The Final Showdown: Mets-Phillies Series Recap

That was almost anticlimactic. No late-inning drama, no bullpen meltdowns, no controversy. The Phillies had to win a minimum of two games in this series, and the Mets just had to avoid a sweep. So both teams can kind of shrug their shoulders, and say they came out of it ok. The final tally for the season: Mets 11 wins, Phils 7 wins. The Mets go into the home stretch with a two-game lead. Before the series Mike Schmidt of all people sent an e-mail to the Phillies telling them how to play the game of baseball and that the Mets know the Phils are a better team than them. After the hysterical laughter died down, everyone wondered how the former third baseman could write a whole paragraph and not have it be about himself. After last night’s game, Phillie legend Darren Daulton sent the team a text message rooting them on and to confirm that he’s still completely insane. And former Met Kevin McReynolds left the Mets a voicemail saying that whoever wins the division will be fine with him because he’ll be going hunting either way. Here’s what happened in the series.

Friday, Phillies 3-0: Round One Goes to Phils

As usual the Phillies won the first game of the series. The only surprise was that it wasn’t won in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion. Brett Myers out-dueled Mike Pelfrey with eight shutout innings. Pelfrey went seven innings, allowing four hits, with four strikeouts and two walks. He gave up one unearned run and a two-run homer by Greg Dobbs that was one inch away from being caught by Ryan Church. But that’s baseball. Brian Stokes, Ricardo Rincon and Duaner Sanchez kept the bullpen shutout streak going. Not many highlights for the Mets. Daniel Murphy hit two opposite-field doubles. Pat Burrell was his usual graceful self out in left, falling down a few times and dropping his glove trying to field one of Murphy’s doubles. I’m surprised his pants didn’t fall down. And Pelfrey picked off Jimmy Rollins at first in the sixth inning. The Mets threatened in the ninth, but a nervous-looking Brad Lidge got out of the jam and picked up the save.

Sunday (Game One), Phillies 6-2: Moyer Shuts Down Mets

In a battle of wily, crafty, just-plain-old veterans, Jamie Moyer pitched seven shutout innings, while Pedro Martinez was slammed for six runs on seven hits in only four innings of work. If there’s nothing wrong with Pedro’s arm, then I guess he just pretty much stinks at this point. Either way, it’s not good for the Mets. You certainly can’t count on him to even give you a quality start. Moyer, on the other hand, is having a great season and threw the second gem in a row for the Phils. Offensively, the Mets could only scratch out a couple of meaningless late runs. The only bright spot in the game was five more scorless innings from the bullpen.

Sunday (Game Two), Mets 6-3: Delgado Hammers Hamels

Carlos Delgado hit about 900-feet worth of home runs off Cole Hamels in last night’s game. The resurgent first baseman went three for four, with two monstrous homers and four RBIs. His second dinger gave him 100 RBIs for the season. I don’t know if he’s the league MVP, but he’s the Mets MVP. On the mound, Johan Santana out-aced Hamels. After giving up a first-inning run, he breezed through the rest of the game, with his only hiccup being a Ryan Howard home run. His final line: 7.1 innings, two runs, five hits, six K’s and three walks. It might be an overstatement to say he was brought to New York for this game, but he earned his money in this one. Pedro Feliciano and Brian Stokes finished the eighth, and Luis Ayala polished off the win by pitching the ninth, letting in one run. That’s the first run the bullpen has allowed in the last seven games. No more Mets-Phillies until next year. It’s a shame they weren’t scheduled for the last weekend of the season. Now that would have been fun.