Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Mets 9 Phillies 8

This is the type of game that makes me angry that I have to go to sleep before these games end.

What an amazing victory.

Steve Trachsel sucked. He looked afraid to throw strikes. Can't say I blame him though, the Phillies lineup 1-5 is pretty freakin good.

Two plays in this game proved my theory about the thin line between success and failure, especially in baseball.

Endy Chavez' throw home was in plenty of time to nail Burrell for the third out to keep the score 2-2. But LoDuca dropped the ball and the next batter (David Bell) hit a 3-run homer.

Then in the 8th inning Endy Chavez got an infield single out of what should have been the third out when Ryan Franklin dropped the ball. Woodward doubled, Reyes homered and the game was tied at 8.

That Reyes homer (below) was a thing of beauty. He couldn't have done any better with a pitching wedge. And in the 12th inning he almost won the game with another home run. I hope he doesn't start swinging for the fences though.

Carlos Beltran found his smile last night. I haven't seen him that happy since joining the Mets. He has been on fire power-wise since returning from injury and he's definitely made his peace with the Mets fans. I hope he will have a long and successful career with this team. He already is 75% of the way to his home run total for all of last year.

Wright and Floyd also get credit for big home runs in this game.

Heilman didn't pitch great but the Mets are sort of proving that a strong bullpen is more important than anything else. This game and Friday's game against the Yankees were battles of attrition in which the Mets bullpen triumphed.

Today the Mets start Alay Soler with little or no bullpen help. It's weird they brought him up so early. As Michael pointed out they should have waited until today and could have had another reliever on the roster for yesterday's game.




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