Mets Game 142: Win Over Phillies

Mets 4 Phillies 3

The Mets ran up a four-zip lead, and the Phillies were supposed to roll over and die. Strangely enough, they didn’t, and rallied late to give Mets fans a scare.

However, the home team held on in the end to take their 70th victory of the season and 40th win in The Field at Shea Bridge.

Game Notes

Mike Pelfrey was spectacular through seven, but showed signs of running out of gas in the eighth. His final line was 7 1/3 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 ER. Stellar, and a particularly impressive effort against a very talented and hot Phillies lineup.

That said, I wasn’t completely happy with Big Pelf’s mechanics, which are still inconsistent. He’s doing a better job of staying on a straight line to the plate for the most part, but could be using gravity more to his advantage — something he used to do, but lost at some point before the All-Star exhibition. The good thing is that he can still be effective without repeating his delivery; we can only hope that he is not doing any physical damage to his arm.

As noted by Tim McCarver, Pelfrey had his back to Jerry Manuel when the manager came to remove him from the game in the eighth inning. Pelfrey refused to acknowledge Manuel’s presence, and handed the ball directly to Bobby Parnell before leaving the mound.

This could have been interpreted as an expression of disrespect for the manager, and if it was, it may have been a response to the way the manager has treated Pelfrey and others on the club over the past two and half years. Manuel has acted similarly toward his players in the past, particularly when changing pitchers, and has not minced words when throwing players under the bus. We know Manuel is at the end of his tenure, and this display by Pelfrey could be a sign that the players won’t miss him when he goes.

Ike Davis was 4-for-4 with 3 RBI, and Jesus Feliciano added two hits and scored twice. Jose Reyes blasted a solo homer, his 9th of the season.

Next Mets Game

The rubber match occurs at 1:10 PM on Sunday afternoon. Jonathon Niese faces Roy Oswalt.