Santana's Offense Beats The Phil's?

Seven home runs in Citi Field? It seemed more like this game was played in the Bronx.

The Mets jumped out to an early lead with homers from David Wright in the second and Carlos Beltran in the third. Not to be outdone, the Phillies responded quickly with back-to-back jacks from Ryan Howard (18) and Rauuuul Ibanez (20) in the next half inning. Thew Mets held a slim 3-2 lead going into the top of the sixth when the long ball parade came back around in the form of one James Calvin Rollins. J-Rolls fourth big fly on the year also scored Jason Werth. That gave the Fightins' a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.

The star in the bottom half of the sixth was Johan Santana. With two strikes and two runners on Santana pulled back a bunt, swung away and gave the ball a shot down the right field line scoring Ryan Church. Santana would end up at second with the game tying double. He would be there for long as Alex Cora took a ball back up the middle off of reliever Clay Condrey to give the Mets the lead once again at 5-4.

The scoring would continue in the bottom of the seventh as reliever Chad Durbin gave up a solo bomb to Church whioch ended up hitting the big apple 415 ft away in dead center. Chad Durbin continues to get hurt by the long ball this year.

The Phillies would muster one last effort in the eighth in the form of a Chase Utley line drive homer to right field that finally got Santana off the mound. He threw a fit in the dugout after being pulled. Awww poor guy needs a hug. Umm Johan, you still have the lead buddy, chill out. After that the Phils only mustered two singles and K-Rod shut the door on Stairs and Dobbs.

It was an exciting game one to a rivalry series, hopefully the rest of the series lives up to the hype.

Things to watch for:

Jimmy Rollins may finally be breaking his funk going 3-4 with a HR and 2 RBI. He also made a hard, but totally clean, slide into second to break up a sure double play in the ninth. Alex Cora didn't take exception, but I'm sure there will be some reciprocation. If it were Reyes out there it may have cleared the bases. Damn...maybe next time.

Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard going back to back off of a lefty means only good things for the Phillies offense.