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Cliff Lee and Ryan Howard take game four all by themselves

Written by Mike Mariano | 25 August 2009

Cliff Lee is kept rolling through the NL and Ryan Howard kept up his recent power surge.  Game four of the Mets/Phillies series was a tour-de-force from two of the Phillies hottest players.  Cliff Lee improved to 5-0 as a Phillie and Ryan Howard hit his 6th and 7th homers of his last ten games (giving him 34 on the year).

Cliff went seven strong and didn’t allow an earned run.  Only 12-9 overall, Cliff Lee continues his second half push for the Cy Young striking out 5 and allowing 6 hits.  Cliff’s ERA in Philadelphia is now a paltry 0.68.  Other mound news, Brad Lidge threw a perfect ninth.

Ryan Howard supplied all the offense Cliff would need hitting a 3-run bomb in the first inning and a two-run bomb in the second.  Strangely those were the only two hits that the Phillies has with RISP the whole day going 2-11.

For the Mets, Bobby Parnell sucks again and somehow Gary Sheffield hit a triple.  That ends the series at 3-1 in favor of the Phillies and with Johan’s most recent start getting scratched, Bud Selig is considering optioning them down to AA.

Great moments in Phillies/Mets series

Written by Mike Mariano | 25 August 2009

Here’s some great stuff you may or may not have seen from the Phillies/Mets series and all of it courtesy of The Fightins:

A Phillies/Mets fan fight.  Started and ended by the Phillies guy. [VIDEO]

Mets fan dissing the Phillies with some gangster rap. [VIDEO]

Eric Bruntlett’s historic triple play highlight. [VIDEO]

A Phillies fan showing everyone on the Jumbotron exactly how he feels about the new Citi Field. [PICTURE]

And lastly, some New York Mets fun with Urban Dictionary about the Philadelphia Phillies.

Well, I guess it’s like I always say, if we don’t have the best Mets/Phillies stuff out, we’ll help you find it.  And here we clearly didn’t have it!

Bruntlett turns unassisted triple play to seal the win

Written by Mike Mariano | 23 August 2009

Luck and timing has a lot to do with it, but Eric Bruntlett was in the right place at the right time to turn one of baseball rarest feats.  The unassisted triple play. Eric accomplished this feat to end the 9-7 Phillies win over the Mets this afternoon.  I initially thought it was Chase Utley because my 87 year old grandma called me on vacation to tell me of the feat and thought it was Utley. And why wouldn’t she?  Who would guess that Bruntlett and not Utley would be the guy to turn the 15th unassisted triple in history?  Not to mention the fact that Brunty bobbled the two previous plays to make it two men on and no outs. Pedro got the win and Brad Lidge preserved it with a save in the second straight over the Mets after last night’s 4-1 win.  J.A. Happ balled out yesterday and Pedro did enough today.  Utley homered yesterday to lift the Phillies and Jay Werth and Chuuch hit homers today. Tomorrow Cliff Lee throws against Bobby Parnell so the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor.  A win would give the Phillies a 3-1 series win over the Mets which would be lovely.  I’m currently on vacation and a little salty that I missed the triple play, but the beach was nice today despite some hurricane winds and rain.  Then again, all you working guys don’t want to hear shit about the beach so I’ll spare the details!

Choke Artist

Written by Mike Mariano | 22 August 2009

Remember when Cole Hamels called the Mets choke artists? Yea, I've heard all the rationalizations.  It was a planted question on the Mets radio network WFAN.  Cole would never use those words yada yada yada.  Then Hamels goes out and defends his comments on WIP a couple months later. [caption id="attachment_2648" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hi, Cole Hamels is the name. Nice to MEAT you. "]Hi, Cole Hamels is the name. Nice to MEAT you.[/caption] The only one choking last night was Cole, as he threw 5 meaty innings giving up 10 hits and 4 runs including a laser of a home run to Frenchy in the Mets 4-2 victory over the Phillies. Cole had zero command and was all over the place.  He hit two batters including the opposing pitcher Mike "Big Pelf" Pelfry who gave Hammels such a death stare as he took first base.  The Mets on the other hand, were solid behind Big Pelf in spite of yet another horrible call by the Umpires (seriously, I can't remember the Umping being this bad ever in years past) and another tight rope walk by K-Rod. It should be noted that Cole Hamels is 1-4 in 8 games vs. the Mets with a 4.50 ERA.  His first and only win coming in his first start.  Hamels season has been unimpressive this year.  As each day passes, the Cliff Lee trade looks more like a move of necessity rather than complimentary.  Lee is now the ace of the Phillie staff.  On paper, a one two punch of Cliff Lee & the 2008 version of Cole Hamels coupled with Phillie offense is enough to beat any team in a short series.  Hell, your offense alone could carry the team.  However, we all know the old adage "Pitching wins championships".  Now honesty Phillies fans, do you think you have enough pitching to go far into the playoffs this year? Lee has been outstanding since you got him.  But aside from him and a surprising start from J.A. Happ everyone else has been, well, just eh.  Blanton has been up and down.  Pedro has replaced Moyer (who has the most wins on your squad...not that wins mean much, but just saying) who won't give you much more than 5 mediocre innings.  Couple that uncertainty with even more in the Bullpen.  Brad Lidge is not 2008 Brad Lidge, Durban has an ERA over 5 and I am telling you out of personal experience that I would be very scared that Chan Ho Park has a dominant role in your bullpen.  He is always one key home run away from self destruction. Anyway, this is the role the Mets and their fans have been relegated to: Spoiler and breaking down other teams.  The season series now stands at 6 to 3 Phillies.  It's just too bad Cole Hamels can't pitch every game vs. the Mets.  He illustrates "Choke Artistry" on the mound better than he can describe it.

It’s that time of year again, Phillies vs. Mets!

Written by Mike Mariano | 21 August 2009

Phillies vs. Mets, Hell ye… well, I guess this is fun, right?  The Phillies are playing great baseball, but the Mets suck.  Starting tomorrow the Phillies play 4 games at Citi Field against the hapless Metro’s.  Cool.

How sad is it that it’s late August and Phillies/Mets really is inconsequential.  Really didn’t see this one coming when Matt and I started this blog.  We always knew that the Phillies and Mets wouldn’t be a fight for the division title every season, but we assumed that it would happen during this season at the least.  The Baseball Gods had other plans though and physically ravaged the fragile Mets all season.

A 4-game sweep really wouldn’t be all that crazy in this one.  I’m not even gonna think about predicting it because I’m usually 100% wrong anytime I predict anything.  However, with the way these teams are it’s absolutely possible.  Another fun part of Phillies @ Mets is the talk about the Phillies guys bashing home runs at Citi while the Mets guys (or maybe just David Wright) can’t or don’t.

You know what, what am I saying?  It’s Phillies vs. Mets so I’m excited.  I don’t care what the records are, the series is always fun to watch.  The Mets have got a lot to play for, they’re only 13 games up over the Nats!  It’s crunch-time!

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