Mets Game 46: Win Over Phillies
Mets 8 Phillies 0
Maybe the Mets were stealing the Phillies’ signs.
The suddenly high-powered Mets offense pounded Jamie Moyer for four runs in five innings, and added another four against the Philadelphia bullpen, to propel the team to their third straight win and fourth in their last five games.
Meantime, the Phillies were phlummoxed by phloaters phlipped phrom the phingers oph R.A. Dickey. Dickey’s knuckleball shut them down cold as he recorded his first MLB win since April 10, 2009.
Game Notes
R.A. Dickey fluttered his way through 6 strong innings, shutting out the mighty Phillies while spreading around 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out 7. He was drilled in the left (non-pitching) elbow by a line drive off the bat of Ryan Howard early in the game, but toughed it out. His elbow swelled significantly and was x-rayed in the clubhouse between innings but no broken bones were found.
While they had the x-ray machine warmed up, Oliver Perez‘s head was scanned. Nothing was found.
Rod Barajas was using an oversized, pancake-shaped catcher’s glove owned by Dickey to aid his attempt at stopping the knuckleball. To me it looks like a softball catcher’s glove, which is kind of like a cross between a catcher’s and first baseman’s glove.
When I caught Jim Bouton’s knuckler (back in the 1990s), he had an oversized catcher’s glove as well, but it was old-school — thick and more like a big pillow than the pancake-shaped one Dickey has. Personally, I didn’t like using the big mitt because it was heavy — and with the last-moment, unpredictable break of the knuckler, I found it more effective to use my own mitt, or one that was lighter and smaller, so I could move my hands quickly. I have no idea if Dickey’s “pancake” glove is lighter in weight, but Barajas seemed to do OK with it, despite a few pitches deflecting off here and there — believe me, it ain’t easy.
Jamie Moyer and R.A. Dickey combined to throw 144 pitches clocked under 80 MPH. Moyer’s fastball was clocked as slow as 77 MPH — and a few of Dickey’s knucklers reached 78 MPH.
Raul Valdez spun a three-inning save (his first as a Major Leaguer) and blasted an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth. I still can’t figure out how the heck he’s doing it.
Jeff Francoeur busted out of his slump, with a single, a double, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Even his two outs were hard-hit.
The Mets have reached Omar Minaya’s goal of .500, but remain in last place. Though, they’re only 4 games out of first.
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Phillies do it again on Wednesday night at 7:10 PM. Hisanori Takahashi goes to the mound against Joe Blanton.
Fresh off a series win over their crosstown rival Yankees and on a “roll” of winning 3 out of their last 4, the Mets now host the NL East’s first-place Phillies, with a chance to cut their distance from the top of the standings in half. 