Would someone like to tell me what baseball team we've been watching the past two days?  Last night, RA Dickey bounced back against the Phillies in a big way:  by tossing a complete game, one-hit shutout.  This is the first time the Mets have won back to back games since the 22nd and 23rd of June, and they've made quite a statement in these games.  Dickey looked fantastic, especially compared to his start against the Phillies last weekend.  He kept hitters off balance, mixed his pitches well, and came away with a well deserved win.  I also think it's interesting that with Frankie Rodriguez serving his two game suspension, Johan Santana and RA Dickey responded with complete game shutouts - nullifying the need for a closer.  I'm not sure if they would have gotten the chance to do so had Rodriguez been available (I'd like to think they would have, though).

In other interesting news, Luis Castillo is officially on the record as saying he wants to leave the Mets.  Dan Martin of the New York Post has quoted Castillo as saying, "I can't be here anymore."  Castillo feels he can - and should - still be an every day player and does not want to be a back up.  In many ways, Castillo has become symbolic of the things Mets fans feel are wrong with the way the organization is run, and I don't think many people would be sorry to see him go.  Personally, if the team is going to struggle, I want to see the young guys get a chance.  I understand Castillo's frustration with that, especially since according to him he was not made aware of the fact that he would be playing until arriving at the park the day Ruben Tejada was called up.  This doesn't shock me because the Mets do that kind of thing all the time, but I agree with the logic behind the moves.

Tonight the Mets will send Pat Misch to the mound to face Roy Halladay.  Misch was called up after posting a record of 11-4 with a 3.23 ERA at Triple A Buffalo.  Ryoto Igarashi and Raul Valdes were demoted to clear roster space for Misch and Frankie Rodriguez, who will be available to pitch tonight.  I've got my own issues with that, but for today, I'm accepting the back to back wins and focusing on the good stuff. 

The Mets host the Phillies this weekend looking to salv... looking to right the shi... looking to win the season series?  There isn't much to play for in Flushing these days (is there ever?), but the series should be fun nonetheless.  The Mess have a chance to play spoilers and set the Phillies back a few games, but that's about it.  More importantly, the Mets have rapings and assaults to concern themselves with.

The Phillies come in missing Howard and Utley, but they've been playing great baseball lately without them.  Winning this series is paramount for the Phillies, if only to maintain pace in the races.

Last time the Phillies came to Citi Field they got dismantled, three straight shut-out losses, but I'm thinking their fortunes will most likely be different this time around.  It's a shame Utley isn't around to hit home runs out into his favorite right field porch, but the offense is rolling now as opposed to sputtering like last time.  Not only that, the Mets don't have Johan going in the series and he's the one guy that can always be depended on for a solid outing.  Not only that, K-Rod (whom the Phillies have never scored against) is off handling his legal issues and can't pitch.  Great!

Regardless of the baggage and the injuries and the standings, Mets-Phillies is great baseball.  Tune in tonight for some fun and make sure to log back on here to talk some shit as well.

Last night was an amazing night for the Phillies.  The return of Shane Victorino (to tremendous applause), but more importantly a ridiculous comeback from a 7-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth no less!  Things were so bleak that I started watching football in the seventh and that was only at 7-2 Dodgers.  I missed the entire thing, I couldn't believe it when I got some celebratory texts.  It put me into a shock for 15 minutes that we actually came back and won.  Insanity.

Bellisario and Broxton combined to give up all 8 runs, only furthering the fact that the Phillies own Jonathon Broxton.  Time and time again the Phillies make the comeback and get the best of him -- last night, Rollins' walk-off, MATT STAIRS -- life is rough for Jon Broxton against the Phillies.  This time the walk-off came from Chuuch Ruiz who knocked the two-rbi double for the win.  Carlos Ruiz is a fan favorite in Philly for a reason, he always seem to step up in crunch time.  Plus, he's a hilarious little Panamanian man who we never thought would make it in the show.

Back to Shane, he got a huge ovation when he pinch hit.  Worked a walk.  Then gave the people what they want and stole second.  He looked good up there, I forgot how much fun he is to watch.

Ibanez' hitting streak is over, but Polanco's continues at 11 games.

Big shout-out to Casey Blake for extending the game with his error on a likely double-play ball.

Also, I love Mike Sweeney, that was a great addition.  He's not going to set the world on fire anymore, but he's a classy veteran and a great bat off the bench.

Great win, gained the Phillies a half game on the resting Braves.

In typical Chase fashion he's most likely going to try and come back early.  Hopefully the team plays it smart, but you've got to love how the guy is always rushing back to the field... Unlike some of those guys in Flushing who just take years off ..

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies second baseman Chase Utley has been cleared to start hitting, six weeks after surgery on his right thumb.

Assistant general manager Scott Proefrock says the news is encouraging, but the team is sticking to its original timetable for Utley's return. When the five-time All-Star had surgery on July 1, he was expected to miss at least eight weeks.

Proefrock says Utley will start a rehab assignment when he's ready.

Utley tore a ligament in his thumb sliding into second base in a game at Cincinnati on June 28. He's batting .277 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs.

It took three starts and sellout home crowd, but Roy Oswalt delivered in a big way.  The big deadline acquisition three seven innings of shut-out ball. He allowed five hits, but K'd just as many.  Oswalt demonstrated all of his talents that made his such a desirable commodity.  Oswalt's final pitch hummed 95 mph by Matt Kemp as his 109th pitch of the night.  Some of his brilliance can definitely be credited to the big home crowd:

“There’s a lot more adrenaline than when your pitching in front of 15,000 fans trying to get to the end of the season,” Oswalt said. “I don’t get caught up looking around, but you can hear it’s a lot louder.”

Hopefully Roy can build on this because the Phillies could really use some dominant pitching with half the team on the DL.  If Roy, Roy, and Cole can pitch like this all together, the Phillies will have to be a playoff favorite.  However, we're a long way off before that, gotta make it there first.

Brad Lidge came in for the save and in typical (just kidding) Brad Lidge fashion he only needed 11 pitches to strike out two Dodgers and get a third for the quick save.  Throwing behind his only teammate Oswalt might have gotten him all jacked up, I don't know.  Regardless, it's much more fun no sweating out the ninth every once in a while.

Offensively, Ibanez continues to pace the team, extending his hitting streak to 18 games (Polanco is flying under the radar at 10 games himself).  Just when he looked like Ibanez might be washed-up, he puts this stretch together.  It's not about how you start, it's how you finish and I greatly prefer this sequence to last years.  Ibanez was certainly better in the first half of last season, but peaking through the finish line is what's important.

It's a tough one to lose Ross Gload right now.  He's been playing so well and doing a great job filling in for Ryan Howard.

Last night was a tough game to swallow.  After Jon Niese threw seven scoreless innings, things came apart for the bullpen.  The eighth inning was ugly, culminating in Melvin Mora's grand slam that put the Rockies ahead for good.  Then there's the usual:  David Wright is back to being ice cold and took it out on his bat hardcore last night, Carlos Beltran still hasn't figured things out, etc.

But let's not forget about K-Rod (as if we could today).  After the game, he apparently was incredibly short with the media, yelling for them to get out of his way as he tried to exit the locker room.  We all know K-Rod is a hothead, as he's gotten into shoving matches and the like before.. but apparently, this time he assaulted his father-in-law.  SNY had video of the man being taken away in an ambulance, while K-Rod was arrested/detained, whatever you want to call it.  From what I've gathered today, this whole thing stemmed from the fact that K-Rod wasn't used in the 8th inning last night when things were getting sticky for the team.  I'm so tired of this "me first" crap with him.  It seems like he constantly has a problem:  he's not being used enough, he's warming up too much, it wasn't a save situation, and on and on and ON.

It's just frustrating to see this kind of stuff.  Before K-Rod went all Hulk last night, things were bad enough.  The boo birds were out in droves as things got out of control and really with good reason.  There was also a "Fire Jerry" chant going at one point.  At this point, I think Mets fans are being realistic about the fact that the season is going nowhere fast - so we're looking for some changes.  Except they don't seem to be on the way.  This is probably an extreme example, but look at what Buck Showalter has done for the Orioles.  That team had no identity or purpose... and all of a sudden, they're winning games.  I don't think it's a coincidence that when the culture changed, the team changed the way they were playing baseball.  It's something to think about anyway.

Phillies add-in: For all the Mets fans reading this here's a thinking point.  What would the reaction be if this happened in the Philadelphia?  Yeah the media will be all over this, but because the Mets are a dysfunctional bunch of misfits, not because it's some heinous incident.  If this was Philly, Benny B would have 1500 words about it before noon (with ridiculous accompanying picture of course) and JerseyBuc in the comments would be making his usual snide remarks.  Just sayin'.

1. First response isn't "what happened", it's "how did the Braves do?"  It's easy to say just worry about yourself, but in the stretch run every game counts for you and your rivals.  With a Braves win, the team is 2.5 games back in the division, also 1 game back in the wild card race.  This is striking distance, anything can happen at this distance even if it's like this with only a few games to play in September.

2. Kyle Kendrick is a frustrating pitcher.  Not because he's bad, because we all know that, but he lures me in with a few good outings and then BAM! shit outing.  3.1 innings, 8 hits, 6 runs (5 earned), 1 strike out.

3. Vicente Padilla getting a win against the Phillies always pisses me off.  I was so happy to see the big Venezuelan go, but for him to be a better pitcher now at 32 than he was for the Phillies at 27 is just nonsense.

4. Andre Ethier had four hits, scored four runs and reached base six times.  I've always liked that guy.

5. It's not often that you score 9 runs on 14 hits and lose big.  If I was especially determined today I'd do some research on that for you, but I'll settle for assuming it doesn't happen all to often.

6. 12 pitchers threw today and all but three of them allowed earned runs.  Octavio Dotel (.1 innings), Contreras (1), and Durbin (.2) all accomplished this amazing feat.  The bullpens combined for 10.2 innings, 18 hits, 14 runs.  Abominable.

7. The top four hitters in the Dodgers batting order -- Scott Podsednik, Ryan Theriot, Ethier and James Loney -- had 11 hits and scored 11 runs.  That might actually be the recipe for pitching failure.

8. Maybe it's the position?  Ross Gload jacked two two-run-HRs in the game and is doing a fantastic Ryan Howard impression these past few games he's been out.  Gload hasn't been a huge spark this year off the bench, so this stint as a starter is a great time for him to get his mojo going as a big bat down the stretch.

9. It sucks that Domonic Brown's first career home run came in a downer.  It would have been nice for it be at a time we could celebrate it, but it's sweet nonetheless.  Let's call it the first of many. Hopefully... DoBro is the future around here.

10. If I just posted Charlie's quote about the game I could've saved us all a long of time in this recap: "We got so far behind it was hard to catch up," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Our guys swung the bats well, but we couldn't stop them."

11-12. Werth and Ibanez continue to play well reaching base a combined 5 times, but unless they hit a combined 5 home runs, I'm not sure they could've saved the Phillies today.  Ibanez's hit streak continues to 17 games.

13. Gibbons returned to the major leagues on Aug. 8. His homer off David Herndonwas his first since July 17, 2007, while with the Baltimore Orioles.  Grrrreat.

14. Every Phillie had a hit but Chuuch Ruiz.

15. Every Dodger had a hit except Jamey Carroll who went 0-5.  Tough day when the team finds 18 hits and you can't get even one.

If only you could vote for this because I would be there all day clicking away.  Joe Posnanski recently wrote an article breaking down the "Worst Everyday Player in Baseball" and of course there had to be a Met or two on there right?  Low and behold it was Jeff Francoeur.  He didn't win, but it is truly an honor to be nominated:

Jeff Francoeur is simply not a good enough hitter to play every day in the big leagues. Nobody is happy about this. Francoeur is by all accounts a terrific guy, he plays hard, he cares a lot, he has some defensive value. But, no matter how hard he tries, he cannot make the adjustments. His .295 on-base percentage this year is not good enough to be an every-day outfielder. Everybody who knows Frankie loves the guy, which is why he leads all of baseball in “Adjustment Could Pay Off This Time” stories. But after a rookie rush that landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he has now had more than 4,000 plate appearances with a .307 on-base base percentage.

The 2011 commitments: 

Santana $22.5 million 
Carlos Beltran $18.5 million 
Jason Bay $16 million 
David Wright $14 million 
Oliver Perez $12 million 
Francisco Rodriguez $11.5 million 
Reyes $11 million 
Luis Castillo $6 million 
Ryota Igarashi $1.75 million 
16 players at major league minimum: $6.4 million 

Total: $119.65 million

As the Mets limp home to Citi Field, I'm not entirely sure what to say.  After going 2-4 on a "make or break" road trip... it doesn't look good.  In addition to falling below .500, (again) the Mets are now nine games out of first place and seven out of the Wild Card where they are also trailing five teams.

With the Mets, it always seems like when it rains, it pours.  On a day where Roy Halladay was touched up for 5 runs, the Mets couldn't pull off a win as R.A. Dickey finally came back down to earth.  Dickey can't take all the blame for this one - out of the 6 runs he allowed in 3 innings, only 4 of them were earned, and David Wright and Carlos Beltran combined to go 0-8 at the plate with 6 strikeouts.  If the two of them are not going to hit, the Mets don't realistically have a chance.  I know Beltran needs to get his feet under him, just like Reyes did at the beginning of the year, but it's August.  Do the Mets really have time to wait for Beltran to find his swing?  Of course not, but that's what they are going to do.  It also seems pretty clear that Beltran has lost a step in the outfield BECAUSE HE HAS NO KNEES.

One thing I do like is the fact that Fernando Martinez and Ruben Tejada are going to see some more playing time.  If things are going to spiral out of control, we might as well give those guys a chance.  If nothing else, it gives me hope that the team is phasing Luis Castillo out despite his crazy contract.  Maybe he's a loss they're willing to cut next year - which would be a win as far as most Mets fans are concerned.  Right now, that's my silver lining... let me know if you find another one.

Game time, 1:35 p.m., Roy Halladay faces off against R.A. Dickey.  Rubber match.  The Mets cost the Phillies a full game in the standings with the win last night and the 2nd place Phils need to gain it back with their ace on the mound.  Knuckleballers obviously give the Phillies trouble, but maybe another time around with afford the Phillies some better fortune against Dickey.