Let's Play Six!

Because, you know, the only thing better than two ridiculously extended Extra Inning games is three ridiculously extended Extra Inning games. That's what the Mets and Phillies have decided we need here. Baseball and More Baseball and even when you think you've had enough, a little more baseball, and they still have one more game to go in a 5-game series that feels like it's lasted about two months.

Sunday, the Mets and Phillies played what was for them a nice quick game, playing only 11 innings instead of their requisite 14, with the Mets coming out on top 4-3 behind a 2-run Home Run from Lucas Duda and another spate of solid pitching by Jon Niese and his bullpen cohorts. It's somewhat heartening to see that the bullpen, after close to two months of generally being horrible, has sort of started to gel, and guys like Vic Black and Josh Edgin have performed reasonably well and Jenrry Mejia has found himself as a Closer. Of course, they're doing the job against the Phillies, who currently sit in last place in the tightly-knit NL East and have their own problems, but success is success is success and the hope is that maybe some solid performances against a team with a losing record might help them gain some confidence when the teams with better records come around the pike.

Sunday's game was another mostly forgotten affair for me, general life kept me out of the house for a majority of the afternoon and by time I got home, I eschewed the last vestiges of the game in favor of a nap. I suppose I could have put the game on, but it would have been more than likely that I would have put the game on and then fallen asleep watching it, it was just that kind of a day. Only some time later did I wake up to a text from a friend alerting me to the news of Duda's 11th inning lightning, and I figured I may as well see if the game was still going on, and as it turned out it was. I was just in time to see Marlon Byrd go deep off of Mejia to make a 2-run game a 1-run game, although in my general haze I actually didn't realize that Duda had hit a 2-run Home Run instead of a Solo Home Run, and for a brief moment, I was dismayed to see that Byrd had tied the game...Yeah, that kind of an afternoon. But the Mets still had the lead, and Mejia got through the remainder of the inning unscathed and the Mets picked themselves up a nice victory.

So, after all this, one more to go for the Mets in Philadelphia before they go off to Chicago and other points West. Hopefully on getaway day they can keep things to a normal length. That remains to be seen.