Mets Game 49: Loss to Phillies

Phillies 8 Mets 4

Congratulations to those who have Ty Wigginton on their fantasy baseball teams.

Mets Game Notes

Jonathon Niese was victimized by two Mets errors in the first inning that significantly increased his pitch count. He labored through the remainder of his outing, and was over 100 pitches after five innings. Which made Terry Collins‘ decision to send him out for the sixth absolutely stunning — especially considering that the Mets bullpen is fairly well-rested after the long outings by the starters in the San Diego series. The high pitch count, combined with the extreme heat and humidity, the fact that Niese’s velocity was dropping, and the availability of bullpen arms — well, can someone give me a good reason supporting Collins’ decision?

Cole Hamels pitched well against most of the Mets hitters, but seemed to “let up” against their lesser-skilled players — such as Vinny Rottino and Scott Hairston, both of whom made him pay for the disrespect by turning Hamels offerings into homeruns.

Somewhat courageous decision by Phillies manager Charlie Manuel to allow Hamels to pitch to David Wright with the tying run on third, two out, and two bases open in the bottom of the eighth. Though, after seeing how horrid the Philadelphia bullpen has been, the decision made good sense — Hamels, even after throwing about a hundred pitches, was still Manuel’s best option in that spot. As it was, Hamels went right after Wright with inside heat, and the count worked full before Wright rolled a change-up to Placido Polanco to end the inning. A classic confrontation between two potentiAl Hall of Famers.

Justin Turner left the game in the third with a sprained ankle, and since Ronny Cedeno is nursing an injury of his own, Wright moved over to play short. Wright did OK, though he came off of 2B on a throw from Bobby Parnell that might’ve been an out; that runner — Jimmy Rollins — eventually became the Phillies’ fifth run. Wright pulled off the bag because Rollins was running on the pitch; I’m not sure that he would have been out. After the way the top of the ninth turned out, it really didn’t matter.

Anyone remember Terry Collins saying that Manny Acosta was “pitching great”?

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Phillies play game two of the series on Tuesday night, start time is 7:10 p.m. Pitching matchup is Jeremy Hefner vs. Joe Blanton.