The Game

The New York Mets celebrated our country’s independence in grand style last night by turning in their latest “worst defeat of the season” (Wednesday’s 8-7 come from behind loss to the Cards held the title for just two days). Shane Victorino’s walk off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave the division leading Philadelphia Phillies the 3-2 victory.

Having sleepwalked through the first half of the year, the Mets somehow found themselves just four and a half games behind the Phillies in the NL East heading into the start of a four game series in Philadelphia on Friday. Thanks to Cole Hamels having pitched on Thursday and Brett Myers‘ demotion to AAA, the pitching match ups for the series decidedly point in New York’s favor- starting with Friday’s match up of Met ace Johan Santana being pitted against somebody by the name of J.A. Happ, making his second career start.

Through the first four frames, the casual fan may not have been able to distinguish who was the rookie and who was the multiple Cy Young winner as both pitchers traded zeros. In the top of the fifth, the Mets finally got to Happ. After loading the bases with nobody out, Johan Santana popped out to the catcher. This brought up Jose Reyes (I will refrain from typing anything negative about him for fear of him confronting me) who hit into a fielder’s choice that scored the Mets’ first run of the game. The young Happ then walked Endy Chavez and David Wright to force in another New York run, making the score 2-0. Seeing the game potentially getting out of hand, Philly manager Charlie Manuel called for Chad Durbin to try and bail his team out of a bases loaded mess. The next at bat was my Foxwoods Resorts Turning Point of the Game. With the Phillies reeling and the chance to blow this game open, Carlos Beltran stepped to the plate and, stop me if you’ve heard this before, struck out to end the inning. The pitch he went after was a good two feet out of the strike zone and, with a full count, would have forced in another New York run if he had taken it. Hey Carlos, if you’re going to open your mouth and proclaim that you are on the team to beat in the division, you may want to get a clutch hit every now and then. Whaddya think?

Predictably, the Phillies came back to tie the score in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a pair of two out RBI singles by Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. In fairness, Johan Santana pitched a heck of a game. He went eight strong innings and allowed only those two runs. Once again, it was the lack of support from the New York offense that kept his name out of the win column. The Mets’ only other threat of the game came in the eighth when Endy Chavez was able to get himself on second base with one out, only to see Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado leave him stranded there. The score remained tied at two heading into the bottom of the ninth when Jerry Manuel decided to remove his ace after just 95 pitches. Duaner Sanchez came on and impressively struck out Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell to start the frame. But, these are the 2008 Mets… was anyone shocked when Pedro Feliz followed by lacing a double into the left field corner? Better yet, was there anybody out there who really thought the struggling Shane Victorino WOULDN’T come through with the game winning hit? His RBI single to right field put the Mets out of their misery and five and a half games back in the NL East.

How this team can remain so consistently inconsistent completely amazes me. 24 hours after pounding out ten hits and eleven runs against the Cardinals in St. Louis, the Met offense manages a paltry four hits and two runs against a guy making his second career start on a little league field. Game ball to Beltran who went 0-4 and left five runners on base, four of whom in scoring position. The storybook season continues on Saturday as the Mets will send John Maine and his dead arm to the hill to face AARP cover boy Jamie Moyer.

The Haiku

Santana wasted
Chance after chance thrown away
Hell? No, it's Philly.

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal