Mets 5, Phillies 4

Yesterday, every New York paper had a story about how the next twelve games, all against the Phillies and Braves, would decide the fate of this season. If they went well, management would keep believing this was a team that could compete. If they went like the first forty-four games of the season had, Steve Phillips would have to get his resume in order. So on night one of this fateful fortnight, the bullpen blew a good start by Jae Seo in spectacular fashion on the way to an 11-7 loss.

The Mets got off to a decent start tonight as Roberto Alomar doubled to lead off the game and later scored when Jason Phillips grounded into a double play. Tsuyoshi Shinjo upped the Met lead to 2-0 with his first home run of the season to lead off the third.

Meanwhile, Al Leiter was getting the job done on the mound adequately enough. He managed to give up a hit and three walks in the first inning without it adding up to a run and then settled down somewhat over the next few innings. But in the sixth, it was more of the hitting and the walking and not so much of the hitting into double plays and soon the Phillies had put three runs on the board. Leiter got himself one of those Quality Starts, with six innings and three runs on five hits and six walks, striking out six, but he also looked to be on the way to a big fat L if the offense couldn't pick him up while at the same time the bullpen failed to implode.

Well, the second part of that didn't start out too well, as Mike Stanton pitched the seventh, giving up a run on two hits and a walk while striking out one. But then, slowly, the Met offense began to rear its ugly head. Vance Wilson singled. Shinjo singled as well. And then Alomar loaded the bases with an infield single, bringing Tony Clark to the plate to pinch hit for Stanton with two outs. Clark started off the season with some clutch hits off of the bench, but when he was thrust into the job of starting first baseman, he crumbled. Tonight, back in the role of the pinch hitter, he got the job done, drawing a walk to force in a run.

Graeme Lloyd pitched a scoreless eighth, giving up one hit and striking out one. Prior to this game, the Phillies were 25-0 when leading after six innings. And the Mets were 0-18 when trailing after seven. The fact that they've got 26 losses and in only 18 of them were they trailing after seven tells you something about the performance of the bullpen, but I digress. Streaks like those have to come to an end at some point, and tonight it was Cliff Floyd who got the ball rolling in earnest, leading off the eighth with his ninth home run of the season to tie the game.

In the ninth, Armando Benitez made a rare non-save situation appearance and retired the Phillies in order. And in the bottom of the inning, Marco Scutaro, who apparently can play shortstop (so why isn't he starting there?) led off the inning with a single and moved to second on an Alomar ground out. And then it was time for non-starter Tony Clark again and he did what he does, lining the ball into the gap in right center to score Scutaro and win the game. Benitez got his first win of the season without even having to blow a save to set it up.

Tomorrow, the Mets try to get this twelve game trial by fire going in the right direction with a series win, sending Pedro Astacio (2-1, 6.75) to face off against Vincente Padilla (3-5, 4.23) in an unusual Thursday afternoon game.  ¶ joe | 11:42 PM |