moved to second. Victorino singled to center, loading the bases. Joe Smith relieved Sanchez. Ruiz reached on a fielder's choice by Jose Reyes, who was late getting to second for the force. Werth scored, making the score 5-3 in favor of the Mets. The bases are still loaded. Geoff Jenkins is pinch hitting for the Phillies and Pedro Feliciano is pitching for the Mets. So Taguchi is now pinch hitting for the Phillies instead of Jenkins. Taguchi doubled to right field, scoring Dobbs and Victorino to tie the score at 5. Ruiz moved to third. Rollins doubled down the leftfield line, scoring Ruiz and Taguchi. The Phillies lead 7-5. Utley grounded out to third, Rollins moved to third. Burrell was intentionally walked. Howard grounded out to Feliciano, who had a chance to keep Rollins on third, but he bobbled the ball and threw Howard out. Rollins scored to give the Phillies an 8-5 lead. Heilman is on to pitch for the Mets. Burrell moved to second. Werth walked. Dobbs popped out to shortstop to end the inning. 11 batters came to the plate for the Phillies.
Phillies 8, Mets 5
Bottom 9th Taguchi is in leftfield and Eric Bruntlett is in at third base. Brad Lidge is pitching for Philadelphia. Chavez walked. Chavez stole second (catcher's indifference). Wright struck out swinging for the first out. Chavez moved to third on a wild pitch by Lidge. Beltran grounded out to first for the second out. Chavez scored to cut the deficit to 8-6. Delgado grounded out to third to end the game.
Final score: Phillies 8, Mets 6
The Phillies won after scoring 6 runs in the ninth to overcome a 5-2 deficit. The Phillies improve to 54-46 and the Mets drop to 53-47. The series resumes Wednesday night at Shea Stadium. Good night folks.
Comments (8)
The Mets are overpaid. The GM is lousy. This is not a championship team. They don't have "It.". They eat SH** instead.
No wonder JSantana is angry! What more could he do to win this game? The bullpen just simply SUCKS!!! Ths is Omar's fault!!The Mets need to follow a new rule: NO PLAYERS OVER 33-34.This team is old.You have an old closer who should have picthed the 9th , but , couldn't.Sanchez , Smith , Feliciano all were TERRIBLE!! After tonite's loss , this team will get SWEPT!!!
Omar has a couple of weeks to fix this **** bullpen or it's all over.
I can't wait until next year: no more Hell Duque , Pedro ,DelGado.This team has got to get younger!!! OMAR, fix the D*** Bullpen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WARNED YOU ALL !!!
JRoll laughs at this squad.....Reyes cannot touch his jock!
10:23 [Comment From Gforce]
F.O was right after all. Give him props! I was wrong
Santana...105 pitches....Where was he knowing that Wags was not available???? Game was not his fault, but come on...Gotta be out there!
Would Schilling, Beckett, old Pedro, etc been out there ??? DEFINITELY !!!
Why do the Mets managers refuse to believe the Johan can pitch a complete game?
Hideosity! This one is on Jerry Manuel for gagging on Santana. Gutless removal of Santana. Aguayo is on drugs. This one is totally on the coaching staff. This will be Manuel's defining game as a Met, he blinked himself into blindness. Santana should beg for a trade...
So I was watching that game and now everybody wants Wagner!!!. We can argue all we want about should Santana should break a lifelong pattern and pitch the ninth but the problem is simple. For two years the Phillies have just absolutely owned the Mets bullpen. It started in early June last year in a three games series at Shea. Three times the Mets took a lead into the ninth three times they lost and it has never stopped. It does not matter who the players are. If Mariano Rivera was a Met and Britney Spears and her clones were wearing Philly uniforms and the Mets took a eight run lead into the ninth at this point there would be no doubt that Philly would get the at least tying run to the plate. This last month is different then the previous times in that you do feel after the disastrous ninth the Mets still have a shot at the game. Lidge has his own chocking in the clutch issues. And the last ninth inning chock jobs in Philly actually spurred this team on.That being said this can't go on, eventually you are going to have tonight. Last year this problem cost them the playoffs. They have sixty games to fix it or no playoffs this year also.